The End is the Beginning

18 November 2018

Daniel 12:1-13; Mark 13:1-8

As we approach the season of Advent, especially in light of the Letters to the Seven Churches, there are several things we must bear in mind – not least of which is that “Advent” means “coming”, so the principle of Advent is not strictly related to a countdown to Christmas since Christ has already been born.  It has more to do with the prophets and the content of the Letters.  And I think since we do more to emphasize the birth of Messiah rather than learn to await His return, it is much easier to let it go once Christmas has passed.

We will remember and celebrate the birth of Messiah as we become more mindful of our Father’s profoundly generous heart.  When Easter rolls back around, we will celebrate His Resurrection in remembering The Eternal Word cannot be destroyed, and those who live in and abide by The Word will be raised with Him.  So the Church must never forget the reality and the mystery of our faith: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again”.  And He is “coming” not to “deal with sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly wait for Him” (Hebrews 9:28).

While this is wondrous news for those who are “found written in The Book” (Daniel 12:1), even these must be aware of the challenging days ahead; days we cannot begin to comprehend, yet days we must be prepared to withstand.  These are days in which we will be tested and tempted as Jesus Himself was tested and tempted in the wilderness, days we must endure as we “go on to perfection” (Hebrews 6:1). 

And we cannot be made ready to face these days – days which may already be upon us - if our theology is neglectful or all marshmallows, fuzzy puppies, pulpit clowns, and magic prayers.  Jesus did not spare His disciples these ominous warnings; so if our Lord determined they needed to hear it, He has determined we need to hear it.

I remember the old “Omen” movie in which the boy Damien was being taken to church by his parents, maybe to be baptized (I don’t remember exactly why they were going).  Damien was only a toddler and may not have been fully aware of who he was at such a young age (the antichrist); but the nearer they came to the church, the more distressed he became.  When they pulled up to the front of the church and tried to get out of the car, Damien reacted and resisted violently. 

I share that to share this: I perceive that the nearer the time for the Return of our Lord, the more violent the godless world will become.  I perceive that the closer evil is to facing The Judgment, the harder it will fight back and resist – because its end is near.  Yet as we “wait” for The Lord, we must be on our guard not to get caught up in the world’s conflicts lest we lose ourselves – and our souls – in the mix.

Many have apocalyptic visions of the coming days as a time to arm themselves, to store food, to hide in the wilderness or build underground bunkers and be prepared to protect and defend themselves.  These “doomsday practitioners” (perhaps also we) fail to realize that when evil is faced and dealt with on its own destructive terms, we become evil ourselves.  We fail to appreciate that when those days are upon us, our human efforts to stop them will be in vain and will count for nothing.  How we will choose to respond will be the mark and measure of our faith beyond merely believing a thing.

This is no time to panic or to be anxious, however.  Our Lord says as much Himself; “Do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come … this is but the beginning of the birth pangs” (Mark 13:7,8).

Do we really trust Him?

Note that our Shepherd did not say “death” pangs but “birth” pangs, the beginning of “promise”, the beginning of “potential”, the beginning … of LIFE!  Our apocalyptic visions of “doomsday” are inaccurate, perhaps even complete lies by the “father of lies” himself (John 8:44) intended to distract us from our Lord’s assurance that “these things must take place”.  The “father of lies” will try to convince us these things don’t have to take place … if we just go along.  Our Savior, our Shepherd says these things “must take place”.  And we must not get caught up in it.

These challenging days, however, are not the beginning of the end, but these days will certainly thin the herd and determine who has the faith to “eagerly wait for The Lord” in faithfulness rather than in theory.  It will almost certainly be the end of “emotional” Christianity by which I mean those who follow Christ only when things are going their own way, when life is good, when their personal desires are met, as long as there is plenty of money – as long as “my” will rather than “Thy” will be done.  When their emotions turn sour, however, when life gets in the way as it always does, suddenly The Lord either does not love … or does not exist.

So The Lord is deliberate and purposeful in speaking not only through Daniel and the other prophets but also through the Messiah Himself that “these things must take place” – not only because The Lord has decreed it for our testing but because evil will do what it takes to survive. 

We are also warned these threats may come from within; that “false messiahs and false prophets will appear and will produce signs and omens, to lead astray (if possible) the elect.  But be alert; I have already told you everything” (Mark 13:22-23).

No secrets.  No surprises.  It’s just The Lord’s Word and those who trust Him.  It is all important enough that The Lord has revealed these things from long ago so that when (not if) these things are upon us, we may be assured our God has not abandoned us nor has He been defeated!  Had we not been made aware of these things beforehand, we might be inclined to believe our Holy Father really does not care and would leave us to figure it all out for ourselves. 

Yet “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” so we would be able not only to comprehend the reality of what we must face – but so we may also comprehend the depth of our Father’s Love for His creation.  Sometimes The Truth seems dark and foreboding, but think about it like this: a first-grader cannot suddenly graduate from high school because the child is not prepared and has not been prepared.  Neither can we jump immediately from baptism to Heaven’s Gate without being prepared for life in the Kingdom.  And this requires “testing”.

As the “beginning of birth pangs” is upon us, we will witness Glory like we’ve never seen before.  We will see our God and Father in action!  We will witness for ourselves the Messiah descending to us as He ascended to The Father, “coming down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16)!

‘I want you with Me’, our Father will call; ‘it’s time to come Home’.  Amen.

The State of the Church: The Real Issue

11 November 2018

Isaiah 55:1-13; Revelation 3:14-22

I’ve shared before that the state of the modern-day Church is not really different from the state of the ancient Church.  The challenges we face today may have a different tag, but the essential human weaknesses are the same.  They hinge on faith and how faith is understood and lived into.  Apart from genuine faith, other church-y words like love and grace can have no meaning.

There are any number of analogies one can use to give meaning to the “lukewarm” admonition and what it means to be “hot” or “cold”, but the metaphor itself is likely linked to nearby sources of water in the region the people of Laodicea would have been familiar with. 

The “hot” springs of Hierapolis were believed to have medicinal value, and the “cold” springs of Colossae were known for purity.  The waters in Laodicea, however, were “neither hot nor cold”.  They were “tepid”, “lukewarm” and thus lacking healing or purifying properties.  This metaphor would have been understood by the people in Laodicea.

For us there must still be one focal point at which we can meet and agree – not on any single issue but on the broader invitation to live into a life defined and transformed by faith.  Beyond merely believing a thing, faith which transforms us does not change the world; it changes the way we view and interact with the world … and with The Lord and His Church, His people.

It occurs to me our understanding of faith is directly connected to a purposeful understanding of prayer.  When we pray, what are we trying to accomplish?  By prayer, do we hope for external changes?  By this I mean, do we pray others will change without our having to change?  Do we pray The Lord will solve homelessness or hunger or divisions within the Church or the nation without our having to be instruments of the change we seek?  Do we pray children in foster care will always have a home, though we are unwilling to open our own homes?

These are instances in which we must consider the “lukewarm” nature of our faith, the tepid waters of our hearts.  There is much we want and much we can see needs to be done; and while we may possess the essence of faith to know we must pray for these things, we may lack the depth of faith to stick our necks out and put ourselves at risk for these things.  We believe just enough to know we must pray for these things, but we lack the faith necessary to trust The Lord will provide for these things through us.  Maybe it can be said we have more faith in our “things” for our own purposes than in what The Lord can do if we surrender to Him these “things”.

Faith is a tricky business, if we’re gonna be real about it.  It is not enough to say, “You gotta have faith”, and it is misleading to suggest we can just “grab” or “claim” faith.  Faith is a Divine Gift from the heart of The Father.  Just as St. Paul wrote, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, without the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3), we cannot arbitrarily decide one day to believe in Jesus and claim salvation only because we are more afraid of hell than we are willing to live in and for Him.

The Lord spoke to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Exodus 33:19).  Though it may sound arbitrary, The Lord is conveying to Moses that His mercy and compassion will go out with great purpose – as when The Lord spoke to His people through His prophet Isaiah, “My Word will not return to Me until it has accomplished that which I purpose”. 

Because our Father’s mercy and compassion are not arbitrary, neither can our faith be because it is inconsistent with the nature of The Holy Father.  We cannot claim faith today for the sake of salvation, and then put it aside tomorrow for the sake of personal gain.  That kind of arbitrary faith will not serve us when we need it most because it was never ours to claim.  It is The Lord’s to give – and for His purposes. 

Yet we know we cannot function without faith.  We cannot worship nor tithe without faith.  We cannot pray without faith.  We certainly cannot serve a purpose to humanity without faith nor can we love fully and without reservation without faith.  In short, as it is written in The Letter to the Hebrews, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (11:6).

So what is that component of faith that does “please God”?  It is that thing we can actually do to show our Father it is faith we seek, and it is faith we can be trusted with to His Good Name.  In a word, it is “submission”.  It is “letting go”.  It is a willingness to be vulnerable.  In order to acquire faith, we must be willing to act in faith.  We must be willing to trust Him and not our stuff.

This was the challenge – and the curse – of the people of Laodicea.  They did not trust The Lord; they trusted their stuff.  They trusted their own wealth.  They believed they had all they would need, not knowing nor really appreciating that the stuff they trusted would fade, rust, rot, or be lost or stolen.  Though they had a knowledge of the “treasures they were to store in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20), they trusted their own stores.  Underneath it all, they did not realize they were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17) – because they were unwilling to Trust The Word of The Lord.

These letters to the Churches have been challenging for me on a personal level not only because I can easily see a component of each letter, each admonition, present and well – and often even defended – in the Church today … but I also see each of these things alive and well within myself. 

If we were to strip away every material component of our lives, if we were suddenly homeless, if we were suddenly broke, would we be rich?  Can we see the goodness and the mercy of The Lord apart from our “stuff”?  It is one thing to be thankful for our “stuff”; it is another thing altogether to become dependent on our “stuff” – to allow our “stuff” to define our understanding of love, of grace, of faith itself.  And this is where the Church in Laodicea – and perhaps the Church in America – has been judged to be.

Yet with all the other admonitions, all the other judgments against the other churches, there remains our Lord’s call to His people to “repent”, to turn away from those things and learn to use them as faithful stewards entrusted with much more.  The admonitions and the invitation into self-assessments can be hard when we are conditioned to those things, even to the point of hopelessness.

Yet it is our Lord, our Savior, our Shepherd who still “stands at the door and knocks”.  He still wants to come in.  He still wants us to have a place at the Table with Him in the Kingdom.  He still wants us to have peace.  He wants us to possess the faith sufficient to “conquer just as He conquered”.  Yet the conquest cannot be about only believing a thing; we must be willing to lose our “things”, even our very lives – “though we die, yet shall we live” (John 11:25).

This Invitation is still open … until He comes “like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2).  This is our warning that everything we only think we have is at risk.  And this is His Promise that everything we need is in His Heart and in His Hands.  To the glory and the purpose of The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

State of the Church: Down but not Out

4 November 2018

2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Revelation 1:1-3, 3:7-13

Yet another United Methodist congregation has petitioned its Annual Conference to separate and become independent.  Christ United Methodist Church in Myrtle Beach SC, one of the largest of the SC UM churches, reasoned that with all the give and take of this constant and nauseating battle which can never be won, they do not want to feel compelled to choose between being perceived as condemning persons or condoning behavior. 

Like several other UM congregations choosing this course of action – some successfully, some not so much – Christ UM expressed their desire to pursue what they believe they are charged to pursue; making disciples who are equipped to make disciples.  These congregations have been convinced that staying connected leaves them with no option but to choose “sides”.

Many Arkansas United Methodists also believe we are being forced into a false choice, being made to feel we must take sides before we can get down to doing the business of the Church; seeing faithfully to the Great Commission to “make disciples” as commanded by our Shepherd before His Ascension. 

This seemingly never-ending battle makes me think of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address in which he described the state of a broken and hopelessly divided nation as “both [sides] reading the same Bible and both [sides] praying to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other … the prayers of both could not be answered.  That of neither has been answered fully.  The Almighty has His own purposes”.

Whatever we may think about this mass distraction that has already decimated other denominations – and countless souls! – and has put the integrity of the Church at risk, we do know the Almighty’s purpose in the existence of the Holy Church: to share the Gospel of The Lord and to make disciples, equipping those disciples to make disciples themselves, and looking after one another in mutual accountability.  Before we can seriously consider this Divine Purpose, however, we must know this: only a disciple can make disciples. 

Had there been any less to consider, Jesus would have certainly made this known.  Had our Lord’s commission been expressed as “get saved and go to church when you can”, we could say we have fulfilled our calling and would not have to face this constant scourge upon the Church; the whole Church, not only United Methodist.  And that’s what it is, just as President Lincoln stated about the nature of the Civil War: a scourge, the war itself as a means of punishment intended to adversely impact both “sides”. 

“A house divided against itself cannot stand”, our Lord has taught us.  By this we must surely know if we are being forced to choose “sides” among ourselves, it can surely be said this scourge is perhaps the greatest temptation and test – and judgment - we have faced.  How we deal with it will determine whether we can move beyond it and become once more what we have been called to be – or whether we will be bogged down in this world, fighting this world’s battles on this world’s terms, and choosing sides among the brethren.

It is reasonable to believe the Church in Philadelphia faced similar challenges and temptations, but it also seems apparent that whatever those challenges were, they found a way to overcome, rise above their own strength, and lean into The Lord and His Promise where the Real Strength is found.  “Because you have kept My word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth” (Rev 3:10).

If we were to embrace The Lord’s assurance to them in our own time, perhaps we can see they resisted the idea of making what can only be described as a false choice but, instead, simply stood with The Lord in His Word and remained true to their calling as a Body.  And because they seem to have resisted the temptation to make worldly choices but stood with The Lord, they will not have to be tested again.  They had shown what they are made of.

They have been sealed in their faith not because they said a magic prayer or were simply baptized.  They were sealed in their faith because they knew, as Paul advised the Corinthians, that though “we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have Divine Power to destroy strongholds … destroying every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor 10:3-5).

Their test was done.  They were deemed worthy.  Our test is not quite done, however.  Notice The Lord encourages them to “hold fast to what you have so no one may seize your crown” (vs 11).  This is every indication about how easily faith can be challenged and loyalties tested; for “the crown” is at stake … and is still at risk if we do not “hold fast” with what “little power” may remain. 

Yet The Lord has assured the loyal Church that even if we may believe we have “little power” and are at risk of being overrun, He is standing with The Faithful Church to the point that there will come a time when our “enemies” – in whatever form they may take – will one day come to know their failures.  They will come to know that just as they believed they were gaining strength and momentum for their “cause” – whatever “cause” that may be – they misjudged the extent of their strength.  They may have convinced themselves their cause was right, but they will one day know their cause was their own and not The Lord’s.

Teaching The Word and making disciples of Christ – these are the tasks of The Holy Church.  Anything less than this renders the Church little more than a community clubhouse to be used and abused – and then abandoned once it is used up.  When this is allowed to take place as we fall victim to this false narrative and become active participants, The Crown of Glory will fade.

The Faithful Church is never at risk when its sole focus and purpose is found in following our Lord in His Word.  And though we may seem to be losing ground when we refuse to “fight”, the Greater Truth is that Fight has become mighty in Christ – when we let Him take the lead.  The Faithful Church – by the world’s standards and measures – may only appear to be on the losing end of the battle and may even appear to be down for the count.  Yet the Crown remains because faith is the measure of strength found only in The Lord.

We must not fall for the lies.  We do not have to choose “sides”, but we must always stand with and follow Christ as The Eternal Word, the “same yesterday, today, and forever”.  Amen.