Spirituality Column #283
April 17, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
(North Indianapolis Metro home newspapers)

The Saltiness of a Dogged Christian
By Bob Walters



I always thought that expression meant “common” in a good sort of way; that it was a compliment to one’s overall usefulness and humility to be called a “salt of the earth” type of person.

Turns out, it is a compliment, but not in the secular (non-God) way I had imagined.  Like so many Biblical words and phrases, “salt” has more than one meaning, more than one image, and is a scriptural co-terminus of both life and death.

In this verse of the Sermon on the Mount - chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the Bible’s Gospel of Matthew – Jesus tells his disciples that, just as salt is an indispensable necessity of life, they too are indispensable to the real life – the eternal life – of humanity’s New Covenant with God.

What salt does for food, the disciples were enjoined to do for the Kingdom of God.  “Salt” is a preservative that prevents spoilage – it “saves” food.  As a seasoning, salt enlivens the taste of food.  It would be the disciples’ role going forward to share their life in Jesus with the whole world; to be the salt of Jesus’s ministry.

Jesus isn’t the salt; Jesus is the life.  It’s we Christians who are to be the indispensable salt for the Kingdom of God; to preserve and enliven the truth of Christ for the world around us.  Salt also covers over the taste of tainted food – think “my sinful life.”  And, salt is a cleaning component – think “the cleansing power of Jesus’s blood.”

I truly never understood the importance of salt in world history until an article showed up in my email a couple of years ago noting that most early wars were fought and wealth was won over salt.  Whether it was access, ownership, or trade routes, salt drove commerce because it was both a multi-purpose substance and the only way anyone had of preserving food.

As for discipleship salt, I recently finished reading “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy”, Eric Metaxas’ superb 2011 biography of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed late in World War II by a defeated and bitter Hitler.  Now I’m reading Bonhoeffer’s 1937 theological classic, “The Cost of Discipleship,” which goes into some detail regarding the Sermon on the Mount, salt, and much else.

Bonhoeffer, who lived a full, determined, and exemplary – if shortened – Christian life to the very end was the very salt Jesus Christ called his disciples to be.

If you are curious what that looks like, these books are for you.

Walters (www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com, rlwcom@aol.com) quotes Bonhoeffer, “… disciples are salt … whether they like it or not.”   

Spirituality Column #282
April 10, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Wine, the Cup, and Communion
By Bob Walters

While writing a recent communion meditation I discovered something in the Bible as obvious at is was startling: wine is never mentioned as being in the cup of Christ.

This isn’t to argue whether in fact wine was served in the upper room at the Last Supper; it stands to reason it was. Nor am I here to argue that the disciples drank blood; it stands to reason they did not. I was just surprised that for all the symbolism and tradition tied to the wine of communion representing the blood of Christ, the Bible never actually says “wine” describing that first communion.

At His last meal on the eve (Maundy Thursday) of His crucifixion (Good Friday), Jesus told His disciples He was “going away,” broke bread representing His body, and passed the cup describing its contents as “my blood of the new covenant” (Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24) or “the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25). Jesus told them henceforth to “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

That remembrance of Jesus is what we celebrate in communion.

But, “blood of the new covenant”? What could that mean if it wasn’t literally “blood”? It stands to reason that it meant this: Jewish law, tradition, and faith all said that “life” existed in the blood (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11, etc.) The “new covenant” is the restored relationship of fallen mankind with a loving Almighty God, of our faith in and salvation through Jesus Christ, and the forgiveness of our sins covered by the shed blood of Christ. It’s our eternal presence in the infinite light of the Lord God.

“Blood of the new covenant” means, “life forever, in faith.” These are just my words and there are 2,000 years of theological descriptions and witness far better than mine. But if we look at the cup and see only the shed blood of Jesus on the cross, of pain, suffering, guilt, fear, and the general turpitude of this mortal coil – of the misery of this human life – then we are missing the most important aspect of the cup of Christ.

In the new covenant, this cup is a cup of life, love, and freedom, not death. It is a cup of hope and grace, not a threat. It is a gift, not a debt or a transaction.

Many churches serve wine (usually mixed with holy water) in their communion celebration. Many others serve juice. What matters is to know that the cup contains the life of Jesus Christ and our hope of eternal salvation.
And to that, I say “Cheers!”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) notes the irony that the first communion was at the Last Supper.

Spirituality Column #281
April 3, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Truth, Holy Week, and the Big Picture
By Bob Walters

From “Hosannas!” on Palm Sunday to the “Hallelujahs!” of Easter, Holy Week comprises the eight most talked-about days in the Bible.

“Hosanna!” is an exclamation of hope, salvation, prayer, and worship. It’s what the palm-waving faithful shouted (John 12:13) to celebrate Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on what we now call “Palm Sunday.” The people recognized Jesus as the Messiah, which made the Pharisees furious, which led to Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion.

“Hallelujah!” – a word not in the Gospels and a reality not immediately grasped at the resurrection – means “Praise the Lord.” Christians now armed with historical perspective, scriptural truth, and spiritual assuredness, exclaim “Hallelujah!” on Easter to worship the Risen Lord. “Hallelujah!” is found only in Revelation 19:1, and is the “heavenly multitude’s” affirmation of God’s “salvation and glory and power.”

All four Gospels – the Bible’s books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – contain multiple chapters describing the biggest week in human history, when God as the sinless man Jesus was killed by sinful mankind to fulfill God’s plan of salvation for mankind and all Creation by defeating sin and destroying death.

Nobody saw the week coming, understood as events unfolded, imagined the crucifixion’s cosmic scope, or appreciated the resurrection’s eternal impact. After 2,000 years of Bible descriptions, scholarly examination, church tradition, and scientific investigation, doubters are still defiant, believers are thankful and reverent … and too much of the world still can’t see the big picture. But it is forever real.

What would it have been like to be there?

Matthew and John were there, but fled with the rest of the disciples when Jesus was arrested (Matthew 26:56). John returned and is the only disciple reported to have witnessed Jesus on the Cross (John 19:26). On the third day, John and the disciple Peter raced to see the empty tomb (John 20:4).

Mark was there. He was the believer who ran naked from the arrest in Gethsemane (Mark 14:51-52).

Luke, a Greek physician and friend of the Apostle Paul, was not there. He is the only Gospel writer who was neither in Jerusalem nor an acquaintance of Jesus. But Luke is authoritative because he meticulously “investigate[d] everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3) to create an “orderly account” in the most elegantly written of the Gospels aimed at educating the Greek and gentile world.

The accounts in Matthew 21-28, Mark 11-15, Luke 19-24, and John 12-21 vary in their descriptions of Holy Week specifics, which blurs the truth for some. What’s important to know is that God’s clear truth isn’t just in the details; it’s in the big picture.

And the biggest picture, the truth, is Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends John 8:12-30. Trust what Jesus says.

Spirituality Column #280
March 27, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Triumphal Entry Marks ‘Narrow’ Victory
By Bob Walters

“… but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, …” (Matthew 7:14)

This weekend most of the Christian world celebrates “Palm Sunday” marking the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Thus in Biblical times began a week that would see Jesus exalted, suspected, betrayed, arrested, questioned, beaten, denied, humiliated, abandoned, mocked, crucified, dead, entombed, and, by the beginning of the next week (Easter), freed from the tomb and eternally victorious over death.

We are the redeemed from death. Jesus is the physical, divine, triumphant Risen Christ; our Lord and Savior.

Each of the Bible’s four Gospels recounts the Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:1-17, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-19). In a sense it’s odd to call the arrival “triumphal” in that Jesus was riding a donkey, a sign of humility, not triumph. Still, the Hosanna! shouting, palm-bearing crowds passionately cheered Jesus. News of His recent resurrecting of Lazarus from the dead was on everyone’s lips, including those of several not-so-enthused Pharisees.

And as Jesus approached that small gate at the end of that narrow road to Jerusalem, He knew something nobody else but his Father knew: Jesus knew what would happen that week, of the “cup” He could not pass, of another resurrection.

Jesus knew his “Triumphal Entry” began a march toward a victory in scope and impact unlike any imagined by the mind of man. He knew of the pain and suffering that lay ahead for him, yet He continued on the path for love, God’s glory, and our salvation.

“… and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:14, continued)

Here, “it” refers to the life that one finds in Jesus Christ – servanthood, sacrifice, joy, hope, faith, love, heaven, etc. The entry point to this life is likened to a small gate at the end of a narrow road. That’s not because the gift is small – it is huge – but because of what Jesus already knew, and knows, about the self-focused fallenness of mankind.

The good news is that the gate to eternal life exists in the living person of Christ. The bad news is that “servanthood and sacrifice,” as Jesus describes life with Him in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-6-7), doesn’t sound “triumphant” to egotistical human ears.

Jesus, in obedience and knowing what lay ahead, traveled the narrow road to Jerusalem and courageously entered the small gate to serve others and glorify God.

How many of us are striving for that kind of victory?

Walters’ (rlwcom@aol.com, www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) understands that the gate is small but wonders if it is wrong to pray that it is big enough. His book, Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary, is available at Amazon.com.

Spirituality Column #279
March 20, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

‘Whatever gods might be'
By Bob Walters

“I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.”

So ends Scotsman William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus”, a couplet seen a thousand times on a thousand motivational posters. I saw one recently.

“Invictus” is Latin for “unconquerable.” Henley’s lines bespeak heroic will, stoic self-sufficiency, and uncomplaining fortitude. His words invite responsibility, imply courage, and place no blame – these are all virtues.

Our human souls stand buoyed by the “master and captain” language of control: I control my fate, make things happen, and do what I want. It’s up to me. My conscience is the only consequence. When the chips are down, my head is up. I am all I need.

It is precisely here where aspiring virtues start devolving into self-absorbed vices; where “whatever gods might be” (in the poem’s first verse) subordinate Almighty God.

Few would envy Henley’s life (1859-1903). Persistent childhood infections required the painful amputation of a lower leg at age 17, and Henley was told he would soon lose the other. Dr. Joseph Lister (the founder of antiseptic medicine; ever heard of “Listerine”?) arrived and saved the remaining leg. Near the end of that ordeal (1873-1875) at the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary in Scotland, Henley wrote "Invictus." If Henley could spit at discouragement even then, who wouldn’t admire him?

And yet as a Christian believer, I see Henley’s famously defiant, courageous, poetic truism as profoundly, misleadingly, and destructively untrue. His “master and captain” imagery conjures secular humanism, mocks reliance on God, and eschews relationship with the only proper master and captain of every human life, Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Picky, picky, picky. What’s wrong with a person taking command and being responsible for his or her own life?” Well, this is what’s wrong with it: it separates that person from God. There is only ever one “master” in our life and if that master is me, then it is not God. And if my soul cries out to nowhere beyond the self-imposed captain’s quarters of my own inner life, then I am confined in the brig of my mortal soul rather than being eternally freed by the saving grace of Christ.

“I can do all things through him (Christ) who strengthens me,” says Paul (Philippians 4:13). Our Christian goal is not to master and command our limited “light and momentary” lives, but to love and worship the unlimited and eternal living God.

Death, you see, conquers all, except for Jesus Christ who conquered death.

“Invictus”? ‘Tis wiser and more profitable, methinks, to serve a Master and trust a Captain who truly is unconquerable.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) reads more into posters than he used to. Google “Invictus” to read the whole poem.

Spirituality Column #278
March 13, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Glorious Gift of Doubt
By Bob Walters

Ponder this one for a moment:

Why is the Bible, a book of God’s truth, full of characters who doubt God?

Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Job, David, Jeremiah, Zechariah, John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary, Thomas – and many, many others – second-guess, mistrust, question, laugh at, rail against or just plain doubt some aspect of God, His glory, His faithfulness, His plan, or His love.

This is an important perspective to have when doubts creep into our own faith.

All of these Bible characters survived their doubts and eventually – granted, some later than sooner – came to understand the trustworthiness of God and the glory that is rightly His. Their doubts tested God, and the Bible shows us that God always proves faithful to His own truth.

This is a key point, that our faith in God must be based on acceptance that it is God’s truth that counts, not on the human fact of our own desires and comforts. God created mankind in His image, but we are not God. Christ Jesus, God’s son, came to restore our relationship with God, not to make us God. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth, irrespective of our own preferences.

So, just to be clear: There is a God, and He is not us.

As Christians we should give ourselves a break and not sweat a little doubt now and then. Doubt does not equal sin; doubt is part of the reasonable, faith-building equation of questions and dialogue, of investigation and learning, of familiarity and relationship. James 1:6 says “believe and do not doubt,” but this is in the context of our doubts, trials, and temptations leading us to God for answers, and that’s a good thing.

Sins are things that separate us from God and things that denigrate God’s will. Faith, rest, and peace in God mean that when our doubts do arise, we have faith – we trust – that God wants to help us understand His glory.

Any father loves to have his children trust him and ask him questions. Our Father in heaven is no different, and He is strong enough and wise enough to handle the tough ones.

Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith if it makes us engage, learn and understand. That kind of doubt is a gift, maybe because God craves a relationship with us and it gives us a reason to communicate. And for reasons – God’s reasons – I still don’t understand, God’s eternal Glory is somehow tied to our faith in Him.

I don’t doubt that is the truth, even when I can’t imagine why.

Walters (www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) notes that faith with some doubt is still faith; while doubt without faith is just ... doubt.

Spirituality Column #277
March 6, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Problem with Explaining Christ
By Bob Walters

It seems much easier to believe in Jesus Christ than to explain Jesus Christ.

Or perhaps that’s backwards … it’s easier to explain what Jesus is than to believe what Christ came to do.

Or perhaps both are missing the point.

The truth is, neither explaining about nor will believing in Jesus Christ sufficiently attach our lives to the eternal Glory of God. Nor will our explaining and believing persuade a skeptical outside world of Christ’s mission, goodness, grace, and truth. The world insists on proof, generally distrusts faith, and – saying “Thanks anyway, I have my own” – mostly shuns the existence of God’s perfect, ultimate, glorifying truth.

As much as we Christians are called – and ache, really – to explain, to share and to persuade others of the importance of a life in Christ, explaining and believing won’t get the job done. My favorite professor in college taught philosophy and could explain seemingly anything but made it abundantly clear that he didn’t actually believe in anything. And we all know that simply “to believe” in Jesus is not a final answer: Satan has more belief in and understanding of who Jesus is than any of us possibly could (Matthew 4:1-11). Even atheists can explain, and even Satan believes.

What, then, sets a Christian apart as an effective witness for Christ? Let’s consider the example of Jesus’ witness for Himself.

Jesus spent very little of his time on earth trying to explain who He was. Many asked, including the demon-possessed man (Matthew 12:23), Pharisees (Matthew 16:1), Sanhedrin priests (Matthew 26:63), Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:11), even His own disciples (Mark 8:27). Jesus mostly answered either with shrewd parables, questions, or some elusive form of “It is as you say.”

Jesus knew who He was, and made every effort to show others – by His actions, answers, and miracles – that He was “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) of God Almighty. Jesus referred to God as “My Father,” but to Himself as the “Son of Man.” Jesus kept his earthly focus on glorifying God with His actions, not on explaining himself with His words.

That’s how one properly witnesses to a faith relationship; by glorifying God with one’s actions, not by dazzling mankind with one’s explanations.

Certainly, we are “to be prepared to … give a reason for the hope that you have,” (1 Peter 3:15), but a Christian’s joy, trust, faith, hope, love, peace, patience, kindness, perseverance … and belief … can all be explained in two words: Jesus Christ.

What’s easier, and simpler, and truer, than that?

Walters (www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) observes that much of the world shuns Jesus who saves, and accommodates Satan who destroys. Talk about “backwards.”