Half full

Mark 7:30 ESV

And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”

It is wonderful how God orchestrates in the eb and flow of life to create special times and places in our lives that bear significant weight for the silliest of reasons. Over the years Ground Hog Day, the movie with Bill Murray, has developed into a romantic nostalgic touch point for Kelly and I. Eighteen years ago the female scholarship house invited my scholarship house to play tag at night. It was done wearing black and you were tagged with socks full of flour. Afterwards we came back and watched Ground Hog Day. I can’t count how often I have watched that movie and as such I started watching the special features and learned a great deal more at this point. One comment from the director, Harold Ramis, is of special note. Talking about how the movie has been received and its appeal to a wider audience, he goes through how Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, etc. have all come up to him and praised his movie for how it exemplifies their religion.

I am unqualified to speak to the faiths of those other groups named and the movie, but for the Christian, I can say it does have a claim on defining or representing the Christian faith. We are so quick to assign things that move and compel us to be of religious import, but we are not the ones allowed to import into Christianity. Christians and the Church are defined by Christ, not by themselves. Salvific principles are defined not by “glass half full” mindset, by continued self-improvement, nor by treating others how you want to be treated. Without Christ as savior, blood shed, dead on the cross, risen on the third day, we are doomed and our attitude is inconsequential to that reality.

Was it not the attitude of the Syrophoenician Woman that saved her daughter? Was not her humble and heart what changed her life? No, it was not. Just prior to the story of this woman is the explanation of what defiles a person, that being what proceeds from their heart. Yet, Jesus says “for this statement” meaning it was her mouth that provided the impetus for this act of mercy. Her daughter was relieved from the demon, not because of her mom’s attitude but her mom’s faith in Christ. The act of faith in Christ and dependence on him is the defining moment that lays the groundwork for us understanding that we are clean not because of our exterior obedience to the Law of do this or that, but because of our faith in Christ. Christ is the one who makes us acceptable to him, we do not. Christians are saved because they are adopted into the family, an act undertaken by the father not by the child. For all we desire to look like and act like our elder brother, our achievement of that goal does not make us more or less saved. We long for and desire it because we love Christ and our father in heaven not because greater grace is distributed to us or we want more blessings while on earth.

Let us join the Syrophoenician woman in declaring that we are nothing and are in great need of Christ’s grace to us. That there is NO other place for us to go for he has the words of life. (John 6:68)

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Epicenter

Matthew 28:1 ESV

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Not an unusual event. Women going to cry and tend to a dead man that they had loved and cared for deeply. Yet, this passage and event stick out above all the rest. Toward the dawn of the first day everything changed. The epic of creation had a new chapter. Morning had broken into the story and brought an end to the reign of death and destruction. To understand any event in the text of Scripture one must know its relation to the turning point of the story.

In my reading this morning I read of Jacob fleeing his brother, coming to the flocks of his uncle, working seven years for his wife, being deceived into working another seven for her, a wife, unloved, conceiving sons in hope of becoming loved. Of Esther giving a party to ask for another, of the hatred and pride of Haman, and the building of his gallows. After reading of this passage, I read of Paul surviving shipwreck to be bitten, to heal a noble’s father, only to make it to Rome and annoy the Jews there; so that some would listen and other walk away from the Church for ever.

To understand these events, we must see them in light of that glorious morning when Christ walked out of the tomb. As the eldest son of Isaac had given himself over to disdain the things of God specifically his inheritance, and was making plans to join Cain in murdering his more righteous brother. In the midst of the fall, God was preserving for himself a people. Using broken, fallen, and week people to build a great nation. Preserving the line of Abraham in the midst of sin, corruption, deceit, and cowardice. Using the longing of an unloved woman to bring forth the namesake of the Lion of Judah. The fourth son of an unloved wife, four sons before she would stop seeking fulfillment in her husband and seek it in God’s embrace.

Finally, the sin, corruption, deceit, and idolatry of God’s people pressed them to the point of being forsaken. Driven from his presence into the hands of their enemies. As they stand on the cusp of genocidal vengeance of their foe, the question presses hard against us, how far is God going to drive them? Yet, he prepared a girl to save his people. He worked in might in the weakness and humility of a girl. God will not utterly forsake his chosen. He will not let them rot in the tomb of another empire. He will uphold them and call them forth.

Morning broke from the tomb and the world changed. Sin, death, and deceit would try and press him back in as guards are bribed and lies are spread, yet, the victory is to great and the truth is one. Looking to Paul standing on the redeemed side of the cross, longing for the people and culture he loves to survive and flourish under the light of the Gospel. Rejoicing in growth of God’s kingdom as it conquers the Gentile nations drawing them out of death and into life. Seeing his frustration grow as he comes to the frustrating realization that “his people” are not all God’s people.

We rejoice with all the church looking back on the day morning had broken, and we those who were not a people, became a God’s people, we who had not received mercy, have received MERCY! Our commission and comes in the same place our hope is born Chapter 28 of Mathew tells also we are to go and make disciples of all nations. How many are you discipling today? Who are you discipling and teaching the ways of God to? “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”

Coram Deo

Friends in High Places

Acts 12:23 ESV

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

It was to be a great day for Herod the Agrippa. He got all dressed up and walked out giving a stirring oratory to a group of people longing to make him happy. His political maneuvers had succeeded in bringing them to a place they were willing to “bend the knee” or “scratch his back” as it were. (He denied them food in the midst of a famine, Acts 11:28; Acts 12:20) At this very moment his life was taken from him because he sought the glory for himself. In the midst of Superbowl season and the end of Bowl season, as I see multiple athletes basking in the cheers and screams of the crowd, I wonder why Herod was so singled out. How many times have I sought my own glory with the gifts that God has given me, for his? Apart from God’s grace I am no better than Herod, my motives are not purer, apart from God working in me. God chose at this moment to judge Herod and found him unworthy of life, eternal or otherwise.

The section ends with Barnabas and Saul returning to Antioch having delivered the collection for the famine to the church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:30). The narration of events seems to simply move on with the growth of the church as Barnabas and Saul are called by God in the midst of Worship and fasting with the elders in Antioch. In the midst of this list of elders one name sticks out, Manaen. It sticks out not because of anything more than he was “a life long friend of Herod the tetrarch” (Acts 13:1 ESV). As friend counts skyrocket on Facebook a great amount of research has been done on the shrinking number of friends people have. Given how often young people are required to move for jobs and the age of those that no longer have to move the idea of having a life long friend still with us is one hard to understand in our current culture. A friend who we have played with, fought with, competed with and against, worked with, raised children with, all from the earliest memory we have. This is a life long friend.

We don’t know how much time transpired between chapter 12 of Acts and Chapter 13, but we know that Manaen was one of the teachers in Antioch. I imagine such a role in the church was not quickly won. Given Paul’s direction against new converts taking leadership I would assume Manaen was an established Christian at the time of Herod Agrippa’s death. He had watched Herod Agrippa rise from close at hand. Manaen had been raised in Herod the Great’s court. He knew the life and trouble of the nephew of his friend Herod Antipas. Maybe even watched him betray Antipas ending Antipas’ reign. How many times had Manaen tried to bring the Gospel to bare on the family of Herod? To know and be raised with the man that would mock the Christ during his passion. It is one thing to pray for your leaders it is another when you know them. To feel for them and hurt for them with a depth and hopelessness because you have known them so long, recognizing that the soap opera of their lives has dire consequences that they can’t see.

As we look into the lives of our leaders. Setting once again on the precipice of change, having to make choices between men, and women, of less than ideal character, it is a struggle for us to find much hope. I look at Manaen and wonder how many are converted in high places? How many Christians sit in the administration of both sides, and I find hope. They may never have rule, or power as we would like, but they bless and serve as they are able. Let us not grow hopeless and know we serve a great God who converts the rich and poor alike, who judges men unworthy of life, and to others gives the grace of eternal life.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Death Where Is Your Sting

1 Thessalonians 4:13

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For those that haven’t noticed our society is in the midst of a social revolution. Sexuality is not the only thing that is in the cross hairs. As pregnancy and infants are devalued to the point they are destroyed and cast aside, is it any wonder that those elderly people no longer able to care for themselves are also being encouraged to end their lives, with the promise of “physician assistance”? Yet, even more quietly is the revolution in another critical part of our society one that has been transpiring quietly and relentlessly for half a century until most do not even question what was appalling. Maybe liquification, the new green alternative, of the body is still to far for you but cremation is okay. A pagan practice done by the church once only done in symbolically sending individuals to hell. This practice now reins supreme in our society as the cheapest and easiest way to deal with the body that constitutes part of the image of God.

Of late I have taken to watching quick 10-15 minute YouTube videos on differing point of historical minutia. One of these dealt with Princess Olga of Kiev who was a queen in the late 10^th century. She converted to Christianity but her son was the king and did not approve of her conversion and hindered her from spreading Christianity in his kingdom.  Her life was a fascinating tale, but the commentator, Simon Whistler, made a specific note that stuck with me of her death he noted that “her son did allow a Christian burial rather than a pagan celebration”. From all that I can tell that commentator is not a Christian or anything of the like, and yet he noted a distinct difference between pagan and Christian funeral practices.

This is what I wish to address today. Even as a pagan commentator helped me to crystalize my thoughts, it was brought to the for hearing how these pagan’s celebrated and the Christians buried. They had their own beliefs about afterlife and existence, they new that good people would be treated well “in the end” and as such, since they were also good, the living would meet them one day again, “on the other side”. Christian Funerals and burials are on the outs in our society. Celebrations of life are in. Dead bodies should not be seen, nor should death be contemplated. Let us ignore the realities of aging, hide our dying away in nursing homes and destroy all vestiges of that death as quickly as possible. What becomes of a society whose members never face the reality of their own mortality? What happens when Christians would rather not morn the loss of friends they may never see again, or at least not for along time. Even as Christians are joyful that they will jump from their graves to meet Jesus in the sky, we morn that sin and death has one the day.

When Paul tells us “not to grieve as others do who have no hope” what does that mean? As this commentator noted, pagan’s have celebrated the lives of those who have died for millennia. How is Christian mourning to be distinctly different from those who have false hope? Can we see any difference between a believer’s funeral and the pagan’s “celebration of life”? Is our faith and witness so watered down that there is no discernable difference between the two in our society? Believe it or not you will die. Have you thought of how the witness of that body will point to Christ? Have you taken steps to insure it does, as others will be left to do as they see fit, and those making those decisions may not be of a mind to honor Christ, choosing instead to honor you? Does Christ own you, BODY and soul?

CORAM DEO

Bathing

Deuteronomy 17:19 ESV

“And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statues, and doing them, …”

The atmosphere was typical of the bar and grills often attended by white color employees when the company is paying the bill. Darker, just enough ambience to allow conversation with out to many people hearing, and obviously the bar portion of the establishment was taken advantage of. My employer was very understanding of my family’s needs and as such I did not travel extensively but I quickly understood the normal pattern of traveling on the company’s dime for the few times I was required to go. Conversation with one of the company’s new salesmen was of some value as discussion gravitated towards his faith and why he wasn’t very consistent in his church attendance, even though his large mainstream church came with all the bells and whistles. In the midst of our discussion, to justify his opinions, he asserted that he had read the bible once. After a few more minutes of discussion he joined other conversations that were going on around the table and I did as well.

I walked into our local Library and was struck by reality. Reading is no longer about becoming educated. Not about learning or developing strong ideas built upon data, research, and thought. Reading is about entertainment. I came to this conclusion when I looked at the floor space devoted to Fiction and that devoted to non-Fiction. I then come back to the church and notice our Library and was not encouraged by what I found. The shaping of a mind is a lifelong battle against sin and death. I say this because sin is ever the denial of reality and right thinking. I say this because many of us have noticed that our minds no longer function as they once did, deteriorating and showing our frailty.

What tools and weapons has God given to us to fight this battle against sin and death in our mind? What defenses are given with the helmet of Salvation? How can we discern right and wrong, judging the good of society and forsaking the bad? To help a king accomplish all this. To help him rule well and know what course of action to take, he gave the book of Deuteronomy, told him to transcribe it himself and then reread it constantly.

Reading for wisdom and knowledge has come on hard times. Reading for self-fulfillment and entertainment have won the moment. Yet, on the eve of an election year let us not forsake our need for constantly being washed in the word of God. Having it shape and mold our thoughts and judgments that we might rule well, for that is what we do in our democracy. We the People are the ruling class. We the People are the nobility without titles. We the people must then take our masters council and conform our thoughts to it. Let us not cast off our opportunity to conform no longer to this world with its fantasy and self-centeredness, let us use the year God has given to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Take time to be holy. The maxim is true “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Find a bible reading plan and start it, then when you fail in a few weeks, get up and start where you left off. My Kids need bathed often and the more dirt they play in the more often they need washed. Ours is a foul generation we need to bathe in God’s word!

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

You can find many options at the website below.

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/bible-reading-plans/