Spirituality Column #467
October 27, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“… faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

It is stated no more clearly than this anywhere else in the Bible: faith is about spiritual sureness, not physical proof.  Human comprehension of and confidence in the divine requires something beyond evidence and definition.

Old Testament history, laws, scripture, landmarks, prophets and the story of Israel provide a trail of earthly evidence of God’s plan for His chosen nation.  Even with so much cultural structure and religious direction, the Jews still had to take it on faith that their unique story represented God’s will and purpose.  Consider Noah, Job and Abraham and their remarkable faith in the One True God even before the Hebrew covenant, tribes, Moses, Ten Commandments and law.

The New Testament’s eternal truth of Christ is so much more unimaginable.

The Gospels attest to the arrival, purpose, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.  In Acts the disciples receive the Holy Spirit, live as Christ’s church and tell the world about Jesus.  Paul’s 13 letters describe God’s son Christ Jesus fulfilling God’s laws and prophecies while redrawing man’s expectations to include, through faith in Jesus, gracious forgiveness of sins and adoption into God’s glorious Kingdom. Hebrews – the book – proclaims Jesus as entirely sufficient for all this; in Jesus the world is entirely new.  Instead of failure and being judged in sin, humanity has hope in the redeeming, saving grace of Jesus Christ (John 3:16).  God’s promise to Israel is completed in Jesus for the entirety of humanity – humanity created in God’s image with the breath of the Spirit and the Word, Jesus, that showed up in history, time and location as the Messiah Christ.

Evidence?  How about God in the flesh, with teaching, miracles, love, wisdom, courage, humility and the ultimate purpose of saving all mankind?

“Naw, that’s just a story; I got real problems,” folks say.  Jesus just isn’t sufficient.

For a moment put aside the pervasive intellectual misdirection of the evidentiary narrative of ancient Greek philosophers and modern humanists, who endeavor to define the undefinable with arrogant insistence on the sufficiency of man’s inexplicable brain to discover truth, and the sovereignty of man’s unexplained being to assign purpose.

It’s really so simple:

Why are we here?  Because of God, for His glory.

Why do we have hope, light and truth?  Because of Jesus Christ.

Why do we know it?  Because of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is sufficient for all this not because He’s all we have, but because He’s all we need.  The point is lost when we look outside our faith.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) ignores ghosts at Halloween the way secularists ignore Christ at Christmas.

Spirituality Column #466
October 20, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17), Jesus to “Simon Son of John,” aka Peter.

Jesus, the Creator of knowledge and wisdom, isn’t on biblical record as having asked many questions.  Why would He?  There is nothing He didn’t/doesn’t know.

But the questions He does ask cut to the core.  They force each human answerer to dig deeply within his or her fallen self to discern the bedrock of what they believe about God, Christ, the Spirit, the Law, the Truth, the Scriptures and most importantly, and in the context of, the man standing in front of them – Jesus.

In John 21, the resurrected Jesus provides breakfast for the very surprised – and frightened – disciples.  Note Jesus’s sufficiency: He feeds them bread He has already prepared, and fish the disciples caught after Jesus told them where to cast their nets.

After breakfast, Jesus asks Peter: “Simon son of John, Do you love me?”

This is not a challenge but a major reset – a “do-over” – for the fiery disciple.  In two other places, Jesus calls Peter “Simon son of John.”  Upon first meeting Simon (John 1:42), Jesus declares He will call him Cephas, which translates as Peter and means “rock.”  Later, when Peter is first to identify Jesus as the Christ (Matthew 16:17) – another beginning – Jesus adds, “on this rock I will build my church,” etc.

Bible geeks dig into this – OK, I’m one of them – and note Simon was Andrew’s brother, Andrew was one of the first two disciples (the other was probably Gospel writer John) and the father of Simon (and Andrew) is identified as “John” in John 1 but as “Jonah” in Matthew 16.  The name and early discipleship are not vital.  What is vital is that the impulsive, unstable and emotional Peter – the opposite of Andrew, incidentally – was anything but a “rock” as a disciple but what Jesus knew Peter would become.

So, why is Jesus asking Peter, “Do you love me?”

Because the night Judas betrayed Jesus, a frightened Peter three times denied being a disciple of Jesus.  Now days later, facing the resurrected Jesus, Peter is again addressed as “Simon, son of John.”  Why?  Because Jesus is going back to the beginning of Peter’s discipleship and of Peter’s understanding.  Jesus, in other words, is starting over.  He forgives Peter’s betrayal and restores him with the single most important question in human existence: “Do you love me?”

Church doctrinaires argue endlessly about what is essential, proper and sufficient in Christian life.  It seems Jesus covers it all with one question:

“Do you love me?”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes many things are important, but only Jesus is sufficient.  And look what else, sinners … you can come back.

Spirituality Column #465
October 13, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist
 
Modernizing the Eternal?
By Bob Walters

Last week in this space we commented on the thunderous applause Pope Francis received in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

The thought here was that in that moment, the Pope appeared at best wistful if not a tad embarrassed about the divine tenor of that applause directed at him which he knew properly should be directed at Jesus Christ.

The Pope smiled politely; he didn’t take a bow or pump his fist.

One thing I believe about the Pope is that he is no hypocrite.  In general I think that helps explain the breadth of especially the secular fascination with any Pope.      What’s the number one complaint against Christians?  “They’re hypocrites.”  Folks may not understand Christianity, scripture, Jesus, Trinitarian relationship or what the Pope stands for, but they appreciate his commitment.

Three cheers for not being a hypocrite.

Catholics of course cheer the head of their Church.  They see the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ, and the Holy embodiment of Rome’s long Christian tradition.  Whether or not one is in theological, salvational, doctrinal big-picture agreement with the Catholic Church, all of us recognize the Pope, globally, as a religious leader.  Maybe he’s not “my” or “your” particular leader, but a leader nonetheless, and a leader by non-fraudulent personal example.

What seems to be particularly endearing to the masses about this Pope is that observers of his papacy have interpreted in his various political comments a tendency toward the modern.  Critics will call him too much of a socialist, or too much of a dabbler in science, or out of his proper depth in commenting on global political pressures, cultural trends and economic disparities, but I see no cracks in the Pope’s key Christian commitments of loving others, spreading the Gospel, and helping the poor.

Folks should not imagine that their personal political and cultural agendas will imprint this Pope’s mission.  He is not in the office of “modernization” of anything.  He is in the office of relaying the eternal message of Jesus Christ.  It is a message of God’s truth, love, hope and faithfulness.  It is a mysterious message that will never change.  It is a comforting message in which we can rest.

It is a message this Pope thoroughly “gets.”

It is a message, sadly, many people completely miss.

So, about that thunderous applause.  From the sincerely faithful?  Praise God!   But from the politically and culturally agenda-driven modernizers who hope this “new” Pope will declare it “OK” and somehow righteous to “conform to the world” today in pursuit of earthly happiness and morally vacant personal desires?

Better get with God’s eternal message in Christ.  Today will soon be over.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cites “everlasting to everlasting.”

Spirituality Column #464
October 6, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

I had a moment of deep sympathy for Pope Francis a couple weeks ago as he gazed up from his seat during Mass at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Cardinal Tim Dolan was welcoming the Pope into the midst of these 20,000 or so souls: so happy to see their Pope, so blessed to be in his presence, so profoundly moved by his visit and vision.  The Cardinal pronounced, “We pray for you, by name, in all our churches every day, and now here you are; with us!”

At “with us!” the fervent arena crowd erupted in a massive, sustained, and divinely thunderous chorus of reverent cheers, shouts of “Il Pape!” and heartfelt applause.  The longing of the faithful and the hopes of the lost were expansively, wonderfully expressed in this extended demonstration of love and admiration for this Pope of the Holy See, Bishop of Rome, and Vicar of Christ.  This was the ultimate in Big Apple props to the Pontiff, the leader of a billion Catholics across the globe.

Why my sympathy?  Because as I watched TV and saw the Pope’s gentle face smile humbly, politely, at that Garden cacophony reminiscent of an NBA Finals Game 7, I swear I saw a hint of longing in the Pope’s own eyes that reflected what I imagined Francis was feeling at that moment:

Oh, if only that cheer went up for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I am not being cynical about this.  I am a Bible Christian, not a Roman Catholic.  I read and study extensively with a special focus on church history, the development of denominations, Bible literacy, and modern historical context for how the Church, faith, Christianity, religion in general, politics, culture and academia have all arrived at perhaps the most confused, chaotic, convoluted and  complicated faith/political/moral moment in the history of humanity.

What I have absolute confidence in is that Pope Francis knows exactly who he is, and who he isn’t; a man, not Jesus.  Is he the exclusive representative of Christ on earth?  That’s a piece of Catholic doctrine other churches don’t generally share; most other doctrines say each believer is Christ’s representative on earth, or should be.

Regardless, Jesus always should be the main point.

But as Francis sat, the object of that amazing applause that shook the rafters of that enormous place, and the echoing beauty of that Roman Catholic Mass filled it with Holy peace, I am sure he humbly listened, and prayed in Jesus’ name …

That God would get the glory, not him.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) doesn’t remember hearing a guitar or a praise song in any of those lovely services the Pope celebrated.  Just saying …