MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS: IS IT WORTH IT?

BY STEVE DUNN

Sitting in my warm office on a very cold Monday afternoon.  My office is located in a very large church but in an area which during the weekdays sees little traffic.  So it's also very quiet.  I arrived at work around seven this morning. Except for a brief lunch of tomato soup and an Ann Hillerman mystery, I have been working non-stop.  Working so diligently and productively that most of my "to do" list is done.

Until recently, not many of my days reached this point.  Like so many other Americans and religious professionals, I always seem to be working on something.  And when you reach the end of the day's work, there is sometimes a difficult existential moment when you wonder whether or not you should go in search of more work to do.  You certainly don't want to be guilty of becoming "lazy."

I have met a lot of undisciplined people, but not a ton of lazy ones.  I meet a whole lot of driven people, pursuing agendas that will never be accomplished, seeking to possess more and more things which will be obsolete or reduced to clutter far too quickly.  Often we use this driven spirit to avoid reflecting on what really matters or "pursuing" it.

What's the "it?"  A relationship with the Living God, a connection with the One who sees us as more valuable than we see ourselves.  The One who says, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."  The One for whom the holiday we are about to celebrate gets it its name - Jesus Christ.

He's the One who warns us, "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?"  

Is your life too busy or are you too driven to cultivate that relationship?  For your sake and the sake of those who you influence or provide for, I hope that's not true.

© 2018  by Stephen L. Dunn.  You have permission to reprint this provided it is unchanged, proper authorship is cited, it is in a publication not for sale, and a link is provided to this site or to www.drstevedunn.com. For all other uses, contact Steve at sdunnpastor@gmail.com 

TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN?

A good friend of mine writes an excellent blog called CHOOSE TODAY.  His most recent post goes to an essential teaching of the Christian faith. - Steve

To Dust You Shall Return? by Dan Masshardt Yesterday, I posted about burial and cremation and suggested that I think burial gives a better testimony to belief in the resurrection. This topic brings out many different ideas and opinions. One of my friends asked about the verse relating to our returning to dust.  This is worth exploring a bit. "For dust you are and to dust you will return."  Genesis 3:19 Taken at face value, this verse would seem to indicate that since we are destined for dust, what difference does it make if we get there through years of decomposition or quickly through cremation? What is this verse teaching and what does it mean for us? Let's go back to Genesis and see what's up.  This will be well worth our time. Back in Genesis 2, we read this: "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."  Genesis 2:7 Notice in this imagery, God gives (breathes into) humanity the breath of life. Apart from God's life in us, we are just dust. This wonderful gift of life is God's work, according to Genesis. Adam is, of course, given one prohibition and warned about the result: "...but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”  Genesis 2:17 Remember, all he is is dust with God's life breathed into. This life was to be an eternal life - no death.  This is important. Adam and Eve - the first and typical humans - do indeed sin, as we know. Now, our verse again. "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”                                                                                                  Genesis 2:19 Don't miss this: This statement about returning to the dust is part of the curse. Returning to the dust is not a good thing! It's the result of sin. Sin leads to death and death is not good. This is not the 'cycle of life.'  It is rather the cycle of sin and death. We should be mourning the fact that we return to the dust. The good news is that in Jesus the power of death has been broken and undone. When Christians die, our feeling about them shouldn't be, 'well they are returning to dust as they should be' Our feeling should be, they will rise again. Not, well, their soul is in heaven, that's what really matters. That is NOT NOT NOT the biblical hope. Remember, we were created by God to be a physical body with the breath of life in us.  Body and soul.  Together. When we die not and are in God's presence in some meaningful way, things are still NOT as they should be.  We are waiting for the wholeness of all God has promised to be restored.  Or rather resurrected. Daniel saw this: "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt."  Daniel 12:2 Here is some of what the New Testament says about our bodies. "We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 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.”   1 Corinthians 15:51-54 (Read the rest of the chapter 2 for some many riches about Adam, Jesus and the resurrection.) "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."  1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 To summarize:  As Christians, when we die, our thought should not be, 'well our bodies are just returning to dust where we belong.' We should be thinking, we won't stay here.  These bodies are going to be resurrected, changed, transformed.  That's what the Bible says. I believe that burial most testifies to this reality. The bible doesn't say that we should deal with our physical remains in a particular way and I'm not going to argue that you need to do one thing or the other. But I will fight for the reality that physicality matters.  The body matters.  It's not just a shell for your soul.  Our bodies are a core part of who we are. And our bodies will we resurrected, not discarded. Theology is important.  And ours has not always been very biblical.  If you are having trouble reading this on my blog, go to the link below-STEVE READ MORE FROM DAN

THE HUMBLE TRUTH--THE TRUTH THAT SETS US FREE

BY STEVE DUNN

"What is truth?"

This is the poignant question posed by Pontius Pilate as deliberated the fate of Jesus.

"Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, "I find no guilt in Him. "But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?"…

People are often puzzled by this exchange.  Jesus pointedly says "The truth is that I am indeed a king.  I appear in this setting to be the poor abject subject of this so-called legal system  And if you really could handle the truth, you would not need to ask."

Remember another famous posing of the question, "What is the truth?"

Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson) arrogantly believes that has a duty to hide the truth because the world cannot handle the ugly truth of what he has to do to defend America from its ruthless enemies. But behind that version of the truth is just another self-justification of his arrogant use of power.

Pilate throws Jesus' truth statement back into his face by his question, a question that is a defensive attempt to escape the responsibility of courageously defending Jesus.  He blatantly questions whether there is any absolute truth.  The truth is that Jesus is an innocent man,and is do, probably truly the king he professes to be.  But such a truth would threaten Pilate' position itself, so he conveniently dismisses the truth that is standing before him.

When truth is inconvenient, or demanding--when it calls into question the lies and half-truths that we have chosen to live by, we often chose to deny that there is any truth at all. For to admit  the truth requires us to change,  Or we resort to the favorite co-opt of the postmodern mind, "Well, it's all right for you, it's just not right for me."

Truth, as Christians understand it, is not situational nor subjective.  Truth is not a moving target or a Wikipedia definition to be updated by the next so-called expert.  Truth is an objective reality and it is rooted in something very concrete--the person of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of John records this set of declarations from Jesus: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." - John 8.32 "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:36

Truth is a person and that person is Jesus Christ.  What he says and what he represents is the truth upon which all the created universe is grounded and upon which depends.

When we finally submit our lives to that Truth we will indeed be free and our world will have that hope that it most desperately needs.

© 2017 by Stephen L. Dunn. Permission is given to repost or quote provided this copyright notice is included and a link provided to this blogsite.  The courtesy of an email with a link to its reposting or a copy of the work it is quoted in would be appreciated.

MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS: AMERICA'S CORE VALUES

BY STEVE DUNN

In New York harbor sits one of the most famous landmarks in the world--the Statue of Liberty.  Engraved on "Miss LIberty" are these words--a poem called "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

When I was but a schoolboy in western Ohio, I was taught these words, then marked as a symbol of the incredible core values that drove my nation's actions.

Over the 65 years of my life I have met countless people drawn to this nation because of the twin promises of liberty and opportunity--people enriched by their coming and often enriching our nation because they came.

Post 9-11 America finds itself hard-pressed to live out these values.  Under the threat of Isis and other terrorists movements, we seem intent on closing that 'golden door."  Not completely.  People like us politically, whose religion does not threaten ours, whose economic goals do not undermine us, who will not compete for our resources, and who will embrace the prevailing secular individualism of the age--these people are still welcome.

I share our concerns about national security and obedience to the laws of the land; but sometimes I fear that the grace and compassion, the commitment to liberty for all peoples is being eroded or being replaced with a selfish inwardness that violates one of the most fundamental laws of the God I honor' "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Is it possible to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this nation without quenching that lamp beside the Golden Door?

© 2016 by Stephen L. Dunn.  You have permission to reprint this provided it is unchanged, proper authorship is cited, it is in a publication not for sale, and a link is provided to this site or to www.drstevedunn.com. For all other uses, contact Steve at sdunnpastor@gmail.com