Romans 8 in rhyme

From condemnation, accusation

the truth of the gospel frees us

We're freed from the claw of death’s dead law

By the life-giving law of Jesus

What God has done through the Christ His Son

the law in the flesh can’t achieve

Vanquishing sin that corrupts within

Making righteous the ones who believe

Our minds will show where our bodies go

To the flesh or to the Spirit

But life in the flesh results in death

A terrible fate; we should fear it

The Spirit gives life that's free from strife

It’s the only peace we can know

God spurns the plans of the fleshly man

He who follows the world is God’s foe

If our hearts we give to Christ we'll live

For we have his Spirit within

Though in sin we're dead, we need not dread

In the Spirit we are saved from sin

The power that raised Christ from the grave

Will give life to our bodies too

The Spirit, God's breath, saves us from death

Those he dwells in he raises up new

So follow the One who raised the Son

The things of the flesh all decay

Kill every lust, place all your trust

In our God, let us walk in his way

The Spirit now leads the people God's freed

Adopted as His own children

Set free, we're not slaves, no more afraid

But sons of our Father in heaven

As sons we’re heirs, so the Spirit swears

Enjoying Christ’s inheritance

But first comes the cross, with all its loss

Then glory from God’s vast abundance

Life hurts a lot, but it’s just a dot

In the ocean of joy we’ll see

Creation waits for God’s promised date

Longing to finally be set free

Lord, set us free from futility,

Rescue us from corruption

Creation groans, and with it we moan

Impatient to have our adoption

The Spirit sprouts, there’s never a doubt

He’ll redeem our bodies someday

We can’t see it now, but still somehow

We’ll walk patiently along God’s way

We’re too weak to pray, no words to say

The Spirit breathes groans in our stead

But God knows his groans, they are his own

They’re exactly what He would have said

If we love the Lord, all things reward

We are called, and he’s not yet done

From the start he knew what he would do

To make us look like Jesus his Son

A great family is what we’ll be

With Jesus our king and our brother

He’s summoned us near, freed us from fear

And given us glory and splendor

There’s no more to say, God took away

All reasons to send us to hell

He gave us his Son and isn’t yet done

Ev’ry good thing He gives us as well

The people God chose, no more his foes

He washes them, they're clean indeed

Christ Jesus who died is by his side

To ask from God ev’rything they need

Though fear, pain and grief come like a thief

To steal from us the love of God

The powers will see our victory

Creation will rise up and applaud

Though they slay us now, we will somehow

Overcome by means of God’s love

The rulers will fail, Christ will prevail

And unite us with heaven above

Wedding message - Jared and Rachel

The following message contains references to Isaiah 40:6-8, Ephesians 5:22-33, and the hymn "I know that my Redeemer lives" that were read/sung during the service.  Their full text is at the bottom of this document.

In the Roman empire, when a general won a significant victory, a great parade would be staged in his honor.  The general would ride through the streets of Rome on an elaborately decked out chariot, wearing the finest of clothes and accompanied by the highest-ranking prisoners whom he took captive.  But to prevent him from getting too caught up in himself, a slave rode with him in his chariot and whispered in his ear “Remember, you are mortal” throughout the parade.

Jared and Rachel, when I saw the Bible verses that you had selected for your wedding, I was reminded of this slave.  Isaiah 40:6-8 is not a passage normally chosen for a wedding, and it sets a tone somewhat like the slave’s reminder: “Remember, you are mortal.”  In a day of celebration like that of a Roman general’s victory parade, you want us to hear a Bible passage that reminds us that we are mortal, that our lives are brief, and we wither quickly compared with the eternal glory of God.

What is the answer to this reminder of our frailty?  Do we seize the moment, grab every pleasure we can, and enjoy ourselves to the hilt because you only go around once?  Is the answer to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die?  Surely there will be food and merriment enough at the reception tonight; is that the answer to our mortality?

If that’s all there is, then why would anyone make the vows you are about to make to each other?  Why promise to be faithful to each other “for better, for worse” if the point of life is to maximize our pleasure?  Shouldn’t we do like so many people do these days, and preserve our freedom to jump from one relationship to another if that makes us happy?  A lot of bachelor/ bachelorette parties these days seem calculated to try to persuade the engaged couple that the singles life that they’re leaving is more fun and better than the married life that they’re embarking on; why not stay single if the point of life is to fill it with as much fun as possible before you die?

But most of us know in our hearts that this is not the best response to our mortality.  That’s why we celebrate weddings.  We know that a life of throw-away relationships and endless chasing after pleasure is not satisfying or sustainable.  We know that having someone in your life who has promised to hang with you in good times and in not-so-good times is a precious thing, and we may even realize that one of the most satisfying things we can do with the gifts and talents that God has given us is to invest them in another person.

All of these are excellent reasons to get married, but they don’t necessarily make our mortality any easier to face; in fact they may make it harder.  We get married, we invest our lives in another person, we learn year by year how to live better with each other and how to love each other through thick and thin, then it ends.  Even if we do it all right and our marriage thrives and grows, there will come a time when the phrase “till death do us part” takes a real and painful meaning for us.

6 All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

If our flesh is the whole of who we are, if our entire existence is bound up in these bodies, made up of frail skin and bones, muscles and organs, then we are nothing.  We fade like the California wildflower superbloom under the desert sun, an indistinguishable blip in the age of the universe, and we are gone.  But the Bible assures us that we are more than flesh, and our life is more than biochemistry.

We are also spiritual, and the spiritual life in us is more fundamental to who we are than the bodies in which it dwells.   In Genesis 2:7 we are told, “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  We are bodies made of dust from the ground enlivened by a spirit breathed into us by God.  And the breath with which God breathed life into us is the same breath with which He speaks His word, which is eternal.

But if our spirit is eternal, why do we die?  We die because humanity has lost the immortality we once had.  Not long after they were created, Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s command to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Though God had warned it would kill them, they ate anyhow, and they died.  Their death was not biological; their bodies continued to live for many more years, but spiritual.  From the moment they ate the fruit, their connection to God’s Spirit was lost and they became spiritually dead.  And just as a mother can pass on a drug addiction to her child, Adam and Eve passed on their spiritual death to their children, so we are born spiritually dead.

This is a terrible place to be.  Spiritual death cuts us off from God and makes it impossible for us to live in true harmony with him, with each other, or even with ourselves.  The evils of this world are the result of spiritually dead people like ourselves rebelling against God and hurting other people.  And there’s nothing we can do on our own to fix it.  Dead people cannot resuscitate themselves.  We need a rescuer who can raise dead people to life.  That rescuer is Jesus Christ.

In his life on earth, Jesus Christ raised dead people back to life.  He himself was nailed to a cross and died a horrible death.  On the third day after he was laid in a tomb, he rose to a new and glorious eternal life which he still lives today, sitting on the throne of heaven with God his Father.

And he offers that life to us.  We, who are like wildflowers that bloom in a day then die, may participate now in the life that Jesus has, and, after we die, may be raised to the eternal life that we were made for, to live forever with Jesus in the glory and delight that he enjoys with God.  For this to happen, we must be united with Jesus, and the way we are united with Jesus is in a wedding.

In chapter 21 of the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the author John gives us a hint of what this wedding will look like, where he writes:

21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

In the end, God makes everything new.  Jerusalem, the city of the people of God, is made new and glorious, and God brings it like a bride to her husband, who is Jesus Christ.  Other places in the Bible describe the church as the bride of Christ; here we see their wedding.

Jared and Rachel, this wedding ceremony is patterned in part after that great and glorious celebration on the day when heaven and earth are made new.  Rachel, you in your beauty are giving us a tiny glimpse of the beauty the people of God will have as the new Jerusalem, and your father was cast in the role of God as he brought you to Jared.  And Jared, you are playing the part of Jesus Christ, as you receive your bride from the hand of her father.  This tradition that we follow in conducting weddings is not merely a beautiful way of bringing people together in marriage, it is a profound illustration of how God unites himself with his people in Jesus Christ.

And the roles that you are playing here don’t end when you walk down the aisle.  Jared, you will still have the role of Christ to Rachel, and Rachel, you will still have the role of the church to Jared throughout your married life.  The passage from Ephesians 5 that was read earlier in this service shows us how this is to be done.

Jared, your part is to love Rachel as Christ loved the church.  Your model is Christ washing his disciples’ feet, Christ feeding them, Christ teaching them, Christ dying for them.  As Paul told us in Philippians chapter 2,

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Your goal in all of this is nourish her and cherish her; to help her to thrive, that she might be as beautiful as God intends for her to be.  This is what Christ did for his people, at great cost to himself, and this is what you are to do for Rachel, whatever it may cost you.

Rachel, your part is to submit to Jared’s leadership.  The word “submit” has become so toxic these days that it is scarcely possible for some to hear it without clenching up inside.  It feels like being defeated, vanquished, abused, and even humiliated.  Though it should not be necessary to say this, this is not what Paul is asking of wives, nor what a husband who is loving his wife as Christ loves the church would ever think of doing to his wife.

It may help us to think of a really good swing dancing team.  When we watch two swing dancers on the floor, we see the man leading the woman, and she in turn following his lead, not because she has been defeated, abused or humiliated, but because she trusts the man to be leading in a way that will make her look good.  This is what Christ is doing for his church, seeking to “present the church to himself in splendor”, and it is what Jared will be seeking to do for you.  Your job is to follow his lead, and to use the service that he offers you to do beautiful things that would never be possible on your own.

But both of you will find that all of this is impossible on your strength alone.  We are not good enough, wise enough, strong enough or patient enough to love our wives as Christ loved the church or to submit to our husbands as unto the Lord.  It is only because “your Redeemer lives”, as we sang in that hymn, and he is working in your lives to make this kind of goodness possible that you have any hope of success in this endeavor.

So this is my charge to you, Jared and Rachel, as frail children of a mighty God who has taken you up into his life – find your strength in the Lord, and press on.  Excel still more.  Learn to love each other better, to serve each other better, to respect and cherish each other better.  Keep looking for reasons to be grateful for what the Lord is doing in your lives and what your spouse is doing for you, then say thanks for those good things.  Press on with the hope of the glory set before you, the glory of the wedding supper of Jesus Christ, in which His church, of which you are a part, will be united with Him forever in a joy that transcends even the joy that you feel today.   Do all of this to the glory of the God who saves you, and for the blessing of His people, who will see in you a hint of his love for us.

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

I know that my Redeemer lives
What comfort this sweet sentence gives
He lives, he lives Who once was dead
He lives, my ever living Head

He lives triumphant from the grave
He lives eternally to save
He lives, my mansion to prepare
He lives to lead me safely there

He lives and grants me daily breath
He lives and I shall conquer death
He lives, and while He lives I'll sing
He lives, my Prophet, Priest and King

He lives, all glory to His Name
He lives, my Jesus still the same
And oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives
I know that my Redeemer lives

Isaiah 40:6-8

40:6 A voice says, Cry!
And I said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

Ephesians 5:22-33

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Memorial service message

Welcome to the memorial service for R.  A memorial service is a time for remembering and reflecting.  We remember the life that R lived and reflect on the implications of his death for all of us.

R mattered to people.  His military service mattered to those he worked with.  His work as a mechanic mattered to those whose equipment he repaired and maintained.  His motorcycle racing made him a significant part of that community, and his love for being around people and helping them when he could made a difference in many people’s lives.  For these things we can be grateful.  It strengthens our community and enriches our lives to have people around who are willing to fix what’s broken, to give counsel where they can, and to invest a portion of their lives in military service to defend our country.

But R is dead.  No longer can he do the things that he did to contribute to people’s lives.  As his cancer was killing him, it was taking away his ability to make a difference in these ways.  This is a loss.  Some of you have felt this loss for a while, as the man who loved to help people, to fix things, to grill, to ride his motorcycle and to go to the movies gradually disappeared.  And the more you appreciated his contributions to your life, the more painful it will be to see that taken away.  When love is deep, grief will also be deep, for we must come to grips with the loss of much good that we had enjoyed in having a person in our lives who is no longer there.

x

There are other reasons for grief as well.  You may have wanted something from R that there is now no hope of ever receiving.  You may have wanted to give him something that he is now no longer able to receive.  Whatever the cause, grief is a natural and normal response to someone’s death, and it is important to acknowledge this.  And sometimes grief comes before the person dies, as we see the effects of the fatal disease taking its toll and suffer the loss of much of what made that person special to us before the person actually dies.  We may do our grieving ahead of time, and when the funeral comes, we may be largely done with grief.

So, as we remember R, and we reflect on the implications of his death for us, we may experience both gratitude for what his life meant for us and grief for the lost possibilities resulting from his death.  Beyond that, we are forced to come to grips once more with the fact that this story is repeated in every one of our lives.  We are born, we have a chance to enjoy life for a while and make whatever contribution we can to the lives of others, then we die and all contributions we make by our life are over.  The great prophet Moses, who lived over three thousand years ago, described it this way in in the Bible in Psalm 90:

The days of our lives add up to seventy years,

or eighty if one is especially strong.

But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression.

Yes, they pass quickly and we fly away.

…

So teach us to consider our mortality,

So that we might live wisely.

Three thousand years later, our life expectancy hasn’t changed much at all; we get seventy or eighty years on this earth, and then it’s over.

But it isn’t over when it’s over.  The upcoming Easter holiday teaches this, for it is not so much about eggs and bunnies as it is about the commemoration of Jesus Christ, who, after being crucified and buried in a grave, rose from the grave in a new and transformed life which he makes available to his people.  This short, troublesome life that Moses describes is only prologue, a first small step of our vast existence which will continue forever in the life to come.  When we fly away from this world, we are entering a deeper reality, for we are flying into the presence of the creator of the universe, God himself, and his son Jesus Christ.

Even now, R is having this encounter.  We don’t know much about what this experience will be like, but we do know that it will be awesome; far more awesome than meeting Oprah, or Mark Zuckerberg, or LeBron James, or the president or the pope.  There’s no meeting we could have with anyone in this life that would be nearly as awesome as meeting God.  The last book of the Bible, Revelation, tells of one such meeting in which John, the author, describes Jesus this way:

14 His head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

John was blown away, and we would be too by such an encounter.

How do we approach such a God as this?  We can’t even approach the powerful people in this life so easily; they live in gated communities with walls around their homes and body guards keeping little people like us away.  How then do we approach God?

Even with the powerful people of this world, there are little people who can approach them, namely their children.  President Trump’s children have ready access to him. So do Mark Zuckerberg’s.  If you’re part of the family, you belong, and you can have access that no one else gets.

So it is with God; if you’re part of His family you get access to him.  Jesus Christ, God’s Son, gets complete access to God.  What’s more, Jesus makes it possible for us to be adopted into God’s family so we can be God’s children too and get the same access he does.

But how are we adopted into God’s family?  It can’t be by paying our way in.  If a child on the street came up to me and said, “Here’s $50, I want to be adopted into your family,” I’d say, “No way – go home to your own family.”  And that’s what God will say to us if we tell him, “Here’s all the good stuff I did, now adopt me into your family.”  But if we become friends with God’s son Jesus Christ, and he goes to his Father and tells him, “this person is a friend of mine and I want him to be adopted into our family,” then God listens to him and will adopt us into his family.

A thief who was crucified along with Jesus shows us how this is done, for he could say to another criminal being crucified, “We are getting what we deserve for what we have done, but this man [he’s talking about Jesus] has done nothing wrong.”  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

He told Jesus that he deserved punishment for the bad things he had done and asked Him to remember him.  This was how the thief became friends with Jesus, and it will be how we do it too.  And if we are friends of Jesus, and through Jesus are adopted into God’s family, then God will welcome us into his household when this life is over, and we will enjoy his company and the company of his family forever.  And it will be wonderful.  Nothing in this life can be compared with the joy of that experience.  If you combine the joy of a wedding, the Super Bowl celebration, the victory day parade after WWII and a super graduation party and then multiply it all times a thousand, you might get a hint of what heaven’s joy will be like.  It will be filled with love and beauty, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and all the sorrow and heartache we have ever felt will be swallowed up in an endless celebration of the goodness and magnificence of God.

So in this memorial service for R, not only do we remember the life that R lived and reflect on its significance for us, but we look forward with hope to a glorious celebration to which all who are invited who are friends of Jesus.  Let us pray.

Plot synopsis

A priest's younger brother runs off with a woman from a gang.  They live together, she gets pregnant and then both of them get sick from a dangerous disease that is going around.  The baby gets born with serious disfiguring deformities and, with his last breath, the brother asks the priest to care for the baby.  Having no wife and no good place to keep such a child as this, the priest still agrees and cares for and instructs the boy as he would his own son.  Knowing that the boy would attract hostility because of his deformities, he keeps him in the church, and warns him that it would be dangerous for him to go outside because of the way people would treat him.

As was the custom of the city in which the priest lived, an annual festival is underway in which the gangs roam freely through the streets, fascinating people with magic tricks, getting drunk, soliciting sex from strangers and robbing passers-by when the opportunity arises.  Angry about how this kind of behavior had damaged his own family and concerned about the damage it could cause to his community, the priest finally makes up his mind to ask the king to outlaw this festival.

His nephew, having become a very strong adolescent, become restless in his confinement, looks out on the celebration and thinks to himself how much fun it would be to be down there on the streets with all the excitement and activity.  Rebelling against his uncle, he sneaks out of the church and into the crowds.  As his uncle had warned him, the boy is badly abused by a gang and his uncle, hearing about this, at considerable risk to himself, has to go into the crowds to rescue the boy and return him to the safety of the church.  In this he is aided by a young woman in the gang, who feels guilty about the abuse her fellow gang members heaped on the boy.

The priest was not unscathed, however, by this encounter. His close proximity to this attractive young woman, who cared for his son like a mother when others were cruel to him, awakens in him a powerful desire to have her for his own.  He now finds himself consumed with the memory of her presence and struggles to remain faithful to his vows.  She, on the other hand, concerned for the boy and  increasingly uncomfortable with her lifestyle, comes to the priest's church one day to see how he is doing and seek help in finding a different way.  Shocked to see her there, the priest nevertheless recovers himself enough to offer to teach her about the ways of God, but he is unable to conceal the desire that her presence triggers in him.  She, recognizing the signs, flees the church and he, angry at himself and her, warns her never to return.

Torn between his desire for the woman and the demands of his vocation, the priest prays but finds no relief.  Horrified by the power his desire has over him, the priest convinces himself that the woman had used her magic to ensnare him and determines not only to outlaw the festival, but to drive the gangs out of the town and destroy the woman.  He persuades the king to give him a military force for this purpose and sets out on his mission.  Coming to a brothel that is run by the gang members, the priest demands that they turn over the woman to him.  When they refuse, he orders that the place be burned down.  The captain of his military force (who had visited this brothel previously for "recreation") refuses, and the priest, infuriated by the insubordination, strips the captain of his command and has the building burned.

The captain is injured during this encounter and the young woman takes him to the church to seek the boy's help in caring for him and out of a vague hope that the church might provide a sanctuary for them.  When it becomes obvious that she can't stay, she gives the boy a map of where to find her and flees the church.  The priest shows up soon afterwards, suspicious that the boy is sympathetic to the woman, and the boy conceals the captain and denies any involvement with the woman.  Not convinced, the priest decides to trap them by announcing that he knows where she is hiding and will send a force there tomorrow to root them out.  Wanting to warn gang members, the boy and the captain follow the map to their hideout, where they are promptly captured by the gang and sentenced to be hung.  The woman shows up and persuades the gang that the captain and the boy are friends and has them released.  The priest then arrives, having followed the boy and the captain, and he has his force arrest the entire gang.

Having imprisoned both the woman and the captain, the priest then offers to set them both free in return for her company.  Indignant, the woman refuses, and the priest has them both confined together.  The captain tries to persuade her to take up the priest's offer to save her life, while the woman contemplates doing so to save the captain's life.  The following morning, the captain is released and the priest offers the woman one last chance for life on the same terms.  She spits in the priest's face, and he in rage has her burned.  The boy, who has been struggling to find courage to try to rescue the woman, finally runs to the pyre, frees her and takes her back into the church, where she dies after thanking him.  The priest sends the military force into the church to capture them, but they are repelled when the boy pours molten lead from a high window onto them.  The priest, however, is able to enter and he tries to persuade his nephew that all is well and life can continue as it had previously now that the woman is dead, but the boy calls his uncle a monster and throws him out of a high window to his death.

And they close, singing "who is a monster and who is a man?"

Thoughts about John chapter 3 (inspired by this morning's sermon)

In chapter 3 of the gospel of John, Jesus is approached by Nicodemus, a man who is described as a Pharisee (the strictest group of Jews in Jesus' day), a member of the Jewish ruling council (the highest governing body in Jewish society) and "the teacher of Israel" (an esteemed authority on religious matters).  He starts the conversation by saying, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”  From his standpoint, he was honoring Jesus by calling him Rabbi (even though Jesus had no official credentials within Jewish academic circles that would entitle him to such a title) while displaying his own credentials as one who represents the top academic circles in Israel, people qualified to make such a judgment about Jesus.

But Jesus knows the hearts of the Pharisees, how they will go toe-to-toe with him over his healing on the Sabbath, how they'll attribute his work to the devil, how they'll excommunicate people who believe in him, and how they'll finally join the chorus of people who demand that he be crucified.  So when Nicodemus, says "We know that you are from God," Jesus pushes back hard by replying, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above [or "born again"], he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  In effect, he's saying, "You guys who think you are qualified to evaluate me as a spiritual teacher can't even see what I'm doing unless you're spiritually reborn."

This knocks Nicodemus back on his heels.  Far from getting appreciation from Jesus for his generous acknowledgement of Jesus' teaching ability, he has been told that he and his peers are utterly unqualified to evaluate Jesus, and have to become spiritual infants in a second birth before they can even begin to understand who Jesus is.  So he reacts with incredulity by parodying what Jesus says; "What do you mean - crawl back into my mother's womb and be born once more?"  Of course he knows that Jesus doesn't mean this, but he wants to deflect the accusation that he's incompetent to evaluate Jesus by making Jesus look silly and this is the best way he can find to do it.

But Jesus won't be deflected.  He drives his message home harder, by saying: “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit."  Evaluating Jesus is a spiritual matter and must be done by people who have spiritual life in them.  For a person who is only born of water (that is to say, through normal human conception and birth) to judge Jesus would be as hopeless as for a dead person to evaluate a living person.  We are born spiritually dead and, just as we received biological life from our parents, we must receive spiritual life from God before we can evaluate spiritual people like Jesus.  Otherwise their behavior is as mysterious to us as the movement of the wind, for, as Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus, "The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus is now entirely out of his depth, only being able to reply with the weak question, "how can this be?"  He is now where Jesus wants him to be, admitting his inability to understand what Jesus is doing, and Jesus affirms his ignorance with the question, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?"  But in case Nicodemus think that his ignorance is innocent, Jesus goes on to say that the ignorance of Nicodemus and his peers is is not simply a lack of information, but a rejection of the truth.  "I tell you the solemn truth,", Jesus says, "we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony."  Nicodemus and his fellow Jewish teachers should have recognized that Jesus was no freelance rabbi needing to be welcomed into the official guild, but that he was far above any official guild and the appointed teachers of Israel needed to sit at Jesus' feet and learn from him.

Jesus then asks Nicodemus, "If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven – the Son of Man."  The fact that Nicodemus and his peers didn't see how far Jesus was above them was a moral failure on their part and makes it impossible for them to learn from him.  He alone was qualified to teach them about heavenly things, yet they wouldn't even sit at his feet and learn earthly things from him, let alone the things of heaven.

Jesus goes on to say, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  Jesus must be lifted up in their conception of him before they can truly believe in him in a life-giving way.  This is the thrust of what Jesus goes on to say in his famous statement in John 3:16: "For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."  Those who believe in Jesus, who see Him as he truly is, lifted up above all things, and are willing to sit humbly at his feet to learn from Him and follow Him, will not perish, but will have eternal life.  But not everyone is willing to do this, for being born again entails becoming small and dependent, losing our prestige and authority, and learning again to humbly receive teaching that we cannot obtain any other way.

 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.

These days it's easy to be a spiritual authority.  We tell one another what we think God would say or do and are taken with complete seriousness.  Everyone is qualified to say "my god would never..." or "of course god wants us to ..." without needing to appeal to any higher authority than our own desires and intuitions.  We freely correct Jesus when he gets something wrong, and are perfectly happy to choose from a smorgasbord of available religious teachings the ones that suit our taste and fancy.  But this is the road to death.  Rather than sit in the light of Jesus' judgment of us, we prefer the darkness of our judgment upon him, perhaps following Nicodemus in magnanimously admitting that Jesus is a teacher from God, or perhaps more critically declaring that his teachings are deficient and others are more worthy of our allegiance.  But only by being reborn in the Spirit can we see Jesus for who he is, the Son of Man come down from heaven, and abandon the folly of passing judgment upon him.  Only as our hearts are made alive in Christ will we see Jesus clearly enough to realize that all of our judgments of him are foolishness, and our right position before him is as a humble student and follower of him, seeking to learn true wisdom from the only one qualified to dispense it.

For those who think abortion is about the women...

Abortion was never about women.  It was mandated by male judges when a large majority of women thought it was wrong.  Four out of five women who are planning to get an abortion change their minds when see the child in their womb via ultrasound.  And Planned Parenthood knows this.  Most women don’t leave their offices with a smile on their faces, relieved that they got their abortion and glad to get on with their lives.  They leave depressed.  They didn’t get an abortion because they wanted to kill their child, but because they saw no way to raise the child.  They’re being pressured into it by their boyfriends, who threaten to leave them to raise the child alone.  If pregnant women knew that the father of the child they were carrying would be a good husband to them and a good father to the child, most women would never get an abortion.

Abortion is not about the women, it’s about the men.  It’s about boyfriends who want the perks of sex but don’t want the responsibility of caring for the mother and child.  It’s about pimps who don’t want their prostitutes getting pregnant.  It’s about child abusers, who want sex with their daughters but don’t want to get caught having made them pregnant.  If men didn’t push women to get abortions, but instead supported and cared for them and their child, Planned Parenthood would go out of business in a shot.

And abortion is cruel - puncturing the skull of the child to suck out its brains, cutting off its arms and legs in the womb.  We’ve seen ultrasounds of the process and it’s terrible.

We need to stand up and say that we will no longer allow this cruelty in the name of sexual convenience.  That we will no longer drive women to do what their hearts tell them is wrong just because we refuse to be responsible for our actions.  That people need to have sex responsibly, just like they need to drink responsibly and use a cell phone responsibly.  The lives of others hang on their actions.  We need to tell each other that if we have sex we need to be prepared for the possibility that the woman might become pregnant and that man will need to act responsibly and care for the mother and child.  It will be hard now, because we’ve raised a generation of men who are used to being able to have sex irresponsibly, but it can be done and it must be done for the welfare of the women and for society as a whole.

Addressing systemic racism (or something like it).

I read awhile back about a city - I think it was Baltimore, but it could have been any of a bunch of cities, I'm sure - where the mayor is black and so is the chief of police. As the city had a tight budget (as do many cities these days), they naturally funded the police department in large part from the fines collected from issuing tickets. In order to maintain the needed income stream, the police were given quotas of how many tickets they had to write each day. On slow days when a policeman wasn't writing enough tickets to meet quota, he quickly learned that he could go to the poor part of town (which was predominantly black, as is typical in large cities) and pick up people for any of a bunch of violations, such as jaywalking, loitering, trespassing, and the like. These people weren't rich enough to hire a lawyer to get them off the hook, so the tickets would stand, the money would come in, and the policeman wouldn't get in trouble for not meeting quota.

Though the system resulted in a disproportionate number of blacks getting tickets, I'm not sure if it could be called systemic racism - maybe systemic oppression of poor people would be a better description. Whatever we call it, the system is clearly incentivizing police behavior that results in far too many poor/black people getting tickets. In fact the system depended on there being a certain amount of crime so that the police could write the tickets and generate the income, thus discouraging the police from doing anything that would actually reduce the crime rate and so jeopardize their funding.

It seems then that the police department's income stream should not be dependent upon their writing tickets, and police should be evaluated not on the number of tickets they write but on a reduction in the number of crimes reported by the citizens. This would incentivize good behavior from the police, reduce the pressure on them to write tickets, result in lower crime in the city, attract businesses which would otherwise be fleeing the higher crime rates, create more jobs, reduce the number of poor people, improve the tax base for the city, and make life all around better for black people (and everyone else in the city).

This is easily said, but less easily done, as many of these cities have no other funds with which to pay their police. If Kaepernick and Nike used their social clout to help cash-strapped cities find better ways to fund their police departments and to incentivize their police to really reduce crime levels, I'd jump to support them in any way I could. Whether this would actually be addressing systemic racism or not, it would make life better for blacks and reduce the disparity that is evident in how they are treated (even by other blacks) in many cities.

Trump supporters and the corruption of law.

A friend of mine recently asked my opinion of the Atlantic Magazine's article Why Trump Supporters Believe He Is Not Corrupt by Peter Beinart.  The article argues that "What the president’s supporters fear most isn’t the corruption of American law, but the corruption of America’s traditional identity."  It views Trump as a a fascist politician and makes the claim that for Trump supporters corruption is less a matter of breaking the law than of violation of established hierarchies, such as America's racial and sexual norms.  While it is true that Trump supporters tend to favor established hierarchies, this article totally fails to understand the strong concern for the corruption of law that motives those who support Trump.

The first example offered of the Trump supporter's concern for corruption of established hierarchies over and against the corruption of law is Fox's coverage of the alleged murder of Mollie Tibbetts by an undocumented Latino immigrant, Cristhian Rivera.  Beinart claims that what makes this such a hot issue for Trump supporters is not that it violates the law, but that it violates an established American norm that white women must be protected from non-white men.  Frankly, this is nonsense.  As Beinart says a little later in the article, Trump has tweeted nine times about "rule of law" and seven of those mentioned illegal immigration.  This is what makes Tibbetts' murder such a hot issue.  Calling Rivera an "undocumented immigrant" shows where Beinart's sympathies lie, but Trumps supporters call him an illegal alien and wonder why Rivera was allowed into the country, and why he as been allowed to stay now that he is found to be here illegally.  That Rivera remains here and is not deported is a corruption of American law and it is this that Trump supporters are concerned about, not Beinart's "established American norm".

The second example offered by Beinart is how Hillary Clinton is seen by Trump supporters as the more corrupt candidate when "reporters uncovered far more damning evidence about Trump's foundation than they did about Clinton's".  As I am not a subscriber of the Washington Post, I can't read the article linked to substantiate this, but it's not really relevant, as the issues of the Clinton Foundation are only a small fraction of what is viewed as Hillary Clinton's corruption.  Her manipulation of the Democratic Party to secure the nomination over Bernie Sanders, her scheme to circumvent campaign financing laws by routing donations through the state DNC chapters (see also here), her storage of classified emails and work related emails on her email server and perjuring herself in sworn testimony about these issues, etc. are all part of the evidence of Clinton's corruption, and this does not even touch the now evident corruption the FBI, of which she was clearly a beneficiary.  For those who care about corruption of law, these issues are FAR more significant than the management of Clinton or Trump foundations, however significant they may be in other circumstances.  As for the currently hot issue of the payoff of a mistress to get her to keep quiet about Trump, the precedent for that was set by Bill Clinton.  One's sexual behaviors were then deemed to be irrelevant to one's role as president, and to consider them relevant now because Trump is president is hypocritical.

Beyond that, the corruption of the FBI (which used a report drafted by the DNC to obtain a FISA warrant to tap an associate of Trump and by extension Trump himself, and put someone who clearly hates Trump in charge of their investigation against him) now renders any accusations made by the FBI against Trump suspect.  It is clear that they were willing to use unscrupulous means to gather evidence against him, so any accusation they bring against Trump must be scrutinized with extraordinary care to confirm that we don't find in it another fabricated effort to discredit him.  It is this corruption that that Trump supporters care about, and this corruption that they attach to Hillary Clinton as heir apparent to the Obama presidency in which the rot blossomed, for it is clear that had Clinton been elected, absolutely none of this would have come to light, and the weaponization of both the DNC and the FBI to elect pre-selected candidates would have continued unabated, leaving us with the appearance of democratic elections but not the reality.

Beinart's claim that powerful women threatens Trump supporters needs no more refutation than to point to Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Nikki Haley as prominent figures in Trump's administration.  They have earned the admiration of many, and it has been suggested that Nikki Haley in particular could find a place on a future presidential slate if she desires.

None of this is to say that Trump is blameless here.  Had the DNC fielded a less corrupt candidate than Hillary Clinton, the FBI not used its powers to try to influence the election, and previous administrations demonstrated a little more concern to enforce our immigration laws as they are written, then Trump's failures might have been sufficient to disqualify him as president.  Some Trump supporters felt they had to hold their nose while voting for him, but the risks of a Clinton presidency were too great to be scrupulous about what had to be considered secondary issues.

The claim that Trump supporters are more concerned about corruption of norms than they are about corruption of law could only be plausible to someone who has already decided that Trump is fascist and then analyzed his supporters through that lens.  This label has been attached to Trump and his supporters when in fact those on the left, notably the profoundly misnamed "Anti"Fa demonstrate far more fascist tendencies than do even the extremists on the right.  The fascists' tendency to suppress free speech (whether through violence, as with Antifa, legal means (witness California's attack on sexual orientation counseling), or simple power, as with Facebook, Google and YouTube censorship) and their willingness to assault those with whom they disagree simply because they disagree are much more characteristic of the left than the right.  If analogies to fascism can be fruitful in analyzing our current social tensions, Beinart might be better served applying them to the left than to the right.

Why I voted for Trump - and still support him.

When I'm asked why I support President Trump despite his obvious deficiencies, these are some of the reasons that come to mind:

1. Abortion.  Under President Obama, this country actively pushed for expanded support of abortion both nationally (funding it through the ACA) and internationally (through the UN).  Abortion is bad not only for the unborn child, but for the mother as well, and I am opposed to abortion except when necessary for the mother's life.  I am pleased with President Trump's reversal of support for it in the UN and his elimination of the mandate to fund it through ACA.  I would like for him to defund Planned Parenthood as well, as it provides no prenatal care that is not available elsewhere and is the largest abortion provider in the country, and I hope that, despite the failure of the Congress to do this, that he will be able to accomplish this.
2. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Under President Obama, numerous judges were appointed who have viewed the Constitution as a flexible document, subject to review and reinterpretation by international law.  I oppose this.  I believe that the Constitution is not subject to international law, and it needs to be honored as it is written.  Beyond this, there is a frightening tendency in this country to declare that parts of the Constitution can be ignored if they don't satisfy our current sense of what is appropriate (e.g. freedom of religion with respect to the LGBT agenda, freedom of speech with respect to so-called "hate speech", and the right to bear arms).  This is a very bad trend for our country and could lead to widespread loss of liberty as political correctness increasingly comes to supersede the written law.  I strongly favor President Trump's appointment of conservative judges who will enforce the Constitution as it is written, and am convinced that if we believe as a nation that the Constitution is wrong that the proper response is to amend it (as has been done in the past) rather than ignore it.
3. Immigration and the rule of law.  Under President Obama, our federal immigration laws became largely a dead letter.  He specifically ordered that they not be enforced and, when individual states sought to enforce them, he threatened them with action in the courts.  The message that was communicated was that our borders are open, and that anyone who wishes to enter the country for any reason at all is free to do so and to receive numerous benefits that previously had been limited to citizens of our country.  The natural fruit of this attitude has been to encourage more illegal immigration, culminating most recently in a march of thousands of people from Honduras through Mexico to demand entry into the US.  Illegal immigrants have marched in this country to demand rights that they had no legal grounds to claim, and California has gone on record saying that it will refuse to cooperate with the federal government in enforcing federal law in this regard.  I strongly oppose all of this, and support President Trump in demanding that the state governments should cooperate in enforcing the laws as they are currently written, and that if there is something wrong about these laws that the proper response is not to ignore them, but to write new laws that define a proper boundary between the US and other countries that extends grace to those in need while giving proper precedence to the citizens of this country when the responsibilities of the government are considered.
4. Racism and Poverty.  From what I can see, the policies of the last 50+ years have done nothing to ameliorate poverty and have hurt blacks in particular as much as they've helped.  Black-on-black violence is endemic, most black children are born of unmarried parents, and multi-generational poverty is commonplace.  Government policies have discouraged forming healthy families and communities and encouraged dependency and a sense of entitlement to the point where the fact that over 40 million people receive food stamps is celebrated when it should be mourned.  Stockton's announcement that they are guaranteeing a minimum income of $500 to everyone is simply another step down this road, and is likely to draw many more homeless into the city but do little to resolve the underlying issues that cause the homelessness in the first place.  Rather than pursue a strategy of ever increasing government handouts, we need to cultivate a sense of personal responsibility in people that encourages them to seek their own improvement through their own efforts.  Where help is needed, it should be limited to overcoming immediate roadblocks and not allowed to quench personal initiative.  Much more should be done to encourage the formation and preservation of intact families among the black community, as this is the surest antidote to generational poverty and the formation of gangs.  I support the steps that I've seen that President Trump has taken in this area and hope for much more.
5. LGBT issues.  Sexual dysphoria (like depression) is a mental illness and not something to be celebrated.  It certainly should not be cultivated in the schools, as is now happening.  It is not good for men to be able to use women's restrooms if they self-identify as female, nor for men to compete in women's sports or women in men's sports according to how they self-identify.  People should be free to not have to support gay marriage by making wedding cakes, taking pictures of gay weddings or providing flowers (as we would not and do not require Islamic restaurant owners to serve ham sandwiches or liberal bakers to create "Make America Great Again" cakes).  I am glad that President Trump has reduced the support given to LGBT causes by the federal government and I hope he continues down that road.
6. International affairs.  I am glad that the US is now supporting Israel as it customarily has, and I believe that our support has encouraged Saudi Arabia to support Israel as well.  I am glad that President Trump has stood up to North Korea and am delighted that they will have talks over nuclear weapon reduction.  I am glad that the US is willing to stand alone against the UN when necessary.  I agree with President Trump that the agreement we negotiated with Iran regarding nuclear weapons was a very bad idea and I'm glad he's walking away from it.  I also agree that Honduras, Mexico and other countries should be accountable when large numbers of their citizens seek to enter the country illegally.  I think that China should be held accountable for its theft of intellectual property, and if tariffs are a way to encourage that, I'm OK with that.  I think we should never have scaled down our military strength (trusting that everyone else would be good) and I'm glad that Trump is building it up again.  I'm glad that ISIS has been greatly weakened and that Iraqi Christians are able to return to their homes.  I think that the European countries have not contributed their fair share to NATO and I'm glad that President Trump is urging them to up their contributions.
7. Economics, big business and jobs. I believe that higher taxes hurt our economy and that during an economic downturn, the first thing the government should do is lower the tax rate, rather than increase government spending (which is what President Obama did).  In particular, lower corporate taxes will stimulate the economy far more efficiently than higher government spending, as governments do not know how to spend money as efficiently as companies can.  While the government should watch over the economy as a whole to prevent it from being manipulated by people in power, it should also allow as much freedom as possible for economic forces to work naturally.  Local businesses that create local jobs should be encouraged.  Agenda driven government stimulus, whether for home ownership, college tuition, or clean energy, is likely to be a bad idea and will usually drive real costs up, either directly (escalating college tuition prices) or indirectly (higher taxes to pay for high speed rail).  Where action is needed, it should be the minimum necessary to accomplish the desired goal and it should be temporary if at all possible.  I support President Trump's tax plan and his efforts to scale back spending in many areas, which I think will reduce unemployment and may well reduce the federal deficit as well.
8. Education.  The federal government does not do education well.  Washington DC, which is run by the federal government, spends more on education and gets poorer results than pretty much anywhere else.  The responsibility for education should be returned to state and local levels, as I think President Trump is doing.  I support vouchers as well, and believe that students do better when parents have a choice on where to send them and pay for some of the costs of their education directly rather than just through taxes.
9. Climate change and energy.  I'm not convinced that we know what is happening to the climate, why it is happening, or what (if anything) we can do about it.  I'm certainly not convinced that spending trillions of dollars to reduce CO2 emissions is going to materially improve life on this planet for anyone except those who are receiving the money.  I am, however, convinced that levying the huge taxes that will be required to support this level of government spending will have a significant detrimental effect on our economy and the economies of many other nations throughout the world.  Increased production of petroleum and natural gas in the US has lowered the price of energy throughout the world, helping the poor throughout the world, and has reduced the money that petroleum producing countries in the Middle East and Africa have to fund terrorism.
10. Corruption of government agencies.  Under President Obama, the IRS slow-walked approvals for tax-exempt status for conservative interest groups, impeding their ability to receive donations and speak into elections.  As Comey of the FBI testified before Congress, Hillary Clinton perjured herself repeatedly in her testimony before Congress regarding the emails kept on her server while she was Secretary of State.  One of the Clinton foundations received numerous substantial donations from various nations while she was Secretary of State, often with the appearance of pay-to-play incentives.  There is now clear evidence that the FBI actively collaborated with the Clinton campaign to discredit Trump.  Several government agencies have indeed become swamps, and I support President Trump's efforts to drain them.
11. Mike Pence.  I like Mike Pence.  His attitude towards women is exactly what is needed to answer the complaints of #MeToo.  Hollywood's statement, on the other hand, that "we make movies to offend Mike Pence", makes it clear to me where the root causes of the problems #MeToo complains about really lie.  I also think that if all the accusations made against President Trump regarding how he has treated women were as serious as the press claims, and if they still presented as much of a problem today as they did 10-15 years ago, then Pence would not have accepted the position of Vice President.  

Black Panther

I tried to like Black Panther, as a lot of people have enjoyed it a lot, but I had problems with some aspects of it that made it a less than satisfactory movie from my perspective.  Writing them down helps me to clarify my thoughts and it allows others to respond if they wish to help me see where I'm missing the point.  There will be spoilers throughout, so if you haven't seen the movie you are warned.

The first issue was right at the start, in the story of the origin of the Wakanda people.  The idea of a people hidden in the heart of Africa, shielded by their magnificent technology, left me cold.  First, the thought that they could come up with the technology so immediately and hide themselves so thoroughly required a suspension of disbelief that is beyond me.  For a tribal people to be able to suddenly and completely conceal themselves upon discovering a miraculous mineral required me to suspend disbelief at the technological level (how would they develop the cloaking field so quickly?), and the sociological level (what human race has ever sat on such power for so long and remain so hidden without using that power to conquer its neighbors?)  Had these people been aliens who landed on earth with the required technology and moral development, I would have found it far easier to enter the story.

The origin story also cast a moral shadow on these people right out of the gate.  If they were such good people that they could hold such power without using it to conquer their neighbors and so powerful that they could perform all manner of technological marvels (including completely healing bullet wounds in a day), why hadn't they used that power for the good of their neighbors before now?  Africa has suffered grievously from all manner of warfare, oppression and disease in the last three millennia; why had these miraculous people not used their power to help this stricken continent long before, rather than contentedly sitting on it and allowing the suffering to continue?  They condescendingly called white people "colonizers", but the fact that they stood by and did nothing to prevent any suffering caused by the colonial powers makes them at least complicit in the suffering and leaves one wondering what kind of moral standing they have to tell our world how to live.  Had the story been cast in a world that less closely resembled our own, I would have felt these tensions less starkly, but the real history of Africa was far too visible in the movie to ignore, and it cast an unavoidable shadow on the Wakanda people.

The unreality of these people - made instantly technologically advanced simply by the possession of a miraculous mineral and simultaneously virtuous enough to not use it to conquer their neighbors and cruel enough to stand by and watch their neighbors suffer without lifting a finger to help - continued to unfold throughout the movie.  That such a technologically advanced people should rely on hand-to-hand combat to decide succession to the throne was equally incredible to me.  Why would a mighty king submit to such an indignity as being stripped of his physical powers to fight as an equal with any muscle-bound contender who might show himself?  In what sense could this be considered either good for the king or good for the people he ruled?  Has there been no king in all the long history of Wakanda who simply refused to endure this abuse and abolished this primitive and brutal tradition?  And that a king should be surrounded by a female bodyguard with no hint of sexual tension between them is likewise implausible in the extreme.  Though the Wakanda people look like us, they are scarcely human in any fundamental sense, making this story far less real to me than many stories with more incredible technology but more real and believable characters.

The spirituality of the Wakanda people also was disappointingly deficient to me.  There was nothing in the encounters that the various kings had with their ancestors that gave any clue that these ancestors had grown in any significant way as a result of their death and transition to the ancestral plane.  There was no hint of any additional moral insight or wisdom that would have made them worth consulting; indeed T'Challa is wiser and better than his father, who has no viable explanation for his past actions and no counsel worth offering to his son.  It seems that the best that can be said about those who die is that they continue to be the people they were in this life, in an existence that lacks any of the color or energy of this world.  Certainly there are more hopeful futures offered by other world religions.

So when these unreal people with dubious morality and an impoverished spirituality make their digs at "colonials" throughout the movie and stand up at the end to offer to make the world a better place, I feel like they are the real colonials, not us.  What I'm seeing is just racism reversed, a condescending paternalism that without any real moral authority presumes to instruct us on how to live our lives.  How do they propose to heal the world?  By giving us their marvelous technology?  They already have made it clear in the story that the theft of this technology would trigger massive warfare; should we just take it on faith that they know how to prevent this from happening?  By advising us to live as unreal human beings with no desire for power, no sexual energy, and no future worth having beyond the grave?  This is just religious proselytization, and we already have religions that offer us more.

Though the movie was in many ways attractive, Black Panther simply had too many issues for me to enjoy the movie.  It felt too much like an effort to tell me that this is how the world should work, an effort made without adequately understanding how the world actually does work.  Had the movie either been kept more separate from the world that we know or made less of an effort to critique the world we live in, I would have found it much more approachable.

Commencement message for Lighthouse Christian Academy.

Back when I was in high school, one popular evangelistic slogan was “God loves you and had a wonderful plan for your life.”  There’s nothing wrong with this slogan - it’s true, and what it tells you you need to know.  It helped me when I was a new believer to find courage when I was struggling with my faith.  But, like all slogans, it’s incomplete.  It doesn’t tell you all you need to know.  Left to stand on its own, it’s subject to grotesque misinterpretation.  So, as we come here today, I want to tell the graduates “God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life,” but I want to tell you some of what you need to know so that you won’t misinterpret this slogan and that you’ll get from it the benefit that you should.

Let’s start by looking at the lives of some of the people God loved, and how His wonderful plan for their lives was worked out in practice.  Take Abraham.  God loved Abraham, so He told Abraham “Leave your family and go where I’ll show you.”  Not a really explicit plan.  No clear roadmap of where God was going to send Abraham, nor a timetable of when he was going to get there.  God also told Abraham that He would make him a great nation.  Decades later, Abraham came to God, still childless, to ask Him about this, so God said “Wait another decade and you’ll have a child of your own.”  So this great nation that God was going to make of Abraham consisted of one child and the promise that His children would, after 400 years of slavery, finally become a large enough people to be called great.  To put this in perspective, it would be like God telling Christopher Columbus that he had a wonderful plan for his life that he’d discover the continent that would one day be occupied by a great nation that would put a man on the moon.  This is a wonderful plan, alright, but it’s on a much longer timetable than we are used to.

How about Joseph?  God told Joseph in a series of dreams about His wonderful plan to put Joseph over his family so they would bow down to him.  Subsequently, Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery, framed by his master’s wife with a charge of sexual harassment, put in prison, forgotten there by those he helped, then finally brought out of prison to interpret a dream of Pharoah’s after which Pharoah put Joseph in charge of Egypt and his family really did bow down to him.  So Joseph’s plan worked out in the end as he dreamed, but getting there took him through some places he would never have wanted to go.

Then there’s Moses.  Raised in Pharoah’s court, provided the best education available in the most powerful country in that part of the world, Moses set out to rescue his people by killing a slave driver.  When his step uncle (Pharoah) heard about it, Moses had to flee into the wilderness, and where he tended sheep, a job for which one would think he was somewhat overqualified.  After forty years of watching the flocks of a Midianite priest, God shows up and tells Moses about His wonderful plan for his life.  When Moses hears that God is sending him back to Egypt to liberate the Israelites, instead of saying “Finally!  What took you so long?”  Moses replies that he’s a stammering nobody and tells God to look for someone else.  God gives Moses a staff that he can turn into a snake and Aaron as his spokesman and tells Moses to get moving, and Moses reluctantly sets out to be the greatest prophet and leader the nation of Israel would ever know.

God also had a wonderful plan for David, the man after His own heart.  He started by telling Samuel to find David (who, like Moses, was tending sheep) and anoint him king.  Samuel had some reservations about this, as there already was a king, namely Saul, and he thought that Saul might object.  Sure enough, once David was anointed king, he rapidly became so popular that Saul became seriously paranoid and set out to try to kill David.  David fled into the wilderness and lived in caves for the next several years, surrounded by a band of society’s outcasts.  Narrowly evading several attempts by Saul to kill him, and refusing to return the favor and kill Saul when he had the chance, David finally was able to take the throne when both Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle.  Even then, it took a few more years of civil war  before Israel was united under David’s rule.

Or how about Jesus, God’s beloved Son, with whom He was well pleased?  God’s wonderful plan for Him was to be born into extreme poverty where He was pursued by another jealous king, namely Herod, grew up in obscurity, taught for three years, alienated almost all of the Jewish leadership, raised up a bunch of the most clueless disciples one could ever hope to find, was arrested, abandoned, tortured and brutally killed.  Then He was raised from the dead to sit at the right hand of the Father and rule forever.

And when Jesus appeared to Saul (later to be called Paul) on the road to Damascus, He had a wonderful plan for Saul’s life too.  Jesus gave a hint of it to Ananias, a believer in Damascus whom He told “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”  Paul gives us an idea of just how much this was when he talks in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 about his

“imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

So if I came to you and told you “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” you might be excused if your response was “No!  Anything but that!”  And you’d be in good company too.  Moses told God at one point that he was sick of leading the cantankerous, grumbling, ungrateful people God had given him. In one of the Psalms David told God essentially to get out of his life so he could know some peace.  And even Jesus told God in Gethsemane that he really didn’t want to go through with the plan God had for Him.

But fortunately that’s not the whole story.  Abraham did go through with God’s plan, and he had Isaac, and from him came the people Israel.  Joseph went through with God’s plan, and rescued the Israelites when they were only a small clan from starvation and made a place where they could grow into a large nation.  Moses went through with God’s plan and ldelivered Israel from slavery and led them through the wilderness right up to the entry to the Promised Land.  David hung in there and became king of Israel and the progenitor of the line from whom Jesus would be born.  Jesus went through with God’s plan, so we have a Savior. And Paul went through with God’s plan and brought the church into Europe and wrote a large chunk of the New Testament in the process.  God’s plan for these people was wonderful; each one of them achieved milestones which prepared the way for those who followed and they set a foundation on which our faith is built today..  

So, as you look forward into a future that is at best fuzzy, what can we say with confidence about God’s plan for your lives?  First, 

• God’s plan will require courage.  God’s plans for His people are not for the faint of heart.  They will stretch us, perhaps hurt us, and will probably take us places we wouldn’t have gone had it been up to us.  It’s one thing to read in the Bible that we should love our enemies, but something else to actually look at someone who has hurt us and wrestle through the challenge of forgiving them.  It is one thing to read about the Macedonian church giving generously out of their poverty, another to find ourselves broke or unemployed and being asked by someone for financial help.  Though the world may never see the struggle, walking faithfully on the road that God has called us to is going to ask more of us than we would ever have thought we could give, and there may well be times when we wish we dared to turn our back on the whole enterprise.
• God’s plan may take far longer to fulfill than we would expect.  Abraham waited over thirty years for the son God promised.  Joseph spent years in slavery and prison.  Moses tended sheep for forty years, David was in the wilderness for years and it was fourteen years after Jesus appeared to Paul before Paul was appointed to ministry.  Though you may be called to great things, it may be decades before you see that calling fulfilled, and the intervening time may difficult, boring or painful.  God takes a long time to prepare some of His people for His service. 
• This time is not wasted. Tending sheep prepared Moses to lead God's people. Leading a ragamuffin band in the wilderness prepared David to lead Israel. Though the time may appear to be desolate and unfruitful, in God's hands it will produce a rich harvest if you are patient.
• (added after the fact): Do the good you can do during the desolate times. Tend sheep if there is nothing better at hand. If you find yourself in prison, make the prison as good a place as you can. Make things better than they would have been had you done nothing. God will receive your service even if no one else does, and He knows how to reward those who serve Him.
• Following God’s plan may make you rich, or it may not.  Abraham was a wealthy man, as were Joseph and David.  We have no idea how much money Moses had, and Jesus and Paul had little or nothing.  Anyone who tells you that following Jesus guarantees that you’ll be rich doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
• God’s plan for you includes your being a blessing to others.  Abraham was told “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Joseph, Moses and David all blessed the nation of Israel and they set the stage for Jesus blessing the world with salvation, a blessing which Paul was instrumental in delivering to the world.  God’s wonderful plan for you is not intended to bless you alone, but to work through you to bring His blessing to others.
• God’s plan for you will be worked out in your life with His help.  Indeed that’s the only way it can be worked out.  God repeatedly rescued Abraham from disaster along the way and He preserved Joseph and gave him the discernment of visions that won him his place in Pharoah’s court.  Moses delivered Israel from Egypt with God’s power, David was protected by God in the wilderness and God’s mighty resurrection power raised Jesus from the dead and preserved Paul when he was attacked and stoned.  Your miracles will probably not be as visible as these, but as you faithfully and attentively follow God’s plan for you, you will see His hand on your life, guiding, strengthening, protecting, providing and encouraging.  You will not have to walk God’s path on your own strength, for He will be there to bring you to the end.
• And when you reach the end, you will find that it will have been worth it.  This is the vocal testimony of the authors of Scripture.  In the end we will find that our sufferings, however bitter and prolonged will be insignificant compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.  We run the race, however long and hard, for the sake of a prize worth having.  We invest the little bit that God has given us so that when He returns He may reward us enormously.  For the sake of the joy set before us, we follow Jesus’ example and endure the immediate suffering and pain.  Eye has not seen, nor ear heard what God has prepared for His people, on that day when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven to earth, and God dwells among His people and wipes away every tear from their eyes.  As all the years of study that you have been through find their meaning in this moment, as you receive your diploma, and in the time to come as you use the skills you have so laboriously acquired, so all the suffering and struggle that God may bring you through in this life will find their meaning in that magnificent moment when Jesus turns to you and says “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

So as you graduate and prepare for whatever God sends your way, I give you the following advice:

• Prepare yourself for the long haul.  Anticipate that it may be a while before you get to where you really want to be, and that the road may be rocky at times.  Don’t let the struggles discourage you; they’re part of the process, just as your studies were part of the process of getting your diploma, and they pay off in the end.
• Look for ways to bless people.  Find ways to use what you have been given for the good of others.  God is most likely to be leading you in that kind of direction.
• Read your Bible slowly and patiently.  Learn from the example of the people you meet there.  Get to know how God works, then start looking for Him to work that way in your life.
• Pray for yourself and for others.  God works in us and in those we pray for, and we need what He does when we pray
• Cultivate your vision of heaven.  If your vision of heaven is one of bored angels sitting on clouds strumming harps, you’ll never believe that it’s worth suffering to get there.  Think of heaven as Super Bowl Sunday, a magnificent wedding, Victory Day after WWII, and the closing ceremonies for the Olympics, all bundled together and multiplied by a thousand and you’ll be getting a little closer.  Heaven is so awesome that any suffering we endure to get there will be as insignificant in comparison as the cost of a lottery ticket would be compared to winning the MegaMillions lottery.
• If there’s something you can do to help someone find God’s wonderful plan for their life, do it.  They’ll thank you for it in the end.