Different pope.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Palm Sunday: Welcome Jesus, Welcome Others to Know Jesus
Luke 19:28-40
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man,
And a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see;
And as the Savior passed that way,
He looked up in the tree,
(Spoken) And he said, ‘Zacchaeus you come down
For I'm going to your house today.
For I'm going to your house today.’”
That's a simple little Bible song about an incident in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus was passing through the city of Jericho, which sets at the lowest point on earth, heading for Jerusalem. A short man named Zacchaeus, climbs into a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus as Jesus walks by. Zacchaeus had gained his riches by extorting more taxes from people than they owed. He wasn’t popular in Jericho. But Jesus invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house.
I bring this up because we it helps us to understand Luke's account of Palm Sunday if we first understand what happened between Jesus and Zacchaeus just before Jesus entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday.
Let’s take a look at Luke 19, starting at verse 5. It says that Jesus saw Zacchaeus and said, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” There's a lot of irony here. A sinner looks down on God in the flesh, Who has come into the world as a servant to all humankind. Yet the scene doesn't play out like that at all. You might think that Zacchaeus’ first impulse would be to tell Jesus to find somewhere else to stay. After all, he had only climbed the tree to see what all the fuss was about. He could see by Jesus’ attire that Jesus was just more Galileean riff-raff. Yet Zacchaeus doesn't react as you'd expect!
All of us have the same choice in this life that Zacchaeus had to make at that moment. We can choose to receive the gift of faith in Jesus or not.
“Listen!” the risen and ascended Jesus is recorded as saying in Revelation 3, “I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear My voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me.”
Jesus Christ wants to come into your life, be your Savior, be your best friend.
Jesus, Who died and rose to set you free from sin, death, and a pointless life, is knocking at the door of your will, life, and heart each day? Will you let him in?
Zacchaeus' answer was, “Yes!”
Luke 19:6 says that Zacchaeus hurried down and received Jesus “joyfully.”
When, after a decade of atheism, I received Jesus into my life, I knew a joy I had never experienced. I still had no clear idea of what God wanted to do with my life. Jesus didn’t offer me a life free of adversity or difficulty or death. But I didn’t care because Jesus was in my life and I knew that He was all I needed! I knew that Jesus Christ had saved me, a sinner who had once despised Him!
Sometimes, amid the routines and challenges of life, I forget that. But I have learned the truth of the Christmas hymn by Phillips Brooks: "Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in." That's true no matter how many times we fall, no matter how far we've fallen!
In Luke 19:9, Jesus, considering how Zacchaeus had received Jesus by faith, declares: “Today [now, this moment] salvation has come to this house, because [Zacchaeus] also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man [Jesus refers to Himself in this way] has come to seek and to save that which is lost.”
Whenever you and I get lost, wandering far from God by engaging in unrepentant sin--be it thievery, gossip, fornication, adultery, worshiping other gods, dishonoring our parents, or some other way--God can find us again!
Not everyone was happy about the change that had come to Zacchaeus’ life. Listen: The moment you feel that you’ve been made clean by the forgiveness and grace God gives through Jesus, that's when the devil, the world, and your sinful self will begin grumbling. Bet on it!
"Who are you to receive God’s forgiveness?" the grumblers inside and outside of you will demand. "Who are you to be called one of God’s righteous saints?"
The grumbling that day in Jericho came from some of the crowd who had been shouting for Jesus. Look at Luke 19:7. “But when they saw [Jesus going to Zacchaeus’ house], they all complained [or grumbled], saying, ‘He [Jesus] has gone to be a guest with a man who is sinner.’”
I wonder how we would react if today, we saw Jesus enter the home of a drug dealer? Or an adulterer? Or an extortionist? Or any other sinner, like you or me?
But Jesus will enter any home and any heart that welcomes Him.
The grumblers that tell you that someone doesn’t deserve the forgiveness of God Jesus brings, the grumblers that tell you that you don't deserve the forgiveness that comes from Jesus Christ, completely miss the point.
Here's why: None of us deserves God’s forgiveness. We are all sinners who deserve condemnation and hell. But Jesus died and rose so that we can be with and enjoy God for all eternity! These gifts come to those who gladly receive Jesus.
It’s interesting that Jesus was walking from Jericho to the Mount of Olives as our Gospel lesson begins.
About 1200 years before the birth of Jesus, God’s people entered the Promised Land from the east, crossing the Jordan to face the walled city of Jericho. Jericho had to be conquered so that God’s people could take the land.
The leader of the Hebrews was Moses’ successor, Joshua. His name in the Hebrew language was Yeshua, meaning God saves. It is the same name as that of Jesus. In the Hebrew language, Jesus’ name was also Yeshua. But because the New Testament is written in Greek, where Yeshua becomes Yesus, we call him Jesus.
When the Joshua of the Old Testament prepared to enter the promised land, you’ll remember that he sent two spies into Jericho. Twelve-hundred years later, Jesus needed no spies. He knew everything that was going to happen. He knew where His enemies were.
But Jesus did send two disciples ahead of him. Jesus instructs the two disciples to find a colt in a nearby village, presumably Bethany, where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It would, Jesus tells them, be tied, and would be an animal on which nobody had previously ridden.
That last bit of information is far more important than it may seem: God in the flesh would be the colt's first rider.
This is part of a pattern in Jesus’ life and ministry.
The two disciples find everything as Jesus has told them. They bring the animal back, throw their clothes on it, and set Jesus on it. Jesus begins to ride into Jerusalem. From the depths of Jericho, Jesus and the disciples ascend to the Mount of Olives. One New Testament scholar has written that even today, when you go by car, the culmination of the ascent from earth's lowest depth, Jericho, to the Mount of Olives, brings a sense of relief, the drive up is so steep. And the view, when one arrives, he says, is breathtaking: From the Mount of Olives, you look down into the Kidron Valley, and look across to see Jerusalem.
Jesus no doubt took in this sight, thinking of all that lay ahead of Him. Who can imagine what pangs Jesus felt as He kept His face set toward Jerusalem and the suffering and dying He would undergo for you and me? How alone He must have felt at that moment!
“Then,” verse 37 says, “as He was drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’”
It’s important to point out a couple of things that are unique about Luke’s account of Palm Sunday.
Using the words of Psalm 118, which some New Testament scholars say, was a hymn sung by worshippers as they headed for Jerusalem for festivals like the Passover, the disciples welcomed Jesus to the holy city.
Did the disciples fully understand what was going on? No.
Did some of them think that Jesus was going to start a revolution and set up an earthly kingdom to replace their Roman overlords? Probably.
Did any of them believe that Good Friday and Easter were going to happen? At that moment, I’m sure they didn’t know.
But they knew enough to welcome Jesus. We don’t know what lies in our immediate futures either. We don't know what God has in mind for us. We don't know what valleys or Good Fridays this fallen, sinful world may mete out to us.
Yet if we will welcome Jesus as our God and King, we do know that we have an eternity of Easter Sundays to look forward to!
And we do know that Jesus, Who was tempted, tested, suffered, died, and then rose, will be with us every step of the way!
But don’t expect the devil, the world, or even our inner sinful rebels to take our welcoming of Jesus lying down! Look at Luke 19:39, please. “...some of the Phairsees called to [Jesus] from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’” “Tell those people to be quiet! They need to can their faith in You!” they were telling Jesus.
There will always be people who grumble about the joy Christians know in Christ.
“Tell my daughter to quit reading the Bible so much, pastor” a mom once said to me. “Why?” I asked. “Religion has its place,” the mom asserted, “but we have to be practical.” Like Mary, the sister of Martha, that woman’s daughter had chosen the better part that could never be taken away from her. That's the part we must choose, too, if we are to have life with God!
The things of this world will die, damned to hell for eternity. As a design engineer who built great buildings and bridges once told his colleagues over dinner, “One day, all of this will burn.” But those who trust in Jesus Christ have life with God, now and forever! They welcome Jesus into their lives. The grumblers, even those who go to church on Sundays but forget about Jesus on Mondays, block Jesus from their lives by refusing to welcome him into every portion of their lives.
Fact is, we all can be grumblers, at least some of the time. The reason for that is simple: If you dare as a Christian to live in daily repentance and renewal, you can count on God to confront you for your sins, even as He embraces you in His grace and love. God loves sinners, but God still hates sin and always will. By His grace, through Jesus Christ, God is committed to removing sin from our lives. But it's a painful truth that none of us likes being separated from our sins. We get comfortable with them. They start to define us. We feel a natural resistance to God's intention to make us new by removing our dependence on our sins from us!
We’ll never be completely free of sin this side of heaven. But the Christian tells Jesus, “Let the old self be crucified, so that the new self can rise today and every day.”
Jesus, of course, refused the Pharisees request. He wouldn’t let His disciples stop welcoming and praising Him. In verse 40, Jesus tells them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
I've shared with some of you before that when our son was about eight years old, he said, "Hey, dad, you know how Jesus said that if people stopped worshiping Him, the stones would start worshiping Him instead?" "Yeah," I said. "Well, I know it would be bad if nobody was worshiping Jesus. But it would be kind of cool to hear how stones worshiped."
Listen: Don’t let inanimate stones take your job!
It’s the job and the joy of every Christians to shout and sing and live the praises of the God Who died and rose to set us and all of creation free from sin and death and futility.
It’s our job and our joy to welcome Jesus into our lives and, like Zacchaeus to tell others of our thankfulness that Jesus--God in human flesh--went to Jerusalem, to suffering, to a cross, to hell itself, and than rose from death to set us eternally free.
Welcome Jesus into your life!
Then welcome others to know Jesus!
That’s what Palm Sunday is all about.
Amen!
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man,
And a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see;
And as the Savior passed that way,
He looked up in the tree,
(Spoken) And he said, ‘Zacchaeus you come down
For I'm going to your house today.
For I'm going to your house today.’”
That's a simple little Bible song about an incident in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus was passing through the city of Jericho, which sets at the lowest point on earth, heading for Jerusalem. A short man named Zacchaeus, climbs into a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus as Jesus walks by. Zacchaeus had gained his riches by extorting more taxes from people than they owed. He wasn’t popular in Jericho. But Jesus invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house.
I bring this up because we it helps us to understand Luke's account of Palm Sunday if we first understand what happened between Jesus and Zacchaeus just before Jesus entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday.
Let’s take a look at Luke 19, starting at verse 5. It says that Jesus saw Zacchaeus and said, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” There's a lot of irony here. A sinner looks down on God in the flesh, Who has come into the world as a servant to all humankind. Yet the scene doesn't play out like that at all. You might think that Zacchaeus’ first impulse would be to tell Jesus to find somewhere else to stay. After all, he had only climbed the tree to see what all the fuss was about. He could see by Jesus’ attire that Jesus was just more Galileean riff-raff. Yet Zacchaeus doesn't react as you'd expect!
All of us have the same choice in this life that Zacchaeus had to make at that moment. We can choose to receive the gift of faith in Jesus or not.
“Listen!” the risen and ascended Jesus is recorded as saying in Revelation 3, “I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear My voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me.”
Jesus Christ wants to come into your life, be your Savior, be your best friend.
Jesus, Who died and rose to set you free from sin, death, and a pointless life, is knocking at the door of your will, life, and heart each day? Will you let him in?
Zacchaeus' answer was, “Yes!”
Luke 19:6 says that Zacchaeus hurried down and received Jesus “joyfully.”
When, after a decade of atheism, I received Jesus into my life, I knew a joy I had never experienced. I still had no clear idea of what God wanted to do with my life. Jesus didn’t offer me a life free of adversity or difficulty or death. But I didn’t care because Jesus was in my life and I knew that He was all I needed! I knew that Jesus Christ had saved me, a sinner who had once despised Him!
Sometimes, amid the routines and challenges of life, I forget that. But I have learned the truth of the Christmas hymn by Phillips Brooks: "Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in." That's true no matter how many times we fall, no matter how far we've fallen!
In Luke 19:9, Jesus, considering how Zacchaeus had received Jesus by faith, declares: “Today [now, this moment] salvation has come to this house, because [Zacchaeus] also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man [Jesus refers to Himself in this way] has come to seek and to save that which is lost.”
Whenever you and I get lost, wandering far from God by engaging in unrepentant sin--be it thievery, gossip, fornication, adultery, worshiping other gods, dishonoring our parents, or some other way--God can find us again!
Not everyone was happy about the change that had come to Zacchaeus’ life. Listen: The moment you feel that you’ve been made clean by the forgiveness and grace God gives through Jesus, that's when the devil, the world, and your sinful self will begin grumbling. Bet on it!
"Who are you to receive God’s forgiveness?" the grumblers inside and outside of you will demand. "Who are you to be called one of God’s righteous saints?"
The grumbling that day in Jericho came from some of the crowd who had been shouting for Jesus. Look at Luke 19:7. “But when they saw [Jesus going to Zacchaeus’ house], they all complained [or grumbled], saying, ‘He [Jesus] has gone to be a guest with a man who is sinner.’”
I wonder how we would react if today, we saw Jesus enter the home of a drug dealer? Or an adulterer? Or an extortionist? Or any other sinner, like you or me?
But Jesus will enter any home and any heart that welcomes Him.
The grumblers that tell you that someone doesn’t deserve the forgiveness of God Jesus brings, the grumblers that tell you that you don't deserve the forgiveness that comes from Jesus Christ, completely miss the point.
Here's why: None of us deserves God’s forgiveness. We are all sinners who deserve condemnation and hell. But Jesus died and rose so that we can be with and enjoy God for all eternity! These gifts come to those who gladly receive Jesus.
It’s interesting that Jesus was walking from Jericho to the Mount of Olives as our Gospel lesson begins.
About 1200 years before the birth of Jesus, God’s people entered the Promised Land from the east, crossing the Jordan to face the walled city of Jericho. Jericho had to be conquered so that God’s people could take the land.
The leader of the Hebrews was Moses’ successor, Joshua. His name in the Hebrew language was Yeshua, meaning God saves. It is the same name as that of Jesus. In the Hebrew language, Jesus’ name was also Yeshua. But because the New Testament is written in Greek, where Yeshua becomes Yesus, we call him Jesus.
When the Joshua of the Old Testament prepared to enter the promised land, you’ll remember that he sent two spies into Jericho. Twelve-hundred years later, Jesus needed no spies. He knew everything that was going to happen. He knew where His enemies were.
But Jesus did send two disciples ahead of him. Jesus instructs the two disciples to find a colt in a nearby village, presumably Bethany, where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It would, Jesus tells them, be tied, and would be an animal on which nobody had previously ridden.
That last bit of information is far more important than it may seem: God in the flesh would be the colt's first rider.
This is part of a pattern in Jesus’ life and ministry.
- When Jesus was born, He came from a womb that had never known sexual intimacy. Jesus was the first born of a virgin’s womb. [See Luke 1:26-35; Matthew 1:18-25.]
- When Jesus died, His body was “laid...in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid.” [See Luke 23:53.]
The two disciples find everything as Jesus has told them. They bring the animal back, throw their clothes on it, and set Jesus on it. Jesus begins to ride into Jerusalem. From the depths of Jericho, Jesus and the disciples ascend to the Mount of Olives. One New Testament scholar has written that even today, when you go by car, the culmination of the ascent from earth's lowest depth, Jericho, to the Mount of Olives, brings a sense of relief, the drive up is so steep. And the view, when one arrives, he says, is breathtaking: From the Mount of Olives, you look down into the Kidron Valley, and look across to see Jerusalem.
Jesus no doubt took in this sight, thinking of all that lay ahead of Him. Who can imagine what pangs Jesus felt as He kept His face set toward Jerusalem and the suffering and dying He would undergo for you and me? How alone He must have felt at that moment!
“Then,” verse 37 says, “as He was drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’”
It’s important to point out a couple of things that are unique about Luke’s account of Palm Sunday.
- First, there’s no mention of palms. Those are in John’s gospel. Branches are mentioned in Matthew's and Mark's accounts of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on this day. But no palms in Luke.
- Second, he doesn’t mention the crowds shouting, “Hosanna,” an Aramaic prayer meaning, “Save us, pray.”
- And third, in Luke’s telling, only the disciples welcome Jesus, not the crowds.
Using the words of Psalm 118, which some New Testament scholars say, was a hymn sung by worshippers as they headed for Jerusalem for festivals like the Passover, the disciples welcomed Jesus to the holy city.
Did the disciples fully understand what was going on? No.
Did some of them think that Jesus was going to start a revolution and set up an earthly kingdom to replace their Roman overlords? Probably.
Did any of them believe that Good Friday and Easter were going to happen? At that moment, I’m sure they didn’t know.
But they knew enough to welcome Jesus. We don’t know what lies in our immediate futures either. We don't know what God has in mind for us. We don't know what valleys or Good Fridays this fallen, sinful world may mete out to us.
Yet if we will welcome Jesus as our God and King, we do know that we have an eternity of Easter Sundays to look forward to!
And we do know that Jesus, Who was tempted, tested, suffered, died, and then rose, will be with us every step of the way!
But don’t expect the devil, the world, or even our inner sinful rebels to take our welcoming of Jesus lying down! Look at Luke 19:39, please. “...some of the Phairsees called to [Jesus] from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’” “Tell those people to be quiet! They need to can their faith in You!” they were telling Jesus.
There will always be people who grumble about the joy Christians know in Christ.
“Tell my daughter to quit reading the Bible so much, pastor” a mom once said to me. “Why?” I asked. “Religion has its place,” the mom asserted, “but we have to be practical.” Like Mary, the sister of Martha, that woman’s daughter had chosen the better part that could never be taken away from her. That's the part we must choose, too, if we are to have life with God!
The things of this world will die, damned to hell for eternity. As a design engineer who built great buildings and bridges once told his colleagues over dinner, “One day, all of this will burn.” But those who trust in Jesus Christ have life with God, now and forever! They welcome Jesus into their lives. The grumblers, even those who go to church on Sundays but forget about Jesus on Mondays, block Jesus from their lives by refusing to welcome him into every portion of their lives.
Fact is, we all can be grumblers, at least some of the time. The reason for that is simple: If you dare as a Christian to live in daily repentance and renewal, you can count on God to confront you for your sins, even as He embraces you in His grace and love. God loves sinners, but God still hates sin and always will. By His grace, through Jesus Christ, God is committed to removing sin from our lives. But it's a painful truth that none of us likes being separated from our sins. We get comfortable with them. They start to define us. We feel a natural resistance to God's intention to make us new by removing our dependence on our sins from us!
We’ll never be completely free of sin this side of heaven. But the Christian tells Jesus, “Let the old self be crucified, so that the new self can rise today and every day.”
Jesus, of course, refused the Pharisees request. He wouldn’t let His disciples stop welcoming and praising Him. In verse 40, Jesus tells them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
I've shared with some of you before that when our son was about eight years old, he said, "Hey, dad, you know how Jesus said that if people stopped worshiping Him, the stones would start worshiping Him instead?" "Yeah," I said. "Well, I know it would be bad if nobody was worshiping Jesus. But it would be kind of cool to hear how stones worshiped."
Listen: Don’t let inanimate stones take your job!
It’s the job and the joy of every Christians to shout and sing and live the praises of the God Who died and rose to set us and all of creation free from sin and death and futility.
It’s our job and our joy to welcome Jesus into our lives and, like Zacchaeus to tell others of our thankfulness that Jesus--God in human flesh--went to Jerusalem, to suffering, to a cross, to hell itself, and than rose from death to set us eternally free.
Welcome Jesus into your life!
Then welcome others to know Jesus!
That’s what Palm Sunday is all about.
Amen!
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Americans' Three Favorite Sins
They may not be what you think they are. Thanks to Holly Boardman for tweeting this article my way.
Is Hope Really for "Suckers"?
Not if your hope is in the right Person!
"Biblical hope is unique; it’s a confident trust in God and what He is doing in the world and in our lives." Read the whole thing.
"Biblical hope is unique; it’s a confident trust in God and what He is doing in the world and in our lives." Read the whole thing.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Neither...Nor
I was writing something earlier today and wondered about the proper use of the words, neither and nor in the same sentence. Grammar Girl helped me out.
By the way, Oxford says that both the words, neither and either, can be pronounced with long e's or with long i's in their first syllables. So, neither you with your long e, nor I with my long i are grammatically incorrect. No need to call the whole blog off.
By the way, Oxford says that both the words, neither and either, can be pronounced with long e's or with long i's in their first syllables. So, neither you with your long e, nor I with my long i are grammatically incorrect. No need to call the whole blog off.
Leaders and the Opinions of Others
Leaders must take others' opinions of them, as is said, "with a grain of salt."
This doesn't mean that leaders should be heedless of others' opinions. But leaders must realize that assessments of their leadership will tend to gravitate toward one or the other of two extremes, adulation or condemnation. In other words, the people with the most extreme positive and negative opinions are the ones likeliest to speak and each will give leaders a distorted view of their leadership.
Leaders must use a different compass than the crowds.
In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul confronts the members of a church he had founded and from whom he had been absent for some time, for their arrogance, among other things. In their arrogance, they had begun aligning themselves behind preachers who had served them, rather than behind the God revealed in Christ that the preachers had proclaimed and the faith in Christ each had commended. Paul took the Corinthian Christians to task in this way:
And leaders, as servants, must be accountable both to God and to others.
But leaders who play to the crowds, be they their employees, their citizens, or their flock, will never lead people anywhere.
Leaders must live with the kind of confidence that Abraham Lincoln possessed and talked about as he led the country through the Civil War: "I do the very best I know how-the very best I can; and mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."
Leaders must take others' opinions of them with "a grain of salt."
This doesn't mean that leaders should be heedless of others' opinions. But leaders must realize that assessments of their leadership will tend to gravitate toward one or the other of two extremes, adulation or condemnation. In other words, the people with the most extreme positive and negative opinions are the ones likeliest to speak and each will give leaders a distorted view of their leadership.
Leaders must use a different compass than the crowds.
In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul confronts the members of a church he had founded and from whom he had been absent for some time, for their arrogance, among other things. In their arrogance, they had begun aligning themselves behind preachers who had served them, rather than behind the God revealed in Christ that the preachers had proclaimed and the faith in Christ each had commended. Paul took the Corinthian Christians to task in this way:
You should think of us as Christ's servants, who have been put in charge of God's secret truths. Now, I am not at all concerned about being judged by you or by any human standard; I don't even pass judgment on myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not prove that I am really innocent. The Lord is the one who passes judgment on me. (1 Corinthians 4:1-4, Good News Translation)Ultimately, every person--including every leader--is accountable to the God revealed to the world in Jesus Christ. Christ is the only true compass. Even with Christ as Lord, no leader will ever come close to batting 1.000 in their decision-making.
And leaders, as servants, must be accountable both to God and to others.
But leaders who play to the crowds, be they their employees, their citizens, or their flock, will never lead people anywhere.
Leaders must live with the kind of confidence that Abraham Lincoln possessed and talked about as he led the country through the Civil War: "I do the very best I know how-the very best I can; and mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."
Leaders must take others' opinions of them with "a grain of salt."
Leadership Tidbit #4
Leaders work hard to ensure that those in the organization who have erred have opportunity to reverse course and avoid embarrassment.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Leadership Tidbit #3
Leaders understand that they are, above all, servants whose job it is to help everyone in their organization to do their jobs successfully, efficiently, and well.
Are We Paying Attention?
There's a lot to be seen, if we'll do one thing, says Charlie Lehardy: Look up!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Leadership Tidbit #2
Leaders understand that every project and initiative will consume more time and energy than they initially think will be required.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Leadership Tidbit #1
One of the most important things for leaders to understand is that they don't know it all and that they can't do it all.
Hold On!
"...know
the God of your father, and serve him with single mind and willing
heart; for the Lord searches every mind, and understands every plan and
thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake
him, he will abandon you forever" (1 Chronicles 28:9, ancient King
David's words to his son, Solomon)
“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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:16-18, God the Son Jesus' words to Nicodemus and to us all).
God wants to hold us in His arms forever. That's why Jesus took on human flesh, died on a cross, and rose from death. By His dying, He took the punishment for sin we deserve. By His rising, He opens up life with God to us all.
Even in the bleakest, most horrible of times we encounter in this life, God will not abandon us, though, tragically, we might abandon God.
Hold on tightly to the God we know with certainty in Jesus Christ! [Thoughts inspired by today's installment of Our Daily Bread.]
“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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:16-18, God the Son Jesus' words to Nicodemus and to us all).
God wants to hold us in His arms forever. That's why Jesus took on human flesh, died on a cross, and rose from death. By His dying, He took the punishment for sin we deserve. By His rising, He opens up life with God to us all.
Even in the bleakest, most horrible of times we encounter in this life, God will not abandon us, though, tragically, we might abandon God.
Hold on tightly to the God we know with certainty in Jesus Christ! [Thoughts inspired by today's installment of Our Daily Bread.]
Monday, March 18, 2013
Repentance (Part 11, The Augsburg Confession)
John 12:1-8
This morning, as we continue to consider what it means to be a Lutheran Christian, I want to talk with you about a teaching of the Bible which, in these days, is either hated or ignored. It’s the teaching about repentance.
We’re closing in on Holy Week. As we do, it’s a good time to introduce two men as “case studies” who had important roles in the events leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection.
One teaches us what repentance isn’t.
The other shows us what repentance is.
Our first study is of Judas Iscariot. Judas, of course, was one of the twelve apostles, that group among Jesus’ disciples whose job it was to be His “sent ones,” those who would carry the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in the crucified and risen Jesus as God and Lord into the world.
Beyond that, Judas is an enigma. Even the meaning of the second name by which he’s usually designated, Iscariot, is a mystery. One theory is that “Iscariot” was derived from scortea, leather bag, making Judas, “the man with the leather bag.”
That designation would, in fact, underscore one of the few things we do know about Judas. Turn to John 12:6, please.
You know this incident well. In Bethany, Jesus is at the home of the sisters Mary and Martha and their brother, Lazarus, after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Martha, as always, is busily serving the meal--old habits die hard, you know--when Mary comes into the room and takes a pound of costly ointment and uses her hair to soothe the ointment into Jesus’ feet.
Today, we can’t imagine how socially inappropriate this action would have seemed. Men and women weren’t to touch one another unless they were husband and wife, mother and child. Only servants were to touch the feet of guests; for a woman to touch a man’s feet was considered, at the least, sexually suggestive. And a woman’s hair was considered sacrosanct.
Probably all of the disciples were taken aback by Mary’s gesture of gratitude and reverence for Jesus. (And Mary's reverence was understandable! Jesus had make clear that He was the resurrection and the life and that all who believe in Him will have life with God forever, then proved His deity and His power over death and life by raising her brother from death.) But John makes clear that Judas’ response was less about religious or social scruples than it was about what was important to him.
Judas asks indignantly why, instead of this wastefulness, the ointment hadn’t been sold, the proceeds used to care for the poor? Then we’re told: “This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put into it.”
Historians and scholars have often speculated as to why Judas later betrayed Jesus for a measly thirty pieces of silver. Was he politically motivated? Was he a zealot who thought that he could spur Jesus into leading a revolution if the Romans tried to arrest him? John seems to say Judas betrayed Jesus for the cash.
You know what happened. In the hours after Jesus instituted Holy Communion, He went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. That was a spot to which Jesus and the disciples apparently went often and that’s where Judas knew he could lead the temple police to arrest Jesus, under cover of darkness, far from the crowds who, just the Sunday before, had hailed Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, God’s Anointed One.
And what happened to Judas after Jesus' arrest? Turn please, to Matthew 27:3. This comes after the Jewish temple leaders took Jesus to the Roman governor Pilate. It says: “Then Judas, [Jesus’] betrayer, seeing that [Jesus] had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, ‘I have betrayed innocent blood.’...[verse 5] Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
What accounts for Judas’ tragic end?
Doesn’t Matthew tell us that Judas was remorseful?
Doesn’t that mean that Judas was repentant?
Shouldn’t that have cleaned his slate with God and given Judas a clear conscience?
Why, even after he had given back the money he had taken to betray Jesus, did Judas take his own life?
The key to answering those questions is in the word remorseful.
You see, to be repentant for a sin, a wrong we have perpetrated against God or others, doesn’t just mean to be remorseful.
Judas realized that what he did was wrong. “I have betrayed innocent blood,” he said. So, he felt bitter regret. He understood that by his action, he was bringing about the death of an innocent person. He understood that his betrayal of Jesus was an offense against God.
And he no doubt was afraid of what God would do to him. But as the Bible points out repeatedly, “the fear of the Lord is” only “the beginning of” wisdom or knowledge. (See here.) When we are sorry for our sins, that's just the beginning of repentance. There are no good works we must perform. No acts of penance are required. But sorrow for sin is not all there is to repentance.
We see that in our second case study, the one that shows us what repentance is.
Our subject is Peter. Peter, of course, was another one of the apostles. We know a lot more about Peter than we do about Judas.
But when you think about it, Peter was as guilty of betraying Jesus on the night of Jesus‘ arrest as Judas had been.
You remember what happened. During the last supper, Peter proclaimed his undying loyalty to Jesus. Then Jesus told Peter that on that very night, Peter would deny even knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed in the wee hours. Peter didn’t believe it. But of course, everything happened just as Jesus had foretold. Matthew 26:75 tells us what happened after Peter had denied Jesus a third time and heard the rooster crow. “And Peter remembered the words of Jesus Who had said, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.‘ So he went out and wept bitterly.”
In the Greek language in which Matthew and all the New Testament writers originally wrote, the adverb translated as bitterly, carries the meaning of an emotion that is harsh, painful. It’s used by one ancient writer to describe the oppressive rule of a dictatorial leader.
If you have ever sobbed with regret over some wrong you realize that you have done (I have), then you have some feeling for what Peter felt at that moment. He bitterly regretted what he had done. He felt remorse that he had let Jesus down.
But, unlike Judas, Peter lived and went on to become a leader of Christ’s Church, the one chosen by Christ and the Holy Spirit in the first Christian Pentecost, to deliver the good news that all who repent and believe in Jesus have God in their lives now and in eternity.
Both Judas and Peter were sinners. Both had betrayed their Lord. So, what was different about them to account for the very different ways in which their lives played out after the night of Jesus' arrest?
Here’s the difference: Peter had faith in the God he knew in Jesus Christ.
Peter understood that Jesus Christ was more than a nice man or a good teacher or a rousing leader of the masses and more than an itinerant advocate for justice or a miracle worker, who got killed on a cross.
Peter understood that Jesus was the Lord of all creation, the conqueror of sin and death, Who had always shown forgiveness to sinners who turned from sin and trusted in Him.
Peter remembered that Jesus had told stories (parables) to demonstrate how God responds to repentant sinners who trust in Him, stories like the ones Jesus told about:
Peter had heard Jesus say that heaven throws a party every time a sinner turns from sin and trusts in the grace of God that Christ came to give.
Sinners who are sorry for their sin and trust in Christ as their God, Savior, and King, are forgiven. No ifs, ands, or buts!
Peter trusted that the God he had seen and known in Jesus would meet his remorse for his sin with a forgiveness he did not deserve. That God made known only in Jesus Christ is willing to meet our remorse for sin with a forgiveness none of us deserves!
This is a Biblical truth underscored in Article 12 of The Augsburg Confession, which appears on pages 14-15 of the buff and brown edition in the pew racks. Please pull one out and look at it. It says:
After Jesus rose from the dead, you’ll remember, Jesus asked Peter three times if he believed in Jesus, had faith in Jesus. Each time, Peter said yes. In this interview, Jesus reversed the three denials Peter made on the night of His arrest and assured Peter not only that he was forgiven, but that Jesus also had plans for him. "Feed my lambs" Jesus told Peter. "Tend my sheep."
Peter had acknowledged his sin to God and he had trusted that the crucified and risen Christ is big enough, gracious enough, powerful enough, loving enough to forgive the repentant.
When you and I repent for our sin, we too can be absolutely certain that, as was true for Peter, God forgives us and has plans for us, eternal plans!
They’re plans that begin to unfold here in this world, as we follow the Lord Who promises to be with us always.
And they’re plans that will come to the final, full flower when, in eternity, all our sins, suffering, and dying will be in the past and we will walk with God and all the saints who have trusted in Christ forever. Amen
[This was shared during both worship services with the people and guests of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio.]
This morning, as we continue to consider what it means to be a Lutheran Christian, I want to talk with you about a teaching of the Bible which, in these days, is either hated or ignored. It’s the teaching about repentance.
We’re closing in on Holy Week. As we do, it’s a good time to introduce two men as “case studies” who had important roles in the events leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection.
One teaches us what repentance isn’t.
The other shows us what repentance is.
Our first study is of Judas Iscariot. Judas, of course, was one of the twelve apostles, that group among Jesus’ disciples whose job it was to be His “sent ones,” those who would carry the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in the crucified and risen Jesus as God and Lord into the world.
Beyond that, Judas is an enigma. Even the meaning of the second name by which he’s usually designated, Iscariot, is a mystery. One theory is that “Iscariot” was derived from scortea, leather bag, making Judas, “the man with the leather bag.”
That designation would, in fact, underscore one of the few things we do know about Judas. Turn to John 12:6, please.
You know this incident well. In Bethany, Jesus is at the home of the sisters Mary and Martha and their brother, Lazarus, after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Martha, as always, is busily serving the meal--old habits die hard, you know--when Mary comes into the room and takes a pound of costly ointment and uses her hair to soothe the ointment into Jesus’ feet.
Today, we can’t imagine how socially inappropriate this action would have seemed. Men and women weren’t to touch one another unless they were husband and wife, mother and child. Only servants were to touch the feet of guests; for a woman to touch a man’s feet was considered, at the least, sexually suggestive. And a woman’s hair was considered sacrosanct.
Probably all of the disciples were taken aback by Mary’s gesture of gratitude and reverence for Jesus. (And Mary's reverence was understandable! Jesus had make clear that He was the resurrection and the life and that all who believe in Him will have life with God forever, then proved His deity and His power over death and life by raising her brother from death.) But John makes clear that Judas’ response was less about religious or social scruples than it was about what was important to him.
Judas asks indignantly why, instead of this wastefulness, the ointment hadn’t been sold, the proceeds used to care for the poor? Then we’re told: “This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put into it.”
Historians and scholars have often speculated as to why Judas later betrayed Jesus for a measly thirty pieces of silver. Was he politically motivated? Was he a zealot who thought that he could spur Jesus into leading a revolution if the Romans tried to arrest him? John seems to say Judas betrayed Jesus for the cash.
You know what happened. In the hours after Jesus instituted Holy Communion, He went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. That was a spot to which Jesus and the disciples apparently went often and that’s where Judas knew he could lead the temple police to arrest Jesus, under cover of darkness, far from the crowds who, just the Sunday before, had hailed Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, God’s Anointed One.
And what happened to Judas after Jesus' arrest? Turn please, to Matthew 27:3. This comes after the Jewish temple leaders took Jesus to the Roman governor Pilate. It says: “Then Judas, [Jesus’] betrayer, seeing that [Jesus] had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, ‘I have betrayed innocent blood.’...[verse 5] Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
What accounts for Judas’ tragic end?
Doesn’t Matthew tell us that Judas was remorseful?
Doesn’t that mean that Judas was repentant?
Shouldn’t that have cleaned his slate with God and given Judas a clear conscience?
Why, even after he had given back the money he had taken to betray Jesus, did Judas take his own life?
The key to answering those questions is in the word remorseful.
You see, to be repentant for a sin, a wrong we have perpetrated against God or others, doesn’t just mean to be remorseful.
Judas realized that what he did was wrong. “I have betrayed innocent blood,” he said. So, he felt bitter regret. He understood that by his action, he was bringing about the death of an innocent person. He understood that his betrayal of Jesus was an offense against God.
And he no doubt was afraid of what God would do to him. But as the Bible points out repeatedly, “the fear of the Lord is” only “the beginning of” wisdom or knowledge. (See here.) When we are sorry for our sins, that's just the beginning of repentance. There are no good works we must perform. No acts of penance are required. But sorrow for sin is not all there is to repentance.
We see that in our second case study, the one that shows us what repentance is.
Our subject is Peter. Peter, of course, was another one of the apostles. We know a lot more about Peter than we do about Judas.
But when you think about it, Peter was as guilty of betraying Jesus on the night of Jesus‘ arrest as Judas had been.
You remember what happened. During the last supper, Peter proclaimed his undying loyalty to Jesus. Then Jesus told Peter that on that very night, Peter would deny even knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed in the wee hours. Peter didn’t believe it. But of course, everything happened just as Jesus had foretold. Matthew 26:75 tells us what happened after Peter had denied Jesus a third time and heard the rooster crow. “And Peter remembered the words of Jesus Who had said, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.‘ So he went out and wept bitterly.”
In the Greek language in which Matthew and all the New Testament writers originally wrote, the adverb translated as bitterly, carries the meaning of an emotion that is harsh, painful. It’s used by one ancient writer to describe the oppressive rule of a dictatorial leader.
If you have ever sobbed with regret over some wrong you realize that you have done (I have), then you have some feeling for what Peter felt at that moment. He bitterly regretted what he had done. He felt remorse that he had let Jesus down.
But, unlike Judas, Peter lived and went on to become a leader of Christ’s Church, the one chosen by Christ and the Holy Spirit in the first Christian Pentecost, to deliver the good news that all who repent and believe in Jesus have God in their lives now and in eternity.
Both Judas and Peter were sinners. Both had betrayed their Lord. So, what was different about them to account for the very different ways in which their lives played out after the night of Jesus' arrest?
Here’s the difference: Peter had faith in the God he knew in Jesus Christ.
Peter understood that Jesus Christ was more than a nice man or a good teacher or a rousing leader of the masses and more than an itinerant advocate for justice or a miracle worker, who got killed on a cross.
Peter understood that Jesus was the Lord of all creation, the conqueror of sin and death, Who had always shown forgiveness to sinners who turned from sin and trusted in Him.
Peter remembered that Jesus had told stories (parables) to demonstrate how God responds to repentant sinners who trust in Him, stories like the ones Jesus told about:
- a shepherd who searched for his lost sheep,
- a widow who scoured her home for a lost coin, and
- a loving father who welcomed an impudent son who had scorned his love with a bear hug of love.
Peter had heard Jesus say that heaven throws a party every time a sinner turns from sin and trusts in the grace of God that Christ came to give.
Sinners who are sorry for their sin and trust in Christ as their God, Savior, and King, are forgiven. No ifs, ands, or buts!
Peter trusted that the God he had seen and known in Jesus would meet his remorse for his sin with a forgiveness he did not deserve. That God made known only in Jesus Christ is willing to meet our remorse for sin with a forgiveness none of us deserves!
This is a Biblical truth underscored in Article 12 of The Augsburg Confession, which appears on pages 14-15 of the buff and brown edition in the pew racks. Please pull one out and look at it. It says:
“Our churches teach that there is forgiveness of sins for those who have fallen after [their] Baptism whenever they are converted. [That is, whenever, their minds are changed and they see the wrong in their sin.] The Church ought to impart Absolution [the assurance of forgiveness from God] to those who return in repentance...Now, strictly speaking, repentance consists of two parts. One part is contrition...terrors striking the conscience through the knowledge of sin. The other part is faith, which is born of the Gospel [the Good News about Jesus] or the Absolution and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven. [Repentance] comforts the conscience and delivers it from terror. Then, good works are bound to follow, which are the fruits of repentance...”Peter’s faith in Christ was warranted. He received confirmation of God's forgiveness in one of the moving scenes in all of Scripture.
After Jesus rose from the dead, you’ll remember, Jesus asked Peter three times if he believed in Jesus, had faith in Jesus. Each time, Peter said yes. In this interview, Jesus reversed the three denials Peter made on the night of His arrest and assured Peter not only that he was forgiven, but that Jesus also had plans for him. "Feed my lambs" Jesus told Peter. "Tend my sheep."
Peter had acknowledged his sin to God and he had trusted that the crucified and risen Christ is big enough, gracious enough, powerful enough, loving enough to forgive the repentant.
When you and I repent for our sin, we too can be absolutely certain that, as was true for Peter, God forgives us and has plans for us, eternal plans!
They’re plans that begin to unfold here in this world, as we follow the Lord Who promises to be with us always.
And they’re plans that will come to the final, full flower when, in eternity, all our sins, suffering, and dying will be in the past and we will walk with God and all the saints who have trusted in Christ forever. Amen
[This was shared during both worship services with the people and guests of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio.]
I Don't Want to Be Normal
The nurse from my doctor's office called to tell me the results of blood work done during a recent physical. She rattled off the numbers, then said, "All I can say is that you're just normal."
"You know what?" I said, "This may be the first time anyone's ever called me normal." She laughed and told me, "Then maybe I should have said, 'As far as your blood goes, you're normal.'"
Sometimes, being normal is a great thing. That's true of health tests. Normal, in those circumstances, means all is well.
But sometimes, being normal--whether the designation at the time means typical, average, or like everybody else--may not describe a desirable state of being.
And there's one way in which I think I never want to be normal: I don't want to approach life with cynicism.
Cynicism, one online dictionary tells us is "an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others."
Cynicism seems to be today's "normal."
Ever since the deceptions created by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during their presidencies, giving us Vietnam and Watergate, cynicism has taken hold in the United States. We seem to find it hard to trust anyone or anything.
Cynicism also seems to be prevalent among people around my age. (I'm nearing 60.) I can't tell you how often the speech of my contemporaries degenerates into throwing verbal brickbats at societal trends, people in power, the media, celebrities. It's depressing to hear them talk. And I wonder how they stand living with themselves.
People are cynical, I think, for two basic reasons:
(1) One is that they've had overblown ideals about how other human beings should act.
For decades prior to the Vietnam War, for example, more than 70% of the American people consistently told pollsters that their national leaders would never lie to them. That was completely unrealistic idealism. So, when we learned about the deceptions of Johnson and Nixon, the numbers flipped. Now people are more likely to assume that the government always lies.
Cynicism is an unrealistic overreaction to the failure of some leaders all of the time and of all leaders some of the time, to live up to our unrealistic expectations of them.
It's unfair to have unrealistic expectations of others. No matter how great you thought the person to whom you are married or for whom you voted in the last election, may have seemed to you. They're still human beings...like you. That means they're not perfect.
"Put not your trust in princes,...in whom there is no help," says Psalm 146:3.
This doesn't mean we're to repose zero trust in others. It means: "Don't trust human beings to be like God."
The only one worthy of our total trust is the God we know in Jesus Christ. Sinless, Christ went to a cross, where He died for our sins, both yours and that person you don't trust.
The Old Testament tells us that God is patient with human beings because He "remembers that we are dust."
And Jesus teaches us that before we condemn the small splinter in the eye of another, we need to remove the log implanted in our own.
There would be a lot less cynicism in this world if we would seek the power of the Holy Spirit in fulfilling the second part of Jesus' great commandment for the world, which echoes the last seven of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses: Love your neighbor as yourself.
(2) Another reason for cynicism, I think, is disappointment with our own progress in life.
We look at people we deem more successful than ourselves and, secretly believing that we don't measure up, infer that there must be something false about the other person's progress. We doubt that their progress is for real, dismissing it as PR. Or, we cast aspersions on the integrity with which they achieved their "progress."
It should be said that others' money and material well being aren't the only things that spur this cynicism. A happy family, a good marriage, true friendships, educational attainment, or almost anything we observe in others can be an excuse for the person who feels inferior to be cynical. "Yeah, they look happy," the cynic says, "but that's window-dressing." He may even start spewing unsubstantiated gossip about the person to build himself up, while tearing the other person down.
This strain of cynicism is often rooted in envy. And envy is really rooted in self-loathing. The cynic often feels compelled to knock others because, in his secret self, he hates himself. He feels that his life is inferior.
Or, he knows of deficiencies, bad decisions, or sins that keep him from experiencing some of the things he yearns for. Overcoming this form of cynicism involves opening up our eyes and realizing that we are blessed in our own ways.
One of the things I have had to get over as I've grown in years and in my faith in Christ, is my disappointment in the ways in which God has blessed me. "Those blessings you've given me, Lord, are nice, but I want to be blessed in other ways. I want to be like So-and-So," I tell God. But as I read the Bible, God's Word, God seems to tell me, "But you aren't So-and-So. I've created a package of blessings custom-made for you. Not for So-and-So, but for you."
Isaiah 45:9 says "Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The potter has no hands'?"
I'm learning to let the Potter form me as He chooses.
This isn't fatalism. It's faith.
I may be a plain clay pot. But to give glory to the One Who made me and then gave me new life in Jesus Christ, I am intent on being, through His grace and power, forgiveness and love, the best clay pot I can be.
Of course, I will only ever fulfill my intention by relying completely on the Potter, the God Who came into the world in Jesus, died on a cross, and rose from the dead for imperfect clay pots like me.
You may not measure up in your own eyes. But you were worth the suffering and death of God, all of which He went through so that when He rose again on the first Easter Sunday, you could have life with God.
And the new life Christ gives those who believe in Him, doesn't start after your earthly death, as though this life were just heaven's waiting room.
The new life Christ gives can begin "the hour you first believe."
And it can belong to you in all the everyday moments of this life: While you do your job, love your spouse, relate to your kids, strive for your dreams, pray, enjoy your friends, read God's Word, take out the trash, mow the lawn, do the laundry.
"If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation," 2 Corinthians 5:17 says.
If you have faith in Christ, you have eternity. You have God standing by you as you strive to be your best, to achieve, and to live. No reason to feel envious. None.
Whatever its source, if cynicism is your normal, get rid of it. Trust in Christ.
You'll be more able to forgive others as God has forgiven you.
You won't trust people or things to give you what only God has it to give.
You'll trust only God to be God.
That's when you'll stop being normal and your cynicism will start to evaporate.
"You know what?" I said, "This may be the first time anyone's ever called me normal." She laughed and told me, "Then maybe I should have said, 'As far as your blood goes, you're normal.'"
Sometimes, being normal is a great thing. That's true of health tests. Normal, in those circumstances, means all is well.
But sometimes, being normal--whether the designation at the time means typical, average, or like everybody else--may not describe a desirable state of being.
And there's one way in which I think I never want to be normal: I don't want to approach life with cynicism.
Cynicism, one online dictionary tells us is "an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others."
Cynicism seems to be today's "normal."
Ever since the deceptions created by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during their presidencies, giving us Vietnam and Watergate, cynicism has taken hold in the United States. We seem to find it hard to trust anyone or anything.
Cynicism also seems to be prevalent among people around my age. (I'm nearing 60.) I can't tell you how often the speech of my contemporaries degenerates into throwing verbal brickbats at societal trends, people in power, the media, celebrities. It's depressing to hear them talk. And I wonder how they stand living with themselves.
People are cynical, I think, for two basic reasons:
(1) One is that they've had overblown ideals about how other human beings should act.
For decades prior to the Vietnam War, for example, more than 70% of the American people consistently told pollsters that their national leaders would never lie to them. That was completely unrealistic idealism. So, when we learned about the deceptions of Johnson and Nixon, the numbers flipped. Now people are more likely to assume that the government always lies.
Cynicism is an unrealistic overreaction to the failure of some leaders all of the time and of all leaders some of the time, to live up to our unrealistic expectations of them.
It's unfair to have unrealistic expectations of others. No matter how great you thought the person to whom you are married or for whom you voted in the last election, may have seemed to you. They're still human beings...like you. That means they're not perfect.
"Put not your trust in princes,...in whom there is no help," says Psalm 146:3.
This doesn't mean we're to repose zero trust in others. It means: "Don't trust human beings to be like God."
The only one worthy of our total trust is the God we know in Jesus Christ. Sinless, Christ went to a cross, where He died for our sins, both yours and that person you don't trust.
The Old Testament tells us that God is patient with human beings because He "remembers that we are dust."
And Jesus teaches us that before we condemn the small splinter in the eye of another, we need to remove the log implanted in our own.
There would be a lot less cynicism in this world if we would seek the power of the Holy Spirit in fulfilling the second part of Jesus' great commandment for the world, which echoes the last seven of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses: Love your neighbor as yourself.
(2) Another reason for cynicism, I think, is disappointment with our own progress in life.
We look at people we deem more successful than ourselves and, secretly believing that we don't measure up, infer that there must be something false about the other person's progress. We doubt that their progress is for real, dismissing it as PR. Or, we cast aspersions on the integrity with which they achieved their "progress."
It should be said that others' money and material well being aren't the only things that spur this cynicism. A happy family, a good marriage, true friendships, educational attainment, or almost anything we observe in others can be an excuse for the person who feels inferior to be cynical. "Yeah, they look happy," the cynic says, "but that's window-dressing." He may even start spewing unsubstantiated gossip about the person to build himself up, while tearing the other person down.
This strain of cynicism is often rooted in envy. And envy is really rooted in self-loathing. The cynic often feels compelled to knock others because, in his secret self, he hates himself. He feels that his life is inferior.
Or, he knows of deficiencies, bad decisions, or sins that keep him from experiencing some of the things he yearns for. Overcoming this form of cynicism involves opening up our eyes and realizing that we are blessed in our own ways.
One of the things I have had to get over as I've grown in years and in my faith in Christ, is my disappointment in the ways in which God has blessed me. "Those blessings you've given me, Lord, are nice, but I want to be blessed in other ways. I want to be like So-and-So," I tell God. But as I read the Bible, God's Word, God seems to tell me, "But you aren't So-and-So. I've created a package of blessings custom-made for you. Not for So-and-So, but for you."
Isaiah 45:9 says "Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The potter has no hands'?"
I'm learning to let the Potter form me as He chooses.
This isn't fatalism. It's faith.
I may be a plain clay pot. But to give glory to the One Who made me and then gave me new life in Jesus Christ, I am intent on being, through His grace and power, forgiveness and love, the best clay pot I can be.
Of course, I will only ever fulfill my intention by relying completely on the Potter, the God Who came into the world in Jesus, died on a cross, and rose from the dead for imperfect clay pots like me.
You may not measure up in your own eyes. But you were worth the suffering and death of God, all of which He went through so that when He rose again on the first Easter Sunday, you could have life with God.
And the new life Christ gives those who believe in Him, doesn't start after your earthly death, as though this life were just heaven's waiting room.
The new life Christ gives can begin "the hour you first believe."
And it can belong to you in all the everyday moments of this life: While you do your job, love your spouse, relate to your kids, strive for your dreams, pray, enjoy your friends, read God's Word, take out the trash, mow the lawn, do the laundry.
"If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation," 2 Corinthians 5:17 says.
If you have faith in Christ, you have eternity. You have God standing by you as you strive to be your best, to achieve, and to live. No reason to feel envious. None.
Whatever its source, if cynicism is your normal, get rid of it. Trust in Christ.
You'll be more able to forgive others as God has forgiven you.
You won't trust people or things to give you what only God has it to give.
You'll trust only God to be God.
That's when you'll stop being normal and your cynicism will start to evaporate.
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