[This is the second message in a series I'm doing on words that are only used or are used uniquely by Christians. It was given during the worship celebration at Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio earlier today.]
Genesis 15:1-6
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 16:4-14
A daredevil wanted to use a motorcycle to jump over a portion of the Grand Canyon. The place where he wanted to do this was so wide and the canyon below so deep that nobody--not even Evel Knievel--had ever tried jumping it before.
When he went to his engineer and mechanic, they both said it was a looney idea.
When he approached his usual financial backers and insurance company, they said that if he tried something so stupid, he’d be on his own.
His wife and kids were totally against it.
The TV networks, in spite of their apparent love of death and mayhem, wouldn’t pay to cover what they said was his certain death.
Even his pastor called him up and said, “Don’t do this!”
But the daredevil was intent on following through. He scraped together most of the money he’d earned from previous stunts and personally outfitted a bike for the jump.
The day for the jump came. The daredevil revved his engine, tore down the runway, hit the ramp at more than 200-mph, and began soaring through the void above the canyon. Everything went well until he got about halfway across. That’s when gravity took over. The daredevil plunged to his death.
God met him near the gates of heaven. The daredevil was steaming. “How could you have let this happen to me, Lord? My wife is now a widow who’ll be forced to raise our kids without me!” “Don’t I know it!” God said. “That’s why I sent the engineer, the mechanic, your financial backers, the insurance company, your wife, your kids, the network execs, and your pastor all with the word to not jump. But you wouldn’t listen to Me!”
Last week, in the first installment of this series on Funny Church Words, we talked about grace. Grace is God’s undeserved, unearned gifts of forgiveness and new life which become ours when we turn from sin--repent--and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior.
But there’s something that gets in the way of our receiving God’s grace. We can be a lot like that daredevil. God may offer us grace repeatedly. But we can refuse His offers. Those who refuse the grace offered to all people through Jesus Christ are daredevils who inevitably plunge to their eternal deaths.
But why do people refuse God’s grace offered in Christ? God’s forgiveness, presence, and guidance in this life and the promise of everlasting life with God are such good things, why would anybody ever turn Christ down?
The Bible teaches that our sin causes us to refuse God.
The Bible has two main ways of picturing sin.
To understand the first way, imagine yourself in a carnival hall of mirrors. The distorted shapes and angles of the mirrors result in distorted reflections of your image. That’s largely how the Old Testament speaks of sin. It’s a distortion of our true selves. As you know, Genesis teaches that human beings were created in God’s image. But sin distorts us and how we look at the world.
To understand a second major way in which the Bible portrays sin, picture yourself standing before a target, bow and arrow in hand. Then, see yourself pulling the arrow back, taking aim, and firing. And missing. And firing again. And missing again. This is how the New Testament usually pictures sin. Deep down, each of us has a common target. We want to live our lives as fully human beings, in sync with God and His will. But the target is always elusive, always beyond our ability to hit.
Writing in the New Testament, the apostle Paul says, “I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do [the right] I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.” If we’re honest, we may feel this same sort of frustration with ourselves and our actions. But it’s really no mystery. We actually inherit our sinfulness from our parents. As Israel’s King David wrote in Psalm 51: “In sin did my mother conceive me.”
Sin, then, is an inborn condition which we can’t overcome on our own. As one of the most venerated Christian confessions puts it, “We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
Think of our motorcycle daredevil again. He didn’t refuse God’s rescue attempts because he was exercising a free will. He refused God's will because his will was imprisoned to his inborn sinfulness. Sin distorted his judgment, made him selfish and egotistical.*
You and I are likely to refuse God’s grace because we won't allow Jesus Christ to clear our heads and set us free to make wise decisions about this life and the one to come.
When your will is distorted by sin, grace seems too good to be true. But God has a strategy for overcoming the reign of sin over our lives. He always has! We see it in today’s Bible lesson. It recounts an incident from the life of Abram, later to be renamed Abraham by God. He lived some two-thousand years before the birth of Jesus. We know Abraham as the father of God’s chosen people, the Jews. But when we meet him in today's lesson, Abram is nobody's father!
Our lesson finds him, a man aged 99, in despair. God had promised him and his now-89 year old wife a son. But twenty-fours have passed since that promise was made. They’d traveled many miles, going to uncertain destinations, uprooted by God’s promise. But, as Abram despairs, God renews His promise. He takes Abraham out into the desert night and says, “Look at the sky...try to count the stars; you’ll have as many descendants as that.”
Then, the Bible tells us that Abraham did something very strange. He believed in God and in God’s promises. The Bible tells us that God looked at Abraham’s faith and counted Abraham’s trust in God as righteousness.
The antidote to Abraham’s sin was his faith, his trust, in God. Today, that same antidote is available to all who believe in God-in-the-flesh, Jesus Christ. God calls us to believe that our sin cannot destroy us because we trust that when Jesus died and rose two-thousand years ago, He crushed sin’s power over us for all eternity.
In our second lesson for today, Paul says that the message that Jesus’ death by crucifixion saves us from sin and death is, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
Faith in God is easier for us than it was for Abraham. To uphold his faith, all Abraham had were some stars in the sky and a promise. You and I can point to Jesus on a cross and to His empty tomb. Those are accomplished facts which incited otherwise practical, down-to-earth people like Peter and Thomas to stake their lives on their faith in Christ.
Of course, we’ve never seen Jesus face to face. That can make it hard even for us to have faith sometimes.
But God overcomes that difficulty. A number of years ago, Ann and I attended the funeral of one of her childhood friends, a high school classmate of ours. He died after learning he had a brain tumor just two months before. As we sat in the same sanctuary where Ann and I were married, where Philip was baptized, and I was ordained, the thought crossed my mind, “This is where the rubber hits the road. This is where the promises of God are true or they aren't.”
Then I asked myself, “How can I know that God has conquered sin and death for me and for all who believe?”
Soon, I heard God’s Word read. It sounded like a love letter from God. I listened to and drew hope from the message by the pastor. I received Christ’s body and blood in the bread and wine of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Something happened to me: God filled me again with faith. God reminded me again that He’s here and that we can trust in Him. God used His Word, His Church, and the Sacraments to remind me of His presence, His promises, and His faithfulness!
Faith isn’t something that we convince ourselves about.
Faith isn’t an intellectual thing, although it should engage our minds.
It isn’t an emotional thing, although our hearts will be touched by it.
Faith is rooted in the empirical realities of Christ’s death and resurrection and in our willingness to believe.
In the end, faith is completely a construction of God, a tower of hope and strength that God builds when we allow Him to do it.
If we want faith, God will give us faith.
That’s really the point of some the letters of Mother Teresa that we’ve been hearing so much about this week. She saw and dealt with the worst in life and struggled to believe. But she laid it all at God’s feet and allowed Him to help her keep trustingly serving God and her neighbor. Sometimes a Christian’s faith is, as Jesus said, only as large as a mustard seed. But that’s all the faith we need. Little faith in a big God can still move the greatest mountain. Look at what Mother Teresa did for God and for the dying on the streets of India when she put her small faith into action!
In The Small Catechism, Martin Luther writes: “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified [that is, made me holy] and kept me in true faith.”
In our last lesson today, Jesus says, “When the [Holy] Spirit...comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” There's an old saying that tells us, "If you feel distant from God, guess who moved?" When we allow ourselves to get close enough to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will create and deepen faith within us.
Sin imprisons us.
Faith in Christ sets us free.
Give God the go-ahead and He will fill you with just the faith you need for today and for all eternity!
Next week, our funny church word will be discipleship.
*It might just as well have caused him to think himself completely unworthy because whether we think of ourselves as gods or as nobodies, the culprit is the distorion of our natures caused by sin.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Saturday, September 01, 2007
"The Greatest Success of All"
[That's the title of this piece by speaker, author, and pastor, Steve Goodier. To subscribe to a regular diet of Steve's encouraging writing, sent to you via email, go to his web site here.]
"Skipper, a special message just came in for you from the admiral,"
the sailor said to his captain as he saluted. "I have it right here."
"Read it to me," the captain ordered.
The sailor read, "You are without a doubt, the most conceited,
self-absorbed, EGO-MANIAC ever to command a ship in the United States
Navy."
The skipper responded, "Have that communication decoded at once!"
For some people, it's all about them. For others, it's all about you.
Like author Leil Lowndes says, "There are two kinds of people in this
life. Those who walk into a room and say, 'Well, here I am.' And those
who walk in and say, 'Ahh, there you are.'"
Which are you? Are you more focused on getting your own needs met, or
on easing the burdens of others? Are you mostly trying to make
yourself happy, or are you interested in the happiness of those around
you?
Albert Einstein reminded us that "life isn't worth living, unless it
is lived for someone else." And toward the end of his life, he removed
the portraits of two scientists -- Isaac Newton and James Maxwell --
from his wall. He replaced them with portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and
Albert Schweitzer. Einstein explained that it was time to replace the
image of success with the image of service.
Maybe the greatest success of all is when we realize that it's not all
about us. And maybe the greatest happiness to be found is when we
share the happiness of others.
Friday, August 31, 2007
A Thought for Today
Faith in God erases sin’s power over our lives. Faith is simply, trust. When we believe in Jesus Christ, we stop trusting in our own judgments about ourselves or our lives--whether those judgments evidence egomania or self-loathing, it doesn't matter--and instead, we trust in God’s grace, the charitable acceptance He gives to all who turn from sin and trust in Christ.
See here.
See here.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
From Cameroon to Wisconsin...
Chef and entrepreneur Aneh Mundi is a fascinating person with a commitment to wholesome, healthy, and convenient foods, to Jesus Christ, and to combatting HIV, which is devastating the African continent.During the latest episode of my brother Marty Daniels' Humble-o-Radio, he conducts a fascinating interview with Aneh. She talks a little bit about her journey from Cameroon to Wisconsin. She also talks about food, nutrition, eating healthy, and how her commitment to Jesus Christ led her to help combat AIDs in Africa. Go here to listen.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Those Funny Church Words: GRACE
[This message was shared with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, during worship on August 26, 2007. It's the first message in a series on Those Funny Church Words. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, you're invited to worship with us!]Matthew 20:1-15
My brother-in-law Dan tells the story of what happened when a friend of his was on the telephone with a Japanese businessman and a translator to negotiate a deal. During the course of the conversation, the Japanese man would say, “Hi” repeatedly. Confused and a little annoyed, Dan’s friend nonetheless decided to be friendly. Every time the Japanese businessman said, “Hi,” he said, “Hi” back. Soon, their transaction completed, the Japanese businessman hung up. With just the two of them on the line, the translator asked Dan’s friend, “Why did you keep saying Hi?” “Because,” Dan’s buddy explained, “he kept saying it.” The translator laughed and explained that the Japanese word, “hi” is an expression of agreement. The meaning of words can often be lost in translation.
One of the things that keeps the growing legion of spiritually disconnected people in America away from Christ and the Church is that we Christians often seem to speak in a foreign language. I’m not talking about the spiritual phenomenon of “speaking in tongues,” which some churches emphasize. I’m talking about the terms that Christians use, words that are used nowhere else or that are used completely differently by the rest of the world. Theologian Gerard Sloyan once upbraided Christians for using “religionspeak,” which he described as the native language of a land where nobody lives.
Martin Luther, the founder of our movement within Christianity, was especially scornful of anything that obscured Christ or His message. That’s why he translated the Bible and the worship Mass into the language of his people, German. It’s why he reformed the Mass, allowing for greater involvement by laypeople. It’s why he wrote The Small Catechism in everyday language, allowing families to read and review the basics of Christian faith in ways they all could understand. It’s why he composed songs in the popular styles of his day, basing the melody of his most famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, on a German beer drinking song. (If Luther were alive today, he’d be composing rap rhymes.)
Still, it’s true that because in both the Old and New Testaments and most especially in Jesus Christ, God has revealed a way of life totally foreign to the values of this world, it’s inevitable that some of our words or, at least, the way we use those words, will sound like foreign jibberish to outsiders. We Christians have to love our neighbor enough and want to share our faith with them enough to try to translate those words not just with our mouths, but with our lives. There are times too, when we need to take the time to recall just what these words are all about.
No word in the Christian lexicon is stranger to the outside world than our word, grace. Now, we may all be able to give a quick definition of grace. We might say something like, “Grace is God’s undeserved gifts of forgiveness and new life, given to all who believe in Jesus Christ.” That’s an accurate definition.
But instead of a definition today, I’d like to explore a few Bible passages and give you some pictures of grace. I take my cue from Jesus, Who often used evocative stories called parables, like the one He tells in today’s Bible lesson. Each of Jesus’ parables created pictures that made key concepts visible, understandable. Through the pictures I present today, I want to talk about what God’s grace is like, surfacing a few characteristics of grace. (There are many more we could talk about. But I only have a few minutes with you this morning.)
The first characteristic of God’s grace fairly screams out in the story Jesus tells in today’s Bible lesson. In it, a wealthy landowner goes into the village square, where there are people looking for work. He hires some to work in his vineyard. The pay is the going rate for the time, a silver coin. Three hours later, the landowner goes to the village and hires more workers. He does the same thing at three in the afternoon. Then at five, quitting time, he goes to the square and puts a few more on the payroll. At the end of the workday, the landowner gathers all of the day’s hires in order to pay them. Each and every worker, no matter how long or even if they’ve been in the vineyard, gets the same payment, a single silver coin.
The workers hired earlier in the day are outraged! They’ve sweated and toiled for hours. Yet, the new people are getting the same wage they’re receiving. They forget that from the moment they agreed to go into the owner’s fields, they were assured a silver coin. They’d gone to the village square without work and without a coin. The owner gave those things to them. Now, they’re upset that the landowner cut the same deal with the johnny-come-latelies. But he tells the complaining workers, “Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’”
The complaining workers don’t think the landowner is showing fairness. The fact is that he isn’t showing fairness. He’s showing grace. The first characteristic of God’s grace is that it isn’t fair. That may strike some people as awful. But as I often tell people, “God is not fair. And thank God He isn’t!”
The workers in Jesus’ story demanded that the landowner give them what they deserved. We often do the same thing with God. I know that I do. But if God gave me, a sinner, what I deserve, I would go straight to hell. As it is, because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross and because He rose to ensure that all who believe in Him won’t be in hell, separated from God, I can work in God’s vineyard--I can be an active member of His Church and an active participant in society--knowing that at the end of my life, God will give me the eternity with Him that I do not deserve.
The apostle Paul famously writes in the New Testament that, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is grace: God unfairly accepts all who turn from sin and follow Him. And He unfairly offers this to every human being on the planet!
Another characteristic of God’s grace is this: The grace that changes us from enemies to friends of God only comes from Jesus Christ. It can be found nowhere else. Among all the deities and religious systems people worship in the world, it’s only the God chronicled in the Bible, who ultimately discloses Himself in Jesus Christ, Who offers us the charitable and blessedly unfair grace of God!
The Hiding Place is Corrie ten-Boom's remembrance of how she and her Christian family helped Jews to escape Nazi-occupied Holland during World War Two. They were eventually found out and imprisoned, Corrie being the only family member who survived life in a Nazi death camp.
But in the book, Corrie recalls the Christian example given years before by her Aunt Jans. She remembers the moment when Jans was told that she only had three weeks to live. Aunt Jans had been an active Christian, going to prayer meetings and Bible studies, being involved with service projects, and so on. She’d worked long and hard in God’s vineyard. Corrie’s father told her, “You will go to God the Father with full hands.” But Aunt Jans put her hands over her eyes and began to cry. “Empty! Empty!” she said as she choked back tears. Then she asked, “How can we bring anything to God? What does he care for our little tricks and trinkets?”
And then, with tears streaming down her face, Aunt Jans prayed, “Dear Jesus, I thank You that I must come with empty hands. I thank You that You have done all--all--on the Cross, and that all we need in life or death is to be sure of this.” The Gospel of John tells us that “grace and truth” come to us through Jesus Christ. It goes on to say, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, Who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.” God has made it possible for us to fully experience and appreciate His grace when we trust Jesus Christ as the only One Who can give us real truth and real life.
Now, one more characteristic of grace: Grace gives us power for living this life. God’s grace is tough.
- Imagine the toughness required of God to not give up on the human race in spite of our massive, generation-to-generation rejection of Him.
- Imagine how much toughness it took for Jesus to go to the cross in spite of what He knew awaited Him there.
- Imagine the toughness it requires of God to forgive the repentant in spite of the ways in which we sin against Him and His children.
This past week I read about a man, a deeply committed follower of Christ, who went blind. People might have supposed that he would be bitter. But instead, he told them, “I served God with my eyes; now I’ll serve God with my blindness.”
I love the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., from a sermon he called, Shattered Dreams: “The Christian faith makes it possible for us nobly to accept that which cannot be changed, to meet disappointments and sorrow with an inner poise, and to absorb the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope, for we know, as Paul testified, in life or death...that 'all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.'"
You know, as a pastor, I’m the repository of many confidences. But if I could break the confidences of just the people in worship here this morning, your stories would, again and again, tell about how, even in the face of horrible suffering and difficult circumstances, the grace of God, given through Jesus, has sustained you. Through the grace of God, you’ve been able to face all that life has brought to you.
My family and I have been learning again first-hand this summer just how amazing God’s grace is. We’ve felt God’s strength and encouragement, His undeserved love, through what has been an exhausting and sometimes emotionally-battering summer.
Grace, with its assurance that God will never “forsake us” and is with us “even to the close of the age,” gives us the toughness to face this day and each day of our lives.
God’s grace isn’t fair; it doesn’t give us what we deserve and accepts us no matter how far or how long we’ve wandered from God.
Grace is made clear and available to all through Jesus Christ, God enfleshed, the embodiment of God’s grace and truth.
The tough grace of God gives us the resilience to face life’s fiercest challenges, made stronger in faith, in resoluteness, and in the certainty that the God Who went to a cross for us will be with us always.
God’s grace may be a strange church word. But, as lines from a U2 song several years ago reminds us, it can transform us: “What once was hurt/What once was friction/What left a mark/No longer stings/Because grace makes beauty/Out of ugly things.”
No matter how ugly we may feel, no matter how much sin has distorted our lives, no matter how ugly our lives may sometimes become, God’s grace, offered to us through Jesus Christ, can heal our hurts, cover our sins, and make us new...forever.
Next week, two words: sin and faith.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
A Sad Rush to Judgment
[UPDATE, added August 26, 2007: Something I meant to include in this post originally was a mention of my initial reaction to this tragedy, which was a rush to judgment. But as I read and heard more details, I felt very wrong about that. A good lesson for me in this is to always get my facts straight before forming an opinion.]
In conversations I've had by email, telephone, and face-to-face today, people have described Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby as a great person. A competent, caring educator. An accomplished musician who played piano at her church. A loving mother.
While I've never met Nesselroad-Slaby, those who've told me these things about her are all people for whom I have the deepest respect.
Nonetheless, the assistant principal of Glen Este Middle School here in our community, Nesselroad-Slaby has been villified over the past few days on local message boards, radio call-in shows, and at the proverbial workplace water coolers.
On Thursday, Cecilia Slaby, her two year old daughter, died in the Glen Este parking lot. It happened as she sat, strapped into her car seat in her mother's car. Cecilia may have been there for eight hours, as her mother did her job. With temperatures rising to 100-degrees here in the Cincinnati area that day, it's no wonder that Cecilia died. It's a horrible tragedy!
In fact, "accident" is exactly how our Clermont County prosecutor, Don White, a man who is tough on crime, has described the tragedy. He has indicated that while some charge may be filed, he has little thought that either parent intentionally caused the death of their child. Both Nesselroad-Slaby and her husband have been cooperative with authorities and teachers and school administrators on the scene when Cecilia was found describe a mother who was clearly distraught, hysterical with grief.
Over the past few days, local media reports have taught our community that about thirty such deaths occur in the US every year. Often, they happen in the households of busy two-income families where a sleeping child may be in the car seat of a parent who thinks it's not their "day" to take the little one to child care. Prelimimary indications are that that's what happened with Cecilia.
But some in our community are skeptical, others downright hostile, certain that Cecilia was murdered.
I suppose that, to some extent, the suspicions are understandable. Less than a half-mile from the Glen Este parking lot where Cecilia died, foster child Marcus Feisel lost his life.* Marcus, readers of this blog will remember, was wrapped in duct tape and thrown into a closet by his foster parents and their live-in lover. While the three spent several days in Kentucky at a family reunion, Marcus died. Two of the conspirators took his body and incinerated it, while a third told police and the media that the child had gone missing in a local park. Hundreds of community volunteers joined law enforcement officials in searching for Marcus. When the story of what really happened came out, all of us in the community wanted justice to be served. We also developed an acute sensitivity to the vulnerability of children.
With the memory of Marcus so fresh, particularly for those of us who live in the West Clermont Local School District where these events have happened, some skepticism about the circumstances of Cecilia Slaby's death was bound to surface.
But others refuse to even entertain the idea she was the victim of a terrible accident. "I think the parents did it on purpose," one co-worker told a friend of mine on Friday. I'm told that the West Clermont board offices were flooded with telephone calls from people who have already charged, convicted, and hanged Cecilia's parents.
I suspect that some of these reactions stem from something other than a desire to protect children. Among some people, guilty-until-proven-innocent seems to be the prevailing attitude. Their hearts are cold with sin.
I believe that a relationship with Jesus Christ, based on grace and not legalism, changes the way we think about our lives and the world. Our sin inclines us to violate God's command to not bear false witness which, as explained in Martin Luther's Small Catechism calls us also to "put the most charitable construction" on the actions of our neighbors. Jesus Christ, Who died for sinners--that's the whole human race--helps us to be more charitable and less judgmental.
I highly doubt that Cecilia Slaby was the victim of murder. If her parents had wanted to take the little one's life, they could have hatched a more resourceful plot, one that would draw attention away from themselves. Simply leaving Cecilia in her mother's parked car at her place of work is an unlikely way for two intelligent people wanting to get away with murder to go about it.
It looks like an accident to me and that those who are crucifying Cecilia's parents are not just jumping to conclusions, but assassinating their characters. Cecilia's death makes me sad. So does the rush to judgment some are making.
*Marcus Feisel died five-hundred yards from where I live. Our two children attended Glen Este Middle School, but years before Nesselroad-Slaby began working there.
In conversations I've had by email, telephone, and face-to-face today, people have described Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby as a great person. A competent, caring educator. An accomplished musician who played piano at her church. A loving mother.
While I've never met Nesselroad-Slaby, those who've told me these things about her are all people for whom I have the deepest respect.
Nonetheless, the assistant principal of Glen Este Middle School here in our community, Nesselroad-Slaby has been villified over the past few days on local message boards, radio call-in shows, and at the proverbial workplace water coolers.
On Thursday, Cecilia Slaby, her two year old daughter, died in the Glen Este parking lot. It happened as she sat, strapped into her car seat in her mother's car. Cecilia may have been there for eight hours, as her mother did her job. With temperatures rising to 100-degrees here in the Cincinnati area that day, it's no wonder that Cecilia died. It's a horrible tragedy!
In fact, "accident" is exactly how our Clermont County prosecutor, Don White, a man who is tough on crime, has described the tragedy. He has indicated that while some charge may be filed, he has little thought that either parent intentionally caused the death of their child. Both Nesselroad-Slaby and her husband have been cooperative with authorities and teachers and school administrators on the scene when Cecilia was found describe a mother who was clearly distraught, hysterical with grief.
Over the past few days, local media reports have taught our community that about thirty such deaths occur in the US every year. Often, they happen in the households of busy two-income families where a sleeping child may be in the car seat of a parent who thinks it's not their "day" to take the little one to child care. Prelimimary indications are that that's what happened with Cecilia.
But some in our community are skeptical, others downright hostile, certain that Cecilia was murdered.
I suppose that, to some extent, the suspicions are understandable. Less than a half-mile from the Glen Este parking lot where Cecilia died, foster child Marcus Feisel lost his life.* Marcus, readers of this blog will remember, was wrapped in duct tape and thrown into a closet by his foster parents and their live-in lover. While the three spent several days in Kentucky at a family reunion, Marcus died. Two of the conspirators took his body and incinerated it, while a third told police and the media that the child had gone missing in a local park. Hundreds of community volunteers joined law enforcement officials in searching for Marcus. When the story of what really happened came out, all of us in the community wanted justice to be served. We also developed an acute sensitivity to the vulnerability of children.
With the memory of Marcus so fresh, particularly for those of us who live in the West Clermont Local School District where these events have happened, some skepticism about the circumstances of Cecilia Slaby's death was bound to surface.
But others refuse to even entertain the idea she was the victim of a terrible accident. "I think the parents did it on purpose," one co-worker told a friend of mine on Friday. I'm told that the West Clermont board offices were flooded with telephone calls from people who have already charged, convicted, and hanged Cecilia's parents.
I suspect that some of these reactions stem from something other than a desire to protect children. Among some people, guilty-until-proven-innocent seems to be the prevailing attitude. Their hearts are cold with sin.
I believe that a relationship with Jesus Christ, based on grace and not legalism, changes the way we think about our lives and the world. Our sin inclines us to violate God's command to not bear false witness which, as explained in Martin Luther's Small Catechism calls us also to "put the most charitable construction" on the actions of our neighbors. Jesus Christ, Who died for sinners--that's the whole human race--helps us to be more charitable and less judgmental.
I highly doubt that Cecilia Slaby was the victim of murder. If her parents had wanted to take the little one's life, they could have hatched a more resourceful plot, one that would draw attention away from themselves. Simply leaving Cecilia in her mother's parked car at her place of work is an unlikely way for two intelligent people wanting to get away with murder to go about it.
It looks like an accident to me and that those who are crucifying Cecilia's parents are not just jumping to conclusions, but assassinating their characters. Cecilia's death makes me sad. So does the rush to judgment some are making.
*Marcus Feisel died five-hundred yards from where I live. Our two children attended Glen Este Middle School, but years before Nesselroad-Slaby began working there.
Update on South Korean Christian Hostages in Afghanistan
Bruce Armstrong has it. Please pray for the release of the remaining nineteen hostages, who went to Afghanistan to help rebuild that country.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Why Do the Innocent Suffer?
[This is a slightly updated version of a column I first wrote back in 2003. Consider it a condensed version of this series. I hope you find this column helpful.]
Why do bad things happen to innocent people?
Like almost everyone, I guess, I have seen really good people, believing people, and children, subjected to crushing difficulties, afflicted by illness, or taken far too early by death. Maybe you’re one of those good or believing people or children who have been hit by undeserved suffering or grief. You may be inclined to wonder, “Where is God now? Why am I left to fend for myself in the face of this overwhelming pain?”
I’m not sure that I have any answers. But I do have a few responses.
My first response is that you’re not alone.
When God came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, He underwent suffering. The New Testament book of Hebrews describes Jesus as humanity’s “high priest,” the bridge between God and us. Through Jesus, we have access to God’s help, even in tough times. Hebrews assures us that in Jesus, “we don’t have a high priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
When we’re knocked down by suffering, the God we meet in Jesus Christ “gets it.” God understands our pain. And He promises to be with those who see Him as their Lord “to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
The second thing I want to tell you is to ignore those who try to say that every bad thing that happens to you is your fault. It isn’t!
There are times when bad things do happen to us as the result of our bad decisions. There are also times when God, as a loving Father, disciplines us, thwarting us when we rebel against His will. But don’t let anyone tell you that the loving God of the universe is waiting to wallop you with a cosmic sledge hammer for every mistake you make. God is no monster!
Jesus’ followers—disciples—once pointed a blind man out to Jesus and asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus said neither the guy’s parents or he were guilty of a sin that caused his blindness. Instead, Jesus said that God allowed the man to be blind so that God’s glory could be seen in the man. Jesus proceeded to give the man sight. (John 9)
Sometimes, God allows us to keep suffering even after we’ve prayed. But in these circumstances, it's likely that God’s motive is the same as Jesus’ motive for healing the blind man: to let us see Him at work in our lives. One of Jesus’ followers in Bible times was a man named Paul. We don’t know exactly what it was, but Paul said that he suffered from what he called a “thorn in the flesh.” In the New Testament, he says that he asked God to remove it three times. God refused. As Paul explains it, “...[God] told me, ‘My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.’” (Second Corinthians 12:1-10)
God makes our suffering count for something when we go through it with Jesus Christ: He teaches how we can rely on Him and He shows His goodness and power to others through us. On this latter point, it’s been my observation that often, as Paul sensed God telling him of Paul's suffering, it’s in those who suffer with Jesus that we most clearly see the presence and power of God.
Only heaven can be described as “paradise” (Luke 23:43). That’s the ultimate destination of all who follow Jesus Christ. This temporary home we call earth and the life we live here will never be a paradise free of suffering. But it is a place where we can know God intimately, experience fulfillment, love and encourage each other, and go through every high and low with God beside us.
Suffering may never make sense. But God’s love is always there for us.
Why do bad things happen to innocent people?
Like almost everyone, I guess, I have seen really good people, believing people, and children, subjected to crushing difficulties, afflicted by illness, or taken far too early by death. Maybe you’re one of those good or believing people or children who have been hit by undeserved suffering or grief. You may be inclined to wonder, “Where is God now? Why am I left to fend for myself in the face of this overwhelming pain?”
I’m not sure that I have any answers. But I do have a few responses.
My first response is that you’re not alone.
When God came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, He underwent suffering. The New Testament book of Hebrews describes Jesus as humanity’s “high priest,” the bridge between God and us. Through Jesus, we have access to God’s help, even in tough times. Hebrews assures us that in Jesus, “we don’t have a high priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
When we’re knocked down by suffering, the God we meet in Jesus Christ “gets it.” God understands our pain. And He promises to be with those who see Him as their Lord “to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
The second thing I want to tell you is to ignore those who try to say that every bad thing that happens to you is your fault. It isn’t!
There are times when bad things do happen to us as the result of our bad decisions. There are also times when God, as a loving Father, disciplines us, thwarting us when we rebel against His will. But don’t let anyone tell you that the loving God of the universe is waiting to wallop you with a cosmic sledge hammer for every mistake you make. God is no monster!
Jesus’ followers—disciples—once pointed a blind man out to Jesus and asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus said neither the guy’s parents or he were guilty of a sin that caused his blindness. Instead, Jesus said that God allowed the man to be blind so that God’s glory could be seen in the man. Jesus proceeded to give the man sight. (John 9)
Sometimes, God allows us to keep suffering even after we’ve prayed. But in these circumstances, it's likely that God’s motive is the same as Jesus’ motive for healing the blind man: to let us see Him at work in our lives. One of Jesus’ followers in Bible times was a man named Paul. We don’t know exactly what it was, but Paul said that he suffered from what he called a “thorn in the flesh.” In the New Testament, he says that he asked God to remove it three times. God refused. As Paul explains it, “...[God] told me, ‘My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.’” (Second Corinthians 12:1-10)
God makes our suffering count for something when we go through it with Jesus Christ: He teaches how we can rely on Him and He shows His goodness and power to others through us. On this latter point, it’s been my observation that often, as Paul sensed God telling him of Paul's suffering, it’s in those who suffer with Jesus that we most clearly see the presence and power of God.
Only heaven can be described as “paradise” (Luke 23:43). That’s the ultimate destination of all who follow Jesus Christ. This temporary home we call earth and the life we live here will never be a paradise free of suffering. But it is a place where we can know God intimately, experience fulfillment, love and encourage each other, and go through every high and low with God beside us.
Suffering may never make sense. But God’s love is always there for us.
Flip...Flop...
Flip?Rick Moore thinks that Mitt Romney has changed his position on abortion in yet another way. If that perception takes hold among Rick's fellow conservatives, Romney's efforts to cultivate conservatives will come to grief.
He writes:
The fact that Romney has articulated several different positions on abortion tells me he really has no core belief in this issue, but is making statements based on what he thinks the listener wants to hear, and that's a problem. If you know what you believe it should be that hard to articulate it each and every time consistently.In the final analysis, my guess is that the perception of Mr. Romney as a flip-flopper is a far bigger threat to his candidacy than his Mormon religion. Most Christians, for example, even most evangelical Christians, are willing to vote for a Mormon for President so long as they believe the candidate will refrain from using the presidency to impose his or her faith on others. But if changes in political positions appear to be based on positioning and expedience, candidates will be universally villified.
All that aside, abortion is still an issue about which the president has very little control. He can't ban it or institute it. He can control funding to a small degree and can veto or sign legislation that comes his way. And I still believe that is is wrong to make this the one factor upon which someone makes their voting decision. We should be more worried about the things the president can control and not so much about the things he can't.
I'm inclined to agree with Romney's handlers that the less they say about his religion the better. (Although, since Romney's campaign was the first to bring up the "Mormon issue," it may be hard for him to button up on the matter now.) But he probably needs to preemptively take on the "flip-flop" perceptions sooner, rather than later.
Whether Rick is right in saying that Romney's recently articulated position is another flip on the abortion issue, I don't know. But I do think that he's right in saying that the President has little direct control over abortion.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Please Pray for Northern Ohio
Flooding is happening in or threatening much of northern Ohio. Please pray for safety for everyone in the rain-deluged areas.
We lived in northwestern Ohio and have a real love for the area and its people.
We lived in northwestern Ohio and have a real love for the area and its people.
The Power to Hope
"The Christian faith makes it possible for us nobly to accept that which cannot be changed, to meet disappointments and sorrow with an inner poise, and to absorb the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope, for we know, as Paul testified, in life or death, in Spain or in Rome, that 'all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.'" [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]See also here.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Pray for Jamaica
Hope for Workaholics (Christians and Work, Part 3)
[This message was shared during worship with Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio on August 19, 2007. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, feel free to worship with us. We have Sunday worship at 10:00AM. Starting September 8, we'll resume our Saturday worship schedule. The Saturday service, which won't happen on September 29, incorporates the opportunity to informally discuss the Biblical texts and the life issues they address.]Luke 10:28-32
The story’s told of a couple who had decided if they had children, that only one of the parents would continue to work outside the home. The other would stay at home with the kids. In this particular family, the man kept his 9 to 5 (or 9 to 6, 9 to 7, 9 to 8) gig and the woman took primary responsibility for child-rearing and household management.
One day, the guy comes home to find total mayhem. “The kids were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud and muck. There were empty food boxes and wrappers all around. As he proceeded into the house, he found an even bigger mess — dishes on the counter, dog food spilled on the floor, a broken glass under the table, and a small pile of sand by the back door. The family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing, and a lamp had been knocked over.
"He headed up the stairs, stepping over toys, to look for his wife. He was becoming worried that she may be ill, or that something had happened to her. He found her in the bedroom, still in bed with her pajamas on, reading a book. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went."
He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?” She again smiled and answered, “You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what I did today?” “Yes.” She answered, “Well, today I didn’t do it!”
I tell that story for a reason. You see, when some of you heard the incident involving Jesus and two of His friends, the sisters Mary and Martha, being read to you from the Bible, a little voice inside your head said, “Oh, boy, here Daniels goes again. He’s going to talk about how great it was for Mary to sit on her blessed assurance and how faithless it was for Martha to scurry around working like a madwoman while Jesus was teaching at their house.” But that’s not what I’m going to say.
At least, that’s not all I’m going to say.
I am going to say that sometimes we all feel like that stay-at-home mom did. Or like Martha did when Jesus came to visit her brother Lazarus, her sister Mary and her. Both felt that their hard work was unappreciated or underappreciated.
And there may have been times when Martha’s beef with Mary was completely warranted. When you look at another place in the New Testament where Martha and Mary figure, John, chapter 11, and you see that Martha is a person of action. Mary is more of a contemplative. Sometimes action is needed more than contemplation or rest. But not on the day our Bible lesson recounts.
If you’ve derived any kernel of Biblical truth from the first two installments of this series on Christians and Work, I hope that it would be that work is a good thing. God made us to do work. It’s part of what makes us human. It’s a way that we can worship and honor God.
Think of work as being like a fine piece of furniture, say that dining room set you scrimped and saved to buy. Now, when the delivery people arrive with it, you wouldn’t take them out the back door to the deck, where it could be exposed to the sun and the rain and all the elements, and say, “Just set it here.” That would be a complete misuse, an abuse, of a finely crafted piece meant to last for generations.
Work has its place. The work of hospitality that Martha thought she was doing, has its place. But there comes a point when work is misused and abused.
Martha had the opportunity to hear Jesus’ liberating word for repentant sinners, the Good News that we are freed from sin not by our efforts or good deeds, but solely by our trusting surrender to the Savior Who dies and rises for us.
But Martha was too busy acting important, being the linchpin who held civilization together, to pay attention to Jesus. Martha, at least in this instance, was being a workaholic. She exemplifies the lifestyle of workaholism, which always stems from a combination of personal insecurity, or a desire to be noticed, or the fear of insignificance, or idol worship, whether the idol is self, money, or power. Workaholism is never from God. And its effects can be devastating.
Some of you have heard me tell the true story of a business executive who had achieved great financial success. There was just one problem: He never saw his wife and kids. He never made his children’s school events. He only took “working vacations.” Finally, unable to take the life they were leading, his wife issued an ultimatum, “Get your workaholic lifestyle under control or I’m leaving and taking the kids with me. A divorce will only confirm the reality of our situation because right now, we're not really married. We just share a house....sometimes.”
At first, the exec was dumbfounded. He thought his wife was being ungrateful. Here he had provided every material thing anyone could want and she was talking about divorce!
But his wife stood firm. The next morning, he astounded his family by calling his office, clearing his calendar and telling them that he was taking the day off. He took the kids to school and spent the day talking with his wife.
At the end of the day, he came to an astounding decision. He would leave his job and use their savings to buy a little marina in northern Michigan. “We’ll work and play together,” he declared. “There’ll be no pressures or deadlines.”
Wife and kids were happy and within weeks, they’d made their move. But it didn’t take long for the old workaholic ways to re-emerge. The guy expanded the marina, added a restaurant, and built time share condos. He was at it from dawn to beyond dusk. One night, he returned home to an empty house. There was a brief note from his wife. This time, she would divorce him.
A few months later, an old acquaintance visited the guy at his empire by the lake. The exec took him for a spin in his boat. The acquaintance looked at all the exec's holdings that set on the shore and said, “When you look at all that, you must feel very proud.” “Frankly,” the executive said, “when I look at it, it makes me sick to my stomach.” Within days, he died of a massive heart attack. He was in his mid-forties.
Once workaholism has a person in its grips, it becomes a monster that needs constant feeding. It kills people’s relationships with God and others. It eventually kills the person never freed from it. It kills them spiritually and then it kills them physically.
So, can we be free of workaholism, free of work as an addiction?
I think that if we go back to that incident in Bethany again, we can find Jesus’ prescription for workaholism.
Remember what happened? Martha is busily serving. The workaholic executive who worked too many hours and did way more than was necessary for doing an excellent job, was resentful of his wife’s criticism. Martha is just like him. Doing way more than excellent hospitality demands, she resents her sister’s decision to sit and listen to the Lord. Seeing herself as a martyr and a model of good citizenship, Martha runs to Jesus and, in effect, upbraids Him for His insenstivity.
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”
Jesus responds, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Workaholism is all about choices. Hard work and a commitment to excellence are good choices. But work to prove our self-worth or to call attention to ourselves are very bad choices. Martha was making a bad choice. Mary was choosing the Savior Jesus, a gift that could never be taken from her!
The child of God, the person who has turned from sin and believes in Jesus Christ, will want to work hard at the right times for the right reasons.
And this same child of God knows that she or he has nothing to prove to God or to the world. God has already given His approval to their lives.
They know that it’s okay to relax, that it’s even okay to sometimes says, “No” when the church asks them to take on a job.
Children of God relish the realities...
- that they are of central importance to God;
- that God created this world for them to enjoy; and
- that to prevent them from experiencing eternal separation from God, the rightful punishment for our sin, God became human, died for us, and rose to give us eternity with God. You are worthy. God says so. The shed blood of Jesus on the cross says so!
God’s antidote to the combination of self-hatred, self-worship, the need to be in control, and personal insecurity that expresses itself in workaholism, is embodied by Jesus.
Jesus brings us what the Bible calls grace, God’s charitable acceptance of repentant sinners offered to us through Christ.
The New Testament tells us, “by the free gift of Jesus Christ...” we are set free. With nothing left to prove, the follower of Christ is set free to move toward being who God made us to be. We're liberated by the realization that we aren't human doings, but human beings.
And there’s another freedom that God gives to us.
I read once about a fellow who had a strange habit. On Monday mornings, as a good friend was just sitting down at his desk for a new work week, he made a phone call. When his friend answered, the guy dispensed with small talk. All he said was, “This is God. You have the freedom to fail. I’ll still love you if you do.” Then he hung up.
When we belong to Jesus Christ, we have the freedom to fail. We have the freedom to do our best, fall flat on our faces, and know that we still have value. And know that if God gives us tomorrow, we can try again. We have the freedom to fail because God never fails to love us, stand by us, or bring the people and support we need to keep on keepin’ on whatever life brings.
God never fails to love you. Today, I challenge you to believe that, to latch onto Jesus Christ, and know, success or failure, God will never let go of you.
[The story about the messy house and yard are from HomileticsOnline.com. The true story of the Michigan business executive is one I heard Bill Hybels tell more than twenty years ago.]
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Will Private Firms Pave Bridge to Infrastructure Future?
The collapse of the I35 bridge in Minnesota seems to have gotten Americans' paying attention to the country's infrastructure needs. But, according to this article on CNN money, tapped-out federal, state, and local governments face $495-billion price tage just to fix the country's bridges. To repair rail lines and ports, the same article suggests, may cost $1.6-trillion!
Given the need and the cash-strapped status of government agencies, some are suggesting contracting with private firms to do the repair work and run our highways:
There's an argument to be made that in the initation of new services or technologies--from postal delivery to space exploration and infrastructure, the government has a unique responsibility. But, this argument continues, after establishing the feasibility of such projects, the government may be ill-suited to bring vast improvements or cost effectiveness to them.
Some form of private-public partnership may be the wave of the future when it comes to America's infrastructure. It is ironic that Europe, far more comfortable with big government policies, has gotten free enterprise so extensively involved in the construction and operation of highways, bridges, airports, and ports, while America's infrastructure is almost exclusively the purview of government entities.
As long as the memory of the I-35 tragedy remains in people's minds, the discussion of infrastructure needs and how to meet them will likely increase in the future. (So too will some of the widely-questioned strategies and decisions of the Army Corps of Engineers when it comes to New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and the Mississippi River.)
Given the need and the cash-strapped status of government agencies, some are suggesting contracting with private firms to do the repair work and run our highways:
America, the land of the free, has been more hostile to free-market infrastructure than the rest of the world. In Europe, Australia, Canada and emerging markets such as Brazil, the private sector has jumped in to build new roads, bridges, tunnels and airports.Private groups usually make an upfront payment, manage the assets and get toll revenue under leases that span 75 years or more.
In the U.S., the federal government provides much funding for repairs and new projects. When Uncle Sam is tapped out, state and local governments turn to the bond market.
With government debt soaring, though, public interest groups have pushed another option -- gas-tax hikes. Critics charge privately run toll roads could gouge consumers.
Political battles lay ahead, but supporters of private funding say more deals will be struck.
Intriguing.
Back in the 1800s, Henry Clay's Whig Party advocated "internal improvements," by which they meant the construction of roads, canals, and railroad, what we call infrastructure. While Clay never became President and the Whigs died, only to morph into the Republican Party, the development and maintenance of infrastructure has been seen as a function of the government for the past two-plus centuries. (The young Illinois Whig politician, Abraham Lincoln, later the first Republican President, always ran on a platform that included "internal improvements" as a key plank.)
There's an argument to be made that in the initation of new services or technologies--from postal delivery to space exploration and infrastructure, the government has a unique responsibility. But, this argument continues, after establishing the feasibility of such projects, the government may be ill-suited to bring vast improvements or cost effectiveness to them.
Some form of private-public partnership may be the wave of the future when it comes to America's infrastructure. It is ironic that Europe, far more comfortable with big government policies, has gotten free enterprise so extensively involved in the construction and operation of highways, bridges, airports, and ports, while America's infrastructure is almost exclusively the purview of government entities.
As long as the memory of the I-35 tragedy remains in people's minds, the discussion of infrastructure needs and how to meet them will likely increase in the future. (So too will some of the widely-questioned strategies and decisions of the Army Corps of Engineers when it comes to New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and the Mississippi River.)
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Watch What God Does!
[For the past eleven years, I've written a column that appears in the Community Press newspapers in Clermont County. This piece is the column version of this blog post.]
Four months ago, the lay leadership of Friendship Lutheran Church and I, watched as a combination of alarming trends threatened not just our church's capacity to do ministry, but its very existence.
One factor was complacency. After a twelve year struggle to get into a building, it was only natural for us to take a deep breath when we finally moved into a new facility nearly four years ago. But we seemed to slip into relax mode.
The first result of our complacency was decreasing and sporadic worship attendance.
That, in turn, resulted in lowered and sporadic offerings.
That threatened our ability to do the ministries of community service for which Friendship is probably best known.
It also threatened to make it hard for us to keep up with our church mortgage payments.
It would have been easy for our leaders to wring their hands and do Chicken Little impressions.
But these are people of faith, people who believe that they belong to the God of all creation. They really believe that with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). So, our leaders challenged us in four ways.
First, they asked that the congregation daily prayer for the well-being of the church.
They asked that our members make regular worship attendance a priority, cancelling the summer slump.
They challenged members to invite their non-churchgoing friends to activities of the congregation.
Finally, we were asked to increase our giving, considering the tithe, the Biblically-honored practice of giving the first 10% of one's income to God's causes in the world.
The result?
We've seen remarkable answers to our prayers. Ever since this focused praying began, we have seen first-time worship visitors every single Sunday, unprecedented in Friendship's history. Many of those folks have returned for second visits.
In addition, our attendance has increased, something churches rarely see in the summer months.
So too has our giving. Offerings in the months of May, June, and July wiped out the operating deficit that accrued in January through April. We still need to be diligent in our giving. But progress has been made.
Why has this happened? In 538 BC, the Babylonian king, Cyrus, allowed God’s people, the Jews, who had been slaves in Babylong for more than forty years, to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple. It was an exciting time!
But the returnees soon became discouraged, intimidated by the enormity of the obstacles they faced.
They also were comfortable in their new homes in the Judean homeland.
Complacency and fear caused them to completely stop working on the temple.
This was unacceptable to the prophet Haggai. Prompted by God, he told the governor, the high priest, and the people to take heart, to rely on God, and to get to work rebuilding the temple (Haggai 2:1-9).
Soon, praying and working for God's cause, the temple was rebuilt.
The God Who helped ancient Israel is still in the business of helping those who trust in Him. We've seen that in our congregation.
And how about you in your personal life? Are you fearful or self-satisfied, afraid to tackle the next mountain God asks you to climb? Prayerfully rely on God and then work, knowing that God is with you. And as you pray and work, don't be afraid, knowing that God is with you.
Then, watch what God does!
[Mark Daniels is the pastor of Friendship Lutheran Church.]
Four months ago, the lay leadership of Friendship Lutheran Church and I, watched as a combination of alarming trends threatened not just our church's capacity to do ministry, but its very existence.
One factor was complacency. After a twelve year struggle to get into a building, it was only natural for us to take a deep breath when we finally moved into a new facility nearly four years ago. But we seemed to slip into relax mode.
The first result of our complacency was decreasing and sporadic worship attendance.
That, in turn, resulted in lowered and sporadic offerings.
That threatened our ability to do the ministries of community service for which Friendship is probably best known.
It also threatened to make it hard for us to keep up with our church mortgage payments.
It would have been easy for our leaders to wring their hands and do Chicken Little impressions.
But these are people of faith, people who believe that they belong to the God of all creation. They really believe that with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). So, our leaders challenged us in four ways.
First, they asked that the congregation daily prayer for the well-being of the church.
They asked that our members make regular worship attendance a priority, cancelling the summer slump.
They challenged members to invite their non-churchgoing friends to activities of the congregation.
Finally, we were asked to increase our giving, considering the tithe, the Biblically-honored practice of giving the first 10% of one's income to God's causes in the world.
The result?
We've seen remarkable answers to our prayers. Ever since this focused praying began, we have seen first-time worship visitors every single Sunday, unprecedented in Friendship's history. Many of those folks have returned for second visits.
In addition, our attendance has increased, something churches rarely see in the summer months.
So too has our giving. Offerings in the months of May, June, and July wiped out the operating deficit that accrued in January through April. We still need to be diligent in our giving. But progress has been made.
Why has this happened? In 538 BC, the Babylonian king, Cyrus, allowed God’s people, the Jews, who had been slaves in Babylong for more than forty years, to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple. It was an exciting time!
But the returnees soon became discouraged, intimidated by the enormity of the obstacles they faced.
They also were comfortable in their new homes in the Judean homeland.
Complacency and fear caused them to completely stop working on the temple.
This was unacceptable to the prophet Haggai. Prompted by God, he told the governor, the high priest, and the people to take heart, to rely on God, and to get to work rebuilding the temple (Haggai 2:1-9).
Soon, praying and working for God's cause, the temple was rebuilt.
The God Who helped ancient Israel is still in the business of helping those who trust in Him. We've seen that in our congregation.
And how about you in your personal life? Are you fearful or self-satisfied, afraid to tackle the next mountain God asks you to climb? Prayerfully rely on God and then work, knowing that God is with you. And as you pray and work, don't be afraid, knowing that God is with you.
Then, watch what God does!
[Mark Daniels is the pastor of Friendship Lutheran Church.]
Got a Mountain? Enlist God's Help and Climb!
Four months ago, the lay leadership of Friendship Lutheran Church and I, watched as a combination of alarming trends threatened not just our church's capacity to do ministry, but its very existence.One factor was complacency. Complacency seemed to set in after we started worshiping in a new building nearly four years ago. After twelve-and-a-half years in an elementary school gymnasium and the prayer and struggle that had gone into getting into a building, it was only natural for us to take a deep breath. But we seemed to do more than that, slipping into relax mode. We took our building and one another for granted. We forgot that every church and every Christian is called to reach out to others with the Good News of life changed eternally good through Christ's death and resurrection.
The first result of our complacency was decreasing and sporadic worship attendance.
That, in turn, resulted in lowered and sporadic offerings.
That threatened our ability to do the ministries of community service for which Friendship is probably best known--our involvement with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Clermont County, CASA for Clermont Kids!, Habitat for Humanity, and so on.
It also threatened to make it impossible for us to keep up with our church mortgage payments.
It would have been easy for our leaders to wring their hands and do Chicken Little impressions.
But these are people of faith, people who believe that they belong to the God of all creation.
They also know well the history of our congregation. From the beginning, even officials of our own denomination thought it would be impossible for a Lutheran church to take off here in Clermont County. When, back in July, 1990, I asked a denominational official for his advice on whether I should take the call to start Friendship, he betrayed this pessimistic assessment when he said, "Well, even if it goes belly up, it won't hurt your career."
I didn't care about my career. I cared about letting people know how much God loved them.
That same passion motivated our leadership to challenge the people of Friendship in four ways.
They asked that, first, that the congregation daily prayer for the health and well-being of the church.
Second, they asked that our members make regular worship attendance a priority, even in the summer months when all Christians seem to want to "take a vacation from church."
They challenged members to invite their non-churchgoing friends to activities of the congregation.
And finally, members were asked to increase their giving, considering the tithe, the Biblically-honored practice of giving the first 10% of one's income to God's causes in the world.
The result?
We've seen remarkable answers to our prayers. (And not just our own. Starting in June, I enlisted prayer help from thousands of people, including the prayer team at our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America headquarters in Chicago; subscribers to ShoutLife, a sort of Christian MySpace; and the prayer groups of several other churches.) Ever since all this praying began, we have seen first-time worship visitors every single Sunday, unprecedented in Friendship's history. Many of those folks have returned for second visits.
In addition, our attendance has increased, something churches rarely see in the summer months.
So too has our giving. Offerings in the months of May, June, and July wiped out the operating deficit that accrued in January through April.
Why has this happened? In 586 BC, the Babylonian army swept into Israel, the homeland of God's chosen people, the ancient Jews, destroying the temple, God's house, in Jerusalem. Many Israelites were sent to Babylon, where they lived as slaves to their conquerors and where they wondered if their God was still Lord of the universe. In 538 BC, the Babylonian king, Cyrus, allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple.
But the returnees soon became discouraged. They were also intimidated by the enormity of the obstacles they faced. They also were comfortable in their new homes in the Judean homeland. Complacency and fear caused them to completely stop working on the temple.
This was unacceptable to the prophet Haggai. Prompted by God, he asked the people, "Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house [God's temple] lies in ruins?" (Haggai 1:4).
He also shared God's counsel for the governor, Zarubbabel, the high priest, Jehozadak, and all the people:
Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear." (Haggai 2:4-5)Soon, praying and working for God's cause, the temple was rebuilt.
The God Who helped ancient Israel is still in the business of helping those who trust in Him. We've seen that in our congregation.
And how about you in your personal life? Are you fearful or self-satisfied, afraid to tackle the next mountain God asks you to climb? This happens to all of us.
But the cure is always the same: Prayerfully rely on God and then work, knowing that God is with you and as you pray and work, don't be afraid, knowing that God is with you.
Then, watch what God does!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Preachers and Politics
[I write a column for the Community Press newspapers. This is the column version of this post.]
A new book recounts incidents from evangelist Billy Graham's experience as pastor to U.S. Presidents and their families.
The book reveals that Graham has done more than provide spiritual counsel to the eleven presidents he's known. He's offered political and policy counsel.
When the depths of Richard Nixon's unethical conduct came out, Graham was shocked into a new stance toward politics and politicians. Graham resolved to always provide pastoral counsel and care to those White House families who sought him out, but not to be a policy advisor or presidential cheerleader. "We [preachers] have to stand in the middle," Graham declared in 1981, "to preach to all the people, right and left."
Like Billy Graham, I'm a political junkie. Three years ago, in what I think was a mistake for me as a pastor, I ran for the State House of Representatives myself. I'm glad that I lost. Had I been elected, I might have forfeited my ability to reach out "to all the people, right and left..."
I encourage Christians to be involved in the political process. But it's almost never the job of a pastor or of the Church to express political opinions. I don't know what God thinks about the War in Iraq, immigration reform, or health care. I don't know any preacher who does.
A big part of my job as a preacher is to echo Jesus' call, recorded in the New Testament book of Mark, "Repent, and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:15). Jesus summarized that Good News in His famous words to Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3:16).
If I mix my political preferences in with my proclamation about Jesus, it confuses people about the true content of God's message for us and, most dangerously, may unnecessarily alienate some people from Christ. Jesus' call for human beings to admit that God is bigger than them and to then surrender to God alienates some people anyway. The preacher who adds a political requirement to having a relationship with God changes the Good News and becomes no better than a peddler of cults.
Graham's example suggests that preachers should stick to preaching the Good News. It also suggests that preachers pastorally befriend politicians.
I try to do that. A few months ago, I had lunch with a Clermont County pol who has become a friend. Before we ate, I prayed. I thanked God for our food and our time together and then I asked God to bless and guide my friend in his important work. After we'd said, "Amen," I saw him dabbing his eyes. "I just can't get used to it," he said. "I'm always so moved and humbled when people pray for me. Thank you."
Praying for politicians of both parties is one of the best things anyone can do. After all, politicians are people too. Through prayer, preachers and others can ask God to offer leaders His counsel. And they need God's counsel far more than they need ours!
A new book recounts incidents from evangelist Billy Graham's experience as pastor to U.S. Presidents and their families.
The book reveals that Graham has done more than provide spiritual counsel to the eleven presidents he's known. He's offered political and policy counsel.
When the depths of Richard Nixon's unethical conduct came out, Graham was shocked into a new stance toward politics and politicians. Graham resolved to always provide pastoral counsel and care to those White House families who sought him out, but not to be a policy advisor or presidential cheerleader. "We [preachers] have to stand in the middle," Graham declared in 1981, "to preach to all the people, right and left."
Like Billy Graham, I'm a political junkie. Three years ago, in what I think was a mistake for me as a pastor, I ran for the State House of Representatives myself. I'm glad that I lost. Had I been elected, I might have forfeited my ability to reach out "to all the people, right and left..."
I encourage Christians to be involved in the political process. But it's almost never the job of a pastor or of the Church to express political opinions. I don't know what God thinks about the War in Iraq, immigration reform, or health care. I don't know any preacher who does.
A big part of my job as a preacher is to echo Jesus' call, recorded in the New Testament book of Mark, "Repent, and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:15). Jesus summarized that Good News in His famous words to Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3:16).
If I mix my political preferences in with my proclamation about Jesus, it confuses people about the true content of God's message for us and, most dangerously, may unnecessarily alienate some people from Christ. Jesus' call for human beings to admit that God is bigger than them and to then surrender to God alienates some people anyway. The preacher who adds a political requirement to having a relationship with God changes the Good News and becomes no better than a peddler of cults.
Graham's example suggests that preachers should stick to preaching the Good News. It also suggests that preachers pastorally befriend politicians.
I try to do that. A few months ago, I had lunch with a Clermont County pol who has become a friend. Before we ate, I prayed. I thanked God for our food and our time together and then I asked God to bless and guide my friend in his important work. After we'd said, "Amen," I saw him dabbing his eyes. "I just can't get used to it," he said. "I'm always so moved and humbled when people pray for me. Thank you."
Praying for politicians of both parties is one of the best things anyone can do. After all, politicians are people too. Through prayer, preachers and others can ask God to offer leaders His counsel. And they need God's counsel far more than they need ours!
Preachers and Politics: Billy Graham as a Case Study
A recent issue of TIME magazine excerpts a book that looks at evangelist Billy Graham's relationships with eleven US Presidents--from Harry Truman to George W. Bush.But it does more than recount incidents from Graham's experience as presidential pastor.
Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, one of the collection of one-time White House occupants who Graham knows best, told the authors that Graham is also a "political junkie." "He loved elections because he knew that you had to tell a story, you had to connect with people--all the things we talk about in politics," she says.
The President to whom Graham, a lifelong registered Democrat, was personally closest was Lyndon Johnson. As Graham recounts in his autobiography, his counsel often went way beyond the spiritual. Graham offered LBJ advice on the President's War on Poverty program and in fact, seriously weighed an offer to leave his evangelistic ministry to become Johnson's anti-poverty czar.
Graham is probably most well-known for his relationship with Richard Nixon, to whom he imparted advice and to whom he sometimes gave a prominent place at his crusades.
"But," Gibbs and Duffy write, "on the heels of Graham's crushing experience with the Nixon Administration, the evangelist recalibrated his relationship with the White House and kept his distance."
As some evangelical Christians started what became known as the Moral Majority or the Religious Right, Graham said:
Evangelicals can't be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle, to preach to all the people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future.I identify with Billy Graham. I'm a political junkie and I've likened the excitement I feel on election nights to what I felt as a kid on Christmas Eve. I was a Social Studies major and to this day, I love reading biographies and histories recounting the political leadership and maneuvering of pols. I keep up with current events. In a former life, I ran a congressional campaign and worked for the State House of Representatives in Columbus.
Three years ago, I made what I recently have described as one of my biggest mistakes as a pastor. Concerned about public school funding in Ohio, I ran for the State House of Representatives myself. The congregation I serve as pastor was okay with my making the bid. I'm sure that I could have juggled my schedule to have continued full time as a pastor and still served in the House.
But, in all honesty, I'm glad that I finished fourth in a five-way primary contest. Had I been elected, I might well have forfeited my ability to fulfill my call as a preacher of Jesus Christ's Gospel. As Graham puts it, we preachers are to reach out "to all the people, right and left." And everywhere else on the political spectrum.
I encourage Christians to be involved in the political process. To inform themselves about issues and candidates. To pray about what's right. To get involved in political campaigns. To vote.
But it's almost never the job of a pastor or of the Church as an institution to express a political preference.
What does God think about the War in Iraq? Or immigration reform? Or US terrorism policy? Or capital gains taxes? I don't know for sure and I don't know anyone else who does.
My job as a preacher is to invite people to turn from sin and follow Jesus. If I mix my political preferences in with my proclamation, it confuses people about the true content of God's message for us and, most dangerously, may unnecessarily alienate some people from Christ. Preachers who do politics make people feel excluded from Christ.
Some people will feel alienated from Christ and His Gospel anyway. The Gospel we preachers share isn't all happy talk. "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die," Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote. The "old Adam" and the "old Eve," our inborn sinful selves whose prime impulse is to look out for ourselves, others be damned, must die.
A big part of following Jesus thus entails living in what Martin Luther called "daily repentance and renewal," bringing the old self and our sins to God, asking for cleansing, and the power to live this day in love for God and love for others.
All of this entails surrender, something that any audience a preacher might address will find difficult to swallow anyway. The preacher who then adds things to her or his proclamation, things like, "Oh yeah, to be right with God, you also have to vote this way or support this candidate," is adding an unnecessary obstacle to people having a relationship with God. They're diluting and changing the Gospel message they were called to proclaim. In that sense, they become no better than your friendly neighborhood peddler of cults.
Preachers should not, except in the most extreme circumstances, express political preferences. We have bigger fish to catch. Our focus should be to act as mouthpieces for Jesus' call that we die to sin, so that we can rise to live with God forever.
But there will be times when, in the political realm, the conflict between complete evil and good is so clear that a preacher will have to speak out. That was what happened to Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler's hatred was so obvious, so contrary to Christ's Gospel of love, that it was clear that every Christian preacher and leader should oppose it.
Few found the courage to do so. Bonhoeffer did. He joined a plot to overthrow Hitler and in the waning days of World War Two, after an extensive period of imprisonment, was executed.
Only those of the most extreme politics would suggest that we have faced a Hitler in US politics in recent years. I remember hearing a "Christian preacher" during the 1996 election cycle, saying that if Bill Clinton were re-elected to the presidency, it would be the last free election we ever had in America. We've had several since.
And today, people concerned about the expansive interpretation of executive power followed by the Bush Administration, compare the current president to Hitler. But it appears that our elective process is continuing to unfold and that, if the polls are credible, the 2008 presidential election race is the Democrats to lose.
Christians in this country and people in the country at large don't need to hear about the political preferences of preachers. Inquiring minds could care less.
What they really need to know from us is..
that God is for them when life doesn't make sense,They need to know that God wants to be with them now and forever.
that God wants to help them make the most of their lives,
that God can forgive the sins that cause them shame, and
that they can be made new.
Like Graham, I haven't always followed my own advice, although I've never expressed a political opinion from the pulpit. (Not that I know of, anyway.)
But that won't prevent me from befriending politicians, either. Whether the general public knows it or not, politicians are people too.
There's one local pol with whom I have regular contact. A few months ago, we had lunch together. I asked him if he'd like to pray before we dug into our Chipotle burritos. He said yes. I thanked God for our food and our time together and then I asked God to bless and guide my friend in his important work.
After we'd said, "Amen," I looked across the table and saw that his eyes glistened with tears. As he dabbed his eyes with his napkin he said, "I just can't get used to it. I'm always so moved and humbled when people pray for me. Thank you."
And when all is said and done, praying for politicians of both parties is one of the best things we can do for them, for our flocks, for our country, and for the world. Through prayer, we can ask God to go to leaders and counsel them. As the great Frank Laubach wrote years ago, "We can do more for the world with prayer than if we were to walk into Whitehall, London, or the Kremlin in Moscow, and tell those men [sic] what to do---far more! If they listened to our suggestions, we would probably be more or less wrong [emphasis mine]. But what God tells them, when they listen to Him, must be right. It is infinitely better for world leaders to listen to God than for them to listen to us."
Preachers would do well to emulate the course that has been Billy Graham's since the humiliation he experienced on learning that Richard Nixon, the President he most publicly embraced, had been so decidedly un-Christian in the conduct of his presidency. He's befriended pols and he's prayed for them. But he's decoded to act only as their pastor and preacher, not their counselor, confidante, or advocate.
Gibbs and Duffy conclude their TIME magazine excerpt:
Graham recalled these [presidential] friendships with the humility that comes with experience. "As I look back, I feel even more unqualified--to think I sat there and talked to the President of the United States," he said. "I can only explain that God was planning it in some ways, but I didn't understand it." He doesn't expect to make it back to the White House anytime soon, but he watches out for its occupant the best way he knows how. He does daily devotions, and whoever sits in the Oval Office will always have a place in his prayers.[Also see here.]
[THANKS TO: Article 6 Blog for linking to this post. Written by John Schroeder, also of Blogotional, the piece also takes a prominent fundamentalist theologian to task for his views on these matters.]
Sunday, August 12, 2007
The Overlooked 'Only Love Remains'...
(a truly beautiful and interesting ballad...I love the bridge) and a short presentation of 'A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On.'
'Lonely Road'
One of my all time favorite Macca rockers, Lonely Road, for your Sunday night entertainment.
Happy with Work (Christians and Work, Part 2)
[This message was shared during the worship celebration of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, on August 12, 2007. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, feel free to worship with us on an upcoming Sunday morning. Worship celebrations start at 10:00AM.]
Psalm 139:13-18
Titus 3:9-11
Recently, a man spoke enthusiastically with me about his work. “You love your job, don’t you?” I asked him. “I do,” he said. “And I’m good at it.” He blushed after he said that and began to stammer an embarrassed explanation.
I stopped him. I knew that he wasn't an egomaniac. Nor was he a workaholic, someone who derived all his identity and self-worth from the job. He’s healthy and balanced. And, like most people who do their jobs well, he’s someone who's happy with his work.
The Old Testament tells us that finding enjoyment in our work is a blessing from God. It’s a blessing I think that God wants all of us to enjoy, though the realities of this fallen world often get in the way of that happening in our daily paying gigs.
And sometimes, our jobs pay the bills, making it possible for us to pursue our most important work elsewhere. I think of a woman Ann and I know. She has an advanced professional degree. She’s competent in her field. But after her children were raised, she decided to take a part-time entry level job. It allows her to continue to contribute to the household income. More importantly though, it gives her the freedom to do what she feels is really her life’s work: serving as the volunteer minister to the elderly at her church.
That woman, every bit as much as the man who told me that he was good at his job is happy with her work.
What does it take for us to be happy with our work, whether it entails working sixty or more hours a week at a high-level position or forty to fifty at a minimum wage position?
There are no doubt many reasons. But I want to suggest four basic elements derived from the Bible that go into being happy with work. I’ll speak of three today.
The first element, I think, is obvious. People who enjoy their work usually have jobs composed of using their God-given talents.
In Psalm 139, David tells God, “it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance...” God has made all of us according to specific blueprints and it's true what I've often told my Catechism students through the years, "God doesn't make junk!"
When we perform work that uses the unique design God imprints on us, it’s likely to make us happy!
And because our whole lives are meant to offer praise to God, finding and performing work that matches our personalities and passions is also one way we can offer our lives in worship to the God we know in Jesus Christ.
During our recent vacation to Virginia, in addition to visiting with family, we saw several important historical sites, among them Appomatox Court House, where Grant surrendered to Lee and the moving National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.
There were several helpful, informative staff and volunteers at Appomatox Court House. But we were a little disappointed by the less than informative people stationed in the home of Wilmer McLean, the actual site where Grant and Lee met in 1865.
What a contrast they were to the enthusiastic sixty-something man who took us around the D-Day Memorial! With detail and passion, he spoke of the significance of each part of the place, as well as of the plans for a theater there using money donated by Steven Spielberg.
The difference between those in the McLean home and the man at the D-Day Memorial? The first two people were just doing jobs. The man at the D-Day Memorial was doing something for which he was made! His passion shone through!
Not all of us have the luxury of finding work that matches our innermost beings. That’s a sad fact in our sinful, fallen world.
We Christians also need to be among the first to speak out against discrimination in society, against anything that prevents people from using their God-given gifts and abilities!
But, I also believe that since God takes such great care in designing each one of us, it’s very important that we pay attention to what our talents and passions are. They may lead us to our life’s work.
In the neighborhood in which I grew up was a little boy who often gathered all the spare chairs, stuffed animals, and little sisters he could round up at home and then play “church,” complete with a sermon. That should have taught me what my life’s work was to be, but it took years for me to find out that my God-given passion was also my vocation.
Element number one in job happiness is working at what you’re made for. But there’s a second element that helps us to be happy with our work.
A survey was once done among the supervisors of engineers. Engineering would be a total mystery to me. It involves numbers and intractable mathematics. It's quantifiable. You would think that being a successful engineer would only about getting the numbers right. But when these supervisors were asked to identify the reasons they'd dismissed engineers from their jobs in the preceding five years, something like 80% of the fired engineers weren't fired because they were incompetent. They were fired for an inability to work with others.
That doesn’t mean that engineers are a bad lot. It means that no matter what our fields, we have to work with people.
Good relationships with those with whom we work is another thing that makes us happy with our work.
Of course, everybody has some run-ins with the people with whom they work. The Bible seems to teach that conflict with others, even those we love--especially those we love--is an inevitable part of life. In the New Testament book of Ephesians, we're told, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger...” The Bible is telling us, “Be honest about your emotions. Work out your differences with others.”
In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus discusses how Christians are to resolve difference. We’ve incorporated this process into the constitution of Friendship Church. But you can apply Jesus’ principles for conflict resolution to your families and to your places of work, too.
The process is simple:
Putting Jesus’ method for conflict resolution into effect isn’t always easy, though. It can be uncomfortable.
In my former parish, I made a stupid mistake--allowing a burn barrel fire to spill out of the barrel and onto the neighboring softball field. I was able to quickly put out the fire. But the softball field was black and I felt awful about it. I got word though that one of my church members was telling people that I had blamed the children of the congregation for the fire. I was upset. Especially because I’d had such good rapport with this man before. I was angry. So, I picked up my phone and called the man and asked him if he’d said this about the incident. “Yes.” “Why?” I asked him. “You know me better than that. You know I wouldn’t blame someone else for something I did.” “I know, Pastor,” he said. “Sometimes I’m a gossip. I’m sorry.” From that day forward, that man and I were good friends. The New Testament tells us, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
Of course, not all of our efforts to be on good terms with those with whom we work will be successful. Not everybody wants to live peaceably. In our second lesson for today, Paul writes to a young pastor Titus that if some folks are consistent troublemakers in the church, he needs to quit hanging out with them.
We may reach an analogous place in our work lives. Co-workers or supervisors may make our work lives unbearable. We may have to ask to be switched to a different department. We may have to quit our jobs and find other employment. I believe that if we’ve made efforts at reconciliation and accommodation, God will help us find new places of work where we can be happy.
Work at what you’re good at. Seek to maintain positive personal relationships on the job. There’s another element that the Bible mentions that relates to job happiness.
My best man’s father was forced to quit high school and enter the work force at age seventeen when his own father died under tragic circumstances. This could have led Stan to spend his work life as one of those resentful workers who wait for five o’clock each day so that they can wait for age sixty five so that they can spend retirement waiting for Golden Corral to open.
But that isn’t what happened. Instead, he rose to an important position in one of Columbus’ largest banks. He was always enthusiastic and in fact, loved his job and his co-workers so much, that he stayed beyond the usual retirement age. He’s seventy-eight years old now and recently had a cancer scare. But he can still bench press 250-pounds! The last time I saw him, he grabbed my friend by the scruff of the neck and said, “I love my boy!” Then, he grabbed me and added, “I love both my boys!”
The third element for job happiness is having the right attitude, a commitment to doing your best every day, and then doing it.
I love the wisdom from God that King Solomon put down in the Old Testament, “Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.”
Want to be happy with your work?
Psalm 139:13-18
Titus 3:9-11
Recently, a man spoke enthusiastically with me about his work. “You love your job, don’t you?” I asked him. “I do,” he said. “And I’m good at it.” He blushed after he said that and began to stammer an embarrassed explanation.
I stopped him. I knew that he wasn't an egomaniac. Nor was he a workaholic, someone who derived all his identity and self-worth from the job. He’s healthy and balanced. And, like most people who do their jobs well, he’s someone who's happy with his work.
The Old Testament tells us that finding enjoyment in our work is a blessing from God. It’s a blessing I think that God wants all of us to enjoy, though the realities of this fallen world often get in the way of that happening in our daily paying gigs.
And sometimes, our jobs pay the bills, making it possible for us to pursue our most important work elsewhere. I think of a woman Ann and I know. She has an advanced professional degree. She’s competent in her field. But after her children were raised, she decided to take a part-time entry level job. It allows her to continue to contribute to the household income. More importantly though, it gives her the freedom to do what she feels is really her life’s work: serving as the volunteer minister to the elderly at her church.
That woman, every bit as much as the man who told me that he was good at his job is happy with her work.
What does it take for us to be happy with our work, whether it entails working sixty or more hours a week at a high-level position or forty to fifty at a minimum wage position?
There are no doubt many reasons. But I want to suggest four basic elements derived from the Bible that go into being happy with work. I’ll speak of three today.
The first element, I think, is obvious. People who enjoy their work usually have jobs composed of using their God-given talents.
In Psalm 139, David tells God, “it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance...” God has made all of us according to specific blueprints and it's true what I've often told my Catechism students through the years, "God doesn't make junk!"
When we perform work that uses the unique design God imprints on us, it’s likely to make us happy!
And because our whole lives are meant to offer praise to God, finding and performing work that matches our personalities and passions is also one way we can offer our lives in worship to the God we know in Jesus Christ.
During our recent vacation to Virginia, in addition to visiting with family, we saw several important historical sites, among them Appomatox Court House, where Grant surrendered to Lee and the moving National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.
There were several helpful, informative staff and volunteers at Appomatox Court House. But we were a little disappointed by the less than informative people stationed in the home of Wilmer McLean, the actual site where Grant and Lee met in 1865.
What a contrast they were to the enthusiastic sixty-something man who took us around the D-Day Memorial! With detail and passion, he spoke of the significance of each part of the place, as well as of the plans for a theater there using money donated by Steven Spielberg.
The difference between those in the McLean home and the man at the D-Day Memorial? The first two people were just doing jobs. The man at the D-Day Memorial was doing something for which he was made! His passion shone through!
Not all of us have the luxury of finding work that matches our innermost beings. That’s a sad fact in our sinful, fallen world.
- Single moms, for example, often simply have to take what work they can find in order to support their families.
- Family obligations can force people to stay on jobs they dislike because of needed insurance benefits.
- Some people are denied the work for which they’re made because of discrimination, be it based on race, gender, or age.
We Christians also need to be among the first to speak out against discrimination in society, against anything that prevents people from using their God-given gifts and abilities!
But, I also believe that since God takes such great care in designing each one of us, it’s very important that we pay attention to what our talents and passions are. They may lead us to our life’s work.
In the neighborhood in which I grew up was a little boy who often gathered all the spare chairs, stuffed animals, and little sisters he could round up at home and then play “church,” complete with a sermon. That should have taught me what my life’s work was to be, but it took years for me to find out that my God-given passion was also my vocation.
Element number one in job happiness is working at what you’re made for. But there’s a second element that helps us to be happy with our work.
A survey was once done among the supervisors of engineers. Engineering would be a total mystery to me. It involves numbers and intractable mathematics. It's quantifiable. You would think that being a successful engineer would only about getting the numbers right. But when these supervisors were asked to identify the reasons they'd dismissed engineers from their jobs in the preceding five years, something like 80% of the fired engineers weren't fired because they were incompetent. They were fired for an inability to work with others.
That doesn’t mean that engineers are a bad lot. It means that no matter what our fields, we have to work with people.
Good relationships with those with whom we work is another thing that makes us happy with our work.
Of course, everybody has some run-ins with the people with whom they work. The Bible seems to teach that conflict with others, even those we love--especially those we love--is an inevitable part of life. In the New Testament book of Ephesians, we're told, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger...” The Bible is telling us, “Be honest about your emotions. Work out your differences with others.”
In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus discusses how Christians are to resolve difference. We’ve incorporated this process into the constitution of Friendship Church. But you can apply Jesus’ principles for conflict resolution to your families and to your places of work, too.
The process is simple:
- When you have a problem with someone, go to them first.
- Don’t gossip about it.
- Explain how you feel to the person with whom you have a problem.
- Listen to the other person.
- Work together toward a common solution.
- Most importantly, submit the whole situation to God in prayer. God should be the third member of every relationship we have. This is true even if the other person doesn't believe in God. You can invite God into any circumstance, a partner Who's with you all the time.
Putting Jesus’ method for conflict resolution into effect isn’t always easy, though. It can be uncomfortable.
In my former parish, I made a stupid mistake--allowing a burn barrel fire to spill out of the barrel and onto the neighboring softball field. I was able to quickly put out the fire. But the softball field was black and I felt awful about it. I got word though that one of my church members was telling people that I had blamed the children of the congregation for the fire. I was upset. Especially because I’d had such good rapport with this man before. I was angry. So, I picked up my phone and called the man and asked him if he’d said this about the incident. “Yes.” “Why?” I asked him. “You know me better than that. You know I wouldn’t blame someone else for something I did.” “I know, Pastor,” he said. “Sometimes I’m a gossip. I’m sorry.” From that day forward, that man and I were good friends. The New Testament tells us, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
Of course, not all of our efforts to be on good terms with those with whom we work will be successful. Not everybody wants to live peaceably. In our second lesson for today, Paul writes to a young pastor Titus that if some folks are consistent troublemakers in the church, he needs to quit hanging out with them.
We may reach an analogous place in our work lives. Co-workers or supervisors may make our work lives unbearable. We may have to ask to be switched to a different department. We may have to quit our jobs and find other employment. I believe that if we’ve made efforts at reconciliation and accommodation, God will help us find new places of work where we can be happy.
Work at what you’re good at. Seek to maintain positive personal relationships on the job. There’s another element that the Bible mentions that relates to job happiness.
My best man’s father was forced to quit high school and enter the work force at age seventeen when his own father died under tragic circumstances. This could have led Stan to spend his work life as one of those resentful workers who wait for five o’clock each day so that they can wait for age sixty five so that they can spend retirement waiting for Golden Corral to open.
But that isn’t what happened. Instead, he rose to an important position in one of Columbus’ largest banks. He was always enthusiastic and in fact, loved his job and his co-workers so much, that he stayed beyond the usual retirement age. He’s seventy-eight years old now and recently had a cancer scare. But he can still bench press 250-pounds! The last time I saw him, he grabbed my friend by the scruff of the neck and said, “I love my boy!” Then, he grabbed me and added, “I love both my boys!”
The third element for job happiness is having the right attitude, a commitment to doing your best every day, and then doing it.
I love the wisdom from God that King Solomon put down in the Old Testament, “Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.”
Want to be happy with your work?
- Do what God built you to do.
- Work on maintaining positive relations with others.
- Work on maintaining positive relations with others. Throw yourself into your work with a good attitude.
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