Spirituality Column #754

April 27, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

What the World Needs Now

By Bob Walters

My friend Jim was depressed.

Not “can’t get out of bed depressed” – we were after all having lunch at a favorite local spot – just “don’t see any good answers going forward depressed” about America.

Jim’s an older retired guy like me who stays busy, loves his wife, is proud of his kids and his country, has many interests, enjoys reasonably good health despite the years and mileage, and has a solid relationship with the Lord.  He forged career success in the U.S. military, education, and public service, and has many stories, friends, talents, and an outgoing personality that make him a fun guy to be around.

Except currently, he’s watching way too much news.

I’m no psychologist yet when I greeted Jim at lunch with a familiar “How are you doing?” I immediately knew the answer wasn’t going to be a cheerful, “Just great!”  Still, I was surprised when it was an almost dour, “Not great.”  But I understood.

We’re both concerned about all the same stuff, most of it political and cultural.

The hardest part of these days for me is the entire lack of trust I feel toward the media, followed closely by the revulsion I harbor toward politicians and bureaucrats of nearly every stripe.  I know, “politicians gonna’ politic,” I get that; but the U.S. government has become an especially dark enterprise against God and freedom.

I trust God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and several family, friends, and Christian brothers and sisters … it’s about the only “truth” I see these days.  Praise God for that.

Then here comes the news: daily, proudly bereft of truth, objectivity, and context.  I squandered a perfectly good 1970s journalism degree on a very fun sports writing and sports media relations career.  But the news business was changing back then as the media’s job of “discomforting the powerful” became “lying in bed with the powerful.”

“Truth in media” has become agenda-driven narrative presenting an even blacker darkness than politics.  These watchdogs of liberty are now the lapdogs of deceit.

Throw in domestic corporate globalists who are anti-American-citizen, a profane entertainment culture, an America-vilifying major sports establishment, a morally bankrupt public academia, a mysterious and heinously politicized pandemic, and a media-championed, culture-shredding, variously woke mob grabbing power with nonsense.

What do we have?  Sour, civilization-threatening, anti-truth media Molotov cocktails landing at our feet.  

Where’s the love sweet love?

The media will continue to chortle about “justice being served” as truth burns.  Politicians will continue to add debt, subtract freedom, and equivocate a vacant virtue.

But maybe it’s OK.  God may be teaching us a lesson we’d all learn in church on Sundays if more of us would go; we might more easily see what is missing.  And what’s missing, besides truth, is redemption and forgiveness.  We angrily talk past each other, without love.

The folks in power, when you look at it, are the only ones who benefit when we stay out of church, shun the truth of Jesus, and worship at the altar of “my happiness” rather than at the demanding foot of the cross.  God’s glory isn’t in dispute; we are.

I watch little news because I know that widespread public distrust and confusion floats the collective boat of the Godless powerful, and we are the suckers in the water.

Well, I’m not.  Hopefully you’re not.  And I hope Jim cheers up.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) doesn’t rail at Satan; he calls to Jesus.  Try it.

 Spirituality Column #753

April 20, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

End Game: Peace in Our Time

By Bob Walters

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27, Jesus to the disciples in his closing comments at the Last Supper.

Jesus spoke deeply and personally of peace toward the end of the Last Supper.

But I doubt anyone there – his disciples and other followers who might have attended – truly heard his words let alone understood the peace Jesus was describing. 

Peace could not possibly have been on their restless minds.

They had spent the week with Jesus in tumultuous Jerusalem.  It was already crowded because of the Passover and abuzz with the presence of Jesus who had raised Lazarus out of the tomb just a week or so before.  It was also full of angry Jewish leaders, a Roman governor named Pilate, and an extra 2,000 or so Roman soldiers.

For the disciples, the Last Supper kicked off what had to be the weirdest and most non-peaceful four days of their lives.  They knew the Jewish leaders were trying to kill Jesus, they themselves were lying low, hiding in fear for their own lives, and Jesus himself told the disciples He would die but return in “a little while.”  Confusing.

When the disciples argued who was best among them – again, no peace – Jesus removed His outer garment and, nearly naked, washed their feet. Unsettling.

Then He commanded them to be servants to others and not to compete to be “the most important.”  Unnatural.  He told them to love others in humility.  Unfamiliar.

Jesus declared a looming betrayal of Him by one of them to the Jewish leaders.  Alarming.  He then identified and dismissed Judas to go do exactly that.  Horrifying.

Jesus in His own way reaffirmed He was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and their Lord.  And that He would die.  Frightening.  And come back.  Mystifying.

How could the disciples find earthly peace, as they understood it, amid the fear and uncertainty of those perilous moments?  They were worried about their physical safety and Jesus’ dire predictions. None grasped that the peace Jesus described was himself, the peace of his Person through whom they would be saved and know God.  This peace was not an absence of trouble; it was a real relationship with Jesus Christ.

We think of Jesus in that moment, himself knowing all that would happen to him in the next 24 hours. The sins of the world would fall on his shoulders.  He would be crucified.  His mother Mary and beloved friend John would watch Him die a horrid, violent death. The Jewish leaders would cheer.  The Roman soldiers wouldn’t care.

This is more “trouble” than any of us will know in our lifetimes.  The lesson to us, even now, is to trust in and be obedient to God. On the cross, Jesus showed us how.

We will never find peace by railing at the world, cursing God or Satan, or heaping blame on injustice and misfortune.  We find our peace by calling on the person of Jesus.  We run to Him, stand with Him, and trust what He knows: the eternal peace of God.

Our peace in Jesus cannot be gauged by worldly safety, but He is our one shot at peace in our time.  Peace is our relationship with Jesus, and our assuredness in God’s eternal promise and purpose of salvation ahead: our life with Him in heaven.  

Our purpose in this life is to glorify God by believing Jesus is His Son and by loving others.  That can be tough amid the worldly turmoil and ungodliness we see every day.  Peace is trusting the end game, and the end game is the resurrected Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) talks a big game but admits to unpeaceful moments.

Spirituality Column #752

April 13, 2021                                             

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Good Work, Atlanta     

By Bob Walters

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” – Jesus to the doubting disciple Thomas at the Last Supper, John 14:6

If you are into politics, wokeness, election intrigue, corporate globalism, social justice histrionics, and Christian heresy, well, Atlanta, Ga., is the new Babylon for you.

In order to stick to my own strengths, let’s leave out the “politics-to-histrionics” part of the above sentence.  You can form/inform your own opinions about all that by watching whatever newscasts you trust.  I have opinions on them, too, but not truth. 

Anti-biblical heresy, though, let’s deal with that; c’mon into the Truth wheelhouse.

What we know is that on Easter Sunday April 4, churches across America and around the world heard solid sermons, preaching, and praise music glorifying the single most transcendent, transforming event since the Creation of the world – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That includes the doctrinally sane churches in Atlanta, too, I’m sure, and will include the worldwide Orthodox Church when it celebrates Easter May 2.

But how a political pastor, now also a U.S. Senator, at what arguably is Atlanta’s most famous and historic Christian congregation – the New Ebenezer Baptist Church – could send out an ecclesial clunker of an anti-biblical social media post on Easter Sunday such as the following presents too great a teaching opportunity to pass up.

On Easter, Senior Pastor/U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock tweeted, and I quote:

“The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Whether you are a Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves.”

No.  Nothing in all human history is more “transcendent” than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  No.  A commitment to helping others is nice but it is merely “works,” not “salvific” (salvation in Jesus).  No. We cannot save ourselves; only Jesus can do that.

Repeating:

No. “I am the resurrection and the life …” John 11:25-26.

No.  “… not according to our works, but to His own purpose in Christ.” 2 Timothy 1:9

And Hell no. “I am the way and the truth and the life …” John 14:6 (cited above).

I suppose we all are somewhat steeled and inured from (i.e., “used to”) secular persons with public platforms saying stupid and heretical things about Jesus and Christians.  But a pastor?  The Pastor at Martin Luther King’s old church?  I protest.

This pastor/politician’s motives for posting the tweet – and quickly taking it down when the storm of criticism erupted – remain, presumably, between him and his handlers.  No apology, theology, or explanation; the tweet just disappeared.  SMH.

“Transcendent”? Here, must mean “to exist above.” Humans do not “exist above” Jesus. “Christian or not”?  The path to the Father is Jesus Christ, period. “Commitment to helping others”?  Matthew 22:37 says, “love God and love others.” I.e., God counts.  And, what does “save ourselves” even mean? “Save ourselves” to or from what?

Our pastor on Easter made a great point about “graves and gardens,” meaning that Jesus’s grave – our fallen, earthly death – became, on Easter morning, humanity’s “garden” of new life, i.e., God’s promise of salvation in and through Jesus.  It’s the only “garden,” the only heavenly, eternal-life-with-God salvation, any religion preaches.

Save ourselves?  You expect the Christian garden without the Jesus grave?

It doesn’t work that way … for anybody, good works or not.  Faith is the only way.

Redemption and salvation, like justice and truth, are God’s alone.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) apologizes for the glancing blow on politics, adds a hat-tip to E91 pastor Rick Grover for his excellent “Graves & Gardens” Easter sermon, and notes “SMH” is twitter shorthand for “Shaking My Head.”

Spirituality Column #751

April 6, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Asking for a Friend

By Bob Walters

“I am the resurrection and the life ... whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  Do you believe this?” – Jesus to Martha at Lazarus’ grave, John 11:25-26

Jesus here asks Martha, in a roundabout way, if she believes He can raise Lazarus – her four-day dead brother and his close friend – Lazarus from the grave.

She answers with a moping, inconclusive equivalent of “I suppose so.”  Yes, there is a resurrection on the last day, she notes.  Yes, you are the Messiah, she concedes.  But she has to be wondering, “What does that do for my sadness right now?”  She is thinking only of her dead brother, not of loving, eternal salvation.

The about-to-happen miracle, Lazarus walking out of his grave at Jesus’ command (as we noted here a couple weeks back, column #749, 3-23-21, The Light Beyond), is the event that solidifies the Jewish leaders’ intent to kill Jesus (“…it is better for one man to die …”, John 11:50).  Jesus was crucified a couple weeks later. 

But what Jesus is really asking Martha is if she believes – and in a larger way is telling us all – that by faith in Him as Lord, Christ, Messiah, Son of God, Savior, Divine Word of God / Logos, the truth of His mission is to save humanity from eternal death by promising God’s free gift of eternal life.  It will take humanity years to figure that out.

Nowhere in the Bible have I found Jesus asking anyone, “Who are you?”  He always just seemed to know.  And it is evident, especially from how He addressed conflicts within the band of disciples or the life of the woman at the well, that Jesus also knew what people were thinking.  Yet, he was friendly and asked questions.

Jesus asked the lame man if He wanted to be healed. (John 5:6)

Jesus asked the Disciples who the people said He was. (Matthew 15:13)

Jesus asked Peter who he said He was. (Matthew 15:16)

Jesus asked Martha if she believed He is resurrection and life. (John 11:26)

If it stands to reason that Jesus already knew the hearts, minds, and lives of those He encountered – and I believe it does – why did Jesus ask so many questions?

The best answer I can provide is that Jesus, to this day, wants people to think for themselves: to ask themselves what they truly believe.  Where the Old Covenant and Mosaic Laws were a menu of “Things To Do,” the New Covenant of faith in Christ – He the embodiment of truth – is a mystery of love, faith, freedom, and “What We Think.”

The Law was death because it measured sin.  Faith in Jesus is life because His death covers our sin and His resurrection invites us, by faith, into eternal life with God.

As we proceed past Easter let’s take comfort – rather than horror or shame – in knowing that Jesus already knows us, knows our sins, has forgiven us, has defeated death for those who believe, and invites us to love Him as He loves us.  He invites us to be His friends and to be free. If we say no, then He never knew us (Matt 7:23). Gulp.

Jesus never tells us what to think because love requires freedom.  But He never stops asking us to think, because it is the faith of our minds and the love of our hearts that discover Him.  It is that discovery that brings eternal joy, and that is our salvation.

Jesus has done all He needs to do; it’s on us now.  What do you think?

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes Jesus is happy to help us with faith; ask Him.