Peace

Peace.  Certainly singable, it is also generally agreeable that, as Jackie Shannon sang in 1965: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” But a necessary precursor to love is peace. Love could walk up to our door and knock, but it is peace who opens the lock and welcomes love inside. However, real peace and genuine love are in short supply on earth. What the world has now is hate, bitter hate. The wars that exist in various places are merely the inevitable ramifications of hate-filled hearts. “Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!” (Psa. 120:6-7).

At best, peace is elusive. It appears here or there in pockets, but it is rarely a constant companion if peace is defined as warlessness. Even the famous Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome, that covered the ancient Mediterranean World from 27 BC to 180 AD was enforced by the unrivaled Roman Army who, on their extensive road system, could travel anywhere in a few days, squashing mercilessly any whiff of uprising. Is that peace? It seems like thuggery.

Biblically speaking, peace is not the cessation of hostilities but the relational and spiritual harmony with God, self, others, and even the created world. Peace is a Person. “For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Eph 2:14-17). It is Christ who brings to earth the peace from God (Eph. 1:2), who makes peace with God (Rom. 5:1), who offers the peace of God which passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7), because he is the God of Peace (Phil. 4:9).

Everyone's Got a Plan

Everyone’s Got a Plan.  “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face” (Mike Tyson). I had a plan for this year, sort of a lighthearted resolution, but I got punched in the face. This was the year to dust off my good camera and carry it with me, resuming my interest in amateur photography. Many things last year made me regret not always having my good camera with me, like many unexpected Americana landscapes across all four seasons of the year, lovely old barns, wildlife, and still shots of the “sound of freedom” near the end of the runway of the 4th Fighter Wing.

Alas, I didn’t have my good camera as I drove to church this morning. For the first time in my life, I saw a bald eagle finishing his breakfast barely 15 feet off the road. He was impossible to miss, but I missed my chance. My dinky camera phone was inadequate, even though I turned around and pulled over. Opportunity lost: the blurry eagle image looked like a large chicken.

So, I’m starting off 2025 with photographic regret. But what will I do with this self-inflicted punch in the face? Will I freeze, quit, or adapt? Regret can be a huge motivator! I will adapt, optimistically, that my next fifty years will see another bald eagle in the wild, 15 feet away. Have you already broken a New Year’s resolution, too? Were you caught unready for the opportunity? Will you consume the rest of the cake because you already ate one piece too many? Will you crumple up your plan because you got punched in the face? No! The point of the plan is not to attain perfection but to retain pliability to variables outside the plan.

A plan without flexibility is rigid; it has a glass jaw to continue with the boxing phraseology. Or, as Solomon in Proverbs 16:9 wrote: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps,” which sounds a lot like the Yiddish saying, “Man plans and God laughs.” A wooden translation of the biblical proverb shows its agility: The heart of man himself reckons his road, but the Lord fixes his life-course. God grants genuine though limited agency to us to “live, move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28b), but we do not exist in an open system absolutely. We are contained “in him” (Acts 17:28a). Based on the available data, wise and capable humans should make their plans, but it is the Lord who steers their paths according to his grand purpose, even when they get punched in the face. Punches do not surprise God!

Making a plan is neither wrong nor unwise, but worshiping a plan is both. In life, we should carefully navigate the landmarks and negotiate the terrain with advanced thought. But by faith, we understand that God moves or removes the whole map according to his good pleasure. God does not mock our plan, though he holds every right to mock our belief in it when it eclipses his sovereignty. That is why, whichever plans we might activate, it must be our primary purpose to know God as we are known by him, and to make him known by others.

Happy New Year

Psalm 90:1-17 – A Prayer of Moses, the man of God 

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 

2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

3 You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" 

4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 

5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 

6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 

7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. 

8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 

9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 

10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 

11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 

12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 

13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! 

14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 

16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 

17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Merry Christmas

Luke 2:1-20 – The Birth of Christ

1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 

2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 

3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 

5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 

6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 

7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 

9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 

10 And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." 

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 

14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" 

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." 

16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 

17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 

18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 

19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Do You Hear What I Hear?  A minor theme every Christmas in our modern era is how soon the Christmas carols will begin playing on the radio. Whether it is November 1st or 24th or December 1st or 24th makes no difference, as soon as I hear Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, the Christmas season has begun. Next year, it might begin on October 1st or July 24th.

One backfire effect, however, with starting Christmas music early is that the sooner it starts the sooner it is over. Human ears seem able to handle a maximum of four weeks of Christmas. Suffice it to say, I’ve been done (audibly) with Christmas since about November 30th, which probably makes me a Scrooge, a Grinch, or a cotton-headed-ninny-muggins! 

Yet, there are still a few surprises out there in Christmas Carol territory, like the country classic by Skip Ewing, Christmas Carol, which I had never heard before yesterday. Or the rather bland carol, So This Is Christmas, which I had often heard but never associated with the post-Beatles John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “So this is Christmas. And what have you done? Another year over. And a new one just begun.” If nurses develop something called Alarm Deafness from hearing bed alarms too often during their shifts so that their brains cease registering alarms of any kind, then maybe Christmasers can develop Carol Deafness.

But this year, all joking aside, Christmas also coincides with the culmination of our 30-week preaching series on the parables of our Lord. Sprinkled into the parables about ten times is a phrase that speaks not of Carol Deafness but of Truth Deafness. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15). This deafness to truth resides not in the ear, or even the brain, but in the spiritual heart. “For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Matt. 13:15). Graciously, when someone hears the truth, there is no unhearing it. Tragically, when someone cannot (or will not) hear the truth, there is no human method to awaken that person’s spiritual heart to hear it. Opening the ear, physically and spiritually, is a characteristic that only Messiah possesses. “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt. 11:5). For those who disbelieve, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day” (Rom. 11:8).

So then, this Christmastime, do you hear what I hear? Even tucked away in trite Christmas carols that celebrate the glitter but cannot discern the gospel, do you hear what I hear? Bands that might have become famous for their irreverence sometimes sing on their Christmas singles, “Hark the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the Newborn King.’” Jazz playing in the elevator might plunk down the melody, “This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.” Little drummer boys lay down the beat that bring some to worship.

Opportunities (cont'd): Reinvigorate Our Prayer

Opportunities (cont’d): Reinvigorate Our Prayer.  Our current financial struggle is not an obstacle but an opportunity (11/20) to review our vision (11/27), renew our strength (12/4), and reinvigorate our prayer (12/11). 

As it is with individuals, families, corporations, and countries, being a church involves far more parts that we cannot control or could ever change than pieces which we can control and change. Even still, the few pieces over which we have limited control for minimal change are only possible because God entrusts those pieces to us and enables us to meet them faithfully. By praying, we learn first and often that God is God, and we are not. For instance, we cannot reverse global recession, predict job transferals, or divert hurricanes. We could never change where people live in Wayne County, how far they might be willing to drive to go to church, or what they prioritize for joining a church. All the while, the truck bed rusts out, the tooth needs a cavity filled, the grandbaby needs a larger car seat. We have no access to the machine room that operates life’s levers, but we know the Lord who does. So, let’s pray!

Prayer is not our last resort to try when all else fails but our first impulse of faith. By praying, we lean into our faith-relationship with God. God initiates: he speaks to us through his Word; we respond to him through our prayers. This is not circular reasoning but centripetal force; praying draws us into the center, the axis around which all our prayers spin, namely, God himself. We depend upon God to fuel even our dependence upon God! We pray not to get God’s attention; we pray because we have God’s attention through the merits of Christ. With prayer, we are transformed by God to want the same things that God wants. That is why, when we pray in Jesus’ name for the very things that God already wants to provide that we are guaranteed to receive what we ask. The abiding relationship is primary, the result of that abiding relationship is ancillary. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:7-8). Prayer changes us!

So then, how shall we pray? First, we pray by faith, believing God is exactly as he described himself to be in the Scriptures. Second, we pray in joy, understanding that God happily gives us his undivided attention when we pray. Third, we pray unto obedience. No matter the outcome, we were commanded to pray as the Bible explains prayer to be, distancing it from its various misuses. Fourth, we pray with unity. Most of the praying in Scripture is collective, such as, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). 

Those form four edges to our prayer playground, so to speak. Within that defined space we can freely move.

Opportunities (cont'd): Renew Our Strength

Opportunities (cont’d): Renew Our Strength.  “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1 Cor. 1:26). This is not a suggestion but a command to evaluate your calling deeply. Compare Christ’s calling of his people against the world’s selection of its VIPs.

The world selects its influencers just like Israel selected its first king. Saul was a son of wealth, handsome, young, and tall (1 Sam. 9:1-2), but he was never virtuous. The people’s selection of Saul and God’s calling of David diverge widely. While David was young and handsome (1 Sam. 16:12) like Saul was, he was neither wealthy nor tall, oddly called “ruddy,” reddish (1 Sam. 16:12; 17:42). Though imperfect, David was strong at heart. He was virtuous.

Perhaps no better showcase exists of the Lord’s calling of David versus the people’s selection of Saul than in the Valley of Elah. Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, shouted his challenge for a warrior to fight him. “Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me” (1 Sam. 17:8). The people had selected Saul precisely for that reason, “that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Sam. 8:20). Though Saul was head and shoulders taller than everyone else in Israel, he hid in his tent because Goliath was more than head and shoulders taller than him! When David arrived on the scene and showed courage to fight Goliath, Saul did a curious thing: “Saul clothed David with his armor” (1 Sam. 17:38). Maybe Saul wanted onlookers to think that he went out to fight Israel’s battles, but for sure Saul calculated that his expensive armor was David’s best defense and last hope against Goliath. But David “put them off” (vs. 38) because he had other armor about which Saul could not conceive. He was clothed in faith. Picking up five stones (vs. 40), the rest became history.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:27-29). What is our strength, Grace Community Church? What is our strategy for growth? What is our confidence? Do we trust in a killer sound system? Will we put on a personality, like Saul’s armor, that is not our own and does not fit? Should we dream up gimmicks and gadgets to motivate others to join through shame, guilt, or fear? No, no, and no! We already have in Christ all that really matters. Our weakness is our strength because it eliminates the option of leaning on lesser saviors in time of trouble. Our vulnerability is an asset because by it we know that we have no other hope than Christ. Our nothingness is a gift of God’s grace because it best prepares to give all the glory of God when he causes us to be faithful as representatives of Jesus in this corner of Wayne County. Our strengths, therefore, are considerable, though admittedly under-the-radar. Here we know each other deeply, serve together significantly, grow in grace in highly adaptable ways, and go out unified into the local, regional, and global fields as the Lord opens doors for ministry.