Thursday Thoughts (12/15/16)

In a week, our whole world can change. Well, that is not quite right, but that is how it sort of feels. In fact, it didn’t even take a week. Sunday, we got the call to come to the hospital because they didn’t think Dad would make it through the night. Of course, when things seem bleak everything else will seem to go wrong. The normally 2-hour drive to mom’s home took 3.5 hours, due to snow. Then the 4o minute drive to the Hospital took 1.5 hours. In our hearts, we all feared that we were too late.

But dad was still with us. We held his hand, shed some tears, and I told him that he was a great dad and that I loved him. He teared up as Dad always would. Then we downloaded some hymns on my cell phone so he could listen to his favorite music. As we listened to Amazing Grace his mouth formed the words, “I now am Found”. When, Great is thy Faithfulness, played he mouthed a few words, raised his left hand as high as it would go, and then he became relaxed and quiet. The first time this happened in 3 weeks.

Dad was on heavy flow oxygen, but never moved after that moment, around 11:00pm. Monday morning at 10:45 we asked the doctor if they could reduce the oxygen, as we knew Dad was going to hospice and would need to have it reduced for the transport (our fear was he would pass in the ambulance without us around). The Doctor agreed and they lowered the Oxygen to a normal flow---Dad was gone. Just that fast. Perhaps it is wishful thinking, perhaps it is intuition, but we believe Dad raised his arm and then embraced his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We shed tears together, embraced, prayed, and left the hospital to drive home. I am reminded that everyday people make this same journey. They leave a hospital and their loved one is gone. Mom asked why does it have to hurt so much. It is one of rhetorical questions we ask at times like this. However, it is important to know the answer.

The Son of God came to earth, and took for himself human flesh. He became God-man. He who knew no sin, could not suffer, could not die, became human so that he could suffer and die for our sin. Being a Christian does not pull us away from our humanity, it draws us into his divinity. We suffer, because the world suffers, and we can never forget this truth. What is different is how we suffer. 

Though we suffer for a short time, we have hope in Christ Jesus. One day he will return and suffering, sin, injustice, prejudice, and all other calamity will cease. For now, those who believe continue to participate in this broken world. I hope I never forget what it is to suffer loss, so that I am able to embrace those who are suffering. I hope I never stop offering the Love of Christ Jesus, so that those who suffer can know his divine love.

Just a thought the day before dad’s funeral.

“Those who believe in me will never die!” – Jesus

For the believer, we pass from life to life, Amen.

Thursday Thoughts (12/8/16)

For many days now I have sat in the hospital with my mom, and other family members. We have ridden on the roller coaster of emotion as we have watch my father struggle through many battles with his health, not the least of which is cancer. Each moment we hope for the best, praying for miracles, while trusting the Lord’s decisions for his life. Dad, at least, is not in any pain, but it is hard to watch such a strong man become so weak and tired. He is strong in spirit and continues to do all he can, even when he goes through physical therapy for a swallowing issue.

As I work on a final exam for my master’s class, a woman of 75ish sat down with a younger woman (perhaps a daughter). The younger woman told her that if the patient (they were visiting) didn’t have surgery, the hospital would call hospice and she would die. If they did the surgery it would prolong her life, but it would eventually come back. The older woman began to weep.

I began to think of how suffering and death is bitter. There is nothing pleasurable or joyous about sickness, injustice, hatred, or any number of ugly things like death. It is interesting how we go through life with little thought of suffering and death, until it jumps out at us. It is like being home alone. We never think of the monster under the bed, until we get ready to turn the lights off. I think it is sort of like that with death.

In the early church, they often thought of death as the undoing or unmaking of what God had created. It was a destroyer of that which was created good. It is an enemy to all of God’s creation. We often think of seeds as dying, and some might argue that death was a part of God’s plan. I am not convinced. A seed may technically die, but only so it may become something more, so that it can become what it was created to be, a flower, or a tree.

Then, I started thinking about Jesus. He was the first human that was created for the purpose of dying. He was like a seed. He suffered, died, was buried, and he arose from the dead. He became the perfect human and perfect God. Through his great sacrifice he made away for us to be seeds that fall from the Tree of Life. Jesus is the tree, and yes just like him we will suffer and we will die. Then, just like him, we will be raised imperishable. We will be what we were created to be. But, none of this can happen without Faith in Him.

I wish it was enough to just believe that he is the Son of God and that he died for my sin and has forgiven me. But true faith reveals itself in responding to the Gift of God in daily obedience. Like a seed, I am in the process of dying. Dying to myself. As I decrease, he will increase in my life. When this seed falls to the ground, is covered by the earth, a day will come when the Son will rise, and he will come to reap what he has sown. Then I shall live, like I have never lived before. Rest well, ye servants of the Lord, your King is coming.

Just a thought.

Thursday Thoughts (11/17/2016)

It has been over a week since the election and sadly the rhetoric has not ceased. I saw a picture of Hillary Clinton walking her dog and I felt sad for her. She has spent most her life working to achieve the highest place of government, the presidency. I began to wonder why I would even care. So what, somebody had to lose. I guess, it is the same as how I felt bad for those Cleveland fans when their team came so close to achieving their dream only to lose in extra innings. In that case I was cheering for the Cubbies, but I couldn’t help but think of those fans who went home a little sad.

I began thinking about Jesus. He came to Israel and saw all kinds of marginalized people. He saw the poor being neglected by the church of his day. He saw women pushed to the edges as little more than property. He saw seniors who lost their husbands being exploited for financial gain. He saw foreigners excluded from worship so that trade could increase at the temple. The Pharisees pointed out everyone’s flaws, laid more and more laws on the back of the people, but were doing nothing to relieve their suffering. But what did it matter, there will always be winners and losers, haves and have nots.

It must have mattered. Jesus turned to a woman with a bleeding disorder (a social and religious outcast) and commended her for her faith. He then turned to Jarius and told him to have faith, yeah, like that woman. Then Jesus healed his daughter…oh yeah, another property item of this period. Jesus elevated the poor as he was one of them. He was homeless and depended on the kindness of others to feed him. When picking grain in a field (the government subsidy) the Pharisees ridiculed his disciples (also homeless) for working on the Sabbath…Really!

One day Jesus came to the temple and the Gentile court (where the aliens worshipped) was filled with vendors. Jesus got very upset, he flipped tables, grabbed a whip and turned them all out, not the aliens the guys more concerned about making a buck. Jesus welcomed the outsiders into the very presence of God. The people the world hated (by action and attitude) were the people that God loved. One day when Jesus was heading back into Jerusalem, where he would be tried and handed over for execution, he wept over the people. Yes, the very people who were going to demand his death.

Jesus is the living image of God right before humanities eyes and they hated him because he loved the loser, the have nots, the aliens, and the sinners. That doesn’t mean he wanted them to stay that way. They became winners in God’s kingdom, the became haves because he was giving them the kingdom, they were residents because they believed in him, and they were saved because he forgave them of their sin and empowered them to live as citizens of God’s kingdom. Changes took place in their lives, but it was because he loved them, not because he ridiculed them.

The Body of Christ is to be the physical manifestation of Jesus still living in this world. Yet, some in the “church” still marginalize women, the poor, the alien, and the sinner. Then I get sad again. What if Jesus was like the portrait of some of the church we see today. Would he welcome me even though I am a failure? Would he actually die for me? Would he tell me I am lazy and sponging off others because I couldn’t afford to pay for my own salvation? Would he build a blockade to keep me out of his blessed promised land? Would he love me less because I couldn’t memorize enough scripture, or I missed church, or worse yet I was the wrong gender or color?

Jesus, you showed us that women were of the utmost importance. You showed us that the Gospel came through God and a woman, hmm, man kind of got left out on that one. Women were the evangelists that ran to men to tell them you were alive. This didn’t make them greater it made them equal. The alien was so important to you that you sent Phillip out into the wilderness to share your message with an Ethiopian (a man of color). Women preached in the house churches that sprang up all over the empire. You ate with sinners, prostitutes, and redeemed a criminal on the cross.

I am sorry that I have ever thought any of this world was mine. For all good things are gifts from our Heavenly Creator. You have shared all these things with humanity and we have taken ownership instead of stewardship. One day every nation will crumble in your presence and there will be one people and all our petty distinctions will pass from our thoughts and vocabulary. There will be no label of man or woman, Jew or Greek, rich or poor, free or slave, white or black, citizen or alien, this is your image of the church. Until that image is fulfilled, help me Lord Jesus to live in your kingdom and reveal its beauty and joy to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Help me to live in such a manner that the world would see who and what you are.

Just a thought.