Aslan’s Tears

“Jesus wept.” —John 11:35

Digory, standing before the lion, Aslan, thought of his terminally ill Mother. A lump came to his throat and tears to his eyes, and he blurted out, “But please, please—won’t you—can’t you give me something that will cure Mother?” 

Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself. 'My son, my son,' said Asian. 'I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another.'"[1]

I think of Jesus' tears at Lazarus' grave. He “sobbed.” He wept for Lazarus, for Mary and Martha, and he weeps for your. Grief is great. Aslan knows. He will be good to you.

And, lest we forget, those we meet today have their own share of grief to bear. Grief is great. Let us be good to one another.

David Roper

4.30.19

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[1]C. S. Lewis’ The Magician's Nephew

The Alchemy of Grace

"(We are very bold), unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away" (2 Corinthians 3:13.)

Moses descended from Mount Sinai, his face suffused with beauty, a beauty so splendid that it bewildered his friends. So he placed a veil over his face to spare them. 

Paul, however, noted something in the text that others had missed: Moses kept the veil on his face after the glory had faded away. He was faking it. 

That's the problem with trying to keep a law of any kind. We can't keep up the effort and so must fake it. Self-effort makes us hypocrites in the end. 

There's a better way: "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory (beauty) of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory (beauty) to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians. 3:18).

Paul says that we all are being transformed.” No one is too far lost and too far gone. 

We all are being transformed,” a passive verb. Change is not through self-effort but through the agency of Another. (You only have to ask Him.) 

"We all are being transformed" (metamorphoô), a Greek verb from which we take our English noun "metamorphosis," a word that suggests that magical process by which ugly, repulsive grubs are transformed into beautiful butterflies. This is the alchemy of grace. 

David Roper

The Lord is at Hand

“Let your moderation be known to all men; the Lord is at hand.” (Philippians 4:5)

I have a friend who always reads the last chapter first when she starts a new thriller.  “Takes the anxiety out of reading,” she claims. So with us: If we know the end of the story, we can be centers of peace in the midst of utter chaos, calm in the face of disaster. 

Paul calls that attitude, “moderation”—a term that’s difficult to translate into English, but one that implies an easy-going demeanor. It refers to the calm and deliberate strength with which we meet the disquieting circumstances of our days. Kingdoms may fall, friends and spouses may falter, churches may fold, the wrong party may win the next election, the globe may warm up, the oceans may rise and cities may crumble into the sea, but we can be at peace.

And how do we maintain such composure? By remembering that, “the Lord is at hand. At any moment our Lord may burst through the door and turn everything right side up. Then this world and all its troubles will become the kingdom of our Lord, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea. 

Jesus said it could happen very soon! Today could be the day! It’s the very last thing he said, in the very last chapter of the Bible (Revelation 22:20). Last words, as they say, are lasting words.  

There’s an old saying: “If you can keep your head when others are losing theirs, you don’t understand the situation.” There’s another saying that’s equally true: “If you can keep your head when others are losing theirs, you do understand the situation.” You’ve read the last chapter in the book!

David Roper

4.24.19

Playing the Fool

“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

My most humiliating experience EVER was the day I addressed the faculty, students, board members and friends of my seminary on the occasion of the fifty-year anniversary of its founding. I had been asked to speak on the subject: “What We Can Expect From Our Culture In The Next Ten Years.” Why they asked me to speak on that topic I will never know. I’m not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet. 

I approached the lectern that morning with my manuscript in   hand and looked out on a sea of a thousand or more friendly faces, but my eye then fell on a row of distinguished professors seated on the front row, garbed in academic capes and gowns and looking very serious. I immediately took leave of my senses. 

My mouth dried up and detached itself from my brain. I fumbled the first few sentences of my lecture and then for some inexplicable reason, I began to extemporize. Then, since, I had no idea where I was in the manuscript, I began to turn pages frantically, looking for my place, while talking a line of nonsense that baffled everyone. The perigee came when one of my professors put his pen and notepad away and closed his eyes. I hoped against hope that he was praying for me.

Somehow, I made it through the rest of the lecture, crept back to my chair, sat down in it (though I wanted to crawl under it) and stared at the floor. The emcee got up and mumbled, “That was….um…an interesting example of…um…exposition.”  

I wanted to die. 

I must say, however that humiliation is good for the soul if it leads us to humble ourselves, for humility is the key that opens God’s heart. He himself has said, “This is the man to whom I look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). God resists the proud, but he cannot resist the humble. He showers them with grace. 

Humiliation and shame bring us to God for his shaping. When we fall, we have fallen into his hands. 

David Roper

4.21.19

The Dumbest Philosophy In The World

"What is most desirable in a human being is love” (Proverbs 19:22) 

The dumbest philosophy in the world is the idea that we’re sent into this world to make a lot of money, accumulate a lot of stuff and retire in style. It's a belief that's certain to end in dissatisfaction and disaster, yet it permeates and drives our culture. 

No, love is what we're all about. Jewish exegete Rashi said that this proverb (19;22) tells us that love is what marks a man as a man. If we’re not learning to love God and our neighbor—a virtue that takes an entire lifetime to learn—no matter what else we may accomplish, we will have missed the purpose for which we were created and wasted our entire lives. ”We will have made all A's but flunked life,” educator and philosopher Walker Percy said.

Love is an exotic. It doesn't occur naturally in human nature. Only God is love. We have to get it from him. Love can come from us, but only as it first comes from him. We love because he first loved us. ”Grace perfects nature,” Saint Thomas said, and that goes for human nature as well.

So, stay close to God all day and keep asking him to pour his love into your heart so you can pour it out to others (Romans 5:5). The end is peace and joy. 

BTW: Love is something you can do even when you’re very, very old. 

David Roper

4.20.19

The Divine-Human Endeavor

"And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have sanctified this house which you built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually" (1 Kings 9:3 NKJV).

Here is the mystery of divine-human endeavor: Solomon "built" the house: He hired artisans and architects from Tyre, gathered exotic building materials from afar, erected the structure, crafted the furniture, embellished the walls and pillars with sheets of hammered gold—but the house was just another house until God made it holy. 

We labor over a text to understand it, utilizing the exegetical tools at our disposal, crafting our thoughts to maintain the integrity of the text, thinking through the needs of our people and linking truth to life. But our words amount to nothing if God does not invest them with holiness.

We envision a mission, impart the vision, train the workers, send them into the field and support them as they carry on the work. But it's wasted effort if God does not imbue that work with holiness. 

And how do we bring God's holiness into our work? Through prayer (9:3). Prayer is the highest expression of our utter dependence on God and the means by which we work in concert with Him. It is the way he puts his name on all that we do. Apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5).  

David Roper

4.19.19

Winning the Prize

"Do you remember how, on a racing-track, every competitor runs, but only one wins the prize? Well, you ought to run with your minds fixed on winning the prize! Every competitor in athletic events goes into serious training. Athletes will take tremendous pains—for a fading crown of leaves. But our contest is for a crown that will never fade" (1 Corinthians 9:25, 26, J.B. Phillips).

I ran track in high school—100 and 200 meter hurdles. When I got to college, however, I realized that almost everyone in the Southwest Conference could run faster than I and turned in my spikes at the end of my freshman year.

One thing I learned at that level: "Every competitor in athletic events goes into serioustraining."

That analogy is often applied to the Christian life with inducements to establish a set of dreary asceticisms like rising at 4:00 a.m. to pray, a "discipline" that only made me grouchy. Thankfully, however, that's not how Paul applies it.

Paul argues that though we have been endowed with certain inalienable rights, we can, out of our love for Jesus, impose limits on ourselves—discipline ourselves, if you will—to give up those rights in order to bring others closer to him, which is what Paul means when he writes, "I run the race with determination. I am no shadow-boxer, I really fight!"(9:27). (Here Paul uses a technical boxing term that evokes memories of  Mammy Yoakum's fabled "Goodnight Irene" knockout punch.)

Stern discipline indeed: To set aside our rights to gain the greatest prize—the spiritual good of another. It's what Jesus did: He set aside his rights as Almighty God and humbled himself to bring salvation to us. He was willing to give up life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and every other right to seek our highest good. There is no greater discipline. There is no greater love.

David Roper

4.16.19