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.

Are You Pumped?

Since this is being written on a Monday, that’s a dumb question. It was a great weekend. Lots of quality time with my wife. A sense of accomplishment in associational church work. Great time of worship and Bible study at one of my churches. An endearing evening with my younger son and daughter-in-law. Even Monday started out full of joy with my favorite group of senior adults in Bible study.

Then I got unpumped!

Why does God allow Mondays to do this? Now I could launch into the month’s greatest pity party and feel justified. That’s always easy when you feel you’ve been wronged, unappreciated, or not allowed the freedom to do what you want. After all it was God’s will!

What would happen if I decided to get repumped but not at someone else’s expense? What if I focused just on what I knew would be best in the long run for others all in the effort to be more Christlike? His nature and mindset would be both guide and judge instead of me choosing some other hard core sinner like me to try to outdo. (Philippians 2:3-11)

If Jesus is to be my source and example for getting repumped, then I need to imitate his attitude toward other people. To say that’s not easy is to make the understatement of the year. He was born innocent and free of all sin AND sinful tendencies. I was born a sinner and that stuff just comes naturally. Even to become a follower of Christ took an intentional decision and wasn’t just something everybody automatically did.

Jesus was in tune with his heavenly Father. He checked in regularly to know what the Father was doing and wanted him to do. His prayers were prayers of submission and intercession. (John 17) His prayers and with them his life reflected the relationship he had with his Father. If I am to be revitalized through an imitation of Jesus, my prayers must be offered in the same light.

Getting repumped means getting into the manual. With all the self-help books on the shelves, there remains only one true manual for life, the Bible. To get repumped is to know the written word. To get repumped is to get the written word into the head and into the heart. (Psalms 119:11) Transformation! Too many Bible scholars know the Book but live like the devil. Getting yourself repumped doesn’t work that way.

Serving others gets you repumped. It’s hard to focus on your own problems when you’re giving your best to help someone else deal with their headaches. That may be part of what the Apostle Paul meant when he said we should bear each other’s loads. (Galatians 6:1-3) Serving others makes our path in life a little, maybe a lot, easier to tolerate. Hardly anything gets you repumped like seeing someone else with a big smile on their face realizing it’s not the end of the world after all.

Love others like God loves me. I can’t. Not that I don’t want to love others like God loves me; it’s just impossible for this sinful mortal to do the divine! I can, however, make the effort. It makes you feel good, pumped up, closer to Christ, when you realize you are accepting those other individuals with all their sores, rough spots, social stigmas, and rejectable ways for one reason. Jesus loved you and you look just like that other person. If he can love you, then you can make the effort to love others in your same condition. (John 13:34-35)

The Church had better act the same way! The world is watching the Church, its image and its actions. The Church needs to get pumped, not because it’s looking so good in the eyes of the world, but because it’s walking up a path to a hilltop that Jesus has already traveled.

At the top of that hill is a cross. It’s got our name on it. Beyond that are an empty tomb and an eternity in the presence of our Father. If that doesn’t get you pumped, NOTHING WILL!

Reflections on Father’s Day

When the young man came home, humbled and beaten down, he hoped to find a father who would just allow him to work as a servant and be given nothing more than a place to rest his head and enough food to stop the hunger pains. He sought a father who would see past his failures and accept him once more if only as a servant. He discovered more than he could have ever dreamed. (Luke 15)

The other side of the coin is found in a divine voice coming from the heavens that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17, RSV) A Father was made proud by his Son. It was a pride that found its fullest expression on a Sunday morning when divine power intervened and conquered death to bring that Son back to life in a resurrected body. (Luke 24)

Pride in a father goes two ways. You can be proud of your father and how he responds to your needs. You can also be proud to be a father because of the choices you see your children make. One looks to the generation that has gone before. The other perspective is a reflection on the generation to come. Blessed indeed is the family in which fatherhood is admired and draws forth pride across multiple generations.

Fatherhood that draws forth pride is marked both by vision and by example. To read the eleventh chapter of Hosea is to hear the heart of a Father grieving over his children. On one side his holy righteousness demands an accounting for rebellion and idolatry. On the other his holy love cannot allow his children to suffer any further regardless of what they may deserve.

A father sets the example for his children to follow by being the kind of son of which his own father would be proud. Some sons have never known their father. Some sons could never be honest and say they were ever proud of their fathers. That, however, does not keep them from living lives that exemplify the life of a son for whom a father could be proud.

Fathers must live in such a way as to make their children proud to have those men as their fathers. Fathers must also live in such a way as to leave that unmistakable example that a child would be proud to emulate. “I am proud that he is my father. I am proud to be like my father.”

You cannot be that kind of person one day a year. Fatherhood is limited neither to a biological act nor a one-day-each-year celebration. Fatherhood is a personal sense of relationship that is in the mind of a man twenty-four hours a day and in his actions whether he is with his children or not. This sense of relationship moves a man from being simply a progenitor into a unique role. As I have often been reminded, any healthy male can be a father. It takes a special man to be a daddy.

On my desk sits a hinged picture frame. On the right hand side is a photo now more than twenty-five years old of two little boys. On the left hand side is a statement. “A truly rich man is one whose children will run into his arms when his hands are empty.”

I am proud of the example my father set for me as I was growing up. I have sought to make my father proud of me. I have sought to make my sons proud of me as well. I know I am proud of them. They make Father’s Day for me out of every day of the year.

Zombie Christians

I do not understand the fascination parts of our society have with zombies, vampires, and werewolves. The reality you have to face each day ought to be scary enough.

Somebody shot a bunch of somebodies in California. A bunch of somebodies shot a bunch of somebodies in Chicago. Three women were kept hostage for ten years somewhere. Why fill your entertainment time with imaginary creatures bent on destruction while living in that kind of reality?

Even scarier than these undead things walking around us are zombie Christians. No, they don’t have rotted flesh hanging off their bones, but I am amazed how much they pay for ragged clothes hanging off their bodies! They don’t normally speak in monotones. In fact they can be very animated and energetic. Their animation and energy just don’t produce spiritual fruit.

Jesus spoke with three of these zombie believers in one encounter. (Luke 9:57-62) They were willing to become his disciples, but it would have to be on their terms. They needed to fulfill family priorities first and offer the family the proper farewell. They wanted to follow Jesus, but they needed to be socially and politically correct.

In politically incorrect terms, Jesus told them they couldn’t have life if they kept holding on to death. A follower of Jesus could not be filled with the gift of life he offered and still cling to a superficial, pseudo-spiritual lifestyle. The three seemed to disappear from the story.

Zombie Christians will tell you how many spiritual conferences they have attended but can’t tell you the last time they shared the gospel with someone. They will tell you the words to all the latest praise choruses, but they can’t tell you the names of their neighbors or their spiritual condition. They act alive, but they are dead.

The zombie church in the book of Revelation shows this is not just an individual thing. “You have the reputation of being alive but you are dead.” (Revelation 3:1-6) The brief review Sardis gets in Revelation offers little in the way of positive reinforcement. The threat is much greater than the compliment.

A dead church can keep its doors open for generations. It maintains a calendar filled with lots of varied activities. It has a budget the envy of every small business in town. The morning service is led by professional musicians on pipe organ and a thirty-five piece orchestra. The sermon includes quotes in Hebrew and Greek with references to ten different commentators. The church is still dead.

Almost every activity on the calendar is geared toward church members. Only five percent of the budget leaves the church campus, and that goes to some safe place in India. The music makes the listeners feel good without casting a vision for missions, and the sermon rarely calls for transformational life change. The church looks alive but is dead.

Then there is Lazarus, the close friend of Jesus who came back to life. (John 11) His resuscitation was so dangerous to the Jewish leaders they wanted to kill him again! (John 12:9-11) Here the dead came back to life, but instead of being scary, for some people he was too much alive and a real threat to worldly power.

When a seeker finds new life in Christ, the old passes away and all becomes new. (II Corinthians 5:17) That is not someone becoming a zombie. That’s a rebirth! That is why Jesus came. That is the eternal result of his resurrection and his life in every believer. (Galatians 2:20)

Zombies fake life and never enjoy it.

Zombies take life and never offer it.

Zombies destroy life and never renew it.

Zombies exist for the moment and not for the future.

Zombie Christians have claimed a name without surrendering a heart. Zombie churches have claimed a position without surrendering to a mission. Zombies may be fictitious, but their spiritual counterparts running around carrying the name Christian are all too real and need to be told to get a life that counts with God.