The Cup We Share

 My most cherished glass

This is my most favorite and most cherished glass, to understand you need to know the story.  A friend of mine was starting a church in Atlanta.  Their meeting place was to be an old strip-club.  He asked me to come and help clean the place up.  Contrary to the glamorous portrayal in the media of strip clubs this place was filthy.  While cleaning I found this glass. It was nasty beyond words.  Why someone would relieve themselves in a cup is beyond me.  

When I found it my first thought was to throw it away. But for some reason I didn’t.  Instead I put it in a bucket and took it home.  I filled the bucket with water and chlorine bleach and after letting it soak for a couple of days I put it in a pan of boiling water.  After another soaking in bleach water I washed, rinsed, and dried it.  Now I use this cup for only one purpose.  I tell the story of the cup and then I pour the wine of the communion service into this same cup.  What once held something that was revolting and disgusting now holds that which is most sacred.  

That, by the way, is our story.  We were once filled with all kinds of evil, at our best we were as ‘filthy rags’.  But Jesus washes us, He cleans us, He removes from us all that is revolting and then He fills us with the Holy Spirit.  We who once held the most disgusting things possible now have dwelling in us the very Spirit of God.  

We may not be able to fully explain how God did what He did, but we invite you to join us as we explore the wonder of God’s kindness and love for us.

M.I.G.A.

 MIGA

They were deeply dedicated to seeing a moral revival among their people.  They believed the Word of God to be authoritative and if studied could bring an immoral people back to the God who founded their nation.  I suppose they even sang with great hope 2 Chronicles 7:14  “If my people who are called by my Name shall humble themselves…”  To say they were zealous would be an understatement.    They believed that if the citizens of the nation would live by the laws God had given then God would bless the nation with new heights of freedom, security, prosperity, peace and blessing. 

They could be a little harsh at times, but if being direct and confrontational could end corrupt behavior that would be a small price to pay.  They had to defeat the immoral influences that came from overseas.  They were constantly at war with liberal theologians and religious compromisers that watered down the Word of God.  The political insiders were not trustworthy, but in a pinch they would work with them.  Who knows, they may have even had hats that were stitched with the letters. M.I.G.A.  Make Israel Great Again.  

I am not talking about the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, the John Birch Society, or the Tea Party.  The above description is of the Pharisee party of Jesus’ day.  The Pharisees were the conservative, Bible believing, repentance preaching people of their day.  They were also the ones who were most frequently opposing the ministry of Jesus.  

I find this concerning because I can more closely identify with the Pharisees than the Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, or any other party in the time and ministry of Jesus.  Where they were wrong I have a strong potential to be wrong.  What they missed I am likely to miss.  What they misunderstood I have the potential to misunderstand.  While a great many scholarly articles and essays have been written about the Pharisees and their failure to accept the Messiah when He arrived, I would like to offer my minor contribution to the discussion.  

The Pharisees, because of their addiction to rule making and rule keeping, were susceptible to two specific failures that can afflict us today.  While there were, and still are, exceptions to my theory, when we come across those who adopt an “improved behavior will be our rescue” mentality these two failures will be present.  

The first of these is a tendency to be fakes.  Let’s face it, no one can or will keep all the rules. In our heart of hearts we know we are not keeping the rules.  But it is very, very important to appear to be keeping the rules, so we fake it.  We may deride the uber rich, but in our hearts we covet the goods of others as much as anyone else.  We may insist that women wear modest clothing, but we would never want anyone to look at our computer’s browsing history.  Pleasant to someone’s face and excoriate them behind their backs. All humans are fakers, but for a Pharisee faking it is critical to their very life because of their belief that the rescue comes from good behaviors.

The second failure of Pharisees is related to the first; Pharisees can be powerfully unkind.   That may be putting it too mild, that could and still can be brutal.  If the problem is the bad behavior or bad people then the cure is to make bad people stop doing bad things. They seemed to believe that if you condemned bad people long enough and loud enough they would decide to stop being bad and start being good.  The fact that anger never accomplished lasting moral reform apparently never occurred to them, so they would double down on their condemnations.

These are both very easy traps for me to fall into.  I want to be admired and respected by people of the highest moral character and standing.  If I want that kind of esteem I have to live that kind of life.  The problem is I often don’t.  So, the easy and pride protecting solution is to fake it.  To redirect attention away from my failures I can, and at times do, point out the failures of bad people.  If I can turn the attention from myself to tax collectors, prostitutes, news reporters or some other ‘evil’ person, I feel safe.  I can even justify my actions by claiming that I want them to repent. 

But Jesus was different.  Jesus was many things but never fake.  At His trial Jesus asked His accusers to name some sin He had committed.  But with His moral perfection came unparalleled compassion. “Does no one condemn you?” He asked the sinful woman. “No one, Sir.”  Jesus tells her, “Go and leave your sinful life.” 

Real and kind, that is a pretty good description of Jesus.  It is also a worthy aspiration for us all.

There are three possible futures and one is correct.

 

We have of late had a lot of conversations about the possibility of the world being on the brink of doom.  That has caused me to look at the three main theories regarding humanities’ future. Those three expectations are mutually exclusive, only one can be correct.  None of these theories are recent developments.  They have all existed in human thought for a very long time. Every so often, they get a twist and are presented as new ideas, but they all have predecessors.  

One theory is expressed in the Kardashev Scale which is a method of measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement.  This scale gets its name from Nicholi Kardashev, a Soviet era Russian astrophysicist.  Summaries always fail, but here is an attempt.  Civilizations move from lower to high forms of technological advancement, while they may experience setbacks along the way, the general direction is always upward.  The Kardashev Scale has been modified and used by many theorists and sci-fi writers.  John Borrow expanded it to seven stages.  At the highest levels a civilization would be able to manipulate the most elementary particles of matter and the basic structure of space and time.  In short, civilization over a long, slow process gradually becomes the God of the universe.  Not entirely unlike the plans that prompted the Tower of Babel.

The second theory about humanities’ future is summed up in what is called the Malthusian Catastrophe.  Thomas Malthus was an influential political economist from England.  His theory is also called the population trap.  It works this way, as civilization grows and progresses it produces more and more goods, causing more and faster population growth and progress.  Like a hamster on a wheel the cycle gets faster and faster until the hamster stumbles and falls and the whole process comes to a halt.  In the case of humanity the stumble and fall comes from an exponential growth in population and a slower growth of food, water, energy and other needed services.  The result is worldwide famine, wars, mass die offs, social collapse, and the inability for earth to support life as a result of environmental degradation.  The process is slow and occurs over centuries or even millenia till it reaches a crisis point, then there is a rapid doom. 

If Kardashev’s theory were put on a chart, it would be a line of constant upward progress with only occasional dips.  If Malthus’ theory were charted, it would be a slow decline with intermittent upward ticks.  In both cases, you see the common thread of vast amounts of time and slow progress toward a destination. Both theories have devastating consequences for people.  Thankfully, however, they are both wrong.  The third answer is the right answer.  Rather than slow progress over a very long time toward some unknown and unknowable end, the third is sudden, definitive and hope filled.   

This expected future is summed up well by the Apostle Paul; “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”  What we see here is not a slow gradual progression toward some vague end.  It is a certain sudden ending that will not be missed by anyone and will be very personal for everyone.  Paul does not rule out some future progress nor that there will be hardship in history.  

But while Kardashev talks about something that may happen tens of thousands of years into the future and Malthus only offers a future of gloom and despair, the sudden return of Christ offers us a future so wonderful it is beyond the capacity of mind and speech.  

So, the next time you hear talk about the doom of our world or that the only solution is in our capacity to build that better future just remember that Jesus is coming to our rescue.  It will be sudden, it will be final, it may happen very soon (even today) and it is for us the great hope.    

God bless America, on second thought let's hold off on that.

Over the last weekend I heard the patriotic hymn “God Bless America” several times. Some of the renditions were absolutely amazing.  The vocalist sang with such passion and energy it was hard not to be moved.  On one occasion the camera panned the audience and a number of people appeared to be enraptured by the music.  Others were more interested in their image being on the jumbo-tron.  Personally, I think this would be a better national anthem than the “Star Spangled Banner”.   But this is the opinion of a musical dunce, so take it for what it is worth.  

As I watched the presentations or performances, I couldn’t help but ask; “What do we mean by ‘God Bless’?”  I wonder if it is taking God’s name in vain?  We can sing the song and mean nothing by it.  If we take God’s name as meaningless or mean nothing by it we are taking it in vain.  I wondered if by “bless” we are thinking of the lowest form of blessing; “Give us prosperity, stop inflation, provide for us more and better stuff so that we can indulge our appetites.”  Maybe we mean something a little more noble, but nonetheless still focused on what we want: “Give us peace, safety and security at home and from enemies around the world.”  Nothing wrong with these in and of themselves, but is that all we mean by ‘God Bless America’?

Do we want God’s blessing or do we just want the good stuff He can provide?  Ask anyone who has lived any length of time and they will tell you that growth, maturity and strength are developed not in times of ease, comfort and prosperity.  These best character traits are more likely developed in times of difficulty, suffering and hardship.  If courage, strength, and toughness were developed when times were easy Army boot camp would be a vacation at a seaside resort.  

So, when we say ‘God Bless America” what do we mean?  God’s blessings are always good, His character could give nothing else.  That is not to say all His blessings are always pleasant, pleasing or what we desire.   In fact, the history of God blessing His people is one we might call tough love.  What my children wanted for supper and what was good for them were not always the same thing.  They were blessed with what was good for them, not what they asked for or wanted.  

When God blessed Abram He began by calling Abram away from everything he knew, loved or with which he was familiar.  When God blessed Moses with the role of being the law giver, it began with 40 years in exile.  It also required 40 years of wilderness wandering with a group of people that would try his patience time and again.  When Israel suffered from an addiction to sex, luxury, and comfort (sound like any nation we know) God blessed them with the destruction of their cities and capital, conscription of their best and brightest into emperial service and 70 years of Babylonian captivity.  Before God would bless His people with the incarnation of the Son, the Jews would be politically broken, internally divided and taxed to near starvation. 

Not all of God’s blessings are punitive and severe.  “For You bless the righteous person, Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield.” Psalm 5:12  The operative word there is “righteous”.  A person or people who are righteous might have reason to expect the pleasant (from our perspective) blessings of God.  However, I don’t know anyone who would describe contemporary America as righteous.  

So, if God were to bless America what might it look like?  If a spoiled child is consistently  behaving poorly it is unlikely that additional indulgences will rectify the problem.  Rather the spoiled child might be given intentional and carefully directed corrective discipline.  Or as former Alabama governor Fob James put it, “A butt whipping and a prayer”.  There is nothing wrong with peace, comfort, and prosperity.  But if a person or people believe that these things are most important and that for which we ought to live and work, then they might be blessed if those things were removed.    

On the evening of September 11th I was out doing church visitation.  As I drove, I passed a Hooters’ and on the marquette there was posted, “Pray for America''.  I thought that perhaps our nation was waking from its moral slumbers.  For the next 3 weeks or so, church attendance was up and people were talking about spiritual and eternal things. But within a month things had returned to what might be called a secular norm.  What will it take for God to bless America with a deep and lasting turn to Him?   I am almost afraid to ask. 

So then, let us pray, “God bless America”.  But let us also pray, “Give us the strength and wisdom to learn from and endure with grace such a blessing.”  One final thought.  In addition to our praying, “God bless America” we need to admonish our people to say and live, “America Bless God”.  That may take us near the beginning point we need.