MOST DESIRABLE WORDS

Fellowship Meal, Sea of Galilee, Israel

Philip Yancey in his book on Vanishing Grace relates the results of a survey in which Americans were asked what words they would most like to hear. The first choice was predictable; “I love you”. We were made in the image of a God who is defined by love for all creation, including all of us. He wants us to thrive and we need to look no further than the cross to understand the depths of that love.

The second choice was “I forgive you.” In an act of moral justice and unconditional love God became flesh and blood to offer himself as a sacrifice of radical grace so that we could be forgiven, no matter what we may have done in our life.

Finally, a rather surprising third choice of words Americans would most like to hear was “Supper’s ready!” Our God is a relational divine presence as witnessed in the triune godhead at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River near the Sea of Galilee. We humans enjoy fellowship around the dinner table and enjoy each other’s company. Jesus constantly engaged others around meals and feasts including his first miracle at a wedding feast, feeding the 5,000 and of course, his last supper has been immortalized! And our natural response to the blessings we receive in life is to offer ourselves as willing clay vessel dispensers of God’s grace to a world thirsty for love, forgiveness and fellowship.

A GOD OF FORGIVENESS

War, KC, MO

It’s been said that America is not at war. Our military is at war; America is at the mall. Unless folks have someone directly involved in the military that is fighting our wars offshore, most of the rest of us muddle on dealing with our own realities of life. But like the homeless poor that walk among us, we cannot ignore our young men and women in harm’s way and our returning vets. Wounded Warriors is one organization that seems to have enough funding and motivation to carry on the banner for these military heroes who have been fighting our wars and then almost instantaneously are dropped back into the surreal reality of life at the mall. The adjustment can be overwhelming.

I recently listened to a soft spoken senior that had a long phone conversation with a close relative. The young man had recently served in uniform. He had obviously experienced the horrors of war that most of us will never fully understand. He’d been involved in a combat situation that had scarred his life. Someone had recently confronted him about the incident which was obviously very troubling. The horrific memory was eating away at the young man.

The elder man had apparently listened to the angst in the young man’s voice for some time on the phone. Then, knowing that this was one of those matters in life that cannot be undone, he spoke from the heart and simply told him that he believes in “a God of forgiveness”. When life overwhelms us with issues that are well beyond our human control, we have the hope and trust in a loving and forgiving God. We can turn these matters over to Him with the assurance that He knows our heart and He still has a good plan for our life. His understanding and forgiveness trumps all other human opinion.

After the two men hung up, the older man received a call back a few hours later thanking this man of faith for settling the troubled young vet’s life that night. And I've no doubt that our God of forgiveness spoke through the man to give this vet “the peace of God which transcends all understanding to guard his heart and mind” going forward.

RECORDING LIFE

Recording Life, Wrightsville Beach, NC

I’ve dallied in photography most of my adult life. Personal video cameras were just coming on the scene as we were expecting our first child. That gave me the incentive to explore the possibilities of recording the sound and motion of special occasions. And now hardly any important or sublime life event goes unrecorded as most folks carry a smart device on their person to capture the moment. Some of the wackiest get posted on the Internet and go viral around the world instantaneously. Two young men stole a cache of Franklins recently and then had the audacity to post a selfie video with their loot. They were arrested almost as quickly and the video provided law enforcement with the evidence needed to prosecute them!

The most recent incidents of police “use of force” has prompted the integration of body cameras for many law enforcement units. The city of Rialto, California started using the cameras and concluded that use of force incidents where officers used pepper spray, tasers, batons, firearms or police dogs dropped in half for officers wearing the cameras. Complaints against officers also dropped off as now-sober arrestees viewed their behavior when drunk. The study noted that “when we become aware that a video-camera is recording our actions, we also become self-conscious that unacceptable behaviors are likely to be captured on film, and the perceived certainty of punishment is at its highest”.

A correspondent recently wore one of these video cameras for the day to experience this newest technology. His subsequent article reminded me of a television interview I recently watched on the subject of violence in this country. One contributor observed that there seems to be a correlation between lawlessness and the decline of religion. He noted that we can’t hire enough law enforcement officers to replace the natural response to obeying laws and authority when folks respect and believe in a higher authority in their personal lives. I find it very reassuring to know God has promised us that He is with us always and the Holy Spirit is within us as a comforter and a guide. That translates to a 24/7 recording within the bowels of our gray matter of every move and thought for which we will someday be rewarded or held accountable. We intuitively understand that such recordings exist from the accounts of folks coming back from near death experiences who view these memories on fast forward. The good news is that we fallible humanoids are loved unconditionally and we’ve been given the path to forgiveness.

When the religious leaders tried to challenge Jesus into choosing the greatest of the more than 600 laws they had created, He responded that the one supreme law is that we should love God and others, period. If we direct our lives around this one teaching, we will naturally follow others to maintain a civil society. When in doubt, the lesser laws should be obeyed if they are consistent with the Law of Love and ignored if they are not.

The correspondent concluded his day with the discovery that “I was extra careful in my driving. I was extra polite to the public and my colleagues. And I made sure everything I did was above reproach—because that little piece of technology was a constant reminder that even though I’m human, I can always be better”. We shouldn’t need to constantly wear state-of-the-art electronics to make us aware of that. Our Creator also expects better. We wear lots of different hats in life and we’re pretty good at adapting to our surroundings. It’s been said that if you want to know who you really are, observe the person you see when no one is watching. Except we’re not alone after all and the cameras are rolling.

FEED MY LAMBS

Lamb of God, St. Louis, MO

I’ve been patiently waiting ever since the end of last year for some inspiration to select a theme for this year’s stewardship messages at our church in Jamestown. In that same passage of time, I made the decision to join two of our past senior pastors and our bishop on an upcoming pilgrimage of the Holy Land where Jesus walked, taught and modeled life and death. This commitment led me to download an e-book by James Martin, a Franciscan priest, detailing his own experiences and inspirations on such a trip titled Jesus, a Pilgrimage. If you can’t make the trip for all sorts of reasons, this book can take you there.

One of the first places Martin visited was one of the last places mentioned in the Gospels. As it turns out, many of the holy places seem to be approximations of the exact spot where significant events occurred, given the eroding and shifting sands of time and the nature of this land. A modest grey stone chapel, the Church of the Primacy of Peter, was erected on this land in 1933, incorporating the walls of a structure built in the fourth century. Inside is a low, undulating cream-colored rock the size of a kitchen table called the Table of Christ. Here tradition tells us that the resurrected Jesus stood at the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias and called to his disciples including Peter to join him in an ordinary breakfast of fish and bread. I’ll be content to stand anywhere on this shoreline and ponder this extraordinary sunrise moment.

Interestingly, the disciples who had spent such intimate times with Jesus didn’t initially recognize him. Such was the case with most of the Gospel stories about those encountering an entirely new creation in the universe—one that both you and I will receive. Once Jesus tells Peter to cast his net to the right (as with their first meeting) it’s full of fish. The scene is reminiscent of the feeding of the 5,000 nearby with five loaves and two fish to invite folks to encounter God. Peter has been dealing with the reality that he turned away from Jesus at his trial and his loss of a close friend, so he went fishing. Jesus offers Peter forgiveness, on the cross and here at the seaside, and lets Peter atone for the three times he denied him.

Jesus’ response to Peter for the three times He asks if he loves Him is to instruct him to “feed my lambs and follow me”. Jesus is telling Peter to respond to His love for mankind by being their shepherd. He is offering forgiveness and asking an imperfect person to share the teachings and love he has experienced to help all of the lambs or children of our Heavenly Father—to “feed my sheep and follow me”. He was handing off the baton to continue his stated mission; “The Human One came to seek and save the lost."

A wonderful inspiration for stewardship!

THE FIRST BENEFICIARIES OF BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday, Internet Domain

As we start the season of Lent and move toward holy week, Good Friday looms ahead prior to Easter Sunday. I prefer to use the alternative name for that day which occurred over two thousand years ago as Black Friday. The sun stopped shining and darkness came over the whole land for three hours in the middle of that day as all nature mourned the impending death of its Creator. For the first time in all creation, the Father was temporarily separated from relationship with the Son. The temple curtain was torn apart in that hour. The curtain symbolically separated the court of the people and the Most Holy Place where only the high priest could enter once a year to atone for the sins of the people. Now, Jesus’ death removed the barrier between human beings and God so that His sacrifice could pave the way for the atonement of all sins and the promise of eternal life through the grace of God.

Just before Jesus was condemned to death on a Roman cross, however, a man named Barabbas had also been condemned to death. It was a Passover custom for the Roman ruler to pardon one prisoner. Barabbas had been convicted as a revolutionary insurgent and murderer. Interestingly, he was guilty of the same false charge against Jesus. Finding no fault with Jesus, Pilate offered the riotous crowd either Jesus or Barabbas to be set free; assuming they would chose the obvious guilty man. But Barabbas was spared certain death on that day and given new life while Jesus was sent to the cross in his place.

The names of many Jewish men of the day were derived from their father’s name. Interestingly, Bar means “son of” and Abba means “father”. Barabbas could be the son of any father--you or me. Jesus was crucified with two condemned men also dying on either side of him. One hurled insults but the other recognized His divinity and pleaded for him to "remember me when you come into your kingdom". And Jesus answered him; "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise". Only this one man was able to see beyond the seeming devastation of the cross to the triumph of the eternal Kingdom of God. As he breathed his last on the cross, Jesus softly spoke, “Father (Abba), into your hands I commit my spirit”.

We are all sons and daughters of our eternal Abba and after the events of Black Friday, we are all now the beneficiaries of His priceless grace. Grace means there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. We only have to look to the cross to understand the full measure of His love. The condemned Barabbas was given a pardon for a second chance at mortal life, but the unknown dying man on Calvary received a last minute reprieve for eternal life!

LOVE AND SIN

Love, High Point, NC

When we read in Genesis that human beings were created in God’s image, it doesn’t mean that we look like our Creator but that we are able to relate like our Creator. Our God is a relational God. I believe it also implies that since one of the greatest attributes of God is love, we were endowed with the free will or freedom to either share in that relationship or to turn our backs on God. It’s been said that God can do everything except compel us to love him—by design. Paul writes in the love chapter of First Corinthians that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails”. We now vaguely understand our relationship with our creator, as if seeing through a dark glass or a blurry reflection in an ancient mirrored surface, but we will see more clearly when we’re restored to our original perfection.

We cannot enter into a relationship with God without the freedom of choice. We Americans living in the land of the brave and home of the free have learned that freedom is not free. Freedom carries with it certain responsibilities, dedication and sacrifices. And human history continues to move toward freedom because it is written on the human heart. However, nations of men have lived under severe persecution and denial of basic unalienable rights endowed by their Creator. Individuals have become wrapped in the chains of severe addictions that have robbed them of their ability to freely live life. Sin is not just a violation of a moral code, but it’s also a consequence of not developing a relationship with our Creator. Instead, we immerse ourselves in self-idolatry and deny our reliance on others. When we set out to be our own God and not to seek the grace and will of God, the destructive consequences known as sin easily corrupt the peace, hope and security of our existence.

Physics teaches us that nature abhors a vacuum. So when the human heart does not nurture love, rent free space is available for sin to move in and fill the void. Thankfully we have a forgiving Creator, since no human being is without sin.

REVENGE AND FORGIVENESS

Two Graves, Jamestown, NC

If you’ve ever been wronged, either physically and/or emotionally, I suspect forgiveness isn’t top of mind for an immediate response. Emotions are on high alert and adrenaline is coursing through our veins at record speeds. Our face is flushed and the blood veins in our neck are pulsing. The sensation can be even more intense if the one who wrongs us is someone we are close to. This might explain our human fascination for revenge movies and the projected satisfaction we seem to receive when the bad guys get their just dues at the hand of the wronged person. Bad guys do need to be brought to justice, but we can personally get into a lot of trouble ourselves if we take revenge on the perpetrators. Perhaps we’re not in a position to do that, but we’re still in a position to confront them later. Do we choose to withhold forgiveness even though that holding on is destroying us internally? A wise saying from Leviticus 24:20 reminds us that if we seek revenge, we should dig two graves. Another way of looking at this is to consider the thought that this perp still has control of your life—he’s essentially living rent free in your mind.

There would seem to be a fine line between revenge and justice. Many folks who take justice into their own hands are practicing revenge. The objects of their anger may very well deserve the punishment they receive. But a civilized society needs lawful order to be successful. When we consider the big picture, I wonder if the Great Flood that destroyed all mankind except Noah’s family could have possibly been an act of revenge. The human race had used its free will to destructively turn away from their creator God. If that was to be the end result with no remorse or repentance, then why continue to attempt a relationship? However, that was a rather extreme consequence and almost eliminated the grand experiment with a promise to never try that approach again. Later, God chose to dramatically demonstrate His love for all mankind by sacrificing himself for our forgiveness. The cross was much more impactful and has somewhat sustained us for the past two thousand years, although we still have not come anywhere close to a Kingdom of God on earth.

It’s been said that an expression of sincere love manifests itself when one willingly sacrifices something of themselves. It may take the form of time, resources or self. Our creator God sacrificed Himself in the form of the “word become flesh” to obtain forgiveness for all mankind. And we have learned that while revenge extracts fearful influence through power and control, sacrificial love expended to help and uplift others wins people’s hearts and provides an unselfish joy of purpose.

EASTER QUESTIONS

A New Beginning, Wrightsville Beach, NC

The recent focus on the events of this Easter season always gives us pause to ponder philosophical questions. Probably the key question that is asked would be “What would have happened if Jesus had not risen from the tomb and defeated death”? C. S. Lewis has noted if that had happened, Christianity would have drifted into the sands of time and never been heard of again. That event was pivotal in the course of God’s grace being dispensed to humankind.

And then there was the impetuous disciple Peter. When Jesus was betrayed by Judas with that infamous “kiss of death”, Peter’s knee jerk reaction was to draw his sword and cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest. Jesus immediately asked them, “Am I leading a rebellion that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me”? Jesus was leading a revolution, not a rebellion! Later, just before sunrise as Jesus was being tried, Peter fulfilled Jesus’ prediction and denied that he ever knew him, not once but three times. When he realized what he had done, he left weeping bitterly. What if a distraught Peter had hung himself after denying Jesus three times? He would not have been the person that Jesus appointed as the rock that He would build his church upon. This kingdom of God would ultimately be founded on the principles of weakness, poverty, suffering, loving and serving others, and remembering Jesus when breaking bread.

And then there was Judas the turncoat. Judas was the man this little band of brothers relied on to manage the finances and carry the money bag. He understood what sustained the inverted kingdoms of this world—power, money, swords and clubs. He was looking for a warrior king to vanquish the oppressing Roman rule of his people. Jesus was a big disappointment to Judas and so he betrayed him. Then, when he realized what the thirty pieces of silver had accomplished, he went out in anguish and hung himself. The term “kiss of death” now means an intimacy with something that subsequently causes your destruction. BUT, what if Judas had only waited three days? The resurrection showed all of the remaining disciples that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and they all went on to live inspired lives. Perhaps a forgiven Judas would have been the rock and redirected the rest of his life to the new revolution. A converted Paul that had originally persecuted Christians went on to write a significant part of the New Testament.

We absolutely know that God can bring good out of any bad situation that develops as mortal men continue to exercise their free will. And He will use the most unlikely human candidates to accomplish His will to demonstrate that His acceptance is available to anyone. History would then have recorded Judas as one of the most revered disciples instead of the most repulsive after the events of Easter. Both Peter and Judas illustrate the axiom that “It is better to be a follower who fails, than one who fails to follow”. What about us?

BREATH OF GOD

Prairie Winds, Central Flint Hills, KS

The book of Genesis is about beginnings. God spoke the universe into being and created human beings in his image. God is love and love expresses itself toward something or someone. Creation and destruction are constantly active around us. And the basic building block of all creation is the chemical star dust of that big bang. Human bodies were created from this star dust and human beings are given life the moment God’s “breath of life” enters the lifeless shell. The moment we breathe our last, our mortal bodies return to the star dust of the universe, presumably to be recycled into another creation. Modern science has long ago determined that matter can neither be created not destroyed.

Later in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, the prophet had a vision of God leading him to a valley of dry human bones. The dry bones represented the hopelessly and spiritually dead condition of the people. And God told Ezekiel to prophesy that the breath of the four winds would come and breathe into those slain, that they might live. And life was restored as the bones rose up and lived again! Once God puts His spirit back into a people, they will have new life.

Later in the New Testament book of John, the resurrected Jesus appeared to His disciples behind closed doors. He greeted the disciples by informing them that as the Father had sent Him, He was sending them out into the world to spread the good news of forgiveness and eternal life. He accomplished this by breathing on them and informing them with the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide them. Only God still has the power to forgive sins, but now we all have the kingdom within us and the privilege of telling others that God’s priceless grace of forgiveness and an eternal spiritual life after death is available to all!

THE FIRST BENEFICIARY OF BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday, Internet Domain

As we move along in the holy week, Good Friday looms ahead prior to Easter Sunday. I prefer to use an alternative name for that day over two thousand years ago as Black Friday. The sun stopped shining and darkness came over the whole land for three hours in the middle of that day as all nature mourned the impending death of its Creator. For the first time in all creation, the Father was temporarily seperated from relationship with the Son. The temple curtain was torn apart in that hour. The curtain symbolically separated the court of the people and the Most Holy Place where only the high priest could enter once a year to atone for the sins of the people. Now, Jesus’ death removed the barrier between human beings and God so that His sacrifice could pave the way for the atonement of all sins and the promise of eternal life through the grace of God.

Just before Jesus was condemned to death on a cross, however, a man named Barabbas had also been condemned to death. It was a Passover custom for the Roman ruler to pardon one prisoner. Barabbas had been convicted as a revolutionary insurgent and murderer. Interestingly, he was guilty of the same false charge against Jesus. Finding no fault with Jesus, Pilate offered the riotous crowd either Jesus or Barabbas to be set free; assuming they would chose the obvious guilty man. But Barabbas was spared certain death on that day and given new life while Jesus was sent to the cross in his place.

The names of many Jewish men of the day were derived from their father’s name. Interestingly, bar means “son of” and abba means “father”. Barabbas could be the son of any father--you or me. Jesus was crucified with two condemned men also dying on either side of him. One hurled insults but the other recoginzed His divinity and pleaded, "remember me when you come into your kingdom". And Jesus answered him; "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise". Only this man was able to see beyond the seeming devastation of the cross to the triumph of the eternal Kingdom of God. As he breathed his last on the cross, Jesus softly spoke, “Father (Abba), into your hands I commit my spirit”. We are all sons and daughters of our eternal Abba, and after the events of Black Friday, we are all now the beneficiaries of His priceless grace. Grace means there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. We only have to look to the cross to understand the full measure of His love. Barabas was given another chance at mortal life, but the unknown dying man on Calvary received a last minute chance at eternal life!