Monthly Archives: September 2020

Then Joseph said to his brothers. . . “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!  And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years, there will be no plowing and reaping.  But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” Genesis 45:4-7. NIV. Emphasis added.

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20. NIV.

Last weekend, our niece, Lauren L’Etang, co-starred in an outdoor musical presentation in Tuscaloosa of the off-Broadway play, “The Last Five Years,” a 2001 play by Jason Robert Brown. The two-person play tells the story of the marriage and divorce of a couple over five years. There are some “wrinkles” in the storytelling.

The husband’s character tells the story in chronological order beginning as a struggling wannabe writer and ultimately becoming a successful author whose success has taken him well past the confines of the marriage relationship. 

In a “wrinkling” plot twist, the wife, played in fine fashion by Lauren, tells her “side” of the emotional events in reverse chronological order, beginning as a world-weary, still-struggling actress and finishing exuberantly, five years earlier as an aspiring musical ingénue. 

The couple meet on stage only once – at the wedding. In the end, the husband sings his woeful last “good-bye,” a bit of an apologia, and is joined in the song by the now ex-wife singing her first “good-bye” to him at the blissful conclusion of their first date. Their voices, sometimes harmonious, sometimes contrapuntal, fade as the ex-husband exits upstage into the orchestra (if there were an orchestra,) while the ex-wife, likewise exits but downstage and out the back door. At that point, the curtain, if there were a curtain (it’s outdoors, remember,) would drop. One is left with the melancholy of love found and then lost in a spring/autumn mélange of emotions, raising a myriad of perspectival questions.

The finale, in both musical and positional juxtaposition, struck me as a metaphor for life. Some of us begin life as the archetypal ingénue, living our “three score and ten” years in such a manner as to pass the saintly matriarch of the clan, beloved by all and mourned by many. Maybe, they name a Sunday school class after you, as they did my Grandmother.

Others of us scratch out our grime of a life finishing poorly in ignominy hoping that the undertaker can find six men to carry the coffin to lie in the veritable “potter’s field,” not long remembered, and not long enough forgot. 

Some of us commence life’s trek, or at least a five-year snippet of it, seeking to harm someone either volitionally or involuntarily, while others perceive what we do to be helpful but, in retrospect, find, rather that our actions have caused irreparable harm to others. (Then, there are those who never think about it at all, but that’s a subject for another day.)

Such was the case with the Patriarch Joseph and his brothers, noted hereabove. As you will remember, with good reason, the brothers plotted to kill Joseph but ended up selling him to Arab traders. Either way, they thought they were rid of him. As the late John Belushi, in the character of the Samurai, would say, “. . . But nooooooooooo.”

God has a way of turning evil intent into beneficial outcomes – despite our best efforts to the contrary. In Egypt, Joseph became the “Grand Vizier,” in charge of the disposition of all crops during a seven-year famine. Ignorant of any shenanigans, Father Abraham sends the brothers to buy grain, whereupon they discover Joseph, their hated enemy, to be the man in charge. As God frequently does, Father God, through Joseph, the “Grand Vizier,” extends grace to the brothers.

In my Niece, Lauren’s time – and ours – what did our “Last Five Years” resemble? Did we spend the aliquot of time in service to God and service to our fellow humans; or did we waste it in a riot of self-service, always seeking but never finding? (I hate retrospectives, don’t you?)

There’s a second mode in which Lauren’s play can be viewed. My review hereinabove sees the play from the standpoint of Lauren, the ex-wife, viewing life in the hard-to-swallow retrospective. The late Auburn football Coach, Pat Dye, famously said on the Paul Finebaum Radio Show, “Hindsight is always 50-50.” Be that as it may, as viewed in real-time by the husband (note that he is not the “ex” yet,) we can ask questions prospectively, “What are we going to do with the next five years?”

May I submit that the choice in points of view, if not in actualization, is ours. We can look at life backward and lament what we did wrongly, or we can view life prospectively, viewing it from what we may do. In my second clausal point, I am mindful of the caveat of James 4:13-17 that cautions us always to condition our intentions with, “If the Lord allows.”

Lastly, may I submit that if we spend our lives seeking, and living within, the Will of God, our prospective will merge with our retrospective, and we will “glorify God and . . . enjoy him forever.”[1] Should that be the case, how can we complain no matter the way it turned out?

“Last Five Years” or Next five years – the viewpoint is yours (but, it’s also mine.)

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

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[1] Westminster Catechism, the Shorter.

“20/20” used to mean, “Perfect.” One sees at a distance of 20 feet what one should see at a distance of 20 feet.[1] Enter AD 2020. These days, what one sees at 20 feet might well be what one would see on the “Dark Side of the Moon.[2]” 20/20 is many things, but one thing it is NOT is an excuse to get “Lost in the Weeds.”

There is a Spanish expression, “Es lo qué hay,” an ironic expression filled with resignation, usually meaning, “It is what it is.” Ever hear that?  In these weird times, if one were playing poker, one would have two choices, one can either fold or raise the ante. As Kenny Rogers says, ‘You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, known to walk away, and know when to run.”[3]

I confess sometimes to being “Lost in the Weeds.” No, I’m not blowing grass – not yet, at least. I’m one of a rare breed of “Theology Nerds.” As we all know, theology is literally, “the Study of God.” Further, we know that one can “study God” from at least two aspects. One can either seek to “know God” or one can seek to know about God. The former is a noble enterprise, crowned with glory and love for God and fellow man. The latter is an esoteric, academic enterprise that, I suppose, has its own reward.

The New Testament speaks to this dichotomy.[4]

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Matthew 23:23,24. NIV.

One might paraphrase it as follows, “But woe to you, esoteric nerds – time-wasters! You worry about the exact shade of meaning the words state but neglect to do what the Word says.” RWV. I must plead, “Guilty as charged.”

Since changing Christian denominations about a year ago, for good, not evil, reasons, I have made a study of my new denomination’s history and interpretation of the Bible, based on the teachings of this new church. I’ve parsed the Parables, counted the Commandments, and broken-down the Beatitudes. I’ve digested the Disciples, entertained the Epistles, and applied the Apocrypha. Why, I’ve even torn-apart to Torah, singled-out the Sayings, and rehearsed the Revelations. Standing alone, these count excellent literary endeavors and academic exercises. But . . . to what avail?

Proper theology is important to one’s living the Christian life. Surely, if one doesn’t know what Jesus did, how can one imitate Him? And yet, there is a limit. If it were my job to teach the fine points of theology to eager young minds (my fantasy job,) such would be not only appropriate but, indeed, necessary.

Alas, and alack, such is not my job. I am neither seminary professor nor pastor, neither college academician nor Sunday school teacher. Instead, as all Christians are, I’m one who is charged by God, to minister as He leads me, where He leads me, when He leads me, and how He leads me. As Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, 20a, “. . . go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” NIV.

This is the call not to grand crusade, but to daily life. It’s neither “high-flying” nor grandiose-sounding, but it is over-arching. It’s a call to daily service sometimes among the weedsbut never lost in the weeds.

Academics are my “weeds.” I can spend hours pouring “[o]ver many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,[5]” trying, in vain, to distinguish the teachings of John Wesley from those of John Calvin; the sayings of John Smyth from those of John Knox; and the musings of John Piper from those of Pope John Paul II. But who did that help? Did it lift the spirits of one who is overcome with loneliness? Did it put a “Poor wandering one” back onto the path to righteousness after an unfortunate detour down the rabbit-hole of self-indulgence? Did it bring home a “lost boy” from a “Neverland” of well – Neverland?[6]

One day, Jesus came back to his hometown, Nazareth, and proclaimed something radical in the Synagogue. Paraphrasing and fulfilling Isaiah 61,

. . . on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18,19. NIV.

Isn’t that what He called me to do – not to try to know what the Messiah knew, but to be like Jesus, the Messiah; to see what He is doing and to emulate Him[7]? If I am “lost in the weeds” somewhere, how can I see what He is doing? If I am enthralled by the sound of my own words, how can I hear what He is saying? If I am doing something useless, how can I do what is worthwhile?

But, hey, it’s 2020. It’s total weirdness. OK, I admit to a bit of self-castigation. But, while you are enjoying the show, may I inquire, “What about you?” May I ask, “What and where are your weeds? Is your call from the Lord any different from mine? Are you working amid the weeds or are you lost in the weeds of your own making?”

Weeds are interesting things. They usually grow up quickly and choke out the grass around. They may appear masquerading as a lovely flower, (think the Goldenrod, former state “flower” of the State of Alabama) while performing as a pollen-spreading machine ready, willing, and able to blanket the world with yellow dust. Shoot, you can even smoke some of ’em – but “we don’t recommend that.”[8]

In Matthew 6:28, et seq., Jesus spoke of the grass of the fields clothed like King Solomon but that soon withers and is good only for fuel. Weeds. He’s talking about weeds. If we are lost in the weeds when the weeds start to wither and die, maybe we will, too.

Interestingly, Jesus concludes that passage with an adversative clause, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33. NIV. Since Jesus ended there, perhaps, it’s a good place to do so – I shall.

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

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[1] American Optometric Association.

[2] “Dark Side of the Moon.” The 1973 album by Pink Floyd.

[3] “The Gambler” by Don Schlitz, 1976 made famous by Kenny Rogers.

[4] RWV. “Revised Wible Version.”

[5] Poe, Edgar Allen, The Raven.

[6] See Barrie, J.M., Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. 1904.

[7] See John 5:17, et seq.

[8] A familiar saying of Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.

This follows on my post of August 31 entitled, “A Vision Gone Awry.” I invite you to take a journey to a museum, the museum of your mind. As you enter, your attention immediately is drawn to a painting that is multicolored and extraordinarily busy. It’s not quite Victorian or Impressionist, not exactly Cubist. Perhaps, it’s more a collection of polychromatic mottles in the nature of a weird stain-glass window designed for La Catedral de La Familia Sagrada in Barcelona by Gaudi. But, you’re here neither to admire the work nor to criticize it, neither judge it nor misunderstand it. You’re here to play a game with it.

Close your eyes. In that Museum of the Mind, with the mind’s keen eye, stare at the painting. Keeping your head static, move your eyes in a clockwise circle, taking in the borders. Move the circle tighter and tighter until you arrive at the center. Now, back away, and look at the work as a whole. You are playing the game. Can you guess what the game is? Any ideas? Look again, this time, let the focus of your mind’s eye concentrate with peripheral vision. You are looking for something – something sinister.

No, it’s not “Where’s Waldo?” The game is to see the green dragon hidden in the picture and, with your mind’s paintbrush, using ever so gentle strokes, to paint the green dragon red. Need inspiration? See Revelation 12:3.

Hold that thought. Think of the 23rd Psalm, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” Psalm 23:5. KJV. At this point, you are probably wondering what these two things have in common. You could play a guessing game and try to figure it out, but, that’s not the point. Follow along, if you will.

See Luke 16:19-31. You’ll find the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Some will argue that this is not a true parable because it names a person, Lazarus, but I’m convinced that it is a parable. We’ll proceed that way. Perhaps Jesus had Psalm 23 in mind in his parable of Lazarus. Interestingly, the name “Lazarus” means “the one whom God helps.” Later commentators have named the rich man Dives, but I submit that such adds little to the story.

As you will remember, Lazarus has lain for years at the rich man’s gate hoping for table scraps, but the rich man has never acknowledged him. They both die. Lazarus is taken by angels to “Abraham’s Bosom,” the Second Temple Period conception of the place of the righteous dead, while the rich man is cast into Gehenna or “Hell. The rich man asks Abraham a series of questions concerning his condition and that of his brothers. The punch line is that Abraham tells the rich man that while the rich man feasted in life leaving Lazarus to beg at his gate, there is a gulf between them that cannot be crossed, so the rich man is basically “out of luck” while Lazarus is feted and banqueted by Abraham. Remember: “Though preparest a table… .?”

Middle Eastern scholar, Kenneth E. Bailey comments in Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, among a veritable plethora of points, that even though Lazarus has every right to enter into the conversation between the rich man and Father Abraham, he holds his tongue. For our purposes, Lazarus does not judge the rich man, rather, Lazarus remains the same gentle soul that he was in life. He leaves the judgment to Father Abraham. 

Recently, in my ever-consuming quest to read, in the words of the 1897 New York Times slogan, “all the news that’s fit to print,” I’ve become convicted of my allowing politicians to become my “enemies,” some of whom I actively despise and others for whom I merely have contempt. Sometimes, like one of my Sunday school classmates, I yell back at the TV or screen. The difference between my classmate and me is that my yells are probably not as tame as those of the classmate. By the end of the newscast, my blood pressure is maxing out and I’m spent, spewing venom in three languages on the order of the Herculean Cerberus of Greek mythology.

May I submit that Jesus would look at me and just shake His one head, “Really?” He would, and has, pointed out that it’s not my place to judge people. That’s the job of “Father Abraham” in the parable or of the Lord, Himself in the Bible. Jesus said, “Judge not, lest you be judged.” Matthew 7:1, et seq. Rather, He would urge, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:36. KJV.

Bearing those commands in mind, let’s “think first, and curse later.” Should I ever condemn a person made in God’s image, vile though I may think the person to be? No, God calls me to love that person as one of God’s creatures as God loves such person. Admittedly, this is difficult because, in my view, some of these “people” barely rise above the level of “creature,” but then again, that’s my carnality talking. (Tell me YOU never felt the same way.)

How about this for a plan. First, I refrain from reading or listening to that which I know will agitate me; Instead, as Paul says, “. . . whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8. KJV. Emphasis added.

Secondly, upon learning of “evil tidings,” I should withhold complaints about policies that I merely don’t like and may not even understand until I have taken the time to attempt an understanding. Even so, how much good does it do to yell at the TV? Does the “offender” care if I post nastiness on social media?

That’s where the “Red Dragon” comes in. If I want to do something useful, perhaps I should analyze the situation and with God’s help, distinguish between fact and fiction, real news and “fake” news, and truth from lies. When I see a dragon, paint it blood red. Only when I have “painted the dragon red” do I have the right to complain. Hereinabove, I do not at all mean to imply that proper criticism is the be withheld. Perhaps, “re-channeled” would be a better term.

Thus, my third suggestion. Many times, I have the right, perhaps, the duty to protest that which God has revealed to me to be injustice, oppression, mistreatment, or such of the same ilk. After I have prayed about it, if I want to be heard, I should convert my words of protestation and outrage into positive actions, positive action that will help someone. Return good for evil.

Re-channeling ignorant anger into positive action lowers my blood pressure, helps someone in need, and above all, pleases God.

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

Looking for God in all the Wrong Places

According to “an unimpeachable source,” and my “go-to” for quick information that is probably correct, Wikipedia, “Lookin’ for Love [in all the Wrong Places] is a song written by Wanda Mallette, Bob Morrison and Patti Ryan, and recorded by American country music singer Johnny Lee. It was released in June 1980 as part of the soundtrack to the film Urban Cowboy, released that year.” Listen to it at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxIHL6d-RM&gt;

As some of you will remember, and based on uncorroborated information from the aforementioned “unimpeachable source,” the movie, Urban Cowboy, claimed by some critics to be a country music version of Saturday Night Fever, told a tale of Bud and Sissy (John Travolta and Debra Winger) who, along with many other young twenty-somethings, inhabited Mickey Gilley’s bar, Gilley’s, in Pasadena, Texas. May I submit that the redeeming social value of the hackneyed plot (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back) is the basic premise that people are always looking for love (or Something Like It, in the words of the 1978 Kenny Rogers song of the same name.) However, all too frequently, we people tend to look for such love in all the wrong places, at times, leading us to being thrown by and subsequently struck being with bone-breaking force by, a mechanical bull as did Bud in the movie.

By now, I suspect that you expect that what will follow is a sermonette about seeking God as true love instead of all the things the earth has to offer – and, you’d be wrong. Please refer back to the title of the piece, Looking for GOD in all the Wrong Places. May I explain?

My morning habit includes three cups of coffee interspersed between headline articles in the New York Times, AP News, and BBC News. I cap these off with AL.COM for local flavor. Thus, by nine o’clock, I’m thoroughly caffeine-buzzed yet strangely depressed. I do not recommend this as a good routine in which to engage before your daily Bible study and prayer time. However, the other day, a notion worked its way into my head that I should reconsider not my news-reading, but what I did with the news I read. What if instead of asking the mental question, “What have these idiots done today,” I ask the question, “What has GOD done today?” What if every day I search, not for the news of the day, but for God in the news and in the lives of people?

Jesus said, “My Father is always at work.” John 5:17. Always. – not Do I suggest that God causes everything in the news? No, I do not. I am not a fatalist, not even a Calvinist, (though I do admit to fatalistic tendencies sometimes.) Do I believe that God is surprised by the things that transpire in the news? Again, no, though I joke that some things are so “off the wall” that they cause one to wonder. I submit that people have choices, and choices have consequences. It appears that the consequences make for good reading in the news. May I further submit that some people like to read about a good train-wreck sometimes. That’s why God made NASCAR and bubble-headed starlets (with or without talent.)

Even in those tongue-in-cheek examples, and even in all the wrong places, God is working. We just have to look for the evidence of such work. Perhaps, in the long-run, that’s a much more rewarding and profitable enterprise.

As I think on the subject, my conclusion is that many times, while it may be a good exercise to see the evidence of God at work in national and international affairs, there’s probably not much we can or should do about it. However, occasionally, perhaps, more than occasionally, we find God doing something in which we should involve ourselves.

An expanded reading of John 5:17 quotes Jesus “In his defense, Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” “I, too am working,” hmm, Jesus was always working because the Father was always working, and Jesus was His Father’s Son, was He not. That’s just what Jesus did, and may I submit that is what he calls “we people” to do as well.  Are we not the Father’s sons and daughters (at least, by adoption) as well? 

I am quite fond of quoting Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God (1990) for the proposition that the call placed upon the lives of Christians is to emulate the life of Jesus, not least in that facet of seeking out and finding what God is doing and then joining in. Such occupation may be dangerous, look where it led Jesus, the Twelve Apostles, the Apostle Paul, and countless others. Nonetheless, it will never be dull because God is, in fact, always doing something and something that counts in a spiritual sense.

Perhaps, that’s the key to happiness and blessedness. May God grant me the vision to see Himself at work in the world amidst all the evil, the understanding, on a carrier wave in the background above all the noise and distraction, to realize how I am to join Him in His work, and the courage,  just about, but not quite, overwhelmed by a myriad of strangling emotions to “Just Do it! Swoosh!”

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