Half-truth?

The headline read “Back to back Massacres Shake a Bewildered Nation.” In case you just arrived from Mars, 2 gunmen in two different cities, killed 29 people Saturday night and injured many more in the cities of El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH. Yes, I am shaken. I am sad. I am indignant. I am choosing to look inward and upward. The media says the tragedies are the result of political rhetoric of hatred. Some are calling for more gun control laws. There are certainly issues with the way our leaders hurl words at each other that are inflammatory, that feed fear, that drive us into isolation from one another. There are common sense laws that screen those who can buy guns that should be passed into law.  Some are suggesting that we curb free speech.

Our challenges in America are far deeper than our political leadership or lack thereof. Indeed, those we have elected to lead us are a reflection of the real problem. We are a nation that is spiritually sick, adrift without an anchor, filled with uncertainty about our future.  The principles that once united us as people in spite of our political opinions have eroded. The hope that helped us to see the future on the other side of our present challenges is largely gone. We have become survivors, scrambling for self-interest, building coalitions of power to force our will and to protect our privilege, setting aside guiding principles of shared faith for expedience.  As we vilify and demonize those with who we disagree, we sow the seeds of violence and then wonder at the harvest of death.

Christians, who should be advocating for humility, for respect of others, for renewed recognition of our common humanity, are too often joining in and sharing the rhetoric that divides us!  We know better but we excuse ourselves, claiming that the end justifies the means, living in the dim light of half-truths.

I spent this past weekend on a break in Washington, DC where I visited the Museum of the Bible. (5 stars, by the way!)  One small exhibit shook me to my core. It featured the so-called “Slave Bible.”  Here is how the museum’s website summarizes the exhibit. “The Slave Bible, as it would become known, is a missionary book. It was originally published in London in 1807 on behalf of the Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of enslaved Africans toiling in Britain’s lucrative Caribbean colonies. They used the Slave Bible to teach enslaved Africans how to read while at the same time introducing them to the Christian faith. Unlike other missionary Bibles, however, the Slave Bible contained only “select parts” of the biblical text. Its publishers deliberately removed portions of the biblical text, such as the exodus story, that could inspire hope for liberation. Instead, the publishers emphasized portions that justified and fortified the system of slavery that was so vital to the British Empire.”

The ”Christian” people claimed to desire the conversion of the slaves but provided them with only half of the truth to keep them enslaved, without hope of liberation!  If that does not make you angry, something is seriously awry in your walk with the Lord!  Thank God for voices within the Church, persistent, often reviled, that kept a witness to the whole truth about slavery, that kept speaking about human dignity, about the love of Christ Jesus – fearlessly, unwaveringly.  Yes, here in America, the collision of ideas ultimately brought us great bloodshed. We cannot be naïve about the cost of speaking truth to power! It can bring rejection and even death to us.

My brothers and sisters, here is my point this morning.
Are we choosing the same path of expedience, living with half-truths about Christ’s life?
Do we know the whole truth but choose to ignore parts of it in the name of protecting privilege or power?  

Let’s not surrender to those who think the answer is just to be ‘nice’ people who  avoid saying hard things or even offensive things. Let’s not deceive ourselves to think that a change in political party will change much in the spiritual state of the nation, either. Courageously, we must insist that people are loved by God- ALL PEOPLE.  He does NOT only love rich people, or poor people, or white people, or black people, or straight people or gay people, or devout people or irreligious people, or sober people, or addicted people, or Republican people, or Democrat people … HE LOVES PEOPLE.  Love is not that insipid thing that we often see that is found in weak words and empty sentiment. Love struggles. Love engages. Love hopes. Can we learn to love people enough to be able to state our convictions about what they do or how they live without hatred?  If we actually love God, we will think through our positions and commit to living the teaching of Jesus with as much integrity as we can even if that brings us death.

Yes, this nation does need to turn back to God, but that is not code for a return to some imagined utopia of the 1950’s! Nor is that an appeal to put people back into church pews.  We humble ourselves before Him, learning to revere Him as our shared Creator. We find our greatest hope in Him, so that we do not fear tomorrow.  We invite the Spirit of God to change us – inside out – to people who love, not with empty words, but with our whole being.

Here is a word from the Word. May we learn to love. "One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31, NIV)

________

Abba, I come to You this morning – my mind yielded to Your Spirit.
Speak to my heart of Truth. Give me courage to live it with integrity.

Forgive me, and those with whom I live, for our willingness to choose expedience over truth.

Help me to live Jesus’ commands to love You and my fellow human beings- deeply, beyond words.

Heal our land, O Lord, I pray.

Lead us to choose You over prosperity, to choose You over power.

Guide us into all truth and make us fearless to speak it.

Forgive us our personal sins and our national sins.

In Jesus’ Name. Amen

Troubled times?

 

Around 4 pm yesterday the sky darkened, the rumble of thunder warned of the storms to come. Then, there were torrents of rain and gusts of wind.  If I had not lived through prior storms I might have concluded that the ruin of the earth was imminent.  But, as we know, the storms pass. And, I awakened this morning to blue skies and bright sunshine! The weather is a parable for my life.  48 hours have brought disappointment, death, and an awful inner pain. Around 5 pm yesterday, when my heart broke under the weight of it all, I chose to look up and forward – knowing that the Son will shine with hope again when the storm passes.

Paul wrote to his friends in the church at Corinth, telling them of his recent trials. “We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. And He did deliver us from mortal danger. And we are confident that he will continue to deliver us.” (2 Corinthians 1:8 NLT)  In case you do not know his story, he is not being dramatic, nor are his words hyperbolic. Because of Christ, Paul had been beaten, rejected, and left for dead … and through it all he learned not to rely on himself, but on God!

If you’re carrying a heavy weight of disappointment today, do not fall into the errors made by too many Christians.

Don’t minimize your pain.

“So many have it worse than I do.” That may be true, but you are where you are and comparing your troubles to those experienced by others is not really all that helpful.

Don’t slap a verse on the wound!

Christians love to find a verse in the Bible and quote it as if that solves the whole problem.  The truth of Scripture is a wonderful and powerful medicine for sick souls, but God’s Word is not a Band-Aid™.  Some wounds have to be cleansed with love, given time to heal, and just perhaps treated by the compassionate care of others. Just as a wound improperly treated can fester with infection, a heart wound that is covered over with superficial sentiments can turn toxic.

Stop trying to ‘make sense’ of it all.

“Everything happens for a reason.” I believe if one more person says that to me as if it were truly helpful, I just might scream. We love to write “The End” on our stories, wrapping up the plot line with a nice resolve, where everything makes sense and finds a purpose: Nice, except for the inconvenient fact that life does not work that way.  The story of our lives is known only in full to God Himself. Some of our experiences will find no explanation while we are in this place of linear time and limited understanding. That is why we need faith. Faith bridges the gap between what I experience and God’s promises. Accept the mystery.

Don’t try to rush to a conclusion.

Life is meant to be lived fully. That includes laughing heartily, loving deeply, and giving time to the processes of maturation. Oh yes, I am often a man in a hurry. I feel uneasy when I have to live with unresolved conflict, with unanswered questions, with chronic pain.  But, God is an Eternal Being and in the memorable words of Peter, He is not constrained by our sense of time. “With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.”  (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Pray for increased resources to meet the challenge instead of quick release from it.

Will you let Him use you to display His grace and power?  That is not a question to answer quickly. We admire Job, not because he found a quick solution to his suffering, but because he struggled through it and let God be God.  Pastor Rick Warren says “There is no hero without hardship.” God can make you stand. God can keep you in a place where you honor Him – sometimes with deliverance and sometimes with amazing grace in all that we call ‘life.’

Are you troubled? Don’t give up. Wait out the storm, with faith! Jesus knows the struggle. He is our compassionate Savior, our Advocate and Intercessor. Trust Him.

Here is a word from the Word. May it inspire you with courage for this day.  "Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll— are they not in your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise— in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 56:8-11, NIV)

__________

Just Be Held

Hold it all together ev'rybody needs you strong

But life hits you out of nowhere

And barely leaves you holding on

And when you're tired of fighting

Chained by your control

There's freedom in surrender

Lay it down and let it go

So when you're on your knees

And answers seem so far away

You're not alone

Stop holding on and just be held

Your world's not falling apart

It's falling into place

I'm on the throne stop holding on and just be held

Just be held just be held

If your eyes are on the storm

You'll wonder if I love you still

But if your eyes are on the cross

You'll know I always have and I always will

And not a tear is wasted

In time you'll understand

I'm painting beauty with the ashes

Your life is in My hands

Lift your hands lift your eyes

In the storm is where you'll find Me

And where you are I'll hold your heart

I'll hold your heart

Come to Me find your rest

In the arms of a God who won't let go

Just be held

Just be held

Bernie Herms | Mark Hall | Matthew West

© 2013 My Refuge Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

Be Essential Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)

Highly Combustible Music (Admin. by One77 Songs c/o Kobalt Songs Music Publishing (ASCAP))

House of Story Music Publishing (Admin. by One77 Songs c/o Kobalt Songs Music Publishing (ASCAP))

CCLI License # 810055

Sorrowing Hope

Matthew, my brother, adopted by my parents as an infant, often felt unloved, but yesterday, in an ICU unit in Newark, NJ – I sat with him as he made the transit from this life to the other side of the River praying that he felt God’s love and mine in those moments. I cannot make the awful into sweet, nor will I sugarcoat the bitter with platitudes. But I will hold onto faith that is greater than death itself.

Sorrow is not a stranger to me. The separation of death has visited too often in this last decade.  And, too, we who are shepherds to God’s people are asked to walk alongside of people who are feeling loss, who are afraid, who are dying. 

As I mourned Matthew’s life, the Psalms filled my thoughts - "You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucketful." (Psalm 80:5, NLT) "My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you." (Psalm 42:3-6, NIV) Those are so much more than poems. They are the anguished prayers, ancient and inspired words that let the soul breathe and grieve.

I know my path is not unique. Suffering comes to all, one way or another. Creation is broken by sin. Evil has its day. Satan is at war against good and God.  Yet, even though tears come and my heart is full of questions, I hold onto the story of the Suffering Savior, God come to save us- from our sins and from the destiny of destruction.

Oh, Jesus, I believe, help me overcome the fears, the questions, as You defeat the darkness.

I have murmured – “May your Kingdom come, Your will be done…” because I know that when His kingdom comes, tears will dry. When the struggle’s over, God will draw us close and dry our tears!  "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:3-5, NIV)

This morning, I am tearless, but my soul aches. Grief is real and it is a fool’s game to try to hide it, avoid it, or cover it over with diversion. I will wait on God. I will allow the love of friend and family to comfort me. I will pray to avoid becoming pitiful, or selfish, or despairing. Instead, I pray that the crush of sorrow will release the fragrance of Jesus in me. And this – I will look beyond to the promise that “He will wipe every tear” from our eyes. Years ago, Gordon Jensen wrote this memorable line in a Gospel song, “God weeps along with man and takes him by the hand, tears are a language God understands.”   

Are the tears ready to fall today? 

Has disappointment, pain, unrelenting struggle with the curse of sin - nearly broken you?

Go ahead and cry. Find a place alone with Him and let the tears that fall become a wordless prayer for renewal of hope, for healing, for forgiveness. Then, with courage, take His grace, and go on. Choose faith, choose life, choose to live with the mystery of incomplete understanding on this side of Eternity.

Here is a word from the Word.  "Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. … You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever." (Psalm 30:4-5, 11-12, NIV)

_______________

Death be not proud,
though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for,
thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think'st,

thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death,

nor yet canst thou kill mee.

-John Donne, 16^th century English poet