Yesterday we considered the promising-to-sad progression/regression of some churches attempting to carry out Jesus’ mission of making disciples:

• Man: Jesus
• Movement
• Mission [I think I would have put Movement before Mission.]
• Monument
• Museum
• Mausoleum

And it doesn’t take long, unfortunately. The first-century Church at Sardis (Revelation 3.1 – 6) had already gone full course:

I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (Revelation 3.1, ESV)

The building is there. The lights are on. There’s probably activity – “you have the reputation of being alive” – but it’s dead. There’s no disciple-making going on. Such a state was John Wesley’s greatest fear:

I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. – John Wesley in “Thoughts Upon Methodism,” emphasis mine

The Mission -> Mausoleum progression came from Jay Terrell’s article A Mission Not a Mausoleum. Another point Jay made was that disciple-making is local.

I want to be a part of a church that recognizes that disciples are made at the local level. No General Conference has ever made a disciple of Jesus. I’ve never known a Jurisdictional or Annual Conference that has introduced someone to Christ. The local church is God’s Plan “A” to transform this world and usher in the kingdom of God, and there isn’t a “Plan B.” – Jay Terrell

In the Methodist Church the “General Conference” and “Annual Conference” are the denominational and district-level governing bodies. Terrell is saying that disciples aren’t made there. They’re made “at the local level.” With that I agree.

But how are they made? Here’s a provocative quote from The Disciple Dilemma by Dennis Allen.

General Motors, Tesla, Ford and the other car companies don’t build cars. Not one. Boeing does not build airplanes, and Apple does not manufacture iPads and iPhones. What those companies do (by way of their leaders) is articulate a specific mission, build a reinforcing culture to execute on that mission, and organize so people can make the things the companies want to produce. (page 249, emphasis mine)

GM doesn’t build cars…their people do. The “church” does not make disciples in some magical way. Their people do. And if the people don’t, I would question whether or not disciples are being made. Disciples cannot be made just by conducting Sunday morning services. That would be like trying to teach piano by taking kids to concerts. The pastors can contribute, of course, through public teaching, but they ought also to contribute by example, training people who will train others. Paul wrote to “Pastor Timothy:”

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

Paul also wrote about the church leaders’ job description:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… (Ephesians 4.11, 12, NIV)

I made this point four years ago in General Contractors or Trade Schools?

Jesus said, “You make disciples (Matthew 28.18 – 20), I’ll build the church (Matthew 16.18).

I’m a sucker for alliterative outlines, especially when they make a really good point…

I was in a Presbyterian church in Alabama when the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) broke off from the Presbyterian Church US, minimally involved at the local church level. I was at First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs when the senior pastor, Jim Singleton, was one of the major leaders in forming a new Presbyterian denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Order (ECO) of Presbyterians. And I’ve been watching friends of mine spearhead creating the Global Methodist Church (GMC), breaking away from the United Methodist Church (UMC). Breaking away and forming a new denomination is an enormous expenditure of time and energy.

Anyway, I’m still on the mailing list for the precursor organization to the GMC, the Wesleyan Covenant Association, and one of their pastors just shared a sermon that made a big impression on him.

The Rev. Jay Therrell’s article with the provocative title A Mission Not a Mausoleum starts this way:

There are four or five sermons that I’ve heard in my lifetime that I can remember almost every word. God used the preachers that shared them to speak into my life. Those words have shaped and formed who I am in Jesus and what I do for Jesus.

Bob Coy preached one of those sermons. He was the lead pastor of Calvary Chapel in Ft. Lauderdale. At the time, Calvary Chapel was the largest church in Florida. A member of the church I served almost 20 years ago gave me a CD of Coy’s sermon, and it had a profound impact. The sermon was called “The Museum of Sardis” and it was based on Revelation 3.1 – 6, the passage where Jesus warns the church at Sardis that they are almost dead.

Coy shared the idea that Christianity started with a man, Jesus Christ. That man inspired a movement; a movement of men and women that began to form a church. That movement grew into a mission that moved worldwide and today includes over 2 billion people. It is a mission that included a church in the ancient city of Sardis (present-day Turkey). That mission located in Sardis was alive. It was making new disciples. It was transforming the city…until the church got comfortable. It began to care more for its own preferences than the lost outside its walls. Eventually, it turned from a mission into a monument.

Jesus squarely warned this remaining monument of what would happen unless it fanned into flame the few remaining embers:

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. (Revelation 3.2, 3, ESV)

The Christians of Sardis weren’t willing to repent and return to the mission of making disciples. Instead, they chose death.

Choosing death, the monument of Sardis turned into a museum pointing to a past mission. Eventually, the museum became a mausoleum. Today, Sardis is in ruins. Not only was the church not successful in transforming the city, but the city is no more.

It’s a good outline:

• Man: Jesus
• Movement
• Mission [I think I would have put Mission before Movement.]
• Monument
• Museum
• Mausoleum

It’s not a pretty progression after #3. Rev. Terrell, of course, applies the outline to the Methodist movement under John Wesley. He would say that the UMC is well into the downward part of the progression:

I’m done with monuments and museums. I want to be a part of a movement and a mission. I haven’t surrendered my life to Jesus personally and vocationally to be part of a dead sect. I want to join the Light and Hope of the World in reaching the least, the last, and the lost and introducing them to the saving way of Christ! – Jay Terrell

I wish Jay and his colleagues well. I hope they succeed in “reaching the least, the last, and the lost” and disciple them. Jay firmly believes “that disciples are made at the local level.” I agree, but maybe not in the same way. More on that tomorrow.

Today, I’d just like to observe that once the church building gets built, you have entered the “Monument” phase whether you want to or not. And it will take very intentional effort to maintain “Movement” and “Mission.” I wrote about this last year in a 4-part series on movement stoppers beginning here.

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: “The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.'” (Revelation 3.1, ESV)

Our son Mark took us to a live one-man play about C.S. Lewis: Further Up, Further In. Highly recommend it if it’s ever in your area. Among the highlights was C.S. Lewis’ description of his coming to faith after long conversations with fellow Oxford professors and authors J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. A couple of months after one such conversation, Lewis visited the zoo with his brother. He wrote:

When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and when we reached the zoo, I did.

Lewis was in his early 30s then, and I couldn’t help but reflect on a long thread I had just read on the neighborhood website NextDoor. A lady in our area posted:

I have noticed since moving to Colorado Springs that everyone I meet ends up asking me about my faith, if I have “found a church” yet, etc… don’t get me wrong, I have no issues discussing matters of faith with others or my own faith journey, but it has honestly been surprising to me because I was raised in a manner and culture where it is very rude to push religion (and politics), especially with people you have literally just met. Is it culturally acceptable here to just meet someone and assume they are looking for religion and need your help finding the “right” one?

This spurred a flurry of comments, most along the lines of this sample:

Well, here in the springs the #2 “industry” is religion (#1 is military) so…while I never experienced that it isn’t surprising. Is it rude I dunno. Like someone else said Bible Belt area is commonplace to ask that. Maybe they are asking so if you don’t have that commitment yet you can join them. Try not to be offended by it, it’s how they show they care, and come up with your own witty response.

I absolutely hate it. No! I don’t go to church and I don’t want to, far too lazy and love to sleep in. Also, keep your political stuff to yourself. I hate talking about politics. I vote for who I vote for, it’s no one’s business and I’m going to like you for you. Not for who you voted or if you do or don’t believe in god.

yes. I feel this. Religion is such a personal thing and I can’t imagine trying to change someone’s very personally-held beliefs, or even their lack of religion. Because that is also a personal thing.

“Religion is such a personal thing and I can’t imagine trying to change someone’s very personally-held beliefs…” But J.R.R. Toilken and Hugo Dyson didn’t mind trying. Of course, they were close friends, while the thread mainly talked about having the conversation with near strangers. And the point is that C.S. Lewis did change…as an adult. He gave up one deeply held belief for another and spent the rest of his life trying to bring others around.

Why? Near the end of the play was this haunting excerpt from The Silver Chair, book 6 of the Chronicles of Narnia series. It’s a conversation between the Lion (the Christ Figure in the series) and a little girl:

“If you’re thirsty, you may drink…If you’re thirsty, you may come and drink…Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.

“I am dying of thirst,” said Jill.

“Then drink,” said the Lion.

“May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.

The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

“Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.

“I make no promise,” said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

“Do you eat girls?” she said.

“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.

“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.

“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”

“There is no other stream,” said the Lion.”

Jesus was clear:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. (John 7.37, ESV)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14.6, ESV)

I’ve just finished rereading Glittering Images by Susan Howatch, the first in a series of six novels whose main characters are various clerics in the Church of England from 1937 – 1965. The series was first published in the late 1980s/early 1990s. They are all psychological mysteries, very well done. Although it’s a series, you could get by with just reading Glittering Images. It’s a self-contained story with a satisfying ending.

The narrator is a 37-year-old priest and theologian Dr. Charles Ashworth. The real hero of the story (as I see it) is his spiritual director, Father Jon Darrow, who leads Charles out of a self-defeating pattern of hiding behind his “glittering image” of a successful clergyman while inside, he’s a mess.

Here’s what I want to write about today: in order to strengthen Charles spiritually for some difficult conversations, Father Darrow assigns a month of spiritual exercises. Get up at 6am, no food, just a cup of tea, no cigarettes, get right to it. “The exercises will include your spending 15 minutes meditating on a short reading in the Gospels, which I will assign.”

Here’s how Charles describes his first attempt at such meditation:

I had been given a short passage from St. Mark’s Gospel to consider, not an interesting section like the Little Apocalypse [Mark 13] which would have involved me in some challenging scholarly thoughts on Jewish eschatology, but the few verses which described the healing of Jairus’s daughter [Mark 5.22 – 24, 35 – 42]. The story was excruciatingly familiar, and after five minutes I found all my attempts at meditation had run aground on the rocks of boredom. To pass the allotted time I translated the verses first into New Testament Greek and then into medieval Latin, but I was acutely aware that I was not supposed to be exercising my scholarship, and it was with mortification that I approached the last quarter of an hour which had been allocated to prayer.

This section was easier, as I was in the habit of praying, but I was so upset by my failure to meditate competently that I found my concentration was wandering again and my prayers lacked depth.

I saw then how adrift I was unless the scholarly side of my intellect was engaged, and although I was no stranger to a broader religious awareness I realised that over the years my experience had narrowed instead of expanded. I liked my religion to take a cool, hard, analytical form and then I was capable of feeling very devout indeed, but without the prop of my intellectual power I was lost. I told myself I was not temperamentally suited to meditation; my gift was for studying and teaching, not for sitting around brooding over the spiritual resonances of one tiny section of St. Mark’s Gospel. – Glittering Images, page 283, emphasis mine

Years ago I tried to teach a theologian how to read relationally rather than in a scholarly way, and he couldn’t meditate either. He spent a week in Psalm 1, for example, with no fruit. (I wrote on this phenomenon last year: here’s the first of a series of three.)

“I was not supposed to be exercising my scholarship” reminds me of a session I had with a church staff. I taught them how to have daily time with God and at our next meeting the pastor told this story:

I got up early and sat with my Bible opened to Romans, my journal, my Greek New Testament, and my commentary. After a few minutes I said to myself, this is not what Bob asked us to do! So I put away my Greek New Testament and my commentary and just practiced “Read, Reflect, Respond, Record” that Bob had taught us. I said to myself, “This is insanely simple!” – Pastor Mark

Kudos to Pastor Mark for “getting it,” and kudos to novelist Susan Howatch for capturing the deficiencies of the purely intellectual approach. Sometimes we just need to relax and give God a chance.

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. (Matthew 11.25, 26, ESV)

(long but worth it)

June 26, 2023, was the 75th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, and our local paper ran a 2-page feature on it. I will admit that even though I am a retired Air Force officer, and I certainly “knew” about the Berlin Airlift, I had no idea of its magnitude. Here’s how the story starts:

Alarmed by the efforts of their former allies — the United States, Great Britain and France — to support the development of a free economy in a democratic West Germany, on June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded all road, rail and canal traffic of essential food, medicine and coal supplies to the free people of West Berlin and cut off electricity.

“The situation was extremely dangerous,” wrote historian David McCullough. “Clearly Stalin was attempting to force the Western allies to withdraw from the city. Except by air, the Allied sectors were entirely cut off. Nothing could come in or out. Two-and-a-half-million people faced starvation. As it was, stocks of food would last no more than a month. Coal supplies would be gone in six weeks.”

President Harry Truman had limited options. With Allied forces vastly outnumbered by Soviet combat forces near Berlin, confronting the blockade with an armed convoy didn’t look promising. Yet the thought of capitulation — giving up Berlin and allowing the Soviets to dominate Western Europe — was a nonstarter. “We stay in Berlin, period,” Truman told his key advisers.

That left one audacious option. By agreement with the Soviets, the Allies maintained three, 20-mile-wide air corridors into Berlin. This provided the opportunity to mount an aerial supply effort. Yet the odds were high. “It hardly seemed realistic to expect a major city to be supplied entirely by air for any but a very limited time,” McCullough wrote. Indeed, many of Truman’s aides considered an airlift a stopgap measure to buy time for diplomacy. The Air Force’s first chief of staff, Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, however, insisted the Air Force “go in wholeheartedly.” He added, “If we do, Berlin can be supplied.”

Two days after the blockade began, on June 26, 1948, the U.S. chose the airlift option. What followed was the infant U.S. Air Force’s first great triumph, the greatest humanitarian airlift in history. It not only kept the citizens of West Berlin from starving, it gave them hope.

I could have told you there was a Berlin Airlift in 1948 in response to a Soviet blockade and that it was a success. That’s about all I knew. Here’s what I didn’t know:

• The airlift lasted from June 26, 1948 – September 30, 1949, 15 months.
• They flew around the clock in difficult flying conditions: weather, Soviet interference.
• The US Air Force delivered 1.8 million tons of supplies (The British Royal Air Force added 0.5 million more.)
• There were 278,228 flights, a plane landing every three minutes. Under the direction of Brigadier General William Tunner, they
  • Cut unloading times from 17 minutes to 5 minutes
  • Cut turnaround times from 60 minutes to 30 minutes
  • Cut refueling times from 33 minutes to 8 minutes

The story goes on, highlighting a few individuals including the Air Force pilot who started dropping candy out of his plane for the children. I strongly recommend the piece in its entirety along with a sidebar article on a local Colorado Springs, man, 97 years old, who was a weather observer. It ends with the recollections of a 13-year-old German boy who eventually came to the US. He captures the story’s significance:

“In those days, I didn’t have any heroes,” Samuel said. “But when a C-54 crashed near our camp, a couple days later I went out there. It was a sad experience. I didn’t understand these Americans. Three years earlier in 1945 they bombed me when I was in Berlin, and now they were dying to save the city of Berlin. I very much understood what was being done in terms of delivering food and coal to the people of Berlin. And so, these Berlin airlift flyers really became my heroes. I wanted to be like them. Of course, I was a refugee. I knew that would never happen. Well, you can never anticipate what fate has in store for you. I ended up in the United States at age 16 (after his mother married an American Airman and immigrated). I couldn’t speak a word of English and had maybe an eighth-grade education. Eleven years later I was conducting spying flights against the Soviet Union. Only in America!”

Indeed, Samuel enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and over a 30-year career, helped support U-2 reconnaissance flights during the Cuban Missile crisis, conducted intelligence gathering missions against the Soviets over the Barents and Baltic seas and received three Distinguished Flying Crosses for his gallantry in an EB-66 electronic warfare aircraft escorting strike forces over North Vietnam. “I was obviously an immigrant,” Samuel said. “I wanted to do more than just make money. I wanted to serve my country which had been very good to me. So those 30 years of service, including four years of enlisted service, I gladly gave.”

In reflecting on the airlift’s legacy, Samuel states, “I think it’s a very understated event, when in fact it was probably the most important confrontation between East and West. As a result of the Berlin Airlift, these flyers didn’t just save the city of Berlin; their actions resulted in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and put a stop to further Soviet expansion. Too few Americans know about this, but that’s the legacy of those flyers.”

“Too few Americans know about this,” including me, so here’s my contribution to turn that around. It’s a stirring story, much more important than a fleeting sports championship, and it illustrates the importance of leadership, courage, “everyone on the wall” participation, persistence, selflessness, and a host of other qualities worth studying and emulating.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12.1, 2, ESV)

It’s been three years since I posted a picture of a doe and two fawns in our backyard so I think it’s OK to post another, don’t you?

In the top left, she seems to be saying, “OK, let’s go.” In the top right picture, she’s saying to the straggler, “I said, let’s go!” Finally, “OK, follow me.”

We also have a pair of robins who have built a nest on top of our downspout right behind where I’m sitting in our den to write these blogs.

Daddy Robin doesn’t come by that often, and when he does, he perches outside the nest in full view. Mama is a bit harder to see, but we check on her at least every morning, and there’s the head and beak.

The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” (Psalm 29.9, ESV)

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. (Isaiah 35.5, 6)

GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. (Habakkuk 3.19, ESV)

And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and … let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1.22, ESV)

But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you. (Job 12.7, ESV)

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6.26, ESV)

I have the (un)fortunate ability to “see stuff,” whether it’s a typo in an article, a misprint in a newspaper headline (“Here ye! Here ye!”), or a church that left one of its major hallway’s lights off one Sunday. When I see something, I sometimes point it out to someone who can do something about it in the hopes that improvement will occur. When I characterized this propensity as a curse, one pastor told me, “Do NOT refer to God’s gift as a curse!”

A blogger I read regularly often writes powerful articles on weighty ideas, but sometimes major or minor typos slip in. I had taken to dropping him personal notes, and he would correct the online versions. Once when there were no typos, I felt compelled to write and tell him so since I had been in regular contact. He responded, “A miracle!”

Finally, he started submitting his work in advance. (I had wondered how long that would take.) I usually just point out specific errors or sentences that can be improved, but one time in addition to several major, specific suggestions, I wrote:

Here’s my first cut. I think it’s a necessary message, but the article needs a bit of work. The piece doesn’t feel “tight,” and there’s a lot of repetition. I don’t quite know the fix.

I didn’t know how my comments would be received, but he responded:

Thank you, Bob. Gonna rewrite, improve it. Big thanks.

And he did. The final version was stronger, tighter, and more accurate. This man is not only a powerful and pioneering Christian leader, he’s teachable. You don’t find that very often.

The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. (Proverbs 15.31 – 32, ESV)

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. (Proverbs 27.5 – 7, ESV)

P.S. I know, I know, I’ll bet every one of you readers has found errors in my work from time to time. And some of you have pointed them out. When that happens, I, too, correct the online version. That said, daily blogs will never be as polished as occasional blogs. “The perfect is sometimes the enemy of the good.”

We’re still slogging through Leviticus, but the last two days in Leviticus 17 and Leviticus 18 have reminded us that there are relevant applications even in the middle of what appear to be archaic rules. But coming to chapter 19, we don’t even have to try…most of the instruction is clear, important, and applicable. Here are some highlights:

Practical commands:

• Be inefficient for the sake of the poor (verses 9 and 10)
• Don’t steal, deal falsely, nor lie (verse 11)
• Don’t swear falsely by God’s name (verse 12)
• Don’t oppress or rob your neighbor (verse 13)
• Pay workers promptly (verse 13)
• Don’t be mean

Fearing God is a deterrent and motivator for right living.

You shall not curse a deaf man nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God; I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 19.14, LSB)

• Do no injustice in judgment toward the rich or the poor (verse 15)
• Don’t slander (verse 16)
• Treat your neighbor well

You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, and so not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, and you shall not keep your anger against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 19.17, 18, LSB)

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh.” There it is, and fearing God is in verse 14. Love God. Love your neighbor.

• Rise up before the gray-haired and honor the aged. (verse 32)
• Fear your God. (Several times in this chapter)
• Treat the sojourner well (you were sojourners in the land of Egypt) (verses 33, 34)
• Have just balances and just weights – don’t cheat! (verses 35, 36)

Not everything in chapter 19 applies, but a lot of it does! How do we treat people? The Israelites were mistreated as slaves in Egypt, and God says they were “sojourners” there. So don’t mistreat sojourners. How did church-going people miss this with respect to black people?

How we treat people counts. “Religion” is not about ceremony, it’s about being a good neighbor to all. Seems obvious, but we sure miss it. Isaiah didn’t miss God’s judgment against ceremony over behavior:

Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of convocation—I cannot endure wickedness and the solemn assembly. My soul hates your new moon festivals and your appointed times, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; indeed, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, purify yourselves; remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, execute justice for the orphan, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1.13 – 17, LSB)

Neither did James:

If anyone thinks himself to be religious while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. (James 1.26 – 2.1, LSB)

Let’s let Micah close us out:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.8, ESV)

Yesterday we had a warning against idols from Leviticus 17 and 1 John 5. We continue the theme with another tough chapter: Leviticus 18. The middle contains detailed prohibitions against incest – we won’t go there in this blog! But the beginning and end are very instructive:

You shall not do according to what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do according to what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to do My judgments and keep My statutes, to walk in them; I am Yahweh your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does them, he shall live by them; I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 18.3 – 5, LSB)

There are times when we must be distinct from the culture. We are…

• “to do God’s judgments”
• “Keep God’s statutes”
• “Walk in them”

“I am Yahweh your God.”

The close is similar to the opening:

So do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. (Leviticus 18.24, LSB)

It’s a hard chapter to read, but the bottom line is that there are standards. There are boundaries. And just because the culture is doing it, doesn’t make it right. Real life is in God’s way of life. “If a man does them, he will live by them.”

There are many kinds of things a culture does, that if I participate in, it’s wrong. It’s not just sexual dysfunction. What about oppressing the poor, for example, or depriving minorities of their rights? God’s people are to be different. How many of those yelling obscenities at Ruby Bridges were in church on Sundays, for example?

It’s easy to spend too much money on “toys,” expensive new cars, exotic travel, etc. Fall will be here soon, and there will be an epidemic of people worshiping at the altar of college football teams.

Do not defile yourselves by any of these things. (Leviticus 18.24, ESV)

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5.21, ESV)

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity. (Romans 12.2, J.B. Phillips)

The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful. (Mark 4.19, ESV)

Leviticus is tough going. Our one-chapter-a-day reading program from the Pentateuch has produced many days when we’ve had to supplement our reading with a Psalm or a story from the gospels. (I’m going through Mark since the other three gospels are already included in our reading plan.) But there are lessons. Here’s one from Leviticus 17 that spurred me into some New Testament cross-referencing.

Leviticus 17 is a tough chapter on blood sacrifice and not eating blood. It starts as if every animal slaughtered must be brought to the Tabernacle. But later, it sounds as if the prohibition is against a “sacrifice” to anyone but God.

They must no longer offer their sacrifices to goat-demons – a kind of religious orgy. (Leviticus 17.7, MSG)

Paul picks up on this theme when talking about eating food offered to idols:

Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. (1 Corinthians 10.18 – 20, ESV)

Paul is clearly referring to the same idea that’s in Leviticus 17 but seems to be quoting Deuteronomy:

They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. (Deuteronomy 32.17, ESV)

All this led me to the very strong finish to the Apostle John’s first letter (not the Gospel of John but 1 John). Here it is, bulleted and simplified for clarity:

We know that…

• Everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
• We know that we are from God, and
• The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
• The Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that…
  • we may know him who is true; and
  • we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.
  • He is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5.18 – 21, ESV)

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Easier said than done, especially when “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Stay tuned.