Monday, December 31, 2018

633 - Lighten Up


Spirituality Column #633
January 1, 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Lighten Up
By Bob Walters

For a retired couple with no kids at home, we sure put up a lot of Christmas lights.

Inside (Pam’s job) are lighted trees, garlands, wreathes, and a lighted “Christmas village in the clouds” (Kinkade ceramics, cotton batting, fake snow, figurines, little trees) atop the living room book case.  Outside (my job), minilights outline the eaves, windows, shrubbery, and flower boxes along with several more wreathes.  We planted a blue spruce tree in the back yard (it’s now 7 feet tall) specifically to hang Christmas lights on (large and small bulbs, about a thousand all together – it looks magnificent), and though we eschew Santas, snowmen, secular blow-ups, and other Griswoldian excesses, we do station a couple of lighted deer in the small woods behind the house for atmosphere.

With a fire in the fireplace, it is all downright cozy.  But we could do more.

If we found the right Crèche (manger scene) there’s a good spot for it near the front door.  I keep thinking we should light the tree in the front yard, but it is one of those awful crabapple trees that this time of year still holds a smattering of shriveled leaves that won’t fall and gobs of tiny fruit rotting on the branches.  It looks better in the dark.

We got a late start decorating this year due to an atypical Thanksgiving out of town and weather that wouldn’t cooperate.  Plus, the word has gotten around about Pam’s baking skills and she produced 1,200 cookies and 46 cake rolls for family, friends, and co-workers between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Add in all the normal Christmas gifting and wrapping and planning and eating with kids, grandkids and dear friends and it was a huge build-up to a very blessed and busy Yuletide for us.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year … and then it’s over.  The decorations are staying up until New Year’s Day since we got the late start but normally they’d be down by now.  By tomorrow it will just look like January around here.  ‘Show’s over.

In early December I was lamenting to a neighbor about not having our Christmas lights up, and she gently chided that Christmas “isn’t about the lights.”  Amen to that.  Still, we regard our lights as a neighborhood ministry – not to “light the way” for Santa to our home, but for the light of Jesus to emanate from it.  We hope our actions model Christian neighborliness year round, but we hope the lights say, “We Do Jesus Here.”

A couple weeks ago I wrote about God’s “thoughts and ways” being higher than ours (Dec. 17, CommonChristianity: 631 - Gettin' Paid), and how He miraculously does all He does in grace, not in exchange for something.  Humans, generally, don’t think that way.  We live in a “lower” quid pro quo world with our quid pro quo minds imagining a quid pro quo God, savior, and religion.  What’s higher about God’s thoughts and ways is that God does it all with and for love … always.  His unending light is Jesus Christ.

At Christmas, we revel in (endure?) the holiday “build up” knowing shortly thereafter the cookies will be gone, the lights will be packed, and it’ll look like January.  But our lifelong, faithful build-up to the real day of the Lord, the real reckoning, the real God, Spirit, and Heaven, is nothing like the Christmas dynamic.  After this life’s build-up, that will be a celebration with no let down, a life without end, and glory that doesn’t dim.

How does God do that?  And what will it be like?  I can’t imagine.

But it won’t be like January.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) and his wife love Christmas but don’t exchange gifts.

Monday, December 24, 2018

632 - Comfort and Joy

Spirituality Column #632
December 25, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Comfort and Joy
By Bob Walters

I can’t think of a better way to ruin Christmas than to go off on a “linguistics police” tangent regarding subjective, objective, transitive, punctuation, and “pseudo-archaism” lyrical and literary analysis of a very old and wonderful Christmas carol.

So we won’t; the joy would be lost amid the legalisms (as it usually is).

Just let me say that my favorite libretto of all the classic seasonal songs describing the great human profit of our savior’s birth – among all the “Harks,” “Angels,” “Glorias,” “Holy Nights,” and the rest – is the direct, theologically spot-on message that resides in the first verse from the 17th century’s God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen:

            “For Christ the Lord our Savior
            Is born this Christmas Day,
            To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
            When we were gone astray.”

If anything should be clear to us at Christmas it is that Jesus arrived amid humanity as God on earth not to punish anyone or to collect a debt from anyone.  He came bearing the righteousness of God and the gifts of forgiveness, salvation, faith, hope, love, and eternal life.  Jesus came to save us from Satan’s awful power – the earthly lord’s spirit-killing and faith-crippling temptations that exploit weak humanity’s great Godly gift of freedom – not to present us with God’s bill for services rendered.

Now, I’ve read Revelation and I do believe that day is coming – Judgement Day, et al, and it won’t be pretty – but Christmas isn’t it.  My point here is to consider how often we as church-going Christians hear the message of Christ framed as a frightful, sin-dominated negative message of death, payment, guilt, and fear, rather than the hopeful, positive, plainly-stated scriptural palette of life, grace, forgiveness, and peace.

You better watch out, you better not cry!” rather than “God so loved the world.”

The threat of being left out of Santa’s gift-fest supposedly encourages kids to behave, but that is a temporary, earthly control mechanism that certainly doesn’t reflect the eternal message of Jesus.  I never equated my love as a parent as a give-and-take with my two sons’ prospects on Christmas morning.  God doesn’t do that with us, either.  And I take notice when I hear those types of threats any time in Christian preaching.

Christmas should be a time of rejoicing, most properly I believe, because it is the revelation of a “way out”: of God’s willingness to “go easy on us” if we will build a faithful and trusting relationship of love with His Son, and if we will love other people, especially our enemies.  We as sinners are God’s enemies, but Jesus “fixes” that with His love.

Luke 6:37 contains the very familiar sentiment about “don’t judge or condemn others” so you won’t be, and “forgive others” so you will be.  That is us going easy on each other, and God’s promise – revealed in Jesus – that He’ll go easy on us.

Merry Christmas!  What possibly could provide more comfort and joy?

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) studied and is pretty sure the “God Rest You…” title means something closer to “Be at peace, gentlemen,” not “Relax, you party animals.”
Monday, December 17, 2018

631 - Gettin' Paid

Spirituality Column #631
December 18, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Gettin’ Paid
By Bob Walters

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – God, Isaiah 55:8-9 KJV

My life is rich with friends and close acquaintances who are much smarter than me.  Yes I have my smart moments, but my treasure is the intellect of my "peeps."

That said, God here in Isaiah is not “speaking down” to us as though we are dumb humans and he is the valedictorian of the Cosmos – although I suppose we are, and He is; and on further review I suppose the “valedictorian” title is more appropriate for Jesus Christ since he is the “All in All.”  But the Trinitarian economy is not the point here and valedictorian status is not the point; it’s not even in the conversation.

What God is telling humanity in this section of Isaiah – some 550 years before God’s incarnation in Christ Jesus – is that God is different from us.  Don’t just read the part about “higher ways and thoughts” in verse nine without first taking to heart verse eight where it says “not your thoughts and ways.” “Higher” means “different” - very different - in ways we simply have to trust in faith that they exist.

We may not comprehend those/His ways, but let’s agree, “God is different.”

In this Christmas season we talk a lot about gift giving and getting.  Even the secular “Happy Holidays” crowd that eschews mention of Jesus, “Christmas,” or the Incarnation of God, talks about gift giving and getting.  The more mature among us understand that “getting” may make us happy, but true joy is in the giving.  I believe it is one of those different “God ways” few humans truly “get,” including many Christians.

Christmas winds up being a lot like the rest of our cultural year when it comes to “giving and getting,” and it is alarming how many Christians perceive, are taught, grasp, and solely recognize the “give/get” dynamic in the totality of their earthly, human, and spirit life.  In other words we are expecting, no, we are demanding, something in return for the “Jesus” things we do.  Whether it is prayer, service, good works, going to church, scripture reading, preaching – you name it – we apply Newton’s “equal and opposite reaction” physics to the economy of every part of our lives.  We want to get paid.

God’s ways and thoughts, spiritually, are simply not like that.  I’m sure of it.

God presents to us, through Jesus Christ in our lives and the light of the Holy Spirit in our souls – the way and the truth and the life of all humanity – the reality of love and relationship with Almighty God.  The point is to bring the grace and peace of Christ into our lives; to “know He is God” and share this life – all of it – with Him for His glory.

Very few people I know would be happy – or find joy in – leaving it at that.

Suppose we did all that we do in a Christian life – we know Jesus, we know Jesus is Lord, we act like it most of the time, we tell people, we go to church, read the Bible, pray, feel the light, grace, peace, and mystery of Jesus, and more – but found out we weren’t “getting paid.”  Suppose that in God’s world of pure love, grace, and glory, of ultimate truth and righteousness, that one huge thing that is “different and higher” in His Kingdom is the complete absence of the transaction.  No payment or reward; just love.

Can you imagine?  If you do, you can stop worrying about the outcome.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures Godly relationship in Christ is a joy, not a job.
Monday, December 10, 2018

630 - The Power of Nonsense


Spirituality Column #630
December 11, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Power of Nonsense
By Bob Walters

“There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy (God)." – Screwtape, senior demon, “The Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis, 1942

Satan has a tough job but suffers no shortage of accomplices or apprentices.

In his devilish quest to rob God’s Creation of its wonder, beauty, and love, Satan tricks mankind into self-directed and ultimately miserable prisons of jealousies, guilt, concerns, and pride.  The sinful, self-absorbed human is Satan’s greatest artwork.

And he accomplishes this all the while knowing that there is nothing natural in us – we humans created in the image of God – to recommend the fearful horrors of a fallen, God-rejecting world over the faithful pleasures of God’s Creation, the love and goodness of his Son, and the perpetual comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Peace in Jesus Christ is the exact opposite of Satan’s suspense and anxiety.

But there out in the world – in all corners and altitudes and persuasions – are the obvious marching phalanxes and the insidious sugar-coated-but-poisonous ideas of the true enemy, Satan. Is he real? Yep, afraid so. Does he “own the world”? Yeah, that too.  He is the “Lord of the Air” and we slip into his grasp so easily.  Instead of being focused simply on what we do, Satan presses us to worry what will happen to us.  My mentor George Bebawi calls it, “Being busy with yourself.”  Humans find that irresistible.

British author C.S. Lewis is the great Christian apologist of the 20th Century.  Better than any contemporary, he could explain Christianity in Everyman language.  His Mere Christianity is the book everyone has heard about, but The Screwtape Letters published in 1942 – during Britain’s dark days of WWII – reveal humanity from the Devil’s perspective.  The book, in its satirical yet profound truth, describes well why human faith so often fails: Satan labors nonstop promoting our fear and self-interest.

And it works.

Look at the panorama of cultural, media, social, political, entertainment, and academic forces and personalities – and sadly more than a few church pulpits – at Satan’s promotional beck and call.  Even from the distant echoes of 1942 Lewis lays out the nefarious and harmful charade of “Social Justice,” and nails the persistent tragedy of human spiritual weakness: instead of trusting eternal survival in God’s truth, we embrace and empower Satan’s devious doctrine of worldly survival.  It’s nonsense.

“Eternal survival” is the good news of the Gospel, while conquering this life is the great lie of Satan.  God sent Jesus to show us godly love, divine relationship, heavenly grace, the sole righteousness in God, self-awareness in the Spirit, and virtue in loving other humans.  Forgiveness of sin?  Oh yeah, that too.  Isn’t it ironic that Satan does his best work by enticing us to focus on our sins and self? It keeps us in “me,” far from God.

Need help?  Here is a note to the wise.  Next time you encounter a popular, heavily promoted “self-help” book, before you read it see if it includes the biblical truth of Jesus Christ.  If not … you’re wasting your worldly time, and making Satan’s job easier.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) saw a news feature on renowned “self-help guru” Deepak Chopra’s new book. Oy … that got Bob going: no discernable Jesus truth there.


Monday, December 3, 2018

629 - The First Sermon I'd Preach


Spirituality Column #629
December 4, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The First Sermon I’d Preach
By Bob Walters

“The waaai-ting is the hardest part …” – Tom Petty song lyric, “The Waiting,” 1985

If the tune of this rock music standard doesn’t come immediately to mind, I apologize for the cultural stretch and the mixed theological metaphor but I’ll get to the point soon enough.  Though the lyric mentions heaven it is not a song about God; it’s about a guy waiting for this life to unfold.  Indeed, there is a lot of waiting in life.

A few weeks back in our Thursday morning “Mustard Seed” seniors Bible study at East 91st Street Christian Church – the study was originally led by Russ Blowers and years ago met at the “Mustard Seed” restaurant near Keystone at the Crossing in north Indianapolis – current study leader John Samples invited current E91 senior pastor Rick Grover to teach a lesson, which just happened to be Mark 10:46-53 where blind beggar Bartimaeus receives his sight after shouting at Jesus as he was leaving Jericho, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Despite objections from onlookers – presumably even His own disciples – Jesus answered Bartimaeus and asked what he wanted – “Rabbi, I want to see.” To which Jesus famously replied, “Go, your faith has healed you.”

Immediately, Bartimaeus could see and “followed Jesus along the road.”

Rick, a highly-regarded Bible scholar in his own right, thoughtfully and skillfully “unpacked” the facts and nuances of this familiar biblical encounter.  What Rick noted that caught my attention and started my mind wandering was when he pointed out that Jesus was “right there” and Bartimaeus did not have to wait; his faith had healed him.

And it dawned on me; Jesus is always right there.  Think back through the Old Testament and then consider the different message of the New Testament; the great, great lesson of the new covenant in Jesus Christ is the difference in whether you are waiting for Him not.  Jesus is close, not far; Bartimaeus simply called out to Him.

Our gift in Christ is not that we can tell God what to do, where to do it, and when to do it; our gift is the profound lesson of this Christmas season – Jesus is Emanuel, “God with us.”  He is with us always, and it is our faith that reaches him – immediately.

In the Old Testament God often showed up, but as the Jews became His Chosen People He sent down hundreds of laws and instructions for how they – the Jews – were to express their faith, build temples, and observe festivals – prescribing rituals, places, and times – where God would be exalted and/or present.

There is none of that in the New Testament – not in the Gospels, the Epistles, nowhere.  Emanuel – God with us – is with us all the time (Hebrews 13:5): not to do our bidding but in grace to accept our faith, trust, and love, and to give us the character to enjoy life’s ups and the strength to endure life’s downs.  Jesus is with us … always.

This is a revelation that defeats all legalism: Faith finds Jesus … right now.

The Bible, front to back, is a book about Jesus.  We see who God is, who we are, what doesn’t work (the Law), and what does work (faith). Especially in the Psalms there is a whole lot of “waiting on the Lord,” but try this trick: since Jesus Christ is Lord and always has been Lord (John 1:1-5, 10), everywhere you see the word “Lord” referring to God in the Psalms and Old Testament prophets, in your mind and heart insert the word “Jesus.”  Then let the Spirit show you that God is with you – right now – in Jesus Christ.

The waiting really isn’t the hardest part; seeing in faith is.  I’d preach that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has a fairly short bucket list, but this is on it.

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