O Death, Where is Thy Sting?

As many of you are aware, this has been a difficult week for my family. We count ourselves very fortunate that our children have had all four of their biological grandparents throughout their childhood and, for some, into adulthood. I don’t think that happens very often.

But this week that changed. My wife, Cyndii’s, mother passed away on Monday. She had been ill for some time, so it was not entirely unexpected, but, as so many of you are aware, it is never completely welcome.

I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers, and expression of concern for my family and me. It is truly a blessing to be surrounded by such loving and caring friends.

This event, as well as other deaths and funerals we have experienced in the life of the church recently, have made me think, perhaps a little more deeply, about life and death and what they mean both to us and for us.

When preparing a funeral service, ministers often reference the verses which Paul quotes in his First letter to the Corinthians when he says, “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (15:54).

In this context, it is a fair question to ask whether death has retained its sting. There is a very real sense in which it does. No one can doubt that the death of a loved one hurts, and hurts deeply. Grief is very real, and it often takes months or even years to get over it. Some would say we never actually get over it, we just get used to it.

So how can Paul, quoting the Old Testament prophet Hosea, ask the rhetorical question, “O death, where is thy sting?” For most of us, that sting is clearly recognizable.

It seems to me that the pain, the sting, is not experienced by the person who has died. He or she is at peace, finally at rest. The pain and sorrow are for us to bear. But even that pain is lightened when we reflect on the joy that our loved one is experiencing right this minute, in the loving arms of our Savior.

Paul’s point is not that there is no sting in death, but rather that the sting of sorrow and loss we feel at the death of someone we hold dear is “swallowed up,” it is overcome and completely subsumed in the knowledge of the joy and peace the one we love so much is experiencing right at this moment.

All of us know the joy we feel when we give a gift to someone we love. Their happiness becomes our own happiness. Even if we are not responsible for the gift, it warms our own hearts to see our children, our friends, or anyone we love, filled with joy and happiness. We experience their joy vicariously, and the experience is compounded by love. The more we love someone, the more we are filled with joy when we know they are filled with joy.

It makes us smile when we see our children happy and running around on a playground. It should fill us with a similar vicarious joy when we know that the one we have loved so much is now immensely happy and at peace with our savior.

I don’t mean to negate pain, especially when it is still fresh. But I do believe that the sting of death is truly swallowed up in the victory of God’s love and peace which was won for us by Jesus Christ.

Life After Resurrection

It was only a couple of weeks ago that we were celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus with lilies and songs. This past Sunday we had two Memorial services for long-time members of the congregation. That seems like such a contrast. How do you celebrate resurrection and grieve the death of loved ones all in the same week?

At first glance, they seem like opposite poles: death and life, sorrow and resurrection. And yet, they are also inextricably linked. Without death there is no need for resurrection.

We have all experienced death; we all know what it is to grieve. But how do we live day-to-day in light of the resurrection of Jesus? How do we get his life infused into our daily experience?

Several years ago, Presbyterian pastor and author, Eugene Peterson wrote a book that encourages believers to do that very thing. He recognized that we, as human beings, encounter death and discouragement on a daily basis. From our limited perspective, life seems to be a collection of random events.

And yet, as Christians, we profess faith in a God who brings order out of the chaos, not only in creation, but each and every day. We believe God has a plan and that we are somehow a part of that plan. But, that’s awfully hard to do. Peterson says that to live in the power of the resurrection is a difficult thing to do, but it is well worth the effort.

He calls this unique perspective on life “practicing resurrection,” which is an odd phrase. What does he mean by it? He says, “The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, life out of death, life that trumps death, life that is the last word, Jesus life” (p. 12).

You can appreciate how difficult life lived that way could be. It requires a change of focus, a change of direction, and even a whole new way of thinking. We can’t keep doing things the way we have done them before and expect different results. Remember that cliché definition of insanity? We have to think about life and about God in a new way.

Most of the Western world has embraced an Aristotelian view of God as an abstract concept or idea. But this has not won us very many converts. Peterson quips, “We’ve been at this for two thousand years now, and people are not clamoring to join us” (p. 14). He goes on, “With God depersonalized and then repackaged as a principle or formula, people could shop at their convenience for whatever sounded or looked as if it would make their lives more interesting and satisfying on their own terms. Marketing research quickly developed to show us just what people wanted in terms of God and religion. As soon as we knew what it was, we gave it to them” (p. 23).

This marketing approach to evangelism not only doesn’t work, as is evidenced by the last 50 years or so of decreasing church attendance and membership, it is actually the polar opposite of how faith and discipleship are supposed to work. Remember what Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit,” John 15:16.

That’s how faith in God works. It’s not so much about analyzing an idea as it is about developing a relationship. Peterson says, “God reveals himself in personal relationship and only in personal relationship. God is not a phenomenon to be considered. God is not a force to be used. God is not a proposition to be argued. There is nothing in or of God that is impersonal, nothing abstract, nothing imposed. And God treats us with an equivalent personal dignity. He isn’t out to impress us. He’s here to eat bread with us and receive us into his love just as we are, just where we are.”

In order to practice resurrection, in order to grow in our faith, Peterson encourages us to be “healthy in God, robust in love” (p. 29). Let’s go and do just that.

Forward in Faith

Hasn’t it been a busy week?! But the good kind of busy. Holy week, from Palm Sunday to Easter, is one of the busiest times in the life of a church. There are extra worship services, visitors, programs, and people to manage. A pastor friend of mine on facebook posted a picture of himself taking a well-earned, but too-short nap!

There is also this strange phenomenon after a busy season, especially one with spiritual emphasis, where we feel a bit of a let-down once it is over, we feel a bit deflated. Do you feel like that?

It makes me wonder if the disciples of Jesus felt anything like that in those weeks following the resurrection. Talk about your emotional roller coaster! They went from Palm Sunday when the crowds were hailing Jesus as the possible Messiah, to the serious talk around the Passover table, to a surprise arrest and hurry-up trial, and a gruesome execution that must have flung his friends and family into the depths of despair. A few days later, rumors started flying that Jesus was alive. Could it really be? Then came the unbelievable moment when Jesus himself appeared among them, and they knew it was true. Wow! How do you recover from a week like that?

Just a short reflection on the experience of the disciples makes me wonder how that same thing works out in the lives of each one of us. Where do we go from here? How do we go forward after a week like that? For that matter, what does it mean to go forward? What is it we are supposed to be doing in the Christian life?

I had a very interesting conversation this week with someone who was struggling with growing in their faith. She wanted to know which church, which pastor, or which book would help her grow. I took the viewpoint that each of us is responsible, at some level, for our own spiritual growth.

If we expected our doctor to be responsible for our physical health, we would most likely be disappointed. Our doctor can make suggestions, prescribe medication, but it is up to us to follow through. We are the ones who have to eat right. We are the ones who have to exercise and lose weight. We are the ones who have to take the proper medication at the proper time. I hear all the time that we have to take control of our own health care.

I think it’s also true, at least to a certain extent, that we have to take responsibility for our own spiritual health. A pastor or Sunday School teacher can point us to good books, helpful Scripture passages, and insights on prayer, but it is up to us to actually do the things we are encouraged to do. It’s a little blunt, but I sometimes refer to this as “Nike spirituality” based on their advertising campaign, “Just do it.” Sometimes in our spiritual lives, we need to “Just do it.”

At the same time, I am reminded of the passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul talks about his own experience with encouraging the Corinthian Christians in their faith. He tells them that even though he planted the seed of faith, and another pastor, named Apollos, watered that seed, it was God who caused the growth.

We can put ourselves in a position to grow. We can learn, we can pray, we can share, but it is ultimately God who brings the growth. God is always responsible for the miracle.

In the Easter story, Jesus didn’t raise himself from the dead, the Bible consistently says that God raised him from the dead. So when we need raising, or when we need encouragement, we need to look to God, who is “the author and perfecter of our faith.”

Following Jesus

What a great weekend we had at Cursillo! If you haven’t heard about Cursillo, it is an intensive short course in the Christian faith. But it’s not necessarily what most people think.

We talk a lot in the church about being a disciple of Jesus or following Jesus, but we don’t do a very good job of explaining exactly what that means. Most of us have the idea that discipleship is about learning something new, probably something we didn’t know before. I think that’s true to a certain extent, but I also think we often confuse information with formation.

We go to Bible studies, and Sunday school classes and we expect to learn new things. That is a good thing, up to a point. The problem is that we think that once we have learned something new, or even been inspired or blessed, that is the end of the story. But new information is not the goal of true discipleship. I’m pretty sure that when we get to heaven, St. Peter isn’t going to give us a Bible quiz to see how much we know. I think he’s going to ask us if we love Jesus.

I have spent a fair portion of my life learning new Bible information. I went to seminary. I actually paid somebody to teach me all that stuff. But information is not formation, and I think of discipleship in terms of formation.

If you have ever seen the movie, The Karate Kid, (the original) it’s the story of a boy named Daniel from New Jersey who moves to California and doesn’t fit in. He gets teased, and finally beat up by bigger kids who know Karate. There is a little Japanese man in his building who comes to his rescue one day and sends the other bigger kids packing. Daniel begs him to teach him how to fight, and the man agrees. You may remember the scene where Mr. Miyagi invites Daniel over to his house and has him wax his car and sand his deck. Daniel wants to learn Karate, but Mr. Miyagi knows that a foundation must be laid first. He must be formed before he can be informed. All that hard work, it turns out, was strengthening and training his muscles, so that when the actual training began, he would be ready.

It is much the same with the Christian life. I wonder how many people consider that “disciple” and “discipline” come from the same root? If we want to be disciples, we must be disciplined in our actions and in our faith. We must do the hard work of following Jesus.

I wonder how many folks set aside time each day to be with Jesus, to spend time in prayer. I wonder how many people take the time to read their Bibles, not for more information, but to learn how Jesus was able to love those who ridiculed him, spat on him, and nailed him to a cross.

As we come to Holy Week, when we remember the last days of Jesus’ life, don’t just spend time learning about him, let’s try to learn from him. Let’s make this year’s Holy Week an experience to remember, not because we learned something new, but because we met someone new. Come and meet Jesus.

Lenten Practice

Most of us get the concept of Lent. Lent is the 40 days prior to Easter that begins with Ash Wednesday. It is a time to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus during Holy Week and Easter.

As I said, we get the concept. We understand that to do anything well, you have to prepare, you have to get ready. But how do we get our hearts ready for Jesus?

Traditional Christian teachers for centuries have advocated what they call “Lenten practices” or “spiritual exercises” to prepare our hearts and spirits. Just as physical exercise improves the body, spiritual exercises are meant to improve the spirit. In the church, it is our job to encourage these exercises and to provide opportunities to perform them. This month, I want to highlight three opportunities that are available for our folks to exercise a Lenten discipline.

First, there are the Ecumenical Lenten services sponsored by the Sand Springs Ministerial Alliance. These services will be every Tuesday at noon and a light lunch will follow. The schedule is on page 4 of this newsletter, and responsibility for these services is shared by the Presbyterian, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, and Episcopal churches. If you have not done so before, you may want to take advantage of these services.

Second, Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery is sponsoring their annual Cursillo weekend on March 12-15. This would be a wonderful way to deepen your spiritual walk. The retreat is designed to encourage people in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to deepen their faith, and give them the tools and the inspiration to move forward in their spiritual journey. There are more details in the newsletter, and application forms in the church office. I would love for us to take a group to Dwight Mission for this year’s event!

Third, I will be preaching a series of sermons during Lent on the topic of the cross, which is both a significant Lenten theme, and one of those aspects of our faith that many of us struggle with. Why did Jesus have to die? Was that really necessary? What does the cross really mean in our modern context, and how can I understand it? I hope you will make an extra effort to be in church every Sunday during Lent (a spiritual discipline in itself) and take advantage of these messages. If you are unable to be present, you can always view them online by accessing our church web page at www.fpcsandsprings.org, and clicking on the “video sermons” link.

I hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to grow in your faith, and we also have many others, like Sunday School, Bible Study, and Lifetree Café. Whatever method you choose, make this the year you took the extra time to prepare your heart for the coming of the Savior.

The Andrew Project

     This past Sunday, I outlined a clear and reasonable way for us to reach out to our friends and neighbors and to increase church attendance. I call it the Andrew Project, because it is based on the life and ministry of St. Andrew.

    If you aren’t familiar with the life of Andrew, he was the brother of Simon Peter. But he is mentioned a few times in the Gospels for some of the things he did in his own right. For example, he is best known as the disciple who brought people to Jesus. It was Andrew, in fact, who brought his brother to meet Jesus, and it was Andrew who brought the little boy whose lunch fed 5,000 people. It’s what he was known for.

    That doesn’t seem too hard to me. I think that is something we could all do, something we should do, in fact—bring people to Jesus. That’s where I got the idea for the Andrew Project. I want to encourage every person in our church to think of one individual or family that they could invite and bring to church. Andrew brought people to Jesus, and when we bring people to church, we bring them to a place where they can meet Jesus.

    On Sunday, I used an acronym to help us remember to invite others, and how to do it. It was the word, “BRING.” Each letter helps remind us what we need to do to bring others to Christ.

    The first letter stands for “Believe.” That is the first step in bringing others to Christ. Andrew believed, and went and found his brother. When we believe, it gives us the motivation to find others and bring them to Christ.

    The second letter stands for “Relationship.” I suppose we could just ask random people we know or meet to come to church, but I doubt we would have very much success. Besides, that would be far too intimidating for most of us. What we can do is invite someone we know, someone with whom we have a previous relationship. That makes a lot more sense. I can tell my friend or someone I know at work how much I enjoy my church, and invite them to come with me some time. That’s not too scary.

    The third letter stands for “Invite,” because that’s what we are going to do. We invite someone we know, take that extra step and just ask them. You never know until you ask. But sometimes they may need a little help. That’s why the fourth letter stands for “nurture,” which also means “encourage.” We may have to keep on encouraging them until they actually come.

    Finally, the “G” in BRING reminds us of our “goal” which is to “glorify God” (that’s a lot of G’s). The Bible says there is great rejoicing in heaven for every sinner who repents. When someone accepts our invitation, and doesn’t just come to church, but actually comes to God, that is awesome. That is the goal toward which we work.

      So, over the next few months, think of somebody you know who isn’t going to church regularly. Maybe it’s a friend or a co-worker, or even a family member. Encourage them, nurture them, invite them, and BRING them to church to meet Jesus.

Thinking Forward

     Over the past week I have been thinking a lot about the future. Not in a long-term or apocalyptic kind of way, just some thoughts about where we are going in the church and what kinds of things we ought to be doing in the coming year.

     I have been having these thoughts for a variety of reasons. First, we have been preparing the church’s Annual Report, and doing some looking back and looking forward. Second, we had what I thought was an excellent planning meeting with the session last Sunday as we looked at our mission statement and made plans for the year ahead. Look for some of those plans coming to fruition in the next few months.

     When most of us thing about starting a New Year we think about how we would like to improve our lives or our selves. Exercise equipment goes on sale and Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig run special sign-up programs. Some people sign up for classes or purchase audio books to improve themselves during the time they spend alone in the car.

     When I think about how I would like to improve, the category of “spiritual” is at least somewhere on my radar. What that means changes from year to year, but it is usually there. Some years I think of important books on theology I need to read, sometimes I feel the need to work on my prayer life or Bible study. Just like our physical muscles, our spiritual muscles need a workout in order to remain strong.

     I am proud of the variety of opportunities we have at FPCSS to flex our spiritual muscles. We have heavy-lifting Bible study on Sunday nights at 6:30. We just started a verse-by-verse study of the Book of Exodus that will take most of the year, so this is a great opportunity to get started. We read and discuss and dig deep to understand and fill our minds and hearts with God’s Word.

     For the long run, there is a good cardio workout available in Sunday School. That is an ongoing program, week in and week out, year after year, that produces results over the long haul. If you are not involved, there are classes for a variety of ages and interests. In the parlor, the Pairs and Spares class meets and studies a traditional Presbyterian produced curriculum of a variety of Bible passages. The Library class downstairs is working their way through the Bible and are presently in the New Testament. The Saints and Ain’ts class is participating in the Lifetree Café curriculum and studying contemporary topics from stem cell research to keeping the love alive in your relationship. So there really is something for everyone.

     I am also excited about a fairly intensive boot camp training experience that is sponsored by Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery, and is called Cursillo. Cursillo is a Spanish word that means “short course,” and the weekend is a short course in Christianity. It helps answer the question, What does it mean to be a Christian, and How can I grow in my faith? There are details in this month’s newsletter, and some of our own members will be participating in the event.

     So, if you are looking for a way to turn up the heat in your spiritual life this year, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. Pick one and go for it!