Monday Morning Music Ministry

2-15-13

Can God make a rock so big that even He cannot lift it? That age-old wise-guy challenge from skeptics is supposed to stop believers in our spiritual tracks. But it is a syllogism, more correctly a syllogistic fallacy. It does not confront the Creator of the Universe in an existential contradiction, but rather exposes puny human minds, especially the smug skeptics (and more than a few of us believers, too) unable fully to comprehend the vast, all-encompassing, limitless powers of God.

It is, besides, a fallacy built on the inherent strictures of language and linguistics. And a philosophical “gotcha” whose purpose is not seeking truth but annoying the faithful. Christians, if they engage in certain debates, should rely more on the “God is God” response: if we could explain EVERYTHING (especially to hostile people), well, God would not be God, because we would be obviating the necessity of His being. No, I am grateful for mysteries.

Skeptics are not at all concerned with God, anyway; nor rocks; nor our souls, except to introduce viral doubts. The character Matthew Harrison Brady in the play “Inherit the Wind” delivered a great line that is constructive: “For my part, I am more concerned with the Rock of Ages than the age of rocks.” Or their size or weight.

Oh, rocks count. So do mountains. I heard someone say this week that if mountains were nice and smooth, they would be impossible to climb over. It’s hard enough! – but those crags and rough peaks and jagged crevices, when all is said and done, make it easier to climb over than a vertical, smooth monolith. Yes, we are talking metaphors here.

God’s metaphors and similes, Jesus’ parables and analogies, fill the Bible, for the benefit of our emotional comfort as well as our spiritual understanding. Many of them are related to rocks and mountains. And many of them address the old conundrum I quoted above – the powers of God, and our thoughts about His imputed limitations.

I was frustrated recently by the inability to sublimate certain troubling thoughts in my consciousness. Did you ever have trouble falling asleep because you can’t get something off your mind? I realized: I can do funny things with my eyebrows and tongue, even make my nostrils flare, and make children laugh. I can cross my eyes and, somehow, make the pinkie of my foot shift atop the toe next to it, without using my hands. These all involve muscles. The brain is a muscle. Why can’t I make IT stop doing something when I want?

We remember things, even when we don’t want to; and sometimes we are annoyed that we forget things, also when we don’t want to. In these things we are reflections of God – imperfect reflections, that is. Which confirms our humble status before the awesome magnificence of God. You see, I am remembering the metaphors.

We must climb mountains. But God talks to us of His faithful people moving mountains. We surely are impeded by “rocks” in our path. But we all know of one stone that was miraculously rolled away in the Bible. We talk about “fiery trials.” But we are assured that God has been there for His children to endure the fiery furnace, and be delivered. He created mountains, rocks, and fire. I am quite happy to know that God saves us from such physical and metaphorical challenges; I don’t have to know HOW, except by the lights of my limited understanding, my faith, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Speaking of our limited understanding, here is syllogism that skeptics seldom point to… because it reveals a loving God, not a confused self-contradiction. Can an all-knowing God be aware of your sins, and yet forget them?

How can that be? It can’t… unless you are God. As rocks thrown into the sea of forgetfulness, He promises to forgive – and forget – our sins when we repent. A God who knows all, can “forget” something? Yes. Is there much better news laying around?

It is useful for us to remember: Sometimes when we pray, and pray, and pray again, about some matter of guilt or sin, we can be reminding God about something He forget and promised not to hold to your account.

Finally, countless sermons and prayers and hymns have dealt with the other spectrum of a worry we have about God in our imperfect minds: not that He will forget sins, but the chance He might forget US! “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior”; the Bible account of Blind Man Bartimaeus, worried that the Lord will not notice him; the doctrine of public confession, so when the roll is called up yonder… and so on.

As believers we know that God cannot forget us. It is a mystery that He can cancel His memory for the sake of His children’s salvation; and it is joy unspeakable that His memory reaches down to the humblest among us. And remembers. Not only on Judgment Day, but every day, every moment in fact, he remembers our needs, and cares for us.

Remember the rock in that skeptic’s riddle? How thankful we should be that there is NO rock that represents our burdens that He cannot lift and roll it away.

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A great song about God’s forgetting, and remembering, is “He Will Remember Me.” A standard gospel song of Black and White churches alike, it was associated with Albertina Walker, the Sensational Nightingales, and the Staples Singers, as well as the Statesmen and the Blackwood Brothers. It was written by E J Bartlett, mentor of Albert E Brumley. Bartlett also wrote “Everybody Will Be Happy Over There,” “Just a Little While,” and the greatest camp-meeting song, “Victory in Jesus.” This link to a video is priceless session of “Gospel Legends” letting loose over the profound message of the lyrics, “O yes, He heard my feeble cries, from bondage set me free; And when I reach the pearly gates He will remember me.” Featured are the great Rev Donald Vails, Jessy Dixon, and the Barrett Sisters… and a hundred other joyful souls.

Click: He Will Remember Me

7-25-11

“Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more.”

The horrific events in Oslo this week are different from similar atrocities, perhaps in severity and maybe in scope, than others in the news. These bizarre acts of violence occur with more frequency, but are inevitable in a decaying world culture where Jesus is less welcome all the time.

No doubt the news media and the “world system” will cite the gunman’s claims to Christianity as proof of this or that – not his own imbalance, but (watch, here it comes) something inherently wrong with Christianity. If he indeed includes “Christian” as one of his secret identities, it reminds me of Abe Lincoln’s characterization of an opponent’s tortured use of phrasing, that a “chestnut horse” bears no resemblance to a “horse chestnut.”

Norway, like other Scandinavian countries, indeed much of Europe and now North America, recently makes the news for episodes of anti-Christian persecution. This year alone, a Norwegian evangelist was arrested for evangelizing Norwegians during Independence Day and Pride parades. The prominent preacher Petar Keseljevic was careful not to block traffic or obstruct pedestrians; but sharing the gospel, louder than a whisper, on street corners, is an offense.

Earlier this year, a refugee from North Ossetia was deported from Norway. The region will be remembered as the site where a school in Beslan was invaded by Islamic militants, and ultimately hundreds died in the systematic hostage shootings and the storming of the school. The young lady, known as Maria Amelie, is Eastern Orthodox and was in Norway without papers. Unlike many illegal Muslims, she was deported, despite having learned the language, pursued an education, and written a book. Illegally Norwegian was a best-seller, and last year a major news magazine named her Norwegian Woman of the Year.

So illegal immigration, citizens’ rights, and social tensions have been rising throughout Europe. Norway is a small country. Back when I was writing comics, I was told that some of the comic books where they appeared sold 250,000 copies in the Norwegian market, which did not overly impress me until I realized that the country’s population was about 4-million. A good percentage.

A bad percentage, however, is “religious adherence.” About 20 per cent of Norwegians claim that religious faith plays an important role in their lives – a lower ratio (with its neighbors Sweden, Denmark, and Estonia) than any countries in the world. Only about two percent of the population attends church regularly.

Yet a remarkable group of Norwegians has been countering those trends. They gather as the Oslo Gospel Choir. They sing their own songs and gospel songs of the American church. They look like a blonde Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. The leader, Tore Aas, assembled the singers from house churches and local fellowships about 20 years ago. The group performs locally, across Europe, and has been to America. They have released many albums and videos. Andrae Crouch and Albertina Walker have performed with the choir, and Princess Märtha Louise of Norway has sung solo with them on two Christmas albums.

Recent appearances in Switzerland and the Netherlands were before huge conclaves of Pentecostals, and were televised widely. Gospel? Huge? Tours? Sales? Audiences? Europe? Is there something new under the sun? – something stirring?

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

So Matthew 5:12-14 reminds us. And we should be reminded that Oslo, the city called Christiana a century ago, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, and identified with things like the Oslo Accords, is more than that bundle of associations; and cannot now be defined by the violent acts of a lone madman. It might be coming into the light; something new under the Midnight Sun. To a growing number of people around the world who are mightily blessed, Norway is becoming known as the home of that great Oslo Gospel Choir. Seeds can take root anywhere, even the rocky coasts of Norway.

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Here is a video of the Choir singing the classic God Will Make a Way in Oslo.

Click: God Will Make a Way