Scouting’s Future

     Fourteen years ago, I wrote in The Sentinel concerning a looming Supreme Court case involving Scouting and homosexuality (interestingly, the article is still online here: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1999-08-15/news/9908130283_1_scout-oath-boy-scouts-scout-uniform-shirt). Of course, the Court at that time supported the Scout’s right to set standards for leaders and boys which existed for more than 100 years until they votes this week to change.

     Through massively successful strategic planning, the Gay movement has swung popular opinion in our country into a clear majority who support “gay rights.” But let’s be very clear, Scouting historically stayed away from personal sexual matters. It was never part of their agenda. Only when a boy or leader acted in manners outside of normal, safe behavior would action ever be taken. But the Gay movement could not abide a “don’t ask, don’t tell – this is not who we are” position in Scouting. The Gay movement seems to seek complete cultural acceptance, normalization, and even endorsement of its agenda, nothing less. So the issue is not solved yet for Scouting, and the Gay movement will not stop until Gay leaders are also part of the Scouting movement.

     Here is the hard and difficult truth: men and women are different. Theistic religion (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) universally recognized this until only a few decades ago. But it is still true that children require a father and mother – not only for creation (yes, this is still the case, no matter how creatively we manipulate the process), but for nurture. Popular opinion may shift, but basic nature does not change. It will always still require a man and a woman to make a child (again, recognizing our scientific ability to manipulate this, the basic fact remains). Even if 99% of a culture comes to believe 2+2=5, the truth of reality does not change. Sexuality is not fundamentally different.

     And before they cue the cries of “Hate!” and “Bigot!” (rhetorical bully tactics that simply avoid the hard facts), my article 14 years ago mentioned that my beloved brother was a gay man who died in 1999 from AIDS related illness. Further, I am one of those people who will stick with the last 5000 years of human culture rather than the last 50 years of experimentation on this issue. Now cue charges of my support for slavery and racial discrimination, a false equivalence that has emotional strength, but no logical connection.

     In Scouting, theistic belief and practice has also been a standard – but this will necessarily have to fall in light of this self-imposed changed with respect to sexual expression in Scouting. Sadly Scouting is no longer what it was and will lose thousands of supporting charter organizations and millions of boys and leaders. Like religious denominations who celebrate their progressive diversity of thought and openness to new ideas, Scouting will shrink into complete irrelevance. And unless a new organization that holds to old simple ideas rises up, boys and young men in America will be the losers.

Scouting’s proposed change — an open letter to Scout leaders

Hello Randy and Bill,

I know that you and all our friends in senior leadership positions with the BSA (locally and nationally) are hard at work with serious and weighty national policy decisions. I have read with great care the “Membership Standards Resolution” (http://www.bsaseabase.org/licensing/sitecore/content/MembershipStandards/Resolution/Resolution.aspx) and the “Membership Standards Executive Summary” (http://www.bsaseabase.org/licensing/sitecore/content/MembershipStandards/Resolution/Summary.aspx) on the BSA web site. The issue has been and remains to crucial to me. My brother and I shared an Eagle Court of Honor in 1971 and two of my sons also shared an Eagle Court of Honor about 10 years ago. But as I said years ago in an opinion column in “The Orlando Sentinel,” my brother embraced a homosexual lifestyle and eventually died of AIDS in 1999. I said then and repeat now that though my brother earned Eagle Scout and was a proven leader (and even an ordained pastor), I would not be able to endorse his being a model, mentor, or leader in Scouting.

So, allow me to share with you several thoughts (which you are free to circulate or dismiss as you like). Thank you in advance for your patience to consider this.

First, as I read the executive summaries, my eye stopped short on a phrase early in text (and repeated in the FAQ section): “This [‘homosexuality’ from the context] remains among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today.” With all due respect to the National leadership and writers of the summaries, such an issue is only “complex and challenging” for people who are confused about simple realities and millennia-old culturally tested and universally accepted (until the last 40 years) truths about human nature and social structures.

Over the past couple of decades, our nation has witnessed a massive public relations campaign aimed at approving and normalizing homosexual practice. The overwhelmingly successful arguments and rhetoric are consistently based on emotion and personal experience, lacking any semblance of logical (not to mention anatomical) coherence or historical support. I realize that such a statement today is deemed grossly offensive by many (again, an emotional reaction without logical support), but this is only because as a culture we look beyond the obvious to the popular. But as I have said many time to others, even if 99.5% of Frenchmen decide that 2+2 = 4.5 because they like it that way, such overwhelming popular and cultural opinion does not change simple truth.

Second, I was alarmed in reading the Executive Summary by the strong presence of politically-correct language. This may serve to mollify cultural anger and condemnation; but in many ways, it denies Scouting’s history (along with the last 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian Western culture). In reviewing how the new policy proposal was researched, I note that Scouting sought to “listen” to national voices. Again, it is clear that the culture is experiencing a tectonic change on this issue. But this does not mean this cultural shift is right or beneficial to our nation. We may not see the cultural upheaval and damage for decades. In fact, in my opinion, if we listen to the cultural voice and adopt the proposed policy change, such a change delivers a foregone conclusion that a wholesale change in Scouting is inevitable and the organization’s roots are all but gone. If recent cultural history is a judge, consider the numerous major religious organizations and church denominations which have embraced “new progressive policies” regarding homosexuality. Every single one is in a free fall with respect to membership numbers (while remaining quite proud of their “diversity”). I fear so too will the Scouting movement shrivel and become irrelevant in America should we adopt such a radical change.

Third, one “voice” that I did not see in the conversation (did I miss it?) is international Scouting. Will a BSA change alienate us from the world-wide movement (as has happened with so many other organizations)? But again, even if the whole world were to say “We are changing so should you,” this would not determine the truth of such a change. But I am interested how the rest of Scouting will respond.

Finally, though the military recently rescinded (at a growing cost to national security) their “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding homosexuality, I think such a policy would benefit the BSA youth membership qualification as well. From my 45+ years associated with Scouting, sexual expression has never been (nor should it be) a part of Scouting values. And I gladly saw this affirmed in the FAQs. When one chooses, in an open fashion, to identify one’s selfhood primarily on a sexual orientation, this should automatically be problematic for membership in Scouting – whether youth or adult.

If Scouting officially allows homosexual orientation in its youth, make no mistake, the issue will not be solved. The Gay movement’s history tells us it will not rests with unspoken or partial acceptance – it will demand total approval and embrace. But if Scouting passes the proposed change, then in my opinion, the camel’s nose is in the tent and it is only a matter of time before adult orientation and behavior will also be acceptable.

In closing, cultures change, technologies change, merit badges change. But when “character” changes, and “values” changes, the essence of a movement will have changed. I for one hope that does not happen. I hope Scouting remains constant, even if as such it incurs the wrath of the cultural elite but remains a safe haven for kids, a place of stability in a cultural sea of confusion and incoherence.

Most respectfully,

Michael S. Beates
Eagle Scout, Greater New York Council, 1971
Troop Committee and ASM, CFC Troop 234, Longwood, 1996-2003
ASM, CFC National Jamboree Contingent 2001
CFC Seminole Springs Troop Commissioner, 2005-2012
Unassigned Adult, 2012-

More of the same

I recently responded to a young friend who sent me the following link, one that so clearly and somewhat winsomely articulates a common position among many today. Here is the link, followed by response to my friend.

http://theawesomenessconspiracy.com/2013/03/28/wheatandweeds/

Because I continue to hold you in such high esteem with deep affection in Christ, I want to respond to this article you shared with me.

Biblical marriage (man and woman) is not a peripheral thing in Scripture, nor, as this piece contends, are there merely a handful of verses that condemn homosexuality. Even if there were only a few verses, does that mean we dismiss them? Are these verses (many of them actually) true or not? That is the questions this writer should be asking. There are hardly any verses about Trinity, but does this mean we doubt the reality? But in fact, [young friend], the Scriptures (Old and New) speak about same-sex relationships over and over again, both directly (as in Genesis 19; Leviticus 18; Leviticus 20; Romans 1; 1 Corinthians 6; 1 Timothy 1; Jude vs. 7) and indirectly included in 40-50 references  to sexual immorality which is a more general term understood (for 2000 years) to refer to any sexual activity outside of marriage – always (again until recent days) understood to be one man and one woman.

Marriage (from Genesis 1 to Jesus’ words in Matthew 19 about marriage, to the end of Revelation  and the marriage supper of the Lamb) has always been about a man and a woman becoming “one flesh” – which is often equated merely with a physical union (which is of course important). But the one flesh more profoundly refers to you and me – we are the product (every human being is the product) of male and female union.

Too many people miss this, but <children> are the one flesh result of marriage. Same-sex marriage can never do this. Marriage, by definition, is (at least potentially) a life creating, life giving, and self-denying and self-sacrificing relationship between a man and a woman. This life-creating aspect is something, sadly but truly, same-sex relationships (as loving and sincere as they often are) can never achieve.

I think one of the reasons we try to equate marriage with any commitment between two people is that our culture has failed so hugely on marriage with radical expansion of divorce, unfaithfulness, and co-habitation. But despite these sad realities, the fundamental nature of marriage has not changed . . . until we have tried (for the sake of “equality” and “tolerance”) to redefine marriage to be something is actually cannot be. I just posted on FB recently a link to a fine, philosophical piece about this – too many people can’t handle this kind of careful analysis, but you have a good mind – challenge yourself to read it:

http://salvomag.com/new/articles/salvo22/apples-oranges-gay-marriage.php

But let me say a few more things about the piece you sent me.

This blog post is right in this: the “wheat” and “tares” are difficult to distinguish – they do look alike. Jesus was saying that in the “visible church” – those who confess Christ – God alone knows the heart, and He alone is the Judge — Yes indeed! All good so far. But Jesus’ point was also that when people “look” like they are believers, following Jesus, we are not to throw them out. The question is: “Do people who engage in same-sex relationships look like they are following Jesus?” Are they seeking to please God with their bodies and their actions? All of Christian history has said “No, such people have rebelled overtly and clearly against the order that God has established.” Admittedly we are all rebels and sinner. The crucial aspect is that faith requires admitting sin and repenting, continually, from it.

This writer make a compelling emotional argument but, if I may say gently and humbly, a deeply confused argument intellectually and biblically. When he says, he (or she?) supports same-sex marriage because such a stance “fulfills everything I understand about what it means to follow Jesus,” because this is what he thinks the Bible means, he has placed himself outside of the overwhelmingly consistent teaching and practice of Christian faith for 2000 years. But he does this because he believes the Bible is primarily a love story.

Is the Bible primarily a love story? No, it’s the story about God glorifying Himself through creation, and redeeming creation from the Fall. Does this contain “love”? Certainly. But sometimes the most loving thing you can say to a friend is “listen to what God says about life – see your sin; admit it, confess it, and strive (even through continual stumbling and falling) to lean heavily on God’s grace for salvation. Can a homosexual be a Christian? Certainly – when they admit that their inclination (just as much as the inclination toward gossip, rage, envy, theft, or heterosexual lust or adultery admits their sin), and seek to battle it by the grace of God.

Are some Christians hateful and bigoted bone-heads? Certainly. But does that then nullify the truth of the Bible? Praise God, it does not.

And finally, does believing in same-sex marriage condemn someone or make them a non-Christian? No – thankfully Romans 10:9 is still true. Salvation is not achieved or proven by all the issues we support or believe in, right or wrong. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. But even the Christians in Corinth had to be taught that Temple prostitution (quite the norm in first century Corinth!) was not an option for those who sought to live in fellowship with Christ and His people.

Don’t be persuaded by emotional arguments that are deeply flawed with respect to logic, history, and basic human complementary anatomy. I know you are a young woman who seeks to please God – keep working on this. Don’t take the easy, popular path to cultural acceptance. And, if you still want to read more, take a look at my blog post – it’s the article I just wrote on this for the Geneva Courier. Let me know what you think. It’s here: http://mikebeates.wordpress.com/. Thanks for listening [friend]. I spend the time to write to you because you are important to me. Thanks for listening.

 

 

Faithfulness in a Confused Culture

I wish I did not have to write on this particular subject. But with accelerating speed, Christians in our country are collapsing into the cultural confusion of our national moment. I don’t say anything you don’t already know when I say we now live in a sexually saturated culture. Consider that over Spring Break, I saw news focused on the following:

First, Victoria’s Secret has rolled out a plan to market their products toward middle school-aged girls. Not coincidentally, anecdotal data shows that one of the fastest growing demographics in using internet pornography is this same group of young people. And the Christian sector is by no means immune.

Second, news and blogs have been the focus on the U.S. Supreme Court’s current review of cases revolving around same-sex marriage. Sexually related saturation almost everywhere we turn in popular culture.

The first concern above is an example of how our culture is pushing to ever younger ages exposure to issues best left to more mature young people. Our young people need to remember Paul’s admonition to Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).

But my concern in this column is more on the second issue above. An overwhelming percentage of American teens and “twenty-somethings” now support normalization of what was unthinkable just 40 years ago. Adding to this cultural force are the voices of conservative politicians and even some quite popular “evangelical” leaders in recent days. Rob Bell, one of these popular speakers, recently was asked if he was in favor of “marriage equality.” Bell stated that he is “for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think that the church needs to just. . . this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”

Of course, he and many others don’t really mean this when they say it. They don’t mean that they affirm all people wherever they are – including those who abuse others, or who, for example, practice pedophilia or other behaviors. The popular movement of inclusion and acceptance is quite selective. But something has happened to Christian thinking that has enabled so many, so quickly, to abandon historic Christian faith and practice in these areas.

What is a 30-, 40- or 50-something Christian parent to do?

First, the American experience over the last generation has elevated personal happiness and fulfillment to a sacrosanct level. Combine this with staggering advances in medical and reproductive novelty, and suddenly any combination of two people can, in some sense (according to the wisdom of our day), be parents of children and find their happiness and fulfillment in formulas that are contrary to all that has provided the building blocks of every culture on every continent for the last 5,000+ years.

Second, we must remember that Truth is not determined by popular opinion. Truth is not the product of our subjective experience, but comes from something objective outside of us. I have often told students (with apologies to the Francophiles among us) that even if 99% of all Frenchmen were to decide that 2+2 = 4.5 because they like it that way, such an overwhelmingly popular consensus does not in any way change reality. Politician Rob Portman demonstrated both of these predilections in mid-March when, in an editorial he declared his support for same-sex marriage because, “Ultimately, it came down to the Bible’s overarching themes of love and compassion and my belief that we are all children of God.”

We do not have sufficient space to address all that this brief statement says. But suffice it to say, an initial error is that the Bible’s overarching theme is not love and compassion (as important as they are). The glory of God and the salvation of lost and broken people for God’s glory is the overarching theme. And the Bible is quite clear that while we are all created by God and in His image, His children are born by faith, not biology. Jesus clearly says that even within the religious professionals (Pharisees) in Israel, in fact, many were children not of God but of the devil (John 8:42-44).

Walt Mueller (who in the past has spoken to us at The Geneva School) recently wrote that when the Pharisees confronted Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus did not say to this woman, “This is the world we are living in and I affirm your adultery” . . . or “love and compassion trump the wrongness of your adultery.” Rather Jesus confronted her sin, forgave her, and implored her to “go now and leave your life of sin.” His recent blog on this issue is worth reading at: http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/2013/03/rob-bell-homosexual-marriage-and-our.html.

Another writer, Kevin DeYoung summarizes that our culture has been won over on this issue by the concepts of progress, love, rights, equality, and tolerance. What Christian can be against these wonderful qualities? His article (also worth reading at: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2013/03/27/why-the-arguments-for-gay-marriage-are-persuasive/) answers this well.

In light of all this I encourage you (and of course our students) to remember two things. First, the Good News of Jesus Christ assumes the fundamentally bad news that we (especially Americans) tend to forget: we are all – every human being — much more profoundly broken people than we care to admit. We are all in need of the saving grace of Christ. We seek not to live like Pharisees bound by rules and law that lack graciousness and tolerance. But neither should we fall into the mentality of our day that approves of things that God clearly condemns. We should, in accord with historic faith, boldly declare that we are sinners saved by grace and we seek to live humbly, not self-righteously, in accord with all that God has said. And we are well reminded that the list of sins condemned by the New Testament includes (in the same lists) not only homosexual behavior but also greed, envy, gossip, lying, drunkenness, and more (see for example, Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Cor. 6: 9-10; and 1 Tim. 1: 8-11).

And second, we need to encourage each other and our students, by the grace of God, according to Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers: “it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil. 1:9). Excellence, purity, blamelessness sound a lot like “goodness, truth, and beauty.”

Only genuine love for God will spare us from the loves of the world (1 John 2:15-17). As parents, we are called both to shield our children from and also train them to resist the world’s strongest fallen urges and passions, those which our culture too often calls us to tolerate, accept,  endorse, and even practice. We must seek to bring our students into being bright young people who love good, true, and beautiful things, so that they might “shine as lights in the world” (Phil 2:15). I have counseled some of our recent graduates, who are pressured daily on their college campuses to accept and endorse the current drift toward same-sex tolerance to reply respectfully like this: “I understand that there has been a strong cultural shift in the last 40-50 years toward normalizing and accepting same-sex relationships. With all due respect and humility, I choose to abide with the truth that has guided the Judeo-Christian tradition for the last three thousand years.” I have been castigated by young people in Facebook conversations for such a stance. Dismissively, some have said, “You are old, and your old ideas, like slavery, will die with you.” But I gently respond that Truth will still be true whether I live or die.

This is the issue our young people will face in their generation. May God give us the grace to understand this task and to stand against the strong currents which seek to sweep our children away into cultural confusion.

 

“The Eyes of the Heart”

I wrote this reflection more than a month ago for “The Geneva Courier” and recently realized I needed to post it on the blog.  It does get around to Christmas too. Enjoy!

This fall my recreational reading has included Peter Kreeft’s book The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings. In this enjoyably readable book, Kreeft (who teaches philosophy at Boston College) gives an understandable introduction to philosophy using Tolkien’s epic to demonstrate how areas of philosophy can be seen in life and story. And, since Kreeft also loves C.S. Lewis, the reader is treated to almost as many examples from Lewis as from Tolkien. Can it get much better?

Just before Thanksgiving I read his chapter on “Epistemology” and almost immediately decided I needed to borrow liberally from his thoughts as I write this column.

Even though Kreeft deals with epistemology in the middle of his book, it is often the opening subject in philosophical studies. Derived from the Greek word ἐπιστήμη (meaning “certain knowledge”), “epistemology” considers not the content of knowledge, but more fundamentally how we know. Thus, before we can talk about the things we know (metaphysics, theology, anthropology, etc.), we have to talk about how we know.

A couple of major schools of thought have dominated Western culture with respect to how we know. “Rationalism” focuses our knowing on the realm of the human mind and reason. Descartes’ “Cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore, I am”) perhaps best captures this concept. He is joined by other important rationalists like Spinoza, Leibniz, and Hegel. The other school is Empiricism which holds that knowing derives primarily from our human sensory experience. We associate Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, and Hume with this movement. Some have said that Rationalism places emphasis on the “eye of the mind” (again, we know by thinking about the world) and Empiricism emphasizes the “eye of the body” (we know through the world through our physical eyes and other senses).

Kreeft points out that both of these Western approaches to knowing “ignore a more ancient organ of knowing: intuition” (p. 122). This “third eye” – the “eye of the heart” – takes a more subjective, intuitive perspective of our world, akin to the biblical eye of faith. We see this perspective articulated by Pascal when he said, “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.”

Intuition is not merely sentimentalism. And we all know how foolhardy it can be to “follow your heart”! The Scriptures are replete with warnings about the nature of our hearts: e.g., “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14: 12) and “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Just as our minds may misinterpret data or err in reasoning; just as we can be fooled by our feelings or err by thinking our sinful experience must be right; so also, our intuition, our heart, can lead us to ruin.

Again, Kreeft summarizes this well. “For this ‘third eye,’ unlike reason and sense experience, depends on moral goodness; it is trustworthy only in the virtuous. So virtue is part of epistemology! Epistemology depends on ethics; knowledge (of the highest and most important things) depends on goodness” (p. 123). And this is where the redeemed heart of faith comes in.

Biblical faith is more than knowing certain information (rationalism); it is more than what we see and agree with from our senses (empiricism). Biblical faith demands a deeper level of trusting and surrendering. Classically these three phases of faith have been called “notitia” (the data and information), “assensus” (acknowledging or agreeing with the truth of the data), and “fiducia” (trusting). Too many people think they have faith when all they possess is either some knowledge or perhaps even assent to the truth of some knowledge. But the letter of James tells us that even the demons believe, and they shudder (James 2:19). They know the information of God’s story and they know it’s true. But they do not surrender to it nor do they trust it. They rebel. Biblical faith demands that third eye of the heart to believe most fully and savingly.

Kreeft agrees (happily!), when he says, “Jesus makes childlike trust the prerequisite for entering His kingdom: ‘Unless you turn an become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Mat. 18:3) . . . . Faith is not foolish or irrational” (p. 126). And again, we must be careful at this point. Jesus commends “childlike” faith. To be “childlike” is not the same as to be “childish” – the first assumes a degree of innocence, the latter a degree of willful stubbornness.

With childlike faith, we are called to know (with our minds), to understand (which requires an element of experience), but more, to trust (which requires redeemed intuition), that God seeks a relationship with us through Christ as Savior. C.S. Lewis said, “You are no longer faced with an argument which demands your assent, but with a Person who demands your confidence . . . the assent, of necessity, moves us from the logic of speculative thought into what might perhaps be called the logic of personal relations” (“On Obstinacy in Belief” in World’s Last Night).

Of course the goal of knowledge is the apprehension of Truth. Lest I be misunderstood, I am not one who condemns the rational mind. It’s a gift of God. Nor do I say experience is solely bad. In God’s providence, even sinful experience can teach us of God’s goodness and grace. Aristotle said it quite simply, “When one says of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, he speaks the truth.” But in the realm of faith, there are times when we say that something is true, and the world’s rationalism and empiricism say we are fools to believe. Consider Christmas.

As we celebrate Christmas, we see in Mary (in Luke 1:37-38) such a demonstration of biblical faith, seeing with the eyes of the heart. When an angel appears (irrational to the rationalist) she is told she will conceive a child though she is a virgin (against all sensory experiential evidence to the empiricist). But the angel tells her it would be so saying, “For nothing will be impossible with God.”  Mary’s response is biblical faith: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” She accepted God’s word to her.

She was called by God, as are we, to see with that third eye of the heart things that are true, despite what the mind and the experience of the world would affirm as true. Israel looked for a conquering king; instead God gave them a fragile baby. They wanted existential salvation from the slavery and oppression of Rome; instead this baby brought them (and us!) the prospect of salvation not from merely a temporal worldly power but from the eternal condemnation of our own enslavement to sin and death.

God hardly ever does things the way we expect. And this is the call of faith in Christ. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). So, as we give and receive gifts at Christmas, we can be thankful for His indescribable gift to us – even Christ, our hope and salvation. Foolishness to the world, but the wisdom and goodness of God to us. Thanks be to God!

Some questions about my book

A new friend, Dr. Steve Grcevich, recently asked me some questions about what I say in the book. Following (in bold) are my responses. I like that he makes me think.

You discussed your experience when your daughter (Jessica) was diagnosed with a chromosomal abnormality. How has your experience as Jessica’s father impacted your spiritual development? How has having Jessica impacted your family’s church participation and spiritual development? Is there any advice you’d offer to other couples after raising a child with disabilities?

   I often tell people that Jessica has had an earth-shaking impact on me, Mary, and our children. Our appreciation for the rich grace of the Gospel deepened significantly and our faith in Christ (that is trusting, leaning heavily upon and surrendering to the goodness of God for us) was experienced at a whole new level. Jessica was born while we were serving on Young Life staff, reaching out to high school kids in Buffalo, N.Y. I was working on the presumption that God was lucky to have me “on His team.” Without realizing it, my life of faith was based largely on being good and pleasing God. Then . . . our first child is born with profound disabilities . . . and life was never the same.

   Looking back, Mary and I went into a free fall spiritually. “How could God do this to us?” we asked without necessarily saying it out loud. But over the years, her quiet – indeed wordless – life spoke volumes to us about trusting God more fully. I wrote about her continuing impact recently here: http://mikebeates.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/silent-impact/

  As far as church went, our church at the time (The Wesleyan Church of Hamburg) was a wonderful community – despite some people asking awkward questions like “Have you confessed the sinned that lead to this tragic situation?” Since then, as we moved from Buffalo to Philadelphia (Lansdale Presbyterian Church), and then to Florida (with a couple of churches over 20-something years), Jessica’s participation in our family life determined in strong ways where we would worship. I remember visiting a church when we dropped her off in her over-sized “stroller chair” the children’s worker asked, “You’re not leaving her with us, are you?” Needless to say, we did not go back. But then at another church, someone approached us, got down on a knee and introduced herself to Jessica, and volunteered to take her to a children’s program – we had a found a church home!

    So I would give this advice to young families with children who live with disability: Ask God to lead you to an accepting church. When you visit a church, offer whatever simple instructions might be necessary to care for your child in the nursery or Children’s program and see how they respond. Are the teachable and accepting? Do they show the love of Christ to your child as much as to you? Are they willing to find ways to accommodate your family and enfold you into the congregational life? If so, thank God and settle in. Your child will have a ministry of “presence” that is hard to quantify

In the book, you state that “the church needs to reach out more effectively to those who live with disabilities.” What are some strategies you’d recommend to congregations who want to pursue kids and adults living with disabilities with no connection to a church? Since you’ve provided a “plausible apologetic,” can you suggest a plausible methodology?

THIS is a tough question. I have told people that my book, Disability and the Gospel, is a book that seeks to address “Why” a church should embrace those who live with disability. Many others have addressed pragmatic issues in helpful “how to” books – and they are better than I could write. But a simple answer may be this: Every family with disability is unique in their needs and in the gifts they bring. If a church seeks to enter this vital area of ministry, they should start with those whom God brings to them. Learn ways to help. Never say, “Call us if we can help.” Rather, suggest ways to help – in fact, better yet, tell a family “We will come over on such-and-such a day. Then we can learn how we might be able to serve you and walk with you.” Show up! Learn as you walk together. Then God will expand your reach. As soon as families learn they are welcome and your church will take a risk, learn and grow, more and more families will come. And your church will be blessed!

I liked your statement that “A successful measure of disability effectiveness in a local church would be that it would not need to have a disability ministry.” How might that be accomplished?

  A sub-text of my thesis in the book is that we are all broken people. As we embrace that idea, as we see ourselves as “disabled” (whether spiritually, emotionally, or more outwardly physically), we can better walk with those who live more openly with disability. When this happens, brokenness becomes the norm, not the exception.

     Now, I also recognize that some situations require special accommodation. I was speaking with someone recently who said a family in their church was struggling with how to enfold a family whose autistic child was so disruptive that the entire worshiping body was distracted. I remember times when my Jessica would become upset, cry, even scream, at times when it was necessary to find another setting for her (at least for a while). We knew we were in the right church when brothers and sisters in Christ would follow us out of the sanctuary and offer to stroll with her so we could return to and benefit from worship.

     Such situations will always require special accommodation – we treat some weaker members with special modesty and care (see Paul’s description in 1 Corinthians 12). But as much as possible, we seek to bring all people into worship, under the means of grace of preaching and sacrament – God will speak to all in ways only the Holy Spirit will know.

Ascending! (Part 2)

I realize that some weeks ago I posted the first of several homilies from our week at the Lift Disability Network “Breakaway” retreat. Following is the second of these homilies.

“Distress” (Psalms 120, 123, 126, 129, 132)

I have several walking sticks this week as visual aids. The one I hold today is an old cane from the 19th century — it looks normal, but when you twist the top and pull it apart, . . . the top doubles as a dagger for danger to be used in moments of distress.

We live in a world of lying lips – the world is telling us that we are o.k., we deserve it, we can overcome, we can achieve, we can find the strength, dig deep, work hard, and you can do it. I call this “Nike Theology” – “Just do it.” While it might be appropriate in some realms of athletic competition – at the end of the day – in the realm of the pilgrim life of faith, this is a dangerous lie that speaks against faith in God who alone is able to meet our needs.

But let’s also admit that there are many times, facing disability, when the distress of life can overwhelm. We encounter people who can be patronizing and pitying in ways that demean and dehumanize us or our loved one. There are the seemingly endless demands of care, fragility, and then dump on top of that the bureaucratic nature of finding help. It can become overwhelming.

David and the other psalm writers knew this feeling too. Look at these psalms:

“In my distress I called to the Lord” 120:1 – he is distressed. It is real. Too often Christians have this tendency to avoid reality – “Hey Praise the Lord!” And while we are called to praise Him in all circumstances, it is another thing altogether to be “happy” in our circumstances isn’t it? He confesses his distress, and we can too.

Then he says, “Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.” 120:5-6 – here he is expressing woe or “oi vey” has the Yiddish says. Meshech and Kedar are foreign lands to the north and the south. He is saying too long has he dwelt where he is not wanted, where he is an alien. This too expresses the Christian pilgrim experience of being aliens and strangers in this world. But let’s admit it, too often we feel like aliens and strangers – sadly sometimes even in the church, right?

So when we feel that alienation, that subtle rejection, again we can relate with the psalmist in 123 when he says, repeatedly, “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud” (123:3-4). This has been echoed down through the centuries as Christians have said together, “Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison” – “Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy!”

This cry is not admitting defeat – but it is admitting distress and our inability to manage or change our circumstances. It’s admitting we are in over our heads. We can’t climb this mountain alone on our own strength. Admitting our distress is the first step toward dependence and deliverance.

Let me as you this: When do we learn the most? In hardship. Where are we when we learn the most? In distress and deprivation. And most important, where does God most often seem to “show up”? Over and over in the stories of Scripture, He shows up when people find themselves in the wilderness. Without hope and without a way out. In fact this is where the Land of the Bible is a metaphor for life.

In the land of the Bible, where there was the most fertility and comfort (the northwestern area of Jezreel), there also was the most apostasy, the most abandonment of faith in God. Conversely, in the southeastern region, where there was the least fertility, the most deprivation, God was most likely to visit His people and faith was built up and displayed in the midst of great need and desperation.

You see one of the great assumptions about modern the world is that we have CONTROL over everything. And we are given the illusion that this is true. Thermostats, microwaves, automobiles that respond to our every whim. This is such an unspoken assumption that we talk about people for whom life is “spinning out of control.” But when you buy this idea that you are supposed to be in control of all the circumstances surrounding your life, when things happen “out of your control” you start to “lose it.” Thus, America has 5% of the world’s population and 98% of the world’s therapists – when you “loose” control” you need help!

Well the same tendency has snuck into Christian faith in the West as well. “We got this – all we need is a little help.” Jesus is my friend and he helps me along the way. I’m not so bad – heck I’m a lot better than all those people we hear about in the news. I haven’t killed anyone lately.

The problem is we think way too highly of ourselves. In fact, and let me say this as gently as I can, we are much worse than we think we are. Here it is friends: The Good News of the Gospel presumes that there is bad news (otherwise, it wouldn’t be “good” news, right? It would just be “news”). The bad news is we just don’t need a little help from our friends. We aren’t in a situation where a self-improvement program is going to solve our problem. The bad news is we are sinful and profoundly broken – every one of us. Compounding this problem is that God is Holy and there is alienation between us because of our sin. In fact, despite our American “can do” mentality, we can’t do this. We are, as the Scriptures say, “dead” in our trespasses and sins. Dead people cannot help themselves.

C.S. Lewis got this when he said: “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

We are in distress due to sin. Best Bible story of this: Luke 5 about the paralytic. His friends knew their paralyzed buddy was in bad shape, but in reality, they had no idea how bad. They thought they knew what he needed – we need to get him in front of Jesus to get healed. But look what happens – they take the roof apart, lower him in, there he is in front of Jesus, everybody is looking for a miracle, and Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven.”  Really!?! I mean, c’mon, how much trouble can a guy get into lying on a mat?

But listen friends, Jesus knew the distress this man faced, while the world saw it as physical disability, Jesus saw the spiritual alienation from God. The superficial need was physical healing, The deeply profound real need was forgiveness for sin. This was the trouble he faced. But remember this too – he could no more make himself right with God than you or I. It was God who reach down to him in Christ and said, “Your sins are forgiven” that changed everything for him – not just for a few more days, months or years on this earth, but for eternity!

Do you realize that your greatest need is not some physical disability – however profound and frightening and debilitating it might be? Nor is it an emotional brokenness, or a psychological weakness. Your greatest need – the deepest distress you face – my greatest need is that you and I are broken and sinful and unable to do anything about it. But coming to the end of yourself can be the beginning of new life. You see the opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is self-reliance, believing that you are really “OK.”

But the Good News of the Gospel is that when we come to the end of ourselves and self-reliance, then God can begin to reshape us, remake us into something new. That surrender, that moving from distress to dependence on another who will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, we will talk about in the next homily.

Drawn to the Light (A Sermon for Immanuel PCA DeLand, Sept. 2, 12)

A Sermon for Immanuel Presbyterian Church

Sept. 2, 2012 — Rev. Michael S. Beates — “Drawn to the Light” (John 9)

And the audio file  is located here: http://www.immanuelpca.com/media.php?pageID=5

Introduction

Jesus has just had a huge theological smack down of sorts with the Pharisees where Jesus had declared them children of the devil and Himself as nothing less than the “Great I AM” – the religious people at the end of John 8 had picked up stones to stone Him for blasphemy. So this encounter in chapter 9 comes on the heels of that. Though John 8 says he hid himself and left the Temple area, we can assume Jesus is still in and around Jerusalem when, as he is going along, he sees this blind man.

Now it’s helpful to remember that John organizes his book around seven signs of Jesus (he says there were many more, but seven is symbolic of perfection). For instance, the wedding at Cana, it says, was the first sign. Also, the raising of Lazarus is the final (7^th) sign. This account of the blind man is the 6^th of 7 signs in John – not miracles (though some translations call them “miraculous signs”). Indeed they were miraculous, but the text simply calls them signs – pointing each one in their own unique way to some aspect of Jesus’ divinity.

In this passage Jesus will, as He often does, model for us what it means to be human, and also display for us His divinity. We have much to learn from both.

1, See disabilities (v. 1)

“As He was going along, He saw a man born blind.” Don’t miss the first verb here – Jesus saw the man. The story does not begin with the disciples asking Jesus a crucial question. It begins with Jesus seeing the man born blind. And the disciples saw that Jesus saw him.

We don’t like to see disability so often do we? We have been culturally conditioned in many ways to avoid seeing, and if you do see, to ignore that which is broken in humanity. I talk a bit elsewhere about why this is – but suffice it to say, brokenness makes us uncomfortable and culturally we have done a masterful job of hiding those with disabilities, lest they gain our attention and disturb us or disrupt our well controlled, carefully planned lives. Think about the people on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan – they saw, but did not want to “see” the needy and broken one right before them. We do the same, don’t we? We try to avoid making eye contact,  even as we must pass close by.

Children see. And they are not yet so inhibited (or perhaps well-conditioned) as we are, so sometimes they ask, “What wrong with him or her?” And a parent, in embarrassment, says something to the effect of, “Hush now, that’s not polite.”

But don’t miss the importance here. Jesus noticed this man. Jesus sees our broken neediness too. Our pain and loss and difficulty are not invisible to Him as they often are to our neighbors. Even when we try to hide our neediness, Jesus sees and knows our most profound wounds.

If we are to be like Jesus, sometimes, we need merely to open our eyes to see what is in front of us, but sometimes, we need, like Jesus, to see with intention, to look for, in order to see those who live with hurt and pain – but they are all around us. Some, like this man, bear conditions from birth – or from conception. Others inherit a condition that may manifest itself much later; still others, like our friend Joni Tada suffer a tragic and unalterable accident that instantly changes everything. But the point is: we need to see it. Then, . . . second,

2. Approach Disabilities (v. 2)

We are not given all the details here – we know in other places, the disciples did not want Jesus to be bothered by undesirable people – they had places to go and things to do. But I think in this case, when Jesus saw the man, He must have stopped, perhaps, if I can extrapolate, even turned aside and approached the man. I think we can say this because the disciples asked a probing question – something they did not do so often. When they observe Him “seeing” the man, probably slowing down, turning aside from His path, they only became engaged because Jesus was already engaged. Perhaps Jesus was talking with him, we don’t know – but the important thing is Jesus approached the blind man.

Jesus models for us what it means to be human – we neglect to notice but He sees. We tend to avoid, but He approaches. Is it a scary thing to do? To turn aside from our plans, to engage with someone in need? Certainly. Is it an inconvenient thing to do? Always. Is it risky? Perhaps. Costly? Probably. We are always uncomfortable when we move away from comfort toward need. But is it the human thing to do? Absolutely! And this is how Jesus is a model for us. See disability, approach disability, and as I have said before here, as we do so, we will begin to realize that we see a lot of ourselves in them! We are them!

3. See God’s purposes (v. 2-3)

So the disciples approach with Jesus and ask what they thought was the right question, the natural question. Something was wrong, so there must be a cause for what happened. This is so natural – and even though Jesus gives us an amazing insight into the heart of God in this passage, so many of us are stuck in the same mentality of the disciples. “God” we ask, “if this happened, and it’s obviously not good and right, then someone or something must have done something wrong to cause this, right?” We want to know the cause. Whose fault is it? Who’s to blame? And admittedly, sometimes there is a clear cause. Joni dove recklessly into shallow water at low tide. Not a sinful action, but a direct cause all the same. But other times, like a man born blind, it is not so simple or evident.

I remember a dear, devout, and yes, rather stupid Christian lady once asking Mary and me, “Have you confessed the sin that led to your daughter’s condition?”  And I thought to myself, “Well, . . . I’m about to have a sin to confess when I am done taking care of you!”

But Jesus’ response is shocking. Rather than identifying a human cause for this man’s life long disability, Jesus says the explanation is not in some past cause or some particular sin, but the explanation laid in the future purposes of God.

So Jesus attributes this to God. Before we unpack that, let’s discuss for a minute a false dilemma that is still a common tactic of skeptics and ill-informed people to explain God’s part in such things. The construct is like this: Since bad things happen, since disability exists, then there are two options regarding God. First, God is all powerful, but since He did not stop this, we must conclude He is a heartless God who does not care. Or second, God is good, but not all powerful, otherwise, He would intervene and change things for us. This is an ancient philosophical construct, still used and in print in Harold Kushner’s book When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

He lays out these two options and comes down on the side of the latter. Though God is creator, and though He is good, Kushner says, God must not be all powerful or He would change things. God is in heaven rooting for us, hoping we make, and sorry that He cannot help. It is a book of despair quite frankly.

But friends, this is a false dilemma. There is in fact a third way, a tertium quid. The Scriptures affirm over and over again that God is great (all powerful) and He is good (perfectly and infinitely so). Therefore, If He does not intervene, there must be another explanation. And that is what Jesus gives us here. Neither this man, nor his parents sinned. Neither is God caught on the horns of a false dilemma. This man was born blind so the works of God might be displayed in him.

Now let’s not make another common mistake at this point. Too many well intentioned believers will say, “See, God is so powerful, He can even redeem life-long suffering.” But this can be misunderstood to mean that God is responding to the suffering, removing what was not His intention in the first place. I think some people want to get God off the hook as it were.

Hear me, . . . God does not want to get off the hook – He wants glory! Remember Exodus 4, where Moses thought he had God beat – “I’m not your man – I can’t talk well. “I am slow of tongue and speech.” God says, “Who made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf, gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I the Lord?” God does not merely respond to what we think are accidents, He creates with intentionality – and His intention is His glory. Jesus didn’t just stumble across this blind man and say, “Oops, we better fix this.” God already knows all things. There are no surprises in His mind. There are surprises for us, no doubt. In fact in our day surrounded by comfort and every possible safe guard, we have been sold this myth of control, so we are always surprised when confronted by suffering and loss. God is not. In His sovereign goodness, He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death – He does not, most often, whisk us out of harm’s way. He accompanies us into it, for His purpose: His glory!

We often think we know what the remedy needs to be. Remember the paralytic lowered through the roof? His friends thought they knew what he needed – to walk of course! But the primary need of this paralyzed man, the primary need we all share, is not physical wholeness or well-being – as good and enjoyable and as desirable as it is. In this Fallen World, our most profound need is spiritual rebirth and along with it, the healing of spiritual blindness so that we might see.

4. See the light (vv. 4-7)

So Jesus does not merely encounter the blindness and heal it – He planned the blindness for His purpose. Now, let’s be honest, in this man’s case, the purpose included healing to display God’s work, which we will see in a minute. It is not, in God’s infinite wisdom, always so. Paul prayed three times for deliverance, but God was pleased to allow a different display of His purpose in Paul, and often also in us. When Jesus healed a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, He left many others without healing. So the principle is this: our suffering, however it turns out, has meaning only as we cling to God’s purposes for us. And we see this purpose in the following verses.  God’s purpose was that people would see the Light of the World in Jesus.

Ontology precedes axiology – that is “being precedes doing.” Who we are precedes what we do. In this way, though Jesus brings bread, first, He IS the bread of Life. Though He also brings light to blindness, first, He IS the Light of the World. God’s purpose was to show that His Son is the light we all need in the midst of our spiritual blindness.

There are several other sermons in between the healing and what follows, but for my purposes, let’s jump down to consider the end of this story – to see God’s ultimate purpose in this encounter with Jesus. How do we respond to this story? How does this encounter with Jesus speak to our lives? We see it at the end.

5. Embrace God’s purpose to worship the light of the world vv. 24-38

Notice here (in v. 34), the blind man has been thrown out by the religious professional who thought they knew God and His works. And don’t miss the detail here in v. 35. Jesus heard the man had been thrown out and He found him. Even after the healing, even after the display of His glory, still Jesus sought the man and found him. Why, so He could comfort the man who now sees? No, so the man could worship Jesus. Don’t miss this! The man asks who the Son of Man is so that he might believe (that is trust in) Him, Jesus says, “You have seen Him, He is speaking to you.” And the man bowed down and worshiped – and Jesus received his worship!

I am reminded here of 2 Cor. 4 – God made light shine in the darkness of our hearts so that we can see the light of the glory of the Gospel in the face of Christ! And so that we might worship Him! Even after God heals your spiritual blindness, still He seeks you, finds you so that you worship Him.

A Tolkien allusion? If I must: as the company departed the forest realm of Lorien, Lady Galadriel gave each a gift. To Frodo she gave a phial, a “star glass” Sam called it. “‘In this phial,’ she said, ‘is caught the light of Earendil’s star, . . . . It will shine still brighter when night is about you. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.’” Indeed, Jesus is a light, THE Light, for us “in dark places when all other lights go out” even after we have been found by Him – sometimes especially after we have been found by Him! So, like the blind man, with new eyes to see, so we, with spiritual eyes open, fall down and worship the One who not only gives us light, but the One who IS the Light of the world. I don’t know what darkness surrounds you at the moment, or what past darkness you have passed through, nor certainly what darkness awaits. But this I know: Jesus is the light of the world, and His light will continue to shine in our darkness.

May God give us enlightenment to understand, spiritual and physical eyes to see disabilities, the courage to approach disabilities, and the grace to see God’s purpose and to live that we might worship Jesus, the Light of the World.

Ascending!

July 10-14 I was privileged to speak a bit each day at “Breakaway: A Lift Family Retreat.” Focusing on the Psalms of Ascent (theme for the week was Psalm 121:1-3), here is the first:

Tuesday, July 10: “The Big Picture”

Ascend! Climb! Great metaphor to guide us this week as we think together about pressing upward in Christ. I’ve got my commemorative Scout hiking stick! And we are hoping that, trusting that, this week will be a time you will look back on fondly on this as a time when you perhaps reached new heights, even if it is merely resting and relaxing, breathing deeply as we walk together this week.

Many people go through life approaching Christianity as if they were tourists rather than pilgrims. The tourist life wants things to be immediate, pretty, interesting, exciting, easy, and casual. This is all very American and very modern. In fact, I read a piece in the Wall Street Journal last week about this very thing. Apparently, you can even be a mountain climbing tourist now days too. But listen to this guy as he talks about the experience:

“[E]very time I hiked into the Bugaboos, I passed a fancy lodge run by Canadian Mountain Holidays, which flies skiers and hikers around the hills. And every time I hauled a heavy pack up the trail and huddled in a wind-battered tent, I wondered what it would be like to experience the mountains and retreat to a comfortable bed at night.

“So a couple of days after walking out of the woods in the rain, I helicoptered up to the Bobbie Burns Lodge in the Purcell Mountains, north of the Bugaboos.

“Instead of getting up in the middle of the night and choking down an energy bar, I slept in, ate a fantastic breakfast, and then, at the crack of 9, climbed into a helicopter with guides. We were dropped off in an alpine meadow and spent a day hiking up to a ridge, admiring wildflowers, the rugged terrain and expansive views. In the afternoon, a helicopter ferried us back to the lodge for cocktails and a fine dinner.

“While I certainly had a pleasant day, I didn’t feel the connection to the natural world that I usually seek by going into the wild. A helicopter was a radio call away to whisk us back to the comforts of the lodge in case it started raining, which it did.

“After a few days of what most people would call an awesome vacation, I was literally climbing the walls—both the climbing wall in the exercise room and the rock-studded pillars in front of the lodge. Everything was first rate: the food, the mountain views from the hot tub and the glass-walled sauna. The pace was leisurely and there was even Wi-Fi. I was being treated like a king. I was miserable.”

. . . he went on to say that after being “fattened up,” he needed to conquer something real and challenging on his own, so”

“[A]t 3 a.m. [he] set off for South Howser (10,800 feet). We crossed a glacier, climbed a pass, trudged over another glacier and dropped into a valley on the other side. By daylight we were looking up at the sinuous buttress of South Howser, a beautiful, soaring sweep of granite, as elegant and as simple as a single brush stroke on a canvas.

“Fifteen pitches of flawless yet challenging climbing and some scrambling put us on the summit 10 hours after starting. The sights were incredible. Fingers of sheer granite rose out of the surrounding glaciers, mountain after mountain ranged in the distance. It was like being back in a helicopter.

“Only this time, I felt like I had earned the view.”

This is more like the life of the pilgrim. The tourist helicopters in, and gets back to the clubhouse for the five-star dinner. The pilgrim life is a journey through this world, not merely sights to be seen and photographed, but experiences to shape us for the destination. And the destination is not retirement in Boca Raton. There is no quick short cut for the pilgrim, no microwave instant solution. And I see a lot of parallels between the pilgrim life and living with disability. Life with disability is not a vacation tour, it is a long journey. It’s slow, hard, often dull and boring, and many time quite frankly (can we admit it?) . . . overwhelming. It’s not the ticket we intended to buy for this trip – it’s not according to our plan! Speaking of which, let me read another piece – perhaps you have heard this before – about someone planning a trip to one place, but ending up in another. [Read “Trip to Holland” – see below]

So what are we going to do this week? We are going to “Breakaway” – to leave the daily routine, and set out to find something new. Not as tourists – as pilgrims. Here’s what I mean:

In ancient Israel, the people of God saw themselves as on a journey – and this idea has continued through into the Christian experience for the last 2000 years as well. We are on a journey through this life. This life is not our final destination. This place, Central Florida, Winter Park, Winter Garden, Holland as the case may be, Earth!, is not our real home, not our final destination. That destination is God’s presence. And all this life is preparation for that. We are made for something much more. The writer of Hebrews captured it when he said, “Since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” That better possession, that more abiding place is the Kingdom of God in its fullness. Our final and eternal home.

Well, in the OT, the people of God were reminded at least three times each year that they were pilgrims. Out of obedience to God, they left home and set out for Jerusalem – that symbol of God’s presence – in order to make sacrifice. The Psalms of Ascent – Psalms 120-134 – most scholars agree are the songs they sang on the road. These psalms became a sub-set of the hymnal of Israel, a collection that many people think were liturgical songs meant to be sung during the three journeys every year when people went up to Jerusalem for the festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Rosh Hashanah. From everywhere in Israel, going to Jerusalem means going up. Now I realize that this is a hard concept for us in Florida – the highest point of land is the interstate over pass (still looking for the “mount” in Mount Dora!). But think about being in the mountains – going up is hard. So these songs were song of faith, as the people trudged upward, seeking God in their journey. It was not a vacation, it was pilgrimage.

And so our lives as well.

The 15 psalms seem to break into five triads, five groups of three – nice for us because we have three more talks like this Wed/Thurs/Fri morning before we gather for one final time together on Saturday morning. The three broad topics also depict three potential aspects of a long journey: Trouble, Trust, and Triumph. Another way to see this, a way that I want to use this week is “Distress, Dependence, and Deliverance.” So five times, the psalms seem to take us through this cycle of trouble and distress, to trust and dependence, and finally to triumph and deliverance. We see this three-part idea in the first lines of Psalm 121, our theme for the week.

First, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” He sees trouble coming, so it’s an expression of distress. We look up and see the obstacles, the challenges of life, the trouble we are about to encounter. There is no way around this mountain – we have to go over. We are troubled and we face trouble. There is no interstate highway weaving nicely through the mountains with cuts and fills. It’s scaling, climbing, and at first glance, it’s distress and trouble.

Have you ever been there? Like in the last day or two? I know that sometimes, it is hard even to get here – things seem to happen, trouble gets in the way. Sometimes the mountains seem unscaleable. But as Bilbo Baggins told Frodo, every journey begins with a first step. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Isn’t that the truth! Some of us stepped out the door and have been swept off our feet into the land of disability. And we live, unfortunately, in a culture that has very little patience for the long haul – people want you to fix it, get over it, recover and move on. But for many of us, there is no moving beyond the new reality we face. We’ll talk tomorrow morning about this idea of Trouble and Distress and how this is part of the pilgrim’s journey.

But Second, “My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Here is trust, an expression of dependence. Trust is surrendering your self-sufficiency and placing yourself at the mercy of another. The psalmist admits he cannot conquer the mountain on his own – he needs to place trust in another; he needs to depend upon another. It’s admitting our inadequacy and recognizing God’s amazing bigness for us. And trusting God is far different from capitulating to defeat. We will talk more about this trusting and dependence on Thursday morning.

And finally, Third, “He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.” Here is triumph. This is a declaration of deliverance. It’s also, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a statement of faith in something we do not see. It’s making it to the top through the sheer grace and mercy of a God who loves you and carries you to see new things from new places.

So we are going to spend this week talking about climbing, hiking, struggling, step by metaphorical step upward, fighting gravity, fighting the downward pull of the fallen nature of creation. One of my favorite authors, Eugene Peterson, calls this act of faithful journey “a long obedience in the same direction.” Think about that. None of us necessarily asked for the challenges we face and we live with. But we are called in God’s providence to plod onward, upward – not in defeat – but with expectant hope that even though we may be in distress, with hope in God and His goodness, through dependence on Him, we move, with the Holy Spirit’s help, toward deliverance.

And the amazing thing is, while the “final” deliverance may be some future release, there can be – here and now – real deliverance in this journey, in this long obedience.

But let’s admit up front that we live in a world that is so focused on the here and now that we swim against a strong current, we walk against the flow of the traffic. Everything around us tells us to give up, cash it in. Resign ourselves to the reality and make the best of it. C.S. Lewis saw this and said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

That’s the perspective we want to cultivate here. We don’t want to “settle” for less. So let’s climb this week, make some memories together in our journey with Christ.

Aim high – look up. Yes there are mountains, but the view from the top will be amazing.

Let’s get going!

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WELCOME TO HOLLAND
By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. Michelangelo’s David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around . . . and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills . . . and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.” And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away . . . because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But . . . if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things . . . about Holland.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

Silent Impact

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disability network

So, part of our family was away last week at “camp” — we spent the week at Lake Yale (from where the masthead pic on this blog came last year!) participating in “Breakaway” the disability family retreat sponsored by our friends at Lift Disability Network.

It was great to have Mary come this year, and even more cool to have Shoshanah and Josiah serve on the “crew” as helpers for families. But perhaps most fun was that Jessica joined us for the week. It took a lot of logistical planning (transportation, medicines, food, and care planning), but it worked.

Jessica had a great time – enjoying the music and people, a fun-filled, laughter-filled boat ride (first time!), a long, relaxing swim in the pool, and all the other events (a “starry night dance,” ice cream social, “messy games” and so much more).

But more surprising was her impact on others. She never says a word – she just shows up – and people are affected. Numerous people on the crew testified to her impact on their lives. One was asked about the most important part of the week. This person said one word: “Jessica.” Now I have to admit, that it puzzles me – but it shouldn’t because I often tell people that God hardly ever does things the way we expect and He almost never uses the people we think He would use to achieve His ends. He is in the business of using those more often over-looked, rejected, and marginalized by the culture to achieve His plans.

We saw this truth again this week with Jessica. Searching my own blog, I see that I wrote something kind of similar back in January – but it has been worth noting again. The young lady continues to surprise me with her silent impact on her world. Thanks be to God!