Monday Morning Music Ministry

6-1-26

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Among the many popular phrases that we regularly employ and whose origins are obscure, this one has a logical source.

Its earliest recorded use actually quoted a saying that had already been in use.

The Church Father St Jerome writing around 400AD, in the Patristic Era, referred to a popular proverb Noli equi dentes inspicere donati – basically, “when you receive the gift of a horse, do not insult the benefactor by critically examining the animal’s teeth.” (You would appear ungrateful by checking if it were “long in the tooth,” another latter-day proverb.)

As is often the case, the Bible has its own version, a relevant application of the aphorism. In Luke 14 a rich man prepares a sumptuous banquet for his friends, only to find that many of his guests declined to attend. Worse, the flimsiest of excuses were proffered by those who bothered to RSVP. As Jesus related this parable, the rich man sent out for strangers to be invited; and then, to fill out the table, the highways and byways were combed for the poor and destitute to share in the banquet.

As I related last week, Mickey and I recently returned from a postponed three-week honeymoon in Europe. Adhering to today’s theme, we visited drop-dead gorgeous and famous sites, but did not look a gift horse in the mouth at any time (although there are butcher shops specializing in horse meat, for humans, in France and Italy…)

Horse meat, no. But we did enjoy beef cheeks in Ireland; frog’s legs in France; pig cheeks in Germany, where it was also white-asparagus season; smoked salmon and caviar (for breakfast!) in Florence; and exotic dishes like deep-fried baby artichoke chips in Rome. We loved it all – not exactly American picnic food – discovering odd-sounding but tasty dishes like pajata (the ancient Roman dish with little sausages made of the naturally filled intestines of unweaned calves).

Don’t look gift cheeks or lizard legs or veal offal or fish eggs in their so-to-speak mouths.

But in the parable of Jesus, the rich man’s friends did exactly that. They did more than answer his generous invitations with rudeness. They cheated themselves. In the story they did not turn up their noses, or mouths, at the esoteric menu of a rich man; surely he offered the basic meats and vegetables and breads and wines too. No, they were too rude, or lazy, or self-centered, to return their host’s gracious invitation. As I said, they cheated themselves.

They bypassed more than filling their bellies: They flouted basic courtesies. They missed fellowship, great relationships, and possible long-term personal fulfillments.

The truths behind the parable are obvious. Christ is the Rich Man who has prepared a wonderful spiritual feast for us all. He happily welcomes everybody – even those people frequently shunned by the world; the outcasts, the forlorn, the hungry. All are invited to the Banquet of the King.

To me, a major focus is the group of invitees who would otherwise consider themselves “first in the line.” How often are people too “busy,” or preoccupied, or self-centered, to respect the Host, the Invitation, the amazing fruits of the Master’s Table? Answer: Too often. All of us frequently are deaf to the Lord’s appeals to us.

His banquet table is open to us (we are part of the “all”!) Are we too good to respond to God, His gifts, His love? How dare we ignore His spiritual and material blessings!

Whether exotic fare or simple bread and wine, our priority must be the One who invites us, not the specific menu items!

Dinner is served!

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Click: Welcome Table

6-8-15

Yes, I can spell; hold on. I want to address the topics of disease and sickness; and of God’s will and whether God allows infirmities – or whether He visits them upon us at times. Hot-button topics, always. I want to consider spiritual gifts, whether Divine Healing is a grace available to the contemporary church, or whether it was a “sign” to heathens and believers only in the first century.

The questions are not arcane, nor abstract. To the afflicted they can be of burning urgency. To some believers, some factions, they represent attitudes that, for all intents and purposes, define one’s faith.

My own life-experiences reflect different theological viewpoints. Rather, changing viewpoints through the years. Apart from the Theory of Evolution, about which theory I am a skeptic, my views on Divine Healing have evolved. I am persuaded that God has worked a sort of progressive revelation on my spiritual views.

I am not being flippant: I believe we always should invite God to inspire us – to have the Holy Spirit guide and inform us – as we search scripture and exercise our prayer life, our conversations with Christ. As our faith matures, we are “baby Christians” when that state is sweet and seemingly sufficient, but eventually we graduate from such mother’s milk and subsist – require – heartier spiritual food. The Bible assures us that this characterizes the life of the believer.

When I became a fervent Christian, born-again with all that implies, including multiple blessings, my wife and I were convinced about God’s invariable will to heal. We never quite ventured into “name it and claim it” territory, but if God can heal, and He answers prayer, and the fervent prayer of righteous men availeth much… healing was only a prayer away.

Right? Or a prayer hankie, which could be purchased off the TV ministry. Or a “love offering,” taken up at the preacher’s crusade, with promises of the hundredfold return, not just healing. I saw miracles. I did. A crippled leg extended; deaf ears opened. But when such things did not come, many preachers blamed the sick person’s faith, not germs or viruses or accidents or heredity or self-destructiveness or…

Eventually, I wondered why the evangelists who promised perfect health all wore glasses. Surely they were not fashion statements.

During this time my wife developed illnesses. Diabetes led to heart attacks and strokes. Celiac disease struck. She was listed for heart and kidney transplants. Her faith was never shaken, but at the point of death she received two organs. She believed that God worked a miracle through surgery, science, and doctors’ hands. Healing came. Christ’s promise of “life, and more abundantly,” she came to believe, was about more than money.

Also in her life she was healed of blindness, and, later, thyroid cancer, when the healing prayers were not as fervent, but they were cases “where the doctors can’t explain it.” Spiritual evolution: God was displaying His sovereignty, and we learned obedience.

Where once we thought that “by His stripes ye are healed,” that Jesus guaranteed Divine Healing for all because of the cross, we came to realize that we should pray as we are instructed, the burdens of our hearts; then trust and obey; and when and if healing comes, to give God the glory. By those stripes – Christ’s sacrifice, not a preacher’s sermon – He identifies with us, our fears, and, yes, our pain and infirmities.

Recently I have been acquainted with close family members and close friends with mysterious, serious, troubling afflictions. How should we pray?

Always – for healing. That is the burden of our hearts. There is NO instance in the Bible where God’s prophets, or Jesus, EVER claimed that physical affliction is from the Lord; or that disease is from God; or that sickness is sent to “test us.” Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”? Just as likely temptations or distractions as illness. So: we pray, believing.

If healing does not come… or as we desire… or as fast as we want… or at all… we trust and obey. Our puny selves, with maturing but never matured faith, when it comes down to the paths we walk, cannot even walk without God holding our hands. It should never be, “heal me that I may run away,” but “hold me close that I may walk with You.”

This understanding is not a safety-valve for those who pray and their prayers go “unanswered.” No, it is a mature exercise of faith.

Why is there sickness in the world? God does not send it. But there is sin in the world; in this broken world there is sickness and death; dangers and strife; hostile natural forces (insurance companies have a nerve calling them “acts of God”). The rain falls on the just and unjust. God does not promise that we would be free of these things – only that He would be with us, comforting us, increasing our faith, sometimes healing us, always loving us. Holding our hands.

Does God bring (or even allow) sickness in order to chastise us, keep us in line? God forbid, I say. I know that many believers (orders within the Catholic Church, for instance) believe that sorrow is a virtue and that some people are meant to suffer. I had a friend with many infirmities who memorized the entire Book of James, for its verses that seem to accept and embrace suffering.

However, it can become, it should become, our duty, when illness strikes, to turn to God, to trust Him, to ask for wisdom, to plead mercy for loved ones… all the time praying for healing, and acknowledging that He is the Lord who healeth thee. Of course. He can, and He will. Let us not forget the “Divine” component of Divine Healing. He is the God of Understanding.

And in the meantime, acknowledge that we can’t even walk without His holding our hands. In obedience classes, that would be called “heeling.”

My son-in-law Norman is going through trials of body, emotions, and his work with family and ministry. In his faith, seeking understanding, he has turned to Proverbs 3, and its following verses. Good prescriptions indeed:

3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;  In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

3:19-20 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens; By His knowledge the depths were broken up, And clouds drop down the dew.

3:24-26 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught.

Next week, some thoughts on how to cope with the burdens that, naturally, remain when infirmities attack our bodies, our loved ones, our families. We will discuss a surprisingly little-used source of strength.
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Click: I Can’t Even Walk Without You Holding My Hand