An Act of God?

It seems every time there’s a tornado, a major flood, a hurricane or an earthquake some broadcaster somewhere calls it “an act of God”.  I’ve always heard that term and I’ve always wondered about its use.  It is at such odds with who I know God to be. 

         But then, where do I stand, what do I believe?  Are tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, floods acts of God? 

             I would say no -- not in the sense most people mean.  I believe, like many insurance companies today, that they are “acts of nature” not “acts of God”.  And yet I know nature to be created by God.  Like Karl Barth, a famous reformed theologian, I think these disasters are what Barth called the “dark or shadow side of creation.”  I believe tornadoes happen when the weather conditions are right but I don’t believe God sits in heaven and plans when and where to send them. 

            God created the world and gave it structure and natural laws, and nature follows those laws without His constant interference, allowing us to live with a great amount of predictability and security.  We know that if we throw a ball up in the air, it’s safe to assume it will come back down.  We know a house will be more stable if we build it on rock than if we build it on sandy beach.

            Can God suspend the laws of nature?  Yes, I believe He can -- God can do anything.  Does He ever suspend them?  Yes.  And when He does it’s called a miracle ---- but miracles are few and far between.  They don’t happen every time we need one, pray for one, long for one.  

            We shouldn’t blame God then when a tornado hits one community and not another, when one child dies and not another.  We shouldn’t blame “an act of God” for every tragedy in life. 

            But I do believe that we see acts of God in the midst of those tragedies.  I believe we see God acting in the teacher who sheltered her students, protecting them from falling debris.  I believe we see acts of God in the hands of volunteers offering coffee and a hot meal.  I believe we see acts of God in first responders and volunteers that will be there months from now still building houses.  I believe we see acts of God in the prayers of His people who strengthen the works of others. I believe that in Moore and Sandy Hook and New Town and Haiti and Malawi and the Congo we see the mighty acts of God. 

            I believe that we see the acts of God not in the pain of our world but in the healing light that breaks into the darkness whatever that darkness might be.

White crosses and poppies

Too many fields in too many places are filled with poppies and white crosses --- row after row of white crosses – too many to count ---reminding us of the high cost of freedom. Somebody’s son, somebody’s mother, somebody’s fiancé lay beneath those tombs.  Each cross has a story behind it.

He’s in his eighties now and his buddy’s are close to all gone. They keep dying off, but he remembers them as if it was yesterday and he takes pride in the fact that his old uniform still fits him.

Those crosses in that field are not just name, rank, and serial number to him.  There was the one he shared the foxhole with and the one who always told jokes when he thought he could not stand another moment of sheer terror as bombs burst in air. 

Later came Korea, the “forgotten” war that is still being fought as the north launches missiles into the south and soldiers still man checkpoints and a DMZ is more myth than reality.

Then there is the Viet Nam vet.  We have yet to say our thank you’s to those men and women.  Mostly they were eighteen and twenty and didn’t want to go to war, but they answered when the lottery gave up their number.

She was just 19 when she left for Iraq.  She had joined the army right after high school graduation, thinking it would help pay for college when she finished her tour and the pay was good for someone with no experience. 

.  These are just a few stories of the hundreds and thousands of stories of men and women who lie beneath white crosses. The list goes on and on in places that make the news and places we have never heard of.   There are too many white crosses and too few thank yous. 

Whatever you may think of war, whatever horrors you can recite, these men and women, for the most part did what their country told them to do with no questions asked.  And they deserve our thanks --- the thanks of a grateful nation.

         So on this holiday weekend, pause to give thanks for the men and women who protect our world --- from Korea to Afghanistan.  They are the front line for freedom.  But also take the time to pray for our nation’s leaders that they will work to bring our soldiers home.

Because peace is the cause of every soldier.  Soldiers, more than any one else, long for the day when their swords will be beaten into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and the peace of God will reign through all the earth.  

"Rules" of Faith?

Jesus is talking to the men and women who are following Him.  They’re sitting on the temple steps with all the rush of official church business going on around them --- priests dressed in long robes rushing by on important business, rabbis talking thoughtfully and stroking their beards, scribes brushing people out of their way as they work through the crowds carrying their scrolls.  And in between it all, ordinary people approaching worship in awe, craning their necks to see the beauty of the temple, carrying lambs for their sacrifice, explaining the traditions of the temple to their children.

            In the middle of all this hustle and bustle, business and worship, secular and sacred combined, Jesus talks to the people, and what He says in essence is “Don’t lose the core of the faith.  Don’t forget the reason all this is here.  Don’t get caught up in the show or the theological questions or the religious power plays that are going on behind the scenes.  Remember, in the middle of it all, in its very center, our faith reveals Truth and Life itself --- the Truth and Life of God, and that Truth and that Life will set you free.”

            Jesus was well aware that the faith had been twisted and turned into rules and regulations that could strangle the joy and love right out of worship. And far too often we fall into the same trap today.  Our faith cannot be about rules --- however good the rules might be.  Our faith must be about loving God and loving each other.

We must come to church not to not to be seen, but to worship God and be renewed and restored.  We must give to the poor, not so others will see how selfless we are, but because we care about their need.  We go to visit the sick, not so others will notice our kindness, but because we want to touch their suffering with love.

We live out the “rules” of faith not because we have to, but because we want to, as a measure of our love.  So we strive to remember in the middle of all our do’s and don’ts, should’s and shouldn’ts, that the greatest commandment Christ gave us is love.  Let us never forget that that is the essence of our faith.

A Mom's Famous Words

Do these words sound vaguely familiar to you?  You may have heard them.  You may have even said them.

Please take that down stairs with you when you go.

Did you brush your teeth?

What are you doing out of bed?

Don’t just leave that there.  Take it downstairs.

Yes.  You have to wear a jacket and no I don’t care if you look like a dork.

I don’t care if she can.  If her mother said she could jump off a bridge would you expect me to let you do it too?

Take that downstairs.

Yes. You have to eat everything on your plate and no I don’t think brussels sprouts look like eyeballs. 

I thought I told you to take that downstairs.

Don’t touch your brother. 

Don’t touch your sister either.

In fact, no one touches anyone in this house again without my express permission.

Of course I love you, but dying your hair with green jello is still not a good idea.

Now means NOW.  Not later. Now. Take this stuff downstairs.

            There is a serious side to all of this.  For the most part, all the famous parenting statements, including the most famous of all: “Because I said so that’s why,”  are forms of loving.  Loving doesn’t always mean giving in to what someone wants. 

            Loving means setting guidelines and limits, explaining them and, unfortunately, enforcing them.  Love frequently means saying no.  And love means doing all of that when it would be so much easier to just give in and say yes.

            So for all those times you have sat at the kitchen table going over multiplication tables --- for all those times you said no when you’d rather have said yes --- for all the bedtime stories and clean clothes that magically appeared in closets --- thank you and God bless. 

National Day of Prayer

Thursday evening at 7:00 at the downtown commons, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, conservatives and liberals, will gather together despite our differences to pray for our community, our state, and our nation and those who serve us.  It’s an American tradition. 

            In the dark days of 1775 when the existence of the nation hung in the balance, the Continental Congress called for prayer.  Since that time, calls for prayer frequently rang out when prayer was our only hope and finally in 1952 President Truman signed a bill proclaiming an annual national day of prayer into law. 

            But we do not need to wait for one day in May.  As we drive through Buchanan whether we want the stop light to flash or turn red and green, we can pray for the city commissioners who listen to arguments pro and con and then make the best decision they can (which at least half of us won’t like!) 

            As volunteer firemen rush to the scene, we can pray for their safety and give thanks for their bravery and pray we will never lose them to tragedy.

 We can pray policemen will end their shift whole and well, for they never know if they will be involved in settling a domestic violence dispute or helping to unlock a pastor’s car.  All they know is they have been called to serve.

And let us not forget small business leaders who not only struggle to make a profit but donate hours after hours to building our community and making our downtown vibrant in creative and artistic ways, building a future on the bones of the past. 

The list goes on --- and I haven’t even finished with prayers for our community.  I haven’t mentioned the school system or RAM or volunteers for the Trail. 

This Thursday we have much to pray for, much to give thanks for.  Let us lift our voices together. 

            

Forgiveness is a choice

I have a friend, Jan, whose parents beat her for even the mildest offense, leaving scars upon her heart as well as her back.  Her mother would call her stupid even though Jan made the school honor roll without fail and her father consistently told her that no one could ever love her.   

For years Jan’s life was controlled by the rage she felt toward her parents and the world – her rage against God.  She wore anger as a badge on her heart.  You never knew when she would erupt into a rage, and worse, you never know if you were going to be the target. 

Jan lost friend after friend until one day I asked her “How’s this working for you?’  She stopped and thought about that for weeks on end until she finally concluded that it wasn’t working at all.

 In the end she was punishing herself as effectively as her parents had abused her in the past.  Her life was not what she wanted it to be.  Instead it was controlled by the past..

So she set about the difficult task of leaving the pain behind by forgiving her parents as people who were living out of their own pain and self-loathing.  It was not until she found the ability to work through her bitterness and anger that she was freed to live her life.  Jan eventually became one of the most compassionate people I have ever known, becoming a therapist to help others with a similar background of abuse. 

She discovered what forgiveness is all about.  In the Bible in Greek,  forgiveness literally means to release, to hurl away, to free yourself.  That’s what Jan did. She hurled the pain and bitterness away from her.

What forgiveness does not mean is putting yourself back in harm’s way if the other person has not been changed by their own repentance or your act of forgiveness.  A battered wife can forgive her husband for the pain he caused both physically and emotionally but she should not go back to him to receive the same treatment time and time again. 

But how do we find our way to this new way of being?  How do we forgive?  What does forgiveness look like?

 First of all, forgiveness is more a conscious decision than an emotion. You can consciously decide to not let the past rule over you.  You can decide to reclaim your power, your self with God’s help.

 Doing this takes time, commitment, courage, and energy.  It is an unnatural act that you must work at to achieve.  But you do not need to work at it alone.  God will be there walking with you, strengthening you, enfolding you with the love you will need --- including love for yourself.

Sunshine

            I woke up to sunshine this morning.  Oh, the sky was grey but there, outside my window, were the bright yellow daffodils I had planted in the fall for just such a day as this.  

            Daffodils require faith.  Unlike the annuals I’ll plant in a few weeks that already come full of blooms, color, and fragrance – no waiting or patience required --- daffodils go into the ground as bare bulbs showing no promise of life or the glory to come.  Yet every fall I plant some more, believing in the spring to come.

            I balance on my hands and knees, digging down just far enough but not too far, place the bulb into its especially prepared spot and cover it carefully with sweet smelling earth and adding a layer of mulch.  And for months all I see is that mound of dirt and I wonder what will happen in the spring --- and if anything at all will happen. 

            Now, after months of waiting, green shoots stand tall and on gloomy mornings like this one, I have the wondrous gift of bright yellow blooms proclaiming the certainty of the miracle of life. 

            In the seasons of our lives’ falls and winters we need to remember that life does not always come with the full blooms and glory of annuals that last only for a season, but that most of life grows like daffodils: bare bulbs of hope and promise that take a season to grow hidden underground only to burst like bright sunshine when the time is right. 

Oh, one other thing you need to know about daffodils --- and the unexpected blooms of life --- they are not just for one season.   The miracle happens again and again and again. 

            

Angry at God?

I am frequently asked if it’s OK to be angry with God, and my answer, without hesitation, is always “yes.”   I base this on Martin Luther’s first rule of prayer, “Never lie to God.” 

            You see, I firmly believe that God can deal with almost anything --- even our anger.  What He can not deal with is our silence.  He cannot cope with our turning away, with our pretending all is well when it is not. 

            If we will not speak, if we will not listen, there is nothing God can do.  He will not force Himself upon us. 

            Pretending we are not angry runs against the scripture, where time after time persons of faith pray in loud angry waves, railing against the God they love -- and then finding their relationship with the Lord not torn asunder but knit together once more, at times even stronger. 

            One of my favorite passages about this comes from PSALMS NOW  Psalm 88.  I should warn you, it is not a feel good psalm with a happy ending but I think we all know the truth of it:  .......

            “My life is one long series of conflicts and defeats... 

            Without strength, forsaken, shunned bythose around me,

            I feel as if I were separated forever from You.

            I am assailed by afflictions, attacked by obsessions,

            and all but forgotten by God and human beings.       

            and yet I cry out to You even when the assaults of this life

            and the fear of death surround me and close in on me. 

            I look to You for some ray of hope.

As despairing as this Psalm may be I think of it as a Psalm of great hope, for it is unashamedly honest and allows God space to reply.  Angry at God? Be angry.  Just don’t turn your back and walk away.

Hooray for candy, flowers, and love

    Who am I to poo-poo a day set aside to show others how much we love them.  Besides in these long days after Christmas retailers can use the boost in sales of chocolate candy, chocolate covered strawberries, expensive cards, and diamond jewelry --- not to mention the dozens upon dozens of roses that are delivered with great delight.  No I say celebrate all these things – just don’t forget that they are not the real signs of love.

   

     Love is found not in what we give but in how we behave.  Perhaps the most beautiful description of that is found in I Corinthians 13.

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

The problem is no one can live up to this standard no matter how much they may wish too.  Dirty socks on the floor can make us resentful.  And we can get irritable when things don’t get done they way they should. 

This scripture is our ideal of human love, not its reality.  In reality, love is hard.  It requires listening and talking problems out.  It requires “I’m sorry.” And “I forgive you.”  It is not a 50-50 proposition but requires each partner to give at least 75% to the relationship. 

But when it works, there is nothing more like heaven than a good marriage. In the meantime: chocolates, roses, and diamonds can’t hurt!

What Is Fasting All About?

This is the season that for many Christians is known as Lent.  It is a time for us to prepare our lives for the crucifixion of our Lord.  During this time, it is the practice of many Christians to fast.  But exactly what does that mean and why do it at all? 

Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines talked about throughout the entire old and new testaments.  It is a discipline of devotion and repentance and requires that you give something up (sacrifice it) for a period of time.  When you long for what you have decided to give up, it serves as a reminder to pray.

What you fast and how long you fast is up to each individual.  For Lent we fast for forty days (not including Sundays which is a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection). 

 Some will fast from chocolate, others will fast from meat.  Still others may fast from television or time on the computer surfing the internet.  The point is to devote time to God in prayer throughout the time of the fast. 

But it is also important to notice how you are to fast. Jesus is very specific that you are to fast in quietness without drawing attention to yourself so hat others won’t think of you as a kind of super-Christian.

What kind of fast is God looking for?  Does it count if I give up the cooked carrots I hate?  Not exactly.  Scripture is clear that it must be a fast of atonement, a fast of repentance, a fast where we turn from our unrighteous ways and live into God’s ways and God’s justice

So during this season of Lent I would suggest a different kind of fast – a fast that will change our lives perhaps forever, bringing us closer to being the people God would have us be. 

Let us fast from criticism and feast on praise; fast from self-pity and feast on joy; fast from war and feast on peace; fast from jealousy and feast on love; Fast from fear and feast on faith.  Let us live as God would have us live. 

Christ's Mission Statement

            Mission statements. Everyone has to have one.  They define who we are, what our purpose is and how we plan to achieve that purpose.  Corporations have to have them.  Small companies have to have them. Even Jesus had one. 

            He spent His life living out a Mission Statement that fulfilled His and God’s vision.  It comes from the book of Isaiah and it is what was to define His ministry:

                     “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,


                                     because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
 

                                     He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
  

                                     and recovery of sight to the blind,
    

                                     to let the oppressed go free,


                                    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

            It has all the requisites of a mission statement.  It clearly and accurately tells us who Christ is: “The annointed One of God”.  And it tells us this in plain English (OK, it’s really plain Aramaic.).  But Jesus says what He plans to accomplish in language no one can misunderstand:

             He is here to bring Good News, not to those who believe they have everything they need without the help of God and not to the religious who believe they have already achieved salvation on their.  He comes instead to the poor, to those in physical and spiritual need, those held captive by life experiences. 

            Christ has come to give sight not just to the physically blind but to those who have become blind to the goodness and love in our world, who no longer see the positive but focus in on hatred and fear.

            Christ has come to let the oppressed, the downtrodden, the bruised by life, the crushed and the broken --- go free.  He has come to break their chains  and proclaim that the year of God’s favor, the year when the Messiah would appear, has in fact come.  It is here and it is now. 

            Of all that is said in these two short verses the fact that the year of the Lord’s favor is now has always struck me. 

            NOW, in this very moment, we have the ability to throw off our chains, chains to the past that bind us, chains that keep us from moving forward. 

            NOW, right now, we can move past our broken dreams.

            NOW we can choose to see ourselves as God sees us: as a beloved child, whole and perfect in His sight. 

            NOW we can dream dreams and make them come true. 

            NOW we no longer have to be blind to our possibilities mired in the darkness of hopelessness and fear.  We don’t have to wait until tomorrow --- we can claim our future NOW --- RIGHT NOW. 

            NOW we are free to be the people, the church, the world, God created us to be. That’s Christ’s mission statement.  May it be our as well. 

But Now It's Time To Begin Again

There’s a famous preacher who likes to tell the story of a well-researched, very erudite sermon he once gave.  He was inordinately proud of it and was waiting for the congregation’s response of praise.  Then one of his elders who had lost both his job and his marriage in a very short time, a man the pastor had been praying for on a daily basis, came up with his face wreathed in smiles and new energy. 

            “That sermon this morning has changed everything!  I know now that I can pick up and start over again.”

            “Really,” said the pastor.  “Can you tell me what it was that I said?” 

            “Sure.” said the elder.  “It was when you said “Now for my next point.”  Right then I knew that I needed to move forward to the next part of my life instead of focusing only on what I’d lost.” 

            So much for hours spent studying and struggling over every word in our sermons.  But that’s exactly how God starts His love song to the Jews in Isaiah 43:  ‘But now”  “But now” it is time to begin again.  “But now” it’s time to depend on me and my strength once more.

            And when we do this we will find that we are no longer alone even at our lonliest of times.  Listen to God speak to your heart.  Listen for His promise:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name you are Mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And through the rivers, they shall not overtake you.

When you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flame it shall not consume you.    

            There are two things of importance to notice:  First the bad news.  The life of faith is no fairytale where nothing bad will ever happen to you and you will never be discouraged or disappointed.  You will not live a charmed life from the moment you first believe.  That’s not God’s message.  He doesn’t even hint at that as a possibility. 

            Instead the Lord realizes that there will be hard, hard times you may think you will never recover from.  You see God doesn’t say If you pass through water; instead He says when the rivers overwhelm you.  It’s not if you walk through fire; it’s when. 

            But then comes the Good News.  We will not go through those times alone and they can not defeat us  because God is with us.  

            You see, God starts everything over again.  Whatever has gone before, has been swept away.  There’s a clear slate ready for a new beginning and the pain of the past is to be kept in the past --- not muddying up the present or tarnishing the future.

            Why would God give us this kind of fresh start?  He Himself gives the answer and what a wonderful answer it is: I do this “because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”

            Think of it!  You are cherished by God. You bring the twinkle to His eye and your picture is stuck to heaven’s refrigerator door.  And instead of God pitying you or being ashamed of you, He honors you.  He pulls you out from the back of the crowd where you’d like to hide and says  No.  I want you up here, in front of everyone, right beside Me.   In His eyes the past truly is over and done for, and all that is left to say is “I love you”.   Begin again.

Run the Race

Have you ever wandered through a graveyard reading a person’s last words on their tombstones?  It’s amazing what you can learn about someone by their epitaph.  Take the following for instance: 

“Here lie the bones of Mary Jones;  Her life it knew no terrors  

Born an old maid, died an old maid;   No runs, no hits, no errors.” 

         Or this one brief note from an avid shopper:  “Gone to Wal-mart.”

Then there is this “To follow you, I’m not content, Until I learn which way you went!”   And finally, “Beneath this stone, lies Dr. John Bigelow, an atheist all dressed up with no place to go.” 

When the Apostle Paul knew he was about to die, he penned these words: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” I pray we will all be able to write those words on our tombstones. 

We must fight the good fight in our world and on our own personal battleground. We must fight against drug and alcohol, poverty and starvation, violence against the innocent at home and abroad. In our lives, we may need to fight against the demons of illness, depression or despair.  What ever our battleground is, at the end of the day we want to say “I fought the good fight.” 

We must also finish the race.  Notice that the scripture says we must finish the race, not that we must win. 

I’m reminded of a vivid scene I saw when I was still in high school but never forgot. It took place in 1968, in the summer Olympics at Mexico City where one of the greatest runners, won by coming in dead last. 

John Stephen Alchwari of Tanzania was tripped up by another runner early in the race but he still crossed the finish line of the marathon ---well over an hour behind everyone else.  He finally hobbled across the finish with his leg bandaged and bleeding, barely able to walk.  When he was asked why he didn’t just give up along the way, Mr. Alchwari answered, “My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race.  They sent me to finish.” 

So God sends us to finish.  Let us then run our race knowing we do not run in vain. 

Life Solutions Instead of Resolutions

January first is a perfect day.  It’s a new beginning. The year’s a blank slate.  For once we know that we can keep each and every one of the commitments we made to ourselves.  For one entire day anything will seem possible.

But then reality hits and most of us feel too exhausted to even think about all those resolutions we made with such conviction and hope.  So this year, instead of resolutions I’m suggesting we make life solutions.

What do life solutions look like?

They’re based upon the heart of the gospel -- the grace and love of God --- the promise that we can be born again, start all over, and become a new person.  It is the miracle of a cosmic “do-over”. 

What’s the first step? 

The first step is to spend some time in deliberate prayer where you concentrate on finding the image of your life that God has for you, free of all the “should haves” and “could haves” and mistakes made and opportunities missed. 

Cut yourself free from all of these and listen for God to reveal His portrait of you as His child.  Dream dreams.  Let your imagination fly.  Do not limit the possibilities of you.  Remember, with God nothing is impossible.

A famous Jewish rabbi, Rabbi Zusia, told his congregation before he died, “When I face the celestrial tribunal, I shall not be asked why I was not Abraham, Jacob, or Moses, but why I was not the best Rabbi Zusia that I could be.”

Your life solution will make you the best Patricia, the best Richard, the best Tommy, you can be. What our life solutions look like will be different for each one of us because God made each of us unique, but in the end we will discover that the essence will be the same --- love:  Love of God, and at long last, love for ourselves.