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.  

Spirituality Column #763

June 29, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Our Pastor’s Funeral

By Bob Walters

“My wife Pam and I met at our pastor’s funeral.”

I just love the start of that story, and love even more that it’s our story to tell. 

It was November 2007 – the 15th, a Thursday, to be exact – on a day saddened by loss but buoyed with the hope and love of Jesus that beloved pastor Russ Blowers had instilled in countless Christians during 56 years of ministry at East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis.  His funeral mostly filled the 2,200-seat worship hall.

Russ, 83 and retired, had died late Saturday evening the 10th, missing by a mere 10 minutes the symmetry of this proud World War II veteran’s death being marked on a November 11 Veteran’s Day.  His friend and fellow pastor John Samples, who along with Russ’s son’s Phil and Paul had prayed and watched as Russ breathed his last, woke me with a phone call and the not-unexpected news around 1:30 a.m.

A few hours later I arrived for Sunday church early as those of us who knew shared the news of Russ’s death with others, and word spread quickly.  Russ and I had grown close during my first six years as a Christian, which also happened to be his last six years as a minister.  I say “last six years”; I don’t know exactly what a guy like Russ is promoted to upon arrival at the pearly gates, but I doubt “minister” still covers it.

Anyway, in the halls at church later that Sunday morning my cell phone rang and Phil Blowers was calling to ask if I would serve his dad as a pall bearer.  I said yes as the tears I’d held back burst forth, right there in the hallway next to the reception desk.     

E91, as we call it, is a big church. At that time, Sunday mornings saw 4,000 or more worshippers in five services at two different ends of the building.  In the couple of years preceding his death, Russ and I had taken to sitting together in the 9:15 a.m. traditional service in the main sanctuary where the choir and orchestra – yes, a full, wonderful orchestra of extraordinarily talented church members – regularly performed.

I’ve often said going to church at E91 was like going to the Indy 500 … you never see or meet all the people who are there.  A cordial Sunday morning E91 greeting, “Hi, are you new here?” was often met with the response, “No, ‘been here for 30 years.”

One fellow I knew, former E91 member Dale Collie, called early Monday morning – from North Carolina where he now lived – urging me to start an online “Tribute Site” where parishioners and friends could post memories of Russ.  I was a long-time public relations guy and communicating was my business so I picked up the challenge.  We had the site up and running later that day. (see Russ Stories – link is still live.)

The daunting part of the challenge was reaching everyone who knew Russ or might want to post on the site.  Russ, for heaven’s sake, had been the chairman of the Billy Graham crusades in Indianapolis and Channel 8’s “TV Preacher” in the 1960s.  His ministry’s reach far exceeded E91, but my first goal was to gather stories from those who knew him best – and knew each other best – there in our home congregation.

It was obvious from sitting with Russ in Sunday services that the huge music ministry was a particular delight to him, and that he was adored by its many members.  But how to notify them?  An hour or so before the funeral, I recognized the orchestra’s tympanist standing in the hallway and asked her for help.  She said her name was Pam.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) married Pam June 22, 2009.  More next week.

Spirituality Column #762

June 22, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A Heartfelt Rest   

By Bob Walters

“… a world without the Sabbath is a world without soul.”

That line is from a May 8 Wall Street Journal Weekend Review essay which is the reason our past five columns here have been about the Christian Sabbath.

While I wholeheartedly agree with the line, and I learned from the piece many salient things I did not know about the Sabbath / Sunday rest in our USA, commercial, modern world, the overall arc of the essay put an exceedingly pesky burr in my saddle.

Why?  It framed the Sabbath entirely as a construct of God’s time, i.e., a day; rather than a construct of God’s heart, i.e., the glory and perfection of God’s Creation, the love of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

Here was a story about Sabbath and Sunday and America with no mention of the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus.  “Burr in my saddle” is putting it mildly.

In a prominent seventy column-inches of copy (2,000-ish words), five pieces of art (copy-desk talk for pictures, including “big art” above the fold on the lead page), a good pitch for the writer’s new book about the value of religious tradition in a chaotic society, and focused on the central topic of “Sunday” as a good idea for a society-wide, spiritually-focused day of rest especially as experienced in American culture, history, commerce, government, and tradition … never once is “Jesus” or “Christ” mentioned. 

This is a nearly perfect example of why modern journalism drives me nuts.  In a story about Sunday: no Lord’s Day, no Jesus, no Resurrection, no mention.  None.  It’s a bit of journalistic malfeasance my old mentor George would likely call a “catastrophe.”

What We’ve Lost in Rejecting the Sabbath sang the (biggish) two-line, four-column, 48-point hed.  That and the jump hed (page two), The Sacred Dimension of Sabbath Time, drew me in immediately. (Link to story appears at bottom.)

Written by New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari, the essay is an excerpt from his just-published book, “The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos.”   The Iranian born, American-educated attorney is a former atheist who recently became Roman Catholic and is a reliably conservative voice.  He had a notable dust-up with liberal theologian David French back in 2019 over the propriety of “Drag Queen Story Hour.”  Though a respected cultural commentator and author, Ahmari is a Christian discussing the Sabbath who doesn’t mention Christ.

Yet he writes, “… a world without the Sabbath is a world without soul.”  Indeed.

I get that the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday, Islam’s Sabbath is Friday, and Christians have been “going to church” on Sunday pretty much since the Resurrection.  And in a linguistic irony, “Sabbatarian” refers to the ethic of not opening businesses on the Christian Lord’s Day Sunday.  But missing the bedrock influence of Jesus in any discussion of American Sabbath practices is to miss the heart of the story.

Ahmari’s choice of theologians to quote was 20^th-century European Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel, who became a noted American thinker and prominent 1960s peace and civil rights advocate.  A Jew, he spoke at Martin Luther King’s funeral. 

Heschel, at 16, was already a Rabbi in Poland who then studied ubiquitous Western Enlightenment philosophy at the University of Berlin in the 1930s.  He left Germany because of Hitler.  Then, as a Jewish intellectual, he was expelled from Poland in 1939.  Because of his academic and religious writings, he was invited and went to America.  He soon lost his family back in Warsaw to the Nazis and World War II.

Heschel, to his credit, rejected modernist philosophies with their human-centric focus.  He understood that only God provided the objective truth that made morality possible.  Upon his arrival at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Heschel was deemed an “old world curmudgeon” because he found American theology education – and its students – a disappointing modernist stew of lax doctrine and non-rigorous discipline.

As an aside, Nazi antagonist and German Lutheran priest Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hung as a traitor in Germany in 1945, thought the same thing when he studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York in the 1930s: American theology was weak. 

It takes some patience to absorb Heschel’s brilliant but incomplete view of the Sabbath as a “realm of Time” (a day, prayer) vs. a “realm of Space” (winning and prosperity in this life) that Ahmari presents.  

I say “incomplete” because his Sabbath omits the rest and peace of Jesus.

Obviously for Heschel, as with most Jewish thinkers (modern commentators Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager come to mind), the eternally living presence of the person of Christ – what I would call the far superior and heavenly realm of the Heart, the heart and love of our Lord Jesus – is ignored. 

Or is, as the headline sublimely suggests to me … rejected.

Bigger than just a “day,” Jesus is a human soul’s living, heavenly, heartfelt, and perpetual Sabbath rest and proof of God’s righteousness, goodness, love, perfection, and forgiveness, reaching eternally beyond the Law in any realm we can imagine. 

That eternal reach is what we lose when we reject the Sabbath in Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was a newspaper desk editor in the 1970s and 80s, hence the dated journalist lingo. Link: What We’ve Lost in Rejecting the Sabbath-WSJ

 Spirituality Column #761

June 15, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Rest of the Day

By Bob Walters

“Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ (Psalm 95:11) And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world.” – Hebrews 4:1-11, verse 3

Have you ever noticed that the basic message of God in the Old Testament seems to be “Fear the Lord,” and the overarching message of Jesus in the New Testament is “Fear Not”?

That’s the difference between commandments and love.  God’s commandments are a tribal bond of daily works (OT Law) while Jesus’ love is a global bond of faith in eternal fellowship (NT grace).  The commands represent God’s correction of the first Adam who sinned in a garden, while love represents the perfect rest of the sinless Second Adam who died on a cross and was raised in resurrection glory in a garden.

When Israel – chosen by God to bring salvation to the world – failed in obedience to a commandment of the Law, it was Israel’s proper reflex to fear Godly punishment.  When God delivered our salvation in the perfect person and divine work of the “Last Adam,” Jesus, it was God’s love, not His wrath, that was on offer to whomever believed Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God.  This was Israel, saving all mankind.

And we come to this wonderful passage in Hebrews 4:1-11, where the writer invites Israel into the new rest Jesus brings; the perfect Sabbath God enjoyed in his perfect Creation on the seventh day.  It is not the temporary rest – the shadow of a rest – as when Joshua led Israel into Canaan ending their time in the desert (Joshua 1).  This is the new, perfect, eternal rest of God, by faith in Jesus.  God’s perfect Creation is renewed by the New Creation of all things in Christ.  This is the point of the entire Bible.

In Christ, the work of the Law was fulfilled and the temporary “rest” in Canaan faded to metaphor.  The Sabbath day commanded in the Law was a reminder to Israel of the perfection, completeness, and good of God’s Creation.  The Sabbath rest offered in Jesus Christ is God’s enduring invitation to all humanity for forgiveness, love, and eternal life.  We celebrate it on The Lord’s Day, Sunday, but its joy is commemorated in the ever-abiding presence of the living Jesus illuminated by the Holy Spirit … always.

God displayed His anger toward the rebellious Israelites by not allowing the generation led by Moses from Egypt to enter Canaan, “the promised land,” and that included Moses.  The Christian believer writing this Letter to the Hebrews asserts the truth of God’s oath of anger, but notes God’s works have been finished since the world’s Creation.  When Creation was “finished,” God entered a day of divine rest.

Think of the last words of Jesus on the cross, “It is finished.”  Just as God rested in perfection on the seventh day after creating man on the sixth day, Jesus was crucified and finished his work redeeming man on the sixth day, resting on the seventh.

By renewing creation through Jesus, God’s perfect rest flows into humanity through the redeeming work of Christ: sins forgiven, iniquities covered, relationship restored, and the trust and comfort of perpetual Sabbath secured in Christ.  Fear not; God’s eternal love for His Creation, not his wrath at sin, wins out in the end. 

That’s not just a rest on Sunday thing; it’s a rest of your life thing.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: “Enter my rest” is God’s open invitation to all.