Happy Thanksgiving

Possessed this morning of a fit of originality, I offer the following list of things for which I’m thankful.

I’m thankful for Charles Schultz. We watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving show last night and I realized how good the Peanuts specials always make me feel. In times like these such small blessings are in fact huge.

I’m thankful for pie. In the restaurant scene in the movie Michael (1996), William Hurt’s character utters the great line “I like pie.” Amen. Pie is always better than cake. I don’t know why—it just is.

I’m thankful for John Grisham, David Baldacci, and J. K. Rowling. Great writers—no. Excellent storytellers—yes. They have for the past few years provided me and millions (in Rowling’s case zillions) of others with literary escapism.

I’m thankful for the people who are working hard to develop alternative sources of energy so that we can kick our addiction to oil. We need more such people. My only advice to them: hurry up!

I’m thankful for anti-perspirant. It’s a crowded world.

I’m thankful for the Turner Classic Movies network. I love old black-and-white films, especially of the film noir variety.

I’m thankful that, as of December, both of our children will be college graduates. I am proud of you, Joshua and Sara.

I’m thankful for Rev. Bill Coleman, who pointed me to heaven, for Rev. William L. Key, who gave me my first vocational shot, and for Dr. Howard P. Giddens, who provided me with the finest role model I could have ever had. With Dr. Giddens’ death this year they are now all with the Lord. They were all great men and fine ministers.

I’m thankful that Debra and I have moved on average every seven years. We have gotten rid of so much stuff each time that I shudder to think about what we would have accumulated had we stayed put. That being said, I would very much like to stay put in the next place.

I’m thankful for Mrs. Rex Askin. I have no idea who she was, but on the day I was born she presented me with my first New Testament. I know because I still have it and she wrote her name on the presentation page.

I’m thankful for Char-Broil’s Big Easy oil-free infrared turkey fryer. That thing is amazing.

I’m thankful for my wife. She knows why.

I’m thankful for the churches and schools that I have had the privilege of serving and for the church that I am about to serve.

I’m thankful for condiments, especially Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, vinegar pepper sauce (great on turnip greens—for any of my non-Southern readers who don’t know what either the sauce or the greens are, please come South sometime and give them a try!), and, of course, ketchup.

I’m thankful that the Lord has given me enough glimpses of grace that I still—and more than ever—believe.

Article from On the Jericho Road at EthicsDaily.com

My article on forgiving John Lennon appears today at EthicsDaily.com.

Forgiveness

Had it not been for my cousins Denise and Rhonda I might have missed out on Beatlemania altogether.

Two factors contribute to that reality. First, I was born in 1958 so I was only six when the Fab Four’s invasion of America commenced. Second, my good parents were faithful to the point of compulsiveness when it came to church attendance and in the deep South of my childhood participation in Sunday evening worship was considered an extra mark of devotion—as someone once said, “You go to church on Sunday morning if you love the church, you go on Sunday evening if you love the preacher, and you go on Wednesday night if you love the Lord”—and my family was there at all of those times, the point of which is, of course, that I never saw an episode of that Sunday night American tradition the Ed Sullivan Show in my life including the one on which the Beatles tried to make themselves heard over the hysterical shrieks of a roomful of teenaged girls.

Which brings me back to Denise and Rhonda, the daughters of my mother’s younger brother Sandy and his wife Dot. I was an only child and Denise and Rhonda, who were a few years and a couple of years older, respectively, than I, were the closest things to siblings that I ever had and their household contained Beatles records and Beatles devotion and Beatles conversation so it was in that house that I soaked up a little of Beatlemania.

Next door to their house lived two other girls named Kathy and Debbie. Sometimes some combination of those four would decide to pretend that they were the Beatles. My memory is a little fuzzy on the details, probably because of the surreal nature of my experience at being the only boy in the group, but the partnership that I remember was made up of Rhonda, Kathy, and Debbie; Denise was a little older and probably above such childishness. I was, as I have already said, the only boy in the group and I was also the youngest of the bunch and so I would stand there silently while the three girls decided which of them would be Paul, which John, and which George. Once they settled that, they would turn to me and someone would pass sentence: “And you can be Ringo.”

I think that explains a lot. I’ve always been Ringo.

But it’s ok. I’ve forgiven them (imagine how relieved they must be). Besides, Ringo may be Ringo but he’s been married to Barbara Bach since 1981 and I may be me but I’ve been married to Debra Kay Johnson since 1978 so we’ve done all right for ourselves.

What got me to reflecting upon my magnanimous act of forgiveness after all these years? It was the reports in the media over the weekend that a Vatican newspaper has forgiven John Lennon for his infamous 1966 remark that the Beatles "were more popular than Jesus.” Do the math with me, now—2008 minus 1966 is 42, so forgiveness has come to John 42 years after the fact and, lest we forget, 28 years after he was murdered. The article said, "The remark by John Lennon, which triggered deep indignation mainly in the United States, after many years sounds only like a 'boast' by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll."

I remember the furor that erupted even in Barnesville, Georgia when Lennon’s remark became known. I was all of eight years old at the time but I seem to recall that a crowd burned Beatles’ records and memorabilia in a bonfire.

The Vatican’s words of forgiveness inspired me to find the original London Evening Standard article that contained the controversial quote. It’s a rather rambling piece by Maureen Cleave, a friend of Lennon’s, in which she tried to describe Lennon’s lifestyle and mindset in the wake of the advent of sudden fame and fortune. The picture she painted was of an impulsive, intelligent, rambling young man who had way too much time on his hands, way too many financial resources on which to draw, and way too much opportunity to say whatever popped into his head. There but for the grace of God and for having to live in the real world go many of us.

Here’s the quote that raised such a ruckus, offered in its context in the article:

His enthusiasm is undiminished and he insists on its being shared. George has put him on to this Indian music. 'You're not listening, are you?' he shouts after 20 minutes of the record. 'It's amazing this-so cool' Don't the Indians appear cool to you? Are you listening? This music is thousands of years old; it makes me laugh, the British going over there and telling them what to do. Quite amazing.' And he switched on the television set.

Experience has sown few seeds of doubt in him: not that his mind is closed, but it's closed round whatever he believes at the time. 'Christianity will go,' he said. 'It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.' He is reading extensively about religion.

He shops in lightning swoops on Asprey's these days and there is some fine wine in his cellar, but he is still quite unselfconscious. He is far too lazy to keep up appearances, even if he had worked out what the appearances should be-which he has not.

One can’t justify what Lennon said. If you read the apology he issued in a later interview, you get the sense that he didn’t see what all the furor was about and it may be that, in a way and in regards to some people, he was just telling the truth when he said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus; given that he was living in the center of way too much adulation, it must have seemed that way to him. As for his other comments about Christianity—well, I pay about as much attention to what a rock ‘n’ roll artist says about religion as I do to what Rosie O’Donnell or Chuck Norris say about politics--and so should you.

For what it’s worth, Lennon talked in the same article about how cool he thought it would be to ride around town in a gorilla suit.

Anyway, I guess it’s fine that the Vatican has offered words of forgiveness to John Lennon forty-two years after he spoke the offending words and twenty-six years after he died. He’s probably at least as relieved as my cousins and my old friends will be to learn that I’ve forgiven them for making me play Ringo—which they probably don’t even remember doing--forty-something years after the fact.

Maybe it would be best for all of us if we just work on the relationships that we have in the present world at the present time and seek forgiveness where it’s needed right here and right now.

After all, Beatlemania is ancient history but our family and friends are priceless current treasures. It’s better to guard and to develop those present wonders than it is to dredge up old silly stuff—as fun as that might sometimes be!

Where No One Has Gone Before

(A sermon for my last Sunday as pastor of The Hill Baptist Church. The texts I read are Genesis 12:1-4a; Mark 2:13-14; Hebrews 11:13-16.)

Some of you will recognize the words of my title as being borrowed from the famous introduction to the iconic Star Trek television program:

Space…the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

We are finishing up a nearly six-year mission together here at The Hill Baptist Church. It’s been an interesting and good voyage, although a voyage not without perils and bumps, which no voyage worth taking is. Even though our mission together and our voyage together are about to be over, all us will still have a mission and all of us will yet be on a voyage.

I am struck by the applicability of the idea of “voyage” to the living of life and particularly to the living of the Christian life. To quote the theologians Aerosmith, “Life’s a journey, not a destination.” So long as we live we never arrive; one day we’ll be home but that day comes only at the end of this life. I strongly believe that heaven is our ultimate destination but I just as strongly believe that while we are here we are meant to keep moving, to keep loving, to keep helping, to keep trying, and to keep believing. That’s what I always try to do and that’s what I want to encourage you to do. That’s what I mean to do and that’s what I hope you’ll mean to do.

We’re all about to go on our particular journeys where no one has gone before. I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, come on, now—we’ll still be here at The Hill and you’re going to Fitzgerald, Georgia, which is not exactly uncharted territory.” And that’s true as far as it goes. What we have to understand, though, is that every day is a new day and every experience is a new experience. My wife is fond of praying, “Thank you, Lord, for this new day, a day we’ve never had before.” Indeed. Every day is a new day and every moment is a new moment and no one can experience those days and moments like you and I can because no one else is you and me except for you and me. We all need to embrace and to get ready for what’s coming. I have the rest of my life and ministry before me. You have the rest of your life and ministry before you. Let us all be grateful. Let us all be excited.

After all, who knows what new worlds await us? Who knows what new worlds of ministry are out there? Who know what new people are waiting to be discovered by us? Who knows what changes we can undergo that will make all the difference for us and for those around us? Who knows what new ways the Lord God will choose to use us?

When I say that we are about to go where no one has gone before, I don’t of course mean that we will chart completely new territory. The story that we will be living is still a part of the old, old story; the story that we will be telling is still the old, old story. And so I want to spend the rest of my time today reminding you of what I’ve really been trying to remind you for the last almost six years: everything that we say, everything that we do, everything that we are about, is all about our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God; he is the Messiah; he is the Savior. Jesus Christ did not count equality with God as something to be grasped but instead emptied himself, becoming a servant. He lived a life of perfect obedience to his Father. He did not seize by force or power the kingdom that was his but rather lived a life of humble service. Jesus Christ spent his time on earth giving himself away for the sake of people who did not deserve it and who for the most part did not appreciate it. He went about teaching, preaching, and healing. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. As he hung on that cross he asked his Father to forgive those who were killing him. On the third day he rose from the tomb, defeating forever death, sin, and hell. One day Jesus will return and everything will be fulfilled according to God’s plan. Meanwhile, God has sent his Holy Spirit upon us to equip us and to empower us to be the Body of Christ in the communities in which we live and in the world.

How we live our lives as Christians and as the Church matters. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “My life is my message.” Well, our life is our message, too. How well our lives reflect the life of Jesus Christ finally tells the tale of the validity of our ministry.

Our individual lives and our church life is to based on following Jesus; our individual ministries and our church ministries are to be based on following Jesus; our activity in the church and our activity in the world are to be based on following Jesus. It is all about following Jesus!

So…

Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus by demonstrating his grace in all that we do.
Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus by practicing radical forgiveness at every opportunity.
Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus by focusing on what we can give rather than on what we can get.
Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus by loving sacrificially.
Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus by thinking more about others than we do about ourselves.
Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus by obeying God with great faith.
Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus by loving all people but especially the one who is standing in front of us right now.

Wherever we go and whatever we do, then, let us follow Jesus! Because wherever our mission leads us and wherever our journey takes us as we travel along the road to our heavenly home, so long as we follow Jesus we will be walking the right path.

Random Friday Ramblings

Preparing a house to sell continues to be a pain.

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This Sunday is my last one as pastor of The Hill Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia. These are days in which the people and we are saying goodbye to one another. Many of the folks here are among the most memorable I have ever known and that's good because it means that we will always remember them!

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I continue to be amazed at how "creedal" the Southern Baptist Convention has become, given the long history of Baptists as a "non-creedal" people. I'm no Baptist historian but I believe that the swing in that direction began with the adoption of the so-called "Peace Committee Report" in 1987 the findings of which almost immediately began to be applied in a creedal manner to professors at Southern Baptist seminaries.

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Having said what I just said about creeds, I nonetheless must say that I see value in the great creeds of the Church, particularly the Apostles' Creed, which is an excellent succinct summary of basic Christian teaching. I would have no problem reciting the Apostles' Creed in a Baptist church as a celebration of the historic faith and as a reminder of the basic beliefs that Baptists have in common with all Christians everywhere. One problem with the Southern Baptist approach is the practice of occasionally updating their confession of faith (the last revision occurred in 2000) and then applying such updates in a creedal fashion. It was patently unfair, for example, to require missionaries who were appointed before 2000 to swear allegiance to the newly updated "creed" at pain of losing their jobs. It's one thing to affirm the great historic creeds of the Church; it's quite another to give oneself over to a statement of faith that has become a creed when that creed is always subject to revision based on the tenor of the times or on the preferences of the group that is in power.

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The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets/Engineers/Ramblin' Wreck (in my opinion, they should just go with "Ramblin' Wreck." That nickname would rank right up there with the Marshall Thundering Herd and the Alabama Crimson Tide as one of the greatest football team monikers; I mean can't you just feel them coming at you when you hear those names?) destroyed the Miami Hurricanes last night 41-23 and it wasn't that close. In the process they gained 472 yards on the ground. Given the problems that the UGA defense has had this year, the Dawgs better watch out next Saturday.

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Sunday's coming! Another resurrection celebration! Praise the Lord!

Inspiring, Challenging, and Frightening

"My life is my message."

--Mahatma Gandhi

What If the Georgia Baptist Convention Decided to Be Consistent?

At the annual meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC) that was held in Jonesboro November 10-11, messengers approved a “Policy on Receipt of Property, Cash, and Non-Cash Gifts by the Georgia Baptist Convention.” The policy states,

If there are questions or concerns as to whether or not the Georgia Baptist Convention should accept or retain certain funds or property, where the acceptance or retention of such: (i) raises issues of risk or liability which cannot be overcome; (ii) involves a church, organization or donor not in cooperation and harmony with the approved work and purpose of the Convention; (iii) involves donor restrictions which are not in accord with the approved work and purpose of the Convention; or (iv) is not otherwise in the best interest of the Convention, then the Executive Director and the Administration Committee as the audit committee of the Convention shall review the matter and they shall have authority on behalf of the Convention to determine whether or not to accept or retain such funds or property. (2008 GBC Book of Reports, p. 34)

The need for such a policy is understandable. As a pastor I know that churches are sometimes offered gifts that we don’t want or need. For example, since I am about to leave The Hill Baptist Church, it is possible, though not likely, that someone might offer the church a life-sized statue of me to stand in front of the church as a memorial to my years of service here. While it would no doubt be a close call, I suspect that the church would decline such a gift, as appropriate and thoughtful as it might at first glance seem and as nice a ministry as it would provide to the local pigeons.

The GBC could very well be presented with the dilemma of being offered an inappropriate gift. Why, one member of the GBC Administration Committee even raised the horrible specter of someone trying to donate an old bus or warehouse to the convention.

But that same person affirmed that the policy could also apply to the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Georgia, an interpretation that was also affirmed, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, by GBC Executive Director Robert White. Why? Because FBC Decatur has a female pastor, Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell, which puts the church in the category of “a church, organization or donor not in cooperation and harmony with the approved work and purpose of the Convention.” Why is that church deemed not to be in cooperation with the GBC? Because the most recent version of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) statement (2000) says, in the article on the Church, “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

I do not believe that line should have been added to the BFM for two reasons. My first reason is scriptural: when one takes into account the overall tone and trajectory and spirit of the scriptural witness, an approach to the Bible that is more valid that selective proof-texting, one finds (or at least I find) that the tendency is toward the full inclusion of men and women in the ministry of the church. At the very least there is ample reason to treat this issue as one on which people of good conscience who practice rigorous hermeneutics could agree to disagree.

My second reason is Baptistic: I still believe in local church autonomy which means, among other things, that a local Baptist church can and should call as pastor whomever they feel led of the Lord to call and it should not be the business of the convention. Now, to be fair, I don’t think that most Baptists, including those who run the GBC, would argue with that. They would simply point out that the state convention is also free to associate or to disassociate with any church for any reason and they would be right about that. I just don’t think that a church’s choice of pastor justifies such disassociation.

To be fair again, in the AJC article Dr. White is said to have said that the new policy would still allow FBC Decatur to remain affiliated but their gifts would be refused and they would thus lose their voting privileges. On the other hand, I’m not sure how a church could lose their ability to give money and to vote and still be considered a “member” of a Baptist convention in any way that I’ve ever understood membership to be defined.

Anyway, as regards FBC Decatur it all boils down to this: their missions and ministry gifts may be refused by the GBC because they are deemed to be not in cooperation with the Convention because they are deemed to be in violation of what the BFM says about the gender of pastors.

That got me to thinking—what if the GBC decided to be consistent and to refuse gifts from any church in the state that was in violation of the BFM?

Well, let’s see.

The article on “God” says, To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. What if the GBC evaluated all of the churches to see if they are doing that?

The article on “Man” (by which is meant “Humanity”) states, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. What if the convention refused the gifts of all churches that exhibited any racial or ethnic bias or prejudice?

The article on “Salvation” affirms that growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life. What if the GBC asked all its member churches to provide evidence that such was happening in the lives of all their members?

The article on “The Lord’s Day” says, It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. What if the GBC began to crack down on all those churches that violate that teaching by holding non-spiritual gatherings--like committee meetings--on Sundays?

The article on “Evangelism and Missions” asserts that it is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ. What if the GBC began to deem as “uncooperative” all those churches that could not verify that at least a majority of their members were providing such witness?

The article on “Stewardship” states, According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause on earth. What if the GBC…oh, we don’t even need to think about going there.

What if the GBC decided to refuse to accept missions gifts from any church that was deemed not to be in compliance with any line in any article of the BFM? What if the GBC decided to apply all of the lines in all of the articles of the BFM in the same way that they are apparently about to apply the line about only men serving as pastors?

So far as anybody can tell, their application of the “the office of pastor is limited to men” line will apply to only one GBC church.

So far as I can tell, if the GBC chooses to have integrity enough to be consistent, they will have no churches left.