That Perfect Moment

 

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  

Psalm 133:1

A Perfect Moment is, by definition, only 60 seconds, or shorter, or, at least, not much longer.  In many places Scripture is fluid as to time’s length, a day can be as a thousand years, or the other way around. 

As much as time may be relative, and seem longer or shorter than you, or others see it, one consistent fact about a moment is that it has both a beginning and ending.   A hug begins at some point, and is momentary…it ends when the embrace does.  The same can be said of human harmony.  There are times when all seems right…until it isn’t.  And, when that realization happens, it may become the twelve-second lead on the nightly news.  There is a reason police consider the call to a domestic dispute as potentially one of the most dangerous events of any day.  When the harmonious hug ends, the belligerent battle may kick-in. 

And woe to the bystanders!  Bystanders in the wake of disappearing harmony are described in many ways:  victim, refugee, casualty, collateral damage, just to name a few.  Everyone knows some of these; many (maybe you) have been these.  It is a story as old as Genesis, when Adam’s family brotherhood was broken with Cain’s using a rock on the back of Abel’s head to make his point.

If you have experienced harmony at some point in life, you’re aware of its sweetness.  But you are also likely to give testimony of it’s brevity. 

Most generations long for that harmonious culture of everyone getting along.  The founders of the American dream of equality and opportunity wanted a nation to undergird the rights of all to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.  But, as one critic observed, we’re guaranteed the right to it, but pursuing it is up to you. The builder generation (which gave the world my parents) lived through a depression and two world wars.  They imagined harmony would be achieved with the establishment of the “United Nations” – an end to future wars, and happiness with peace for all.  How’s that working for us?  The boomer generation, offspring of the builders [my hand raised here] chased harmony via the sexual revolution.  It’s a little naïve to suppose peace and serenity can be achieved in the most intensely-passionate of human relations.  And the current generation is as certain as all their predecessors the key to harmony will be found in shaming others for their lack of harmony.  Or pinning another peace and love slogan on their forearm or neck.  At the risk of joining the fun in all that shaming, that’s as effective as putting a bandaid on cancer.

Harmony has no easy answers, no GPS to lead you to that perfect moment of brotherhood.  And, even in the most picturesque selfie of the happy hug moment there is the grotesque reality looming that it will be just that…a moment.  The illusion of having arrived at lasting peace is also just that, a vapor, a cloud that can be blown away by even a gentle breeze, let alone the storms of our day.

For You Today

There is a way to harmony.  It is to be found in putting aside all notions that we can achieve such by human effort or ideology alone.  That’s disillusioned arrogance at best.  Rather, the only hope for lasting harmony is what Jesus preached to the crowd that day, recorded in Matthew 5-7.  This Sermon on the Mount was no litany of rules and regulations for religious zealots, it was the attitude and actions that describe Who the Prince of Peace is, and what His followers would look like, the peacemakers, the ones who hunger and thirst after righteousness with everything they think, say, and do.  And they start with anyone who crosses their pathway.

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

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

Unity We Can Live Without

 

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  Psalm 133:1

A couple of quotes on “unity” by preacher/scholars have been “cooking” on my back burner for a while; the first is from the ministry of Dr. Adrian Rogers:

It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills.  It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie.[1]

Walter Brueggemann follows the thought:
Proper unity manifests itself in an ability to live together without conflict, oppression, and having common objectives in tune with God’s purposes for the world.  At the same time, scattering should not result in fragmentation or divided loyalty to God.[2]

For me, both quotes are poignant commentary on Paul:

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  Ephesians 4:11-13

All three thoughts are part of the same idea concerning the kind of unity with which we can survive (and thrive), and that which condemns us to revisit original sin.  Of the three, Adrian Rogers puts it on the shelf low enough for even a small child:  it is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error.

You hear a lot about “unity” these days, especially out of Washington, D.C...  Although it is never articulated (and how could politicians ever be clear), is that what they mean by political unity is for all of us to think like they do, so we can set things up like we all want.  An irascible fly in that formula for the petulance of keeping the powerful in power, is that unity (to a politician) means do it my way, even if it means ignoring any truth that contradicts what I want.

A disclaimer – I’m about to use political realities to illustrate what I’ve just said about Rogers, Bruggemann, and Paul, but these are not political plugs.  More so, these will show us what living under political banners causes – the kind of unity two cats have when their tails are tied together.

The previous administration was entirely about power and economy.    Led by a businessman-turned-politician, putting America first was the Holy Land.  The current administration lauds equality and justice.  Led by a career politician, the new Nirvana is holding hands at whatever cost.  The Republican party “values” center on the economic status quo and keeping the rules.  The Democratic party “values” almost no rules, and a Federal open-door policy to the treasury.  Both parties want everyone in the land to bow to their way of doing things.  In real-time what they are proposing is not unity, but uniformity, falling in lock-step behind the current leader, even if it means walking off the cliff of truth.

In short, Republicans need to read God’s take on materialism, you know, that irritating little thing about rich people ignoring the poor, and finding the gateway to Heaven a little cramped?

In short, Democrats could do well to remember that “equal” and “just” extend to all of life, even those living in the womb.

For You Today

A truly “woke” America isn’t just about ending oppression of one race, gender issues, or political strategies.  A truly woke America would be one that has learned (again) to be humble before He who is truly God.

Hint – He won’t be found when they call the roll on Capitol Hill, or Pennsylvania Avenue.

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

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Longtime pastor of Belview Baptist Church, Dr. Adrian Rogers, via Goodreads

[2] The New Interpreter’s Bible (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1994) P.414

alt-Center

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Friday, August 18, 2017

Never pay back evil with more evil…Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.  Romans 12:17, 21^(NLT)

Our Shih-Tzu, Wellington the Wonder dog takes out his hostility on his toys.  Whenever he is frustrated, or if we have missed his feeding time by 18 seconds, the little monster heads for the toy box and throws them everywhere.  He will grab one, shake it and hurl it like an Olympic javelin champion.  His toys end up all over the room, and he just won’t put them away when his “fit” is done.  Picking up the toys is what his slaves (Mrs. Preacher and I) must do. 

What Wellie does after the carnage is done is rest his weary body. 

Anger does that to all of God’s creatures; it wears us out!  And with due respect to all that is holy and right, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference which side of an argument you choose; anger is going to wear you out. 

In this country we have watched anger and its expressions of violence break out like volcanic explosions.  In Charlottesville this past week the (so-called) alt-Right ultra conservatives, neo-Nazis and white supremacists came face to face with the (so-called) alt-Left, anti-fascist liberals[2]; the clash of these groups’ anger resulted in three dead and 20 more injured, and un-ending news coverage and political wrangling.

I will not presume to hold-forth a solution to the woes of a nation divided as we are; I’m not that clever (or that stupid).  This is as complex as it gets.  

This morning I would simply offer a comment on the nature of how our culture’s mood has (and is) missing the mark by a wide margin.  Scripture shows us alt-Good and its evil twin alt-Evil.

David’s Psalm suggested an alt-good national mood:

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  Psalm 133:1^(NLT)

Paul’s statement on human nature reveals the alt-Evil fly in harmony’s ointment:

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”  Ephesians 4:26a^(NLT)

When anger enters the picture the body count grows.  All you have to do is look at Wellie’s toys to figure that out!  Our national sin is the anger, vitriol, and violence thrown at each other like water on a grease fire; it won’t cease raging…ever!  And with that image comes a cry for some kind of hope…how can we put out the fires of our discontent? 

There is no easy answer to that…certainly not in a three minute devotional thought.  But there is a direction today’s scripture from Genesis suggests:

Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.”  Genesis 41:52^(NLT)

Joseph was ripped violently from his homeland, sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by his owner’s wife of rape, betrayed by people he’d helped, and yet remained without anger.  He named his son Ephraim – fruitfulness in grief.  This is much like Paul’s statement to the church at Philippi: 

…for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  Philippians 4:11^(NLT)

In the worst and best circumstances of his life Joseph celebrated being useful in the conditions life threw at him. 

And now look to the best example; in the midst of extreme hatred and undeserved evil, there was One who gave his life on a cross to make a way of reconciliation with God for those who despised him most.

For You Today

We all need to remember, and spread the word, that anger never resolves injustice; rather it clouds the issue at best, and, at worst, results in the carnage of retaliation, blood, and death.

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy Pixabay.com & Russell Brownworth (own work)

[2] For definitions of alt-Right & alt-Left see NY Times article

Love Each Other - Part 1 of Series: The "Each Other" Teaching of Jesus

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Go to VIDEO 

This is my command:  Love each other. 

John 15:17^(NLT)

Stop the first one hundred people you meet on the street and ask them this question:  "What's wrong with the church today?"  You will get plenty of answers! 

It's so easy to criticize what others are doing.  If you look diligently enough you can find something wrong with everything.  

A farmer's neighbor was so negative, criticizing everything and anything.  The farmer bought a new plow, the neighbor said it would rust soon.  The farmer remarked how it was good to have more rain this year, and the neighbor lamented that his crops would rot at the root with all this rain.  It went on ad nauseam. 

The farmer determined he would find something to cheer up this bottomless pit of despair.  He went out and purchased the finest hunting dog, and secretly trained him to fetch by walking on the water, instead of swimming.  When hunting season came the farmer invited his sour neighbor to go with him.  When the first flock passed by, the farmer and his friend shot several ducks each.  The farmer yelled to the dog, Fetch!  The hound darted, his feet barely skimming the surface of the lake.  He scooped up four ducks from the water and was back in an instant, dry as a bone.  How 'bout THAT? questioned the farmer.  Remarked ol' sourpuss, Cain't swim, can he?

Well, the church is something else altogether.  If we are honest we can see that most churches are 98% wonderful; the other 2% we manage to mess things up.  The problem is that unbelievers, and even critics within, focus on the 2%, and not the productive 98%.  It is wrong to judge all ministers by the few who fall into gross sin.  It is wrong to judge all committee members by the few who do nothing or just cause trouble.  It is wrong to put all members in with the hypocritical few who aren't faithful to their Lord.

We ought to judge the church at its best, not its worst.  The church's best are the ideals and principles upon which it was founded by Jesus. 

Jesus addressed his disciples, with the command (the word means to point out the goal), to love each other.  To love means to seek another's highest good.  Our goal is to find ways to lift each other in the church.  That puts us at a fork in the road.  You can criticize, or you can build up, but you cannot do both.

So this morning we want to talk about our goal as a church:

Loving...as Christ also loved...

A deeper study of how to love each other is contained in Paul's letter to the Ephesian church ^(5:25-32).  The passage deals with marriage, but we can see how Paul points to the relationship that brings blessing in the church family.

Jesus loved the church (us), and He saw potential for good in each of us.  He called us branches of his own vine.  In fact, the word "member" is synonymous with the Latin root for "limb."  Each of us who are members of the local church, the body of Christ, is a limb.  Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.  The Lord expects to see fruit produced; He wants us to be great limbs, bearing wonderful fruit.

Now, as any gardener will attest, a crop must be cultivated.  It doesn't just happen. 

Churches are like that.  We are a collection of branches, and the Lord can certainly grow us, but there is also some cultivating that needs to be done.  Given the right care, the church can be grown and built up like a vineyard.

So let’s look at the kind of love we can have towards each other; the kind of love that bears 

fruit in the Father’s vineyard:

Sacrificial Love

 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.  Ephesians 5:25^(NLT)

Jesus sees that kind of potential in you and me.  We are the embodiment of the heart of Jesus Christ.  That heart is filled with all kinds of good things.  What kinds of things? 

In the heart of Jesus was the willingness to be a sacrifice for the whole world.  In the church you will always find members (limbs of the body) who are ready to give.  Jesus wasn't selfish, and his true, fruitful limbs never demand their own way.  One of the things that warms my heart is the generosity of God's people.  It is a common sight to see a Christian put another's need before his own.

Purifying Love

 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.  He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.  Instead, she will be holy and without fault.  Ephesians 5:26-27^(NLT)

Among the many reasons Jesus gave himself for the church is that the church might be cleansed of things that harm and drag us down.  The guiding principle is uplift!  Jesus lifts us out of the anger and selfishness of the world.  Think of the blind man Jesus healed.  With the hand of love the man received his sight, and his life was never the same again. 

Jesus cast demons out; he forgave a woman who should have been stoned to death.  He even met a murderous young Pharisee named Saul and turned him into a mighty preacher of the Gospel. 

Jesus is still touching lives like that with his purifying love.  He does it through his limbs – the church members, filling them with the Spirit of hope and forgiveness and purity.  This purifying love makes the church a sparkling jewel.

Caring Love

No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.  Ephesians 5:29^(NLT)

A husband is charged with the responsibility of cherishing his wife.  Jesus cherishes his bride, the church.  God has seen to our physical needs, and gives as He determines will be good for us.  But this verse emphasizes the spiritual nourishment of the soul. 

The church meets physical needs sometimes, but our main diet is the building up of the spirit with caring.  Groups gather for fellowship, study of God's word and prayer.  We become aware of each other's needs.  We worship together, building up the spirit with praise.

Unifying Love

As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”  This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.  Ephesians 5:30-32^(NLT)

If there is one thing a body needs in order to remain healthy and useful, it is wholeness.  Wholeness means together as a unit.  We are the body of Christ, a unit.  We are not all the same.  Just like this world, which has a rich variety of different people animals and plants, there is also great diversity in the church.  There are more varieties of Christians than opinions in a committee meeting.

Now, in spite of all this diversity, there is one unifying, glorious force:  The HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD.  It is the Spirit of God who teaches us this unifying love; one Spirit – one body. 

We are not all the same, but we are all one in Him. 

We may not all act the same; but in Him we can all act in love.

The church, with this unifying love is much like a football team; there are eleven men with different talents, different assignments, but ALL with just ONE PURPOSE:  get the ball over the line.

Armies are composed of thousands from all walks of life, but every soldier has only ONE OBJECTIVE – win the war!

Bands have different instruments producing different sounds, but only ONE GOAL – follow the director to play the song.

This is the same as the church with its unifying love.  We build together or we fall apart.

Lord Nelson of England was about to enter an important battle.  He heard that two of his officers were at odds with each other.  He called them in and said, Gentlemen, give me your hands.  The two captains put their hands in the Commander's hands, and he squeezed them with a tight grip.  Men, he said, Remember the ENEMY is OUT THERE!

The love God wants for his church is tough, enduring, and sees beyond human emotions and selfishness.  It gives, uplifts, cares, builds and unites. 

The Psalmist said it this way: 

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  Psalm 133:1^(NLT)

Sacrificial, purifying, caring and unifying love.  That is the kind of love Jesus had in mind when He said, Love each other.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

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[1] Carl Heinrich Bloch [Public domain], via Wikimedia