King Down

Monday, September 26, 2022

I correct and discipline everyone I love.  So be diligent and turn from your indifference.  “Look! I stand at the door and knock.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.  Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.”  Revelation 3:19-22

In chess, when an opponent has cornered your king, to the point there is no possible move without being taken by another piece, it is checkmate.  You have lost the game, and the acknowledgement of your loss is laying-down your king.  It is this picture that enters my mind whenever I think of Jesus’ followers placing the body of Jesus in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb…KING DOWN!  This describes the message of a popular hymn in many churches, Victory in Jesus:[1]  

I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,

how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;

I heard about his groaning, of his precious blood’s atoning,

then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

When you begin to parse the words from the hymn, groaning, blood, sins, wretch, and envision Jesus’ last moments on Golgotha’s hill, there doesn’t seem to be much “victory” in it.  It reminds me of Homer Rothrock, a member of a church I once served.  Homer was suffering from a gastro-intestinal block.  He was in the hospital, in great pain, waiting on the doctors to decide whether to operate.       As I stood next to my friend I asked him how it was going.  He looked at me with weary eyes and said:  I’ll tell ya, preacher; there ain’t much romance in it!  

Thinking about Homer’s statement has always brought a smile for the way he could maintain a sense of humor, even in the tough times.  It also drives me to the issue of human pain in life, and how going through a rough patch makes us put aside the mundane, in favor of the grand. 

Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis pushed us towards the grand and noble when he wrote:  Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

“Moderate” is the lukewarm word of Jesus’ message to the church of Laodicea, that group of believers who were once white-hot for Jesus, and had cooled-off, like lava from a vocanic erruption that loses its’ heat, losing its’ ability to move, and eventually forming into a heap of hardened slag…a small hill of moderate uselessness.  For a church, that is an epitaph of shame…once vital, we cooled off and stopped where we were comfortable.

For You Today

Wall Street marketing ideas would not include suffering, bleeding, and dying as a great invitation to belong to anything.  Yet, this is precisely what Jesus said led to his victory, and sitting on Heaven’s throne.  And He invites everyone to join him. 

So, are you ready to join King Down?  Or stay with the Indifferent Slow Down Slag?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Game Over and After the Disaster  and It’s Just a Job and Open Door Policy

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Eugene Bartlett ^©1939

 

Monday, August 31, 2020

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis.  This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars:  “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.  Wake up!  Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead.  I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.  Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again.  If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.  “Yet there are some in the church in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes with evil.  They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.  All who are victorious will be clothed in white.  I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.  Revelation 3:1-6

I do love competitive sports.  The days of my involvement in team athletics is a rearview mirror issue…long gone, reduced to an occasional tussle with a golf course.  As much as I have loved most sports, I’ve never cared a whole lot for the concept of boxing.  The whole idea of throwing punches to mangle your opponent’s face, or a side blow to rupture his spleen, is repugnant to me.  And the fact that my opponent would do the same to me (if he’s fast enough to catch up with me)…well, that speaks for itself. 

That being understood, the pathos of a 15-round slugfest, where both fighters are battered, exhausted, and nearly senseless from a half-hour of savage assault on their bodies, blows with the average force of 2,500 pounds per square inch,[1] is profound. One of the warriors is on his back, having been knocked there by his opponent.  Just on the fading side of consciousness, he is being counted-out by the referee.  As the count reaches 7, the battered man’s trainer/second is screaming from just outside the ring, get up…wake up…do something!  It is in this moment it will become evident whether training and instinct have created the heart to go on.

Like a boxer on his back is the church of the 21^st century.  It’s an easy thing to look at the state of the church and announce the count as just about over.  And that may be true for some forms of church to which we may have become too attached…formal processions and pomp…bishops, diocese turf rules…books of rules…financial power, and many more. 

But, what of the church, the Bride of Christ?  What of the cosmic gathering of all the saints of all time?  What of God’s plans for eternity?  Are these also down for the count?  I would say, YES…definitely…as down as a carpenter, nailed to a cross on Friday morning.  Frankly, it didn’t look too good for the movement when Joseph of Arimthea begged for permission to bury Jesus in a donated tomb.  However it may have looked at sundown on Friday evening, the church was just getting started.  Fifty days later Peter would preach at the Temple steps, a place where the crusty old guard in charge of the system soiled God’s holy place, and three thousand souls signed up to follow the crucified Lord.

The church may have been reeling, battered, and torn on Friday, but Sunday was on its way!  

For You Today

Through the centuries the church has had its share of Dark Ages, where it seemed like Satan was going to win the day.  And, unless I miss my theological guess, we are in the same boat today.  You may have sensed it, or just wondered, but the church is down right now, back to the canvas, reeling and just barely conscious. 

What to do?  Let’s let God’s Word speak a word of hope and revival:

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

VIDEO

Title image Pixabay.com  ∞ Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Revelation 3 see: Epitaph of the Church and Ears to Hear; Heart to Obey

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[1] Boxing Science

 

Open Door Policy

[i]

Monday, September 26, 2016

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea.  This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation:  “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish that you were one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!  You say, ‘I am rich.  I have everything I want.  I don’t need a thing!’  And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.  So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire.  Then you will be rich.  Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see.  I correct and discipline everyone I love.  So be diligent and turn from your indifference.  “Look! I stand at the door and knock.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.  Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.”  Revelation 3:14-22^(NLT)

An open door is a metaphor that can take you in more than one direction.  An open door can be an opportunity, or it could be an invitation at work to go to the boss for frank discussion anytime. 

An open door can also be the symbol of confidence someone expresses in the possibilities of friendship and community; you are welcome here anytime!  The context here makes this kind of warm invitation a really strange one.  After all, the risen Lord Jesus is telling John to tell the Laodicean church their lukewarmness made him sick!

Lukewarm friendship; how does that work for you?

Okay, so everyone can see this invitation is preceded by a warning – I’ll spit you out of my mouth!  Cold water works, hot coffee works, but neither is good lukewarm.  My wife likes iced coffee, sugar-free, vanilla, non-fat, yada, yada, yada.  Give me hot, black, no sugar and I’m ok.  If I forget my coffee for an hour and absent-mindedly take a sip, I’m really close to my Jesus imitation; can’t stand tepid coffee; nothing more nauseating!

So there’s the caution against cooling off, or warming down – lukewarm indifference. 

And there’s an invitation of strong friendship – dinner and a movie with Jesus.

And it’s conditional – turn from that indifference; accept the correction Jesus offers and the open door thing is going to happen.  And the key to it all is in our hands, because it’s our door….the door to each of our hearts.

And that door is only opened from the inside…like any common house door lock, you must be willing to open your heart to God; He will not pick that lock like a burglar…He waits for you to accept His invitation to open the door.

He calls, but He won’t beat down the door!  He will step inside when you are ready to get white-hot for him!

For You Today

When I was very young we didn’t have a lock on the front door.  Friends and neighbors were pretty much welcome to open the door and come on in. 

Is that the kind of open door policy you have with Jesus?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Henry Fox Talbot [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It's Just a Job

[1]

Thursday, May 19, 2016

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish that you were one or the other!  Revelation 3:15^(NLT)

Frank Donoroma was a friend, and a member of the church I served in 1990.  He was part of the lay leadership and sang in the choir.  Frank lived right behind the church, and for many years served as custodian.  He was the only one I knew who didn’t get dizzy climbing straight up a special ladder we had to change light bulbs in the 40’-high sanctuary ceiling.

My friend earned a living with a hammer in his hand, so it was no surprise that when he retired he took up woodworking as a hobby.  Often from my study on the second floor of the church, I could hear him using all sorts of machines to cut wood, or shape and smooth the contours of his latest project.  He was quite good.  I still use a wooden wastebasket he made for me.

As a craftsman who used wood for medium, it was natural that when the church decided one Advent Season to offer to our community an interactive “tour of Bethlehem,” Frank would play the part of the carpenter…his character’s specialty would be, as the contract-holder with the Roman officials, to make crosses for executions. 

With church members as tour-guides, visitors were taken to homes, shops, an over-crowded inn, and even a synagogue.  The guides would ask questions of the citizens, shop keepers and officials.  Some of the dialogue took on a life of its own!

Frank’s carpenter shop on the tour was right after the nativity.  He was supposed to have one line; when the tour guide asked:  And, what are you doing, sir?  Frank would respond, Oh, I make crosses; the Romans pay good money for my work. 

The tour guide would make a face for the visitors and tell them:  Those heartless Romans use those crosses to kill our citizens of Bethlehem; I hope that little baby we saw in the manger never has to face that.  Then she would turn back to our cross-making carpenter and say:  You should be ashamed…don’t you know those heathen Roman dogs would even put the Messiah on one of those things you’re making if he were here?

At that point Frank was supposed to shrug and go back to pounding on the wooden crossbeam.  But the words rolled out of his mouth before he could stop them…

Lady, it’s just a job!

The words came out so naturally and captured the spirit of indifference so well that we kept that dialogue throughout the two nights of tours.  Hundreds of people met a man who casually made death sentence apparatus seem just a part of normal living.

In a conversation weeks after the Bethlehem Walk, Frank told me that his role as the “lukewarm cross-maker” caused him to lose a few nights’ sleep.  He said that it was one thing to play a role in a pageant, saying that phrase over and over, it’s just a job.  But it started him thinking about how he lives and if he’s anything like that carpenter he played. 

Frank said he began to look at everything he did so differently.  He wanted to make certain he didn’t crucify Christ with his attitude and what he did every day.  Playing that role made him think hard about the way he lived his life.  He said to me at one point:  Preacher, whoever that guy was who made the cross they hung Jesus on…I don’t ever want to be him.

So…it wasn’t just a job after all!

For You Today

What’s it going to be like today?  Just a job…or white-hot for Jesus?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  By Martin-loewenstein Ölbild von Żaba, Hamburg 2010, via Wikimedia Commons