The Wonderful Cross

As we spend the day contemplating the ultimate sacrifice of the Messiah Jesus on our behalf, and the amazing depths of his love...



Thanks be to God!

Processing

December 7. April 19. September 11. And now April 15.

So many dates. So many events where most of us will remember exactly where we were when we "heard the news." And today was another one.

It is hard to put into words just how shocked and sickened we all are as we process what happened at the Boston Marathon today. It's hard to believe people can be this sick, this callous, this evil.

But I as process it, I keep coming back to two thoughts. Two things that I already knew but it's at times like this that I find out whether they are just platitudes or I really believe them.

1. The good world that God created is full of brokenness.
2. God is sovereign and working out his good and perfect will in everything that happens. Everything.

Does he care? Absolutely. He entered the world in the person of Jesus to experience death and suffering on our behalf, and the power to overcome by his resurrection.

Is he going to stop it? One day, yes. In his good time, when he has accomplished all his purposes.

It's hard to trust this at times, isn't it? When you see the devastation in Boston today. When you go to places ridden with incredible poverty, despair, hunger, and disease. When you realize that around the world incidents like this happen almost every day in places like Iraq and Somalia, killing innocent bystanders every day. Where is the love?

We Americans tend to believe the the ultimate good is safety, comfort, and freedom from suffering. Jesus said something quite different. The ultimate good comes from how we react to suffering, and the good things God does in us when we experience it. So when awful, awful things happen, that is when the Lord of the universe does his best work.

Reports of Marathon Runners that crossed finish line and continued to run to Mass General Hospital to give blood to victims #PrayforBoston
— NBC Sports Network (@NBCSN) April 15, 2013

I see evidence of it already. The way people ran toward the explosions to help people rather than running away. The way some runners went directly to the hospital to give blood - even though they had to be almost dehydrated. People thinking of others rather than themselves - this is where we begin to see God working his will.

So I grieve. And pray. But I also wait anxiously to see what the Father is going to accomplish. Because it's going to be awesome.

Fringe: The Bullet That Saved the World

It was, I dare say, one of the all-time great episodes of Fringe. And that's saying a heck of a lot.

This last Friday night's episode had it all. Action, adventure, poignant scenes. Love, hope, desperation, sacrifice, anger. I really don't even know where to start writing about it - I just had to. So let me try to set up the scene below with a little background for non-fans.

In the scene, after a humorous exchange designed to provide contrast (lasting about the first 30 seconds), we see Etta and Olivia preparing for a mission. Olivia is Etta's mother - despite the fact that they appear to be about the same age. (This - and please don't check out on me - is because Olivia has been suspended in kind of a cryogenic state for 21 years.) Etta has a necklace with a bullet she found among her mother's things when she was 13. This bullet has great significance. Watch:

SPOILER ALERT: If you watch Fringe and haven't seen the episode yet, go no further. Stop here and watch it immediately!

Yes, the bullet has great significance. If you saw the Season 4 finale, you know that Olivia was shot in the forehead and died. It's impossible to explain without laying out four years of storyline, but she had to die in order to save the universe from a destructive energy radiating from her. After she died, the bullet was removed and she came back to life.

It was definitely (somewhat intentionally I suspect) a type of the death of Jesus and how it has redeemed and saved our universe. Especially since she was able to come back from the dead having accomplished her purpose.

So the interesting thing to me was this: here we are, 20+ years later. The original threat is gone, but the world still needs healing in a big way. And here is her daughter, holding on to the bullet, connected to a chain, worn as jewelry. Do you see where I'm going? The bullet is to the Fringe story what the cross is to our story. A bullet is a hideous thing, an instrument of death. But because of its significance, this bullet is worn as jewelry. Exactly like the crosses we wear around our necks.

Listen to Michael W. Smith on the subject:

What is your line?

Why do you wear your cross of gold?

Does it find a way into your soul? 

REPEAT SPOILER ALERT! Major plot point ahead!

For Etta and her mother's bullet, it did find a way into her soul - it drove everything she did her whole life, up until a moment when she met up with her own bullet. A bullet that, I believe, will turn out to be the bullet that saves the world from the new threat. (Such a wonderful title to the episode, with multiple meanings - love that!)

Will you and I (like Etta) each take up our own respective crosses? Or will we just wear them around our necks?

Dachau: A matter of perspective

Two years ago, I had the amazing opportunity to visit the beaches of Normandy.

It was an amazing experience, with an overwhelming sense of history. To realize that so many, many people gave their lives to punch a hole in the Nazi defenses was sobering. Without that offensive, who knows what the world would be like now? As a friend of mine said, we might all be speaking German.

But I've got to say, I did not fully sense the significance until this last Saturday. Oh yeah, I knew how important it was. I knew that victory in World War II ended the monstrous reign of Adolf Hitler. But I didn't really feel it. Not until Saturday.

Why? Well, this last Saturday I was in Munich, Germany at the end of a business trip. And being so near Dachau, we decided to visit the former concentration camp.

I cannot even put into words what I saw over a period of about three hours. We walked the grounds where tens of thousands were mistreated in unimaginable ways. They lived without adequate sleeping facilities, adequate food, or adequate human interaction. When they died from these intolerable conditions, they were cremated en masse without a shred of dignity. Toward the end of the war, many of them were led into gas chambers to be executed.

Note: I took a lot of pictures because I never want to forget what I saw. I considered putting them here, but I've decided not to (with one exception below) for two reasons: First, I don't think the pictures do justice to the true horror that was Dachau, and second, I couldn't get past the fear that posting the pictures would trivialize and/or sensationalize the pain of those who died there. I want to do the memory more honor than that.

Here is the thought that has stuck with me since the visit: I feel like I understand what I saw at Normandy so much more. Why did those men give their lives? For their country? Yes, of course. But in this case it was so much more than that. They died so that the atrocities at Dachau and other such camps would end. They died to free the captives, captives who suffered as much or more as any group of people in history. As I walked, sat, and prayed on the grounds of Dachau, my mind kept going back to Normandy. and to those great young men who bravely advanced so that at some current and all future victims of the Third Reich could be saved.

Rows of crosses at Normandy...

...led to the destruction of rows of barracks at Dachau:

And that's a good, good thing.
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As I reflect on these two experiences, I can't help but think about what we are celebrating this week, Holy Week. Friday we will meditate on the cross of Jesus, and how he paid the price for our sin. He set us free and made a relationship with God possible. But like the sacrifice at Normandy, we can't fully grasp the meaning without understanding what he was rescuing us from. We were totally lost, a victim of all the evil the world can pile on us. We may not have realized it, but our situation was desperate. If we don't' see that, we can't see how great the death and resurrection of Jesus. So my prayer for myself is that I will see myself as I really am, so that I can fully appreciate what Christ did for me.

Just as I now more fully appreciate what the heroes of Normandy did. Context is everything, isn't it?

Remembering D-Day

Normandy Beach

A little over a year ago I had the awesome opportunity to visit Normandy. It was almost surreal to see in person the place where so many gave their lives to turn the tide of World War II. I saw the beach where the troops came ashore (top left) and a massive cemetery where Americans who lost their lives there are buried. A little more detail about my visit is contained in this blog post.

Today is June 6, the anniversary of the historic day. The Allied invasion took place 67 years ago today, and the world will never be the same. Therefore I ask that you pause for a moment and think about the sacrifice that was made to maintain freedom, and to defeat the evil that was Adolf Hitler.

The world is a better place because of the ones buried here:

US Cemetery at Normandy

Thank you, Lord, for their courage.

"I have no other place to turn"

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)

"Previously on Fringe":

Walter is a scientist with a dark secret - one that drove him to mental illness. Years ago, he was a brash young scientist playing fast and loose with the laws of physics. His research led him to conduct drug experiments on young children, play with the minds of other test subjects, and ultimately to use his knowledge for an act of selfishness: After his son Peter's death, he  crossed over to a parallel universe and stole the son of his counterpart. (Yes, I know this sounds ridiculous.) The nature of such an action has caused the two universes to start disintegrating and now, as the result of his selfish act, an entire world will perish. Heady stuff.

Over the years, the consequences of his actions haunted Walter. He was always looking over his shoulder. He could see the world breaking down around him, and he knew it was his fault. Eventually his son Peter learned the truth, creating a fissure in their relationship that would be very difficult to overcome. And the more he tried to fix things, the worse they got. Finally he began to gain the wisdom that comes with humility, enabling him to make wise choices. It has become evident that one of those choices may be the need to sacrifice his son.

______________

So this wonderful TV show Fringe has brought us to the point where in last week's episode found the world falling apart, all because of what Walter had done. A machine activated by his evil counterpart on the other side (dubbed "Walternate"...clever, eh?) is poised to save their world by destroying ours, and Peter is the only one who can stop it. And in the process could likely die. Walter comes to the conclusion that he has to let go of his son in order to save the world, a theme that rang very familiar as the show aired on Good Friday.

But Walter is not God giving his son, he only played God with his scientific abuses. And so the plan didn't work. While trying to enter the machine and turn it off, Peter is knocked backwards and falls, oh, 20 or 30 feet to the ground. He is knocked unconscious. And as his life hangs in the balance, the historically agnostic Walter enters the hospital chapel, and we are treated to this amazing scene:

 

(I could watch that scene over and over - what an amazing actor John Noble is!)

And so we come back to the Scripture, the parable, at the beginning of this post. What is God looking for? Not pride, not self-reliance, not self-righteousness and a condescending attitude toward those who are different from us. That was the attitude of the Pharisee in Jesus' parable. And the attitude of Walter for most of his life - not religious self-righteousness but arrogance and self-righteousness just the same.

No, God is looking for humility. An awareness that we are not in control and have no idea how to fix our lives...or our world. That all our efforts, all our schemes, all our knowledge will fall short if he is not involved. That "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain." (Psalm 127:1)

Watch the scene again. This is where Walter has finally arrived. He has done everything in his power to try and undo his crimes (or sins) against nature and is finally asking for help from the only one who can. "I have no other place to turn." That is a powerful statement. And it's true for me, and for all of us. We just don't know it most of the time, especially when things are going well.

And look back at the parable. "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Yep...he has no other place to turn. and neither do we.

As we sit here in the wake of the unspeakable tragedy that has hit our state, our world seems to be crumbling around us as well. Truly, God, we have no other place to turn. I pray that we will depend on you in this time of rebuilding and restoration that is beginning. And I pray even more fervently that we will continue to depend on you when that day comes where things seem alright again.

The next episode of this amazing show airs tonight. I can hardly wait to see what happens next. How will Walter's prayer be answered? Which world will survive - either? Both? What will happen to Walter, Peter, Olivia, and other characters whom I haven't mentioned? Whatever happens, I expect to be on the edge of my seat and to again be thinking about the greater themes of life. Because that's what good stories do.