Resurrection Sunday

He is Risen.
He is Risen Indeed.

Glorify the Risen Savior Today with other believers as the church.

May God richly bless you in this, and thanks again for reading and/or following our Lenten blog for 2011.

Holy Saturday

This is the day in between. Hope was buried. More than this, hope went to hell. The world was caught between the promises made and the promises fulfilled: the wasteland. Holy Saturday is where so many of us live.

Let today be a day of waiting and prayer. Ask God for help in letting your soul catch up with the meaning of the day and get ready for the celebration tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this blog and, more so, for being interested in the the meaning of the Cross. This bodes well for your spiritual life. May God richly bless you.

The Seven Last Words of Christ

The seven "last words" of Christ from the Cross (with various prayers reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, © 2004, CRC Publications.)

1) “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Loving Father, to whom your crucified Son prayed
for the forgiveness of those who did not know what they were doing,

grant that we too may be included in that prayer.

Whether we sin out of ignorance or intention,

be merciful to us and grant us your acceptance and peace.

2) “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

O Lord Jesus Christ, who promised to the repentant the joy of paradise,

enable us by the Holy Spirit to repent and to receive

your grace in this world and in the world to come.

3) “Woman, behold your son . . . Behold your mother.”

O blessed Savior, in your hour of greatest suffering
you expressed compassion for your mother

and made arrangements for her care;

grant that we who seek to follow your example

may show our concern for the needs of others,

reaching out to provide for those who suffer.

4) “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)

O Lord, I call for help by day, and in the night I still must cry.

Regard me, listen to my prayer. My soul is troubled; I am weak.

Without You, I am cut off as one whom you forsake,

forgotten near the pit of death.

Without You, Your wrath weighs heavily on me. 

And my eyes are dim because I weep. 

Without You, the darkness is my closest friend—

I am shunned and forsaken, all alone, without You.

5) “I thirst.”

O blessed Savior, whose lips were dry and whose throat was parched,

grant us the water of life, that we who thirst after righteousness

may find it quenched by your love and mercy,

leading us to bring this same relief to others.

6) “It is finished.”

O Lord Jesus Christ, you finished the work that you were sent to do;

enable us by your Holy Spirit to be faithful to our call.

Grant us strength to bear our crosses

and endure our sufferings, even unto death.

Enable us to live and love so faithfully

that we also become good news to the world, joining your witness.

7) “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Father, into whose hands your Son, Jesus Christ, commended his spirit,

grant that we too, following his example,

may in all of life and at the moment of our death

entrust our lives into your faithful hands of love.

In the name of Jesus, who gave his life for us all. Amen.

Maundy Thursday?

We come soon to the end... and to the beginning. The Cross - its experience, pain, and satisfaction of wrath - begins today, not tomorrow. Today there was betrayal. Today He was abandoned. Today He was sold out. Today He was arrested. Not just the mental and emotional tortures, but the physical as well, began this day and especially this day's night. I prefer Holy Thursday to Maundy Thursday. Maundy is an Old English term for commandment. John 13:34-35 has Jesus commanding us to love one another. That certainly was on His mind as He climbed to the Cross, but it certainly was not and is not on ours. It is the first command we break. It is the command we break most often. We have no ability to respect this command outside of all the work Christ does for us on His Cross and through His Empty Tomb. Maundy Monday would be more theologically correct. Come Monday we have the means in Christ to obey Christ. Before then we only want to crucify Him and each other. The only authentic love found in Holy Week is God's Love poured out for us. We have none in ourselves to give to Him or each other. That's the meaning of the Cross.

Holy Wednesday

Did you know that Holy Wednesday, today, the Wednesday of Holy Week, is also called "Spy Wednesday?" This is seen as the day Judas agreed to betray Jesus for thirty silver coins. Judas Iscariot is an interesting person in history. He is probably the most tragic and condemned man in history. Reflecting on his life and choices is uncomfortable; it hits too close to home for most of us. Here are a few reasons why:

1) Judas thought he was smarter than Jesus.

2) Judas thought he was better than Jesus.

3) Judas developed a taste for stolen and quick money that overrode his spiritual values completely.

4) Judas was always completely alone. He still is.

5) Judas only lied. He hid in plain sight, the ultimate form of lying.

6) Judas knew the power of God (and was an instrument for it as a disciple), but he never knew the purpose of God. 

7) Judas thought he could, would, and should get away with it.

8) Judas life was only about Judas. Even his bitter end points to this.

9) Judas is glorified by contemporary culture. This is no surprise in a culture where many brazenly choose to live as sons or daughters of Judas.

10) Judas looked to make the most of a bad situation. He saw things going south and decided to take action. (So much evil begins with this as a motive.)

     

Holy Tuesday

Yes, in some corners of Christendom, Holy Tuesday is a holiday. The parable of the ten virgins is sometimes developed today in various services and studies. Related to this, oils used in prayers for healing and anointed are sometimes anointed and prayed for themselves.

I recall one of the verses of one of the first worship songs I ever learned: "Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning."

Yes, indeed. I want to keep going in Christ and I want to be ever ready for His return. It could happen before Easter this year, or exactly on May 21st as Harold Camping and his people assert, or a thousand years from today.

His coming once affirms His return. I need oil because life and the night are long. I need vigilance because it will all end suddenly. Midnight is coming.

Matthew 25:1-13
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour."     

Holy Monday

Holy Monday. That's what today is called. In some Christian traditions the withering of the fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22) is the focus. Others recall the story of Joseph starting in Genesis 37 as it parallels Christ's story in many ways. Still others read through the entire gospel of Matthew and some of Mark at various hours of the day as part of a three day reading through most of the gospels. The Roman Catholic church this year (in our part of the world anyway) is offering confession for a big part of the day. Maybe you noticed the full page ad in the paper yesterday. My 'boss' (in the military) is a priest and his schedule for the week is difficult to hear even in summary form. Today is a long day of ministry for him and his ilk.

Holy Monday. It almost seems like an oxymoron. For some of us, it's the one day of the week that doesn't feel holy. For me it has always been holy, a day off. Today I can't tell my family I'm too busy for them. Today I can't tell God I'm too busy doing His work to spend a little alone time with Him. Today I eat a real breakfast and read real books.

That fig tree account always makes me swallow hard and take a deep breath. Am I fruitful enough to escape withering? Am I faithful enough to move mountains? All creaturely holiness begins with the wholesale insufficiency created by these questions. "Woe is me, Lord. I need help. I need You."

Matthew 21:18-22 (NASB95)
Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  

The Real Royal Family

So, on earth, one of the most interesting things scheduled to happen in these next two weeks in 2011 is the royal wedding. Riveting. Between it, the movie "The Queen" and the soon Blu-ray release of "The King's Speech," I'm one of hundreds of millions of people who watch and will watch at least some of all this.

The British Monarchy is interesting to so many for good reason; we were born to be ruled by and fascinated with royalty. Today is Palm Sunday, a day of true royalty. Though far fewer people were in the crowd shouting "Hosanna" back then than will be watching Prince William & Catherine Middleton exchange vows on the 29th of April, it was the greater event. The Royalty present far outstripped any who have ever lived. Jesus is the true King of Jerusalem and the Universe for the matter. That's what He claimed. Our hearts yearn for a King like Him, and there has only ever been one.

Shout "Hosanna" today in church like you mean it. Search your heart. You do.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday

There's something about Palm Sunday every year that makes the shame and pain of the Cross seem farther away than ever. There seems to be no Cross in view in the hearts and minds of people shouting "Hosanna" to Jesus Christ. We now know, however, that some of the same voices that shouted "Hosanna" on Sunday shouted "Crucify Him" the next Friday.

Still, Palm Sunday is amazing. He has arrived. The King is home. The war is over. The wait is over. Victory!

In a way, Palm Sunday will happen again. He will return triumphantly. When all on earth seems stale and lifeless, Christ is fresher and fuller than ever. For believers, His promises grow in glory with each passing day. We still shout, "Hosanna."

The Cross and Another Day

Sometimes the days race by with heartless fury. This week has been a painful one for many I know. Death and dismemberment, literally, are what I'm helping people deal with directly or indirectly. Still, there are schedules to keep and a calendar with very little margin on it. Everything about the forward roar of the typical day seems to promote expediency. Just find a way to get more done in less time. Draw a straighter line. Get to the point. Get it done. Get over it. Get on with it. Get through it. Get going.

The Cross is too old for this, too slow. It's too quiet and quaint for a smartphone world. One righteous man dying for what again? It can be forgotten even as we make room for it on the calendar. We take time off from school. We attend services. We observe days. The same songs and same sermons remind us that it's that same time of year again.

What happened again and why does it matter? Hurry up and explain it to me so I can get back to work, back on track, back in business.

Is today really just another day? Today might be your last day.

If we take ten more seconds to think about why Christ died and, therefore, remember what matters most, this alone may bring us and our day to life. Don't rush by the Cross today.

The Cross Unites or Divides

Ephesians 2:14-16
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 


The cross unites those who unite themselves to it, but by the same token it also divides those who divide themselves from it. When He makes the two one, both of the two have to want it. Reconciliation is not forgiveness; it involves two. Forgiveness involves one. The Cross will set one free, but it will not set things right between two unless both are free. This is a tough lesson to learn. The Cross kills hostility between people as long as none are hostile to the Cross. The Cross can't be the starting point; it has to be the whole point. The Church itself, in these latter days, is being split apart due to the Cross, but certainly not by the Cross. It's purpose is unity. This shows how important reconciliation is to God. The fuller teaching of these verses includes the negative of this as well. If we don't rely solely on His crucified flesh to break down the dividing wall of hostility between us, we then, by default, reinforce it.

Enemies of the Cross

Philippians 3:18-19 says, "For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things."

Therefore I am being an enemy of the Cross when...

- I am led by my emotions.
- I want what I want more than I want what God wants.
- I have an appetite for anything ungodly.
- I justify my sin.
- I recruit others to join me in this. (Notice the word "their.")
- The things I want are not things Jesus purchased for me on the Cross.
- My walk doesn't match my talk.
- My walk doesn't match His talk.
- I am headed for destruction.
- I'm not ashamed of what's shameful in me or my life.
- I exhaust my mind and gifts to acquire things that will not last.

The Cross and Getting Over What Happens to You in This World

The Cross underscores all the bad things that happen to us in this world as a result of our sin. So, when people do us wrong, for instance, the Cross is where we take what this does to us. It's not just that we are reminded of how great our forgiveness is, it's that we understand that the fatal, worldly way of resentment is the only path we're on unless we repent and believe. The bad things that happen to us are not out of the ordinary. It's the good things that don't make sense. The Cross, for Christians, is the door to all the good things of God. It's a door out of this world. I'm glad for my forgiveness in Christ today because...

- It gives me hope for tomorrow.
- It helps me put away yesterday.
- It pulls me out of my emotional mire.
- It corrects my thinking as well as my feeling.
- It shows the lies behind what sin promises.
- It proves the truth behind what God promises.
- It connects me to believers of yesteryear who reside with Christ this moment.
- It ruins the world for me and me for the world.

Galatians 6:14 - "But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." 

The Cross and Daily Life

The odd thing in considering the crucifixion of Christ is that daily life in this world went on as usual until it was over. That's when, in Jerusalem anyway, the sky was darkened and the curtain was torn. That's when those ignoring the proceedings were suddenly interrupted by them. Maybe many remained unaware. Daily life in Jerusalem may have been interrupted for a few hours, but the people living in or around New York were, most likely, totally unaware of what happened. Many people today remain totally unaware of what happened. Daily life grinds on with every living person seeing himself or herself as the center of it. God allows us to ignore Him, if we so choose, for a season. Afterwards, He interrupts us with Himself and the truth. A believer is someone who has been interrupted early.

God allows us to live life and not know what life is. For believers, this is a frightening thought. For nonbelievers, there is nothing here to care about or be frightened of.

Worship is my life's purpose.

Yes, this is true. It doesn't mean that the activities within a church service themselves are my life's purpose, it means that they put me in touch with my life's purpose like nothing else will.

It's not that the blessings of God won't come to me from God if I don't come to a church service. It's that I'll have so little to help me learn to catch those blessings.

It's not that going to church makes me a believer, it's that being in church shows that I am being the church, that I am a believer. I can't love Jesus and hate the church. I can't have Jesus and intentionally skip church. Church is for now and for then. It is the heart of how I respond to God now and the rehearsal for eternity with God then. There are substitute teachers and sugar substitutes, but no substitute for live, in-person worship with other believers.

Worship is my life's purpose. My life is not my own. I belong to a community and a community belongs to me. I am redeemed as part of a community. There are no private booths in Heaven. When I read John 14:1 and following, I must remember that the "you" Jesus speaks to is plural. The "you" is plural so often in Scripture.

Worship is OUR ongoing faith-response to the Cross of Christ. Worship is OUR life's purpose.    

Fasting and the Cross

Each year I'm a little frustrated by the fasting part of Lent. The year we as a church gave up complaining and wore wrist bands to remind us of this was my favorite. Every other year has been a mess. In thinking about this I realize that the whole orientation of fasting is toward the mess. When I do fast "successfully," I still experience a loss of control and a intensifying of burden. Some people talk about how swimmingly their fasting goes. Good for them. For me there's a bit of chaos even when I'm fasting from something as simple as food. For example, I'll have five lunch dates for the two weeks I've set up to skip lunch as a fast. I will mean not to, but life seems to be unable to resist interfering in this way with my finest fasting plans. And here I'll further confess that I never have any fine fasting plans. Left to my own inclinations, I would just skip it. It's not for me. This reminds me of the Cross. The Cross is the most inconvenient thing in history. It stinks up every human plan ever made. It interferes with every human aspiration. The Cross is the messiest thing in history too. It cannot be approached reasonably. Everyone who draws near to the Cross and the Christ who died on it is undone. Whatever success or competency one has in life, the Cross obfuscates it. The Cross is frustrating. Because it fatally pokes at the heart of our sinfulness, it will always be frustrating. The blood of it gets on our identity. How the Father saw and rejected the filth of it, when the Holy Spirit reveals this to any one of us, crushes whatever we've tried to do for ourselves religiously. Fasting quickens the frustration. It hurries us along the path of dying with Christ. It is married to prayer. We have a prayer group in our church. When God really begins to move, that prayer group will be renamed and transformed from the inside out into a prayer and fasting group. Fasting ties prayer to the Cross and its power because it forces the issue of our sins and weakness.

In the end, when I don't fast, it's because I don't want God to do much in my life. I'm trying to manage the mess, the same mess the Cross has proven to me is unmanageable. In the end, I am my own frustration. A patient Savior calls to me through His Cross.  

The Cross and Friendship

John, my namesake, stood there with the women. Often the point made by this fact is that everyone abandoned him, at least all the men, all His followers, His official, named disciples. John records his presence at the crucifixion in the gospel he wrote. He refers to himself simply as the "disciple whom He loved." Other accounts don't mention him.

Matthew 27:55-56
Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him. Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. 

Mark 15:40-41
There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome. When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem. 

John 19:25b-27 
But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

Women gathered to tend to Jesus in death. It is touching and was brave, however, aside from His Heavenly Father and the redeemed thief, who else did Jesus personally address? I think it was only His mother and His... friend. In the midst of struggle and conflict, the likes of which defy imagination, Jesus wanted to take care of people He had loved on earth. In fact, relationship meant so much to Him that He added to the creation of a deeper one even from the Cross. He said of His disciple who was His friend, "Now you are my brother, son of the same mother."

There is something Jesus is teaching us here that many of us miss.

Friendship, if we dare face the truth, is a missing part of most of our lives. We rise to the level of warm, caring coexistence, but Jesus is showing something different from this. If He taught this from the Cross, and we're missing it, just how much are we missing? He did not live or die without friendship. His heartfelt offer to His disciples was His friendship. (See John 15.) Why have so many of us chosen to live without this? We have a built a world with Facebook and Twitter and the like, a world filled with walls keeping friendship out by replacing it with counterfeits.

Still, Jesus' offer stands. "Be my friend. Be a friend to others in my Name." Amazing.

The Cross and Flowers

Kelsie talked one of our neighbors into giving her one of the flowers from her flower bed. As she plucked it and handed it to my little girl, I thought about all that had gone into this moment for the flower. A bulb, with no appearance like that of a flower, was strategically buried. It had a cost, which our gardening neighbor paid. Slowly this early spring, the flower blossomed, despite cold and snow. Only then did a little girl notice it and want it.

I am amazed how many sermon illustrations God has built into His creation. This story of a flower can be directly tied to the Cross. A high price paid and a burial precede anything of beauty. Once the beauty is seen, everything else is overshadowed and seemingly forgotten. I think of the things in my life that work this same way. How many dreams are dead and buried? What whole parts of my life resemble a bulb that looks to an uneducated eye like it has been thrown away "outside the city?" A Christian's eye is trained to see the bulb for the flower it is. We see the cross - which is only about death - as our source of abundant and eternal life, and rightly so. The Cross is the bulb of an empty tomb. "It is finished" must come first. Only then do we have "He is Risen!"

The Cross and the Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base

It's been years, but the images of young, dead bodies rendered into all manner of burnt, punctured, partial, twisted and ripped versions of what they had been while living remain fresh in my mind's eye. My time as a military chaplain in that facility coincided with 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The war dead were numbered in the hundreds then instead of the thousands as they are today. Each death got attention. Today they are largely ignored. Soldiers die in violence and sacrifice over there; their deaths meet with silence and disinterest over here. Perhaps it's bad taste for me to mention this. I mention it only to point to truth. We love villains and yawn for heroes. The kid who hurls his young body onto a grenade doesn't care that we don't care. No hero I know of ever did something heroic in order to become a hero. They did what they did because who they are (or were). Of course, Christ is the ultimate example of this. He didn't choose the Cross because the glory of it drew Him. He chose it because His Father wanted him to. He did what He did for another, first His Father and then you and me. There is no other heroism.

I remember one soldier who had been captured and brutally beheaded. As we prepared his remains, we honored a common request to place photos of his family in the pockets of the uniform he was to be buried in. I sometimes picture Christ, after being brutally crucified, being buried with pictures of His Father... and you... and me... in his pockets, at His Father's request. Romans 5:8 "... but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 

   

Scandalous (A new book about the Cross by D. A. Carson)

From the preface of this new book about "The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus," here are three excerpted sentences:

- "The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago."

- "Jesus' own followers did not expect him to be crucified; they certainly did not expect him to rise again."

- "It is as important to to know what these events mean as to know that they happened."

From page 36: "Jesus cries this cry, "My God! I am forsaken!" so that for all eternity Don Carson* will not have to."

*Put your name here instead if you too are a believer. 

Amen.

The Cross and All of Humanity

The Cross, representing the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is an event that touches the life of every single person alive today. The convinced atheist is no less touched by it than the lifetime believer. Adherents to other religions (should I say all religions?) cannot escape the fact that the Cross happened. The nature of Christianity is that it spreads. It spreads quickest and deepest when those in authority attempt to crush it. The story of the Cross is spreading even as I write this, even as you read this. Countless people are sorting it out, categorizing it, placing it in their catalog of concepts, or finding a way to redefine it. The more people try to explain it, excuse it, ignore it, or mock it, the more it gets out there and gets attention. The Cross is tied, of course, to the One who hung and died on it. The reverse is true as well. As there is no Cross without Jesus, there is no Jesus without the Cross. Many strive to separate the two. They did while Jesus walked the earth. This striving to separate powerfully bonds the Cross and the Christ together; by trying to put out the fire, they only fan its flames. Every day we have news to read, watch, and hear. Every bit that we hear points back and up to the Cross. The larger the story, the greater the body count, the heavier the burden, the sadder the outcome, it brings us back, whether we know it or not, to the Cross. At the end of the most horrifying news account, we can look at each other and say, "That's why there was a Cross." The Cross is justice, answers, peace, truth, hope, purpose, and, of course, forgiveness. The Cross is the one mirror that accurately tells us what we look like on the inside, how we are, and who we are. The Cross is the end of lies. The Cross is the end of needing to lie. Today, all of humanity lives, some knowing, some not, under the shadow of the Cross.  

Sundays in April

Church is always fun, in the way the Holy Spirit makes it for our desperate and weary souls, but the weeks of and prior to "He is Risen" Sunday are special. Don't miss out. Friends don't let friends miss out. If you have some churchophobic half-believers you love who won't come without prodding, then make up your mind to prod. One thing I've learned in 13 years of pastoring: most people want to be at or in church to a greater extent than they are. As soon as they're given an excuse, like they "kind of have to be there," they will be there. They may grumble. There may be awkwardness to overcome. These are small obstacles. They are social obstacles, not spiritual. Push through them for others as much as you can. They are the residue of modern life. All of us are afraid of people in some way. We don't know how to be together or talk to each other. We don't realize that everyone else is afraid too.

And the Cross is for everyone. Those who seem most hostile to it (like I was in my early 20's), often turn out to be the most moved by it. Resistance means power is felt. Negation means truth is acknowledged. Life is short. Left to ourselves we pour it down the drain. We all need the help of others to get the help of God. There's no "alone" in the Kingdom of God.

See you there!

Time Out (showing a 5-year-old the Cross)

I have an idea. When it's appropriate, and my daughter has "earned" a time out, I will say, "Now, honey, because of what you did, you have to go into time out, but, to show you what Jesus did for you on the Cross, Daddy's going to go into time out for you."

Of course, time out, to Daddy, sounds more like Heaven than Hell, so the planned illustration is far from perfect, but let's see if she gets the point.

Thinking of this has me thinking of more. What ways can we show family members and co-workers the Cross? Every effective message relies on illustrations. Say a co-worker fouled up a project and now has to stay late and cancel much anticipated plans for the night. Would it be appropriate to say, "I want to show you what I say I believe about Jesus and the Cross. Not to sound weird, but would you honor me by allowing me to do this work for you? It's not about doing you a favor; it's about earning the right to have a conversation with you someday about faith. What do you think?"

It's hard to imagine it going that well, but who knows? This is the kind of thinking the millions of us who are Christians need to do more of, I think. I know I need to do more of it. We have to show what we're telling people. I don't mean the silly nonsense of, "I rather see a sermon, than hear it." This rubbish has "solved the problem" of witnessing and silenced the testimonies of far too many frightened Christians. No, I mean, "I want to see what I'm hearing, so I can understand what I'm hearing." No one is led to saving faith by the kind of mimes that some Christians claim to be. We must speak out loud with our mouths (or sign language) if we want to obey the Great Commission, but actions and words together are always louder and clearer than actions alone or words alone.

What do you think?

The Joy of the Resurrection, Courtesy of the Cross

I've been wondering how Jesus felt as He walked around in His resurrected body. Because we know His story, as well as humans can know it, we have some ability to empathize with the pain He went through prior to "He is Risen." Can we also empathize with His joy? It is the joy of overcoming. It is a joy of peace, well-being, and rest. Fear has absolutely no place in it. Regret, bitterness, and anger are all absolutely forsaken. Can we even imagine this? It seems to me that the Bible insists we do more than imagine it; we're supposed to walk in it. For me, it's only in moments of joyful, appropriate laughter or unhinged-from-time worship, or forgot-about-my-stuff community engagement that I come close to the fearless, hateless, covetless state of resurrection.

The cross is what bought this joy. Christ's resurrected body is its receipt on legs, those legs standing this second next to the Father in Heaven. We get this joy, all of it, in the end, simply by believing. I almost want to shout, "Unbelievable!" Nothing is as paralyzing as true joy. We don't what to say or what to do. We blubber and weep. Sometimes, in fact, our worship is exactly this!

Joy. It can be ours now. It certainly waits for us in the future. We, in Christ, can be more sure of it than death. Why do I almost never remember this? God, I believe. Help me with my unbelief!  

Setting up the Sunrise

It is amazing how God has set up His creation like one extended sermon illustration. The sermon is titled "He is Risen." And maybe the daily experience of sunrise is the point of this illustration of nature. Every day every one of us watches the defeat of darkness, whether we're paying attention or not. Nature's darkness has its beautiful and comforting aspects, but in this illustration it graciously plays the part of a darkness that has no redeeming qualities: our sin. Jesus became this darkness on the cross so that life in Him for every one who trusts in Him alone for it becomes the sunrise. Feeling better from my little sickness puts me in a more grateful place than my busy mind usually is, so this morning I'm grateful for the miracle of the light of a new day. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."

There's something peculiar about human life under the rule of God. When our eyes see the light, our gratitude extends even to the bitterest struggles of the night before. I would not agree to part with my past, even at its worst, simply because my specific past is the only road to this new moment of life with God. My joy in healing makes me strangely grateful for the sickness, or at least the clear view of His hand in it that the light now helps me see. The coldest, darkest night is a set up for the sunrise.

Near the end of Luke 1, we have the last two verses (78-79) of Zechariah's song, often called Benedictus. He's fresh from a season of muteness, now celebrating the birth of his son, John the Baptist, and the One he will serve, Jesus Christ.

Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of peace.  

Different Views, One Cross

Think of how it looked that day. There was the Roman soldier who, when it was all done, said, "Surely, this was a righteous man." There was Simeon, the one who actually carried the cross for Christ for a bit. What was life like for him after this life-changing incident? We know his sons became leaders in the church and Rufus, the younger son I think, is the one many think is greeted along with his mom by Paul in Romans 16:13. Simon's sons are mentioned in Mark 15:21. Here are the verses...

Mark 15:21 "And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross."

Romans 16:13 "Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well."

So, one Friday, a family became chosen for Christ. Chances are they all saw what their father or husband was forced to do. No one else had a perspective on the Cross like they did.

Then there's Mary, His mother. She watched the whole thing.

We know about the thieves crucified with Him. They certainly had a unique and powerful perspective on Christ's crucifixion. Their two reactions were so different.

Then there were the people crying things out to him like, "Save yourself!" They knew His claims. What happened? Others rejected His claims. "Serves Him right," they must have thought.

Today too there are countless different views on this one event. Just like with the thieves though, there are only two reactions: believe or don't. I've studied the religions of the world a little. So far I've seen nothing like the Cross of Christ or the Christ of the Cross. In the end, whatever view we have, the Cross forces each of us to make a decision about it. Was it pathetic and senseless or was it my only hope for forgiveness of sins?

Patience in Suffering and the Cross

I've been sick in a minor way for a few days longer than I want to be, which helps me identify with and pray for those in our congregation that are sick in a major way for months or years longer than they had hoped and for others who are straddled with severe health challenges. Getting better sometimes seems to take a long time. And this truth spreads out past physical ailments. Emotional and psychological healing, for example, can also seem long and drawn out. Any Christian in pain, of course, has the Cross as enduring proof of God's empathy. Jesus knows what you're going through. The Cross is an experience that happened within a few hours. All the physical tortures of Christ were well contained within one 24-hour cycle, and yet by their most extreme nature, they seem endless. The type of burden we bear influences how long it feels like we're bearing it. One second of Christ's torture far exceeds a lifetime of pain for any other human being. We learn from Him about endurance.

1) To suffer with purpose is far better than to suffer without. Our purpose may not be tied to our suffering, more often it is tied to our recovery. We have something or someone to get better for, to get through this for.

2) Suffering in this life, even the worst, most protracted form of it, is temporary. It will not last. This is the promise of being in Christ. Whatever I'm going through, if I'm going through it with Christ, I really will go through it; I won't stay like this.

3) Suffering can change me for the better, if I seek this. It can have the opposite effect too. It's up to me.

4) Suffering withstood becomes new strength.  

The Cross for us is the ultimate illustration and proof of Psalm 30:5b (KJV): "... weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

The Cross and Honor

Honor is an underrated power within ourselves and our world. Earlier generations had role models, both authentic and bogus, for honor. Movie stars, war heroes, rock stars, athletes, and certain leaders are the typical fare when it comes to who we as a Western society see as celebrities of honor. Christians speak often, and sometimes understand, that God is the ultimate recipient of honor. To take too much honor on oneself or lavish too much on someone else is idolatry. There are news articles from this last week that suggest that March Madness brings out nothing less than idolatry. The worship of God never rises, some reporters claim, to the worship of a favorite college basketball team.

Though we honor God well before basketball teams or ourselves, we also can be people of honor. The Cross, an event that explains so much and fulfills what nothing else can, is the ultimate example of honor. Jesus Christ was and is a man of honor. How He went about His life is how "honorable" is done. This helps me today. Every day now in my mid-forties I sometimes survey my distant and immediate past with regret and frustration. My age and gender influence this strange experience, but I know that all people of all ages and genders who want their lives to count for something are subject to a similar temptation. If we want to live a good life, we'll tend to examine the life we're living. It can be dangerous emotionally. Honesty is always more dangerous at first, but afterwards it is the safest of all courses. The problem with seeing the problems in my life is that it drains me of the energy to solve the problems in my life if I don't have a compelling vision. The problem with being a little older is that what used to pass for a compelling personal vision has evaporated. The old finish lines got washed away by the rain. This is where honor comes in. To live an honorable life in Christ and for Christ is rare and valuable. It will bless everyone. It exceeds any other success I wanted for myself. In fact, it nicely corrects the vanity behind some of those old dreams. How do I live an honorable life? I look to the Cross. Jesus showed me how. He died that I may live. He died that I may have a compelling vision to orient my life around. I've made public promises (2 vows, marital and vocational, and 1 oath, military). Many fail to keep these. Many minimize these. No need to. Prior to them I prayed to receive Christ. That has made all the difference. If I can represent Him well, even through my failures, I can, only with His help, claim a life of honor. Somehow, these thoughts, inspired simply by looking at the Cross and Christ with the eyes of my heart, transform regret and frustration into... satisfaction.

There's no end to the good Christ does in the life of a man or woman. No end. Again from 1st Corinthians 1:18, "the message of the Cross is the power of God." Amen.

  

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Church is a who, a what, a when, a where, and why, and a how.

Who = Us in Christ glorifying God the Father together through the Holy Spirit.

What = a Formal (yes, formal, not clothing, but cause) Gathering of Us in Christ. Jettison the unscriptural notion that church can be whatever we want it to be, or that it is something we conjure up. It belongs to Christ, not us.

When = Not whenever. Not when we get done with work, shopping, sports, and everything else on our lists. Definitely not whenever we get some free time. A hundred years from now we'll have lots of free time.

Where = Definitely not wherever. Wherever do we find this idea in the Bible? All that stuff about the temple... we can't just dismiss it by misquoting the Bible and saying, "My body, me, I'm the new temple." Lame.

Why = Because of the clear mandate of Scripture not to give up meeting together. Because God loves us and has no interest in our self-styled religious innovation and resulting isolation. That's not of Him, period.

How = Get up in time. Get to worship. Be there with all those other imperfect Christians because it's the only place you and I belong this morning if we have a choice and if we belong to Him. Again, a hundred years from now how well will all our excuses hold up?

Feeling guilty? Well, if you join us for church services we can try to help you with this. :)

I feel a little guilty if I've made you feel guilty, so, if you come, you can help me too!

Yes, you guessed it, we'll point each other to the Cross.
    

The Cross and the Need to be Right

All of us struggle with the positions we've taken that, over time, appear to be wrong or off. We don't want to be wrong or be seen as wrong. Depending on our personality and maturity, we will defend all our positions to some extent, especially those which come into question. What follows? Relationships suffer. People become each other's enemies. Life becomes a means for proving ourselves instead of serving God. Of course, the solution to all this is found only in the Cross of Christ.

Christ teaches me that I don't have to keep the ball rolling. I don't have to fight to the bitter end. I don't have to make my point. I don't have to justify myself. I don't have to work at all on the things He has promised to take care of like my life and my reputation. What I have to do is be His. Not WWJD or "What Would Jesus Do?", but "What Would I Do If I Belonged Solely to Jesus?" Yes, I know that WWIDIIBSTJ doesn't quite have the same ring or look as WWJD, but it is the relevant question. I am not Jesus. WWJD is answered by dying on the Cross for the sins of the world. Only He does that. I am, however, a follower of Jesus. Therefore, I don't need to be right. He is. I don't need to win this one. He did. God has made His point. The only unfading victory there is was won by Christ on his Cross.

I can write the words. You can read them. Let's help each other live them.  

The Obvious Daily Lesson of the Cross

The obvious daily lesson of the Cross is that you have to give up something good to get something better. Even today, each of us faces at least one decision where we'll keep what we have or we'll put it down to get something better. Christ always had gain in mind as He faced the Cross. The loss, the pain, the rejection, the agony... all of it... it was a price to pay. Pleasing His Father, Glory, Salvation for His... all this followed.

Questions:

Am I too busy for God today? What do I have to stop?

Is my spiritual life just another to-do item, important but not urgent? What do I have to give up?

Am I trying to live well in the world and live well for Christ? Is it tearing me apart? What do I have to lose to gain that which I can never lose?

What does it mean to carry our own cross?

The best way to first approach this question is to ask its opposite. What does it not mean? We don't do for ourselves ANYTHING that Jesus did for us when He died for us on the cross. We don't add to His suffering or His sacrifice. We don't cancel or fulfill anything. We don't please God in a saving way. No debts that determine our eternal destiny are paid off. The crosses we carry are ONLY crosses of response to His.

It is symbolism. Unlike Christ, we do not go to death on the cross ourselves, yet death is the point. We are to die to ourselves and our sin, and live to Christ. Look at the fuller context of the verses in Mark 8:31-38...

- He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 
- He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 
- But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” 
- Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 
- For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 
- What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 
- Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 
- If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

What do we know here? We do we learn? Here are some thoughts:

1) Suffering is a part of faith on Christ's end and ours. Any faith that minimizes suffering, especially the suffering of Christ, minimizes salvation and, apparently, maximizes Satan.
2) Christians always did and always will have a problem with the Cross. Every human being has the natural desire to put distance between himself or herself and the Cross and what it means.
3) The only way we can keep our souls is through "taking up our cross." This means that we can't live Godly lives until we die to all that is in competition with the Cross.
4) To gain the whole world is not worth much in the long run.
5) If Christ calls us to "take up our cross," or to suffer, then He must also provide the inner means of fulfilling this.
6) Our adulterous and sinful generation, or our culture, can exert a powerful influence over us, making us want to defy even God in order to gain social approval. Part of carrying our cross is resisting this.
7) Being ashamed of the Cross is being ashamed of Christ is being rejected by Christ. You cannot be a Christian of any kind and reject the work of Christ on the Cross
8) That which preserves our lives in eternity may end our lives here.

So what is following Christ, taking up our cross, and losing our lives for Him and the Gospel? It is to live lives above the influence and values of this world and beneath the shadow of the Cross of Christ. It is to live lives where we endure whatever is necessary to endure in order to maintain our fidelity to the Cross of Christ. It is a choice we make every day of our lives.  

Hollywood vs. Jerusalem

We saw Rango in the theater on Monday. It's an animated film, well reviewed: perfect family fare we thought. Wrong. First of all, pay attention when you see that a children's film is rated PG instead of G. Don't take your five-year-old to Rango, unless you want her to be repeatedly exposed to some entry-level four-letter words.

I had another problem with the film though. The makers were clearly out to besmirch faith in order to elevate human self-salvation. Why? Clever as the movie was, we left feeling the fresh defeat that humanism consistently delivers to the spirit of all in its hearing. You can be your own savior. Terrible news doesn't get better with computer enhanced animation. I got the feeling that the makers of this film required that John Lennon's "Imagine" be played in repeat mode in the background at all phases of the production. Rango is the perfect Hollywood Christ, complete with crucifixion and resurrection. Cute, smart, good, and "lucky," he is the model for all of us. The bad guys were religious and used religion like all of us do, to hurt and oppress the people, taking all their resources from them. Down with selfish, evil Christians, especially Christian businessmen. Up with self-deified saviors. We're all supposed to be our own Jesus Christ!

Meanwhile, two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, the only real Jesus Christ was crucified. "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." says Paul in 1st Corinthians. "For the word of the cross and the power of God are foolishness (or worse), but those of us who are perishing shall save ourselves." says Rango.  

Complaints and the Cross

There are two sides to every complaint. There is the complainer and the complained-to or complained-about or complained-against. Pastors get to be the latter often, but don't think for a moment think they are never the former. All of us, pastors or not, tend to think that our complaints are reasonable, but the complaints of those who complain to us or about us or against us are not. Isaiah 53:10a in the NASB says this:  

"But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief..."

"The LORD" is the Father and "Him" is Jesus Christ, His Son. Did Jesus complain? No. Did He suffer? Yes. Did He ask to be spared the suffering? Yes. Really, didn't He complain? I can't find it. "I thirst" doesn't count. He accepted and submitted Himself willingly to His destiny, including His death, not only as God's will, but as God's pleasure. He died to please His Father BEFORE He died to save us. He obeyed. It seems that complaining - what God's people did in the desert so often, for instance - and obeying are different. They can be opposed.

If I complain to, about, or against God, I may not be seeing Him or approaching Him as God. (This may not be true in all cases, but consider it.) I may see Him instead as my Heavenly Customer Service Manager. At worst, I may see Him as my servant. Here's an odd problem. If I have a complaint, this means something is wrong. When something is wrong, I need God to be God for me. If I put my complaint between myself and God, it may block me from getting to God at all. But I'm a Christian. This means I can bring my complaints to the Cross. Jesus connects me to God through His Cross. This is where I bring my sin, my bitterness, my anger, my complaints. This is where I bring myself, with His Holy Spirit's help.

In the garden after their sin God asked Adam, "Where are you?" This is the question of complaint and disappointment. We ask it of God when we are disappointed with Him. Our perspective is skewed by our pain. He's right there and we are circumstantially blind to it. God asks it of us when we truly are lost. His perspective is our way out of the pain and its cause. It is manifest in the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross.

Loneliness and the Cross

I know more people who face loneliness on a daily basis than I've ever known. Chronic loneliness presents many challenges. I remind such people that there are also benefits to loneliness, when it is harnessed, in terms of personal industry and creative output. For the most part, though, the burden seems often to outweigh the blessings. Here's where a good, long gaze at the Cross of Christ can be edifying and encouraging. The Cross of Christ is the home and resting place for all human loneliness. It is the loneliest place and point in history. Lonely Christians, unlike other lonely people, have an incredible advantage in the Cross besides eternal salvation. I know this last sentence seems like a crazy one! Once saved, who cares about the rest? Well, God for one. God has provided, in the Cross of His One and Only Son, an inexhaustible source of fresh hope and energy for those otherwise debilitated by loneliness. The lonely Christian cannot escape or refuse the fellowship of a Christ whose entire Kingdom is built on moments one Friday of excruciating pain and abandonment. In other words, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the lonely. He owns your loneliness. He is the master of it. Faith in Him changes the pain of it. Now, stay on this road called Christ and see where He leads you! Someday soon you'll forget the clouds for the light. In Christ, loneliness is a finite season. It ends. A new day begins.

Sunday again

It is Sunday again. Don't miss the opportunity to worship God in sacred assembly with other imperfect believers. You may not get another chance.

Check back here tomorrow for another full entry.

May God reveal Who He is to you...

There's Hope for Crossless, Christless Ministry

Crossless, Christless ministry sounds like a pretty bad label, but it represents some of what passes for ministry in churches. It's not a new or isolated situation. Anytime we make church about church, or the gathering about the gathering, or about the people or a person in the gathering the point of the gathering, then that gathering has great potential to be Crossless and Christless. It's not hard to spot. If people think they've done something for God by showing up at something for God, it's probably crossless and Christless. "Look what I did. Look at us. We've got a great crowd today. We're going places and doing things. This is where it's at!" Keep in mind that this is not necessarily negative. It's just something where we don't need the Cross or Christ. We'll name Him here or there, but we don't need Him; we've got us. On the other hand, if we gather broken, unimpressed with ourselves, unaware of a crowd or of popularity, then we find ourselves in need. Deep spiritual need is the only hope for Crossless, Christless Christianity. It is the work of the Spirit. When we need more than ourselves, more than a fine program or ministry, more than an inspiring service or great event, more than a song, more than a prayer, more than each other, then we are on track to the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross. As people we seem to try everything else before we reconcile to God through Christ and His Cross. We are desperate to get ourselves to a place where we are not so desperate. Our big efforts and big desires (just like it says in Romans 9:6) never do the trick. We need God Himself to show mercy and show up! We need Christ and His Cross before we need anything else.

A Spiritual Alarm System

Many of us have alarm systems in our homes. They're good for keeping bad people from getting in, but also good in case a child starts to wander out. Even our church has an alarm system as part of its security system. The cross of Christ acts like an alarm system for the Christian's spiritual life. If anything coming into or out of us is counter to the cross, a constant exposure via Scripture to the Christ who died on that cross will cause conviction to rage in our hearts not unlike the racket caused by a building's alarm. Another name for this is our conscience. This is where sins like self-indulgent pride and the worship of money, sex, and power come into conflict with holiness and truth. The conflict is not a nagging question, but a head-on collision. We know evil when we encounter it. The cross shines the light of truth on the evil we choose and love by showing us that it is not a means for life but death. In other words, the cross ruins our sin. It removes whatever deodorant or perfume of self-justification we've attempted to hide sin's stench with. Alarms go off. May the Holy Spirit give us and be for us the means to repent and turn away from sin toward the cross of Christ.

The Patrick Factor

We can read that he isn't an official "saint." We're not sure what he had to do with snakes leaving Ireland. Wearing green and four-leaf clovers don't tell us anything about his life or why we remember it every year. Did he invent green beer? Did he play the bagpipes? No. He was born in Scotland, not Ireland. He was captured at age 14 and brought to Ireland as a slave to tend sheep. Exposed to Druid spirituality, he turned from it to Christ. Released at 20, he went on to become an effective Christian evangelist and discipler. The shamrock, a three-leaf clover, is what he used to explain the Trinity. He was a minister. He is famous for many things, but his life was redeemed by the cross of Christ. He lived to teach people about the cross of Christ. I wonder how many people know this.

Historical Confusion About the Cross

Maybe you heard the story. In the year 300 and something, the Roman emperor Constantine, a "kind of" convert to Christ over the course of his life, changed Christianity by making it legal and official. He is the first to marry state and religion. In the opinion of some, religion has suffered ever since. There are different accounts and opinions of him and his faith. The most famous part of his conversion involved the assurance he felt in the visual image of the cross. He believed that God told him in a dream or vision that he would win a particular battle he was facing if his army bore this cross (with a matching motto) on their shields. They did. They won. Thus began confusion about the cross. We don't have to pass judgment on this event either way. Was God in it or not? The point is that since this battle the visual of the cross (look to the right) has had its own power in people's eyes. Sometimes it is totally removed from the gospel. In an exorcism movie the priest holds it up to the demon to do spiritual battle. People wear crosses around their necks or have them tattooed to their bodies or hung on the walls of their homes. Many do this to garner blessings and protection. Churches better have visual crosses inside and outside of them or their fidelity will be in question. This visual cross, however, is not the cross of Christ. No priest would fare well holding it up in the air at an exorcism. God's power is not in jewelry or symbols. If we think of the cross we wear, hold, hang on our walls, or install on top of our church buildings as more than a meaningful decoration, we can really confuse ourselves. When we speak about getting back to the cross, we are not saying put more visual crosses everywhere. We're saying that the one cross - that brutal instrument of public execution - is the place where death dies and life is redeemed for those who trust in Christ's death on it as payment for their sins.

Talking About Wanting to be Righteous

Talking about it can be awkward. It sounds backwards. Some of us have experienced religiously abusive, position-hungry people who use "righteousness measurement tools" to arrange their world. They need us to need their religious approval. The word "righteousness" often comes out of their mouths, so it doesn't come out of ours. The problem with this is the cross. The cross of Christ, when it becomes more important in one's life than the opinions of people or the opinion of any one person, especially a self-important, self-appointed religious person, demands a truly righteous life. What is this? Few of us know. And, because it feels weird, we don't have productive conversations about it in the church or as the church. Our men's/women's groups or Bible studies feature personality and Scriptural banter, but little real conversation about the nature of temptation and confession. Confession, in Evangelical circles, usually turns into a type of social performance. As evidence of our mishandling it, we tend to applaud after a particularly moving public confession. How cold this is. Such a confession must be edited, dramatic, and end like a 1/2 television show: neatly packaged. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this, except that after all this we haven't talked together about wanting to be righteous; we've talked at each other in ways to reassure each other that we already are. I think this is one of the ways that we as Christians make each other feel so alone sometimes.

I confess that I want to live a righteous life. My attempts at such feel so weak. Even though I'm a pastor with the unbelievable privilege of being able to spend so much time in Scripture and in the things of God, I struggle with how little support we give each other when it comes to this basic response to the cross. The Bible in 1st Corinthians 1:18 says, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." One of the scariest parts about being a pastor of a Christian church in America in 2011 is that I see how the message of the cross is often foolishness to those of us who say we believe. If we don't start talking about this, how will it change? God wants us to start talking to Him and each other about how to live the cross-inspired, cross-enabled, righteous life His Son died to give us.    

The Cookie and the Cross

Dieting represents what is wrong with this world. I bet that Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen were both just on diets. Now look at them! So, if I want to eat this cookie I’m holding, I should just be able to eat it. No one has the right to stop me or even make me feel bad about it. I will eat this cookie. I will enjoy it. It is mine to eat. If God didn’t want me to eat it, why is it here in my hand inches from my waiting mouth? He is Sovereign, isn’t He? This cookie is a sign to me that God loves me. The doctors of this world tell me to refrain, but to do so might just be to disobey God Himself. Do I obey the doctors or God? Now, suddenly, I realize, this is a sacred cookie. And there are more where this one came from. So, today I will worship God in spirit and with cookies! Now, it is no longer my pleasure but His that I pursue. These “love handles” cascading over the sides of my belt are to be renamed “God handles!” Praise the Lord and pass the holy cookies! Did Paul Newman get the inspiration for Ginger-O’s straight from Heaven? In this moment, I believe.

The truth is – now after one too many cookies I see the truth – that in this moment of weakness, I will believe whatever my flesh commands me to believe. This is why I need the Cross of Jesus Christ rudely, permanently, unflinchingly installed in the middle of my existence. Simple.   

Not on Sundays

Sundays don't count as part of the 40 days of Lent. Check back tomorrow. Today is a day for open Bibles, honest prayers, heartfelt songs, and imperfect people coming together for the sole purpose of coming together under God. As the world would consider a day wasted, today is a day to be wasted. Avoid shopping. Do not be productive. Do not be too tight about what you do not do. Maintain what's needed, do no more. Do not take care of something. Do not push forward. Do not make plans. The plans that really matter for you and I have already been made.

Gaze on the cross.

Rest.

Front Row Seat for the Tsunami

Shannon, my wife, is with her friend, Leslie Haskin, to speak at a women's retreat in San Luis Obispo, CA. She's in a hotel that overlooks the Pacific ocean. They arrived just in time for the Tsunami. Yesterday we talked about it all over the phone a few times. As I sat back home in NY, the situation intrigued me. Circumstances had been arranged so she could have a front row seat for the Tsunami. Here on the East coast, we listened to the news and watched the extensive footage of the disaster in Japan. Again, let's pray for all involved. The thing that intrigued me, however, was not the Tsunami itself, but the importance of location. If we are close to something geographically, we don't have to imagine its impact, we can experience it. This applies especially to the cross of Jesus Christ. The more distance we put between ourselves and Jesus' death on the cross, the less we feel its power. Sometimes, too, it seems like every activity under the sun, maybe especially religious activity, has as its motivation to put distance between us and Christ's death. The busier we are, the less the cross is on our mind. Lent is designed to interrupt our busyness. More primary than this, Sabbath is ordained to interrupt it. Without these interruptions, without our stopping, without the regular shutting down of our lives, we will only hear about the cross second or third hand. Prayer and fasting and all manner of resting from our flesh are vehicles, like the jets were for Leslie and Shannon, for moving us into place so we have a front row seat to the Tsunami of judgment and grace that is the cross of Jesus Christ.

Those who think they don't need this interruption are the ones who need it the most.

Consequent Absolute Necessity versus Hypothetical Necessity

You may cringe at this blog's title; there's not one cozy word in it. It represents, however, a theological priority. If people claim the Christ of Scripture for salvation, my opinion is that they must hold one of these views and reject the other. John Murray's famous book on the Atonement, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, presents this most powerfully. Consequent Absolute Necessity is the view that God, once He decided, for His own purpose and pleasure only, to save some people, had to do it exactly as Scripture describes it via the Cross. Based on what God has revealed about Himself via Scripture, there were no other options. Hypothetical Necessity says, to sum it up, that God could have done whatever He wanted. He could have waved His God-wand and declared us all saved if He wanted to and avoided the cross altogether, even though He didn't. The problems with this are many, and it is a very popular belief. It trivializes both Scripture and the Cross. The Bible sets up what must be the one way to salvation; it had to be a suffering Savior dying on a cross. It was not possible for the Father to let this cup pass. The sacrifices of the Old Testament are copies of the one sacrifice God required of His Son.  

What does this mean for normal people? It means that anything that lessens or upstages the Cross of Christ is deadly to our souls. It wasn't just "how things turned out in this crazy world." It was the will of the Father to crush His Son as it says in Isaiah 53:10. Forget "prosperity" Christianity, the kind where we earn credit and blessings for our faith and decisions. It's not Christianity at all. It won't save anyone. Nothing that diminishes the cross of Christ can be of Christ. Faith in Him is not about anything we do or anything else but the cross. Credit and blessings are His to give by grace, not ours to take by effort. The cross is not a starting point from which we move on and up to greater spiritual heights. There are no greater spiritual heights; His resurrection confirms and seals this. The cross is the only point. Without the cross of Christ the Bible is gibberish, the gospel is empty, and the church is doomed. With the cross of Christ we have, by faith in Him alone, the Christ who died on the cross for us; we have everything we need and want forever.

"When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died.
My richest gain I count but loss.
And pour contempt on all my pride."  

Funeral for a Five-Year-Old

Many in our community at Goodwill Church know that yesterday I attended the funeral for a friend and preschool classmate of my daughter, Kelsie. (Join the growing group of us praying for the family.) One of the visually difficult parts of a child's funeral is the size of the casket. To see the small casket, for many of us, is to experience the full rush of turbulence and grief that such a loss produces. Andrew was a little boy with so much in front of him. The happy hope of childhood seems in direct contrast to death. A small casket seems in direct contrast to the exploding universe of life and potential in a little God-loving boy. The emotions are different at a funeral for a much older person. We think that this person had a good chance to live and plenty of time. This, however, is not the case. Life is brief for all of us. We all have earthly lives that end in small caskets. The end is always soon. Dreams and tasks lie undone. Relationships remain broken. Adventures vaporize. Plans evaporate. We think this is out of accord with how life should be. What went wrong? The cross stands in time to correct our perception. After Genesis 3, loss is the rule, not the exception. Even Christ had to die, yet in His death is the death of death. Christian hope is no respecter of circumstances.

Exactly one week before the accident, this boy celebrated my girl's birthday, with two dozen or so other kids, at an elaborate party (at Jumpin' Jakes, for those who know kids' stuff). There was sliding, bouncing, running, balloons, ice cream cake, and pizza. I talked to his mom a bit, and him too. We ate cake together.

It's goodbye... for now, not forever. This last sentence was made possible only by the cross of Jesus Christ.

Ash Wednesday

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." It's not in the Bible. It's from the funeral service in the Book of Common Prayer. We repent "in dust and ashes." We see this in the Bible. The penitent would cover themselves with ashes and dust. We don't do this anymore. A little ashes on the forehead may symbolize it for some, but it is not the same thing. Frankly, the Biblical concept of repentance is obscured by this picture of dust and ashes. Repentance is about change, not sorrow. In fact, sorrow is a poor substitute for change. For some of us, sorrow is a nice compromise, since we don't really want to turn from our sins. We'll apologize for them with great sincerity and then run back to them. It won't matter if we bathe in ashes; it means nothing. God does not care how sorry I am for my sins. This is human religious pretense. If I trust in Christ and turn away from sin and my sins in His power, that's another story. That's the gospel. Repentance is powerful and required. It is connected to salvation. Repentance is not about God punishing me for my sins with guilt and remorse. It is about God punishing His only Son, Jesus, for my sins with His substitutionary death on the cross and His burial in the tomb and me resting on and receiving what He's done as my only hope in this life and the next.

Death by Discounting the Cross

For large tracts of Western Christianity the cross is out. How gauche it is. How primitive and backwards, many say. We, Goodwill Church, are going to shamelessly stare at it for all 40 days of Lent. Cross, cross, cross! No apologies. No sympathy. No "handling with care." This infatuation with Crossless Christianity shows us how bad Christians can be for Christianity. God save Christianity from Christians! This is not a cynical or humorous sentence. It's a real prayer. Thank God for the cross. There we find the truth. There we find hope. There we find the life ambition of our Savior. His Father sent Him to the cross. His birth and life were roads to His cross. Without His cross, His teachings, miracles, and historical presence shatter to nonsense in our hands. We are saved by the Christ of the cross and no other. Together we gratefully shout, "Thank God!"