Ants Are Okay, Most of the Time

Last week I spent far too much discretionary time dealing with ants. I don’t mean fire ants or carpenter ants, though the former I can live without anywhere. I mean those neat little cleaner ants that are fond of finding stray crumbs on your kitchen counter.

After cleaning kitchen, dining room, and bathroom with ammonia and spraying both inside baseboards and outside foundations with insecticide, we solved our problem with a simple ant bait trap. It was only four inches long and less than two inches wide. Almost overnight the ants disappeared.

When they remain outdoors, I have no problem with ants, except fire ants of course. Varieties of ants turn dead wood into dirt. Their efforts allow the death of other creatures to become a source of nutrition for new life. Their tunnels allow air and water to seep into the ground enriching it. An ant colony has been used as a symbol of fruitful work and cooperation for thousands of years.

The themes of preparation and hard work as illustrated by the life of ants runs through the book of Proverbs. (6:6-11; 18:9; 19:15, 24; 20:13; 24:30-34; 30:25) In brief statements and in extended examples, ants are used to teach qualities that every individual should exhibit. The ant is praised for its ability to prepare for the future, to work with others, and to keep working until the job is done.

The concept of preparation is emphasized by Jesus as he leads his disciples to look to the future. (Mark 13) Problems lie ahead, and unless his followers are ready for the coming events, they will be destroyed. He tells his disciples to watch, but it is a working watchfulness.

As surely as the ant prepares in the summer for the winter ahead, so must followers of Christ prepare for the times when practicing one’s faith will be a challenge and a risk to relationships, health, and life itself. As Jesus taught those first apostles, what was done to the master and teacher will surely come upon the students. (Matthew 10:24-25) It is a time for which all believers must prepare.

We desire a society in which we can practice our faith without hindrance. The laws of our land say that is a right for all Americans. Other countries, however, have similar laws related to religious freedom. Those laws are often interpreted in different ways and applied unequally among groups. Laws enacted and enforced by man can never form the limits or parameters of our faith expression. As the Apostle Peter said, “We must obey God.” (Acts 4)

Some would say those times of limited religious expression are upon us. Whether that is true or not, Christ-followers must be about the Kingdom business to which they were called. Their nature is now defined as Kingdom servants/citizens. There is one guide that is supreme, the Father speaking through his Son and the Bible.

While living in Arizona, I watched the sudden downpours of rain that came during the monsoon season washing away the ant mounds common in the desert. Within hours after the rain had stopped, the mounds began to reappear. Perseverance is a mark of ants whether they are rebuilding mounds washed away by the rain or trying to get into your home food supply.

Christians would do well to learn faithful work in a world that grows more intolerant of those who believe that Christ alone is our hope. Be ever ready to offer a reason for your faith. (I Peter 3:13-16) A church must be a lighthouse of prayer and spiritual intervention for its community. (I Peter 2:4-5, 9) Persevering work that can transform a community does not happen inside church walls. The world will make every effort to spread poison to stop the people of Christ. Unlike the ants, however, we have the Spirit of God on our side to bring us victory in our fight to free all men from the chains of sin.

Those Fire and Brimstone Preachers

One church member stood up in a business meeting and gave his opinion of the kind of preacher they should call to lead the church. “I don’t figure we’ve heard any preaching until that man gets out of that pulpit and runs up and down the center aisle a few times. That’s the kind of preacher we need!”

When I know I’m sitting in a worship service being led by a pastor that runs up and down the aisle a few times, I have a tendency to sit in the back half of the room and in the middle of the pew or row of chairs. My hope is he won’t get that far back and, if he does, I’ll be far enough away he can’t get to me.

My experience through the years has been those kinds of preachers sweat profusely, spit accurately, and point their fingers a disproportionate number of times in my direction. It’s not that I feel guilty. I think it’s their way of unloading the entire wagon of hay on the one possibly chronic absentee they think they should recognize but don’t.

All this leads into my thoughts on angry preachers. Preachers get angry because sin is rampant in the world in general and in America in particular. They’re angry because of the President or Congress, maybe both. They’re angry because of the ACLU or the NRA. They’re angry because of the Republicans or the Democrats. They’re angry because of the welfare system and the super-rich.

Preachers get angry because their own congregations are not living up to their expectations. These spiritual leaders get angry because their church members are short changing the offering plate, not attending church services each time the doors are open, or have become liberal thinking like those people in another church down the road.

I listen to these angry preachers and I remember those times Jesus got angry. He got angry because the religious rulers of the day allowed the Jerusalem temple to lose its priority purpose of being a gateway into the presence of God. (Matthew 21) He got angry at local synagogue rulers for placing legalism above human restoration. (Mark 3) He got angry at his disciples when they thought he was too important to be bothered by children. (Mark 10)

I also think of the times Jesus might have gotten angry, but didn’t. He didn’t get angry with Nicodemus. (John 3) I think he was surprised and disappointed. He didn’t get angry with the Samaritan woman at the well. (John 4) He was patient and understanding. He didn’t get angry with the woman caught in adultery. (John 8) He showed mercy and compassion. He didn’t get angry with Thomas. (John 20) He offered encouragement and hope for the future.

Jesus was not afraid to get angry even though he knew there were consequences. He was prepared to accept those consequences of hurt feelings and embarrassment in others. The consequences for Jesus culminated in his own crucifixion. His anger was reserved for those who stood in the way of people approaching and entering the Kingdom of God. His compassion and understanding went out to those who had become victims of the world.

Jesus’ anger was just like his compassion. It offered redemption. Even to those Pharisees and Sadducees who were the recipients of his wrath, Jesus offered a second chance. His march through the temple left the religious rulers the option of restoring the House of God to a House of Prayer. For synagogue rulers there was the opportunity to make the local house of worship a house of restoration. For his disciples there was the lesson of childlike faith.

I don’t care much for angry preachers. Jesus got his point across most of the time without getting angry. He also got it across without compromising the holiness of God. That must be our goal. We must offer God’s love and desire for redemption and restoration without compromising who He is. Jesus thought it was a plan worth living for – and worth dying for.

Alone and Lonely

I was a single seminary student. It was late. I was wondering if the world could feel any emptier. So I made that hesitant call to a girl in another dorm who had had my eye for a long time. There had been no progress in our dating. “We’re just friends. Remember that,” I was told. The phone rang and rang and rang. As I hung up, I thought of a silly, little rhyme, “I call and I call and I call. I wonder if anyone will ever answer at all.” Hard stuff for a 25-year-old who had no interest in leading a bachelor’s life.

There is a big difference between being alone and being lonely. We need to be alone at times. Those are the dangerous times in which we may have to confront ourselves and decide if we like what we find. Those are the times when we can decide if we are moving in our direction or a direction chosen by someone else.

For some those times of being alone are the only times God can get through and be heard. Like the old proverbial saying, we only look to heaven when we are on our back, God may be able to get our attention only when he shuts out the rest of the noisy world. At that point he can speak and not be confused with the current top-rated social philosopher. Elijah is a classic example. (I Kings 19)

Sometimes we want to be alone. No one ever wants to be lonely. Yet too often we find that feeling creeping in and filling our souls. Maybe we are alone and the solitary condition evolves into loneliness. Sometimes we are in the midst of a crowd and the lack of commonality leaves us wondering if anyone even realizes we exist.

Starbucks is famous for its philosophy, “We create community.” You may come into one of their shops and wish to be alone, but they never want you to come in and be smacked with loneliness. For them a cup of coffee is an open door to relational connection.

Alone is measured by numbers. Lonely is measured by love and acceptance. Alone is geographical. Lonely is relational. Alone is often by desire. Lonely never is. There is often a human need to be alone. There is a human fear of being lonely and all that implies.

After spending two weeks with her mother, my wife is back in our home. I was alone for those two weeks. I was never really lonely, for knowing there was someone who loved me even while out of sight created a togetherness that distance could not affect. The relationship existed. The love was present. The connection was enhanced by phone, but the connection did not depend upon it.

The same dynamics can be said of life in the local church. We are proud to say we are members of a friendly congregation. Then we cannot understand why guests come once and never return. Perhaps our guests found a seat in our pews but not a relationship with the person next to them. Our guests were not alone, but we made them feel lonely. People don’t want a friendly church. They want a friend.

The Old Testament idea of God’s closeness shines through Psalm 23. In the New Testament Jesus emphasized his disciples would never need to feel loneliness. In the conversation he had on his last night before he died, Jesus promised his followers he would never leave them abandoned, orphaned in the Greek. (John 14:18) In the last verse of the Gospel of Matthew, he assured his listeners he would be with them until the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

We were made to live in relationship. We may choose to be alone, but we are drawn to relationships that fill the need to be connected to others on some level. We may use terms such as family, acquaintance, friend, or lover, but the final product is a relationship we try to use as an antidote for the destructive disease we call loneliness.

Freedom to Worship

For thousands of years freedom has been the topic of essays and discussions, laws and conflicts. Aristotle and Cicero were writing on it long before British lords demanded that Prince John recognize their rights through the Magna Carta.

Patrick Henry said death was preferable to continued domination by England. Countless slaves in southern states determined that dying in trying to reach freedom was better than remaining someone’s property. In his 1941 State of the Union address, President Roosevelt focused upon The Four Freedoms which he declared to be the foundation of any civilization: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

My dormitory room during seminary days was never locked while I was in class or at work. It contained the daily newspaper, a stack of comic books from college days, and a small, borrowed television. Everyone on the floor knew they were welcome to come in and read and/or watch at any time. Nothing was ever taken, but one day I gained something I have never lost, a new appreciation for my freedom.

The Executive Committee of the Baptist World Alliance was meeting on the seminary campus that week. Representatives from all over the world were present including the Baptist Union from the old Soviet nation. Those were the days when Richard Nixon was under heavy investigation and threatened with impeachment. It was not one of America’s finest moments. At least I didn’t think so at the time.

That was true until I came back to my dorm room from class and found three members of the Russian Baptist Church sitting in front of the little tv and watching the news of Nixon’s troubles. They were transfixed by what they saw.

I introduced myself and was immediately asked if President Nixon would use the military to preserve his power. I remember smiling inwardly and thinking how ridiculous that idea was. That thought was followed by another. I was listening to three individuals who had never known the freedom that had always been a part of my life. They half expected something to happen foreign to my thinking.

I told them that would not happen in our country. The president was commander-in-chief, but the military were first of all sworn in their loyalty to the constitution and secondarily to the presidency. He had to follow the constitution like all other citizens whether civilian or military. The thought was amazing to them.

During this Independence Day season, I think of what it took my ancestors in 1640 to leave the shores of England. They sailed to what must have been for them the Promised Land, a land rich with hope and promise.

Were they seeking freedom from poverty? Were they seeking freedom from some form of political pressure? Were they seeking religious freedom?

I know they helped establish a country that promised the hope of many freedoms. I would like to think that everyone now enjoyed those same freedoms. We know that dream is not yet reality. Society has not reached the point of freedom embodied in the words, if not the thought, of our founding fathers.

Those three Russian Baptists in my dormitory room had little concept of a national leader who was subject to a constitution protecting the people. They also had little knowledge of a country in which the state did not shape the method of worship. Yet here they were in a dormitory room on a seminary campus where no one could tell the students how to worship.

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) That freedom exists in the heart, not in the laws of a nation. Ask any member of the persecuted church around the world. They may be hiding in forests. They may be imprisoned for carrying a Bible. They may be moving with their family from refugee camp to refugee camp. They will tell you, however, no one can take away their heart-worship of God. In their spirits they are free. “If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.” (John 8:36)

Did You See the Dragon?

Recently my older son showed me a sketch of a group of people looking out a series of airplane windows. Most of the seats were filled with children. Only the one window in the middle held an adult. The kids were screaming and pointing at the dragon outside flying by. The adult saw only a white cloud.

Several years ago Matthew West came out with a song entitled “My Own Little World”. In one set of lyrics he wonders how many times he had passed a homeless widow on the street never before having noticed her.

Jesus had Sabbath dinner one day with a Pharisee, and in the midst of the meal he looked at a woman who had been washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. He turned back to Simon the Pharisee and asked one of the most profound questions in the Bible, “Do you see this woman”. (Luke 7)

What do you see when you look out an airplane window at 30,000 feet or at a busy intersection of a city or the people who cross your path each day?

As children our minds are not as cluttered with reality as they become when we are more mature (we think). As Christians we tend to restrict our circle of acquaintances so that we do not see the “down and outs” or recognize the “up and outs”. As maintainers of the holy tradition, we look past or outright reject what does not fit into our categories of acceptability.

Our blindness can cause us to miss the scenes into which Jesus placed himself. He made himself available to the Pharisee Nicodemus. (John 3) He took the initiative to speak to the Samaritan woman. (John 4) He placed himself between the angry mob and the woman caught in adultery. (John 8) He interrupted his discussion with adults to take a child up into his arms. (Mark 10:13-16) He touched the blind men who were outcast from the temple proper and invited them to follow. (Matthew 20:29-34) He confronted the demon possessed (Mark 5:1-20) and had dinner with Roman collaborators. (Matthew 9:10) Jesus looked around him and saw a spiritual harvest for the Kingdom of his Father. (Matthew 9:36-38) Jesus “saw” everyone.

Where can we “see” people the way Jesus saw them? People don’t go to a doctor’s office to find the right social circle. When we are sitting waiting to be called, God is asking us to see the sick people around us as needing our prayers. When we are sitting at the auto repair business, God is asking us to see the people around us facing another inconvenience or financial disaster ready to disrupt their lives. They need our prayers.

When we hear the wail of the siren, a responder needs our prayers. A person in trouble needs our prayers. A family or circle of friends needs our prayers. When we hear the report of another unit being sent to a war zone, soldiers and the families they leave behind need our prayers.

It’s called the mid-week prayer service. It’s an event on the church calendar. It’s an opportunity to join in corporate prayer for those we “see” everyday. God waits there every week and listens to us talk about what we have seen. He would also like to listen to us pray.

Prayer is the first step. Jesus touched the blind, deaf, lame, and sick. His touch brought healing and relief. We can turn our prayers into touches of relief, as individuals and as churches. Jesus offered comfort to the struggling and lonely. We can turn our prayers into words of comfort and encouragement. Jesus met those whom society had deemed hopeless and offered them love, hope, and a relationship that would extend through eternity. We always have the time to offer hope and love and the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

All we have to do is see people the way Jesus saw people. All we have to do is see people the way Jesus sees us. Jesus always sees us.