Good Intentions Gone Wrong

            Have you ever done something with good intentions, but they backfired in some way? I did this past Sunday. I opened my sermon about Jesus’ words from Matthew 7:1-5 by retrieving a 6-foot piece of wood strapping from behind the communion table. Intending to act out the appearance of having a board in my eye as I criticized and judged people, the board knocked over a few things. Unfortunately two of those things were instruments that belonged to Mary, one of our young adults. Although it made the point (I think) about how harmful we are when we condemn others, I did not intend to do any real harm in just a sermon illustration. While I think the instruments survived without injury, I can tell you I felt pretty foolish, and pretty bad about it. Afterwards I thought, now if only any tendency in me to judge people would lead me to the same feelings of discomfort and disappointment. Our careless judgments of others truly are dangerous.

            So even our good intentions can miss the mark. When I was in high school a group of church friends and I were on a youth retreat. Kids attending developed a series of skits for our fun and laughs. We were all having a grand old time when – in one of the skits – one of the guys took a small fish coated in oil and threw it at me… as a joke. It would have been funny, but the reaction that came from everyone was dead silence. Instead of hitting me with it, the oily fish flew right into/onto my guitar. Though it was nowhere near as nice as the guitar I have now, it wasn’t funny, and everything just ground to a halt. People didn’t know what to do or say. Of course everything turned out to be just fine, and the weekend went on. But there’s another example of good intentions gone wrong.

            I think this is a fairly common experience. Often we express words or actions thinking that something good will result, when instead something else happens. Then we’re left trying to clear things up with expressions like, “I didn’t mean to say that” or “I didn’t mean for that to happen.” Hopefully people will respond to us with grace and forgiveness. Knowing how this all feels is a good thing to remember when someone else’s good intentions toward you go awry in some way. A gentle and soft response can do wonders and go a long way to bless someone who feels bad when they’ve blundered.

            May God bless you and me with such grace toward others. AMEN!

Proverbs 10:12 (NIV)  Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.

1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)  Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Colossians 3:12-14 (NIV) ¹²  Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

PRAYER:  Father, thank you for your abundant grace to me in the middle of my failures – well-intentioned or not. Thank you for knowing my heart and forgiving me when I miss the mark of your perfect will and plan. Thank you for the reminder of Jesus’ birth this time of year, and all that He did in the Incarnation that has saved me and brought me into your family. And thank you for all of your blessings in 2014, and please continue to pour out your grace upon me in 2015. I love you. In Christ’s name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!  

Scott

Music Appreciation

            On Sunday a group of folks from our church visited Sonogee Rehabilitation and Living Center to spend some time Christmas caroling. Our custom is to slowly “wander” the halls as we sing, greeting people from room to room and stopping wherever two or three or more gather to listen. As many times as I ask the question, “Do you have a favorite?”… I receive the same response: “I like them all.” It doesn’t seem to matter what we sing: they’re happy we’re there. People just love the sound of our singing, amateur as it is. We had a few younger children with us as well. They are always a big hit with the residents and invariably brighten their faces with smiles.

            There was a moment during the caroling when I found myself unable to sing. While we were singing “Silent Night” I looked into a room nearby. A woman – in her eighties at least – was lying in bed, on her back, eyes closed, as if she were sleeping. But her lips were moving. At first I missed it, but then realized they were moving in sync with our singing. She was hearing us and “joining in” as best she could. There was something about that moment that began to choke me up, and I had to stop trying to sing and try instead to keep from tearing up and weeping. I’ve thought about that moment since, wondering why and how such things happen. Music has the capacity to be a very powerful emotion-impacting force. It can evoke deep memories, sentimentality, and feelings of sadness, joy, loss, loneliness, fun, and even anger. So much of our lives are associated with music in some way. I remember another time singing Christmas carols in a unit of Alzheimer’s patients, wondering if we would be able to connect at all with them. It turned out to be the best time of Christmas caroling I have ever experienced. It was amazing how much they sang along – word for word – the verses of each carol. That, too, was quite moving to see and experience the power of music.

            Our Creator God built into the souls of those made in His image a place where music reaches in and touches with power. Music itself has to be one of the most remarkable works of God in all creation. Just think of all that has been created in the minds of men and women with just a relatively few notes and rhythms. Music can be made in so many different ways, by so many different instruments. I recently saw a video someone posted on Facebook which depicted a man making an instrument out of a carrot and then playing it like a clarinet. In his hands it actually sounded pretty good. The variety of instruments and sounds is truly astounding. Just one more of the innumerable things that point to the greatness and glory of the Lord. Educational courses are taught on the subject of music appreciation and, like the visual arts, when it comes to music we all know what we like. We all have our own taste, and there is no shortage of styles and genres to suit our needs and wants. But there is an even deeper kind of music appreciation for us. It is the kind that wonders and worships the very Source of music. Music exists at all because of God’s great joy to craft and design it. That kind of appreciation must be the most important, I think.

            When I was younger my family would ask me to bring my guitar to Christmas gatherings so that we could sing Christmas songs. Sometimes I would hesitate, because my grandmother would always cry when we sang “I’ll be Home for Christmas” or “White Christmas”. And that would make me uncomfortable. Now I remember it fondly, and would love to be back together with all the tears. This Christmas may we enjoy the music of our Lord as a means of enjoying Him.

Psalm 100:1 (KJV)  Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Psalm 150:1-6 (NIV) ¹  Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. ²  Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. ³  Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, ⁴  praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, ⁵  praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. ⁶  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

PRAYER:  Father, thank you for creating music. It truly is one of the greatest joys in my life, especially that music that is clearly to your glory. May my voice always be eager to join in on any sound that is pleasing to you. In Christ’s name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!  

Scott

His Story

            How many pages would your biography have? If someone wrote your story for others to read, how big would the book be? I have been reading some biographies lately and one of them referenced a biography of the times that was 1400 pages long. That’s a lot of pages to sum up one life. Length, however, is no determinant of significance. I often think of the millions of lives of which no biography is ever recorded, full of things done and said that have made a great difference in this world. Yet no one will ever know. A hundred years from now – if the Lord has not returned by then – it is likely that no one will remember me or attach any practical significance to me. Maybe this is why people seek out and embrace their 15 minutes of fame so readily in our culture. The fact that my memory will be distant, or even completely lost one hundred years from now, might lead me to some existential angst of meaninglessness, with questions like… “What’s the use?”… “What does anything matter?” Questions like that always remind me of Ecclesiastes. Solomon had it all, did it all, knew it all, and left it all behind. He says… "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3) I take encouragement from this book that Solomon writes these things of the “under the sun” reality, because that is not all there is. There is more than just this material world to be considered. The fact is… my life is not just my story – told or not… remembered or not. Our lives in this world are part of God’s story.

            If all there is… is life under the sun, then I think – in the end – it doesn’t really matter. But if there is more… if the God of the Bible is real: Creator, Redeemer, and everything the Scriptures describe Him to be… then everything matters. There are no mundane things in life. Every biography – written or not – is significant. If this world and everything in it did not matter, then God would not have sent His Son into it. But His story finds its central “character” in Christ. And the cross of Christ infuses significance into every life and into every fiber of the universe. This expression of God’s love – made before the world was even created… and “publicized”, if you will, with the Incarnation is what the universe is all about, and it is the heart of God’s story.

            And my “little” story – whether I see it as worth a one-page telling or a thousand pages – is in God’s “book”. On many occasions I have tried to encourage people with the reminder that God always writes the last chapter. When our children stray, or when we face hardships and uncertainties of various kinds, it is good to know and remember that we are in God’s story, and that He always has the final word. And, from our perspective anyway, even though we know God is writing even right now, we also are aware that He already knows all of the final chapters. This kind of thinking could lead a person toward a shrug-your-shoulders fatalism, but that would not be my take. Our lives, our choices, etc., do matter. And knowing I can rest in my Lord… that by faith I can trust Him in all things… that by grace I am His… leads me to the joy of my part in His great story. I am a part of the Nativity story… a part of the Gospel story… a part of the crucifixion story… and the resurrection story… and the Church story… and the return of Christ story… and the eternal story of fellowship in His family in heaven story. So, with the psalmist I can proclaim, “He has made me glad.” May your experience with the Lord this Christmas fill you with great gladness and joy, and may you see His story and realize your significance in Him! AMEN!

Matthew 2:10 (KJV)  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

Matthew 2:10 (MSG)  They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!

PRAYER:  Father, in all of life’s circumstances – however they may appear to me – may I see your hand at work writing the story. Thank you for writing me in, especially the part about being saved by grace and becoming your child. I love being in your family. To you be all glory and praise.  In Christ’s name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!  

Scott

Christ is Not a Tidbit

            “Christ has been exiled from the lives of most Christians. Of course, we build him a temple, but we live in our own houses. Religion has been exiled to Sunday morning, to a place into which one gladly withdraws for a couple of hours, but only to get back to one’s place of work immediately afterward. One cannot give him only a small compartment in our spiritual life, but must give him everything or nothing. The religion of Christ is not a tidbit after one’s bread. On the contrary, it is the bread or it is nothing. People should at least understand and concede this if they call themselves Christian.”

            These words (cited from Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy) were spoken on December 11, 1928 in Barcelona, Spain, in the second of a series of three lectures to a group of young men (high schoolers) who were part of a discipleship circle started by a very young – 22 year old – theologian and assistant pastor from Germany named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was serving in a church that ministered primarily to the German expatriate community. He found there a people highly focused on themselves, and not on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were church attenders, but nominal Christians at best. He described them as “damned materialistic and have not received any sort of intellectual lift from their stay abroad…”. What he found were nominal Christians who had been baptized in the state church (Lutheran), but had little knowledge of, or use for, the Gospel, for the Word of God, and for a living and abiding faith in Christ. His ministry prospered as he preached Christ and led young people to know Him as disciples in a living, vital relationship.

            The church that loses or misses the Gospel is in serious trouble. It becomes a mere social club or social service organization. While it is good to serve the needs of people, and we are called to do so in Scripture, there must be something to distinguish the Church from Goodwill Industries or Food Pantries or the United Way. Christians can support the efforts of most such organizations, and participate in making a difference, but it is important that we do not confuse these efforts with the Gospel. Religion is a dead, man-made thing. It is not at the heart of Christianity. Only God Himself – the living God, the Creator and Redeemer – is there.

            Bonhoeffer would go on in his lecture to say, “Christ has given scarcely any ethical prescriptions that were not to be found already with the contemporary Jewish rabbis or in pagan literature. Christianity is not about a new and better set of behavioral rules or about moral accomplishment. Religion and moral performance are the very enemies of Christianity and of Christ because they present the false idea that somehow we can reach God through our moral efforts. This leads to hubris and spiritual pride, the sworn enemies of Christianity. Thus, the Christian message is basically amoral and irreligious, paradoxical as that may sound.”

            A church itself – sadly - can become nothing more than a human attempt to advance toward the divine. But we have no claims to God based upon our religiosity or church commitment. The glorious and awesome God who created this universe and who is sovereign over all things will certainly not be impressed by my efforts. They are nothing and can gain me no standing with Him. But will I be impressed by Him?... by Him who initiates a plan to redeem me and make me His child by sending His own Son – the very thing we celebrate at Christmas? Will I glory in my efforts, or will I glory in the infinite God taking on a human body, taking out Satan, taking onto Himself the sin that is deadly to me and to any kind of fellowship with God? Will I believe that I can add something to what God has done in the Incarnation, or will I believe that Christ has done all that is necessary for my salvation? Will I believe that His righteousness in all its magnificence has been applied to me and has placed me into His family? Will I cease trying to get to God and abide in the knowledge that God has gotten to me in Christ and that my joy is in trusting in His work and resting in all that Christ has accomplished?

            May the Lord keep us from exiling Christ by looking to our own righteousness or religious accomplishment. May we look only to Christ and to the grace that makes seeing and knowing Him possible.

Romans 5:8 (NIV)  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Titus 3:4-7 (NIV) ⁴  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵  he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶  whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷  so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

PRAYER:  Father, may I look to Christ only - nothing more, nothing less, nothing else – for my hope in you: knowing you and being your child. And may all of my life come out of what you have done for me in Christ.  In His name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!  

Scott