The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (4)

“I trust I speak in charity, but the lack in our pulpits is real. Milton’s terrible sentence applies to our day as accurately as it did to his: “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.” It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table. This truth of Wesley’s words is established before our eyes: “Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions [beliefs], yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion about God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is proof of this.”” (Page 9). 

While the heart of Tozer’s preface is yet to come, I share this quote, as I did the previous one, because of its directness and imagery. 

As James writes, “You believe that God is one, you do well, the demons also believe, and shudder” (James 2:19). 

To return to Tozer’s image of Elijah on Mount Carmel, we can construct a perfect altar and yet not see the fire of God fall upon it. We can set a perfect table and yet serve unpalatable food.

When I was a boy, my two brothers and I, along with our Dad, visited an elderly relative who gave us her homemade cookies – she had lost her baking touch, and the cookies could not really be eaten – they were like Styrofoam.  When her eyes were turned, we put the cookies in our pockets. The cookies were so bad that, when we arrived home and gave one to our dog, he refused it. I suppose if we had never had cookies we might have eaten them and made the best of it, but we knew what cookies were supposed to taste like, we knew what their texture ought to be. 

Do we know what it is like when the fire of God falls on the altar? Do we know what the psalmist means when he says, “Taste and see that the LORD is good”? Is the Word of God “sweeter than honey and the honeycomb” to us?

We can have right beliefs and yet our hearts may not be right toward God and others. We can have right doctrines and yet not have right hearts. Our table settings may be worthy of a magazine cover, and yet the food we serve may be tasteless.  

When Jesus speaks about the Great Commandment, loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, He does not speak of doctrine but of the heart. When He speaks of loving our neighbor as ourselves, He does not speak of doctrine but of the heart (Mark 12:29 – 31).

When Jesus gives us His new and holy commandment, it is that we love one another just as He has loved us, laying our lives down for one another; He speaks of our hearts in action, He does not speak to us of doctrine - as we normally conceive doctrine (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 13). We might say that the doctrine that Jesus teaches is a doctrine of the heart in action. 

When the Apostle John writes of us following Jesus, he writes that we are to love as He loved and to lay down our lives for one another as Jesus laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16). 

When Paul writes of what the heart of the Church should look like, when he writes of what holds the Body of Christ together, he writes of the more excellent way of love, he writes that “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13). Without love, without the doctrine of the heart, knowledge means nothing, sacrificial works mean nothing, miraculous faith means nothing – love must be our heartbeat, love for God and for others. 

Peter writes that we are to love one another fervently (1 Peter 1:22), and James writes of the Royal Law, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (James 2:8). 

If we get the doctrine of the heart right, there may be other teachings we may not clearly see, but we will have the foundation of our life in Christ and of life with one another. If our hearts are aflame with the love of God, there will be fire on the altar, there will be food to share. 

We might say that right doctrine without right hearts is dead, just as “faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). 

I suppose we could say that we don’t really have right doctrine if our hearts are not also right, for if we leave out the doctrine of the heart everything else is lifeless and we’ve deceived ourselves and others. As Paul writes, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” (1 Cor. 8:1). 

This is one of those subjects we could, and should, ponder for the rest of our lives.

How are our hearts looking today? 

Are we loving God and others?

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (3)

“Current evangelicalism has…laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel.” (pp. 8 – 9).

“There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy." (page 9).

While Tozer will develop the above statements, I am quoting them for their directness – with more to come. The first excerpt draws from 1 Kings 17:20 – 40, the confrontation of Elijah with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. 

“So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD…Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood…Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”

Paul tells Timothy that Timothy is to “rightly divide” or “accurately handle” the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). This is more than an academic exercise, it is more than an expository verse-by-verse (stone-by-stone) exegesis that can be taught to anyone with basic intellectual skills, for Paul makes it clear that his message was “in demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4 – 5).  He further states, “The kingdom of God does not consist in word but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). Building an altar, arranging wood, and even killing and laying out an ox, is a sterile exercise without the fire and power of the Living God.

“For our Gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).  

Is our preaching and teaching essentially an exercise in rearranging stones in different combinations week after week? Do we offer an ox one week, a lamb another, a goat another, a heifer another…all without fire? 

What would we do if fire actually came from God? What would we do if the Holy Spirit replicated His manifestations of Acts? It might be the cause of some embarrassment.

Would we say, “O…hello God…we didn’t expect you”?

Tozer writes of those who “seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year.”

I think this is one of the scandals of the professing church, we have good - hearted men and women who have attended church all of their lives and they know no more today than they did 70 years ago. In fact, it is likely that some had a deeper faith as trusting children than as senior adults whose hearts have been dulled by being fed the fundamentals year after year, fundamentals which have become rote and dry and without Divine relationship. 

This reminds me of people I’ve known in the workplace.  You can have two twenty – year employees in the same company; one has twenty years of experience, the other has one year of experience repeated twenty times. When the latter is confronted with this reality, he will either say, “O my, I didn’t realize this, teach me please, I want to learn.” Or he will be offended and quit. The same is true of folks in the professing church, including pastors. One difference between the workplace and church, is that in the church we are seldom confronted with our lack of depth, with the great chasm between our lives and the wonderful relationship to which God calls us. 

Perhaps, as we explore The Pursuit of God, we’ll gain some understanding of why these things are, and what we can do to change, how we can pray, how we can believe, how we can obey, how we can encourage one another. Of course this must all be by the grace of God, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. 

I wonder if we really know how much God our Father loves us. For sure I don’t think we have an inkling of what it means to be the sons and daughters of the Living God, the sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ. This is a critical element of the Gospel, and yet we don’t know it, we don’t teach it – so how can we live it? 

God so loved the world, that He not only gave His Only Begotten Son, but that He births us as His sons and daughters in the Only Begotten Son – in Christ we are all begotten, the Son with an eternal uppercase “B”; Jesus’ many sisters and brothers with the Holy Spirit (in thist sense, with another Upper Case “B”).

Tozer writes that there are “believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching [that of the Bible teachers] simply does not satisfy.”

Do you think this is true today? 

I don’t think it is true in the United States. I think those who attend church are typically satiated with programs, music, “how to” teachings, rearranging the stones and the sacrifices, with what amounts to group therapy, and with knowledge devoid of power. 

I seldom hear any professing Christian yearn for more of Jesus, just as I seldom hear professing Christians speak of Jesus, either of learning about Him or of living in friendship with Him. We seem to be satisfied where we are. O for sure we want church growth, we may want more programs, we may want more of this or that – but the only real question is whether we want more of Jesus. 

Do you hear folks talking about the Person of Jesus Christ and their relationship with Him? Do you hear folks desiring more of Jesus? Do you see people sharing Jesus with others? 

On the other hand, it is surely possible that many do desire Jesus, but they are accepting “Christian” substitutes, it may be that we have come to the point where we don’t know any better, surely a challenge for both pastors and congregations. 

Well, again, perhaps as we travel with Tozer our vision will improve, perhaps we will see Jesus as never before. 

Do I desire Jesus today?

Do you? 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer – Reflections (2)

“In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct “interpretations” of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.”

Thus does Tozer begin his book, The Pursuit of God.

It may take us a while to understand what Tozer means, both in this first paragraph and throughout the preface, for 77 years separates us from 1948 and it just may be that 77 years might as well be 500 hundred years. 

I wonder if Tozer’s contemporaries saw the “all-but-universal” darkness that Tozer did. WWII had ended in August 1945, the Iron Curtain had fallen over Eastern Europe, Americans were recovering from the horror of war, experiencing relief that the war was over, facing global uncertainty, and on the threshold of the prosperity of the 1950s. We cannot grasp what our European and Asian neighbors were facing in terms of starvation, marginal food and housing, economic viability, and political turmoil. The United Kingdom was under food rationing well into the 1950s. The global war may have ended, but peace had not been won.

Perhaps the foregoing helped create the “hunger after God Himself.” 

In this first paragraph Tozer sees a “cheering gleam” in the midst of darkness; a thirst for more than words and interpretations, a thirst for God. 

Do we know what Tozer means when he distinguishes between words and interpretations and God Himself? Does this differentiation make sense to us, or is the contrast unfamiliar? If it makes no sense to us, hopefully we will come to understand its meaning as we follow Tozer on this journey. As I wrote above, it may be that the 77 years between us and Tozer might as well be 500 years. It may be that Tozer’s concepts, concerns, and perspectives are like an unfamiliar language. It may also be that we will benefit from understanding them. It may be that they will help us draw closer to God.

I want to give a word of caution about the term “conservative Christianity.” This likely does not mean today what it meant in 1948. I write “likely” because I’m sure there is someone who could argue that the meanings are close, even if not identical, but I don’t think so. For sure the terms “liberal” and “conservative” were loaded then as they are loaded now, but I am not sure that there was the melding of religion and politics in 1948 for the average professing Christian that we see today. I also sense that in the world of theological academia there has been an erosion of distinction and a mixing of thinking and practice that may not have existed in Tozer’s time. This probably makes no sense to the average reader, and that’s okay. I’m not going to spend any more time on this, other than to say that we are better off to ignore the term “conservative” so that it doesn’t sidetrack us – it is not material to what Tozer writes. 

Tozer writes about drinking at the Fountain of Living Water, an allusion to Jesus and the woman at the well of John Chapter 4. 

“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). 

The woman met Jesus carrying a waterpot in which to put water, she left her waterpot to go tell others about Jesus. Are we people who carry waterpots, again and again and again; constantly filling them, emptying them, and filling them again? Is this the picture of our spiritual lives and the lives of our congregations?

Or are we people in whom Jesus has placed a fountain of Living Water, His very Presence, and are our lives pouring forth the Presence and Life of God to those around us? 

When we gather as God’s People, do we come carrying water pots, or do we come flowing with Living Water to share with one another? 

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 737 – 38). 

Jesus calls us to lay our waterpots down, to receive His Living Water, His Fountain of Life within us, and in so doing we move from being consumers to being producers; we transition from looking to the outside for sustenance to giving to others from Christ in us and us in Christ (John 15:1 – 5).

To know Jesus as the Fountain of Living Water is to experience a reorientation of life, of thinking, of understanding, of perspective. It is to experience God.

Are we experiencing God…today? 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (1)

 

Vickie and I recently had breakfast with friends visiting our area from Richmond, VA. It was a delightful and refreshing time, especially since it had been about six years since we’d seen them. During the course of our time together the husband mentioned that a small group he is in is reading A. W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. Since that breakfast I’ve taken The Pursuit of God off my bookshelf and have been pondering it once again. I first encountered Tozer’s writings in 1966, and one of my treasured memories is working through The Pursuit of God with a friend about 35 years ago, which included a Friday night and a Saturday set aside to wrestle with the book. 

I’m going to attempt to explore the book in a series of posts and I hope they will be beneficial to you. The Pursuit of God is readily available from booksellers, and it is also available for free online. It is a classic and has remained in print. 

My edition is produced by Christian Publications, Camp Hill, PA. It is only 128 pages, with a preface and 10 chapters, so it is a short book, but it is a dense book. I hope you will consider reading the book as well as participating in this journey with me. 

Tozer has been called a 20th century prophet. You can make your own judgment about that, I think there is some truth to the observation. 

The Pursuit of God was first published in 1948, 3 years after the end of WWII. If you are young, 1948 may seem like a long time ago; if you are my age it is part of your continuum of experience, and if you are of a certain temperament, it is as if it were yesterday. Yet, I am struck by how far apart Tozer’s time is from ours, it is more than 77 years, it is more than chronological, it is the way we think, the things we think important, our sense of Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit, our understanding of mission; it is as if we have traveled from one planet to another. Again, you must form your own judgment about this.

Reading Tozer may require patience, both in terms of content and in terms of writing style. Good content often requires patience because it challenges us. Every book that has been a lifelong friend to me challenges me when I open its pages. Is not the Bible our best examples of this? 

Tozer’s writing style is closer to the 19th century than the 21st century. Consider that his first pastorate was in 1919. Frankly, we are adults and we ought to learn to read unfamiliar styles. Our propensity to want our spiritual food pureed has contributed to our collective spiritual infancy – we discard the treasures of the past for the entertainment of the present. Our sugar – coated diet has led to our teeth falling out and we can no longer chew the meat of the Word.

Just as the ONLY way to know the Bible is to actually read the Bible, the only way to learn to read different styles of English is to read different styles of English. One benefit of reading an unfamiliar style is that it s-l-o-w-s us down and requires us to think a bit more about what we read. I have more patience with the styles of Tozer or Andrew Murray than I do with many contemporary authors, for Murray and Tozer are challenging me, while many contemporary authors are seeking to either entertain me with religious cotton candy or are focused on man rather than the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. 

Ponder the difference between what we are typically fed today with this quote from Bonhoeffer, "Like ravens we have gathered around the carcass of cheap grace. From it we have imbibed the poison which has killed the following of Jesus among us.” 

We’ll begin with Tozer’s preface, but not with the beginning of the preface because that will require more comment than I want to write in this first post, which is itself a preface. Instead, let’s look at this statement:

“To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the “program.” This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.” (page 10).

Is it possible that we have expanded what Tozer term “program” into every area of church life? That is, what was once the main “program” is now complemented, or supported, by many programs. 

Do we have the equivalent of Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, and Doc Severinsen before us on Sunday mornings? (My apologies in using an older group to illustrate a point, I am out of the entertainment loop). Are our Sunday morning programs as tightly scripted, if not more so, as the Tonight Show? 

Why do people “attend” a church? What part does the Sunday program play in this decision? What part do programs offered by the church contribute to this decision? How does this way of thinking compare with what the Bible teaches about the Church and our relationship to our brothers and sisters? 

It is said that we don’t know what we don’t know. There are things we are simply unaware of, we just don’t know anything different from our own experience and knowledge. This is one reason why knowing the Bible is critical for the Christian, for one question that should always be before us is, “What is the Biblical standard? What is the Biblical norm?” If we do not have a sense of the Biblical norm, then we cannot judge our own norm, our own experience, our own goals and desires…as individuals or as a people.

Seventy-seven years ago A. W. Tozer wrote, in essence, that we were moving into the entertainment industry.  Many of us cannot conceive of anything other than what we’ve experienced, and if we’ve been raised in a “Chirstian” entertainment culture we can’t imagine anything else. If we have been raised (chronologically or spiritually) in a church culture that caters to the wants and desires of people, rather than calling us to follow Jesus and be Jesus to others, laying down our lives for Him and for one another, then it is a challenge to conceive of any other way of life. (Mark 8:34 – 38; John 15:12 – 13; 1 John 3:16). 

In the publisher’s introduction to the book, we are told that Tozer’s “great spiritual discovery [is] that to seek God does not narrow one’s life, but brings it, rather, to the level of highest possible fulfillment.” 

Perhaps as we explore what Tozer has to say we’ll better understand what he means by “programs.” Perhaps then we’ll be better able to judge the truth of what he writes about our slide into entertainment. 

Is God worth pursuing? 

Is Christ Jesus worth knowing? 

"It is Finished"

 

“He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30). 

“‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46). 

My life, my hope, my reason for living and my expectation when dying, rests upon these words of Jesus Christ. 

The Tree of Life becomes the Tree of Death which will once again become the Tree of Life. If the Grain of Wheat does not fall into the ground and dies (John 12:24), I have no hope and neither do you.

But He does die, and He declares that “It is finished!” He says to the Father, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). In dying and in rising a New Man, a New Race, a New Generation, a New Seed, comes forth from the earth (Psalm 22:30; Isaiah 53:8,10; Hebrews 2:9 – 13).

We cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). We are now the heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, no longer sinners but daughters and sons of the Living God (Romans 8:16 – 17; Galatians 4:7).

Mystery of mysteries, as darkness covers the land the Lamb is sacrificed and the Divine Transaction occurs, veiled from the eyes of sinful man, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

The veil is rent, the Holy of Holies is open for us to know intimacy with God our Father (Luke 23:44; Hebrews 10:19 – 22). God invites us to come and know Him, to live securely in Him with joy and peace. 

Jesus is both our High Priest and our Sacrificial Lamb. He is the Priest who offers Himself, the Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). As our High Priest and Lamb, Jesus “sanctifies us through the offering of Himself once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). As our Sacrificial Lamb and High Priest Jesus has “perfected for all time those who are sanctified [made holy, set apart for God]” (Hebrews 10:14).

Note the phrases “once for all” and “for all time.” Jesus cries on the Cross “It is finished” because His work is complete, which means that we are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). Jesus is indeed the “Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). 

Since we are secure in our Lord Jesus Christ, since we are indeed the daughters and sons of God, we can take up our cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34 – 38), loving God with all that we have and all that we are, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters (Mark 12:29 – 30; John 15:12 – 13; 1 John 3:16). 

Because Jesus has delivered us from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14 – 15; 2 Timothy 1:8 – 11), we can now freely give ourselves to Jesus and to others, learning what it is to share His sufferings, learning what it means to be His Presence, His suffering and gracious Presence, in the lives of those around us (Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 4:12). 

May our prayer and desire be this Easter, that others will behold the Crucified and Risen Jesus Christ within us; within us as individuals, as husbands and wives, as families, as congregations, as the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Amen and amen. 

Theo of Golden - Reflections (6)

 

Author Allen Levi is a Tiffany in developing memorable characters as jewels and in placing them in relationship with one another as a master of stained glass. When light penetrates the glass, the sum is greater than the parts – there is holistic beauty. 

The Federated Church of Becket, MA has a beautiful stained-glass window at the entrance to the church, the centerpiece is Jesus the Good Shepherd. There were Sunday mornings when I’d ask the congregation to turn around and ponder the window in order to make a certain point – as a pastor I could not go wrong by having us keep our eyes on Jesus, our Shepherd. 

One of Allen Levi’s many gems in Theo of Golden is Ellen. Ellen communicates innocence, wisdom, pain and suffering, joy, beauty, kindness, and humor. The scene in St. James Church on a certain Sunday morning is a healing and humorous balm following the tragic account of the best day of her life. This is a remarkable juxtaposition by Mr. Levi, and I wonder if we don’t especially see the merging of Allen Levi the musician and song writer with Allen Levi the author in this orchestration. 

Ellen challenges me. 

To begin, I wonder if there isn’t some Ellen in all of us. That is, I wonder if we aren’t all just a bit “different” than we let on. I wonder if perhaps the main difference between Ellen and most of us is that we have learned to hide the parts of us that are “different.” Could it be that we have learned how to evade the goons from Columbia by hiding and conforming and saying and doing the things that are expected of us? Perhaps we have had stage moms and dads who were just doing to us what had been done to them? 

Was not Ellen’s problem that she didn’t know how to “act”? 

This is not to say that expectations and norms are all wrong, but it is to suggest that what is below the surface may just be more vital to life than what we superficially observe. Mrs. Ocie Van Blarcum, an unforgettable character among other unforgettable characters, reminds us that while man judges by appearance, God looks upon the heart. As the narrator of Theo points out, Mrs. Van Blarcum recognized the “least of these, my brethren.” 

A few years ago I made the acquaintance of a pastor from another region of the world who was born an albino; since he was born in a population with mostly deep dark skin, his albinism stood out. There was an unfortunate belief among some of the population of his home region that albinos ought to be sacrificed to traditional gods. As you might imagine, this led to a certain anxiety on the part of his family. Growing up, he restricted his travels to population centers within his home country. 

I’m not sure that we in America are much different that this pastor’s home country. When people don’t look like us or act like us or think like us or speak like us, is it possible that we are too ready to sacrifice them to our traditional gods. This is a powerful motive for conformity, whether as children or as adults. It is reason to keep our differences hidden; in families, at work, at school, in church. 

Sadly, often when we hide our differences we hide our giftings, our special talents, insights, the particular beauty that our Father has placed within each one of us. And here is another thing…I don’t understand it but I know it is true…we need one another to pull the beauty out of us. Theo saw beauty in others that they didn’t see in themselves – and rightly so – and beauty of beauties – Theo saw beauty in Ellen and Ellen saw beauty in Theo. 

Many of us, looking back over our school years, can likely recall a boy or a girl who was “different” in our class, who didn’t fit in, who didn’t participate in activities the way most of us did – whether we wanted to or not. I wonder what we all missed by not paying attention to all of our classmates? 

While many of us admire C. S. Lewis, I wonder if we would have been good classmates to him. Lewis did not care for sports, he did not fit in with the crowd, throughout his life he considered himself “all thumbs.” Yet, he loved extended walking trips, he loved engaging in projects around the Kilns, what he and Warnie termed “public works projects,” so it wasn’t as if he didn’t enjoy physical activity – he just wasn’t into football and cricket and rugby. Lewis may very well have been too “different” for us. We may have missed the opportunity of enjoying an enduring friendship.

Ellen also challenges me in that she confronts me with the cruelty of society. Our society steam rolls over those who are different and who cannot speak for themselves. Often, if people do not have economic value they do not have intrinsic value, and they certainly don’t have political value. Is it possible that we prefer those like Ellen to be out of sight so that we need not confront our attitudes and actions?  Do we really want the Ellens of the world in our worship services? After all, if we welcome them to morning worship they may expect us to invite them to afternoon tea, or chicken dinner, or to watch a football game in our home. Can I be honest enough to ask myself about my own heart in these matters? Will I ask God, by His grace, to help me? 

I’m not sure.

Is it possible that we have learned to hide our differences to such a degree that we may die never knowing who we really are? Is it possible that I may never know you, that you may never know me, and that I may never truly know who I am…who my Father created me to be? 

The Ellens of this world have blessed me so much more than I have ever blessed them. 

Joe was a disabled veteran who lived in our small town of Becket. The nature of his disability affected his speech and mobility, and while in many communities he may have been invisible, to his neighbors in Becket he was a beloved figure. Joe’s movement was slow, his speech was slow, and conversations with him could not be hurried. To a person outside Becket, Joe might be viewed as “different,” within the Becket community Joe was Joe. 

One morning I was in my office feeling a bit depressed, I suppose we could term it “pastoral isolation.” It was cold outside; it was cold inside. My office was cold, the building was cold, and I suppose my heart was a bit cold. I had a space heater in my office and the door was closed to contain the heat. I was the only person in the old drafty building…or so I thought. 

There was a “tap, tap, tap” at the door. 

“Come in,” I said.

The door opened and it was Joe. In his hand was a brown bag.

“Reverend Withers, as I was walking to the General (the Becket General Store which was next door to the Federated Church) I was thinking of you. I saw your car outside and thought I would bring you a coffee and a muffin from the store. I don’t know if you take cream or sugar but I brought them too. I hope you like them.” 

Out of the bag Joe brought the coffee and the muffin and the cream and the sugar and placed them before me on my desk along with a napkin. 

“O Joe, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

“You are welcome, Reverend Withers. I hope you have a good day.” 

As Joe left and closed the door, my heart was overwhelmed and a sacred warmth invaded my soul; Joe had bestowed a holy blessing upon me. Perhaps this is what Theo experienced when Ellen gave him a featherwood. 

Yes, Ellen challenges me. 

The Sanctity of Others – Wallets, Mail, and the Internet

How would you feel if a law was passed that required us all to carry transparent luggage, purses, man bags, and wallets? Would it affect what you carried and how you carried it? 

I recall when Vickie and I, with one of our daughters and one of her friends, went through customs on a certain island on vacation. The customs inspectors opened our luggage and did what I considered an unnecessary inspection of women’s undergarments. The two girls were in high school, and Vickie and I were well into middle age, and I was embarrassed for my wife and the girls. However, it was better to say nothing than to spend my time in interrogation, so we moved on to what became a delightful visit. In retrospect, upon our return to the States I should have sent the customs inspectors a lingerie catalog. 

Last year our school district began requiring all backpacks to be transparent; I was reminded of this recently when I chatted with one of our neighbors who is in elementary school. I was glad to see he was carrying a dictionary. My desks have never been tidy, nor have my satchels or briefcases, so I can only imagine what a backpack would be like. There is a reason Vickie packs for our trips.

While we complain about the intrusiveness of Google, Apple, Amazon and the like, I wonder if we aren’t hooked on this drug ourselves. Don’t we manifest an insatiable desire to know details about people that really should be no one’s business in a sane society? What does this say about our own lives, about the substance or lack thereof in them? 

We make celebrities out of men and women and young people who expose themselves, literally and figuratively, and we think it is great fun – and I suppose we see this as much in the professing church with its celebrity culture as in the world. 

People no longer represent the image of God to us, they no longer are accorded sacred space; could Cole Porter have envisioned such an “Anything Goes” society?

And this brings me to wallets, mail, and the internet. (Of course dear reader, you undoubtedly knew that this is just where we were going.)

I recently found a man’s wallet in the parking lot of a shopping center. It took a moment or two to register that it was a wallet, after all, you don’t expect to find wallets lying about a parking lot. It isn’t unusual, though it is disgusting, to see dental floss, but you don’t expect to see wallets. 

After picking the wallet up, I opened it and saw that there was a wad of cash, closed it again, and pondered what to do. The only other thing I saw in the wallet was a driver’s license from South Carolina, this was through a plastic window compartment in the center. I did not look at the details of the license. 

I had three choices, I could take it into the store where the man had probably been shopping, I could open the wallet again and try to contact the owner with the information inside, or I could take it to the police department. It seemed to me that the police department was the best option, so after picking up a few things in the store I drove to the police station. 

I said to the lady at the station’s front desk, “Someone is having a miserable day right now. Let’s make it better.”

She replied with a smile, “We can do it. We’re pretty good at finding people.” 

Within about 30 minutes I received a call from a deeply grateful man.

Now here is the point I want to make, when I opened that wallet I felt like I was invading someone’s personal and sacred space. I did not read the driver’s license; I didn’t look through whatever shopping or credit or medical cards may have been in the wallet. I didn’t see how much cash was in the wallet – for all I knew it could have been all one-hundred-dollar bills or all one-dollar bills. I simply wanted to verify what I had found. 

The same principle (and feeling) applies when I collect neighbors’ mail when they are away. Our local post office is not known for its efficiency, and so many of us ask a neighbor to collect our mail when we are away, rather than ask the post office to hold it until we return. I do not shuffle through the mail as I retrieve it from my neighbor’s mailbox, I put it in a stack, go back to our house, and deposit it in a bag or box to await our neighbor’s return. 

Now let me share with you what has me thinking about this subject of honoring sacred individual space. It may make sense to you, it may not. 

Over the past few weeks I’ve received some very encouraging emails from a reader of one of my blog threads. They are some of the most thoughtful notes anyone has ever sent me, they are much more than, “Nice job!” They explore the dynamics of both content and style and they encourage me to work a bit harder and more thoughtfully at what I do, to be a better steward of God’s grace. 

I have never met this person, I have never spoken to this person, I don’t know whether this person is a man or woman because the name could be either. I only know this person through his or her thoughtful writing, through the person’s “voice” and content. The only thing I know about the person is that the person is associated with someone who I do know a little about, but that is all I know. 

This morning, as I was pondering this correspondent’s most recent note to me, I was curious to know more about him or her. So I thought, “I’ll do a Google search and see what I find.” And then…and then…it just didn’t feel right. 

Better to honor our conversation, better to respect where our relationship is, wiser to acknowledge the sacred trust that is inherent in our interactions with others, than to invade the space of others, than to consume information about others, than to treat others as objects of curiosity. 

Does this make any sense to you? 

Theo of Golden - Reflections (5)

 Theo of Golden – Reflections (5)

I read the last words of Theo of Golden to Vickie yesterday evening. At points my voice was quivering and my eyes were moist; like playing a piece of music, I honored the “rest” symbols. Better yet, the rest symbols forced themselves on me. As Vickie listened, her face was in motion, her eyes bright one moment, sad the next, her expressions many.

If we could speak with Lamisha, perhaps she would tell us that experiencing Theo is like experiencing music at the Bet. At the Bet the notes fly up into lights hanging from the ceiling, later to appear once again. In reading Theo the words enter our souls, bringing images and conversations and joys and sorrows and hopes and challenges, appearing again and again. On a bench by a fountain we see and experience heaven and earth kissing, we see the Face of God. 

In Psalm 27:8 we read, “When You said, Seek My Face, my heart said to You, Your face O LORD, I shall seek.” O that we would know that our kind and loving heavenly Father desires us to see His Face. Do we not see His Face in Jesus? Jesus says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).  

Our loving God’s promise to us is that we will indeed see His Face in its fulness and that His Name, His Nature, will be in us, we shall be One with Him, and in Him One with one another (Revelation 21:1 – 8; 22:1 – 5; John Chapter 17). No wonder Theo is looking forward to heaven.

Theo of Golden helps us visualize how seeing the Face of God, and being the Face of God, might look on this journey; it presents possibilities as to how we might experience the Presence of Christ with others in this life. Perhaps Theo is a romance, a dance of heaven and earth, heaven and earth kissing each other on a bench at the Fedder. 

“Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven” (Psalm 85:10 – 11). 

Is there not a sense in which every face is the Face of God? Are we not all created in His image and likeness? Shall we be like Cleave and desecrate faces, or shall we be as Theo and honor the people around us, serving them, encouraging them, seeing beauty and potential in them…no matter how different from us they may be? (How different are we really from one another? Do we not all have hopes and dreams and pain and worries?)

In honoring the faces around us, are we not honoring God? I use the word “honor” in the sense of acknowledging worth and preciousness, of recognizing the image of God in humanity…as messed up as we may be. 

Jeremiah laments, “How dark the gold has become, how the pure gold has changed! The sacred stones are poured out at the corner of every street. The precious sons [and daughters] of Zion, weighed against fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen jars, the work of a potter’s hands!” (Lamentations 4:1 – 2). 

As Jeremiah surveyed the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem, the gold appeared as earthen rubble, but the prophet knew that he was really looking at gold. Theo knew that he was seeing gold in Golden; he was experiencing a golden year with golden people in a city named Golden, why even the leaves dropping from the trees were golden. Furthermore, out of the suffering and pain of the people around him, indeed out of his own pain and suffering, life and hope and love sprouted, grew, and bore healing fruit; fruit to be shared with others. 

I am challenged not only to see the Face of God in others, but also to desire that I present the Face of God to others. Aren’t we called to say with Jesus, “He who has seen me has seen the Father?” Aren’t we called to be conformed to the very image of the Firstborn Son (Romans 8:29)?

If we are indeed the Body of Christ, then shouldn’t those who see us see the Face of Christ? Ought we not to be collectively portraying the Face of Jesus Christ? Ought we not as individuals, by God’s grace, to be seeing others through the eyes of Jesus? Ought not our hearts to be beating as Jesus’s heart? 

As much joy as I find in Theo of Golden, I must say that I also find much challenge and godly conviction. 

The New Jerusalem seems to be primarily made of gold, holy and pure and transparent gold. Perhaps Golden is a pathway that leads to that eternal city, perhaps Golden is a reflection of that City as it unveils itself in our lives, on this earth. There are precious stones in the New Jerusalem, there are precious lives in Golden. 

We all have our own Goldens, and there are precious lives in them. We all have our own Promenades, with their communities, with their disparate people. 

Wherever we are, our Father has placed us there. Shall we find our fountains, shall we find our benches, shall we drink from our chalices, and shall we be Jesus to others? 

O yes, and will we allow others to be Jesus to us? 

The Sacraments of Life (4)

Coffee Mugs (3)

Our mugs from Alaska were given to us by Letisa. I worked with Letisa during the last seven years of my career in multifamily management. Letisa’s parents lived in Alaska, though they were originally from Harrisonburg, VA. When I think of dear Letisa I think of “family.” I think of her mom, her grandmother, and of her entire extended family. I also think of the entire group of wonderful property managers I had the joy of serving with during those years. 

I first met Letisa when she worked for my friend Gloria (more on Gloria in another reflection). The apartment community that Letisa managed for Gloria was being sold to another owner and our company needed to find another job for Letisa so that she could stay with our firm, which valued long-term employees. I had a property on Chamberlayne Avenue in Richmond that needed an assistant manager and so we offered Letisa that position, which she accepted, until another manager’s job opened up.

I was new to the firm, and so I was learning both the company and my portfolio, which consisted of apartment communities in Richmond and Petersburg, VA. One of the vital elements of learning my portfolio was learning about the people who operated each property, from the managers, to leasing agents, to maintenance folks, to grounds keepers and custodians. Every person mattered; everyone was important. I was also learning about my clients, some were individuals and some were financial institutions. 

We also brought another employee from Letisa’s property over to our Chamberlayne Ave. community, I’ll call her Jane. Jane had also worked for Gloria for a while and we were committed to keeping her employed; once again, this was a core value with our firm and I really appreciated this and still do as I look back. Our challenge with Jane was that I couldn’t justify her as a full-time employee at just one property, but I could justify her presence at two properties, splitting her hours during each week. Our plan was that once a position opened where she could work at just one location that we’d assign her to that community. 

To my surprise, Jane wanted nothing to do with our plan and quit. She was angry that she would have to split her week between two locations and resigned. This isn’t the only time something like this happened during my career, and I’ve never really understood it. In every instance motives were assigned to “management” or to me that simply weren’t valid, we were attempting to keep people employed and because they didn’t like the circumstances, they either resigned or the misunderstandings (let us call them that) led to soured relationships. 

One reason these occasions have puzzled me is that there was a time in my own life when my boss did all he could to keep me employed during a corporate layoff. I was with a national homebuilder in the late 70s – early 80s when mortgage rates of 18 – 21% caused a slowdown in residential construction. When he was told that my position was being eliminated, he called the president of our division and went to bat for me, according to what the president later told me he said, “We’ve got to keep Bob employed.” 

The result was that I was transferred from a position that I enjoyed, from a boss that I loved working for, to a new environment with new opportunities – not having any idea how close I’d come to unemployment. While I had no idea at the time, the transfer would open doors that led to my career in property management as well as to seminary. An added blessing was that I also enjoyed my new position, had another great boss, learned, was challenged, and had fun. 

Perhaps because I’ve never forgotten what my boss Dave did for me when I faced unemployment, I’ve always tried to keep others employed. Another reason is that I deeply believe that we are called to be blessings to others, just as our heavenly Father is a blessing to us. Whether folks appreciate this or not is pretty much irrelevant to me, for we don’t always appreciate the kindness of our Father yet He still sends us refreshing rain and warm sunshine (Matthew 5:43 – 48). 

Not long after Letisa came to work for me, I had to replace the manager of her community, she was in over her head and she wouldn’t accept coaching (there are those who do and those who don’t, both in the marketplace and in the church world). I offered Letisa the position but she turned it down. The community in question was in a tough financial situation with many challenges, it had been repossessed by a financial institution which had retained our firm, and we were charged with turning the property around and putting it on a sound footing. The pressure in these situations can be intense – a client’s expectation is weekly improvement – they often don’t care to take the long view. 

I’ve never asked Letisa why she turned my offer down the first time, maybe she was uncertain about me, maybe it was the formidable challenge. I then made a bad hire, a really bad hire. This happens, you think you are making a good decision and you aren’t.

The new manager turned out to be a dictator, mistreating employees, contractors, residents. I think she lasted less than two weeks, better to admit your mistakes and protect people than close your eyes to the truth. I’ve made some good hires, bad hires, and mediocre hires over the years, but this hire was likely the worst and the employee’s tenure the shortest of any hire. 

I went back to Letisa and asked her, “Well, do you want me to try this again, or do you want the job?” She accepted the manager’s position and did a stellar job. 

This led to a vacant assistant manager’s position, and our hire for that position became not only a wonderful manager on my team, but became a life-long friend for Letisa – they are like sisters, quite the duo. 

I wrote above than when I see my Alaska mugs and think of Letisa that I think of “family.” I really think of two families, I think of my work family, represented by Letisa and her colleagues, and I think of Letisa’s family. Vickie and I loved (and love) both families. More on this in a future reflection. 

Seeing life as a sacrament means seeing Jesus and His grace in all of life, including our vocational life. Every relationship matters. Every person matters. Every day is an opportunity to learn and grow in Jesus and to serve others. The way we treat others matters, for we are the daughters and sons of the Living God. The workplace is sacred just as our gatherings on Sunday are sacred, just as our interactions with neighbors are sacred.

Our loving God comes to us throughout every day, in every way; Jesus is always appearing to us, and hopefully He is touching others through us, whether they realize it or not, whether they sense it or not. 

Life is indeed sacramental in Christ. 

"Not in the Correct State"

Recently my computer slowed to a crawl, it was so slow that had I taken it for a walk a turtle could have out paced it. The culprit? AI. AI was eating up resources. Microsoft had installed AI during a weekly update without my permission – what else is new? 

Once I disabled AI things went back to normal, which for an old computer is not that good, but it gets the job done. I have deep concerns about AI, ethical concerns, and spiritual concerns, but this isn’t the piece in which to explore them. I’ll say this, if you don’t know who you are before you use AI, you certainly won’t find out who you are if you use it. In elements of AI we are abdicating our personhood formed in the image of God, we are exchanging the glory of God for a mess of gruel…a poor exchange I think. 

Lately a message has been frequently appearing after booting up and starting WORD: 

“The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the requested operation.” 

When a computer is as old as ours you don’t like to see anything out of the norm because it could always be the BIG ONE, the problem that can’t be fixed, the car that breaks down on the side of the road that is destined for the junk yard. 

About 7 years ago our 1994 Ford Ranger pickup stopped running as I was driving it to the small engine shop to get 2-cycle oil. It was a 5-speed, sweet little vehicle. We had purchased it from Vickie’s brother Rod who had a small used-car dealership north of Des Moines. When we lived in Massachusetts, in the winter we’d put studded tires on it, throw firewood in the bed, and we could drive it anywhere in the snow. At the time of its breakdown, we drove it less than 300 miles a year, short trips to Lowes, Home Depot, and the dump were the extent of its use. As a practical matter it didn’t make sense to put any more money into the little truck, so we gave it to the young man who was operating the tow truck – he was quite happy. It was our pleasure to both give it away and to spare the pickup from the ignominy of the junk yard. 

“The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the requested operation.” 

When I read these words on my computer screen I wonder if they are true about me. Am I in a place today where I can respond to the Holy Spirit? Am I in a state of being where I can be a blessing to others?

I am easily distracted. My own wants and needs and worries often deaden my sensitivity to our Lord Jesus and to others. There are times I go to the store, get what I want, begin the drive home and then realize that I didn’t pay attention to people while in the store. This shames me before our Lord Jesus, this ought not to be. There have been countless times when I’ve met people while shopping and have been able to encourage them, pray with them, and leave them with something to think about in Christ.

The same is true with our neighbors. Sometimes I am in a good state in which to be a blessing, and sometimes I’m too self-centered to respond to others in our Lord Jesus. 

In WWII allied bombers dropped strips of aluminum foil into the sky to confuse Axis radar, they called it chaff. I don’t know about you but I’m always dealing with chaff. Chaff confuses me, it distracts me from Jesus and people, it diverts my attention from things that matter. Talking heads scatter chaff. Advertising is chaff. Chaff is dispersed from Washington all the way down to the local level, from Hollywood, from Wall Street, and from many religious institutions. 

If we are going to avoid getting locked in on chaff we will do well to recall the Great Commandment:

“The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:29 – 31).

Then we have, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12 – 13). 

And then, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). 

I think that in order to be in the correct state to respond to the Holy Spirit that we need to be in a state of loving God and others, a state of living for others, a state of laying our lives down for others. The shape of our lives is to be cruciform (Galatians 2:20; 6:14). 

I want to be responsive to the Holy Spirit throughout the day, I want to be drawn deeper into the fellowship of the Trinity with each breath I take. I want to keep learning and growing in Jesus and with my brothers and sisters.

What about you? 

Are we living in the correct state to perform the requested operation? 

Unplugging the Computer

 

We are not machines, we are people, people made in the image of God. For this reason I do my best to avoid illustrations that have to do with machines, for if we think of ourselves as machines or as technological phenomena, we will treat each other as machines. When we use language such as, “Today we are going to download what the Holy Spirit has for us,” I want to jump up and shout, “Flagrant foul! You are out of the game.”

When I was starting out in the business world we had Personnel Departments, then we had Human Resources, and now we have Human Assets or any number of other titles. We are no longer actual people, we are assets and resources and we exist to produce, to be utilized, and to then be thrown away. Maybe the powers that be will soon recycle us as fertilizer – no doubt there will be a debate as to whether agricultural producers will have to disclose this on their packaging. 

Now I’m going to violate my own rule by using a couple of electronic illustrations – fair warning. I’ll share one illustration in this post, and follow up with the second in another post. 

Our computer is old, I mean really old; at least ten years old. It is too old to load Windows 11, and since Microsoft is eliminating support, including security updates, for Windows 10 in a few months, we are going to need a new computer. The same thing happened to us when Microsoft terminated support for Windows 7. The rascals! Yes, I realize there are patches from third parties, but there are other reasons it’s time for a new computer. 

Our computer’s processor can’t handle things such as a new camera or external microphone, it slows down, it freezes, and it can be frustrating – but I suppose also sanctifying in terms of cultivating patience. Sometimes when it freezes there is only one solution, disconnect the power, unplug the offending peripheral, and reboot the system. 

Disconnecting the power means more than simply unplugging the cord, since this is a laptop, it also means removing the battery so there is a clean electrical break. 

Do you think it is possible that we all need a clean break from the electronic cocaine we imbibe throughout the day? 

How is it that professing Christians take their cues and set their agendas based on the things of this world? How is it that we are more familiar with news headlines than with God’s Word? How is it that we are more eager to conform ourselves to worldly political and economic and national and academic and entertainment and sports ideologies than we are to conform ourselves to the Word of God?

How is it that we will follow political and economic and sports and entertainment leaders, rather than follow Jesus?

How is it that we fail to recognize the inherent evil in the world system, including its economic and political and nationalistic systems?  

Does not John write, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:15 – 16, NASB).

Does not Jesus say concerning us, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16, NASB. See also John 15:18 – 21). 

I recently read that the national news broadcasts by the three major networks used to be only 15 minutes each evening. Can we imagine this? 15 minutes!

Now we are consumed by 24/7 news delivered myriad ways. Note that I did not write that we are consuming news 24/7, but that we are being consumed, for the consumers are now the consumed. We simply cannot allow the messages of the world to enter our souls and hearts and minds in such an overwhelming fashion and not be profoundly affected by them, not be formed into the images of the world system. It is one thing to be informed, it is another thing to be conformed. 

And let’s be clear about one thing, all news media have bias. Let’s also be clear that this is nothing new, it has been happening since Colonial times in our own nation. To think that one media group somehow presents the news in a purer fashion than its competitors is foolish, and it is particularly foolish for the son or daughter of God to think this for fallen man cannot, by his nature, discern the fulness of truth. 

I will also point out that while media group A may come closer to the truth in some things than media group B, in other areas media group B will likely come closer to the truth than group A. But isn’t this generally true of groups of humanity? Only in Jesus do we have consistency, only in Jesus do we have a sure and certain refuge. 

It is also foolish for professing Christians to think that any message, other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the true Truth. 

It is as if we live in a prison with speakers on 24/7 telling us the same things over and over in various ways until our minds and hearts become products of the words and rhythms we subject ourselves to. We are transformed into creatures we were never meant to be, with ill will and anger and hard-heartedness and anxiety and vitriol and lying and spin and selfishness, with hearts grown cold and unfeeling toward others. 

Perhaps we need to unplug the computer, remove the battery, and take a break from the poison, perhaps we need detoxification. Perhaps we need to recenter ourselves in Jesus Christ and His Holy Word. Perhaps it’s time to return to Psalm 1 with its emphasis on meditating and delighting in the Word of God, day and night. 

O dear friends, the people around us do not need us to be advocates for political or economic or nationalistic philosophies and agendas, but they do need us to show them Jesus, to be a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm and streams of water in dry places (Isaiah 32:1 – 2). 

As our society and world engage in mutual assured destruction, let us fulfill our calling in Jesus Christ, showing Him to others and calling them into a deep relationship with Him. 

Who can you and I share Jesus with today?

The Sacraments of Life (3)

 Coffee Mugs (2)

We have three mugs from Alaska, we used to have four but the interior of the one which was my favorite deteriorated – I wish I’d kept it to put pencils and pens in. I’m not always very bright. The one on my desk as I write this is hand painted and on the bottom indicates that it cannot be microwaved and must be hand-washed. The painting is of early Russian settlers harvesting and baking.

Most mugs today can be microwaved and placed in a dishwasher. Isn’t that like most relationships? Our interactions are rapid, they get to the point, and then we move on to the next person. 

Vickie has a beautiful mug, given to her by a friend, which also cannot be microwaved and must be hand-washed. If she uses this mug and wants the coffee in it heated in the microwave, we pour the coffee into another mug, heat it up, and then pour it back into the beautiful mug.

Vickie’s beautiful mug used to have a golden ring around its lip, but a visitor once used the mug without reading the instructions on the bottom and the microwave destroyed the ring. Since then we’ve kept the mug in a china cabinet and only take it out when she’s going to use it so as to protect it from further damage. 

I met a pastor a few months ago who was wearing a shirt with the “iron sharpens iron” passage from Proverbs printed on it. We were both in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. I asked him if he found the verse to be true.

He said to me, “I am a pastor.”

I replied, “That doesn’t mean anything. Do you find the verse to be true in your life?”

He did a dance which was a combination of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, meaning that he didn’t give me a direct answer. 

Then I asked, “Do people in your church have opportunities to really get to know one another?”

Then he went into a breakdance. 

An old acquaintance of mine used to muse, “It is difficult to have fellowship with the back of someone’s head.” 

How do we miss that obvious point?

I invited the pastor to coffee or lunch one day. A few weeks later I met him for lunch and after 45 minutes he said, “Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time,” and left.

Now I know what it is to be microwaved.

You shouldn’t put iron in the microwave.

Theo of Golden - Reflections (4)

 

Yesterday evening Vickie and I were reading about Clarise, and while we meet her well into the book, I want to write about her while a memory associated with her is fresh.

The coffee shop which displays the portraits that Theo purchases and presents is The Chalice. It is located at the corner of Broadway and Light streets and is owned by Shep and Addie Carlile. There is much in the previous two sentences.

We all have our Chalices, we all have people in our lives whom our Father has placed for us to “see” by His grace. Why, we may very well see folks who have never been noticed by anyone, never really been spoken to by anyone, never prayed for by anyone, never cared for any anyone. Our neighborhoods, workplaces, families, schools, civic associations – they are all chalices. They are cups which our dear Lord Jesus has given to us to drink, He is the barista, and He chooses the drink of the day. Will we sacramentally accept and honor those whom He presents to us?

What else do you see in the Chalice? 

Now to Clarise…and Cleave. 

When I was a young man, I was employed by a national homebuilder in a project office in Waldorf, MD. We were building 5 or 6 subdivisions in the area and I worked with a great group of people. My boss Dave was one of the best ever, he was considerate, hardworking, kind, loyal, and knew what he was doing. He was a great teacher. My job was a bit of everything, purchasing, estimating, troubleshooting, budgeting, cost accounting, and playing practical jokes. It was a wonderful work environment. 

A time came when we needed to recruit a project bookkeeper so that I could focus on other areas. After a few interviews we hired Brenda. 

While Brenda had once been in the workplace, at the time we met her she was a stay-at-home wife and Mom and had not worked for about ten years; she was about 35 years old. Like Clarise, she was attractive; also like Clarise, there was pain in her eyes. 

When Brenda began working with us she was tentative about everything she did and she seldom spoke except to ask and answer questions. However, as time went on she opened up, enjoying her new surroundings and coworkers. She freely engaged in conversations, she laughed, she learned, and she was quite good at her job. She smiled a lot, she relaxed; she worked hard, and she loved her job. Brenda had a bright future with our company.

However, one morning about five months into her time with us, Brenda came into the office crying. Her husband demanded that she quit her job and stay home. It seems that Brenda’s newfound joy and confidence was a threat to her husband’s control of her, and a threat to his own sense of security.

The crushed flower that had opened, had been crushed again.

That was 45 years ago and I can still picture those five months, I can still picture Brenda’s evolving joy, and I can still see her sorrow and fear as she resigned. 

When I was reading to Vickie about Clarise and Cleave, images of Brenda came flooding into my heart and mind, and while I have told the story to Vickie before, I referenced it again.

This was not the last time I met Brenda, in the sense of meeting people in similar situations. There are women and men and children all around us who have been crushed by others, controlled by others, and who know what it is to have the millstone of circumstance grind hope and joy and peace from seemingly every pore of their soul. 

But consider the passage that Jesus reads in His home synagogue:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18 – 19). 

This passage so infuriated Jesus’ audience that they tired to murder Him. 

It seems to me that there are those who desire to control others, and those who want to see others set free. The former often cloak their motives and actions in noble sentiments, such as, “I want what is best for you. I don’t want you to be hurt. I just want you to learn.” However, it is really about control, about controlling people and situations and about being the center of the universe. 

I have seen this in marriages (much of my marriage counseling has dealt with this), in extended families, in congregations and church leadership (in which emotional blackmail and tyrannical control is not unusual), in businesses, and in civic and political groups (I know, you are thinking, “You can’t be serious”).

In short, an element of fallen humanity is our insistence on controlling others.

Yet, we have the choice to stand with Jesus and, by His grace, seek to set others free. We have opportunities to play the role of Theo of Golden in the lives of others, affirming them, acknowledging their pain, sharing the love of their heavenly Father with them, and calling them home to Him, which is where they belong, which is where they have always belonged. 

“I will proclaim Your Name to My brethren” (Hebrews 2:12).

May I gently suggest that if we are honest, that most of us have likely played both roles in the lives of others, we know what it is to attempt to control others, and we also (hopefully) know the joy of seeing others set free. We can learn and grow from both experiences, let us not waste either of them. Jesus can redeem our foolish attempts at control, He can teach us from our errors, and we can learn to serve and care and love…perhaps as we’ve never thought possible. 

 In closing this reflection, has it occurred to you that every portrait by Asher Glissen is also a portrait by Allen Levi?

You may purchase Theo of Golden from Amazon or from www.allenlevi.com

Who can we share freedom with today? (Galatians 5:1).

The Sacraments of Life (2)

 

Coffee Mugs (1)

One of my weighty decisions every morning is to choose a coffee mug to drink from. Over the years our collection of mugs grew, purchasing some and receiving others as gifts. Some mugs are Vickie’s, other mugs are mine. When we moved from Virginia to South Carolina we downsized, and that included our mug collection. It was not as painful as downsizing books, but I would have kept some more had we room. 

I still have a few penguin mugs. I have loved penguins since I was a child. When I was a boy the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. had a wonderful penguin exhibit which fascinated me during my family’s frequent visits. The zoo was about 30 minutes from our home and in those days was never crowded, and parking was not a problem. In elementary school one of my teachers read Mr. Popper’s Penguins to us; it captured my imagination. Alas, I was never able to find a penguin in the neighborhood to bring home for our bathtub. 

I purchased my last penguin mug around 1998 in Baltimore, MD when Vickie and I were in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on a trip from Boston. It was a work-related trip for Vickie and I was along for the ride. While the mention of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor brings up a host of memories from over the years, I’m going to pass on them and stay with the penguin mugs. 

I associate my penguin mugs with our first home in Chesterfield County, VA. While most of our coffee mugs were in a kitchen cupboard, my penguin mugs were hanging from a rack with pegs on a short wall between the kitchen and a hallway that led to the front foyer. 

Our move from Maryland to Virginia was a time of new beginnings, it was like Abram moving from Ur to Canaan (we didn’t have an intermediate stop in Haran as did Abram). When we decided to make the move, we didn’t have jobs and we didn’t know anyone in the area. Within a matter of days we had friends, we had jobs, we had a second dog, we had good neighbors, and we were on quite the adventure. It was a miracle, it was amazing, and when I see those mugs in the morning God’s grace of those early years floods my soul. 

We have friends today that have been with us since those early years in Chesterfield, and of course our friendships in life are our greatest treasures in Jesus. 

Our home was in an area that was, at the time, semi-rural. There was a country store about a quarter mile from our home, and we took our trash to a transfer station a few miles away. The house was on just a little over an acre, and when we moved in there were no gardens and, as I recall, only one tree in the front, a white birch. 

We were soon planting trees, creating an herb garden, an extensive border garden, a large vegetable garden, and hanging baskets of flowers from our front porch which ran along the full front of our home. It was a time of new beginnings, you might say it was our Second Genesis, a restored Creation after Noah’s flood. 

Every place we’ve lived we planted trees and shrubs and flowers, every time we’ve moved we’ve left beauty behind; sadly not everyone who has come after us has cared for that beauty, but we continue to plant, God continues to water, and hopefully others continue to enjoy. 

I think of the trees we’ve planted as representing friendships God has blessed us with, relationships that have endured. Yes, some relationships are like annual flowers, and they do have their place in life, we treasure them for seasons…some short, some long; we try to be good stewards of the relationships that our Father brings into our lives. 

We had so little when we moved to Chesterfield that I recall borrowing a wheelbarrow from a neighbor. I don’t know why, but I think of not having a wheelbarrow. 

I can’t begin to tell you how many people came into our home over our early years in Virginia, we had times we were filled to overflowing on Thanksgiving, during Christmas season, and at other times throughout the years. This has been true for every place we’ve lived, people come and they tend to stay. Even today, though we are now old and can’t entertain as we once did, we have chairs in our front yard. When we sit outside people come and sit and stay and talk, and we never know how God will direct the conversations. 

When I choose a penguin mug for coffee in the morning, I am sacramentally seeing the love and grace of Jesus during our early years in Virginia, I am giving thanks to my Father for His goodness to us over the years, I am thanking God for our enduring friendships, and I am marveling at His mercy and faithfulness. 

What do you see as you look back over your seasons of life? How do you see God working in your life? 

Who are you thankful for? What are you thankful for? 

How has your heavenly Father revealed Himself to you over the years?

How is He revealing Himself today? 

Theo of Golden - Reflections (3a)

 Good morning,

I received a note from a reader in response to my recent post on Theo, in which he said that he needed to "fix" some things in his life; he was particularly referring to relationships. 

After pondering his note for a day or so this is what I wrote back:

If you and I were to take a walk of a thousand miles, and rehearse our lives in conversation along the way, at the end of our journey would we have found anything in either life that we had truly "fixed"?

Much love,

Bob

Theo of Golden - Reflections (3)

 Theo of Golden – Reflections (3)

Why did Theo wait so long to come to Golden? What was he thinking with each advancing year as the pages of the calendar turned from December to January?

We have three wall calendars in our home. One is in our office, this could be any theme, this year it is one mailed to all residents by our local chamber of commerce. Another, in our eat-in kitchen area, has songbirds on it this year. I always give Vickie a calendar for Christmas, last year had beach scenes, the year before that folk art, this year songbirds. The third is a perpetual calendar, made of wood. Every month you rotate the numbered blocks and so it goes from year to year. There are special blocks with painted images for holidays – Labor Day shows a pregnant woman. 

Every January I wonder if my date of death is written with invisible ink on the calendars. Like many of us, I have lost friends and loved ones before their time – or before what I think should have been their time. Vickie writes dates of passing on the calendar, May is a crowded month.  I don’t wonder about my date of death morbidly, I look forward to being in the greater Presence of Jesus and to being with friends, family, and our puppies. After all, we are seeking that City whose Builder and Maker is God.

I tell people that I am in stoppage time. That is a term for the time a soccer (football to the rest of the world) match is extended to account for time during regulation in which play was stopped for one reason or another. I sure would like to score a goal or two during stoppage time or perhaps make a nice defensive play. 

Theo waited a long time before coming to Golden; we also know from the story that Theo was looking forward to heaven, something Tony grappled with, for Tony had been to hell and couldn’t imagine anything but hell. 

What did it take for Theo to finally travel to Golden? What was happening within Theo?

I don’t know and I won’t conjecture right now because I don’t want to give elements of the story away. However, I will ask if there are relationships and questions and matters in our own lives that are unresolved. If so, how long will we wait to seek resolution? Theo was pushing the limit at 86 years old, that is serious stoppage time. 

One of the most saintly women I have known, Elizabth Furlong, when she was in her 80s said to me, “When I look back, I could have done better. I could have treated people better. I could have done more for others.” The important thing about Elizabeth at this time was that she was most certainly being a blessing to others, including as a ministry companion to me, her younger pastor, as I made home visits and engaged in office counseling. 

I can say what Elizabeth said, I could have done better, many times in many ways. It is not a comfortable realization. Having acknowledged it, what shall I do? Hopefully I can respond to the grace of Jesus every day when I meet others, whether it is for a brief moment or in an extended conversation, affirming God’s love for them and His desire for an intimate relationship with them. 

Are there things within me that need to be put to death through the Cross of Christ? Are there things in me that ought to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ? Old age is not the time to coast, but to keep the finish line in sight and run the race God has given to us. 

The grace and affirmation that Theo was pouring into others flowed from a dual awareness within Theo; one was a sense of God’s blessing and mercy over the course of a long life; the other was a sense of missed opportunity, a sense of what might have been, a sense of misplaced values. (I’ll not be more specific than this right now.)

What can we do with these conflicting thoughts and emotions but give them to Jesus and trust Him to redeem our ups and downs, to cover and forgive our sins, and to give us grace to be a blessing to others? Nothing we have done has ever surprised Him. 

Theo blessed others out of his joy, his pain, and his bittersweetness. We see that his joy in music and art allowed him to connect with others, encouraging them, sharing the joy of artistic creativity. He drew from his joy in creation, in birds, rivers, sunsets, trees, in blessing others. From his pain and sorrow he connected with Kendrick, Tony, and Ellen. And from his bittersweetness a bond was formed with Asher. 

Are we allowing our kind heavenly Father to take our life experience and use it as a source for blessing others? In 2 Corinthians Chapter One Paul writes about a terrible time of suffering he and his friends experienced, he says that it was like a death sentence. But then he also says that the comfort they received from God during that time enabled them in turn to comfort others. I express it this way, “Our pain, for others gain, to Christ’s glory.”

We see this in Theo.

We are never too young or too old to live this way. We who are older, however, have a special opportunity to do so, our stoppage time can be our golden time. 

Let me please say a word about “resolution.” Not all difficulties can be resolved, not all loose ends can be tied up, not all wrongs can be made right. Theo learned this in a certain letter he once received, if he didn’t already know it. However, later in life Theo did what he could, and much more, much more by God’s grace. What Theo may have thought was his one mission, turned into something so much more. A grain of wheat, dying the ground, can bring forth quite the harvest. 

What can we do with those things that cannot be resolved? I think we must give them to our dear Lord Jesus and trust Him to work redemptively in our lives and in the lives of others – including those whom we have hurt, and who may have hurt us. What else can we do? 

Beyond that, we can be good stewards of our experiences, the good and the bad, the joyful and the terrible, asking our Father to use them in us and through us for the blessing of others. Why waste such experiences? They could not have come into our lives had they not passed through the hand of our Father; let us trust Him to use them to bless others, so that others may see His Face in us and through us. 

Let me please close with an example. I have a friend my age whose father was an alcoholic. When his Dad was sober he was outgoing and personable, but when he was drunk he was vindictive and mean, often beating my friend’s mother. My friend’s childhood was filled with uncertainty, sometimes terror, and fear. As my friend grew to adulthood his relationship with his father was complicated, and within my friend was an element of loathing and disgust for his Dad. 

Then one day God spoke to my friend’s heart and asked my friend if he was willing to allow God to use the pain within him to touch others, to be gracious to others, to bless others. At the same time my friend wondered what it was like for his father to live the way he had, it could not be a good experience, it must be miserable. In Christ, my friend learned to use his pain, for others gain, to Christ’s glory. 

This was not to excuse the father’s behavior, but it was to cast it in a different perspective, it was to introduce the element of redemption into a story of total despair. In this particular instance, a time came when my friend and his father had a sweet relationship, and toward the end of the father’s life he came to know Jesus…so we never know…we never really know how the story will end. 

Why…our stories may be like Theo’s…they may just keep going. 

Theo of Golden - Reflections (2)

 

I am encouraged that Theo is 86 years old. It isn’t often that the center of a story is an old man or old woman, especially one who still has his or her faculties and who is engaged in a meaningful endeavor. As someone who is not that far behind Theo, Theo says to me, “It is never too late to make a difference in the lives of others.”

When I was pastoring, one of the decisions I made early on was to treat older people with respect by not letting them off the discipleship hook. In other words, I challenged them with following Jesus, sitting on the bench and growing moral and spiritual fungi was not an option. It disgusts me when churches have “programming” for seniors that solely consists of playing games, going to buffets, and attending estate planning seminars. (If they really want to have relevant programming, why not have someone come and clip our toenails?)

Theo does not wait for life to come to him, Theo pursues life. Furthermore, it is not so much about what Theo does, it is really about who Theo is. What Theo does is a result of who Theo is. 

Theo pays attention to people. He looks deeply into the portraits at the Chalice coffee shop; the eyes, always the eyes, then the fuller face, but always coming back to the eyes. Asher’s gift of capturing the eyes, and Theo’s gift of connecting with those eyes…a fruit of Allen Levi’s masterful brush. Asher sketches and paints with pencil and brush, Allen Levi paints with words.

Theo does more than pay attention to others, he acknowledges others, but he more than acknowledges others, he affirms others – he sees things in others that they do not see in themselves, and he helps them consider the possibility that they have treasures within themselves to give to others. In other words, as Theo affirms others they are given the opportunity to share their treasures with others, to be more open to others, to pass on to others what Theo is passing on to them. 

Theo presents the idea of sainthood to people of all walks of life and backgrounds, to men and women who have known suffering, hurt, disappointment, and despair; but who also have dreams and visions and desires, as latent and forlorn as they might be. 

Theo says, “Do you see what I see? Do you see who you really are?”

I think this is the Gospel. We’re told that Jesus came to declare the Name of the Father to us, His brothers and sisters. Our Father’s Name speaks to us of His Nature, His desire to draw us to Himself in love through our Lord Jesus (Hebrews 2:9 – 18).  For some reason we fight this. I know that when I pastored that many folks would much rather I treat them as miserable wretches than as the sons and daughters of God. Even though the New Testament uses the term “saints” more than any other word to refer to followers of Jesus, people fight that image – even when we make it clear that this is about us being in Jesus Christ and not in ourselves (2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21). 

Theo says, “Let me tell you what I see in your portrait. Now you look at it. Do you see what I see?”

The story goes that many sculptors rejected the block of marble that would become Michelangelo’s David, it had too many flaws. Aren’t we thankful that Michelangelo saw David within David? Aren’t we thankful that Jesus sees the image of God deep within us? Weren’t those folks who sat for a few minutes on a bench with Theo thankful for a new way of seeing themselves, of seeing who they really were? 

It is of course a process, but the process must begin somewhere, and in Theo of Golden it begins for many on a bench with an old man with a foreign accent and with a portrait which the old man had paid a price to give to them. 

Since the name Theo is from the Greek word for God, can we see the incarnational nature of this old Portuguese man? Can we see the treasure in the earthen vessel? Can we see Theo living in and through Theo? 

Perhaps more importantly, how is God living in us and through us to touch and affirm the lives of others? For no matter how old we are, no matter where we live, we can always look into the eyes of others and ask, “Do you see what I see?”

The Sacraments of Life (1)

 

I’ve been thinking about the sacraments of life.  I’ll be going to see Jesus soon, now whether that is today or ten or twenty years from now, I have no idea, but for sure I am closer to being in His Presence today than I was yesterday.

This is an exciting thought to me, because you see He is truly my Friend and I trust Him with my life…and with my death. What a fool I would be not to trust Him. 

When I pastored the First Congregational Church of Becket, MA, I used to walk through the cemetery on the church grounds and ponder the tombstones. I would read the names and look at the dash between the dates and wonder what the dash represented. If I could see into the “-” what would I see? If the dash were a movie, how would it unfold? 

We live in a community (to use the world loosely) of mostly retired people, and I am puzzled that they haven’t yet figured out that they are going to die soon and that many of the things they have thought so important all of their lives are not only not really important, but that in many cases are inimical to their welfare. If you were at an airport preparing to board a plane, wouldn’t you want to know the plane’s destination? 

Jesus has given me, has given Vickie and me, many sacraments over the years. Certainly our gravitational sacrament is marriage. Peter writes that husbands and wives are “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). This concept of being “heirs together” or “joint heirs” is a legal concept we have to this day in English common law. We find the same language in Romans 8:17 where we see that we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” This idea of being “coheirs” or “fellow heirs” or “joint heirs” (all the same Greek word) means that we share fully and jointly, that what we receive cannot be divided. 

If you are married and have ever purchased real estate, depending on the state you are in you likely took title either as “tenants by the entirety” or as “joint tenants with the right of survivorship,” these are legal terms which in essence mean that you are joint heirs. Interestingly, the term “tenants by the entirety,” which can only be used of a husband and wife, carries with it the doctrine that a husband and wife are one person…certainly a Biblical understanding.

The recognition that we are joint heirs has been integral to our marriage, for we’ve realized that we cannot let “stuff” pollute our relationship. Yes, of course we’ve had our stupid and not-so-stupid disagreements; yes, we’ve gotten angry; but when these things have happened we haven’t excused them and we’ve realized the danger. In the days before cell phones, if we had a tiff before leaving for work, we couldn’t wait to get to our respective jobs so we could call and say, “I’m sorry.” 

Peter tells us that if husbands and wives have a messed-up relationship that their “prayers will be hindered.” That is, if I can’t talk to my wife then I can’t talk to Jesus – pretty serious, don’t you think? If we wouldn’t put rat poison into our water and then drink it, why do we poison our marriages and then wonder what happened? 

When Vickie and I talk about our lives, our marriage, a sacrament we always talk about is friendship. We have been blessed to have wonderful friends, some have gone before us, some we’ve lost touch with, some are still with us. Some of our friends are family, an especially sacred sacrament, which is to say that some of our family are friends. 

Our jobs have been sacramental. Our Lord Jesus has placed us both in jobs in which we’ve had wonderful relationships and have been able to serve others, and we’ve had the blessing of working together. An especially wonderful time is when she was CFO and I was COO of a firm; we worked for a wonderful man and had a wonderful team around us. 

Our vacations have been sacramental. Over the decades we have spent many weeks in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and often that has included friends and family whom we’ve invited to spend time with us. We’ve had folks from Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, and Maryland vacation with us over the years, from Corolla to Waves, from the north to the south in the Outer Banks. One year we had three groups in one week; one from Iowa, another from North Carolina, and another from Virginia. It was perhaps the worst weather we’d ever had, but it was one of our best weeks.

Our Thanksgivings have been sacramental. O my, where to begin? We’ve had men and women from Australia, Belize, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Germany, Greece, Spain, England, and other parts of the world come together around turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and so much more. One year we had people in and out of our home from Thursday through Sunday, some were sleeping on the floor. When the last one left Sunday afternoon I turned the kitchen faucet on and found that the well had finally run temporarily dry – but it didn’t happen until our last guest had left! 

One Thanksgiving in Virginia, a West Pont cadet from Belize played his bagpipes in our front yard (he was in the West Point pipe corps). On another Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, north of Boston, after the last guest had left Vickie and I discovered that we’d given all the leftover turkey away without knowing it – no turkey sandwiches that year!

That was also the year that when cleaning the oven, it got so smokey that Darby, our Lab-Shepherd mix, ran out of the house and refused to come back in until the air inside was clear. 

And speaking of Darby, our dogs have been sacramental to us, they’ve shared our ups and downs, our joys and some tragedies. Chris Ann (Cocker Spaniel), Mitzi (likely a Border Collie mix, but since a rescue from the streets of Richmond we don’t really know), Darby (another rescue, “Mommy’s dog”), Lina (a Basset mix), and dear Lily, our Boder Collie, dear sweet Lily. 

Well, these are some of the sacraments in my life…what about you?

What are you thankful for? Who are you thankful for? 

The USS Forrestal Fire

 The USS Forrestal Fire

My neighbor Hughey loaned me the book, Sailors to the End, the Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It. This book has a special meaning for Hughey, for he served on the Forrestal prior to the tragedy of July 29, 1967, in which 134 men died and 161 were injured.

As is the practice with institutions, the U.S. Navy covered up the roots of the tragedy. From the flyleaf: “Sailors to the End also corrects the official view of the fire, providing evidence that the U. S. government compromised the ship’s safety by insisting on increased bombing despite the shortage of reliable [and safe!] weapons.” 

The author, Gregory A. Freeman, did a fine job of detailing the events and connecting us with the heroic sailors and pilots, but, considering that he is a journalist, he fell short – he did not ask the probing questions that begged to be asked. For there was a heroism that was not displayed, a heroism that, had it been displayed, may have saved lives. The heroism that I write of is that of asking hard questions and following them up with hard actions – in the face of a culture that discourages such questions and actions. 

The increased bombing of North Vietnam that the government insisted on, meant that the Forrestal was provided with out-of-date ordinance, bombs which did not meet safety standards on a number of levels, including having a high level of fire resistance. The sailors who were ordered to ship the bombs to the Forrestal knew there was a problem with the bombs. The sailors and officers who accepted the bombs on the Forrestal knew there was a problem. The doubts that were expressed were quickly covered up, orders were orders.

At the same time, two different teams on the Forrestal were bypassing electrical safety procedures in arming rockets on the fighter jets – and neither knew what the other was doing. Therefore, the safety features of the rockets were compromised not just once, but twice. These decisions were also made because of the pressure the carrier was under to meet the aggressive bombing schedule. Bypassing the safety measures meant the jets could be launched more quickly. 

The tragedy unfolded when, the day after the obsolete bombs were received by the carrier, a problem electrical circuit launched a rocket from one plane on the flight deck that hit another plane (which John McCain was in), which ignited a fire. As the fire suppression crews responded, one of the obsolete bombs on a plane exploded, killing many of the trained fire crew. Before the day was over, obsolete bomb after obsolete bomb exploded, killing and injuring sailors and pilots and blasting holes throughout the ship. The firemen assumed that the bombs on the planes were rated, per current standards, to withstand a fire for an hour or more, little did they realize that they running to their deaths. 

The electrical malfunction that launched the rocket occurred on a jet whose crew had bypassed the two safety protocols, had they been in place the launch could not have happened. Had obsolete bombs not been on the flight deck, the fire would have likely been limited. 

Freeman, the author, ought to have gone farther in his book, he ought to have asked the hard questions about Navy culture, about the cover-up, and he ought to have asked why we lack the courage to speak up in the face of danger, why we are trained and acculturated to go along to get along. He might have also asked why we simply don’t want to be bothered with the truth, not as individuals, and not as institutions. 

As much as we like to think that we live in a John Wayne culture (sorry, I’m not in tune with current actors and actresses so John Wayne is the best I can do), we are conformists at heart, our only question is which of the prevailing “cultures” we will conform to. 

And so we see professing Christians, across the spectrum, adopting the world and its ways and attempting to enforce tyranny on others as they align themselves with ideologies inimical to Jesus Christ, the Cross, and the Gospel. We see other professing Christians adopting a passivity that is inexplicable. I suppose some pastors think that if they don’t raise hard questions, including about the way we treat others, that they will preserve unity in their congregations, that if they don’t call their people to live as citizens of heaven first and foremost that all will be peaceful. 

If the bonds of a congregation cannot bear the challenge of difficult questions, if they cannot hold together amid the call to worship Jesus and Jesus alone, if they are so enfeebled as to not be able to consider difficult issues and obedient responses to Jesus…then what does such a people actually possess? Who are they? 

We load dangerous items onto our ships and we are afraid to speak up, to ask questions, to point out the lethal content of what we are inviting into our churches, seminaries, colleges, and other institutions. We have lost the capacity to be self-critical, just as our political, business, and academic leaders have abandoned self-criticism and honesty. On the other hand, we have sharpened our skills in ostracization and demonizing those who disagree with us – if it weren’t so tragic, we could applaud ourselves for becoming better at something.

What is beyond comprehension is that the Forrestal is on fire and we don’t even know it.