What Would Offend Jesus?

Posted July 17, 2024 by wordsfromww
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I’m at church camp this week. A mass of hyper-active, high energy, squirrel-ish kids and youth who are wondering if they can survive for a week without social media, AirPods, and other noises they’re addicted to.

We’ve already experienced a few things that are the norm for the younger culture: Flatulence at that climactic point in the message where Jesus is about to say something eternally important, squished up sickly-looking faces at the creamed broccoli on the dinner plate, and kids jumping and dancing as they sing an “active worship” song.

They discover at camp that there is very little that offends Jesus…at camp. Many wonder why so many things in their home churches are viewed as offensive. For example, why do some old-timers at church get all worked up when a young person wears a hat in worship? What difference does a hat make? After all, they take their hats off at the high school football game when the National Anthem is played but wear it for the rest of the night. Why can’t they wear their hats in church, take them off during a prayer, and then put them back on? Does the absence of a hat make them more attentive during the ten minutes of announcements, twenty minutes of singing, and thirty minutes of the pastor’s message?

So, what exactly does offend Jesus? Jesus was irritated by people who looked pious but were void of spiritual hunger and humility. His words in Matthew 23:27 caused a stir. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.“

Woe, doggies!

Right before that, he said, “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

That’s the thing about Jesus. He didn’t mind a little bit of mud, as long as the yearning of a person was for inner cleansing and transformation. In fact, he spit into some dirt, made a couple of mud eye packs, and put them on a blind man’s eyes. Interesting, he used an unsanitary method to heal a man’s inability to see, and wash away the limitations of his life.

What offends Jesus? Our blindness to the dirt in our souls.

The ways we are offended are so often based on culture, how we’ve been raised, and what looks good. Back in the 1900s mostly in Tennessee and Kentucky, many rural Baptist churches had a few holes cut in the floor of the sanctuary (worship room). Men sat on that side of the room, women on the other. The holes were for the tobacco chewers to spit during the service. No one was offended by it. It was a natural part of their culture. I doubt that Jesus was offended, either.

In my years as a pastor, I had people in my congregations who were offended by praise music, MIDI music systems, coffee and/or donuts and/or cookies in the sanctuary, ushers not wearing suits and ties, women ushers, kids not being quiet in worship, moving the fake organ pipes, bulletin mistakes, using the New International Version bible, using The Message paraphrase bible, guitars, drums, new people serving in some capacity, and dried out communion bread.

On the other hand, I’d be hard-pressed to remember people being upset by pride, gluttony, greed, lust, and envy. It’s easy to focus on the outer things we don’t have difficulty with, but others do. That means each one of us has a different shade of whitewash that Jesus sees, and maybe…we’re blind to.

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Wisdom and Old Age

Posted July 12, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“The glory of young men is their strength,
    gray hair the splendor of the old.” (Proverbs 29:20)

“Old age is upon me, and I shan’t outrun it. Perhaps I may act juvenile and fool it, or ignore it and it will go away. Maybe I can hide and it won’t find me, or tone up my body or botox my face and it will mistake me for discovering the fountain of youth. However, wisdom hints to me that I take old age by the hand and walk in peace toward the sunset.” -Rev. Bill Wolfe, 7/12/24

The doubts about an octogenarian president have topped the news headlines each day. Everyone from the towel boy at the health club to the well-groomed barber to the twentysomething guy wearing sandals and swim trunks in front of me at Chick-fil-A have opinions.

Me, I have emotions. They are mostly the kind that are displayed in sad-looking emojis that communicate despair, dread, and doubt. They are emotions that have me facing the sunset that draws nearer and the reality of death down the road a lesser bit than yesterday. But more than that, they are emotions that cause me to face that point where every AARP, Medicare, Social Security, pension-backed grey hair comes to. There are certain things I can no longer do like I used to, and there are other things I’m capable of doing, but OTHERS doubt that I can handle them more easily than I ever have before.

For you see, wisdom is much harder to see than frailty. The slowing of my walking pace is more evident than the wisdom I possess because of a wealth of past experiences.

As more people urge our president to step to the side, those of us who are in the twilight years of our lives are anxious. Many of us wonder if someone will try to push us to the side in the coming days as our culture becomes increasingly enamored with the excitement of youth that is often blemished with stupidity.

Perhaps the president is too stubborn to admit that he needs to step to the side, or maybe folk who are more thirsty for power than loyalty are forcing the issue. Either way, those of us who are too far behind age-wise are wondering if there is someone who has started doubting us.

And the attached quandary goes along with that: Maybe it’s time for me to step aside from some position or responsibility I’ve held for the past decades.

As my poem at the beginning said, “Old age is upon, and I shan’t outrun it.”

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Leaning Kinda

Posted July 11, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It’s hard for me to lean and not fall over these days. There are dizzy blondes and lightheaded seventy-year-olds. I fall into the last category. (I think that was an unintended pun.)

I can still lean, but leaning too far puts me out of balance and causes me to question my I.Q. I get light-headed when I lean over to tie my shoes. I think I’m about due to make the transition to slip-ons. In other words, for many reasons and in many ways, I’m a “kinda-leaner.”

If I translated that into spiritual terms, I would say that I lean on the Lord but mostly stand firm in my own understanding. The more I lean, the more uncertain my footing becomes. Excessive leaning increases the potential for looking stupid and/or weird.

Most of us, probably all of us, who characterize ourselves as followers of Jesus, have not leaned on the Lord at times…”too many to count” times…in our lives. The same can be said of churches as well. For example, church business meetings are more about the business than the leaning. Just as followers of Jesus are prone to being “kinda leaners”, churches are guilty of kinda seeking the leadings of the Lord.

Granted, there are throngs of people who mistake whims for leadings and would be willing to misinterpret Jesus having the herd of pigs jump off a cliff as a message from the Lord to go ahead and lean out over the edge. Let’s be honest! Sometimes, churches are a nesting place for whackos and fruitcakes.

Most of the time, however, as followers of Jesus, we’re just paranoid about learning. The Proverb says, “…in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” As I read that, it tells me that the Lord will direct me. It reminds me of a vivid picture I have in my way distant past of my dad teaching me to ride a bike without training wheels. Even though I couldn’t see him, he held onto the bottom of his seat cushion. I was as terrified of the downhill slope on the side of our house as a blind man on the edge of a snake pit, but my dad kept telling me that he wouldn’t let go. He told me to keep my hands on the handlebars and trust that he had me. He kept me going on a straight path.

May the Lord remind us to lean ahead as He holds us in His grasp.

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Scapegoats and Sacrifices

Posted July 7, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat.  He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins— The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:20-22)

Scapegoats are biblical. They fulfilled a purpose. Someone or something had to take the blame for the bad judgments of the Israelites. In certain situations, individuals would take the punishment, but there were corporate sins and rebellious attitudes that cast a dark cloud over the whole nation. Enter the scapegoat, a goat that everyone could visibly identify as being “the one.” He took the blame so they didn’t have to. I suppose for a short time, the guilty felt unburdened and free. The scapegoat whio had become the focus of their problems had taken away their problems.

Of course, the problems would re-emerge after a while and the people would have to look for another scapegoat to take the blame.

Our culture has brought back the custom of scapegoats. From Steve Bartram’s interference with a foul ball that could probably given the Chicago Cubs Game 6 in the National League playoff series and taken them into the World Series, to who to blame for high inflation, to who caused the test scores of students to drop, we’re a society that looks for that one person or group of people to take the blame.

Of course, the blame game gets ramped up during political campaign season. In a recent Colorado congressional race, you would have thought each of the candidates from the same political party were the Devil Incarnate.

In Old Testament times, the scapegoat was taken away from the people and into the desert. He was left there, the carrier who took responsibility for the people’s sins.

When Jesus carried his cross to the place of the Skull, our sins were upon Him. He took them to the cross with Him. As Isaiah 53:6 tells us, “…and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” He carried our sins once and for all.

Unlike the scapegoat led out into the desert, Jesus had a choice about being the carrier of our sins, and He chose to take them with Him. As I said at the beginning, scapegoats are biblical. They are also relevant for life today. When something goes wrong, we look for someone to blame.

Jesus, who had no sin, took the blame for my failures. Romans 5:7-8 sum it up:

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

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The Yellow Squiggly Line

Posted July 2, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:25)

Yesterday, I was traveling down Interstate 25 through Colorado Springs, and in the middle lane, a yellow line suddenly appeared. It wasn’t a yellow line that had been carefully painted by a road crew to mark the edge of the road or a no-passing zone. This line appeared to be something that had gradually leaked out of the back of a truck. It had a shakiness to it, like the squiggly graphing line that comes from a lie detector test.

The yellow line continued down the highway for the whole distance of my drive. Six miles later, when I exited the road, it was still snaking its way south. I wondered if the driver would pull into his driveway another few miles away, hitch his pants up, and walk to the back of his pickup to retrieve his five-gallon can of yellow paint, only to discover he now has six ounces left to do the job.

Metaphorically speaking, the yellow squiggly line represents several things. On the downside, it reminds me of the mess of my life, the ways I’ve left chaos in the wake behind me. As Romans 3:23 says, “All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” In different ways, we have left a trail of trash. We’ve made a mess of things, a mess of opportunities, a mess of relationships, and a mess of situations. Like the yellow squiggly line, people view our transgressions and wonder why we would have done or said something or acted the way we did.

We leave an impression behind us whether we know it or not. The words we speak, our attitudes, the kindness we show, and the characteristics we are known for all leave a trail of significance or disappointment. Sometimes, and for some people, that trail of significance goes on and on for a long time. It’s only for a while for other people, as their connection with us only lasts until the next exit ramp.

The amazing thing about the God we serve is that He comes behind us and wipes up the messes. Like the road cleaning crew, God causes the yellow line of our failures to disappear. As Isaiah 43:25 says, “…he remembers them no more.” Isaiah 44:22 has Him saying to us, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.”

Our lives often look ugly, but God cleans us up, and not just partially, but thoroughly. He takes care of the yellow squiggly lines. There are many days where, at least for me, He’s having to do some major clean up.

Thank you, Lord!

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God’s Order

Posted June 28, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes camping on the east are to set out. At the sounding of a second blast, the camps on the south are to set out. The blast will be the signal for setting out.” (Numbers 10:5-6)

My oldest daughter is an organizational guru. In her growing-up years, when we’d plan a vacation, she’d pack a month ahead of time. And then she’d unpack and repack! She’d arrange her clothing in just the right order. Businesses should have hired her to straighten out their messes, but she was only twelve. Now, she has the most organized third-grade classroom in the universe.

I am not that way. Perhaps that’s why I’m so amazed by her. I’m awed by order and structure. Yes, I suppose I have hints of it in my writing. I admire a student who organizes her thoughts in a clear and orderly manner, and the words flow.

I’ve just recently made my way through the Old Testament books of Leviticus and Numbers. One thing I’ve taken from those books is the order of God. For the Israelites, everything had an order to it. Their laws created order. Reading Leviticus can become tedious and repetitious, but it sets in place the system and structure for the people to follow. The Deceiver longs for chaos and confusion, but God desires understanding and consistency.

For instance, the order in which Israel’s twelve tribes marched is spelled out. Everyone had their place, their position. Responsibilities (Today, we call them job descriptions) were spelled out. Numbers 18 gives the duties for priests and Levites, as well as what offerings should go for their support.

Leviticus goes into detail about cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and God desired order and structure in what the people were to do to get back to being clean. For example, if there was a skin rash, it needed to be taken care of. If there was sin, certain sacrifices were required. Sin upset the orderliness of God’s creation.

That order is apparent in the New Testament as well. The Corinthian church had issues in their worship gatherings (1 Corinthians 14), and Paul outlines what is needed to bring order into the midst of what had become chaotic. There was even an organizational structure in the first church that was created to care for widows and orphans, of which there were many. Even God’s concept of sabbath rest has an order and structure to it. Our bodies are wonderfully made in a way that rest (body, mind, and spirit) is an ingredient in a healthy recipe for life. Every sabbath day is a day of recovery and renewal. Not a day every so often, but regularly.

In our culture, chaos is a word that is increasingly used to refer to world situations, family relationships, the weather, and airports the day before Thanksgiving. Chaos is not a pleasant word when we use it in a sentence or a life situation.

On the other hand, many people don’t see the purpose in doing things in order or believe that God has an order for how things should be done. Order…sometimes it sounds so outdated, yet it looks so good in the rearview mirror after we have progressed into the land of troubles.

When we stray or mistrust the plans of God, we open the doors to misery.

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Stumbling In His Hands

Posted June 25, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” (Psalm 37:23-24)

As my basketball-playing days disappear into the rearview horizon, I’ve taken up walking more while listening to music or podcasts. In fact, I walked to Starbucks this morning carrying my backpack like I’m a middle school kid off to school. All I need to complete that picture from yesteryear is my Popeye lunchbox.

Last night, as I was out for a short walk around our neighborhood, it occurred to me that my eyes were surveying the sidewalk in front of me for cracks, pine cones, and stones that might cause me to stumble and fall. I’ve sprained my ankle many times over the years, but at the age of seventy, I have a growing concern about my hips and knees and how a misstep could create a situation that would take a few months to recover from.

It seems that stumbling seventy-year-olds are common. As I stepped off the curb yesterday, I remembered these verses in Psalm 37. The picture of the Lord not letting me fall revealed how loving and caring our God is. I may watch out for pine cones and stones as I’m out for a walk, but the Lord I trust will be close to me as I daily walk with Him. In fact, He promises to be so near me that, as I teeter on the edge of disaster, He will not let me fall.

When shadows conceal the clarity of the way, the One who brings light to dark places gives me peace of mind. Even though I can’t see what lies ahead, he can and upholds me. The Message paraphrase says God “has a grip” on my hand. That reminds me of walks with each of my grandkids in their beginning steps. The unsteadiness of each short stride was evident to anyone watching, but each of them also had an unwavering trust in the one whose hand they grasped.

I thank God that He’s unwavering in His love for me and His watching over and out for me.

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Winning Halfway

Posted June 22, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5)

I received an email from Starbucks yesterday, informing me that I was a winner in their Summer Sweepstakes Contest. The grand prize was a trip for two to Costa Rica. That would be awesome! I’ve wanted to visit there.

However, when I opened the email, I discovered that “my prize” was fifty percent off one of their drinks, called a Refresher. Wait a minute! Half-off? That means I would be giving them more money in order to receive my prize. I wonder if the prize was a one-way ticket to Costa Rica, but the winner would have to get themselves back home again?

I’ve had those scam emails before that tell me I’ve won anything from a chainsaw to an air fryer to a tool set. I’ve suave enough to not open those. No one ever called me a brainiac, but I ain’t no “dumb attack” either. And this WAS from Starbucks, the Starbucks that offers half-off drinks on most days between noon and 6 P.M.

It seems that winning halfway also means losing halfway. Even more than a half-free Starbucks drink, our culture has a way of giving us half the story, to focus on the beginning and not the end, to show the happy faces of the new car buyers without hinting at the reverse side of the excessive car payment that the sellers will expect even when the vehicle is in for a major repair.

Wisdom sees the carrot dangling before the trap and considers the costs. Wisdom sees the long-range consequences hiding behind the short-term thrill. Wisdom sees the tears of misery in the background of the thirst for money.

Now, I realize winning half a Starbucks drink is not on the same grief level as a lottery ticket buyer who goes hogwild at the 7-11 because he sees the image of Shangri-La attached to the jackpot amount. However, the concept is the same. Half-free in order to cost you something.

Last night, wisdom took a nap as I was looking at a book on Amazon. It was only a few dollars…okay, ten! Ten is only a few more than a few. So I hit the order button. After all, I have Amazon Prime and free shipping. Immediately upon ordering the book that is just a few more than a few, Amazon informed me that other shoppers who bought the same book also ordered the following. Pictures of four other books showed up, so I ordered one of them. By the time I had exited out of Amazon, my “few more than a few” book had become $38.95. Don’t tell Carol, although she usually reads my blog so I need to work on my pitiful look of repentance. I’m trying to think of a way I can blame it on wisdom napping on me, but…okay, I had a dumb attack!

I think of the sins of the flesh that Paul lists in Galatians 5 and most of them are actions that seemed right at the time or brought satisfaction for a moment, but consequences later on. Half free and half unbelievably costly.

My life story has been peppered with costly seasoning, like procrastinating doing classwork when I was in college and paying the cost of an abysmal GPA, or eating two Big Macs and suffering the indigestion a couple of hours later, or placing the plastic down on the counter too much in a short amount of time and then paying the high interest rate on the remaining balance our checking account said we couldn’t pay.

I’ve been suckered into lunging for the dangling carrot many times. However, I’m thankful that wisdom has shown itself more and more as my life has slowed down. (Yes, I know! There was that Amazon thing last night! I admit, I’m like a kid in a candy store when I click on Amazon.)

I think I’ll try this on the baristas at my local Starbucks. I think I’ll tell whoever is making the drinks to put only the free part in the glass and leave the rest empty.

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Wrong Emoticon

Posted June 20, 2024 by wordsfromww
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“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…” (James 1:19)

In my advancing years, I have done a good amount of writing. My Words From WW blog is closing in on 1,500 posts. Sometimes they’re serious, sometimes ludicrous, but most of the time I try to take a life situation and draw a spiritual teaching or pondering from it.

Sometimes, it’s evident that the reader either didn’t get the point or didn’t read the whole blog. Maybe he got bored, or maybe she got distracted, but the reader still made some kind of comment or gave me one of those emoticons. Perhaps I was the one at fault and wrote poorly enough to cause confusion.

I’ve had a couple of occasions where I’ve read a Facebook post or a text and wanted to give a reply. One time, I skimmed the post, and when the “emoticons” appeared, I hurriedly hit the “Wow” to indicate how amazing the news or the accomplishment was. The only problem was that I punched the wrong emoticon. Instead of the “Wow!”, I hit the “Haha” laughing uncontrollably emoticon. Think how small you would feel if your friend was sharing about the serious six-hour-long surgical procedure he was about to undergo, and you replied by hitting the “Haha” emoticon. He’s about to go under the knife and you send him a face that is laughing uncontrollably.

Oops!

One of the issues with communication is our rush to get through it. After all, there are a ton of Facebook posts that we need to respond to: Sylvia got a new aquarium, Bobby posted a video of him lifting weights, Gladys is going to the zoo, and Troy got his braces off. So many people to give some kind of reply to, so we head an emoticon in their direction. In a time where there is more information shared and ways to share, we listen less. There’s an emphasis these days on over-communicating, while at the same time we “under hear.”

Jesus had a few conversations that weren’t heard or understood. Some of the most religious folk already had decided they didn’t like what he was saying— even before he said it. The disciples often had side conversations, trying to figure out what Jesus meant. And then there were the parables that would have had Goober and Gomer scratching their heads. Sometimes, we hear with our ears but not our heads or hearts. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit speaks to us, but we’ve already determined what the leading is. How might the gospel stories be told differently if the disciples had listened for the deeper meaning? How might the problems in the Corinthian church have been solved if the ones who were always talking, always complaining, had waited for the Spirit to speak?

With social media today, James’s words need to seep into our laptops and cell phones. Honestly, his words are more important in those arenas than face-to-face dialogue because most of our communication is not done in person. Being slow to speak and quick to listen would eliminate most conflicts a typical person faces. It would assuredly lessen the caseload of professional counselors and attorneys.

Pondering James’s words, it seems that more listening and less speaking would also slow down the rise of anger and calm the rage that seems to erupt as rapidly as forest fires.

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The New La-teen Language

Posted June 13, 2024 by wordsfromww
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Recently, my wife and I spent eleven days with our three oldest grandkids (Ages: 9, 13, 16). A few months ago, we had done the same “residency” with our two youngest grandkids. One of them had just turned four, and the other was a few weeks away from his second birthday. One of the similarities between the older three and the younger two was that they all said words we couldn’t understand.

At least for the two pre-schoolers, it was because their pronunciation skills hadn’t developed yet, as well as the amount of words that were a part of their vocabulary. With enough effort and patience (and finger-pointing), Carol and I usually were able to figure out what they were saying.

Not so much with the older three, especially the two teenagers. They kept throwing their new words and phrases at us that we weren’t hip enough to understand. (“Hip enough”, that’s an expression from my cool days!) Instead of Latin, I called it “La-teen”, a new dialect that has an invisible age-restrictive fence around it peppered with signs that say, “KEEP OUT, OLD PEOPLE!”

My granddaughter kept saying, “Sigma”, and she’d ask me, “Granddad, are you the sigma?” I was familiar with the Sigma Chi fraternity back in college at Miami of Ohio University. They were an exclusive fraternity known for their snootiness and preppy-looking dress attire. Other than that and the academic distinction of “Sigma Cum Laude”, I was unfamiliar with other definitions of the word.

According to Google, “sigma” means “best”, but the way my granddaughter was using it told me that Google hadn’t caught up to the new emerging uses for it. Just when I thought I had a handle on it, a new wart appeared that brought me back to my frequently-visited satte of confusion.

As our time progressed with the three, other words kept being thrown at me, like verbal snowballs at a defenseless child (with grey hair). I became “the op”. Did I ever “rizz” when I was growing up? Did I have a “bestie?” “What did you think of that song, Granddad? Was that a “bop?”

And then when I’d tell them it was time to get off their technology devices and come back to the real world, I’d get something like, “Why do asking me that, bruh?”

A video was “dead”, which meant the opposite…or should I say “the op?”

“La-teen” is not as difficult as learning Hebrew, which I attempted back in my seminary days, although Henry David Thoreau once said, “It’s too late to be studying Hebrew; it’s more important to understand…the slang of today.”

Jesus had a knack for speaking the language of the day to the people He taught and conversed with. In an agricultural society, He frequently used visuals such as seeds, plows, and sheep to communicate spiritual truth. He connected with a largely illiterate population with pictures that spoke to them. I guess my granddaughter might say, “He was the sigma sigma, even though He was the Op of what most people expected.”

Okay, she wouldn’t say it like that. She’d probably insert a few more “La-Teen” terms in there to confuse me further. It would be her sigma paraphrase of the Word of God.

However, it does make me wonder how she now refers to Jesus’s “Great Commission.” Is there another way of saying, as Jesus did, “Go and make disciples…”

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