WHY?

WHY?

                “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” These words, from Psalm 34:8 have been used in the church’s communion service since the earliest days. In her extended meditation on this text Bonnie Thurston, Biblical scholar, professor and spiritual leader, tells of a grandmother who said that her three-year-old grandson was interested in crucifixes and depictions of Jesus’s death in art. He had so many questions about Jesus’s death that his grandmother wondered if it were normal. Bonnie Thurston said she thought it was unusual but not abnormal. Children who have been loved and nurtured can respond with great sensitivity to the sufferings of others (Thurston, Bonnie. O Taste and See. P. 51).

                This isn’t just a three-year old’s question. You and I can relate to the little boy’s concern. “Why,” the quintessential two-and-three-year-old question, is also our question. Why did Jesus have to suffer and die? How did the crucifixion erase sin? What kind of God is this? Its outrageous to assert that God died on a Roman cross, an instrument of death saved for non-Roman citizens, insurrectionists and the most horrible of criminals.

                Paul recognized this when he said in 1 Cor 1:23 that the idea of the Messiah being crucified was a “stumbling-block” to Jews and “foolishness” to Gentiles. “Stumbling-block” translates A Greek word which is the source of our English word “scandal.” It is scandalous to think the Messiah, the Savior, was crucified. Why the cross?

                Great theological treatises have been written to answer that question but there is a simple answer that comes out of human experience and human relationships. As Bonnie Thurston put it: “In a broken relationship, only the wronged party can restore the relationship because only the wronged party can forgive” (p. 52).

                David recognized this fact. Although he had done irreparable harm to Bathsheba and Uriah he confessed to God in Ps 41, “against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” We may wrong others and need their forgiveness, but ultimately it is God we have wronged, and only God can forgive. Our sins destroy our relationship with God, and we are helpless to repair it. But God is love, and love seeks reconciliation.

                As Paul said in Romans 5:8, 10, “God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. … While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.”

                This is the good news that we receive and remember each time we come to this table. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”

TWENTY-TWENTY VISION

                On New Year’s Day I saw in the Frank and Ernest cartoon that one of the characters was looking at a calendar with Jan. 1, 2020 on it and saying, “Darn! I knew it was a long shot, but I was hoping I’d wake up today and have perfect eyesight.” There is no connection of course between 20-20 eyesight and the year 2020, at least in a literal sense. But in another sense, there may be a vital connection. It might help us maneuver through whatever the new year brings if we can see clearly. Especially if we have the kind of 20-20 vision that enables us to see reality clearly and, as Paul prays in Philippians 1:9, “that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best.”

                How can we gain the kind of 20-20 vision that enables us to determine what is best? The year 2020 will bring all kinds of tests, temptations, ups and downs, joys and sorrows, opportunities and challenges. How do we determine what is best?

It may depend on the kind of glasses we are wearing. What we choose will be determined by how we look at life. We all look at life through certain lenses. Some have lenses that are covered with dollar signs and they see everything in terms of how much money they can make. Others look at life through racist, or sexist, or political or nationalistic lenses. The ideologies and worldviews by which we live are manifold and many of them lead to a distorted understanding of reality.

                As Christians, we can choose to look through a different lens – the lens of Jesus, or what we might call “Christ-colored” glasses. How did Jesus look at life? At people? Matthew tells us (14:14) that when he saw the thousands of people who had followed him to a deserted place “he had compassion upon them.” To view life through the lens of Jesus means to see everything through his character, that is, through his grace, compassion, love, kindness, goodness, and integrity. It means to go through life choosing to live as a servant intent on doing the will of God, the Father.

                When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper he said to his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me.” As we focus on Jesus, our view of life is shaped by him and we begin to see through the lens of Jesus. He gives us the kind of 20-20 vision that we need to “determine what is best” as we maneuver through the year of 2020. Let us focus, therefore, on him who took the bread, blessed and broke it and said, “This is my body, given for you.” And also the cup, saying, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

OUR GREAT THANKSGIVING

“Happy harvest day! This has always been my favorite holiday in Ukraine.” This is how June Johnson, a missionary nurse in Ukraine that our church supports, began her latest update. She went on to say that Harvest day is a Sunday set aside each fall for giving thanks to God. For their church it is a 3-hour service with lunch for 200 served afterwards. Ukraine, as a nation, began a national yearly celebration of giving thanks to God in November of 2015. Over 100,000 people gathered in Kiev’s main square to thank God for the year’s harvest and for Ukraine.

                June went on to comment on what giving thanks meant to her. She said: “Many years ago, a sister in Christ, impressed upon me the importance of keeping a grateful heart. Important because it keeps things like worry, fear, and complaining on a short leash. Important because it gives other things like joy, trust and obedience lots of room to run. And, important because it keeps me remembering – remembering who God is, what he has done, what he will do in the end, and remembering all that he has given me.”

                Aaron pointed out in this week’s newsletter that “to give thanks” is from the Greek word “eucharisteo”. The Lord’s Supper has been called the Eucharist from the earliest days of the church because Jesus used that word at the Last Supper. Matthew 26:26 says, And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and give it to the disciples and said, “take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Drink from it all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

                The Lord’s Supper is our great thanksgiving. It is an act of thanksgiving, but more than that it cultivates thanksgiving – an attitude of gratitude. It reminds us that we have a choice. We can gripe and complain, or we can rejoice and give thanks. It’s true – life is not always good, it is unfair, painful, and sometimes really hard. But when we learn to maintain an attitude of thankfulness, we can look at all that life offers and put a great big Y-E-S! over it.  

I agree with the person who said: “In the end, when we die, maybe we’ll be judged not by what we accomplished during our lifetimes – the jobs we held, the music or the books we wrote, or other accomplishments – but by how thankful we were to have lived. Somehow, as I grow older that seems important to me. I don’t want to die as one who wasn’t grateful, who didn’t appreciate everything while he had it.” (John Killinger,”The Healing Power of Grattitude,” 30GoodMinutes.org).

                Let us join together now in a Great Thanksgiving of commuion and our offering of grateful giving.

THANKFUL -- ON SUCH A DAY AS THIS

                After all night in the ER I had surgery on Thanksgiving morning. Late that night I reviewed the day and asked myself, is there anything I can be thankful for on such a day as this? Immediately I thought of my wife and daughter, my brother, the neighbors, and of course our church family that I knew would provide great support.

Then, it occurred to me that this experience drove me to thanksgiving for the fundamentals of living. For example, I couldn’t eat the thanksgiving noon meal because it was too soon after surgery,  but that night when I lifted the lid on the tray I was struck by the beautiful sight of green, orange, white, and brown foods, and then savored the taste and texture of the food. It brought me joy. I remembered that C S Lewis had said that such moments of joy, or bliss, or ecstasy, whether it’s the food we eat, a striking sunset, or a thrilling symphony, our senses give us moments of joy that are pointers to God, the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).

                Then I remembered the primary gift that I had received that day. A powerful, deadly enemy had captured my body and there was nothing that I could do to get rid of it. I could not repent of my illness, or confess it, and remove it. I needed help, not from just anyone, but from someone capable of dealing with this enemy. And I gave thanks for a highly skilled surgeon and his team.

                As I continued to reflect on my experience, some of our study of Romans in the Senior Group came to mind. Paul spent the first three chapters of Romans pounding home the fact that we have all been captured by a powerful enemy, an enemy he calls sin, that intends death for us, and we have no way of dealing with it. We have been captured and we cannot repent of our captivity and by this escape. We need help. Realizing this, Paul cried out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And the answer came, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:24).

                God sent the Great Physician who did what no one else could do. Paul put it this way: “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. . . . God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6, 8).

                For this reason, the Lord’s Supper, which reminds us of this, has traditionally been called, “The Great Thanksgiving.” God has given us life through the gift of his one and only son and at this table, now, we can say “Thank You.”

THE WOUNDED HEALER

                Last Sunday night, following the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio where 31were killed and many more injured, Sixty Minutes replayed an earlier story about a couple whose daughter was killed in the Colorado Theater shooting several years ago. This couple who understood what it meant to lose a loved one that way began going to the site of mass shootings and offering their understanding, compassion and support to those whose loved ones had been killed. Often, it is those who have suffered who can help the most because they know how others feel. They become what Henri Nouen called, “wounded healers.”

                Also, fresh in my mind was a story I had just read which also makes clear how “wounded healers” can provide what we really need.  The story was told by Helmut Thielicke, a German theologian and pastor, who preached in the Stuttgart Cathedral during the Second World War. The Allies made Stuttgart a major target and bombed it mercilessly and repeatedly. The Cathedral was destroyed and then his home was destroyed. He went to a village nearby that had not been bombed hoping to find a house for his family. There he had a peculiar experience. As he walked through the village, he remembered how he had tried in his mind to escape the sight of bombed out ruins and suffering people by imagining that he lived in a quiet village, where neighbors sat on their porches, greeting passers-by with warmth and friendliness.  By this he hoped to find peace in his heart. But as he walked through the village, he did not find peace. Instead, the idyllic scene was tormenting rather than tranquilizing. He said, “it drove me back to the ruined city and the people whose faces were still marked by the runes of terror. There I felt at home. They understood what I had gone through because they had suffered it themselves. There is nothing more comforting than to have people who understand one.”* They were his wounded healers.

                In our struggles, when we are tested and fail, when we are in a war, as Paul says in Ephesians, “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of his age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness,” we too have a “wounded healer.” He is our commander in chief, but he does not sit in a heavenly office sending out commands and comforting messages. He is in the trenches with us. Hebrews 2:18 says, “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered he is able to help those who are being tested.” He knows what it is like.

The prophet Isaiah described our wounded healer this way: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:4-5).

                In the upper room Jesus pointed to himself as our wounded healer when the took the bread and blessed it and broke it and said, “this is my body, given for you.” And also, the cup, saying, “This is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for many for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.”

  

 *Thielicke, Helmut. Christ and the Meaning of Life. New York: Harper and Rowe, 1962, 16-17.

A FRAGRANT OFFERING

                Mahatma Gandhi once said to a Christian missionary: “Let us think of the bulk of your people … Do they spread the perfume of their lives? That to me is the sole criterion. All I want them to do is live Christian lives, not to annotate them.”* When I read this I thought Gandhi may have been acquainted with Paul’s statement in 2 Cor 2:14, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance from knowing him.”

                There is something very attractive about some aromas. I can remember when the Franz bread bakery was located about where Matt Knight arena is today. The delicious smell of freshly baked bread spreading throughout the University district attracted many students who would buy warm bread and take it back to their dorms for late night parties. Also, I remember reading about a church that wanted to have a special communion service. Early on a Sunday morning a few people came to the kitchen, which was located near the sanctuary, like ours is. They proceeded to bake bread and timed it so that the wonderful aroma of fresh bread permeated the sanctuary when church began.

                Gandhi spoke about the “perfume of Christian lives,” and Paul wrote about Christians spreading the “fragrance from knowing Christ.” It’s a beautiful metaphor of how evangelism can be done in a pleasing and attractive way. But what, exactly, is this “fragrance,” this “aroma” that Christians carry into the world? Can it be defined more precisely?

                Paul does this for us in his only other use of the metaphor. It is found in Ephesians 5:2 where he says, Live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” The fragrance of a loving, self-giving, sacrificial offering made by Jesus Christ is our model.

                Its been said that Christians should live like Christ, look like Christ, love like Christ, and serve like Christ. All of that is true, and all of it can be summarized by simply saying, “Christians should smell like Christ.” Have we put on Christ so that we smell like him or do we spread a moldy, rotting, decidedly offensive aroma by our lives?

                Nothing attracts us to the table more than the smell of fresh baked warm bread, and nothing attracts others to Christ more than the aroma of a loving, sacrificial, Christ-like life. The Lord’s Supper, this communion, reminds us of his fragrant offering and invites us to drench our lives in the perfume of his life.

*M. J. Gandhi, The Message of Jesus Christ, ed. Anand T. Hingorani (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhaven, 1986), 44.

"ABBA -- FATHER"

                On this Father’s Day I am thankful that Jesus chose to teach his disciples to God as Father, and by doing so honored fatherhood. The Jewish people ordinarily did not pray to God as father. In the psalms, the Jewish prayer and hymn book, God is addressed as “Lord,” “Yahweh,” “my Rock,” or some other metaphor, but never as “Father.” In the psalms and in the OT generally God speaks of the king as his son and of the Jewish people as his children, but individual Jews did not pray to God as Father.

                This changes with Jesus. In Matthew Jesus began his teaching ministry with the Sermon on the Mount when he taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven …” He modeled that approach throughout his ministry, until at the end, on the cross, he twice addressed God as Father, “Father, forgive them …,” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

                Why did Jesus choose to have his disciples pray to God as Father? Perhaps doing so recognizes something about the mystery and power of God. To a child a father is this tall, strong, even fearsome person that he or she does not fully understand. A father in the Jewish social structure had extraordinary status and power. His word was final. It was to be obeyed without question.

                But the use of “Father” by Jesus goes far beyond that. The word he used in Aramaic was “Abba” – a word implying intimacy and closeness. Some have likened it to our terms of “Papa,” or “Daddy.” In addition to respect for this fearsome, mysterious and powerful God, he wants his disciples to have an intimate, loving relationship with God. As Paul says in Romans 8:15, “You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’”

                As I have read, prayed and studied the psalms, one fact stands out. To be sure, God is seen as powerful, mysterious, fearsome, and one who demands obedience, but this is balanced by two other terms. Over and over the Psalms speak of God’s “steadfast love,” and his “faithfulness.” His steadfast love and faithfulness can be summarized in the one word, “commitment.” As our heavenly Father, God is so committed to us that he will do whatever it takes, pay any price, to save us and make us his own.

                As we take communion this morning, may we see not only the sacrifice of Jesus, but the commitment of God – a commitment so strong that he gave his only begotten son so that we might become his adopted sons and daughters and thus be able to call him “Abba, Father.”