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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Eyes On the Prize
1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Hebrews 12:1-3
One way or another, Tiger Woods just keeps on winning and winning.
This Sunday, the 10th anniversary of his professional debut, he did it kind of like Indiana Jones. His performance the week before could only be called "clinical precision" from first tee to final putt. That one put him second only to Jack Nicklaus in total PGA tournaments won.
The apostle Paul never saw a 9-iron or a Nike swoosh, but he would have completely understood and appreciated Tiger Woods.
Paul chose athletics as his analogy for the discipline of Christian discipleship.
To follow Christ successfully, he said, you need to stay focused on your ultimate goal and pursue it with single-minded commitment.
"I don't run the race without a goal... I keep my body under control, make it a slave to my motivation to win... I will not flail about when I can use every motion to advance towards first place...."
Paul obviously was a sports fan. But I think it's clear he was some kind of athlete himself. Maybe he lettered in Graeco-Roman wrestling at Tarsus Tech before going off to the seminary.
In any case, he used a foot race to illustrate the cost of discipleship.
Every runner enters hoping to win, he said. But only one per race can come in first. So give it everything you've got in order to be the one who wears the winner's crown.
That crown, a wreath of laurel leaves, made you the emperor of racing. At least for that one race. But it was doomed to dry out, turn brown, and crumble to dust in the end.
But the Christian's crown will be solid gold, presented at the finish line in God's perfect heaven. Indestructible and everlasting.
So, all the more, Paul wants us to run to win spiritually all our life long. To keep our eyes on God's prize, and to let nothing block our path, distract us from it, or wreck our conditioning to keep pressing on.
Think of Tiger Woods' unrelenting re-examination and re-working of his swing, his full-course strategy, and his every-minute mental focus.
One more thing...
Unlike the Masters or the Olympic Games, the Christian race has no second or third place, no also-rans. The Bible image of heaven sees every person there wearing a winner's crown. (See Revelation 4, and the promise in Revelation 3 of a crown for every faithful person.) This is one race whose competition is not about beating each other. It's a matter of personal best performance. This race has no losers!
And then, in that heavenly vision, those champions do a wonderful thing. They lay down their crowns at the feet of Jesus. The same way that every one of Tiger Woods' victories pays back his father Earl, for all the mentoring and sacrificial support he invested to shape Tiger into today's amazing winner. On that last day, we will also get to say, "Thank you, Lord; we owe it all to you." And the crowd will roar!
And there you have your ultimate prize.
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:25 PM
Monday, August 21, 2006
Don't Forget
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
"Remember me," he said.
Jesus. At the table with his men for one last meal. We call it the Last Supper, Holy Communion.
Jesus picked up some bread, gave thanks, broke it up, and passed it around to the disciples. Then he blessed a cup of wine and passed it around as well.
"My body... my blood," he said. "Take, eat and drink... Remember me."
Then, within hours, came all the bad stuff in quick succession: betrayal, arrest, kangaroo court trials, and crucifixion -- his bleeding body hung out to die in public shame and agony. How strange that we call that horrible day Good Friday.
And his disciples did remember him. Telling and retelling his story, and their own along with it.
Imagine the banter about their memories when they'd get together for happy hour...
"Remember the night Peter actually walked on the water during that storm on the lake? Well, for a couple of steps anyway. Until he realized, 'Hey, I can't walk on water!' And then he sank out of sight!"
"Yeah, and how 'bout when Jesus told that great parable and Peter didn't get it?" Quick chorus: "Again!!"
"Okay," says Peter. "I'm not the only dense one here. James and John, what nickname did Jesus give them? 'Sons of Thunder,' for God's sake! Cuz they got so mad at the bad guys they wanted God to throw down lightning bolts from heaven at 'em."
"Remember the time we shooed away those pesky kids, but Jesus stopped us, and then he huddled with them to tell some stories? Then he listened to them like they were the teachers!"
"Speaking of kids, what about that boy with the two little fishies and five rolls, and how Jesus broke 'em up over and over again, till finally 5,000 people got fed in one sitting?!"
Then the chatter shifts, the chuckling stops. And they remember...
"On our last night together he broke that bread and passed that cup, so each of us would never forget that meal. And what it stood for. Broken body, shed blood... He was ready to go that far for us! Because he loved us, man! He loved us. And that's how much he wanted us to love each other, and the whole wide world."
"Right. Right. And that's the reason we're still in the disciple business. We'll never stop telling his stories as long as there's anyone who hasn't heard them yet."
That's exactly why I'm writing this to you this day.
I'm remembering key moments when Jesus' loving kindness came alive for me. In the Bible's stories. In a dream or an enchanted moment. More often than not in a friend's kind words, caring expression, or supportive touch.
And I'd like you to do the same. Take some time today to let memory do its good work. With any luck, you'll flash right back to the scene, reliving your blessed past. On top of that, you'll find what happened back then is right here, right now, renewing your heart and mind this very day.
Remember. Remember. Never ever forget.
posted by Jack Buckley at
12:18 PM
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Sometimes Speechless
Dear friends,
Please excuse the lack of a GODcast recording again this week. This is not a trend! What it is is a combination of summer vacations and a sermon-less picnic in the park this Sunday. Shoulda been there... great fun singing old-fashioned church songs and uncovering covered dishes.
_______________
My Jewish friend's e-mails these past few weeks vibrate with outrage. His repeated messages, about Israel's absolute right to defend its own existence, absolutely pulse with the pain of his own lifelong experience of antisemitic assaults. Both violently direct and sneakily covert.
I can find no words to reply that will not sound to him utterly hollow or, worse by far, uncaring and uninformed -- to say nothing of antisemitic.
So I simply shut my mouth.
Like biblical Job, who railed on and on about divine justice, until he finally heard from the Divine Mouth itself what real justice is. Then he sat still in front of God, hands over his mouth like that famous monkey -- "Speak no evil." In Job's case, that meant, "Don't you dare say even one word; it's doomed to be evil compared to God's Own Truth!" (See Job 42:1-6)
Here I sat, then, as day after day the rockets' red glare spotlighted ever more destruction of people, places, and things in Israel and in Lebanon. Speechless. Powerless to say one word that seemed to make any sense -- to me, let alone to my Jewish friend.
Almost five years ago another friend asked me, within a week of 9/11's horrors, "Jack, what if we just did nothing in retaliation?"
Several decades ago Golda Meir told Israel's enemies, in as many words, "I can forgive you for turning your young men into murderers, but I will never be able to forgive you for turning our young men into killers!"
I'm stuck someplace between those two poles -- "Let's do nothing!" vs. "Look what you made us do!"
My dilemma stems from the obvious fact that the human psyche inevitably distinguishes Us from Them. Red states, blue states. Liberals, conservatives. Zionists, antisemites. Catholics, Presbyterians. Uh oh, then we count more than a dozen American varieties of Presbyterian denominations. Always and ever, us (good) vs. them (bad). World without end, amen and ptooey.
Michael Berg decided to resist all that. Enough's enough, he said. In 2004 his son Nick's beheading in Iraq by Islamic terrorists was broadcast around the world. The San Francisco Chronicle reported two Sundays ago that Mike Berg committed himself to forgive everybody who had a part in his son's horrible, undeserved death. That's it. No vengeance, no retaliation, no appeal for worldwide indignation. Just... forgiveness.
Gandhi once said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Long before that, Jesus said, "Turn the other cheek."
Now I say, "If only." Then I cover my mouth all over again.
posted by Jack Buckley at
2:40 PM
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
What the Children Know
Mark 10:13-16
"Shoo, go 'way. Don't bother Jesus with those kids." Or words to that effect.
It was those disciples again, doing their best to keep things decent and orderly.
Jesus was busy doing his Messiah thing, teaching great truths, and probably healing a few people, too. So when some parents brought their children up close for a little bit of blessing, Jesus' men sprang into crowd control mode.
"No, no," said Jesus. "You've got it all wrong."
In fact, he said, it's children and people like them that have the easiest access to what God is up to. So, he said, if you want in with God you'd better act like a child yourself. Regardless of your age.
Hmmm....
What about children, do you suppose, did Jesus have in mind?
I think of three things...
1. Children are of necessity pretty modest. I mean, they're small. Most everything in life is up for them. That leaves little room for arrogance. So humility is a built-in attribute for kids. Jesus says it's the right attitude for all of us to assume. After all, it is God we're dealing with -- like Supreme Ruler of the Universe, Maker of Us All. In comparison, yup, we're small.
2. Children as a result are pretty realistic. Oh sure, once in a while a kid jumps off a roof with a blanket tied like a cape, hoping to be Superman! But one thumping fall cures that delusion real fast. No, looking up at everything and every body breeds a kind of honesty about life's limitations. Then there's the matter of sniffing out phoniness, at which kids are curiously adept. If you like them, they sense it. If you're up to something, they'll smoke you out. How nice if we all regressed to that simple kind of perception.
3. Children are thus quick to trust trustworthy people. Like Jesus, for instance. Once the disciples backed away, those kids glommed onto Jesus in a flash. They knew he was the real deal. Mr. Rogers in spades. So he held the little ones, high fived the bigger ones, and clearly loved every one of them.
I think of two practical applications...
1. Years ago we played a trust game, where you let your body fall straight back so a person could catch you just before you hit the floor. Most adults find that very hard to do, taking half a step back partway through the fall for a bit of insurance. Most children will flop backwards as if they could fly. They know you'll catch them if you said you would. Why wouldn't you?
If God is as good as Jesus says, then we can trust God just like that. After all, in the Bible it's the devil who plays all the dirty tricks!
2. Author Frederick Buechner spent about 50 years grieving his father's death without resolution. He wrote about it over and over again, processed it several different ways, but the loss and pain remained. A therapist suggested he have an imaginary conversation with his father, call him up from the grave for a man-to-man talk. "You're a writer," the shrink said. "So write out the conversation. And do it with your left hand." Goodbye control, hello illumination! The exercise didn't take very long, but it went deep, right to the heart of the matter. Trusting that his counselor meant only good for him, Buechner tried something completely different (and a bit strange) -- and found his way to forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation with his long-lost father.
God is as good as Jesus says, completely worthy of our trust. Even when God calls us to risk something new or different or even scary. Only good surprises, guaranteed.
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:54 PM
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