Absorbing Evil

One of the more puzzling verses in the Bible is found in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Here in chapter one verse twenty four Paul says, “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.”

What could Paul be saying to us here? Well, we can say with certainty that the afflictions and suffering of Christ on the cross were sufficient to garner salvation for all who call on him in faith. So it is not that something required for salvation has not been accomplished by Christ. His sacrifice was enough. But what about the sufferings that Paul is talking about?

We can also be sure that Paul is not thinking that it is only he who suffers. Though he suffered considerably, he also is clear in teaching that anybody who follows Christ will suffer. So if our sufferings are not redemptive, that is they do not contribute in any way to our salvation, why should we experience suffering?

We often think that evil can be defeated by force. The greater the evil, the greater the force needed to defeat it. However, when Christ took on the greatest evil there has ever been, Satan, he defeated it by absorbing it. What I mean is that he took the hardest blows that evil could dish out and he absorbed it into himself. This is also what he taught his disciples to do when they would face evil.

If somebody is going to strike you on the cheek, turn the other cheek to them so that they can strike that cheek also. If somebody asks for your coat, you should give them your shirt as well. If a Roman soldier asked you to carry his back pack one mile, carry it two miles for him. This type of action is what destroys evil. Paul summed it up when he said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

So what is it that overcomes evil? Evil is absorbed and overcome by loving your enemies and those who do evil. This is what Jesus is doing and this is what he is asking us to do as well. His mission is now our mission. “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you,” says Jesus to all his disciples. So true disciples of Christ should be absorbers of evil and not perpetrators of evil. When we see suffering and pain, the right response should be to do what we can to enter into the suffering and pain of the person suffering it. We too are called to be carriers of pain and suffering. Now this is not a very jazzy calling and one which most Christians shy away from. But none-the-less, it is our calling as Christians to actively bear the burdens of others and not to run away from them or isolate ourselves from them.

To some Christians this may not sound very inviting, yet this seems to be the clear teaching of Christ for his disciples. We should look around us and be more willing to find the hurting and the suffering in order to come along side of them and carry their burden with them. Engaging in this type of action is the great destroyer of evil, and it is within our ability to do.

God the Seamstress

Some time ago I gave a funeral message for a member of my congregation. She was well known as a seamstress par excellence, sewing innumerable wedding dresses. So in my funeral message I encouraged the family to use their memory of her work as a seamstress to be reminded of the Gospel which saved her, and all those who are clothed in Christ’s garments of salvation.

After all God does indeed know a bit about sewing and clothing. In fact, on that dark day when his perfect creation was sliced open by sin, God sewed his first outfits and gave them to Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness; something they had not be aware of before. Their sin caused them to sense their need for clothing and their crude fig leaves were replaced with God’s garments.

Ever since Adam and Eve’s plunge into sin, mankind has had a sense of nakedness and the need to be clothed. This is a universal result of sin. Even people who live in the remote tropics and seemingly have no need for clothing still wear something without which they would feel, well…naked.

As a result of this universal feeling of nakedness, God has been a great seamstress who is clothing his family. Clothing is a symbol of God’s salvation and this can be seen even in the great sin sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. On this, the most holy day of the Jewish calendar, the High Priest would take off his priestly garments, the robe, the ephod and the breast plate, and was instructed to wear only the white linen tunic woven of one piece of fine fabric. Then in this white linen garment he was allowed to meet with God in the Holy of Holies as he sprinkled the sacrificial blood on the ark.

You know there was somebody else who wore a fine white linen tunic. He too was a High Priest, though unrecognized as one until his sacrifice was finally understood. The Apostle John gives us the story:

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
"Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”

I have always wondered why Jesus would wear something that was so fine the Roman soldiers did not want to rip it up. I like imagining Jesus as the funky itinerant teacher dressed in something from Salvation Army. But under it all he wore a fine white linen tunic of the sort the High Priest would wear into the Holy of Holies. In the case of Christ though, it was stripped from him in order that he would take our sin, shame and nakedness on the cross, so that we in turn could be clothed in his righteousness. He was the only one who could stand before God naked and unashamed. He became unclothed, so that we could become clothed with the finest of wedding garments.

In this life we still feel a bit naked and exposed. Death is one of the things that can do this. Death reminds us just how feeble and frail we are no matter what we might be wearing. You cannot dress up death. Our own sense of nakedness simply moves us to find the greatest seamstress, our Father, who gives us the festal garments of salvation.

It is God who has created us for this very purpose, for this very wedding feast. And it is with confidence that we look forward to this feast for in Christ we will not be found naked but clothed in the white garments of righteousness.

The Gift of Gardens

When you start reading the Bible it does not take very long until God makes a garden and tells Adam and Eve to starting tending it. Even before God had placed a curse on the ground they were working the soil. Maybe, that is why some still think that gardening is an divine vocation.

I know that I enjoy gardening along with a growing number of people. There might even be more people who would enjoy getting dirt under their fingernails if they only had a place to do that. So with this in mind, Trinity Church started a community garden on our property. It is in a lovely spot across a small creek from the church building in large section of green grass and trees. The garden, called "Seeds of Friendship Community Garden", has 16 plots which are 12 feet by 16 feet. People from our neighborhood and some folks from our church have been watching with joy the phenomenal growth in our little green space.

We have watched the radishes, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, watermelon, onions, peas and a cornucopia of other fruits and vegetables go crazy with life. We have also combined forces in defending our produce from the various insects that would love to consume it before we get a chance to. We have experimented with some very different organic pest controls in an effort to protect our produce.

We even added the incentive of a tallest sunflower contest. We have some beauties that must be over 10 feet tall!

I have been picking some of my produce and I thought I would just show you what can be done with just a little space and a little work. I love to eat the peas, the great potatoes and especially the small long white onions.

Tending a garden is a wonderful way to provide some wholesome food for your family and relax and enjoy the beauty and awesome mystery that God has placed in the tiniest seeds that grow to be sunflowers or friendships.

Please, make a garden to tend and enjoy the life that it brings to you.

Worship is a Relationship

When I was a missionary in Central America, I traveled to various countries. I remember exchanging money in Nicaragua in the mid 1980s when there was rampant inflation. I still have some nice, fresh 1,000 Cordoba bills. At that time, they were worth about $.50. They became so devalued that they were recalled, and another zero was stamped on them, making them 10,000 Cordoba bills. (Today they work well for playing Monopoly.)

Typically in our culture, the financial principle of supply and demand determines the value of things. Generally, if there is a great deal of something, its value is much less. If a commodity is in short supply, its value goes up. This principle has been applied to worship in unfortunate ways.

Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder?

The apostle Paul tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, instructing us that this is our act of worship. Based on this teaching, many Christians want to say that everything we do is worship. Others counter this trend, though, saying that if everything is worship, then nothing is worship. I call the latter view the economic view of worship. It treats worship as a commodity. Viewing worship in this way might be popular with many, after all, look at all the people who just worship on Christmas and Easter. They might argue that they starve themselves of regular worship in order to make those few times of worship much sweeter. I know that in my own denomination it has been argued that if we celebrate the Lord’s Supper too often, it will lose it’s meaning for the people. Less Lord’s Supper, more value. More Lord’s Supper, less value. But worship is not a commodity, it’s a relationship.

Relationships function in a different manner than commodities. That “absence makes the heart grow fonder” is a rumor that has been passed around for years now. But is it true? Should relationships be treated like commodities, so that when lovers do not see each other frequently they actually grow fonder of each other? If you feel a distance between you and your spouse, do you really think it will help to send him or her to Oregon while you stay in Kansas, hoping that after a year apart you’ll have grown closer together? This is nonsense!

Regular Fellowship Around the Living Word

Since worship is a relationship between God and his people, the more time we spend together the stronger our relationship will be. The very first worship “service” of the New Testament church illustrates this. The apostle John says that the disciples were locked in a room when Jesus suddenly appeared and stood among them. The Lord said, “Peace be with you!” They looked at his hands and side and were filled with joy.

On the next week the disciples were at the same place, and Jesus appeared among them again and said, “Peace be with you.” Then turning to Thomas, who had missed last week’s “service,” Jesus showed Thomas his hands and side. Thomas responded by exclaiming, “My Lord and my God.”

Worship can’t be commoditized; it is a relationship in which we fellowship around the living Word of God in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Word speaks to us, and we respond in joyful commitment to him. Ever since that first Sunday worship service, the church has continued to see worship as gathering around the risen Savior and fellowshipping with him.

Our worship planning must never turn worship into a commodity or take away from the beautiful simplicity of fellowshipping around the Living Word.

The Garbage Runs In It

Hal Boyle once wrote: “What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else.” What a splendid way to pass some time, sitting by a fresh stream and getting a sense of peace from the flowing waters. Why then do some folks want to flood the peaceful waters with tons of trash? The serenity of the stream is lost when a beer can or a chunk of Styrofoam comes floating by. Why is it so easy for some to dump their garbage into waters that flow? I wonder if there is some universal idea that the waters will wash the trash away. Perhaps it is not thoughtlessness that leads people to pour their garbage into running water, but rather an unspoken idea that once in the water it is gone.

Water is the great natural cleaner after all. Who would ever think of taking a shower in anything but water? Water is the perfect solvent. So why not let the river clean up our messes? The trouble is that what was once our mess now becomes the mess of somebody else living just a bit further downstream. Though water is a great symbol of our sins being washed away, it does not work for garbage. The garbage does not simply disappear; it will be an eye sore for many years to come. So what can we do make sure that the streams God has given us keep reminding us of him. We simply need to stop putting our trash in the water and then we should get into the water and clean it up.


This is what our Stream Team did this past Saturday, June 13. We put a canoe in Rush Creek and in less than a half mile we had so much junk in the canoe that we had to finish our trip downstream without picking up any thing else. We picked up lots of Styrofoam, plastic cups, bottles and buckets, even somebody’s living room carpet. We had to leave a tractor tire in the creek as we could not even lift up onto the canoe. It is nice to think that we got about a half mile of the creek cleaned up, but we hope to finish a two mile section by October. Just wait, we’ll get it done. There is sense of accomplishment in cleaning up a stream. Somehow it makes sitting on the bank and watching it flow a little more peaceful.

With the Eyes of Your Heart

Octavio Ocampo is an artist from Mexico who paints in what he calls a "metamorphic" style. What this means is that he superimposes and juxtaposes images within the painting that he is creating. Here is a good example of his artistic skill:

What do you see? Most people look at it and see an elderly couple. But as you begin to make out the detail you will find a young couple in the center of the picture. Ocampo painted the older couple seeing each other as they were when they were much younger. You can even look into the older man's mind and notice how he carries his chosen as a beautiful young woman standing in a doorway. You might say that this couple is looking at each other with the eyes of their hearts.

The Apostle Paul informs the church in Ephesus that he is praying for them. He says, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." (Ephesians 1:18) The reason for this is so the people could fully understand all that they have in Christ; the hope and the wonderful spiritual riches. These are things that we cannot see with just the eyes of our mind, but things that will become clear when we learn how to see with the eyes of our heart.

I have a feeling that we probably miss a great deal of what Jesus might be doing in our lives because we do not see well with the eyes of our heart. We have not developed the spiritual vision to capture the truly wonderful things all around us that our Lord is doing on our behalf.

Paul's prayer should become our prayer. We would be so greatly blessed if we would only be able to better see the ways in which God is working all around us giving us hope and assuring us of his loving care.

Ode to Larry Norman

As a teenager in the late 60's and 70's I listened to a lot of the top 40 music: Beatles, Three Dog Night, Bee Gees and many others. I never really found any Christian artists that caught my attention, that is until I encountered Larry Norman. Here was somebody who was unashamed of his Christian faith and was willing to use a variety of musical styles (rock, blues, ballads, etc.) to communicate it. Here is a video clip of one of my favorites:

I think what I appreciated about Norman was he did not sing syrupy Sunday School songs where everything turns out hunky dory. He sang about life in a very raw form and was able to intersect that messy life with the life of Jesus. So about the time I was thinking that the Church had very little to do with real life, just something that happened for a couple hours on Sunday, Norman helped by connecting my life in Jesus with the uncomfortable reality of our world.

Norman was an evangelist who sang the Gospel to people who would not have heard it any other way. He was my first encounter in how to contextualize the Gospel into contemporary culture. He was simply doing musically what Paul did when he said, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." (1 Corinthians 9:22) Sounds like a great way to go about touching people if you ask me. We need to continue to put the Gospel in language which is understandable to people in every culture, even the ones in our back yards.

The Popsicle Cross

In Matthew 16:24 Jesus says to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Christians have often taken the bite out of this saying of Jesus by looking at it very passively. We erroneously believe that if God wants us to bear a cross He will give us one. Then we pray like crazy that God would give us a little cross that is easy to bear, something like crooked teeth or having to drive an old Chevy.

But there is really only one cross and that is the same one that Christ was nailed to. He also needed help carrying his cross and thanks to Simon, the guy from Cyrene, he got it. If we think that we have been able to sneak through life with a Popsicle stick cross, it is time to find the cross of Christ and begin to hoist it. What I mean is that we must find the suffering, the oppressed, the depressed, and those that really need help and begin to lift the heavy burden that they have been bearing. This will probably mean getting out of our comfortable existence to enter into their uncomfortable one. But this is exactly what Jesus is asking us to do. Paul reiterates this when he says to the Galatians, “Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” They never said it was going to be easy.

Bearing the real cross of Christ is a very powerful thing for us to do. I have seen people take the sick and suffering into their homes and watched as they shared the burden with each other. I love to see people “adopt” a disabled person and become that person’s family. These are powerful things that would re-image the entire church of Christ if we could just get more and more people to imitate him.

What do you think? Should Christians do more to actively bear the cross of Christ?

May It Be

Life is a Journey, a beautiful adventure. It climbs and falls like a great mountain range. We encounter tranquility and danger; challenge and intrigue. Perhaps this is why my favorite genre of film happens to be fantasy epics. I remember well the first date with my wife, Laura.  We went and saw Star Wars: A New Hope. Yet, I think my favorite fantasy epic is The Lord of the Rings.

The essence of this film is capture concisely by the Irish singer, Enya, in her song, “May It Be.” The lyrics written by Roma Ryan, encapsulate the Journey. They are:

-May it be an evening star Shines down upon you -May it be when darkness falls Your heart will be true -You walk a lonely road Oh! How far you are from home -Mornie utúlie (darkness has come) -Believe and you will find your way -Mornie alantie (darkness has fallen) -A promise lives within you now

-May it be the shadows call Will fly away -May it be your journey on To light the day -When the night is overcome You may rise to find the sun -Mornie utúlie (darkness has come) -Believe and you will find your way -Mornie alantie (darkness has fallen) -A promise lives within you now -A promise lives within you now

I will often listen to this song when I get to my office in the morning. It reminds me that I am on a journey and I need to stay true to the Light, guided by the Morning Star. But it is also a reminder that there is a promise which is living and growing in me. The seed of the Gospel is that which, when nurtured, produces a wonderful bouquet of righteousness in our lives. It is this hope of growth than keeps me journeying on with great expectations of what the Lord might lead me to next. There is nothing better than going on The Journey with Jesus.

Stream Team

Here at Trinity Church we have put together a Stream Team. We are not the kind of team that shags flies, but the kind that catches bugs and other invertebrates from the bottom of a stream. We have partnered with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC) to monitor the lower end of Rush Creek. Rush Creek is a part of the lower Grand River Water Shed which the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality wants to carefully monitor. However, state funds are quite limited for these types of projects right now so we thought that we could provide the personnel that are needed to do the job. We also feel that we have been called to be good stewards of God's Creation and want to get more involved in making sure that our local water shed is healthy and clean.

Kristi Klomp, Water Quality Programs Coordinator at WMEAC, came to Trinity at 9:00 Saturday morning and set up a classroom. For the first hour she showed us a power point which described the invertebrates that we would be looking for. Then we pulled on our waders and headed to Rush Creek which runs just a block west of our church. Once in the stream Kristi taught us how to catch the critters we were looking for by disturbing the stream bed in front of our nets. We emptied the contents of the nets into wash tubs and gave them to members of the Stream Team that were waiting on the bank. They would carefully go through the contents and sort out all of the invertebrates that they could find. They would take the different invertebrates and put them in separate sections of an ice cube tray so that they could easily be counted.

We continued up stream collecting samples for 100 yards. We found Caddisflies, Stoneflies and Mayflies. There were also leaches, snails, clams and even a dragon fly larvae. We were all amazed at how much life there is on the bottom of Rush Creek.

There is a theological document called the Belgic Confession, written about 500 years ago, which says that every animal is a letter of God's creation alphabet which tells us of God's nature. Maybe the insects we found are not the capitals of the alphabet, but they still give you a glimpse of God. Each letter in the ice cube tray is certainly worth preserving so that we can continue to discover God under every rock we might turn over. Our Stream Team is trying to make sure Rush Creek keeps teaching us about God and his creation.

Compost Barrel

In an effort to be a bit more eco-friendly around our house I have come up with a barrel composter to convert our organic waste into something quite useful. We hope to take our kitchen waste, lawn clippings, leaves and other organic material and fill up our barrel. Then after it "cooks" for a few weeks, empty it out and start over again. In this way we hope to not have to use a local yard waste service and be able to put out less trash on the curb.

The composter is really simple to make. It took just one plastic barrel, one 8 ft. 2x4 and one 8ft. 2x6, a 26" steel pipe and one 38" 2.5" PVC pipe. I ran the PVC pipe through the length of the barrel and it sticks out of both the top and bottom. The PVC is filled with 3/8 " holes so that there will be plenty of air movement through the barrel to help composting. I drilled several holes around the top and the bottom of the barrel for more air movement. The steel pipe runs right through the middle of the barrel and sits on a cradle I made out of wood. It is easy to rotate the barrel to mix up the material inside. I'm sure it will do what it is supposed to do, but I'll have to wait and see just how good it works. I'll make sure that I keep everybody com-posted. It's fun being green. -Gerry