A close shave

I was getting a haircut the other day, and the barber started shaving my hairline.  He was using an old straight razor. 
"Is that hard to learn, shaving with one of those things?"
"Not really," he said. "It's all in the angle you hold it.  I wouldn't try it on myself, though."
That did not make me feel better.  Nevertheless I asked him.
"Do you still have people come in with a full shave?"
"oh sure. Some men come in once a week for a shave.  Others come in once a year, or for a special occasion as a treat."
"Why would a man want a shave for a treat?"
"Have you ever had one?"
Confessed that I had not. 
"Well, you won't get it down at the hair styling place at the mall. It takes real barber to give a really close shave."
What the heck, I thought.  I'm fifty-eight and never had a close shave.
"Okay, " I said. "Let's do it. 
For the first time in my life, I experienced the ritual of a close shave.  It was a formal ritual, a rite no less elegant than a Japanese tea ceremony or an Arab dinner, practiced by barbers since ancient times.
First he took a hot, wet towel and wrapped my entire face as he arranged his ritual instruments. 
"What's that for?" My words were muffled by the towel.
"The heat makes the hairs stand up on the face.  It makes them easier to cut.
'then he put hot lather over my whole lower half of my face, except for the goatee area.  Then,  with presice, flowing strokes, he trimmed the area next to the beard, the sideburns and the ears.  A few long, quick strokes denuded the rest of the foamy area.  Finally, he stepped back and admired his work.  seeing a few rough spots, he dabbed more hot lather over them, and shaved them again.  Finally, he wrapped the whole face again with a hot towel and topped it off with a splash of bay rum.  Then, he spun the chair around and showed me his work.  "What do you think?" he said.
It was amazing. For ten bucks, I felt like a million.    My face was so smooth that fleas could use it as a slip-and-slide.
I was going to say something about grace at the end of this--how a common man can be made to feel like a man through this simple grooming ritual, and how much it is like the cleansing of sin available in God's grace, but that would probably be too preachy. 
But I will say this,  For one brief moment,  I felt once again that I was a  young man. At least fifty-five or fifty-six. 

A Good Church Closes

Last week, the session of the Good Shepherd church where I have been preaching voted to close the doors. I had only been with this congregation for a little over two months. During that time, we have laughed, prayed, and wept together.  I have become very fond of them.
The reason for the closing comes down ultimately to money and people.  The church had been living under a tremendous overhead--more than four thousand a month.  When I arrived, the numbers had dwindled to about twenty-five.  the lease runs out at the end of the month.  We had found a place to go, but when it came close to the time to make a move,  many of the original people decided that they were either unable or just too tired to make another move. So next Sunday will be their last.
There has been a steady stream of trucks coming up to the church,  picking up items that will go to many other churches. My old church got new choir chairs. A Liberian Christian church will get a piano.  A half dozen churches will profit financially from what this church had.
I thank God for Good Shepherd church and all its members.  Even till the very end, it never became a depressed, self-absorbed fellowship. the people genuinely love others. They genuinely love Christ. They are wonderful prayers and lovers.  they have embraced all kinds of people, from the mayor of the town to the homeless people on the street. They have nothing to be ashamed of as a group.
The really sad part about this closing is that it will make four churches I have seen close in a year.  It seems to be a trend. 
It is not surprising.  We are living in a different world than the one we lived in when I was young.  In this world, church is not part of the lives of the majority of people.  The social Christianity that sustained a plethora of churches across the country is passing away,  In its place is a hard, secular world that is hostile to institutional Christianity.
The only good thing I can say about all this is that maybe it will cause us as Christians to rethink what church is supposed to be.  it was never intended to be an institution. It is a life, a way of living. That is why Christians were originally called the Way.  We have  been building buildings. We should have been building people.
As for the Good Shepherd church,  it will never end.  It will go on, because the people in it are alive. 
Take a fire and spread its' sparks. The weak ones will go out, but the strong ones will start new fires. Scatter a church and the same things happens. Those who were insincere will stay away from organized religion or sink into the background. but when we are on fire for Christ, we will share that fire everywhere we go.
Good Shepherd is gone, but Good shepherd people are just beginning to spread the love of Christ.  What a fire they will start wherever they go!

What is Religion for, Anyway?

Several years ago, I taught an inservice for hospital workers on the subject "spirituality and care giving." It was a challenge. How can an evangelical pastor like myself talk about "spirituality" apart from faith? Is there such a thing as a spirituality that is not directly linked to being Christian?
If we are talking about Spirit with a big S, there isn't. The Holy Spirit is given to those who believe in Christ. This is an important and non-negotiable part of the faith.
If, on the other hand we are talking about something else--the human spirit--then there may be something to it.
The human "spirit" as we commonly use the term refers to the part of us that contains our motivation. It is the part of us that makes us do what we do, whether or not it is in our immediate self interest. The human spirit is the part of us that determines what we do, why we do it, and what we will endure. It is how we answer the basic questions of existence.
 Suppose we have cancer.  In order to survive, we must endure a painful treatment. Why should a person endure the pain in order to stay in this world? This is a question for the spirit, not the mind or the emotions.  It is a question of values.  Is living better than dying?  Is enduring pain worth the trouble?  People answer this in different ways, but the fact that any of us puts up with pain, when we could end it all is proof that the human spirit exists.
Suppose we join the military and go to war. What sense does it make?  If all we are is an animal,  with feelings and thoughts, the idea of jeopardizing our lives for a good greater than ourselves just does not make sense.  It is not an intellectual question of whether we should give ourselves in sacrifice or preserve our lives into the future. It is a spiritual question.
Suppose we have a chance to cheat on our spouse with an attractive person, with the absolute assurance that they would never know.  Why should we resist?  Why not do it and lie about it?  It is a matter of value, not emotions.  Emotions tell us one thing, our spirit says another. 
My point is this.  All people, whether religious or non religious, must make decisions of the spirit. These decisions are neither emotional nor intellectual, since no sane person could conclude that we should throw our lives away based on what we see around us, nor could we imagine a situation where it would feel better to endure pain than not endure it.  These value judgments are based on faith in what we believe.
We cannot go a day without spiritual decisions. Each day, we must choose to get up out of the bed,  what breakfast cereal is good for our body,  whether or not to have a second cup of coffee. These are value decisions, based on what we believe to be  important. They are the only reason we do not sleep ourselves out of a job, or eat ourselves to death.  They require faith in the future to make them, based on our system of belief.
This is where religion comes into the picture. Our view of God is the basis for our faith system. If there is not God, and does it make any sense to go to church and worship Him? If there is no afterlife, does it make any sense to forgo pleasure here for future reward?  Only our faith can give us sufficient purpose to be more than than we are now.
This is very important to us who serve as shepherds and leaders of the faith.  We must realize that what we are teaching is hugely important.  It affects every moment of every day of everyone on earth.  There is nothing casual about it.  It is vital.   Even if (and I do not for a moment believe this) there is no life after this one, it would still be vital.
It is easy for us preachers to forget this.  We treat the Bible as an intellectual exercise, and theology as an esoteric province of the mind alone.  We are often guilty of substituting dogma for faith and good feelings for conviction.  What we believe is tranformative only when we really believe it. It is desperately important for us to know what it is.
The people who fill our pews know this better than we who fill the pulpits. They do not come to hear us for lectures on the sexual habits of the Philistines or to hear what Moses did to the Amelkites. They  come to help them decide whether to stay at their jobs, to keep persevering, or keep their marriage vows. They come to be given something to live for or die for, not to be tickled and teased.  Simply put, they come to find God.
That is the reason we have religion, so we can find our way to God.  If they don't find Him in church, they will look for Him somewhere else. 

"Pilates, Now!"

On my way to work this morning, I passed a large, beautiful uptown church.   I could not see it's name or or it's denomination.  What I could see though, was  big banner on the front yard declaring "Pilates, Now!"  Pilates, in case the reader is uninformed, is some kind of aerobic exercise class.

How curious!  Most of the time,  churches want their name known.  After all,  they are lighthouses to the world, beacons of hope and faith in a world of darkness and despair.  But in this case, the most visible thing about this church was that they offered Pilates classes.

Here's the Church and Here's the People

Presbytery was last Tuesday.    Presbytery meetings are pretty much  the same as the last thirty-five years of report I have seen--the same old stuff about rotating pulpits,  student sermons,  examinations that are virtually interchangeable.  Perhaps one day  we'll just record the whole meeting and play it back at the next meeting, thus saving us the trip.  I doubt if anyone would notice.
However, there are always one or two bits of business that makes this enjoyable expediency impossible.   Those are the few minutes of presbytery where something gets done. One in this case was the report on small, struggling churches and how we can help them.
Helping small churches  is a lot like trying to get rid of poverty. Churches begin, grow old, and die just like everything else.  The church universal continues forever just as the Bible says, but as it does it sheds its individual cells, just like our bodies do.  God's church survives.  Individual churches do not.  They fall like autumn leaves.

Preaching Naked

Preaching is the art of simplicity.  It is the task of taking the most complex and perplexing theological concepts and turning them into something that children can understand.  If we are not being told that our preaching is too  simplistic, that we are appealing to children and spiritual babes, then we are not doing a very good job.

John Wesley, it is said, read his sermons to his chambermaid and if there was something she could not understand, he cut it out.  Paul understood this need for simplicity when he said "I was determined to preach nothing among you but Christ, and Him crucified."  Jesus originated this call to simplicity when he invited the children to come to him, and when he spoke in stories and parables.  There is no Biblical warrant for speaking over the heads of people, nor is there any warrant for using the pulpit as a stage for theatrical oratory.

Birthday Blessings

Today is my fifty-eight birthday. That means I am middle=aged, if I live to be a hundred and sixteen.  Not that I feel it.  In many ways, I feel younger than I have ever been .  Aside from gray hair, slowness of body and forgetfulness of mind,  I could still be twenty five.  It's an exciting time for me right now--I am beginning a new job,  writing books, making new friends,  and learning new things all the time.  Instead of winding down, I am just winding up.  I am looking forward to the future, growing spiritually and in happiness.  I plan to write at least nine books before I dea, and to influence at least one more generation. 
Besides that, I as I hurtle into geezer-hood,  there is so much to look forward to.  Such as

Seventy Virgins

Who can forget 9/11, 2001?  What a horrible day it was.  We all watched, transfixed as the horror unfolded,  as we watched the destruction of the twin towers, the attack on the pentagon, and the crash of flight 93.  The hardest part of it was trying to understand why these people did what they did.  It made no sense that a man who was sane enough to learn to fly an airplane could be insane enough to crash it into a building, killing himself as well as hundreds of others. 
As the drama unfolded, we began to understand something of their motivations.  They were driven by religious fanaticism.  Some people will kill for politics, but they will die for religion.  When a person believes in an afterlife of heaven, they will be willing to give their lives for it. 
As more came out about these men who performed this unspeakable act in Allah's name,  it became obvious that they had come to believe in a very worldly vision of that afterlife.  They were like the famous Hashishim (assassins) of the Crusader period, who were brainwashed by their fanatical leader into believing in a literal, worldly afterlife of eternal gluttony and sexual depravity, a place where they would each receive seventy virgin brides.
Seventy virgins.  If it weren't so serious it would be funny.  I should think that if such a place existed  it would not be heaven for terrorists but hell for virgins.  Imagine seventy eternally young women being left with a one scruffy old man for company! Imagine that these women never aged,  either physically or mentally, but remained perpetual teenagers forever. 
I have never had seventy virgin wives, but I have lived with three teenaged daughters at the same time. If that is someone's view of heaven, I would rather skip it.  Imagine the mood swings, the petty jealousies,  the competition for attention they would go through, and you in the middle, trying to please them.  Imagine the headaches when your virgins find out that Achmed next door has a charge account at the heavenly mall, and Achmed's virgins can buy whatever they want.  Imagine  the time they would spend primping and preening. Seventy virgins would have to come equipped with at least seventy one-golden bathrooms. 
Speaking of bathrooms,  what about that one long, continual feast? There are very few things I could eat for all eternity without getting tired of them.  Would they be immune to obesity and to indigestion?  Would they ever complain of having the some old thing day after day for a thousand years?  We can even grow tired of steak and pizza. 
There is a universal principle in life that says once a worldly pleasure has been experienced, it is never quite as good the second time.  Pleasure is in newness and discovery.  Even seventy virgins  bearing grape clusters in their hands will eventually get a little bit old in a century or two.
It seems to me that those terrorists, even if they got their reward, in time would grow to resent it. 
Or suppose they did not receive seventy virgins.  Suppose they received one virgin,  a beautiful young bride who never grew old. It sounds good, buy how long would it stay good?  Not long,  After a while, no matter how attractive the woman may be,  you would want to engage in some good conversation.  Unfortunately that is not what servile young virgins are usually about. 
There is an old joke about a rich man who went to heaven.  He complained to St Peter at the gate that it was unfair he could not bring any of his riches with him.  St. Peter relented and declared that just this once, he could bring something he owned on earth into heaven. The man quickly returned to earth,  opened his secret vault, and filled his robe with gold bars.  He returned to the pearly gates, where Peter asked him what he was bringing through customs. The man showed him the gold bars.
St Peter laughed.  "Foolish man," he said. "You could bring anything you wanted from earth, and all you brought were paving bricks!"
There is no end to our foolishness when it comes to heaven.  What we think is so valuable here is worth nothing there. What is worth nothing here is unbelievably valuable there.  Our foolishness is in trying to lay up worldly treasures in heavenly places--whether it be paving bricks or seventy virgins--when what they have in heaven is so much better.

New Experiences in Worship

Well, it's been a month since I left Oak Ridge--five Sundays.  During that time, I have not set foot in a church.  Oh, I have gone to church, but it just so happened that none of those churches have had buildings.   Only one of those  churches has been ARP, or anything like what I have been used to.   They have all been--shall we say--unique.

First, let me say that this is not a critique of any of these churches.  I am no more qualified to critique the worship service of another church than I am qualified to criticize the Portuguese of a Brazilian  pastor.   I am not familiar with that language.   Every church ministers to a different culture and speaks a different language of faith.  It is foolish for me or for anyone else to think I know better than these congregations and who speak with God every week.  No two churches are exactly the same, and so no two churches will use exactly the same style of worship and music. To judge another church is frankly arrogant. 

Dancing with God

There are two kinds of people on earth--those who dance and those who don't. I fall into the latter category.  When you have the physique of Mr. Potato Head, you really don't look right on a dance floor.

As a non-dancer, I frankly don't understand what dancing means to those who do.  Whenever I hear that songs "I Could Have Danced All Night,” I wonder how she could have done it, and why.  We Presbyterians are generally rhythmically deprived anyway. 

Four Visions of the Church

The vision of the Christian Church is to establish an ancient dream in a modern world.  Jesus said   "Upon this rock, I will build my church."
Two thousand years later, we cannot even agree on the shape of  the edifice that was supposed to go on that rock.  Will it have stained glass windows and arches?  Will it be a plain wooden box? Will it even have walls?  There has never been a definitive answer to that question.  We can only speak of a variety of answers--thousands of permutations and designs. 
I believe there are four basic church shapes,  based upon the intentions of the people who dwell in them. The true church lies somewhere in between these four shapes.
These shapes are a continuum between two intersecting axes--the cultural and missional axis.  The cultural axis is how they see themselves. The missional axis is how they see their mission to the world.  They represent four separate visions of the church's place in society.

In Praise of Oak Ridge Church

Tomorrow concludes my ministry at Oak Ridge Church after nine short years of being their pastor. Being their pastor has been a wonderful, healing experience for my family and I.
I came to Oak Ridge after leaving a congregation of more than five hundred. I was burned out. Church and family issues had taken everything I had.  I had no idea where I was going to go or what I was going to do.  I was not sure I wanted to be a minister any more. 
Then I got a call from a pastor who asked me to preach at his church while he was away candidating at another church. The week following  that Sunday,  he left the church, and Oak Ridge invited me back to fill the pulpit.

Boxes

Today I finished packing up my church office--twenty  boxes containing books and mementos of thirty-six years in church work. I am leaving my fifth church and my sixth church office.  It is I think the seventh time I have moved those books in the past ten years. 

When I left  my last church,  there were thirty-five boxes. That was after I had already given away at least forty percent of my library. I have come to realize that books are for reading, not for collecting dust.  That's easy to remember when you are toting thirty-five boxes in and out of your car. 

God was good to me, though. Oak Ridge called me to be their pastor.  I unpacked my boxes in the study of our new home--only the second home we owned in thirty-six years of marriage and eight moves.  Space was a problem so I unloaded twenty- four boxes onto tightly packed shelves in my small home study.  

The Pursuit of Pleasure

I just finished reading a book by Christian psychiatrist Dr. Archibald Hart, entitled Thrilled to Death. The book dealt with one the most prevalent psychological disorder in modern society that we have never heard of. it is called anhedonia, which means the inability to experience pleasure. People with anhedonia no longer enjoy the little pleasures of life. Hart's thesis is that almost everyone today is experiencing a measure of anhedonia. We just don't enjoy life the way our ancestors did. We don't even enjoy it the way we did as children. The problem, he said, is getting worse all the time.

Do you remember the taste of ice cream when you were a child? Didn't it seem to taste better then? Do you remember the thrill of your first kiss, the feel of grass under your toes, the laughter you experienced watching cartoons? Why don't the things we set out to enjoy feel the same way to us now?

Hart lists five causes of anhedonia--depression, physical ailments. anxiety, addictions, and over-stimulation of the pleasure centers of our brain.

Are we overstimulated for pleasure?

Let me give you an example.

A New Door and a New Adventure

In nine days I will begin my new job as Director of Pastoral Studies at New Life Seminary.  It's an exciting new challenge, personally, intellectually, spiritually, and financially.  I relish the challenge, and look forward to beginning with my students.  

It is a wonderful feeling to know that at my age, I can still start a new career.  For thirty-one years, I have walked through the halls of ministry, only to find a brand new door and a new hall behind it.  Beyond that,  who knows?  Maybe this is only one of a succession of doors for me yet to enter, each one leading to another, until I swing open the final one and step into the light in my Father's House.

I am blessed to be teaching practical ministry subjects. I am not a scholar in the the traditional sense, nor do I want to be. I admire people who are true scholars and respect their precision of thought, but for my part I would rather focus on holy practice than holy intellect. When I was younger, I wanted to be smart.  Now I would rather teach wisdom.  Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. 

 I pray that my God will help me to make them sufficiently challenging and helpful.  I know that they will teach me as much as I will teach them.  More than that, I pray that what I do and say among them will point them to the Great Teacher, before Whom we are all just mediocre students.

"Dear God, who teaches us all things,  let we who teach be reflections of Your glory, so that our students will see You in what we say or do. May we drink our fill at the well of knowledge, but lead us to share what we know with wisdom and with love.

 In Jesus' name, Amen."

A Call To Prayer

This church is about to embark on one of the most difficult tasks any church can do—finding a new pastor. It is a time of danger. Not only can you choose the wrong pastor, but you can go astray in other ways. You can turn against each other. False shepherds can enter and do great damage. You can become obsess ed with internal matters and give up your witness in the world.

On the other hand, it is also a time of great opportunity. The church can pull together in a way that it has never before. You can find greater purpose and direction, become better focused. You can be fed good pastors and preachers who can add new depth and insights, above what I have given you in the past.

One thing, however, must be understood, and understood clearly. You are not without a shepherd. You have the great Shepherd of us all, our Lord Jesus Christ. Neither do you lack shepherds on earth, since you have elders, deacons, and teachers who will step up to the task of being leaders. Too often a congregation sees an interim period as a hold time. If you take the initiative to continue to do the work of the ministry, it can be among the finest days of the church.
Recently, I heard of an experiment to determine the difference between wolves and dogs. All dogs were once wolves but millennia of breeding has produced different traits. Scientists took some food and placed it at the end of a strip of cloth in a cage, in sight of the animal but out of its reach. Both the dogs and the wolves figured this out almost immediately that they could pull on the cloth and get the food to come to them.

Then they tied the cloth down, so it would not budge. The stalked around the cage, trying all kinds of way to get to it. The dog tried once and gave up, looking instead to its master to solve the problem for him. The dog expected humans to find the answer.

Are you a dog or a wolf? That is the question you must decide. Will you wait till someone else arrives to solve the church’s problems, or will you take the initiative as a congregation and work together to arrive at good solutions?
Fortunately, you do not have to solve your problems by yourselves. You have a Shepherd, your Father in heaven. He will provide you to the solutions you need, defend the church against false prophets, and will provide good teaching and many blessings for the congregation. This is a time when the church can draw near to God, and discover what He has for you. Even so, you must take the initiative to seek His guidance until you find it.
Jeremiah 29:13 says it best “You will seek Me, and you will find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Now is the time to really search for God.
I have seen some churches make a mess of a pastoral search. I have also seen some churches who have done it very well. I think I know what makes the difference.
Those who have done it well have had two characteristics. First, they have not been in a hurry, because they trusted God. Almost immediately people have been asking me for recommendations for pastor. I could tell the hurry in their voices, a desire to get it done. But it is vitally important that you not hurry. Thoroughly investigate every candidate, and carefully read their resumes. Interview them more than once.
One option is to work with the presbytery to find an interim. Things do not have to stop while you are looking. You can go on with the ministries of the church. You can find temporary shepherds who can help you in the process. But whatever you do, do not hurry. Remember that the Lord is your true shepherd. He is the One who does all things. Wait upon the Lord, and trust His timing.
Second, the churches which have been most successful have made prayer their highest priority in the process. I strongly recommend that you begin now praying and fasting for a new pastor. Come together regularly, at least weekly with no other purpose in mind but to pray for a new pastor.
Our church has not often risen very high in the field of prayer. Often, I have heard our Wednesday Night Bible study called “prayer meeting,” even though it is not a time of prayer, but teaching. We have tried to gather together at 9:30 for prayer, until interest in it fell off. Since then, my wife and I have been the only ones coming. So now, this church has no time of group prayer. You need to get together and pray.
Let me tell you about the prayer you don’t need, though. You don’t need a time for coming together and sharing local gossip. You don’t need a gathering time for the super-spiritual. You don’t need a prayer meeting where the people there get resentful and run down people who are not there. You don’t need an “organ recital”—a prayer meeting that focuses on everyone’s ailments. Those prayers are better kept in another meeting, or shared on the prayer chains. You don’t need a time when one person prays where everyone else listens. You don’t formal, repetitive, ritualistic prayers. You don’t need prayers where people think they must speak to God in stilted, unrealistic tone.
You need prayer that is a crying from the heart. You need a time of sharing your grief and joy with God. You need a time when you all listen together to God, and expect God to answer you. You need time of seeking the face of God--really seeking Him, not just going through the motions. In most churches today prayer meetings have died, not from lack of attendance but from a lack of passion among those who attend. The church may be grounded in the Word, but it moves by the Spirit. It may be anchored in truth, but its sails are filled with passion. This church has not lacked for the word, but it has and does lack for the Spirit of God to fill its sails and drive it on to glory.
This is your opportunity to gain that passion. Now is the time experience the winds of the Spirit, and not to let go, until you find them. This church has become becalmed in complacency, adrift on a calm sea with no land in sight and no compass or chart to tell us where we should be. You need to appeal to God for passion and direction.
I do not need to tell you that you need to seek God and to do His will. You already know that. But how? For what purpose do we seek Him and to what depth and dimension should we go to find him? Can casual praying really be expected to change the world?
There are three levels of experience in a quest for God. The first is the level of obedience. Most seek to be obedient to God. Obedience is important. But being a believer is not a matter of obedience, nor is it a matter of morality. Being a Christian is not about doing right or wrong. That is a byproduct of the faith, and not the source of it.
Obedience produces servants, not sons. If all we do is tell people they should go to church meetings, tithe, be nice to each other, and be good citizens, we have not told them anything that is particularly Christians. The Muslims, Mormons, Jews, and even the atheists can do all these things, or their equivalent, and feel good about themselves. Communists, Nazis, and the ancient Romans all valued obedience being public-spirited citizens, and supporting their country. I wish to God they had not! Think of the lives that would have been saved if the Germans or the Russians had not been quite so obedient to their national authority.
We must be more than obedient to the Law. We must also be followers of God’s Spirit. Jesus said “Follow Me.” He did not say “Stay in Galilee and be the best fishermen you can be.” Jesus called them to risk and danger. We who serve the Lord full time know what it means to be called to a ministry. That means sometime in our lives we perceived that God was calling us to do something that others did not. It was a dangerous, difficult road He calls us to do, but the church would not be here is those who were called to the Ministry or the mission field did not go.
Do you think that God only calls some people to ministry, and the rest to be ministered to? Does He call only some to the danger and scandal of the Cross? Are only a few called to seek His unique will for their lives? Or did He not say to all of us “forsake your father and mother can follow me?” You are not exempt from this call. Each of you is called to the ministry.
The greatest weakness of the average church is prayerlessness. The second greatest weakness is the idea that the pastor is the primary worker. Some of you may think that the pastor must do all the visiting, all the preaching, all the counseling, and all the teaching. If you think that, then this church will forever be small and weak. When you become the shepherds, the teachers, the counselors, comforters, and the evangelists, then the church will grow—it cannot help but do otherwise.
Following Jesus is not enough, either. He does not call us just to be followers, but friends. He wants us to be in communion with Him, and experience His presence always.
Many people say they love the Lord, but I say many who say this do not. If we say we love our wives, but we want to lives separately from them, can we truly say to love them. If we love our children, yet choose not to visit them, do we really love them? Love involves a desire to be with them.
Three or four times in my life, I have had the privilege of visiting in A Trappist monastery—once in Kentucky and at least twice in Georgia. It is an amazing thing to meet these monks, who live most of the day in silence, attend worship five times a day, and pray at least four hours every day. The rest of their time is work and sleep, usually without the fellowship of other people. They never marry, the never leave the monastery, they do not watch television or attend sports events. The rarely read the newspapers. But these men are happy—often filled with indescribable joy. If you ask any of them what makes them so happy, they will all say the same thing—it is their freedom to be with God every day, and all day. Even when going about their chores, they have a deep sense of being with God. They practice His presence as the wash dishes, clean toilets, and cook meals. The one thing these men seek from their lives is the opportunity to spend time with Jesus.
These men are Catholic, which means as far as you or I are concerned they live in serious doctrinal error. But can we not concede that they know something about Jesus we do not? Can we not admit that we live in our own particular error—that is, the delusion that we can be a Christian and not spend any time with Jesus?
The pressures of the world have led us away from Him--as individuals and as a church.
The world is looking for God. How can we expect the world to find Him here, if we do not? How can God be here for unbelievers, when we believers ignore Him? God brings difficulties in our lives to bring us to prayer. Let me encourage you to let this difficult time in the church’s life be an opportunity for seeking God as He would be sought, with our whole heart and our whole souls. Let this be a time for prayer. Wage total war on the powers of darkness, until God’s light shines through this place in a constant, steady beacon. I cannot be here to lead you in this, but your officers can be. More than that, God will be with your wherever you go.

Courageous Grace

What constitutes courage? It is not the absence of fear. The absence of fear is stupidity. Instead, courage is the willingness to ignore fear. If there is no fear, there is no courage.

What constitutes tolerance? It is essentially the same. Many people think that tolerance is the same as being non-judgmental. But real tolerance is a kind of moral courage. It is not the absence of judgment, but we willingness to love in spite of our revulsion at the behavior of others.

Worldly tolerance is based on the belief that there is no right or wrong. Worldly tolerance teaches that we should see nothing wrong with alternate lifestyles, other religions, or other political views. Worldly tolerance is intolerant only with intolerance. The Ten Commandments are therefore “intolerant.” There is no judgment of anything or anyone.

That is not tolerance. It is stupidity.

The so-called “tolerant” are intolerant have a different list of sins than the religious do, but they have a list. Intolerance comes first, but it also includes being polluters, homophobes, chauvinists, racists, etc. The standards by which they judge these things would make the Salem witch hunters seem tolerant. Any deviation from the politically correct norm is to be labeled “intolerant.” The Bible has another kind of tolerance. Our tolerance is based on grace--which is moral courage. It is not the absence of judgment, but a commitment to love in spite of their sins. It does not deny the sin, but it does love the sinner.
Our pot-modern world doesn’t understand it. How can we oppose homosexuality and still support AIDS research? How can we oppose Islam, and still send charity relief to an Islamic country? They don’t do it for us! How can we believe we are the only true religion and still support freedom of speech? How can we insist we have the right faith, and still treat all faiths in our hospitals? We do not love on the basis of what others believe or do, but on the basis of what we believe and do. We are sinners saved by grace. We love others because of what Christ did for us.
This is moral courage, because we do it in the face of our own fear of sin. It goes against our deepest instincts and emotions to love sinners in their sins. Our nature is to judge as other do, to treat others according to our judgment of them. If we love Christ, we must love as He loved. We must live according to the mandates of divine grace. Believing people are sinners, we love them anyway in spite of their sins. This is the highest form of moral courage, and requires a deep moral discipline.
The worldly person sees our disapproval of sexual promiscuity and homosexuality and thinks we must alse be in favor of the practice of stoning homosexuals. He hears us say that Jesus is the way, truth and life, and thinks that we must be in favor of sending everyone else to hell. We are not. A Christian is one who loves the sinner as he loves himself. Judging the individual according to their behavior or their beliefs is consistent with their values, not ours. It is easy to love people we agree with, but to love those with whom we disagree is real grace. Our treatment of others is not based on what they say or do, but on what Jesus did for us.
Christian Grace colors everything we do. It is the basis for the three great relationships of our lives.
First, it is founded in our relationship with almighty God. Romans 5:6-8 states.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Any grace we may show in our lives is based upon God’s grace. God does not approve of sin, but He sent His Son to die for sinners. He did it to fulfill the letter of the law, so that through the Law the power of the Law might be broken.
Let’s put it another way--why should God love you? There is no reason, any more than there is a reason we should love a fundamentalist Muslim who wants to kill us, or a secular humanist who thinks all evangelical Christians are toothless idiots. We have committed offenses towards God that are every bit as abhorrent to Him as these people’s words and deed are offensive to us.
Paul grew up in an Orthodox Jewish environment. This world committed grave offenses to God. They reduced God to a caricature of His true self—a malevolent, legalistic, moralistic, being who kept the world in bondage. The religious leaders worshipped such a God so that they could maintain power over others and prove themselves superior. If you were God, what would you do with people who so badly represented who He was?
But the Pharisees of Paul’s youth were not the only offenders. Others did not believe in Him at all. Most who do not believe in Him do so out of convenience, not conviction. They rebel against the idea that there is any objective moral standard in the universe. Others believe in Him, but have nothing to do with Him. It is a sad fact that between eighty and ninety percent of people believe in God, but that only about a third regularly worship Him. How do you think God feels about a person who says they believe, but does not worship?
Paul understood something about God that His contemporaries did not. In spite of our sins, God loves us passionately, completely, and sincerely. His love is not based on our performance, neither is rooted “everything is good” mushy morality. His love is rooted in the sacrifice that God Himself made on our behalf. He overlooked His justifiable anger at us and gave us the free gift of grace. He did this so not only to give us freedom from our sins and a way of reconciling to Him, but also to set an example of how we should treat others.
Second, grace is expressed in our relationship we have to ourselves through redemption.
There is a legalistic streak in every Christian, which is primarily displayed in the way we look at ourselves. They believe deep down what growing up in this world has taught them--that their self-worth is based on what they are able to do. Some base their self-esteem on worldly success, others on the opinions of others, and still others on their moral performance. When we succumb to temptation, are rebuked by others, or fail at our jobs, we become worthless.
But God sees us differently. Our sins and our failures, need not define us in our own eyes. We are better than what we do or say or what others think because God has forgiven us.
(If you have never experienced the forgiveness of God, I urge you to stop immediately and turn to Him now. Ask Him to forgive your sins in Jesus’ Name. You will find a new, neither is free relationship to Him.)
Third, grace is expressed in our interpersonal relationships through forgiveness.
As we said at first, grace is not the absence of judgment, but exists in spite of judgment. We do not love others based of what they do, but on what Christ did for them.
There is a story in the Bible that expresses this. It is the story of Hosea and his wife Gomer. God told Hosea to marry a woman who was a prostitute, and who did not love him back. Over and over Gomer cheated on him. Time and again Hosea took her back. He did this to prove a point—love does not depend upon the other person’s actions but ours. God used Hosea’s relationship to his wife as a picture of His relationship to us. He keeps loving, keeps forgiving, keeps blessing, even when we don’t deserve it.
God’s patience is not infinite. but it is long. God will not forever protect us from the consequence of our actions. But even so, He does not love us on the basis of our actions. He continues to love the sinner, and wants us to do the same.
There is a growing trend of godlessness in this world, which is another way of saying that there is a growing hatred of us. But this is what we were created for—to love those who do not love us. We have the privilege of loving as Jesus did—being aware of the sins of others, but courageously loving the world regardless of what it may think of us. This is the way of moral courage—to love in full knowledge of our sins and the sins of others, as we have received that love from others.

A Visit to Hell

Now for something completely different.

I am a fan of Google Earth. It's about as close to a world tour as I'm ever going to get. Sometimes I like to type a random word into the search line on it to see where I go.
Today, I typed in "hell."
Naturally, it took me to Michigan.
It was quite an interesting place. After viewing it on Google Earth, and reading up on it on Wikipedia, I know now why so many people have suggested I go there.
Hell, Michigan is nestled in the woods of Livingston County, about thirty miles northwest of Ann Arbor (home of the University of Michigan) and about sixty miles from Detroit. Somehow, it seems appropriate that both these places should be located so close in proximity to this little town. Though it is not a large place, it does have an official post office and a weather bureau site. The people who live there call themselves "hellions."
There are three theories as to how it got its name. The most flattering explanation is that a pair of German immigrants stopped nearby. One said to another the German phrase "so schon hell!" which means "So beautifully bright!" locals heard it and liked it, so the name stuck. Another explanation is that early settlers gave named the town in honor of the weather conditions in January, when there are many cold days in Hell.
That may be, but I prefer the third explanation. A man named George Reeves settled there in 1838. He set up a sawmill, store, and gristmill. Farmers brought their wheat and corn to the mill. The wheat wound up as flour, but much of the corn was turned into distilled whisky. Many farmers would bring their grain to Mr. Reeves mill, and return home in an inebriated state. When neighbors asked their wives what happened to them, they would reply "Ah, he's gone to hell!"
So it was that in 1841 when a mapmaker came through and asked Mr. Reeves what his town should be labeled, he replied "'Call it hell, for all I care. Everyone else does. "So it became officially the only Hell on earth.

There isn't much in Hell, I'm afraid. But here are a few of the local attractions:

• There is a highway to Hell. It is County Road D32, also called (oddly enough) Darwin Road. It is paved with asphalt, not good intentions.
• There are no churches in Hell, which is unusual for a town that size. The house of worship closest to Hell is Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witness. (Didn't you always know it?)
• Hell's playground has a swing set, a slide, and monkey bars.
• Screams Ice cream parlor is one of two popular eateries in town. The other is the Dam Site Inn, which overlooks an artificial lake. It is filled with water, as not (so far as I know) fire.
• The official Hell website, www.hell2u.com, has a store, which sells Hellish merchandise--T shirts, horn coverings (hats), and mugs that say "One Hell of a drink." There is a special section for items that are $6.66 and under.
• You can become mayor of Hell for a day, for a reasonable price. One woman was given this honor on her birthday for her husband. She was unable to visit the town in person to claim her honor, but her husband assured her that this was all right. That day, he would make her feel as if she were there herself.

So the next time someone tells you to go to Hell, be assured that the local townspeople will give you a warm welcome there. I know that Joy and l plan to visit Hell on our next trip to Michigan, so we can say we've been to Hell and back.
Come to think of it, that pretty much describes our last trip to Michigan.

Grace and Tolerance

What is courage?


Courage is not the absence of fear. Anyone who is fearless is clueless. The world is a dangerous place, and anyone who knows no fear is liable to have a short lifespan. Anyone who is not afraid of God's wrath is a fool, too.

Courage is not fearlessness, but having fear and doing what is expected anyway. It could be argued that courage is only possible in the presence of fear, since it takes more courage to do the right thing when you know full well the hardships and dangers it may entail. It is that ability to face our fears that is true courage.

This article is not about courage in general, though, but about that particular kind of moral courage we call grace. Grace is the ability we share with God to show mercy to those who do not deserve it--including ourselves. Grace is the willingness to overlook a person's sin and love them anyway.

Courage is not being fearless, but what we do in spite of our fear. Grace is not being non-judgmental, but being willing to recognize the sin in others, and love them anyway. Grace is something we give in spite of our feelings and opinions, not because of them.

Our culture is unique in being the only one to regard tolerance as its highest virtue. No one who exists in Western culture can miss the constant drumbeat of tolerance. This is not true of the cultures that are less pluralistic. Muslims certainly do not understand our worship of tolerance, neither do the Chinese or Russians. Even so, there is not a single place in this world that has not been exposed to the cry of nonjudgmental tolerance. Our movies, television shows, books, and even news programs proclaim it loudly. In fact, the only sin our society recognizes is being judgmental. We condemn racism, sexism, homophobia, and exclusive religion wherever they exist, and often where they do not. Modern society cringes when someone says their religion is superior to others, even though any thinking person must regard their opinion to be true, and others false. We do not tolerate intolerance.

This is a lie, of course. We are all judgmental to some degree, whether we like it or not. If we aren't, we need to be. Should we tolerate murder, theft, racism, or addiction? We were created to have judgment about what is right and wrong. Moral conscience and moral discernment are part of who we are.

Jesus did not just say "judge not," as most people think. He actually said that we should be judged with the judgment we judge others. We all judge, but Jesus warns us to be careful how we do it.

That's where grace comes into the picture as a kind of moral courage. Grace is the ability to love others despite our judgment of their opinions and actions. A person who lives by grace does not deny what is good or bad, but does not treat others according to whether they are good or bad. A grace-filled person can look at people with whom they sharply disagree or disapprove and recognize the image of God in them. Their sins and their errors are real, but we love them anyway, as God loves us.

This simple concept is all but forgotten in our modern culture. The world seems to believe that to love the sinner, we must also love the sin. Tolerance means accepting everything. Those who think this way  become incapable of real grace when they encounter an idea or action which they cannot stomach. Christian grace, however, is not so restrained. We are capable of separating the sinner from the sin, of loving accepting the former without accepting the latter. We love the sinner in their sins, while they are still sinning.

The so-called non-judgmenalism of the world gives us only two options. Either we must accept everything everyone does perfectly normal and acceptable, or we must shun him. If we don't agree that the gay lifestyle is normal, we must hate gays. If we don't agree with a man's politics, we want nothing to do with him. If have a friend who is promiscuous, we must either shun him or accept his alternate lifestyle. It's all or nothing with them. The intolerantly tolerant, project their own inadequacy of grace on Christians, because they are incapable of accepting them without stereotype or caricature.

Grace, however, is much more flexible and practical. It allows people the freedom to have opinions or to live lifestyles which we do not agree with, without our ceasing to love them. We aren't perfect, just forgiven and neither is anyone else.

Grace is demonstrated in the three great relationships in our lives.

First, it is demonstrated by God. "For God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. Jesus was not tolerant of our sin, but he was tolerant of us. He denied the revulsion that must have risen inside of Him every time he saw the way people lived, and still sacrificed Himself for us. He did not wait until we were perfect. He did not tolerate sin, but he did love the sinner.

Second it is demonstrated by ourselves towards ourselves. Many Christians live under the mistaken impression that God cannot love them if they sin. They think that if they were ever to lose their sin, then God will start loving them. Nothing could be further from the truth. God loves us now, in spite of our sin. Furthermore, He expects us to love ourselves in the same way.

Third, it is demonstrated in our love to others. The story of the Good Samaritan illustrates this beautifully. The Good Samaritan did not have to know or approve of what the man who was beaten on the road did. He didn't know if he was straight or gay, Jewish or atheist, a law-abiding citizen or a criminal. All that mattered was that he was broken and bleeding. This is not to say that if the Samaritan knew what the man did or what he believed, that he would have approved. It's just that the Samaritan saw a person hurt, and had to help.

No one said it is easy to love in the face of sin, any more than it is easy to have courage in the face of fear. But that difficulty is what makes it grace. It takes no love to love the lovely. It takes divine love to love the ugly. That love is called grace. It far better than mere modern tolerance. It is far more honest, too.

A Change of Life

Now it can be told.


I am going to start next month as the Director of Pastoral Studies at New Life Theological Seminary in Charlotte.

It has been a long, agonizing decision-making process to decide. It is a real change of direction for me. I am going from a full-time job to a part time one, from pastoring to teaching, and from rural ministry to urban ministry. But I know that God is going with me. He has confirmed over and over during the past two months that this is the direction He wants me to go.

I told my church this morning. It was a both a tearful and joyful experience--tearful, in leaving a church that has been our home for nine years now, but joyful because I know that this is the direction God is leading, and it promises to be an adventure.

We have nothing but love and gratitude for the people of Oak Ridge. They have given us a home and a productive ministry. My two grandchildren were baptized in that sanctuary, and two of my daughters were married there. It will always have a special place in our hearts. But if we do not follow the call of God, we will be doing a disservice to God and the church.

We do not know what is in store for us as far as a church is concerned. I am hoping that we may have opportunities to minister somewhere. Fortunately, we have time to sort all that out later. For now, we will continue to minister at the church for a few more weeks at least.

There is nothing like a new challenge to make you feel younger. This will be challenging spiritually, intellectually, and financially. We would appreciate your prayers for the future. We are optimistic though, and looking forward to the days ahead.

Keep Oak Ridge in your prayers as well. This is a challenge for them, and a new beginning. I have every confidence that God has a plan for them.

How to Get Rich

Luke 12:16-21
"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Webster's dictionary defines "fool" this way:
A person lacking in common sense
A harmlessly deranged person who lacks simple understanding
A clown kept in a large household for other people's amusement.
Jesus says in the sermon on the mount that anyone who calls another a fool will be in danger of hellfire. In other words, it’s a sin to call another person a fool (Unless they actually are a fool, of course.)
But what if God calls you a fool.?

God calls many people fools: atheists, blabbermouths, anyone who holds grudges and resentment, anyone who is bath-mouths another, anyone who fights with his relative, who cannot control his temper, who fights with his relatives, who does not forgive others, who doesn’t listen to advice, or anyone who does the same stupid thing twice. Also, a fool is anyone who becomes an addict or a drunkard. This is just the categories we find in the Old Testament. The New Testament goes farther than that.

Just when we think we understand what a fool is, then Jesus throw us a curve: A fool is a man who saves his money.
What? How can a man who saves be a fool? Isn't the saving a good thing? Why would God call a decent, thrifty, hard working man a fool? Jesus did just that in this parable.

Understand, it’s not saving that makes a man a fool. It is why he is saving his money. It’s not a bad thing to have wealth. Neither is it a bad thing to accumulate wealth. The man is a fool who trusts in the wealth he has accumulated. If we think we can save enough money to keep us from harm, if we stake our future on what we have saved, then we are fool.

Wealth is an addiction. It behaves just like a drug. The more we have, the more we want. When we do not have it. The more we want it. If we don’t watch ourselves, wealth will take over our lives, just like a drug.
There are many good things that wealth can do for us. But when we depend upon it, it becomes a curse. In this parable. We can see five reasons this man accumulated wealth. From those five we may infer a sixth.
1. Money gives us safety. "What shall I do, I have no place to store my crops."
2. Money gives us a reason for living. "This is what I'll do"
3. Money gives self esteem. "I will say to myself 'you have plenty.'"
4. Money gives us future rest "take life easy."
5. Money gives us happiness. "Eat drink and be merry.
Behind these five, we can infer a sixth reason. Money buys us love. If we have money, we an be happy, and people will like us.
Safety. Self esteem. A reason for living. Rest. Happiness. Love. We are not fools for wanting these things. We'd be a fool not to want them. However, if any of these six things are conditional upon us having money, then we are doomed. Sooner or later, the money drug runs out, and we have to go a painful withdrawal.
We want to be safe. But what happens when we lose our jobs. Suddenly, we feel vulnerable. We stay up at night worrying about whether our car will break down, or someone might et sick.
We want to feel good about ourselves. But if the bank forecloses on our home, and we have to move into a winnebago in the woods and live off roots and berries, what happens to our self esteem? I goes right down the drain.
We want to eat, drink and be merry. But it's hard to do that when you are living off crackers, vienna sausages, and only had a deck of cards for entertainment.
When we look to money for any of these six things, then money no longer is a tool to happiness; It is our master. Money is not just our means of happiness. It becomes our master. It's like a drug.
Now, try to imagine what our lives would be like if we did not look to money for all these things. What if we could find them a difference way? How would our lives be different>
We could give away our money freely. We could all be cheerful givers.We could take life at a slower. We would not have to work so hard to make a living.We could not have to keep such big houses with big closets, and more sheds.We could have more time to enjoy your family.We could hold you head high anywhere. We would not envy the rich.
There is a way to be free of our need for savings. What’s more, it is free. Anyone who chooses to get those same benefits from savings that he can get free is a fool.
In Luke 16: 21, Jesus gives the moral of this story.
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
We may achieve the same results that we seek through savings by having a full, rich relationship to God. Instead of seeking for happiness from money, we seek for a greater source of happiness in God.
Do you know what drop shipping is? It’s a term people use who sell goods on the internet. It works this way—suppose you want to go in the business of selling Japanese watches over the internet. You could by a ton or so of Japanese watches, keep them in a ware house, and mail them to your customers. Or, you can order your watches one by one, and have them shipped directly to your customers. You keep the profit. That’s called drop shipping. You don’t have to have a single watch. You just have to know the source.
The person who is rich in God does not have to accumulate His blessings. He gets them directely whenever he wants them from the source. He places the order and it arrives immediately. This way the blessings never run out.
How can we live like that?
The Bible says that sin has cut us off from the supplier of all blessing. Because have not obeyed Him, God will not bless us. When we discover Jesus’ forgiveness, we can now receive directly from Him, and share his blessings with others. Jesus’ death on the Cross gives us access to God, storehouse.
But Jesus does not say we should just have access to him. He wants us to be rich in him. He wants us to learn, though constant communication with God, just how full and rich his blessings can be. Then the security we seek from material things will come to us directly from the supplier. We will know an endless supply of joy and happiness from the Sours of all supply.
So let’s try to imagine how we might become rich towards God. Let's rewrite the parable.
“A certain man lacked a good crop. He had neither money power of wealth.
“He said to himself. ‘How can I have what the rich man has?’
“So he says to himself. "Here's what I'll do. I will seek my riches from God. Instead of warehouses and barns, I will build install a dedicated phone line I my heart to God, and a loading dock for His blessings. I will regularly call and ask, and I will regularly receive. I will read His word, and so I will be regularly reminded fo how much He has already given me. I will tear down my small image of God and build a bigger one. I will take the small time I spend each day in the company of God and make it bigger. I will regularly receive shipments of blessings from God, and daily load my troubles on Him for return shipment. I will even drop ship His blessings to others through prayer. That way, I won't need a big warehouse: the blessings will come in daily and go out daily. Instead of living on stored blessings, I will live on renewable blessings that will not ever run out. In the security of His provision I will eat, drink and be merry. Then, if tonight I a suddenly die, I will go to be go to be with the Lord, who is the source of all I have or own. There I will enjoy what I have laid up for me there forever. "
Which of these two stories seems best to you? Would you rather depend upon the fickle security of this world, or know the eternal security of knowing God's hand on your life?
If you died tonight, what would happen to all your savings? How many of them could you take with you? Being prepared for death is the only sensible purpose in life. Are you ready?

The Clean Cup

Washing dishes is not just for looks. We do it to keep from getting sick. It makes a difference whether a dish is clean on the inside or the outside.

Suppose you sat down in a restaurant and the waitress brought you a cup of coffee with a wee bit of food stuck to it. Does it matter to you if it is on the outside or inside of the cup? Wouldn't you rather find it on the outside?

Out of this unlikely picture Jesus fashions one of his little parables. He compares the Pharisees to a dirty dish.

The Pharisees were one of three main branches of Judaism in Palestine. The word Pharisee means literally "The Separated Ones." The Saduccees controlled the temple, but the Pharisees dominated the synagogues all through the world.

The Pharisees said that God was judge peopled according to the Law. They tried to practice what they preached, too. Obedience is a necessary part of being pure and holy:
People who are not pure, but are trying to be. They are ffrustrated, consumed with guilt, and obsessed with perfection. Nothing they ever do is good enough.
People who think they are pure, but aren’t. They were proud , supreme in their self-confidence. They have faults, but they do not see them. They have sins, but do not acknowledge them, even to themselves. They have no desire for grace or forgiveness, because they think they are getting what they deserve.
People who know they are not pure, but act it anyway. These are closest to the truth. They cannot be pure. Instead of acknowledging this, however, they cover it up. These people have split themselves into two people--one pure, the other a sinner. At church they are one thing, in private they are other. This is the ultimate end of the Pharisee impulse--to produce hypocrites.
Jesus does not hate these people--He pities them. He calls them foolish, and says woe unto them. He knows that they are caught in a way of thinking that only leads to misery. He pronounces six woes over him in verses 42-49.
They care more about the law rather than people.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
There is a scene in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame when the unfortunate Quasimodo is dragged before a judge for a crime he did not commit. Quasimodo is deaf from years of bell ringing. The judge is also deaf. The judge cannot hear Quasimodo, and takes his silence for insolence. Quasimodo takes the judge's silence for approval. He is therefore unaware when he is suddenly taken out and whipped. The judge takes no interest in Quasimodo's cries for help, because he cannot hear them. He only knows the law and does not care for anything else.
Hugo intended this scene as an illustration of the Pharisee mentality. Pharisees are deaf judges. They read the Law, but they do not listen to people, not even themselves. They are so trapped in their legalistic myopia that they are oblivious to the pain around them.
They care about position over passion for the truth.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
Jesus meant this to be ironic. These Pharisee/Puritans want to be known as the holiest people in town. They want this, because people look up to them. They want to be loved and admired. The problem is that what they are loved and admired for is not something that they deserve. It is like cheating on a test. We want the recognition of others, even if we do not deserve it.
They are a quiet corruption.
"Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."
To a Jew walking over another man's grave made them unclean, and unworthy of entering into the temple or synagogue. But if he unwittingly walked over a grave, they became unclean, and did not even know it.
This may sound silly, but it is exactly the sort of thing the Pharisees would say. Jesus turns it back on them. Spending time with the Pharisees was spending time with sinners. If being with sinners made you unclean, then you could become unclean by spending time with them.
Churches are full of sinners. If going into bars make us unclean because of the sinners in there, then what does going to chjrch make us? There are just as many sinners in churches as there are in bars.
They care nothing for people's burdens
One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also." Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
A conversation with a Pharisee goes thusly
"What must I do to be saved?"
"Straighen up. Fly right. Quit sinning. Go to church."
"Will you pick me up and take me to church next week?"
"Sorry. That's not my responsibility."
A Pharisee care nothing for others. He is like a great loudspeaker, pronouncing God's word over the crowd. He does not care that he is way to loud, and that others cannot understand what he is saying. All he cares about is that he is doing what he is supposed to do, blaring God's word at the top of his lungs.
The Pharisee is the perfect beaurocrat. He believes that his job--his only job--is to teach the law. He is not in business to help people.
You cover up violence with niceness.
"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
There is a world of difference between compassion and niceness. We think that just because we don't raise our voice when we are doing wicked things, and keep an outward measure of propriety, that we are not doing violence. Give me a straight up fight, over a concealed dagger from someone who is pretending to be nice. There is more hope of redemption for a violent bully than for the quiet, destructive whispers of the gossip, who destroys a life and then goes to see if she can help. The Pharisees believed that as long as you did not appear to lose your temper, you were not being wicked.
You block people from finding the truth.
Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."
This is the worst condemnation of all. Their insistence on perfection actually keeps people from finding the truth.
A Pharisee keeps people from Christ by misrepresenting the heart of God. God is our father, our Daddy, our lover. He wants us around. The god of the Pharisees was a cosmic policeman, trying to arrive at his quota for arrests for his day. The God of the Bible wants us to prosper. The god of the Pharisees only wants the perfect to prosper. The God of the Bible loves us as we are. The god of the Pharisees only loves us is we are as he is. As a result, heaven is shut for all, and have lost the key of the knowledge of God’s love.
Here is the truth of it. We are imperfect people. We will always be imperfect people. Anyone who thinks he is not imperfect is simply blind or willfully ignorant. Our only hope is that God will forgive us.
Jesus is the opposite of the Pharisees. To them, God's acceptance only comes at the end of a long path to holiness. To Jesus, acceptance begins at the moment we turn to Him and ask for it. From there, we begin the process of being cleansed, but from that moment on, God gives us Himself. He walks with us through the mess.
He does not just give us rules. He gives us Himself.

A lesson in the Thunderstorm

One of the good things about being a preacher is that you really don't have problems--just future sermon illustrations. So one day, I'll be using this last vacation in many a future sermon. In fact, I've already put one incident in my future file. It happened last Tuesday, when Joy and I were visiting her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her 82 year old father is an amazing man. He is still playing the trumpet in at least three marching bands. At one time, he was playing in more. I deeply admire him for his love of life and music, but I must confess I do not share his enthusiasm for band music. He has been known to listen to it for three hours straight. My limit is about ten minutes.


Anyway, last Tuesday night, the band he was supposed to be playing with had planned a seven o'clock outdoor concert in a park about twenty miles away, in the city of Wyoming. We could tell he really wanted us to go, so we agreed to go and listen. It was a sunshiny Michigan summer afternoon, but there were dark clouds on the horizon. The weather bureau had put us under a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch. They called a few band members, and no one knew whether it was being called on account of weather. They had been told in case of inclement weather to go where the concert was and wait for instructions. So he decided he wanted to go anyway. Joy and I went in our own car, and my in-laws went in theirs.

As we traveled west towards the park, the weather deteriorated rapidly. Dark clouds gathered at an alarming rate. Lightning lit the sk. It was beginning to look like something out of the book of Revelation. It was soon clear that the band concert was not going to happen.

But my father-in-law was going anyway.

My in-laws do not possess a cell phone so there was no way to call and tell them we were going back. Besides we were worried about them. We could tell this was going to be an ugly one. We could see the hook formations in the sky that are potential tornadoes. We kept going because we wanted to keep an eye on them.

My mother-in-law pled with him to turn around, but he was determined to go on. They were to meet at the place, and meeting at the place was what he was going to do. Besides it had not yet started raining.

When we got within about a mile, it started raining. Buckets, sheets, and waterfalls of rain. The wind whipped the tried around like blades of grass. At that point, my father in law, whom we werefollowing, pulled into a CVS drugstore parking lot. I followed him. He opened the window and said cheerily over the screaming storm, "Guess we ought to turn around." Then he rolled up his window and took off for home.

I was not about to drive through that mess. I pulled in behind the CVS, beside a large concrete wall., to wait out the storm. At that moment, disaster struck. An oak tree, which had been growing in a neighbors yard for at least forty years, suddenly decided to break. The main part of it fell over the wall, and onto the hood of our car. It took two men to get it off, so we could get out of there. A branch penetrated my windshield just above my head. Praise God, no one was hurt. The damage was repaired well enough for us to get home. The dents will be fixed later. My father- in- law made it home just fine.

But the whole incident seemed eerily familiar to me. Then I realized that what I had was our own Abilene paradox.

The Abilene Paradox is a leadership principle coined by Dr. Jerry Harvey in his book of the same name. it explains how a group of people can get together and pursue a course that none of them want, to an end that none of them desire. It comes about when everyone is afraid to say "no" to others.

My father-in-law did not want to go out in that mess. He just did not want to let his friends down. We did not want to go, but we did not want to let him down. Four consenting adults were out in a storm doing something that not one of us wanted to do. We just did not want to say "no."

One of the most destructive forces in the world, one that does more damage than any others, is niceness. I don't mean compassion or empathy, or even good manners. I mean niceness--the compulsion we have to be liked and to be well thought of. None of us want to be disagreeable. So whenever someone in our family or on a church board makes a suggestion, no matter out casual or silly, there is a part of most of us that wants to go along. For that reason, we frequently find ourselves in corporate predicaments. No one wants to say no to a family member, a friend, or a boss. But how do we, if it is the best thing for us to do? We go along, because we have not adequately prayed and thought through an issue. So in the end, we find ourselves in a storm, and pay the price.

Problems in any organization usually start with small, careless decisions. We let bad influences in. We keep good ideas out. We keep going down the path of least resistance, even if it leads to a cliff. In the end, we forget what got us there in the first place-- that it was our niceness that caused us to go along.

I cannot help, every time I look at the dents on my car, to regret my decision just to go along that night. But in a way, I am glad it happened. God took care of us, and taught us a valuable lesson besides.

Maybe next time, I'll have the good sense to say "no."

Wild Child and Good Son

Wild Child and Good Son is a book I started on years ago. It grew out of a sermon I preached on a Fathers Day while I was at Neelys Creek. It is a short, simple novel with a strong moral message.  It is now available through Amazon and on Kindle.  I am also getting ready to make a version available for Nook as well. 

I believe in this book. It has a message for parents that is desperately needed today. I invite you friend, whoever you are, to read it, especially if you are a parent or grandparent.  You can order it below.

I hope you purchase and enjoy it.  If you do,  please do me a favor. Write a review of it on Amazon.com, and send me a copy, so I can include it in an upcoming website.  My hope is that this will be the first of many books that I will make available in the future through this means. 

Here is the link.  https://www.createspace.com/3512138
May you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it!

The Walking Wounded

The 2011 synod was a much more pleasant experience than the last one. It seems that the storm clouds which gathered over last year's meetings, though they not completely gone had mostly cleared and patches of sunlight shone through. This certainly was the result of the diligent prayer of so many members for unity. The leadership of Steve May and Andy Putnam had a lot to do with it. I think that many of those who were so angry last year simply came to their senses and backed off. We all lose our heads in battles, but only the wise admit it.

I'd be tempted to say that such theological and moral debates as we had last year were over and forgotten this year. But this is not so. Even if the majority of us had stopped fighting the effects of those battles are still with us. World War II, Korea, and Vietnam are over, too, but we still have wounded veterans.
Theological battles are like cannon barrages--we all line up and spout off our angry words, but we do not see the human damage they do to the other side. We are shielded the results of our words by emotional distance.
When a professor is accused of heresy, he does not only feel the sting, but so does his wife, children, parents, and friends. His loved ones often take it harder than he does. Friends become enemies, students suffer, and reputations are permanently marked. A minister forced from his pulpit loses not only a job, but his church family, friends, home, security, and emotional support. A trustee is accused of being a poor influence, he takes is personally, whether or not the accusation is shouted or spoken calmly. They never completely forget the slight. It does not matter if we think the accusations are true or not, they take a serious human toll. There is no such thing as loving if we are not willing to walk with that person through the pain of recovery. There can be no true Christian concern if it does not involve real human contact. It's easier to pretend that the pain we inflicted is not our responsibility than to actually come to grips its results.
The reason I am writing about this is because of two friends I saw this week. Both I have known as loving, easygoing Christians, with a strong faith in Christ, a desire to win the lost, and a strong faith in the Lordship of Jesus and His infallible Word. Both had been hurt in the battles of the past two years. Not only were they hurt, but their families, their friends, and their churches were also hurt in the process. Neither has been able so far to get beyond the pain. Both were still struggling to get beyond the hurts and forgive. I do not blame them at all for having a hard time with letting it go. Forgiveness is a process, not a declaration.
I once heard it said that the church was the only army that shoots it wounded. It is easy to let the past go, but we have to remember those who are still experiencing that pain. Maybe eventually they will get over the hurt of the Erskine debacle, but not now, not yet. We should keep them in our prayers, our thoughts, and our hearts

Right Before Our Eyes

I once was on a plane with ex-president Jimmy Carter, but I did not notice it. Maybe it was just that I did not expect to see him there, but I dismissed what my eyes were seeing. It was not until I came off the airplane and someone told me that I knew I had seen the ex-president. When our minds are preoccupied and when we see the unexpected, our minds are more likely to dismiss what they are seeing than to believe it.

If Jesus came today in the clouds, the first reaction of most of mankind would be to ignore it. their minds would try and make something normal out of it. They would dismiss the supernatural and seek a natural explanation.

So it was in Jesus' generation. They did not know him because they did not expect him.
It is amazing how we can look past things monumental and not see them. They almost missed Jesus. That same characteristic causes us to miss Jesus today.
Jesus was preaching and doing miracles. He cast a demon out of a deaf mute. Then they still asked for a sign. Here is what he said in 29-32
"This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
Jesus gave two illustrations from the Old Testament--the story of Jonah and the story of the Queen of Sheba. What do the Queen of Sheba, Jonah, and Jesus have in common? It's a riddle, which Jesus expects them to figure out.
Let's start with the Queen of Sheba—the Queen of the South. She was an African queen in Ethiopia. She had great wealth and power. She traded with kings all over the world.
The one king who impressed her more than any of the others was Solomon. Pharaoh may have had a sphinx and pyramids, but Solomon had wisdom. Sheba traveled to Jerusalem to find out what Solomon had to offer. Imagine being so wise that people come to Jesus just by hearing of your wisdom! Though she knew nothing of his God, she knew wisdom when she saw it.
The amazing thing about this tory is not how wise Solomon was, or how smart the Queen of Sheba was, but how dumb the rest of the world was in not recognizing what Solomon had. It was foolish for the rest of the world not to have come to Solomon's castle.
Jesus thought it was dumb of them, too. That is why he praised the Queen of Sheba.
The people of Jesus' time were not all that smart, either. Jesus began his ministry in about 28 AD. At that time, the whole Jewish nation was preoccupied with a struggle against the Romans. Jesus was a distraction to them, and a potential danger. The real struggle was against the Romans. They did not have time for a man proclaiming the coming of the Lord.
Jesus shook his head at their callous disregard. He reminded his audiences that generations of people past, who knew and understood the wisdom of God.
We do the same thing today—we do not recognize wisdom when we see it. We start programs to eliminate poverty. Yet the majority of poverty comes from broken homes and from sexual promiscuity. Unplanned pregnancies cause many to be poor and many lives to be ruined, but we still proclaim sexual liberation. It makes no sense to condemn poverty and to lift up premarital sex, which is the main reason for it.
We condemn drugs, but condone escapism. We condemn greed and condone commercialism. We condemn gluttony and yet condone excess. We condemn prostitution and condone pornography. We contradict everything we say we believe. Yet the one place we see good sense and wisdom, the good, Bible believing portion of our country, is called behind the times and thought to be ignorant. The wisdom which should draw people to God we overlook.
The second example he give is Jonah.
Like the story of the Queen of Sheba, Jonah's story is about ignorant people who listened to God. The people of Ninevah, repented when confronted by God’s word.
God called Jonah to go preach to the Ninevites. The Ninevites were Israel's chief enemy at the time. They had destroyed most of Israel and led ten tribes into captivity. Jonah hated Ninevites with a passion. So when God told him to go preach, he immediately attempted to run off as far as he could, rather than see those Ninevites saved.
Jonah did not get far. He encountered a great storm at sea. The sailors determined that he was the reason. so they threw him into the ocean. But God sent a great fish to swallow him and regurgitate him up on the shore of Assyria, not far from Ninevah.
I have always tried to imagine what Jonah must have looked like lying on the shore in a pool of whale puke. His skin must have been a ghastly white, from the effect of the stomach acids. His hair would probably been burned off. His clothes were almost gone, and what was left must have been bleached white as well. When this ghastly apparition showed up on the streets of Ninevah preaching that they were about to be destroyed, he must have looked like a ghost from beyond the grave. And the Ninevites repented. They clothed themselves in dust and ashes. The Ninevites may have been bloodthirsty pagans, but they were smart enough to recognize a miracle when they saw it.
The queen of Sheba believed when she heard preaching. Ninevah believed when they saw a miracle. What will it take for us to believe?
Jonah went to a people much worse than the Shebans. But when the Ninevites saw a man who survived three days at sea in the belly of a whale, they believed that the hand of God was in it. The repented and changed their ways. Yet the Jews of Jesus' day had Jesus, healing people, raising the dead, doing miracles--and they did not believe. They were too occupied with worldly things to seriously consider the ramifications of what they were seeing.
So Jesus tells them to look up, pay attention, and see God when He is right in front of their faces.
Then Jesus launches into a lecture about the important of using your eyes.
33 "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you."
Where do you put hour eyes? Jesus says. The Gospel has not been put under a bushel basket. It's here, in plain sight. This was the generation which saw Jesus rise from the dead, yet they did not believe. They saw Him walk on water, feed the multituces, still storms, and yet they did not believe.
I tell you to use your heads. Look around. Fix your eyes on the truth. Don't let the glamor and glitz of the world fool you into looking away, but look at the Gospel in front of you.
Look at the Bible. See the miracles that Jesus did. See the miracles done in Jesus' name.
Look at history. See how the wisdom of Jesus has transformed the world around us. We are better than the Muslims because we have the gospel of love and forgiveness. We did not get the Gospel by accident. God gave it to us.
We have the lives of the saints. Study about those who have gone before us and see how God led them through their troubles and gave them courage to speak, pray and preach.
We have the lives of the modern saints. In ever church and every town there are those who have been transformed by the good news of Jesus.
Especially, we have the Cross. You can never look at the cross of Jesus and say that God doesn't love you. You can never look at the empty tomb and say that something is impossible. You can never look at Pentecost and say God has abandoned you. And you can never read Revelation and say that you don't know if God will win. He will.
God has set the truth before you. It is up to us to see and to believe.