The Big Bad Book

I can remember getting quite worried over what was going to be revealed when I stood before the judgement seat of God and all the books were opened and every sinful thing I had ever done would be read off for the entire world to hear.   I could only think about how terrible this would be and I wished that I might be able to skip out on this.   I was often told that you cannot skip out on this exercise, but that everybody had to go through it.  I thought about how embarrassing this would be to have my mother, who I knew was going to be there, listen to everything I had so carefully concealed from her.  That was scary!   In fact, the whole reason that eternity was going to be eternal was to give enough time to read everybody’s list – that is how long eternity will have to be.  I am sure it would take several weeks just to get through mine!

Lately I have been looking at the book of Revelation anew.  I came to that passage that says, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.” Then it says that the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  I have spent some time thinking about this.  Something that helped me understand this is an exercise called blackout poetry. 

Blackout poetry is when a person takes a newspaper or a book and, using just one page, blacks out all the words that they do not want to be in the poem.  The result is a poem consisting of only the words that the person has left uncovered.  I have a good idea that this might be what will happen to everything that we have done wrong.  It will be blacked out by the grace of Christ.  Or, you might say, that his blood will completely “red” out the sin and leave only three simple words. 

I decided I would try this.  So I got the book East of Eden, by John Steinbeck.  I took that book because it really examines sin as it takes root in a family relationship, something that happened after the fall of Adam and Eve when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden to the east.  Well this is the blackout poem that I made from page 42 of the book East of Eden, and that I believe Jesus creates in our books: 

Everything is gone except the most powerful three words in the world: “I love you.”  That made so much sense to me.  I recall the great words from Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”  Another beautiful passage that comes to mind which gives me such great assurance is I Corinthians 13:5, which says that love “keeps no record of wrongs.”  If the Lord is instructing us to demonstrate this kind of love, you can be sure that he is modeling this kind of love for us every day.

I have greater comfort now that when the books are opened at the last judgment, what each of us who have found forgiveness in Christ will see is a blackout poem with nothing but the wonderful words, “I love you,” –Jesus.

Palm Power

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.  Martin Luther King (1958)

We live in an ever-increasingly violent society.  It seems that violence has a price tag and people are making their living off violence.  From electronic video games and YouTube clips that display violence, to the weather reporters who try to make every storm violent, and ultimately to groups like ISIS who film terrible atrocities, we are surrounded by violence.  Even when you read the Bible there are some times when you run into a great deal of violence.  People are beheaded, taken as slaves, and maimed.  Children are mercilessly killed, even sacrificed over the fire.

And then Jesus comes on the scene.  In a world of darkness and violence, here comes light and peace.  He absolutely refuses to fight fire with fire or violence with violence.  When he was about to be pushed over a cliff after his first sermon, he just walked away and never raised a fist.  He encouraged his followers not to resist an evil man; and even if somebody might require something from them, offer that person more than their unreasonable request.

But the power of peace was fully realized when Jesus defeated his longtime nemesis, Satan.  When Jesus was taken to the cross he did not resist for one minute.  He was, as Isaiah says, a “Lamb led to the slaughter.”  At a time when anyone else would have clenched his fists, Jesus opened his palms and let them drive the nails through his hands.  It was in this most unexpected way that the most powerful dark force in the universe was defeated.  It was Palm Power which broke the Devil and set the prisoner free.  In a day when we are told that the only way to defeat a bad man with a gun is to find a good man with a bigger gun, I really wonder what Jesus would do.  Perhaps we should reflect on our preferential strategy of defeating evil with overwhelming force.   Jesus defeated overwhelming evil with love.

As I have been reading and studying the book of Revelation this winter I have often thought about the amount of violence that is recorded there in the vision of John.  One thing I know is that since Jesus has already defeated Satan with Palm Power, there is no reason for him to have to now resort to violence to finish him off.  It seems like an insult to the power of the cross to say that Jesus could deal Satan a mortal blow by Palm Power, yet then have to pick up a sword to finish him off.  What John sees in the book of Revelation is simply the rebellion of a defeated foe.  When all the power Satan can muster faces off against Christ, Christ only has to show up and the evil armies will simply crumble when he speaks the Word.  Why would Christ, who called the world into existence with his Word, have to use a sword to defend himself?  It is beneath his dignity.  The sword which comes from his mouth is simply his Word, which is so powerful that he was able to call the stars into existence and give life to man.  He would never use man’s weapons to do God’s job. 

So it is Palm Power which conquered Satan and it is Palm Power which brings his ultimate destruction.   Jesus met the forces of hate and conquered them with love.  We can too.

The River of Life

“We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” ― David Brower

Genesis 2:10 says that “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.” God was the source of the river which gave life to all of creation.

Revelation 22:1 reads, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.  On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.  And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”  The Bible concludes with a picture of another river flowing from God, who is its source, down the middle of the community and which gives life and healing to all.

And in between the first book and the last book of the Bible there are numerous other references to rivers and water. In Psalm 46:4 we read of a river whose streams make glad the city of God.  In Isaiah 41:18 God speaks of making rivers to flow on barren heights and of turning deserts into pools of water.  In Ezekiel 47 we get a very beautiful and detailed description of a great and mighty river flowing from the Temple of God that contains swarms of fish and other living creatures and that provides a sanctuary for fruit trees of all kinds to grow -- fruit trees which provide a continual  source of fruit for food and of leaves for healing. The references to rivers and water is perhaps climaxed in the words of Jesus Christ when he says to the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” Living water is generally  understood to be running water because it is clear and clean and drinkable, while stagnant water is stale, dirty and impure. Clear, running water is a symbol of life --  life for our bodies and our souls.

Water has always fascinated and inspired me and I would love to be able to really explore in-depth the importance of rivers as a source of life -- life for our local ecosystems, health for our environment, and renewed life for us as stewards of God’s creation. Particularly important to me is understanding and even participating in the cycle of life that is found in rivers and streams. The Trinity Stream Team's work in Rush Creek these past several years has already taught me a lot about how the life cycle of a stream works.  I know that a healthy stream must have a good population of invertebrates. Invertebrates affect the nutrients of a stream by consuming and transforming various organic matter. They also are a food source for fish that inhabit the stream.  One thing the invertebrates are dependent upon is plant life in and around the stream. So a stream that is polluted and full of chemicals that kill or diminish plant life will not support a healthy invertebrate population and thus will also not be a good habitat for fish. This in turn means the stream will not be a good habitat for animals and other wildlife that are looking for fish to eat. 

I have already hinted at the negative role that man can play in the life cycle of a stream as a prime polluter; yet people can, of course, be part of the cycle in positive ways too.  But in order to do so, I believe they will have to spend some time in rivers observing the beauty of the life cycle and really understanding how it all works.  One of the best ways to do this, I think, is by fly fishing. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I speak of this from a whole lot of personal experience (something I hope to change in the near future), but from what I do know, fly fishing puts you right in the water with the fish and other river life and forces you to take to time to observe what is going on around you while you quietly wait for the fish to grab your fly.  And then when the fish finally does jump through the air and grab your fly, you realize that you yourself have become part of the life cycle of the river too, and it is a beautiful experience!

I believe spending time on rivers and seeing how life flourishes in the running water is something that would give me renewed life. In fact, I am thinking about how I might be able to spend several months exploring rivers as part of a pastoral sabbatical -- a sabbatical by which I, and also members of Trinity Church, can ourselves become better rivers of living water, for the benefit of all those we come in contact with in our cycle of life.