Monday Morning Music Ministry

9-21-20

Growing up, to the extent I did, in suburban New York City, in the little town of Closter NJ, I remember that at the corner of one of our parks was an enormous bell, probably used in Colonial times to warn residents of British troops approaching (a Closter farmer was our own Paul Revere) or to call volunteers to fight a fire.

It was not a bell whose shape probably comes to your mind. It was circular, metal perhaps five inches wide, like a gong but without the gong-bell in the center. This was an enormous metal ring, like a circular (rather than triangular) dinner bell that must have been heard for miles. My friends and I could never find anything big enough that we could lift that would sound a tocsin, as alarms were called.

Through the centuries, communities relied on substantial bells like that for various reasons; and the frequency or pattern would provide signals to residents. Churches, of course, ring bells to call people to worship, and during the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are lifted. Carillons were invented to play music in concerts. Eventually electricity brought alarm clocks, amplified sirens, cell-phone alerts, and other efficient saboteurs of the good old days.

But the concept of “alarm bells” lives on in culture, in literature, in our consciousness. Sometimes we view events as they seem, but sense that they seldom are hopeful harbingers, but dangerous signals. Predictors of bad things ahead; seeds that will sprout ugly weeds, not beautiful flowers.

“For whom the bell tolls.” Ernest Hemingway took the title of his novel from an essay by the mystical theologian John Donne (1572-1631). Donne, in his Meditation XVII, “Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions,” addressed the ambiguity. Events, customs, announcements, traditions, expectations might be very different than we confidently think… and different observers will have different opinions and conclusions.

We all have separate views of life, and therefore, Donne (who was near his own death when he wrote these words) reminds us of two things. The surety that God is in control, and all will see Him, followed by the end of delusions. Second, Donne’s famous aphorism that “no man is an island.”

By the first point he reminded us (even if Hemingway neglected this aspect) that our understanding is insignificant compared to God’s omniscience. In the second point he observed that the human race is organic; that when something dies or is degraded in one place, the rest of humanity suffers. When reforms and enlightenment and “progress” occur here, people there, so to speak, also will benefit.

I invite you to view the long-brewing but sudden-occuring nihilism and violence, destruction and death in American cities and towns, and see them hear them, as alarm-bells.

The “demonstrators” (what kinds of fools are we to be persuaded by the media’s gentle characterization of vandals and criminals?) might indeed think that the alarm-bells they set off are announcing a brave new world. I am sure that their ringleaders and puppet-masters do. Aldous Huxley’s dystopia, that is; not a pending utopia.

Here are Donne’s passages, in contemporary words:

Perchance the bell tolls for someone so sick or so deluded that he doesn’t even recognize that the bell announces his impending death. Maybe I am that deluded person, deluded that I am better off. Others see me in reality, know I am ill, and have caused the bell to signal my own death, but I am ignorant of it.

Are we dying – as a culture – and do not realize it?

And then:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were.

Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Rioters and vandals, attacking statues of Jesus and Mary and saints, are not offending brass and stone, but storming Heaven. That is how they see it. Why do Christians not see it, too, and erupt in defense?

Looters and shoplifters vandalize stores, and empty them – often minority-owned shops – and are not stealing sneakers they need; but flail at capitalism itself.

Those who terrorize a city for a hundred days, and occupy police stations… are telling the truth when they declare that your police, your homes, your lives are next.

These things look like news clips and headlines, but they are alarm-bells.

The veneer of historical bad guys’ statues is long gone. When churches are covered in obscene graffiti; invaded and set on fire, the object of these domestic terrorists is not some dead general, but the Living Savior.

Hear those bells? Do they toll for them… or for us?

+ + +

Click: When They Ring Those Golden Bells

6-4-18

You can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times? This is a famous rebuke from Jesus to the Pharisees and Sadducees found in Matthew 16:3.

Christians in America and much of the West, and traditionalists at large, should be praying that these are the End Times, because sometimes it is hard to contemplate things being much worse. We are lulled by good economic news, and the general prosperity that envelops us – the culture’s “bread and circuses” taking our eyes from the signs of the times. Those signs flash, these days, as brightly as they ever have.

In Charles Wesley’s great sermon on this passage he notes that Pharisees and Sadducees often disagreed on many matters, but they came together to challenge Jesus; to test him; to ensnare Him in contradictions. Of course they failed, and He confounded them.

The fuller Biblical passage reads: The Pharisees also, with the Sadducees, came, tempting, requesting that He show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?

There are several things to take away from this exchange, pertinent to today.

The first fact is pertinent but seems impertinent to many Christians today. And that is: Jesus rebuked his interlocutors. He often rebuked people. If we dig deeper, He tended to be silent with outright accusers – as during Passion week – but frequently rebuked those who played to the crowd; who devised trick questions they hoped would stymie Him; He angrily dispatched liars and those who would seek advantage in arguments… but not seek the truth.

Christians are in that situation today – the world is full of vicious opponents who work to steal, kill, and destroy our faith. Another class of opponents, making convenient alliance as haters of old, especially in our midst, use other means to attack us. Ridicule. False charges. Mis-characterizations. Guilt by association. Seduction by pleasures of the sinful world. Corruption. Regulations and laws. Dishonest values.

I recently was a speaker at a Christian conference where a round-table discussion was assembled to address the “crisis” of how Christians are perceived in contemporary society. I was rather in the minority, holding a) that the crisis is in the culture, not with Christians who resist its corruption; and b) that believers who judge their effectiveness by the world’s reaction, or approval, have lost the fight already; and likely do not even recognize the fight… or the stakes.

“Are we perceived as haters?” and “How do we counter that perception?” were the assigned questions. I received a lot of pushback, especially from two relatively prominent writers / teachers. The usual categories of those people determined to reject the Gospel were trotted out, and I was fairly accused of caring little about their souls.

I would like to think that my standard is that of Jesus: I love their souls so much that I desire to deliver the purest, least compromised truth, that I can. And I firmly believe – and plead with other believers – that if people reject the Truth today… we have nevertheless planted the seed. The Holy Spirit was sent into the world to finish the jobs we have been privileged to do, as per the Great Commission: preach the Gospel.

There was a dear friend in the audience that evening who was almost in tears, confessing to spending many nights in tears because some Christians talk about how terrible these times are. Can’t we see the “light”? Can’t we accept the workings of a loving God today?

I tell all such friends that I have in fact peeked at the end of the Book. Yep, God wins.

But does that mean America succeeds? For all our recent sins, do we deserve to “succeed”? to prosper? to get a pass from the judgments God has visited on other apostate peoples? Will revival come to a nation determined not to seek it… to not even recognize that it needs revival?

Why does it surprise us that schools have turned into so many drug-infested, values-confused shooting zones, when two generations ago Bible reading and public prayers were outlawed in their classrooms? Read other headlines – hospital workers who believe that abortion is murder, are nevertheless ordered to perform infanticide. Public airwaves have become cesspools of filthy language and filthy ideas, protected by “free speech” arguments (denied, however, to traditionalists).

One of the last countries in Europe votes to allow abortions, and vast oceans of people cheer the outcome in public squares. Not by the relatively few women whose medical conditions possibly were threatened, but by thousands of women – and men – who could otherwise be rallying against drugs and corruption and a culture of social hatred. No… blood lust. Back home in America, widespread angst about the legal fate of a baker who declined to decorate a cake with a message that offended his values.

That a nation of one-third of a billion people can be awaiting such a momentous Court decision that carries incalculable implications… turning, literally, on a vote of one or two people in black robes… is somewhere between ironic and absurd – but soundly a Sign of the Times.

It is a virtual reality these days that Christians wear Scarlet Letters. Or might soon, literally. A mark of the beast. Nonsense? Hester Prynne wore the letter A (for Adultery) on her forehead in the 1850 indictment of Puritanism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel. Fewer than a hundred years ago, Jews across Europe often were obliged to display yellow Stars of David.

Signs of the times plausibly might include an obligatory red “C” (for Christian, anathema!) on nuns and doctors who refuse to provide abortions; on teachers who secretly allow students to read Bibles; to people praying in public (street-corner evangelism is already outlawed in some European countries); to bakers who decline to violate their beliefs when they decorate cakes.

If it were not for double standards these days, secularists, liberals, and relativists would have no standards.

I wrote above that I have two take-aways from Jesus’ famous rebuke. The first must be our willingness to rebuke evil – to defend, if not ourselves, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The second lesson is to simply be aware of the signs of times. Pray for discernment, wisdom, knowledge, then boldness as appropriate.

Like with the group at the round-table discussion, it is too easy for Christians to confuse peoples’ compliments for their convictions. Christianity is not a democracy: the number of preachers in backward collars, or church-attendance numbers “run” each Sunday, all mean nothing if people do not hear, do not understand, do not believe the Gospel. It is worse than nothing… because a generation is being coddled and lied to on their way to hell.

Jesus challenged His challengers. Three hundred years ago, Wesley asked, “How is it, that all who are called Christians, do not discern the signs of these times?” The question still burns today – even as the signs burn brighter in our faces.

Yes, we win at the end of time. But until then, God wants us to run the race.

+ + +

Click: Ain’t No Grave

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.
+ + +

Click: I Can’t Even Walk Without You Holding My Hand