Christians have no one to blame but themselves

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The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves…. (from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.  Act I, Scene 3.)

We did it and we are to blame.

Christians are forever complaining about the increasing secularization of America.  To listen to them in the year 2024 one would think the “old days”–say, seventy-five years back–were the golden time of perennial revival.

The only problem is I lived through those days of the ’50s and 60s.   I can tell you the preachers were constantly railing against the decline in religion, the weakening of the churches, the surrendering to the world.

There has never been a golden age of faith in this country or any other that I have heard of.  Men have always loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  The narrow way is always trod by the few while “broad is the way that leads to destruction.”

Don’t be overly impressed–or too discouraged–by statistics and percentages showing the swings of church attendance, the number of Christians in Congress, and such.

The greatest mistake of the past generations of Christians in this country was trying to Christianize the culture without evangelizing the people.  We put prayer in the schools, made the church the social life of the community, instituted blue laws so that no liquor could be sold on Sundays, and basically shut down secular life on the Lord’s Day.  We protected the morality of the cities and towns.  The citizens were no more Christian than previously, but we were making them behave like it.

It is indeed true that we managed to keep drugs out of our communities, kept a lot of bad movies from being aired in our small Bible-belt towns, and relegated bad sin to the back streets.  But we were forcing Christian behavior on a world of lost people.

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They criticized the pastor. So he resigned.

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“Christ also suffered for us…when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him who judges righteously….” (I Peter 2:21-25).

Quotes on enduring criticism abound.  Go online and pull up a chair.  Here are a few we found in a few minutes….

–The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.(Elbert Hubbard)    -You can’t let praise or criticism get to you.  It’s a sign of weakness to get caught up in either one. (John Wooden)   –A critic is a legless man who teaches running. (Channing Pollock)    –You are a glorious shining sword and criticism is the whetstone.  Do not run from the whetstone or you will become dull and useless. Stay sharp.  (Duane Alan Hahn)

Pastor and church leaders:  You do not want to live and work where there is an absence of criticism.

You think you do. But you don’t. Consider…

Only in the harshest of dictatorships is there no criticism.  But in a free society–like ours–criticism abounds.  If the society is indeed free, much of the criticism is fair, just, and well deserved.  And, just as certain, some will be unfair, unjust and undeserved. A leader who survives has to develop discernment in order to know what to ignore and what to treasure and learn from.

A friend texted: “Joe, write something about criticism!  Some good pastors are resigning because not everyone in the church likes them!”

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Hypocrisy: Why the Lord despises it so much

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“Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:13,14,15,23,25,27,29).  “Woe to you, blind guides!” (Matthew 23:16,24,26).  “You serpents, you brood of vipers!” (Matthew 23:33).

The Lord has this thing about hypocrites.

He doesn’t care for them much.

You and I have learned something God hasn’t managed to do: to accommodate ourselves to those who say one thing and do another.

Take the beer company of St Louis, for instance. We read this and it sounds normal to us. It took a secular writer to point out the hypocrisy in their moralizing.

“We are not yet satisfied with the league’s handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own company culture and moral code.” –Anheuser Busch, responding to recent scandals in the National Football League (TIME magazine, September 29, 2014)

Humor writer Ian Frazier nails the famous beer company for its duplicitous moralizing in the same issue of TIME magazine.

In recent weeks the NFL has been under attack for its mishandling of the serious misbehavior of players who, among other things, knocked out a wife in the elevator and was caught on tape doing it, and beat a four-year-old child leaving whelps and open wounds on his skin.

The famous beer company, known for its massive advertising throughout every sporting event available, takes the NFL to task for its pitiful reaction.  Such behavior is against Anheuser-Busch’s moral code and culture.

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What most pastors cannot do in their preaching

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“One can’t believe impossible things,” said Alice to the White Queen. “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” –From Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

I write this mostly tongue in cheek.  But not completely.

It seems to require superhuman strength to keep our latest accomplishments out of our sermons.

That’s what this is about.

If a pastor jogs or works out, he will probably work that into a sermon at least monthly.  “As I was jogging yesterday morning, I’d just completed my third mile….”

If a pastor’s child excels in athletics or the band or academics, he will find a way to mention that in a sermon.  It’s what a proud dad does.  “My wife and I are so proud of Jayson who has just received ‘student of the month’ award for the third time.  We were telling our daughter who is working on a Master’s at Johns Hopkins…”

If the pastor once took a course in Greek and can find his way around a Greek lexicon, look for him to mention that in a sermon, “When I was studying Greek” or “My Greek Bible says….”  I suspect that if a real Greek scholar ever entered the service and challenged us, we would be petrified.

If a pastor reads through the Bible annually–or has just done it the first time–not saying so in a sermon is asking more than he is able to give.  I can hear him say, “As you know, I read through the Bible annually–and have done so for the last 13 years.”

If the pastor is an avid golfer or a die-hard for some university’s football team, expect it to show up in sermons from time to time.  He can no more keep that a secret than he can his commitment to Jesus Christ.  “Well, I did it! I hit a hole in one last Tuesday.”  He waits for the congregation to applaud.  Half the people turn to the other half as if to say, “What does that mean?”

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The difference in reality and fantasy means the world!

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Remember the 1985 movie Back to the Future?  Here’s something about it you’ll find interesting…

In his book A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, actor Michael J. Fox points out that some people take far too seriously what they see on the screen:

No matter how fantastic a move’s premise is, there are always a special few who buy in and accept the (craziness) at face value, like the hoverboard (seen in his 1985 movie Back to the Future). I’ve fielded more questions about hoverboards than any other aspect of the trilogy.  Otherwise sane people were convinced that these devices actually existed, especially after (Director) Bob Zemeckis made tongue-in-cheek comments to the press about parent groups preventing toy manufacturers from putting them on the market (this resulted in hundreds of kids calling Mattel, demanding hoverboards for Christmas).  Believe me, if someone had actually devised and manufactured a flying skateboard capable of propelling a surfer on an invisible wave of air, he didn’t let me in on the secret.  It could have spared me from hours of dangling like a flesh-and-blood Pinocchio.  Alternately strapped into every manner of harness, hinged leg brace, and flying apparatus the most sadistic special-effects engineers could devise, my foot stapled to that pink piece of plastic, I spent hours attached to metal cables, swinging from sixty-foot cranes, back and forth across the Courthouse Square set.

People believed those things existed?  Apparently there is no boundary outside which some people will not stray when it comes to gullibility.  If it’s on the big screen, it must be true.  This is a variation of a greater truth: If it’s on the internet, it’s automatically true.

This is where we all roll our eyes.

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10 things pastors can do to save their sanity

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Alternate titles for this might be: Ways to Prevent Burnout.  Or, How to Pastor the Saints Without Losing Your Religion.  How to Mind God’s Work Without Losing Yours.  How to Enter the Ministry Rejoicing and End the Same Way.

This list is as it occurs to me, and is neither definitive nor exhaustive.  You’ll think of others.

One. Pace yourself.  You’re in this for the long haul, not just till Sunday.  Ministry is a marathon, not a sprint.  Among other things, this means you should not stay in the office too long, should not stay away from home too much, and should not become overly righteous.

Say what?  The “overly righteous” line comes from Ecclesiastes, something they say Martin Luther claimed as one of his favorites.  “Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise.  Why should you ruin yourself?”  (7:16).   I interpret this to mean: “Don’t overdo it, pastor.  Keep your feet on the ground, and your humanity intact.”  It’s possible to be so religious you become a recluse, so devout you come to despise lesser humans, and so righteous you become a terror in the pulpit.  Stay grounded, friend.

Two.  Honor your days off with your spouse.  Enlist the aid of your staff or key leadership to help you guard one day a week as time with your spouse.  Then, work at keeping this as sacred as you do Sundays.

If you cannot allow yourself to ignore a ringing phone, turn it off.  If you cannot do that, leave your phone with someone else. Block out of your mind everything waiting for you back in the office, the drama going on within the finance committee or deacons, and the issue with conflicting staff members.  Try to give your attention to your wife for 24 hours.  You will return to the church strengthened and freshened.

Three.  Simplify. Pay attention to what in your daily routine wears you out and drains you of strength and energy.  If they are ever-present and on-going, try to make changes.  Even if you cannot cut those things out altogether, perhaps you can find how to lessen their impact.  Consider sharing the load with a staff member, bringing in a couple of leaders to help, or rescheduling the toughest events.

Four. Learn what relaxes you, and what doesn’t. Notice which leisure activities you’ve been doing are not really helping, and cut them out.  Replace them with something that will work.

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Seven of Jesus’ most amazing statements

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“Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46).

I once owned a book with the wonderful title of 657 of the Best Things Ever Said.  It would not surprise you to know that most of those famous quotes are just plain silly.

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it surely must be true that the list of “best things ever said” is also arbitrary.  Depends on who’s speaking.

With one exception.

Literally hundreds of millions of people across this world agree with the judgement of those early temple soldiers that “No one ever spoke like Jesus.”

Our Lord spoke a solid one thousand mind boggling things never heard before on Planet Earth, all of them surprising and wonderful and memorable. And, let’s be honest, many who heard Jesus also found His words provocative, offensive, and even blasphemous.

When Jesus stood to preach, no one was bored.

May I direct your attention to Matthew chapter 11, verses 21 through 30?  Now, Matthew 11 is pure gold.  A mother-lode for sure.  This treasure trove deserves far more attention than it has usually received.

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When God’s people fear the world more than they do Him

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“Why did you fear? Where is your faith?” (Mark 4:40)

Not long ago, I arrived early at the church where I was to preach that morning and found that a Sunday School class was meeting in the auditorium.  I made my way to a chair and joined the dozen or so adults of various ages.

Whatever scripture they were studying that day, they had wandered far afield from it.  Class members were excitedly speaking against abortion, gay marriage, transgender acceptance, hate crime laws, political shenanigans, the coming world government, the antichrist, President Obama, and the possibility of an armed uprising in America so everyone had better have plenty of ammunition. Also, blood moons, Armageddon and Joel Osteen.

At one point, during a lull, I asked, “So, what is the scripture for today’s lesson?”  As far as I could tell, only the teacher caught the irony (and gentle rebuke) of that.  He named some place in one of the prophets.

As the members of the class fed on one another’s fears, something occurred to me from the Lord. “This is what happens when Christians quit praying and trusting Me.”

They fear.

These believers were frightened out of their wits.

It spoke volumes about their failure to trust the Lord.

Let’s admit the obvious here: God is never happy when His people live in fear. Fear shows a distrust.

“God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

How many times in Scripture does an angel begin a conversation with “Fear not”?  And how often does the Lord Jesus tell us not to be afraid?

“I will never leave thee nor forsake thee; so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not be afraid” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

The faithful do not live in fear. Period.

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Looking for Mayberry, as well as the Garden of Eden

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(This was originally posted on my website in 2012.  I decided to repost it here and not tweak or update it.  Bear that in mind. I was living in New Orleans at the time, retired for three years.)

Pastors are always looking for sermon illustrations. See if any of this works for you.

TWO FUNERALS.

This week, C-Span televised the funeral of South Dakota statesman former Senator George McGovern, who had run for the Presidency in 1972 and lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon.

Whenever there is a funeral of a national leader on C-Span, I try to watch as much of it as I can. The fascinating part is hearing stories from colleagues, some of whom are often well-known in their own right, tales from earlier years, stories that never made it into newspapers.

This funeral was held, I believe, in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church of Sioux Falls. I did not watch the entire service, so my observation is not about this funeral specifically.

Pagan funerals–in our culture–look back; Christian funerals look ahead.

It’s that simple. The pagan service will celebrate all the good the subject did in his life while ignoring any unsavory parts; the Christian service may indeed bring in some of the accomplishments from his lifetime, but mainly looks forward. As the Apostle Paul said, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day–and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (II Timothy 4).

Something else about George McGovern intrigues me. In World War II, he flew bombers over Germany. He was a full-fledged American hero and thus entitled to all the trappings of macho-ism (machismo?). But the American public never saw any of that bravado from him as a senator, politician, and candidate for the highest office. In fact, he came across as rather nerdish.

And, by a strange coincidence, so did George H. W. Bush (our 41st president). In World War II, he was a fighter pilot who on one occasion had to parachute from his stricken plane. And yet, in one of his campaigns for the presidency, Newsweek magazine ran a cover with his picture and the words: “The Wimp Factor.” (Wimp? The man jumps out of planes to celebrate his 80th birthday? He is anything but a wimp!)

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Perhaps the most important “re-post” I’ve ever done

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Google J. B. Phillips.  This British pastor lived 1906 to 1982.  Wikipedia says, “During World War II, while vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Lee, London, he found the young people did not understand the KJV Bible. During the hours in bomb shelters, while Germany bombed London, Mr. Phillips began translating the New Testament into modern English.  He started with the Epistle to the Colossians.  This was so well received by the young people, he kept at it.  After the war, he finished the entire New Testament and in 1958 published The New Testament in Modern English.  Time Magazine said of Mr. Phillips, “…he can make St. Paul sound as contemporary as the preacher down the street.”

His later books included classics like Ring of Truth and Your God is Too Small.

But here is the portion I wanted to share with you today.  Taken from his book Ring of Truth, which I strongly recommend.

The basic text for what follows is John 8:51.  “Whoever keeps my word shall never see death.”  Phillips writes:

Christ taught an astonishing thing about death–not merely that it is an experience robbed of its terror but that as an experience it does not exist at all.

For some reason or other Christ’s words (which Heaven knows are taken literally enough when men are trying to prove a point about pacifism or divorce, for example) are taken more with a pinch of salt when He talks about the common experience of death as it affects the man whose basic trust is in himself. If a man keeps my saying, he shall never see death (John 8:51); Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die (John 11:26).  It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the meaning that Christ intended to convey was that death was a completely negligible experience to the man who had already begun to live life of the eternal quality.

Jesus Christ abolished death, wrote Paul many years ago, but there have been very few since His day who appear to have believed it.  The power of the dark old god, rooted no doubt in instinctive fear, is hard to shake, and a great many Christian writers, though possessing the brightest hopes of ‘life hereafter’ cannot, it seems, accept the abolition of death. ‘The valley of the shadow,’ “death’s gloomy portal,’ ‘the bitter pains of death,’ and a thousand other expressions all bear witness to the fact that a vast number of Christians do not really believe what Christ said.

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