When a Pastor Grieves

Pastors are people too. We laugh. We smile. We like happy times. We cry. Our faces droop. We are not exempt from tough times.

Who is the pastor to a pastor when he grieves? Who is the pastor to the pastor’s family when life hurts from loss, injury, sorrow, pain, or death? In the local church, the pastors join the first responders at the hospital, in the nursing home, at the kitchen table, and at the emergency scene, providing calm, compassion, sympathy, hope, a voice leading in prayers to God, and aid. But when the pastor or his family is the victim, who is the first responder to him and them?

• A pastor stands in his front yard watching his house burn to the ground.

• A pastor, well past the age of retirement of the other men in the church, must return to the ministry he left because his successor, feeling the pressure of the load, was unable to fulfill the role with integrity.

• A pastor discovers his wife has engaged in adultery with a colleague from another ministry. The relationship has been ongoing for years without discovery. The shame the pastor feels is more than he can bear.

• A pastor holds his weeping bride. This pregnancy lasted four months, the longest she’s carried a child, but like her previous pregnancies, this one too did not reach delivery.

• A pastor receives a phone call from the Dean of Students at his alma mater, a Christian college. They have expelled his daughter for serious infractions of the student covenant.

• A pastor must relocate his family because, try as he might, he could not overcome the internal challenges of the church he serves.

• A pastor sits at the bedside of a woman dying from brain cancer. He’s been in situations like this before, but this is different. This woman is his wife.

• A pastor receives a phone call from his mom on a random Wednesday morning. His dad collapsed on the basketball court. Though his best days are behind him, dad still enjoys the game. The EMTs are doing CPR, but it’s not looking good. He was probably gone when he hit the ground.

• A pastor weeps because his only daughter is getting divorced after a few months of an abusive marriage.

• A pastor has seen the signs for the last six months. His wife repeats stories and asks the same questions. On a few occasions, she’s wandered around the parking lot looking for her car. Twice, she could not remember how to get home. She’s not yet 60-years-old. The phone call from the doctor suggests some new treatments to slow early onset dementia.

Each example has roots in the lives of men I know. I could tell you a dozen more. Some of the stories are exactly what happened while others are pieces of true tales without details to conceal identity.

Of course, church members experience most of these situations too. When church members suffer, they are wise to call their pastor. Their pastor is God’s gift to them to shepherd them in times of trouble (Acts 20:28-29; 1 Peter 5:2-4).

When a pastor suffers whom does he call? He probably calls other pastor friends or maybe a pastor with whom he served in some kind of assistant capacity. While helpful, these men are not likely close by and cannot be physically present at the moment. Plus, those pastors have churches of their own, to which they are giving pastoral care.

So, where does a pastor in crises go when he needs pastoral care?

Some churches have a large pastoral staff, a few even have a pastor whose role is to be the pastor to the pastors. But those models are exceptions to the norm. In most scenarios, the people our Lord intends to care for a pastor and his family is the local church of which the pastor is a member. In times of trouble, the church cares for their pastor in ways he would care for them.

Paul writes this was his experience. The Philippian church met Paul’s physical needs during his suffering in Rome (Philippians 4:10-20). In other letters, Paul instructed the readers to remember their elders when times are hard (Titus 3:2-15, et al).

There are many evidences of a healthy church body. One is how the church comes to the spiritual and physical aid of its pastors when the troubles of life come their way.

I am thankful to serve a healthy church.

As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Sings, I'm in the Lord's Army. Yes, Sir!

My family has military connections, but none would call us a military family. My dad and one of my uncles served in the U.S. Army. My nephew is a sailor aboard a U.S. Navy vessel. I am sure there are others in the tree whose military duty exists, but I do not know the history.

My Uncle Jim fought in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Like so many others, he was still a teenager when he joined the U.S. Marine Corps. By God’s grace, he came home to my grandmother and to the rest of his family. According to the Department of Defense, he is one of 23 million veterans living in the United States. Later this week, our country will honor him and all those who served when we recognize Veterans Day – November 11, 2023.

God Bless America and Other Soldier Songs

Radio listeners first heard Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” on Veteran’s Day 1938. Berlin wrote the song in 1918 at the end of World War I, but the song only became our patriotic hymn when Berlin changed the lyrics to the familiar lines we know today. I am pessimistic, but I do hope Americans will continue to sing “God Bless America” for generations to come.

When I was a kid in Sunday School, we sang the children’s song, “I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery. I may never fly o’r the enemy, but I’m in the Lord’s Army. Yes, Sir!”

The Apostle Paul wrote, “You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). There are some New Testament images that we Christians embrace. We are mostly comfortable with the idea of disciple, follower, pilgrim, and traveler. I wonder to what extent we view ourselves as soldiers in the Lord’s army. The imagery implies battles and enemies and carnage. The images out of Israel and the Gaza strip inform us how ugly war can be for all combatants. Still, the Bible expresses that we are in a struggle against evil. We will need to be good soldiers.

It’s not popular in today’s churches to sing hymns identifying the followers of Jesus as soldiers in an army. Who sings these lines?

“Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross”
Onward, Christan soldiers, marching as to war”

An Old Hymn for Modern Christians

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) is at the top of the list of hymn writers in the English language. He wrote more than 750 texts many of which continue today. You know him best for “Joy to the World,” “When I Survey the Wonderous Cross,” and “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” I think it would do us all good to work through the lines of his soldier hymn, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross.” It’s like a Christian self-assessment tool.

Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follow’r of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies
On flow’ry beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord;
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.

We honor our veterans this week. We thank the Lord for them. And we are Christians. May God grant us all the good qualities of the soldiers around us as we “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12).

As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Today Is a Great Christian Holiday

No, not that holiday; today is Reformation Day, the day Christians around the world recall God’s grace to his church more than 500 years ago.

October 31, 1517, a German monk sought a conversation with his superiors concerning practices in the church he found inconsistent with the teaching of the Scriptures. On that day, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg,  igniting the recovery of the doctrines of grace and leading directly to my salvation, and most likely, to yours as well.

A key characteristic of The Reformation was the return to standing of the Bible as the Church’s and the individual Christian’s authority for belief and practice. Today, then, is a good day for me to affirm I am a Bible believing Christian.

As a kid, I recall hearing my pastor, Bill Schroeder, talk about Bible believing Christians and Bible believing churches, as if there is any other kind. He would challenge us to be Bible believing Christians and often declared that our church was a Bible believing church. Seemed pretty standard to me. But we all know that far too many who call themselves Christians do not really believe the contents of the Bible.

• I believe the Word of God comes to us in the form of a book, the Bible, the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation.

• I believe God created humanity and all that exists in the whole of the universe by the power of his command.

• Because the Bible tells me so, I believe all humanity comes from common ancestry – Adam, the man God created and Eve, Adam’s wife.

• In creation, I believe God created humanity in binary expression, male and female.

• By God’s design, I believe the Bible teaches marriage exists only in the exclusive and lifelong commitment between one man and one woman.

• I believe all life comes from God, that human life is created by God in the womb, and is, therefore, to be protected in the womb, and that all children without regard to the conditions of their conception are a gift from God.

• I believe all the miraculous events recorded in the Bible happened as the Bible narrates them, including the Genesis Flood, the Red Sea crossing, Jonah and the great fish, Jesus walking on the water, the many miracles of the prophets, Jesus of Nazareth, and of his apostles, and all the rest contained in the Bible.

• I believe Jesus was born of a virgin, that Jesus was crucified and died on a cross, that Jesus rose bodily from the tomb, that Jesus ascended bodily into heaven, and that Jesus will return to rule over all that is.

• I believe the righteous life and sacrificial death of Jesus are necessary and the only means by which humanity can receive forgiveness of sin and acceptance before God, a salvation without which each will be separated from God for eternity in a real place called Hell.

• I believe that the church is loved by Jesus, protected by Jesus, led by Jesus, and consists only of those redeemed by Jesus. And all in Christ’s church, in the outworking of their daily lives, must hold the church in the same position of importance as Jesus does.

There are more statements I could include (and maybe should include), but for the moment, you can probably assume the more you wish I had included are covered by what I have written.

I am by the grace of God a Bible believing Christian. I am committed to a Bible believing church. Are you? I hope so.

Nearly four years after that October day in Wittenberg, April 18, 1521, Martin Luther stood at the Diet of Worms answering before the Emperor the charges of heresy brought against him by the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. When pressed for a recantation of his writings, sermons, and beliefs, Luther responded calmly, fully understanding that his reply would likely lead to the flames.

Luther offered these words toward the end of his reply:

“Since you require of me in simple speech,
Your highnesses, that I retract or not,
I state it now: My faith cannot be bought
By pope or council, for their overreach
Of truth and inconsistency are clear.
It is by Scripture that my faith is wrought.

“If light does not from Scripture’s chandelier
Shine brightly to convince me that I err
And could my faulty judgment not repair
To Scripture, I cannot retract. I fear
To speak against God’s Word. So here I stand;
I have no choice. ‘God help me,’ is my prayer.”

As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To Treat or Trick That Is the Question

We are exactly one week away, so it’s the Musing you knew was coming, my bi-annual call to think Christianly about Halloween. If you’ve got the thinking down, feel free to move on to something else. I don’t mind. Still, you might benefit from the reminder that we are Christians, and we engage our culture following the instruction we receive from our Lord in His Word. If you keep reading, you might read numbers that scare even the least paranoid among us.

Little is more resistant to economic hardships than the Halloween holiday, at least that’s what American spending conveys. The National Retail Federation predicts Americans will shell out $12.2 billion for Halloween-related goods in 2023, up from last year's $10.6 billion record.

How do we spend so much money? It’s mostly on costumes and candy, but 51% of us plan to decorate our yards and houses in Halloween themed decorations.

Home Depot sells a 12-foot-tall skeleton for display in your front yard. “Skelly” as he is affectionately called has sold out nationally three times, at a price tag of $300! As an aside, what do you do with a 12-foot-tall skeleton after October 31?

With a few qualifications, I don’t have a strong opinion on the whole Halloween thing. Some Christians have strong opinions about celebrating Halloween in any fashion. That’s completely understandable. They argue Halloween is a pagan festival in which Christians should have no part. They aren’t wrong. Here’s what the BBC writes about Halloween’s creepy past.

“Millennia ago, the holiday known throughout the Western world as Halloween was a far more solemn time. Known to the Celtic peoples as Samhain, it represented the end of the summer and a day when the barrier between the living and the dead was believed to be at its thinnest. Spirits, both good and ill, were believed to wander freely among the Earth. Dressing up in costumes and offering food was a way of placating their potential wrath. Today, these rituals are mainly observed by a relatively small number of Neopagan believers.”

Other Christians see the day as a pastime in American culture. Connections to evil or spiritual darkness are the exception and not the norm. To them wearing an amusing costume and passing out candy to neighborhood children is simple fun. Wherever you land, there is a point at which all Christians should agree.

“I don't begrudge dress-up, can't complain about meeting neighbors and candy, but there's something sick about death as a decorating theme.” R.C. Sproul, Jr.

About the trend in costumes, Parade magazine, considered by no one as a leading voice in how to think Christianly, offered “The biggest shock is how ghastly kids' costumes have become—instead of superheroes and princesses, we now have zombies and dead dollies! And instead of adorable couple's costumes, we've got scary couple Halloween costumes!”

Can we Christians agree that decorating ourselves or our homes with elements of death denies the very core of our Christianity?

Death is our greatest enemy. Over and again the Bible tells us what we know by experience, death is coming for all of us. Abel died. Adam died. Seth died. They all died. The Bible tells us “It is appointed for man to die once” and “Death passed upon all men.” Death is part of God’s judgment upon humanity for its open rebellion against Him since the Garden of Eden. Why would anyone want to dress their little boy as a deliverer of death or their little girl as one who has already died? There’s something wrong with that.

Jesus conquered death. The celebration for Christians must be the victory Jesus achieved over death. Paul wrote, “O Death, where is your sting?” Because of Jesus’s death on the cross, death no longer reigns in the human experience. Where man brought death by his sin against God, Jesus brings life by His obedience to God (Romans 5:19). Christians always celebrate life. We mourn at every death and every expression of death.

If you so choose to welcome to your front door the children and families in your neighborhood, have the best treats you can give away. Be the smiling, happy, generous guy or nice lady all the kids talk about in school on Monday. Meet and talk with your neighbors who never seem to have the time other nights of the year when you are trying to build a bridge that leads to gospel conversations. Just do not applaud death or any of its agents.

As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

War in Israel and the Potential for World War III There's a Psalm for that

I hope we all agree that the villainous action of warmongering Hamas in Israel 10 days ago has no defense. At least 1400 non-combatants were savagely slaughtered. New reports of the atrocities top previous accounts in their depravity. Hundreds more are held hostage or remain unaccounted. Hamas is a terrorist entity operating under the guise of government and the protection of equally corrupt foreign powers. Hamas defenders using terms like colonizer, oppressors, and occupiers understand neither the definition of the words nor the history of the world and the region over the last 4000 years.

To help Christians think through the geopolitical issues in Israel and Gaza from a Christian worldview, I point you to Albert Mohler’s podcast in which he declares the just response to the injustices committed. You will find the content beneficial. Listen to The Briefing here. I cannot offer anything more or better than what he provides. But, there is something I want to suggest we consider – a psalm.

Psalm 46:1 is a well known and deeply cherished declaration for believing people, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.”

Later, the psalmist identifies the nature of the trouble: nations full of rage that cause other nations to crumble, bringing horrible consequences to its citizenry (v. 6).

In response, the psalmist bids us look at the Lord’s actions, “Come, behold the works of the Lord” (v. 8). What are these works of the Lord? The Lord causes wars to cease. He breaks battle weapons, and he eliminates the mobility of attacking forces (v. 9).

Christians know there will be wars and rumors of wars, that nations will rise against nations until the time that the Prince of Peace comes. While a full peace, globally realized, will not come before our Lord comes to establish his righteous reign, the mercy of God in the present delivers pockets of peace when the Lord restrains war though humanity lusts for more blood.

So, we cry out to the Lord as did the psalmist, “Oh Lord, break the weapons of the wicked, shatter the arsenals of the debased, make inoperative every means which advances evil as it seeks death and destruction.”

And when the Lord permits man to wage war and bring further destruction and judgment to mankind, we who know the Lord run to the bunker of the closing verses of Psalm 46.

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.