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Tag: death

Even So

March 22, 2018 /

burning match

Dear Friends,

The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found in Daniel 3 has always intrigued me.  In the story, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, a man with significant leadership issues, concocts a scheme to construct a giant gold statue, place it in the plain of Dura, and then command all of the people to bow down and worship his golden abomination. Those who failed to bow down and worship the golden figure were to be given the opportunity be special guests in the king’s sauna of fire.

Three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, exiles from Isreal, are not too keen on this new plan of the monarch. They unequivocally refuse to bow down to worship the shiny man because to do so would be an anathema to their God. This royally ticks off the king who forgets everything he learned in his years of therapy for anger management issues and he orders the three men to be thrown into the blazing furnace but just to make sure the men are really dead dead and not just dead he orders the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal. Unfortunately, this story happened in the days before OSHA. The heat from the furnace was so extreme it killed the soldiers who had been given the charge to toss the three men into the furnace. We all know how the story ends. Once they are tossed into the furnace the three men are joined by a fourth for a little furnace warming party. When the festivities are over, the original three walk out of the furnace without a scorch to a hair on their head or even the smell of fire on their clothes.

What fascinates me most about this story is not their miraculous deliverance from the furnace, as amazing as that is, but the speech they give to Nebuchadnezzar just prior to his attempted murder. With defiant courage they boldly declare to the king, ” If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand” (vs. 17). That had to take some major chutzpa to declare with such confidence their deliverance to the king who was about to have them burned alive. It is their next words that are the words of dazzling faith, “But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (vs. 18). That’s unconditional faith.

How often do we pray with conditional faith? Conditional faith is a faith that says to God, “I will worship and follow you so long as you __________.” There are so many things we could finish the sentence with:

So long as nothing bad happens.

So long as I get to live the way I want.

So long as you give me what I want.

So long as you don’t ask me to give up anything or move to another country or change jobs.

Our three friends have a very different kind of faith. Their unconditional faith recognizes our ways are not God’s ways and his plans are not our plans, and even when things don’t go the way we would want them to we will still worship God.  Their faith says:

God, I know you are are able to rescue me from the furnace, but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to heal this sickness but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to provide me a better job, a new house, a car that runs but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to mend my broken relationships but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to take this depression, darkness, and anxiety from me but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you can remove the cancer from my body but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are the one who raises the dead but even if you don’t rescue me from death (my own death or that of someone I love) I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to prevent wars and famines but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

This is the profound faith in God demonstrated to us by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their faith in God remained unchanged even if God didn’t “come through” but what about us?

Blessings,
Stephen

Courage in the Place of Our Death

March 23, 2016 /

tangled vine

On February 29 of this year, Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Edward C. Byers Jr. was awarded our military’s highest honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, having already been awarded the Bronze Start five times for bravery and the purple heart twice for being wounded in combat. Here is just a portion of the text of his commendation:

Chief Byers, completely aware of the imminent threat, fearlessly rushed into the room and engaged an enemy guard aiming an AK-47 at him. He then tackled another adult male who had darted towards the corner of the room. During the ensuing hand-to-hand struggle, Chief Byers confirmed the man was not the hostage and engaged him. As other rescue team members called out to the hostage, Chief Byers heard a voice respond in English and raced toward it. He jumped atop the American hostage and shielded him from the high volume of fire within the small room. While covering the hostage with his body, Chief Byers immobilized another guard with his bare hands, and restrained the guard . . .His bold and decisive actions under fire saved the lives of the hostage and several of his teammates. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of near certain death, Chief Petty Officer Byers reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

During most of the hours of our days there is little opportunity to be either a coward or a hero. We eat our meals, do our work, chat with friends and passing strangers. Nothing significant really happens. John Eldridge says that every man is haunted by the question, “Do I have what it takes?” We wonder if we would have the courage to stand-up if the need were to arise. I think it is one the reasons action movies and combat video games are so popular with men. it allows us to live vicariously a life our soul tell us we could never live.

Rarely in life do we have moments of true courage. Rarely are we called to sacrifice ourselves for something that could truly cost us.

At the cross, we are confronted. The cross is the place of our redemption but it is also the place of our undoing. At the cross, we are confronted with the question “Do you have the courage to be changed?”

At the cross, all are welcomed as they are, where they are. But at the cross none are allowed to stay as they are, where they are. Everyone is expected to change. Everyone is presented with the option to change and asked if they have the courage to do so.

On the day of Jesus’ death a man named Joseph of Arimathea was confronted by the cross. He had been a secret follower of Jesus but now he was challenged to come out of the shadows. It is easy to be a follower of Jesus when the crowds are chanting “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” It is quite another to come forward and risk everything for a dead man and lost dream.

Joseph was a prominent man in the community. A wealthy, successful man who had been elected to the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish ruling body. The easiest thing for him to do was to remain in the shadows, no one had to know he had ever hoped in this man. But the cross confronted him to come out. Joseph was needed to take courage and come before Pilate and ask for Jesus’ body. Joseph was needed to take courage bury the body of Jesus in the tomb that had been prepared for Joseph.

There is an irony to this story. Into the place of Joseph’s death he placed the Lord of Life and by doing so Joseph received life. What seemed like a step that stood the chance of costing him everything actually gave him more than he could have hoped for. But first, he had to have the courage to come out of the shadows and allow life to enter his place of death.

Each of us have places of death in our life. Areas of darkness no one is allowed to see. Areas prepared for our death and undoing. Areas we will never voluntarily go. It is to these areas the cross calls us to take courage. Will we have the courage to put the Lord of Life into these places? We know something that Joseph could not have known that day: The impossible promise of resurrection and life, if we will allow Jesus into our place of death.

Will you do it? It will take more courage than you ever thought you had.

Stephen

 

 

 

Giving credit where it is due:
The concept for this series of blog posts and its accompanying sermon series draw from the masterful work, Seven Words to the Cross: A Lenten Study for Adults by J. Ellsworth Kalas.

An unlikely person of faith

March 8, 2016 /

three crosses at sunrise

Faith sometimes comes in unlikely places, in unlikely ways, in unlikely people. No person in history may have had a more unlikely experience of faith than the man who hung on the cross beside Jesus. Suffering his own just punishment, as he would describe it, he would be the first to see Jesus’ death on the cross as something more than a great hopeless tragedy. The Roman Centurion would witness Jesus’ death and declare, “Surely this man was the Son of God” but there is no indication his statement was anything more than observing a tragic loss or that had any future significance for the life of the centurion.

Peter had at one time declared of Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” but he was nowhere to be found on this day having fled with the other disciples. No, the first man to see Jesus’ death as victory would be the man hanging beside him. In simple, incredible words he would make his request of Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” In response to this man’s incredible faith, he would hear Jesus’ words “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Salvation had come to the man suffering beside Jesus.

What happened to the thief hanging beside Jesus in the next moments? Did anything change for him? In one respect, no. Nothing changed for this man. He still hung on a cross, people still hurled insults at him. Salvation came, but suffering did not end. He was not in that moment lifted from the cross. He did not even experience a quicker, easier death. His body still writhed in pain and as the shadows grew long his legs would still be broken to speed his death. Nothing changed and yet everything changed. This man could know in his heart that his death was not the end. He might say as Paul does in 1 Corinthians, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting” (15:55)?

As Christians, we are often tempted to paint faith as a “Get out of Jail Free Card” on human suffering and trials. While we may not say it so explicitly, we live as though we believe if we only say a little prayer then any problems we might have in this life will be magically taken from us and we will live life in perfect harmony. How do I know this? Because we panic when suffering comes and have a crisis in our faith. Faith doesn’t take away pain. Faith changes the lens through which we see our pain. Faith did not take away the man on the cross’ pain. Faith enabled him to see his pain through the lens of Jesus’ promise to be with him in paradise.

John Wesley would say of early Methodists, “Our people die well.” So did the thief. He died well because he had met the Lord of life. May we not only die well but live well, living life through the lens of the promise that “weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5) for in the morning, Jesus says, you will be with me in paradise.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

 

Giving credit where it is due:
The concept for this series of blog posts and its accompanying sermon series draw from the masterful work, Seven Words to the Cross: A Lenten Study for Adults by J. Ellsworth Kalas.

When generations clash

February 3, 2015 /

generations

When generations clash the younger one always wins . . . eventually. It is a simple fact of life and death. Now matter how great the fight put up by the older generation, the younger will always outlive it. So those of us who come before are left with a choice. We can choose to build systems and structures for ourselves or those for the generations that follow. We get to choose whether we will build legacies that must be torn down by the generations that follow us or legacies which are a solid foundation on which they can build.

It’s our choice. What choice are we going to make?

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