Jesus - The Narrow Path

December 15, 2018December 16, 2018

Dude, Don’t Rush It!

Many cannot wait to put up the Christmas tree before the leftover Thanksgiving turkey is gone. Have you been hearing Christmas music ad nauseam? Did you even know that there is another Christian season of observance that takes place before December 25^th? I am all about the entire celebration of the Birth of Christ, However, as an Anglican, I must first observe Advent. Advent is a season of contemplation, repentance, and eager expectation that takes place leading up Christmas. The Season of Advent is very much like the Season of Lent, which proceeds Easter. They are closely related, both are a time for reflection, fasting or abstinence (feasting is coming). Both times to repent for our sinfulness. They are both times for hopeful expectation. Advent and Lent are sort of the calm before the storm. The celebration is right around the corner! Dude, don’t rush it!

Advent 101

Not everyone celebrates Advent, and I think that is a shame. They are missing out on some of the Joy and deeper meaning of Christmas. Nearly everyone has heard of or seen an Advent Calendar or Advent Wreath. For the unenlightened, there is a great primer on Advent that can be found on Anglican Pastor. The post tells us that “Advent comes from the Latin adventus which means coming or arrival” and it is the beginning of the Christian calendar year. During Advent, we observe with expectation, the arrival of the Baby Jesus, but also the second “arrival” of Jesus Christ. As foretold, this is when Jesus comes on the clouds and will judge the living and the dead, ushering in a new Heaven on Earth. Advent occurs over four Sundays prior to Christmas Day. Each of those weeks reflects upon a different theme. Advent 101 continues…

Prepare and Wait

There are many likenesses between the Jews of ancient times waiting and preparing for the arrival of the promised Messiah, and the Christians of modern times who are anxiously awaiting the return of the Redeemer. We study and they studied the words of the Prophets, particularly John the Baptist who gave God’s people their revelations of the word of God as He had revealed His words to them. For both groups there was/is Hope of the arrival. There was/is preparation for the arrival. All should have been reflective and repentant in making their hearts ready to receive the Promised One, the greatest Gift of all.

There has been and always will be great Joy and Rejoicing of the Christian Soul when Christ comes into this world and into our hearts as well as an overwhelming feeling of Love as the coming of our LORD is made known to our longing hearts. Advent reminds us that the time is not yet. The time of great joy and celebration is coming. Prepare and wait. Sing O Come, O Come Emanuel, and Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus! Think about the words. The time is near.

Dude, Don’t Rush It!

Modern society is in such a hurry to commercialize Christmas and Easter that the celebration starts way too early, dulling suspense and pregnant expectation. Again, I love the festiveness of the seasons, but really, aren’t we just a little burned out on Christmas by the time it does arrive on the calendar. The Christmas season according to many religious traditions does not begin until Christmas Eve. Then there are the Twelve Days of Christmas ending in “Little Christmas” celebrating the Wise Men’s arrival in Bethlehem. This is when many will take down the Christmas tree and all the decorations, marking the true end to the Christmas celebration. If you start the celebration too soon (and the celebration should be a big one, if only in your heart) you might miss out on taking in all the beauty and promise, all the wonder that Christmas truly holds. Dude, don’t rush it!

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Collect for Week Two of Advent
Anglican Book of Common Prayer

April 4, 2018

Good(?) Friday

Bound, scourged, beaten, mocked, spat upon, made to carry/drag a heavy load up a hill, nailed to a cross, made to suffer the tortuous death of a criminal although an innocent man. This does not sound like the way a good day should play out. In fact, it sounds like a terrible day. The worst day. Throw in the fact that the Light of the world was extinguished. Big storm. The curtains of the Temple split asunder. Good Friday? Not by a long shot, except for one miraculous detail.

Not a very good Friday

Having seen many crucifixes hanging on the walls of homes and Catholic Churches, I have always been struck by the almost antiseptic look of the crucified Christ. Nearly all the sculpted images show Jesus as being in pretty good shape. Pretty pristine. Not until I saw The Passion of the Christ, the 2004

movie by Mel Gibson, did I truly connect with the absolute brutality with which Jesus was treated. I am still horrified nearly to tears at the images of the scourging. The scourge that was used on the Lamb of God was an instrument designed to inflict ultimate pain, to wreak incredible havoc on the human body. A whip-like device, the scourge had pieces of metal or bone incorporated into the several lashes which were meant, not just to bruise and cut, but to savagely rip flesh from the body on the receiving end of its sting. Jesus was not just whipped. He was scourged! Not a good day for any man.

Via Dolorosa

After being further mistreated by the Roman guards, made to wear a crown of thorns and beaten on the head with a rod Jesus was made to carry his own

cross, his device of further shame and eventual death, up the Via Dolorosa (meaning sorrowful way) from the Praetorium, where He had been sentenced, to Golgotha, the Hill of Skulls. Hardly able to stand, losing large amounts of blood, falling twice, finally Simon the Cyrene was enlisted to carry His burden. Good Friday? This is sounding like a horrible day and it is not nearly over.

The Weight of the World

Our Saviour was surely reaching the lowest point in his young life. The devastating torture was horrible but maybe not the worst of Jesus’ pain. Along with everything that Jesus had and was about to endure, Jesus was carrying the weight and suffering caused by shouldering the sins of the world. Not just man’s previously committed sins but all of mankind’s future sins as well. What a crushing load!

Back to the cross. . . Jesus was nailed, hand and foot, to this object of punishment and shame, then hoisted into the air to hang for hours. Designed

to make it excruciatingly difficult to breathe, Jesus embraced the indignity of the cross. Suffering, bleeding, extremely weak, laboring to breathe, he still mustered the compassion to pardon the sins of one of the criminals who occupied this despised hill alongside his own cross. He may have been spared, due to his condition, the further insult of watching the guards cast lots for his clothing.

The Light of the World is extinguished

He finally gave up His life in an indescribable cry of anguish, asking God to forgive his persecutors. Enter the aforementioned storm and curtain tearing. The Lamb had been sacrificed for the sins of many. Jesus was innocent. He knew no sin but became sin. The Light of the world was extinguished. The WORD had been taken out of the world He came to save. Jesus’ lifeless form was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb.

Good Friday transformed

Here is the big payoff. The miracle that turned the worst of Fridays into Good Friday. The best of Fridays. On the third day, Jesus arose from the tomb. The grave could not hold Him. Prophesy was fulfilled in the Resurrection of the Christ. All that heinous punishment that was dealt out on Friday was necessary to fulfill the Profits. The U shaped drama had been acted out. God

came down from Heaven and became man. He suffered death on the cross and was buried. He defeated the grave and rose from the tomb. In forty days he would ascend to His seat at the right hand of the Father. No slight of hand. No conspiracy. No mass hallucination. The mystery of Faith is etched on the hearts of Christians everywhere. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Hallelujah!

February 22, 2018March 19, 2018

Break our hearts for what breaks Yours

I assume you have guessed by now, with the many music references, that I am an audio junkie. All the way back to my high school days, Koss High-Velocity headphones on, the Allman Brothers full tilt; I would while away countless hours. Music has been my escape as far back as I can remember. Back in the day, we played vinyl, good old scratchy vinyl. One of my favorite parts of buying records was finding the liner notes. Yes, I was the geek that would read every word. I knew every tune and every sideman. Who played for whom? It has served me well over the years as I moved from rock and roll to jazz and blues back to classic rock and blues rock to modern blues rock and contemporary Christian music. I still read the liner notes when I can find them, although they are harder to find with today’s digital format.

Most of us know the feeling of having a song stuck in our heads. Sometimes it is a good thing, in the case of a good or great tune. Sometimes it is a bad tune, a mind-numbing nuisance. Sometimes you wake up with it, sometimes you catch a piece of it on your favorite audio source. Sometimes a mischievous friend will implant it in your brain. Think of this lovely beauty from back in the day (click at your own risk). Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Enough of that. I said all that as an introduction to a recent discovery. God has sent me a message in a song and I can’t escape the lyrics. Driven to do my best to follow their suggestion, I went looking for the lyric sheet. I discovered that the song was penned by two of my favorites in today’s contemporary Christian music scene. The song is “Jesus, Friend of Sinners,” written by Mark Hall of Casting Crowns and Matthew West and performed by Casting Crowns. It goes like this…

“Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth’s become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they’re tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I’m so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours

Yeah

Jesus, friend of sinners, the one who’s writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring Your people to their knees
Nobody knows what we’re for only against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours

You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they’re the reason that You came
Lord, I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet

‘Cause You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever

And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
Yeah
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet”

Just let the words wash over you for a moment. So many calls to show compassion and the words that stick in my mind, the prayer to “break our hearts for what breaks Yours.” Many of us pray for help to become more Christ-like. I do, daily; I pray for a servant’s heart and to grow to be more Christ-like. It is something for which I need many corrective nudges from above. Some days I do better than just break even. I still have much work to do.

Many, if not most of us are too quick to judge, too slow to show compassion. The homeless beggar who has his hand out in front of our favorite fast-food stop more often than not provokes anger or aggravation, not empathy. Aren’t most of us just a few bad decisions and a lost paycheck or two from being in those same shoes?

And lest we forget, we are all broken sinners. Remember that the Bible tells us that “None is righteous, no, not one;”( Romans 3:10 ESV) and “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23 ESV). For me, being more compassionate seemed a good place to start. It costs nothing. My natural inclination is closer to turning a blind eye or something nearer to cynicism than compassion. We don’t all have a lot of money to give the homeless person or the orphan child but we all have the smile God gave us and the warmth of our hearts. Kindness goes a long way toward healing wounded souls.

Friends, I am no saint. This is in no form a lecture or righteous chest thumping. It is merely the observation of a struggling, broken man who is trying to make his little spot in this world a better place. My days have become less stress-filled since I first began to practice having a servant’s heart. My bookstore has become somewhat of a sanctuary. Often a place of prayer. A place where students often come just to say hello, or to brag about a new job or another life point. My students even complain when I am out of the office and they have to deal with someone else. Pretty funny, considering that my daughter is usually the “someone else.” Many of my students even came around hoping for a report on my recent surgery and recovery process. Kindness is infectious. Jesus called it the second great commandment.

³⁷… you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39 ESV)I may be wrong but it seems to me that if we all followed this commandment more closely, the world would be a far better place. I was once asked by a new acquaintance if I was a minister. My best response was “not nearly often enough.” I was pleased by his confusion. Today, I would be overjoyed to be asked if I was a disciple.

November 9, 2017March 19, 2018

Love the one you’re with

Nope, this is not a 60’s flashback. My apologies to Stephen Stills and to you for the song now playing in your mind. I haven’t completely lost mine. Though it occasionally wanders off on its own when left without adult supervision.

Actually, I am rather referencing the second great commandment as Jesus gave us in Matthew 22:36-40

³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Amazing in its simplicity. Not nearly as easy as it sounds.

A little over twenty years ago, while attending Freshman’s parent orientation at Catholic High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, I picked up a bit of wisdom from the featured speaker that has resonated through me constantly throughout my days since. The speaker was Lou Holtz, once the football coach at Notre Dame and Arkansas among others. Lou has always impressed me as a man to listen to when he speaks. The address to this auditorium of eager parents did not disappoint. He said many things that day that would leave a lasting impression on many of those in attendance.

Probably the most profound thing that he shared was this. Talking specifically about some of the difficulties involved in turning his players from growing, testosterone-driven athletes into teachable young men of purpose. Lou’s pungent point was simply, “Those who need love the most, usually deserve love the least.” From that moment forth I will always lend an ear when that wise old football coach speaks, hoping to glean another bit of an inspiring life-lesson.

It is easy to love your spouse (most of the time) because you share so many happy times. The same is true of the people at work who, along with you, band together to triumph over the dilemma-of-the-day. Those with whom you share church services, singing songs of praise; my heart swells just looking at the angelic faces. Jesus knew that we were easily capable of this type of love.

I believe that Jesus and Lou were both speaking about the guy who cut you off in traffic and then took up two spaces in the parking lot you both turned into. Maybe it is the lady behind you in the lunch-time line at the bank who is having a meltdown about how horrible her day is and feels that it is her duty and right to make every individual she comes into contact with as miserable as she is. It is the homeless guy standing in front of McDonalds or the kid down the street practicing the bagpipes, sounding like he is killing the golden goose.

It isn’t always easy! If it was everyone would do it. I think we should challenge ourselves to share kindness with every person with whom we come in contact. It may take prayer and it will be difficult some days. The results will be more pleasing than not and, I promise, every day it will get to be easier and your day will be better. Less anxiety-filled.

We must see others through the eyes of the Savior. We were all created in the same manner. He loves us all the same. He favors us all. When we make the effort to love the one we are with, not superficial love, nor romantic love but the unconditional Love of Jesus Christ, we will change lives. I have. Maybe the largest change is the one in my own life.

November 8, 2017March 19, 2018

The journey begins

Today I have had the idea placed in my heart to open a document to chronical my journey. I will not start at the very beginning, nor will start at the end, but I will try to set the stage for where I am now and how and why I have arrived at this place and state of mind. The opinions expressed here are solely mine unless otherwise noted. I have had many influences in my life, many good, many not so good, many that were bad. In the end, it is my fondest hope that I shall hear my Creator say “Well done, good and faithful servant.”(Matt. 25:23 ESV). That is closer to the end of my story, let me rewind a bit.

I am the son of a sailor. I was unchurched in my youth. I never attended any school longer than 2 years until my father retired. Oddly, I attended high school (all 4 years) with kids with whom I shared the first grade. I was a better than average student –Beta Club and National Honor Society. I was an average athlete, earning my letter in basketball and track. I made a failed attempt at college, was the president of the Residence Hall Association, served in Student Government and ultimately spent more time playing Hearts and Spades than attending class.

I have been married more than once. More than twice… a fact that I am not proud of, but in the end, I am married to the one that was meant for me. The most important factor in our longevity is that God is a third member of our union. Sadly, He was not in previous attempts, thus my track record is not what I wish it could be. My wife, Cynthia, and I have been through a lot over the years. Like many others, we have had our good times and our bad times, our sickness and health; but by God’s Grace, we have survived to find a stronger love than most discover in a lifetime.

I am a broken sinner, as I believe we all are. I believe I may have been more broken than most. I am a child of the 60’s. I experienced all that brings to mind. I worked in the bar business for years and saw, often participated in, some of the least wholesome activities imaginable. As they say, there was sex (lots of sex), drugs (too many drugs) and rock and roll. I am not proud of my time spent in darkness. I am overjoyed that Jesus Christ sought me in the darkness and extended His loving arms to pull me into the light of His Mercy. I survived, no thanks to my own efforts but by the Grace of Almighty God.

Throughout my lifetime I have grown to believe in the Truth of God’s Word, the power of prayer, the unconditional Love that we are called to offer each other, and that we are all God’s Children. We are Citizens of Heaven and sojourners in this world. Just passing through. We are being prepared for Life Eternal. For some of us, the lessons come more easily than for others of us. Many receive their gifts from God at an early age. Sadly, I have come late into my inheritance. But now that I have received, I am thirsty for all I can consume.

That which follows will reflect my journey down the path of discipleship. Join me if you are so inclined. The Holy Spirit will light the way…