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Category: Death (Page 8 of 10)

The Death of the Wicked

May 2, 2011 / / 6 Comments

“As surely as I live,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” ~Ezekiel 33:11

I knew it the moment I watched the first images late last night of the crowds in front of the White House and in Times Square boisterously celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. I knew it this morning when the news programs showed us image after image of young men and women waving flags and singing songs on their city streets and campus squares. I knew it when I drove my girls to school and listened to the talk show hosts discussing what they would have done to bin Laden’s body had they been in charge. And I realized it when I started seeing the forwarded emails. From Christians.

I’ve known all day today that this is not how Christians behave. We do not celebrate the death of a human being made in the image of God and loved by our Father. No matter how ruthless and vile Bin Laden may be, we love our enemies. We pray for our enemies and their families. We do good things for our enemies.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:43-45

God’s children do not dance and rejoice in the death of anyone. It’s decidedly un-Christ-like. To join in the worldly celebration of the death of a man who did not know our God is to deny our Christ and his Gospel. After all, our Lord died for us (you and me) while we (you and me) were his enemies. That’s the part I’ve not been able to understand today: doesn’t whooping and hollering and taking great joy and pleasure in the death of another human being deny just about everything Scripture teaches us about the nature and the will of our Father? Does it not oppose the clear commands from our Lord?

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” ~Luke 6:27-28

It is good today to grieve anew with the families of those who lost dear friends and relatives in the violent attacks orchestrated by this man. It is proper to mourn the loss of soldiers and civilians who’ve been trapped in the middle of the on-going conflict. It’s OK to acknowledge God’s sovereign use of nations and armies to enact his justice. It is right today to join the faithful lament of the prophets and the groaning of the martyred souls under the altar and cry out to our God, “How long?!? How much longer are you going to allow this to continue?!? When will you finally put all things to right?!?” Today is a day for prayer. Reflection. Meditation. Thanksgiving. Mixed feelings. It’s not a day for dancing in the streets.

I’ve known all along  that if I were to blog today about the way I’m feeling, I would be criticized. I’ve known that if I preach this Sunday on what the Scriptures say about the death of this terrorist, I might be fired. So, instead, I chose this morning to blog about God expecting more out of the people he’s blessed with his good gifts and matchless grace; about God requiring more out of his children; about God demanding more from the people he’s saved; about how that verse in Luke 12:48 is the very thing that pushed me over the top and compelled me to ditch sports radio and start preaching the Good News.

Please forgive me. I, too, have denied my Lord today.

Peace (not as the world gives peace),

Allan

Following Jesus to the Cross

April 15, 2011 / / 0 Comments

We don’t ever come to the cross of Christ to worship his death or to remember the grisly details of that day. We come to the cross — we’re actually drawn to the cross — to see what it looks like for me to die. What is the meaning of my daily dying to myself and dying for Christ? And dying with Christ? What does it look like? How do I do it? And what does it really mean?

People say Jesus died so I don’t have to. No, that’s not right. Jesus died to show us how to.

As holy children of God and disciples of his Christ, we die every day. We participate every day in the eternal dimensions of Jesus’ death.

“I have been crucified with Christ…” ~Galatians 2:20

“I die every day — I mean that, brothers! ~1 Corinthians 15:31

“You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ.” ~Colossians 3:3

Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” We are called to participate in the death of Jesus. We don’t just stand around and ask questions about the death of Christ. We don’t just talk about it and marvel about it. We live it. The death of Jesus shapes everything about the way we live, how we believe and love, why we do what we do.

If we’re going to follow Jesus as his subjects — and we are! — then we’re going to follow him into the pain and darkness of Calvary where he faithfully and fully submitted to our Father’s will and gave his very life for the sake of the world.

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Tomorrow is Warrior Dash. And I’m not quite ready.

Warrior Dash is a 5K obstacle course highlighted by runs through waist-deep muddy water, climbs over cargo nets and 20-foot hay bales, crawls under barbed wire and through dirty ditches, and jumps over junk cars and pits of fire.

There are runs like this all over the place. Some of them are called Mud Runs. Some are called Jail Breaks. This Warrior Dash is held every year in Roanoke, just down the street from the Texas Motor Speedway. I’d never heard of this, or any other organized obstacle event, until last year when Greg Hardman and his daughter, Emily, ran it together with some of her college friends. His stories and his pictures were truly inspiring. I even used their experience to illustrate a sermon here last spring.

And several of us caught the fever.

Valerie and I made plans to start training in October. I was going to start eating right. I was going to start running more. (By more, I mean just start running. Period.) I was going to lose 15-pounds. I was going to lift weights and really be ready for this thing in April.

I’m not ready.

None of those things happened. Valerie and I have run together at the Northridge Middle School track a total of five times since the middle of February. We did two-and-a-half miles last night. We’re going to do three miles this evening.

We’re not ready. But we’re very much looking forward to it. Valerie has always been my little adventurer. She’s excited to be doing something so outrageous with her dad. And this will be something I’ll treasure with her forever.

There are at least a dozen of us from Legacy running the Warrior Dash in the morning: John & Suzanne, Bruce & Cathy, Mike & Lisa, Keith & Beth, Josh (who promises to stay right with me), Jason, Margaret, David and, from what I understand, a whole slew of our younger marrieds.

My goal is to finish in one hour or less. And to not have to be carried out in a stretcher.

Peace,

Allan

Not Of This World

April 5, 2011 / / 1 Comment

My King is not like the rulers of this world. His Kingdom is not of this world. He tells us that. And he shows us that his ways and his methods and his forms are nothing like those of this world.

So why do we keep wanting to use the world’s ways and methods and forms?

Why do we think politics is the way to get things done for God’s Kingdom? Why do we think power and force and voting and petitions and boycotts and campaigns and rallies and protests are the way to accomplish our God’s plans for his creation?

All Christians have to vote Republican because Jesus is against the gay marriage position of the Democrats. No, all Christians have to vote Democrat because Jesus is against the war policies of the Republicans. No, the Church has to support the Republican party because of Jesus’ teachings against abortion. No, the Church has to support the Democratic party because of Jesus’ teachings against the gap between the rich and the poor.

If we’re going to think and talk and act this way, we might as well start waving palm branches like the crowds in Jerusalem who wanted Jesus to overthrow the Roman oppressors and establish an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. Those people wanted to use Jesus for a political revolt. They wanted national and social and economic revolution in the name of the Messiah. They wanted Roman blood to flow in the streets. Gird your loins and grab your swords! God bless Israel!

If we think and talk and act this way, we’re forcing the children of God to choose and then pledge allegiance to the lesser of worldly evils. Jesus did not come so we could be a part of a refurbished and renewed version of the kingdom of the world. Jesus came so we could be a part of the all-new eternal Kingdom of God!

Jesus will never be President of the U.S.A.

One, because he’s not running. Two, because you wouldn’t vote for him if he were running.

Think about Jesus’ platform. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor! Love your enemies! If Jesus had bumper stickers on the back of the donkey he rode into Jerusalem they would say “Be Last!”

“Vote for Jesus! We’re Going to Die!”

Of course, our King doesn’t come with T-shirts and stickers and buttons and hundred million dollar campaigns. He doesn’t save the world with armies and markets and policies. He saves the world through sacrificial love and suffering and service and grace.

Yes, Jesus came to be King. But instead of being crowned with a gold-plated headdress of jewels, he was crowned with painful and penetrating thorns. He did not bear a warrior’s sword or a royal scepter; he was beaten with a whip and a rod. Instead of sitting on a cusioned throne and ruling, Jesus hung on a tree and died. Jesus willingly, deliberately, goes to his own suffering and death for the sake of the world.

If we follow this King as his subjects — and we do! — then we, too, will follow him into Jerusalem to the place of suffering and sacrifice and death. We will say ‘no’ to status and position and glory and wealth and say ‘yes’ to the giving of our own lives. We will reject power and violence and force and accept God’s will and God’s way even in the midst of terrible personal agony. We will refuse to consider our own needs and, instead, be much more concerned with the needs of those around us.

That’s what it means to follow Jesus. To watch him and imitate him. To determine to be right behind him no matter where he goes.

Peace,

Allan

Gospel Funerals

January 25, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Four funerals in 20 days here at Legacy. Four friends of mine. Long time shepherds and deacons and Bible school teachers and song leaders. Pillars of this family of God at Legacy. Whew! It’s been an emotional month around here.

Allow me a couple of observations as I’ve reflected on the death of God’s saints. And funerals. And, like I tell my kids, I’m not trying to give you a guilt trip. I’m trying to teach you.

I believe funerals, just like everything we do as a congregation, are gospel. I think attending funerals embodies the gospel. Showing up at a funeral communicates the gospel. Being at a funeral rehearses the gospel. It imitates the gospel. Participating in funerals is a holy gospel practice. To attend a funeral is to be present for a sacred gospel moment.

First, funerals are important to us if we really do believe that we are “one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Regardless of the size of our church, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are family. And we all go to family funerals. Saying “but I didn’t know that person” doesn’t cut it. You didn’t really know your great-uncle Ed, either, but you went to the funeral two years ago because of your mom. You may not have known the lady in the casket, but many people here at church did. And they’re sad. They’re grieving. And we all belong to each other. Going to funerals is a beautiful opportunity to obey the gospel commands to “mourn with those who mourn” and “bear one another’s burdens.”

Second, funerals give us another chance to declare our conviction that death does not have the final word. We grieve differently than the world grieves. We are a community of hope. We know that physical death has been defeated by Christ’s work on the cross and the Holy Spirit’s work at the garden tomb. We know we are all going to experience resurrection. So at funerals we sing praises to God. We thank him. We bask in the glory of his great promises to deliver us to the other side. We speak and preach and share together our anticipation of the new heavens and the new earth. Going to funerals is a proclamation of the gospel.

Third, attending funerals is a Christ-like, gospelesque sacrifice. It is. It takes time out of your busy schedule to go to a funeral. You have to give up part of your own day, part of your calendar, to make it to a funeral. You have to consider others better than yourself — or, at least, what they’re doing during those two hours more important than what you had planned. It’s growing in the understanding that to comfort the grieving family is more important than your own comfort. Showing love and support to the mourners is a higher priority than your shopping trip or your TV show. Hugging people and crying with people and loving on people is gospel behavior. Showing someone by your presence at a funeral that they are very important to you is extremely Christ-like. It’s very much in the way of Jesus, in Jesus’ manner, to give of yourself for the sake of others. It’s one of those transformational things. Going to funerals shapes us, molds us, changes us to be more like Christ.

As a western society, we don’t go to funerals as much as we used to. As a Christian community of faith, I think we should all make more funerals than we miss.

Peace,

Allan

Swallowed Up In Victory

January 4, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I have stared at this blank computer screen for almost 15 minutes. I have written and deleted and re-written and re-deleted the opening lines half a dozen times. It’s not that I have writer’s block. It’s not that I don’t know what to say. It’s that I want to write about Richard Dutton and Bob Robertson. And I’ve got way too much to say.

I’m overwhelmed.

Our family of God here at Legacy is hurting today. It was a tough weekend. And a glorious one.

It’s going to be a tough next couple of days, a tough week. And it’ll be glorious.

Richard Dutton, a long time Legacy member-deacon-songleader-teacher, passed away Friday. Bob Roberston, a long-time Legacy member-elder-teacher passed away less than 24 hours later. They both died surrounded by their families, wrapped in the loving arms of our God, and forgiven by the blood of our Savior.

I want my words about these two great men of faith to do justice to their lives of sacrificial service to our God and his Kingdom. And I find that my words are neither big enough nor beautiful enough.

I want my words about Richard and Bob to adequately express what they have meant to me and my preaching ministry here at Legacy. I want to tell you about the encouragement, about the cards and emails, about the pats on the back, about the prayers. And I find that I don’t have enough space to even start to describe how these two men have lifted me up.

I want my words about these dear brothers to comfort you if you’re grieving their deaths, to inspire you, to encourage you, to give you great hope. And I find that my words are wholly lacking when stacked next to the actual lives of these two Christian disciples.

Both Richard and Bob gave everything they had to the Lord. They submitted fully to him. Every action, every thought, every word was subject to Christ. They bowed to Jesus hourly. They reflected the glory of our God continuously. Their faith in him was unshakeable. Their trust in him, immoveable. And nothing would keep them from serving and loving and exhorting and praying and teaching and sacrificing in his great name.

It was my honor to know these two men. And I thank God for allowing me the privilege to pray and study and worship with them, to serve with them, to be friends with them.

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory!’ …Thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” ~1 Corinthians 15:54-57

I imagine that when Richard and Bob breathed their last breaths in this time and space dimension, our Father nudged the angels in glory and said, “See? Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!”

Thank you, God, for Richard and Bob. Lord, come quickly.

Allan

Rejoicing With Gran Gran

November 30, 2010 / / 1 Comment

I had the great honor of planning and preaching yesterday’s funeral service for Carrie-Anne’s grandmother who died on Thanksgiving Day. Gran Gran was the center of that family’s life. Everything we did on Carrie-Anne’s side of the family revolved around Gran Gran. She was a rock of strength and a fountain of joy. She laughed loudly and often. She hugged fiercely. She loved everybody with everything she had. She was the kind of grandmother you wish all children had. She was the kind of grandparent I want to be someday.

One of Carrie-Anne’s younger cousins asked me after the service, “How in the world did you manage to keep your composure while you were talking about Gran Gran? How did you not start crying?”

“It’s easy,” I told her. “I really do believe the things I talked about.”

I really do believe that Gran Gran is in a much better place, the place she was created by our God to ultimately live. I really do believe that since Christ was raised from the dead, we are all going to be raised from the dead to live forever in the holy presence of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. I really do believe that she is experiencing now the culmination of all of God’s promises and guarantees, the fulfillment of all of God’s eternal plans, that she really does have a new body and a new mind, and that I really am going to see her again very soon.

It’s not just words. It’s indisputable truth. It’s undeniable fact. Death does not have the final word. Death is not the bottom line. Our risen Lord has all power and all authority and he always writes the last chapter.

So we don’t grieve as others grieve. We don’t mourn as others mourn. Yes, there is sadness in her leaving. Of course, there is a heavy sense of loss. Oh yeah, there are tears. But, seriously, it’s more like she’s taken off on another cruise somewhere and we are all going to see her again.

Actually, it’s much better than that. She’s a conqueror today. She’s a victor. The New Testament image of a funeral procession is one of great triumph, like a victorious general returning home to a huge parade of cheering witnesses, that great cloud of witnesses who’ve gone on before. Gran Gran is rejoicing today. And I rejoice with her.

May we always grieve in a way that brings glory to our Father. May our mourning accurately reflect the Good News of our guaranteed salvation from God in Christ. May our responses to the death of our loved ones bring our King, the Lord of Life, eternal honor and praise.

Peace,

Allan

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