Saturday, November 23, 2013

Reflectionary IV

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!

The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are shaken; God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away.

He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And they cast lots to divide his clothing.


When we separate ourselves into camps, or divisions, or denominations, we are not much different than those at the Cross, that cast lots to gain possession of a piece of Christ's garment. But where they only divided up His clothing, we have successfully divided His body, for two millennia.

Why must we divide? The enemy on the battlefield can only dream that we may become "divided." Divide and conquer has always been a classic and effective military strategy!

Do we separate out our camps, so that we may individually gain more control, or power? (Power is a highly recognized dysfunctional need of humans). Once we have established control over our camp, is it not our next goal to grow it, so that it may swallow up its rivals?

Humanity, when unified against God, is a terrible thing. The more power we have, the more evil we become.

Humanity, when unified in obedience to God, is an amazing instrument of good works, of charity, and of love.

Human divisions are called "Kingdoms," or "nations." But this is not the best way for us. Together we can do great things. And Christ commanded that His Body, The Church, not be divided!

The anti-Christian forces in the world today marvel that we are so divided and scattered, as it makes their job that much easier. We need to do whatever it takes to grow, to unify, and to expand. And we need to do it as Christ would: by sacrificing ourselves in acts of kindness and love, to the Lord's most needy children, found in every corner of the Earth.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Reflectionary III

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.

One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your power.

...we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.

Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.

This morning, I came across this wonderful quote by the great 19th Century Scottish clergyman, Thomas Chalmers:

"With the magnificence of eternity before us, let time, with all its fluctuations, dwindle into its own littleness."

Our crazy generation.... I believe that in eternity all those that went before us, and that may come after us, will ridicule and cajole us, perhaps good-naturedly, about our errant, childlike, narcissistic and narrow-minded view of life and morality. It's like, with all our knowledge of biology and ecology; with all of history behind us, as a clear model of how to, and how not to run a civilization; with all of these advantages, why are we such . . . children?

We can't wait for anything. We must have what we want . . . NOW! We have not been taught to wait for anything.

We want a fancy car, NOW. We want to get married, NOW. We want a house, NOW. We want good health, NOW. We want to look more youthful, NOW. We want to have sex, NOW. We can't even wait for Advent season anymore, before we begin immersing ourselves in the theme of Christmas, (Advent is supposed to be a practical exercise in waiting.)

If only we had the eternal view.

The 3rd grader says "Why did I act like such a baby when I was younger?"

The 10th grader says "Why was I so obsessed with My Little Pony?"

The College student says "Why did I put so much into having a date for the Prom?"

The Bride and Groom say "Well actually it would have been nice to have waited."

The middle-aged couple says "Why didn't I spend more time with my kids?"

The person on his or her deathbed says "Why didn't I spend more time in prayer?"

And likewise, I believe that in eternity, it will be so clear to us:

"Actually, I could have waited until marriage to have sex. Why didn't I?"

"Hmmm . . . I should NOT have chosen abortion."

"Well . . . I really should have stopped drinking so much.

"Wow . . . so I really DIDN'T need a divorce!"

"Why did we buy that house when we could have instead helped so many homeless?"

"What an idiot I was, to obsess so much about Miley Cyrus, while in my own neighborhood are single-parent homes that can use my help!"

And so on . . .

We don't get it. It all comes back to accepting the fact that there is an eternal situation off in the distance. To the eternal being, the problems and concerns of this life are simply ridiculous. And many of us will find ourselves immortal, indeed, one day.

Don't live your life so that you look back on yourself, from the purview of immortality, and say "Why was I so stupid?"