Wake Up Jesus!

 The disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. The majority may well have been fishermen by profession. They were used to being out on the water. They had experienced the quickly appearing storms in the area. They knew what had to be done. Jesus was asleep in the boat. Wake him up! (Luke 8:22-25)

We are given no details as to the efforts of the disciples to save the boat before they woke up Jesus. They had tried what they knew and they were still sinking. Who knows what they expected Jesus to do? Maybe he was to add his own two arms to the bailing process or help hold the rigging tight against the wind. Whatever their expectations were, they wanted Jesus awake and aware of their circumstances.

“I can do it” constitutes one of the first full sentences learned by toddlers it seems. Deep within our spirits there is the drive to be independent. We can do it ourselves. We can handle this without any outside help. It’s the old “by your own bootstraps” philosophy of self-reliance. Then we meet the storm that is bigger than we are.

The storm may be financial in nature. It may be a family relationship crisis. Disease or illness may strike with complete surprise. We are left struggling to find the resources to deal with it. Finances. Wisdom. Physical strength. When all we have is not enough, what is our next recourse?

This drive to be independent and self-reliant tells us not to wake up Jesus. We are sure there is a solution that will not require us to admit we don’t have the resources to meet the challenge. We will still be able to say we handled it ourselves. We did it our way. We don’t need God. We don’t have to wake up Jesus.

Experienced though they were, the disciples knew they had met their match in that gale on the Sea of Galilee. They may have been experienced, but the wisdom gained in earlier situations served to alert them to the truth they were confronting something beyond their control.

We will never know what those disciples expected Jesus to do when they awakened him in the midst of the storm. All we get to read is their cry for help and understanding, “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” (Mark 4:38) The gospel writer Mark’s record emphasized simply the disciples wanted company in their misery, “Master, don’t you care?”

How many times have we seen people suffer and perhaps even sink beneath the load because they would not seek or accept help? Becoming independent is a part of growing up. We need to learn what we can and should be doing on our own. There are matters in life which are our responsibility to handle and complete. There are issues which we must decide on our own.

We are also called to use wisdom to recognize when we are up against something we cannot handle alone. We were never intended to be independent and solo creatures. We need cooperation. We need community. We need each other. Ultimately we need to recognize we need God.

Too often we still revert back to our demand for independence. We point to natural causes as major influences in our lives and develop ways of dealing with them. We point to human influences in our daily existence and learn methods of making the best out of those relationships. There are even times when we are forced to say we don’t know what is going on, and then we try to rationalize something to satisfy our natural demand for an answer. We’ll do anything to keep from waking up Jesus.

We cannot ignore him. He is there, maybe seemingly asleep, but he is there, and he knows everything is under control. If we need him, if our perception of life’s situations leaves us trembling with fear, he is there. In the midst of the storm all we have to do is wake up Jesus. He has it all under control. He brings peace to the storm, especially the one in our souls.

Those Special Days

Yesterday was a special day for multiple reasons in my family. Unfortunately I cannot be with any of those members due to distance. April 30 marked my older son’s 34^th birthday. My parents would have been married 70 years yesterday. They missed celebrating it together by five weeks. Only recently did I learn my parents were married on the same date as my paternal grandparents. This year would have marked their 113^th wedding anniversary. April 30 has been a special day for a long time.

In 311 Emperor Galerius legally recognized Christianity in the Roman Empire. Christopher Columbus received the royal commission to make preparations for his western voyage in 1492. George Washington gave his first inaugural address on this date in 1789. The Louisiana Purchase was finalized in 1803 and Louisiana became a state nine years later. Willie Nelson was born in 1933. The first Land Rover debuted at an auto show in 1948. Most important of all perhaps to our newest generations, in 1993 the world wide web was born in CERN. Thanks goes to it for these incredibly exciting notes on our history!

Not too many people are concerned about my family’s anniversaries. Perhaps only a few more are interested in George Washington’s first inaugural address or the date of the birth of the state of Louisiana. Yet all we have to do is consider all the ways we celebrate dates, and we realize remembering specific occasions is important to humanity. If no one else, then Hallmark Cards will remind us.

In Exodus 23:14-17, God reminded Israel of the importance of remembering specific dates. The first and foremost was the great event of the Exodus, the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. The other two events are tied to periods of thanksgiving for the harvest the Lord had provided for his people. Remembering to be thankful is still a wise activity.

For the Christian the New Testament speaks of three pivotal dates for the first followers of Christ and later disciples. The first the whole world celebrates with us as Christmas. God’s breaking into human history in such innocent helplessness is truly worth commemorating. (Luke 1-2) The secular realm will not allow us to ignore that date!

The second refers to Passover Week in many ways similar to the Passover Feast celebrated by the Jews. The key and significant difference lies in the freedom that is celebrated. For the Jew it was freedom from human slavery. For the Christian it is freedom from the bondage and penalty of sin. Instead of Passover as believers in Christ we mark the events of Holy Week culminating in Resurrection Sunday, Easter.

The third crucial date is known in Jewish circles as Pentecost, coming fifty days after Easter. On this date the Holy Spirit came upon that first group of early disciples and in them established the Church as the Body of Jesus Christ. (Acts 2) From that birthday of the Church all Christians trace their earliest roots as members of the Body of Christ active in the world.

Specific dates give us reference points. They place us in the flow of history and allow us to connect with others either close or far in geography, close or far in time. They mark days of transition and days of both beginnings and endings. They also serve to remind us of those who may not get the attention they need and deserve. Mother’s Day is easy. Father’s Day almost as easy. Then there are those grandparents, administrative assistants, and military veterans.

We need to remember all these on their special days. God calls his people to remember him above all else. We use Christmas and Easter each year. Some faith groups remember Pentecost. These recall the birth of Christ and the birth of the Church. Do you remember your birth date? You get reminded regularly of your physical birth anniversary and the history it represents. Do you remember your spiritual birth anniversary? Do you have one? That is the most important date for both your physical and spiritual life. That event determines your eternal history. (John 1:12-13)

Happiness Is In the Result

At one time or another most of us have heard a variation of the philosophical insight, “Life is 10% what happens and 90% of how you respond to it.” Out of that comes the knowledge the only real part of our lives over which we have total control is our attitudes. Nobody makes us happy. We decide to see something as a source of happiness. No one can make us angry. We decide the action of someone else has crossed one of our boundaries and we choose to let the anger flow.

A recent meeting among our churches focused upon the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-10. Various speakers shared information on ministries that in some manner represented one of the statements from this passage. The program provided more than facts on logistics. Human needs with faces took on a reality often missed in statistical reports.

Frank Stagg, a 20^th century Baptist New Testament scholar, pointed out the Greek of the Beatitudes may be translated as “Oh, the happiness of” rather than “blessed”. (The Broadman Bible Commentary) Since no verb exists in the Greek, using a simple introductory phrase adequately translates the phrase. His use of the word “happiness” emphasizes the impact of each beatitude as much if not more than the qualities mentioned for each.

Happiness is found in the results of the qualities put into practice, not the qualities themselves. Blessings come from those qualities being lived out and incorporated into daily lives. They are not ends unto themselves. Happiness is not gained through being, but through doing and our attitude in the process.

As each church representative shared how their family of faith was touching the lives of people around them, the joy was obvious. An example was one church that had grown a food pantry ministry into a major food distribution center working with several hundred families and supported by local food banks and grocery stores. The goal had not been to collect food. That was a method. The goal was to feed people for whom the month extended longer that personal resources would last. The happiness came with meeting the need.

Other information shared during the service focused upon the plight of aids victims in Africa where treatment and compassion can both be in short supply. No one wants to be infected with HIV or see a family member agonize under its destructive power. Yet happiness can be found by those who are poor in spirit and will humble themselves through helping the outcasts of society. A display pointed to the persecution of Christians in more than forty countries around the world. Happiness can be found by those who will seek to support those who remain faithful in their beliefs in spite of the threats of discrimination, imprisonment, and death.

“Oh, the happiness of” those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful, who are pure in heart, who are peacemakers, and who are persecuted for righteousness’s sake. Their happiness does not come because of the needs they experience or see. The happiness comes through the way they respond.

The Beatitudes call us to respond to the needs of the world and find there the happiness that is absent from what the world offers. Happiness comes through giving, giving to others in their need and giving to God in faithful obedience.

Happiness is often seen as a passing emotion, generated by the context of the moment. It need not be. It can become the deep response of joy that is untouched by external circumstances. That occurs when we decide “It is more blessed to give that to receive”. (Acts 20:35) The happiness is greater when we place others first. It is an attitude we choose.

The First Resurrection

Every year we Christians celebrate Holy Week and many people the season of Lent leading into it as well. The commercial side of the world celebrates the eggs, the candy, the new clothing, and the coming out after winter. For too many people, Christians and non believers alike, it is just the next holiday on the calendar.

There was a first Resurrection Sunday that came as a complete surprise to both friend and foe of Jesus. A wide diversity of emotions filled the people who were confronted by it in those first few hours. For every person who chooses to see the first Resurrection as a historical event, there comes that first Resurrection into their lives as well.

No events are recorded about the Saturday, the Sabbath, before the first Resurrection Sunday. The disciples were in hiding for fear the Jewish authorities would be searching for them as accomplices of Jesus. (John 20:19) A handful of women among their group had already gone to the market and purchased spices to cover the body of Jesus in the tomb as soon as the Sabbath was over, a method to treat the body before the later preparation for final burial. (Luke 23:55-56)

Judas Iscariot was dead. (Matthew 27:3-10) Peter was probably remembering his personal betrayal. (Luke 22:54-62) The others among the surviving eleven apostles remembered all too well their hasty abandonment of Christ when the soldiers came to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had gone alone to his trial. (Matthew 26:47-56) The One who had called them to follow him and had been with them for nearly three years had had to go to his trial and execution in solitary humility.

Peter had stood at a distance in a courtyard. John had been with Mary the mother of Jesus at the crucifixion. (John 19:25-27) There were those few women who had been so close to the Master for all those years helping in whatever way they could. They stood watching among the crowd as the nails were driven in and the life was drained out.

On Saturday they all remembered where they had been, what they had done, during the previous twenty-four to thirty-six hours. They were frightened. They were ashamed. They were without hope. The dream was gone and they were back on their own.

Then came Sunday morning, the first day of the week and the first day of the new age of mankind. The tomb was empty. Jesus was alive! Emotions changed from despair to wonder to hope to celebration. (John 20:1-29) The first Resurrection changed the history of the world.

The first Resurrection still changes things in the life of a human being. Without Christ we are on our own pushed and pulled by the forces of the world over which we have little or no control. Hope is easily lost. Disappointment comes at every turn. Despair is waiting at the door ready to drag us down in the midst of our helplessness.

Then comes Sunday. Searching and searching we find nothing to give us a reason to face the future until we meet the Risen Lord. He shows us death is not the end. He shows us there is more to life than the rat race into which the world forces us. He shows us the depth of self-sacrificing love that is so much greater than the shallow waters of self-gratification. He gives us reason to hope.

The first Resurrection came once for the world. It is experienced again, fresh and powerful, in the life of every individual who is willing to surrender their own will, their own plan for life, to the One who came to make all things new. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (II Corinthian 5:17, NIV)

Death, Where Is Your Sting?

The Apostle Paul records in his first letter to the Corinthian Church a cry of victory over death as he celebrates the importance of the resurrection of Christ for all believers. (I Corinthians 15:54-57) The hope we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides the confidence we can have as we face death and the “glorious unknown” beyond it. The thought of death may leave us hesitant as we consider the total uniqueness of this experience all must meet, but fear does not need to be a part of it. Death no longer represents a defeat, but rather a dark curtain separating the dim light of this mortal life and the incomprehensible glory awaiting the children of God.

Within the last three weeks, I have watched my father move through that curtain. His passage was peaceful, and it ended a decades-long struggle to live with the pain of extensive arthritis. For the first time in perhaps 70 years, my father knows the promise we all have as recorded in Revelation 21:3-4 of a life free from pain and suffering. A believer and follower of Christ from childhood, Pop is now receiving, not a reward for a life filled with good deeds, but rather peaceful rest for a life surrendered to the love of the Savior who died for him.

This blog and several other responsibilities were put on hold during this time. To be able to spend the last hours of his life with him was more important than all else. I was sitting by his bed, my hand on his, when he took his last breath. He was an example to me in his life. His memory will remain so in the future.

Resurrection Sunday is approaching. Holy Week begins this Sunday with what is known as Palm Sunday. The last Sunday in Holy Week is called by the world Easter. We mark it as the day the empty tomb was discovered by a small group of women still in mourning after the crucifixion. (Luke 24:1-11) They thought the end had come. They were in for a big surprise!

The Apostle Paul said, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (I Corinthian 15:19-20) What the women learned on that first Easter, the Lord’s Day, was we did have hope for something beyond death. Life did not come to an end. Life in Christ was only momentarily interrupted by death.

I don’t know what heaven will be like. I’m not even clear about our journey through death into the presence of God. The Bible seems to give us enough information for our faith and then asks us to leave the rest in the hands of God. What form we will have and what will occupy our thoughts (time will be left far behind) receives only the barest hints in scripture. The picture we have in scripture seeks to describe the indescribable in human terms. That always leaves us wondering, questioning, and debating. It is as if God didn’t think it was important to give us details for what was beyond our ability to understand.

In this I have confidence, however. My father of 63 plus years is no longer suffering. His body is no longer fighting to keep vital processes going. If I can hold to one image, it is the same promise that Christ gave the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) As he faced the certainty of death, I could ask for no greater assurance for my earthly father. For him the sting of death was gone.