Monthly Archives: June 2020

The world “weighted” down on me last Wednesday. My city council didn’t see the need for people to wear masks in crowded public places. The mayor fixed this within hours, but I was still angry with our city council. I read in the paper, “The virus continues to disproportionately affect African-Americans in [the state.] Blacks make up about 28% of the state population but account for 41% of reported cases and almost 46% of deaths.” 

Then, it hit me. This isn’t about public health at all, it’s about race. For some Pollyanna reason, that realization shocked me. It shouldn’t have. Why should I expect the city’s leadership to behave any differently from the way they have behaved throughout the city’s history?

I became angry and wanted to lash out – so I did. I annihilated a Styrofoam coffee cup spilling its contents on my hand. I’m not sure who won that battle. In truth, I smashed the cup alright, but in the process, the coffee inside the cup burned my hand. The minor pain in my hand will go away, but the more significant pain in my heart will not – at least, not for the foreseeable future.

I called a friend and ventilated. His words helped a little, but they did not “cure” me. As we were hanging up, I said, “I’m going to read the Bible and pray. I’m going to tell God just how ‘teed off’ I am” – except that I didn’t say, “teed off.” He responded, “Good idea, but I think He already knows.” So, I did, and so He did.

In the daily devotional, the author invited me to read Psalm 28. In verse 4, King David prays the following prayer.

Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors but harbor malice in their hearts.

Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve.

Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again.

As the angel, Clarence, from “It’s a Wonderful Life” says, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute.” Did King David just call down curses on his foes? Is it OK to pray that way? I didn’t know you could do that. So troubled and confused was I, that I started reading commentaries.

Matthew Henry, the great 18^th Century Welsh Non-Conformist minister and Bible scholar wrote of Psalm 28:4, “This is not the language of passion or revenge. It is a prophecy that there will certainly come a day when God will punish every man who persists in his evil deed.” Henry’s writing echoed that of the Antiochian scholar and Church Father, Theodoret of Cyprus from the 5^th Century. A modern commentator writes

David wants God to punish the wicked. We can learn something about how to respond to living in a nation where the sin of its citizens calls for God’s judgment. David called for the punishment of the sin of the wicked fellow-citizens. Even though we desire to see the salvation of these . . . we can still call on God to punish the unrepentant sinners of our nation. But at the same time, we also do well to beg God to not allow those [faithful ones, presumably including ourselves] to be swept away in the punishment. David achieves a balance in his prayer. . . that we can, and should, emulate.”

Thus, I considered the point settled. I concluded that if I truly were prophesying against an “evil-doer,” it was an acceptable prayer. In a follow-up, I posted that conclusion in a Facebook Group which I started named “Our C5 Prayer Group,” to which I invite you to join.

However, when my wrath cooled, I read Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I received the strong impression that I was presuming on the “prophesy” point. Bonhoeffer stresses the contrary point that we actually are all in this life together, and we should pray for one another.

It’s completely proper to agree with God on the deepest secrets of my heart, to tell Him what I wish about a subject, and to express strong emotion. Nevertheless, perhaps I am presuming on God to prophesy on His behalf. I’m “neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet.”

Perhaps, as my friend, Adam Jones points out, a better model to follow would be Jesus in Gethsemane and upon the cross. If ever anyone had reason to call down “hell-fire” on someone, it was Jesus. Yet, in Gethsemane, He prayed instead, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 33:42. From the very cross, itself, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34.

I can and should point out evil where it exists, but in prayer . . . I’ll just stick to praying for people, not against them.

In prayerfully mulling over the Covid-19 virus itself, the cause of the “masked fit,” God led me to a Psalm to which I clung when facing surgery some years ago, Psalm 91:3-6.

Surely, he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

As I was praying on these Psalms and on what Godly men had written, God whispered to me,

Don’t worry so much about those in your city and nation whom you brand as ‘sinners’ or ‘evil-doers,’ you can’t change them. Neither should you worry about yourself in these times, bad times will change to good times in My time. Rather, you concern yourself with changing your spiritual city. As C.S. Spurgeon wrote in A Treasury of David, “Seek not to dwell your spirit in the world according to its system, seek instead to dwell in the secret place of the Most High.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

The world weighted down on me today. My city council doesn’t see the need for people to wear masks in crowded public places. However, they do recommend that masks should be worn and social distancing should be observed. After learning that news, I read an article published in the local paper dated June 16, 2020. Quoting statistics from the Department of Public Health, the paper reported the following.

The virus continues to disproportionately affect African-Americans in [the state.] Blacks make up about 28% of the state population but account for 41% of reported cases and almost 46% of deaths. 

Then, it hit me. This isn’t about public health at all, it’s about race. For some Pollyanna reason, that realization shocked me. It shouldn’t have. Why should I expect the city’s leadership to behave any differently from the way they have behaved throughout the city’s history?

I became angry and wanted to lash out – so I did. I annihilated a Styrofoam coffee cup spilling its contents on my hand. I’m not sure who won that battle. In truth, I smashed the cup alright, but in the process, the coffee inside the cup burned my hand. The minor pain in my hand will go away, but the more significant pain in my heart will not – at least, not for the foreseeable future.

What to do, what to do, what to do? I called a friend and ventilated. His words helped a little, but they did not “cure” me. As we were hanging up, or signing off, or disconnecting, or whatever you call it when you discontinue a cellphone call, I said, “I’m going to read the Bible and pray. I’m going to tell God just how ‘teed off’ I am” – except that I didn’t say, “teed off.” He responded, “Good idea, but I think He already knows.” So, I did.

In the daily devotional, the author invited me to read Psalm 28. In reading it, I came across verse 4 in which King David prays the following prayer.

Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors but harbor malice in their hearts.

Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve.

Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again.

As the angel, Clarence, from “It’s a Wonderful Life” says, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute.” Did King David just call down curses on his foes? Is it OK to pray that way? I didn’t know you could do that. So troubled and confused was I, that I started reading commentaries.

Matthew Henry, the great 18^th Century Welsh Non-Conformist minister and Bible scholar wrote of Psalm 28:4, “This is not the language of passion or revenge. It is a prophesy that there will certainly come a day when God will punish every man who persists in his evil deed.” Henry’s writing echoed that of the Antiochian scholar and Church Father, Theodoret of Cyprus from the 5^th Century. Thus, the point appears settled.

A modern commentator writes

David wants God to punish the wicked. We can learn something about how to respond to living in a nation where the sin of its citizens calls for God’s judgment. David called for the punishment of the sin of the wicked fellow-citizens. Even though we desire to see the salvation of these . . . we can still call on God to punish the unrepentant sinners of our nation. But at the same time, we also do well to beg God to not allow those [faithful ones, presumably including ourselves] to be swept away in the punishment. David achieves a balance in his prayer. . . that we can, and should, emulate.”

In “prayerfully” worrying over the Covid-19 virus itself, God led me to a Psalm to which I clung when facing surgery some years ago, Psalm 91:3-6.

Surely, he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

In his Treasury of David, the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) writes these calming and reassuring words concerning Psalm 91. He writes the evil (one)

shall be foiled in the case of the man whose high and honourable condition consists in residence within the holy place of the Most High.

And from the noisome pestilence. He who is a Spirit can protect us from evil spirits, he who is mysterious can rescue us from mysterious dangers, he who is immortal can redeem [us] from mortal sickness. . .

[T]here is . . . a pestilence of disease, and even from that calamity our faith shall win immunity if it be of that high order which abides in God, walks on in calm serenity, and ventures all things for duty’s sake. Faith by cheering the heart keeps it free from the fear which, in times of pestilence, kills more than the plague itself.

It will not in all cases ward off disease and death, but where the man is such . . ., it will assuredly render him immortal where others die . . .

Such special faith is not given to all, for there are diversities in the measure of faith. It is not of all believers that the psalmist sings, but only of those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

As I was praying on these Psalms and on what Godly men had written, God whispered to me,

Don’t worry so much about those in your city and nation whom you brand as ‘sinners,’ you can’t change them. Neither should you worry about yourself in these times, bad times will change to good times in My time. Rather, you concern yourself with changing your spiritual city and nation. Seek not to dwell your spirit in the world according to its system, seek instead to dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Sitting on my front bench today reading my daily devotional, I noticed a wasp sitting on the other end of the bench. Immediately, I wanted to kill him because he was different and because I perceived that he wanted to harm me. Now, that’s not the truth, generally, wasps won’t harm you unless you threaten them. You can know that if you take the time to study them a little and if you don’t just react out of habit.

In The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Henri J.W. Nouwen states that the leader is the one who speaks to the one. The way to do this is to study the individual as a person and to get to know him. Only in such a way can the leader learn to love the man. When the leader loves the man, he becomes a true leader. Further, Nouwen says that the leader is the one who is prepared to give all for the one, the one to whom he can speak.

Thus, I surmise, leaders do not lead masses. True leaders know, are prepared to give their all for, and then lead individuals. If I may sum it up: If we are to be leaders, we must learn to “love one another” and to be prepared to give our all for “the other.” Or, put another way, to love the “other,” we must study the other so that we can be prepared to give our all for and learn to truly love the other.

Jesus tells us in the Great Commandment that we must indeed, “love one another.” John 15:12. He repeats the Commandment in verse 17. May I submit that taken together, these two statements constitute a message that speaks to our leaders, to our society and me personally.

Pastor Alan Cross allows me to sit in on his Bible studies for his church in California. This week, Pastor told a story from 15-20 years ago when at a former pastorate, he led Sunday afternoon visits into a notorious local housing project here in Montgomery, Alabama. He talked about how, through persistence, he was able to win a hearing from the leader of the local gang and to be allowed to move freely among the members on his visits. Eventually, he was privileged by the Holy Spirit to lead the gang leader to Christ.

I remembered the story well, and hearing it again it evoked mixed feelings in me. Though his story was such a wonderful story, it was his story, not mine. He had invited me many times to go with him on those Sunday afternoon visits but, except on rare occasions, I would not go. I felt ashamed for the reason I would not go with him boiled down to my racial prejudice. You see, I didn’t go because I didn’t love black people enough. I had not studied “the other.” I had not contemplated the individual within “the other.” I only saw a group of people who, to me were, indeed, “the other.” At the end of the story, God got the glory, Pastor Alan received a wonderful experience being with God, and I missed the blessing because I would not go.

Henri Nouwen goes on to discuss the sacrifice that the one who would be a leader must make. Nouwen writes that a true leader is one who is willing to sacrifice himself or herself for a single member of the group. A leader, he says, is the one who having sacrificed, can speak to the individual, and thus, to the group.

Interestingly, Pastor Alan talked about the same sacrifice in his Bible study. The coalescence of Nouwen’s book and Pastor Alan’s teaching slapped me in the face. I had completely missed it. Rather than seeing individuals, I had seen only “the other,” a group which I would not try to understand and for which I was not prepared to sacrifice – not so much as a couple of hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon

Rather, I was seduced by the comfort of Aristotle’s categories. Pastor Alan reminded me of what he had taught me about Aristotle. Aristotle observed society and nature around him and concluded that there were natural “categories” or “pairs,” one the subservient, the other the dominator. To Aristotle, males, Greeks, and owners were the “natural” masters, and women, barbarians, and slaves were the “natural” servants.

How interesting it is that we here in the South accepted Aristotle’s 2,500-year-old philosophy because it suited our purposes. More interestingly, and sadly, I might add, Aristotle’s philosophy lives today – not just in the South, not just in the United States, but in many corners of the world.

I was praying about the “slap in the face” that I had experienced, ashamed, and convicted of what my mother would call, “pure and tee” sin. I found myself realizing my personal sin and the evil that I had tolerated and from which I had benefitted. I specifically asked God for forgiveness for my own sin, the sin that deprived me of a chance to know, learn from, and sacrifice for “the other” and thus, miss an opportunity to be with God.

In a while, forgiven, I asked God for another chance to see Him. As I was praying, something told me to ask to meet with God today. For a moment, I experienced trouble focusing, my mind clouded with all my stuff.” But presently, in my spirit, I could see myself floating into space. Carried as on eagle’s wings, I soared through the clouds and the white, blue, gray, black atmosphere until I reached a point where I could look back at the Earth. I slowed to a stop and gazed at the Earth below me. Transfixed, I heard the voice of God saying, “You don’t have to go into space to meet with me. All you have to do is to focus on Me and My sacrifice for you and then, step through the heavenly portal that I have created there on Earth for you and for those who truly desire to see me.”

In a few minutes, the sound of the FedEx truck rolling up to a stop at my curb awakened me from my reverie. In the normal course of business, the delivery man got out and walked toward me. He was a young black man with a broad nose, rather full lips, and quite a dark complexion. I thought as to how he who could well have been a kid from that housing project that I missed getting to know years ago. He was courteous and I was kind. For a moment, I felt a bond with him, perhaps, a bond that transcended time and space. But then time brought me back in. He walked away.

As he stepped back into the truck, the wasp, once again, captured my attention – except that looking at him in a different light, I could see that he was in reality a butterfly.

As the FedEx truck drove away, God said, “You just saw Me today.” And I knew that I had.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. James 5:1-5. NIV.

On a certain day, a large raincloud gathered over the city. Inside the raincloud, the raindrops talked among themselves as to where they would like to fall. Some raindrops looked down and saw small puddles of water, puddles made up of water like themselves. They noticed how the raindrops like themselves sang as they fell towards the puddles and how the water splashed and flashed in the sun as they landed.

“That’s where we would like to land,” they murmured among themselves. We will join our brother raindrops in the small puddle, adding our water to theirs until the puddle becomes a mighty river of which all creation will take notice. And, singing a lusty song, these raindrops sailed through the cloud to the puddle splashing happily as they landed.

Except that the puddle was very shallow, and it had formed itself over a concrete driveway. Each raindrop that landed did so piercing the watery surface and painfully smacking the pavement, losing both its sensibility from the concussion and its identity in the press of its fellow raindrops.

As the puddle grew in size, the force of gravity acted upon each little raindrop until they all rolled off the driveway and into the drainage channel at the side. Stronger and stronger, gravity pulled the puddle of raindrops, gathering all manner of debris as it surged onward and downward toward its inevitable end, the storm sewer. And so, it did.

Meanwhile, in the cloud, the other raindrops looked down at the city and saw the green grass. “If we land on the green grass, we will no longer be ourselves, little raindrops,” they said, “but, perhaps we will find something that we can help to grow and, in that way, our fall will not be for naught.”

So, that’s what they did. The little raindrops resolutely and determinedly focused on the green grass in their perilous flight downward. So focused were they, that they forgot to make more than even a gentle whisper as they fell.

And the little raindrops landed on the Earth, cushioned by the blades of the green grass. They gently glided below the surface until they reached the roots of the green grass. Their moisture caused the green grass to grow. As the blades of green grass grew, they exhaled moisture back into the air until eventually, new rainclouds formed and more little raindrops appeared.

“And, what are we to take from this parable?” you ask.

The raindrops are like people. Some people always seek to make a splash, to be heard, to be noticed by all creation. Seeking to maintain themselves just as they are, to hold onto, and to perpetuate, what they have after their painful crash, they merge into a mass of like-mindedness until, the force of history, like gravity, pulls them downward en masse towards their ultimate end, the storm-sewer of antiquity, flowing out of Earth’s time-line into the sea of despair where they are lost, having never counted for anything and eventually losing all they ever had or were.

The second group of people is like the second group of raindrops. They seek not their ends but those of “the other.” They seek and find a manner in which they can nourish the other and make it grow. Their reward, after a tumultuous flight, is a soft landing, the hope that their sacrifice counted for something, and the knowledge that their “other-mindedness” ultimately found rebirth in a cycle leading back to the cloud from which they came.

***

Sometime later, the green grass persisted in its lushness nourished by the raindrops and the sunshine that arrayed itself through the clouds. So happy was the green grass that it even grew up between the cracks of the driveway.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. James 5:1-5. NIV.

On a certain day, a large raincloud gathered over the city. Inside the raincloud, the raindrops talked among themselves as to where they would like to fall. Some raindrops looked down and saw small puddles of water, puddles made up of water like themselves. They noticed how the raindrops like themselves sang as they fell towards the puddles and how the water splashed and flashed in the sun as they landed.

“That’s where we would like to land,” they murmured among themselves. We will join our brother raindrops in the small puddle, adding our water to theirs until the puddle becomes a mighty river of which all creation will take notice. And, singing a lusty song, these raindrops sailed through the cloud to the puddle splashing happily as they landed.

Except that the puddle was very shallow, and it had formed itself over a concrete driveway. Each raindrop that landed did so piercing the watery surface and painfully smacking the pavement, losing both its sensibility from the concussion and its identity in the press of its fellow raindrops.

As the puddle grew in size, the force of gravity acted upon each little raindrop until they all rolled off the driveway and into the drainage channel at the side. Stronger and stronger, gravity pulled the puddle of raindrops, gathering all manner of debris as it surged onward and downward toward its inevitable end, the storm sewer. And so, it did.

Meanwhile, in the cloud, the other raindrops looked down at the city and saw the green grass. “If we land on the green grass, we will no longer be ourselves, little raindrops,” they said, “but, perhaps we will find something that we can help to grow and, in that way, our fall will not be for naught.”

So, that’s what they did. The little raindrops resolutely and determinedly focused on the green grass in their perilous flight downward. So focused were they, that they forgot to make more than even a gentle whisper as they fell.

And the little raindrops landed on the Earth, cushioned by the blades of the green grass. They gently glided below the surface until they reached the roots of the green grass. Their moisture caused the green grass to grow. As the blades of green grass grew, they exhaled moisture back into the air until eventually, new rainclouds formed and more little raindrops appeared.

“And, what are we to take from this parable?” you ask.

The raindrops are like people. Some people always seek to make a splash, to be heard, to be noticed by all creation. Seeking to maintain themselves just as they are, to hold onto, and to perpetuate, what they have after their painful crash, they merge into a mass of like-mindedness until, the force of history, like gravity, pulls them downward en masse towards their ultimate end, the storm-sewer of antiquity, flowing out of Earth’s time-line into the sea of despair where they are lost, having never counted for anything and eventually losing all they ever had or were.

The second group of people is like the second group of raindrops. They seek not their ends but those of “the other.” They seek and find a manner in which they can nourish the other and make it grow. Their reward, after a tumultuous flight, is a soft landing, the hope that their sacrifice counted for something, and the knowledge that their “other-mindedness” ultimately found rebirth in a cycle leading back to the cloud from which they came.

***

Sometime later, the green grass persisted in its lushness nourished by the raindrops and the sunshine that arrayed itself through the clouds. So happy was the green grass that it even grew up between the cracks of the driveway.

In praying, studying, and reading the Bible on how God reveals Himself to us, I came upon an article about the attributes of God. The first word that clung to my mind was “omnipotence.” “Omnipotence” is a theologian’s word meaning all-powerful. (But you already knew that. I define it for emphasis.)

May I submit that whether God is omnipotent is not the question. It is not necessary to cite scripture for most of the faithful to know that God is all-powerful. The question, rather, is whether we believe it and if we do believe it, “to what extent do we believe it?”

May I submit that in our heart of hearts, I and probably each of us, believes that there is at least one thing that God cannot or, at least, will not do. I had come to the erroneous conclusion that God cannot or will not change our national, maybe our world, system that seems to reward wealth and power, and their root – selfishness, and to punish poverty and minority as though they were malum in se. I confess that I had come to the conclusion that apparently, God has given up on us or for whatever reason will not bring about change in the system.

In the wake of the recent protests and the attendant violence that came with them, that being a certain amount of rioting, looting, and burning on the one hand, and excessive use of force by some police departments and, in my view, unconstitutional use of military power by our national leaders at the highest level on the other, my pessimism was reinforced to the point that I felt sick in the pit of my stomach.

However, it is a trite but true statement that God was not surprised by any of this. We’ve begun to see that God’s power has been manifested within the middle of it all. Hear my words, I am not implying that God caused evil. Evil, in my view, results from the human will to do evil or at least to permit evil. Rather, I refer to the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit that God sent to live in the hearts of certain people whom he did want to influence people for Good. The result of his influence with these people, unknown to me, is yet to be seen. It may not be seen in my lifetime. It may not be seen for decades. But God’s spirit was there working.

In the recent violence committed by all the violent people, we find at least two common threads: confusion, and chaos. In 1 Corinthians 14:3, the Apostle Paul states that God is not the author of confusion and chaos. If not God, then who or what authors confusion and chaos? The Apostle John answering, the question in Revelation 12:9, states that the evil (one) creates chaos and confusion.

Rather, it is the case that God works within confusion and chaos to bring about perfect harmony and divine order to accomplish His will

I came upon two additional words, “Freedom” and “Eternity,” and upon a thought that was new to me: Only in God’s perfect harmony and divine order is found true freedom for mankind. Hans Küng in The Church states the argument for that proposition. In summary, his argument goes as follows.

We, humans, make ourselves slaves to our choices. God’s Holy Spirit invites us to do God’s perfect will. When a person chooses not to do as the Spirit bids, he makes himself a slave to his own will, an inherently imperfect master. Thus, the person, by his own design makes himself a slave to imperfection. Imperfection can never lead to true freedom, thus, that person has chosen not to be free.

On the contrary, when a person chooses to do as the Spirit bids, she submits herself to perfection, becoming a slave to that perfection. Since we become a slave to our choices, she becomes the slave to God’s perfection. Since God is perfectly free, she has chosen to be a slave to perfect freedom. In that sense, she has chosen to become perfectly free.

A more light-hearted example, if you will permit. As I sit on my front porch, I have noticed for several days a green lizard. Perhaps, God’s power revealed through his Holy Spirit is a bit like the lizard. The power of the Spirit is unseen at first. Like the lizard, He blends into the background. Like the lizard, He is benevolent to humans. Nevertheless, the Spirit, like the lizard can destroy evil, if one considers mosquitoes evil as we in South Alabama do. 

When the lizard is ready, and for a reason that man cannot know, the lizard engorges his pink throat in an eye-catching display of pink-hued color.

Likewise, when He is ready, and for His own reasons, the Holy Spirit “shows up and shows out,” as the old saying goes. I realize that the analogy is an absurdity and breaks down at this point, but bear with me for the sake of argument.

I am truly amazed not so much that God can and will cause his will to be done to bring about his good purposes, the triumph of the Good and the defeat of evil, I’ve seen Him do that many times. The amazing cosmic fact is that God has already done these things, the very things for which we pray today, freedom, equality, and justice.

Another one of God’s incommunicable attributes is “Eternity.” What God does, he eternally does once for all, from eternally begetting the Son to eternally creating a green lizard. 

Thus, God has already brought about his will in the past in one way of looking at it – freedom, equality, and justice. It remains for us who are neither omnipotent nor eternal to see how God’s will works itself out in our time and space. 

We can take great confidence and assurance in the fact that God not only knows what needs to be done in our specific situation, and that God does what He has determined to be done, but that He has eternally already done it. 

When I am overrun with the immensity of the issues that currently face our nation, the lack of freedom, equality, and justice, I find that last thought to be the most comforting and freeing thought I can think of.

So let it be written, so let it be done. 

Prayer: Communal, Concentrated, Concise, Coordinated, and Consistent

Please note: This writing is not my usual pious diatribe; it is a call to definite action.

“What sort of a day was it, a day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times.[1]” It was an unforgettable time, an historic time, a time that would leave its mark on the people for generations.

What Day was it, today, May 31, (AD) 2020, Pentecost, the Feast of Shavuot? No . . . and yes.

NO. It was the 15^th day of the seventh Hebrew month, Tishrei, shortly after the Feast of Shavuot. The year was about 950, BC. King Solomon was in the process of dedicating his long-awaited Temple. As recorded in 2 Chronicles 6, King Solomon lead all the assembled priests and people in a dedicatory prayer. In that prayer, Solomon pledged before God all the many godly acts that the people of Israel would do and would continue to do from that day forward.

2 Chronicles 7:1-3a recounts what happened next. 

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground . . .

It was God’s turn to speak, and speak He did through a prophesy given to Solomon.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14. NIV.

However, . . .

However, the people, and even Solomon, himself, failed to keep their pledge. Evil befell their land.  Within a generation, the people split the Kingdom in twain. Within 200 years, conquering armies deported the Northern 76% of the Ancient Kingdom – never again to be an historical entity. In another 150 years, a different great power dragged to captivity the remainder of the Ancient Kingdom, eventually, destroying the very Temple itself.

YES.  The Day is, indeed, AD 2020, the 31^st day of May, and evil has overtaken our land threatening to devour it, and us as the he-goat devours the grass. As with the Ancient Kingdom, two conquerors march toward our gates – two viruses. The First is novelle – Covid-19, a physical virus for which we have neither vaccine nor remedy, yet of which we ignorantly evince no fear.

The Second, perhaps the more dangerous, is not novelle at all. It is a spiritual virus as old as Father Adam. It is a virus that eats away our humanity as gangrene eats away infected flesh. It is a virus that burns white-hot within us as fear of, and hatred for, the other searing sensibilities until we no longer feel. It is a virus that stabs our soul with selfishness as the evil-doer’s pike pierces the heart of his prey, draining away the very life-blood.

As those of old, we have lost our way and cannot find it. Now, we find ourselves in dire and desperate need of a Guide, a Compass, a Map, and a Rescuer, to all intents and purposes, lost and hopeless.

But, . . .

There is a way out, a street to safety, a guide to grace. It’s always been there, available to us as a gift. It is the Wisdom that not even “Solomon in all his glory” could have imagined, simple, yet requiring an act of unearthly courage.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Observe, here’s what I promise God to do, and I ask you to join me. 

God leads me to ask a group of people to engage in prayer: Communal, Concentrated, Concise, Coordinated, and Consistent 

The prayer should be a simple, brief prayer, 

• Once a day, 
• At a specific hour of your choosing, and 
• In addition to, and not intended to supplant, other prayer times, nor to substitute for church attendance in whatever manner that is presently taking place. 

 The prayer should be a supplication for 

• Ourselves,
• Our fellow citizens, and
• Our leaders at all levels of religion and government. 

The specifics of the prayer would be that we all would know the mind of God in two matters:

• Addressing the virus of Covid-19 and
• Addressing the virus of violence, division, hatred, and selfishness. 

Would you covenant to so engage at the appropriate time, and to Stop, Look, and Listen?

• Stop whatever activity in which you are engaged, 
• Look to God in prayer, and 
• Listen for what He will say, and listen to that which others are saying. 

Would you step forward and courageously take loving and affirmative action based upon God’s answer and instruction to each of us?

Would you make an appeal for such prayer to leaders and congregants of all Christian denominations and all faiths? Non-believers may join-in by agreeing to observe a time of silence and contemplation on these two matters in place of prayer. 

I submit, based upon God’s promise in 2 Chronicles, that if we pray, God will do the rest. From Heaven, He will hear our prayer, He will heal our land, and He will reveal:

• Himself, 
• His purposes, and 
• His ways. 

He will show the way forward revealing how we can partner with Him, with each other, and with all willing people of every tribe and every nation to bring about our rescue. 

So let it be written, so let it be done.

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[1] Sign-off line, CBS Television, “You Are There,” 1953-1972, hosted by Walter Cronkite,