A Little Dab Will Do You

             I received good and interesting feedback on my thoughts on THE LORD’S SUPPER/COMMUNION last week. What I wish to do today is unusual for me; today, I wish to make an argument for the other side.

            It would go like this.

            There is no way we can replicate the Lord’s Supper/Communion experience of the First Century. First, for a substantial number of Christians, that meal was their biggest and best of the week. (This is one of the reasons Paul jumped on the more well-to-do Corinthians—they enjoying a relatively sumptuous meal; meanwhile, the poor had little to eat and left hungry.)

            Meat was not an item Christians could always afford. For Jewish Christians, a carry-over from some of the sacrificial meals under the old law was eating meat during sacred meals. Most of us regularly eat meat, and when was the last time you enjoyed a church’s potluck more than you did food from your favorite restaurant.

            Second, for some early Christians, the only time they would enjoy a full stomach would be after the agape meal (the meal experienced in the context for the Lord’s Supper/Communion.) Were we to eat our fill during the Lord’s Supper/Communion today, we would have to wait until—the next meal… before we would fill our stomachs again. Whether we desire to admit or not, most of us have enough food in our pantries to fill our stomach’s for a week or two.

            Most of us, Christians, in the U.S. are simply affluent. So why make a big deal about eating our fill during the Lord’s Supper/Communion?

            The fact is, we are not where we are going. We have not experienced heaven’s wedding meal with the Lamb. That is to come. Indeed, it says something about our present limitations that we can eat until our bellies are full, and yet we hunger again by the time the next meal rolls around.

            Why not partake of just a taste of heaven—a reign and an experience that is not fully consummated yet?

            Someday, that age will come—but not yet. The wafer of unleavened bread and the thimbleful cup size of grape juice remind us of our present existence.

            LIFE IS BETTER, NOW THAT WE KNOW THE LORD. However, we are not where we desire to be—or where we will be.

            Until then, we will eat portions influenced by a fallen creation to celebrate God’s work in Jesus, and encourage us to wait for what is to come.

            I am not saying this should be our regular practice. I am saying how we think could redeem our current practice.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Okay, I have read messages from some of my friends on Facebook—wonderful, spiritual, and godly reactions to Osama Bin Laden’s death. These included marvelous scriptures that really made me think.

            So now, I am going to offer my initial emotional reaction. I am not saying it was right. Indeed, in light of scripture, it probably was wrong. But here it is:

            Last night, my daughter, Haleigh, woke me up from a deep sleep. Excitedly, she said, “Dad, they just killed Osama bin Laden. The president is speaking.”

               This is one of the few times I can remember being awakened from a deep sleep, and feeling upbeat about the experience. Instantly, even as my mind was processing the news, I felt positive emotions.

            Entering our den, where Haleigh had the president's speech live on the computer, I saw and heard him talking to the nation, and to the world. By then, I was fully awake, and I felt deep joy.

            Ten years is a long time. The world is a different place.

            Recently, I began watching Tom Hanks’ mini-series, THE PACIFIC. Some of those soldiers experienced perhaps the closest humans will get to hell on earth. Suicidal enemies attacking them using island civilians as instruments to blow up and destroy American soldiers. I tend to give others the benefit of the doubt when they have to choose between two or more bad choices.

            I am blessed by the world those soldiers helped protect. It is hard for me to divorce myself from this country. I have lived in other countries; there is no place like this one.

            I like feeling safe. I like feeling free.

            I appreciate our policemen. I appreciate our military.

            When others risk much (including the possibility that they might be doing something morally wrong in the pursuit of doing what is right), with the result being I am safer and free, I cannot help but feel gratitude.

2. Someday, someone should write an updated theology of government. When you wake up and find yourself the most powerful government on earth, how do you handle that responsibility?

            I suspect it is similar to waking up and finding yourself receiving the responsibility of parenthood. You cannot serve without sinning; yet, to walk away from the responsibility is sinning.

3. Way to go Mavs! Way to beat Portland.

4. DeMarco Murray drafted by the Dallas Cowboys? Please! If he cannot stay healthy in college, how in the world will he in the NFL?

5. It was five years ago this week I began my ministry at Shiloh. I am grateful, and there is no other place on earth I would rather be.

            

Why Hell?

            I mentioned last week, I am doing a sermon series answering some of the questions I receive. This one definitely fits contemporary cultural conversations—why is there a hell? (Of course, for some in our culture, I’m sure the question is, “Is there a hell?”)

            I’m sure there are a lot of reasons. To be concise, let me summarize my answer in three:

1. God wants the devil and his angels to have an eternal dwelling place away from Himself and anyone associated with Him. Jesus, in Mt. 25:41, makes reference to this reality.

2. Justice must be served.

            Everyone yearns for justice; everyone wants Hitler, or the mass murderer, to face justice. Of course, our desire for justice ends when we are found guilty.             That’s why a lot of us redefine our standing before God. We compare ourselves to other people, who we think are worse than us. What this leads to is a distorted view of God’s holiness, and our own. The result is, we feel comfortable consigning Osama Bin Laden to hell, but not many more people. 

            The Bible is not a partner to this way of thinking. The God of Scripture does not think highly of our holiness. Our sin must be addressed.

            I don’t like saying this. It is not popular saying this. I hope I’m wrong saying this. Unless justice is served in this lifetime, there is a realm in eternity that will administrate justice in the life to come. The Bible calls this hell.

3. The high value God holds for freedom.

            Some have written that perhaps Jesus’ greatest miracle was offering humanity freedom—the freedom to choose or reject Him.

            Love cannot be purchased nor demanded. Only love freely given inspires great works. As Philip Yancey wrote in his book, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW, the communists found this out in the old Soviet Union. You cannot mandate society’s behavior from the top down.

            The predominate attitude in scripture is of people rejecting God’s desire for relationship, in order to seek their own way. God, at last, gives them up.

            Here, let me channel something Tom Nelson preached in a sermon I heard years ago. These are his ideas (and, in some cases, I’m sure, his words). They have helped me, and I’m simply passing them on:

            A lot of people complain about hell and call God bad names; they say that God is mean. You know why there is hell?

            Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, you have: a king, subjects, and willing obedience by those subjects. The subjects rebel, and they lose the Kingdom of God.

            God spares Man, but Man continues to rebel. His conduct reaches the point that God destroys the world except for one man and his family—Noah.

            After the flood, God says, “You are going to have a new kingdom. You are going to live under my rule.” What happened? The tower of Babel and Man’s failure.

            So, God says, “Let’s try again.” So God takes Abraham out of Mesopotamia and says, “Through you and your descendents, I am going to bless the world....”

            Then God rescues these descendents through a leader, Moses. He then gives these descendents land and Law. Now you have: a king and willing subjects—Israel.

            But Israel rebels and rejects God as King.

            So God gives Israel men to serve as kings.

            What happened? Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Assyrians to discipline them.

            Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Babylonians to discipline them.

            They rebelled. So God sent the Persians. He sent the Greeks. He sent the Romans

            Finally God said, “Since you have rebelled against me and everybody else, I’ll send my Son.”

            Jesus came and said, “The Kingdom is at hand!”

            What did the Jews (and Romans) do? They killed Jesus.

            So God took that Kingdom from the Jews and gave it to a bunch of Gentiles: Middle-Easterners, Romans, Greeks, Celts, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Anglos, Latinos, Africans, Chinese...

            But what has happened? Most people have rejected him.

            Someday, Jesus will come again. And when he does, he’s going to say, “I have done all I can do. I’m going to raise all of the dead, those who accepted me and those who have not. And I’m going to present all of them along with the living-those who have accepted me, and those who have not-to my Father.”

            And God is going to take the wicked and say, “I’ve done everything I can do. I gave you the creation, your conscience, the law, Israel, the prophets, my Son, the proclamation of the church, my written word. And you wouldn’t take it.”

            He’s going to start with Cain, and He’s going to go to the last rebellious person that is alive at the second coming. And he’s going to say, “There’s only one thing I can do with you. You go to hell, because I can do no more.

            “I’m going to put you in a place where I will never bother you again. You will never again be bothered by light or beauty or anything that calls your attention to me.

            “And through eternal judgment, I’m going to call attention to the sensation of what you have lived for all of your life—and that is you. And you will have nothing but the sensation of yourself forever.

            “Because that is your God and that is what I will give you. I will give you what you want: your freedom.”

            God gives hell as a monument to the freedom of man.

            These sentiments echo something that C. S. Lewis wrote in THE GREAT DIVORCE, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Your will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Your will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it will be opened.”

            I hope you will reflect over these thoughts this week. Next week, I want to come back with another thought, one I think will be more hopeful:

Eternity starts now.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Yeah Texas A & M! I always want Texas teams to win national games. I’m thrilled for the lady Aggies. And what about Gary Blair? This guy can coach.

2. The Texas Rangers are 9-1. I think if they win ninety percent of their games, they have a good chance of winning their division.

3. It’s income tax season and that is my yearly sign that I must be getting old and cranky. The older I get, the more I think the flat tax is a good idea.

            With several thousand pages of tax codes, even accountants cannot keep up with all of the laws; much less agree on how to interpret them. Even those within the IRS disagree with one another on some interpretations.

            Incidentally, I write as a preacher. I am blessed by the tax treatment I receive. I will continue to welcome these blessings as long as the law encourages this. However, there has got to be a better, simpler way.

4. Remember, when I say it, it is Christian principle. When you say it, it is politics. :)

5. Where did you go, James Dobson? I miss your wisdom on the family.