The Devil's Poker Match

After God finished creating the world, the devil challenged him to a poker match.  He proposed that they gamble for control of each of the seven days of the week.  Even though everyone knows that the devil cheats at poker, the Lord agreed to the challenge.  When they sat down at the poker table, the devil easily won the first hand.  One day of the week now belonged to him.  The angels gathered in the room began to get nervous.  The second hand, the third hand…before they knew it, the devil won six hands of poker, and only one day of the week remained up for grabs.  When it came to lay down their card for the last hand, God showed a royal flush and won the seventh and final day.  The angels, of course, were beside themselves with worry.  “Lord, why did you let the devil do this to you?  Your one day is nowhere near enough to counter the devil’s influence over the other six days of the week!”  God simply smiled at his angelic servants and replied, “Oh, one day a week is plenty for me.  If my people spend that one day enjoying my presence, they will want to be follow me the other six days as well.  Nothing the devil offers can compete with that.”

The Sabbath – the one day of the week that belongs to God – provides us with the opportunity to enjoy God.  Some of us remember the days of generations past when the Sabbath meant going to church in the morning, and then sitting inside wearing uncomfortable clothes the rest of the day, not allowed to play or do anything fun.  Hardly the way for youngsters to enjoy God!  The Lord designed the Sabbath as a day for us to enjoy the presence of God together as a congregation in the morning, and then to enjoy him individually or as families for the rest of the day.  When you plan your Sabbath activities, consider what you can do that will draw you closer to the Lord.  Ideally, you should celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday so that you can share it with your brothers and sisters in Christ in worship.  But if, like me, you have to work on Sundays, select another day of the week to enjoy God.

In Deuteronomy’s version of the Ten Commandments, the command to keep the Sabbath refers to the Israelites’ time of bondage in Egypt: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:13).  The Sabbath is a day of freedom that releases us from the bondage of our daily lives.  Perhaps for you, the other six days of the week are a rat race full of pressure, or a dreary routine of chores that never seem to end.  Maybe they are days of loneliness, frustration, and conflict.  Remember that these are the days that the devil won in the poker match, and this is the best that he has to offer.  Just as the Lord parted the Red Sea to release the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, he sends us one day every week to free us from our bondage to the worries and struggles of the other six days.  It’s up to us, then to decide to bring the devilish cares of the week into our Sabbath, or to carry the Lord’s blessing and presence with us through the rest of the week. 

It's Good to Be a Hypocrite

Halloween is approaching, and that means it will soon be time for us to put on our masks.  At Halloween, we pretend to be someone that we aren’t: anyone from an astronauts or nurse to a vampire or witch.  It’s all in fun, of course.  When the trick-or-treaters show up at the door, we all know that Jason isn’t really a cowboy.  At the office or school party, everyone understands that Irene hasn’t actually become a werewolf.

As we think about Halloween masks, let’s also consider a different kind of mask that we wear the other 364 days of the year.  We have masks that we wear to pretend that we’re someone or something that we aren’t, and we hope the people around us will believe that the mask is the real us.  We have a name for people who try to convince others they’re something that they’re not: hypocrites.

Church-goers are often accused of being hypocrites.  In particular, we face the charge that we’re pretending to be better than other people.  Far too often, it’s true.  Christians have earned a reputation for being hypocrites when we point out the faults of others, while failing to notice our own shortcomings.  In another sense, however, going to church and professing to be a Christian can be the most honest statement you ever make about yourself.  As the late Christian songwriter Rich Mullins put it, “I never knew why going to church made you a hypocrite, because nobody goes to church because they're perfect. If you've got it all together, you don't need to go. You can go jogging with all the other perfect people on Sunday morning.  Every time you go to church, you're confessing again that you don't have it all together. And that you need their support. You need their direction. You need some accountability, you need some help.”

Believe it or not, however, we should all aspire to be hypocrites.  We can do something valuable when we pretend to be someone different.  When we slip on the mask – and know what we are doing when we do so – over time, we start to become more like the person we are pretending to be.  As the common phrase puts it, “Fake it ‘til you make it.”

For example, are you struggling to love your spouse?  Ask yourself, “If I did love him/her, what would I do?”  Once you answer the question, start doing those things.  In other words, put on the mask of being a loving husband or wife.  Over time, the mask will reshape you into exactly that

The most important hypocrite of all is the person who tries to be like Jesus.  Paul wanted the Christians in Rome to be hypocrites when he told them to “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (13:14): he wanted them to put on a Jesus-mask.  (He goes into a bit more detail in Colossians 3:12-14, as he describes the virtues that make up the Jesus-costume.)  If you want to become more like Jesus, put on his mask.  Ask yourself, “What would a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit do?”  Then do it.  Over time, that mask will become more and more of a reality, as you grow in the holiness that Christ embodies and wants for us all.

Being Uncomfortable

It’s uncomfortable.  Our church’s attendance on Sunday mornings is dramatically less than it was a decade ago.  Our once-thriving children and youth programs are on life support.  As the congregation ages, people wonder what will happen when the older generation is gone.  I feel confident that everyone who is involved in the life of our congregation wants it to grow.  We’d like to have more activity, more fellowship, more ways to grow in our faith and to reach out to encourage others.  We wish that things were the way they used to be.

And that’s the problem.  The growth of a congregation does not come from trying to turn back time, but by looking toward a new future.  Those who have drifted away from our fellowship are not looking for “what used to be.”  If they were, they never would have left!  And those who are thinking about joining our congregation don’t care what we like five or ten years ago.  They are interested in where we are going.

Thom Rainer, a church consultant and president of Lifeway Christian Resources, recently published a book entitled “Autopsy of a Deceased Church.”  It’s the result of his study of 14 churches that have “died,” or closed their doors.  He identified themes present in these churches during their demise: lack of vision, poor use of finances, dwelling in the past, disconnection from the community, and so on.  One line from the book struck me: “Members of the dying churches really didn’t want growth unless that growth met their preferences and allowed them to remain comfortable.”

For Old Union to be faithful to God’s call – which will bring growth to the life of our congregation with it – we must be willing to be uncomfortable.  Scripture is full of stories when God’s call made people uncomfortable.  For example:

• Abraham and Sarah gave up their familiar surroundings to travel to a far-away place.
• Moses confronted the most powerful man on earth and tell him to free his slaves.
• Gideon was hiding from the enemy when God told him to lead an army to drive them out.
• Jeremiah thought he was too young.
• Mary faced people’s disapproval because she was an unmarried mother – something that could get you killed in those days.
• Peter had to walk away from his fishing business.

God does not want us to be comfortable.  He wants us to be faithful.  He does not want us to grow on our terms, the way we want to grow.  He wants us to grow in his terms, the way he wants us to.

When our church tries a new venture, the question should not be “Is this something we’re going to like?” but “Is this something God wants us to do?”

Supermom in Galilee

I’ve teamed up with a friend of mine who is a best-selling novelist to write a book that helps people see Jesus through the eyes of a modern woman. 

“Supermom in Galilee” is the tale of an agnostic suburban soccer mom who wakes up from a migraine and finds herself in first-century Galilee.  As she joins the group of people following Jesus, we see him not as the gospel writers chose to present him, but as he might have appeared to a modern woman who has everything, but knows something is missing. 

In the accompanying commentary, I use my 27 years’ experience as a pastor and my Ph.D. in New Testament interpretation to provide both historical and Biblical background to learn more about Jesus’ world, and reflections to explore your understanding of Jesus and his impact on your life.  

This book is designed to engage both the individual reader and book clubs or study groups seeking a fresh perspective on a familiar topic.  If you're a pastor or church leader looking for change-of-pace study material, this may be the book for you.

“Supermom in Galilee” is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo.  If you read it and like it, please tell a friend.

 

In Over Your Head?

Musings on Joshua 1:1-9

Sometimes it feels like we get in over our heads.  We’ve taken on a challenge – or a challenge comes upon us for which we feel totally unprepared, underqualified, and out of our depths.  When I agreed to become our presbytery's Committee on Ministry chair, I knew it would be a challenge.  But with almost every church situation I deal with, I have no idea where things are going, what I should do, or how to get to a positive resolution.  I have to act like I know what I’m doing, even though I’m making it up as I go along.  Even in our congregation, there are times when I am at a loss.  Am I presenting the gospel fully and faithfully?  How can I help this person in a crisis?  What venture or initiative should we attempt?  How will people buy into it or reject it?  Why does all this paperwork take so much time? 

I’m not whining about my own circumstances.  I’m simply using myself as an example.  I’m confident that all of us, have felt like we’re in over our heads.  That the path in front of us is more than we have the ability to navigate.

·         You get married, and suddenly there is this other person whose well-being you can nurture, or crush without realizing it.

·         You find out you’re going to have a baby, and you can barely run your own life, let alone be responsible for another’s.

·         The doctor has given you bad news, and you’re facing difficult treatments and an uncertain future

·         You leave for college and realize that you’re on your own, with none of the familiar people and routines you’ve always had.

·         You’re on the first day of a new job and everyone expects you to master tasks you’ve never even heard of before.

·         Your marriage is falling apart and you don’t know how to fix it.

·         You take on the responsibility for an ailing relative.

·         Your income dries up and you have no clue how the bills are going to get paid.

·         Death takes away your close companion, and life – the world – seems both empty and overwhelming.

How do you get through such times?

There are a number of options:

·         You can puff up your bravado, screw on a confident face, and convince yourself that you have what it takes.

·         You can back down.  Shy away from the challenges.  Don’t push yourself, and bail when difficulties find you.

·         You can live like a pinball: bouncing from one near-catastrophe to the next.

·         You can find someone to blame for what’s happening, and tell them it’s their job to make things right.

At the end of the day, where will you be?  Maybe hanging on by your fingernails, hoping that a puff of wind won’t blow you down into the abyss.  Or fooling yourself into thinking that you’ve got it covered, while deep inside there’s a part of you that is screaming in terror.  You’ll be exhausted, anxious, and perplexed.  Because there is no retreat.  There is no safe space where you can hide from what you can’t handle. 

You can addictify yourself away from the challenge, so you don’t have to feel any of the troubling thoughts.  There are plenty of ways to numb our senses so we don’t have to experience the unease and confusion.  Alcohol and drugs (both illicit and prescription) are the most obvious, but certainly not the only addictions.  Mindlessly lose yourself in television; Netflix will even start up the next episode as you binge-watch a TV series.  Pornography addiction is startlingly common in the age of the Internet.  Activities that seem harmless or even positive can be a way to seek escape from the overwhelming challenges.  Sports: either playing them or watching them.  Work.  Cooking.  Hobbies.  Even work at the church.  The list goes on and on.  Focus on them so you don’t have to deal with the issues you can’t handle.

Or you can move into hyper-control.  Nail down every aspect of your life that you think you have control over.  Plan.  Budget.  Schedule.  Ration.  Prepare.  Maybe that will defend you from the chaos that’s about to close in.

Consider, for example, a couple who has a lot on their plate: demanding jobs, two young children, messy family relationships, student loans, and so much more.  But they have no foundation.  No place of certainty and safety.  All they have are their own wits to get them through it all.  Each bump in the road is a potential catastrophe.  The only rest comes from exhaustion or denial.  Otherwise they must always be on their guard, alert for any threat that could come from the people and situations around them.  They live anxious, irritable, defensive lives.  Do you know someone like that?  Are you someone like that?

Then, in the midst of the storms and uncertainty, we find a promise.  A promise that life doesn’t have to be like that.  A promise grounded in the love that led God to die on a cross so he could fulfill it.

It’s the promise that Joshua received when he faced a challenge that would melt the bravest of hearts.  His long-time leader and mentor, Moses, was gone.  He died on the verge of critical events.  The wandering Israelite nation was ready to claim its homeland, the land promised to their fore-father Abraham.  They were about to walk into battles and wars against powerful enemies.  The lives of the people under Joshua’s care were about to change dramatically.

Over the years Moses had won the people’s loyalty and respect.  He had seen God face to face…literally.  The power of God filled him so much that, at one point, he had to wear a veil over his face so the dazzling reflection of God’s glory upon him would not blind those around him.  Moses was larger than life.  But even Moses had trouble leading the people.  They constantly complained, disobeyed, rebelled, and made a general mess of things.  At one point even his own brother and sister tried to replace him.  But somehow Moses found a way to get through it all.

And now he was gone.  Terrible timing. 

The mantle of leadership for the nation had passed to Joshua, his chosen successor.  But would the people accept him?  They rebelled against Moses when they didn’t like the dinner menu.  What would they do when an upstart new leader commands them to march into battle?  When they enter the Promised Land, will everyone take only their fair share instead of squabbling the other tribes and clans to get more?  Would anyone even listen to him?  Joshua had a daunting task ahead of him.

And that’s just the half of it.  Not only did he have to find a way to assert his authority over the fiesty nation, but he would face intimidating enemies.  Years ago, when Joshua and 11 others scouted out the land, only he and Caleb thought they could conquer it.  The other ten were ready to cash it in as soon as they saw the people they would be up against.  And now, years later, there they were again, facing that same enemy that had intimidated them in the past.  And they hadn’t gotten soft and lazy over time.  Nobody was going to roll over and play dead when the Israelites marched into the Promised Land.  This was going to be tough.  Joshua had been thrust into a situation that was over his head.

And then the promise came from God.  “I will be with you.  I will never leave you or forsake you.  [I] will be with you wherever you go.”

This was Joshua’s foundation.  This was what enabled him to face the unfaceable.  This was the promise that calmed his knocking knees and eased his restless nights.  This was the promise that enabled him to be strong and courageous.  Strong and courageous: a phrase God used three times as he covered Joshua with his promise.  Be strong and courageous.  I am with you.  I will never leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous. 

It’s a promise for us.  There is a foundation, a solid place.  Security and hope.  Confidence and strength.  God is with us.  As Psalm 46 puts it, even if the entire world collapses around us, God is our refuge and strength.  An ever-present help in trouble.  When I have to deal with a pastor in the next county who’s made a mess of his congregation, it’s a promise for me.  When you have more month than money, it’s a promise for you.  When the family squabble has erupted like a volcano, it’s a promise for you.  When the lonely evenings last an eternity, it’s a promise for you.  When no one else has got your back, it’s a promise for you.  When you’re certain that in about five minutes everyone will know you’re a fraud, it’s a promise for you. 

The guarantee of this promise is the cross.  Jesus, the very Son of God, went to one the darkest places that humanity can ever experience: betrayal, abandonment, injustice, pain, sorrow, agony, and death.  No matter what dark or overwhelming path your life takes, Jesus takes it with you because he has already been there.  And he takes the path with you, he is with you, not just to hold your hand and try to make you feel better.  Because he is with you, the threats you face will never succeed.  Because Jesus did not simply die on the cross; he arose from the grave with powerful new life.  He shattered everything that makes us feel like we’re in over our head.  He is with us, and he shares this powerful new life with everyone who wants it.

Joshua is not the only person in the Bible to receive this promise.  When an angel told Mary that she would have the intimidating task of giving birth to the Messiah, she received the promise: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”  When Jesus gave his followers the tremendous commission to make disciples of all nations, he gave them the same promise: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  When the apostle Paul faced great opposition in Corinth when he preached the gospel there, the Lord gave him the same promise.  “Do not be afraid.  For I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you.”

The promise is not meant only for characters in the Bible.  It’s a promise for you, and for me.  There’s no need to pretend you’re someone that you’re not.  No need to hide in the corner and hope no one notices you.  No need to defend and protect yourself.  There is no need, because there is a promise.

“Be strong and courageous.  Be strong and very courageous.  I will be with you.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified.  Do not be discouraged.  I will be with you wherever you go.”  This is the word of the Lord.

Confederate Flag as Symbol

The shooting deaths of nine people in a historically black Charleston church at the hands (allegedly) of a white supremacist has sparked a debate over the place of the Confederate flag in our nation.  My friends (Facebook and otherwise) have weighed in with their strong opinions on either side of this issue.  Here’s my two cents.

The Confederate flag is a symbol.  The study of the interpretation of symbols was a major feature of my doctoral studies, so I know a thing or two about the subject.  Symbols develop over time: this is the diachronic (“through time”) nature of a symbol.  Take for example the expression “the President’s car” (words are a type of symbol, by the way).  In the days of Teddy Roosevelt, the President’s car was a railroad car.  In the days of Barak Obama, however, the President’s car is an armored limousine.  Same symbol, different meaning.  In the same way, the meaning of Confederate flag symbol has changed over the years.  Some people are discussing what the Confederate flag meant when it was created; these discussions often focus on the meaning of the Confederacy that it represented.  Such diachronic analysis can be interesting, and sometimes even helpful.

The other way to analyze symbols (according to Ferdinand de Saussure, a founding guru for linguistic and symbolic studies) is synchronic (“with time”) analysis.  That is, what meaning(s) does a symbol have at the time that it is being used?  How do different groups of people understand the meaning of the symbol?  Diachronic study of a symbol may help us understand how the symbol became what it is, but synchronic examination gets to the heart of the matter.  That’s what I’ll do here as I consider the Confederate flag.

Symbols can have more than one meaning.  That is both a powerful feature and a potential risk in the use of symbols.  The risk is that you may use a symbol to express one meaning, but people will understand it in a different way.  Here are two examples.  First, imagine that Johnny pulls Sally’s pigtails on the playground at grade school.  Sally thinks he’s being mean and complains to the teacher, who marches a confused Johnny to the principal’s office.  Johnny tells the principal that he pulled Sally’s pigtails because he likes her.  The wise principal then explains to Johnny that while that may be what he meant to express, that’s not the message that Sally got from it.  If he wants to tell Sally that he likes her, he should find a different way to do it.  Here’s another example.  Right after the attacks on 9/11, President Bush said that “this crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while."  I’m confident that he used the word “crusade” to mean “a major effort to change something,” as www.merriam-webster.com defines it.  However, the word/symbol crusade also refers to the wars that European Christians fought against Muslims during the Middle Ages.  Understandably, the word raises hackles in the Islamic world, and the President offended many Muslims when he used it.  The Bush administration had to do a lot of damage control because of an unintended insult since people understood the word in different ways.

All of this brings us to the use of Confederate flag, and what it symbolizes for different people.  As I see it, it has at least three different meanings, depending on which people you talk to.  It’s the same thing as Johnny and Sally interpreting the hair-pulling differently, and President Bush and leaders in the Islamic world using the word “crusade” differently.  When you use the symbol of the Confederate flag, not everyone views it the same way you do.

First, particularly in the South, the Confederate flag symbolizes southern heritage and culture.  It is more than a reference to the Confederacy of the 1860s; it’s a symbol of what it means to be a southerner.  It’s akin to the cowboy as a symbol of the West.  In the same way, I have a sticker of the Dutch flag on my car to express my ethnic heritage.  Understood this way, the Confederate flag is a source of pride and self-identity.  For people who understand the flag like this, attacks against the flag are attacks against their culture, their values, their way of life.  Of course they won’t like it.

Second, the Confederate flag symbolizes a rebellious, free spirit.  This is the Confederate flag on the General Lee from “The Dukes of Hazard,” for example.  It is a way to assert your independence from the government, corporations, or anything else that tries to tell you how to live your life.  Just like Bo and Luke Duke refused to do what Boss Hogg and Sheriff Coltrane told them to, some people use the Confederate flag to say that you can’t tell them what to do.  Tell these folks that the Confederate flag is bad, and they’ll think that you want to suppress their freedoms.

Third, the Confederate flag represents racism, particularly the dominance of whites over blacks.  This is the Confederate flag of the KKK and other white supremacy groups.  It is equivalent to the Nazi swastika and a burning cross on someone’s front lawn.  It is used by whites to tell blacks that they’re better than they are, and that if you get too full of yourself there will be consequences to pay.  When you display the Confederate flag, some people get the message that you’re racist.

As you read my three descriptions, there may be one or two of them that you disagree with or don’t understand.  When I was in seminary, my roommate from Alabama was flabbergasted when I told him that some people in Pennsylvania display the Confederate flag.  Coming from the south, he interpreted the flag in the first way: a symbol of the South.  Why would northerners use it?  I believe my Pennsylvania neighbors typically understand in the second way: as an expression of freedom and rebelliousness.  As I’ve said, the tricky thing about symbols is that they can mean more than one thing.  I can’t tell you that I’m “right” and you’re “wrong” in how you understand the Confederate flag.  It has all of these symbolic meanings.

If you attack the Confederate flag because it is a symbol of racism for you, others will believe that you are attacking Southern culture.

If you use the Confederate flag to express your independent spirit, some people will think you’re a Southerner (as my seminary roommate did).

If you display the Confederate flag because you’re proud of your heritage, other people will understand it as a racist statement.

Again, none of these meanings for the symbol of the Confederate flag are “right” or “wrong.”  They are all ways that people understand it.  Just as Johnny needed to understand how Sally felt when he pulled her hair, and just as President Bush probably should have put more thought into using the word “crusade,: we would all do well to think of the message other people receive when we attack or defend the Confederate flag.

Church and Community

When a community changes and a church doesn’t change with it, it will wither and die.

During the 1950s and 1960s, major US cities experienced “white flight.”  For a number of reasons, residents of predominantly white city neighborhoods moved out to the suburbs, while more racially diverse families moved in as they left.  Many of churches that had been geared to ministry with the people who used to live in the neighborhood didn’t make the shift.  They continued to focus upon the few remaining white families in the community, and upon the members who drove back in from the suburbs on Sundays to worship at their “home” church.  Over time, these churches faded away as the old members put down roots in their new communities, and as they became less and less relevant to the lives of the people around them.

I once had a conversation with a pastor from Florida who served a church like that.  The all-white congregation in a Haitian neighborhood was struggling to get by, and its days were numbered.  It had not even occurred to the pastor (until I suggested it to him) that the church could do things like offer a Bible study in Creole (the Haitian language) to become connected to it neighbors.  They only knew how to do ministry with the kind of people who used to live in the community.

Two years ago, our mission team was hosted by the First Presbyterian Church of Jamaica in Queens, a church that responded to its community change very differently.  Jamaica used to be a predominantly white neighborhood: Donald Trump was baptized and grew up there.  As the community changed, the pastor didn’t want to accept any of the new people into the church.  So they kicked him out and got a pastor who would.  First Church Jamaica is now a thriving, growing church, home to people who were born in 40 different countries.  It is a “seven days a week church,” with dozens of programs and ministries that deepen faith and make a difference in its community.  (The Donald hasn’t shown up for decades, by the way.)

Our community is also changing, but in a different way.  It will never be the farming community that it was a generation ago.  Farms that have become housing developments will never go back to being farms again.  When we call it “the old Klein farm” instead of “Kings Ridge,” we close our eyes to the reality taking shape all around us.  Old Union is no longer a little country church.  We are a church in a bedroom community.

The only question is: what are we going to do about it?  Will we focus our ministry only upon the families that have lived in these hills for generations, or will we welcome and reach out to our new neighbors?  Will we be like the church in Florida that had no clue how to serve and share good news with its community?  Or will we be like the church in Jamaica, Queens, and be a church that makes a difference in the lives of all our neighbors?.