Well, this week I received no communications from mice, moose, or bears, so
I guess you will be stuck with just my thoughts. It would be good however, to
briefly review some of the points these critters have conveyed to us these last
couple of weeks.
First, most people perceive the world, in which they live, as if they are
wearing rose colored glasses of self deception. Needless to say, to them the
world always has a nice, warm, rose tint. Expert opinions tend to support that
perspective. If everyone just thinks enough positive thoughts then the end will
be positive. It is just in the case of all situational ethics, there is no
absolutes, and all you are left with is clutter, chaos, and noise. The views of
those wonderful cartoon characters we talked with however, even though most
would consider them harmless allegory, reflect a Biblically based reality, A
reality based on a God centered paradigm. A paradigm whose wisdom, appears as
myth and fable of simple cartoons to those who believe they create their own
reality.
Mighty Mouse and Bullwinkle spoke about the need to truly appreciate the
importance the Bible places on the restoration of Israel. In America that
emphasis must be a focus of renewed activity. Not an activity of peace at any
cost, but a peace that occurs according to Biblical principles. Old Testament
Israel was told to drive out and destroy all the people who occupied the
promised land. That, she did not do, and so were sown the seeds that would
eventually lead to the dispersion of the Jewish people through out the world.
Is it any wonder after that long wilderness experience, that wise Israeli
leaders are reluctant to give up all for the gain of nothing. The future of the
American nation hinges on that support of that Biblical doctrine, not the
perceived concept of equality of two peoples wishing to possess one land. To
have the grace, faith, and courage to carry that out, requires a world view,
that not all paths lead to God. President Bush must receive the support of the
church, at all levels, through prayer, preaching, and standing in the face of
worldly applications contrary to that Biblical view.
Yogi Bear helped us last week to focus on the fact that this worldly and
more gluttonously American economy is based upon the fossil fuels of God's
first judgement of the world, in the flood of Noah's era. This oil of death is
truly a cheap high of materialism, that focuses on the god of stuff, or the god
of diverse self interest. It is perceived wise to contend that by no means
should we ever look at the foundation stone of this slippery ooze and believe
that it is lubrication of the slide into spiritual and material poverty. But
that truly is our precarious position. Over twenty years ago many said that oil
was too valuable of a commodity to burn, but consumption has not only continued
to be the norm, it is more than ever before, the divine model. Not only is
American prosperity based upon that model, but the concept of gobal trade, must
require cheap oil to function in its present paradigm. Again the President must
receive the support of the church, at all levels, through prayer, preaching,
and standing in the face of worldly applications promoting an oily death.
We could continue to look at other seeds that have been sown during the last
twenty years of American history, to see their consequences. But I grew tired
many years ago, of reading page upon page of critical review in books only to
read about the solutions, or ideas of the author, in the final chapter. So we
will not spend further resources, on abortion, racism, poverty, and other
problems, for those injustices are really a long standing result of the
elevation of self above service, leisure above sacrifice. I think it is best
summarized in the words of a friend of mine, "America's decline did not
begin when we took the ten commandments out of the schools, America's decline
began when we took the ten commandments out of our churches."
We like to divide things as a way to help us understand. We have a divided
country, so nothing important can be done. We have divided the Bible into Old
and New Testaments. The old part is under law, the new under grace, simple and
dumb. The Reformers divided both Testaments into law and gospel. A more refined
way of saying to understand grace, you first must understand the standard
imposed by the law. In a way all these things are true, but through this
specialization of focus and interest, it is easy to end up with a field of trees,
but no forest. Specialization requires integration, without it a cake will
never rise from its ingredients. This power of oneness and healing,that which
makes it all work together, is true Living Oil.
To that end, let us look at the Bible as the world's only source of the
written words of the wisdom of this Living Oil. From within the writ of the
Holy Book, is described the source of an oil that cannot be bought with human
wealth. Not all the gold, precious gems, or the knowledge of the information age,
can buy a single drop. It is in the pages of that Book we find that not all
roads lead to God, but that the Messiah of the Jews, is the Christ, named Jesus
of the Greeks. It is a gift of God alone, the gift of the Holy Spirit, that
changes the condemned to sanctified, the common to Holy. the thrid Person of
the Triune Godhead, lives as the Sacred Anointing Living Oil.
Oil from the Quaker State may lubricate the life of an automobile, and our
knowledge may allow that oil to function correctly well beyond 3000 miles. But
eventually the old Beamer must be replaced with something that is newly
constructed. But no one would go to Wal-Mart to buy a quart of Quaker State, as
the oil of dressing on a salad. Oil from life itself, the extra virgin oil of
the olive, the first pressing stimulates the taste buds and gives life to other
spices. All which were recently part of living plants. In the Bible, Olive Oil
functions not only as a food source, and the anointing oil making the common,
Holy, but also the oil being burned that causes illumination, the light of the
sacred and common lamps.
As we have oil for cars and oil for food, so we could also divide the Living
Oil described and supplied by the Bible. We have the Oil of Salvation, and the
Oil of Life. They are of the same essence, but of different function. Since we
are talking about a written book we could also call them the Word of Salvation
and the Word of Life. From the Biblical perspective, first the Word of
Salvation, brings life to the dead, then the Word of Life sanctifies that life
through a pilgrimage of eternity. The mundane stuff everyone encounters day to
day. It is the same oil, it is just applied to a different function.
Beginning with Whitfield and the Wesley's, at least for sake of this
discussion, the Evangelical church changed the application of the oil of death,
or dead orthodoxy, for the Living Oil through the means of the Oil of
Salvation. Revivalism, the part and parcel of modern Evangelicalism worked so
well why mess with a good thing. The Oil of Salvation began to be dispensed as
bottles of snake oil, through entertaining and showmanship. But little Living
Oil exists outside of church, or the crusade. It is a little like a dime bag
for drug attics. Come to church on Sunday, or go to be blessed by the anointing
of the evangelist and get a fix of the Oil of Salvation, a Jesus fix, that high
will last you through the whole week. Or so it is promoted.
Now, this would be bad enough if it just took place only within the
revivalist heritage. But their more confessional brethren sought refuge from
the deluge of emotionalism in their doctrines, confessions, and liturgy. God
has chosen his elect from the sewer of life and sanctified them through Word
and Sacrament. You no longer need to be born again, but be made a convert to
the faith, through God's covenant people, the New Israel, the church. This Oil
of Salvation is applied to another class, or a different culture.
The great mystery, known only to God, is to some extent, both methods work,
as much an antithesis both are to one another. But because of the rite of
religion, both are limited in the application beyond the walls of the church.
The church exist only where assembled, for one or two hours on Sunday. The Oil
of Salvation is dispensed, but that same oil has no effect to those outside the
walls of the religious ghetto. Both have very little to do with the complete
gospel that Paul preached. Most continue to bathe in baths of tepid milk and do
not venture or adventure into the world beyond, to taste the fine meat, wine
and the bounty of all of God's creation. As a consequence, God's application of
the Oil of Life cannot be used within the unction of common grace, of man's
enterprise.
I was thinking this week about the tepid church of Laodicea (Revelation
3:14-22), when it occurred to me that this tepid condition is nothing but the
result of common entropy. Hot tea becomes tepid, if left to its own devices.
Ice tea becomes tepid, as the ice is allowed to melt before it is consumed. The
application of course, is that both forms of tea are just the application of
energy to the state of tea. In one sense heat, the other cold. In other words,
we must just do something within the common grace world to allow the Oil of
Life to be released! Neither excellent ice tea, or hot tea, is present in the
church today, because leadership is afraid to do something, because we have
always done it that way. Now this is quite an application, "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become
wealthy, and have need of nothing' -- and do not know that you are wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, and naked -- I counsel you to by from Me gold refine in
the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be clothed,
that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with
salve, that you may see. (v. 17,18)
"Now contrary to the old fashioned commentaries who viewed the
Laodicean church as the last days church, you will never hear that in this
church, within these hallowed walls this Sunday morning. (It is always someone
else.) For we are members of the church in Philadelphia and we are always hot,
on fire for God. Glory to God!" By such words, and others that exalt
personal piety to the level of, or above that of Jesus Christ, the church is
cut off from the Oil of life, not only in the Sunday service, but also outside
the ghetto walls.
If we took our own eyes off the perfection of Philadelphia,(our perfection?)
in Asia Minor and looked at a few of the remarks that Paul had to say to the
Philippians across the Aegean in Macedonia, perhaps we would get a clue of the
cost required of us to truly receive the gift of the Oil of Life. The Oil that
changed the known world in the First Century: Not
that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I
may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren
I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I
press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14)
Over fifty years ago, Jews in Europe had the opportunity to flee the coming
power of the Nazi state. Most refused to leave the comfort of the ghetto and
seek freedom elsewhere. Their fear of the unknown was greater than their faith
in their God. As a consequence, when the 3rd Reich achieved its power five
million Jews and five million others were offered as sacrifice in the ovens to
the god of this world. The church for the most part did nothing. The church now
stands at a similar cross road, but this time we too are in the ghetto. A true
choice, to leave the comfort of well known religious practice and venture forth
in faith from and in God, or to remain in that ghetto and become slaughter for
persecution or judgment.
The prayers of many have been answered in this election process. America now
has a President whose faith does not seem to be something used for political
gain, but understands, that standing for one's faith has a political cost. To
the best of his ability, which much of the world mocks, he has appointed men
and women of faith to help him govern. Isn't it about time that the Evangelical
church not only in America but through out the world, take the same stand for
faith in Jesus Christ. It is beyond the walls of the familiar, that the Living
Oil is supplied, a mystery well beyond the technology of finding and pumping
the oil of death from the ground. It comes through the faith received as a gift
from God through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ not only from
the pulpit, as rare as that may be, but also from the common lives of ordinary
Christians, in their daily life, the only Bible some will ever read.
The command of leadership is "Follow Me." That is as true in the
Army of God as it is in the actual infantry. In the battle for the redemption
of this world, God always seeks those who understand that calling, and are
willing to risk all to obtain a better promise, better than all the security this
world can offer. In God's army if the present leadership does not answer that
call, He will find those who will. May that Blessing of Faith rest upon all who
read these words and act upon their precepts.
For this country and her new leadership, which
begins to make some long needed changes. That these changes be directed by the
Oil of Life and not by self interest, or political expediency.
I received notice from the agent for the "STS Peace" that the
owner has "Freedom" also for sale. Peace and Freedom, to perhaps
Justice, or Truth. Much remains to be accomplished to determine whether this
path is the proper course, as well as daily
financial provisions that are required.