It’s Impossible! (Thoughts on the New Year)

"Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets…’ Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'If it is marvelous (impossible) in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous (impossible) in my sight,' declares the LORD of hosts?’" (Zechariah. 8:4–6). 

Jerusalem had been reduced to a pile of rubble and yet, as Zechariah assured God’s people, the city would be built again: old men and women would gather in the parks and squares of the city to kvetch and kibitz; children would play in the streets. 

"Impossible," Zechariah's detractors muttered.

But we should never allow reason or common sense to tell us what God can or cannot do. He is the God of the impossible, the one who created perfect order (cosmos) out of primal chaos (Jeremiah 32:25). Nothing is impossible for him to do! (cf. Genesis 11:14; Job 42:2; Matthew 19:26).

He can reclaim a life that is ruined beyond reclamation. He can find a prodigal that is irretrievably lost. He can soften a heart that has hardened into stone. He can heal a church that is beyond repair. 

Indeed, "you will see greater things than this,” Jesus said (John 1:50). There is nothing that the LORD of Hosts cannot do! 

Got any rivers you think are impossible?

Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?

God specializes things thought impossible;

And He can do what no other power can do.

David Roper
1.2.22

Looking Up

 "Poor little bird, you can't fly!"   "No, but I can look up!" —George MacDonald

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD;In the morning I will direct it to You,And I will look up. —Psalm 5:3

For years my morning routine was the same: I completed my morning ablutions, snatched a cup of coffee and my iPad and got my news brief for the day. Then I settled in to meet the Lord.

No longer. I'm learning—first thing—to "look up.”

Looking out and about is unnerving: our world is circling down the drain. Pundits and prophets report the end of civilization as we know it and the scene on the ground confirms it. The world’s in a hand basket, as old folks say, and we have a pretty good idea where it's going.

Given the spin we're in, it's better to "look up," to lift up our voices first thing in the morning and "direct" our thoughts to the LORD; to take the worries off our minds, where they have no business being, and put them into his hands where they belong. 

And then, with hearts at rest we can sally forth to meet the day, or shelter safely at home.

There's an old saying: “To make a beginning is the whole," and worship is the best way to begin. Perhaps I can do no more this year—my sphere of influence is small—but I can certainly do no better. 

David Roper

1.19.20

Nativity I

 An ad hominem reaction is an argument directed against a person rather than the position he or she is maintaining. It’s a logical fallacy.

It was an argument that, on one occasion, was used against Jesus by the Pharisees, who, bested in a debate with him, turned and attacked his reputation: “Well at least we’re not born of fornication,” they sneered, with the implication: “As you were!” (John 8:41).

Jesus’ contemporaries never understood his miraculous conception, nor, to be honest, do we.

John Donne tried very hard to express the mystery and the wonder of it: 

Ere by the spheres time was created thou [Mary]Wast in his mind, who is thy Son, and Brother;Whom thou conceivest, conceived; yea, thou art nowThy Maker’s maker, and thy Father’s mother,Thou wast light in dark and shut’st in little roomImmensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb. 

No, we’ll never understand Jesus’ unique conception. All we can say is that once for a very specific purpose, Immensity was cloistered in a young woman’s womb.

We can only hallow the day when, nine months later, ”the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward us appeared" (Titus 3:4).

David Roper
12.12.21

Global Warming

“And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.” —Revelation 16:8-9

I decided last summer to put an end to some of my questions about global warming and read a number of books and articles on both sides of the debate. Like that fabled poet, I "frequented doctor and saint, and heard great argument..."

First off, it does seem that the earth is warming though it’s impossible to know if this is a cycle, or a trend leading to an extinction event. Only time will tell. (It was somewhat comforting to learn that 2020 was a bit cooler than 2014.)

Second, though we're putting more hydrocarbons into the atmosphere than in previous centuries, there's no evidence that these "greenhouse gasses" are necessarily the cause of global warming. That's a conclusion beyond science and the scientific method. 

So, like that poet, I, unconvinced either way, "came out by the same door as in I went." 

But, though I'm agnostic about global warming, I have one certainty: God makes earth's weather. Global warming, if it exists, is not anthropogenic (man-created), as they say. God controls earth's environment and uses it to get our attention. 

Whenever we're tempted to play God, he shows us we're not quite ready yet. Typhoons, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought, catastrophic floods, and out of control forest fires make it obvious who's running the show. 

David Roper

11.19.21

The Vine

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away…” (John 15:1).

Jesus and his disciples were making their way through the Kidron Valley on their way to the Mount of Olives, passing through vineyards along the way. A simile sprang to Jesus’ mind: I am like a vine; my disciples are my branches; God, my Father, is the vigneron.

Jesus introduces the analogy with what appears to be a stern warning: “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he (the Father) takes away…” This, at least, is the way most  versions render this verse.

I would suggest an alternate and more hopeful translation: “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he lifts up from the ground.” 

  

The words translated  “he takes away,” is one Greek verb that, in its fundamental sense, means “to lift (something) up.” (The early Latin versions of this verse translate the phrase with tollet, “he raises up.”)

In that culture vinedressers often found live branches that were firmly attached to the vine, but, having fallen off the treillage, were trailing in the dirt. First they took each leaf in hand and washed it down, wiping away the mud, mold and infestation. Then they “lifted it up” and attached the branch once again to the trellis, in fresh air and sunlight, away from vermin and grime.

So, Jesus assures us: Your Father will not “take you away” when you fall, even though you fall again and again. He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He will “lift you up” that you may bear fruit—indeed much fruit—once again (15:2,3).

Mine is hope in my Redeemer

Though I fall, his love is sure

Christ has paid for every failing

I am His forevermore —CityAlight

 

David Roper

11.17.21

Augustine and His Kin

“What do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf”  (1 Corinthians 15:29).

“I have no idea what this text means., Augustine wrote in a commentary on 1 Corinthians 15,and in reference to Paul’s phrase, “baptized on behalf of the dead."

To be Augustinian is to approach the scriptures with full awareness that we “know in part,” to never allow our certitude (how sure we are) to outstrip our certainty (how sure a thing is).

John Calvin, said, “Let this be our sacred rule: to seek to know nothing except what scripture teaches us; when the Lord closes his holy mouth, let us go no further.” Or, as Paul would say, let's not “go beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6).

I’m told that one evening after dinner at one of the Oxford colleges, a porter handed an English Lord his hat. “How did you know it was mine?” the Lord asked. “I didn’t,” the porter responded, “I just knew it was the one you came in with.”

Bully for him: A steady refusal to go beyond the facts.

David Roper
11.16.21

Working Together With God

 

"God reconciled us to himself throughChrist, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…  In this way, we are working together with God" (2Corinthians 5:18, 6:1).  Imagine that you've been apprenticed to Michelangelo, the creative genius and celebrated Renaissance artist. You're a novice, but he has invited you to participate with him in painting "The  Creation of  Adam" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Your assignment is to fill in a tiny portion of a fold in the drapery behind the form of the Creator.  So you work for hours, lying on your back on a rickety, wooden scaffold, 65 feet off the chapel floor, wet lime plaster falling on your face and irritating your eyes, knowing that no one on earth will acknowledge your contribution.  But you will have added to the beauty of the whole. The painting would be incomplete without you.   Paul makes a remarkable statement in the text above, one easily lost in the misplaced chapter heading: "So then, we are working together with God."  God alone has reconciled the world to himself in the Cross. Now he stands with arms wide open to receive all who will come. Yet, though he has done all to bring salvation to us, he has given you "the ministry of reconciliation," to those who come your way. The picture will be incomplete without you.  "But, I'm old," you say—or a house-bound invalid, a hard-pressed mother, a weary care-giver, a retired pastor with time on his, or her hands. “I'm out of the picture. What part can I play?" You can love and you can pray—mighty works as it happens, when you're working together with God. David Roper 11.10.22