Mr. President:
Let me put my cards on the table.
I am a deeply committed evangelical Christian---that is, a good news Christian. In my sometimes-liberal denomination, I occasionally take heat for that. But my reading of the Bible and my personal experience as a one-time atheist who fell in love with Jesus Christ, tell me that we need the Good News of forgiveness, new life, and hope that only Jesus gives. I believe that while God cares about all people, as a loving God, God grants to all the ability to say Yes or No to Him. As a follower of Jesus, my call is to help people know why it’s so wonderful when you say Yes to Him and the Good News of Jesus. If your campaign biographies are to be believed, you have similar sentiments.
I’m also a Republican: pro-life, pro-entrepreneurship, pro-frugal spending, and in favor of the kind of subtle and appropriate application of military, economic, and political power that have characterized Republican presidents like Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and your father in the first Gulf War. I was a Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives here in Ohio earlier this year.
But, Mr. President, I have been long concerned over the attempts by both Christian and Republican leaders to make it appear that if you’re a Christian, you must be a Republican. I have objected to this equation of "Christian" and "Republican" for several reasons.
First: It simply isn’t true. While I am aware of polling data showing a propensity for the religiously-affiliated to be conservative and Republican (and that conforms to my personal observations, as well), there are also deeply committed Christians who are liberals and Democrats.
The fact is, the Bible does not proscribe particular political or economic systems.
Christians are completely free to vote or not to vote. They're free to vote for Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, independents, Martians, or anybody else they choose.
It is perfectly possible for Christians to study the Bible and pray about the appropriate exercise of their voting rights and conclude that they’re going to support a Democrat. God won’t send them to hell without an electric fan for that!
Second: The equation of any political ideology with the Gospel of Jesus Christ amounts to idol-worship.
To equate following Jesus to being a good Republican is really an attempt to make Jesus over in a particularly preferred image. That can't and shouldn't be done to the Savior we claim to be God-in-the-flesh!
The Christian should instead be committed to letting Jesus make us over in His image. Our prayer as citizens should never be, “Lord, bless what I believe,” but, “Lord, help me to believe and do what You bless.” That's why when we pray, we tell God, "Your will be done."
The ultimate call of all who seek to follow Jesus is to love God completely and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Republicans, Democrats, and independents may have different answers as to how they want to express that love of God and neighbor in the political realm. Only in heaven will we know who was right or wrong. Or, more accurately, how right or wrong we were.
But some preachers who back you and some Republicans who tout your candidacy for re-election seem to regard it as an article of faith that if people don’t bow down at the altar of conservative politics, your brand of conservative politics, they’re damned.
There is only one God, Mr. President: the God revealed through Jesus Christ. No -ism, philosophy, ideology, or program can contain Him or reflect Him perfectly. Nor can they command our allegiance. No political campaign can claim the endorsement of Jesus Christ or whittle Him down to sizes that suit our purposes!
I wish that you would say that publicly. I wish that you would tell your supporters that it is absolutely appropriate to pray about where they will stand on political issues and to be able to explain the line of reasoning that leads them from their faith in Christ to where they land politically.
But I wish that you would also tell them that you find it personally reprehensible for anybody to claim that they have a personal political pipeline to Jesus or to imply that God and the GOP have the same political agenda.
Third: Many of the attempts to proscribe specific behaviors that are advocated by your administration reflect a functional atheism, a refusal to believe that if we Christians will faithfully pray and share the Good News of Jesus, the Holy Spirit will help people to confess Jesus as Lord.
Christians are never to coerce people into acquiescence to Jesus' Lordship! Persuasion undergirded by God’s Spirit, not any political or economic program, is what we need in order to change people’s hearts and lives in our nation and our world.
It's true that we need government. Theologian Martin Luther said that God rules the world in two ways. First: God rules the hearts of those who have surrendered to Christ. Because Jesus is their Lord, they will tend, in spite of all humanity's shared inborn sin, to voluntarily do what is best for their neighbors and their community. Second: Through governments, God rules those who have not surrendered to Christ, forcing people to do what is best for all through coercion and law. Luther said that were it not for governmental authority, Christians would go through life like lambs amid ravenous wolves. For the good of all, we Christians also ought to submit to the authority of government, when it attempts to act justly.
Luther wrote in a pre-democratic time. As in Bible times, Luther, who lived from 1483 to 1546, lived in a time when nobody but royalty had a say in what governments did. In America, we believe that the people are sovereign and therefore have a “piece of the action” when it comes to governance. But the experiences of those times and places where kings imposed their religion on others---as they do today in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia and even, in its way, in China, where the government touts an atheist, economic determinism as its “religion"---should be a lesson to us. Yes, governments should enact legislation that prevents people from being hurt by others and to promote the well-being of all. But no government should impose a specific religion or form of morality on others. It is both un-Christian and un-American to do so. No partisans or adherents of one political philosophy should claim to be more righteous or worthy than opponents who may themselves, worship the same Christ and pray in His Name!
More broadly, no government should act as the agent of a specific religious belief system. Freedom of religion for all--the Christian as well as the non-Christian--is imperiled when people take it into their heads to impose their views on others. A government which imposes specifically Christian views this year may be replaced for example, by a Mormon government, with markedly different views the next year. The coercive imposition of our own particular faith values on others is dangerous, apt to create paybacks that are ultimately destructive of the cause of Christ and which are, in any case, contrary to how Jesus told us to do our mission as Christians.
Attempts to push a so-called "Christian social agenda" in the policies of government reflect a belief that God isn’t big enough, persuasive enough, loving enough, or real enough to use our humble, faithful, loving proclamations of Jesus Christ to really help people live differently.
Much of so-called “Christian political activism” is based on the unspoken fear that God is just too puny to get anything done. That’s why I label this brand of political activity as I do: It's atheism, a failure to trust in God to be God. And neither you or your campaign should be encouraging it or exploiting it, Mr. President. You should especially not be doing it at the same time that you're professing faith in the God Who can use people with faith in Him to do great things (Matthew 19:12), even if their faith is no bigger than a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32).
These “Christian political activists” seem to overlook the fact that Jesus, God in the flesh, never took the reins of political, military, or economic power, never forced anybody to do things His way. The only people Jesus ever blasted were first, the Pharisees: religious folks who wanted to force people into conformity with their particular versions of following God and second, Herod, who made a habit of exploiting faith while not himself trusting God.
Rather than trying to impose their versions of Christian faith on others, Mr. President, some of your religious supporters would do well to read the Bible.
They might heed Peter when he writes: “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” (First Peter 3:15-16)
They might remember that faith can’t be coerced. Paul says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit.” (First Corinthians 12:5)
It is frustrating to live in a culture that wants to turn its back on God, as is true of America today. But as Christians, we cannot allow our frustration with a disbelieving culture to cause us to give into defeatism. For it is defeatism that makes us fall prey to the un-Christian tactics of governmental coercion and moralism. That is not the way people are won for Christ!
The politician who is a Christian should simply strive to live his or her faith as best they can, praying over every decision and treating their opponents not as villains to be conquered, but as people (fellow sinners) for whom--just like us--Jesus died and rose. That's what every Christian citizen should expect of their political leaders who wear the label, "Christian."
I bring all of this up because of a Reuter’s news story that came out today. (You can click title above to get to the article.) It reports that your campaign is now asking churches for their membership rosters so that Christians can be organized for your campaign. A memo is even being circulated to “help” churches that want to have voter-registration rallies and candidate-education emphases during worship services.
Mr. President. As long as I’m a pastor, there will never be any political rallies intruding on worship of Almighty God of the church I serve!
There will never be any implication that to be a good Christian, you have to vote one way or another.
Your campaign--and no political campaign--will ever receive the membership roster of our congregation.
No candidate will ever be allowed to “say a few words” to the assembled congregation.
Mr. President, even when I ran for office this year, I told a supporter of mine not to stand up during the announcements, asking people to help my candidacy. I knew that good Christians had the right to vote for my opponents. The Church should avoid either the appearance or the reality of endorsing a candidate or political party.
The Church is not a political institution. The Church is not an outlet for George W. Bush or the Republican Party or any other poltiical group. Not only would that be objectionable for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, it’s also probably against federal statutes regulating the political activities of not-for-profit organizations.
So, Mr. President, I ask you to stop your campaign from going into the churches, holding political rallies, soliciting members’ names for political purposes, or doing anything else that obviously violates the sanctity of the Church’s mission and seeks to subordinate the Church to partisan politics. I hope that you will fire the campaign aides who concocted or enacted this strategy. It is reprehensible.
God bless you, Mr. President. I pray for you every day.
Friday, July 02, 2004
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
The Happiness Project: The People Who Make a Difference
(Shared with the people of Friendship Church, June 27, 2004.)
While we should never worship heroes because God alone is worthy of our worship, I hope that none of us ever gets too old or jaded for having heroes! Heroes are people who, by their examples, demonstrate how ordinary, mortal, two-legged humanoids can be more and do more. They show us the potential that resides in each child of God.
One of my heroes, as you know, is Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War Two and for my money, one of the three best presidents of the twentieth century. Historian Stephen Ambrose said that if you and I live in a free Europe or America today, we can thank Dwight Eisenhower for it. Eisenhower, like the rest of us, was far from perfect. But he did what every person who achieves great things must do: he overcame himself. He defeated his deficiencies in order to become his better self.
As a boy, Eisenhower had a fierce temper, likely to explode at the tiniest provocation. Once, when he was ten years old, Eisenhower’s parents gave permission to his two older brothers to go “trick or treating” in their hometown of Abilene, Kansas. Dwight was told that he was too young for such an adventure. Eisenhower writes about the incident in his wonderful book, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends:
An hour or so later, Eisenhower says, his mother came to his room. He was still sobbing in his pillow.
Ida Eisenhower proceeded to salve and bandage young Dwight’s hands. Writing more than sixty years later, Eisenhower says:
That simple incident, remembered vividly by Eisenhower until his dying day, may tell us everything we need to understand him. Why were the leaders and the people of the world willing to repose so much power and responsibility into his hands? In large part, it must have been because as a boy, his soft-spoken Mennonite mother, showed him the simple truth that over the long haul, whether here or in eternity, the best blessings don’t belong to the arrogant, the rude, the pushy, the self-serving, the angry, or the tyrants. She taught him the simple truth of Jesus’ words for us today: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth.”
This is the third portrait of blessedness, or happiness, that Jesus presents in a portion of His teachings recorded in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Taken together, the twelve verses we’re exploring are called The Beatitudes.
Today, Jesus tells us that happy people are meek. To our modern ears, that sounds crazy. Meek people, we think, are milquetoasts who let the world roll over them. But that isn’t the Bible’s or Jesus’ notion of meekness.
In his book, The Be Happy Attitudes, Robert Schuller mentions two people the Bible describes as being meek, possessing the sorts of personalities that will inherit the Earth.
One is Moses in the Old Testament. Moses was fierce, headstrong, prone to violence, and sometimes rebellious against God’s way of doing things. But in the end, Moses militated against his natural inclinations in order to surrender to God. Moses is meek.
Another person the Bible describes as meek is a certain carpenter from Nazareth, Jesus Himself. Jesus was God as well as man. It would have been easy for Him to diverge from the plan for His earthly life. He could have sidestepped the cross and plunged us all into eternal separation from God. Jesus wrestled with that very temptation in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest. But instead, Jesus took the painful path. He submitted to the Father’s will and went to a cross for us. Jesus was meek.
Meek people control or channel their personalities, bending them to the will of God.
They’re not weak; they’re focused, targeted to do God’s will, surrendered to God.
When meek people are leaders, they don’t lord their authority over others.
When meek people are followers, they don’t bellyache or whine; they do the work and live the life that God sets before them.
God’s meek people are happy because they in know that in turning from sin and following Christ, they will live with God forever.
The meek, it seems to me, exhibit three main characteristics. First, they’re sure of themselves and of their relationship with God. The meek don’t need to get even; but sometimes, they get a good laugh. In that same book I mentioned earlier, Robert Schuller tells a story told to him by a priest. Some nuns attended a baseball game and sat in front of some guys who’d probably had a few too many and didn‘t like Catholics. One of these guys said, “Let’s go to Texas; I hear there aren’t many Catholics there.” His friend said, “Let’s go to Oklahoma; I hear there are even fewer Catholics there.” The first guy, apparently finding himself witty, “Let’s go to Alaska; there are hardly no Catholics there.” At this, one of the nuns turned around and said, “Why don’t you both go to hell; there are no Catholics there?”
She knew that the meek will inherit the Earth!
A second characteristic of meek people is that they’re patient in doing right, even if it doesn’t seem to be paying off in the world’s way of measuring things. This past week, you know, I spent a little time down in Florida. As always seems to happen when I travel, the prime attractions were the people I met from all over the world. As happens any time that people meet, folks asked me what sort of work I did. When I told them the story of Friendship and of how we had worshiped in a school gym for twelve-and-a-half years, some asked how the church stayed together through such a trial. I just told them how incredibly faithful the people of Friendship Church are! I let them know that the folks of Friendship are so faithful to Christ that they stick with you through thin and thin and thin and thick!
People were amazed that there were and still are people in this congregation who waited all that time before getting into a building that we really wanted not just for ourselves, but to share with the community! It is amazing! But the meek, God’s blessed, happy people are patient in doing what they think God wants them to do!
Finally, meek people aren’t bowled over by setbacks. They’re stubborn in the pursuit of loving, godly, life-giving goals.
Mattie Stepanek died this past week. He, like his three older siblings, succumbed to a rare form of muscular dystrophy with which he was born. He was confined to a wheelchair through much of his short life. This extraordinary thirteen year old, who must have been a certifiable genius, began writing reflective poetry when he was three years old. Five of his books of poetry were best sellers, according the New York Times. Starting in 2002, he was a goodwill ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. His personal hero was Jimmy Carter, who became a friend of his and of his mother. Mattie was inspired by the former president’s efforts to promote peace in the world. Perhaps knowing firsthand how fragile life is, he was appalled by war and wanted to stop it.
If any of you ever saw Mattie Stepanek on TV, you know that he was a tiny boy in a wheelchair. His lungs had to be forced to breathe because his brain no longer knew how to orchestrate respiration on its own. Mattie Stepanek was hardly an intimidating brute. He smiled constantly and exuded joy. He showed a tough will to make a difference in life in spite of the raw deal that his genetics had given him. “My life mission,” he said, “is to spread peace to the world.” He never flagged in that pursuit.
The meek aren’t wimps! They’re tough-minded people who keep relying on God to become their best selves---full of love, humility, the resolve to do God’s will, hope, and happiness!
They’re sure of God and because of God, sure of themselves; they’re patient in doing right; they’re not bowled over by setbacks.
Five years ago, at the age of eight, Mattie Stepanek wrote a piece he called, On Being a Champion. When we surrender our lives, our past, our present, and our futures to Jesus Christ, we become champions in the eyes of the only One Whose judgment matters. We become one of God’s meek people.
We may not be counted successes by the world. But we will inherit every good and perfect blessing God gives to those who follow Jesus. We will be meek. And we will be happy.
While we should never worship heroes because God alone is worthy of our worship, I hope that none of us ever gets too old or jaded for having heroes! Heroes are people who, by their examples, demonstrate how ordinary, mortal, two-legged humanoids can be more and do more. They show us the potential that resides in each child of God.
One of my heroes, as you know, is Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War Two and for my money, one of the three best presidents of the twentieth century. Historian Stephen Ambrose said that if you and I live in a free Europe or America today, we can thank Dwight Eisenhower for it. Eisenhower, like the rest of us, was far from perfect. But he did what every person who achieves great things must do: he overcame himself. He defeated his deficiencies in order to become his better self.
As a boy, Eisenhower had a fierce temper, likely to explode at the tiniest provocation. Once, when he was ten years old, Eisenhower’s parents gave permission to his two older brothers to go “trick or treating” in their hometown of Abilene, Kansas. Dwight was told that he was too young for such an adventure. Eisenhower writes about the incident in his wonderful book, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends:
I argued and pleaded [with my parents] until the last minute. Finally, the two boys took off. I have no memory of what happened immediately afterward, but I was completely beside myself. Suddenly my father grabbed my shoulders to shock me back into consciousness. What I had been doing was standing by an old apple tree trunk and pounding it with my bleeding fists, expressing resentment in rage. My father legislated the matter with the usual hickory switch and sent me off to bed.
An hour or so later, Eisenhower says, his mother came to his room. He was still sobbing in his pillow.
Mother sat in the rocking chair by the bed for a long time. Then she began to talk about temper and controlling it. Eventually, as she often did, she drew on the Bible, paraphrasing it, I suppose. This time she said, “He that conquereth his own soul is greater than he who taketh a city.” Hatred is a futile sort of thing, she said...the only person injured [by our anger is ourselves]...This was soothing, although she added that among all her [six] boys, I was the one who had the most to learn.
Ida Eisenhower proceeded to salve and bandage young Dwight’s hands. Writing more than sixty years later, Eisenhower says:
I have always looked back on that conversation as one of the most valuable moments of my life...she got me to acknowledge that I was wrong and I felt enough ease to fall off to sleep. The incident was never mentioned again. But to this day I make it a practice to avoid hating anyone.
That simple incident, remembered vividly by Eisenhower until his dying day, may tell us everything we need to understand him. Why were the leaders and the people of the world willing to repose so much power and responsibility into his hands? In large part, it must have been because as a boy, his soft-spoken Mennonite mother, showed him the simple truth that over the long haul, whether here or in eternity, the best blessings don’t belong to the arrogant, the rude, the pushy, the self-serving, the angry, or the tyrants. She taught him the simple truth of Jesus’ words for us today: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth.”
This is the third portrait of blessedness, or happiness, that Jesus presents in a portion of His teachings recorded in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Taken together, the twelve verses we’re exploring are called The Beatitudes.
Today, Jesus tells us that happy people are meek. To our modern ears, that sounds crazy. Meek people, we think, are milquetoasts who let the world roll over them. But that isn’t the Bible’s or Jesus’ notion of meekness.
In his book, The Be Happy Attitudes, Robert Schuller mentions two people the Bible describes as being meek, possessing the sorts of personalities that will inherit the Earth.
One is Moses in the Old Testament. Moses was fierce, headstrong, prone to violence, and sometimes rebellious against God’s way of doing things. But in the end, Moses militated against his natural inclinations in order to surrender to God. Moses is meek.
Another person the Bible describes as meek is a certain carpenter from Nazareth, Jesus Himself. Jesus was God as well as man. It would have been easy for Him to diverge from the plan for His earthly life. He could have sidestepped the cross and plunged us all into eternal separation from God. Jesus wrestled with that very temptation in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest. But instead, Jesus took the painful path. He submitted to the Father’s will and went to a cross for us. Jesus was meek.
Meek people control or channel their personalities, bending them to the will of God.
They’re not weak; they’re focused, targeted to do God’s will, surrendered to God.
When meek people are leaders, they don’t lord their authority over others.
When meek people are followers, they don’t bellyache or whine; they do the work and live the life that God sets before them.
God’s meek people are happy because they in know that in turning from sin and following Christ, they will live with God forever.
The meek, it seems to me, exhibit three main characteristics. First, they’re sure of themselves and of their relationship with God. The meek don’t need to get even; but sometimes, they get a good laugh. In that same book I mentioned earlier, Robert Schuller tells a story told to him by a priest. Some nuns attended a baseball game and sat in front of some guys who’d probably had a few too many and didn‘t like Catholics. One of these guys said, “Let’s go to Texas; I hear there aren’t many Catholics there.” His friend said, “Let’s go to Oklahoma; I hear there are even fewer Catholics there.” The first guy, apparently finding himself witty, “Let’s go to Alaska; there are hardly no Catholics there.” At this, one of the nuns turned around and said, “Why don’t you both go to hell; there are no Catholics there?”
She knew that the meek will inherit the Earth!
A second characteristic of meek people is that they’re patient in doing right, even if it doesn’t seem to be paying off in the world’s way of measuring things. This past week, you know, I spent a little time down in Florida. As always seems to happen when I travel, the prime attractions were the people I met from all over the world. As happens any time that people meet, folks asked me what sort of work I did. When I told them the story of Friendship and of how we had worshiped in a school gym for twelve-and-a-half years, some asked how the church stayed together through such a trial. I just told them how incredibly faithful the people of Friendship Church are! I let them know that the folks of Friendship are so faithful to Christ that they stick with you through thin and thin and thin and thick!
People were amazed that there were and still are people in this congregation who waited all that time before getting into a building that we really wanted not just for ourselves, but to share with the community! It is amazing! But the meek, God’s blessed, happy people are patient in doing what they think God wants them to do!
Finally, meek people aren’t bowled over by setbacks. They’re stubborn in the pursuit of loving, godly, life-giving goals.
Mattie Stepanek died this past week. He, like his three older siblings, succumbed to a rare form of muscular dystrophy with which he was born. He was confined to a wheelchair through much of his short life. This extraordinary thirteen year old, who must have been a certifiable genius, began writing reflective poetry when he was three years old. Five of his books of poetry were best sellers, according the New York Times. Starting in 2002, he was a goodwill ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. His personal hero was Jimmy Carter, who became a friend of his and of his mother. Mattie was inspired by the former president’s efforts to promote peace in the world. Perhaps knowing firsthand how fragile life is, he was appalled by war and wanted to stop it.
If any of you ever saw Mattie Stepanek on TV, you know that he was a tiny boy in a wheelchair. His lungs had to be forced to breathe because his brain no longer knew how to orchestrate respiration on its own. Mattie Stepanek was hardly an intimidating brute. He smiled constantly and exuded joy. He showed a tough will to make a difference in life in spite of the raw deal that his genetics had given him. “My life mission,” he said, “is to spread peace to the world.” He never flagged in that pursuit.
The meek aren’t wimps! They’re tough-minded people who keep relying on God to become their best selves---full of love, humility, the resolve to do God’s will, hope, and happiness!
They’re sure of God and because of God, sure of themselves; they’re patient in doing right; they’re not bowled over by setbacks.
Five years ago, at the age of eight, Mattie Stepanek wrote a piece he called, On Being a Champion. When we surrender our lives, our past, our present, and our futures to Jesus Christ, we become champions in the eyes of the only One Whose judgment matters. We become one of God’s meek people.
We may not be counted successes by the world. But we will inherit every good and perfect blessing God gives to those who follow Jesus. We will be meek. And we will be happy.
What If We Asked the Imagineers' Question? (Column Version)
[Below is the version of the third of my Walt Disney World reflections submitted for my column, appearing in the Community Press newspapers in the Cincinnati area.]
When looking for better ways of doing things, what’s the question we can ask that will unlock our creativity?
How about when we’re confronted with a nettlesome problem?
I recently leafed through a book produced by the Walt Disney company’s “imagineers.” The imagineers are that creative band of Disney folks who spawn a seemingly endless array of innovative animation techniques, intriguing theme park attractions, and fetching resort motifs.
One chapter said that the key question imagineers ask is, “What if...?”
As I read that, I reflected that every positive event in history probably started by asking that question.
Galileo must have asked, “What if my observations are true, that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around?”
The Wright Brothers probably asked, “What if a wing with the shape of a teardrop will give a flying machine the lift it needs to take flight?”
Martin Luther must have asked, “What if the Church is wrong and the Bible is right, that human beings don’t have to earn or buy an everlasting relationship with God? What if a relationship with God comes to human beings as the Bible says it does, as a gift to us when we turn from sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness and life?”
What if, in our daily lives, we asked that question more often?
What if the married couple stuck in a stalemate of mutual inattentiveness and resentment asked, “What if we wanted to make our marriage what God intended it to be? What would it take?”
What if parents, aware of how little time they spend with their kids and of the need to provide guidance for living to their children began to ask, “What if I wanted to become a “Cliff and Claire Huxtable, Ward and June Cleaver” kind of parent? How would we do that?”
The problem with asking “What if...?” is this: It gets our creative juices going. It impels us to move from dreaming to doing, just as it does Disney’s imagineers. That’s why we rarely ask the question. It’s a fearful thing to set sail against the winds of convention, common practice, and habit.
For the follower of Jesus Christ, it seems to me that failing to ask “What if...?” is a sin. God wants us to use our brains to improve life for ourselves and for others. In Genesis, God tells the human race:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth!” (Genesis 1:26-27, The Message translation)
This isn’t a license to lives spent in comfortable ruts.
It’s a mandate to ask, “What if...” and to see and enact new possibilities. In fact, it’s a mandate to see and enact what others might deem impossible.
Jesus says that all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). He also says that when we ask in His Name, He can make good things happen (John 14:13). We simply need to ask, “What if...?” and enlist the help of God. To God, impossibilities are mere impediments.
Every human being has a call to be an imagineer of the spirit! What if we all asked God to help us become our best and most positively achieving selves? The possibilities are endless!
When looking for better ways of doing things, what’s the question we can ask that will unlock our creativity?
How about when we’re confronted with a nettlesome problem?
I recently leafed through a book produced by the Walt Disney company’s “imagineers.” The imagineers are that creative band of Disney folks who spawn a seemingly endless array of innovative animation techniques, intriguing theme park attractions, and fetching resort motifs.
One chapter said that the key question imagineers ask is, “What if...?”
As I read that, I reflected that every positive event in history probably started by asking that question.
Galileo must have asked, “What if my observations are true, that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around?”
The Wright Brothers probably asked, “What if a wing with the shape of a teardrop will give a flying machine the lift it needs to take flight?”
Martin Luther must have asked, “What if the Church is wrong and the Bible is right, that human beings don’t have to earn or buy an everlasting relationship with God? What if a relationship with God comes to human beings as the Bible says it does, as a gift to us when we turn from sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness and life?”
What if, in our daily lives, we asked that question more often?
What if the married couple stuck in a stalemate of mutual inattentiveness and resentment asked, “What if we wanted to make our marriage what God intended it to be? What would it take?”
What if parents, aware of how little time they spend with their kids and of the need to provide guidance for living to their children began to ask, “What if I wanted to become a “Cliff and Claire Huxtable, Ward and June Cleaver” kind of parent? How would we do that?”
The problem with asking “What if...?” is this: It gets our creative juices going. It impels us to move from dreaming to doing, just as it does Disney’s imagineers. That’s why we rarely ask the question. It’s a fearful thing to set sail against the winds of convention, common practice, and habit.
For the follower of Jesus Christ, it seems to me that failing to ask “What if...?” is a sin. God wants us to use our brains to improve life for ourselves and for others. In Genesis, God tells the human race:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth!” (Genesis 1:26-27, The Message translation)
This isn’t a license to lives spent in comfortable ruts.
It’s a mandate to ask, “What if...” and to see and enact new possibilities. In fact, it’s a mandate to see and enact what others might deem impossible.
Jesus says that all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). He also says that when we ask in His Name, He can make good things happen (John 14:13). We simply need to ask, “What if...?” and enlist the help of God. To God, impossibilities are mere impediments.
Every human being has a call to be an imagineer of the spirit! What if we all asked God to help us become our best and most positively achieving selves? The possibilities are endless!
What If We Asked the Imagineers' Question? (Another Disney World Reflection)
When looking for a new and better way of doing things, what’s the question we can ask that will unlock our creativity?
How about when we’re confronted with a nettlesome problem?
Last week, while visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, I spent some time window-shopping at Downtown Disney, a fantastic collection of shops, restaurants, and theaters. One of the shops specializes in selling Disney animation art: painted scenes from movies, numbered posters based on various animated features and characters, and other items. Being a book lover, though, I was naturally drawn to its books about Walt Disney and Disney’s animated art.
I leafed through one book produced by Disney’s “imagineers." The imagineers are that creative band of Disney “cast members” who spawn an array of innovative animation techniques, intriguing theme park attractions, and fetching resort motifs.
One passage in the book really struck me. It said that the most important question the imagineers ask is, “What if...?”
As I read that, I reflected that probably every positive event in history started by asking that question.
Galileo must have asked, “What if my observations are true, that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around?”
The Wright Brothers, toiling away with their wind tunnel experiments probably asked, “What if a wing with the shape of a teardrop will give a flying machine the lift it needs to take flight?”
Martin Luther must have asked, “What if the Church is wrong and the Bible is right, that human beings don’t have to earn or buy an everlasting relationship with God? What if a relationship with God comes to human beings as the Bible says it does, as a gift to us when we turn from sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness and life?”
“What if...?” is a powerful question and it rarely gets asked. Unfortunately, most of us are frightened to ask it. We’re stuck in our comfortable ruts. But, what if, in our personal lives, we asked that question more often?
What if the married couple stuck in a stalemate of mutual inattentiveness and resentment asked, “What if we wanted to make our marriage what God intended it to be? What would it take?”
What if parents, aware of how little time they spend with their kids and of the need to provide guidance for living to their children began to ask, “What if I wanted to become a Cliff and Claire Huxtable, Ward and June Cleaver kind of parent? How would we do that?”
What if suburbanites, fed up with the sprawl and lack of community they experience in their lives, asked, “What if we wanted to create a sense of place and togetherness here where we live?”
What if ordinary Americans, concerned about the perception of our country that seems to exist globally, decided to find creative ways to reach out to other nations and show what America is really all about?”
For the follower of Jesus Christ, it may be a sin when we fail to ask, “What if...?” God, after all, wants us to use our brains to improve life for ourselves and for others. In Genesis, God tells the human race:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth!” (Genesis 1:26-27, The Message translation)
This isn’t a license to lives spent in comfortable ruts. It’s a mandate to ask, “What if...” and to see and enact new possibilities.
In fact, it’s a mandate to see and enact what others might call impossible. As Dr. Gerald Mann frequently points out, there isn’t a positive achievement in the history of the world that wasn’t at first thought to be impossible.
Jesus says that all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). He also says that when we ask in His Name, He can make good things happen (John 14:13). It only takes people willing to ask, “What if...?” and to enlist the help of God. To God, impossibilities are mere impediments.
Every human being has a call to be an imagineer of the spirit! What if we all asked God to help us become our best and most positively achieving selves? The possibilities are endless!
How about when we’re confronted with a nettlesome problem?
Last week, while visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, I spent some time window-shopping at Downtown Disney, a fantastic collection of shops, restaurants, and theaters. One of the shops specializes in selling Disney animation art: painted scenes from movies, numbered posters based on various animated features and characters, and other items. Being a book lover, though, I was naturally drawn to its books about Walt Disney and Disney’s animated art.
I leafed through one book produced by Disney’s “imagineers." The imagineers are that creative band of Disney “cast members” who spawn an array of innovative animation techniques, intriguing theme park attractions, and fetching resort motifs.
One passage in the book really struck me. It said that the most important question the imagineers ask is, “What if...?”
As I read that, I reflected that probably every positive event in history started by asking that question.
Galileo must have asked, “What if my observations are true, that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around?”
The Wright Brothers, toiling away with their wind tunnel experiments probably asked, “What if a wing with the shape of a teardrop will give a flying machine the lift it needs to take flight?”
Martin Luther must have asked, “What if the Church is wrong and the Bible is right, that human beings don’t have to earn or buy an everlasting relationship with God? What if a relationship with God comes to human beings as the Bible says it does, as a gift to us when we turn from sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness and life?”
“What if...?” is a powerful question and it rarely gets asked. Unfortunately, most of us are frightened to ask it. We’re stuck in our comfortable ruts. But, what if, in our personal lives, we asked that question more often?
What if the married couple stuck in a stalemate of mutual inattentiveness and resentment asked, “What if we wanted to make our marriage what God intended it to be? What would it take?”
What if parents, aware of how little time they spend with their kids and of the need to provide guidance for living to their children began to ask, “What if I wanted to become a Cliff and Claire Huxtable, Ward and June Cleaver kind of parent? How would we do that?”
What if suburbanites, fed up with the sprawl and lack of community they experience in their lives, asked, “What if we wanted to create a sense of place and togetherness here where we live?”
What if ordinary Americans, concerned about the perception of our country that seems to exist globally, decided to find creative ways to reach out to other nations and show what America is really all about?”
For the follower of Jesus Christ, it may be a sin when we fail to ask, “What if...?” God, after all, wants us to use our brains to improve life for ourselves and for others. In Genesis, God tells the human race:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth!” (Genesis 1:26-27, The Message translation)
This isn’t a license to lives spent in comfortable ruts. It’s a mandate to ask, “What if...” and to see and enact new possibilities.
In fact, it’s a mandate to see and enact what others might call impossible. As Dr. Gerald Mann frequently points out, there isn’t a positive achievement in the history of the world that wasn’t at first thought to be impossible.
Jesus says that all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). He also says that when we ask in His Name, He can make good things happen (John 14:13). It only takes people willing to ask, “What if...?” and to enlist the help of God. To God, impossibilities are mere impediments.
Every human being has a call to be an imagineer of the spirit! What if we all asked God to help us become our best and most positively achieving selves? The possibilities are endless!
Monday, June 28, 2004
Prayers Still Needed for Maupin Family
Major news outlets are carrying the report that Matt Maupin, the young man from our community, has been executed by an Iraqi militant group. Please pray for Matt's family, asking God to give them strength, encouragement, and comfort. Pray also for an early, peaceful end to this conflict, please.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Meeting America at Disney World
During my recent four-day stay at Disney World, I became acquainted with a man named Thomas. He works in the food courts of two different Disney resorts. Thomas is thus employed at two full-time jobs. He came to America from India several years ago. "We always heard that America is the land where dreams come true," he told me with a smile. "My brother had lived here for awhile and told us how wonderful it is. So, we applied to come into the country."
Seeing that I was interested in his story, Thomas went on. "It took two-and-a-half years, but we were accepted."
"Do you like it?" I asked.
"We love it! You can do anything in America!."
Both Thomas and his wife work entry level jobs, although Thomas, at any rate, is an obviously well-educated person. For him, whether he attains financial success or not, the American Dream has already happened. In fact, that's precisely what he told me. Just living in a land that has the look, feel, and smell of freedom and goodness that America has (characteristics that those of us born in this country often take for granted) is nearly beyond the wildest imaginings of most people on this planet.
For several years now, I've been arguing that we need to recover the original meaning of that phrase, "The American Dream." Today, it's almost exclusively associated with having fat wallets. But that's not what it meant to the originators of the slogan, "The American Dream." For them, it meant the dream, unrealized in most of the world for any of recorded time, of freedom within the context of caring community. I've also argued that the dream is only possible when people are rooted in Christ, precisely the argument made by one of the Founders, John Adams. Without Christ, freedom degenerates into license, mobocracy, or materialism.
Among the things that make America unique--or at least, made it unique at its founding--is that it was a country that chose to come into being. It came together by compact, not by conquest, custom, or more traditional means. The thirteen original states entered a kind of marriage contract and announced to the world, "We're hitched."
The hitching coalesced, at least in part, around a set of common ideals, most of which we still don't fully live. But as one of my Political Science professors, B. James Kweder at The Ohio State University (later Cleveland State University) used to drill into our heads, the story of America is really the story of a nation fitfully but deliberately moving toward the expansion of the American promise embodied in the Declaration of Independence. All but a few of the amendments to the US Constitution have been about expanding the blessings of freedom within a community of caring and mutual accountability, thus embodying the ideals of our country.
Some days after the death of Henry Clay, a young Illinois politician gave a eulogy in Chicago. Clay was Abraham Lincoln's "beau ideal" of a statesman because Clay believed that America was more than just land sprawling across the Western Hemisphere. America was an ideal. America, in a phrase that Lincoln would later use, was the last best hope of the world.
Of course, I don't believe that America is the world's last, best hope. Only the God we know through Jesus Christ can claim that. America is a nation on a globe hurtling toward eventual extinction. God is immortal and eternal. He offers a spot in eternity to all who will place their hope not in temporary, earthly things, but in Christ.
But the American Dream, the American experiment, is noteworthy. Two-hundred, twenty-eight years after it bubbled forth from that laboratory in Philadelphia, that experiment--for all of America's faults, sins, and problems--is still working.
Thomas and people the world over who have come to these shores or who have ever wanted to, prove that.
Seeing that I was interested in his story, Thomas went on. "It took two-and-a-half years, but we were accepted."
"Do you like it?" I asked.
"We love it! You can do anything in America!."
Both Thomas and his wife work entry level jobs, although Thomas, at any rate, is an obviously well-educated person. For him, whether he attains financial success or not, the American Dream has already happened. In fact, that's precisely what he told me. Just living in a land that has the look, feel, and smell of freedom and goodness that America has (characteristics that those of us born in this country often take for granted) is nearly beyond the wildest imaginings of most people on this planet.
For several years now, I've been arguing that we need to recover the original meaning of that phrase, "The American Dream." Today, it's almost exclusively associated with having fat wallets. But that's not what it meant to the originators of the slogan, "The American Dream." For them, it meant the dream, unrealized in most of the world for any of recorded time, of freedom within the context of caring community. I've also argued that the dream is only possible when people are rooted in Christ, precisely the argument made by one of the Founders, John Adams. Without Christ, freedom degenerates into license, mobocracy, or materialism.
Among the things that make America unique--or at least, made it unique at its founding--is that it was a country that chose to come into being. It came together by compact, not by conquest, custom, or more traditional means. The thirteen original states entered a kind of marriage contract and announced to the world, "We're hitched."
The hitching coalesced, at least in part, around a set of common ideals, most of which we still don't fully live. But as one of my Political Science professors, B. James Kweder at The Ohio State University (later Cleveland State University) used to drill into our heads, the story of America is really the story of a nation fitfully but deliberately moving toward the expansion of the American promise embodied in the Declaration of Independence. All but a few of the amendments to the US Constitution have been about expanding the blessings of freedom within a community of caring and mutual accountability, thus embodying the ideals of our country.
Some days after the death of Henry Clay, a young Illinois politician gave a eulogy in Chicago. Clay was Abraham Lincoln's "beau ideal" of a statesman because Clay believed that America was more than just land sprawling across the Western Hemisphere. America was an ideal. America, in a phrase that Lincoln would later use, was the last best hope of the world.
Of course, I don't believe that America is the world's last, best hope. Only the God we know through Jesus Christ can claim that. America is a nation on a globe hurtling toward eventual extinction. God is immortal and eternal. He offers a spot in eternity to all who will place their hope not in temporary, earthly things, but in Christ.
But the American Dream, the American experiment, is noteworthy. Two-hundred, twenty-eight years after it bubbled forth from that laboratory in Philadelphia, that experiment--for all of America's faults, sins, and problems--is still working.
Thomas and people the world over who have come to these shores or who have ever wanted to, prove that.
The Wonderful World of Mark at Disney World, Part One
Riding on the shuttle train at the Orlando Airport last week, there was a family of four---a mom, a dad, and two little boys. The youngest of the two appeared to be about four years old. He was dressed, appropriately for these ninety-five degree, central Florida days, in shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, and sunglasses. He and the letter "r" apparently weren’t getting along well yet. Straining to see what he could from his lower vantage point, holding onto the handrail of the train, he looked at his parents and asked, "Aw we at Disney Woold yet?"
I can understand his impatience. I know that Walt Disney World in Orlando is a mecca of rapacious consumerism, a shrine to corporate branding, a come-on for those mired in materialism. Disney World would be a great place to start a twelve-step program for those addicted to "stuff." I know all of that. I know too, that the employees (cast members, they're called) don't always smile and aren't always singing, "Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test.”
But Disney World is still a repository of almost holy fantasies and wholesome dreams: a place that encourages us to believe in such virtues as hospitality, friendliness, love of neighbor, love of family and home, and even true love. A belief that all the diverse members of the human race can live together in peace and that we can interact with the earth’s environment without despoiling it are also part of the Disney vision, it seems. The fact that this sprawling set of theme parks and resort hotels and the entertainment corporation that spawns it so successfully uphold these ideals---and even appear to live them most of the time---is amazing!
The fact that this gigantic venture falls short of completely fulfilling those ideals is no surprise. Even at Walt Disney World, weary cast members snap at guests. There is litter that hasn't yet been cleaned up. There are souvenirs that are brazenly overpriced. And even Uncle Walt and all his imagineers couldn't create a separate world in which the sin of unregenerate human beings was banished. The Bible affirms that we are all born in sin (in Psalm 51, among other places); so Disney World's guests bring their sinful impulses and inclinations with them for the price of admission. Cast members clock in with their foibles as well. Only Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, can usher us into a whole new world where sin is no more, where a people made new by God after turning from sin, surrendering their wills, and walking through the valley of death with Christ, will live forever.
But there is something special about Walt Disney World. When the cast members tell you to "Have a magical day," there are times when you nearly feel the magic. Disney World may not be your idea of heaven. It embodies some of mine. But for all of us, I suspect, it reflects our fondest hopes, dreams, and yearnings. It shows us that even in this imperfect world, we can find hints of how it might be for us to live in a kingdom of love. It makes us realize that, contrary to what negative sourpusses who call themselves Christian might say, there are things about this world in which we live that are--or have the potential for being---fine and true and shimmering with innocence and blessedness.
That realization makes you wish that this world---a world of churning oceans and majestic mountains, of Redwoods and Blackeyed Susans, of the Eiffel Tower and even Disney World, could last forever and ever. We know that ultimately this world and everything that human hands have devised in it cannot survive. Both the scientists and theologians agree on that. But, oh, how we ache for it to not be so! We long for paradise and accustomed to this place and its sometimes breathtaking beauty, we wish--we ache--that this could be it.
It isn't just for a dazzling present or a better future that we long, though. C.S. Lewis spoke of those "good dreams" which seemed to reside in the memories and psyches of every human culture. The dreams weren't just of a future paradise. These good dreams contain an awaremess that something old, wonderful, and lost needs restoring. Composer Randy Stonehill gave eloquent voice to our good dreams in a mid-1980s song, when he wrote: "Like a child who dreams of flying and aches for something more, We hold the dim remembrance of an ancient golden shore."
Somehow, in spite of our efforts to bury the truth or to deny it or to delude ourselves, we know that there is a baby in the bathwater. There was an Eden and we believe, hope, and pine for it to be not just a place in our past, but also the place of our future. We know, irrespective of our grumbling, our cynicism, our selfishness, or our attempts to gracelessly quantify a world in which there are still mysterious unknowns, that there is something wonderful and worthy of redemption in the human soul and in the world we inhabit.
So does God! That’s why He became one of us two-thousand years ago. That’s why He shared our death, though He didn't deserve it. That’s why He rose from dead. He came to give us a second chance at paradise. That’s why He told a criminal who hung on a cross next to him, who’d asked to be remembered with Jesus on the other side of death, “Today you will be with Me in paradise!”
Today, on this creeking, beautiful planet, ambiguity prevails. Even our seemingly perfect Disney Worlds are infected by sin. Our Grand Canyons and purple mountains majesty show the effects of human shortcomings. The Bible says that right now, all of creation groans under the weight of human sin (Romans 7).
But there is hope! His Name is Jesus! This isn't heaven. But our good dreams tell us that there is such a place. God has inserted a holy hunger for it in every human soul. We try to feed that hunger with junk food---and ultimately, even my beloved Disney World is junk food. But Jesus, Who called Himself the living bread from heaven (John 6), is the real deal. Until we cross over from this life into the next, we can feast on His Word and His holy meal and know that there is a paradise awaiting us. As we turn from sin and turn to Jesus, we see that the good dreams are true. We see that God is for us and that in the end, the good dreams will come to pass and we will walk and live and laugh and love in the presence of God forever!
I can understand his impatience. I know that Walt Disney World in Orlando is a mecca of rapacious consumerism, a shrine to corporate branding, a come-on for those mired in materialism. Disney World would be a great place to start a twelve-step program for those addicted to "stuff." I know all of that. I know too, that the employees (cast members, they're called) don't always smile and aren't always singing, "Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test.”
But Disney World is still a repository of almost holy fantasies and wholesome dreams: a place that encourages us to believe in such virtues as hospitality, friendliness, love of neighbor, love of family and home, and even true love. A belief that all the diverse members of the human race can live together in peace and that we can interact with the earth’s environment without despoiling it are also part of the Disney vision, it seems. The fact that this sprawling set of theme parks and resort hotels and the entertainment corporation that spawns it so successfully uphold these ideals---and even appear to live them most of the time---is amazing!
The fact that this gigantic venture falls short of completely fulfilling those ideals is no surprise. Even at Walt Disney World, weary cast members snap at guests. There is litter that hasn't yet been cleaned up. There are souvenirs that are brazenly overpriced. And even Uncle Walt and all his imagineers couldn't create a separate world in which the sin of unregenerate human beings was banished. The Bible affirms that we are all born in sin (in Psalm 51, among other places); so Disney World's guests bring their sinful impulses and inclinations with them for the price of admission. Cast members clock in with their foibles as well. Only Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, can usher us into a whole new world where sin is no more, where a people made new by God after turning from sin, surrendering their wills, and walking through the valley of death with Christ, will live forever.
But there is something special about Walt Disney World. When the cast members tell you to "Have a magical day," there are times when you nearly feel the magic. Disney World may not be your idea of heaven. It embodies some of mine. But for all of us, I suspect, it reflects our fondest hopes, dreams, and yearnings. It shows us that even in this imperfect world, we can find hints of how it might be for us to live in a kingdom of love. It makes us realize that, contrary to what negative sourpusses who call themselves Christian might say, there are things about this world in which we live that are--or have the potential for being---fine and true and shimmering with innocence and blessedness.
That realization makes you wish that this world---a world of churning oceans and majestic mountains, of Redwoods and Blackeyed Susans, of the Eiffel Tower and even Disney World, could last forever and ever. We know that ultimately this world and everything that human hands have devised in it cannot survive. Both the scientists and theologians agree on that. But, oh, how we ache for it to not be so! We long for paradise and accustomed to this place and its sometimes breathtaking beauty, we wish--we ache--that this could be it.
It isn't just for a dazzling present or a better future that we long, though. C.S. Lewis spoke of those "good dreams" which seemed to reside in the memories and psyches of every human culture. The dreams weren't just of a future paradise. These good dreams contain an awaremess that something old, wonderful, and lost needs restoring. Composer Randy Stonehill gave eloquent voice to our good dreams in a mid-1980s song, when he wrote: "Like a child who dreams of flying and aches for something more, We hold the dim remembrance of an ancient golden shore."
Somehow, in spite of our efforts to bury the truth or to deny it or to delude ourselves, we know that there is a baby in the bathwater. There was an Eden and we believe, hope, and pine for it to be not just a place in our past, but also the place of our future. We know, irrespective of our grumbling, our cynicism, our selfishness, or our attempts to gracelessly quantify a world in which there are still mysterious unknowns, that there is something wonderful and worthy of redemption in the human soul and in the world we inhabit.
So does God! That’s why He became one of us two-thousand years ago. That’s why He shared our death, though He didn't deserve it. That’s why He rose from dead. He came to give us a second chance at paradise. That’s why He told a criminal who hung on a cross next to him, who’d asked to be remembered with Jesus on the other side of death, “Today you will be with Me in paradise!”
Today, on this creeking, beautiful planet, ambiguity prevails. Even our seemingly perfect Disney Worlds are infected by sin. Our Grand Canyons and purple mountains majesty show the effects of human shortcomings. The Bible says that right now, all of creation groans under the weight of human sin (Romans 7).
But there is hope! His Name is Jesus! This isn't heaven. But our good dreams tell us that there is such a place. God has inserted a holy hunger for it in every human soul. We try to feed that hunger with junk food---and ultimately, even my beloved Disney World is junk food. But Jesus, Who called Himself the living bread from heaven (John 6), is the real deal. Until we cross over from this life into the next, we can feast on His Word and His holy meal and know that there is a paradise awaiting us. As we turn from sin and turn to Jesus, we see that the good dreams are true. We see that God is for us and that in the end, the good dreams will come to pass and we will walk and live and laugh and love in the presence of God forever!
Sunday, June 20, 2004
The Happiness Project: Good Grief
Matthew 5:1-2, 4
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, June 20, 2004)
Some of you may have read a true story I told in a recent column. A friend of mine had gone to a funeral home viewing. The wife of a high school classmate had died and my friend wanted to pay respects. Later, he went to a family function and his twin brother asked why he’d been late. He mentioned the viewing and his twin, who, of course, was also a classmate of the widowed man asked breezily, “Oh yeah, how’s he doing?” My friend was a bit taken aback by his brother’s insensitive attitude. He began to reply, “Well, as you’d expect. It’s pretty hard.” But his twin brother was incredulous. He couldn’t understand how this classmate could be grief-stricken. With some condescension, the twin said that as a Christian, the classmate had a hope for resurrection and with that, he had no reason to feel grief. My friend was so thunderstruck by his brother’s words that he didn’t know what to say.
Grief comes in many forms in this life. Loved ones die. Jobs are lost. Relationships end. Friends move away. Cherished dreams go unmet. And even the ardent follower of the God we know through Jesus Christ isn’t exempt. Even Jesus grieved. He wept bitter tears in the garden of Gethsemane just before He was arrested, knowing that soon He would lose His life. He wept at the gravesite of His friend, Lazarus. He poured out a grief-stricken lament over the hardness of heart of Jerusalem, saddened that so many would turn from God and so throw away their eternal lives. Even though all who follow Jesus have an everlasting hope of life with God forever, we still are subject to grief. We mourn.
But there is a difference in our mourning. This is the second installment of a series we're calling The Happiness Project. We're exploring the elements of the happy life that Jesus illustrates during an intimate time of teaching His closest followers. It's found in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. The twelve verses we’re exploring are often called The Beatitudes. Last week, He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This week, He tells us, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Now, as I mentioned last week—and will probably mention every week of this series, the word that the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible translates as blessed can equally well be translated as fortunate, blissed out, or happy. But it's fair to ask: What on earth is there to be happy about in mourning? Not a thing. But you and I can go through either good grief or bad grief. It’s those who can go through their grief well who are the happy people of the world. They're happy because God comforts them.
We all know about the bad ways people grieve, I suppose. One bad way to grieve is to deny our sense of loss. We try to gloss over our pain with religion or fake optimism or a hard-shell. The problem with denial is that it doesn’t work. Eventually, the pain catches up with us. When suppressed, grief may lead us to unrelieved depression, physical illness, or to closing ourselves off from the outside world.
Another bad way to grieve is to develop what I call, rather indelicately, emotional diarrhea. It’s the polar opposite of denial. The mother of a woman I knew died. The woman and her mother always had a strained relationship. Angry, bitter words passed between them all the time. The mother hurled the most insulting, cruelties you can imagine at her daughter. But at the funeral home, the daughter began a sob-fest that could only be described as a phony show. For a long time afterwards, she would weep uncontrollably over her mother, not because of her loss or a sense of regret, it seemed obvious, but because this gave her attention.
That’s bad grief. But, according to Lutheran pastor and chaplain Granger Westberg, good grief—mourning our losses healthfully and well---has four results (my paraphrase):
Jesus says that His followers can be comforted when they mourn. They can experience good grief. My observation is that this happens in three basic ways. First: We let Christ have access to our sorrows. We surrender to Him. One of my favorite incidents in the Bible happens when Jesus is met by a man who asks Jesus to cast a demon from his son. He begs Jesus, “if you are able,” please help him.
It’s hard to surrender to Christ, especially when we may feel tempted to blame our grief on Him. But we remember that Jesus is, as the Bible tells us, "a man of sorrows, well-acquainted with grief." We remember that even when we don’t understand, He understands us and what we’re going through. The Man Who went to a cross knows what it is to suffer through no fault of our own. He knows about grief. We may not feel capable of surrender. But if it’s our desire to place ourselves in His strong hands, He will catch us. He will see us through. When we want to surrender, all we have to do is to want to want to do just that!
In 1986, Merton and Irene Stommen lost the youngest of their five sons. He’d gotten through college and seminary and was just a few months away of achieving his life-long dream of becoming a pastor. He’d taken a group of young people to a Christian camp in Colorado when an afternoon thunderstorm came along. David Strommen, full of faith and promise, was struck by lightning and killed immediately. Mert Strommen is a devout Christian, pastor, and research psychologist. Irene, also a committed Jesus-follower, is a counselor. Their sense of loss was enormous. They’ve learned that no matter how deep one’s faith, you never “get over” loss. But, when we place our grieving souls in the death-scarred hands of Jesus, He will carry us, strengthen us, and renew our capacity for living.
Second: We grieve well when we let others help us with our grief. In both Old and New Testament times, they had elaborate rituals for people to use as they grieved. In fact, whenever the Bible uses those words grieve or mourn, it’s referring to both the saddened heart that goes with loss and to the formal rituals used to acknowledge the loss. Many of these rituals can be a huge help, especially when loved ones and friends we invite to take some of our journey through grief with us, are able to come alongside us. A buddy of mine had just lost the love of his life. She’d gone to be with another man. I felt inadequate as we sat together. All I did was listen and tell him how sorry I was and that I would pray for him. Later, he told me, that was all that he’d needed.
Finally, we grieve well when we have hope beyond today, the hope that Jesus gives to all who follow Him. Not only is the sun likely to come up tomorrow, God’s only Son Jesus has said that beyond life on this planet, all who turn from sin and follow Him will be with God forever. True story. The Rogers family were devout Christians. During their family prayer times, the parents often asked the children in their family to express how they knew they had eternal life. Seven year old Jimmy said:
A few days later, a car struck Jimmy Rogers down. He was rushed to the hospital and the whole family was called. The doctors said they’d done all that was possible. The family gathered around Jimmy, motionless and unconscious, and they prayed. Late in the night, Jimmy stirred. They saw his lips move and form a single word. But what a word. Jimmy rasped out, “Here!” and he died.
Grief comes to us in many forms in this life. But when surrender ourselves and our sorrows to Christ; when we let others share our griefs; and when we let God give us a hope beyond the grave, we experience good grief. God gives us a happiness that nothing can destroy!
Notes:
[The true story of Jimmy Rogers is told in Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit. I heartily recommend this book as well as the others mentioned in this message.
[My understanding of the Biblical definitions for the words blessed, mourn, and comfort all were strengthened by consulting the monumental and, for any preacher or theologian, essential, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament by Kittel.]
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, June 20, 2004)
Some of you may have read a true story I told in a recent column. A friend of mine had gone to a funeral home viewing. The wife of a high school classmate had died and my friend wanted to pay respects. Later, he went to a family function and his twin brother asked why he’d been late. He mentioned the viewing and his twin, who, of course, was also a classmate of the widowed man asked breezily, “Oh yeah, how’s he doing?” My friend was a bit taken aback by his brother’s insensitive attitude. He began to reply, “Well, as you’d expect. It’s pretty hard.” But his twin brother was incredulous. He couldn’t understand how this classmate could be grief-stricken. With some condescension, the twin said that as a Christian, the classmate had a hope for resurrection and with that, he had no reason to feel grief. My friend was so thunderstruck by his brother’s words that he didn’t know what to say.
Grief comes in many forms in this life. Loved ones die. Jobs are lost. Relationships end. Friends move away. Cherished dreams go unmet. And even the ardent follower of the God we know through Jesus Christ isn’t exempt. Even Jesus grieved. He wept bitter tears in the garden of Gethsemane just before He was arrested, knowing that soon He would lose His life. He wept at the gravesite of His friend, Lazarus. He poured out a grief-stricken lament over the hardness of heart of Jerusalem, saddened that so many would turn from God and so throw away their eternal lives. Even though all who follow Jesus have an everlasting hope of life with God forever, we still are subject to grief. We mourn.
But there is a difference in our mourning. This is the second installment of a series we're calling The Happiness Project. We're exploring the elements of the happy life that Jesus illustrates during an intimate time of teaching His closest followers. It's found in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. The twelve verses we’re exploring are often called The Beatitudes. Last week, He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This week, He tells us, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Now, as I mentioned last week—and will probably mention every week of this series, the word that the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible translates as blessed can equally well be translated as fortunate, blissed out, or happy. But it's fair to ask: What on earth is there to be happy about in mourning? Not a thing. But you and I can go through either good grief or bad grief. It’s those who can go through their grief well who are the happy people of the world. They're happy because God comforts them.
We all know about the bad ways people grieve, I suppose. One bad way to grieve is to deny our sense of loss. We try to gloss over our pain with religion or fake optimism or a hard-shell. The problem with denial is that it doesn’t work. Eventually, the pain catches up with us. When suppressed, grief may lead us to unrelieved depression, physical illness, or to closing ourselves off from the outside world.
Another bad way to grieve is to develop what I call, rather indelicately, emotional diarrhea. It’s the polar opposite of denial. The mother of a woman I knew died. The woman and her mother always had a strained relationship. Angry, bitter words passed between them all the time. The mother hurled the most insulting, cruelties you can imagine at her daughter. But at the funeral home, the daughter began a sob-fest that could only be described as a phony show. For a long time afterwards, she would weep uncontrollably over her mother, not because of her loss or a sense of regret, it seemed obvious, but because this gave her attention.
That’s bad grief. But, according to Lutheran pastor and chaplain Granger Westberg, good grief—mourning our losses healthfully and well---has four results (my paraphrase):
1. We emerge from our grief at a higher level of maturity.
2. We become deeper people because despair has taken us to deeper levels of experience.
3. We become stronger. Grief is like a spiritual obstacle course, where we learn to rely on God and God gives us greater spiritual muscle.
4. We come out of our grief better able to help others because we understand something of the pain they’re feeling.
Jesus says that His followers can be comforted when they mourn. They can experience good grief. My observation is that this happens in three basic ways. First: We let Christ have access to our sorrows. We surrender to Him. One of my favorite incidents in the Bible happens when Jesus is met by a man who asks Jesus to cast a demon from his son. He begs Jesus, “if you are able,” please help him.
Jesus said to Him, “If you are able—All things can be done for the one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief.”
It’s hard to surrender to Christ, especially when we may feel tempted to blame our grief on Him. But we remember that Jesus is, as the Bible tells us, "a man of sorrows, well-acquainted with grief." We remember that even when we don’t understand, He understands us and what we’re going through. The Man Who went to a cross knows what it is to suffer through no fault of our own. He knows about grief. We may not feel capable of surrender. But if it’s our desire to place ourselves in His strong hands, He will catch us. He will see us through. When we want to surrender, all we have to do is to want to want to do just that!
In 1986, Merton and Irene Stommen lost the youngest of their five sons. He’d gotten through college and seminary and was just a few months away of achieving his life-long dream of becoming a pastor. He’d taken a group of young people to a Christian camp in Colorado when an afternoon thunderstorm came along. David Strommen, full of faith and promise, was struck by lightning and killed immediately. Mert Strommen is a devout Christian, pastor, and research psychologist. Irene, also a committed Jesus-follower, is a counselor. Their sense of loss was enormous. They’ve learned that no matter how deep one’s faith, you never “get over” loss. But, when we place our grieving souls in the death-scarred hands of Jesus, He will carry us, strengthen us, and renew our capacity for living.
Second: We grieve well when we let others help us with our grief. In both Old and New Testament times, they had elaborate rituals for people to use as they grieved. In fact, whenever the Bible uses those words grieve or mourn, it’s referring to both the saddened heart that goes with loss and to the formal rituals used to acknowledge the loss. Many of these rituals can be a huge help, especially when loved ones and friends we invite to take some of our journey through grief with us, are able to come alongside us. A buddy of mine had just lost the love of his life. She’d gone to be with another man. I felt inadequate as we sat together. All I did was listen and tell him how sorry I was and that I would pray for him. Later, he told me, that was all that he’d needed.
Finally, we grieve well when we have hope beyond today, the hope that Jesus gives to all who follow Him. Not only is the sun likely to come up tomorrow, God’s only Son Jesus has said that beyond life on this planet, all who turn from sin and follow Him will be with God forever. True story. The Rogers family were devout Christians. During their family prayer times, the parents often asked the children in their family to express how they knew they had eternal life. Seven year old Jimmy said:
[I think heaven will be like this.] One day when we all get to heaven, it will be time for the big angel to read from the big book the names of all the people who will be there. He will come to the Rogers family and say, “Daddy Rogers?” and Daddy will say, “Here!” Then the angel will call out, “Mommy Rogers?” and Mommy will say, “Here!” Then the angel will come down to call out Susie Rogers and Mavis Rogers, and they will both say, “Here!” And finally, the big angel will read my name, Jimmy Rogers, and because I’m little and maybe he’ll miss me, I’ll jump and shout real loud, ‘HERE!’ to make sure he knows I’m there.”
A few days later, a car struck Jimmy Rogers down. He was rushed to the hospital and the whole family was called. The doctors said they’d done all that was possible. The family gathered around Jimmy, motionless and unconscious, and they prayed. Late in the night, Jimmy stirred. They saw his lips move and form a single word. But what a word. Jimmy rasped out, “Here!” and he died.
Grief comes to us in many forms in this life. But when surrender ourselves and our sorrows to Christ; when we let others share our griefs; and when we let God give us a hope beyond the grave, we experience good grief. God gives us a happiness that nothing can destroy!
Notes:
[The true story of Jimmy Rogers is told in Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit. I heartily recommend this book as well as the others mentioned in this message.
[My understanding of the Biblical definitions for the words blessed, mourn, and comfort all were strengthened by consulting the monumental and, for any preacher or theologian, essential, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament by Kittel.]
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Prayers Needed for Matt Maupin
I’ve never met Matt Maupin. Our daughter, who graduated from Glen Este High School in 2003, is acquainted with him and remembers that at Sam’s Club, where they both worked, Matt was unfailingly kind, always encouraging. Away on a college internship, our daughter cried when she saw the videotape released by Matt’s captors on network news.
I suppose that like all people in the tristate this morning, my thoughts have been with Matt. The execution of Paul M. Johnson, Jr., by a cell of al-Qaida yesterday, only heightens the sense of danger one has for Matt Maupin.
It also can lend power to our prayers, I think. In one of my favorite books, Prayer by Ole Hallesby, we’re told that prayer consists of two things: helplessness and faith. Those two elements have certainly been present whenever I have genuinely prayed. And they’re present in my prayers for Matt Maupin today.
Often, when we pray, we simply ask God to bless what we’ve already decided that we’re going to do. Or, we ask God to endorse our solution to a problem.
But when we’re helpless, we realize that only God knows best. Until we’re helpless, we won’t get out of God’s way and allow Him to do His will.
The truly helpless person gives God a blank check and says, “It’s too big for me, God. Please take control of the situation. If there’s something I need to do, I’ll do it; just show me. But I want You to call the shots, come up with the plan, do what’s best.”
As to that other element of genuine prayer, faith, Jesus says that we don’t need much faith when we pray. He says that with faith as small as a tiny mustard seed, mountains can be moved.
So, this morning, I prayed again for Matt Maupin. I prayed for his safe release. I prayed that God would comfort and encourage his family as they endure the agony of waiting.
But I also prayed that wherever Matt may be right now, that Jesus will go to him, wrap His burly carpenter arms around Matt, and let Matt know that God has not forgotten him. I asked Jesus to assure Matt that he is loved by God, and also by his family and friends. I asked God also to provide for Matt’s physical needs as he endures captivity. And I prayed that God will open the hearts of his captors and decide to set Matt free.
I look forward to the day when Matt Maupin can return to his family and friends and to our community. Right now, I feel helpless and I feel trust. I’m helpless because this is a situation bigger than any of us, a situation unfolding thousands of miles away from us in Union Township. And I feel trust, faith, not in my own mountain-moving faith; I feel faith in the mighty Mountain Mover. We need God, the Mountain Mover, not just to obtain Matt’s release, but to provide for Matt’s needs while still being held.
No matter how discouraging the news these past few days, let’s keep offering up our prayers to God for Matt Maupin. God is the one Who can light Matt’s way home!
I suppose that like all people in the tristate this morning, my thoughts have been with Matt. The execution of Paul M. Johnson, Jr., by a cell of al-Qaida yesterday, only heightens the sense of danger one has for Matt Maupin.
It also can lend power to our prayers, I think. In one of my favorite books, Prayer by Ole Hallesby, we’re told that prayer consists of two things: helplessness and faith. Those two elements have certainly been present whenever I have genuinely prayed. And they’re present in my prayers for Matt Maupin today.
Often, when we pray, we simply ask God to bless what we’ve already decided that we’re going to do. Or, we ask God to endorse our solution to a problem.
But when we’re helpless, we realize that only God knows best. Until we’re helpless, we won’t get out of God’s way and allow Him to do His will.
The truly helpless person gives God a blank check and says, “It’s too big for me, God. Please take control of the situation. If there’s something I need to do, I’ll do it; just show me. But I want You to call the shots, come up with the plan, do what’s best.”
As to that other element of genuine prayer, faith, Jesus says that we don’t need much faith when we pray. He says that with faith as small as a tiny mustard seed, mountains can be moved.
So, this morning, I prayed again for Matt Maupin. I prayed for his safe release. I prayed that God would comfort and encourage his family as they endure the agony of waiting.
But I also prayed that wherever Matt may be right now, that Jesus will go to him, wrap His burly carpenter arms around Matt, and let Matt know that God has not forgotten him. I asked Jesus to assure Matt that he is loved by God, and also by his family and friends. I asked God also to provide for Matt’s physical needs as he endures captivity. And I prayed that God will open the hearts of his captors and decide to set Matt free.
I look forward to the day when Matt Maupin can return to his family and friends and to our community. Right now, I feel helpless and I feel trust. I’m helpless because this is a situation bigger than any of us, a situation unfolding thousands of miles away from us in Union Township. And I feel trust, faith, not in my own mountain-moving faith; I feel faith in the mighty Mountain Mover. We need God, the Mountain Mover, not just to obtain Matt’s release, but to provide for Matt’s needs while still being held.
No matter how discouraging the news these past few days, let’s keep offering up our prayers to God for Matt Maupin. God is the one Who can light Matt’s way home!
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
A New Approach to Naming Our Greatest Presidents
An intriguing article about a recent poll conducted among historians to determine who the greatest US Presidents has appeared recently in Opinion Journal. What makes this poll so different from others I've seen is that it makes an effort to screen out various biases, whether those created by ideology or others by proximity in time. I think the collective judgment of historians on the worst president was right on: James Buchanan. (In fact, earlier today, my son asked me who I thought our worst president was and it was no problem naming Buchanan, who treated his duties with malignant neglect, as the bottom of the barrel.)
The historians judged Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt as great presidents. Frankly, I would put Washington in a category of his own. Twice in an illustrious public career, Washington walked away from the implicit possibility of absolute power. He taught the world how power can be peacefully transferred and how to function as the elected leader of a nation-state.
Eisenhower deserves more credit for greatness than he gets. I hope that the recent release of many of his presidential notes, memos, and letters will wake people up to the fact that he was a shrewd and great presidential leader. After his quick wrap-up of Harry Truman's war in Korea, Ike presided over eight years when the U.S. was at peace, an almost impossible feat at a time of unprecedented tension owing to Soviet aggressiveness. As Eisenhower wrote in a post-presidential letter, that didn't happen by accident. Eisenhower did have a tragic blind spot to the call for equality for African-Americans, surely something that must be considered in assessing his presidency.
Of course, assessments of greatness are subjective. But it is amazing how, with the passage of time and adequate study, people of divergent views will often agree on who our greatest leaders have been.
The historians judged Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt as great presidents. Frankly, I would put Washington in a category of his own. Twice in an illustrious public career, Washington walked away from the implicit possibility of absolute power. He taught the world how power can be peacefully transferred and how to function as the elected leader of a nation-state.
Eisenhower deserves more credit for greatness than he gets. I hope that the recent release of many of his presidential notes, memos, and letters will wake people up to the fact that he was a shrewd and great presidential leader. After his quick wrap-up of Harry Truman's war in Korea, Ike presided over eight years when the U.S. was at peace, an almost impossible feat at a time of unprecedented tension owing to Soviet aggressiveness. As Eisenhower wrote in a post-presidential letter, that didn't happen by accident. Eisenhower did have a tragic blind spot to the call for equality for African-Americans, surely something that must be considered in assessing his presidency.
Of course, assessments of greatness are subjective. But it is amazing how, with the passage of time and adequate study, people of divergent views will often agree on who our greatest leaders have been.
What About Gay Marriage? (A Final Version)
I was set to preside at a wedding ceremony. Just before its scheduled start, the groom told me, "Mark, we forgot to get a marriage license. But we figured it was more important to be married in the sight of God than to have our marriage recognized by the State of Ohio."
"You figured right," I told him. "Let's get this wedding started!"
Under Ohio law, I'm authorized to perform legally recognized marital unions. As a result, couples can claim all the legal benefits (and be held to all the legal responsibilities) that the state assigns to married couples.
But I tell each couple over whose wedding I preside that I attach little significance to all that legal stuff. It's far more important that couples be truly married than that they be truly legal.
Marriage truly begins when two people, seeking God's help and the prayers of the Church, their families, and their friends, make public commitments to lives of loving faithfulness to one another. (And who renew those commitments, when they fail in them.)
I bring this up because there is a lot of talk these days about whether states should recognize "gay marriages." I want to make two points on this issue.
One: From a Biblical perspective, "gay marriage" is an oxymoron. As one person put it, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." As a Christian pastor, I would not preside over a gay wedding and would fight any mandate to do so, because I believe that it is contrary to the will of God. (For an extensive, scholarly, and sensitive discussion of this subject, you can read the book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice by Robert A. J. Gagnon.)
Two: It bothers me to see how many in the Church approach this question as a political issue, becoming invovled in lobbying. That's just caving in to the world's definition of marriage as a primarily legal or financial arrangement. Christians believe that marriage is a sacred covenant between God, a man, and a woman.
The Church's mission isn't political. The Church's mission is to call people into a personal relationship with the God made known to the world through Jesus Christ, helping people turn from sin and receive new life from Christ.
If the Church focused on its mission, many of the moral issues that are being addressed politically today would not even be political issues.
This may seem like a strange perspective coming from a preacher who once ran for political office. But the Church is not a political organization.
Church political efforts may in fact, reflect a kind of atheism, a lack of trust in God and in God's way of doing things. God's usual method for changing people's minds and hearts isn't the law that political activity seeks to change. Instead, God commissions His followers to go into the world, live authentically for Him, and tell others about the eternal changes God makes in the lives of people who turn from sin and follow Jesus Christ.
That isn't glamorous and it takes time. But it, rather than the coercion that church political activists of both the right and left seek to chisel into state and federal law, is how God changes lives for the better. God persuades us through the faithful love and witness of committed Jesus' followers.
Marriage is a sacred relationship between God, a man, and a woman. Nothing will ever change that, no matter what laws go on the books. (Although, solely as a personal opinion, I have to say that I have no objection to provision being made for civil unions of various kinds if for no other reason than to protect people's civil and economic rights. It's these factors, more than anything else that give the state an interest in people's most intimate relationships, anyway.) But, I believe that if we Christians will strive to be faithful in living for and sharing Christ with others, marriage and every other facet of life in our world will be the better for it.
"You figured right," I told him. "Let's get this wedding started!"
Under Ohio law, I'm authorized to perform legally recognized marital unions. As a result, couples can claim all the legal benefits (and be held to all the legal responsibilities) that the state assigns to married couples.
But I tell each couple over whose wedding I preside that I attach little significance to all that legal stuff. It's far more important that couples be truly married than that they be truly legal.
Marriage truly begins when two people, seeking God's help and the prayers of the Church, their families, and their friends, make public commitments to lives of loving faithfulness to one another. (And who renew those commitments, when they fail in them.)
I bring this up because there is a lot of talk these days about whether states should recognize "gay marriages." I want to make two points on this issue.
One: From a Biblical perspective, "gay marriage" is an oxymoron. As one person put it, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." As a Christian pastor, I would not preside over a gay wedding and would fight any mandate to do so, because I believe that it is contrary to the will of God. (For an extensive, scholarly, and sensitive discussion of this subject, you can read the book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice by Robert A. J. Gagnon.)
Two: It bothers me to see how many in the Church approach this question as a political issue, becoming invovled in lobbying. That's just caving in to the world's definition of marriage as a primarily legal or financial arrangement. Christians believe that marriage is a sacred covenant between God, a man, and a woman.
The Church's mission isn't political. The Church's mission is to call people into a personal relationship with the God made known to the world through Jesus Christ, helping people turn from sin and receive new life from Christ.
If the Church focused on its mission, many of the moral issues that are being addressed politically today would not even be political issues.
This may seem like a strange perspective coming from a preacher who once ran for political office. But the Church is not a political organization.
Church political efforts may in fact, reflect a kind of atheism, a lack of trust in God and in God's way of doing things. God's usual method for changing people's minds and hearts isn't the law that political activity seeks to change. Instead, God commissions His followers to go into the world, live authentically for Him, and tell others about the eternal changes God makes in the lives of people who turn from sin and follow Jesus Christ.
That isn't glamorous and it takes time. But it, rather than the coercion that church political activists of both the right and left seek to chisel into state and federal law, is how God changes lives for the better. God persuades us through the faithful love and witness of committed Jesus' followers.
Marriage is a sacred relationship between God, a man, and a woman. Nothing will ever change that, no matter what laws go on the books. (Although, solely as a personal opinion, I have to say that I have no objection to provision being made for civil unions of various kinds if for no other reason than to protect people's civil and economic rights. It's these factors, more than anything else that give the state an interest in people's most intimate relationships, anyway.) But, I believe that if we Christians will strive to be faithful in living for and sharing Christ with others, marriage and every other facet of life in our world will be the better for it.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
More Whatcha Reading?
Over the past two days, I finished reading Rutherford B. Hayes by Hans L. Trefousse and in preparation for my upcoming Sunday message, I read two short books: the classic, Good Grief by Granger Westberg and Five Cries of Grief: One Family's Journey to Healing After the Tragic Death of a Son by Merton and Irene Strommen.
A few thoughts and quotes from each...
Hayes is an interesting figure. His election in 1876 was the subject of great dispute. His Democratic challenger, Samuel J. Tilden, amassed a greater popular vote. But the results of the election were not decided upon until long after the ballots had been cast. Particularly controversial were the votes of African-Americans in Florida. Does all of this read like deja vu all over again?
In truth, the parallels between the Hayes-Tilden race of 1876 and the Bush-Gore race of 2000 are superficial. Back in Hayes' day, the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, was widely seen as being the advocate for Blacks, while the Democratic Party had yet to shake off its racist past. Democrats of that era didn't want the votes of African-Americans to be counted, not only because of their prejudices, but also because Blacks would have voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Republicans and Hayes.
Ultimately, an electoral commission decided by a one-vote majority that Hayes was the winner of the presidency. Many Democrats continued to harbor resentments against Hayes throughout his single term in office and for the rest of his life.
Hayes was a champion of civil service reform, pacifying the South, equal rights for African-Americans, and the kind of progressive reform of American business that later became a trademark of the Republican Party under Theodore Roosevelt.
Although he entered the White House under a cloud, Hayes emerged four years later---he had pledged in 1876 that he would serve only one term---as a popular president whose policies were affirmed in the 1880 election of a Republican President and Congress.
Perhaps no American president before Jimmy Carter---with the possible exception of Grover Cleveland---had a more productive, active, or publicly meaningful life after his time in office than Hayes. He gave his efforts to a number of important causes, especially to education. (He even served on the Board of Trustees of my alma mater, The Ohio State University.)
Trefousse writes of the many worthy efforts in which Hayes was involved and then says:
In this era of a large middle class and concern over the "death tax," Hayes' flirtation with limits on inheritance would be anathema. (And rightly so.) But his concern about the establishment of an American aristocracy is a typical, and appropriate, concern of conservative Republicans.
After all, it was a wealthy Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, who, a generation after Hayes was in office, would rail against "malefactors of great wealth." TR did more than rail: he actively broke up trusts and monopolies.
And he did so not because he was a raging socialist who wanted to bring down the free enterprise system. Roosevelt wanted to preserve that system. The monopolists, who have their modern counterparts, were the ones opposed to free enterprise and the cost reductions and product innovation that result. In his book, Theodore Rex, the second volume of his biography of Roosevelt, Edmund Morris quotes one of the monopolists of the day claiming that by controlling markets, mega-corporations were sparing consumers the brain-addling dilemma of choosing between competing products and services.
Reformers like Hayes and TR were responsible for conserving the best in America, keeping "malefactors of great wealth" from becoming unbridled American royalty. The added benefit to their party of course, is that their reforms secured popular support. Hayes surely had this in mind; in his 1877 Inaugural Address, he said, "He serves his party best who serves his country best."
The reform-mindedness of conservatives like Hayes and more especially Theodore Roosevelt, were responsible for a Republican domination of the White House that, with the exceptions of Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson, held from the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) all the way through that of Herbert Hoover (1929-1933). Had later Republican presidents like Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover heeded the lessons of history, they would have seen how imperative it is for conservatives to take the lead in reform, in conserving what is best from the past in order to do things better in the future. The Great Depression might have even been avoided.
Liberals have long been upset at the reforming efforts of Theodore Roosevelt, feeling that he co-opted Democratic progressives like William Jennings Bryan. One book that gives vent to this view is The Triumph of Conservatism by the New Left historian, Gabriel Kolko.
Reform is an inherently conservative pursuit. The revolutionary wants to do away with the old; the reformer wishes to conserve, while improving, it. King Josiah, in Old Testament times instituted reform, not to throw out "the faith of his fathers," but to preserve it for the next generation. Martin Luther has been aptly described by insightful historians as a "conservative reformer." He sought to unleash true, Biblical faith in a Church laden with cultural and legalistic accretions.
Rutherford B. Hayes was a reformer. We could use a few conservative reformers today.
Merton P. Strommen is one of the most distinguished and helpful voices in Lutheran Christian circles today. He's a pastor, research psychologist, and founder of the Search Institute, which has blazed the trail in showing communities how to nurture young people. His wife, A. Irene Strommen, teaches peer counseling and parenting with the Augsburg Youth and Family Institute.
Back in 1986, the Strommens' fifth and youngest son, twenty-five year old David, was struck by lightning on a Colorado mountain. He died immediately. Seven years later, the Strommens presented their journey from the moment of David's death. Each chapter presents first, Irene's and then, Merton's, reflections on that journey. The book is organized by those five "cries," which they explain early on:
As I reflect on the Strommens' list and their insistence that such cries can crop up at any time in various ways throughout the journey of grief, it matches my own observations and experiences.
This is a poignant book that refuses to sugar coat, but is shot-through with a resilient faith in Jesus Christ.
Granger E. Westberg was a pastor, hospital chaplain, and college professor who wrote Good Grief, destined to be regarded as a classic, back in 1962. It's a short little book and the writing isn't eloquent. At times, it feels a bit dated. But Westberg seems on target to me when he says that there are such things as bad grief and good grief. As he puts it:
Grief, which he insists can be triggered by everything from job transfers to death in the family, is "good," he claims in the Preface when:
Westberg then proceeds to delineate ten stages of grief, culminating in the four outcomes listed above. Westberg, in an understated way, shows how faith in God contributes to our grief coming to a "good" place.
Jesus tells us that there really is such a thing as good grief when, in the Beatitudes, He says:
A few thoughts and quotes from each...
Hayes is an interesting figure. His election in 1876 was the subject of great dispute. His Democratic challenger, Samuel J. Tilden, amassed a greater popular vote. But the results of the election were not decided upon until long after the ballots had been cast. Particularly controversial were the votes of African-Americans in Florida. Does all of this read like deja vu all over again?
In truth, the parallels between the Hayes-Tilden race of 1876 and the Bush-Gore race of 2000 are superficial. Back in Hayes' day, the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, was widely seen as being the advocate for Blacks, while the Democratic Party had yet to shake off its racist past. Democrats of that era didn't want the votes of African-Americans to be counted, not only because of their prejudices, but also because Blacks would have voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Republicans and Hayes.
Ultimately, an electoral commission decided by a one-vote majority that Hayes was the winner of the presidency. Many Democrats continued to harbor resentments against Hayes throughout his single term in office and for the rest of his life.
Hayes was a champion of civil service reform, pacifying the South, equal rights for African-Americans, and the kind of progressive reform of American business that later became a trademark of the Republican Party under Theodore Roosevelt.
Although he entered the White House under a cloud, Hayes emerged four years later---he had pledged in 1876 that he would serve only one term---as a popular president whose policies were affirmed in the 1880 election of a Republican President and Congress.
Perhaps no American president before Jimmy Carter---with the possible exception of Grover Cleveland---had a more productive, active, or publicly meaningful life after his time in office than Hayes. He gave his efforts to a number of important causes, especially to education. (He even served on the Board of Trustees of my alma mater, The Ohio State University.)
Trefousse writes of the many worthy efforts in which Hayes was involved and then says:
Another one of his causes was the control of the growing inequality of wealth. At a time when theories of laissez-faire predominated, and when it was believed that the iron law of wages could not be disturbed, to say nothing of the ever-present ideas of the survival of the fittest, [Hayes'] concern about this subject was quite unusual and forward-looking...Believing that in America the development of a permanent aristocracy of inherited wealth should not be allowed, he thought the answer might be a limitation on inheritance with the public the beneficiary of the remainder of the estate.
In this era of a large middle class and concern over the "death tax," Hayes' flirtation with limits on inheritance would be anathema. (And rightly so.) But his concern about the establishment of an American aristocracy is a typical, and appropriate, concern of conservative Republicans.
After all, it was a wealthy Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, who, a generation after Hayes was in office, would rail against "malefactors of great wealth." TR did more than rail: he actively broke up trusts and monopolies.
And he did so not because he was a raging socialist who wanted to bring down the free enterprise system. Roosevelt wanted to preserve that system. The monopolists, who have their modern counterparts, were the ones opposed to free enterprise and the cost reductions and product innovation that result. In his book, Theodore Rex, the second volume of his biography of Roosevelt, Edmund Morris quotes one of the monopolists of the day claiming that by controlling markets, mega-corporations were sparing consumers the brain-addling dilemma of choosing between competing products and services.
Reformers like Hayes and TR were responsible for conserving the best in America, keeping "malefactors of great wealth" from becoming unbridled American royalty. The added benefit to their party of course, is that their reforms secured popular support. Hayes surely had this in mind; in his 1877 Inaugural Address, he said, "He serves his party best who serves his country best."
The reform-mindedness of conservatives like Hayes and more especially Theodore Roosevelt, were responsible for a Republican domination of the White House that, with the exceptions of Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson, held from the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) all the way through that of Herbert Hoover (1929-1933). Had later Republican presidents like Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover heeded the lessons of history, they would have seen how imperative it is for conservatives to take the lead in reform, in conserving what is best from the past in order to do things better in the future. The Great Depression might have even been avoided.
Liberals have long been upset at the reforming efforts of Theodore Roosevelt, feeling that he co-opted Democratic progressives like William Jennings Bryan. One book that gives vent to this view is The Triumph of Conservatism by the New Left historian, Gabriel Kolko.
Reform is an inherently conservative pursuit. The revolutionary wants to do away with the old; the reformer wishes to conserve, while improving, it. King Josiah, in Old Testament times instituted reform, not to throw out "the faith of his fathers," but to preserve it for the next generation. Martin Luther has been aptly described by insightful historians as a "conservative reformer." He sought to unleash true, Biblical faith in a Church laden with cultural and legalistic accretions.
Rutherford B. Hayes was a reformer. We could use a few conservative reformers today.
Merton P. Strommen is one of the most distinguished and helpful voices in Lutheran Christian circles today. He's a pastor, research psychologist, and founder of the Search Institute, which has blazed the trail in showing communities how to nurture young people. His wife, A. Irene Strommen, teaches peer counseling and parenting with the Augsburg Youth and Family Institute.
Back in 1986, the Strommens' fifth and youngest son, twenty-five year old David, was struck by lightning on a Colorado mountain. He died immediately. Seven years later, the Strommens presented their journey from the moment of David's death. Each chapter presents first, Irene's and then, Merton's, reflections on that journey. The book is organized by those five "cries," which they explain early on:
...we found that the oft-quoted grief stages of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross did not fit out grief journey. True, her conceptual model may describe the stages through which grief progresses in linear fashion for persons coping with terminal disease. But for us and others whose accounts we have read, the stage theory is misleading. Rather than passing through stages in sequential fashion, we experienced at different times varying intensities of these facets of grief:
the cry of pain
the cry of longing
the cry for supportive love
the cry for understanding
the cry for significance
As I reflect on the Strommens' list and their insistence that such cries can crop up at any time in various ways throughout the journey of grief, it matches my own observations and experiences.
This is a poignant book that refuses to sugar coat, but is shot-through with a resilient faith in Jesus Christ.
Granger E. Westberg was a pastor, hospital chaplain, and college professor who wrote Good Grief, destined to be regarded as a classic, back in 1962. It's a short little book and the writing isn't eloquent. At times, it feels a bit dated. But Westberg seems on target to me when he says that there are such things as bad grief and good grief. As he puts it:
Suffering is not good, but you need not be devastated by it.
Grief, which he insists can be triggered by everything from job transfers to death in the family, is "good," he claims in the Preface when:
1. We come out of our grief experience at a slightly better level of maturity than before.
2. We come out of our grief as deeper persons, because we have been down in the depths of despair and know what it is like.
3. We come out of it stronger, for we have had to learn how to use our spiritual muscles to climb the rugged mountain trails.
4. We come out of it better able to help others. We have walked through the valley of the shadow of grief. We can understand.
Westberg then proceeds to delineate ten stages of grief, culminating in the four outcomes listed above. Westberg, in an understated way, shows how faith in God contributes to our grief coming to a "good" place.
Jesus tells us that there really is such a thing as good grief when, in the Beatitudes, He says:
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)
What About Gay Marriage?
[This is a column I've just submitted to the Community Press newspapers.]
Not long ago, I was scheduled to preside at a wedding ceremony. Just before things were to start, the groom told me, "Mark, we forgot to get a marriage license." Before I could respond, he went on, "But we figured it was more important to be married in the sight of God than to have our marriage recognized by the State of Ohio."
"You figured right," I told him. "Let's get this wedding started!"
Under the laws of Ohio, through the offices of the Secretary of State, I'm authorized, in legalese, to "solemnize marriages." It means that I can perform legally recognized marital unions in the State of Ohio and can sign papers to that effect. As a result, couples can claim all the legal benefits (and be held to all the legal responsibilities) that the state assigns to married couples.
But what I try to underscore with each couple over whose wedding I preside is that I attach little significance to all that legal stuff. It's far more important that couples be truly married than that they be truly legal.
Marriage only begins when two people, seeking God's help and the prayers of the Church, their families, and their friends, make public commitments to lives of loving faithfulness to one another. (And who commit themselves to turning back, or repenting, when they fail to be loving or faithful.)
I bring all of this up because there is a lot of talk these days about whether states should recognize gay marriages or not.
I want to make two points, which taken together are bound to anger everyone, I suppose.
One: From a Biblical perspective, "gay marriage" is an oxymoron. As one person put it, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." As a Christian pastor, I would not preside over a gay wedding because I believe that it is contrary to the will of God. (For an extensive, scholarly, and sensitive discussion of this subject, you might want to read the book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice by Robert A. J. Gagnon.)
Two: As a Christian, I'm not exercised over efforts to make gay marriages legal. The state's interest in marriage relates basically to things like property and finances, responsibility and liability. The state recognizes marriage so that basically, it can act as a referee between couples and the world and among couples when marriages go bust. That isn't the Christian's interest in marriage at all.
If the state should legalize gay marriages, I couldn't then be forced to perform a gay wedding any more than I can be forced to perform heterosexual unions now.
A lot of Christians today implore political decision-makers to chisel definitions of marriage into law or even into the Constitution. They may be right. But these efforts might also reflect a kind of atheism, a lack of trust in God and in God's way of doing things.
God's usual method for changing people's minds and hearts isn't civil law. Instead, God commissions His followers to go into the world, live authentically for Him, and tell others about the eternal changes God makes in the lives of people who turn from sin and follow Jesus Christ. That isn't glamorous. But it, rather than legal coercion, is how God changes lives for the better.
Marriage is a sacred relationship between God, a man, and a woman. Nothing will ever change that, no matter what laws go on the books. If we Christians will simply strive to be faithful in living for and sharing Christ with others, marriage and every other facet of life in our world will be the better for it.
Not long ago, I was scheduled to preside at a wedding ceremony. Just before things were to start, the groom told me, "Mark, we forgot to get a marriage license." Before I could respond, he went on, "But we figured it was more important to be married in the sight of God than to have our marriage recognized by the State of Ohio."
"You figured right," I told him. "Let's get this wedding started!"
Under the laws of Ohio, through the offices of the Secretary of State, I'm authorized, in legalese, to "solemnize marriages." It means that I can perform legally recognized marital unions in the State of Ohio and can sign papers to that effect. As a result, couples can claim all the legal benefits (and be held to all the legal responsibilities) that the state assigns to married couples.
But what I try to underscore with each couple over whose wedding I preside is that I attach little significance to all that legal stuff. It's far more important that couples be truly married than that they be truly legal.
Marriage only begins when two people, seeking God's help and the prayers of the Church, their families, and their friends, make public commitments to lives of loving faithfulness to one another. (And who commit themselves to turning back, or repenting, when they fail to be loving or faithful.)
I bring all of this up because there is a lot of talk these days about whether states should recognize gay marriages or not.
I want to make two points, which taken together are bound to anger everyone, I suppose.
One: From a Biblical perspective, "gay marriage" is an oxymoron. As one person put it, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." As a Christian pastor, I would not preside over a gay wedding because I believe that it is contrary to the will of God. (For an extensive, scholarly, and sensitive discussion of this subject, you might want to read the book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice by Robert A. J. Gagnon.)
Two: As a Christian, I'm not exercised over efforts to make gay marriages legal. The state's interest in marriage relates basically to things like property and finances, responsibility and liability. The state recognizes marriage so that basically, it can act as a referee between couples and the world and among couples when marriages go bust. That isn't the Christian's interest in marriage at all.
If the state should legalize gay marriages, I couldn't then be forced to perform a gay wedding any more than I can be forced to perform heterosexual unions now.
A lot of Christians today implore political decision-makers to chisel definitions of marriage into law or even into the Constitution. They may be right. But these efforts might also reflect a kind of atheism, a lack of trust in God and in God's way of doing things.
God's usual method for changing people's minds and hearts isn't civil law. Instead, God commissions His followers to go into the world, live authentically for Him, and tell others about the eternal changes God makes in the lives of people who turn from sin and follow Jesus Christ. That isn't glamorous. But it, rather than legal coercion, is how God changes lives for the better.
Marriage is a sacred relationship between God, a man, and a woman. Nothing will ever change that, no matter what laws go on the books. If we Christians will simply strive to be faithful in living for and sharing Christ with others, marriage and every other facet of life in our world will be the better for it.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
The Happiness Project: The Poverty That Leaves You Rich
Matthew 5:1-3
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, June 13, 2004)
Not long ago, I spent some time with a friend. He’s a guy bubbling over with happiness. One of the reasons he wanted to get together with me was to share some of his story. “I want you to know that in the past few years, Mark, my faith in God has come to mean more to me than it ever has,” he said. “And I wanted to tell you why.” I was eager to listen.
The story begins, as these stories often do, with my friend’s wife. They were empty nesters, their children moved off to the four corners of the earth. Those of you who have been through this experience know that, initially the departure of your kids from home brings grief and then a sense of needing and wanting to make fresh starts yourselves. My friend, let’s call him Bob, and his wife—we’ll call her Julie—have always believed in God. But they had allowed their attendance at worship to lapse.
Bob told me, “Now, Mark, I believe that you can talk with God anywhere—in the desert, on the golf course, in your car, anywhere. But Julie convinced me that we needed to get back in worship regularly. In worship, she felt, we’d get regular reminders about God and what’s important in life.” Finally, one Sunday, Bob reluctantly agreed to go to worship with Julie. “Mark,” he said, “it has made such a difference in our lives. We just wouldn’t miss a Sunday.” And they rarely do.
At this point, you might expect me to tell you at the beginning of this series of messages on happiness, “If you want to be happy like this man, have a right relationship with God.” Well, ultimately, that is what I want to tell you. But there is more to his story. It’s not all peaches and cream.
A few months after Bob and Julie became re-engaged in an active life with God, Bob’s company went through a major reorganization and he was downsized out of the company where he’d been employed for more than twenty years. Several months later, still without a job, he got word that his mother was going to die. Week after week, month after month, Bob cared for his mother and did so until she passed away. Then, just before the death of his mom, it was learned that Julie had contracted a rare and life-threatening disease. One month later, Bob found out that he had cancer and needed to undergo treatment. Things are still up in the air. Bob’s dad and the rest of the family are still grieving. Bob is still trying to find his right career niche. And both he and Julie are fighting for their health.
“But, Mark,” Bob tells me. “We’ve been amazed at how God has taken care of us. I owe all the credit in the world to Julie. She felt that emptiness and the need for God before I did. And thank God she did, because just before all these bad things happened, we let God fill that emptiness. We couldn't have gotten through all of this without being close to God.” Bob said these words to me with a smile on his face. When I asked him later if I could tell his story—changing the particulars to protect his and Julie’s identity—he readily agreed. You see, he wants you to know that it’s possible for you to be happy too.
The psychologist David Niven, no relation to the late actor, has written an interesting and readable little book called The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It. When I’d decided some months ago that I wanted to do a series on happiness, I saw this book and was intrigued in the Introduction when Niven said that he couldn’t tell people how to be happy. But he could present information on what happy lives look like so that others could learn from them. I immediately thought, “Yet another example of science catching up with the Bible” because that's exactly what Jesus did on a mountaintop some two-thousand years ago. Jesus took His disciples apart with Him, up on this mountain, and taught them about happiness. But He didn’t say, “These are the steps to happiness.” He gave them rapid-fire pictures of happiness. “This, folks, is what happiness looks like,” He told them.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at Jesus’ pictures of happiness, found in Matthew 5:1-12, a section of scripture often called the beatitudes. The translation of the Bible that we use during worship—the New Revised Standard Version—shows Jesus saying over and over, “Blessed are...”, “Blessed are...” But the New Testament Greek word, makarioi, translated as blessed could as easily be rendered fortunate or happy. My seminary mentor, Pastor Schein always translated makarioi as blissed out.
In today’s Bible lesson, the first of Jesus’ beatitudes, He tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The happy, blessed, blissed out people are those who are “poor in spirit.”
But what does that mean?
To be poor in spirit means to be unable to face life, death, or eternity on our own. We’re all poor in spirit. Happy people acknowledge it and let God fill their emptiness. My friend Bob and his wife, Julie, learned that. God has constructed us so that we all need God and we need others. E. Stanley Jones, the great evangelist and writer, used to hold weekend retreats he called ashrams, a name he borrowed from India where he was a missionary. He began the retreats by handing out slips of paper and telling people, “No one will see what you are about to write on this paper. I want you to write what you need today.” I’ve read that every time Jones did this, as people thought, prayed, and wrote, someone would tell him, “I don’t have a need. What do I write down if I don’t have a need?” Jones would reply, “If you think you don’t have a need, then that’s your need.”
Are you willing to be poor in spirit, to admit your need of God? That’s the poverty that can make you truly rich. The poor in spirit, Jesus says, have a piece of the kingdom of heaven! It seems to me that the poor in spirit make three moves that lead to their happiness. First: They make the move from self-sufficiency to prayer. Pete Rengel was backpacking counselor at a camp in the mountains of northern California. Once, he and another counselor led ten young people on two-week wilderness journey. Seven nights into their trek, in unfamiliar territory, a freak summer blizzard dumped two feet of snow on them. They huddled together through the night. When the sun rose the next day, visibility was practically zero and the storm was still raging. The trails had disappeared. Because of the snow, their maps were useless. And because their food drop wasn’t to have happened until that day, they were low on food. Pete was scared, both because he didn’t know what to do and because the terrified kids depended on him. He agreed with his fellow counselor to set out, looking for a familiar landmark, anywhere. By now, the snow was three feet deep. After trudging on for what seemed like forever, Pete had become breathless and frozen. He writes:
Nothing happened. Pete began to sob. He pictured headlines announcing the deaths of all the young people in his charge. Then, he pulled himself together enough to try a different route. He didn’t know why he did so. Involuntarily, he began to move in a different direction. He felt like he was being led. And so he was: Pete turned a corner and saw “the faintest evidence” of the trail. God had made a way where there was no way. The poor in spirit move from self-sufficiency to prayer.
They also move from self-sufficiency to seeking help from others. I always tell people that the folks on Friendship’s church council make me feel smarter than I really am. I know nothing about finances or audiovisual systems or a whole host of other things that the leaders of Friendship know about. The poor in spirit are willing to admit their poverty of knowledge and experience so that others can help them become their best selves, achieving the missions God gives to each of us. The poor in spirit move from self-sufficiency to admitting they need others.
They also move from self-containment to helping others. We follow a Savior Who helped us all by going to a cross and winning everlasting life for all who will turn from sin and follow Him. He called us to serve others as He served us. That’s where happiness resides, Jesus tells us.
In the week of moving ceremony and remembrance we've just experienced in America, honoring President Reagan, the most moving moment of all for me was the eulogy delivered by his successor, the elder President Bush, during the funeral at the National Cathedral. Mr. Bush told about an incident that happened back in March, 1981. Ronald Reagan was being hospitalized following the nearly-fatal assassination attempt on his life. He'd spilled a pitcher of water. Concerned that the duty nurse would be blamed for his accident, this nearly-seventy year old man, recovering from a life-threatening bullet wound, President of the United States, got down on his hands and knees to clean up the water. Orderlies happened to enter Reagan's room and found him doing this; otherwise, nobody would have known about it. Cleaning up that water from a hospital room floor was the action of a man with a servant's heart. It cannot be incidental that the people who knew Ronald Reagan well also report that he was a happy man. People with servant hearts are happy.
In an experiment, researchers revealed back in 1997 that “greater community interactions can increase happiness by almost 30 percent.” Once again, science is catching up with what the Bible, where Jesus showed us and told us two-thousand years ago all about happiness and servanthood! Albert Schweitzer, the great Lutheran missionary and Nobel Peace Prize winner, put it well when he told a group of students, “I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” Schweitzer knew what he was talking about. He was the Mother Teresa of his time, spending decades providing medical and spiritual care for the poorest of the poor in the heart of Africa. And he too, was a happy person!
Blessed, happy, blissed out are the poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them because they are empty enough to know that they need to let God fill them. They move from self-sufficiency to prayer; from self-sufficiency to getting help from others; from self-containment to loving their neighbor. Tell God your need today and let Him fill it in the ways He chooses, on the timetable He establishes. Then, you will be on the road to happiness!
[The true story of Pete Rengel is recounted in The Aladdin Factor, a book I heartily recommend to all wrestling with whether to admit their poverty of spirit. While I don't agree with every assertion found on this book's pages, it is a good antidote to our American penchant for living under the oppressive delusion of self-sufficiency.
[The phrase, self-sufficiency to prayer, along with the powerful ideas behind it, are stolen from a great book by the late Dutch monk and writer, Henri Nouwen. The book is called Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. This is one of those books to buy and read over and over again!
[The research on the link between happiness and community interaction is recounted in the book on happiness by David Niven, the psychologist.
[The true story of E. Stanley Jones's ashrams is told by Robert H. Schuller in his uplifting book, The Be-Happy Attitudes: 8 Positive Attitudes That Can Transform Your Life.]
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, June 13, 2004)
Not long ago, I spent some time with a friend. He’s a guy bubbling over with happiness. One of the reasons he wanted to get together with me was to share some of his story. “I want you to know that in the past few years, Mark, my faith in God has come to mean more to me than it ever has,” he said. “And I wanted to tell you why.” I was eager to listen.
The story begins, as these stories often do, with my friend’s wife. They were empty nesters, their children moved off to the four corners of the earth. Those of you who have been through this experience know that, initially the departure of your kids from home brings grief and then a sense of needing and wanting to make fresh starts yourselves. My friend, let’s call him Bob, and his wife—we’ll call her Julie—have always believed in God. But they had allowed their attendance at worship to lapse.
Bob told me, “Now, Mark, I believe that you can talk with God anywhere—in the desert, on the golf course, in your car, anywhere. But Julie convinced me that we needed to get back in worship regularly. In worship, she felt, we’d get regular reminders about God and what’s important in life.” Finally, one Sunday, Bob reluctantly agreed to go to worship with Julie. “Mark,” he said, “it has made such a difference in our lives. We just wouldn’t miss a Sunday.” And they rarely do.
At this point, you might expect me to tell you at the beginning of this series of messages on happiness, “If you want to be happy like this man, have a right relationship with God.” Well, ultimately, that is what I want to tell you. But there is more to his story. It’s not all peaches and cream.
A few months after Bob and Julie became re-engaged in an active life with God, Bob’s company went through a major reorganization and he was downsized out of the company where he’d been employed for more than twenty years. Several months later, still without a job, he got word that his mother was going to die. Week after week, month after month, Bob cared for his mother and did so until she passed away. Then, just before the death of his mom, it was learned that Julie had contracted a rare and life-threatening disease. One month later, Bob found out that he had cancer and needed to undergo treatment. Things are still up in the air. Bob’s dad and the rest of the family are still grieving. Bob is still trying to find his right career niche. And both he and Julie are fighting for their health.
“But, Mark,” Bob tells me. “We’ve been amazed at how God has taken care of us. I owe all the credit in the world to Julie. She felt that emptiness and the need for God before I did. And thank God she did, because just before all these bad things happened, we let God fill that emptiness. We couldn't have gotten through all of this without being close to God.” Bob said these words to me with a smile on his face. When I asked him later if I could tell his story—changing the particulars to protect his and Julie’s identity—he readily agreed. You see, he wants you to know that it’s possible for you to be happy too.
The psychologist David Niven, no relation to the late actor, has written an interesting and readable little book called The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It. When I’d decided some months ago that I wanted to do a series on happiness, I saw this book and was intrigued in the Introduction when Niven said that he couldn’t tell people how to be happy. But he could present information on what happy lives look like so that others could learn from them. I immediately thought, “Yet another example of science catching up with the Bible” because that's exactly what Jesus did on a mountaintop some two-thousand years ago. Jesus took His disciples apart with Him, up on this mountain, and taught them about happiness. But He didn’t say, “These are the steps to happiness.” He gave them rapid-fire pictures of happiness. “This, folks, is what happiness looks like,” He told them.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at Jesus’ pictures of happiness, found in Matthew 5:1-12, a section of scripture often called the beatitudes. The translation of the Bible that we use during worship—the New Revised Standard Version—shows Jesus saying over and over, “Blessed are...”, “Blessed are...” But the New Testament Greek word, makarioi, translated as blessed could as easily be rendered fortunate or happy. My seminary mentor, Pastor Schein always translated makarioi as blissed out.
In today’s Bible lesson, the first of Jesus’ beatitudes, He tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The happy, blessed, blissed out people are those who are “poor in spirit.”
But what does that mean?
To be poor in spirit means to be unable to face life, death, or eternity on our own. We’re all poor in spirit. Happy people acknowledge it and let God fill their emptiness. My friend Bob and his wife, Julie, learned that. God has constructed us so that we all need God and we need others. E. Stanley Jones, the great evangelist and writer, used to hold weekend retreats he called ashrams, a name he borrowed from India where he was a missionary. He began the retreats by handing out slips of paper and telling people, “No one will see what you are about to write on this paper. I want you to write what you need today.” I’ve read that every time Jones did this, as people thought, prayed, and wrote, someone would tell him, “I don’t have a need. What do I write down if I don’t have a need?” Jones would reply, “If you think you don’t have a need, then that’s your need.”
Are you willing to be poor in spirit, to admit your need of God? That’s the poverty that can make you truly rich. The poor in spirit, Jesus says, have a piece of the kingdom of heaven! It seems to me that the poor in spirit make three moves that lead to their happiness. First: They make the move from self-sufficiency to prayer. Pete Rengel was backpacking counselor at a camp in the mountains of northern California. Once, he and another counselor led ten young people on two-week wilderness journey. Seven nights into their trek, in unfamiliar territory, a freak summer blizzard dumped two feet of snow on them. They huddled together through the night. When the sun rose the next day, visibility was practically zero and the storm was still raging. The trails had disappeared. Because of the snow, their maps were useless. And because their food drop wasn’t to have happened until that day, they were low on food. Pete was scared, both because he didn’t know what to do and because the terrified kids depended on him. He agreed with his fellow counselor to set out, looking for a familiar landmark, anywhere. By now, the snow was three feet deep. After trudging on for what seemed like forever, Pete had become breathless and frozen. He writes:
My terror intensified. Finally, in desperation, I fell to my knees and prayed. I begged God to please lift the storm...
Nothing happened. Pete began to sob. He pictured headlines announcing the deaths of all the young people in his charge. Then, he pulled himself together enough to try a different route. He didn’t know why he did so. Involuntarily, he began to move in a different direction. He felt like he was being led. And so he was: Pete turned a corner and saw “the faintest evidence” of the trail. God had made a way where there was no way. The poor in spirit move from self-sufficiency to prayer.
They also move from self-sufficiency to seeking help from others. I always tell people that the folks on Friendship’s church council make me feel smarter than I really am. I know nothing about finances or audiovisual systems or a whole host of other things that the leaders of Friendship know about. The poor in spirit are willing to admit their poverty of knowledge and experience so that others can help them become their best selves, achieving the missions God gives to each of us. The poor in spirit move from self-sufficiency to admitting they need others.
They also move from self-containment to helping others. We follow a Savior Who helped us all by going to a cross and winning everlasting life for all who will turn from sin and follow Him. He called us to serve others as He served us. That’s where happiness resides, Jesus tells us.
In the week of moving ceremony and remembrance we've just experienced in America, honoring President Reagan, the most moving moment of all for me was the eulogy delivered by his successor, the elder President Bush, during the funeral at the National Cathedral. Mr. Bush told about an incident that happened back in March, 1981. Ronald Reagan was being hospitalized following the nearly-fatal assassination attempt on his life. He'd spilled a pitcher of water. Concerned that the duty nurse would be blamed for his accident, this nearly-seventy year old man, recovering from a life-threatening bullet wound, President of the United States, got down on his hands and knees to clean up the water. Orderlies happened to enter Reagan's room and found him doing this; otherwise, nobody would have known about it. Cleaning up that water from a hospital room floor was the action of a man with a servant's heart. It cannot be incidental that the people who knew Ronald Reagan well also report that he was a happy man. People with servant hearts are happy.
In an experiment, researchers revealed back in 1997 that “greater community interactions can increase happiness by almost 30 percent.” Once again, science is catching up with what the Bible, where Jesus showed us and told us two-thousand years ago all about happiness and servanthood! Albert Schweitzer, the great Lutheran missionary and Nobel Peace Prize winner, put it well when he told a group of students, “I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” Schweitzer knew what he was talking about. He was the Mother Teresa of his time, spending decades providing medical and spiritual care for the poorest of the poor in the heart of Africa. And he too, was a happy person!
Blessed, happy, blissed out are the poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them because they are empty enough to know that they need to let God fill them. They move from self-sufficiency to prayer; from self-sufficiency to getting help from others; from self-containment to loving their neighbor. Tell God your need today and let Him fill it in the ways He chooses, on the timetable He establishes. Then, you will be on the road to happiness!
Notes:
[The true story of Pete Rengel is recounted in The Aladdin Factor, a book I heartily recommend to all wrestling with whether to admit their poverty of spirit. While I don't agree with every assertion found on this book's pages, it is a good antidote to our American penchant for living under the oppressive delusion of self-sufficiency.
[The phrase, self-sufficiency to prayer, along with the powerful ideas behind it, are stolen from a great book by the late Dutch monk and writer, Henri Nouwen. The book is called Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. This is one of those books to buy and read over and over again!
[The research on the link between happiness and community interaction is recounted in the book on happiness by David Niven, the psychologist.
[The true story of E. Stanley Jones's ashrams is told by Robert H. Schuller in his uplifting book, The Be-Happy Attitudes: 8 Positive Attitudes That Can Transform Your Life.]
Friday, June 11, 2004
The Reagan Funeral
I was also moved by what I was able to see and hear today of the Reagan funeral and later, the committal services in California.
The elder President Bush's comments were heartfelt and moving, especially coming from a man not gifted in public speaking.
Margaret Thatcher's tribute, put on videotape because encroaching years and illness prevent her from speech-making, was more touching than I imagined possible. To my surprise, she referred to the late President repeatedly as "Ronnie," denoting the personal as well as political closeness that characterized thea side of Thatcher I'd not seen before, was the visage of the "iron lady," defying age, frailty, and death to fly both to Washington and after a long day, on to California. I was impressed that she sang our national anthem at the committal service and standing on her own, she paused before the casket to pay her last respects.
The eulogies given by the late President's surviving children were each, in their own ways, effective and affecting. Each, again in their own ways, gave testimony to their father's faith and the assurance with which they faced his death, believing that he is with God in heaven. Each showed remarkable polish and Ron P. Reagan showed flashes of the Reagan wit, wielded with a delicate and deft touch.
I loved the gracious, faithful words to Nancy Reagan, uttered by the Reagans' pastor. As my wife said, both he and Michael Reagan managed to give witness to their faith in Christ without being heavy-handed.
I watched the MSNBC coverage tonight because I so appreciate Chris Matthews' enthusiasm and his love for country and his respect for people of goodwill from all sides of the political spectrum. He recognizes that at the end of the day, we're not Republicans or Democrats, just human beings peculiarly blessed to be Americans.
May we all remember that from those to whom much has been given, much is expected. That may be the best lesson we can draw from the week of pageantry, remembrance, and goodbyes we have just completed.
The elder President Bush's comments were heartfelt and moving, especially coming from a man not gifted in public speaking.
Margaret Thatcher's tribute, put on videotape because encroaching years and illness prevent her from speech-making, was more touching than I imagined possible. To my surprise, she referred to the late President repeatedly as "Ronnie," denoting the personal as well as political closeness that characterized thea side of Thatcher I'd not seen before, was the visage of the "iron lady," defying age, frailty, and death to fly both to Washington and after a long day, on to California. I was impressed that she sang our national anthem at the committal service and standing on her own, she paused before the casket to pay her last respects.
The eulogies given by the late President's surviving children were each, in their own ways, effective and affecting. Each, again in their own ways, gave testimony to their father's faith and the assurance with which they faced his death, believing that he is with God in heaven. Each showed remarkable polish and Ron P. Reagan showed flashes of the Reagan wit, wielded with a delicate and deft touch.
I loved the gracious, faithful words to Nancy Reagan, uttered by the Reagans' pastor. As my wife said, both he and Michael Reagan managed to give witness to their faith in Christ without being heavy-handed.
I watched the MSNBC coverage tonight because I so appreciate Chris Matthews' enthusiasm and his love for country and his respect for people of goodwill from all sides of the political spectrum. He recognizes that at the end of the day, we're not Republicans or Democrats, just human beings peculiarly blessed to be Americans.
May we all remember that from those to whom much has been given, much is expected. That may be the best lesson we can draw from the week of pageantry, remembrance, and goodbyes we have just completed.
On Following Jesus...
I was moved today when I read these words from Craig S. Williams and his blog:
Great words! More often than I care to admit, I get caught up in myself, in looking good to others, and all the rest. Following Jesus isn't always easy; but it is the way of life. Thanks for the reminder, Craig Williams!
We have a culture of admirers of Jesus. Many of us have been admirers for a long time. But when Jesus beckons us to follow, we leave the safety of admiration behind and we go to where Jesus is. As I mentioned earlier (see The Beckoning God blog) God is calling us out into deeper waters where he is, away from safety's edge. Where Jesus is going in the Gospels is a cross. He bids us to come and die - die to our selfish wants and needs and life. Once done, he gives us new life - his life. We take him on. As John the Baptist said, "He must increase and I must decrease."
Great words! More often than I care to admit, I get caught up in myself, in looking good to others, and all the rest. Following Jesus isn't always easy; but it is the way of life. Thanks for the reminder, Craig Williams!
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Thoughts from the Rummage Sale
Women from our congregation, planning and preparing for a retreat weekend they'll be giving to other women, are sponsoring a rummage sale this weekend. All day today and tomorrow, people will be bringing their "rummage," items scrounged from basements, closets, and book shelves to be sold on Saturday. My wife and I gathered up enough items to fill both our van and her car.
As we sweatily packed things to take to the church building today, my wife said, "The next time I start to buy something, stop me." Of course, I won't stop her and truth be told, I am by far, the most acquisitive of the two of us. It's not that I'm a big materialist---or at least I'm not the fevered kind of materialist to which I like to compare myself in order to salve my guilty conscience. Books are my weakness, of course, and I appall my wife (and sometimes myself) by how easily I cave in to the temptation of any book that hooks me.
But like my wife, when these rummage or garage sales come along, I'm astounded to meet up again with the long-forgotten items. Their appeal now is lost on me, but once they caused me to readily part with my cash. They make me ask myself, "What was I thinking?"
Lots of times, I suppose, I was thinking that something about this object could service my delusion of self-sufficiency. Often, the things I buy are little more than offerings to the god of me. That isn't a pleasant admission, but it's true.
The other day, a new acquaintance of mine and I were railing against the insanity of churches having lots of expensive real estate and decorative goo-gobs while millions are going hungry. It's a line of thought worthy of consideration, to be sure. But what's good for the goose is also good for the gander: What about all the goo-gobs I buy? How might they be used for better purposes? Better, that is, than genuflecting at the altar of me.
Jesus had something to say about all of this, of course. He told a story about a man whose land produced a bumper crop. He resolved to pull down his barns and build bigger ones to store his excess food. Then, the guy tells himself, I'll sit back and relax. Then, Jesus says:
That puts things in perspective. Like the ubiquitous Mr. Anonymous once said, "The U-Haul doesn't follow your hearse to the cemetery."
I've come to believe that showing restraint while shopping and giving items away for the rummage sale can be like sticking forks into the devil. They can be acts of rebellion against the evil of materialism. And they can be ways of getting myself free from stuff so that I can live for God, provide for my family, and give both myself and my money to the cause of Christ in the world.
My guess is that my relationship to material goods will always be a bit like the relationship of an AA-enrollee to alcohol. For as long as I live, especially in America, I will be a recovering materialist. But my prayer is that I'll always be in recovery and always moving toward God's way of doing things, away from my addiction to Sam's Club.
As we sweatily packed things to take to the church building today, my wife said, "The next time I start to buy something, stop me." Of course, I won't stop her and truth be told, I am by far, the most acquisitive of the two of us. It's not that I'm a big materialist---or at least I'm not the fevered kind of materialist to which I like to compare myself in order to salve my guilty conscience. Books are my weakness, of course, and I appall my wife (and sometimes myself) by how easily I cave in to the temptation of any book that hooks me.
But like my wife, when these rummage or garage sales come along, I'm astounded to meet up again with the long-forgotten items. Their appeal now is lost on me, but once they caused me to readily part with my cash. They make me ask myself, "What was I thinking?"
Lots of times, I suppose, I was thinking that something about this object could service my delusion of self-sufficiency. Often, the things I buy are little more than offerings to the god of me. That isn't a pleasant admission, but it's true.
The other day, a new acquaintance of mine and I were railing against the insanity of churches having lots of expensive real estate and decorative goo-gobs while millions are going hungry. It's a line of thought worthy of consideration, to be sure. But what's good for the goose is also good for the gander: What about all the goo-gobs I buy? How might they be used for better purposes? Better, that is, than genuflecting at the altar of me.
Jesus had something to say about all of this, of course. He told a story about a man whose land produced a bumper crop. He resolved to pull down his barns and build bigger ones to store his excess food. Then, the guy tells himself, I'll sit back and relax. Then, Jesus says:
But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'[Luke 12:13-21]
That puts things in perspective. Like the ubiquitous Mr. Anonymous once said, "The U-Haul doesn't follow your hearse to the cemetery."
I've come to believe that showing restraint while shopping and giving items away for the rummage sale can be like sticking forks into the devil. They can be acts of rebellion against the evil of materialism. And they can be ways of getting myself free from stuff so that I can live for God, provide for my family, and give both myself and my money to the cause of Christ in the world.
My guess is that my relationship to material goods will always be a bit like the relationship of an AA-enrollee to alcohol. For as long as I live, especially in America, I will be a recovering materialist. But my prayer is that I'll always be in recovery and always moving toward God's way of doing things, away from my addiction to Sam's Club.
A Good Hamilton Biography
I personally feel that the best short biography of Alexander Hamilton is that by Richard Brookhiser. Brookhiser is a wonderful writer and both sparingly and thoroughly evokes the personality, character, mind, and work of this complicated American founder.
Reagan on the Ten Dollar Bill? Take a Deep Breath and Count to Ten
In the wake of Ronald Reagan's passing, there are a lot of well-meaning proposals being made to honor him. But the days immediately following the death of a beloved person are not prime time for making such decisions.
The most disturbing of these proposals, I think, is the one that would place Ronald Reagan's picture on the ten-dollar bill in place of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton may be considered a "weak link" because most Americans know little to nothing about him. They may know that he died in a duel and that's about it. But Hamilton, who emigrated to what became the United States from poor circumstances on the island of Saint Croix and grew to be an extradorinary man, is someone contemporary Americans would do well to know better. He was brave in battle during the Revolutionary War. He wrote the lion's share of articles that make up The Federalist Papers, playing an important role in shaping the US Constitution and its critical part in forging America's national identity. He was a brilliant jurist and writer. And perhaps most importantly, as Washington's secretary of the treasury, Hamilton established America's free enterprise system. Clearly, Hamilton should not be bumped from the ten-spot by President Reagan or anybody else. As an economics major himself, the late President, I feel certain, would agree.
If Mr. Reagan is to be honored on our currency, perhaps a new denomination could be established that would feature him.
The most disturbing of these proposals, I think, is the one that would place Ronald Reagan's picture on the ten-dollar bill in place of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton may be considered a "weak link" because most Americans know little to nothing about him. They may know that he died in a duel and that's about it. But Hamilton, who emigrated to what became the United States from poor circumstances on the island of Saint Croix and grew to be an extradorinary man, is someone contemporary Americans would do well to know better. He was brave in battle during the Revolutionary War. He wrote the lion's share of articles that make up The Federalist Papers, playing an important role in shaping the US Constitution and its critical part in forging America's national identity. He was a brilliant jurist and writer. And perhaps most importantly, as Washington's secretary of the treasury, Hamilton established America's free enterprise system. Clearly, Hamilton should not be bumped from the ten-spot by President Reagan or anybody else. As an economics major himself, the late President, I feel certain, would agree.
If Mr. Reagan is to be honored on our currency, perhaps a new denomination could be established that would feature him.
Something of Interest...
Mark Roberts' web log has a wonderful reflection on humility, inspired by the remnant of an ancient Roman sculpture on display at the Vatican. The fragment is a representation of the bust of the emperor Augustus. The original statue would have been over fifty feet tall.
Writes Roberts:
I like that!
Writes Roberts:
Historians acclaim Augustus as one of the great administrators of history. Under his able rule, the Roman Empire experienced unprecedented peace (the pax romana) and prosperity. Yet, ironically, all that remains of his giant statue is a big head. And this head is not the focal point of some temple in honor of Augustus the god, but is simply one exhibit in the immense Vatican Museum – a museum that ultimately honors someone who was merely an insignificant Jewish boy during the years of Augustus’ reign.
I like that!
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Never Run Out of Gas!
Second Timothy 1:3-7
Confirmation Sunday
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, June 6, 2004)
Down in Florida, there’s a sign posted along a highway as you come to a bridge that says: “It is against the law to run out of gas on this bridge.” That’s understandable. Every carload of people depends on every other carload of people to keep going. Otherwise, everybody’s progress stops.
The same is true in other parts of our lives. We depend on ourselves and on others to keep making progress. But more often than not, it seems, we run out of gas. Nearly ten years ago, Ann and I attended her twenty-fifth high school class reunion. Since Ann and I graduated just one year apart from the same high school, I knew lots of people in her class. But when I walked in, I was stunned. Looking people over, I turned to Ann and whispered a question: "Who invited all of these old people?" It wasn’t just their grey hair or their middle-age bulges. Most of us are “blessed” with those things after a certain point in our lives. It was the demeanor of many of our old schoolmates. They acted older than their years: rundown, almost afraid of living.
There’s a reason for that, I think. Most people seem to get to a particular point in their lives—it may be when they’re confirmed or they graduate or they get their first full-time job or they have their first child, or hit their fortieth birthday—and they sort of die. They run out of gas. They let milestones become millstones...or even tombstones. Henry David Thoreau had it right when he said that, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” It’s sad.
The novel and movie, The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, tells the story of a once-promising baseball player whose career is seemingly ended by an act of violence committed against him and the scandal that ensues. More than a decade later, that career is miraculously resurrected. But because of his age and his past injuries, he knows that he doesn’t have many playing years left. To his old high school sweetheart, he laments, “Things sure turned out different.”
Sometimes life can turn out so “different” from what we expect that we just give up, like one of those cars running out of gas on a Florida bridge. Disappointment leads to inertia and a decision to opt out of living.
Young people—those of you this morning affirming your intention to follow Jesus Christ throughout your adult lives and those of you who have just graduated from high school—the words of today’s Bible lesson are for everyone. But I picked them especially for you. God and we of the Church are counting on you, as we count on each other every day, to not run out of gas.
When disappointments and setbacks come, don’t give up. Jesus Christ died and rose for you so that, with a direct and personal relationship with God, you can keep growing, keep living, keep becoming the person God invented you to be! And that’s a process that never ends, even in eternity.
Our Bible lesson was written by the first century preacher, Paul, to a young pastor named Timothy. Paul and Timothy had a history, sort of like the history that our own Tim Vogel has with you young people. Paul had watched Timothy grow up in the loving Christian home created by his mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois. And elsewhere, Paul calls himself Timothy’s “spiritual father” and refers to Timothy as “my beloved child.”
In today’s lesson, Paul remembers that special moment when he placed his hand on Timothy’s head to ordain him as a pastor, much as I will place my hand on the heads of our Confirmands today. Paul tells Timothy:
"...I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline."
God has wonderful plans for those who follow Him...eternal plans. He doesn’t promise us easy lives. But He does promise to be with us and that ultimately, He will turn every evil that befalls us in this life into eternal good. That promise is for you, young people, and for everyone here this morning. God has work that only you and I in our unique ways can do. God has blessed us so that we will be blessings. If we followers of Jesus run out of gas, the whole world will pay the price. The world needs us!
That’s really what Paul is saying when he tells Timothy and us to rekindle the gifts of God. Another word for rekindle might be recharge. Every follower of Jesus Christ must recharge themselves in order to accomplish what God has in mind for our lives.
And another word for rekindle might be reposition. I’ve used this analogy before, but since the Reds are doing so well these days, I’ll use it again. In baseball, an outfielder has no control over what pitch the pitcher throws or over how the batter hits the ball. But a good outfielder will be able to anticipate where a hit ball is going and reposition himself to make the catch. God has blessings He wants to bat our way, beginning with the unearned gift of everlasting life. To receive it, we reposition ourselves by turning away from sin and surrendering to Christ. God also wants to give us the power and strength that comes from intimacy with Him. But again, to receive that free gift we need to reposition our lives, leaving time in our days for God to come to us.
But how do we do that? I laughed this past week when I read about a prison break from a minimum security prison in England. Two inmates escaped and immediately ran to a high-security prison. They did it on purpose. It seems that the two young men had just gone through drug rehab. But the discipline was so lax in the minimum security prison, with drugs bought and sold openly, that the two inmates, Audie Carr and Benjamin Clarke, were afraid that they would slip back into drug use again. They didn’t want that. So, they literally repositioned themselves so that through the discipline of the tougher prison, they could get the strength to keep their lives on the right path.
Over the past several years, we’ve talked at Friendship about seven habits of joyful people. Historically, the Church has called these habits, spiritual disciplines, habits that refuel us, rekindle our faith, reposition us to receive life from Jesus Christ.
The seven habits are: regular worship, service in Jesus’ Name, prayer, study of God’s Word, sharing your faith with others, encouraging others with God’s love, and giving to the cause of Christ. People who engage in these habits give God openings into their lives. They’re like doorways through which we welcome God to come into our hearts and minds. We may get wrinkled. We may get grey and flabby. But through these habits, our whole lives brim with the vitality, power, and passion that God gives to people who surrender to Him.
The other day, I spoke on the telephone with a friend of Philip’s, a former classmate of his from college. I’ll call her Christy. Christy isn’t having an easy time of it right now with the job that she’s working, getting started in life. But I know that she’s going to be okay because even in the midst of the challenges, she isn’t running out of gas. She’s rekindling her faith and refueling on God’s love by keeping her regular appointments with God. She clearly has incorporated the habits of prayer, worship, service, study of the Bible, witnessing about Christ, encouraging others, and giving in her everyday life. Later this summer, she’s going on yet another mission trip to Russia, sharing the Good News of our God Who loves us as we are and helps us to be everything we can be when Christ is our Lord and Savior!
One final thing. Followers of God make mistakes. Our judgments can be wrong. We can fail. We sin. But when those things happen, it isn’t time to give up. It’s time to look up! Ask God for forgiveness, for new wisdom, and for the power you need to go on living a good life for Jesus Christ. That is a prayer God always answers. He’ll answer it for everybody here this morning. In fact, sometime this week, I hope that everybody who has never done so before or who feels the need to recommit their life to Christ, will take some time to be alone with God and do what our Confirmands are going to do today. Tell the Lord that you know Jesus died and rose for you and grateful for that, you want to live a life in which you turn away from sin and turn toward Christ. Tell God that you want to make those seven habits the seven meeting places where day-in and day-out, week-in and week-out, you will meet the God Who loves you and is committed to helping you become the tremendous person you were born to be. This week and each day of our lives, let’s refuel on God, rekindling His gifts to us. When we do that, I guarantee that we will never run out of gas. We’ll just keep going, right into eternity!
[The story of the sign on the Florida Highway appears in Leonard Sweet's wonderful book, SoulSalsa.]
Confirmation Sunday
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, June 6, 2004)
Down in Florida, there’s a sign posted along a highway as you come to a bridge that says: “It is against the law to run out of gas on this bridge.” That’s understandable. Every carload of people depends on every other carload of people to keep going. Otherwise, everybody’s progress stops.
The same is true in other parts of our lives. We depend on ourselves and on others to keep making progress. But more often than not, it seems, we run out of gas. Nearly ten years ago, Ann and I attended her twenty-fifth high school class reunion. Since Ann and I graduated just one year apart from the same high school, I knew lots of people in her class. But when I walked in, I was stunned. Looking people over, I turned to Ann and whispered a question: "Who invited all of these old people?" It wasn’t just their grey hair or their middle-age bulges. Most of us are “blessed” with those things after a certain point in our lives. It was the demeanor of many of our old schoolmates. They acted older than their years: rundown, almost afraid of living.
There’s a reason for that, I think. Most people seem to get to a particular point in their lives—it may be when they’re confirmed or they graduate or they get their first full-time job or they have their first child, or hit their fortieth birthday—and they sort of die. They run out of gas. They let milestones become millstones...or even tombstones. Henry David Thoreau had it right when he said that, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” It’s sad.
The novel and movie, The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, tells the story of a once-promising baseball player whose career is seemingly ended by an act of violence committed against him and the scandal that ensues. More than a decade later, that career is miraculously resurrected. But because of his age and his past injuries, he knows that he doesn’t have many playing years left. To his old high school sweetheart, he laments, “Things sure turned out different.”
Sometimes life can turn out so “different” from what we expect that we just give up, like one of those cars running out of gas on a Florida bridge. Disappointment leads to inertia and a decision to opt out of living.
Young people—those of you this morning affirming your intention to follow Jesus Christ throughout your adult lives and those of you who have just graduated from high school—the words of today’s Bible lesson are for everyone. But I picked them especially for you. God and we of the Church are counting on you, as we count on each other every day, to not run out of gas.
When disappointments and setbacks come, don’t give up. Jesus Christ died and rose for you so that, with a direct and personal relationship with God, you can keep growing, keep living, keep becoming the person God invented you to be! And that’s a process that never ends, even in eternity.
Our Bible lesson was written by the first century preacher, Paul, to a young pastor named Timothy. Paul and Timothy had a history, sort of like the history that our own Tim Vogel has with you young people. Paul had watched Timothy grow up in the loving Christian home created by his mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois. And elsewhere, Paul calls himself Timothy’s “spiritual father” and refers to Timothy as “my beloved child.”
In today’s lesson, Paul remembers that special moment when he placed his hand on Timothy’s head to ordain him as a pastor, much as I will place my hand on the heads of our Confirmands today. Paul tells Timothy:
"...I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline."
God has wonderful plans for those who follow Him...eternal plans. He doesn’t promise us easy lives. But He does promise to be with us and that ultimately, He will turn every evil that befalls us in this life into eternal good. That promise is for you, young people, and for everyone here this morning. God has work that only you and I in our unique ways can do. God has blessed us so that we will be blessings. If we followers of Jesus run out of gas, the whole world will pay the price. The world needs us!
That’s really what Paul is saying when he tells Timothy and us to rekindle the gifts of God. Another word for rekindle might be recharge. Every follower of Jesus Christ must recharge themselves in order to accomplish what God has in mind for our lives.
And another word for rekindle might be reposition. I’ve used this analogy before, but since the Reds are doing so well these days, I’ll use it again. In baseball, an outfielder has no control over what pitch the pitcher throws or over how the batter hits the ball. But a good outfielder will be able to anticipate where a hit ball is going and reposition himself to make the catch. God has blessings He wants to bat our way, beginning with the unearned gift of everlasting life. To receive it, we reposition ourselves by turning away from sin and surrendering to Christ. God also wants to give us the power and strength that comes from intimacy with Him. But again, to receive that free gift we need to reposition our lives, leaving time in our days for God to come to us.
But how do we do that? I laughed this past week when I read about a prison break from a minimum security prison in England. Two inmates escaped and immediately ran to a high-security prison. They did it on purpose. It seems that the two young men had just gone through drug rehab. But the discipline was so lax in the minimum security prison, with drugs bought and sold openly, that the two inmates, Audie Carr and Benjamin Clarke, were afraid that they would slip back into drug use again. They didn’t want that. So, they literally repositioned themselves so that through the discipline of the tougher prison, they could get the strength to keep their lives on the right path.
Over the past several years, we’ve talked at Friendship about seven habits of joyful people. Historically, the Church has called these habits, spiritual disciplines, habits that refuel us, rekindle our faith, reposition us to receive life from Jesus Christ.
The seven habits are: regular worship, service in Jesus’ Name, prayer, study of God’s Word, sharing your faith with others, encouraging others with God’s love, and giving to the cause of Christ. People who engage in these habits give God openings into their lives. They’re like doorways through which we welcome God to come into our hearts and minds. We may get wrinkled. We may get grey and flabby. But through these habits, our whole lives brim with the vitality, power, and passion that God gives to people who surrender to Him.
The other day, I spoke on the telephone with a friend of Philip’s, a former classmate of his from college. I’ll call her Christy. Christy isn’t having an easy time of it right now with the job that she’s working, getting started in life. But I know that she’s going to be okay because even in the midst of the challenges, she isn’t running out of gas. She’s rekindling her faith and refueling on God’s love by keeping her regular appointments with God. She clearly has incorporated the habits of prayer, worship, service, study of the Bible, witnessing about Christ, encouraging others, and giving in her everyday life. Later this summer, she’s going on yet another mission trip to Russia, sharing the Good News of our God Who loves us as we are and helps us to be everything we can be when Christ is our Lord and Savior!
One final thing. Followers of God make mistakes. Our judgments can be wrong. We can fail. We sin. But when those things happen, it isn’t time to give up. It’s time to look up! Ask God for forgiveness, for new wisdom, and for the power you need to go on living a good life for Jesus Christ. That is a prayer God always answers. He’ll answer it for everybody here this morning. In fact, sometime this week, I hope that everybody who has never done so before or who feels the need to recommit their life to Christ, will take some time to be alone with God and do what our Confirmands are going to do today. Tell the Lord that you know Jesus died and rose for you and grateful for that, you want to live a life in which you turn away from sin and turn toward Christ. Tell God that you want to make those seven habits the seven meeting places where day-in and day-out, week-in and week-out, you will meet the God Who loves you and is committed to helping you become the tremendous person you were born to be. This week and each day of our lives, let’s refuel on God, rekindling His gifts to us. When we do that, I guarantee that we will never run out of gas. We’ll just keep going, right into eternity!
[The story of the sign on the Florida Highway appears in Leonard Sweet's wonderful book, SoulSalsa.]
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