Spirituality Column #809

May 17, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Enduring Crown

By Bob Walters

“Blessed is the man who endures…” – James 1:12

Most of us think of “endurance” as the practice of “not giving up.”

We say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”  That may be how we “endure” adversities that make life unpleasant, or weather the trials, difficulties, dangers, and misfortune that sap our hope, ruin our energy, or even challenge our will to live.

I looked up “Bible verses on endurance” and read various commentaries on them.  The verses are many, but the common “commentary” on them seems to be “endurance” in the earthly sense of “don’t quit.”  Did the Bible mean, “work harder”?

For example, Galatians 6:9 says we will “reap the harvest” if we don’t give up.

Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."

Hebrews 12:1 offers, "let us run with endurance the race marked out for us."

So, Endurance.  And other words we frequently encounter:  Perseverance.  Steadfastness.  Patience.  Long-Suffering.  These traits are the fruits of the spirit birthed in our trials as we overcome worldly and even faith adversity. Hang in there!  Whew!

But is that our true victory in Christ? Simply surviving the predictable awfulness of a fallen world?  Well, it’s certainly a start, but I think there is a more important goal.

I think endurance means, “keep the faith.”  Win, lose, or draw in life, keep the faith in your heart.  Hebrews, you’ll notice, doesn’t say “win the race,” it says, “run with endurance.”  That “race” isn’t about winning on earth; it’s about staying close to Christ. 

Winning a race is nice but enduring in our faith is a must; it keeps us joyful even when persevering in our worldly works or predicaments is not an option.  When we face “trials of many kinds” – as James wrote in his letter – it is the endurance of our faith, not the health of our bodies or earthly successes, that provide our daily victories in Christ.

In our trials and perseverance we may be more worried about what we might lose in the world than what the New Testament promises we gain in eternity.  We need to open our eyes to the love of Jesus, to the eyes of our own hearts and souls that God gave us, and consider the constant victory we can claim. 

And that constant victory is keeping our faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t ask, in a trial, “Will I win the race?” Ask instead, “Am I keeping faith in Jesus?”  If you are, you’re winning all the time, and most likely growing in Christ all the time.  That is the race marked out for us.  That is the endurance that brings blessing.

Enduring faith in Jesus saves us, every day.  It is our faith in which we must persevere.  We triumph in our trials when we go through them and maintain our faith in Jesus.  Our victory, our Crown, is our steadfast and persevering faith in Christ.

And it is a crown we can wear every day with joy and hope.  Others will notice.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: you win some, you lose some, but you dress for all of them.  Some are rained out; some are forfeited … just stay with Jesus.

Spirituality Column #808

May 10, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Come Together

By Bob Walters

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” – Paul to the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 1:10

Several places in the Bible beseech the Disciples, the early Christians, and all Christians going forward – including up to today and beyond – to be united in mind.

Paul’s note here in 1 Corinthians addresses what he saw as the first and most egregious error of the discombobulated church at Corinth: they were worshiping different “people.”  They were worshiping the various teachings and personages of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and, it seems likely, others as well. 

Everybody has their favorite preacher.  Paul is reminding them to worship Christ.

Jesus asserted forcefully and truthfully in His earthly life that He was the deliverer of God’s gift of salvation, i.e., eternal life to all mankind.  Israel’s leaders were reluctant and regularly hostile to Christ’s unexpected message that their existing Law, traditions, and standing were now not abolished but subsumed by the truth of Jesus Christ.

Jesus knew His message of salvation, faith, grace, forgiveness, and sovereignty would be rejected not just by many Jews but many in the world and nations beyond. 

Jesus also knew that His believers suffering rejection would need to encourage and nurture each other in order to spread His truth.  Jesus prays for it in John 17:20-23, Paul mentions it often, and James, in a different but important spin, warns against “double-mindedness” which happens when we worship more than one thing.

We tend to think first of “unity” in the political sense, whether it is the politics of a church, denomination, family, nation, government, or any imaginable social construct.  This renders one of the easiest concepts in the Bible – the importance of sticking together – nearly impossible to understand, e.g., “Unity? With that bunch of lunatics?”

Our default disagreement position is generally about how things should be done; behaviors, worship, governance, etc.  I submit that the 800-pound gorilla of the Bible’s insistence on unity resides not in how we get along with each other or, in good Christian parlance, “love” each other, but in who we believe Jesus Christ to be.  The correct answer is, “the Son and Word of God, and the life, creativity, light, and truth of God.

Boiling it down, I cite John 1, verses 1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.” That’s Jesus; God incarnate (v14). It doesn’t tell us how to behave; it tells us who to worship.

Notice the power God has given each of us in our minds and creativity, our various talents and aspirations, and our mysterious individual identities that reflect not just the image of the one true God but also the God-intended glory of each human’s uniqueness.  The assembled power we have on Earth in the name of Christ relies on our identifying – correctly – that which is to be worshiped and trusted.  And that’s Jesus.

Pick your priorities … it might be money, work, family, your church, the Bible, politics, any hobby you may have, any preacher you may adore … everything suborns to Jesus Christ.  When people understand that and insist on Christ, unity is achieved.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recently ran across a good line about modern culture and religion: “People worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship.”

Spirituality Column #807

May 3, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Game Changer

By Bob Walters

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. Greetings …” – James 1:1

James, 20^th book of the New Testament’s 27, for my money is on par with Proverbs of the Old Testament comprising two of the easiest books in the Bible to read.

By “easy,” I mean just about anybody can pick up advice from them, have a familiar, relatable modicum of understanding what they are saying.  Their meanings and language are pretty straight forward.  You don’t have to be particularly “religious” or a theologian to get the gist of wisdom and guidance they provide.  Leave Leviticus and Revelation to the pros; read Proverbs and James.  Don’t worry if Romans eludes you on the first go.

Having tried at various times in my life to read the Bible before I was truly a believer was frustrating.  I cannot track whether my faith or my belief came first, but when, suddenly, reading any part of the Bible made sense, that was my clue the Holy Spirit was actually flying the plane.  Baptized in November 2001, I then read Genesis-to-Revelation before the end of 2002.

Even when I didn’t understand, I knew what I was reading was true. Since then (age 47) it’s been my life’s journey to read and re-read – to pray, think, and absorb; contemplate, discern, and discover; study, investigate, and listen – the Bible’s many-hued depths of divine discovery.

Here’s what I know: Jesus doesn’t lie, the Bible’s always true, and God can do anything He wants.  One’s mind reels and soul bursts at the enormity of God’s being, creativity, and love.

But … James.  I was assigned to read a scripture passage – James 1:16-18 – in our E91 traditional service last month and it sparked an idea to present a post-Easter through June study on James in our weekly E91 Mustard Seed Bible Study.  It took me the first two full class sessions to get through the book’s first sentence quoted above, James 1:1.  Here’s why.

Despite the plainness of the intro, nobody knows who actually wrote James.  Yes, you’ll hear famous preachers insist it was James the Just, brother of Jesus, first bishop of Jerusalem: not James the Disciple, nor James the son of Alphaeus, nor James the father of Judas (not Iscariot).  The clue is in Acts 15:13-29 where James the Just writes to the Jewish dispersion (or diaspora, “scattered among the nations”).  But … who is James and when did he write “James”?

One school of thought insists James the Just wrote it in 44-49 A.D., making it the earliest New Testament book, that was “lost” for 50 years.  The other school – modern scholarship – insists someone else wrote “James” around 100 A.D. using not just James’ name, a common practice at the time, but also James’ thoughts, advice, wisdom, perspective, and will, penning it after James died to make it perhaps the latest New Testament book.  Doesn’t matter.

Fact is, James the book barely made it into the New Testament at all.  The earliest Church Fathers resisted it because it says little about Jesus … but volumes to the Jews.  The Book of James made the canon’s final cut in 367 A.D.  Centuries later Martin Luther, a “faith alone” guy, said it was a “letter of straw” for embracing the importance of faithful works. 

Again, no matter.  What took me two weeks to teach the first verse was explaining (1) who James was (I mean, “brother of Jesus”?), and (2) “The twelve tribes.”  There is a lot there.

It hit me as I prepared that we modern Christians think James was written to us about our modern sin. No, it was specifically addressed to Israel’s scattered tribes and Jesus believers who now had to deal with both their long tradition of the Law and their new saving faith in Christ.

Israel wasn’t dealing with a new God; it was dealing with a new Savior.  The game had changed.  James, who knew Jesus and saw Him resurrected, had much to say to Israel about their old faith that, shockingly, was now newly complete in Jesus Christ.  It was a lot to take in.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) promised Mustard Seed he’d get to verse 2 this week… Walters adds that any and all are welcome to attend the Mustard Seed Bible Study, Thursdays at 10:30 a.m., in the upstairs “Sun Room” at East 91^st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis.

Spirituality Column #806

April 26, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sparky’s Magic Piano

By Bob Walters

One of my earliest memories – a vivid, before-kindergarten recollection – is of a record album my dad bought for us kids titled “Sparky’s Magic Piano.”

We’re talking circa 1958, when a “record” was one of those flat vinyl discs you put on a “record player.”  Dad – John Walters, 1926-1991 – was a classical music buff and I vividly remember as a little kid when he and mom brought home our new “Hi-Fi” – a “Pilot” brand, tube-based, monaural (not stereo) furniture-grade, dark, square-ish, top-opening floor unit.  It had a matching second speaker Dad placed on the other side of our small living room at 321 Lincoln Blvd., in the Lakeview suburb of Battle Creek, Mich.

Dad had shopped around and was convinced this Pilot was the richest, best sounding home Hi-Fi unit available.  It wasn’t the stereo-TV-radio combo many baby-boomers grew up with. It was just a record player, but a truly magnificent sounding one.

Along with the predictable Bach-Beethoven-Brahms-Mozart-Tchaikovsky recordings that started his soon-to-be-substantial collection, Dad brought home for us kids – just my older sister Linda and I at the time; Joe was a baby and Debbie came along a bit later – a story-and-music boxed album set of “Sparky’s Magic Piano.”

One way you knew, from a practical standpoint, that it was for the kids – the title notwithstanding – was that the three-record set was numbered with Sides 1 and 6 on the first record, then 2 and 5, then 3 and 4.  You could stack them on the changer, listen to Sides 1 through 3, then flip the whole stack and listen to Sides 4 through 6.

On Dad’s multi-platter concert albums, Sides 1 and 2 were on the same disc so you couldn’t stack them on the changer and possibly scratch them when they dropped.

That record player remained part of my life up into my adulthood, but let’s talk about Sparky.  He was a mythical boy with desire but little talent who wanted very much to play great piano.  Alas, Sparky made a deal with the devil, trading his own soul for the talent to be a world-famous concert pianist prodigy.  On Side 6, the devil wants his talent back and leaves Sparky on stage devastated and humiliated, unable to play.

Moral to the story:  You have to work for and earn lasting success and joy.

Satan’s funny that way.  The human condition is rife with desires to be really good at something for the sake of fame and money, rather than the purer and Godly route of putting in the work and love required to bring true joy to one’s endeavors.

Satan always wants his gifts back, because they are worldly, fleeting, and based in pride, greed, and power.  He has no power to create life; death is his only payout.

Beethoven was great at music because he loved it.  Larry Bird loved basketball.  Billy Graham loved Jesus and loved leading people to Christ.  The happiest people I know – probably who any of us know – are the ones whose families, lives, vocations, professions, and hobbies have been shaped by something larger than pedantic earthly measurements of time, sweat, and desire. Like, say, love, service, faith, and God’s gifts.

In this post-Easter period of joy and reflection, one lesson from the Cross of Jesus is that nothing truly worthwhile comes cheaply or easily.  Another is that love and sacrifice, not fame or money, are the life sparks that burn hottest, brightest, and longest.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), whose dad sang tenor in Michigan State’s a cappella men’s choir in the 1940s, figures surely others know of Sparky’s Magic Piano.

Spirituality Column #805

April 19, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Voice of God

By Bob Walters

“Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”– John 8:28 

Jesus was and is the glory of God, and in this passage from the Gospel of John Jesus was calmly telling his listeners that, though his soul was deeply troubled, that the time had come for him to be glorified.  He beseeched God, “Father, glorify your name!”

And John writes: “Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  The verse goes on to say that some in the crowd thought the voice was thunder; others said an angel had spoken to Jesus.  But Jesus was quick to point out to them that God was speaking for their benefit, not His. 

It was time for the judgment of the world, and time for Jesus to go to work.  The Glory of God – Jesus – would go to the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our sin, and then the Glory of God would leave the grave empty on the day of resurrection. 

But at that moment of thunder or an angel’s voice, no one but Jesus had an inkling what would happen in the ensuing four or five days.  But they would have been dumbfounded by what was happening at that moment: Was that God speaking to them?

This passage is nestled in John’s brief account of Holy Week.  The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke go into several chapters of Jesus’ teaching and activities between “Palm Sunday’s” triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and the “Maundy Thursday” Last Supper in the Upper Room.  John dedicates less than a chapter to it.

But it includes this event, which would have rocked any Jews who happened to hear it, whether they believed Jesus, hated Jesus, or thought Jesus was a fraud.  This “voice from heaven” … could it possibly be … God?  Speaking directly to them?

It would have been a much bigger deal than scripture lets on.  Scottish Bible commentator William Barclay notes that when Jesus arrived on the scene, any notion of hearing directly from God had all but disappeared from Israel.  There were only notions of bath qol, or “daughter’s voice,” scriptures softly breathed by feminine angels.

God who spoke directly so often in the Old Testament – to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the prophets, and others like Samuel, Elijah and Eliphaz – had been silent for many centuries.  But in the Old Testament when God spoke, He spoke only to individuals, never to a crowd.  Now, God talks to Jesus and everyone around Him.

Think that didn’t make the Pharisees’ rage, fear, and jealousy burn a bit hotter?

This is the third time in the Gospels we hear the direct voice of God: First at Jesus’s Baptism, and then at the Transfiguration God says basically the same thing, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.  Listen to Him!”  And here, when “the time has come” for God to be glorified in Jesus’s sacrifice, God speaks again. 

It’s another clue the Jewish leaders missed: the voice of God speaks through Jesus, not through them.   It infuriated them, and assures us that when we listen to Jesus, we are listening to not only the Word of God but also to the very voice of God. 

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows that if you won’t listen, your ears can’t hear.

Spirituality Column #804

April 12, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Infinite Possibilities

By Bob Walters

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.  Were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” – John 21:25, the final verse of the Fourth Gospel.

During Holy Week our Christian thoughts are focused on the singularly great work of Christ: His death on the Cross.

What did Jesus do?  He died for my sins; He paid the price for my salvation.

And then what happened?  Jesus was resurrected from the tomb – celebrated in Christianity as Easter or Resurrection Day – proving His promise that with faith in Him sins were forgiven, trespasses were covered, that a groaning universe could stop groaning, and that our life eternal in restored relationship with God in Heaven was set.

Jesus survived death for all eternity.  Now, so will we.  Hallelujah!

But … sadly, narrowly, and – let me suggest – joylessly, for far too many souls in the world, including many lightly confessing Christians, that’s where Sunday School adjourns until next year: “Jesus paid the price for my sins. I’m saved.  Now, let’s worry about something else.”  In other words, “I’ll do what I want; it’s paid for.”  Uh … no.

Yes, Jesus provided a Cosmic one-two punch to Satan’s reign of evil on Earth, and even those of the lightest faith in Christ can recite that story.  But that story, big as it is, is often missing true relationship with Jesus and appreciation for His infinite works.

Jesus is Lord of the seen and unseen; nothing was made without Him.  The “seen” we can sense, but the “unseen” is as big as the universe and as small as an atom; it is the unseen component of love, relationship, turmoil, peace, and works of Jesus.  That’s how far “beyond definition” Christ is.  The work of His love can never be contained in a cost equation of some finite “price being paid” for all He did.

John makes it sound like there is a whole lot more to it than that if “the whole world” could not contain the written record of Christ’s work.  Oh my … so much more.

Let’s not minimize the accomplishment of “death and resurrection.” But neither should we limit our Christian attentions to Holy Week’s miraculous but reportable story, nor should we imagine we can quantify anything about the infinite works of Christ.

Paul writes (Romans 5:15-20) that we can gauge and quantify our own trespasses, but we cannot quantify God’s grace or forgiveness (v15): “[God’s] gift is not like the trespass.”  The Bible throughout, in fact, assures that we really cannot fathom many things about God’s Kingdom and Christ, whether it is time (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8), money (Matthew 18:24-25), love (Ephesians 3:17-21, esp. v18), grace (Romans 5:15-20, 2 Cor. 12:9), mercy (Ephesian 2:4), patience (2 Peter 3:9), forgiveness (Matthew 7:22), kindness (Ephesians 2:7), or even God’s creativity (Genesis 22:17).

Yes, we can count on God’s love, but there is no way we can do the math.  We benefit when we spend more time searching our hearts and minds for faith and truth in Jesus and less time trying to work out the equation of what Jesus paid for my sins.

Jesus did more than we can imagine, and He did it with infinite love, not money. When our faith connects us to that relationship with Jesus, our possibilities are endless.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays for the peace of God and faith in Christ to be your constant companion during this Holy Week … and always.

Spirituality Column #803

April 5, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

I Don’t Buy It

By Bob Walters

“You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” – Paul writing to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

This one clause of this one verse, “you were bought at a price,” has instilled nearly perpetual confusion and guilt into the loving work and passion of Christ.

It’s one of those Bible lines written about something else – sort of like “Do not judge…” (Matthew 7:1) – that on its surface and out of context has launched a thousand sinking ships of misdirected doctrine.  We see Jesus on the Cross and think He’s at the cosmic pay window, evening up the holy account of our sins that must be paid for. The “paid” theme is replete in hymns, prayers, and sermons, but I can’t find a verse in the Bible that says Jesus “paid a price.”  Makes me crazy.

Atonement, redemption, ransom, reconciliation, propitiation, expiation?  Yes.

But “paid”?  No.  And yes, I know I’m practically alone on this one.  But hear me out.

Paul has encountered a Corinthian church that is doing almost everything wrong.  Its fellowship is split and stratified.  Its worship is misfocused.  Its services are chaotic.  Its “Lord’s Supper,” rather than a humble supplication, is a lavish, prideful feast over here and a sparse, demeaning pauper’s ration over there.  The church errantly took its internal fights outside, was skeptical of Paul’s authority, permissive in its behaviors, and itself seemed to be repeating Israel’s long history of prideful and sinful mistakes against God.

But there’s more.  Corinth was a major Greek city and trading crossroads.  Of its twelve varied local temples (including one synagogue), the dominant religion in town was adoration of the Greek love goddess Aphrodite, whose high-on-a-hill temple employed a thousand priestess prostitutes.  The church’s attitude was, “Why not?”  Reminds me of today: “Hey, it’s my body.”

Notice that this “bought at a price” phrase is firmly planted in the section of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 subtitled, “Sexual Immorality.”  Then chapter 7:1 picks up with “Marriage” and Paul presents the primacy of sexual morality existing in the man-woman, husband-wife marriage bed and nowhere else.  Aphrodite’s prostitutes and sexual sin vs. our bodily and spiritual union with Christ are the issues Paul is addressing. To say, “Bought at a price,” in this context, is accurate and appropriate. 

A Christian life is improved by (1) Not exposing itself to the temptations of satan; (2) Keeping one’s spouse as a mutually exclusive bodily gift from God; and (3) Knowing the ownership of our bodies properly resides with our Creator, God, not ourselves.  Freedom, yes.  Ownership, no.

“Bought” is Paul’s powerful indication of God’s ownership, not payment.  Our understanding of that is critical to our relationship with Jesus, in whom our only salvation exists “without payment” (Revelation 21:6).  To think that Jesus on the Cross is some sort of measurable trade or transaction or purchase is to abrogate the freely obedient love and perfect sacrifice of Jesus.  The Cross is a mystery of God’s love which brings joy, not an earthly quid pro quo to trigger guilt.

I'm adamant against thinking of salvation in Christ as a commodity to be bought, traded, measured, or judged.  As we are forgiven in Christ's power and God's grace, we join the treasure chest of the Kingdom of God.  We are restored as God's divinely beloved, escaping a “What’s in it for me?” station profaned by earthly values of things that rust, pass away, or are defined by fallen human description.  We are infinitely owned by God and I’m thankful – joyous – for it.

The gift of Jesus to us is a life to be lived, a love to be nurtured, a truth to be known, a faith to trust, and hope that solidifies into the joyous reality of divine eternity.  That is how big and un-boxable Jesus is.  Yet humans crave the smaller, familiar metaphor of transaction; it calms our narrow intellect by being consistent with the sodden tradeoffs of virtually all else in fallen human life.

But … did Jesus buy me? Golly, I didn’t “buy” my marriage. My joy and love aren’t in keeping score or auditing a receipt; my joy is an unselfish, shared, and reciprocal love; that’s Jesus.

Salvation is not in a transactional metaphor. God’s pure love wins, and you can’t buy it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) would not find peace if he believed his wife Pam had traded for him.  And as for this Jesus “purchase,” Whom did He pay? Ask instead, “Whom did He love?”  P.S. – Next week or soon, we’ll look at 1 Corinthians 7:23.