Our Trip to Spain Part #1 - The Taxi Ride

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Spain. Yes, we left behind the five kids with awesome and loving grandparents. Then made the journey over the great pond, just 8 short hours in the air. It was a fantastic trip. We landed in Madrid, then went to a beautiful wedding in Toledo. I am one who likes to watch and pay attention to what is going on around me and often later reflect on the different things that I observe. I have narrowed down my observations on this trip to around five blog post that I would like to share with everyone. By doing this I can bring together food, love, relationships, travel, and God. While at the same time not rushing to tell you the stories that made the biggest impression upon myself.

The first event I would like to relate to everyone is the taxi ride from the airport in Madrid, to our hotel that we would be staying in when we returned from the wedding. Now I do a lot of driving back home and am not one who scares easily by close traffic, speeding, or wild driving. (Heights is my great fear. Anyone who knows me, knows that when I go over two steps up a ladder, I am petrified.) But this car ride was different. When we first got in the cab all was well. Then very quickly the speeding and very close following of the car or bus in front of us started. It was literally, bumper to bumper at full speed. All I could do was to hold to the handle on my door for dear life. Joanne tells me, “I am trying not to look.” Well, I had to look. And everything that I saw was freighting or in one line from a favorite movie of mine, “Clue”, “All to shocking!” (If you don’t know it, no worries, if you do, you know just what I am talking about.) To make things ever better, while all this excitement is going on, the driver is cursing other drivers in Spanish. He got very upset and vocal with one bus driver. I could not tell what the driver has done wrong to receive such a tongue lashing, then again, he is the expert. I tried not the laugh to hard, but I had to do something to lighten to mood a bit and stop my heart from racing.

About halfway through the overly long trip he almost, and I mean almost! HIT a scooter who was trying to merge lanes. This in the next layer that we have to add to the story, the countless scooters and their drivers, who a buzzing around the already very close traffic. It must have been a few inches, but the driver did make it through. I could not imagine driving a car in this mess, let alone a two wheeled scooter. Not for me! Not for me! Let me tell you, I have never been so ready to get out of a car before. I was so happy to put my flat feet upon the hard ground again.

Looking back upon the chaotic and wild scene makes me think about many of us do as the driver did, we go too fast through the many obstacles and distractions in life. We do not allow enough time for the people around us, or even God himself to react to what we are doing. At these times it is usually us, not others, who are causing the greatest problems that confront us. We have to learn to slow down and respond to what is before us with patience and kindness, not anger and cursing. Think how many complications or issues we confront daily would likely disappear if we took that step. Or for many people, it’s a huge leap. A leap that calls for self-control of mind and body. This brings to mind a passage from the Book of Exodus, when Israel is about to cross the Red Sea, Moses tells the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still.” (14:13-14) We too must at times stand still and let God act. He is the one with the plan, not us. The good God of creation is always ready to work in us, we just have to give him the time to do so. Let us all slow down, get out of our own crazy taxi rides, and listen to what God is telling us.

Where is the Food?

This has been a very busy and crazy week/weekend. We saw the passing of Hurricane Florence, which gave the kids three days home from school. That made for a long, long, weekend, but we did make it through. The backyard is a mess right now and will need a bit of attention when it finally dries out back there. Also around the events of the hurricane I began a new Bible Study at church on the Lord's Prayer. For this eight week study we are meeting on Wednesday night. Thankfully, it is off to a great start. So last night on the way home I stoped by the grocery store and what items did I find from my very short shopping list? Which included: milk, bananas, sting cheese, and orange juice. Just the cheese and juice. No milk. Hardly any fruit in the store. The place was empty.

I was truly shocked by this. Most produce, meats, fresh food in general, where nonexistent. When I got hame and told Joanne what had happened, it made me think, our food supply is on a very short sting. Here we have a one storm and the supply has dried up. What if something really big came up, how long would the store be without most things? Now I am not one to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to have on hand, just in case the big one hits. But, we do have several freezers we keep stocked, but you can only do so much. And a family with five kids needs lots of milk!

All this caused me to reflect upon the verse from Psalm 146:3 "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help." Our trust must be with God. No matter if its a literal storm or the many other storms that arise in our lives daily. It is the Lord Jesus who gives us comfort and satisfaction that all will be well. This past weeks events also brings to mind the scene in Matthew's Gospel when the disciples are fighting for their lives and they lookup to see, "Jesus walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” (14:26-27) This passage always send shivers down my spine. What powerful words the Lord of glory gives us, "It is I; have no fear." That is our life in communion with the living God. Fearing no storms or shortages, but always trusting in the bountiful goodness of the Lord. 

The Lordship of Jesus and a Hurricane

Not only are we celebrating the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, but here in North Carolina we are also in the middle of Hurricane Florence. Since I do not have enough time to prepare a new sermon or post for this feast day. I looked back and found this homily that I wrote several years ago. Its focus in upon the lordship of Jesus and how it effect our lives, as well as our world. I think it is well worth a read.

Just to note: The family and I are doing well. We prayed Vespers last night (nothing like singing "Our Lord I have cried to you hear me", with a two year old screaming at the top of his lungs. Then again I am sure that we sometimes sound just like that to God) and Matins together for the feast. It was rough morning though, I think a bit of cabin fever is already setting in. It will be a long weekend I am sure. I pray that all of you are safe, knowing that God through his divine protection is watching over us. God's blessings to everyone.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

With today’s great Feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we celebrate two important events in the history of the Church and the world. First, Jesus own victory upon the Cross. The moment when many people consider Jesus entered into his lordship. The Cross itself became his throne as he was lifted up upon it. Through this "lifting up" he defeated sin and death by destroying their power over his people. Then in the year 326, the great Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother St. Helena found in Jerusalem the very cross that was used to Crucify Jesus and there was a great public celebration that it had been unearthed. There was a great moment when the Cross was shown or elevated for all the people to see. Then the Emperor himself had a grand church built on the site, so all could come and venerate the very wood that held the Savior of the world. Now, lets put this in the context of history. this all happened 300 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. By this time Christianity had spread to be present in every corner of the Roman world. It had replaced paganism as the official religion of the Empire. The First Council of Nicaea had just happened. This is where the first part of the Creed we say every Sunday was written by the bishops of the world. And I think this most sticking and shocking thing of all is that the very person who had called this council, the emperor Constantine, who’s office of very recent memory at the time, was consider divine by most of the world. Here he now was knelling before the wood of the life-giving Cross.

I often hear people ask the question, “how did this happened”? How did that small group of guys gathered in the upper room, just 11 or 12 in all, most of them fisherman, change the face of the whole world? We can easily say its because the work of the Holy Spirit, and that is very true. We could also add, it was because the good Roman roads and the many trade guilds that helped make this rapid growth possible. Is this growth from the very powerful prayer that we hear from the Lord’s lips in St. John’s Gospel, “Father as you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them, the disciples, into the world.”? (17:18) I am sure it is, but I think for us to get at the heart of the matter we must ask the greater question, “why did this happen?”.

Why did the early Church see the need to spread the true Gospel message to all the world? They could have just sat there in the upper room praying and fasting, waiting for the Jesus to do all the work himself or for him to return. How easy to say, “this is his Church, let him do it.” But that does not answer the challenge by Jesus given to his people at all times, as we hear proclaimed in Acts and St. John, “you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Or “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” (John 20:21)

There are two key events in the New Testament that bring this question of ‘why’ to the for front. The witness of the centurion at the foot of the Cross, in St. Mark’s Gospel, and the events around one of St. Paul’s times in jail, found in Acts. The centurion, the great Roman soldier, as he is looking at Jesus hanging on the cross says, “Truly this man was the Son of God,”. (15:39) What he really is saying is that this man Jesus, is the worlds true Lord. To understand this fully we must look at the figure of the Emperor and how that relates to what he is saying here. At the time the Emperor Tiberius Caesar was considered the lord of the world, the bringer of order and peace to the empire. When he sent out a message or decree to the people, it was called gospel, good news, (sound familiar?) because what Caesar says must make our lives and the world better. Now if you got in the way of this plan for peace or prosperity, you too, would end up hanging on a cross for the whole world to see. This is the key to what is going on here. In the Centurions pocket he would have had coins and they would have had the image of Tiberius Caesar on them. Above that image was written, “Son of the divine Augustus” in other words, son of god. See after the death of Augustus, people said they saw him, or his soul ascend into the sky to be with the god’s. This in turn made him a god and Tiberius the son of god. What then is the Centurion saying to us when he calls him, “Son of God”? That this Jesus is the true bringer of world peace and order. He is the world’s true Lord. Here we stand at the heart of this whole scene and the message of the Gospel itself, Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not. Therefor true power is not from the sword or many legions, but from the love of him who hangs upon the tree. And this Jesus is now the true King and the Lord of glory.

This goes right into what we hear about in Acts. Paul is in jail and there was a great earthquake, all the doors of the prison where opened. Then the jailor comes in and thinks everyone has escaped. He even wants to kill himself; because he knows that if they have left, he will die for it. But Paul stops him, and says, “do not harm yourself, for we are all here” (16:28) and the jailer in great shock at this event, falls down and asks, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” (8:30) Paul tells him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (8:31) We must remember Paul is in the very pagan town of Philippi, which was full of temples.  Also the very cult of the emperor and its worship was in full operation, and many other gods where being worshiped there. What Paul is really saying to this man is that if you truly want to have peace with God and receive his mercy, you must believe in Jesus as Lord! You must put away your idols and fallow your true master and commander, Jesus Christ. Not Caesar.  What does St. Paul say in his great Epistle to the Philippians in the passage we heard today, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (2:90-11) Not at the name of Caesar, but at the name of Jesus should every knee bow. He is the world’s Lord, not some guy in Rome.

This is a large and often-overlooked answer to the question of “why did Christianity spread so far and change the world,” because Jesus is Lord! Therefor we are under his lordship and must make that ‘Gospel’ known to those around us. By challenging the world around us, by living as his subjects and making his rule known. How much easer would it have been for St. Paul to stay in his little shop in Tarsus and make his tents, reading and praying. Believing in his heart that Jesus was Lord, but he knew that this message is not to be kept secret, it must be proclaimed and even more lived out. For all people, Jew and Greek, to see and hear.  Thereby calling them to be renewed and transformed, in mind and body to serve the Lord Jesus. This is how God’s love, peace, and mercy, are brought to the world, through you and me. By our witness to the Gospel, the Good News, not through weapons and fear like the many Caesars of yesterday and today, but by the redefinition of power found at the foot of the cross. Loves power shown forth in blood flowing from the side of our Savior, poured out for the true life and peace of the world.

Now, I am going to give one modern example of how Jesus’ rule and Lordship are show forth and brought into action in people’s lives today. Jennifer Fulwiler, who some years ago came out with a book called, “Something Other then God.” In this book, she tells the story of her conversion from a hardcore, lifelong atheist, firm in her support of abortion and conception, to become a faithful Catholic and mother of six children. Before she and her husband got married, they both worked at a large firm and traveled the world. Going to and throwing many wild parties. They were living together and their great goal in life, at the time, was to be the riches and most powerful people they could be. We could easily sum by saying, that sex, money, and power, where their lords and guides. Jennifer’s husband even says during their conversion process, “that it was no longer his goal in life to be the world’s richest and most powerful lawyer anymore.” When they got married and had a child something changed dramatically in Jennifer, she found herself loving this new child and torn because she could not explain these felling’s by science and logic alone. She knew there was something more is the world other then atoms, loves power could not be explained in a test tube. She may not know it, but she was about to discover how Jesus’ lordship works in one’s life. When she found Jesus and his Church, their lives where turned upside down and inside out by it. There desire for more and more from the world was replaced by the desire for communion with God himself. Sex, money, and power, where cast aside for, faith, hope, and love. Faith in Jesus, hope in God’s new age and the power of his lordship, and true love for one another. Jesus was now the king of their life, and Jennifer knew in her heart that if she is going to fallow his rule. That abortion was evil, and contraception was wrong. Because, as with all sin, it become your lord and master. It in turn rules your life, instead of God. Jennifer and her husband had come full circle. They found God and instead of mocking his message and rule, they were now firmly living it out, day by day, and proclaiming its transforming power to others.

This is what the proclamation of the Gospel, that Jesus is the worlds true Lord, looks like in action and practice. Lives changed and redeemed one person at a time, and it works the same today, as it did in Philippi or any other city, 2000 years ago. Now, the most important question for us to ask yourself is,” what Lord am I serving. Who is the King of my life? Is it the grasp for more and more power and cravings from the world.” Are you letting Jesus challenge you by his lordship every day by turning your life upside down? If not, it’s time to let it.

Bible Basics 101 – The Wickedness of Mankind and the Hardness of Heart – Part 7

As we continue our journey through the early parts of Genesis, we come to the passage where God lays out the fundamental problem with man after the Fall. It is from this text that we find out what must be fixed in man if he is going to truly enter back into communion with the living God. In these words, we not only discover the disease that confronts man, but also the cure that is needed to make him again.

Genesis 6:5-8 “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

The very first thing we should notice is the evil and wickedness that has entered or taken control of man since the Fall is in his heart. When we read and study the Bible we must remember that the heart and mind are connected. They both operate together when we function in life. So, if our heart is corrupted by evil, then the thoughts of our mind, and the decisions or actions we make, will be as well. God sees this chief problem as we are reminded in the text that “every” thought of man was wicked. Not just one or two of them, but all thoughts are wicked. Then we are told that God is “grieved” and made “sorry” by his decision to create man. But that does this really mean? I think we should understand this by saying that God is disappointed because the humans he made are not fulfilling his desires or the vocation he created us for. Man is falling short of his part in the plan that God had created him to play, as Saint Paul reminds us in Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (3:23) This “glory” is partly man’s intended function and dominion as priest, prophet, and king, in God’s very good world.

Psalm 51 is a great illustration that God will have to remake or refashion the heart of man, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” The Psalmist is praying that God take out his old wicked heart and give him a new heart. One that is filled with God’s own spirit and will lead him along the right path, chiefly by making right decision over wrong ones. The great promise from the Book of Ezekiel makes the same point, as the Lord says:

 Ezekiel 36:26-28 “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

He is not saying, “I will give you this new heart, so you call follow all my rules.” No, the Lord is telling us, “Through this new sprit filled heart, you at last will be the people I made you to be, I will be your God and we will have communion together again!”    

Jesus himself, in one of my favorite passages from the New Testament, also gives us an early peek behind the curtain in Mark’s Gospel, to not only the problem with man, but also the needed cure. At the beginning of the 3^rd Chapter, the Pharisees are trying to find a reason to attack Jesus because they do not like what he has been doing or the message he has been preaching. Jesus goes into a synagogue on a Sabbath, then all hell breaks loose as we read:

Mark 3:1-6 “A man was there who had a withered hand. And they (the Pharisees) watched him (Jesus), to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out, and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.”

Jesus displays the same emotions that we find God also showing in Genesis 6. Is this just a mere coincidence? I think not. Jesus as the “GodMan” knows all about the wicked heart that man has within him. He knows that the Pharisees have been misusing the Sabbath and its regulations, and it grieves him deeply. He in angered because humanity does not know or seem to know in the least, its foundational role in God’s world. Here Jesus restores the man’s hand, but also from this passage we learn it is by the hand of Jesus that the heart of man is going to be recreated and the image of God rightly restored in man. There is much more going on in this scene from Mark, but we shall leave that for another time.

I think we can all understand the main point of the passages that we have looked at, and the problems they make clear. For this reason, the heart of man and the required cure becomes a large part of the story of salvation contained within the Bible. Just as with life and the conversion process, at times it is a long and painful route. But let us take notice that there is a gleam of hope found at the end of this text, where we read that Noah, “found favor in the eyes of the Lord”. It is to the man Noah and his “favor” that we will turn next time.