Good News For Christmas

 Good News for Christmas

Several years ago, I went through a Great Courses study entitled, The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World, taught by Professor Robert Garland of Colgate University. The study provided a very informative look at how those who were less privileged (the other side) lived in ancient times. One lecture entitled “Being Christian under Roman Rule” caught my attention. The following quote is taken word-for-word from Dr. Garland. 

“What would have attracted you to becoming a Christian? Here for the first time was a religion that was not judging you by the size of your wallet, or your status in society, or your gender, or your ethnicity. The pagan gods were out and out snobs. The more you gave them, the more they were likely to listen to you. The Christian God was not like that at all. He will listen to your prayers no matter what, so long as you are truly penitent. He will actually love you. What God has ever loved you before? In fact, if you were born poor, or downtrodden, or despised, or sick, he will look on you with special favor… And if it doesn’t work out for you in this life, you can look forward to salvation in the world to come. So, you, “the other side of history,” now move to the fore.”

Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20), and “the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19

The words of Jesus are Good News. They proclaim God’s peace and favor to those (poor, downtrodden, insignificant) on the other side of history. Announced by the heavenly host at the birth of Jesus, these words continue to ring out during this Christmas season! 

 

 

Whatever Shall We Do?

Whatever Shall We Do?

“When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread for all these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had it in mind what he was going to do.” John 6:5-6

This scripture invokes some intriguing questions about when and how God tests his children. Even with these possible questions, we are assured that he has a solution for the problem of too many and not enough before he even asks this question of his disciples. Confident that he will meet the needs of the people, the question becomes, who will he use to bring about the miracle of multiplication?  

Recently, I heard my pastor paraphrase Jesus’ words. With a little lilt in his voice, he accentuated the word “Whatever” by couching it in a tone of divine resignation and despair… “all this need-all of this brokenness, whatever shall we do?”

 

The sing-song cadence of the question reminds us that this is not a one-off question but a perennial one. It is one for the disciples and one that is posed to every friend of God. How, when, where shall we…so all these people can eat?”  Although Jesus knew what he would do, the answer is found not in “he” but in “we”!  In his relational sovereignty, he sees a solution that involves a partnership of faith, which delights his father and brings significance to every human co-laborer. 

Yes, I have heard the same question many times! Have you? This question should be taught as a complete course in pastoral training. And yet, this passage will not impact you if you are merely looking at your congregation or your family. Pare down the 5,000 men to a room full, and you may begin to feed them all. Or keep the 5,000 and cut down on kingdom expectations. Expect less. Feed them a snack, not a meal. If those will not work for you, turn the question and the responsibility over to the gathered masses. Say to them, “Where is your faith. You have not because you ask not in faith!” If you opt for one of these responses, you will never hear Jesus saying, “Where can we…” or “Whatever can we do?” You, then, will be safe and secure, but God will not find his partner in faith in you.

Yes, I have failed in assuming my role in this partnership of faith. I have looked at the numbers, stared at the needs, and been stupefied by my numbness to it all. If I could characterize my failures, I would say that I couldn’t see the little boy for the 5,000 plus who were hungry. Looking back at these partnerships, kingdom success came when I let the numbers push me toward smaller solutions.

Utilizing smaller solutions to combat big problems and monstrous needs is the way of the creator. It is seeding the earth with a lowly born child to populate an eternal kingdom. In nature, it is seen in the tiniest microbe that fixes the soil so a mighty redwood forest can flourish, and plankton, the base of the oceans’ food chain, and the earth’s major supplier of oxygen. Accepting the limitations of what you have on hand and adding the unlimited potential of faith as small as a mustard seed, we can begin the process of dynamic change. Jesus leaves the ninety-nine and goes after the one because everything starts with one. Does he have compassion toward the one? Yes. But never doubt the dual purposes found in his creative genius. 

If Satan can deceive you with the facts, he will. Are we so enamored with “big” that if we can’t start that way, we go home?  Pentecost brought two incidents of mass salvations, but that trend did not continue further in the Early Church.  It is a story of spiritual influence, not political power. In fact, when we do see political power active in the church of the fourth century, we see it as being detrimental to the true church of Jesus Christ. This small-is-large principle was illustrated in The Revenge of the Tipping Point. Gladwell notes that the percentage needed for significant social change is about 25%, a tipping point at which a minority can influence a majority to adopt a new norm. This threshold is not fixed and can shift, but a committed minority of approximately 25% can be enough to trigger an abrupt, rapid shift in the overall group's behavior.

Years ago, I met with a church that had maintained the same number of congregants for many years. Given the small number, the church set a goal of twenty new converts, which was double their number. After so many years of absolutely no conversion or other growth, I tried to persuade them to replace that goal. Instead of twenty, I asked them to set a goal of one disciple. They should focus on helping one person become a Christ follower. I lost track of them, but I pray they were able to reach that one and experience a “loaves and fishes” miracle. 

Our future is not that of giant corporations and huge conglomerates, which we no longer trust. The national government seems unable to understand the concerns or address the problems in the homes and communities where we live. The future is not in the super farms owned and operated by chemical companies but in the small acreages of regenerative farmers who know their land as well as they understand the market. It is found in small churches that can see the one as well as the ninety-nine.  

Whatever shall we do about the significant issues and needs of the day? Does racial hatred and prejudice seem so universal that we normalized its existence? Is war inevitable, and a culture of sexual excess, violence, and self-worship without remedy? We have the resources in hand if we will forge partnerships of faith built around things as small as a boy and his lunch. Look for him!

 

 

 

 

The Itch that Can't be Scratched

A mystery nagged at my imagination for years. While in college in Florida, the hot, humid weather and heavy denim jeans combined made me think I had solved that ancient riddle. Almost but not quite. Ringworm could be scratched, but not always with the best results! 

I found it in my bible reading as a boy. It was a warning to Israel about disobedience, and the consequences described there are dire. One of them, the itch that cannot be (scratched) cured, was particularly horrifying:

"The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured." Deuteronomy 27:27 

Those curses prescribed by God for lack of faith and bad behavior all sounded brutal, but for a boy who was nearly a professional scratcher, having an itch that a good pawing couldn't cure was unthinkable. Boys and old men itch. A good scratching is both a relief and a joy! 

Camp Cherokee had one of the best swimming lakes ever. The water was deep, cold, and clear. The only thing missing was a place to put clothing and towels while enjoying the refreshment. No problem for us, boy campers, we hung everything up in the low-lying branches of some adjacent trees and enjoyed our swim. As we returned to our cabins to prepare for the evening meal and nightly service, the biting began. Our clothes had been safe except for an evil invention called chiggers, the bane of every self-respecting blackberry picker. These tiny insects inject their saliva into a person's skin, which dissolves the flesh, allowing the chigger to feast on the resulting soup. They are nasty little cruds who delight in getting into covered, private, sensitive places to set up their picnic grounds. The result is they bite you where you cannot scratch in public. Nothing itches worse. And nothing ravishes the tender flesh of youth like chiggers. Bumps, rashes, blisters, and pus follow their bites and leave a person almost crazy with the desire to scratch. That evening meal and preaching service in a hot, un-air-conditioned building was a nightmare from hell for the boys. It was as bad as you could get, but chigger bites could still be scratched, and a week-long application of calamine lotion could do wonders to bring some relief! The mystery remained unknown, but it lingered as a question through the years. 

Boys and Old Men Scratch

That night, the boys of Camp Cherokee gave a classic demonstration of scratching private areas in public. I have never encountered chiggers again, but as a man ages, he gets itchier, and scratching once again becomes a vital part of any given day. If you deal with neuropathy, nighttime also becomes a high-risk period. Once, I developed an increasingly itchy inner ear that I couldn't scratch. I told a doctor about it, so he investigated the canal and discovered that a werewolf-like hair had decided to grow in rather than out and was doing a fantastic job of imitating a bug while there. Tweezers to the rescue!

The mystery continued to be intact until a spot just below my great toe of my left foot woke me from my deep sleep. I had become familiar with numbness, creepy-crawlers, and sharp-shooting pains, but I was unprepared for what I experienced between the toes and the ball of my foot that night. The mystery of Deuteronomy 27:27 was solved, and I discovered the itch that could not be scratched-an internal, unrelievable itch that only God can heal. It was itching inside my toe, and I couldn't bring any relief by scratching it! I applied pain creams and read up on Neuropathic Itch until I was able to fall into slumber again. I am thankful that that itch has only 'come to pass,' as people say, in other trying situations. Otherwise, it would be nearly unbearable, reminding me of the deep spiritual needs we all have that only Christ can satisfy.

A Cure for the Itch that Cannot be Scratched

During my lifelong search to understand what Moses was describing in Deuteronomy, I realized this itch symbolizes an inner spiritual need that outward remedies can't satisfy. He needs a savior, but instead, takes a drug or buys a new car. Rather than a spiritual cure, he or she seeks out the easiest and possibly quickest fix. But a heart itch cannot be scratched! It is an ache that only God can heal. Jesus could have said, "Come unto me, all who are itchy and heavily laden, and I will give you rest."

So, what should you do if you wake up at 2 am with an itching toe? First, thank God that it is only one toe! Secondly, fight back by showing gratitude that it is only your toe, not your heart, that itches! Finally, remind yourself of the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 found in Christ rather than the curses of  Deuteronomy 27 found in an unredeemed world of itches that cannot be scratched.

Detained at Fort Benning

By the time I arrived in Columbus, Georgia to pastor Evangel Church, Miss Aimie Hurston Loats had arrived at her eightieth year of life and was the sole remaining charter member. Still spry and active, Miss Aimie taught a children’s Sunday School class which she had done since 1934 and would continue to do until her death in 2004. At the time of her earthly departure following a tragic fall in her driveway she had been continuously teaching children for seventy years. 

Aimie was a living window into the past, allowing me to see what it meant to grow up in a Georgia Assemblies of God church. Her family was woven into the fabric of God’s work in the Southeastern U.S. and around the world. On one occasion as we sat together in my office, she felt compelled to tell me about an incident from her teenage years. Our church had a long history of relationship with Fort Benning which was located a short distance south of the church. During those days, in the mid to late 30’s, the church evangelism team would visit the base to speak to the soldiers and leave copies of the Pentecostal Evangel. 

On this visit Miss Aimie said they were going about reaching out to whomever would stop and listen when a big, uniformed MP rounded them all up into an empty room and locked them inside after telling them to remain in place. Mrs. Loats, a teenager at that time recalled a feeling of apprehension as they waited there. In short order a sergeant joined them and holding a copy of the Evangel, asked if they were “handing this out” on base. The church group’s leader said yes and that it was something they used to tell others about Jesus.

The officer responded by telling the group the army was aware of articles written there that were anti-war and unpatriotic in rhetoric. He then closed the door and left the room. They were in the room for nearly thirty minutes when an Army Captain looked through the glass door panel and recognized people, he attended church with. He immediately went to the officer involved in their detainment and asked that the group be released, all the while vouching for their love of country. That was my introduction to the fact that the AG had pacifist leanings during its first thirty to forty years of existence. During the first world war, it was classified by the United States government as a denomination which qualified to have its members listed as conscientious objectors and non-combative enlistees. From what Aimie could recall, the previous copy Evangel had featured an article that contained what appeared to them as anti- war sentiments. 

Later I recalled reading that many young men from AG churches were propelled into the Army by sermons revealing that Hitler was the Antichrist and Mussolini the false prophet who propelled him to power. They joined to literally fight against these evil forces physically as well as spiritually. Aimie’s story was my first exposure to the pacifist period of my fellowship’s history. By the time of my studies for ministry and subsequent ordination collective memory of that part of our history had been all but erased.  

 

Did You Enjoy the Worship Service?

 The first thing I encountered as I re-entered local church ministry was the lack of steady church attendance, which made gaining momentum nearly impossible. Growing from twenty into forty was so tricky! 

Jane and I planted our first church in a small SC town on July 4, 1976. It was just the two of us for a few months after the opening service. Gradually, people began to attend. Not many, mind you. We lived in a small town with no advertising budget, and both lived and worked jobs an hour away. But when they began to attend, they tended to be faithful. That was before "your best life now" and "bucket lists" became standard in the Christian experience. Heaven was a huge concern for even the young, and the steady pursuit of spiritual matters was easier.

The American church has long been on a downward spiral in attendance. COVID-19, which taught people it was not mandatory to be physically present for worship, and a cultural emphasis on individual journeys, has reduced regular attendees to a tiny fraction of the congregation. Of course, much of our preaching, which emphasizes finding your personalized dream journey, strengthens today's numbers only to weaken tomorrow as people search out the perfect church to help them realize who they are. So, the church's main occupation is assisting people to find what will make them happy. A common question asked after Sunday worship is, "Did you enjoy the service?" That is very telling.

Happiness is good, but in reducing everything to obtain it, what remains is a virulent self-ness that chokes out everything else. The pursuit of happiness is often run alone because it seeks its own. It leaves the seeker alone, while most are not hardwired to live solitary lives. You can see social media selfies, but they never feel the warmth of a lingering embrace. We need to belong. We need to feel necessary, even if that leads us through hardship and struggle. To disconnect from our community to be content is to invite boredom, depression, and death. From there, it is a short stumble toward suicide.

The Pulpit: Aiding and Abetting

And here's the thing. America's pulpits have joined the world's voices and are singing the same song. We lift our voices and add the word "real" to the much sought-after happiness. Whereas the world addresses each person's "authentic self," the pulpits of America join with "real authentic self." We want to Christianize the journey to true freedom by saying it's what you have been looking for and more! This strategy helps everyone find comfort as we all sing the same song and want the same thing. Everyone wants to be happy. The problem is that Jesus shows up but doesn't dance to that tune, leaving those seeking self-fulfillment hungry and having received enough of God to immunize them from more significant infection. How do we exit this maze?

Although the problem may seem small, what should we do? 

Smoked Meat, Country Music, and Church

 

Trips through the South Carolina Low Country with my dad at the wheel included multiple forays into the parking lots of any place that advertised barbecue. Dad never trusted the signs out front, so stops consisted of my dad driving or walking around the back of little blocked and wood-framed buildings in nondescript places to see where the cooking took place. We would immediately drive away without a smoker and a stack of wood. He was a purist about smoked meats and old-school country music. The music part meant we listened to many songs by Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, and Jim Reeves. The barbecue thing caused us to go hungry at times while on trips. I’m afraid my love for Ferlin Husky’s music never took hold, but the barbecue was a different story. I, too, look for smokers out back or another initial evidence: smoke!  

 Before a barbecue restaurant can serve the best meat, it and everything about it must smell the part. It doesn’t need to look nice, and sides are pretty optional. Meat, sauce, and white bread, and if the cooking is outstanding, leave off the sauce! The billowing cloud coming from a brick chimney or metal pipe on the roof told the tale. Optimum conditions demand that smoke deeply penetrate the floors, walls, ceiling, and furnishings. The experience is enhanced even more if everyone in the place smells like hickory, oak, and pecan.

I have a friend from the Midwest who was writing on Sacred Spaces for his Ph.D. project. I never read the paper but confessed to being intrigued by the subject. Combining my thoughts concerning barbecue with my thoughts on church yields an interesting parallel. Revelation 5:8 likens the prayers of saints to bowls full of incense in the hands of heavenly creatures who surround the throne of the Lamb of God. Prayers are incense that fills the houses where we worship with the scent of heaven. I have visited places of worship that contained a sense of the holy, not because of the architecture or the sign out front but due to the prayers of saints.

After her trip to the British Isles, I heard a Seminary professor describe particular “thin places,” which is how Celts describe spots where the distance between heaven and earth is reduced, and the veil that separates has faded. I have been to similar places that have been made so, not due to their location, but by sacred activity. I believe God is everywhere, but his presence is more significant in areas where he is worshiped, and his name praised.

I believe that we desperately need those places filled with the smoke, cloud, and fire of his presence, and like my dad, we must search until we find them. Don’t stop at the sign out front; be prepared to go hungry if necessary. These sacred places must bear the cloud of his presence and the marks of people who have offered themselves on an altar that leaves them smelling like the incense of heaven.

 We Should Be Shocked

Why, they even set up obscene god and goddess statues in the Temple built in my honor—an outrageous desecration! And then they went out and built shrines to the god Baal in the valley of Hinnom, where they burned their children in sacrifice to the god Molech—I can hardly conceive of such evil!—turning the whole country into one huge act of sin. Jeremiah 32:35 The Message

 

When dealing with sin and sinners, I often thought it better to be shockproof. If I was not surprised by sin, I could deal with it without emotions clouding the picture. Maybe I felt that calmly folding my hands and tilting my head to the side while saying, "Nothing surprises me," was a more sophisticated and intellectual posture, knowing the universality of evil and the depravity of man. Did having such an approach to human weakness give me an edge of some type? Or was it more indicative of something I lost and needed to rediscover in my spiritual life? And further, if God was shocked at the sinfulness of his people how could I live a shockproof life?

                                                               Face to Face

(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)  With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord.  Numbers 12:3,8 NIV

 

As a young pastor, I attended one of our yearly Council meetings. At the close of an afternoon service, we were encouraged to pray and confess our faults to someone in the room to bring healing. I was seated in a sparsely populated, introvert section of the auditorium, but a gentleman I did not know approached me from across the room. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and after a brief greeting, we prayed. His humility and what I felt was a heartfelt prayer encouraged me. Older and more accomplished in his walk with the Lord, he confessed his faults to me and had me pray for him just as he did for me. After the meeting, the facilitator dismissed us, and we introduced ourselves. I was surprised that I had been praying with the keynote speaker, G Raymond Carlson, newly elected General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God! I'm glad I did not know who he was because I wouldn't have confessed anything more than "I got mad at a friend once." As a young pastor of a small congregation, I was shocked. Quiet, not commanding in physique or attitude, He didn't fit the part of the evolving CEO model of leadership I had begun to see.

Two years later, I would see Superintendent Carlson again on a television newscast during a scandal that had engulfed another of our superstar ministers. As the General Presbytery moved toward defrocking the well-known evangelist, a camera crew caught up with Carlson outside the headquarters building. I cannot remember exactly what words my elder statesman spoke, but I do remember the humility and brokenness with which he spoke. Maybe that North Dakota-born pastor was a great actor before the camera lens, or perhaps he was the same person I had met years before, and his tears were out of shock and dismay at what played out before him during the hearing. Perhaps, unlike me and many others, the horror of sin could still hit this man of peace very hard. 

Jesus said, "Blessed are they who mourn." We must corporately mourn the loss of closeness to the heart of God, a separation that allows us to isolate what happens on earth from God. Comprehending sin outside of His presence will cause us to react in a way foreign to God. Was God not aware of Molech? Did he have to inquire who that false god was and what he required the worshiper to do? I think not! God's mind or heart knew of Molech and those who passed through his fire. What could not enter his mind was that His people would worship this god of child immolation. Jeremiah prophesied against it because being in God's presence comforted and distressed him. His proximity to the Lord made him "feel with" him so that he would cry out against such depravity, not in self-righteousness but in divine agony.

At the 1984 National Prayer Breakfast, President Ronald Reagan recounted the story of how one man's shock and dismay at the Colosseum's inhumanity ended one of the national pastimes of the Romans:

 "The story goes back to the year 404 AD – a monk named Telemachus followed a crowd into the Colosseum, where he saw the gladiators come forth, stand before the Emperor, and say, 'We who are about to die salute you.' And he realized they were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowds. He cried out, 'In the Name of Christ, stop!' And his voice was lost in the tumult there in the great Colosseum…

As the games began, the crowds saw this scrawny little figure making his way out to the gladiators in the arena, repeatedly saying, 'In the Name of Christ, stop!' And they thought it was part of the entertainment, and at first they were amused. But then, when they realized it wasn't, they grew belligerent and angry…

And as he was pleading with the gladiators, 'In the Name of Christ, stop!' one of them plunged his sword into his body. And as he fell to the sand of the arena in death, his last words were, 'In the Name of Christ, stop!' And suddenly, a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at this tiny form lying in the sand. A silence fell over the Colosseum. And then, someplace up in the upper tiers, an individual made his way to an exit and left, and the others began to follow. And in the dead silence, everyone left the Colosseum. That was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. Never again did anyone kill, nor did men kill each other for entertainment.

One tiny voice that could hardly be heard above the crowd. 'In the Name of Christ, stop!' It is something we could be saying to each other throughout the whole world."

 

 

The Disquieting Presence

Telemachus had lived as a hermit, spending his days and nights praying and in acts of devotion. He delighted in practicing the presence of God. His name meant "far-distance fighter," which was the opposite of who he was until that fateful day of faithfulness to God. One of the significant focal points of the present-day church is in teachings on the "Presence of God." Sermons and testimonies point to the many delights in dwelling in his presence. Words associated with presence are powerful, peace, joy, holy, and comfort. I know how to be comforted in his presence but am not often enough disquieted. To be disquieted is to be disturbed and perplexed, along with God, because our standard is fixed in and by fellowship with Him. I sensed in my prayer time with the General Superintendent that he was no stranger to prayer and that prayer moved him into the disquieting presence of God. He prayed aloud for my benefit. A whisper would have been enough if I had not been present, as Jesus was so near him. He was a soft-spoken prophet who took my transgression, as well as his own, as personal affronts to our Lord, and because of his humility, I did not feel put down. On the contrary, I felt a freeing breeze enveloping my soul as he spoke with God.

How do we get to that place in the presence of the Lord?

Firstly, we must ensure Christ is present in and through the sacred words he has given us. The presence of God based on anything else is fantasy and will reflect a wrong image of our King. His word reveals a God who is shocked by evil and made angry (2 Kings 17:18) by sin. Through his word, allow yourself to rejoice, sing, and even be angry. During your quiet time, ask questions like, "Should I run with this word?" or "How can I serve your cause and heal their brokenness." At times, he may ask you to bring much-needed intercession; at other times, he may give you an assigned action. Whatever he tells you, do it.

One Sunday night, my college roommate and I sat transfixed by the preaching of Dr Karl Strader. I had never heard a man preach that I wanted to believe any more than him. We were immersed in the presence of the Lord that night. Since we had not eaten before we went to the evening service, our usual routine was to hurry back to campus to get something to eat from the canteen before it closed. But on that night, we felt different. We had gathered with many others to pray at the service end, and when we started to exit the building, Ervin and I said, "Let's go witness!" almost simultaneously. We drove to the Publix Market Plaza near the church, and forgetting about the canteen, we talked with anyone who came near about Jesus. That night, we both asked, "What can I do?"

Secondly, when posturing yourself in God's presence, the only agenda must be his agenda, which you will receive by listening. Enter a listening room of prayer, and do not superimpose any other images before him. Check your thoughts about what and how he will work at the door so he may take you into unvisited places. Let Him disturb you by his holiness and he may push you right over into the blood-soaked sands of the arena or to pray with a person who is in a desert place.