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.

Mark 10:46-52 Healing Faith

Mark 10:52    “Your faith has healed you.”

Some of the dearest, most faithful Christians I have known died prematurely. I know they were people of faith who prayed. I know that many, many fellow believers prayed for them. Yet, they were not healed in the way we wanted. Healing faith is not a possession that we can claim for our own. Healing comes as the providence of God orders, and such healing always has a purpose in addition to the relief from suffering. All true faith rests in God’s purposes whether the end is physical healing or not. True faith is the faith that brings reconciliation and discipleship. True faith prays with Jesus under the shadow of the cross, “Thy will be done.”

Bartimaeus was in the right place at the right time. Jesus passed by the intersection where he was sitting. It could have happened that Jesus went in a different direction or that Jesus passed by when Bartimaeus was not present. The encounter between Bartimaeus and Jesus was a gift. It was not a right or the end of good planning, and it was not chance either. In God’s providence it was meant to be.

Bartimaeus cried for mercy. He did not ask for fairness or justice. Others, perhaps, needed and deserved healing more than he. Apparently, many in the crowd thought that he was undeserving of the attention of Jesus, and they attempted to make him stop his shouting for help. He persevered. He did believe that Jesus could help him. He had faith.

Bartimaeus received the call of Jesus. How joy must have filled his heart when he heard the people say to him, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” (Verse 49) It is never within the power of a person to have all that faith requires; faith moves forward only when Jesus calls.

Bartimaeus was asked what he wanted. Surprisingly, some people do not actually want what Jesus offers. (John 5:6) Even some who saw the miracles of Jesus and received the witness of the resurrection turned away from the gift of faith. Bartimaeus asked and received his vision. Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you.” However, it was not just the faith of that moment, but it was the faith that included all the elements that had put Bartimaeus in the place of his encounter with Jesus and the purposes that were fulfilled as Bartimaeus lived forward with his sight.

Bartimaeus did not return to his former place where he had sat begging; instead, the text tells us that “he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” (Verse 52) The healing of blind Bartimaeus resulted in his discipleship.The faith healing of Bartimaeus was not for the relief of suffering alone. The greater mission of Jesus was reconciliation with God, the forgiveness of sin. Healing faith was a witness to that greater purpose. (See the account of healing in Mark 2;1-12) 

Healing faith is not up to us. Paul the Apostle prayed to be healed from his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7) but was not. The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane was answered in a way that seemed to be a resounding “no” from God. Our prayers for healing may be answered in ways that seem to be a “no” from God as well. Faith trusts that God’s purposes are greater than our sickness or heart break or disability or even death. In our weakness God’s strength is made evident, and beyond our cross there is the promise of resurrection.

Mark 4:35-41 "Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

Mark 4:41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this?”

This passage has several phrases that offer a way into meditation and reflection. For example, as someone in the evening years of life I read the opening verse of this passage as a potential epitaph. Evening came and Jesus said, “Let us go to the other side.” It comforts to imagine those words from the lips of Jesus.

I recently heard that a particular church was suffering a loss of attendance. That can be a disturbing sign or perhaps we read these words in Mark 4:36 and see it differently. “Leaving the crowds behind they took him along.” The disciples were with Jesus. In some cases we may need to lose attendance  or depart the crowds in order to go with Jesus.

The passage turns on the sudden appearance of a storm as the disciples cross the lake. Their boat is nearly swamped. This squall recalls to my mind the way God spoke to Job out of a whirlwind (Job 38:1). The storms of life, actual and metaphorical, often become the means by which God gets our attention so that we listen to his word.

The disciples woke Jesus with the question, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Our doubts are sometimes along the same lines. We know that God exists, just as the disciples knew that Jesus was with them in the boat. We question, not God’s existence, but God’s concern for us. Does God want to heal us? Does God want to save our marriage or protect our children or give meaning to our work? The disciples were not the first ones to plead with God to wake up and do something, to show that he cared for them. The psalmists made similar pleas. For example, Psalm 44:23, reads, “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself!” 

“Peace, be still.” (KJV, v. 39) Those words of Jesus used to calm the storm have become the words of an uplifting hymn Master the Tempest Is Raging www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmLtRae65Bg

Jesus asked the disciples why they were afraid and he probed further asking, “Do you still have no faith?” (v. 40) Trust and obedience in the Lord removes our fear. When we are with Jesus we are safe. The winds will calm. The boat will get to the other side, the other side of the lake or the other side of this life. Either way we are safe with Jesus. That is the faith to which he called the disciples. 

They struggled and so do we. Yet they were amazed at the calming of the storm and, at least tentatively, declared their faith with the question, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” They had much ahead in their journey with Jesus to amaze them. After the cross and the resurrection they no longer asked, “Who is this?” They proclaimed the Gospel, Jesus is Lord! We live with that same Gospel which is able to give us faith and freedom from fear. God grant it!