known unknowns, part 1

As I said in my sermon, scripture provides us very little in the way of a behind the scenes look as to what kind of a being Satan is and the origins of the heavenly battle over creation (or even if that’s an appropriate description). Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld may have summed up the nature of our spiritual battle best. “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.  But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know.”

Moses says this: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Dt. 29:29). Part of being human is learning to be comfortable that only God knows certain things, and being comfortable with unanswered questions about some of those things. We are free to speculate, but we should only build our lives on what is solidly grounded. God doesn’t want us focusing on Satan, but rather on God, and the things we know we can do to stand firm.

I’ll give you some examples of things we know and things we don’t know.

We know this: Satan is not the opposite of God in the sense of being an equal opposing force. He opposes God, but his abilities are not anywhere close to equality. He answers to God, he’s dependent upon God to have any ability he has, he’s been defeated by God, and he ultimately will be destroyed by God. We know that Hell is not his home; he’s not Lord of the Underworld as people presume. Heaven is his origin, Earth is his current residence, and Hell is his destination, his punishment. He’s not the giver of Hell’s punishments, but the chief recipient.

Here’s what we don’t know. We don’t know exactly what Satan is. We don’t know for sure that he’s an angel – it may be a good term, but there are lots of terms for lots of kinds of heavenly beings, and we do not know exactly where Satan fits into all that. I’ll tell you what I’ve heard claimed by many people my whole life, but I have to say that you can’t find it in the Bible. We don’t know that he was the very highest angel. We don’t know that he was an archangel. We do not know that his name is or was Lucifer (Isaiah 14 is clearly talking about the king of Babylon). We don’t know that he was the chief musician in heaven. We don’t know that he was the angel in charge of Planet Earth. We know he has a serious beef with human beings, but we don’t know why or how that came about. We don’t know if he’s got a highly organized force of demons and humans who follow him in a grand conspiracy that is marching ahead in the world according to an ancient plan. We don’t know what the devil knows. We don’t know that he gave us modern technology or rock and roll. We don’t know if he’s a Democrat or a Republican. We just don’t know much of that.

The next post will give a brief synopsis on what we do know about Satan from the Old Testament.

- Pastor Bo

a family challenge (musings from Dawn Bodi)

A month or so ago I wrote a journal entry that reflected my own challenges to pursue a Year of Living Dangerously.  I am sharing it with my family's permission because I believe it raises an important question that we as parents, especially, need to consider in order to actually live this dangerous life we have been exploring and here it is:  Are we not serving our family better by teaching them to serve?

Journal Entry: 

I missed serving dinner at CFRC today.  I hemmed and hawed for three hours prior with indecision.  It had been a challenging week.  I was feeling exhausted and longing to get caught up on household duties and “nest” by trying something new for dinner.   So I opted to stay home to serve my family, to serve myself. 

As we sat around the dinner table I took note of the critique that the entrée had too much of this or that.  I listened as one child complained that food wasn’t handed off gently enough from another.  And I observed the few hands that offered to either serve food or clean up after and in that moment I knew I made a poor choice.

My mind wandered to the faces of the people at CFRC I saw the week prior.  The people lined up twenty minutes early for dinner. The woman they call “Grandma” who stayed late every week to wipe the tables down in gratitude.  And the elderly who walked ever so slowly from their neighboring home to the center – more anxious for interested eyes to meet their own than to receive food.

And in that moment of thought I felt silly and wanted my night back.  I wanted to choose differently and to take my family along with me to CFRC to serve because this was where the real meal was!

It was not our family who needed the ideal setting, cuisine, or circumstance.    It was and is others, those others who were just outside our door.  They too deserved to feel noticed, listened to, provided for … all the things that can actually harden our own hearts when we receive it in such abundance that we take it for granted. 

I am quite certain God is pleased when our family enjoys "sanctuary" over a meal or just gathering in the comfort of our home.  And as a wife and mother, I thoroughly enjoy doing my part to make that happen.  I am equally certain, however, that God desires for such moments to create in us a longing for others to experience sanctuary as well and do our part to see that it happens in whatever ministry God might lead us to. 

No … we won’t make that same mistake again.  With a greater dose of honesty and intentionality, we will all choose better.  And as parents, given the sacred task of guiding His children, may Frank and I have the wisdom to lead the way.

Can I pray for us all?

Dear Heavenly Father,

Keep our hearts and the hearts of our children, from being hardened by superficial abundance and comfort.  Teach us to be courageous and passionate about giving our life way in service to you and others.  Especially in our fast paced world, Lord, grant us wisdom to establish priorities and make purposeful choices with time and resources, so that all your created beings might experience life abundant through Christ Jesus alone.   Amen.

replacing the period with a comma

Many years ago, when our dog Kasey was only a few months old, we lived in a parsonage near the church.  The yard was huge and Kasey generally stayed in the yard when we let her out, even though there was no fence.  One day, when I was working in the yard, I heard Kasey barking wildly.  She was standing in the front yard, looking down at something and barking as if to warn us that something was wrong and potentially very dangerous.  I went over to see what the cause of the commotion was and discovered that my dog was barking at mushrooms.  All she knew was that they weren't there the day before and now they were.  Something was out of place.  So she barked.

That event provided a great illustration for a sermon I preached a couple of weeks later - an illustration that people of that church still talk about 13 years later!  That sermon and illustration are another story for another time, however.  What's on my mind this morning is that a few days ago we put Kasey down.  And even in her death, she has continued to give me illustrations for the life of faith.

Most of us were able to be in the room with Kasey when they put her down.  It was good to be present with her, but more difficult than I imagined, quite honestly.  In the days following, of course, her death has become very real to us - though it all seemed a bit surreal at the time.  Gone are the joys of having a dog in the family (as are some of the frustrations, of course - but hey, it's all a part of life).  Whether it's the family pet, a loved one or our own lives, death is as final a thing as we experience on this earth.  It puts a pronounced period at the end of whatever sentence we happened to be writing at the time.

What strikes me about death, however, is what God has done with it in Christ Jesus.  In Christ God has taken the most final of human experiences and turned it on its head.  Death no longer has the final say in things.  It has lost its victory.  It has lost its sting.  By the grace of God, it does not have the last word.  Life does!  Just as Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, so are all who put our trust in him.  We participate with Christ in his death and resurrection, Scripture teaches.  We are raised to new life.  

What this means for us is that though we die, we will be raised to new life and will participate in the New Heavens and the New Earth God will re-create.  More than this, it means that new life, resurrected life, reaches back and is already at work transforming us.  To be raised to life with Christ is to be set free from the things that enslave us and to be empowered by God's Spirit to live new lives.  I wonder, how often do you or I step out into the promises and challenges of each new day intent on living life anew with the power of the Holy Spirit?  How often is that reality the primary contributing factor in the way we relate to others, make choices and engage our routines each day?

My father had a white dog named Snowball, when he was a kid.  That dog had injured itself and for some time had simply dragged its hind legs around.  My grandfather decided it was time to put the dog down and so one evening he covered the dog's snout with a cloth soaked in chloroform.  The dog succumbed and my grandfather went back in the house, intending to bury the dog the next morning.  This was not to be, however.  During the night, the period at the end of the sentence was erased.

The next morning, when my father went outside, there was Snowball, alive and (get this!) walking around on all fours!  I'm sure there is a rational explanation for what happened that day (or maybe not), but either way, it's a tremendous picture of what God in Christ has done with our spirits and lives even now - and what he will do one day in the most physical of ways.  What is final will be reversed.  What is finished will be restarted.  The period at the end of the sentence will be erased and replaced with a comma, or a dash, so that the Grand Story of God's grace and mercy can continue.  May it be true in your life today, and in mine.  Amen.

toy tanks and tiny missiles

Many years ago I heard a teacher talking about the power and authority believers have in Christ, whom God has given authority over every spiritual power and every other name that can be named (Ephesians 1.19-23).  He used the imagery of that great, sometimes hokey movie monster, Godzilla, heading toward the town while the army throws all they've got at him.  In his metaphor, however, we are Godzilla and the enemy is the the army on the ground, armed only with toy tanks and minuscule missiles.

Take a look at the clip I've uploaded in this post.  Let it give you another metaphor and further "open the eyes of your heart" for the power that  is ours in Christ Jesus - the power Paul prays we will know in his opening prayer in Ephesians 1.15-23.  Our enemy the devil wants to stop us, but in Christ we are the ones with the power; we are the ones who cannot be stopped, and the enemy will throw everything he's got at us.  But it has no effect.  We just keep coming!  We are victorious because Christ is victorious.

This week, as you seek to live into and out of that great, incomparable power God has given us today, I pray the vision of Godzilla heading into battle in the week ahead, undaunted by toy tanks and tiny missiles, gives you a sense of who we are in Christ.   Giant.  Unstoppable.  Moving forward into battle.  Live faithfully!  Live fully!  Live Dangerously!