[Disclaimer: The financial figures that follow were current approximations at the time of writing. Their exact accuracy isn't the point.]
During my two-shifts-a-week at a local convenience store, I hear a lot of people talk about the price of gasoline. It's been hovering one side or the other of $3 a gallon lately and people are always telling me whether the price has gone up or gone down.
I don't have the heart to tell them I don't really care and could you just pay for it without whining.
Not having any way of knowing whether I should think $3 per gallon is a good price or a bad price, I did a little research to find out how much per gallon some other liquids cost:
Milk: $3.79
Coffee Mate: $5.54
Evian Spring Water: $6.40
Soy Sauce: $15.33
Red Bull: $30
Tabasco Sauce: $94.46
But what about liquids that DO something?
Penicillin: $301
Insulin: $9,411
Chanel No. 5 Perfume: $25,600
Thailand Cobra Venom: $152,000
Scorpian Venom: Almost $39 Million
Truth is...The significance of all these things absolutely disappears in comparison to the one liquid that has affected more good in the lives of more people over the course of more time than any other thing.
Jesus: "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many."
1 John 1:7 "The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin."
Do you ever stop in your tracks and wonder if you have any friends who would take a bullet for you?
There's a word for that; at least according to The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig:
nachlophobia (from the Greek for "loosely held together" and "fear". Pronounced nok-luh-foh-bee-uh.) - n. the fear that your deepest connections with people are ultimately pretty shallow, that although your relationships feel congenial in the moment, an audit of your life would reveal a smattering of low-interest holdings and uninvested windfall profits, which will indicate you were never really at risk of joy, sacrifice, or loss.
For those of you familiar with the story of a paralyzed man's friends tearing a hole in a roof and letting the man down through it so Jesus could heal him, have you ever stopped and evaluated your personal relationships to the point of knowing what four friends of yours would go to the trouble of carrying you on a mat and damaging someone's personal property so you would have the possibility of being healed?
Forget about taking a bullet for you. Do you have any mat-carriers in your life?
Would YOU be willing to carry someone else on THEIR mat?
If you are susceptible to nachlophobia, it is the final phrase of the definition that might instill the most fear: "You were never really at risk of joy, sacrifice, or loss."
It takes a real investment in each other's lives for a friendship to be important enough to bring joy that is deeper than mere happiness and elicit a mutual sacrifice that is far beyond the inconvenience of a small favor.
Of course, that level of investment also runs the risk of causing pain when the relationship is lost.
* * * * * * *
This train of thought takes me to some things I've been saying about "church membership" since April.
There is a difference between attending church and being part of the church, and if a person can easily say, "I'm gonna start going to this other church" without grieving the loss of fellowship with the church they're leaving, I wonder if they're a member or just an attender.
Truth is...risking pain and making sacrifices is abundantly worth the payout of joy that comes from having deep and abiding friends.
It's interesting when a peripheral character becomes a pivotal part of the story.
According to The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson, Abraham Lincoln made a detour on his train trip from Illinois to the White House. He had been elected President and was moving his family to the nation's capital, but there was an actor...well-respected for his tragic roles...performing in a production of The Apostate at a theater in Albany, and Lincoln wanted to see the show.
That event would have been hardly memorable except that the actor's name was John Wilkes Booth, who would assassinate President Lincoln 50 months later.
The Law & Order "cha-chung" that sounded in my head when I read that is similar to the ominous feeling in any reenactment of the gospel story whenever Judas Iscariot is introduced. But when Judas became one of the twelve, he was just another guy wanting to learn from Jesus. There was nothing about him that immediately said "This guy's going to be a traitor."
In the same way, but in a positive light, there are people...and animals, even...scattered throughout Scripture who are simply living their lives but end up being important parts of God's plan.
"Well, there's an angel about to strike you from the path"
Then old Balaam's eyes were opened
And he realized he'd been saved
By his donkey from the angel of God's wrath
And a princess pulled a baby out of the water
He was hidden in the rushes
Sleeping in a basket made of reeds
And you never know who God is gonna use
A princess or a baby
Or maybe even you or me
Now Esther, she was a beauty
Who was pleasing to a man
And the man that she was pleasing was a king
But her people's lives were threatened
By some wicked men's plans
Nobody knew just how the lord was gonna intervene
Well, Mordecai her uncle, he was honest but he was smart
And he knew that Esther's beauty was a gift
He said, "Maybe you could cook some supper
Maybe you could change a king's heart
Who knows but what you come into the world
For such a time as this"
And a princess pulled a baby out of the water . . .
There was Miriam a-dancing
And there was Jubal with a harp
There was poor blind Samson
Even Pontius Pilate played a part
And a princess pulled a baby out of the water
He was hidden in the rushes
Sleeping in a basket made of reeds
And you never know who God is gonna use
A princess or a baby
Or maybe even you or me
c.1991 BMG Songs,Inc. (ASCAP)
* * * * * * *
Truth is...You just may think you're a minor character in God's story; that there's nothing outstanding about you that would say, "This person's going to make a difference."
"It's kind of amazing that even though Jesus has every right to rule with an iron fist, he chooses to persuade and call; to open the door and invite."
I made that statement last week, and I repeat it today, fully confident that there are many who think I'm full of beans. They simply do not picture Jesus giving a gentle invitation. Instead, they characterize God as an egotistical despot who sends people to hell if they don't believe in him . . . while refusing to give any undeniable proof that he exists.
Well, let's just back up a second.
I would contend that God doesn't send ANYone to hell. Hell is the default destination of all those who sin. And the list of "all those who sin" includes the names of everyone who has ever lived except Jesus.
God doesn't have to take any action at all for a human soul to wind up completely separated from his perfection, which is the state of existence that we call hell.
That's pretty bad news.
The good news is that not only did God NOT do nothing, but he in fact went to great lengths to pave a path that leads directly to eternal bliss in his presence, which is the state of existence that we call heaven.
* * * * * * *
Truth is...rather than sending people to hell, Yahweh sends people to heaven; a gracious gift made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It's a gift we must choose to receive. It's an invitation we must RSVP to.
[Jesus] taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Matthew 7:29 (NIV)
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."
Matthew 28:18 (NIV)
I used to say, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it," but I don't say that anymore.
Not that God didn't say it or that I don't believe it or that it isn't settled. . .it's just that my believing it or not is of no importance whatsoever. If Jesus said it, I may have questions about how to apply it in a particular situation, but my belief about it has zero effect on its truthfulness.
No matter what my response to him is, Jesus has all authority and is lord of all.
* * * * * * *
Truth is...It's kind of amazing that even though Jesus has every right to rule with an iron fist, he chooses to persuade and call; to open the door and invite.
I'm fairly certain that as a male teenager my answer to the question "What would you do if you could be invisible?" would have involved listening to conversations I had no business hearing and staring at things I had no business seeing.
Even as a chronologically advanced man, I'm having trouble thinking of any if-I-was-invisible activities that would be morally upright and honorable.
But then, the Spirit brings to mind these words of Jesus, recorded in Matthew 6:1-4:
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
What if, instead of wanting recognition and respect to come my way because of my acts of service, I put on a cloak of invisibility before helping anyone or giving anything away?
Truth is...Remember how Jesus healed people and then told them not to tell anyone? A little humility goes a long way toward being like Jesus.
While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.
Luke 24:51
It's called The Ascension and for some people, it's one of the strongest visual images associated with the life of Jesus: Twelve guys gathered on a hillside near Bethany and one of them...Jesus...just lifts off the ground and floats into the air until they lose sight of him in the clouds.
According to the first chapter of Acts, two people in white...presumably angels...appeared and asked why they were standing there staring into the sky (which I think is hilarious). Then they said that Jesus would be coming back "in the same way [they] saw him go" (Acts 1:11).
Dear Jesus: I don't think it has ever struck me before, but all this being-taken-up-into-the-air business was totally unnecessary. You could have just dematerialized. You could have faded away like the Cheshire Cat. Heaven is no more "up there" than hell is "down there". But you and the Father and the Spirit decided this was a good visual to give us.
Truth is...I'm looking forward to seeing you return, no matter what it looks like.
