Author: Dave Burchett

A local church is doing an interesting sermon series involving what Jesus would say to various celebrities. The signboard asks the question, What would Jesus say to….

Paris Hilton.
Bono.
Tom Cruise.
Terrell Owens.

I wondered what I would say to each of those famous or infamous people. In my fantasy world I would say something like this…

Paris Hilton – Look up the definition of shame.
Terrell Owens – It is your job to catch passes. Just do your job. I don’t dance in the middle of the room when I do my job well (thank God).
Tom Cruise – You might want to rethink the medication thing.
Bono – You rock.

In the real world I would likely not say any of those things except maybe the “you rock” to Bono. But I was wondering if what Jesus would say to a celebrity is the right question to ask. I am pretty good at figuring out what Jesus would say to others. I have an amazing ability to hear a sermon and wonder if Congregant A is hearing this? Or to shake my head and think, “Man does Congregant B need to hear that!”

But the question I need to be asking is what Jesus would say to Dave. That is where I get less comfortable and a bit more reserved. My fantasy conversation with Jesus happens (surprise) at Starbucks. The first question would be be WWJO. What would Jesus order? After we answered that I imagined the conversation would go something like this…

Jesus: I have missed spending time with you recently.
Dave: I have been really busy with work and traveling.
Jesus: I understand. But you know the shepherd knows when his sheep wander off for awhile. 
Dave: Yeah. Sorry.
Jesus: I was glad you came to me with your fear and hurt about Joni’s cancer.
Dave: I don’t know how I could have handled that without you.
Jesus: I am there for you. I am there even when there is not a crisis.
Dave: I know. I forget that sometimes. I get so busy with stupid stuff that I forget to pray and spend time in the Bible.
Jesus: I was just wondering something.
Dave: What?
Jesus: Did you find time to spend with your fantasy baseball team roster today?
Dave: Do you need a refill?
Jesus: Nice try. You make time for what is important to you. I want to be as important to you as you are to me.
Dave: Why do you put up with me?
Jesus: Because I love you. And I always will.

So maybe my imaginary conversation with Jesus would not go quite like that. I think that conversation would change how I go about my daily routines. I believe that conversation would alter how I view others. And I believe my talk with Jesus would energize my walk with Him.

So the next question is simple. Why isn’t that already happening on a consistent basis? I have His words and teachings to study. I have the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. I have other followers of Jesus to share the journey with each day.

So what would Jesus say to me? I think He would say something very simple and yet profound enough to challenge me for the rest of my days. Here is a little medley of the message I think He would have for me (and you).

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  Matt 4:19

 But Jesus told him, “Follow me….   Matt 8:22

 “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matt 9:9

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  Matt 16:24

Then come, follow me.”   Matt 19:21

Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”   John 1:43

 Whoever serves me must follow me;   John 12:26

 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”   John 21:22

In the immortal words of Forrest Gump…”I’m not a smart man”. But like Forrest I have a keen sense of the obvious. I have surmised (brilliantly) that Jesus would say to follow Him. The rest of it we will figure out together.

 

 

 

 

 

It seems the number one rule of our enlightened culture is to not offend anyone. The corollary to that rule is to not clearly communicate whenever humanly possible.  John Leo wrote a great piece at Townhall.com about the avalanche of euphemisms that are overtaking actual communication. In this world a plane crash becomes, to the airlines, a “Hull loss.”  

New Orleans police rejected the term “looting” after Katrina, but they conceded “the possibility of appropriation of non-essential items from businesses.” I don’t think too many cared if water, baby food, clothing, and groceries were taken for desperate families. DVD players and HDTV’s are another issue. Exhibit A is survival…exhibit B is looting.  

Our educational system is a leader in the growing field of doublespeak. Self-esteem has become the Holy Grail of many education leaders. Leo’s column cited such gems as…

A number of schools have eliminated “F” as a mark, and “suboptimal outcome” means failure. 

How much better would I have felt about myself in high school if I had just realized my bombing of Calculus was merely a “suboptimal outcome’?  

In Britain members of the Professional Association of Teachers suggested that schools drop the word fail. The teachers wanted to use “deferred success”. 

This will be invaluable to me in future communication with the lovely Mrs.Burchett.  

“Dave, did you clean out the garage?”

“Honey, I am anticipating success on a deferred schedule.”

“Where did you hide the BS flag?” 

In this not so brave new world “mandatory discontinued attendance” (suspension) and “post instructional behavioral adjustment period” (detention) are in actual usage.  
 
I experienced “non-voluntary aerobic training” (running laps) for a little basketball disciplinary issue in high school as well.  

In Britain, the Church of England suggests that the words “living in sin” should be banished and replaced by a “covenanted relationship.”  
 
Actually I also disdain the term “living in sin” for couples who are not married. Why? Because I am am capable of sin every single day of my life. We can have a discussion about the biblical perspective for a healthy relationship with couples who are living together. But the reality of my life is best expressed by Paul in this letter to Timothy. 

The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.  I Timothy 1  NIV 

I recently wrote a post called Your Rules, My Rules.  

When you gossip it is sin….

When I gossip it is “sharing.” 

When you stand up for a belief you are stubborn and rigid…

When I do I have the strength of my convictions.  

When you make a mistake you are an immature Christian…

When I screw-up I am going through a “difficult time”. 

You are selfish…

When I act selfishly I am looking out for myself because no one else will. 

When you miss church you are letting down the fellowship…

When I miss it is because of my difficult week that you can’t even begin to understand. 

When you don’t work at a church function you are lazy…

When I don’t volunteer it is because I can’t possibly take on another thing (sighhhh) 

When you take initiative you are self-centered…

When I take charge I am following God’s direction.  

When you get angry you have a terrible attitude…

When I get ticked off I am “filled with righteous indignation”…or something.  

Perhaps you are experiencing a bit of “deferred success” in your Christian journey. Maybe some of your relationships with other Christians are having a “suboptimal outcome” at this point in time. May I encourage you to have the courage to call a spade a spade and not an agricultural soil displacement implement. Sin is sin. And there is an answer to that in 1 John, chapter 4. 

God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins

G.K.Chesterton once responded to a series of articles on ‘What’s Wrong with the World’ with this pithy little comment. 

“Dear Sir: Regarding your article ‘What’s Wrong with the World?’  
 
I am.  
 
Yours truly, G. K. Chesterton.” 

So you feel like your actions don’t matter? Polish writer Stanislaw Jerzy once stated that “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” I am accountable for my actions and how I represent Christ everyday. Don’t allow the temptation of clever euphemisms to disguise truth.  

Earlier this month I received the most meaningful birthday present of my life. When you get to be my age birthdays are kind of like unspoken prayer requests. You are aware they are there but you don’t want to make them public.  

But my family still insists on acknowledging the march of time on my birthday. So the morning of April 6^th dawned and my wife gave me a lovely card. And then she presented her gift. 

She gave me a rock. She handed it to me, smart alecks. It was not delivered up side of the head. I have to admit that I looked a bit quizzically at the gift. I looked at her and tried to think of the right thing to say.  

“Hey, it is just the color I was looking for! And what a cool shape. Thanks!” 

But my wife spared me by asking the logical question. “Do you know why I am giving you a rock?”

“Tell me.” I replied gratefully.

“Because you have been my rock through all of this.” 

Suddenly that stone took on the value of a Tiffany diamond to me. Joni’s reference to “all of this” was her diagnosis with breast cancer and our mutual efforts to confront that from a spiritual, emotional, and medical point of view. I have written about her cancer earlier. But to be honest I haven’t felt like a rock. The fact that she felt that way was an enormously touching to me. 

I guess I had always thought about a “rock” being like the lyrics from the Simon and Garfunkel song… 

I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.

I am a rock,
I am an island. 

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries. 

I would guess that many men have been raised in that model. But any man or woman who is truly a “rock” through adversity does feel pain and they openly acknowledge that pain. And they certainly cry. How could I not cry about what my partner and best friend faces in the months ahead? So many people make the comment that they could not handle what Joni and I are experiencing as well as we are handling it. I disagree. I disagree because we said exactly the same thing in the past as we watched others endure adversity with strength and grace. There is one gigantic key to being a rock in a storm. That key is found in the gospel of Matthew. 

Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash.” After Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were amazed at his teaching… 

If I have displayed any characteristics of value in this trial it is because we decided as a couple to build on the solid rock of God’s Word. We did not know this storm was coming. We did not have time to board up the windows or reinforce the foundation. We had to have our foundation already built on the rock. And it has not collapsed.  

I value my birthday gift. But I feel like I should regift it to my amazing wife. And then we should both place it on the altar to honor the real “Rock” in this journey…Jesus.

April 15^th is not my favorite day of the year. Tax day is never fun for a guy who is organizationally challenged. My idea of being prepared is having everything in one box. But I was heartened to find that April 15^th is a great day for baseball fans. 

Jackie Robinson made his major league debut at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on that date in 1947. It was a historic and significant day for baseball but maybe more so for our country. You can argue that the American civil rights movement was ignited when Robinson came to bat in Dodger Blue. The journey for Robinson was difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst. 

Many Dodgers players, mostly Southerners led by Dixie Walker, threatened to walk if forced to play with a black player. That ended when Dodger management let them know in no uncertain terms that they could keep walking to the unemployment line. I often write about the pain that is caused by “bad” or thoughtless Christians. Can you imagine the pain that Robinson felt to have his teammates reject him for only one reason?  

But one teammate reacted in a way that I wish all serious and thoughtful Christians would emulate. Team captain Pee Wee Reese was an unlikely ally for Robinson. He was born in segregated Louisville, Kentucky, and the odds were that Reese would be a part of the boycott against a black player. But the diminutive Pee Wee Reese proved to be a giant of a man one day in Cincinnati. During infield practice the Redleg players were screaming at Jackie with all of the usual hateful epithets. And then the venom was distributed to Reese. They were yelling things at him like “How can you play with this (epithet)?”, as Jackie stood uncomfortably at first base. Pee Wee went over to him and put his arm around him and smiled. A silence fell over the Reds dugout and the fans witnessing this amazing act of grace, Jackie smiled back. 

At Reese’s funeral, Joe Black, another Major League Baseball black pioneer, said: “Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the Majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a White guy had accepted us. When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, ‘Black people love you. When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us.’ With Pee Wee, it was No. 1 on his uniform and No. 1 in our hearts.”  

Robinson later wrote this sentiment to Reese in a book inscription. 

“Pee Wee whether you are willing to admit what you being just a great guy meant (a great deal) to my career, I want you to know how much I feel it meant. May I take this opportunity to say a great big thanks and I sincerely hope all things you want in life be yours.”  

We need a lot more Pee Wee Reese’s in the body of Christ. We need men and women who are willing to step up for others when it may not be the best action for personal gain. We need men who are brave enough to look hatred and bigotry in the eye and call it by its name. April 15^th was a day that demonstrated the greatness of two men. We need men who have the courage to emulate both Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese in our walk with Jesus. The Apostle Paul had some good advice to accomplish that goal. 

Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

    Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. Gal 6  Msg 

I want to be willing to stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. As I meditate on the gift of grace and redemption I received through the Cross I wonder how I can do anything else. 

The number one box office movie is still the 1997 film Titanic. It was the number one movie for fifteen consecutive weekends and grossed 600 million in the US and over 1.8 billion worldwide. Titanic became a national obsession to the point where people were wearing T-Shirts that said…

The boat sank.
Get over it.

Many moviegoers got drawn into the class warfare relationship of Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet). But there was so much more to this story than the boat sinking. The pride and arrogance of engineers who thought they had designed the unsinkable vessel. Witnessing the worst side of human nature as people perished because some were so concerned about self preservation that they willingly sacrificed others to achieve that goal. All of this came to mind as I read an article in The Weekly Standard entitled Being a Man. Christina Hoff Sommers is the author of the piece. She is the author of a book called The War Against Boys . Sommers was commenting on a controversial new book from Professor Harvey C.Mansfield. His book is titled Manliness and it is creating quite a stir in academic circles. This is an excerpt from Sommer’s article in The Weekly Standard.

ONE OF THE LEAST VISITED memorials in Washington is a waterfront statue commemorating the men who died on the Titanic. Seventy-four percent of the women passengers survived the April 15, 1912, calamity, while 80 percent of the men perished. Why? Because the men followed the principle “women and children first.” The monument, an 18-foot granite male figure with arms outstretched to the side, was erected by “the women of America” in 1931 to show their gratitude.

To The Brave Men
    Who Perished
    In The Wreck
   of The Titanic,
   April 15, 1912.
   They Gave Their
  Lives That Women
    and Children
   Might Be Saved.

    Erected By
    The Women
    Of America.

Today, almost no one remembers those men. Women no longer bring flowers to the statue on April 15 to honor their chivalry. The idea of male gallantry makes many women nervous, suggesting (as it does) that women require special protection. It implies the sexes are objectively different. It tells us that some things are best left to men. Gallantry is a virtue that dare not speak its name.

In Manliness, Harvey C. Mansfield seeks to persuade skeptical readers, especially educated women, to reconsider the merits of male protectiveness and assertiveness. It is in no way a defense of male privilege, but many will be offended by its old-fashioned claim that the virtues of men and women are different and complementary. Women would be foolish not to pay close attention to Mansfield’s subtle and fascinating argument.

“Manliness,” he says, “is a quality that causes individuals to stand for something.” The Greeks used the term thumos to denote the bristling, spirited element shared by human beings and animals that makes them fight back when threatened. It causes dogs to defend their turf; it makes human beings stand up for their kin, their religion, their country, their principles. “Just as a dog defends its master,” writes Mansfield, “so the doggish part of the human soul defends human ends higher than itself.”

Every human being possesses thumos. But those who are manly possess it in abundance, and sometimes in excess. The manly man is not satisfied to let things be as they are, and he makes sure everyone knows it. He invests his perception of injustice with cosmic importance.

Women can be manly–Margaret Thatcher is an example–but manliness is the “quality mostly of one sex.” This creates problems for a society such as ours that likes to think of itself as “gender neutral,” egalitarian, and sensitive. Manliness is not sensitive. Today, we mainly cope with it by politely changing the subject. The very word is deemed quaint and outmoded. Gender experts in our universities teach as fact that the sex difference is an illusion–a discredited construct, like the earth being flat or the sun revolving around the earth.

This surprises me that a Harvard professor has the courage to write this book. Manliness has been either deemed outmoded or it has been marginalized by the stereotypes of men that are anything but manly. We seem to equate cultural manliness with the “bad boys”. That is not a Biblical view of being a man. The church has some dogs in this hunt. The role of men in marriages and families has been perplexing as we try to integrate Biblical principles with cultural realities. Neither I nor my wife will ever believe that sex differences are an illusion. Raising three sons will get you to that place. The confusion that many men feel over how to be a spiritual leader in the home is often paralyzing. But how this issue plays out in the corporate church may be the biggest issue of all.

David Murrow has written a book called Why Men Hate Going to Church. Murrow postulates in an interview in Leadership Magazine that men don’t do church very well. In a nutshell, he sees these problems.

“You have to be able to speak, read, and pray out loud in church culture, and the average man is not going to be as good at that as most women. Secondly, we do almost nothing to try to attract men. We’re constantly putting books in the hands of Christians telling them that the way to Christ is through a classroom experience and Bible studies. This whole idea of church as a “learning process” is going to attract more women than men. On top of that, so much of the imagery used in the church is feminine. In the last fifty years, the dominant metaphor used to describe the Christian life has been “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” Jesus’ command was not to “have a personal relationship with me,” but to “follow me.” Men can handle that.”

Men can handle that. We understand how to follow a dynamic leader and Jesus was that. We often forget how over the top revolutionary Jesus was in His teachings about women. He demonstrated manliness in the sense that I would like to become manly. Courageous when speaking the truth. Strong enough to stand up for the poor, the weak, and disadvantaged. Tender enough to realize the pure hearts of children. Willing to forgive and to restore those who left him behind. Jesus was not like the hippie peace loving character from the TV show The Book of Daniel. That type of benign character won’t get you killed on a cross. And Jesus realized the importance of investing His life into the life of flawed men who, despite their weaknesses, understood the concept of manliness. And those twelve men changed the world. Send out twelve emasculated men with that mission and see what happens.

The article from The Weekly Standard continues.

Manliness can be noble and heroic, like the men on the Titanic; but it can also be foolish, stubborn, and violent. Manliness is often aggressive, but when the aggression is tied to the concept of honor, it transcends mere animal spiritedness. Allied with reason, as in Socrates, manliness finds its highest expression.

Because manliness manifested in sinfulness is often foolish and violent our culture wants to neuter the manliness and not attack the root cause of misguided “thumos”. It is politically incorrect to suggest that sin is the reason for manliness that goes astray in violence and aggression. I believe that is the root cause and not the trait of manliness. I remember the fear of Promise Keepers  expressed by many women. The concern that somehow we men were rallying to reclaim our role as kings of the house and plotting ways to make our wives live in submission to our every desire. But all I ever experienced at a Promise Keepers meeting was getting my butt kicked about not loving my wife enough. Or being challenged about working too much and spending too little time with my wife and kids. Dangerous stuff, huh?

I would suggest that for me manliness finds its highest expression when I am trying to love my wife like Christ loved the church (I have varying degrees of success). Manliness is manifested in having the “thumos” to protect her and my family and my friends. I pray that I would have the courage to be like the men who were honored at the now mostly forgotten Titanic monument. Jesus said that “greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Do I have that kind of love?

Nobility. Honor. Manliness. Do we still believe in those words? It is an important question.

 

 

Online banking has changed one tradition in the Burchett household. The monthly avoiding of Dad on bill paying day. The boys learned either by oral tradition or by hard lesson that when Dad was hunkered over the checkbook with a scowl on his face it was best to steer a wide path. Now with just a few computer clicks when bills come in I can spread the angst over the entire month. And somehow it seemed far more painful to write a check than to merely fill in numbers and hit send. I remember one constant source of irritation was the paying of the cell phone bills. Sons who rarely spoke could somehow fill up 2000 minutes and compose hundreds of text messages. Here is a scintillating example of the Algonquin Round Table level of interchange in these text messages. 

IB
HRU
JP
XLNT
POS…. GTR
TTFN

For the rest of us, this is an interpretation of the above cryptic code.

I’m back.
How are you?
Just playing.
Excellent.
Parent over shoulder….got to run.
Ta ta for now.

I paid hard earned American dollars for dialogue like this. So it was with considerable empathy that I read a story at MSNBC about a Malaysian man who put my little bill paying woes to shame. Yahaya Wahab said he nearly fainted when he received a phone bill for $218 Trillion US dollars and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution. It seems like the phone company could have set up a reasonable payment plan. How about paying, oh, let’s see, one billion a month for a few hundred years. That might be doable. But no…the phone company gives you 10 days to pay more than the Gross National Product of Malaysia (about $74 billion in 2000). It just doesn’t seem fair. But the real Dad question would be how in the heck did this happen? (General Audience paraphrase)

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father’s phone line in January after he died and settled the 84-ringgit (about $23 US) bill, according to the New Straits Times. But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit (U.S. $218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported. It wasn’t clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya’s father’s phone line was used illegally after his death. We will keep you posted on this story.

But the ridiculous extent of the debt presented to Wahab brought to mind another debt that was just as hopeless. A debt that was presented to me that I could not pay. It might as well have been $218 trillions with a 10 day deadline. It was trying to reconcile my sin debt with a Holy God. There is a little internet story circulating around that illustrates the problem.

A man dies and goes to Heaven. Of course, St. Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter says, “Here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you’ve done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in.”

“Okay,” the man says, “I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart.”

“That’s wonderful,” says St. Peter, “that’s worth three points!”

“Three points?” he says, slightly concerned. “Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service.”

“Terrific!” says St. Peter. “That’s certainly worth a point.”

“One point!?!” he moans, now really getting worried. “I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans.”

“Fantastic, that’s good for two more points,” he says.

“Two points!” the man cries. “At this rate the only way I get into Heaven is by the grace of God!”

St. Peter nods and says, “You finally get it! That is 100 points! Come on in my son!”

We are approaching Good Friday, the day when Jesus was willing to pay a sin debt for me and you on the cross at Calvary. I was just as overwhelmed as that poor guy in Malaysia or the man frantically trying to tally up points for good deeds. I had my good works tally up to about 3 points so I am grateful for that gift of total grace. We are generally a bit suspicious of an unmerited gift. But that is what led Jesus to the cross.  John 3:16 has become devalued by people with crazy hair holding up signs at sporting events. That is sad. Because that verse is not a joke. It is the most amazing communication you could imagine from a Holy God to me…and you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

If you want to know more about how to cancel that sin debt please click here.