Unfulfilled Longings: A 36 Pontiac and Proverbs 13:12

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

pontiac-1936-silver-streakSeveral years ago I had a chance to spend a morning with my Grandfather and I learned something about him that I had not known before.  I don’t remember how it came up, but while we were sitting in the hospital with Grandma while she was getting a dialysis treatment, he mentioned that he had always hoped to get a 36 Pontiac with an eight cylinder engine.  He would have liked to restore one – it was the car his father had owned when Grandpa was young.  That was a wistful moment.  At 87, my Grandfather was not going to restore a 36 Pontiac.  But clearly it was a desire that he had harbored at least on and off throughout his life – and never gotten around to.  It was an unfilled longing.

We all have unfilled longings – whether they are great or small.  Maybe we always wanted a career, a relationship, a car, a home, some travel experience, or maybe a Selmer Mark VI Alto Saxophone…  But we don’t get those things.  Somehow the years accumulate and the opportunities pass.  And then we have wistful moments, or even worse, lingering regret.

I have often wondered why God allows us to desire good things in our life – and then we never get them.  We all know the question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  But I think we don’t ponder its corollary often enough: “Why don’t some good things happen to good people?”  Why didn’t a good friend ever get married?  Why couldn’t my sister have children?  Why don’t I have a job yet?  We all have questions like this, and to some extent they all affect our hearts: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”  Proverbs 13:12.

We know that sometimes God says “No” to some of our requests for good and godly things.  But is there any good purpose to the ongoing wish that we might yet receive those good things?  Is there any redeemable value to the wistfulness of reflecting on unfulfilled longings?  I think there is.  In our verse from Proverbs 13, it is “hope deferred.”  “Deferred” is very different from denied.  And as a child of God I am quite sure that I could not possibly have a good or godly hope or a desire that I will not find, in some way, completely and eternally fulfilled in heaven.  And yes, my heart may be sick – mildly or severely – but in a way this is really home-sickness for heaven.  Heaven!  Where the tree of life is planted in all of its glory and where all of our desires and longings, great and small alike, will finally be resolved to our eternal joy in the presence of Jesus Christ.

Five days after I was sitting with Grandpa in the hospital dialysis ward, Grandma passed away.  She was at home and sat down in her rocking chair for her afternoon nap.  And her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ quietly and gently took her to her true home.  I don’t know what her deferred hopes were.  But wouldn’t it be something if when my Grandpa goes home Grandma Judy pulls up to the golden curbstones to greet him in an eight cylinder 1936 Pontiac?  And that, I am quite sure, would be one of the least of many great and inexpressible joys that await the child of God when their longings are fulfilled; when the Lord returns; or when they arrive safely at their eternal home.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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A Strange Tree: the Life of the Righteous

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

orchard-in-blossom-4


“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.”

Psalm 92:12

All analogies break down.  Perhaps you have heard that before.  This bit of common sense suggests that nothing is “exactly” like anything else – and so all comparisons are limited.  Take this verse from Psalm 92 for instance.  The palm tree (the date palm being the exact species) alone does not suffice as a figure for the Christian life.  Neither does the cedar. Instead, both the palm tree and the cedar tree are used to illustrate for God’s people what the Christian life looks like.  And the message is simple: Christians both bear fruit and grow!

When I was a pastor in Vermont, my wife and I had twelve fruit trees in our back yard – three different apple varieties and two pears.  The first year we owned our house, this small orchard produced nothing.  Nothing edible that is.  There were literally thousands of small sour things all over our backyard come Fall, but nothing with the crisp sweetness of a true Macintosh.

The problem was that the trees had not been tended for twenty years and had grown way too much – the trees’ energy continued going into height rather than fruit.  And so we began tending the trees.  With severe paring each year, the trees slowly but surely shrank – but began producing increasingly edible fruit.

Ancient, agriculturally informed Israelites also knew that trees  – especially the date palm referred to here, either grow or bear fruit.  During the date palm’s first four to seven years, all of its energy is spent growing – it bears no fruit at all.  After that it grows very little but is extremely fruitful.  The cedar of Lebanon, on the other hand, was the tallest tree the Israelites knew of – that species of tree literally never stops growing.  The psalmist’s words in this verse must have been heard for what they meant then as now – you, child of God, will both bear fruit and grow!

Sometimes we can be so engrossed in our Bible studies and devotional aids that we don’t leave much time for actually doing ministry, bearing fruit.  Conversely, sometimes we can be so busy doing things that we are not growing in the knowledge of who our great, saving God is.  Commit yourself to the joyful pursuit of becoming an ever stranger tree – one that increasingly bears fruit and grows even taller at the same time!

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

NB  The painting above is Van Gogh, Orchard in Blossom 4.

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What Are You Looking At? The Problem of Porn

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

150619_bb_quizeye-jpg-crop-promo-mediumlarge“What are you looking at?”  Have you ever found yourself just staring off into nothingness and had someone interrupt your reverie with this question?  Maybe they are curious about what has so focused your attention.  Maybe they are offended because they think you are staring at them!  Because of this last possibility, as parents we are careful to instruct our children.  “Don’t stare!” we tell them.  “It’s rude to stare at people!”  And we should teach our children this.  We do not want them to offend people.

But are we equally concerned about whether or not they offend the living God?  Are we equally concerned about whether or not we ourselves offend God by what we stare at?  For those of us who seek to please God with our lives, Psalm 101 offers a compelling insight into the importance of being proactively selective in what we choose to look at.

Psalm 101 is a song in which the Psalmist reflects on the love and justice of God, and then pledges to “be careful to lead a blameless life.”  It is interesting that the very first thing he says he will do in maintaining a blameless heart in his house is a promise.  He promises that “I will set before my eyes no vile thing.” (Psalm 101:2-3).

I will set before my eyes no vile thing!  Friends, please consider two absolute truths that you must apply in your life if you aspire to live in a manner worthy of God’s children.  First, you are responsible for what you look at.  You must ask yourself the tough question: “What do I set before my own eyes?”  And second, and oh so important, some things that we might chose to look at are vile.

The idea of a “vile thing” in the Bible must include anything that is profane, idolatrous, lewd, or otherwise contradictory to godliness.  What vile things do we set our eyes on?  Is it pornography?  Maybe we lust after the monochrome portraits of dead presidents that we carry in our billfolds?  Do we entertain images in our heads that we would be ashamed to have displayed on our big-screen TVs?

On my Facebook page, I have had a dozen friends from all over the political spectrum post a link to an article attempting to sensitize us to the dangers inherent in pornography: “It’s OK, Liberal Parents – you can freak out about porn.”   Huffington Post, not a particularly conservative bastion of news and culture, noted in 2013 that 70% of men and 30% of women struggle with this – and they noted that porn sites in that year got more clicks than Netflix, Twitter, and Hulu combined.  It can no longer be seriously denied that pornography has a wildly addictive and deleterious effect upon both its producers and consumers – and that many are affected.

The problem is real, and as a pastor I must note that, sadly, it may be as much a problem in the church as it is in the world.  We must address it with our kids.  We must teach our sons and daughters not to stare at such things – with all of the clarity and urgency with which we teach them not to stare at strangers.

And what about us?  What are we looking at?  You and I might need to humbly repent of giving some things our attention, because we are responsible for what we look at – whatever we lust after.  What if as a result of such change we experience a renewed sense of God’s presence and purpose in our lives?  What if we find that we objectify our spouses less and less?  What if we experience the same grace the ancient Israelite did – to whom God says: “I have broken the bars of your slavery and enabled you to walk with heads held high.”  (Leviticus 26:13).

I would not be one bit surprised if we found these things to be true.  Gazing upon vile things is a poison to the soul that entirely spoils blamelessness of life and heart.  Deliverance from such temptations and forgiveness for such sins brings peace with God – and with others.  This month “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles… Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

 

N.B.  The image is cropped from Vincent Van Gogh’s Self Portrait.

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Sermon Notes and Faces: a Lesson from G. Campbell Morgan

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

downloadDr. Howard Moody Morgan tells an interesting story about his grandfather, G. Campbell Morgan.  He relates that on one occasion, “I was present in a church when he rose to preach , the lights in the main sanctuary were dimmed.  But Dr. Campbell Morgan stopped his sermon to say, “Will the ushers be so good as to turn on those lights again?  I have to see the faces of my congregation; indeed, they are generally a part of my notes.”[1]

It is easy for us, both as preachers and as congregants, to think of sermons as if they are mere monologues.  It must be conceded that in many cases, that is what they are.  Sometimes this is unavoidable.  With the ever present internet available to give you instant access to your favorite preachers, the rise of satellite campuses that receive simulcast sermons, and the trend towards large, dark sanctuaries, it is often the case that the size, number, disposition or mood of the congregation could not possibly have any bearing upon the preacher as he delivers his sermon; he is truly delivering a monologue.  The faces of the people are not a part of his sermon notes.

It could be argued that the best preaching is a dialogue.  Not necessarily an audible dialogue, but a dialogue in which the preacher is continually mindful of the faces of his listeners.  I am reminded of Matthew’s account of Jesus healing the paralytic.  Jesus says in Matthew 9:4, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”  Then we read that, “At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, ‘This fellow is blaspheming!’”  And Jesus noticed: “Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said…”

Two things need to be said about this episode in the ministry of Jesus.  First, the teachers of the law could rightly be said to have been speaking either “to” themselves or “among” themselves.  In other words, the text of Matthew’s gospel at this point is not clear whether they are individually rejecting Jesus statement or communally muttering about it.  Second, this text in no way requires any supernatural insight on the part of Jesus in order for him to “know their thoughts.”[2]  In this instance of Jesus’ public ministry we see him responding to what were in any case subtle prompts from a subset of his listeners in a manner that takes advantage of an opportunity to clearly address something that troubled them.

As a far less talented communicator and interpreter of both texts and people, I can nonetheless attest to the fact that on any given Sunday there is a bewildering array of mostly non-verbal comments directed at preachers!  Some folks are exhausted – the preacher can barely keep them awake.  Some folks are sad, others are angry.  Some are joyful and eager, others silently weep from grief or shame.  All of these faces are part of the preacher’s notes.   And, like Reverend Morgan and countless other ministers of the gospel, the careful preacher, through looking at those faces, is prayerfully trying to match his written notes up to the congregation’s varied capacities, dispositions, and needs.  He is trusting that the Holy Spirit will help him not only when he writes the sermon in his office, but also as he delivers it in the sanctuary.

Be sure that your face is in your pastor’s notes.  Show up.  Be a part of the dialogue – whether you are angry, sad, joyful, or miserable.  And who knows, God might just enable your preacher to know your thoughts and address them in just the manner needful for your timely growth and eternal benefit.

And preachers, “Turn on those lights again!”

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

 

[1] Howard Moody Morgan, In the Shadow of Grace: the Life and Meditations of G. Campbell Morgan (Grand Rapids: Baker Boks, 2007), p. 116.

[2] For further discussion of these two points, see, Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, NAC (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992), pp. 153-154.

 

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The Gymnasium and Spiritual Training

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

discus throwerWell, with the exception of the few obligatory scandals, the Rio Olympics are over.  But, on a cheerier note, tonight is Oak Park High School’s Varsity Football home opener!  For those who long for an athletic fix, you have options: the NFL season is mere days away as I write this.  MLB is entering the home stretch for pennant races (Go Orioles!).  And there is a gym down the street…

As a sports fan and long-time lacrosse coach, that word, “gym” or, more properly, “gymnasium,” has always intrigued me.  In English, “gymnasium” is a loanword of sorts from the Greek language.  I say “of sorts” because the Greek word gumnasia did not refer to a place or a building but rather to “physical exercise.” [1]  And, perhaps shockingly to some of us, the word in its earliest uses simply meant “naked.”

You may have heard that the ancient Greek athletes competed naked in the original Olympic games.  But did you know that their word for athletic exercise, or physical training was itself based on that word?  The idea of nakedness was closely associated with the concept of training and exercise in the Greek mind – the similarity of the two words is not mere coincidence.  But why?  What does nakedness have to do with athletics?  And does that connection have any bearing of the New Testament’s use of this word for “training” when we encounter it in 1 Timothy 4:7, 2 Peter 2:14, Hebrews 5:14, and 12:11?

One scriptural reference to athletics helps us understand the relationship between the ideas of training and the divestment involved in the idea of nakedness.  In Hebrews 12:1 we read:

“Let us throw of everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

The ancient athlete did not compete naked for the spectacle of it; nakedness was commonly on display at the public baths.  The ancient athlete competed naked in order to be free from all entanglement.   While the physical athlete is hindered by flowing and sometimes elaborate garments, the spiritual trainee is hindered by sin.  Progress in attaining one’s personal best in either category involves divestment – an intentional, baring act of ridding oneself of distractions and impediments to excellence.

Do we think about “training ourselves to be godly” (1 Timothy 4:7) as a commitment to remove attitudes and habits, preferences and pastimes; in short, to remove all that hinders?  In Ephesians 4:22-24 we read that Christians have been taught, with regard to our former way of life, “to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”  Are we, in our spiritual training regimens, committed to “putting off our old selves?”

Are we discarding the entangling clothes of “bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice?”  (Ephesians 4:31).  If we are not committed to digging ever deeper in removing these things (truly repenting), the kindness and compassion with which Christ would have us clothed (Col. 3:12) will always be ill-fitting garments at best.  And we will continue to trip and fall in our spiritual race.

The Rio Olympics are over; those medals have been won or lost according to the training of those athletes.  But you have a daily race that requires constant training (gymnasia – 1 Timothy 4:7).  So bare your soul to the living God and, laying hold of his daily renewed mercy (Lam. 3:23), run like its game day.  After all, it is.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1964), s.v. Γυμνος, I:773f.

 

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Dented Bats and Amazing Grace

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

aluminum-batsBefore I relate a story that might make you want to either laugh or shake your head in amazement, let me share some quick research on the effects of hitting with a baseball bat that is dented.  The Western Region Umpire School offers three reasons why bats that are dented, or “out of round” should not be used.  The reasons they offer are that, (1) bats that are not both “round and smooth” are illegal, (2) aluminum bats that are dented are dangerous and can split or shatter, and (3) such bats perform poorly as the “trampoline” effect of the bat is negated by the dent – and if you get a hit “on the flat spot, odds are, you’re looking at an infield dribbler, easy out, or if it catches the edge of the dent, maybe a pop fly.”

So, be sure to bring a good, round bat to your next church softball game!  But what if you, for some reason, do not bring a good round bat to your church softball game?  Here is a true story of something that just might happen to you…

My friend Doug serves as an associate pastor of a Presbyterian church in North Carolina.  And he is an athlete.  He plays hockey, excels at skiing, and plays for the church’s softball team.

Like most church league softball teams, the roster is no doubt a mix of folks with various skill sets and interest levels who are playing for various reasons.  They are, generally speaking, recreational leagues that are intended to create community and offer a fun and challenging opportunity for folks to get know each other in ways less easily attained by hymn sings and progressive dinners.

Well, one day Doug’s team has a fairly significant miscommunication as a result of which the team manager does not bring the bat bag.  Doug’s team arrives at the playing fields and, while they all have their gloves, they can only produce one old, out of round bat.  The swing is ungainly.  Batting practice goes poorly.  Folks are bummed out.  But fortunately for Doug’s team, this cloud has a silver lining!  The other team is named “Grace”- and they live up to it.  The Grace team lends Doug’s team their bats.

Until the third inning.  By then Doug’s team was winning with their borrowed bats, so Grace politely requested that they give them back their good bats and use the dented one.  Suddenly Doug’s team is hitting a lot of infield dribblers and short pop flies…  The outcome became a forgone conclusion – Grace wins.

But did grace win?  I think not.  The very definition of grace requires according someone something that they do not deserve.  To be gracious to someone requires us to give them something that they do not have a “right” to.  If they did have a right to it, giving it to them would be justice, not grace.  In fact, grace goes even further.  Grace is not merely giving someone something they haven’t exactly earned, but it is giving someone something that they positively forfeited.  The ultimate account of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is well stated in Ephesians 2:3-9:

“Like the rest [all people], we were by nature objects of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Even as God has so graciously given us himself, we are called to graciously give to one another.  To be loving or respectful to a stranger or an unobtrusive acquaintance is merely civility or politeness.  To be loving and respectful to someone who has hurt you – that is grace.  To lend your bats to an inferior team you are going to beat anyway – that is civil.  To lend your bats to a team that will proceed to beat you?  That is grace.

Dear Christian, every day is game day.  Bring a bat to share.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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God’s Victory over Man’s Wrath: B.B. Warfield and Psalm 76:10: A Difficult Doctrine Illustrated in Church History

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

kain_abel_grt (1)Psalm 76:10 is a difficult verse.  In its simplest translation, it reads, “Surely the wrath of men brings you praise, and with the remainder of wrath you arm yourself.”[1]  This verse, in a nutshell as it were, presents the student of the Bible with the practical difficulty of reconciling God’s sovereignty with the ugliness we see all around us in human history.

How is it possible to believe that a sovereign God will be praised through this mess we call human history – with all of its hostility and injustice?

Although the late nineteenth, early twentieth-century theologian B.B. Warfield doesn’t address this scripture in any explicit manner, I recently came across a sentence in his article Antitrinitarianism that brought this verse to mind.[2]  The sentence is rather long and best read twice:

“The interaction of the modalistic and Arian factors brought it about that the statement of the doctrine of the Trinity wrought out in the ensuing controversies was guarded on both sides; and so well was the work done that the Church was little troubled by antitrinitarianism for a thousand years thereafter.” [3]

In simpler, non-academic terms, here is what Warfield is saying:

“The folks who argued that God went through three modes of being (first he was Father, then he was Son, now he is Spirit – but never three at once), and the folks who argued that only the Father is truly God and the Son and the Spirit are in different ways created, lesser divine beings, did such a great job of contesting the doctrine of the Church, that a statement of that doctrine was formulated that preserved the peace of the Church for a thousand years.”

In other words, all of the fighting about that issue, all of the wrath poured out in all of the debates concerning it, resulted in one thousand years of peace.  To put the doctrine of Genesis 50:20 to use, God intended the Trinitarian debates to better establish the doctrine of the Trinity.  He was indeed praised by the wrath of men.  And what was left after the dust settled was the residue of that wrath – a statement which God has used to powerfully guard his church since.

Today, we live in a time of great contention.  Society seems to be hell-bent on seeing how polarized it can become.   We are once again proving what a wrathful species we truly are.  For me, stumbling across this gloss on the history of antrinitarianism reminded me of this biblical truth:  God wins.

Consider the wrath that you are experiencing.  The truth that God will be praised even through the expression of humanity’s ugliest side, even despite our fallen intentions, offers a remarkably different perspective than the default settings of our heart.  Think about how the late second-century Christian in Cappadocia or Alexandria might have been utterly bewildered by the carousel of conflict that was the church and the world in his or her day.  But what if they could see the defining peace that God would establish through that conflict?  A peace that they themselves might not see on this side of heaven.

Commit yourself to the fact that God will be praised.  Even by the wrath that you have both expressed and experienced.  And live humbly, knowing that when it is all said and done, yours will be one of the restored voices singing a no-longer-broken hallelujah – truly rejoicing in the strength of your great God and Savior.  And freed once for all from the wrath of men.  Even your own.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

 

The painting accompanying this post is “Cain and Abel,” painted by Il Tintoretto, an Italian Renaissance painter who was at one time called “Il Furioso” because of the muscular energy with which his work was associated.

[1] This is the alternate reading suggested by the NIV (1984), the preferred NIV reading says, “Surely your [God’s] wrath against men brings you praise.”  In the Jewish tradition, the Rev. Dr. A. Cohen offers the alternative translation: “Surely the wrath of men shall praise you.  The residue of wrath shalt though gird upon thee.”  Cohen offers the further gloss, “The explanation of wrath as man’s agrees with Rashi and Ibn Ezra, and is to be preferred to the alternative which understands it as Divine anger.”  A. Cohen, The Psalms: Hebrew Text & English Translation with an Introduction and Commentary (London: The Soncino Press, 1969), pp. 244-245.  In Christian scholarship, see Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975, and Marvin E. Tate, Psalm 51-100, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word Books, 1990).

[2] B.B. Warfield, “Antitrinitarianism,” Benjamin B. Warfield: Selected Shorter Writings, Vol. 1, Ed. By John E. Meeter (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1970), p. 88f.

[3] Ibid., p. 89.

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For My Friends in Low Places: Asaph’s Psalms, Part One

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

Roberta FlackLike Garth Brooks, I have friends in low places.  I suspect that you do as well.  We all know people who have health problems, relational struggles, are coping with personal tragedies…  As a pastor, I have found that the questions that often come pouring out of people’s hearts and mouths when the difficulties set in are gathered around the central theme of “Why?”  This is, of course, a very difficult question to answer beyond a few theological verities.  We know that God is good.  And we know that he is sovereign.  We also know that he has a purpose and an intention to work all things for our good (Romans 8:28).  But in my experience it is very rare for us to know exactly what good thing God is intending in a specific trial we are experiencing.  And given our inability to move forward when we cannot find specific, clear answers to the question “Why?,” it is often the case that prolonged agonizing over this particular question leads only to more doubt, fear, and confusion.  The secret things belong, after all, to God; but to us and to our children belong those things that are revealed (Deuteronomy 29:29).

In this series of devotional studies, I would like to aim more directly at the question “How?” than at the question “Why?”  The question “How?” is, in my opinion, a far more critical question to find answers to.  How can you persevere through your circumstances?  How can you avoid the temptations that your challenges will present?  How will you continue to grow in grace and godliness despite deep personal loss or pain?  Perhaps most importantly, how can you worship God in Spirit and in truth when the background noise of your fear and grief, and sometimes of your anger and bitterness, make hallelujahs stick in your throat?

Enter Asaph and his choir (Psalms 50. 73-83).  I have many times in my personal life given thanks to God for the bold and transparent witness of this ancient Israelite who was at once a priest, a composer and musician, and a prophet.  He was a contemporary of King David’s whose psalms are specifically endorsed by King Hezekiah who ordered the Levites in his day to “praise the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the Seer.”  (2 Chronicles 29:30).  Generations later, when Nehemiah leads the returned exiles in dedicating the newly completed wall around Jerusalem, the payment of Levites whose function would be to sing in worship was reestablished; “For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.”  (Nehemiah 12:46).

Asaph was not only highly esteemed by later generations of God’s people for the psalms he composed, but he was also renowned in his own day for his personal ministry.  Asaph was a Levite of some significance during King David’s reign.  Together with Heman son of Joel and Ethan son of Kushaiah, Asaph was one of the three priests who were responsible for leading in worship when the ark of God was returned to Jerusalem after it had been captured by the Philistines.  (1 Chronicles 15:16-17).  After the ark was set in its place, we read that David “appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to make petition, to give thanks, and to praise the LORD, the God of Israel: Asaph was the chief.”  (1 Chronicles 16:4-5).

But much like the apostle Paul who suffered from his thorn in the flesh, Asaph, too had a burden from which it appears he never experienced relief in this life.  I am glad that we cannot know for certain just what conditions Paul and Asaph suffered from.  That very uncertainty makes it easier for us to identify with them in our very particular struggles; struggles that we know all too well.  It makes it that much easier for us to see in their experience something of our own lives.  This is especially true of Asaph’s Psalms partly because he wrote more directly about his struggles, but partly too because he wrote songs.

The late American songwriter Norman Gimbel writes a song in which he brings out with beautiful clarity the power of a song in the life of a person.  In the song made memorable by Roberta Flack, we hear a story that we can perhaps relate to:

I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style,

And so I came to see him, to listen for a while.

And there he was this young boy, a stranger to my eyes,

Strumming my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words.

Killing me softly with his song.  Killing me softly with his song.

Telling my whole life with his words.  Killing me softly with his song.

In every respect but one, this should be the experience of God’s people as often as we sing, read, or hear the Psalms.  They are “our songs.”  But rather than killing us, they should perform that divine function for which God sends his words: they will not return to him void but will accomplish their purpose – that we be led forth in peace and with great joy.

Asaph might be as yet “a stranger to your eyes.”  But you will find, as I have found, that he sings our lives with his words.  From within the context of intense, prolonged suffering, he gives expression to the darkest fears I have found expressed in all of scripture – the thoughts and fears that we spend tremendous amounts of energy suppressing and denying.  Like many of us, he never learns “why” and he never gets healed.  But through it all he shows us how to worship; how to sing with joy before the LORD Most High despite the pain.  It is my hope and prayer that in considering these Psalms of Asaph with me you and I will together discover – or perhaps rediscover – something of the indescribable joy that can be ours as we sing to the Most High together.  Even from the lowest of places.

I hope you will join me for a series of posts in which we listen to Asaph’s choir tell our stories.  Perhaps you will find yourself singing along.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

N.B. The image used as a header is the iconic Roberta Flack performing live.

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Being Evangelical in a Post-Christian Culture: the Biblical Advice of J. Wilbur Chapman, Part One

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

J Wilbur ChapmanRecently I read a book in which the author, after noting the failure to reach the next generation for Christ, the presence of increasing socio-economic difficulties, and the theological confusion and turmoil among Christians, said that “The need is great today, possibly greater than ever.  [And] the number of people turning from Christ, or at least indifferent to Him, seems to be on the increase.”  Although these words could have been written today, they were written just over one hundred years ago by the Presbyterian evangelist and hymn writer J. Wilbur Chapman.[1]

This will be the first of four posts in which Chapman offers four different instructions for how we as Christians, whether vocationally ministering or serving as lay men and women, can best conduct ourselves when, as he describes it, “the skies are overcast, the air becomes heavy and oppressive, the birds hush their songs, and the cattle seek a refuge.”[2]

Stop Being Too Critical!

In the preface to his work, Chapman makes it clear that he sees the willingness we have to be critical of other ministers and of the Church generally to be a great hindrance to the progress of the gospel.

“My plea is for the best and highest type of evangelism.  I am not writing with any disposition to criticize other workers whose methods may differ from my own.  I am glad for all who work, and I rejoice with all whose ministry is honored and blessed of God.  I think the time is too serious, the difficulties confronting us too many, and the burdens we bear too heavy to permit the wasting in criticism of energy which might be used in blessing and helping humanity…  We have too glibly criticized the Church in the past and we are today reaping the harvest.  We have too many times censured the ministry, and today we are seeing the effects of our criticism.”[3]

Chapman, though he certainly had his weaknesses and faults like the rest of us, understood something that it sometimes seems we have forgotten.  Jesus made it clear to his disciples that they should not censure those who were casting out demons in his name (Mark 9:38-41).  Paul models ‘rejoicing’ over the ministry of others – even those who preach from “false” motives (Philippians 1:15-18).  Do we tend more to censure and suspicion than to affirmation and joy with regard to others whose ministries are either merely different, or more significantly, may be motivated by questionable values?

Even within a community as small as a single congregation, folks can become incredibly agitated over the fact that someone four pews up thinks a different VBS would be more effective, or doesn’t think the latest evangelistic outreach is effective enough…  And we can spend more time disagreeing with one another than we do working together.  No doubt, disagreements will arise and must be debated.  But there comes a time when we must simply acknowledge with Jesus that demons are being cast out and with Paul that the gospel is being preached.

Take some time and evaluate the extent of your personal contributions to either helping humanity through the spread of the gospel or impeding the church through unnecessary conflict.  Please note that some conflict is necessary – but this post is not about that!  Only be sure that when all is said and done, you are spending more of your precious time and energy actively sharing the good news of what God has done for us in Christ than you are in discussions about the best way to do it.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

 

[1] J. Wilbur Chapman, The Problem of the Work (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911), p. 59.  The two hymns for which he is best known are “One Day He’s Coming,” and “Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners!”

[2] Ibid., p. 56.

[3] Ibid., pp. vii-ix.

 

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“Like Rain Falling on a Mown Field” or, God’s Perfect Timing

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

 

wheat-field-in-rain-1889

When I was a boy my Grandpa Bjerkaas kept a small part of his farm, probably somewhere between a quarter and a third of an acre, as a hay field.  Although it had been years since the barn had been used for livestock, every farmer knows that hay bales are kind of like duct tape – lots of uses from barn insulation to water management!  Many farms one drives by in the upper Midwest have their hay lots.

Hay has been considered an essential crop throughout history.  In ancient Israel, it would have been stacked rather than baled, and it would have been primarily used as fodder for livestock during the winter months.  But this principal use would have made hay even more invaluable to the Israelite than it is to his modern day Minnesotan counterpart.  His livelihood depended upon his animals maintaining their health during the lean months.  If his animals died, it would set him back years.  And there was no such thing as farmers’ insurance.

Hay was and is an important crop, but it is also an unusual one.  It is essentially grass.  And it can be “mown” whenever the farmer deems it tall enough to make the effort of mowing it worthwhile.  Generally, Grandpa found it expedient to do so when grandsons were about!  Hay doesn’t ripen like corn.  And it doesn’t produce just one crop like wheat.  In fact, the minute a hay field is mown, it is beginning its next harvest cycle without any additional cultivating or sowing.  The grass just keeps growing from its now reduced height.  This means that a hay field can produce as many harvests in one growing season as rain and sunshine permit.

But the wise farmer knows that every mowing courts at least a small measure of risk.  If the grass is cut too short and the days following the mowing are hot and dry, the field can be burnt and the grass can die.  Suburbanites today often learn this the hard way despite the drought and heat resistant grasses sold at the local hardware store.  If this happened to an ancient Israelite, it required quite a bit of time and energy to restore a field to its previous productivity.  So if there was one thing the ancient or modern farmer hopes for after a field is mown, it is a cool, soaking rain that will give the cut grass all that it needs to add the growth that will secure the next harvest.

This is what would have gone through the Israelite’s mind when he heard or sung the words of Psalm 72:6:

He will be like rain falling on a mown field,

Like showers watering the earth.

But who will be like this, and in what way will they be like this highly desired blessing?  Psalm 72 is the final Psalm of the second major division, or book, of the Psalms.  It is ascribed to Solomon and is widely regarded as a messianic Psalm; a psalm that prophetically points to the promised king who would, as this Psalm states, judge with righteousness, bring prosperity, defend the afflicted, save the children of the needy, and crush oppressors.  He will endure forever, and his reign will be universal.  In short, he will be like the longed for blessing that comes at just the right time and secures the future against all that you fear.  He will be like rain on a mown field.

As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ did in fact come at just the right time (Galatians 4:4).  And we believe as well that in God’s perfect timing, the bringing of his Word to light occurs in each of our lives at the appointed, “just right,” time.  (Titus 1:3).  So live in faith, and, in the familiar words of God’s servants, “fear not.”  If God has in Christ so wonderfully choreographed the work of Christ in you, he will continue to provide himself as the rain that keeps your soul from being parched and burnt throughout the hot and dry seasons of your life.  And new growth will come.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

Note: the picture is “Rain on a Wheat Field” by Vincent van Gogh

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