John Fischer The Catch

Last Sunday night I had the opportunity to take part in a concert at Mt Hermon Christian Conference Center, a camp nestled in the towering redwoods north of Santa Cruz, California where I spent a good deal of time ministering in the early days of my career. The fact that I was sharing the evening’s offering of music with folk legend, Noel Paul Stookey, only added to the magical nature of the event for me. And though there were so many facets of the experience worth writing about, the highlight for me turned out to be in the people who came, manifested by those I met afterwards.

There was my old college roommate and his wife who drove many miles to get there, my sister and nephew who drove even farther, someone I was in a Bible study group with in college, more than one from our Catch list, the daughter of a family that hosted a Bible study for me 40 years ago, a retired flight attendant co-worker of my wife’s, someone who was a camper when I was on staff at Mt Hermon, a woman who credited one of my books as being influential in turning her husband around and saving their marriage, someone who was in a Sunday School class I taught in 1968, the husband of the woman who credited one of my books as being influential in turning him around and saving their marriage (they each came to me separately with the same story), the Chaplain of the Stanford football team and his wife at whose wedding I performed years ago, a pastor who was a fellow intern with me in 1972, a woman who told me her husband heard me sing “Roses on Wednesday” in the early 1980s and hasn’t missed a Wednesday since, and a guy in a bomber jacket who just stood back and watched, smiling, as I greeted all these people, then hugged me without a word and walked off with wet eyes.

The standout in all this was how varied these people were, and yet how ordinary the situations that bound us together. A wedding, a Bible study, a Sunday school class, a camp, a college roommate – people and events that we all share, and yet many of these people I hadn’t met or communicated with in years.

My guess is that many of you have people like this you don’t know about – people whose lives you have touched without knowing it, or if you once did, you have long forgotten it. Just as well, because this is not to dwell on, but to draw encouragement from. Probably there are people right now who would stand up and thank you if they were given the chance. Way to go!

Our son Chandler turned eleven yesterday. We went out to dinner last night and celebrated as a family. When we got home, I went to a piece I had written about Chandler when he was 18 months along (“Me, Adopt? Why I decided to become a dad all over again at age 52” http://www.fischtank.com/ft/articlesdetail.cfm?articleid=6). I wanted to see how the things I had written then had held up over the last ten years. I found out they had done quite well.

Here’s a sampling:

“I look into his eyes and see someone who has always belonged to me. Every time I look at him I am flooded with thankfulness that God would grace us in this way. Up until his birth, I thought we were doing our son, God, and the world a favor. Now I realize we are the ones upon whom the favor has been bestowed.

“I get it now. I get it so much more than I did 20 years ago with my first two children. I get the value of life. I get the importance of those moments spent with total concentration on the activity and thought processes of a child. I get it that a child returns to us the meaning of the moments in our lives.”

…and here’s the point:

“God watches each one of our lives and personalities unfold before him with the same satisfaction that I watch my son grow. Yes, there is much to bring God sorrow in the world, and yet there is much that brings him joy. I’m convinced of this, or else he would not have bothered with us in the first place.”

We didn’t “have” Chandler; in a very real way we chose Chandler. Just like God has chosen you and me. He chose us to be part of something we don’t even realize yet – something far more wonderful than any of us could imagine or dream. Are you game to live it out? Are you ready to put it all on the line? Look at the picture here of our 10-year-old, and tell me that isn’t worth everything you could put into it. This is serious business. This is life, and life eternal. I don’t want to mess any of it up. I don’t think you do either.

My daughter is a piece of work. She will say the most uncanny things and not know how funny she is. We have a long list of Annieisms – sayings of Annie that defy explanation, and the following, from her college undergraduate days, tops the list.

Annie was out on a study break once with a number of girls on her floor. They were all drinking the same soft drink that came with trivia questions printed inside the bottle caps. One of them was requesting the number of wharf towns on the western coast of the United States.  Well, being an expert on the west coast of California, Annie picked that one to answer before she had a chance to even figure out what a wharf town was. That launched her into a number of confusing questions about her utter amazement that there were actually towns on the west coast built specifically for little people. How could she have missed this, having lived here most here life? She wanted to know how extensive these towns were and whether everything was to scale. The more she thought about it, the more she thought it was a splendid idea to be so accommodating of people with such a challenge. And the more she talked like this, the more confused her friends became until one of them finally realized what as going on.

“It’s ‘wharf’ town, Annie, not ‘dwarf’ town! You’re thinking of dwarfs; this is not a town of dwarfs, it’s a town along the coast big enough to have a wharf – a place where you can store or dock your boat. We’ve laughed about this one numerous times and we still look for the opportune time to kid Annie about her “dwarf” towns.

This is a humorous way to bring home the point that we can never be quite sure everyone is hearing what we think they are hearing. Communication is a delicate activity. You must never assume you are getting across to people. Ask them. Ask them to tell you what they heard, and ask the Holy Spirit to receive what is true and blow away the rest.

One of the unfortunate things about politics is the way political discussion, especially about social issues, tends to polarize the public arena making neither party a very good ally of the gospel. Truth rarely lines up completely on one side or the other of a political debate. If it does, it is only in one small area or for a brief time (even a broken clock is right twice a day.) We have all been caught at times wishing we had more choices than just Republican and Democrat. I have a feeling, were we to map a truer political allegiance from the Scriptures, we might find a Christian to be looking more like a Republocrat or a Demlican.

The current debate over the rights of gays and lesbians to marry is a good case in point. While on one hand, to a devoted Christian who lives under the authority of Scripture, this seems like a clear cut, black and white issue, it is not, at least in the social arena, because there is not one rule of law that governs everybody, or better said, that everybody acknowledges as the primary authority. In the public sector, the constitution would be closer to a governing rule than the Bible would. And, indeed, gays and lesbians have chosen the constitution as their rallying point based on the way it is dedicated to protecting the unalienable rights of its citizens. Gays and lesbians believe their right to be married is guaranteed by the same law of the land that gave women, blacks, workers and immigrants their rights, and these issues will be won or lost in court based on that law, not the Bible.

This is where it gets difficult for a Christian, who may believe based on the Scripture, that this is a moral issue, but also live in the public arena as one who supports the equal rights of all citizens. We live in a country that is not the Kingdom of God nor is everyone required to acknowledge the Bible as the primary authority in his or her life. A Christian in the public sector has to respect the way other people see things, and I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ compels all Christians to live this way anyway—in honor and respect for the those who believe differently than they do, including differently from what they believe the scripture teaches.

Unfortunately, the polarization of this issue has many people perceiving Christians as condemning gays and lesbians (based on the moral issue), and trampling on their rights as citizens (based on constitutional law). And this is why someone who loves God and loves his gay and lesbian neighbor and realizes that when it comes to sin, there is no difference between us—we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God—might want to try and come out of this discussion not entirely on one political side or the other. We are ultimately on the side of the truth and seeking to obey God and scripture as best as we know how. This is why even as Christians, we will not all line up the same way politically, and we need to respect each other’s attempts to live out this process as best we can.

This is the second in a series of Catches exploring more deeply the 10 Prerequisites for Being Effective in the Marketplace (see August 24, 2010)

Prerequisite #2: An overwhelming sense of God’s grace for me, and for everyone else

Every believer should be absolutely convinced of being the worst sinner on the face of the earth. And if this is not the case, if there is any inkling of a thought that somebody out there might be worse than I am, then there is reason to believe that I have not yet done adequate business with God about my own sin.[??1]

The great hymnwriters thought this way. Their salvation continually amazed them. Our hymnals portray their amazement. Consider lines like, “Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!” No, this is not merely “die for me,” as in a theological doctrine, this is “die for me,” as in wonder that out of all the people in the world, he would have included me—in this case, Charles Wesley—the worst of the lot.

Phillip Bliss, another hymnwriter, makes it even clearer when he concludes that “Jesus loves even me.” There’s a wealth of meaning in that one word “even.” Even me, the lowest, the least deserving, the worst. Or as Charles Wesley wrote, “‘Tis mercy all, immense and free, for, O my God, it found out me!” His implication is, “God’s mercy had to look really hard because I was a long way off!”

These hymnwriters placed themselves in a camp with the world. Yes, they were saved out of the world, but they never left it and never forgot who they were without Christ. I believe this is what Paul meant hen he said, “I am the worst”—present tense. He knew himself. He knew one thing separated him from the next guy: Jesus Christ and his death on Paul’s behalf. The next guy either didn’t know yet, or didn’t get it. Either way, Jesus was the only difference.

We need to give people a more realistic presentation of ourselves—we’ve been scaring them away for too long with self-imposed images of our saintliness. The world has always been more ready to hear the astonished witness of a saved sinner than the calculated piety of a holy saint. I rather like the Catholic way of looking at sainthood. It’s hard to get in—you have to die first. Whether you take that figuratively or literally, it’s a good point.

And from my smitten heart with tears,

Two wonders I confess—

The wonder of redeeming love

And my unworthiness.

Elizabeth C. Clephane

This is the first in a series of Catches exploring more deeply the 10 Prerequisites for Being Effective in the Marketplace (see August 24, 2010).

Prerequisite #1: A personal understanding of my own sinfulness

Why is it important for me to realize I am a sinner? Because everyone else is.

Our connection with sinners is our sin, not our righteousness. The good news of our salvation through Jesus Christ came to us while we were still sinners; so how do we plan to take that good news to other sinners? Through our near-perfect sainthood? I think not.

It’s our unyielding hold on our own self-righteousness and self-proclaimed superiority that keeps us from effectively representing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world. We do not see ourselves accurately. For too long, we have tried to draw people to Christ by showcasing our rightness, when all along the good news of Christ’s forgiveness of our wrongness is the real message.

The degree to which we feel removed from sin and sinners is the degree to which we will render ourselves ineffective for the gospel. We come from a long tradition of thinking that our impeccable lives will be the gospel’s most treasured possession, and that by nature of our glowing brilliance we will draw the world to us. As it turns out, we’re the ones who treasure those perfect lives. The only treasure of sinners is the gospel. When we see ourselves as saints too soon, we leave the point of the gospel behind, forgetting why it is such good news.

Imagine two groups of people: one is a group of sinners; the other is a group of former sinners who are now pretty close to being saints. They think they have put sin behind them, and are proud to not be in with sinners anymore. Which group do you want to be in? Give me the sinners any day.

Look at you guys. Yesterday I wrote about getting all bent out of shape over some kid who made me wait at a crosswalk, and instead of joining me in my frustration, you identified with the kid – even tried to figure out what might have contributed to his apparent insensitivity. Maybe he had poor vision. Maybe he had asthma and couldn’t walk fast. Maybe he had a gimpy leg. Or like Ann who had a sister who was struck by a car, maybe he had a mental illness that took his mind off his surroundings. And then there was Sandra, bless her heart, whose husband has just been diagnosed with leukemia and was going in for a bone marrow biopsy yesterday. Sandra was so hurting herself over this that she could identify with the kid in the crosswalk and imagine herself so caught up in her anxiety that she couldn’t pay attention to anything else.

What did all these people do that I didn’t do? They gave the guy the benefit of a doubt. They thought through their own experiences and came up with some moments where, had they been in the same situation; they might have done the same thing.

Take it from these people. This is how to treat everyone we meet, friend or foe. No judgment. No blame. No assumptions.

Or, as Bethany, one of our readers, put it, “He’s the kid in the crosswalk, not your enemy. He just needs some attention from someone. Maybe God had that young man cross your path because someone needs to be praying for him.

“What if you had just rolled down your window while he sauntered by and simply said, “Hello, how are you today?” He surely would have been surprised, and you might have been surprised at the response.”

In California, pedestrians rule. The pedestrian always has the right of way in a crosswalk. The minute you put your foot in a crosswalk, you are protected by the law. All cars must stop.

I was driving near my home on Pacific Coast Highway when a lone pedestrian stepped into a crosswalk right when it required me to lean heavily on my brakes in order to stop in time. He was a tall, capable young man who was either totally aware of what he was doing, or simply not paying attention. He was definitely old enough to be a driver and had he been thinking like a driver, he wouldn’t have stepped into the street at precisely that moment.

Especially when I was the only car around as far as the eye could see in either direction. And then he did something that tested my good sensibilities to the max. After making me slam on my brakes to stop, he sauntered. That’s right. Sauntered. I sat there watching him slowly make his way across four lanes and never once acknowledging me, and something started to boil inside.

Put yourself in my place and ask yourself: what are your feelings about this guy right about now? If you’re anything like me, they’re not very kind.

Do you have anyone in your life that could be that guy in the street–someone who appears to be purposely making life difficult for you? What are you going to do about that? Run him over? (It did cross my mind.)

Jesus calls us to love our enemies and return good for the evil done to us. Who can do that? What degree of human will would make that possible? Actually, none. Jesus even said this kind of love was humanly impossible — that it would take someone born of His Father in heaven to do this. Well… there you go.

We’ve all got difficult people to love. Go to God. He’s the only one who can show you how to do this. After all, He is the expert, you know.

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

So far this season, the Baltimore Orioles have owned the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They have played five games and the Angels have lost every one. Now that would be hard enough to take if it was against the Yankees or the Red Sox, but the Orioles have the worst record in all of baseball this year (47-83). That’s 36 games under .500.

The Oriole pitchers who have beaten the Angels this year have a combined record of 16 wins and 47 losses. They must be begging to face the Angels and have a shot at feeling like Nolan Ryan. I attended the game Saturday night with my oldest son and the guy who pitched for the Orioles came in at 2-14. Actually you wonder why a guy with a 2-14 record is still pitching in the majors. Well, Mr. 2-14 blanked the Angels. Shut them out. No runs. Move over Cy Young. Poor pitchers should start paying Angel hitters for therapy since they must feel like a million bucks after they are done.

If I sound bitter, I’m really not. I had a great time at the game with my son (the whole point of baseball, after all is all about fathers and sons together) I’m just flexing a little of my I-could-be-a-sportswriter muscle for you. How did I do?

One thing I did notice was how at the end of the game, the Orioles lined up on the field and high-fived each other. That’s now a tradition in major league baseball. The winning team gets to celebrate with itself on the field.

It recalled something one of our readers pointed out to me about watching the latest Little League championship games, how both teams come out on the field and congratulate each other, whatever the outcome. What happened to that? When does that show of good sportsmanship end? High school? College? The minors?

Here’s where the professionals should steal a chapter from the Little Leaguers. Wouldn’t it be great to see both teams congratulating each other after a major league baseball game? There’s no written rule about this. All it would take would be two managers to agree and make their players comply. I bet Mike Scioscia would do it. I wonder who else would. Maybe we should start a campaign.

I think this falls under the category of loving your enemy, which is something we will discuss more tomorrow, now that I’ve got this baseball stuff out of my system.

[Note: The Angels lost again to Baltimore Sunday, 1-0. That means the 16-47 pitching powerhouse for the Baltimore Orioles hasn’t allowed an earned run to the Angels in three games. The only run the halos got during this entire series came on a balk.]