OUR RICHES IN CHRIST

Janice Lemke, with her husband Cory, was a missionary in Ukraine for many years. Being a writer, she is always looking for a good story and she found one in a church in Kirovskaya, and then shared it in her weekly email update. In her words:

Cory likes to be early (his definition of "on time") and while waiting for things to get going, I decided to talk to an old woman who sat alone in the sanctuary. She greeted me warmly and I figured she might be good for a story or two to pass the time.

She's 89 years old, but details about World War II were just as clear to her as though it happened last month. It was a time of fear and hunger. Even though her father was a Christian, he had a position of authority on a collective farm. And even though Christians were supposed to keep their faith to themselves, he said one day, "Anyone who knows how to pray, you may go to the church and pray today for an end to this war." She recalled how they walked to the village, got down on their knees, and prayed with weeping. The next day, they heard no planes or bombs. The war was over.

When she was 40, she was expecting another child. The doctors told her she was too old and must have an abortion. She told them, "I have never even killed a kitten. How can I kill my own child?" Her daughter grew up to be a sweet and gentle woman who has a daughter who attends Bible College.

Her son lives in Germany. Her daughter does too. "They all do," she said. They wrote to say that life is easier there, and they wanted her to move there with them. She refused. "I have everything here I need," she said. "I have a garden and some chickens. I am very rich. I don't need anything more."

Here words challenged me more than any sermon I heard that day. Her clothes obviously came from some humanitarian aid box. On her feet, she wore dirty sandals with baggy boy's athletic socks with a red stripe and a hole in the heel. And her smell, frankly, told me she doesn't have hot water or a washing machine. Yet, she says, "I have everything I need. I am very rich." (Lemke update, 7/23/2005).

Reading this story led me to Proverbs 10:22, "The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it." As we come to the Lord's Table we can be thankful for the riches we receive here. As Paul explained in 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich."

At His table we both celebrate and receive the richness of His grace, His love, His forgiveness. No wonder the Lord's Supper is called "eucharist" in Greek, which translated means to give thanks. It is indeed the Great Thanksgiving.

The Pursuit of Happiness Hebrews 12:2 A Fourth of July Communion Meditation

On this Fourth of July I want to focus on two puzzling statements, one in the Declaration of Independence and one in Hebrews 12:2. The puzzling phrase, at least to me, in the Declaration of Independence is found in the philosophical heart of that document: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The phrase that puzzled me is: "the pursuit of happiness." It could easily be understood as hedonistic, self-centered and focused on personal pleasure. Surely that is not what Jefferson meant. But what did he mean? I came to understand it when I learned the educational and philosophical context in which it was written.

The Declaration of Independence was written and signed by men who had been highly influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment. In fact, fully one third of the signers were of Scottish or Ulster Scott extraction. They were all familiar with and had been influenced by the teaching of Francis Hutcheson of Glasgow who was known as the father of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Hutcheson believed that every one's ultimate goal in life is happiness, but for him this meant not the gratification of physical desires but making others happy. The highest form of happiness for anyone is making others happy. "That action is best," he said, "which procures the greatest happiness."

A scientific experiment at the University of Oregon a few years ago and reported in the Eugene Register Guard supports this idea. A number of people were given money and the opportunity to give it away or to keep it. Their brains were monitored and it was discovered that voluntarily giving to help others produced a response in the part of the brain that registers pleasure. I guess you could say that God created us this way.

Haven't you found it to be true that when you did something that made someone else happy that it produced happiness in you also? Like seeing your child open a gift, or seeing a young person blossom as a result of your teaching. Doesn't it make you happy to see slides by a missionary you have supported of people being baptized in Kenya, or children singing enthusiastically in a Ukrainian church camp? On the other hand, the more self centered, the more we try to make ourselves happy by hoarding or spending on ourselves, the more miserable we are.

Jimmy Durante's gravelly voice in Sleepless in Seattle said it in song, "Make someone happy, make just one someone happy, and you will be happy too."

This helps us understand the puzzling statement about Jesus in Hebrews 12:2 which says, "... for the joy set before him he endured the cross ...". It seems strange to put joy and enduring the cross together in the same sentence but its true that when Jesus went to the cross he was in "the pursuit of happiness" -- yours and mine. the happiness of forgiven sin, of cleansing and renewal. The happiness of reconciliation and hope. All of this he secured for us on the cross. Thus, it was "for the joy set before him that he endured the cross." We experience again that joy now as we join him at His table.