I will be sending a similar message shortly to my other Senator, Russ Feingold. I urge my fellow Christians who agree with this point of view to do likewise.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
activism on ObamaCare
I think it is the duty of every Christian to seek to have a redemptive influence politically. While believers can respectfully disagree on policy choices I hope we can encourage one another to engage.
I sent the following email message to Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl this morning:
Dear Senator Kohl,
I am writing to express my opposition to the health care bill being presented on the Senate Floor today. I am opposed to it and urge you to vote ‘no’ for the following reasons:
1) The best health care solution is one in which citizens and private insurance companies are free to make decisions for themselves.
2) A 2,000 page bill that is released 1 day before a weekend vote is politically and ethically disgraceful.
3) This legislation is not revenue neutral and as a nation we can’t afford it.
Sincerely,
Steve Godfrey
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boundary lines in pleasant places
Psalm 16
For Sunday, November 15, 2009
Proper 28
“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance” (Psalm 16:6).
Where are the boundary lines of your life falling today? I see in my own life how so much of this is framed by the state of my relationship with the Lord. When I truly seek him, prayerfully and faithfully, then despite the hardships that are present, I see God’s redemptive hand powerfully at work.
I see this looking back five years when the mission team I was leading imploded without warning. The conflict was so deep that our own teammates asked us not to return to Siberia where we were serving. As I’ve shared with friends subsequently, I’d like to write a book about it entitled _Exiled From Siberia_. This remains the most painful experience I’ve ever gone through, more painful than my Dad’s death 3 years ago, and even more painful even than presently watching my one and only younger brother waging a life and death struggle with cancer while simultaneously watching my Mom wrestle with a debilitating mental illness. By the end of this year it is likely that I’ll be the only functioning member of my family of origin left standing.
Yet despite all of this I can say that the boundary lines for me are falling in pleasant places. Had we not been exiled from Siberia I would not have had four precious years with my Dad before his death. I would not have been there holding his hand and looking into his eyes as he passed, which was a direct answer to prayer. My three boys, the oldest of which is now 13, would not have really ever known their Grandpa.
My Father is using the pain of being exiled from Siberia, the pain of losing my Dad, and the present pain of walking with both my brother and Mom through profound illness, to shape my soul for his purpose. It is a purpose that includes being a resource to other missionaries who have or are going through team conflicts, something that is remarkably common on the field. It is a purpose that includes a continuing ministry to Russian-speaking people both locally an internationally. It is also a purpose that is now leading toward a ministry to urban churches and leaders right here in Milwaukee.
When we were preparing to go to Russia fellow Christians would ask us, “Why are you going all the way there? Aren’t there enough problems here?” The Lord gave me a great answer: “Yes, there are profound problems here, and that’s why you’re here.” Well, … now I’m here, and in fact, some of the social dynamics we experienced in Russia, particularly in regards to both human servitude and fatherlessness, are clear and present dynamics which we can now help to address.
Our gracious Father intends for the boundary lines of each of our lives to fall in pleasant places. This doesn’t mean that within those boundaries there won’t be some deep chasms. Yet what the enemy intends for evil God will certainly transform into good. Christ’s resurrection at Calvary is both the downpayment and security on this divine promise.
Will you today along with me entrust our Father with the boundary lines of our lives? When we truly yield ourselves to God’s plan and purpose profound blessing is the inevitable result.
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Jesus wept
Rembrandt, “The Raising of Lazarus”
“Jesus wept” (John 11:35). This is the shortest verse in the Bible. Granted, the Bible’s authors didn’t write in verses. The verses were added later as an organizational scheme. The scheme we use today was developed by Archbishop Stephen Langton between 1227 and 1248. Langton was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1207 and 1228.
With that important factoid in place, back to the question: Jesus wept, but why? As my friend and Australian Bible teacher Ray Barnett puts it, there are a couple of apparent reasons but also one deeper reason that may actually be primary. The apparent reasons are these:
- Lazarus was Jesus’ friend, and Jesus may have been grieving over his death
- Mary and the Jews with her were weeping, which may have caused Jesus to weep with them in empathy
Yet upon deeper reflection, these reasons don’t actually make sense. Before Jesus started weeping, he says to Mary, “Your brother will rise again” (v. 23). Mary took this to mean that her brother Lazarus would rise again on the Day of Judgment. Yet clearly Jesus knew what he intended to do. He knew that he was going to bring Lazarus back to life. Therefore, he could not have been weeping over Lazarus’s death, because he himself was about to reverse this.
If this holds, then it also seems that the weeping of the others present wouldn’t have caused Jesus to weep. Again, he knew already that everything was about to change.
Yet, Jesus wept. Why? Ray’s answer is this: Jesus also knew that by raising Lazarus from the dead he would be setting in motion the events that would lead to his own death by crucifixion. Note that the plot to kill Jesus takes shape immediately after this episode (see 11:45-57). Note also that in chapter 12 Jesus arrives in Jerusalem and refers directly to his own impending death: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (11:23).
So Jesus wept more likely because he knew he was setting in motion the events that would lead to his own death. In the fully human aspect of Jesus, there may well have been a feeling of abandonment, certainly a ready cause for weeping. Yet even deeper than this, in the fully divine aspect of Jesus, maybe the weeping was also over the profound sinfulness of humanity, a problem so deep that God Himself would have to die to overcome it.
As Christians, do we understand and appreciate our own profound sinfulness as well as that of everyone around us? We are all broken people. How much more loving and gracious would our relationships be if we could accept this about ourselves, as well as about those around us? How much greater then also would our appreciation for the grace of the gospel be? For as deep as the problem of sin runs, and it runs to our very core, the remedy of grace runs even deeper. This reality ought to engender in us a profound gratitude as well as a profound commitment to give our lives completely to bringing glory to God.
If you read this today as a Christian, do you realize that your deepest brokenness has already been made new? If not, might it make sense to take some time today to observe Jesus weeping, and to ask yourself, “Why?” If you do realize that your deepest brokenness has been made new, what would be the best expression of gratitude your life could offer up? Will you go there? Jesus is already there, extending his hands to you, and saying, “Come out from your old life and follow me.”
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consulting your spiritual compass
Salvador Dali, “The Persistence of Memory”
Oil on canvas, 9 1/2 x 13″ (24.1 x 33 cm). © 2007 Salvador Dalí,
Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Every Monday at work I have the privilege of participating in a lunch-time prayer group where we meet to pray for one another as well as our unchurched colleagues. It is a small group: there are usually 3-5 of us. It’s remarkable to me that at a corporate campus of 2,000 that 3 is the most we can often muster, but such is the lot of those heeding the call to the Special Forces of prayer.
Beyond the privilege of participating in this group on a regular basis I have the additional privilege of offering a short devotional to begin these sessions. This past Monday I took a few moments to share how significant my personal commitment to the weekly readings of the Revised Common Lectionary has been in terms of deepening my relationship with the Lord and setting direction for my own life and ministry.
In my former missionary ministry we wrote monthly newsletters to our ministry partners. One of my favorites was from the very first year of our ministry, in which we were trying to raise funds and recruit a team before venturing off to language school to learn some Russian. I entitled that newsletter “The M-68″, which referred to my personal spiritual compass. It was named ‘M-68′ after Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O Man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
A world which is confused, distracted, and lost desperately needs people who know who they are and where they are going.
What is the model number of your spiritual compass? How regularly do you consult it? If you have misplaced it, need to dust it off, or even need to file a claim for a loss, might a commitment to the four simple weekly readings of the Revised Common Lectionary set this compass front and center once again, or even for the first time?
Remember this as well: the point of Bible reading is not to know the Bible, but rather to know the Lord, and his calling on your life. One of the great challenges and blessings of the lectionary for me is that because the weekly readings are limited, there is time and space to ask, “Father, what do you want to do with this in my life today?” It is this step of reverent submission (as the author of Hebrews puts it in a recent reading) that brings power to the words on the page.
Let us today check our course and set sail into the destiny our Father has for us.
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the flying spaghetti monster (FSM)
I came across a reference to ‘FSM’ and ‘WWFSMD’ the other day that piqued my curiosity. ‘FSM’ refers to “The Flying Spaghetti Monster” and “WWFSMD” to “What would the Flying Spaghetti Monster Do”. FSM apparently stems from Richard Dawkin’s book The God Delusion.
One of the reason this intrigued me is that one of this week’s readings is Hebrews 1 & 2. I’ve always loved the Book of Hebrews because at its core I think its an apologetic to the Jewish world about why belief in Christ is compelling. I like to ask myself, “What do people believe in today, and what is a compelling way to engage them with the claims of Christ?”
Secularism, the belief that the natural world is all that there is, is certainly a worldview that many people base their lives upon today. If we as Christians were to write the Hebrews equivalent of an apologetic to the secular world, what would be it’s basic outline? What would be the best way for me as a Christian to engage a secularist in a mutual pursuit of truth?
One place to start might be with the work of theologian and writer Alister McGrath who has written some detailed responses to Dawkin’s arguments.
I’m not going to try to answer these questions within the confines of this post. However, if you have thoughts on this that you would like to share, I invite you to do so.
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church in the world
Karl Barth said that Christians ought to live with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Saturday’s Wall Street Journal provides wonderful grist for the latter.
First is the editorial page homage to Irving Kristol, the “man who put ‘neo’ into conservatism. The lead editorial notes that Kristol’s defining characteristic was his prescience, which is not the ability to predict the future as much rather “seeing the direction in which the future is heading”.
The facing page contains a fascinating collection of Irving Kristol quotes from his 25 years of contributions to the Wall Street Journal itself. Rupert, don’t mess with the Zohan. The first one calls out the emptiness of the politics of emotion: ” ‘All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling,’ wrote Oscar Wilde, and I would like to suggest that the same can be said for bad politics . . . It has been more concerned with the kind of symbolic action that gratifies the passions of the reformer rather than with the efficacy of the reforms themselves.”
The next one anticipates both the recent credit collapse and the energy of the Tea Party Movement: “But there is little question that the ideological atmosphere has changed, and in a direction that can be fairly called conservative . . . Expectations that outdistance reality by too much create unstable people and unstable societies. A politics which constantly incites such expectations is a politics of disorder, and ultimately of self-destruction.”
The last one delivers a broadside to the mirage of security through socialism: “The world has yet to see a successful version of . . . an egalitarian society in which the state ensures that the fruits of economic growth are universally and equally shared. The trouble with this idea . . . is that it does not produce those fruits in the first place. . . The state cannot and should not be a risk-taking institution, since it is politically impossible for any state to cope with the inevitable bankruptcies associated with economic risk taking.” AIG, BOA, GM … anyone?
A second interesting section of today’s paper are the letter to the editors about last week’s offerings on evolution and theology from Richard Dawkins and Karen Armstrong. Regarding the latter, Ravi Zacharias puts it well: “Asking Karen Armstrong to debate Richard Dawkins on God is the political equivalent of asking Hugo Chavez to provide counterpoint to Osama Bin Ladin.” Regarding the former (Richard Dawkins), leave it to Joseph Furman to break it down succinctly: “I had only two semesters of college physics, so I must have missed the part where Mr. Dawkin’s much vaunted laws of physics began permitting man to love, laugh, and cry.”
Finally there is Mary Tomkins Lewis’s meditation on both “The Power, and Art, of Painting” and the fleeting nature of life itself as embodied in Velasquez’s “Las Meninas” (pictured above).
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spiritual deficit disorder
James 1:17-27
For Sunday, August 30, 2009
Proper 17
I remember one of my seminary professors Scot McKnight saying that when one reads James at first glance you think the guy must have had attention deficit disorder, because he seems to jump from topic to topic so quickly.
This passage is a good example. First James notes that every good and perfect gift is from above (v. 17). Then he says that God gave us birth through the word of truth (v. 18). Wonderful James, but what does that have to do with what you were just talking about?! James then seems to answer this very question with yet another nugget of truth: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” Well, James, you sure seem to know something about moving quickly!
Yet might these topics be related after all? Here is a possible explanation for how the above three thoughts are connected. Every good and perfect gift is from above (v. 17). One of the most prominent good and perfect gifts is we Christians ourselves (v. 18). This truth then ought to move our concern from the pettiness of our immediate affairs to the pursuit of a righteous life (v. 19).
Could it then be that the problem is not that James has attention deficit disorder but that we have spiritual deficit disorder? Maybe James was merely tweeting before there was Twitter. May “the Father of the heavenly lights” show us the way to wisdom and blessing.
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focal points
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18
For Sunday, August 23, 2009
Proper 16
Where are the places where the three most significant events of your life happened? For me, one would be my birth in Milwaukee, WI. Another would be my marriage proposal in Wauwatosa, WI. Another would be Irkutsk, Siberia where we served for 10 years as church planters and trainers.
There were significant places in the life of God’s people as well. One of these was Shechem. It is not by accident that Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at this particular place. It was at Shechem that Moses first pitched his tent and built an altar in honor of God’s covenant promise to him and his descendants. It was here that Jacob settled with his family and built a well. In modern times, it was here that Yasser Arafat had his headquarters.
There is something interesting about the geography of this place that seems to parallel what Joshua is doing rhetorically. The entrance to Shechem was only 500 yards wide, bound on the left by Mt. Gerizim, and on the right by Mt. Ebal (Gerizim is listed on the map above, Ebal is the blue square at the far right). Just as the land was brought to a focal point at this particular location, so was Israel’s future: “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. . . But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”
This is a call for each of us to ask, “Who am I serving, really?” Am I serving Christ, or my career? Am I serving my family, or myself? Am I a fully devoted follower of Christ, or just dabbling? Joshua was very clear about his own commitment: “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
There is a special call here for men to rise up and lead their families and households. Men, it starts with us. For the sake of our loved ones and of Christ, let us not fail them.
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an invitation to wisdom
Paolo Veronese, “Allegory of Wisdom and Strength”,
c. 1580, Frick Collection, New York
Proverbs 9:1-6
For Sunday, August 16, 2009
Proper 15
Have you ever stopped for a moment to ask yourself, “How do I want to live my life . . . really?” Do I want my priority to be climbing the corporate ladder? Or achieving some great personal goal? Or entertaining myself to death? This passage, advancing a key theme of the entire book of Proverbs, offers an invitation to a different kind of life: a life of wisdom.
What is wisdom? The New Bible Commentary defines it this way: “Thinking and living in accordance with how things really are.” The Bible gives us a very clear picture of how things really are. There is a Creator who loved his creation deeply, and was broken-hearted when his creation rebelled against him. Yet so deep was his love that he sacrificed his one and only Son to win his creation back, and in the process he won his Son back too. We therefore live in a time in which all things are in the process of being reconciled back to this Creator, who is named God. What is good and pure and lovely will endure, and what is evil, perverted and ugly will not.
This passage describes the Christian life as an invitation from the nicest house of the city which of course is located on the city’s highest point. The finest foods and wines are awaiting us. Who would be so foolish as to refuse?
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living in the truth of Christ
Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2
For Sunday, August 19, 2009
Proper 14
The gospel calls us to move away from the way we used to live: in the futility of our thinking (v. 17), indulging in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more (v. 19). We are to move toward living out the truth found in Christ (v. 21). In writing to the church at Ephesus Paul now makes some very practical applications.
First, in our relationships with one another we are to “put off falsehood and speak truthfully to our neighbors” (v. 25). Note that this instruction is given to believers. Believers wouldn’t ever lie to one another would they? Paul knew that they would and did. Take an inventory of the conversations you have had over the last three days. Are there any in which you have not been truthful? If so, for the sake of your own soul, your relationship with your brother or sister, and for the sake of the church in the world, take a few minutes today to set things right.
Second, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (v. 26). How often do we simply suppress or deny the anger we feel toward our fellow Christians, only by so doing to give the devil a foothold from which he can literally destroy relationships. How are you feeling today about your pastor, about your colleague, about your spouse? If you are truthful, are you angry? Then ask God to give you the wisdom and grace to bring redemptive change to the situation.
If you are worried about how to do this, look no farther than the next verse: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up” (v. 29). Healthy conflict does not destroy relationships, but rather strengthens them, blessing all involved.
In sum, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (v. 32).
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