Our church had communion yesterday, shared equally by those in the building and those watching on Zoom – the latter against the counsel of a blogger I normally respect. Except for the one he published judging all traditions by, apparently, his standard, including that “transubstantiation can’t be done over a distance.” Of course, not all traditions believe in transubstantiation.

I wasn’t going to post a comment, especially since others raised some of the issues I would have, but I was so exercised about it that I gave in. My problem is not so much that he and I disagree on a few things, but that he feels a need to, as I said, judge all of us by his standard, something we’re not supposed to do.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? …For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (Romans 14.10, ESV)

Here’s what I posted:

I appreciate your work even though I sometimes struggle with your view that everything seems to relate to pre-enlightenment or post-enlightenment. But this post is over-the-top, hair-splitting of the first order. I have friends across the Eucharistic spectrum so much so that it’s hard to read the gospel accounts of the first communion without hashing all the different viewpoints in my head. That’s wrong and caused me to formulate a maxim. The first people I shared it with to see if might be a valid idea were both from strong Eucharistic backgrounds: a Lutheran and a Catholic priest. Both agreed with me: “The fact that Jesus died on the cross for my sins is WAY more important than how I choose to remember it.” I know that not everyone agrees. The day I posted this in a blog, a Catholic friend told me that “The Eucharist is meant to divide people.”

“Transubstantiation is not possible over distance” presumes, as others have pointed out, first that ordained clergy of some sort is required to consecrate (or “change”) the elements – something for which there is zero New Testament evidence. Second, that such consecration is not possible over a distance. Why not? Jesus healed from a distance (Matthew 8.5 – 13). Paul claimed to be with the Corinthians in spirit (1 Corinthians 5.3, 4). For that matter, you and I have never met, but I partake of your “substance” every time I read your blog.

Again, I think we are unnecessarily dividing people and splitting hairs. I know you meant well, but this blog was not helpful.

The Apostle Paul was clear on what’s important:

For I have shared with you what I have received and what is of utmost importance:

The Messiah died for our sins,
    fulfilling the prophecies of the Scriptures.
 He was buried in a tomb
    and was raised from the dead after three days,
    as foretold in the Scriptures.
 Then he appeared to Peter the Rock
    and to the twelve apostles. (1 Corinthians 15.3 – 5, TPT)

Our youngest son David went to Azusa Pacific University, graduating in 2003. Although he majored in Business, he spent most of his time in the music building, playing piano for the renowned University Choir and Orchestra and other music-related activities. The foundation for all that was laid by Dr. Rod Cathey, who conducted Men’s Chorale, for which David sang his freshman year.

Shortly after David graduated, Rod suffered a brain tumor, from which he never fully recovered, finally passing on April 20. Rod was one of the great ones, as the School of Music posted: “To his students, he was equal parts teacher, mentor and pastor.” You can see David’s FaceBook posts here. Here is what I wrote:

I am David Ewell’s father, also a pianist. When David was a freshman, singing in male chorale, we had already heard one concert before parents’ weekend. I knew they always closed with “I’m On the Battlefield for my Lord.” I told David that sure would be fun to play. During the rehearsal we were observing at parents’ weekend, Rod turned to me and said, ”Do you want to sit in on Battlefield?” You bet! So I played it during rehearsal. Great fun. Afterward, as we were walking away, David said, “Now tomorrow night at the concert…” I said, “You mean he expects me to play that at the concert?” Yes. To make a long story short, I played it at the concert without music because the score was simple and it was 12 pages long! I did OK until I did one of the key changes prematurely. It took a few bars for the guitar and bass to realize what I’d done. We got through it. What will stick with me forever was that neither Rod nor anyone else said anything about my mistake. The concert wasn’t about me, it wasn’t about the Chorale, it was for the Lord. Some musicians will say that. Rod Cathey lived it. Rest in peace, my brother. Thanks for all you did for David, and we’ll reprise Battlefield some day on the new earth! –Bob Ewell, Facebook post on Rod Cathey

I couldn’t find a recording of Battlefield, but here are a few representative recordings of APU music.

• Holy, Holy, Holy at the Capitol Rotunda, May 2012
• A 30-minute Sunday morning concert of Men’s Chorale, April 2013
• The Majesty and Glory of His Name, Men’s Chorale
• Rod Cathey directing University Choir and Orchestra, 2008

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? …When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38.4, 7, ESV)

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the LORD), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God. (2 Chronicles 5.11 – 14, ESV)

¹  Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
²  Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! (Psalm 100.1, 2, ESV)

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116.15, ESV)

I occasionally pay attention to golfer Stewart Cink because he is the nephew of friends of mine in Montgomery, Alabama. During the Master’s in April, I decided to look him up to see how he was doing, and there he was: age 47 and having a pretty good tournament, finishing tied for 12th and earning $218,500. The very next week he won his second tournament of the season (only a few players his age have done that).

I noticed at that tournament, played in Hilton Head, that he spent a lot of time talking with his caddy, who turned out to be his son, Reagan, age 24.

According to ESPN, Stewart attributed his win to “smart preparation and strong execution” with his son. “We just kind of worked our game plan,” Stewart said. “We call it bludgeoning, and we’re just bludgeoning that plan almost to death…When you manage yourself around a course like that and execute, the golf courses yield.”

Stewart and Reagan certainly exemplified the old adage: “Plan your work and work your plan.”

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. (Proverbs 21.5, ESV)

I wrote last week on the power of persistent observation. Then I came across this verse on the necessity for diligence:

Then he said to them, “Be diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear, for as you do, more understanding will be given to you. And according to the depth of your longing to understand, much more will be added to you. For those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation. But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have!” (Mark 4.24, 25, TPT)

This is exactly like mathematics. If you are not “diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear,” you won’t understand the next thing, and you’ll lose it all. If you do work to understand, your knowledge can build.

This reminds me of something I shared back in August 2019:

Way back in the 1920s, Bishop Roland Allen of the Anglican Church wrote a provocative book Missionary Methods, St Paul’s or Ours? One of the methods he decried was his tradition’s around-the-calendar schedule for teaching major concepts over a 3-year period. The problem, as he saw it, was that a concept would be introduced, and a couple of weeks later, the church would be on to something else with no regard as to whether the people understood anything. Bishop Allen said something like, “You wouldn’t experience that too many times before you conclude that if church leadership had wanted us to understand that concept, they would have spent more time on it. Since they don’t, people conclude that they’re not supposed to understand.” – From The Ewellogy, August 25, 2019

In light of Jesus’ words in Mark 4, we need to be careful not to rush through what God is teaching us or what God is teaching the people we’re discipling. (Maybe that says something about rushing through through-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plans!)

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
²  making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
³  yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
⁴  if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
⁵  then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. – Proverbs 2.1 – 5, ESV)

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2.15, NASB)

Two years ago, I wrote about Frank and Sally Dennis, active in their 90s – he’s a “retired” medical missionary. As he said often, there are no pictures of Sally not smiling!

Sally passed April 26, 2020. On the first anniversary of her passing, Frank wrote:

It will be one year on April 26 that my dear Sally left and I confess I have been dreading the day and wishing that Spring would finally come and quite burying the flowers under new snow storms,  Just today I saw the first hummingbird and I am glad I had two feeders ready for him, because the daffodils are all facedown in  the dirt.  

But yesterday I got a beautiful smile from Sally!.  The Sally Smile Fund has gifted a sweet little girl in Ethiopia with a life-changing smile that I want you to see.  As we see sadness in so many places today I want you to rejoice with me as we see Christian doctors and nurses and dental teams bringing smiles and the Good News of Jesus.  This is an ongoing thing but the smile that came yesterday was just what I needed to remind me that her smiles are still going on and blessing others as they did so many years wherever she went!

Here’s the little girl he’s talking about.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. (Matthew 25.35, 36, ESV)

He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. (Luke 9.2, ESV – this is the mission verse of Cure, the organization that did the little girl’s surgery.)

Yesterday I shared the lovely rendition of 1 Corinthians 13.13 from The Passion Translation:

Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run. (1 Corinthians 13.13, TPT, emphasis mine)

Here’s an example of someone who seems to let love be “the beautiful prize for which he runs” – Yo-Yo Ma, the world-renowned cellist. When he learned that after anyone takes a COVID shot, they have to wait at least 15 minutes to be sure there’s no reaction, he took his cello. And while he was waiting, he played for the other folks in the gymnasium.

NPR reported the story on March 15, 2021. You can read the transcript here or listen to it in its entirety (just over a minute) here or by clicking “1-minute listen” on the NPR site.

A nurse reported:

One of the other volunteers told me she just started to well up in tears. And it was so comforting and so healing. – Hillary Behara, a nurse in Pittsfield, MA

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5.15, 16, NIV)

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4.10, NIV)

Sometimes translations make a difference! Regular blog readers will notice that I quote often from The Passion Translation (TPT) especially this year that I’m reading the New Testament and the poetic books in it. Here’s something from the end of 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. In the standard translations we have:

(13) So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1) Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 13.13 – 14.1, ESV)

TPT chooses to break the chapter after the “pursue love” of 14.1 rather than before. Here is the beautiful result, no further comment needed:

Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run. (1 Corinthians 13.13, TPT)

Yesterday we looked at the beginning of Judges – a depressing book about God’s people perpetually falling into sin. The cycle is sometimes described as:

• Sin
• Servitude
• Supplication
• Salvation (through a Judge – the savior)
• Serenity (e.g., “The land had peace for 40 years.”)

Here’s how it sets up in the story of Gideon (You can read it all in Judges 6 – 8):

• The people did evil. Judges 6.1 (SIN)
• The Lord gave them into the hand of the Midianites. Judges 6.1 – 6 (SERVITUDE)
• The people cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites. Judges 6.7 (SUPPLICATION)
• Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon. 6.11 – 16 (SALVATION)
  • Gideon tested the angel, and the angel set the food on fire from a rock. Judges 6.20, 21
  • Gideon tested God with the fleece twice. Judges 6.36 – 40
  • There was one more test. Gideon has assembled his “army” of 300 men (Judges 7.1 – 8), and the Midianite army has assembled in opposition. Then this conversation:

That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. (Judges 7.9 – 11, ESV, emphasis mine)

Note, “If you are afraid…” to take the army down there, you go down with just Purah. “Then he went down with Purah his servant…” He was afraid! This after a conversation with the angel and three supernatural signs. So he gets one more sign: a dream from a Midianite soldier:

When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” (Judges 7.13 – 15, ESV)

The lesson for us is simple:

God uses ordinary people who overcome their fears to become his instruments.

Many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (Acts 18.8 – 11, ESV)

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. (Paul to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2.3, ESV)

I’m reading through Judges, one of the more depressing books in the Bible, beginning with this sad and incredible verse:

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. (Judges 2.10, ESV)

The only way that could have happened is for the Israelites to ignore this basic instruction from Moses:

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6.6 – 9, ESV)

Don’t teach the children, and a generation will come “who do not know the LORD.” Judges continues with a template for much of the book:

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD…They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger…So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them…Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. (Judges 2.11 – 16, ESV)

A standard outline of the cycle, repeated at least six times in detail in Judges goes something like this:

• Sin
• Servitude
• Supplication
• Salvation (through a Judge – the savior)
• Serenity (e.g., “The land had peace for 40 years.”)

Rinse and repeat.

Tomorrow we’ll look at how this played out with Gideon.

This text is about the Israelites’ time in the wilderness, but it could just as easily apply to the accounts in Judges. Watch and learn:

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10.6 – 11, ESV)

Here’s just a quick follow-on to yesterday’s blog, It Takes All Kinds of People. It also takes all kinds of organizations:

But God has carefully designed each member and placed it in the body to function as he desires. A diversity is required, for if the body consisted of one single part, there wouldn’t be a body at all! So now we see that there are many differing parts and functions, but one body. (1 Corinthians 12.18 – 20, TPT)

A simple lesson is that this must go beyond the localized way we usually think of it. No single individual, no single church, no single denomination, no single para-church organization, etc. can do all of God’s work. To reiterate the aircraft carrier metaphor, God has A LOT of ships out there!

• Each ship has a variety of people on it to make it work.
• All the ships together make the Navy work.
• Even the Navy is only one part of the armed forces.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2.19 – 21, NIV)