Baptism and the Survival of Fish

As I ate my cinnamon biscuit at a fast food restaurant near Nashville, Tennessee recently, I listened to a group of men reminisce. One spoke of growing up in a small Texas town, where new converts for the Church of Christ he attended were baptized in a nearby pond. After hearing that a man with less than stellar reputation would be baptized, he said, a man in the small town had protested that the church must not baptize the convert in the pond. He insisted that all the fish would die if the other man’s body entered the water. Sin corrupts our influence in the world, but rarely does it affect the environment. Although prospective visitors to church services have confessed fears of the church building ceiling cracking when they entered, I have yet to see such happen. I have seen a person’s appearance deteriorate markedly in a five-year period when he abused drugs and engaged in other criminal behavior. Choosing unethical or immoral behavior has destroyed relationships and ended employment. The greatest impact of sin, however, is on the sinner’s soul. “Wickedness burns like a fire,” the prophet Isaiah wrote, “it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke” (Isaiah 9:18 ESV). The symbolic language of the prophet describes how rebellion against God consumes and destroys. Sin will rarely destroy literal fish (The exception would be if someone intentionally poisoned a lake.); it does destroy dreams and relationships. If we turn from sin and confess our faith through baptism, God cleanses us and equips us for work he has prepared for us to do (Acts 22:16; Ephesians 2:10). No fish die; no roofs collapse. Scars remain, but as we continue to obey God, they too begin to heal. Turn to the Lord today.

Preparing for Disaster

I return after an absence of several eventful months. My chaplain ministry continues to give me opportunities to serve those who give themselves to serve others. At the same time, I hope for opportunity to serve more. The rough draft of my book on prayer nears completion even as I intensify my search for preaching and teaching opportunities. This last week I was reinvigorated by hearing speakers discuss preparation for and ministry to people overcome by natural disasters. Illness and unexpected loss of a house or business damages one's spirit. One survives the storm through prayerful preparation, attributing proper value to material possessions, and by having the right amount of insurance. Insurance may be flood, fire, or earthquake related; it also can be soul-directed when one evaluates his or her relationship with God and acts to improve it. 1 Peter chapter three describes how Noah survived a world-wide flood and compares it to Christians being saved through baptism that confesses one's allegiance to God and faith that realizes the implications of Christ's resurrection from the dead.

Where Do We Go When We Hurt?

My journey of faith began in a family of faith and a family of worshipers (the Bible often calls the church a "household" or "family."). My parents loved God and made assembling with other lovers of God a priority for us. They reminded us often that it was a privilege to assemble with other Christians, that in some nations it was definitely not a right to do so. While I have discovered that some communities of faith may be more toxic than healing, healthy faith develops best in community. There are times when we may need to go alone in prayer to express our pain and hurt to the Lord, but sometimes the occasions when we hurt the most are when the church that we thought didn't care awakens to its responsibilities. Singing with a congregation, even listening if the pain is too great to sing or the song evokes particularly emotional memories, allows other believers to speak words of grace and love. Even when one's presence challenges others, ability to forgive or to consider whether they should allow you to participate, growth in relationship to God and his people occurs. We all sin (Romans 3:23). We all need forgiveness. Assembling together allows others to bear one another's burden (Galatians 6:1-2) and remember that being a part of Christ's saved people is not an exercise in isolation nor about feeling good all the time about other Christians. Romans 15:1-3 says, "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: 'The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.'" We worship together to praise God, but also meet together to encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24-25). We should not gather as a church to hear a speaker verbally scourge suffering people, but we should search the scriptures together and pray fervently that we may help the damaged person heal and return to active service. If a person's (or group's) presence threatens the spiritual stability of the congregation, then we meet and discuss face-to-face how their actions endanger the health of the community while remembering to check our preferences to see if they align with the word and will of God. Because my parents encouraged me to make assembling with Christians a priority, when I encountered a difficult time in my life when it would have been easy to suffer alone and stop "going to church," I kept going. I found it hard to pray at that point in my life and it was difficult to sing some songs. Some sermons were harder to hear and some well-meaning brethren just did not understand what I was experiencing. Still I kept assembling and I continued to read the Bible regularly (Strange, I think, that I found it hard to talk to God for a while but still was willing to listen to him). The small congregation embraced me and helped me to heal, using me when I was willing and my work would help others. Some told me that my presence encouraged them. I survived spiritually because that church and my family of origin loved me. Some hurting people have hurt themselves, and as part of the healing process, must realize and articulate the part they played in creating their pain. We call this repentance and confession; both acts are essential for spiritual healing. If they haven't done so already, they will need to follow the example of the Apostle Paul in washing their sins away in baptism (See Acts 22:16). Some may be unable to reverse the effects of their actions; just as a physical amputee learns to function without a hand or with a prosthesis, they can learn to function in their new reality. Other hurting people have been abused - verbally, physically, or emotionally. They don't need more abuse. They need love, and lots of patience. So, if you're hurting spiritually, don't try to solve your problems in isolation. Reach out for help to a community of faith, a church that takes God, Christ, and the Bible seriously, but that remembers also that it is the family of God and the body, the church of Christ, an entity that heals rather harms. If you're within such a group, and someone confesses difficulty, pain, or sin, don't rush to ostracize. Pray and study to learn how you may help this person to heal and to grow up to become the healthy disciple God wants them to be. As Paul the apostle wrote, " Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God" (Romans 15:7). In the end, we all have fallen short, and that is why we need a family, a church, where we may heal and feel safe. .

Daring: A Poem and Prayer

When I run the trails I review my trials; I thank you, God, for caring, Showing me that pain of sharing Supersedes the easy path, by daring To excel, while denying my power, I rely on you, my rock and tower. Thunder roars, torrents descend, Lightning flashes; can we mend, Can we recover, emerge from the mud, Sally forth unscathed, cleansed by the flood? When I run the trails I review my trials; I remember and I return to daring For in darkest storm, You still are caring. -Michael Summers, June 2013

Leaving the Tomb

An empty tomb welcomes tourists and pilgrims in Jerusalem. Located at the foot of a rocky knoll that looks so much like a "place of the skull," if it is not the place of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and subsequent resurrection, it certainly evokes thoughts of those events. While it inspires interest in the events around the death of Jesus, it does not preach the word by itself (One stills needs a preacher, or at least a friend, for that). It does not feed the poor or heal the hurting. It does not visit those in prison or give water to the thirsty. This place does not baptize or sing or pray. Only people who believe that God loved the world enough to send his Son to die for us can perform those acts. Sadly, sometimes we do as much as the empty tomb. We may do less, since the tomb does teach by symbolizing the place where world-changing events occurred. After the resurrection, Jesus instructed followers to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV84). We need to leave the empty tomb and direct a spiritually starving world to the Risen Messiah, Jesus. It is time to obey; it is time to go.