A Friend's Gift

Beside the desk here at the farm stands a Paschal Candle.  It is a candle seen in churches more than in homes.  The wooden stand which holds the candle is four feet high.  The Paschal Candle itself is only two feet long, a bit short for most Paschal Candles, but this one is a used one which came from the local Methodist Church.  The Candle is first brought to full blaze on Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  After Easter it has its place as it symbolizes the Risen Lord who is the Light of the World during the Sundays between Easter and Pentecost.  It is also lit for baptisms,  memorial services, Holy Communion, and other services of celebration.   

I enjoy having this candle here next to the place where I spend quiet time in His presence as well as the place where I search the pages of the Holy Word.  Often as I see it, I am reminded that we are always in the presence of the Risen Lord.  There is a story which goes with my Paschal Candle.  When I arrived at the Vidalia Church, there was no Paschal Candle so one of my members made the stand in his wood shop.  When I left some ten years later, Jack made a second one as a gift for me.  I used it in the next two churches and when I retired, it came with me.  The craftsman has gone to the heavenly place prepared for him by our Savior, but he is often remembered here in my home at the farm.   

Some people may not be image seekers or collectors of symbols of the Holy as I am, but I have found that they speak to my soul in ways that are beyond the power of words.  The remind me of that verse from Hebrews which says, "You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire and darkness, and gloom as a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them."  (Hebrews 12:18-19).  The writer of the Word writes of holy mystery.  In these years which are unfolding, I see the Paschal Candle made by the hands of a friend as a sign the holy mystery abides even here.

Loving Jesus

I am one of the fortunate ones.  I am one of the blessed ones.  I cannot remember a time when the Holy Word was not a part of my life.  About the time I got my first bicycle, a Bible was given to me.  As best I can remember it was around age six or seven.  The bicycle I rode many a mile, but is gone.  The Bible remains.  Actually, the very first one I was given is now in a special place in a drawer.  I pull it out from time to time to hold it in my hands with gratitude for a gift given long ago that still shapes my life.   

It was a black Bible with a zipper around its edges.  It was carried with me every Sunday to Sunday School.  I read the stories of the Old Testament and learned about Jesus when I was little more than a boy.  There is now a shelf in my library filled with Bibles, references, commentaries, and even a Greek New Testament with which I wrestled in seminary.  However, there is one Bible which sits on my desk just a reach away all the time.  It constantly calls me to sit with it, to read it, and to allow the Spirit of God to speak through its pages.  

Only a short time ago while reading from the last two chapters of Hebrews, I found those verses which spoke of Jesus being "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."  (Hebrews 12:2).  Another spoke of Him as "the mediator of a new covenant," (Hebrews 12:24) and another which identified Jesus as "the great shepherd of the sheep." (Hebrews 13:20).  Finally, there was a verse remembered from those boyhood days, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8).  There is so much meaning and power in these words about Jesus.  Long before we loved Him, He was loving us.  It is a good moment, is it not, to just be in His presence speaking once again of our love for Him?

Preaching

The one thing a preacher can never know about a sermon is how God will use it.  Every good preacher wants to preach under the influence of divine inspiration every Sunday.  As one who preached for 43 year, I know that such was my hope, but there were those times when the sermon was preached in response to the pressure of Sunday coming instead of holy inspiration.  Some seem so mundane and ordinary and filled more with duty than inspiration.  The amazing thing is that God can use even these to speak to the seeking heart of someone who has drawn aside hoping to hear the Word of God.   

Many have been the times when someone would tell me how God spoke a Word to them from a sermon I preached without any expectation that such a Word would be heard from the message.  In these retirement years filled with listening to other preachers, I have experienced this holy work from the other side of the altar.  Just this morning a sentence preached in the middle of a sermon about Thomas washed over a deep place in my spirit in a way which was not likely intended by the preacher, but I am sure was planned by God.  One of the exciting things about preaching is what God chooses to do with it!   I am grateful for the good preachers I am privileged to hear in this season of my life.  

When I first retired sixteen years ago, I was convinced there were no good preachers anymore.  Either the preaching has gotten better, or God has worked on my cynical heart because preaching is heard so differently now.  I was always grateful for the opportunity to preach the Word of God Sunday after Sunday.  Why He called me to such a task is something I have often pondered.  I am grateful, too, for the younger men and women who are taking seriously the work of preaching in these days.  One of the things we  can all do to help our preachers is to pray for them as they carry forward this important ministry of the church.

Good to Be Awake

I came within an inch of not going to church this morning.  I overslept.  After verbalizing that excuse, the next one came very easy.  I was tired.  In "two shakes of a rabbit's tail" I had added a few more.  Then it happened.  From two different directions, a single verse of Scripture arrived on the front burner of my brain, or maybe it was to the door of my heart.  The verse was from Hebrews 10:25 which says a word about "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some..."  Actually, I knew it was not just the habit of some, but my habit as well.  

So, I went.  Arrived late.  Very late.  It was not too late to receive a blessing I would not have received had I stayed midst the sheets.  I would say that I know the importance of "not forsaking the assembly" as the King James Version renders it, but then there was this morning.  I grew up in a home where worship on Sunday morning and Sunday night was not optional.  As I began to build my own spiritual foundation, I came to understand and appreciate the value of what I was taught as a child.  Some would say that as preacher, I had no choice but to be there each Sunday; yet, it is also true that I was one of those diehards who never gave up offering Sunday night worship for those who would come.  Gathering with other believers is important.   

At the worship service I almost missed this morning, my heart was warmed by witnessing and sharing in the excitement of one baptism after another.  I watched as people came forward to be a part of the future of the church through membership.  I got to hear "Victory in Jesus" one more time.  I heard a sermon on doubting Thomas which the Holy Spirit applied to my heart in a new and fresh way.  Thanks be to God that I did not sleep at home or in church this morning! 

The Shepherd

What Jesus gave Simon Peter on their early morning walk on the beach was more than just forgiveness.  The setting for the moment is after the resurrection,  The disciples had seen the resurrected Jesus and had gone back fishing.  It seems like a unlikely thing for them to do, but they went back to something which fit inside their minds. The resurrection of Jesus was not something the mind could comprehend.  In that moment and in that place full of what was familiar to the disciples, Jesus showed up with breakfast for the body and forgiveness for the soul.  (John 21).  

In a moment filled with images of intimacy, we see Jesus getting Peter's attention as a way of separating him from the group around the charcoal fire and then slowly walking with him away from the others.  With His arm across Peter's shoulder they walk.  Jesus speaks softly into the ears of this broken and confused disciple until finally they fill Peter's heart to the point of breaking it.  Three times Peter had denied Jesus in the courtyard and now three times Jesus asked, "Simon son of John, do you love me..."  (John 21:15, 16, 17)   The smoke of the charcoal fire remembered from the courtyard of betrayal and the thrice asked questions were not lost on Peter.  "Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You."  (John 21:17).  

What Jesus said not only spoke of forgiveness for what was past, but spoke of Jesus' plan to include Peter in the unfolding work of the Kingdom.  Forgiveness is not just forgetting about the past.  It is about living into the future with love, acceptance, inclusion, and trust.  The forgiven Peter was no longer one who betrayed, but one entrusted as a shepherd for the sheep of God's Kingdom pasture.  

The Charcoal Fire

I grew up in a family filled with men who loved to fish.  My memories of my Father are few, but many of them are about fishing.  A boat, a river, a washtub full of fish which I am sure were counted by him and the uncles who joined him that day are but a few.  One thing I have learned about fishing stories over the years is that there is always a number.  While some might say, "we got a mess of fish," and while others might hold up the fish laden stringer, the real fish stories always include the number of fish brought home.  If a fish story is told without the number of fish caught, the story might be suspect!   

 

The litmus test of fishing stories is in the number which is why we know the story told in the 21st chapter of John is true.  After the resurrected Jesus showed Himself to the disciples, Simon Peter announced not a church meeting, but a fishing trip.  After the cross and resurrection, who can fault Peter for wanting to wrap his hands around something which was comfortable and familiar.  "I am going fishing," (John 21:3), Peter said to six of the other disciples who joined him in the boat that morning.  It was a fishing trip which netted "...large fish...a hundred fifty-three of them..." (John 21:11).  It was quite a catch, but the real news of the morning was the appearance of Jesus on the beach.   For those disciples who were looking for the touch of something real, Jesus cooked breakfast on a charcoal fire on the beach. 

 

The crackling fire and the smell of charcoal was not lost on Peter.  We must not let the power of what was subtle be lost on us.  It was the sight of the low burning flames and the smell of the smoke from a charcoal fire which filled the eyes and nostrils of Peter in that moment of betrayal.  The same Greek word for the charcoal fire is used in both places.  When Peter was invited for a walk on the beach with Jesus, the smell of that fire surely brought back memories of the sin of betrayal.  Jesus did not chastise him, nor speak words of judgment, but forgave him and entrusted to him the work of the Kingdom.  He continues doing this even today with folks like you and me.

Gifts of God

The older we get, the more we accumulate.  We accumulate stuff, relationships, memories, and experiences.  In one of those retrospective moments which seem to hang out here at the farm, it occurred to me how little I had fifty years ago when I was assigned as the pastor of the Talbotton Church.  All the stuff could be moved in a single U-Haul compared to the move into retirement which required several loads of a friend's borrowed covered truck. The people in my life then were important, but they are not nearly as many as those whom I was still to encounter.  Of course, the same is true of memories and experiences.   

Of the four, stuff is the least important.  I like the stuff around me.  It is like a warm blanket woven with colored threads of the past, but what is most important are the relationships with which God has blessed me.  The people in my life not only bring meaning to the present, but they are the stuff of which memories and experiences are made.  In these more recent years I find myself most grateful for the people whose lives have intersected with mine over these years which are reaching closer and closer to eighty.  

The people of the past have become like a storehouse of blessings slowly being released into my life.  Each phone call, note, or renewed connection from the past brings back memories and experiences which bless my heart as surely as rain gives life to the soil of the earth.  Not only am I discovering the treasures of this vast storehouse of relationships from the past, but God is continually bringing me into relationship with people never known or seen which reminds me that His blessings are not just from the past, but they are ever unfolding before me.  I know that whatever is ahead, I have been blessed and continue to be blessed by these precious gifts of God.