The Miracle of the Tomb

A reflection on Mark 16:1-8

An empty tomb stared at them. Worry flowed through their bodies raising their anxiety.

The fear in them increased as they saw the young man. Other gospels call him an angel, but Mark’s ‘young man’ would reflect the panic of the moment. We really often fail to properly understand what is happening once panic sets in.

The angel said to not be afraid, but that never works. How the ladies remained standing is a grace of God.

We always think a miracle would be great to see, but the problem is we have an impoverished view of miracles.

We like to think of a healing that confounds a doctor. Perhaps our imagination fixates on an improbable set of actions that are unlikely and nearly impossible to reproduce. Think of a car accident where vehicles collide in absurd ways, yet no one is hurt. At least no one precious to the observer.

The actual reality is that miracles are God reaching down and doing something amazing. We are willing to settle for a healing. Cancer disappearing in a fine miracle, yet we seem to miss the wonder in the immediate joy. The women met that wonder in the empty tomb.

Miracles are at face value an absurdity, something happening that cannot occur. The first thought in meeting a miracle would be to find another explanation, we do live in a real world. Were they thinking the Romans were having a perverse game with his body? Perhaps the Pharisees were wanted to insult him in death? Did they have other concerns that I cannot fathom?

When the mundane is ruled out then the miracle is realized. This is the resurrection. It is a miracle that exceeds our understanding. People do not simply set up after dying, especially the way Jesus died. A violent and brutal death, do not believe the Hollywood images. Those are lies to get around censorship. Jesus died and it was gruesome. The resurrection was a divine work indeed.

The Father reached down and raised the Son that we might have adoption into the kingdom of God. The faithful are grafted into the holy tree and not pruned away. An act of love like no other. Sacrificial. Redemptive. Restorative. Life giving.

The miracle was greater than any other. Indeed, all other miracles serve to emphasize this miracle. Its scope is universal, even if many will turn from it. It affects the world even today and will continue throughout eternity. I wonder how long it took those women to realize what the empty tomb truly means. If they understood in the tomb, could they have not fainted?

Maybe that is another miracle of Easter morning.

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Lord of the Cold

As I write this we are in the midst of another arctic blast. Cold air and wind driving the perceived temperature down below the -30° C mark. Working outside, especially clearing snow, is possible but it is also difficult. Taking a break to warm fingers, toes, or cheeks is as important as getting the work done. Having a wife who will have a hot beverage ready when you come back in is a blessing from God. As the snow banks start to reach a height you cannot throw snow over, January becomes a bit discouraging.

With this background I found my devotional time starting in Psalm 147. I should have read this psalm over a dozen times, but it never really sank in until today. I know that God is the Lord of all creation: sunsets and sunrises, the torrential downpours and gentle rains, the crashing waves and the babbling brook. I have had the tendency to think of the cold in terms of the blessings God has given that we might endure. The cold is merely a trial and difficulty in life, but by the blessings of God we are able to live this far north in a sense of normalcy. The blessing of God in the terms of clever people to make the equipment we need to function outside enables us to overcome the cold. How narrow this is. Consider the following:

He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

Psalm 147:15-18 (ESV)

Certainly with the line, “who can stand before His cold,” reinforces how small we are and in need of divine blessings. He commands the snow to fly. The reality is that the surrounding farms are dry and need some snow melt for the spring. It is the casualness of the psalm that I find remarkable. Ice spread like crumbs, frost as ashes, snow like wool. It seems so minor that which can shut a city down and threaten the lives of the unwary. This is nothing new theologically, but my realization that this is another clear demonstration of God’s transcendence, being more than creation.

Realizations like this show us why we should read our Bibles daily. This is the Word of God for us and shows us the truth. There is so much that we cannot hope to comprehend the riches of God’s wisdom or perceive just how mighty He is in one go. Moreover, in reading a bit each day we have the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see in a fresh way how the Bible informs our understanding of the world. God is always at work in our lives and in reading our Bibles we might understand that better.

May God bless you as you spend time in his word.

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Let Us Sing Together

Psalm 100 is a psalm for our world today. We live in a world of performances and perfection. We see the surface of concerts and shows and marvel at them. The problem is we do not pay attention to the hundreds of people who had to work to make it happen. We often neglect to hear the audio correction that happens with autotune so the singer sounds like they have more skill than they really do. All the while we are encouraged to sit back and watch. Enjoy, don’t think about it. The extras are hidden as much as possible. Singing along can be encouraged, most of the time the audio will be so high the crowd is drowned out.

Psalm 100 instructs us to “Make a joyful NOISE” (verse 1, emphasis mine) to the Lord. Worship is a corporate event, not a minor league concert. It is people coming together to share in praising the Lord. Not only are there references to “us,” we,” and “all the Earth,” but the verbs are all plural. The commands of the psalm are not for one person, but many; by implication the whole congregation. While Israel did have worship leaders, singing to God as part of worship was the responsibility of the whole congregation, not a select few. It is for good reasons.

God is good. He is worthy of our praise. That is the praise of every person. It is praise motivated by knowing His mercy and loving kindness. Our singing is not about taking something in, it is about pouring something out, pouring out our love of God. Our songs should carry our faith outward, so our singing is an expression of our faith. Even if you are terrible at it, you should sing to let flow your praise. The psalm says make a joyful noise, not a perfect 3 or 4 part harmony. It is modern culture that demands perfection and it will kill the church if it silences people from singing. It is a terrible thing to tell someone not to sing because they are not good. It implies that they are not able to worship God, when God accepts the worship of everyone who worships in Spirit and truth. We should celebrate the multitude of voices not the few of skill.

One last dimension of praising God, is that it should be an outflowing of faith. Any attempt to limit it becomes, willingly or inadvertently, an attempt to stunt the faith of others. This is a bad thing, regardless of intention. There is no way to stop someone from singing to God that does not undermine their faith, however subtly. Thinking it can be said is naive at best. It will be a blessing in the end to the church as people can grow their faith in its corporate expression, singing together. It is inherently part of how God has made us, which is a beautiful thing.

While God has gifted people differently, we are all made to worship Him. Some people may be better at leading worship than others. Some people have better voices than others. Some people have skill playing an instrument together. Regardless of what skills you have, God has set no skill minimum to worship Him. So let us praise His name today and tomorrow and any other day, because the Lord has given us a new day to breathe.

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On Prayer

I am a man of few words. During an internship at seminary, the church I was at hosted a singing group. There came a time for the head pastor to say a few words. My mentor, the head pastor, looked at me and said, “Time me, I will be five minutes.” I believe it was 12 minutes later he was sitting down. Pastor Joy was good that way. He could not help himself, but it was also natural. Moreover, the congregation appreciated him he could easily do things like that. Frankly, I am the polar opposite. If I said, “I will be five minutes,” to an intern most likely four minutes and thirty seconds later I would be sitting down. There is nothing wrong with either approach, God has made us differently. Sometimes the differences can be bad, it is important to understand why.

And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Mark 12:40b (ESV)

Here is something different in a bad way. The problem of the Scribes is that they are praying to be heard by others that they may be seen as holy. Who they are praying to is not truly God, although God is the ostensible recipient; in reality they are praying to anyone who can hear. They are praying for social or professional praise, maybe both. To be honest, I have always seen this as a warning. It is to a certain extent, but I, for years, have overreacted to it. There is another point, a way of thinking about prayer.

Bonhoffer’s commentary on the book of Psalms is subtitled, “The Prayer Book of the Bible.” The title itself sets an expectation for what you find inside the book of Psalms. Over the past few years I have made it a point to begin my services with a psalm and the use that psalm as a scaffold for the invocation of the service. It slowly changed the prayer. It also made me rethink exactly how I pray. Not the least of which is it has lengthened my public prayers. Glorifying God in prayer is not a bad thing. The Psalter also has made me more deliberate with my prayers.

We have all heard the prayers, filled with the words “um,” “like,” or “just.” The words we use to fill dead space as our brains process the next words we want to speak. It is a natural consequence of praying off the top of your head. We all do it, maybe you have a different word you like to use. We do it automatically, often without realizing it. The only way to stop it is to practice or have notes. This is where I misread the Bible, I read too much meaning into the verse above.

Today, I take time to write out the prayers that I open and close a service. I do it to improve how I pray, to add a better focus, vary my vocabulary, to not miss something. It never precludes adding a line, but it sets out how I pray. Especially in the invocation, a written prayer can set the heart towards God in a better way. It is one of the lessons of Psalms.

Great Father, who has made this wondrous world with all its diversity, help us to pray. Let your Holy Spirit move among us and open our eyes to see clearly the great wisdom you have given us in your Word. Amen.

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A World of Difference in a Word

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). It is true, we can repackage ideas like odd Christmas gifts that never properly left the box for whatever reason. A fresh coat of wrapping paper and it is a good gift to give to someone else. The recipient receives a new gift. Ideally they will use it, t least it is gone from storage. Wrapping the gift makes it seem like new, in fairness, it is often not a terrible practice. We do this in many areas of life, most importantly we do this with ideas.

At the end of the 20^th century, we saw a philosophy rise called postmodernism. It can be hard to define, but it has given rise to a number of terms such as “your truth,” or “my truth.” This phrase is in one way a denial of the truth that grounds the world, but it is also a defense mechanism to ward off accusations of wrongdoing. It is the ideal phrase with which to destroy a society.

Simply put, “your truth” denies any truth. It denies the truth in that if two people have contradictory truths then they are both assumed to be right. There can be cases where limited perspectives can produce contradictory stories. One person looks at how flat the world is and says to himself, “the world is flat.” Another person realizes that you see the top of a ship coming across the horizon first and she realizes the earth is round. Then she believes it is a sphere. A professor, knowing the earth is spinning, recognizes the shape of the earth as an oblate spheroid. Are all right? Arguably the woman and the professor are similar enough while being different, but the man has a totally contradictory view to both. The earth can be flat or the earth can be an approximate oblate spheroid, but both cannot be true at the same time.

In one sense this comes from a conflation of the words truth and opinion. Many ‘truths’ are merely opinions that people are trying to buttress without actually defending. Opinions are common; everyone has a few, some have enough to open a department store. You can have opinions, but calling them truth is not a good choice.

The phrase, “my truth,” can be used as a defense mechanism. “My truth” is now unassailable because it is mine. The implied message is, “you cannot have it, you can use it if you like, but you do not own it, I do.” This personalized truth must be accepted, even if it is that the earth is flat.

So personal truth is under the control of the holder. It is sacrosanct and a solid foundation for living regardless of how weak the opinion masquerading as truth is. This entire line of thinking originated was my Bible reading. Proverbs 16:2 (ESV) reads, “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.” The moment I read it the first half of the verse struck me as the postmodern wisdom of the world. If you define truth however you like then any sin is justifiable if you invent the right “truths”. The problem is that God is always there. There is always a grounding of reality. Scooping boiling water in your hand will always meet with reality of pain regardless of what “your truths” are. God will always know what your sins are and you will be held to account.

More often than not “my truth” is only an opinion. Truth takes time and effort. Reality is inescapable. The inability to actually discuss these things will only weaken us as a society. I know that the Almighty God will call all to account, but it will not be pretty in the present.

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Lessons from Singing Together

Finally having our COVID reprieve our church has fully reopened. The first Sunday restored much of what was lost, a mask optional service followed in true Baptist fashion with a potluck, then an afternoon of games. It was a solid day of fellowship and everyone appreciated returning to deeper community. I have had many people wanting to do this while the restrictions have been active. We respectfully waited and had a great Sunday. There have been other ministries that I have resumed in person.

It has seemed like a impossibly long time that I have not been in the local Senior’s home for a Service. We have had no end of online services through facebook, but this leaves something to be desired, a small understatement. Perhaps the largest problem with facebook is the lag. It is a small delay from saying something to the other person hearing it. In meetings and simple conversations, most people would not notice it. For the service, the lag made singing together impossible. Basically, it felt like the others were dragging like an anchor on the seafloor and they are not that slow. I was so happy when I could finally meet them in person. It felt like an eternity, in truth, the delay was no longer than anyone else, but it felt better to finally be truly there. To be in their presence, to hear their singing properly, to see the smiles, all contributed to a better experience than the last few months.

I must confess that I was a bit mortified at the Senior’s centre service, mostly because of the singing. Do not get me wrong, it is not for the errors, those always happen. Especially when I only see them once a month and without a pianist there with always be some issue. I always adjust and move on. One song I was too fast so I had to slow down, minor issue. What got me was one song I had memorized with a repeated refrain, And also in the hymnal, they did not seem to know that. So I adjusted, it felt awkward, but I felt worse wondering how many times this happened in over a years worth of facebook mediated services. I could not listen to them sing the delay would make singing together impossible. So how many times did I just sing in a way that confused them? I am sure they were grateful for the service. They possibly even realized that social media played a part in the failure to connect, but the mediated service undermined our ability to be a community.

This is an example of something lost when we are not present with each other. It highlights how a virtual community is never the same as a community that has come together. I understand the need to isolate, especially the seniors. Saskatchewan was wiser in its approach, which saw senior’s homes under a stricter isolation, as compared to places like New York. But the virtual must always give way to the real. A mediated presence always lacks something. As Christians we should understand that well. Jesus died for our sins so that we can approach God unmediated. We no longer need a priest because we are forgiven. It changes how we can relate to God. This matters in our spiritual life, therefore it matters in the rest of life as well.

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A Beacon in a Broken World

We are seeing a shift in our culture. Today, it is becoming popular to be a member of a victim class. There is a narrative that makes everyone either a victim or a victimizer. It is important to be someone who has suffered or is suffering. Often, this is regardless of whether they are actually suffering, you just need a good story. It is only the claim that matters; truth is optional. Moreover, the suffering is spotlighted and presented as a moral benefit. It grants an authority and a cultural privilege. The problem is when the importance of the identity woven into the suffering, then there is no desire to actually correct the problems and to grow. It becomes better to stay in a bad situation than to remedy it. This is the result of everyone being either a victim or a victimizer. It is the death of the hero.

Christianity, in some ways, is also tied to the narrative of suffering. Jesus is the suffering servant, the savior (not the hero). The ultimate sign of his suffering was dying on the cross for our sins; the sinless man, undeserving of death, taking the penalty of sin upon himself by dying on the cross. We are then called to take up our cross and follow him. We are called to suffer in some form in this life. This is a refrain found in most of the books of the New Testament. The difference between Christian suffering and cultural suffering is vast. In the latter, suffering becomes a way in which the privilege is obtained. In the former, suffering is one way that the power of God is displayed in our lives. Suffering is also something we move from the past into a better relationship with God now. It is not a source of power, but rather a reminder that God is active in this world. It is a reminder that God hates sin. Suffering should drive us to prayer and prayer takes us closer to God.

Perhaps the key difference between cultural and Christian suffering is forgiveness. By following Jesus, we forgive as he forgave us. Even in agony after hours of torture, physical and mental, Jesus forgave those who were killing him. We are beacons of God’s grace in this world. As recipients of God’s grace we share that grace the best way we can, we forgive. In a culture of suffering and outrage; forgiveness, in any real sense, does not help in maintaining privilege. It undermines the divisions that are trying to be made and reinforced. Grace brings us back together. It demands humility in a world that loves showing off, even if it is only flaunting suffering.

Truly, I fear what will become of our society if this trajectory of glorified suffering is maintained. If the classes of suffering and reinforced and multiplied, this will tear apart society. As Christians we need to become those beacons of God’s grace yet again. A shining light offering refuge of peace and unity in a world of hatred and division. It is clearly the harder road, forgiveness is never easy, yet bringing the grace of God to others is the most noble pursuit.

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Weaving a History

The earliest memory I have is of my paternal grandfather’s funeral. I am not sure how old I was, but I had not started kindergarten yet. Ironically, the clearest part of the memory was that I was confused. I remember talking to the ladies, likely my mom and some aunts, and asking them why they were crying. Obviously, I was confused; given I was under five years old, that makes sense. This memory is a connection to the past, but it also connects me in a deeper way to the past.

In my father, I have a connection to those years that precede me. The other day, someone asked me if I remembered the gas shortages of the 70’s. I had to confess that I was born in 1973, so no I did not. So I heard their story and if I wanted more I could just ask my father for more details. There are many things I cannot remember because they predate me, my father can fill in the details. Such a direct connection can fill in the details in a way that google or wikipedia can never do. What a personal connection also does is connect other issues together that might not seem connected at face value.

When an author is writing history a point is being made, a point that always has a focus and inevitably overlooks something. How good the history is depends on if they made the focus overly important, but also how much was overlooked or downplayed. All of history is intricately interrelated, historians try to pull out threads. The work has its value, but it never replaces the vast web of history. Where historians fail is when the thread they pull is cut off from the rest of the history. This is where a history fail when it only serves a peculiar agenda. A history that desires not only to show a single thread, but wants to obscure the warp and weft of history’s tapestry. When most of history is ignored, or desired to be forgotten, then those who remember need to be pushed to the margins.

All of this reflection stems from some reading I am doing. I am reading the historian Carl Trueman. In his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self he shows how several threads of philosophy have come together to create the modern sense of culture. Moreover, history is not being lost naturally, but subtly suppressed to change the culture.

The sex in pornography is presented as an end in itself. Yet sexual activity in a second world [theistic worldview] has a sacred significance as part of a relationship, as part of a personal history, as something that – given its connection to reproduction – links past to future, and as the necessary precondition for culture. Supremely, in Christian thought it becomes an analogue for the relationship between Christ and his church.

Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, p99

I do not know every thread he will tie together, but it occurred to me that the problem of divorce is intricately related to this loss of history. If the marriage bond is a cementing of history, the divorce is the destruction of that history. Through both of my grandfathers I have a connection into world war two, though now both are dead has rendered those connections thinner. Often in the aftermath of divorce, the family on one side or another collapses. It leaves children without a grounding for the future. Without an understanding of the past people cannot learn from it and the family is weakened more.

These are growing problems and it is something the church should address. Actually, the response is natural, throughout the New Testament our fellow believers are referred to as brothers and sisters. Really, one of the best intentions that the church can have is to mix the ages to allow the youth to have a connection with older people. Segregating the congregation by age can help in teaching, but if that separation runs throughout the church on a consistent basis then we are missing an opportunity for ministry. We are missing an opportunity for young people to grow in wisdom and, conversely, an opportunity for older Christians to minister, to share the wisdom God has granted them. Culture matters. God designed it so that family is important, and the Church family follows immediately behind.

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Where Peace Starts

History is not a kind mistress. Ages past are named by those who follow. Those who look back wistfully will create a beautiful name, like the golden age of cinema. If the time is to be forgotten you call it something like the dark ages. Both names totally misrepresent the people living them, and tell you more about those remembering. Many today will want to call this the age of individual expression or the age of personal autonomy. I suspect, in the future, this will be called the age of melodrama.

Our news feeds overflow with bad news, dire predictions and a bleak outlook. A clear blue sky with a single small puffy, pure white cloud seems to signal a dangerous deluge that will inundate in a few minutes. Whatever is positive is brushed aside for whatever meme posing as a story can inspire the most dread and concern. Bad fortunes of individuals are held up as expectations of the everyone. Bad choices are glanced over to make a sympathetic victim. People are panicking over issues they do not have all the facts about. They are being pushed towards neurosis with issues they have no control over. It is a way of maintaining power over a population, especially a population that does not have hope in the loving God who watches over them everyday.

God is always with us, working in the world; the question is can we find him. Some days this can be hard as God is working out the completion of history. Many pieces are involved including people. Everyone is making their own decisions, whether obedient to God or not. This is a complicated dance and God is at work in it. Even if, and especially if, there are unbelievers involved. They will never stop God, but it gives us trouble. This means that there are many parts of life that are beyond our control, even if we held great power. So what do we do?

Psalm 131 speaks of David calming his heart. David, the king of Israel, wrote that he does not worry himself with things beyond him. It is good advice. It is important to separate what we can do from what we cannot do. We need not ignore things we cannot fix, but we should not let ourselves get stressed over them. It is important to know what is going on in the world, even if we cannot change it. We have our own problems to worry about. We cannot address the problems of another country, but we will face them if they are our problems. God will only give us enough for the day we are in, we do not need to make more problems for ourselves. We need to find a measure of peace in dealing only with our concerns.

The source of our peace is God. The image David used is a baby just finished feeding with his mother. We must look to God for rest. Our families, friends, politicians, neighbors, and even our church families will fail us sooner of later, but the loving God will always be with us. God provides what we need, not just to limp along, but to thrive. We are his and He will never lose us. This is the source of our peace. Let us set aside our anxiety over things we cannot ever fix, and focus on the good that we can do today. When we do so we will leave aside many things that will cause us unnecessary stress.

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Remember Me

The last time I visited my mom I remember seeing some of the things I made when I was in elementary. The kind of things made on cheap paper plates with Elmer’s glue and crayon. I also remember being somewhat embarrassed by it, but I also know that I am no better with my own children. You can find similar items around my work area. Keeping these simple things around accomplishes several functions. One of which is we want to remember those days when things seemed simpler, we save those things that remind us of the good memories. Memories we do not want to lose.

There is so many memories that have been lost to history. Humanity is not permanent: papers crumble, ink fades, computers short out, molds rot, fire consumes, floods disintegrate, and whatever could survive all that will be eroded away with enough time. There is nothing of our hands that is permanent. If you reflect on this long enough you will realize that, eventually, we will all be forgotten. There are some like the pharaohs, whose monuments still capture the imagination, yet we know precious little of them and often what we do know is in theory alone. They are, in many ways, lost to time; only the vaguest memory remains of some of the most powerful individuals ever.

There have probably been days when you feel as if you have been forgotten. The imposed isolation is severe for anyone to endure. For some it has been too much. I have a suspicion that the mental health impact of the governmental response of the pandemic will exceed the COVID impact. That is not a denial of COVID sickness and death, but rather I put it into perspective and find there are many other problems as well. The isolation is taxing and is driving most of us mad. The separation is damaging our communities. Not seeing faces undermines trust and makes any connection more shallow. The isolation has an effect on everyone: some people less and some more. Some days will be better than others and some worse. The isolation drives a question, will I be forgotten when no one has to see me every workday?

There is a contrast here; God will never forget us. We are His and He will not lose one of His own. Becoming a Christian means being adopted into the family of God. Even in the Old testament, Isaiah wrote, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” Isaiah 49:15 (ESV). We will never be forgotten. I am sure you can come up with some case of a mother forgetting a child, but that is a rarity. God will never forget us. One day we will all come together as believers and have the ability to meet everyone else. No one left behind because God does not forget. The faithful throughout history will come together, resurrected in fellowship with God. Never lost, always in unity before the great Throne. God does not forget and the result will be the most wonderful congregation in all history. Do not forget that.

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