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. 

Theo of Golden - Reflections (1)

 

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

 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

 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? 

The Law of Agency and Jesus

 

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

 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? 

Bumper Cars

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 Judgment Day

 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. 

Levi Davenport and the Only Question That Matters

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?”

Exodus Notes (1)

 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?