Our Holy God

I was skimming through an old book by Jim McGuiggen entitled The God of the Towel looking for a quote that I just knew was there. It evidently wasn’t there, but I got wrapped up in reading this wonderful book. I think everyone should be forced to read Jim McGuiggen… if they want to. (A little McGuiggenism there). I didn't find the quote I was looking for (that's OK, I'll make one up), but I did run across the following--

Can you imagine what a horror it would be to have a God who was not holy, who was not opposed to unrighteousness and uncleanness. Now that he has taught us and shown us what goodness is, wouldn’t it be horrific beyond speech to discover he cared nothing for kindness, compassion, uprightness, purity, generosity, and justice? But this is an ethical God who can be depended upon to make righteous judgments.

God can be trusted because he is always consistently against sin. A God who was not holy and not opposed to sin would be a tyrant who randomly imposed his law and power over us.  Earlier in the book, McGuiggen says, “A love that isn't holy can't be trusted, and a love that finds no offense in corruption and cruelty isn't holy.” We can trust the love of God because God can be trusted to be against sin. And if God is against sin, that means that he must be against MY sin.

The last thing that we we would want is a God who just overlooks sin.  If God can just ignore my sin, then he can just ignore your sin against me.  Or ignore the holocaust.  Or ignore all the sin in the universe.  But praise be to God that his perfect love and his perfect holiness meet at the cross where he both judges our sin and offers us mercy and grace. That is the only hope for mankind.

Identity Crisis

I got a call yesterday at lunch from one of our local funeral homes.  Lynn (home for a rare lunch together) took the call, handed me the phone, and then went back to work.  I only found out that night when we compared notes that the funeral home director (who has the same name as my grandmother) had begun the conversation, "Is your husband aware that one of his parishioners died today?"  Yikes! 

What she said when I took the phone was that a man who was not part of my church had been by last week to speak with me about his wife's impending death and funeral arrangements.  Well, I was fairly certain that I hadn't spoken to anyone like that (but with my memory, I wasn't totally sure).  What I thought was that Roger had talked with him and made arrangements to do the funeral.  Roger is always looking for ways to be able to preach more, so just I thought he had made the arrangements.  But that turned out not to be the case, so the whole thing remained a mystery.  I had told the funeral home I would be happy to help in anyway I could.

Later, she emailed me the obituary that would run in the newspaper the next day. and sure enough it listed "The Rev. Charles Tucker" as officiating at the funeral service Friday.  It finally dawned on me what was happening.  The obit said that the deceased was a member of Faith Presbyterian Church on Harpersville Road in Newport News.  So what didn't they ask her own preacher to do the funeral?  They had.  His name is Rev. Charles Tucker.  Someone had seen his name on their sign not long ago and had accused me of moonlighting as a Presbyterian.  I don't know how they funeral home got my home number, but they thought they had been talking to the other Charles Tucker the whole time.  I guess they wondered why I appeared to not know what was going on (Of course, I get that a lot!)  At any rate, I don't have a funeral this Friday.  More importantly, it is not the case that one of my church members died yesterday. 

Voted Off the Island

The church office just got a new copy of Churches of Christ in the United States. This is the “directory” of our churches listing contact information (address, phone numbers, email). This data was compiled first in the 1970’s by Mac Lynn of Harding Grad and then Lipscomb. The task was taken over some time ago by 21st Century Christian. We buy a copy ever several years so that people who are travelling or moving to an area can have a start on finding a church with which to worship. The directory really has been helpful at times. 

Where the book is NOT so helpful when it tries to decide who is a real Church of Christ. In the 2009 edition, the largest congregation among us is listed as having 2667 members. In the 2006 edition, our largest church had 6414 members? How did our largest church manage to loose over 4000 members? That’s easy-- they were removed from the book. The Richland Hills Church of Christ started offering an instrumental Sunday morning service (at 11:30 a.m.) in addition to its a cappella worship service (at 9:00 a.m.) Because they offer this instrumental service, they are were “booted off the island” (to quote Mike Cope). There aren't in the book.  They didn’t ask to be removed; they didn't want to be removed. They still very much consider themselves part of our fellowship. But “if the trumpet does not sound a clear call…” If you are traveling to Fort Worth, you won't find Richland Hills listed in the book anywhere.   I envision the opening scene of the old Chuck Connors TV show “Branded” where they rip the stripes off his uniform and break his sword as the theme song plays “What do you do when you’re branded…”

You can read more about this at the Christian Chronicle site.  Ironically, the lead story of this same edition of the Chronicle is entitled “Church in America Marked by Decline,” which laments the decline among the churches in our fellowship in America... as reported by the same directory!  We are booting people off the island on the one hand and moaning about getting smaller on the other. It stands to reason that if we keep drawing our circles smaller and smaller, there will be fewer and fewer who fit inside.

Aren’t we blessed that it is God who knows and keeps His own roll book. If some of the brethren kept it, when the roll is called up yonder, very few would be there!

Tennessee vs Texas

In Bible class last Sunday, I mentioned in passing the Tennessee and Texas traditions as they related to re-baptism of people coming into our churches from other tribes.  Back in the day, the opnion leaders in our movement were major religious periodicals and those who edited them.  Two contrasting and opposing views of the church where championed by The Gospel Advocate in Tennessee and the Firm Foundation in Texas.  The views represented in these two papers really did represent two very different views of the church.

Just in case you'd like a little more background, take a look at this article by John Mark Hicks.  He points out some of the differences in these two traditions through a editorial by George DeHoff in The Bible Banner in 1939 decrying the liberalism at Harding University.  DeHoff sarcastically talks about the things that he "learned" at Harding, things that he didn't really learn but is condemning.  John Mark does a good job showing through DeHoff's article this Texas vs Tennessee conflict, what he calls "the struggle for the soul of Churches of Christ."  While the more strident and narrow Texas tradition won the day (perhaps when Foy E. Wallace came from Texas to edit the Gospel Advocate in 1930), but the other tradition never died out.  Some of the current conflict in our churches can be understood as the legacy of these two traditions.

History

Newport News cancelled school today because it MIGHT snow this afternoon. It snows so rarely in our area that it generally doesn’t take much more than a dusting to cause people to panic. But it is unusual for them to cancel school before it actually starts snowing— especially when 9 times out of 10 when the weather people predict the snow, we don’t get any. Maybe it will snow, but that isn’t likely the reason they canceled school.

Today history is being made 3 hours up I-95 (it might take you a wee bit longer to drive it today). Not long after I post this, Barack Obama will become POTUS (President of the United States). The school system was already expecting half of their people to be out of school-- either in Washington itself or glued to their TV sets. Some of the people Lynn works with were going to Washington without tickets or even places to stay. History is going to be made today, and people want to be part of it. So when the weather man predicted a “probable snow storm” (which around here means “possible snow flakes”), the powers that be canceled school.

In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made the bizarre prediction in an interview with BBC that within the next 40 years “a Negro" would be elected president. His prediction was off by only 4 years! I know there are some who view the new administration with skepticism and cynicism. This is, after all, politics, and there are always different sides of the aisle. I read an interview with some Republicans from Wyoming, and they just couldn’t see the big deal!

But it is a big deal. The biggest disgrace of our history and the biggest cause of ongoing conflict in our country was slavery and the inequities that it brought. (Randy Tanner, who is part Native-American, would want me to add that there have been other national sins in our past). The presidency of Barack Obama will not end our struggle for equality and harmony among the races, but it does feel like a new beginning. That is why so many people are so excited about today. For the first time, someone who looks like them will be their leader. It does have the feel of history. May God bless our new president and his family and keep them safe. May this truly be a new beginning of a nation less divided.

We can use a new beginning. But ultimately, the dividing walls between people cannot be torn down by a president or a Constitution. That will take a cross.

Eye of the Beholder

In 1859, a scholar named Tischendorf was doing some research in the Holy Land collecting old manuscripts to be used in the study of ancient Greek. He asked the monks at an old monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai if they had any old documents he could study. He was given a bundle of old worthless documents that had literally been laying around collecting dust in a neglected corner of the monastery for centuries. No one knew what they were or from where they came. All they knew was that the documents were worthless, and they were more than happy to give them away.

As Tischendorf began reading the manuscripts, a fire began to burn within him that still burns to this day. What he was reading as we would read the Sunday paper was a complete copy of the Greek New Testament copied in the mid-fourth century, only 250 or so years after John put down his pen. It was and is the oldest complete copy of the Greek text in existence and the single most important document for the translation of the New Testament. What the monks saw as worthless was of incomparable value!

Value is in the eye of the beholder. What one person sees as worthless and boring, another recognizes as of infinite value and worth. The original readers of Hebrews were giving up on the church to return to the Judaism of their past. They were discouraged and bored with "feeble arms and weak knees" (Heb 12:12). So the writer asks them, “Don’t you know the value of what you are holding?” The power and value of Christianity is not found in its traditions or institutions or worship. It is in Christ. These discouraged Christians needed to see Jesus, so the Hebrews writer begins by asking them to take a fresh look--

1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:1-3)

The power of faith is not in finding the right church but the right Christ! May we never get so bogged down in the details of "doing church" that we loose sight of the majesty and glory that is the Christ who is its head! May we ever take a fresh look at Jesus to see the glory and majesty of the God that we serve. At those times when we get the most discouraged, may we turn our eyes upon Jesus!

And to All a Good Night

My blog entry this morning will be a real yawner (so what's new).  A yawner because I stayed up way too late last night watching the BCS Championship game.  After all the hype and debate of who should be there in the first place, Florida and Oklahoma put on a pretty good show as Florida won 24-14 in a much lower scoring game than expected.  I guess all the debate is over now as Florida was crowned the national champion.  After all, they beat the #1 ranked team two games in a row (Alabama and Oklahoma).  They beat the pre-season #1 ranked team (Georgia).  And they beat the defending national champ (LSU).  So all questions are answered.  Except what would Florida do against an undefeated Utah team that trounced Alabama? Or how would Florida fare against Texas, who looked better against Othan did Florida.  Or what would happen if Florida faced USC which looked for all the world like the best team in the land after the Rose Bowl.  In other words, the BCS championship game really answered nothing... except "What would happen if Oklahoma played Florida?"  But it was a good game, and I'm glad I watched it.  I just wish it would have started 3 hours or so earlier so I could have gone to bed on time. 

Test? What Test?

Years ago, several of us got into a discussion that could have been entitled “Goofy Things That Happened In School.”  We traded stories on things that had happened in college classes that were, well, goofy.

• Someone told of a professor at who fell asleep in the middle of his own lecture.  He sat at his desk, reading from notes and talked slower and slower until he was fell asleep.  Look up “boring” in the dictionary, and this guy’s picture is probably there!
  
  
• There was the time a kid fell asleep in Bible class at a Bible College.  The guy behind him woke him up and told him that he’d just been asked to lead the prayer.  So he jumped up and started praying.  Everyone was stunned.  When the prayer was over, the teacher said, "Uh... thank you."  And then went on with his lecture.
  
  
• My favorite was the class at Harding where the teacher really did ask one of the students to begin with the class with a prayer.  After praying for one thing and then another, the student said, “And Lord, please be with us today as we take this test…”  A panicked voice from the back blurted out in the middle of the prayer, “Test!  What test?”

We can all relate to that panicked student.  We’ve all been that panicked student.  If not in school, then in life.  Just when you think that you have everything under control,  there is a test.  It might be a heath problem, a career choice, a financial set-back, or a family crisis.  Whatever its form, the test comes suddenly and takes you by surprise.  We want to blurt out, “Test!  What test?”

James said, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him" (James 1:12).  Each day that we live is a test of what we say that we believe.  Does this faith stuff really work? Does what we say that we believe only apply in Sunday School and not in the real world.  Every day is a test of our faith.  Are you studying?

Commentary on Evangelism?

Penn Jillette is the front man for the comedy team of Pen and Teller. I have always thought these guys were extremely funny and creative, but then I had only seen them on broadcast TV. I thought George Carlin was hysterically funny when he was on the Tonight Show (and network censors were on pins and needles keeping him clean) but avoided him like the plague when he was uncensored and able to use his 7 words not allowed on TV. In the same way, Penn and Teller can evdidently be pretty crude and vulgar. (Why is that funny anyway?) As it turns out, Jillette Penn, like George Carlin, is an outspoken atheist and critic of religion. The duo features routines where they lampoon the Bible, Christians in general and the horse we rode in on. I must confess BOTH that this annoys me AND Christians often make it much easy to lampoon faith. Watch some of the stuff on Trinity Broadcasting and you know what I mean).

Imagine how surprised I was when I ran across this video of Penn Jillette talking about a man who waited for him after a show to give him a Bible.

Is there a message in there for us somewhere? Does the world view Christians as a bunch of kooks who condemnn everyone else and quoting the Bible, "The fool has said in his heart 'There is no God?" Or do they see us as basically good people who have been transformed by the message we believe and seek to HUMBLY share that message with others. It is unlikely that the gift of a Bible by a good and decent man will not be enough to change Jillette's mind. But people's hearts and minds are never going to be changed unless believers live as good people who humbly and sincerely live the Bible's precepts. If we really believe our message, then we will share it as best we can. Hey, even this evangelistic atheist expects us to share the message if we really believe it. People may be willing to listen if (and only if) they see the message in us. I think it was Francis of Assisi who said, "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”

Worship As Reality

It was bound to happen at some point. To be honest, I am surprised it hadn't happened before now. I woke up yesterday morning with a migraine or cluster or really-really-really bad headache. I don’t know what to call them because they have never been officially diagnosed; Mom called them "sick headaches" when I was growing up. Most people on Mom's side of the family get them-- they call it "the Copeland Curse." I call just them migraines because "bad headache" just doesn't do them justice. I don't get them that often, and I have never had a bad one on Sunday when I had to preach. Until yesterday. Yesterday morning I was hurting so bad that instead of reading through the full sermon like I usually do, I laid down in the auditorium beside the pulpit and slept for 25 minutes. (Hey, other people sleep through my sermons...).

But as the worship started, I really stopped thinking about how bad I was hurting. I forced myself to sing, and the more I did, the less distracting was my pain. By the time I got up to preach, I didn't even notice the headache at all. (I did notice that I hadn't "rehearsed" the material as much as I usually do). I got through the sermon and the rest of the service and felt uplifted and refocused by the experience. And then I went home and was miserable sick the rest of the day.

I guess I could chalk this up to adrenaline kicking in and getting me through the sermon, like the athlete who plays hurt. But I also believe that the worship itself was a distraction that got my focus off my immediate problem and centered me in the eternal. I know from experience that these headaches don't last forever, though they sometimes seem like they will. But the truths that we sang, prayed and communed about are eternal ands real. There was something about losing myself in worship that got me over the immediate pain.

Worship as a distraction? In reality, worship centers us on what is REAL and helps us not to focus so much on the distractions around us. Worship reminds us that "God is and all is well" even as we hurt. Asaph struggled when he saw the prosperity of godless, wicked people. This caused for him a faith crisis, "I had almost lost my foothold" (Psa 73:2). He goes on to discuss his envy of the wicked rich around him who thumbed their bose at God and seemed to prosper anyway. What transformed his thinking was worship. He writes, "till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny" (Psalm 73:17). Worship re-centered him in the reality that transcends the temporary pain and injustice of our world. Worship reminds us of what is real. In worship we sing, “I place you on the highest place…” In doing so, we remind ourselves that God is God over our pain, struggle, doubt and fear. Worship remind us of reality; worship becomes reality.