2018 Sonnet 80

I built a bridge, but I could not cross it.
Like Moses on the mountaintop, I saw
My goal. Another to whom I toss it
Crossed the Jordan, now swings the donkey’s jaw

Against my strawmen, shadow phantom foes
Who haunted and taunted against my goals
Till Samuels and Daniels are random Joes.
I paved the road but could not pay the tolls.

Like Haman hoisted on his own petard,
Araunah’s oxen cooking on their yokes,
Plow my garden and plant a level yard.
My bouquet makes a decent mulch. The joke’s

On me! But sometimes Prophets take a stand
Against the watchmen o’er the Promised Land.

2018 Sonnet 79

Mirror, mirror looking good in that frame
Of cast iron, aluminum, wood, plastic –
Doesn’t matter how you’re wrapped, all the same,
Every mirror I see looks fantastic!

Mirror, mirror on a wall, in a stand,
On a door, where you are doesn’t matter.
Mirror, sweet mirror, I’m your biggest fan!
Be secure, for sure. Don’t fall and shatter.

Mirror, mirror, strangely, some don’t like you.
They see you but they don’t like what they see.
I don’t get it! No one waits in my que.
Envy dampens their curiosity!

Like Narcissus falls for his reflection,
I just have a thing for my perfection.

Trust in the LORD

Praise the Lord!
My soul, praise the Lord!
I will praise the Lord all my life.
I will sing praises to him as long as I live.
Don’t depend on your leaders for help.
Don’t depend on people, because they cannot save you.
People die and are buried.
Then all their plans to help are gone.
It is a great blessing for people to have the God of Jacob to help them.
They depend on the Lord their God.
He made heaven and earth.
He made the sea and everything in it.
He can be trusted to do what he says.
He does what is right for those who have been hurt.
He gives food to the hungry.
The Lord frees people locked up in prison.
The Lord makes the blind see again.
The Lord helps those who are in trouble.
The Lord loves those who do right.
The Lord protects strangers in our country.
He cares for widows and orphans,
but he destroys the wicked.
The Lord will rule forever!
Zion, your God will rule forever and ever!
Praise the Lord!

— Psalm 146 (ERV)

Psalm 146 was not written this year, or two years ago, or even two hundred years ago, although it could apply to every leaders elected official in U.S. history. It was not even written 2,000 years ago, although it could apply to King Herod, Pilate or Caesar. It well describes the relationship between Moses and the Children of Israel when he failed to live up to their expectations. It talks about the king of Egypt, King David, King Cirus, and every other leader in history.

Don’t depend on your leaders for help. Don’t depend on people, because they cannot save you. People die and are buried. Then all their plans to help are gone. That describes the plight of every leader, even the most qualified, most powerful, most intelligent, most benevolent, etc. It explains why every leader has both admirers and critics. It explains why all leaders fall short of expectations.

People want a savior. The children of Israel wanted Moses to give them a safe and easy life, and when things looked bad, they were willing to go back to the brickyards in Egypt for safety.

But people die. The incidence of death in humans is 100 percent. And while they live, all humans sin, and make mistakes, and fall short of perfection. In a democracy, we choose our leaders with high expectations, then hold them responsible when they fall short of those expectations. So we start looking for the next big thing, the next leader who can get us out of this mess.

It goes for all leaders. Popes, bishops, ministers, elders, deacons – there is not one who can do all the things we want them to do. We have such high expectations, don’t we? Since I entered ministry, I have been put on a pedestal by people who think I can solve every problem.

People ask me to save marriages, solve homelessness, rescue churches and turn sinners into saints. That’s great as long as the problems are small, and when God solves the problem, sometimes the preacher gets the credit. But preachers are just people, and somewhere down the line, there will be problems too big for the preacher to solve. Somewhere down the line, most preachers retire, and all preachers die.

Here in the Word of God, from the pen of a poet, writing three thousand years ago, we are given a heads up that humans can’t save us. But that same book, that same psalm, gives us hope for the savior we need.

It is a great blessing for people to have the God of Jacob to help them.
They depend on the Lord their God.
He made heaven and earth.
He made the sea and everything in it.
He can be trusted to do what he says.

How many times do we think that a problem can be solved by committees, meetings, contracts and bylaws? It helps to work together; two heads are better than one, as they say. But we should never start any project, or tackle any problem, without first going to the LORD in prayer and depending on God for guidance.

“If it is not the LORD who builds a house, the builders are wasting their time. If it is not the LORD who watches over the city, the guards are wasting their time.” That’s what Psalm 127 says.

We all know about success stories where a dynamic new preacher causes tremendous growth in a church. You might notice that it usually is a new church, and not just a new pastor. But unless the LORD builds the house, the builders are wasting their time!

If a church grows because of that one great leader, then it will also fall when that leader fails, or leaves, or dies. Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders are wasting their time!

One of the first songs of David is recorded in 2 Samuel 22. “There is no Rock except our God,” David sang. “God is my strong fortress. He clears the path I need to take. He makes my feet as steady as those of a deer. Even on steep mountains he keeps me from falling.” (2 Samuel 22:32-34)

David was a great leader as long as he relied on God, and when he stopped relying on God, things didn’t go so well. The same was true of his son Solomon, and of every king of Israel. God makes clear in the history of Israel that it is God’s influence, and not the skill of any one person, that makes the difference between success and failure.

Psalm 62:9-11 is a good summary of my point:

People cannot really help.
You cannot depend on them.
Compared to God, they are nothing –
No more than a gentle puff of air!
Don’t trust in your power to take things by force.
Don’t think you will gain anything by stealing.
And if you become wealthy, don’t put your trust in riches.
God says there is one thing you can really depend on, and I believe it:
“Strength comes from God!”

I don’t mistrust people for dishonesty. Some are dishonest, but most people try to tell the truth. I don’t mistrust people for incompetence. We are a successful society because most people are pretty good at what they do. If I mistrust people, it is because they are people. I don’t expect people to do what only God can do.

2018 Sonnet 78

Some think you have to know where you’re starting
To plot the path to where you want to go.
That’s true if life’s a path; no more darting
To this or that distraction, to and fro.

Now take a plate of pins. Add a magnet.
Pins snap to and race to that addition.
No need for awareness or a dragnet.
There’s no hesitation, no contrition.

Know yourself — So says the semi-wise man.
Know yourself — A good idea, in fairness.
Know yourself — The truth will undisguise man.
But let’s not over-rate self-awareness.

On one hand, God gives a call to action.
On the other, God calls by attraction.

2018 Sonnet 77

If one is good, then fifteen or twenty
Is probably a reasonable goal.
If one is enough, then let’s buy plenty,
Even if it puts us in the hole.

Sleep is overrated; no time to eat.
The shark has to swim to survive – lazy gills.
Here necessity and obsession meet.
These hazy ideas become crazy wills.

Don’t pay attention or give it much thought,
And always pursuing the next big thing.
Eager to learn whatever can be taught
Then lose it in flight like a bird on the wing.

Life is a blur, no cure, but don’t panic.
Strife barely stirs the sure when you’re manic.

Keep It Simple

I own a lot of Bibles. I especially like the simplified versions, like the New Century Version or the New International Readers’ Version. These Bibles use short sentences and common words to make scripture easier to understand.

This is nothing new. The King James Version was a simpler version than earlier translations. Our New International Version is easier to understand than the KJV. Then there’s New King James, New American Standard, The Message, the New Living Translation and the Good News Translation. Every Bible translation was meant to be simpler and more accurate than he one before it.

No translation is perfect. If you are doing a detailed study on history, ancient languages or deep theology, the simpler versions are probably not enough. But they work for most purposes because the Gospel is, at its core, simple.

Jesus made Jewish Law simple. The Law fills four books of the Old Testament. Jesus summed it up with two verses. “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,’” Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 – quoting Deuteronomy 6:5. “This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:’ Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (from Leviticus 19:18) All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Paul made the Gospel message simple for Gentiles. “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified,” he said. (Galatians 2:15-16)

It might take a scholar to understand a complicated message, but even scholars appreciate plain English. If we take something simple and make it complicated, we are just showing off. We don’t talk and write to show off; we talk and write to share information. The best way to do that is to keep the message simple.

Churches fight over complicated details of the Bible. Like all Disciples of Christ churches, our church tries to keep the message simple. That makes it available to more people and gives us less to fight about.

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and do you receive Him as Lord and Savior? It’s a simple question. I ask it every Sunday. Agreeing on that simple statement joins us all in one church. Accepting that statement inspires us to serve others and glorify God.

Invite your friends to church. Keep it simple. Hearts and minds aren’t changed by complicated explanations. Hearts and minds change when we accept the simple truth that God came to Earth as a human because God loves all humans. God made Jesus the Way back to the Father, not because we are good, but because God loves us. That’s why God keeps it simple.

Visible Faith

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:19-27 (NIV)

The first Protestants wanted to take the book of James out of the Bible. They believed that salvation was by the grace of God alone, and that faith was all we needed – but here’s a book that talks about works! Apparently, those Reformers finally realized that works in James are the evidence of faith, rather than a replacement for faith.

We can’t earn our way into heaven, but it does matter what we do. “You show me your faith without works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works,” James said. After all, what is faith if it doesn’t make a difference in our lives?

The Bible shows us what people are like and what God wants us to do about it. James said that if we hear the word and don’t do what it says, we’re like people who forget what we look like when we walk away from the mirror. If we lose our temper, then we forgot what we look like! We forgot that the Bible says that we are prone to anger and therefore have to practice self-control. If I hurt others with careless words – whether spoken, in an email or on Facebook – then I’ve forgotten what I look like! I’ve forgotten that words can bless or curse, and that God wants us to bless others.

It reminds me of the parable Jesus told about the servant who owed his Master a lot of money. The Master was about to throw the servant in prison and sell all of his stuff to get some of the money, but the servant begged the Master for forgiveness. The Master relented, but when that servant found someone who owed him a little money, he had his debtor thrown into prison. He forgot that he looked like a debtor, and that he should forgive like he was forgiven. Of course, the Master reminded him by throwing him into prison after all.

So what does faith look like? Faith looks like someone who has stage fright but stands up to address the crowd. Faith looks like someone who accepts another child into her home when it looks like she can’t afford one. Faith looks like someone who keeps knocking on the door, who keeps looking for a job, who won’t give up until he finds a way to support himself and his family.

Some people think that religion is impractical because it’s about that invisible world of God, the Holy Spirit, and faith. But these things are not invisible! We see God in the miracle of creation. We see the Holy Spirit in the many faithful Christians who keep reaching out to the lost and loving the unlovable. We see faith in that determination and persistence that keeps us not just setting goals, but reaching until we achieve them.

The book of James is the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 Step programs. To recover, the addict has to remember what he looks like when he steps away from the mirror. He has to remember that one drink is too many and a thousand are not enough. He has to remember that a Higher Power – God – can restore him to sanity. He has to take steps. We walk by faith – but we’re walking, not sitting or lying down.

So, yes, we’re saved by faith, not by works. But faith is practical! You can see it. It does things – good things. It makes a difference in our lives and in this world.

The Bible is a mirror that shows us how ugly humans can be, but also how much God loves us. In Jesus, it also shows us how God wants us to be. We won’t get there in this life, but if we walk by faith, we will get closer and closer, to the glory of God and for the benefit of all humankind. So go ahead, look in the mirror, remember who you are, and dare to be more like God wants us to be.

 

2018 Sonnet 76

I do not oppose wisdom and knowledge.
I dive deeply into both schools and books.
I seek the wise, even went to college.
I pray for guidance, judge no one by looks.

I say this not to make an impression.
I know that not all learning leads to truth.
Too many words in rapid succession
May merely rob your hearing of its youth.

I know that all I know is wasted words
Unless I use that knowledge to impress
The One whose hand created trees and birds.
My best learning, His measure of success:

God’s will be done below as up above
When knowledge serves to amplify the love.

2018 Sonnet 75

For fear that I perhaps have lost my touch
I write this sonnet just to throw away.
I’ve written many, like it very much,
But here of late I’ve had far less to say.

The muse has come and gone or, so it seems,
I pray she makes a U-turn and comes back.
Oh, Muse Mundane! Come give me sonnet dreams,
Or, short of that, forgive me as I hack

Together words whose virtue is just rhyme,
An essay that has rhyme, but no reason.
Although I used to write them all the time,
Walking in the rain through this dry season.

Hello, old friend, I’ve missed your 14 lines.
I’ve naught to serve, but please, come in and dine.

The Father’s Voice

Some Jews began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” They said, “This is Jesus. We know his father and mother. He is only Joseph’s son. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

But Jesus said, “Stop complaining to each other. The Father is the one who sent me, and he is the one who brings people to me. I will raise them up on the last day. Anyone the Father does not bring to me cannot come to me. It is written in the prophets: ‘God will teach them all.’ People listen to the Father and learn from him. They are the ones who come to me. I don’t mean that there is anyone who has seen the Father. The only one who has ever seen the Father is the one who came from God. He has seen the Father.

“I can assure you that anyone who believes has eternal life. I am the bread that gives life.”
John 6:41-48

I had a friend in grade school whose father would call him by whistle. The first whistle was my friends name: whenever he heard it, he would yell, “Sir?” The second whistle was either “Come home!” or “Just checking.” My friend knew his father’s whistle. Everybody in the neighborhood knew his father’s whistle.

That was back before cell phones and caller id. Today, we might know who’s calling by ringtone, or by caller ID. Back then, it was his father’s whistle. Sometimes people tried to trick my friend, but it never worked; he knew his father’s whistle.

They say that babies know their mother’s voices because they have heard them from inside the womb. My brother’s girlfriends used to think I was him when I answered the phone. That was a lot of fun. But his daughters never made the same mistake. They know their father’s voice.

In ancient Palestine, and even today in some places, shepherds take their sheep to public grazing lands. There might have been several shepherds and several flocks. But when it came time to take the sheep back to the sheepfold, the shepherd would call and they followed him. They knew his voice. Here’s what Jesus says at John 10:2-5:

“The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

There were other ways to direct sheep. You could use sheep dogs. You could use several hired hands to surround the sheep and keep them together. But a committed shepherd, a good shepherd, spent time with the sheep. He or she learned their habits and they, in turn, learned to recognize the shepherd’s voice. They knew the shepherd’s voice meant food and safety, so they follow the shepherd’s voice.

We hear a lot about being called by God. We say that a preacher, minister or missionary is called by God. But I’m here to tell you that every one of you is called by God. God found a way to get you here; you heard the Father’s voice, and it drew you here. You might not know that’s why you are here, but it is. And now, when we consider the teachings and character of Jesus, you hear the Good Shepherd. So on one hand, you have a choice about whether you want to join the flock, go out on your own, or follow another shepherd.

You have a choice about whether to stay or go, to follow or not. But to me, that choice is about accepting a gift. God has specifically called you, by name, and God must have a purpose for that. You have a choice about whether to follow or not, but God has a choice about whom to draw near. God has chosen you.

The way I see it, God has called me, and God has placed me under the care of Jesus. I didn’t call myself, but God called me. It is not my business if someone says they don’t hear that voice or sense that call. I can’t know someone else’s heart. “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?” Paul said in Romans 14:4. “To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”

And, the way I see it, God has called everyone else here. I might wish God had called someone else, or more people. I might wonder why God called this person or that person. But we are following Jesus, and we were given to Jesus by God. We aren’t following each other.

When I’m in church, I look around and I’m in awe. I know that I am in the presence of people who have been chosen and called by God to be here. I also know that there are people who were called but stayed home, people who got distracted by something else. But whatever else I might think about the people around me, I have to remember that God is in charge, and God called them here. They were drawn by the Father’s voice. No one was forced to come to church; everyone comes because God has called them.

In today’s scripture, Jesus is in essence releasing those who don’t believe, and telling them to leave the followers alone. You don’t know me because you aren’t my sheep, he says. My sheep follow because they know me. The message is for those who want to hear it, and that’s why they follow.

Psalm 95 says that the LORD is our God, and we are the flock under his care. In the New Testament, Hebrews quotes that Psalm: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Hebrews says to encourage each other as long as there is a day called “Today.” We are encouraged to soften our hearts, to be willing to grow and change under Jesus – in other words, to follow him.

If you ask me, we’re the lucky ones. We hear his voice, and we’ve responded. Some people might not hear that voice, and others might harden their hearts and ignore it. “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the end. As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.’”

Here’s the takeaway; this is my point. I have awesome respect for God’s call, for God’s choices, and for God’s people. They are the people here. They are all the people here.

I grew up a rebel against the church in a very religious community. My high school classmates are shocked to hear that I’m in the ministry, because for so long I hardened my heart. Some of them wonder if I was really called, and others question the wisdom of God to call someone like me.

I don’t dare question the wisdom of God. If God calls someone like me, someone like you, someone like those other folks, into the church, then God must have a plan and a purpose. I know that God doesn’t want to change just one of us; God wants to change all of us. “Today, if you hear his voice…” Do you hear his voice? Has the Father called you?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.