Spirituality Column No. 550
May 30, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters


Package deal; one or the other.  Not both.  Which would you pick?

Let’s admit that we might be so caught up in worry, guilt, shame, pain and misery that either choice would be a quantum improvement.  Many of us would simply say: “Forget truth and wisdom, just give me a big bank account and I’ll handle it from there.”

My friend Dick Wolfsie, the Indianapolis TV personality, humorist, writer and late-in-life Hoosier original, is a self-described “secular Jew” (he argues for  “Jew” over “Jewish person”) and this summer will be an artist in residence of sorts at the downtown IndyFringe Theatre, the edgy and culturally uber forward MassAve performance center.

What does “uber forward” mean?  It means that most of my Christian friends probably won’t have IndyFringe on their summer entertainment schedule.  It’s not a venue I’d likely frequent, either, but no harm, no foul.  I’m invited; just like anybody there is invited to church.  We all gravitate toward where we believe we will find the truth.

And I’d say that is an observable truth of human life.

What got me going on this is Dick’s performance subject: “Wisdom and Jewish Humor.” Dick arrived in Indianapolis in 1983 from New York City where he was a TV talk show host (WABC predecessor to Regis Philbin) and had grown up the son of observant immigrant Jews.  Dick spoke at a luncheon last week at our church and in a test-run of his presentation he made us laugh and think, made us smarter, and made us worry about his salvation.  But that’s what we Christians do; worry about salvation.

Jews, as Dick very eruditely pointed out, tend to worry about wisdom.  And when you consider the Old Testament, it obviously speaks of truth as the words of the Lord God, and it is weighted toward wisdom as the application of God’s truth.  Read about King Solomon in 1 Kings, or read the Book of Proverbs.  Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people and God generously granted that gift: “the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.” (1 Kings 3:28).  Truly, not everyone “gets it” when they read the Bible but almost everyone understands the Book of Proverbs.  It speaks wisdom for all mankind.

The New Testament includes plenty of wisdom but is heavily weighted toward truth, because the person of Jesus Christ is repeatedly, specifically described as God’s Truth, nowhere more definitively than John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

That’s the story, the fact and the purpose of Jesus: He is the way, the only way and there is no other way into the Kingdom of heaven.  Critics say that makes me (and any Christian) a bigot, but I say that makes me share truth, freedom, joy and love.

It may not be funny, but it’s the God’s honest truth.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays for wisdom and is thankful for friends like Dick.

Spirituality Column No. 549
May 23, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column No. 548
May 16, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters


You have plenty of money, great health, job security and career satisfaction.  More importantly you have a loving, trustworthy and productive family – no one is in trouble, having trouble or wandering off the behavioral trail.  You personally haven’t done anything dumb recently and your long-ago mistakes have buttressed your joy and perspective on life.  You are debtless, have abundant discretionary time and resources, eat smart and well, and enjoy companionship that nurtures all involved.

You could do anything or go anywhere.  Your mental faculties are sharp; your character, decision-making skills and leadership strength respected.  Your political views are trusted, your kindness, patience and humility are obvious, and you possess a vast palette of talents and pursuits freely shared with others.  Nobody owes you money.

And that secure job?  You love it; can’t wait to get there.  It is purpose-filled, interesting, helps others and presents challenges you love.  You could quit the job but you don’t want to.  You don’t need the money but you revel in labor’s joy.

At home the grass is cut, the flowers are in bloom, a loving spouse awaits and there is not a cross word to be heard.  You sleep like a baby and awake with energy and wonder.  If you cry it is usually due to happiness and awe, not sorrow and pain.

You love life and life loves you.

Can you improve on all this with a relationship with Jesus Christ?  Of course you can, but for the moment let’s talk about true human freedom and what we do with it, and also discuss some of life’s worry-inducing tethers that actually serve to hold us safely back from the perils of over-indulging our worldly appetites and temptations.

It’s a subject as old as Adam and Eve.

In the Garden of Eden life was worry-free and rosy.  Yet all God’s gifts did not keep Adam and Eve from listening to Satan instead of minding God.  Humanity’s true freedom is properly put to use in the single-minded pursuit of glorifying God, but is often diverted to fashioning a Satan-pleasing false self-godliness.  It’s a common mistake.

“There is a God, and I’m not Him,” said the wise priest.

G.K. Chesterton described the seemingly chaotic world of conflicting Christian doctrines, agendas and pursuits as a playground free-for-all taking place atop a tall, flat mountain, with the church serving as the security fence around the chasmic perimeter thus enabling the frantic Christian freedom of activity.  Without the fence the people would gather fearfully and lifelessly in the middle, afraid of falling into the abyss.

Christ provides our fear-limited lives with a limitless safety net we often cannot or just plain refuse to see.  It’s a lottery we’ve already won: humanity’s spirit-filled heavenly blessings restored from the curse of God through the grace of Jesus.  Every worry-free scenario we can imagine falls short of the peace we already have in Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) quotes Mad magazine in the title … and it works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spirituality Column No. 546
May 2, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters