Genesis 11:4 - Confusion

 Genesis 11:4 - "Let us make a name." To make a name implied self-direction. The struggle for humanity: to grow, to develop, to become all that being in the image of God promises without perverting that image through pridefulness and violence. The Lord gave the people a name: Babel! They aspired to the wrong goals, and the result was God's judgement. Babel means confusion. Aspiration was not bad; it is good. Building, creating--being a steward of talent and resources is good. To use talent and resources to make a name, that is, a life apart from God is not good, and such perversion of ability leads to confusion.

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Humility. I believe that almost every spiritual problem can be solved by humility. One way to understand humility is to see it as accuracy. Humility means seeing and describing yourself as you are without defensiveness or exaggeration. Humility requires self-awareness which means to recognize your strengths and to recognize your weaknesses and limitations. In this understanding pride is a subset of humility. To take pride in one's work and to be willing to offer one's abilities in service to others is good. Such pride produces a confidence that is well-founded. A humble person can be confident. So self-awareness includes this desire to be a good steward of one's strengths. At the same time humility requires the desire and commitment to improve one's deficits to the degree possible. Humility is both self-awareness and self-forgetfulness. To be self-forgetful as an expression of humility means that a person is eager to listen to others, to work at understanding others and to be helpful as wanted and needed by others. Listening is first an inclination and then a skill. People who have assertive personalities may need to work harder at wanting to listen. If they do not have the inclination to listen they can still become listeners through discipline. Listening is essential to understanding, but understanding often requires more, particularly, when cultural, racial, language, education, gender, life experiences, and parenting differences create world views that diverge. So pridefulness, unwillingness to see things as they really are is the opposite of humility, but pride is a subset of humility. In Genesis 11 the people became prideful which led to confusion and destruction. Peter reminded the church that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5).

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As in all matters of virtue grace is the beginning point. Humility is a picture of salvation. Jesus told a story of two men who went to pray. One man, religious leader, prayed with gratitude that he was not like the other man who had come to pray. He was grateful not to be a sinner. The second man fell on his face and acknowledged his sin and prayed to be forgiven. Jesus asked which man left the place of prayer right with God. Sin, wrong doing, separates us from God when we do not acknowledge it. In everyone's life, except perhaps one who is mentally ill, there is an awareness of right and wrong. To refuse to accept this reality of sin is to persist in wrong doing and to separate oneself from God who is both loving and righteous. God's loved expressed in grace that offers forgiveness puts us right with God when we acknowledge and ask forgiveness for our sins.

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Grandchildren. Yesterday I showed Stone, our four-year old grandson, a picture of himself with his siblings when he was less than one year old, and I asked him if he recognized everyone in the picture. He named them all, and said, "I'm the baby!" I have enjoyed watching each one of my grandchildren grow from infant to child and now to watch our granddaughter become a teenager. Each stage is wonderful. At the dinner table last evening the youngest was crying, and the oldest was helping him with instructions: "take a deep breath, drink some water." The wonder of family humbles me. We grow into maturity and help the one behind us grow, too. It is a good picture of the church family. We have in every church different ages of faith, and those ages are not necessarily matched by years. Some are older chronologically but younger spiritually. Still, the goal in our church family is to help the ones who are younger to grow to maturity. It is a wonder of family life.

Genesis 10:1 - Is it the end?

Genesis 10:1.  Even after the catastrophic flood--which changed the world--life did not come to an end. The end belongs to the providence of God. What belongs to people living is a responsibility before God to give thanks for the life that was passed to us, and to accept our responsibility to act in a way that will bless those who live into the future beyond us. Although we cannot determine what others will do, let us who believe do all within our power to leave the world a better place for the future.

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A friend, Frank Johnson, gave a talk one Sunday night years ago at Memorial Baptist Church in which he made reference to the writings of the son of Adoniram Judson. The son wrote that anyone who is prospering today can look back and see that his or her prosperity (spiritual not just financial) is tied to the suffering of someone who went before us. Likewise, when we suffer we can know that God will redeem our suffering in order to bless someone who comes after us. This understanding of the connection between generations and between people living in community is biblical. There is a corporate identity in the Bible that westerners sometimes miss with our individualism. This corporate identity is the basis of Christian humanitarianism. 

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There was a time in English villages when a bell would toll from the church to announce news of the death or near death of someone in the community. John Donne (1571-1631) wrote a devotional about the bell that tolls.

Now, this Bell tolling softly for another, saies to me, Thou must die.

    Perchance hee for whom this Bell tolls, may bee so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; And perchance I may thinke my self so much better than I am, as that they who are about mee, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for mee, and I know not that . . . .As therefore the Bell that rings to a Sermon, calls not upon the Preacher only, but upon the Congregation to come; so this Bell calls us all: but how much more mee, who am brought so neere the doore by this sicknesse . . . . No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were; Any Mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

(Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, 1624), Meditation 17.

Genesis 9- The Rainbow

Genesis 9:13. The rainbow reminds humanity that God is not against us. God created life. God is always at work to bless us with the beauty and the truth of creation. It is God's covenant promise to the world.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2022.  Our extended family and friends gathered at Arlington National Cemetery for the graveside service of Knox Clinton. My cousin Cynthia--whom I have known all my life--was married to Knox. They were together delightful in ways that are now lost to us. We mourn the passing of this good Christian man who exemplified the virtues of cheerfulness, courtesy and constancy. He was a helper to all within his circle and was one who easily expanded his circle to include the stranger in need. Knox understood that God made all of us, and as God loves us all, so we, too, should love all. I am grateful and enriched to have known Knox.

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The Day is Done

A wind in the red maple this morning

with its leaves like hands of children waving,

on the way, perhaps, to school, giggling. 

I smile as they send to me their greeting.

Not so welcome is the afternoon's harsh breeze.

The wind grows for it is not here to ease.

Unpredictable, dangerous it seems

strong now as youth, only itself to please.

The wind changes again by evening.

It suits me better to see the leaves

at peace once more as the dark descends and

colors disappear, and the day is done.

Genesis 8 - Noah with Thoughts on the Supreme Court

The Lord promised Noah as recorded in Genesis 8:22 that "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." The continuity, regularity, dependability of the natural order stands as a grace of God. This order enables humanity to learn, to produce, to prosper. This grace blesses all living creatures and gives life profound potential, marred only by sin (21) which God chooses to engage and change without reducing human freedom. 

God entrusted humankind from the beginning with the power to bring life into existence through the union of a man and a woman. This union is part of the natural order which God reaffirmed to Noah. The questions of life and death have accompanied the stewardship entrusted to humans from creation. Today we focus those questions primarily on the matter of abortion though people have struggled with war and capital punishment and euthanasia, rationing of health care, the contrast of resources for the basics of life that exist in different ways for the poor and the rich and other matters that influence who lives and who dies and when. Sometimes, lost in the discussion is the reality that all who live will die. The question is how they will live and when they will die. God in his providence has given humans the ability to bring life into existence and to participate in the decisions that may bring life to an end. 

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday June 24 that the question of abortion will be dependent upon the people of the nation working through their representatives in state government. Pro-life advocates and pro-choice advocates will work together through their elected officials to find a way to meet the concerns of all. "To work together" is euphemistic. It will be a struggle for power. The Supreme Court has pushed this question of life and death back to the people to face. It will create controversy and many will feel hurt by the decisions that are made. From a pro-life viewpoint the ones with the most to lose are the unborn, and they, of course, have no voice in the decisions to be made. Both sides in my experience tend to talk past each other and see no possible way that the other side could have an insight that deserves to be acknowledged or incorporated into a decision for the state to follow. 

This inability or unwillingness to listen to the other side has not always been hardened in the way it is today. 

In 1971 the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution on abortion that read as follows: "Be it resolved, that this Convention express the belief that society has a responsibility to affirm through the laws of the state a high view of the sanctity of human life, including fetal life, in order to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and Be it further resolved, that we call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of emotional, mental and physical health of the mother.  

By 1989 which was ten years after the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention the resolution on abortion was different. In 1989 the only basis that the Convention affirmed as a possible reason for abortion was "to prevent the imminent death of the mother." The Convention had become more conservative on multiple issues, not just abortion, but this position change may have been influenced by the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade in 1973 which took the question of abortion out of the state legislatures. In this way the Court made it difficult to search for points of agreement so that most people joined one side or the other.

The Catholic Church has held a consistent position on abortion and on the question of when life begins. However, the Catholic Church does allow procedures to save a mother's life which may result in death of the unborn child. In these cases the Church does not call the procedure an abortion. 

I am hopeful that the coming debate--power struggle--concerning abortion will go beyond shouting the other side down. I am hopeful that Christians, in particular, will understand that abortion cannot be treated in isolation from other pro-life questions. I am hopeful that a consensus will develop in the nation. I am pro-life. I believe that the promise to Noah means that God has given us responsibility for producing life, protecting life, enriching life. I am grateful that the Supreme Court has pushed the question of abortion back to the people so that we can make decisions together that respect our shared life in this country and that we will all make our arguments as best we know how with respect and kindness toward others. Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. Even if we think people who disagree with us are "enemies" we have the guidance of the Lord to treat those "enemies" with love.

What Made Noah Righteous - Genesis 7:1

 Noah's righteousness. Noah's righteousness was qualified. His righteousness was greater than those around him but not perfect. His righteousness was explained--he did all that the Lord commanded (5). Righteousness comes to us as we obey; righteousness is not within us, not even Noah. Only in connection to the Lord are we made and counted and seen as righteous. Our moments of obedience are just moments. None of us is always obedient and in right standing with the Lord. Only God's grace which we see in Christ provides the assurance of a right relationship to God, even for Noah.

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SBC Meetings are being held this month in California. As almost always there is controversy on the agenda. SBC leadership and the messengers at the convention will keep working on the challenge of how to put into the structure of the denomination a means of helping churches address sexual abuse. The controversy on this matter has arisen from past failures. It is good to face the issues, hold people accountable and to come together to find a way to be faithful as churches in protecting people from abuse.

Past controversies in the SBC remind me of a professor I had in seminary whom I consider, now, many decades later as an influence for good on my life that only grows. He was a teacher in a time when professors in SBC seminaries were being challenged on their faithfulness to Scripture; many were dismissed based on these challenges. The professor who meant so much to me was, in my mind, a candidate for challenge and dismissal because he simply did not use the acceptable language of the day in describing the Christian life, Scripture, church, ethics or much of anything else. He was a mystery to students and faculty alike. He was different in tone and language--even body language. He moved in a calm that made one slow down and think and in my case become more prayerful and I hope, more faithful. When I became a pastor in San Francisco I would visit him from time to time just to talk. Always, I left our conversations puzzled but invigorated in ways I could not explain. On one occasion I simply asked him, "How have you survived? You are so different from everyone else! I would think they (the challengers) would have you on their list." Quoting from Shakespeare's "King Lear," he told me, "I am one of God's spies." I am still trying to understand what he meant. I have thoughts about his comment that make me believe, I too, would do well to be one of "God's spies."

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Grandchildren, a Theological Conversation. The "Littles" (aged four and six) had a "sleep over" with us on Saturday evening last. At breakfast on Sunday morning (when I say morning, I mean early morning. The six year old woke us at 4am asking when the sun would come up. Judy got him back to bed, but both boys were up at 6am putting on their "fancy" clothes for church)--so, at our early morning breakfast of pancakes, the question of death came up. The youngest asked if my parents, Maw Maw and Paw Paw, were dead. We replied, yes. The youngest asked if we buried them, again yes. Judy told them that these loved ones were in heaven, so the six year old asked, "Is heaven under the ground?" Talking theology with children reminds me how little I know and how difficult it is to share what I believe I do know. We talked about body and spirit. The body is buried and the spirit is with God. (I know theologians dispute this picture, but I find it in the New Testament). The six year old said, "That's right, the spirit leaves and God catches it--like a football!"  

I love all our grandchildren for being who they are individually and as a part of the family, and I love the fact that they keep me thinking and hopefully, growing. My professor friend, mentioned above, once said that he hoped his last words would be, "what will I be when I grow up?" Stay close to children and youth. They are a blessing. They challenge you intellectually as in all the other ways that youth have always challenged their elders. 

I am sure that I do not always give the right answers to my grandchildren, and from time to time, I remember my faulty attempts at parenting my three sons. Like Noah I need God's grace. Occasionally, I am obedient--for a moment--but all my moments of obedience are far less than children, grandchildren, friends, all I love, need from me. I cast them and myself upon the grace of God.

Any They Chose - Genesis 6:2

 A sexual perversion arose.

It was some form of behavior that contradicted the purposes of God, the ideal for male-female relationships, for marriage, for child bearing. This behavior typified the "wickedness" of humanity. In the midst of the wickedness, the man Noah stood out as one who refused to participate in the wickedness which had become widespread in his community. God chose, called and instructed Noah to build an ark that would provide safety to him and all within the ark as the flood of God's judgment came upon humankind.

The ark that Noah built has become a symbol of the church. The flood in Noah's day cleansed the earth of mankind's sinful behavior. In the New Testament the baptism of water symbolizes death to sin, the cleansing of God's grace through Christ's death on the cross and resurrection to a new life. As the ark brought Noah safely into a new world, so baptism into the church brings the believer into a new life.

Here is an experiment in thought: what if there had been multiple ark builders in the days of Noah? What if some folks had believed that judgment was coming, and they decided to create their own vessel of salvation? Would the arks that they built have survived the flood that brought God's judgment? To carry the experiment in thought forward: what if there are churches today that are built to the specifications of someone other than God? Will those churches be a safe place?

Escape from judgment was not the basis for building the ark.  Noah received his call because he "walked with God" (Genesis 6:9). He was not escaping. He was being saved. Sexual perversion or any other kind of sin--violence is mentioned in Genesis in particular--will result in judgment. No amount of ark building on one's own will offer an escape from the flood. Only the call of God brings salvation. In history the ark has become a symbol of the church, but the ark is a safe place only when God calls his people to take refuge. An ark built for escape or pleasure or pride or social service or cultural acceptance or any other reason will not survive the flood.

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"It's Unlikely"

"It's unlikely," said the four year old.

He was serious, seeming almost old.

We stifled a laugh as he left for home.

We'd asked for a hug from out little gnome.

Hug yes, but to ask for a smile was bold.

So, we asked him, "a hug without so cold

and mean a face?" Once again we were told

and his stern face made him seem almost grown:

"It's unlikely."

We closed the door so our laugh we could hold

and not show humor at what we'd been told.

For we both knew,  a good night's sleep at home

with us tomorrow he'd be not so grown.

Withhold hug and smile? One another we told,

"It's unlikely."

Male and Female He Created Them-Genesis 5:2

" He Created Them and Called their Name Adam"

  The world descended from Adam, that is, Adam and Eve--one couple--two halves of humanity, male and female. Equal but not identical. The mystery of human gender is like the mystery of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5). The church is the body of Christ, but the church is not divine--so Adam and Eve are united, but they are not the same; however, each is present in the union.

Trip to the UK and Ireland

    Judy has put photographs on Facebook. I am writing a few words of comment. The tour guide for our trip was Mike Smith and his wife Sharon. I have known them both from childhood or youth. I don't remember when I met Mike; he was just always there in church and in school. He was a college roommate and the one who introduced me to Judy. Sharon I met in Junior High School before Mike and Sharon became an item. Mike and I entered ministry at the same time and have had the blessing of serving the church for many years. He with his gift of music and me as a pastor. In retirement Mike transferred his experience in mission and choir travels to become a travel expert for trips like the one we took. He also continues to do mission trips, particularly leading choir ministries. We were eager to spend time with him and Sharon on this tour.  

    The trip was inspirational, as any trip with Mike would be (check out Crosskeys). We saw the Olney Church where John Newton wrote "Amazing Grace." We saw Coventry Cathedral which proclaimed in the ruins from WWII and in its re-building the theme of forgiveness. 

    In Scotland we walked Edinburgh and St. Andrews. We met friends Scott and Leslie McHaney for lunch. They live in Crief and drove in to see us. The country side was magnificent in Scotland and Ireland. The Gorse against the Barley was dramatic in its beauty.

    Of course, much more could be said. The trip was filled with sights and experiences I have not mentioned, including Judy's wrenching the hand off a knight's armor. We made new friends and heard marvelous music from Mike and other musicians in our group. I did not have to sing (I did give one devotional), but I basked in the wonder of music and laughter and hills of gold and green. 

A Poem for Children and Grandchildren

Puddle Jumper

Puddle jumper loves to cuddle,

melting my heart into a muddle.

A hug for every greeting,

a hug for every parting.

In between, many a snuggle.

Whenever it rains a puddle

I remember Jumper's cuddle.

My heart burgled, a tear flowing.

Puddle Jumper

Puddle Jumper grew to settle 

somewhere else; still I see a puddle

and it comes again, the melting.

Hugs and cuddles I am remembering.

Being far away, still in a muddle,

Puddle Jumper