Healing Rays of Righteousness

Living In God’s Time

This weekend we will perform the annual Autumn ritual of turning our clocks back one hour.  When “Daylight Savings Time” went into effect in 1967, a lot of people refused to change the time on their clocks, saying that the government had no business messing with God’s time.  Whether or not you agree with that sentiment, it is correct to link time with God.

God Created Time                                                                                                                                                    The first chapter of Genesis tells us that God created a framework of days and seasons into which he placed his created works. Then he created man and placed him in time as a subject of time to live in time, caring for and enjoying all of God’s creations.

Soon thereafter, Satan entered time, tempted mankind to disobey God and sin entered time.  God immediately began working within time to mold and shape for himself a people who would experience his intended purposes of time.

The Old Testament closes with time narrowly focused on the family of David and the promise of a redeemer coming in that lineage who would perfectly accomplish God’s work of reconciling and restoring mankind’s relationship with himself.

God Prepared Time For His Son                                                                                                                        Between the testaments God was silent but not inactive.  The Greek people came to prominence and took over that part of the world known today as the Holy Land.  They developed a language that by the time Jesus Christ was born was as close to a universal language as mankind had known since the early times of Genesis.

Then the Romans came to power and they developed a road system that enabled the Apostle Paul to travel over the world sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and planting churches wherever he went.  God was actively working in time, molding time, shaping time for his Son’s redeeming work.   

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” (Galatians 4:4-5).

And this Son, Jesus, “went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.  ‘The time has come,’ he said.  ‘The kingdom of God has come near.  Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:15).

During his time on earth, Jesus ministered to many people – healing without medicine, teaching by the wayside, saying repeatedly to his followers, “My time has not yet come.”  The authorities would attack him severely, and he would say to his disciples, “Don’t worry, my time has not yet come.  They can’t take me until my time comes.” 

When his time did come, he prays, “Father, the time has come.  Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”  In that set time, his enemies nailed him to a cross, stretched out in time above the darkened earth, so that his redeeming purpose of providing redemption for all mankind might be accomplished.

And so, all of us, should focus backwards to a very narrow frame of time on a small hill called Golgotha where a man named Jesus, the Son of God, fulfills his time and accomplishes his work in making salvation time available for all of us.

What Are We Doing With Time?                                                                                                                 God created time and gives it to us as a gift.  What we do with that gift greatly and directly shapes our eternal destiny of DAY or NIGHT.  The Scriptures urgently invite us to seriously consider how we our living in God’s time:  “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

The Greeks had two slogans posted over the temple at Delphi.  One is very familiar to us.  It said, “Know Thyself.”  The other is much more significant for us, living as we do in a narcissistic culture.  It said, “Know Thy Moment.”  It is also more biblical.

Jesus chided the Pharisees for their blindness to the “signs of the times.” (Matthew 16:1-3).  Jesus wept over Jerusalem “because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”  (Luke 19:41-44).  To know what time it is and to be appropriately obedient to God within the context of that knowledge assures us a future in God’s Kingdom of eternal love.

God Will Someday End Time                                                                                                                       God who created time and worked in time and sent his Son in the fullness of time is going to someday say, “Time’s up, that’s it, there is no more time.”

We can throw away our watches, datebooks, calendars, and time-clocks.  There won’t be any such thing as time in heaven.  We won’t need to worry about being on time, saving time, keeping time, changing time, or wasting time.  What follows is our timely prior choice of eternal destiny as DAY or NIGHT.

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – October 31, 2018

How Is Christian Love Made Visible?

Read 1 Corinthians 13

One of the major misconceptions in today’s culture centers upon the definition of love.  Many people tend to define love according to psychological dispositions and sensual appetites.  People “fall in love,” a person might have a “lover,” or a couple might “make love.”  These fallacies are ultimately rooted in an egotistical understanding of how love satisfies the self.

Building on what I said in last week’s blog, I am convinced that Christian “agape” love is not a special gift which some Christians have and others do not.  But rather, Christian love is the indispensable requirement and expectation for all followers of Jesus Christ.

In his first letter, the apostle John stated plainly that the one sure way of knowing whether a person was really a Christian was whether he/she loved others (4:7-8) – “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

A few verses later, 16b and 19-20, John summarizes this theme – “God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  …We love because he first loved us.  Whoever claims to love God yet hates his brother or sister is a liar.  For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

But how do I know what is the character and behavior of this Christ-like love?  The apostle Paul answers that question by making it very clear in 1 Corinthians 13, that real love does not seek to satisfy selfish gratifications or to fulfill personal ambitions.  Instead, it is made visible by actions of enduring kindness toward others and is motivated by a righteous zeal for truth.

In this chapter, Paul describes how Christian love thinks and behaves toward others – all others.  For Paul, love is much more than cozy sentimental feelings, but rather is at the motivational core of clearly defined behaviors.

In verses 1 to 3, Paul sets love above all virtuous abilities and actions as “the most excellent way.”  Then in verses 4-7 he lists the visible ingredients of Christian love.

First, this love is “patient …kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast.”   It is said that jealousy is the most subtle of all demons.  It’s the first feeling we learn to disguise quite well.

Second, this love “is not proud … is not rude.”  An Englishman once said, “You can tell a true gentleman, not by how he behaves in the presence of his king, but by how he behaves in the presence of his maid servant.”  It is how we behave in the presence of those we think are inferior to us that shows what we really are in character.

Third, this love “is not self-seeking … easily angered …keeps no record of wrongs.”  Unfortunately, we humans are quick to keep score.  We save up our negative feelings and at an opportune time we let go with an outburst of retaliation and getting even.  Paul is saying that Christians do not store up negative feelings.  Rather, they forgive and forget the past act, the hurt feelings.

Finally, this love “does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.”  The Jerusalem Bible reads, “Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins.   …It is always ready to excuse.”  I’m fairly certain, that we all know the secret delight we get from someone else’s sin.  It’s so easy, so human, to look at other’s wrongdoings and feel a little less wicked by comparison.

But love also knows that we sometimes fail each other.  And when that happens, there’s only one healing, reconciling remedy – that is, to forgive.  To offer and receive forgiveness is a special, sacrificial form of love.  And so, this love “always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Paul then tells the Christians in Corinth, who were so enamored with spiritual gifts, that love is the supreme gift, the most important, the greatest thing in all the world, for it is the only gift, the only thing that will last forever – even into eternity.  All other gifts come to an end, but “Love never fails – love never ends.”

I hear the apostle Paul emphatically and unwaveringly declaring Christian “agape” love to be the greatest gift of all, and that to exercise this gift in all our relationships with others is “the most excellent way” to live in our churches and communities all day, every day.

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – October 24, 2018

Jesus’ Command to Love

Read John 13:34-35 and Matthew 22:36-40

In our American culture, the word “love” is broadly used in reference to intimate sexual romance (eros), to close family, church, community friendships (phileo); or to what foods or things we enjoy.  The Greek language was much richer, offering three different words to define “love,” making it a much less nebulous concept – eros, phileo, agape.

Jesus chooses the Greek word “agape” in the scriptures noted above, to define the love that his disciples are to have for one another; a love that is habitually unconditional, sacrificial, service oriented and outwardly focused.

The reality of “agape” love is that it rises above the fickle nature of feelings and is, instead, much more an act of the will.  Choosing to love with “agape” love often means doing hard things such as forgiving, returning good for evil, serving and denying one’s own desires in providing for the needs of another.

It was after Jesus had eaten his last meal with his disciples, and after he had washed their feet and told them he would soon be leaving them, that he instructed them in regards to their continuing relationships with one another; “A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35).

A few days earlier, one of the Pharisees, an expert in the law, tested Jesus with this question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus said that there are two commandments that top the list.  The first and greatest commandment is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  … And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”  He then added, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40).

Throughout his three-year teaching, healing ministry, Jesus consistently spoke of the need to love God and others, and he daily modeled that compassionate, sacrificial love to his disciples and followers.  And now, just a few hours before his arrest and crucifixion, he restates, as a command, their need to love each other — no exceptions, no excuses, and no conditions.

And just in case they may think about trivializing the meaning of love, he raises the bar to its highest level and gives them a very challenging definition of “agape” love: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” 

In other words, the measure of love we share with others must reflect nothing less than the measure of love we have been given by God through Jesus. What has come to us from God must appropriately flow through us to all others!

Also, our acts of loving all others will be what sets us apart from the world and authenticates our declaration of being a Christian.  ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  The only distinguishing mark ever given in Scripture regarding who is a Christian is their ability to love in the same manner as Jesus loves.

Harry Stack Sullivan writes in his book, Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry, “When the satisfaction, security, and development of another person become as significant to you as your own satisfaction, security, and development, love exists.”  This is a good definition of Christian love.

In his devotional book, A Daily Walk Through Romans, Myron Augsburger comments on 12:9, saying, “There is a cost in love, for when you love someone, their experience is shared with you, their problems become your problems.  Love is far deeper than tolerance; it calls for repentance while tolerance doesn’t require change.  Love does not select.  Love shares totally with the person.  When we love we identify honestly, openly, fully.  Paul states his admonition simply but profoundly: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.”

Josh McDowell writes in the August, 1999, issue of Focus on the Family Magazine:  Tolerance says, ‘You must approve of what I do.’  Love responds, ‘I must do something harder: I will love you, even when your behavior offends me.’  Tolerance says, ‘You must agree with me.’  Love responds, ‘I must do something harder: I will tell you the truth, because I am convinced the truth will set you free.’  Tolerance says, ‘You must allow me to have my way.’  Love responds, ‘I must do something harder: I will plead with you to follow the right way, because I believe you are worth the risk.’  Tolerance seeks to be inoffensive; love takes risks.  Tolerance glorifies division; love seeks unity. Tolerance costs nothing; love costs everything.”

For Jesus, Paul and the other apostles, followers of Jesus will daily live a lifestyle of loving others.  Love is to be at the core of our relationships with fellow believers, and at the same time it determines our attitude and behavior towards all people, including enemies.  Love is the only identification we carry, authenticating our claim of being Christian.

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – October 17, 2018

Reclaiming Human Dignity

Human dignity has become a disposable commodity these days, and is under threat of extinction as we rush toward a culture of selfish individualism and gratification.  When it comes to affirming and protecting the dignity of others, our society is strong in vocal advocating for same, but extremely weak in practice.  Increasingly, more and more people find it easy and acceptable to cruelly “trash” those we don’t like or who disagree with us.

Our political campaigns and disputes have deteriorated into sickening trash talking about opponents, and are no longer a way to learn truthful facts about a person’s life and beliefs.  Unfortunately, this childish and prejudiced name-calling has become the character of our American culture, and encouraged by our top government leaders.  Shame, shame, shame!

What is the origin of our human dignity and why does it demand our respect?  In the biblical record of Jeremiah, God is about to send Jeremiah as a prophet into a culture that had lost all reverence for human life.  They were corrupting themselves with the most flagrant disregard for human dignity.  To encourage and commission Jeremiah as his prophet, God says to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  (Jeremiah 1:5)

“I formed you in the womb” – Our earthbound little minds imagine conception as only a biological event.  Yet this verse forces us to think again about the origin and dignity of human life.  If God, as sovereign Creator, is present in the process of human conception, then the value of human life takes on the highest expectations of eternal relationship with God.

I think that the extent and weight of our glory as humans comes through these words to Jeremiah.  We are truly greater and infinitely more than just biological children of humankind.

The Psalmist knows this to be true and praises God, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13-14).

But, there is more.  Listen carefully to what God said to Jeremiah. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”  I hear God saying that our conception and birth is not our real beginning, nor will our death be the end.

Wow!  What a mind-boggling thought for us to ponder.  Before the day and moment of your conception, God knew you.  God dignified you by calling you into existence.  God names you in his mind and dignifies you with purpose and plan.

This is so amazing.  Let this thought infuse you with dignity.  Before your mother lovingly cradled you in her arms, God wrapped his greater arms around you and held you fast in a purpose designed especially for you.

The psalmist continues in verses 16-17, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts, God!  How vast is the sum of them!”  And so, whether you choose to believe it or not,  God dignified your personhood before your first heartbeat and continues to dignify you forever.

But this is the reality kicker.  What God did in bringing you into existence, he did for every human being on this earth.  I repeat – What God did in bringing you into existence, he did for every human being on this earth.  We must let this truth permeate our whole being, and even into the deepest recesses of mind and heart.

Because, if we do not keep this perspective of human dignity before us, it becomes easy to debate and decide about others on the basis of their usefulness to us, and whether we like them or not.

Yes, it is true that many people do not live up to the dignity God instilled in them at their birth.  Many do not live up to God’s purpose and plan, nor even to their potential.  There are many reasons for such failure, but probably the most sad is when the cause is because the person did not receive the affirmation, dignity and respect needed to experience wholesome personhood.

In my many years of experience as pastor and chaplain, I have discovered that there are many, many individuals in our communities, churches, and workplaces, who struggle with low self-esteem and suffer a starving sense of worthlessness and of little value in their world.

It has also been my joy to see the lives of many of these same persons being transformed as we worked at creating a healing environment that dignified their personhood and treated them with respect as uniquely gifted persons of great worth.  Every human being needs to have their personhood dignified and respected in order to experience abundant living.

And, I am convinced that our communities, nation, and world can be transformed in like manner if we all could agree to reclaim God’s gifting of human dignity; and individually commit ourselves to dignifying the personhood of all others regardless of their race, religion, politic, or nationality – even as our creator God does.  May God help us in doing so!

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – October 10, 2018

Stretch Out Your Hand

Read Mark 3:1-6

I believe this story can be appreciated and understood as being much more than simply another miracle event.  I believe Jesus saw in this particular situation, during his visit to the synagogue, an excellent teaching opportunity for his disciples, as well as challenging his religious critics.

In contrast to the man with leprosy who came to Jesus and “…begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean”(Mk. 1:40);  or blind Bartimaeus who shouted to Jesus as he walked by, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me” (Mk. 10:47);  this man, with his shriveled hand, was just there, in the synagogue, the place of worship.  He wasn’t there begging or shouting for healing.  He was there to learn of God and worship him.

This causes me to believe that the writer, Mark, would have us understand that Jesus saw and seized the opportunity not only to heal the man’s shriveled hand, but also to teach an important truth about the Christian lifestyle of appropriately caring for others, wherever they may be and on whatever day it may be.

The first level of teaching is very evident.  Jesus had the man to “stand up in front of everyone.”  It is “show and tell” time to discuss the question, when is it appropriate to respond to human need?  When is it the right time “to do good, … to save life?”  When is it “lawful” to serve others?

Jesus angrily looked around at his critics’ stubborn silence and responded with a dramatic teaching moment.  Deeply distressed, Jesus acted out the Kingdom lesson he wanted to teach.  He had the man stand up in front of everyone and stretch out his shriveled hand so that everyone could see it, then he miraculously and completely restored it.

The lesson we are to hear, is this;  – that God’s so amazing grace in loving us demands we respond in healing ways to human need whenever and wherever the need presents itself, – and that religion without love is a most ugly thing in the world.

Throughout his ministry on earth, Jesus taught and modeled this lifestyle of providing for the needs of others as a basic principle of daily Christian living, and the way of doing business.

The second level of teaching may not be as apparent, but I think it is also seen in this story.  The shriveled, withered hand was “completely restored” when the man obeyed Jesus’ command to “Stretch out your hand.”

Today we know that there is substantial non-biblical evidence from studies of human nature, that persons who keep their hands close to themselves, selfishly clutching their accumulated treasures and divinely endowed abilities and skills, soon experience a withering of their spirit and a shriveling of their lives in every way, spiritually, socially, and physically.  They soon become fearful, unhappy, handicapped and useless in society.

Furthermore, I believe these same studies would confirm the biblical story of complete healing and restoration happens whenever we obey Jesus’ command to:

• love one another as I have loved you.
• love your neighbor as yourself.
• be a servant in serving the needs of others.
• do good deeds to all, even your enemies.

The cure for a shriveled life remains the same today as in Jesus’ day, “Stretch out your hand” in helping others toward wholeness.  For when we do, we also find healing for ourselves.

The truth is that we don’t have to obey Jesus’ command to “Stretch out your hand.”  We don’t have to love our neighbor; we don’t have to share what God has given us; we don’t have to feed the hungry, care for the sick and feeble, and be a friend to the lonely and dying.  We don’t have to be kind, compassionate, and considerate of the needs of others.

We don’t have to do any of these things, but we get to do them as a privilege to love and serve God by responding to the needs of others.  Our love for God because of what he has done for us, transforms our life from selfish grabbing to generous giving, and our work from dutiful labor to joyous privilege.

My Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition has always included an ethos of service to people in need and suffering, of stretching out our hands in helping others.  And my prayer is that the life energy of every church and community would flow from that same healing fountain of Christian compassion and concern for others, in spite of the challenges and difficulties we may encounter in doing so.  Shalom!

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – October 3, 2018