Wherever You Go

60 years ago, in my seminary bookstore, I picked up a little volume entitled,Light on the Path. The stated purpose of the book is to help young pastors maintain their facility in the biblical languages in the face of the time-pressures of pastoral ministry.  Each day the book offers an Old Testament Hebrew text and an analogous New Testament Greek text, both of which we are encouraged to translate and ponder.

 

Here are the texts I found in this morning's readings and, with apologies to my old Greek and Hebrew professors, my translation:

 

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong, take courage. Don’t be terrified, and don’t be shaken, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

 

Acts 28:15

"And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Appian Market and the Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage."

 

The author’s daily juxtaposition of the two verses is usually insightful, but, I asked myself, what on earth do these verses have in common?

 

Well...let’s look first at the Acts text and Luke's account of Paul's journey to Rome. Midway through the story, Luke informs us that Paul and his shipmates, having wintered on Malta, sailed on to Syracuse in Sicily, then to Reggio on the toe of the boot of Italy and finally up the west coast of Italy to the Bay of Naples. From there they faced an overland journey of 116 miles to Rome.

 

Paul had written a year or so before that he planned to visit Rome and the Christians there were awaiting his arrival. When they heard that he reached Naples, they dispatched a party down the Appian Way to meet him. Some traveled as far as the Three Taverns, on the 33rd milestone from Rome. Others trudged on to the Market of Appius on the 43rd milestone. (Somewhat like walking down Highway 84 from Boise, Idaho to Ontario, Oregon.)

 

In Paul’s day the region around Three Taverns and the Appian Market was an inhospitable bog much like Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp. Horace, a Roman Lyric poet who wrote 50 years before Luke, offered a lively picture of the discomforts of the region, mentioning the lack of adequate sleeping accommodations, the intolerable drinking water, the mosquitos, gnats and frogs which were "enemies to repose," and the exasperating procrastination of muleteers that dragged their boats through the swampy marsh  (Satires 1:5). Nevertheless, out of their love for Paul, this small party of Roman Christians trudged on.

 

Paul himself, having suffered ship wreck, snake bite and a dozen other indignities on his voyage must have approached the city of Rome with trepidation. He must appear before Nero’s tribunal. Would he be set free, or would he face imprisonment and death? 

 

Then he saw his friends in the distance, making their way toward him. "On seeing them,” Luke tells us, “Paul thanked God and took courage."

 

Quite often, God’s promise to “go with us wherever we go,” (Joshua 1:9) is best seen in the faces of brothers and sisters who, at considerable cost to themselves, come to walk with us through our troubles (Acts 18:15). We can thank God that He sends them and take courage from their love.

 

David Roper

6.29.21

 

The Great Awakening (Revelation 8)

"The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up"(Revelation 8:7.)

 

Here in this chapter we hear the blast of four trumpets, warning of imminent danger. They precede the destruction of a third of the earth, the trees, the sea and its creatures, the rivers, and the atmosphere above. The fourth trumpet warns: “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth” (8:13).

 

This is a pictorial representation of environmental disaster designed to awaken those whom John describes as “earth-dwellers”—those who look no further than Mother Earth for answers and take no thought of the One who made the heavens and the earth.

 

So-called natural disasters awaken us to our limitations and the folly of thinking we can control our environment and resolve the earth’s problems. Typhoons, tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, catastrophic flooding, forest fires, drought, pollution, pandemic and extreme heat, show us how helpless we are.

 

May these forces awaken us to give honor to the one who rules heaven and earth and whose voice commands the winds and seas (Mark 4:39). 

 

David Roper

6.28.21

Virtue-signaling

“When you do a good deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward" (Matthew 6:2).

Virtue-signaling is a newly-coined turn of phrase, referring to the efforts we make to be culturally correct in order to “have glory from men" (“Humblebrag," another neologism, more aptly describes the practice.) Jesus, on the other hand, said, ”Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and gloify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

"Letting your light shine," is not "doing good deeds," for that would be the opposite of Jesus’ intention. "Do good deeds, that others may see your good deeds”? That might bring glory to us, but how would it glorify our Father in heaven? 

No, we should allow Jesus, the light of the world, shine brightly so that others may know that our goodness is the product of His genius and not our own. If we don’t tell our friends and neighbors about Him they’ll think we’re just well-integrated folks with our feet on the ground, but they'll know nothing of their Savior.  It’s not enough to do good deeds. We must tell others that Jesus is the source of any goodness that they see in us. We must tell them so He can become their goodness as well. 

As I finished this piece I thought of a to-the-point satire by Joseph Bayly, written more than 60 years ago for His Magazine and entitled, “I Saw Gooley Fly.”  It was a story about a university student named Herb Gooley who returned from summer vacation with a new-found ability to fly. Literally. Like an eagle. 

Each morning Gooley flapped his arms and flew out of the second-story window of his fraternity house, spiraled into the air and soared off to his first class. His classmates observed these remarkable flights, marveled at them, and longed to fly like Gooley. But he never told them how. 

They only saw Gooley fly.

David Roper

6.23.21

E-Musing: Courage

"We take courage in God; for He will tread down our foes." —Psalm 108:13 

Psalm 108 is a hybrid psalm, a blending of two texts: Psalm 57:7-11 and Psalm 60:5-12. Both speak to those who are timid and afraid. The last line is the punch line: "We take courage in God…" (108:13).  

 

As a child I loved The Wizard of Oz and, being a quiet, shy child, I was drawn to the Cowardly Lion. In the end, as you know, the lion was given a medal for valor. “Look what it says," he exclaimed, "'COURAGE’. Ain’t it the truth, ain’t it the truth!”

 

Physical courage is one thing, but moral courage is another. Ofttimes, the hardest and bravest battles are fought within. Emily Dickinson wrote,  

 

To fight aloud is very brave, 

But gallanter, I know, 

Who charge within the bosom, 

The cavalry of woe.

 

Courage (or fortitude) is the name we give to this virtue. 

 

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, it's the virtue that gives strength to all the other virtues. Chastity, honesty, patience, mercy are hard-earned virtues in a world like ours, and hard to maintain. Courage enables us to persevere. 

 

Aquinas wrote, ”The principal act of fortitude is endurance, that is, to stand immovable in the midst of dangers.” Courage is "a long obedience in the right direction”; it is doing the right thing over the long haul despite the consequences. It is sticking with a difficult and demanding marriage; staying in a small place when prominence beckons; refusing to betray a moral principle to get along, or to get ahead; setting aside self-interest to serve the interest of others. We can do these things because God is with us, treading down the enemy of our souls. 

 

There’s a memorable scene in C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle, in which Jill Pole asks, “What do you think is inside the stable? Who knows?” Tirian replies.  “Two Calormenes with drawn swords, as likely as not, one on each side of the door... There’s no knowing. But courage, child. We are all between the paws of the true Aslan."

 

Ain't it the truth! Ain’t it the truth!

 

David Roper

6.16.21

 

The Fordson

It was in 1945, I think, that my father turned up one afternoon driving an ancient, rusted out, dented, Fordson tractor that he bought from a neighbor for a few hundred bucks. It was an unsightly piece of equipment and, in my opinion, should have been placed in the Smithsonian.

The tractor had outsized, spoked, steel rear wheels with metal lugs that evoked thoughts of WW1 German artillery pieces. It was powered (?) by a twenty horsepower, four cylinder, Ford engine  that sputtered, popped, backfired and generated great clouds of acrid black smoke. The little engine desperately needed an overhaul and required constant maintenance.

The tractor had no battery or starter, but used a magneto/coil ignition system that required hand cranking. It was hard to start in the summer, and next to impossible to start in the winter and could break your arm if the engined backfired and you weren’t wary. 

Once the engine got started, the only way to kill it was to retard the spark and wait for the engine to stall. The only way to brake it was to disengage the clutch and allow it to roll to a stop, a tricky expedient on hills. 

But the little tractor found a place in our hearts. My father used it to plow, pull stumps, power a circular saw and carry out a dozen useful tasks around our place. It was still in use when I left home, though my father had purchased a newer tractor. At last report the old Fordson was parked next to the barn, on light duty. 

My point, of course, is that old things aren't necessarily obsolete. As we get older we may not have the energy or the inclination to "go hard for God," but we can still be useful in our twilight years. 

So, if you're wondering what to do with yourself these days, just tell the Lord that you're willing to do whatever he asks you to do and put yourself at his disposal. Don’t worry; He'll find something useful for you to do.

David Roper

6.14.21

666

Loving a lie,

Not realizing in Adam, all die —Lauryn Hill

“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon… He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. This is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man: His number is 666” (Revelation 13:11, 16-18).

John is describing a religion of his day but also one that transcends the ages. 666  is with us today. 

666 Is a symbolic number, derived from the apocalyptic numerology of John’s day: 6 is the number of man. 3 is the number of God. 6 repeated 3 times stands for .”Man exalted as God.” This is Humanism,  Satan’s boldest lie: “You can be like God” (Genesis 3:5). This is the major religion of all time, the human compulsion to explain and solve the complexities of life apart from God. We can do it all by ourselves. 

Men and women devise systems that correctly define and diagnose the societal problems of the day but they always fall short for they do not understand “the mystery of iniquity,” a concept that can only be understood by revelation: Evil is deep and dark and far beyond human intervention. It can only be healed through the power and the wisdom of God

Paul writes, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1Corinthians 1:20-25).

The  “wise” invent  well-meant schemes to deal with the inequities of our broken world and it’s systems, but all fail because they have no power to change the human heart. Tear down one racist, sexist, (ageist 😬) system and fallen men and women will erect another unjust system in its place. (History amply underscores this conclusion.) But where the cross has been preached and received, hearts are changed and, in time, inequities are righted. 

Only the “foolishness of God” can change human hearts and institutions. Thus “we preach Christ crucified: The power of God and the wisdom of God.

David Roper 

6.11.21

  

Systemic Evil

“In every institution, there is something which sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence” —C. S. Lewis

 

While I don’t embrace Critical Race Theory—its roots are antagonistic to the gospel—it is true that evil exists within systems. Patterns of sinful behavior and oppression can become entrenched and once these patterns are in place, they make it easier for individuals within that system to sin with impunity. 

 

But the Bible makes it very clear that we are responsible for our own sins (Deuteronomy 24:16). I may be the product of an ungodly family or a member of a corrupt organization, but systemic evil is never a rational for wrong-doing. I can, by God’s grace, resist the pressure to conform to unjust standards of behavior. 

 

Ezekiel 18 is a case study on what happens when we place our emphasis on corporate evil: It leads to individual moral irresponsibility: If I’m not answerable for my actions I can evade the consequences of those actions. But the scriptures make it clear that I am responsible for my actions no matter what others do. “The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20).

 

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts” (Gulag Archipelago). Paul writes without nuance or qualification, “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23). 

 

So, while there is systemic and corporate evil in the world I must face the fact of the evil in me and the consequences of it. English journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge, was asked on one occasion  “What’s wrong with world?” Muggeridge replied with unambiguous candor, “I am.”

 

David Roper

3.24.21

 

The Worm at the Core

 

“He lives eternal life to bring, and dies that death may die.” —“Crown Him with Many Crowns”

 

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…   So we preach and so you believed” —1 Corinthians 15:3, 11

 

Philosopher William James wrote, "Back of everything is the great specter of universal death, the all-encompassing blackness… We need a life not correlated with death, a kind of good that will not perish, a good in fact that flies beyond the Goods of nature…  And so with most of us, a little irritable weakness will bring the worm at the core of all our usual springs of delight into full view, and turn us into melancholy metaphysicians. —The Varieties of Religious Experience.

 

Or, as a whimsical friend of mine says, "Death makes you think about things." 

 

Death is indeed "the worm at the core of all our usual springs of delight,” underlying the fun and games with which we try to distract ourselves. Yet all efforts to stave off thoughts of death are futile. In all of us there is an awareness of our helplessness in the face of death, an awareness that effects every aspect of our being. We are never free from the knowledge that someday we too will die. 

 

Only the good news of Jesus Christ and the eternal life he freely offers can set us free from fear of dying. "He Himself shared (flesh and blood) with us, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15). 

 

So then, though we may work to liberate our brothers and sisters from oppression and tyranny and provide opportunities for them to enjoy the "goods of nature," but must also seek, “a good that flies beyond the Goods of nature.” if we do not, at some point, proclaim the gospel we have received from God—“a good that will not perish"—we will have left our friends in bondage to fear and melancholy musing.  They will, perhaps, be better off in this present world, but live without hope, in mortal fear of "universal death, the all-encompassing darkness."

 

So, Lord, I ask… 

 

Make me a fellow worker with thee, 

Nought else befits a God-born energy;

Of all that's lovely, only lives the high,

Lifting the rest that it shall never die. —George MacDonald

 

David Roper

6.5.21