Love Finds a Way

“Love never dies.’ (1 Corinthians 12:8 The Message)

Years ago I saw a cartoon in the New Yorker Magazine that depicted a sour, disgruntled, elderly gentleman standing in rumpled pajamas and robe at his apartment door. He had just secured the door for the night with four locks, two deadbolts and a chain latch. Later he noticed a small white envelope stuck beneath the door. On the envelope was a large sticker in the shape of a heart. It was a valentine. Love had found a way.

We ought to have a reason for the hope that’s in us, Paul says, but reason alone can never change another person’s heart. Only love can.

(Do you recall Dostoevsky’s parable of The Grand Inquisitor and Ivan Karamazov’s arguments against the love of God? His brother Alyosha did not debate the issue. He simply leaned over and kissed Ivan—a “line of reasoning” that burned its way into Ivan’s heart.)

Folks don’t believe much in God’s love these days. We have to show it to them—incarnate it, as God did in Jesus. In that way we can—so to speak—help him bring salvation into the world.

Authentic love, however, is not the matter of a moment, a month or a year. It is eternal: “Love never dies!” It is the gift that we keep on giving.

DHR

11/22/11

Poor Preachers


Judge not the preacher for he is thy judge
If you mislike him, thou conceiv’st him not
God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge
To pick out treasures from an earthen pot.
            The worst speak something good: if all want sense,
God takes a text and preacheth patience. 


—George Herbert

Years ago I heard about a young minister who asked a local auto mechanic to give him a special rate to fix his car. “I’m a poor preacher,” the young man explained.

“Yes, I know,” the mechanic replied. “I heard you preach last Sunday.”

Perhaps you have a “poor preacher.” So he isn’t polished and articulate, the most artful guy around. Don’t judge him harshly. If you do, it may be because you don’t understand God’s purposes. Despite the text your pastor may have chosen, God has his own text in mind.

Look for the nugget in the rubble. "The worst speak something good” now and then. Listen to the message carefully—try not to let your mind drift away—and ask God to give you one thought that will transform your thoughts and your heart. Jot it down, take it home and think about it throughout the day.

If nothing else, you may learn patience, that hardest of all virtues to acquire.

DHR

Logos

“The lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song... Polly was finding the song more and more interesting because she thought she was beginning to see the connection between the music and the things that were happening. When a line of dark firs sprang up on a ridge about a hundred yards away she felt that they were connected with a series of deep, prolonged notes which the Lion had sung a second before. And when he burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primroses suddenly appearing in every direction. Thus, with an unspeakable thrill, she felt quite certain that all the things were coming (as she said) “out of the Lion’s head.” When you listened to his song you heard the things he was making up: when you looked round you, you saw them” (C.S. Lewis Magicians Nephew p.126).

C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

I love this time of the year: the first skiff of snow on the mountains, Canadian geese circling, gathering strength for their journey south, the extravagant patchwork of multihued leaves overhead and strewn across the forest floor. I echo the poet, “Whence comes this beauty?”

Plato, the Greek philosopher, concluded that there must be an “idea” behind every beautiful thing. Before there could be a beautiful object, there must be the thought of the object that preceded its being. And if that thought exists, there must be a mind that conceived it and then spoke it into existence. These three transcendent realities—a divine mind, an idea, an utterance—Plato combined into one and named it “Logos” (the Word).

Plato was very near the truth, so near, in fact, that early Christians referred to him as “one of our own.” But though he caught a glimpse of “the light that enlightens every man,” he did not fully comprehend it. Something more was needed, something tremendous, something yet to come, something the wisdom of man could not conceive: “The Word (Logos) became flesh and dwelled among us …” (John 1:14). The divine Logos and a mortal man came to bear one name: Jesus—“immensity contracted to a span.” This is what Christians call the Incarnation, the final, irrefutable proof that God really, really cares.

John speaks of the Logos in a most personal way: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled—(this was) the Word (Logos)!” (1 John 1:1).

John was stunned by the thought that he actually saw Plato’s Logos, and held him in his hands.[1] The one who made up the universe “out of his head” and spoke it (or sang it!) into existence was “pleased as man with men to dwell.” Why did He do it?

It was love—pure and simple.

DHR

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[1] The Greek word translated “handled” suggests something more than a tentative touch. It has the thought of familiarity and affection—perhaps a hug. 

Rage

Sing, muse, sing of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus—that murderous anger which condemned Achaeans to countless agonies and threw many warrior souls deep into Hades, leaving their dead bodies carrion food for dogs and birds—

—Homer, The Iliad

Homer hangs the key to The Iliad on the front door. The first word in the Greek text is, “Rage!” The rest of the poem traces the tragic results of Achilles’ fury—the terrible loss of human life, the “countless agonies” that befell the Achaeans (Greeks)—all because Achilles would not give up his murderous rage.

James writes, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be… slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (James 1:19,20).

There is a place for anger: Injustice directed at others ought to outrage us, but rage and revenge to redress the wrongs that you and I receive will never achieve the righteous purposes of God. We must commit ourselves to the only one who judges justly, and let him defend us from wrong.

Paul writes, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12.19).[1] This is not weakness; it is strength under control—a steadfast refusal to defend oneself and “give place to wrath,” i.e., step aside so God can work. This is meekness, the mark of a true child of God (Matthew 5:5).

Keep me from wrath, let it seem ever so right:

My wrath will never work thy righteousness.

Up, up the hill, to the whiter than snow-shine,

Help me to climb, and dwell in pardon’s light.

I must be pure as thou, or ever less

Than thy design of me--therefore incline

My heart to take men’s wrongs as thou tak’st mine.

              —George MacDonald

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[1] Jude speaks of the inevitable judgment of evil, but issues this caveat: “Even Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil…dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 8).

Star Shepherd

“Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these…” (Isaiah 40:26)

Some night, when you’re away from the lights of the city, look up. There in the heavens you’ll see a luminous band of stars, stretching from horizon to horizon, the “Milky Way”—our galaxy.

Our galaxy is a massive, flattened, rotating disk of stars 80,000 light years in diameter. If you could travel at the speed of light (approximately 186,000 miles per second) it would require 80,000 years to traverse our galaxy. It contains about 400 billion stars.

In 1995 two astronomers in Baltimore, Md. conducted what became known as the Hubble Deep Field Study: They took an exposure of a small patch of sky and discovered over 3000 galaxies (not stars, galaxies) in that tiny portion of space. Based on that discovery, astronomers now estimate that there are more than a trillion galaxies in the cosmos, each containing billions of stars!

Yet, each night, without fail, God “brings out their host by number …He knows them all by name. By the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one is missing” (Isaiah 40:26).

Sometimes, when I fly into a large city, and see innumerable lights below I wonder how God can possibly care about me. I think, “My way is hidden from the Lord”  (Isaiah 40:27). Perhaps you do too.

Please know that the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the one who names and numbers the stars knows you by name!

You will never be forgotten.

DHR

As in a mirror

The Readiness is All

—Hamlet

Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd opens with a farmer, Gabriel Oak, spying on a young woman from his hiding place in the woods. She gazes at her face in a mirror and smiles to herself, fully satisfied with her appearance. “She did not adjust her hat, or pat her hair, or press a dimple into shape… She simply observed herself as a fair product of Nature in the feminine kind.” Gabriel’s terse assessment: “Vanity.”

I think of James’ comparison: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”[1]

Obedience is not agreeing with truth and intending to do it. It’s doing what God asks us to do as soon as possible. He does not ask us to do everything at once, and he does not ask us to do things that are impossible to do. Nor does he ask us to do anything by ourselves. He is within us to will and to do his good pleasure.

But he does ask, and sometimes he asks very hard things. It’s no good merely wanting to do them. “Good intentions must take advantage of their first ripeness,” George MacDonald wrote. Otherwise we may one day cease to have any good intentions at all. 

Why, then, do I fail to act? Vanity. I see my face in the mirror and smile to myself, fully satisfied with my appearance. Pride has blinded me to the need for alteration. The answer, as James continues, is to “receive with meekness the implanted word” (James 1:21). The word must fall into a humble heart.

So, I must ask God for the humility to look into my heart and take heed to his words. Then I must make a start and ask Him to perfect it. He waits to be gracious.

DHR

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[1] James 1:22,23 The Message

The Grapes of Wrath

“Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!” (Psalm 58:6)

What can we say about the so-called imprecatory psalms—poems that breathe out vengeance and reprisal? Can we justly pray that God will break the teeth of the wicked and leave them like toothless tigers?

Of course we can. The New Testament speaks of a day of reckoning when God will judge evil and set everything right and we can pray for that day to arrive. God allows tyranny to run its course because, among other reasons, he is not willing that any should perish,[1] but tyrants will have their comeuppance. There is a God who judges the earth: A day is coming when He will send out his angels with their razor sharp scythes, “to gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, and throw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God (Revelation 14:18ff). We can pray that God will hasten that day.

But Jesus made it very clear that we must never avenge ourselves and these prayers should never be used for personal revenge. “The prayer for the vengeance of God is the prayer for the execution of his righteousness in the judgment of sin.”[2] These petitions are valid only for those who wish to see justice upheld and God's glory manifest in the world.  

In the meantime, we are called to overcome evil with good. The weapons of our warfare are not retaliation, but love, personal righteousness, prayer, faith and patience. We must do all we can to act justly and bring justice to our sphere of influence, but then we must wait for the day God has appointed to set all things right. He will do so in due time.  “Vengeance is mine,” God has said, “I will repay” (Romans 12:19). Then, men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely He is God who judges in the earth” (Psalms 58:11).[3]

To be sure, we may suffer while God delays. The harvest of righteousness is almost always sown in trial and tears and we must wait in patience for God’s day to come (James 5:1-11). But it will come and then the whole earth will be filled with justice and “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

So, we must not fret over the actions of lawless, ruthless men and women.[4] God is doing all things well.  

He is working out his purpose

      'spite of all that happens here.

Lawless nations in commotion,

      restless like a storm-tossed ocean.

He controls their rage and fury

      so his children need not fear.

Let our hearts then turn to heaven  

      where he bides his time in peace

Giving him our heart's devotion

      till the present troubles cease.

DHR

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[1] 58:3 “They (tyrants) go astray as soon as they are born…” may be a gentle reminder that we are all little tyrants at birth…

[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible

[3] There is a subtle twist in this verse that doesn’t appear in translation. The subject of the sentence is elohim (gods) and the verb “judges” is a plural participle, which suggests the reading, “Surely, the gods are judging…” This may be nothing more than an acknowledgement by unbelievers that we live in a just world.

[4] Nor should we speak evil of our rulers. Peter’s instruction is very clear: we must “honor the king” (1 Peter 2:7). It’s worth noting that the “king” in Peter’s day was Nero or Galba, two notoriously evil rulers. Media hosts and others may entice us to harsh rhetoric, but we must never speak of our leaders as they do, nor should we repeat their slanders. We may choose to vote evil–doers out of office, but while they hold that office we must honor them and show them due respect (“It is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people’” Acts 23:5). And may I add, we should never attribute evil motives to our leaders unless they reveal them. It is slanderous to attribute subversive motivations without confirmation. We cannot know the secrets of the heart. An inspired Apostle enjoins us to, “judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts…” (1 Corinthians 4:5). Only God knows the heart.