Church Names and Commitment

My friend, Ken Lane, has just returned from a trip to the Holy Land. He got to see many of the places where the Biblical story took place and, before he left, read and prayed his way through the Via Dolorosa, the path Jesus took from the time of his condemnation on through the crucifixion and burial. There are a number of holy sites along that route, yes, obviously. Churches named The Chapel of the Flagellation where Jesus was beaten by the Roman guards, and The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which contains the tomb of Jesus.

We are so used to churches being called First something or other, Grace ______, Faith ______, Mercy ________, or having the names of Saints or great people of faith. We even name them after streets. Here the church is named after an event in the life of Christ. It calls us to remember what Jesus did for us. Certainly Grace, Faith, Mercy, etc. are excellent names as well. We even prefer them to Flagellation. It reminds us of things we would rather not think about.

We certainly want to remember the love, grace, and compassion of Jesus Christ that God has extended to us. We just don't want to remember how it was procured for us. It seems way too gory and gruesome. We prefer the resurrection to the crucifixion.

Of the people I know who have seen The Passion of the Christ, the scenes they found most "offensive" have been the scenes dealing with the crucifixion. We are confronted with the selfless act, freely given for us, and we know that we take it for granted. We do not appreciate the extent to which we have been saved. We do not comprehend our lostness. Oh, we certainly can give it mental recognition, but we can't "wrap our minds around" the enormity of our lostness and the magnitude of the effort to win us back. Certainly the very battle for our soul should be an adventure story beyond any other ever written.

I teasingly mentioned to my friend Ken that I might want to send a resume' to The Chapel of the Flagellation. I could joke about the commitments sought from new members in the New Members' Classes, but the fact of the matter is that it reminds us of the commitment and provision made by Christ to our justification, sanctification, and glorification. Oh, that we would make the same commitment to Him!

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. . .

Did you ever have bedtime prayers? What were yours? I remember our meal time prayer. It went like this, Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let this food to us be blessed.

Of course a small, small child may have some difficulty with some of those words. My prayer came out something more like this: Com'lar Jesus. . . I always wondered what Com'lar meant. I assumed it was some deep theological term that I would understand someday. I just knew I was supposed to pray it.

Our night time prayers were different. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

The picture above is of Marines in my son's company. Since I don't know if I can say where they are in this format, I won't. However, you can tell from the picture that they are in a place where it is best to sleep with you rifle close at hand. We rattle off our prayers with little thought. Very few, if any of us, really expected to die in our sleep that night. We simply said the words because our parents told us to say them. These guys say them for real!

I good friend of Walt's was killed back in July. He made it home in time for his parents to see him and speak to him. He stepped on an IED and had his legs blown off. It was the shrapnel and infection from all the debris blasted into the wound that finally killed him. It is a hard thing to lose someone close to you. It hit most of the company hard. I do not know the family, but I am quite sure it hit them much harder.

Even Marines in combat get some time off. Walt tends to spend some of his in the gym where he prays for the family of his friend whenever the friend comes to mind. He prays for comfort for them. He prays that there grief would be lifted. He prays that God would give them peace. I don't want to over spiritualize this prayer, but I certainly don't want to minimize it either.

A few days after Walt prayed his most recent prayer, one of his fellow sergeants called 3-4 of the guys who knew this young man best together to tell them of a dream he had. He saw this small group in a waiting room, anxiously waiting to see their friend. Everyone else finally fell asleep. At that point, the young man walked in wearing a white shirt and a white baseball cap. He told the sergeant still awake to tell everyone not to worry, to take care of one another, and to tell them he was fine. The comfort for the family was delivered first to his fellow Marines.

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. AMEN.

War

I watched Saving Private Ryan again the other day. Fortunately, I have never been in war. I have seen pictures taken by good friends who have served in Iraq. Some, many of them, I was not supposed to see. They were not something pleasant to see. The photos were combat photos. None of them contained pictures of injured or KIA American military men and women.

If you have seen the movie, you know it is VERY graphic. War is not pretty. The injuries inflicted and the ways though involved die are beyond terrible.

I have two sons in the United States Marine Corps. I am proud of their choice of service. I am proud they volunteered to put themselves in harms way to keep America safe and free.

Is it possible to do away with war? We have been trying for decades to end war. WWI was the Great War, the War to End All Wars. It was called this because it was so horrific it was thought that countries would avoid war at all costs. Then came WWII. Power and greed takes no vacation.

Death needs to happen in the company of those one loves best, not on a beach thousands of miles from home and hearth! It can be fearful enough to face the great beyond. It is terrorfying to face it alone. I don't have a solution. I wish I did. There will always be dictators who need to be called to account. There will always be those who need America's help. There will always be those who need help to become free. We cannot close our ears. We must help. We must pray for those brave men and women who face death, and those who meet it while they stand in my place and in yours on foreign soil.

God Bless You,

Who is Jesus?

The church I serve is coordinating with the local Methodist church for Vacation Bible School. This was a collaboration that was begun last year and was quite successful. A couple, Ross & Carolyn Clayton, from our church were the classroom storytellers. They did such a wonderful job that they were "asked" to return again this year.

Today I watched Ross tell the story of Peter answering Jesus' question, "But, who do you say I am?" The story time is a 15-20 minute monologue that has the children riveting their eyes and ears on him. He is a master, our own version of Garrison Keillor.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Just who DO you think Jesus is? The answer to that question determines so much of what you do in life and how you view life itself. There can be no flippant answer. To give such an answer sets our life on its own unique course, adhering to the principles we link to that answer.

"Jesus was a good teacher." If that is the extent of your belief in Jesus, that is how you will relate to him. You will take his teachings as proverbs and exhortations on how you could live your life in a more satisfying way. This also means that you can ignore Jesus teaching with minimal consequences, just like you ignored so many of your teachers in school. Oh, your life may not be as satisfying, but at least you won't be going to hell!

However, if Jesus is who he claims to be, if Jesus has done something unique in history, if Jesus has shown himself to be the true and divine Son of God, if he has done something that requires our allegiance and submission, if he has indeed brought the possibility of light where before there was only darkness, then to deny that act, to say that the events of his life were anything else is to deny the light and remain in the darkness. It does indeed raise the possibility that our choice of who Jesus is to us will have significant and eternal consequences.

It kind of makes this question the most important one you will ever answer in your life, doesn't it?

In the beginning. . .

My friend, Ken Lane, is on a trip to the Holy Land as I sit here back in the US. He is blogging his way there and back at http://kensholyadventure.blogspot.com/. Well, I thought, "How fun." Not to go to the Holy Land. I am one of those rare pastor's who does not have the compelling desire at this time in my life to "walk where Jesus walked." I'll leave that to Ken and St. Peter while I stay in the boat with the rest of the disciples.

I like politics. I am a strong conservative but do like to hear all sides. I am married to the most wonderful woman in the world. I have five children scattered all over the world. Part of this is because two sons are in the Marine Corps. I have a wonderful daughter-in-law that I am just starting to get to know. Our home includes seven dogs, six horses, one miniature donkey, and a whole host to Texas Longhorn show cattle.

I serve First Presbyterian Church of Ennis and love my congregation. They are a diverse group of people trying to grow in love and compassion for one another, their Lord, and their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

This may, or may not, be a daily thing. It all depends on my inspiration at the time. I hope you stop by often and enjoy it!