John Fischer The Catch

In our Wednesday night study, we’ve been talking about how Paul could be so full of anxiety that he would actually pass by an open door for the gospel that the Lord created for him, and yet turn around in the next breath and say, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” (2 Corinthians 2:12-14)

How do you do that, if it isn’t that the fragrance goes with us regardless?

Not to belabor the point, but Marti has another story from her flight attendant days that illustrates this so well. It’s actually the story of how she came to know the Lord.

It seems that one September Marti’s birthday came and she was not well, so she stayed back from flying her scheduled trip. Her roommates, also flight attendants, felt sorry about leaving her alone on her birthday, and when they met a very lively attractive single man on their trip home, they hatched a plan to surprise her. They convinced the guy to come with them, wrapped him up in a big bow, and presented him to Marti as her birthday present. Of course it was all a joke to begin with, but it turned into a real relationship.

What Marti didn’t find out until later was the fact that this guy was a Christian – living somewhat like a prodigal at the time – but still a Christian. And she found this out through his library. Hanging out in his apartment while he was at work, she found that his library was full of Christian books. Had they been all about baseball, she says, she would have read them just the same, but they were about the Lord; and one of them, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis turned out to be her ticket into a relationship with God. And it wasn’t long until her newfound faith brought her boyfriend back to where he needed to be.

Now the Old Covenant would jump all over this guy for living in disobedience, but the New Covenant found a way to use him anyway. The fragrance was still there in his life. In his books, perhaps, but nonetheless present and usable by God.

So Paul #1 was anxious in his spirit missing an opportunity to spread the gospel, and Paul #2 was on vacation from his faith and yet the Lord was strangely leading them both and manifesting the fragrance of Christ in them nonetheless.

Which would explain why today, the dishwasher broke, the coffee pot broke, the Waterpik broke, my favorite coffee mug broke, and Chandler got sent home from science camp. But… (and you should know by now what’s coming)… “thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.”

“Don’t give up; please don’t give up.” Those were the words uttered in the mind of a dying man but never heard outside his head. And for 45 minutes, two flight attendants didn’t. They took turns administering CPR on the man’s heart and alternately breathing air into his lungs. 45 minutes of either futility or life support – no one knew. All they knew was, the man had had a heart attack and stopped breathing while on a flight, and the pilot had radioed the nearest airport, but it took 45 minutes to go through the whole landing procedure.

Forty-five minutes, sometimes sliding along the floor as the plane lurched upon impact. The landing was rough, but the women kept on. Sometimes tempted to quit, but never yielding. An emergency medical team met the plane in the airport, and with the proper machines, they were able to get a strong pulse and revive the man.

How do I know this? One of those flight attendants was my wife. It’s one of her most memorable moments as a flight attendant, her job when I met her. And as she and her co-worker came off the plane they were greeted by applause from the passengers who waited for them so they could show their appreciation. It was Marti’s fantasy come true. The only thing missing was the six o’clock news.

But the most remarkable thing about this story was what she found out later. She found out that the whole time they were keeping him alive, the man was semi-conscious. He could hear everything; he just couldn’t open his eyes or speak. And the whole time he kept thinking, “Don’t give up on me; please don’t give up.”

We all have spiritually resistant friends and relatives who appear, for all we know, to be spiritually dead. We might assume them to be in the category that Paul described as those who are not being saved, but are perishing. And yet how do we know for sure that they might not be only spiritually comatose – unable to speak, but still crying out from some place deep inside: “Don’t give up on me; please don’t give up.”

That’s why you never give up on anyone. Even the most resistant, obnoxious, foul-mouthed unbeliever might still be one who, deep down inside, is being saved. Don’t give up on them. Spiritually breathe for them. Right up until the very end, because you never know.

In an interview published Sunday in Parade magazine, Brad Pitt, who has three biological children with his wife, Angelina Jolie, and three foreign-born adopted children, was asked why they chose to adopt from other countries rather than to choose domestic kids who needed parents. Brad replied:

“I guess I just don’t see America as separate from Vietnam or Ethiopia. We’ve got to start looking at things differently. This mentality of ‘Our team’s better than yours’—it’s a high school idea. Why do we need that in order to feel better? My kids don’t see those dividing lines, and I don’t want to either.”

What he’s referring to is the kind of thinking that divides people into “us” and “them.” It can happen in any context, but it is most insidious in the context of Christianity. This kind of thinking takes a gospel that is for everybody and makes it only available to some.

Even thinking of people as Christians and non-Christians creates barriers and prejudices that can distort the worth and value of all who have been created in God’s image.

In 2 Corinthians 2:15, Paul offers a helpful contrast to this distortion when he says there are “those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” What is so useful about this delineation is that it pushes the conclusion into the future. It reminds us that only God knows the eternal destiny of a soul. And though there are two eternal destinations, we are not privy to that information, nor do we need to be. Our goal is to treat everyone the same. There is no “us” and ‘them” – there is no spiritual club. As far as we know, there is only “us” – all of us for whom Christ died.

Does it cause anyone to wonder that many of the parables found in Matthew 13, like the one we looked at in yesterday’s Catch start out with “The kingdom of heaven is like…” and then go on to explain situations that include weeds, an evil one, leaven in a loaf – all expressions of evil that shouldn’t have any business being anywhere near the kingdom of heaven?

Well, perhaps we should take a closer look at Christ’s very simple and direct explanation of the parable to his disciples.

The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. (Matthew 13:37-43)

If you take this at face value, it would appear that we are in the kingdom of heaven right now, albeit the “un-weeded” kingdom. Statements such as “they will weed out of his kingdom…” clearly indicates it is still his kingdom only he has allowed the evil one to sow bad seed into it for a season, but when that season is up, he will purge his kingdom of all sin and wickedness leaving the righteous (those he has made righteous through the death and resurrection of Jesus) to shine like he sun.

So what is the significance of this? Well I think it makes a big difference to your worldview whether you believe you are in the kingdom of God with some bad seed thrown in, or if you believe you are in the evil kingdom of this world with the kingdom of God hiding out, waiting to put an end to all this mess (what I think most evangelicals believe). If you believe the latter, there is not a lot of good you can do in the world (indeed, there isn’t much good anywhere) except to try and save as many souls as possible before the end comes. If you believe the former, you are doing God’s will in his kingdom, overcoming the evil that is around you and fixing your eyes on what is good. You are basically in heaven already.

Listen to Jesus. He said it. The kingdom of heaven is here. It’s where you live right now.

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?

“An enemy did this,” he replied.

The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” 

“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30)

Jesus gave us a very important clue in this parable about living and operating in the world. He’s talking about the kingdom of heaven on earth, and there are good seeds and weeds in the same garden. And the surprising thing is how little attention he wants us to put into weeding that garden. It’s implied that it may even be hard to tell the weeds from the wheat in the early stages of growth. At any rate they are too close together to mess with separating.

The operable words here are: “Let both grow together.” I would suggest that this is a remarkably daring worldview and I do not know of many Christians who have ever adopted it even though it was Jesus who came up with it. I would also suggest it takes a very different philosophy about living in the world than the ones offered so far by Christian educators and institutions to adopt this as one’s worldview. Wheat next to weeds, good next to evil, right next to wrong, sacred next to secular – so close that to root up one, would inevitably root up the other. No… “Let both grow together.” Do not waste your time trying to separate any of this out. God isn’t even doing that yet. Spend your time learning to be who you are as good seed in a complicated, mixed up garden where things are not always what they appear to be.

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Where are you when you read the Catch? Do you have a routine? Do you read it with someone? We’ve heard of it being shared over the phone.

I just found out my son and his girlfriend have a routine when they’re not working. They meet at a local mall where she gets two cups of coffee at Starbucks while he gets two juice drinks at Jamba Juice, and then they find a table and enjoy their drinks while they read the Catch together.

Routines can sometimes be ruts, but they can also be touchstones to wrap your life around. The scriptures say that Jesus often stole away to a private place to pray.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’

“Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else…'” (Mark 1:35-38)

Jesus was obviously tapping into another source of direction other than popular demand. Had he not had his prayer routine, he might not have realized that other direction.

[Our second Catch On teleconference Bible study is tomorrow night at 7 pm PDT. We had a great turnout last week but there’s still room for more. Click here to download our Catch On Workbook to review and get ready for tomorrow night. To listen to a recording of last Wednesday’s session, dial (218) 237-3850, enter access code 124393# and the recording number: 090711#.]

We’ve all been in a New York state of mind again with the ten-year anniversary of 911. The song “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z has been in my head lately, and not necessarily his hip-hop version with Alicia Keys, but the version we heard on CBS 60 Minutes Sunday night special with kids serenading a New York firehouse near the sight of the twin towers. It was a touching scene. “New York… these streets will make you feel brand new/Big lights will inspire you, let’s hear it for New York…”

In his excellent essay on life in New York City, Colson Whitehead creates the possibility of 8 million personal New Yorks – a different view of the city for every person who lives there. “Your New York is not my New York…  you have your own personal skyline.”

For Whitehead, each person’s “New York” is the sum total of their regular experiences there. For some the twin towers “still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time.” But young New Yorkers – those, say, 15 and younger – will have no such memory.

Something about this reality rings true for people’s spiritual experiences in Christ. No two people’s experience will be the same. Nor can you judge one by another. Comparison is out. Personal experience is unique to each one, and it is important for us to allow for those differences. The next generation’s New York will have a different skyline, but it will be no less New York.

And so, just like the gospel, there is something about New York that transcends the experiences of its citizens. “Maybe we become New Yorkers,” he concludes, “the day we realize that New York will go on without us.”

Faith is much bigger than our experience of it. It is not just what we experience of God that validates faith; it is the fact that God is here and validates himself without us. He will go on. His kingdom is forever.

And it’s to this that we owe the magic. That God can and will do his will without us but he includes us and even wants to work through us to accomplish it. He doesn’t need us, but he wants us. If God can get his will done without us, what good is that to him? He wants partners… co-workers. He wants participation. Don’t you want to be a part of something bigger than you?

[Join our Catch On teleconference Bible study this Wednesday night at 7pm PDT (10pm Eastern) by dialing (218) 237-3840 and using access code 124393#. To listen to a recording of last Wednesday’s session, dial (218) 237-3850, enter access code 124393# and the recording number: 090711#. Be sure and download the following workbook to review and get ready for next week: Catch On Study Guide – Introduction and Session.]

On September 12, 2001, the day after 9/11 and ten years ago, today, I spoke in the student chapel service at Gordon College In Wenham, Massachusetts. I can remember I was pumped because I knew what to say. My prophetic gift was in full bloom (and there is no arrogance in that statement because it is exactly that – a gift. I cannot claim any credit for it.) I can’t remember what I said, but I couldn’t wait to say it. Give me the platform; I came for this.

That sense of destiny was heightened by the fact that I got there after driving five days across the country delivering my daughter’s car to her. She was a transfer student at Gordon that semester and needed her car to commute off campus. Normally, I would have gotten off a plane from somewhere else for an appearance like this, and wondered where I was for a while. This time, five days and 3,000 miles under my tires told me. All that, and being the first one to address the whole student body after the horrific attacks the day before, added to the prophetic sense of appointment.

That, and having my daughter in the audience.

But the story of that day that has been with me longer that any of the details surrounding it was the fact that Anne (pronounced “Annie”) refused to take chapel credit for hearing her father speak.

Most conservative Christian colleges have daily or semi-weekly chapel, and in order to guarantee students attend, they typically have some form of recording their attendance as chapel credit and require a certain attendance quota each semester in order to remain a viable student. Most colleges do this electronically via a chapel card students swipe on their way into the auditorium. Anne attended, but refused to swipe her card. For Anne, this was no big deal, and just seemed to her like the right thing to do. For mostly anyone else, this would be a novel blow to legalistic Christianity, and something that might be useful to some of you in a wider application.

I happen to know, from being a recovering Pharisee, that legalism is almost impossible to disengage from religion or from what we commonly consider our spiritual life. From childhood we are programmed to perform, and performance has to be measured. So one way to kick the habit is to intentionally refuse to give yourself credit for anything spiritual i.e. don’t swipe your chapel card.

Refuse to give yourself credit for reading the Bible because it’s your Father’s words you are reading. Refuse to give yourself credit for going to church because it is your Father you are meeting there. Refuse to give yourself credit for praying because it is your Father you are talking to. Refuse to give yourself credit for introducing people to Christ because it is your Father you are speaking about, and it is good, right and natural for you to speak to anyone about family.

It’s that simple. Anne had it right. Turn in your chapel card. In fact, tear it up. This is your Father we are talking about here, and loving and honoring him can’t and won’t be measured.

He was born on a handful of nines. Four of a kind. September 9, 1999. Another one of those single-digit dates won’t come around until 2/2/22. Just one of a number of things that makes him special.

“And his smile will light a candle that will burn in your heart,” is part of a song I wrote for Chandler shortly after his birth. It’s so true. I watch hearts ignite around him all the time. It can happen with perfect strangers. Something about him that pulls love out of people. You just can’t help loving Chandler.

At the same time, he’s very much his own man. He appeases no one and will not accommodate you. I used to not like this about him, and even though I still don’t, I’m learning to admire it anyway. I often misconstrue it as disobedience and push against it, which never does any good. All of this turns into a swagger when he walks, and he’s had that swagger since he took his first step.

He’s a natural athlete whose body will do whatever he tells it to do making him a strong competitor in just about anything he wants to do physically. I understand from my daughter who took him surfing yesterday that he got inside a perfect barrel and came out the other end, something unheard of for the number of hours he has put in surfing.

And today, 9/9/11, he is all of 12 and heading out to do some pretty impossible things. I watch him swagger toward the bus stop with his bus pass dangling off the back of his backpack and something aches inside of me. It’s his first year in a regular school. His basic reading and writing skills are way behind where they should be for someone his age and I know how cruel this world can be. Thanks mostly to his mother, he has a high level of self-confidence in spite of his disability, but I worry about someone with no care or sensitivity, or simply someone not taking the time to know what we know about Chandler, casually crushing him.

Which makes me think what father or mother couldn’t write something like I have written here about their own kids, and yet people don’t come with a little disclaimer attached to their backpack like a bus pass for us to read so we know how to be sensitive to their strengths and weaknesses. Which leads me to this final thought for all of us on Chandler’s birthday which is very important: Everybody does come with a card attached – a personal history of what has gone into making them who they are so far – and you and I, with no immediate access to that card need to assume it’s there and not pre-judge anyone. And maybe, with the right care and sensitivity, we might just get the honor of reading their card which usually changes our picture considerably and makes us glad we got close enough to see them for who they really are.