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:
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.
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?”
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
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.
Authorial Intent
A week or two ago I mentioned Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi. I am now reading it aloud to Vickie and it is not only working its magic upon her, but my own enjoyment increases with each page. There is something about reading aloud, and I think particularly reading aloud to another person. Tears, laughter, amazement, irony, character; it is like a 3-D viewer or movie. Plus, in my case, rereading gives me the added pleasure of seeing connections I didn’t see before and more deeply appreciating the author’s masterful tapestry. O yes, and reading to another person allows the reader to see and experience and share the wonder of the book, in this case Theo, with a friend, a spouse, a brother, or a sister.
One of my friends mentioned that at 399 pages it is a long book (I have my copy on Kindle). I love a journey. Beyond that, the story moves quickly and Mr. Levi is an artist who draws the reader into the story, the people, and the town of Golden. I can visualize myself sitting on a bench by the fountain, having a coffee and pastry, watching Theo engrossed in conversation on another bench, with a wrapped flat package across his thighs.
I want to share some reflections on Theo of Golden, but, at least for now, I’m going to share them in such a way as not to give certain elements of the story away, for the spell of discovery permeates the book and I don’t want to deprive anyone of it, at least for now.
Before I begin, I want to mention how I read this book. I covered this in my reflections on C. S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, but I think I should touch on it again, perhaps especially because, unlike Mr. Lewis, Mr. Levi is still very much alive and I wish him a long, fruitful, and joyous life. There is a tension in this subject, as there ought to be, I don’t purpose to relieve the tension, when we dissipate tension we lose energy.
I begin with a statement intended to create attention and tension, “I don’t care what Allen Levi’s intent was when he wrote Theo of Golden.” In other words, I don’t care about authorial intent, at least as it is commonly understood.
C. S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Tolkien, and others maintained that a creator’s work should speak for itself, should stand on its own, be judged on its own. They scoffed at the obsession that authorial intent was critical to interpreting a text, as they did with other forms of textual criticism.
For example, based on textual methodology employed by “scholars” in their time and in ours, Lewis could not have been the author of the Narniad, Miracles, The Discarded Image, Till We Have Faces, Mere Christianity, An Experiment in Criticism, and Out of the Silent Planet. He might have been the author of one or two of these, but he could not have been the author of them all because their genres are so different and their vocabularies so diverse.
Tolkien wondered at the attempt of critics to read autobiographical and political statements into The Lord of the Rings. Sayers had no patience with people who wanted details of her personal life so they could better understand her writings, nor did she suffer those who did not understand the difference between her mystery writing, her plays, her theological writing, and her academic writing.
There are times when the work is greater than its creator. There is, I think, only one exception to this, and that is with the True and Living God, He is always above His work, yet He remains in His work, and we see Him through His work – whatever that might mean. For those of us created in His image, we don’t know about our work, we create what we create by His grace. I suppose the best we can say is that whatever we create flows from jars of clay, fractured in many ways, some flaws obvious, some not so obvious. The Maker’s mark is what matters.
Lewis, Sayers, and others have insisted, “Let the work speak for itself. Judge the work not the creator, the author, the artist.”
Authors don’t always know what they write, though sometimes they’d better know, such as lawyers and judges and medical people, and this reminds us that we had better know what genre we are writing within and what genre we are reading – though there are times, and I think Theo is one of these, that we may not exactly know what genre is touching us. (Theo has led me to use the term, sacramental writing.) And yes, if you receive a letter from an attorney or physician you had better be sure you know the author’s intent!
Creative writing, and I think this encompasses more than we are aware of, has a life of its own well after it leaves the author’s hands. It has been said that Philip Schaff’s History of the Christian Church has a soul. I agree with this description, and thankful I am since it is 8 volumes. Bruce Catton’s 3 volume Army of the Potomac is written in such a sympathetic and poetic voice that after 50 some years I still enjoy its passages and often play them in my head. This is to say that we can experience creative writing in both fiction and nonfiction. Apart from technical and legal (maybe?) and medical writing, it is probably fair to say that there is fiction in nonfiction and nonfiction in fiction – but of course those are not genres as much as broad categories that are primarily useful in organizing libraries.
The reason I don’t care about Mr. Levi’s intent in writing Theo of Golden, or in why he developed the characters, connections, and challenges, is that I want to experience the story directly, I want the story to capture me, to draw me into it, and to let me participate in it. Yes, it has already done this, but it continues to do so and I don’t want to lose the charm, the challenge, the magic or the mystery.
Perhaps at some point I will watch or listen or read what Allen Levi says about writing Theo, but not now.
On the other hand, I do care about his intent! I care about whether I can trust Mr. Levi, but once I’ve established that I can trust him I move on from there, I leave the question of intent behind. I very much trust Allen Levi…and so now I can dispense with intent.
I’ll try to explain. A few years ago there was a bestseller on Christian and non-Christian book lists, it was number 1 and people were raving about it. I was pastoring at the time, and for not the first time I read a book because “everyone” else was reading it. It did not take me long into the book to realize that I could not trust the author or his story, I realized he had an agenda that was inimical to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. The story used Christian words and symbols and purported to portray God, but it was a spider’s web of deceit coated with honey, poisoned cotton candy.
Not for the first time did I disappoint parishioners and colleagues by not going along with popular thinking.
I can enjoy and savor Theo because I trust both Theo and Allen.
A Modern-Day Roman Galley
There are two ways to control people, one way is pain, and the other is pleasure. The ancient Romans employed both techniques, we in the United States tend to employ the latter.
While the Romans certainly used the whip and exile and prisons, and of course forcing people to fight lions, and tigers and bears in the games; they also knew that the masses needed both bread and entertainment. One of the qualifications for high office in Rome was enough wealth to contribute to entertainment – one must keep the populace satiated with distraction and pleasure.
Our own system is more refined than ancient Rome, and exquisitely subtle. In our system we get the people to pay for their own entertainment, to purchase their own opium, and if they can’t pay for it, we will allow them to borrow money to purchase the pleasure and give them the privilege of paying exorbitant interest. One need not be rich to hold high public office in the United States, though one can certainly become rich while doing so.
So it occurred to me the other day, when watching a television ad for a cruise line, that what I was really watching was a Roman galley, a slave ship. The difference, of course, is that the men at the oars of the galley in ancient Rome knew that they were slaves and desired freedom; while the patrons of the cruise ship, which had the equivalent of a Six Flags park within and without, thought they were free and would no doubt take offense at the suggestion they were not.
This reminds me of the religious people saying to Jesus, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone” (John 8:33). All we need do is to read the Declaration of Independence if we have any doubts, “We are George Washington's descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone.” (Unless, of course, our ancestors were enslaved Native Americans or Africans, then the fiction might be harder to swallow.)
We are a people controlled by pleasure, and we think we are free because we get to pay for the pleasure. Sadly, this therapeutic imprisonment has permeated the professing church, and woe to the pastor who points us to the Cross of Christ and the cruciform life, woe to the fool who proclaims Mark 8:34 – 38 and expects his or her congregation to take discipleship seriously. Better to remain satiated slaves, better to serve Egypt than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
After all, we are citizens of the United States, we are of the church of the United States, and we have never been in slavery to anyone.
O dear friends, we are called to be the sons and daughters of the Living God and citizens of His heavenly Kingdom (Phil. 3:30).
“For we have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but we have received the spirit of sonship as sons [and daughters] by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'” (Romans 8:15).
The path to freedom in Christ begins with the confession that we are galley slaves.
Theo of Golden – Book Recommendation
I just read a deeply moving and thoughtful book, Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi, recommended by my friend Michael Daily. It is also a challenging book, challenging in that it calls me to a higher and deeper life in Christ and love and grace toward others.
Here is the thing about this book recommendation, I can’t tell you what it is about. Well, I suppose I can tell you something. A gentle and quiet man visits a town in Georgia, has espresso in a coffee shop, sees portraits for sale by a local artist on the walls, and embarks on a mission to purchase each portrait and present it as a gift to the person captured in the portrait.
This is storytelling at its best, but it is more than that. It is sacramental. We see beyond what we see, we receive beyond what we see, what we read remains with us, and it takes root and grows within us. The power of this story is such that as I ponder it, new insights and questions unfold.
I am going back through Theo of Golden as I read it aloud to Vickie, savoring its rich texture.
A question for me is, “Who has been Theo to me?” Another is, “Who can I be Theo to today?” Now for sure, there is more to this than may appear, that is an element of the discovery.
The last thing I’ll mention is that even though Theo of Golden is imbued with Christ Jesus, I would not classify it as a “Christian” book, but rather as a book written by a follower of Jesus and a fellow pilgrim. Nor would I call this a work of fiction. This is literature, it is as alive as my neighbor next door…and even more. Most of us can probably learn to play chopsticks on the piano, few of us can compose and play sweet music. Theo is sweet music, with a complex aroma, a bouquet if you will, like a fine port to be swished in the palette.
I hope to write some reflections on Theo of Golden, but in the meantime, I encourage you to get to know him. Your life will be enriched. Below is the review I wrote on Amazon, which is where I purchased the book.
Theo of Golden
A Golden Tapestry
The narrative tapestry is exquisite, with substantive character development, drawing the reader into the story, and the stories within the story. The questions the story raises, and the challenges it presents to the honest reader, make this surprising book a life partner, a friend to engage in conversation and accountability. I think that if I write anything more that I’ll spoil the adventure, and adventure it certainly is – an adventure without and within…and really now, isn’t that the best kind of adventure?
My business career was in property management. I held a real estate broker’s license in Maryland and Virginia and primarily worked in the multifamily industry, though I also dealt with homeowners’ associations and commercial property. I also taught continuing education for real estate agents and property managers.
A key element of my career was understanding and living within the Law of Agency. This was also a vital element of pastoring, and it is a key element of my life, including writing.
Within the Law of Agency is the idea of having a fiduciary duty to clients. There is no higher duty in English common law than having a fiduciary duty to someone. A fiduciary owes a duty of absolute loyalty and truthfulness to his or her principal. A fiduciary must always speak and act in the best interests of the principal. A fiduciary may not speak or act on his own authority, or in her own interests. A fiduciary must always keep the goals of the principal in mind and act in accordance with those goals.
The exception to the above is when issues of morality, ethics, and legality come into play. In such instances the fiduciary ought to terminate the relationship if the client will not change his goals and behavior. A fiduciary must not lie for the principal or do anything that is not honest toward others.
An agent, you see, is not his or her own, an agent is a fiduciary and is called to act as a fiduciary. Sadly, even though real estate agents must know this to pass their state licensing exams, many promptly forget this once they begin working as agents; whether as agents in the selling and buying of single-family homes and condominiums, or in property management.
When I was taking industry certification courses early in my career, it was emphasized time and again, “Know your client’s goals. What does your client want?” Consequently, when I first met clients I would spend time asking them questions, trying to understand just what they wanted from their property. Did they want to sell their apartment community within the next five years? Did they want to pass it on to their children or grandchildren? What capital improvements did we need to make and how might we best implement them?
Also, in order to serve my clients, I needed to understand not only real estate law, but also health and safety codes, employment law, building codes, environmental law, accounting, finance and the financial markets, elements of the federal tax code, contract law and negotiation, marketing, and many other things. Thankfully I worked with great teams and we tended to complement one another.
I mentioned above that while real estate agents needed to have some understanding of the law of agency to pass state exams, that many promptly abandoned that understanding when they began their careers. I know this from my experience in teaching agents, and from working with agents in both the multifamily industry and in buying and selling our own homes.
I have observed countless agents disclosing information that was detrimental to their clients. Such as a seller’s agent saying to a buyer, “I think my client will take less if you offer it.” I have also observed managing agents of properties forgetting the goals of their clients and substituting their own goals, putting their own profits ahead of the welfare of their clients.
This breach of fiduciary duty also extends to keeping the principal (client) fully informed, and, once again, always telling everyone the truth – everyone.
The Law of Agency requires that an agent always remember, “I do not belong to myself. I belong to my client; I owe my client absolute loyalty. I must not, I cannot, substitute my goals and my wants and my needs for that of my client.”
This calls to mind a similar principle that we find in the military. Once a man or woman takes the oath of induction, that woman or man no longer belongs to herself or himself – from that point until the time of discharge, she or he is the property of the U.S. Army, or other branch of service.
Therefore, if a soldier goes to the beach and gets sunburned, so that he cannot report for duty and fulfill his obligations, that soldier can be discipled under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for damaging government property. Who is the government property? Why the soldier is – he no longer belongs to himself.
Jesus was constantly saying, “I do nothing of Myself. I do what I see My Father doing. I speak what I hear My Father speaking.”
Paul styled himself a slave of Jesus Christ, and he taught his people that they were not their own, but were bought with a price, the blood of the Lamb.
When Paul wrote, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” he wrote this because he had no other warrant from Jesus Christ.
No matter our place in the Body of Christ, we also have no other warrant. Whether we are teachers and professors, pastors, musicians, butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers, we have no other charge, no other commission, than to know and to represent Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The message of our Father to us today, and always, is “This is My Beloved Son, hear Him!”
The faithful servant of Christ will have one desire, to betroth the Church to One Husband, so that to Christ we may be a pure virgin, lest we be corrupted from the “simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:1 – 3).
As so I wonder how those who are called to facilitate such betrothal can be seduced into inviting other elements into the marriage bed. How have we convinced ourselves that we need more than Jesus? That we need more than the Person of Jesus Christ? How can we be faithful agents of the Bridegroom while encouraging the Bride to have relationships with other suitors? Who, of course, are false suitors; who would destroy the purity of her devotion to the Bridegroom.
Our Bridegroom has called us to a fiduciary relationship in which we represent Him and Him alone, in which we are faithful to Him and His Bride, and yet we invite others in the Holy Bedroom. How have we convinced ourselves that this is good for our people, the people who Jesus has entrusted to us?
If Jesus has captured our hearts, then we will want the hearts of our people to be captured by Jesus. Can we be honest enough to see this? Have we forgotten our calling in Jesus Christ?
Are we not like the people of Haggai’s time, who were set free from captivity to return to Jerusalem to restore the Temple, and yet, having returned, they built their own houses?
Where is the pastor, the professor, the seminary, the congregation, that will be faithful to Jesus, that will teach us to see Jesus, and only Jesus?
And if you are offended by this, how could you possibly be offended by a poor fool who only wants Jesus, and who only wants Jesus for you?
Can we ever have enough of Jesus?
Jesus the Samaritan, My Mother the Jew
Throughout the Gospel of John, we witness conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, the religious leaders animated by Satan. It is reassuring to know that our leaders, whether religious or political, would never resort to the tactics employed by Jesus’ adversaries.
John 8:30 – 59 has held my attention for many years, in that while in 8:30, “Many came to believe in Him,” before the chapter concludes in 8:59, we see that they are “Picking up stones to stone Him.” This is much like John 6:26 – 69, where we go from many following Him, to “Many of His disciples withdrawing” from Him (John 6:66). We ought not to be so foolish as to think that great numbers indicate fidelity to Jesus, after all, Jesus teaches that His Way is narrow and that few find it.
In 8:44 Jesus says, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
It does not appear that Jesus understood marketing (and he certainly wasn’t seeker sensitive), for this is hardly the way to retain followers. The religious leaders respond with yet another attack on Jesus.
“Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
What do you think about this charge against Jesus?
Is it true? You will be graded on this. And for all I know your life may be determined by your answer, at least if we take Jesus at His Word. Why your thoughts and actions this very day may be determined by your answer.
How does Jesus respond?
“I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me” (8:49).
What does Jesus say?
What does Jesus say that He does not say?
The enemies of Jesus make two accusations against Him, how does He respond to them? For He does indeed respond to both. Can you “see” His response?
The first response is a flat denial of having a demon, this is not the first time this charge has been made (Mark 3:22 – 27), but how does Jesus respond to the charge of being a Samaritan?
My dear mother, who my brothers and I lost when we were all too young, was once in a group of folks when the conversation turned to Jews. What was being said was not complimentary. Finally, my dear Mom, Alice Francis, said, “You know, of course, that I am Jewish.”
Well, that was like a skunk taking a stroll down the aisle of a Sunday morning service, or like unveiling a wedding cake to find a road apple on the top tier where figures of the bride and groom ought to be.
My dear Momma was a Jew, she was a Negro (to use the word in use at the time), she was Irish, she was Italian, she was Chinese, she was Cherokee, and she was Puerto Rican.
And Jesus was most certainly a Samaritan.
Jesus died for Samaritans and as a Samaritan.
Jesus died for Italians and as an Italian.
Jesus died for Venezuelans and as a Venezuelan.
And Jesus makes it clear, that the way we treat others is the way we treat Him (Matthew 25:31 – 46).
James points out the incongruity of blessing God one moment, and cursing men the next, men and women and children made in the image of God (James 3:9).
If we are truly the children of our Father in heaven, then we will act like His daughters and sons, we will bless all peoples, care for all peoples, serve all peoples, and honor all peoples. And we most certainly will not accept lies and slanders which aim to separate people from one another (and manipulate us), people for whom Christ died…has not Jesus shown and commanded us to live in a Better Way? His Way?
Jesus was a Samaritan.
Momma was a Jew.
I am a Mexican.
What about you?
Our neighbor is playing in a 7 – 8 years old basketball league for boys. They play six – minute quarters and fouls are seldom called, if fouls were called the games would last all day. There is a lot of shooting but generally not much scoring. We went to a game a week ago in which our young friend’s team did not score a single point in one quarter.
I’m not sure if pinball or bumper cars best describes the game. Not only does the basketball bounce around the court, but the kids bounce off each other – I’m surprised they don’t wear football gear.
Some kids get the ball and freeze, not knowing what to do with it. Most get the ball and shoot. They shoot whether they are under the basket, at the three-point line, or at half-court, they shoot whether there is a defender in front of them or not, whether there are three defenders in front of them or not, they shoot if the defender is a foot taller or not…they shoot, shoot, shoot. The only consistency in the shooting is that the ball will eventually come back to earth, whether it will come down in the court or out-of-bounds is, of course, another matter.
If there are any assist leaders, it is purely accidental. Passing the ball to a teammate is a sign of weakness.
The kids play hard, and they play tough, and generally they play good naturedly. There is pushing and banging and holding and falling on the floor, on the ball, and on one another. But they keep going. Controlled chaos. Bumper cars.
Is it possible we are all playing in this league and don’t know it? Is it conceivable that we’re all in bumper cars, banging into each other, sometimes intentionally, most times (let us hope) in ignorance?
Is it possible that we just aren’t as smart as we think we are, and that we’ve been relationally stupid at times, really, really dumb? Is it likely we have shot the ball too much, not passed it enough, and knocked others down in our confusion and disorientation?
In my own season of life, I have looked back, by God’s grace (though it doesn’t always feel like grace!) and seen myself in certain times and thought, “O my, I didn’t see that. I didn’t understand. I could have been more thoughtful. How selfish I was. How immature.”
I also see others with more mercy and grace and forgiveness, for as I have been blind, others have been blind. We’ve all played bumper cars, We’ve all, at least I think all, have played in the 7 – 8 years old basketball league.
I once met a former pastor who had been ill treated by a church – not an unusual occurrence. He and his wife had been through hell, also not an unusual occurrence. He said to me, “If they (the congregation) had realized what they were doing, they wouldn’t have done it.”
That observation has stayed with me and I have remembered it when ill has been done to me, but also when I have “seen” the times I have harmed others. I have done things without realizing what I was doing, to my shame.
A few weeks ago one of my neighbors was complaining about another neighbor who he felt had been rude to him, and he told me, “I’m through with him.”
Now these guys have known each other for years. They can both be abrupt, but that’s just the way they are. It’s just bumper cars. To allow one or two bangs from a bumper car to upset a relationship is not too bright, we can learn from the boys’ basketball league. We all have our flat spots, we all have our blind spots – and it can be a relief to realize that and get on with life.
I don’t care how long you park your new car away from other cars in the shopping center parking lot, eventually it will have a scratch or mark – either caused by someone else or self-inflicted. Even if others don’t see it, you’ll know it’s there.
When I watch our young friend’s basketball games, I think, “Yep, this is life. If only we could learn from them. We’re all in bumper cars, if only we could learn to have fun at it, be forgiving, and play the game.”
“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).
Doctors Without Borders and Judgement Day
When I was a lad, I was taught that one of God’s attributes is omniscience, that He is all knowing. Let us hope it isn’t true and let us at least hope that He is unaware of Doctors Without Borders.
In Matthew 12:41 – 42 Jesus says that at the Judgment the people of Nineveh and the Queen of the South will condemn the people of Jesus’ time and place because they responded to the lesser lights of Jonah and Solomon, while the people who heard and saw Jesus rejected the Light of all lights.
Doctors Without Borders, encompassing doctors, nurses, and other volunteers from a multitude of nations, go wherever a medical need is, often risking their lives, sometimes suffering casualties and death, enduring privations and seemingly impossible working conditions, not seeing borders or barriers between nations and peoples, but rather seeing suffering humanity.
Yet the professing Church of Jesus Christ has not only built borders and barriers within nations, with traditions and denominations and congregations sealing themselves off from one another, but it has built national and political borders and become the servant of political, economic, and national agendas. Rather than rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's, the professing Church is rendering to Caesar what is God’s.
How can we speak of sending missionaries and engaging in short-term mission trips, when we will not serve the many peoples who have come to the United States to escape the horrors of war, crime, famine, oppression, and deprivation? Is it not incongruous to speak of building schools or sending clothes or food or medical supplies to other lands if, when the people of those lands are in our own communities, we do not know them and will not get to know them and extend ourselves to them with the love of Jesus Christ?
Jesus brings the nations to us, and we reject the nations. Many of these people are our brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these people are made in the image of God. Many of these people are already members of the Body Christ, all of these people are part of our family of humanity, the family made in the image of God (Ephesians 3:15).
Of course, our behavior should not surprise us, for within the United States there are social and economic and racial and ethnic barriers and borders within society and within the professing Church – so in one sense we are simply treating “outsiders” as we already treat those within our national borders.
What will historians say about us?
Will they say that God sent the people of the nations to the United States, and that the United States rejected them? More importantly, will they say that God sent people to the Church in America, and that the Church told God to take them back?
Are we not the essence of “Not in my backyard”?
More importantly what will God say?
This is a question easily answered. “I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me…Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me” (see Matthew 25:31 – 46).
Well, let us hope that God is not omniscient.
Let us hope that Doctors Without Border does not appear at the Judgment to accuse us, for we will have no defense.
I was too stupid to know it at the time, but I was in the presence of greatness. This is often the case with me. Yet, I didn’t miss the significance of what he asked, it is still as if I heard it yesterday. I understood the greatness of the question, but I missed the greatness of the man. As I write this, the greatness of the man humbles me, Christ in the man humbles me.
It was during lunch in a restaurant in Pittsfield, Massachusetts that I heard the only question that matters. A group of pastors of the denomination I was associated with was having a lunch meeting with a denominational official. Since I was the newest pastor at the table I listened. Listening is often safe, plus I’m reminded of the teaching of Proverbs that even a fool, if he holds his tongue, is thought to be a man of wisdom. I was less interested in being perceived a man of wisdom, than I was in not being perceived as a fool.
Levi Davenport was the oldest pastor at the table, and he mostly listened. In his case, he listened because he was wise. As I look back on my association with Levi, I don’t recall one stupid word ever coming from his mouth. As I consider that Jesus says that we’ll be held accountable for every word we speak, I have an image of Levi spending less time before our dear Lord on this matter than me. Why can’t I have a Rose Mary Woods erasing tapes for me?
We had finished our meal, the round table had been cleared, and we continued to talk. Levi was seated a couple of chairs to my right, his hands folded over his Santa Claus tummy, his eyes peering over his reading glasses perched at the end of his nose.
We talked, and we talked. I have no recollection of what we talked about.
Finally Levi spoke in his heavy Massachusetts accent, with light in his eyes, with kindness in his voice, and with a smile on his face, he looked around the table at each of us, including the denominational official, and asked, “But what about Jesus? But what about Jesus?”
Levi’s question brought me back to my senses, it cleared the religious and ecclesiastical atmosphere, it opened the windows, allowing the fresh air of the Holy Spirit into the room. It was like Glenda waking Dorothy and friends up in the poppy field so they could continue their journey to Oz.
Jesus Himself asks, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).
This is not only the most important question, it is the only question, it is the only question that matters. It is the only question that ever matters.
Are we asking this question?
This morning?
Throughout the day?
Is this question our center of gravity?
In Hebrews 11:4 we read concerning Abel, “Though he is dead he still speaks.”
While Levi went to be with Jesus quite a few years ago, he is more alive to me today that he has ever been.
I hear his voice right now asking, “But what about Jesus? But what about Jesus?”
Calling
“He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, ‘Why are you striking your companion?’
“But he said, ‘Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and said, ‘Surely the matter has become known.’” (Exodus 2:13 – 14).
On the first day, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. On the second day Moses saw a Hebrew beating a Hebrew, and when he intervened was not only rebuked, but learned that his deed of the previous day was known.
When Pharaoh learned of Moses killing the Egyptian, Pharaoh in turn tried to kill Moses and Moses fled Egypt for the land of Midian. As a friend of mine says, “This is a fine kettle of fish.”
What was Moses thinking?
We don’t have to guess at the answer to this question, for Stephen gives us insight in Moses’s thinking in Acts 7:20 – 29. Here we see that Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, that he was “a man of power in words and deeds.” We learn that when Moses was about 40 years old that he decided to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. Then we learn what was in his mind when he defended the Hebrew and killed the Egyptian, “He supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand” (Acts 7:25).
God had spoken to Moses, someway, somehow Moses had a sense of calling implanted in him by God. Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, when God gives us a sense of destiny and calling, we don’t know what to do with it, but since we feel and think we need to do something, we do the wrong thing. We think that doing something is better than doing nothing, and because our actions are often based on the assumption that others will somehow automatically realize our calling, what we do is often wrong.
Joseph had a similar experience when he shared his dreams with his father and brothers. Apparently he had no inkling that they would be offended by his hubris, a hubris which would lead to being sold into Egypt, but which would also be used by God for His glory and the blessing of his father and brothers. Moses and Joseph both had to experience the work of the Potter before being placed in Divine service.
In modern times this reminds me of Winston Churchill, writing to his friend Murland Evans:
“Great upheavals, terrible struggles, wars such as one cannot imagine; and I tell you London will be in danger – London will be attacked and I shall be very prominent in the defense of London…I tell you I shall be in command of the defenses of London and I shall save London and England from disaster.”
Churchill wrote this in 1891, when he was sixteen years old. As with Joseph and as with Moses, Churchill would experience what has come to be called his Wilderness Years, when he was even banned from the BBC. The King and Government only turned to Churchill when there was no one else to turn to, they did not do it willingly. Jacob and Joseph’s brothers did not come to Egypt (in terms of the process) willingly, Israel did not follow Moses out of Egypt and through the Wilderness willingly. We do not seem to be a willing People, by and large.
Paul wrote, “For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Joseph’s brothers did not recognize him, Moses’s brothers did not recognize him, Paul’s Jewish brethren rejected him, and Jesus came unto His own, and His own rejected Him. Is it possible we still don’t recognize Him?
Our Father and Lord Jesus have a purpose for our lives, we are not accidents looking for a place to happen. This purpose has many facets, all centered in our Lord Jesus, for we are to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29). God’s purposes are unfolding, and as a friend of mine likes to say, “What we call the process, God calls the goal.”
Joseph, Moses, Paul, they did not have callings as much as they were the captives of callings. As another friend says, “You never own a farm, the farm owns you.” This is why Paul wrote, “Woe is me if I don’t preach the Gospel.”
Moses would learn, as Paul did, that Christ’s strength is made perfect in weakness. Moses would learn that he could not fulfill God’s destiny by his own ability and power. Joseph’s dreams would be tested in prison, so that it would be a different Joseph exalted to Pharaoh's right hand, a Joseph who had experienced death and resurrection.
How is our Father working out His purpose and calling in my life today?
In your life?
In the life of our congregations?
In a few months Real I. D. takes effect in the United States. To fly on a commercial plane or to enter a federal facility we will need either a state – issued Real I. D. drivers license, or a passport.
Since my driver’s license doesn’t expire for a few years, and since I don’t want to go through the process of getting an eye exam and having it forwarded to the DMV right now, I will carry my passport with me to comply with Real I. D. requirements.
Now you may ask, “Why carry your passport? Won’t it be cumbersome to carry the little booklet?”
I won’t be carrying the passport book. When I renewed my passport, I also obtained a passport card which fits nicely into my wallet, it is the same size as my driver’s license.
When Real I. D. takes effect, there are going to be some surprised people who try to board flights and are refused entry. Some may show their traditional driver’s license and argue that it should be enough to allow them on a plane or into a federal facility, but they will be turned away. Being a verified Virginian (as close to heaven as that is), an Iowan, an Ohioan, or even a Texan will not be enough; we must be verified citizens of the United States of America. This is going to be hard for Texans to swallow but I think they’ll work through it.
As a boy reading history, I marveled at the short-sightedness of the Greek city states, refusing to work together to oppose foreign aggression – they would rather fight each other than the Persians. I saw the same dynamic as I read the history of Scotland, the clans would rather slaughter and betray one another than stand against English invaders. In fact, clans would often align themselves with the English in order to achieve their own ends, which often meant revenge on other clans. There would be no Real I. D. for the Greeks or Scots!
About the only dumber thing I have seen than the Scots and Greeks are the Christians.
Jesus prays that we will be one as the Trinity is one (see John 17) and we don’t care, not really. We teach our people to be Congregationalists or Baptists or Pentecostals or Roman Catholics or Lutherans or Orthodox or Nondenominational (whatever that is), and we justify this in any number of ways for any number of reasons.
We are not honest enough to say, “We’ve messed this up. Jesus help us.”
Nope, we’d rather let the Persians or English tear us and our people apart – in fact, we’ll even align ourselves with those opposed to God’s Kingdom and justify our actions than embrace the prayer and call of Jesus for unity in Him.
This is stupid, and it is rebellious. After all, Jesus purchased us with His blood, and we are no longer our own. He did not purchase us to be Presbyterian or Methodist or Brethren or Conservative or Liberal or Evangelical; He purchased us to belong to Him and in belonging to Him, also belonging to one another.
Won’t we be surprised when Jesus asks us for our Real I. D.?
Only Christ, Always Christ
“I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but filth so that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).
When I walk into Philippians I come home. Yes, I am home in other dwellings in Scripture for sure, and no, I do not have a favorite – I love all the wings of the Palace, though I wear some shoes more often and more comfortably than others. As with geography and topography, I may find myself by the seashore one moment, and in the Himalayas the next. Thankfully, in the Holy Spirit we (usually) do not need to acclimate to the altitude, but we often do have to catch our breath.
I see and hear the beauty of Philippians, allowing it to wash over me, refresh me, challenge me, and above all, reveal Jesus Christ to me.
What a foundation we have, that we can trust Jesus to finish the work He has stared within us, both as individuals and as His People; that He will complete His testimony in us to the world – let us not judge by outward appearances, Jesus is the Author and Finisher. (Phil. 1:6).
It is God who is working within us to accomplish His will, and as we respond to Him we know the joy of koinonia (communion, fellowship, shared Life) with Him (Phil. 2:12–13).
What an assurance to know that when the time comes to leave this earthly vessel, that we will be with our Lord Jesus (Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:1–8).
Then I consider that all of this is because of Christ Jesus loving us, coming to us, living for us, dying for us, rising for us, and drawing us into His family and kingdom (Phil. 2:5 – 11). This is all about not what we have done or what we do, but rather what Jesus Christ has done and what He is doing. Whatever we do, which is important – and let’s not mistake how critical our obedience is, we do because of His redemption and His life within us.
I think of ballroom dancing, we dance with Jesus, He is always in the lead and we learn to respond to Him as we move around the ballroom of life. When we try to backlead we have problems.
Consider also, that while Paul is in prison he is declaring that Roman authority is not the final word, Rome is not the final name, but rather Jesus Christ is the final Word and ultimate Name (Phil. 2:10–11).
We are on a pilgrimage, a mountain climbing expedition, which calls us into and above the clouds, which rises upward, always upward (Phil. 3:12 – 14; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Proverbs 4:18). We are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11) and the higher we climb the more we realize our heavenly citizenship, for our hearts draw closer to our true Home, and we more and more realize our true identity in Jesus Christ.
So much, so much, to contemplate, to enjoy, to challenge us, to encourage us to live for others.
A moment comes, a season comes, when we realize that “whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7).
And then we see that all things are rubbish so that “we may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8).
That we may gain Christ. All other things mean nothing, less than nothing. The one gain that matters, the one possession that matters, is Christ Jesus, simply Christ Jesus. We learn to only seek Christ and to always seek Christ.
Did you know that Paul was in an expansive place when he wrote Philippians? He was in a place greater and more spacious than Versailles, Buckingham Palace, and Biltmore put together.
You ask, “How can this be? Paul was in a Roman prison. Have you lost your mind?”
No, I have not lost my mind, I have found it. Have you not yet learned that in Christ the inside is greater than the outside?
Paul was before time began with the Son before the Incarnation (Phil. 2:6), he was with the Father and Christ as the present age concludes (2:10–11). He wrote while experiencing wave after wave of joy in Jesus Christ: 1:18; 2:17-18; 4:4, 10–13). His focus throughout his letter is not on himself, but on Christ and the welfare of the Philippians.
I imagine that the Philippians made the ironic connection between the joy Paul expresses, the joy he desired for them, and their first meeting Paul (Acts 16). After all, when Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in prison in Philippi, what did they do? How did they respond?
They prayed and sang hymns of praise to God! (Acts 16:25). Once again, the inside was bigger than the outside! Paul rejoiced in prison in Philippi, and he hasn’t changed, he is now rejoicing in prison in Rome.
“And the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).
Well dear friends, someone is always listening to us. What are they hearing?
Let us hope they are hearing one song, one theme, one message.
“That I may gain Christ, and that you may gain Him too.”
Pondering Proverbs – 22:1
“A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, favor is better than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1).
When we read Scripture Christologically, that is, when we read it looking for Jesus and allowing Jesus to reveal Himself to us, we never know what we might find.
As we think about Proverbs 22:1, let’s also consider these two verses:
“There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
“For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).
While we certainly do want to have reputable names that glorify God, the Name above all names that we should desire is the Name of Jesus. His Name is the best name of all, better than great wealth, and the favor we find in Jesus is far far better than silver and gold.
Where our treasure is, there our hearts will also be.
The Third Rail
When I was a lad living in the D.C. area, I loved riding the streetcars. There was something about the swaying back and forth, the creaking, and watching the overhead electrical connections spark again and again. There was no belching diesel smoke as with transit buses, no sudden starts and stops. Because the streetcars received power from an overhead grid, you could safely walk across (and on) their tracks in the street without fear of electrocution.
Not so with subways which derive their electrical power from a third rail on the ground, adjacent to the two track rails. To touch the third rail of a subway line means either severe electrical burns or death. Why would anyone, in their right mind, want to touch a third rail?
Have you learned to recognize third rails in life, and having recognized them, have you learned to avoid them?
James writes about a third rail in James 1:19–20:
“This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”
Many years ago, as I was pondering this passage, I was struck to the core by the realization that the anger of Bob Withers does not achieve the righteousness of God. As the Holy Spirit drove a convicting dagger into my heart, I took a pen and wrote above the word “man,” Bob. From that time on, when I read this passage, I read, “For the anger of Bob does not achieve the righteousness of God.” I realized that anger is a third rail, a rail of destruction and death, not only for me but for those around me.
When we touch the third rail of anger, we conduct a destructive charge to those touching us. This is not just about us, it is about others.
It seems to me that our society, and much of the professing church, operates on anxiety and anger. We are driven by anxiety, manipulated by anxiety, and intoxicated with anger. Rather than being repelled by the third rail of anger, we seem to be attracted to it.
I know that many of us read a chapter of Proverbs a day, and yet I wonder if somehow we gloss over its many warnings about anger. How can this be? Of course this is a danger we all face, myself very much included. It reminds me of a typical Sunday morning after preaching, when greeting people after the service there are two kinds of comments a preacher often receives, one is, “Thanks Bob, that challenged me, it gave me something to think about.” The other is, “Thanks Bob, people need to hear that.” What the latter might as well say is, “The other guy really needs to hear that.”
Well, again, we all face that danger.
“Do not associate with a man given to anger; or go with a hot-tempered man, or you will learn his ways and find a snare for yourself” (Proverbs 22:24–25). Do we really think we can imbibe with immunity so-called news outlets, or so-called Christian movements, or political and social movements, that are energized by anger and vitriol? This has been a mystery to me for decades, yes, decades. Again, I have been deeply convicted of this in my own life, I am looking in the mirror.
Jesus says that the peacemakers are blessed, that they are the sons of God, not those who are on a perpetual rant. How do we miss this?
James returns to this theme in Chapter 3, where we read, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:17–18).
Many times I have been convicted of my anger by 2 Timothy 2:24–25, “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.”
Even though for many years I have been conscious of my anger not achieving the righteousness of God, I still have occasions when I touch the third rail. One difference between now and years ago is that now I fear the third rail, I fear my anger. I know I am not drinking from the cup of the Lord when I drink anger. Another difference is that I am quick to repent and ask forgiveness and apologize – the sooner the better because the longer I wait the worse I feel and the more likely the wounds will fester. This is a matter of obedience to Jesus and a matter of putting others before myself. It is a matter of survival with me – there is absolutely no merit to it.
Sin is stupid, and anger is sin (yes, yes, there is a godly anger but we aren’t talking about that exceptional condition, which certainly needs to be under the Lordship of Jesus – let’s not justify our behavior and attitudes).
If you’ve ever had food poisoning, that is the way I feel when I have been angry; the difference is that food poisoning only hurts me, but my anger hurts both me and others and pollutes my relationship with Jesus (and my testimony!).
How can professing Christians align themselves with the poison of anger, vitriol, sarcasm, and violence? How can men and women who are supposed to be Christian leaders lead their people into such poisonous pastures? To some degree I understand the fears that other leaders have in speaking out against such practices, for they need to eat and pay their bills; however, our collective failure of nerve is a collective shame and an indictment on the professing church.
As individual disciples of Jesus we can say “No” to Satan and “Yes” to Jesus. We can say “No” to the demons of anger and “Yes” to the Lamb, the Prince of Peace.
We can refuse to touch the third rail, and when we do touch it, we can run to Jesus in repentance and seek forgiveness and reconciliation with others.
The streetcars of my youth drew their energy from above, subways draw their energy from below. It may seem like a mundane analogy, but maybe the visual will help us.
Isn’t there enough hell on earth without us adding to it?
Aren’t we called to be the Peace and Presence of God to our generation?
“Each will be like a refuge from the wind, and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land” (Isaiah 32:2).
Let’s watch those third rails!
END NOTE: It puzzles me that so many brothers and sisters think they only have the options of earth, disciples of Jesus always have the choice of following Jesus, for we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). Is it really all that terrible if we stand alone with Jesus, even if no one else stands with us? Jesus never calls us to choose the lesser of evils, that would be like a Dad consenting to his daughter marrying a criminal convicted of ten hideous crimes instead of a criminal convicted of twenty hideous crimes.
Once again, Jesus never calls us to choose the lesser of two evils, He calls us to choose Him. His Way is the Way of the Prince of Peace, the Way of the Lamb.
Consider It All Joy!
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2–4).
I learned this passage many years ago, and I have recited it to others and have been encouraged when others have recited it to me, for it is our Father’s promise that not only is no sorrow or trial in life wasted, but that He will use them to transform us into the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:10–11).
This is the Way of Jesus, for in Hebrews 5:8–9 we read, “Although He [Jesus] was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”
When James says that we are to “count it all joy,” he means that this is the way we are to view trials, this is how we are to respond. We offer our trials and temptations to our Father, trusting Him to be with us and work in us and to mature us in in our Lord Jesus.
Therefore, our first response to trial is obedience, and that obedience is in our initial response, and that initial response is a joyful recognition that God is working in us. Our natural response is to want the situation changed, but our obedient response is to be joy and a willingness for God to change us. As our Father changes us into the image of Jesus, the situation may or may not be changed, we must trust our heavenly Father in these things.
This joy is sacrificial. That is, it makes no sense to be joyful in trials, at least to our natural thinking. Nevertheless, we “offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15).
Peter writes that we “greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, we have been distressed by various trials” (1 Peter 1:6).
Counting our trials as “joy” is an act of the will, it is offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1–2). This is not a denial of the reality of trials and challenges, but rather a declaration that God is greater than what we are facing and that He will work His transformational purpose within us for His glory.
But note that we must “let endurance have its perfect result.” Again we have an act of the will, for we must submit to God’s work of endurance within us, we submit ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Do we believe that God is the Potter and we are the clay? If so, then let us trust our all-wise heavenly Potter to form us into the image of His Firstborn Son.
When we take control then we mar the work of the Potter, and we will likely be given another opportunity for submission and learning and growth…let us hope so. Let us learn not to waste the challenges that our Father allows into our lives.
As I heard long ago, “God fixes a fix to fix you, but if you fix the fix that God fixed to fix you, then God has to make another fix to fix you.”
This is one pithy saying that actually has some truth to it.
Jacob spent much of his life conniving to get his way, and conniving to escape from things he had done. He avoided permanent and transformational change until he was brought to the end of his own strength in wrestling with God (Genesis 32:24–32). The sooner we learn to submit to the working of our Father, to trust Him, and to consider trials and challenges "joy,” the better for us and for those around us. The sooner we can be the blessings that God has called us to be.
In one sense we may never know why certain things transpire in our lives, but in another sense we can always know that, whatever we are experiencing, our Father desires to reveal more of Himself to us than we have ever seen before. We know that our Lord Jesus wants us to have a deeper friendship with Him, and a greater experience in the Holy Spirit.
O dear friends, this life is important for sure, it is to have eternal meaning and significance. We are not accidents looking for a place to happen, but women and men and young people made in the image of God, an image restored in Jesus Christ. Let us learn to see as our Father sees, and to trust His incredible love for us. In doing so, we can consider it all joy when we face challenges, and we can expectantly look for the appearing of our Lord Jesus in the fires of trial and uncertainty – for He is always certain, and His love is always sure.
Let us have a joyful day in Jesus!
Come and Die – A Call of Freedom, An Invitation to Destiny
Mark 8:34 – 38
I was sitting on the concrete platform that was the base of our flagpole at Western High School in Washington, D.C., reading my pocket New Testament and Psalms. It was spring and my life was changing, I was coming to know Jesus. Most family and friends didn’t know what to think. After all, during the summer of 1965, after somehow completing the 9th grade, I ran away from home in Maryland to New York City. Now here I was, less than a year later, reading the Bible and telling others about Jesus.
My Dad, with whom I went to live after my New York excursion, didn’t know what to think. My Mom, in Maryland, didn’t know what to think but probably had the sense to know that reading the Bible was better than reading the train schedule from D.C. to N.Y.C. My great-great-Aunt Martha, who loved me dearly didn’t know what to think but did say, “You’ll get over this.” This was one of the few times she was wrong.
My teachers didn’t know what to think, but likely thought that I was better off reading the Bible than disrupting classes, and indeed the entire school. As a result of my participating in a protest movement, the vice-principle of boys once called my father at work and said, “Mr. Withers, your son is disrupting the entire school.” (A notable but unlikely feat, even for me). To which my erudite father replied, “Not my boy. You can go to hell,” and hung up the phone.
As I was reading my New Testament at the base of the flagpole, Frank, one of my best friends, came up to me and knocked the New Testament from my hands onto the ground while uttering words of disgust at the direction my life had taken. I don’t recall what he said, nor did I ever discover the underlying reason for his anger. I calmly retrieved the Book as he stormed away and continued reading.
I don’t recall what I was reading at the time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mark 8:34–38, for that passage was being burned into my soul during those early months in 1966. I can still see the red letters of that New Testament, I can see the words of Jesus, I can hear them, I can them then and I can hear them now. That’s the thing about the Voice of Jesus, we hear Him now, we hear Him speaking to us from times past, and we hear Him calling us from the future, from eternity. His Voice surrounds us.
Now if you are relatively young, what I’ve just written may not mean much to you, but I am almost 75 years old and they are a great assurance to me, for I am closer to the finish line today than I was yesterday. It is 5:00 A.M. as I write this, and it may be the last 5:00 A.M. I ever know; while it probably won’t be, since you never know, if I go to the grocery store today I will purchase ripe bananas. Yes?
Mark 8:34–38 is the call of Jesus Christ to follow Him. We must deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Him, this is what Jesus says. We are to lose our lives for His sake and the Gospels, this is what Jesus says. We are to tell others about Him, not being ashamed of Him. This is what Jesus says. Does this matter to us?
Jesus is always asking questions in the Gospels, and He asks some bottom-line questions in this passage: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Do you understand why we don’t ask these questions along with Jesus?
I have often thought that all businesspeople ought to be followers of Jesus as a result of common sense. Why?
When I am in a conference room in which financial statements are handed out for review, every person in the room will do the same thing. They will immediately go to the last page of the income statement and look at the bottom line, then they will go back to page one and work through the statement to see how the bottom line was arrived at.
What is the bottom line of life? This is the commonsense question, and yet as Pascal noted, we spend our lives avoiding it. Pascal tells us that the primary advantage that the rich have over the poor is that the rich are able to spend money to divert their attention from this question. Aren’t we a group of idiots?
I have recited Mark 8:34–38 to congregations and individuals more than any other extended passage of Scripture, for it is the call of Jesus to us, His invitation to us to true freedom and our true destiny – in Him, always in Him. I never tried to memorize this passage; it simply was planted in me in my process of coming to know Him.
Note that just preceding this call of Jesus, Peter attempts to spare Jesus from going to the Cross (Mark 8:31 – 33). Jesus rebukes Peter with the words, “Get behind me Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Ouch!
Then Jesus summons the crowd and issues His call to discipleship. It is as if Jesus is saying to Peter, "Peter, not only am I going to the Cross, but you and all who follow Me are also going to the Cross.”
What do we think about that?
It seems that we much prefer the role of Peter in that context than the call of Jesus. It seems that much of our teaching and preaching and church marketing is about avoiding the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross.
There has been much in the news lately about the decline in church attendance. Honestly, if we had something to say maybe folks would see something worth listening to and participating in. A message that requires nothing is worth nothing.
Not long after I came to know Jesus I was introduced to the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some things you only have to read once for them to be planted in your soul, such as, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Doesn’t this encapsulate Mark 8:34–38? What do you think about this statement?
Later in life I would absorb Jim Elliot’s bottom-line statement, “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” (This framed statement hangs in our home, a gift from a friend years ago.)
O dear friends, we are called to follow Jesus and call others to Jesus. Not to a particular worldview (including a “Christian” worldview), not to our “best lives now,” not to social, political, economic, or nationalistic agendas, not even to the religious equivalents of Moses and Elijah (see Mark 9:2 – 8) – but to Jesus, always to Jesus.
The great thing about all that I have written is that Jesus’s call to us in wrapped within His amazing love and grace and mercy for us. He doesn’t expect us to follow Him based on our own willpower or ability, He knows we can’t, and the sooner we realize that the better.
What Jesus is doing is calling us to live in deep relationship with Him, allowing Him to live within us as we learn to live within Him…and with one another (see John 15:1–17). Jesus is calling us into an incredible freedom and destiny.
In Him we are free from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:9–18), from guilt and sin, from condemnation, from alienation from God (2 Cor. 5:14–21; Rom. 8:1–39). In Him we are called to the freedom of the love of God, as sons and daughters of God, forever and always loved. In Him we find our eternal destiny, a destiny entered through the portal of the Cross, a destiny of resurrection and glorious life beyond comprehension (Revelation chapters 21 – 22; 1 John 3:1–3).
And here is the thing, it is never too late to return to the call of Jesus, or to hear His call for the first time, or to renew our hearing of the call. Our Father is always watching for our return, always prepared to run to us and embrace us and throw a party for us. Again and again Jesus assures us of the love of the Father, His Father and our Father. Again and again Jesus stretches out His arms for us.
But let us not be so foolish as to ignore the call of Jesus in Mark 8:34 – 38, let us not be so foolish as to think that anything else can possibly be the call of Jesus. This call of Jesus is what we are called to conform to, and to conform to His Call, is to conform to the Cross. It is what we call “cruciform living.”
“I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and give Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
It is my prayer that today will be the best day of your life…and that all of your tomorrows will be even better.
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