http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.php By John Lacey en-us Nucleus CMS v3.32 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.php/nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.php http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=477
“The thrill is gone,
The thrill is gone away.”

While some folks live for “the thrill of the moment,” is this the best orientation for our lives? What happens when the thrill is gone?


The word “thrill” by definition means, “To affect with a sudden wave of keen emotion or excitement, as to produce a tremor or tingling sensation through the body.”

(Dictionary.com)

The source of our thrills is as varied as the individuals who experience them. That is certainly understandable; different things trip-our-trigger! We love to be thrilled, but it is not reasonable to believe that we can constantly live in that state. I am indebted to the late Christian author, C. S. Lewis, for this orientation. In his book, Mere Christianity, he writes:

“Thrills [that] come at the beginning…do not last. The sort of thrill a boy has at the first idea of flying will not go on when he has joined the Royal air Force and is really learning to fly. The thrill you feel on first seeing some delightful place dies away when you really live there. Does this mean it would be better not learn to fly and not to live in the beautiful place? By no means, in both cases, if you go through with it, the dying away of the first thrill will be compensated for by a quieter and more lasting kind of interest.”

(Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis, 1952)

I can somewhat understand this. I love to vacation out west in the mountains of Wyoming and Montana. My wife and I hope to retire somewhere out there in the future. However, the thrill of vacationing in the mountains is very different from the deeper satisfaction that will be experienced from residing there.

Lewis goes on to note:

“What is more…it is just the people who are ready to submit to the loss of the thrill and settle down to the sober interest, who are then most likely to meet new thrills in some quite different direction. The [person] who has learned to fly and become a good pilot will suddenly discover music; the [person] who has settled down to live in the beauty spot will discover gardening.”

(ibid.)
C. S. Lewis understood that living for the “thrill,” in fact, could stunt a person’s growth emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. That is why he goes on to say:
“This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill; that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go-let it die away-go on through that period of death into the interest and happiness that follow-and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them old man for the rest of your life. It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all around them.”
(ibid.)

What is sobering about all this is that Lewis writes these ideas in the chapter entitled “Christian Marriage.” He bemoans the fact that “novels and plays” sell people on the irresistible idea of the thrill of falling in love and when the feeling is gone, “They think this proves that they have made a mistake and are entitled to a change-not realizing that, when they have changed, the glamour will presently go out of the new love just as it went out of the old one. In this department of life, as in every other, thrills come at the beginning and do not last.”

(ibid.)

If C. S. Lewis were alive today to see the 24/7 marketing of our “thrill-society” promising us that this car, food, clothing, pill, computer or cell phone, entertainment experience, etc. will satisfy our thrill-longing I honestly believe he would not change his conclusion about the transitory nature of thrills. When you realize the impact the instant-gratification desire has on individuals, especially today’s young people, you begin to understand why people so often complain, “I’m bored.” They are just waiting for the next thrill to come their way.

I will acknowledge that God has created us with the capacity for thrill and amazement; this is a good thing and a God-given gift. I think this is why the hymn writer could say:

“I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene…
How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be;
How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior’s love for me!”

("My Savior’s Love", Text and Music, Charles H. Gabriel)

Now that is the thrill of “amazing love.” The chorus of Chris Tomlin’s song “You Are My King” says:

Amazing love,
How can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love,
I know it’s true.
It’s my joy to honor You,
In all I do, I honor You.
("You Are My King", Chris Tomlin, Sixstepsrecords)

When we live in the wonder and amazement of God’s love we can allow “the thrill of the moment” to die and truthfully say “the thrill is gone.”

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=477 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:08:09 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=475 come to me!”
Now I have a somewhat checkered past with VBS. I have the unique distinction of being expelled from a Vacation Bible School in my childhood! I won’t share all the incriminating details but it has something to do with a bent plastic spoon and ice cream melting down a classroom wall. It also happened as a visitor at a Baptist VBS which causes me to wonder if this had anything to do with my decade-long pilgrimage as a pastor in the Southern Baptist denomination-LOL!

The interesting thing about Jesus’ words about children is that it comes in a larger context:

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

(Matthew 19:13-15, NRSV)

Don’t ever doubt the value of children’s ministry, as apparently Jesus’ disciples were guilty of doing. If they thought Jesus was too busy, or the children were of little value, they were dead wrong. Our children’s ministry director, Darci Warner, shared with me today that between three churches in our neighborhood conducting Vacation Bible School this week, over seven hundred children are hearing the good news of God’s love for them expressed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what Jesus is talking about to his disciples. Heck; that’s what I’m talking about too!

Yet there is more to it when Jesus says, “Come to me.” For you see that is not the only time Jesus used that phrase. Please consider that he also said:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

(Matthew 11:28-30, NRSV)

How about that? Jesus says that, as God’s children, we are also to, “Come to me!” Wow! We never get so old physically, or mature spiritually, that we outgrow the need to come to Jesus. And what are we to come for? Rest! Have you ever noticed how children seem to be able to go ninety-to-nothing right up until the moment when they conk out and fall asleep? Why is it, as adults, we seem to outgrow that capacity? When I was a campus minister I used to tell college students one of the most spiritual things that they could do as Jesus-followers was to take a nap.

When we become weary and our mania-load becomes burdensome, we need to steal a page from kindergarten students realizing that naptime can be a beautiful thing. Okay, perhaps not a physical nap, but the wonderful realization that, as God’s children, we are invited to allow his son to help shoulder our physical, emotional and spiritual pandemonium. So, the next time the fire-alarm goes off in your life, remember that Jesus has invited you, “come to me!”

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=475 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:53:34 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=474 never give in.

Brian O’Connor is coach of the University Of Virginia Cavaliers. He and I are also from the same hometown in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He is also married to the niece of my very close family friend. Brian played his collegiate baseball at Creighton University in Omaha playing in the 1991 CWS. After a brief stint in the Philadelphia Phillies farm system he became an assistant coach at the University of Notre Dame before becoming head coach at Virginia in 2003. He has taken his team to the NCAA tournament eight consecutive times including the College World Series in 2009 and now again this year. How his team “punched their ticket” in 2011 to get there was almost miraculous.

Virginia and the University of California-Irvine had the split the first two games in the best of three series. In the third game, played on their home field in Charlottesville, Virginia trailed the entire game. With two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the ninth it appeared the Cavaliers would be eliminated for the second straight year from going to Omaha. However, then it happened, because baseball is a game of twenty-seven outs. With Cal-Irvine just one out from the CWS the wheels came off the wagon.

A single, and infield single and a walk loaded the bases for UVA sophomore Chris Taylor who promptly delivered a two-RBI walk off single and Brian O’Connor’s team was going back to Omaha. To the uninitiated one might wonder how this could possibly happen. The late Winston Churchill knew; never, never, never, never give in! In a speech during the dark, early days of World War II he remarked to students at Harrow School:

“Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

(Sir Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, www.quotationspage.com)

This was actually a recurring theme during those war years that he sounded again and again to the beleaguered British people. In his famous “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech he made before the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom he extolled:

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the new world, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

(ibid.)

People with this kind of resiliency are hard to stop, as the University of California-Irvine discovered. In the darkest hour of a baseball game with only one-out to go O’Connor’s Cavaliers would not give in. Now they will play on college baseball’s largest stage at the new Ameritrade Stadium in Omaha. Believing that baseball can be a metaphor for life, even our spiritual lives, I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul to the church at Galatia:

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

(Galatians 6: 9-10, NRSV)

The temptation may come upon us on occasion to throw in the towel; to believe the odds against us are just too great. But both Paul and Sir Winston Churchill implore us not to grow weary; of the fight, of the game, or of life itself. No, let us never, never, never, never give in!

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=474 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:15:49 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=472 “swing and a miss!”
I thought of that comment just recently when May 21 came and went with no earthquakes in every time zone and no world-wide media coverage of the second coming of Christ. I made sure all my bases were covered spending that day with my family and some friends watching the St. Louis Cardinals play the Kansas City Royals; then eating at our favorite Mexican restaurant. If it was the end of the world, I wanted to go out doing things I enjoy with the people I love most.

Actually, I was somewhat skeptical of Harold Camping’s latest prediction (he also predicted Christ’s return in 1994). Although he claims not to be a trained Bible scholar or pastor, he is a mathematician with an analytical engineering background and a BS in civil engineering from UC Berkley. The 89 year-old is also a multi-millionaire ($120) and a fringe-radio evangelist who just happens to own sixty-six radio stations throughout the country, and whose network broadcasts reach as far as Nigeria. Using a myriad of formulas and calculations based upon the belief Christ died on April 1, 33 AD he came up with the number 722,500 days which, you guessed it, was May 21, 2011.

Billboards and bus stop ads began to pop up in places like Omaha, Nebraska last year. As the May date drew closer media attention began to build. When the day before the big prediction arrived people, both believers and skeptics, were talking about whether, “this was it!” Well, of course, the day came and went with no earthquakes and no second coming of Christ; “Swing and a miss!”

Now Harold Camping has revised his formula and moved the end of the world prediction forward to October 21, 2011. David Letterman commented recently on The Late Show, “If Camping is wrong one more time, I am going to quit sending him money!” In my mind part of the issue with his “rapture” (a word that just happens not to be in the Bible) prediction is because of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:36:

But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

(Matthew 24:36, NRSV)

Interestingly, Harold Camping totally disregards these words and prefers what the apostle Paul has to say in 1 Corinthians chapter two:

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually.

(1 Corinthians 2:10-14, NRSV)

Camping believes the SAVED can know because they are indwelt with God’s Spirit, and the wicked don’t have it so they can’t know. I can’t explain how he gets around Jesus not knowing in Matthew 24:36, but something tells me he probably has an explanation for that too.

I wonder, though, what Mr. Camping might say about the Bible’s take on people who make false predictions:

But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.’ You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?’ If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.

(Deuteronomy 18:20-22, NRSV)

In the case of Harold Camping’s May 21 prediction I believe Mr. Camping “spoke presumptuously; [so] do not be frightened.” “The thing [did] not take place or prove true,” therefore, we can truthfully say, “It [was] a word that the Lord has not spoken.” Swing and a miss!

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=472 Thu, 2 Jun 2011 16:23:17 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=470 make us one?Memorial Day, in and of itself, is a fascinating holiday. While many only see it as a kick off to summer, its original intent and purpose was a day set aside for America to remember its war dead. Waterloo, New York is credited as the "birthplace" of Memorial Day. It comes from a community celebration that started in the city on May 5, 1866. The day was originally known as Decoration Day and was a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. The name was changed to Memorial Day in 1882. The original date for Memorial Day was May 30. In 1971 it was moved to the last Monday in May.

To ensure the sacrifices of America’s fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed into law “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” P.L. 106-579, creating the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission’s charter is to “encourage the people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity” by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.

The National Moment of Remembrance encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3:00 pm local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation. As Moment of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: “It’s a way we can all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day.”

The local grocery ad states, “The national Moment of Remembrance, established by Congress, asks Americans wherever they are at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day to pause as an act of national unity… The time 3 p.m. was chosen because most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday. The moment does not replace the traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom. It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance we connect as Americans.”

(Super Saver ad in the Lincoln Journal Star, May 25, 2011)

How about that? Here is grocery store chain calling Americans to connect with the sacred and noble purpose of Memorial Day, as well as with one another. I don’t know about you, but I think that is pretty amazing and cool.
Here is something else that I think qualifies in the “amazing and cool” category: Jesus prayed for our unity as Christians so that we might be one. In his High Priestly prayer found in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John Jesus prays for you and me:

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

(John 17:20-23, NRSV)

That’s right; Jesus prayed for Christians, “that they all may be one.” Not only that, but he recognized our unity might be a witness to the world that God loves and sent his Son to make the ultimate sacrifice to save others from their sins. Talk about a sacred and noble purpose; Jesus recognized that our “spiritual freedom,” symbolized in our unity, could be salvific (a really big theological word that means “pertaining to redemptive power”).

This is beautifully represented in the Carol Cymbala chorus:

Make us one Lord, make us one;
Holy Spirit, make us one.
Let your love flow so the world will know
We are one in you.

(Make Us One, 1991 Word Music, Inc. and Carol Joy Music c/o Integrated Copyright Group)

This Memorial Day I encourage you to join me, as we enjoy our personal freedom, to stop, remember and reflect upon the sacred and noble purpose of this holiday along with other Americans in our community as a tangible demonstration of our national unity. I also strongly encourage you to reflect upon your spiritual freedom, remembering Jesus’ words, and ask God to make us one!

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=470 Wed, 25 May 2011 12:28:58 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=469 forever young.

It is not my attempt to seek and interpret or analyze the music, or career, of someone whom many refer to as “the voice of a generation.” By the way, Bob Dylan emphatically rejects that title and being reduced to such a simplistic characterization of both his life and voluminous body of work over five decades. Instead, I am fascinated in an iconic individual who at heart is, like me, a bit of an introvert and loner yet thrust onto the public stage.

Perhaps you do not know that Bob Dylan has toured endlessly since June 7, 1988 on what he has dubbed “the Never Ending Tour.” His touring schedule has not diminished with age as he performs around one hundred shows a year. Right before his seventieth birthday he recently performed his first-ever concerts in China and Viet Nam. Not bad for a guy who has been an AARP candidate for the past twenty years.

So, what is his secret? Well, actually I do not know and can only posit a theory. First, I believe Mr. Dylan doesn’t take himself quite as seriously as either his critics or fans. Until just recently he had a satellite radio program he dubbed Bob Dylan’s Old Time Theme Radio Hour. Each week he would play an eclectic set list interspersed with his dry, dead pan sense of humor that would leave my wife and me laughing and just shaking our heads. Secondly, because Dylan sees himself as an embodiment, or perhaps reincarnation of the old-time minstrel, this might be somewhat of an explanation of his “never ending tour.” Therein may lay a part of his fountain of youth. There is no finish line, so he just goes on to the next town with his songs and band to perform for a new audience. This can be enormously revitalizing for an individual’s spirit and soul.

Yet when it is all said and done, perhaps no one better than Bob Dylan can explain it for himself. My wife once shared with me that she chose the class song for her high school graduating class. She is the epitome of Dylan-esque when it comes to his music so I had an inkling who the artist might be long before she told me the title of the song, Forever Young. Interestingly, as another graduation season is upon us this spring, perhaps these lyrics might bring someone to your mind too:

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young

Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

(Copyright © 1973 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2001 by Ram’s Horn Music)

What a blessing and benediction to pronounce over a graduate, or an entire graduating class. In them, also, I believe we find a source of Bob Dylan’s inspiration and strength recognizing their source comes from the God he not only invokes, but has written and sung about from both his Jewish and Christian orientations. And let us not forget, Bob Dylan shares something in common with you and me:

[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

(Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV)

I wish Bob Dylan a happy seventieth birthday with the knowledge that we have all been created with eternity in our hearts and God is making everything beautiful in its time in our lives. Like Dylan, we too, are on a “never ending tour” where this life is not the finish line because, as he reminds us, in eternity we will be forever young!

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=469 Thu, 19 May 2011 16:48:19 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=468 love unconditionally.

Someone asked me recently if I felt special. At first I replied, “No,” but then stopped and considered my mom who raised me to think I am special. She called me Number One Son. Of course, I had no brothers, so it was probably good there wasn’t a competition! Bill Cosby has a comedy routine about his father where he and his brother, Russell, thought their names were “Dammit” and “Jesus Christ” because that’s what he’d say when he saw them. I can relate. My mom’s affectionate nickname for me was “D*mn Little … well you get the idea). I also knew I was really in trouble if she used all three of my names: “John Gilbert Lacey”)! It’s funny how some of those memories, and the sound of her voice in my mind, still linger to this day.

However, it was my Dad’s mom, my Grandma Lacey, who taught me the lesson of unconditional love. She lived and modeled it silently never putting on airs or getting on her soap box to proclaim it. She had four children (one that passed away in infancy), seven grandchildren (of which I am the oldest making me special again), and more great-grand kids than you could shake a stick at. Yet what always amazed me about Grandma was that whichever of her brood she was with they had her undivided attention; you just knew you were her favorite and that she loved YOU. I remember when I was going through an incredibly painful time in my life before she passed away she pulled my head close to hers and said, “Whoever hurts you, hurts me.” I will never forget that powerful lesson. She knew I was hurting, but I didn’t know her love for me was so great that she was actually hurting with me; not just for me. That is the power of unconditional love.

Several years ago I received a call from one of my son’s revealing a betrayal in one of his relationships. He was devastated by what had transpired but he wanted me to know. I said to him, “I am your father and you are my son; nothing can change that. There is nothing you can do to make me love you any more than I do right now and there is nothing you can do to cause me to love you any less. I love you unconditionally.” This was exactly what he needed to hear and he was able to recover and move on with his life.

They say the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree and I was simply attempting to practice with my son what my Grandma had taught me; love unconditionally. However, I know that lesson is most ultimately true in our relationship with the Heavenly Father who, in turn, loves us unconditionally too. The Bible says it like this:

But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

(Romans 5:8, NRSV)

So, to all you mothers, grandmothers, wives and women who are a blessing to others, on this occasion let me speak for those who might not mention it to you and thank you when you love unconditionally.

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=468 Thu, 5 May 2011 17:01:49 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=467 it’s empty!

Of course, I am was somewhat facetious. However, as soon as I said this my wife said, “That sounds like a blog waiting to happen.” By the way, I am married to a very smart lady. As I pondered her comment I suddenly realized that, in fact, I had spoken a metaphor of the meaning of Easter.

God’s Son, our Savior, paid the price of our redemption in his death on the cross. As the chorus reminds us:

He paid a debt he did not owe
I owed a debt I could not pay
I needed someone to take my sin away
And now I sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.

The apostle Peter said it this way:

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit (I Peter 3:18).

When it was all said and done and Mary went to the tomb that first Easter Sunday morning she found the tomb empty. She reported to the disciples and Peter and John, in turn, witnessed the same vacancy where three days earlier their Master had been buried.

Two thousand years later we proclaim
“He is risen.
He is risen indeed!”

Because we celebrate both his resurrection and our salvation at Easter perhaps we, too should take a peak in that empty tomb and joyfully proclaim it’s empty!

Happy Easter and stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=467 Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:50:10 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=466 where was God?
When I settled on the title for this week’s blog, I used the Google search engine to browse and do some research. What I found was fascinating, to say the least. This question was asked after 9/11. It was also posited after the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 and again in August 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People asked about God’s whereabouts in December 2009 after the devastation of the Indonesian tsunami and as recently as last year’s Haitian earthquake. As Nancy Gibbs wrote for Time magazine after Katrina, “Somehow human nature, even at its most disturbing, is less scary than Mother Nature at her most murderously cavalier, (tens of) thousands dead in a single deep breath” (Nancy Gibbs, “Where was God?” Time, September 15, 2005).

When tragedy befalls humanity, especially from forces of nature, it is hard for many people to reconcile how a God who is all-good and all-powerful can allow such suffering. As T. B. Matson asks in his book on biblical ethics, “Since the God revealed in the Bible is a moral Being and also the sovereign God of the universe, how can suffering of the innocent be explained?” (T. B. Matson, Biblical Ethics, Mercer University Press, 1967).

Pastor-author Timothy Keller, in his book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism notes, “…the problem of tragedy, suffering, and injustice is a problem for everyone. It is at least as big a problem for nonbelief in God as for belief. It is therefore a mistake, though an understandable one, to think that if you abandon belief in God it somehow makes the problem of evil easier to handle” (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Riverhead Books, 2008).

C. S. Lewis understood this to be the case. He recognized many, if not most, modern objections to God are based on a sense of fair play and justice. Keller notes, “People, we believe, ought not to suffer, be excluded, die of hunger or oppression. But the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection depends on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak-these things are all perfectly natural” (ibid.). We assume that the world is filled with pointless evil, but hidden within that premise is the idea that if evil appears pointless to me, well then, it must be pointless. This is an enormous belief in one’s own cognitive faculties according to Keller. “Could it be possible, from God’s vantage point, there are good reasons for [pain and suffering]?” The Book of Job seems to suggest the mystery of this possibility.

Lewis understood pain and suffering to be God’s megaphone. He wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (Richard Wagner, C. S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2005). Three principles arise from this: 1) pain (suffering) reveals everything isn’t “fine,” 2) it shatters the concept of self-sufficiency, and 3) it teaches us to self-surrender. Lewis noted, “Nothing confirms the Christian view of this world so much as the treasures of patience and unselfishness one sees elicited from quite commonplace people when the trial really comes (Wagner). Haven’t we seen this on our television screens as the Japanese people embody the patience and unselfishness Lewis talks about yet from the very different faith traditions of Shinto and Buddhism, and the culture of secularism?

Gibbs notes in her Time article you can predict after the initial shock of a disaster passes the question invariably arises why God lets this stuff happen. Survivors claim God saved them so she asks, “…but if he chose to save the living, did he choose to kill the lost?...With the deepest sympathy for those who are suffering, you still have to wonder why this debate erupts so violently every time the winds howl and hurl water …their way; God whispers as well as shouts, and mystery comes in all sizes. (Gibbs).

Maybe we are asking the wrong questions. Instead of wondering, “Where was God?” or “What is God trying to say?” we should ask, ‘”What does God want us to do?” After Hurricane Katrina evangelist Billy Graham called it, “perhaps the worst tragedy America has known since the Civil War.” The same kind of comparison is being made between Japan’s perfect storm of the earthquake-tsunami-radiation event and the horrific Hiroshima-Nagasaki conclusion to World War 2. Yet Graham went on to say, “It may be the greatest opportunity to demonstrate God’s love in this generation” (Gibbs).

It reminds me of a cartoon I saw with two turtles discussing ethics. The first one says, “Sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it.” The other turtle says, “I’m afraid God might ask me the same question.”

The apostle Paul tells us the Lord, “is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NIV). Because Jesus said that when we do things for the least we do it unto him, perhaps there is some mysterious divine purpose in human suffering that we do not fully understand, and it is not pointless. In the midst of the unimaginable suffering and devastation Japan is experiencing and enduring let us find creative ways to be the humane answer to the question where was God?

Stay tuned,

John
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=466 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:20:42 -0500 http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=465 spring training.
Spring training is a ritual of winter that reminds baseball fans that spring and baseball are soon to return. Teams make their annual sojourns to Florida and Arizona and begin their preparations in earnest for another season. Optimism abounds as each team begins the season undefeated and fans dream of their team playing in the fall classic, the October World Series championship.

Some have asked, “Is spring training a waste of time?” Here are a couple takes on that question:

"It's the fans that need Spring Training. You gotta get 'em interested. Wake 'em up and let 'em know that their season is coming, the good times are gonna roll."
-- Harry Caray

"People who write about Spring Training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball."
-- Sandy Koufax

(http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081218&content_id=3721545&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb)

As I await opening day for the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals season (20 days 22 hours 53 minutes 15 seconds and counting) the “boys of summer” are in preparations practicing and playing. And it is this interim that has me thinking about another season of preparation; the season of Lent.

I must admit that until yesterday (Ash Wednesday) I had never really considered how Lent and spring training have similarities. There are forty days in the Lenten season plus six Sundays. For many teams there are forty days of spring training, plus pitchers and catchers report six days before position players. Coincidence? Probably, but as I like to say, “Everything counts in baseball!”

Christians spend Lent disciplining and preparing their lives for the hope and glory of Easter. Baseball players, during spring training, discipline themselves bringing their hope to a new season and the glory it potentially holds.

Yes, the countdown to opening day and Easter are both in motion. During this Lenten season let our hope spring eternal because it is spring training.


Stay tuned,

Rev. Baseball (aka. John)
]]> General http://stmarks.org/blogs/pastorJohn.phpindex.php?itemid=465 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:01:23 -0600