ABNY Week

I'm in a rather unique window of time this week. 

Last week, my dad began cancer treatments. It's not a grave scenario, and the non-chemo treatments are for better quality of life rather than trying to stave off his mortal decline. The side effects are not severe, and in his case, manageable and quite minor. But it's still cancer treatment, an ominous reminder of the inevitable degradation of the human body. We get old and eventually die.

On the other hand, this Sunday, I won't be with you all because I'll be at my folks' church with the amazing privilege of baptizing my own mother. Baptism is the most prominent Christian symbol of new birth, new life, and our everlasting existence in the Kingdom of God. The exact opposite of the decay and death of our fallen state. The promise that is needed only because of things like cancer.

And I'm in this week, the middle of these two events in the lives of my own parents. Yet, this week is a microcosm of the era we all live in - somewhere between the inevitable destruction of these bodies and the fulfillment of the eternal promise of everlasting life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

We must not, however, think about the Kingdom of God as something that is only future. There is clearly a great future of enjoying the full Kingdom for all time, with the complete absence of sin, death, sorrow, pain, suffering - the complete absence of the results of being a sinful race. No more cancer and no more cancer treatments and no more side effects of cancer treatments. New, glorified bodies designed to endure forever.

However, the Kingdom of God is also present. Jesus told His own generation that the Kingdom of God was already upon them. At the moment we become members of God's family through faith in Christ, we enter the Kingdom in this era. Our citizenship is in heaven already. We can experience attributes of the Kingdom today. We can live as citizens of the Kingdom this week. Jesus can be our King and reign over every aspect of our lives now. Even while we have things like cancer. Especially because we have things like cancer.

We can also bring aspects of the Kingdom to those God puts us in contact with. Not only can Jesus reign over our lives, but by our influence through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we can bring the goodness of our King to our environments, "on earth as it is in heaven." 

We cannot usher in God's Kingdom, and it is not our task to (contrary to what the "Kingdom Now" theologians claim). We can, however, bless those around us with the benefit of the Kingdom's impact on their lives, too.

If you are not yet sure you're a member of this Kingdom already, it would be a privilege for me to talk with you about it.

In this week, between cancer and the sign of new birth into the Kingdom of God, I rest in the already but not yet. I am able to rest because I know I have already entered that Kingdom, and I am convinced that its fulfillment is even more inevitable than the decline of my own body.

What If?

1. What if God really did create everything from nothing some time ago? Would this define my reason for being here? Would this define my relationship with Him? Does it reveal how He feels about me? Does it give Him any authority over me? Does it provide a way for me to participate in the work He is busy doing?
    
2. What if Jesus really is who the New Testament describes? If he is more than a teacher, but actually divine, equal to God the Father but somehow a distinct Person, does that put him in a unique category in the world? If he really has existed from eternity past and was sent to us, does that justify his claim to be our sole means to the Kingdom of God? If he really is "that guy," how should I respond to him?
    
3. What if Jesus really did rise from the dead? If this happened, is what he claimed during his life on earth authenticated? If he defeated death, can he defeat it for me, too? If this miracle really happened, are other miracles possible? Is anything impossible for him?
    
4. What if not doing what is God's will was as sinful as doing what is not God's will? (What if that question made sense?) What if not feeding the hungry was as wrong as murder? What if merely avoiding the big sins was categorically as sinful as not avoiding them? What if "thou shalt" was just as important as "thou shalt not"? What if not being busy with God's mission was as sinful as smoking crack? What if living in the Kingdom meant living like the Kingdom, rather than just avoiding living like the world?
    
5. What if character was more important than accomplishment? What if what people can't really see had more eternal value than the stuff they can see and praise? Am I willing to be ethically unemployed more than I'm willing to be unethically employed? If I valued character over accomplishment, would I ever lie about anything ever again? What if this statement truly had more meaning for me than just a saying that we are all obligated to agree with?
    
6. What if being good was better than being right? Would I rather win a disagreement or bless someone I disagree with? Does it make sense to turn someone away from God by how much I insist on being proven right? What if "truth" was more than just the correctness of facts, but also the attitude with which they are presented?
    
7. What if my every complaint exposed something I need to change about myself? Wouldn't it be neat if my feelings of being annoyed were a clue that there's still something within me that could improve? Wouldn't it be convenient to have a reminder that I'm selfish, I'm proud, I'm argumentative, I'm narrow-minded, I'm inconsiderate, I'm incomplete, and that I make mistakes - some feeling that would remind me of these things?
    
8. What if I didn't deserve any of the good things I have? How would I treat my stuff if I believed it wasn't owed to me? Would I hoard it? Would I refuse to be generous? Would I compare myself to others by how much of it I have? Would I brag about it? Would I define my self-worth from it? Would I forget those who have less (or none) of it?
    
9. What if I really was going to die one day? What if there really was this day when I would stop breathing, and everything about my life would be given a cosmic perspective? Would I value time? Would I spend it like a limited commodity? On my deathbed (assuming there is one, of course), would I care more about how I treated people or about what I've consumed and accumulated? Would my preferred words be "who and how" or "what and how much"? Would Right and Wrong bear any significance if I had only seconds left to breathe the air of this world? What if I knew now that one day I'll be dead? What will I be doing 100 million years from now?
    
10. What if confessing my sin was more curative than revealing only my good attributes? Is it possible that God actually forgives? If God already knows everything, is it possible that admitting it all to Him would benefit my relationship with Him? Even though the other person was wrong (too), if confessing my sin to him was the best road to reconciliation, would I do it? But isn't it a better "witness" to let people think that you think that they think that you think that you have no big flaws? Isn't it just easier to tell everyone you're "fine"?

Or maybe it's just me.

Lord, please don't let me be a slobbering mess

This weekend, I have the staggering privilege of officiating my niece's wedding near Dallas. I've performed a number of weddings - not dozens and dozens, but enough to have a variety of experiences. The level of crying at these weddings has ranged from zero to moderate to the longest snot-rope I've ever seen dangling from anyone's nose, let alone a bride's. My concern this time is whether or not I will keep it all together - this will be the first time I've officiated for a family member, and the first time for someone I once held as a baby.

I remember the first wedding I officiated. I was still in seminary while serving at a church. Two of my close seminary friends got engaged and asked me to do their premarital counseling and officiate their wedding. At first, it was all exciting adventure into new territory and I jumped in with eagerness, a tiny measure of fear, and a paltry sense that I knew what I was doing. But these were two friends also going through seminary, and they graciously empathized all the way.

On the day of the wedding, exactly 5 minutes before we were supposed to walk out into the sanctuary, I realized something I had somehow never thought of before. I can't do this!!! Who am I to declare two people married? Wait a minute ... just because I say a few words and sign a document, poof! my two friends are now suddenly husband and wife? Hocus pocus, abracadabra, Turtle Power! And now they are united in a covenant before God and have a new legal status before the state. I can't do that! That's only for real pastors.

My head spun, I actually checked to see where the exit was, and I started drumming up excuses. Failing to find a good enough excuse, I just walked out there and started what we had planned on. It turned out to be a fun, joyful, and memorable wedding. Not primarily because of me ... which means I succeeded in just kickstarting the ceremonial part of it and then getting out of the way.

Today, this couple has four wonderful, fun-loving kids and are living in Spain serving as missionaries, learning anew how to thrive in a different setting as a family.

Then I mentally run through all the other couples for whom I've had this honor, and I see parents, expecting parents, adoptive parents, and future parents. I see people building a household, involved in their communities, influencing others, and even helping younger couples prepare for marriage. I see them post their joys and challenges online, with snapshots of living life as family.

I'm taking no credit for that - not in the least. Rather, I'm reveling in the amazing privilege it is to stand before a couple and before God and look past the horizon to envision all that can blossom from marriage. The trials, difficulties, and disappointments are all real, but what can multiply from marriage is enough to make a grown man cry. Especially an uncle standing before his niece, a young man (who had better watch his step!), and God.

Maybe I could go for that snot-rope record...