Paying for the Free Stuff

Grace – It’s a hard concept for most of us to accept. It doesn’t seem that it would be that difficult. I mean, really – someone offers you something you didn’t have to pay for, for which you didn’t have to work, and for which nothing is required in return. That’s quite alright when we say that we’re thirsty and would like something to drink and the response is that someone, anyone, buys us a drink, puts it in our hand, and declines payment. Most of us attempt to make a mental note that it’s our turn to buy the next time the need arises.


What do we do when the stakes are a little higher? We know that we could have purchased our drink in most situations, it’s just that at the exact moment we voiced our thirst we didn’t have a means to purchase something to drink. We admire people who donate a kidney while they are still alive. We praise people donating large sums to benevolent causes, even if they do get a tax deduction for their trouble.

What do we do when payment exceeds anything we can ever reimburse, when it is off the chart, when it is undeserved, or, better yet, when we deserve whatever the opposite would be? It tends to make us uncomfortable. Some of us don’t want to be beholden to anyone about anything. We like to “keep our accounts current.”

Others of us are ashamed that we have done things that should have disqualified us from this level of generosity, yet we get it anyway. We know that everyone recognizes we have received something which we did not deserve.

It takes away our sense of achievement somehow. It puts us in debt to the giver. We have a responsibility. Even though it may be exactly what we need or want, we are uncomfortable accepting it. We are even more uncomfortable when we know the giver has given the gift to us only at considerable sacrifice. We turn it down. We refuse. We give it away. We begin the process of paying back that which can never be paid back.

This is why it is so difficult for most of us to accept God’s grace. Oh, we would claim it easily if we could earn it. But, we know we don’t deserve to have it given to us free of charge. We put conditions on ourselves that our Lord and Savior never put upon us. We make laws, rules, and regulations for accepting God’s gift when God, Himself, never put these restrictions on us. We become Pharisees! And, somehow, we have fooled ourselves into thinking that we are indeed deserving of God’s grace, that we have balanced the scales, that we have settled accounts. We think this is our doing instead of something that was done more in spite of us than because of us.

We forget that Christ has already died. Our Heavenly Father took care of this long before we were able to start “earning” our salvation. God did it before we were ever born. We don’t crucify Christ again when we become a Christian. We simply recognize that we are in the middle of the desert, dying of thirst, and someone has brought us Living Water.

The only appropriate response we have is to thank the giver every day of our life, with every breath that we take, with every word that we speak.

Our money can’t buy it; our work can’t build it; only God, Himself, could give such an awesome gift. The next time you worship, remember, worship is your Thank You note for the gift you’ve been given!

Pastor Craig

Doing What's Easy - Doing What's Right!

Doing what’s right – It seems so easy doesn’t it? We like to think of ourselves as immensely fair-minded people. We like to think of ourselves as always, OK – almost always, doing the right thing. The problem is we have a skewed standard of right and wrong; we like to go by our own standard of justice and fairness, a standard that is more likely to be able to indentify when we are wronged according to our rules than when we have wronged somebody else!

Something as “innocent” as driving – someone drifts over in our lane or cuts in front of us to be able to make a turn and they are an “Idiot”, a “Fool”, or something you don’t generally see printed on the pages of a church bulletin! However, let us commit the same act and we seek to defend ourselves. We motion that we are sorry, justifying in our own mind that we would have had to circle the whole block to come back and make that turn if we didn’t do it now! Really a rather minor point when it comes to justice.

Take some issues that may take a little more research on our part to even find out if they are “just” or not, we give little or no thought to the clothes we buy, who made them, and the conditions under which the people work. We don’t know and prefer to remain ignorant of the fact that the button on our shirt may have been sewn on by a child under 10 years of age who worked 10-12 hours sewing other buttons on other shirts that same day.

We stuff ourselves on dozens of holidays that involve food or B-B-Q, throwing away enough food to feed a starving family for days, and never think about it being unjust or unfair. Some things we just prefer not to know.

We blindly invest in a company because we get an excellent return but fail to question the value, morality, ethics, or quality of the same company. We tend to focus on what we do without rather than the enormous amount of useless convenience items we spend billions of dollars on every year. We get “needs” and “wants” reversed. We base the quality of our lives on how close we come to obtaining the things on our “need/want” list rather than on our inner qualities as a person.

The Old Testament (Leviticus 25:25-38) tells us that we should return things to those in need, that we should give without the thought of getting paid back, and that we are among the lowest of the low if we would even think about charging interest on a loan to an impoverished person. What would happen to our economy if we acted like that, either as a nation or personally?

The parable of The Good Samaritan in the New Testament speaks to justice as helping someone, ANYONE, in need even our worst enemy. The relationship between Samaritans and Jews was not on good terms. Think of it as an Israeli/Palestinian issue and it begins to come into focus. Yet, the Samaritan stopped to help, paid for the treatment out of his own pocket, used his time and resources, and offered to pay anything extra that the recovery process might incur. It doesn’t say he loved the Jew. It doesn’t tell us he is a God-fearing individual. It only speaks to a person doing the right thing regardless of who the right thing was for and without regard for what it might cost the Samaritan personally.

May our vision be improved and our sight be diminished that we might do the same!

Pastor Craig

Not For the Faint of Heart!

It Is a Lonely Path That is Travelled Alone – The Christian life was never meant to be easy. The path Christians walk involves a long and difficult journey with many branches and paths that lead to wrong destinations. There is no trial run or practice for the Christian life. We don’t get “redo’s.” We can’t un-live a section of our life that didn’t quite turn out the way we had hoped. We are who we are.

When they were still small I took Walt, Alex, and Julia on a hike up Mt. LeConte in East Tennessee. At the top of the trail, more than 6 miles from the road, is a rustic, yet beautiful lodge. The way up was a thing of beauty – wonderful sunshine – weather that was just right – a few inches of snow at the summit. The experience was memorable.

However, the following morning we woke up to an additional foot of snow on the summit (It was early Spring.) and an immediate need to get down the mountain as more snow was continuing to fall.

The path we had used to get to the top was no longer safe for young children. The 40 or so hikers in the lodge began to coordinate how they would get down and who would need rides to claim their cars at the bottom. My Dad took off with a group of hikers down the path we had hiked up the previous day. My Mom and I took the kids down a much longer, but safer, path.

Our trip down was uneventful. My Dad did not have that blessing. In his group there was an “expert” who knew everything. His constant advice began to wear even Daddy’s patience a little thin.

Finally, having had enough, Daddy was going to tell the man to shut his mouth and just walk. He turned around just in time to see the “expert” slip on a patch of ice and fall about 30 feet into the canopy of one of the huge evergreens that cover this area of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

I’m Okay! I’m Okay!  was the cry they heard from below. I’ll see you at the bottom. It turned out the man had never hiked this trail before.

Fortunately, we have a wonderful guide on our Christian journey. Our guide knows these paths well. We do not have a guide who is making a maiden journey himself along this way. Our Guide knows, not only which path to take when we arrive at a split, but also all the slippery spots all along the trail. He gently warns us, though sometimes we don’t listen very well at all.

We are not fit for the journey. We are the weekend hiker trying to scale Mt. Everest. We are out of shape and ill equipped for the task at hand. Yet, our life depends on it.

God says, Be perfect, even as I am perfect!

We respond, We don’t know how! We aren’t strong enough! We are weak! The interesting thing is that our Heavenly Father doesn’t ease His call for holiness. He doesn’t lower His standards. No, He brings us up to His standards through His faithful guidance of His flock.

The call is still one of perfection. Live perfectly. Love totally. Forgive completely. Do the right thing. Now make sure you do the right thing for the right reason! The task is beyond us. Fortunately for us, our Good Shepherd is in front of us each step of the way.

Pastor Craig

Not Just a Good Idea!

Peacemakers – It’s not just a good idea. It’s not something for the betterment of humanity or the future of the planet. It IS  the command of Christ. We are not to wish for peace only. We are to make peace, sometimes against what seems to be the will of the parties in opposition to one another.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has called the parties involved to find ways to make peace in the Middle East. The GA has even offered some suggestions, some challenges, and identified some of the obstacles to peace in this region. The result has been attacks from almost every side. Remember, Christ did not call us to identify the party at fault. Christ called us to make peace between the parties involved, regardless who is at fault.

Romans 5:1 says We have peace with God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That peace wasn’t easy. It was achieved through much suffering and anguish, through pain and suffering, through death and resurrection. Being a peacemaker is dangerous and difficult work. It may bring attacks on you rather than the peace for which you are working.

It is so much easier to point fingers, to lay down conditions, to accuse someone else. Fighting seems so much easier.

I Peter 3:10-12 says, Whoever would love life and seek good days . . . must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

How do you live the good life? How do you have more good days than bad ones? Peter says we do it by seeking peace and pursuing it. We don’t just wish for it. We go out and do something to obtain it. We work for it in our personal lives and in the lives of others. We DO NOT  sit on the sidelines and make pronouncements about who is right and who is wrong. We solve the problem. That’s a tall order, considering how long some of the hot spots in the world have been hot!

We do this because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. That’s us, people. It’s you and me. God looks to us to take the peace of Christ that he has showered upon us and do something with it. We offer it to the enemy, even as the Jews struggled through those first attempts to offer the Gospel, the peace of God which passes all understanding, to the Gentiles.

Pastor Craig

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead". While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem: 

We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led, It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms. Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans' organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their "Buddy" Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50's on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye's Heights. And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.

Blessings,

Pastor Craig

Jump!

I have done it. I thought it would never happen. It seemed so far off. It was the impossible goal set beyond reach. Others are far ahead of me. One is already through, yet I plod along. 

I have sent off what I hope is the final version of my thesis proposal! In one sense a huge amount of work is now completed. In another sense, the door has opened on a whole new closet needing to be cleaned out, bigger and messier than the one before. It is much like writing a sermon or even this weekly column. Much of the effort is in taking the first step. Once pen is put to paper, or in this case, fingers to keyboard, the journey has begun.

What journey has God laid out for you? Some of us are traveling uncharted waters. We are in the deep end of the pool with little or nothing with which to pull ourselves out. We have made a commitment. Once we jump off the diving board we know we are going into the water. We can’t stop halfway down and go back up!

Following Jesus, is just like that! Christ, Himself, says, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God. Strong words. We can’t go back. It is all or nothing. That’s what Jesus is saying. You wouldn’t be fit for the Kingdom because the Kingdom requires total commitment just as jumping off that diving board requires total commitment.

I am in over my head now. The next eighteen months will be consumed with reading, writing, interviewing, taking surveys, and analyzing data. But, we’ve all been in over our head for a long time as disciples of Jesus. It isn’t a sink or swim situation though, like it is with the academic work, because Christ guarantees your success. He is not just the lifeguard. He is the one who swims for us when we can’t even dog paddle.

So many times we hold back. We stand, bouncing on the end of the diving board, not really wanting to take that big leap, but knowing that to climb down off the platform is not the way we would like to exit the situation either. The problem really boils down to one of trust. Christ is there telling us to Jump, come on! Everything’s going to be fine! But, we don’t trust Him. We like to be in control and we know that once our feet leave that board, we are not in control any longer. So we stand there bouncing. It’s time to make a decision. What will you do? Come on in, the water’s fine!

Blessings,

Pastor Craig

Wait

Wait! – One of our Scriptures for today comes from John 5:1-15. It’s the story of the pool of Bethesda. A certain man lay by the pool hoping to be the first one to get in when the angel of the Lord came down to stir up the water. He had been sick for 38 years and had probably been coming to the pool almost everyday waiting for the waters for that whole time.

There is a legend that goes with the story we have in Scripture. Among the crowd of people waiting for the ruffling of the surface is a physician incurably ill. Though a healer himself, he has come seeking help from a strength greater than his own. As he pushes forward, an angel stops him. Healing is not for the physician, he tells him. Then, with an insight undoubtedly inspired by the apostle Paul, the angel adds,

Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve. Draw back. . .

Sometimes, that which we desire most is kept from us. We are the ones who, in our brokenness can show the compassion others need to experience. We experience it ourselves as the writer of Hebrews tell us:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:15,16)

Yes, we may have to wait for our hearts desire. We may be tried. We may have to show years of patience before we are granted the answer we wish to our prayers. However, we never have to wait for the love and compassion of Jesus Christ to be given to us by our Lord and Savior. He knows how you feel because he has been there himself.

Pastor Craig