Spirituality Column #268
December 27, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Hitch, Tebow, and God Almighty
By Bob Walters

Christopher Hitchens possessed a rare – one could say entirely unique – knack for writing.

His complex but nonetheless lucid, interesting, and grammatically perfect sentences presented all manner of philosophical, literary, historical, and political citations and comparisons in support of his razor-sharp, rational observations about the world and the people in it. His sentences constructed countless essays, articles and books – and fame – before he died December 15, 2011, of esophageal cancer.

Hitchens wore his atheism on his sleeve, writing God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything in 2007. It seemed to me he wrote desperately, as if hoping to argue eloquently enough to make God and religion just go away. Paradoxically, it was not uncommon for “Hitch” to refer to “the Almighty” as an existent, proper noun.

Tim Tebow possesses a rare – one could say entirely unique – athletic ability. It facilitated his entirely unanticipated success as the Plan B quarterback of the Denver Broncos. Tebow’s skills and leadership spawned a jaw-dropping string of Bronco wins this season. Flummoxed sports analysts relentlessly chattered that Tebow (shhh! … a devout, professing Christian) still lacked the proper skill set to be an NFL quarterback, but couldn’t figure out how to properly ask, “Is Tebow’s success a sign from God???”

Tebow wears his Christian faith on his sleeve, in his posture (“Tebowing” – kneeling on one knee, elbow on the other knee, forehead resting on the thumb-side of his fist, praying – is a “flash mob” fad), and he even used to wear it on his face (remember the Bible verses on his anti-glare below-the-eye cheek patches?).

Sportscaster Bob Costas recently pondered inconclusively on national TV, “There’s something about Tebow,” implying but not directly describing Tebow’s unbridled openness about his belief in and witness for Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. My thought was … “You may as well go ahead and say it, Bob, because that cat’s out of the bag: Christ’s light shines through Tebow’s witness. Amen.”

But what does that have to do with football? And where, exactly, do we suppose God is in all this? God is precisely where God always is – above it all, in us all, around us all, knowing all. The enormity of the Almighty transcends our ability to define God logically (hence: “Judge not,” Matthew 7:1, etc.), while the reality of Jesus Christ “given … for all mankind” (John 3:16), puts us with God eternally.

God loves us all; our own faith is the only variable. Tebow’s football success doesn’t prove God’s presence any more than Hitchens’ writing proves God’s absence.

God never, ever, fits into those kinds of boxes.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) mourns Hitchens’ passing and cheers Tebow’s passing. Tough loss to the Pats, though.

Spirituality Column #267
December 20, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Holiday Above Every Holiday, Part 4
By Bob Walters

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name … Jesus … Jesus Christ is Lord …” – Philippians 2:9-11

Let’s take a final look at the convolutions and ironies attendant to the general topic of “names” as they relate specifically to Jesus, Christmas, the Christ, the holidays and secular convention.

After that, those of us who so choose can go ahead and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, Happy Holidays and if we want, a partridge in a pear tree.

Our fearful, hyper-protective, offense-averse modern society annually ties itself in knots trying to celebrate Christmas without actually calling it Christmas. As believers in Christ we can relax. Christ is in our hearts and also at the right hand of the Father, always. Jesus is not confined to a date on the calendar. His name alone supersedes any holiday, and anyway the “why” of Jesus is more important than the “when.”

As for the “Christmas” name debate, I prefer not to be tied in knots, fighting battles that cannot be won and for which, really, there is no prize for winning. It seems a better strategy to dwell in the faithful assuredness of forgiveness that has already been won in Christ Jesus. I cannot argue my faith into someone else’s soul; and it follows that the same goes for trying to argue “Christ” into commerce or convention.

What I can do is to pray – frequently, fervently, and faithfully in the name of Jesus – that somehow my witness, my life, my example, my love, my works, my Merry Christmas, my whatever might somehow add up to a valid case for the peace of Christ being accepted in someone else’s soul; that in their hearts the Holy Spirit will work the miracles of grace, hope and the blessed peace of Christmas.

Satan, representing everything that is not Christ, wants to destroy that peace. The world’s – Satan’s – attack on Christ is nothing new, and the only way we can “fix” that is not to allow the world’s attack on us to rob the joy of our peace in the Lord.

Christmas is about gifts because Jesus Christ is about gifts – of His faithfulness, life, grace, eternity, freedom, inheritance, kingdom … and oh yeah, forgiveness. These are gifts open and available to absolutely everybody.

When we say Merry Christmas we’re offering all those gifts on behalf of Jesus.

That’s the power of His name.

And I’ll keep calling it Christmas because that’s what it is named in my heart.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary, Lulu.com) believes peace exists exactly where each of us in our own heart allows Christ to exist. Merry Christmas!

Spirituality Column #266
December 13, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Holiday Above Every Holiday, Part 3
By Bob Walters

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name … Jesus … Jesus Christ is Lord …” – Philippians 2:9-11

Our just-published book Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary, a five-year compilation of these weekly columns, is dedicated to longtime Indianapolis minister Russ Blowers (1924-2007).

Russ not only shepherded an enormous flock at East 91st Street Christian Church, but in his nearly 60 years of ministry was the WISH-TV 8 live “Chapel Door” pastor in the 1950s and 60s, was chairman of the Indianapolis Billy Graham Crusade in 1980 at Market Square Arena, and chairman emeritus of Graham’s 1999 Crusade at the RCA Dome. Billy and Ruth Graham stayed with Russ and Marian Blowers the first time the Grahams visited Indy in 1950.

“Everyone” knew Russ, and what just about everyone says they remember most about Russ is this: He never forgot a name. The second time one encountered Russ Blowers, Russ remembered their name from the first time. Russ loved Jesus and loved people. Russ’s most obvious expression of love for people in general and his congregation in particular, was that he remembered people’s names.

A large chunk of my career has been spent in public relations … a line of work where quite often Job #1 is to make other people feel important. A good place to start is to remember names. My name recall is so-so; Russ’s facility was dazzling.

So … names matter; which brings us to Philippians 2:9 and Christmas.

When the Apostle Paul tells the Philippians that Jesus is exalted by God as the “name above every name,” Paul is not saying “Jesus” is a name merely above earthly names like Bob, Russ, Pam, Eric, John, Joe, Sally, Sue, Jason and all the rest. Paul is saying that the name of Jesus Christ the Lord is the name above every name of God – YHWH, El Shaddai, Adonai, and so on. You know … those names.

The living God is exalting Jesus the Christ, His Son, as the Lord. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, the Eternal Savior, the Logos Creator, and He occupies the highest place with the name that is above every name. God says so.

Remembering the names of people is polite; remembering the name of Jesus Christ is holy. And while “Happy” has distinct, worldly limitations in a nameless, aimless, comfort-driven commercial “Holiday,” eternal joy and peace are found only in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.

Make mine “Merry Christmas.”

Walters’ (rlwcom@aol.com) book is available at www.Lulu.com. Type “Common Christianity” in the “Find” box and hit Enter. Buy several, give them as gifts, tell your friends! PS - Save 25% thru Wed Dec 14 use coupon code COUNTDOWN.

Spirituality Column #265
December 6, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Holiday Above Every Holiday, Part 2
By Bob Walters

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name … Jesus … Jesus Christ is Lord …” – Philippians 2:9-11

Awhile back I worked with a guy whose dad, who bankrolled the business, would occasionally forget or grossly mispronounce names of people I figured he (the dad) probably knew. Not to their faces, of course, but in conversation.

The guy once pulled me aside and explained, “When dad screws up a name, it means he doesn’t either like, trust or respect that person, or they’re expendable. He does it intentionally.” One day from around a corner I heard the dad refer to me as “what’s-his-name?” and knew it was time to move on.

So how do we treat the name of Jesus Christ? Do we forget it? Ignore it? Fear it? Trust it? Share it? Respect it? Love it? Make an effort to understand it? Make an effort to hide it? Find it expendable?

How we treat the name Jesus Christ, or any name, reveals much about our relationship with that person, place, or thing … or God. We can be assured that God knows our names, numbers the hairs on our head, and that the only thing God doesn’t remember about us is our sin, because the blood, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – God’s son – covers those sins.

God also knows whether, in faith, we name Jesus Christ as our Lord.

There is unimaginable power in the name of Jesus Christ – the power of life, the power of forgiveness, the power of adoption, the power of knowledge, light, truth and eternity. The very power of God. As humans we tend to want the power to fix the “light and momentary” pains and troubles of this temporal, fallen-world, but that is truly nothing compared to the power of God in His eternal Kingdom.

This is all basic Sunday School stuff, which leads us to the wider cultural net of systematically taking the name of Christ out of Christmas.

Nowhere in the New Testament does it say Christ wants a holiday or a festival or a feast in his name … in Christ’s name we are forgiven for all time. Amen. We must confess Jesus Christ as Lord, all the time. Amen. Jesus Christ is in our hearts, all the time. Amen. How can any holiday be any more special than “all the time”?

The truth is … it can’t. But removing “Christ” from “Christmas” is an attempt to remove the name of Christ from public view …and that’s a likeable, trustworthy, respectable name that is – eternally – not expendable.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), author of “Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary” tweets at @CommonChristian.