Spirituality Column #770

August 17, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Odd Grace of Prayer

By Bob Walters

“Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10

Prayer doesn’t tell God anything He doesn’t already know – not about a situation, the person praying, a human heart, or the eventual outcome.  The educated party to be – the one who is to be informed, shaped, and changed in prayer – is the one praying.

Yes, talk to God.  Spill your heart, guts, love, or rage.  Then be prepared to listen.

Prayer is where we discover 1. our relationship with God, 2. on a good day, discern the will of God, and 3. on our very best days, call down the action of God.

On any day, our best prayer outcome is when it reveals and nurtures our growing and abiding closeness to, trust in, and love of God.  Great prayer is where we shelter in God, not blame Him or beg Him. 

Prayer isn’t where we tell God what we want done, how He should proceed, who He should save, who He should condemn, or what He needs to do to get our approval of His actions so we will call Him righteous.  That kind of prayer is folly; God is already righteous.  Good and evil are whatever God says they are, and quite often humans don’t look in the most obvious place to discover what God is really thinking: in their own hearts.  We don’t see the long game; God does.  His promises and righteousness are eternal.

Thus, “God Is Good All the Time” is a fine truism, but tyrannically so.  Was God “good” when He removed his protection from Job and allowed Satan’s torments?  Was God “good” when he demanded Abraham sacrifice Isaac?  Was God “good” when His Son Jesus hanged mercilessly on the Cross?  Is God good when the most heinous and heartbreaking human injustices, crimes, diseases, dissensions, and accidents befall our paths today?

That’s the tyrannical part: we wonder – we demand! – why God would allow awful things when we think He should only provide good things.  But the fact is, it is our human freedom, aspiration, fear, pride, greed or a number of any other “human conditions” that Satan uses to mask and corrupt our view of God’s ultimate goodness and purpose.  Not the least of our difficulties being our and the world’s general fallenness … since Eden.

What Job, Abraham, and Isaac discovered after trials, what Jesus taught in His trials, and what we must trust in our trials, is that our faith and relationship with God is purified in these trials. Come out the other end of a life trial in faith, and our relationship with God will be strengthened beyond what we could imagine.  Think how Job grew in the Lord.  

God’s goodness and grace are always there, and our first clue that they are is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We have the freedom to pursue our own agenda, but our true joy and abiding perseverance is only going to come by Christ’s great commandments: that we are to love God and love others.  We think life is about “me.” No, it is about God’s glory.

The greatest and most common self-inflicted wound in all humanity is to ignore the grace of God, and to not see it, expect it, and trust it in every situation.  We are the ones who make a hash of assessing God’s goodness; we are the ones who deny Jesus.  

Now … do I think some people have a special pipeline to God?  Mysteriously, yes.  Of course.  Absolutely.  Can God surprise any of us with a tangible, spiritual, discernible response to prayer?  Praise God, yes.  Must we trust God regardless?  Yes, then listen.

It’s among the oddest of God’s graces, but it is in our humility before God that we find our greatest joys and strengths. That is the peace that passes all understanding.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays boldly but understands he’s the one being judged.

 Spirituality Column #769

August 10, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Vine of Truth

By Bob Walters

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” – Jesus, John 15:1

I am hard-pressed to think of anything Jesus says in the Bible that is not in some way an attempt to explain to a mostly unbelieving Israel who He was … and still is.

Mary and Joseph understood (Matthew 1:20-24, Luke 1:31-32, 46-49).  John the Baptist understood (Matthew 3:11).  The disciples, eventually, understood (Matthew 16:16).  The Angels of God understood (Luke 2:9-12).  Even Satan, “the devil,” “the tempter,” understood (Matthew 4:1-3).

The Pharisees and other Jewish leaders?  They mostly hated Jesus for the threat he posed to their positions of power.  If they knew so much scripture and prophecy, how could they not understand?  If they were truly close to God, how could they not love Jesus?  Yet for all but a few, the scales never fell from their eyes.  They had bent covenant Law to their own purposes, and had grown as a rogue, unproductive vine outside the Father’s will.

People in general were fascinated by Jesus’s miracles and healings, the authority of His teaching, and the power of His interactions.  But the Jews were looking for a Messiah who would kill the Romans, not to love sinners and prove the fruitfulness of God’s vine.  By the time of His crucifixion, Jesus was no longer the savior they were seeking: “Crucify Him!”

It is especially fascinating to me that in His final few hours with the disciples – at the last supper and then on the way to Gethsemane where He would be arrested – Jesus focused His final words to them not on sin and salvation, but on His identity as the Son of God, His mission of obedience and love, the disciples’ mission of love and perseverance, and the persecutions they would face ahead.  Faith would be their only way forward.

Most of us tend to seek God on our own terms.  We want Him to be and do what we want Him to be and do … for us.  We don’t immediately understand how surely that separates us from His fruitful vine and impedes the relationship Jesus brought to humanity as a saving, divine gift.  As Jesus expressed His faith in and obedience to God, He was also sharing his love and identity with these very frightened friends: God’s vine, on God’s terms.

“I am the true vine” is Jesus telling the disciples that He himself, not the covenant of Israel, is God’s one, true, fruit-bearing vine.  Throughout its existence Israel kept the vine as its national symbol.  Jesus was saying that God’s true fruit in humanity is shown by the fruit of Him in the Spirit, elegantly listed in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control. 

Pause and think how Israel over time soured that fruit (Isaiah 5:1-7).  Pause also and imagine what the Pharisees thought every time Jesus intoned that God – their God – was His Father.  “Father-Son” had never been a part of Israel’s relationship with God.  And now the disciples learn that the “Son and Father” are “vine and gardener.”

Grapevines grow quickly, deep, and have branches that produce fruit and branches that don’t.  Fruit-bearing branches are pruned heavily to increase the fruit, and since the “wood” of a vine is useless, non-fruit-bearing branches are cut, gathered, and burned.

For all Jesus said about His identity, there is no biblical signal that anyone deeply understood His mission, gift, or truth until His resurrection. The branches were yet to grow.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) hopes the fruit-prunings, i.e., our sins, are burned too.  Still today, some folks catch on and some don’t.

 Spirituality Column #768

August 3, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sacrifice … or True Life?

By Bob Walters

“I am the good shepherd [who] lays down his life for his sheep. – John 10:11

In a world without God, sacrifice makes no sense.  And in a world without Jesus, there is no good shepherd and the sheep are on their own.

How can we sacrifice for the good if there is no absolute good to serve?

Sacrifice, you see, requires at least a reasonable expectation that some good will be served.  In the person of Jesus Christ on the Cross, we see both a perfect sacrifice and a perfect purpose: the unblemished lamb who defeats death to glorify God. Perfect.

In the case of you, me, us, and everybody on the planet, our sacrifices of ourselves, time, treasure, talents, toil, or even our lives will always be a bit blemished, possibly tarnished with at least some doubt, and perhaps loaded with just the slightest nod to self-interest.  You know, “What’s in it for me?  What do I get for my trouble?”

But that doesn’t mean we don’t try, and in the spirit of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus and the perfect good of God, many of us survive and grow and glorify God in our faith, work, and intentions.  In Christ, we have learned the possible.  In faith and hope, we too can experience the joy of the shepherd who loves his flock and honors God.

I think that’s true not only of Christians but also of good-hearted, generous, compassionate folks all over the world who “get” the notion of giving of themselves for the good of others and know the warm, fuzzy joy, the reward, of lending a helping hand.

It’s marvelous, and I’ve yet to encounter a Christian who can’t name at least one “good person” – a friend, family member, colleague, etc. – entirely outside active faith in Jesus who nonetheless dependably and selflessly seeks the well-being of others. 

To me that doesn’t disprove the necessity of Jesus; it absolutely proves the human goodness God created.  Almost everyone has it – at least a spark – but the pity is when the divine source is not recognized.  Where does one celebrate and find joy – the true joy of divine communion and fellowship of Godly relationship – if our sacrificial instincts reach no further than our own, imperfect sense of self-congratulation?

It is also true that in this fallen, sinful world many folks truly look out only for themselves with not even a visceral sense of Godly good; only their pride and appetites. And we ache for those who possess neither security nor hope of good touching their lives.  To their loss, the good and perfect “seeking” shepherd Jesus is unknown or ignored.

We cannot match Christ’s perfect sacrifice, but we are challenged every day by the sacrifices demanded of us.  We weather a fallen world’s relentless menu of sin, disappointment, dangers, disease, disfunction, and uncertainty, and our sacrifices are as personal and varied as are any one person’s relationship with Jesus.

Jesus knew what His sacrifice would be and what it meant to God.  We, generally, in the case of our own sacrifices, don’t.  But our joy, love, and trust in the Lord are the great governors of our attitude toward turmoil, and it’s our sacrifices that teach us to trust the absolute truth of God’s love, goodness, righteousness, grace, and true life.

These are not lessons we learn where shepherds are unnecessary.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has grown to be thankful we are not on our own.

 Spirituality Column #767

July 27, 2001

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Odd Mercy of Sacrifice

By Bob Walters

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” – Hosea 6:6

Author Ayn Rand was an atheist who nonetheless expressed one of the most profound ideas about sacrifice I’ve ever encountered.  She posited, approximately:

“An act is not a sacrifice if it is something you already want to do.”  Given how heavily most Christianity revolves around the idea of “sacrifice,” let’s consider our Christian faith and our lives in Jesus in terms of this statement’s logical parallel:

Why would anyone ever do something they really didn’t want to do?  

Why would anyone “sacrifice” themselves to bring pain?  Isn’t “joy” our goal?

Given the enormous emphasis of sacrifice in both the Bible and the universal body of Christ, i.e., the church, perhaps what the word “sacrifice” needs is not a rigorous definition but a faithful understanding.  At first, even the Bible is confusing on the issue.

Sacrifice doesn’t make human logical sense, and the Bible very plainly in Hosea 6:6 (and more extensively in Hebrews 9-10-11) says “sacrifice” is not God’s ultimate priority.  What God desires is mercy and acknowledgment, not burnt offerings.  So how does one explain all of God’s sacrifice instructions in the Torah, and Jesus’s “atoning sacrifice” in the Gospel for our sins?  God didn’t want those?  I don’t understand.

No … the key to understanding is to consider God’s point of view, not man’s.

God in the Old Testament instructed the Israelites to sacrifice something of theirs to God.  It was an obedience thing, not a wrath-avoiding “or else” thing.  Read closely; you never see God telling the Israelites to sacrifice this or that in order to avoid His wrath.  That’s what pagans did (and do).  What God did was reveal His sincerity, truth, power, and love in the merciful action of building relationship with His chosen people.

God’s mercy required the action of the people so they could grow in relationship with God by involvement with Him.  God’s chosen people of Israel were to obey God.  To sacrifice something of and from themselves was to participate in that relationship for their own sakes.  It was to teach them to love God purely for His glory, not their comfort.

Jesus, in terms of a sacrifice, was just the opposite: God sacrificed something of Himself – Jesus His Son – to show His love for humanity with a human relationship.  Both these types of sacrifice were God’s mechanisms for revealing His truth and glory: in the Torah, to Israel for a time; in the New Testament, to all mankind for eternity.

The sacrificial purpose was more than God’s love; it was showing humanity what God’s glory truly meant.  And it meant giving of oneself – giving of ourselves – for the purpose of glorifying God.  That’s the lesson of the cross: Jesus died for the glory of God.  We are to die to ourselves for the glory of God and love of others.  That’s our sacrifice: understanding that God’s glory is more important than anything else in this life.

What do we “get” for our sacrifice?  Why would we “want” to sacrifice?  This question exposes Ms. Rand’s – and most of the world’s – definition of “sacrifice” for its error.  In Jesus, we understand a “sacrifice of worship” for God’s glory is the exact, most important, most joy-generating, most comforting act / attitude available to humanity.

It’s an odd mercy, but our sense of sacrifice informs our joy, and we want that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) next week: Sacrifices sneak up on us in odd ways.

Spirituality Column #766

July 20, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Our Trespasses

By Bob Walters

“And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” – from The Lord’s Prayer

Whether it is forgiveness of debts, sins, or trespasses, this line from The Lord’s Prayer sets our Christian dynamic and begs forgiveness of our great human fallenness.

Considering this is the prayer instruction template presented directly by Jesus to the disciples about forgiveness in Matthew 6:12 (“debts”) and Luke 11:4 (“sins”), we should probably take it seriously … and I mean, the whole thing.

I say “whole thing” because aren’t we especially keen on the “forgive us” part, which we typically take to mean, “forgive me”?  But instead of “forgive us,” look at that second phrase: “as we forgive those,” as in “them” and “others,” is today’s focus.

First, let’s break down a couple of scriptural and cultural mechanics.  Per the original Greek, Matthew 6:12 reads, “forgive us our debts (opheilemata),” taken to mean “debts” of the money and material kind which were especially relevant to Israel.  This was due to the Jewish “shmitah” laws which cleared all debts every seven years.  That meant poor Jews couldn’t secure loans because complete debt relief was a disincentive to lenders.  The rabbis set rules to help the poor, but actual financial “debts” and “debtors” were an important cultural, civic, economic, and religious matter.

Just following in Matthew 6:14, Jesus has a “don’t-miss-this” commentary on what he said in verse 12.  The Greek word in verse 14 isn’t “debts,” it is paraptoma, which is variously translated as trespasses, sins, offenses, wrongs, and transgressions in different Bible versions.  Scholars believe Jesus said paraptoma to widen forgiveness beyond material indebtedness into non-material, moral, and spiritual conflict as well.

Luke 11:4 makes this clear as Jesus teaches the same prayer, “forgive us our sins.” Here “sins” is the Greek word hamartia which means specifically and always, “sins.”  So, debts or Sins?  Tertullian (3^rd century AD) broadened the “Our Father” / Pater Noster / Lord’s Prayer by inserting “trespasses.” 

Centuries later – 1500s Luther / Calvin era – German and then Presbyterian churches reverted to “forgive us our debts” in part because of economic disparities on the European continent.  The Anglican church in that era – late 1500s and beyond – because actual trespassing in England by commoners on royal lands was an issue, retained “trespasses.”

That said, we modern Jesus types are big on having our sins forgiven because we believe that forgiveness of our own sins punches our ticket to heaven and eternal life. We’ll be “gone to glory” with rewards and wings. Thank-you-Jesus!  But, not so fast.

I think the “My Sin” focus self-centeredly and egregiously misses the point Jesus was making.  Consider that Jesus on the Cross had never sinned.  At no time in His life did Jesus ask forgiveness for himself.  Jesus wasn’t a sacrifice for his own sin; His example on the Cross was far beyond sin, death, and the popular but non-biblical idea of punishment and payment; Jesus was presenting to humanity a free gift from God.

The example of Jesus on the Cross teaches us nothing if we limit it to be about “my” forgiveness, guilt, trespasses, or rewards.  Jesus on the Cross is God’s promise, truth, and deliverance of life, love, and forgiveness of others. That’s our mission, too.  

In Christ our souls are restored to glorify the Father; we are restored not so we can continually beg forgiveness, but so in Christ-likeness we rejoice in forgiving others.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) loves Jesus as a savior, not a payment plan.

Spirituality Column #765

July 13, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘That Summer Before He Died…’

By Bob Walters

When John Samples said he could marry us either “tomorrow” or not for another month (see last week’s column), Pam and I prepared for a wedding “tomorrow,” June 22, 2009.

After church we went to the nearby Von Maur store to find a pretty summer dress for Pam, all the while notifying family and close friends of our suddenly pending nuptials.

It was Sunday, and we were to be married late Monday afternoon at East 91^st Street Christian Church in the small chapel next to the Fireside Room where, incidentally, for years there hung a beautiful painting of our beloved late pastor Russ and Marian Blowers.

On totally short notice, Pam’s sister Coleen couldn’t make it down from Detroit.  My brother Joe – a boat captain in far northern Wisconsin – happened to be ashore and jumped in his car for Indianapolis.  Big sister Linda was in Tucson, too far away.  Both of my sons were out of state working summer jobs unable to come back, but Pam’s daughter Lauren was Maid of Honor and son Jason walked his mom down the aisle.  Joe, my life’s wingman, was Best Man.

By early Sunday afternoon Pam’s dress was bought and our very small cast of wedding characters was assembled.  Joe arrived midday Monday and drove Pam and me downtown to get our license. On our way back north we picked up wedding rings, Pam then feverishly made beautiful fresh flower bouquets for herself and Lauren (of course she did), we got cleaned up, and headed to church.

We figured we would have a proper “reception” later on in August (we did), but the wedding, at first, was just us.  Then Pam’s longtime church life group got involved, then my close friends George Bebawi and Stan Naraine and their wives (May and Janie) – plus my old high school pal Sharon Job Hoffman – came along side, and we wound up with about 25 at the actual wedding.  Stan had us all over to his place for an impromptu cookout afterwards.  It was awesome.

But there was a secret Pam withheld from me until we started writing our vows that hectic Sunday afternoon.  It stands not only as one of the greatest surprises of my life but was the centerpiece of our wedding ceremony.  Fancy vows wouldn’t be necessary.

“There’s something I’ve never told you …” Pam said, smiling. Me: (gulp) “Okay ….”

Turns out that summer before Russ Blowers died in November 2007, Pam had run into him one afternoon at the Castleton Christian book store on 82^nd Street.  One-on-one time with Russ was precious and they sat on a bench between rows of books for most of an hour chatting about Pam’s “little family,” church friends, and Russ’s recent June trip with his sons to Normandy.  Russ just naturally added the Lord’s joy, always. He endearingly referred to Pam, who played tympani in the E91 orchestra, as his “drummer girl.”

At our wedding almost exactly two years later, the “homily” was Pam’s daughter Lauren reading aloud this charming story with its surprise ending.  As they parted that summer day in 2007, Russ said to Pam, “I have a special friend I’m going to introduce you to when I think the time is right.”

Pam never so much as hinted that when I approached her at Russ’s funeral, she recognized me as the guy “who always sat with Russ.”  Three days later on Sunday when we spoke, Pam was convinced I was the friend Russ was talking about … but she never let on to me until the day before we were to be married.

Russ knew both our situations, Pam’s and mine, and knew my situation well enough not to prod me, not then, about a new relationship.  But Russ knew when the timing would be right.

I’m convinced meeting Pam at Russ’s funeral was not so random after all.

Russ set us up that summer before he died, and kept his promise in November.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) would have freaked out had he known this earlier.

 Spirituality Column #764

July 6, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘How About Tomorrow?’

By Bob Walters

After meeting Pam at long-time, beloved E91 pastor Russ Blowers’ funeral on a Thursday (see last week’s column #763, scroll below), we next spoke after that Sunday’s church service.

As mentioned last week, our E91 church in 2007 was huge.  Pam and I attended the same weekly service for probably five years but had never met.  Needing help informing the music ministry about Russ’s online tribute website (Russ Stories link), I recognized Pam from both the orchestra and the choir; a female drummer who was also a six-foot tall blond alto in the choir line was hard to miss.

I wasn’t “looking for her,” specifically.  But when I saw her outside the sanctuary about an hour before the funeral – she was to play tympani with the brass ensemble and I was a pall bearer – I approached, introduced myself, and asked for help passing the word about the Russ tribute site.  It was a quick, concise, and pleasant exchange … but maybe not as random or “chance” as it seemed at the time.

I say we still hadn’t actually “met” because at the funeral there was neither the time nor, understandably, the inclination for small talk.  But Sunday was different. 

After Sunday’s service Pam found me – I always sat near the front a few rows back on the right side, usually with Russ – and said she had emailed the tribute site info to the choir and orchestra members and it was well-received. Mission accomplished.

Chatting in the pews up near the pipe organ console, and in no particular order, we discovered of each other that we both adored Russ, she was an English teacher and I was a writer, that we both had strong (and fond) multi-generational vacation roots in northern Michigan, that we had graduated high school the same year (she near Grand Rapids, Mich., me in Kokomo, Ind.), she was a life-long Christian, a preacher’s kid (PK), and had been at E91 for 27 years, while I was a newbie, baptized at E91 Nov. 18, 2001.

Oh, did I mention that the Sunday when we “met” was Nov. 18, 2007?

We also learned we each had two mostly-grown kids from long-term marriages that had each, ironically enough, ended in May of 2005 with uncontested divorces.  We also learned that each of us had ongoing challenges (family, work, etc.) but we became fast friends and married a year and a half later, Monday, June 22, 2009.

Why a Monday?  Well, we have dear friend and retired pastor John Samples to thank for that one.  I had popped the question to Pam three days earlier on Friday, June 19, just before we headed over to the annual E91 music ministry end-of-season dinner.  Pam had been in the choir and orchestra for nearly 30 years so it became an especially great party for us with dear friends who all cheered, “It’s about time!”   

We were not planning a long engagement, and for logistical reasons marrying “sooner” would be far better than “later.”  Sunday, June 21, at church we approached John about scheduling a time to marry us in the coming weeks.  He pulled out his date book, frowned, and said that starting Tuesday of that week the next several weeks were full of travel and he was otherwise booked.  He just didn’t see how he could work it in.

Then he smiled, looked up at us and said, “How about tomorrow?”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) needs one more week to tell this story properly.  There was still a huge Russ-related and not-random surprise Pam was not telling Bob.