No. 46, December 2000

 

LIVING FROM THE END

 

It is appointed for men once to die, but after this the judgment. - Heb. 9:27

 

            Is it odd to think of living one’s life from its end? We usually think of living life from its beginning. This conversation between William Gladstone, onetime Prime Minister of Great Britain, and a young man who sought his counsel about his career plans provides a different perspective of life.

 

            The young man explained that he would soon complete his studies at Oxford.

 

            Prime Minister: Splendid, and what then?

 

            Young man: Well, sir, I plan to study law and become a prominent barrister.

 

            Prime Minister: Excellent, and what then?

 

            Young man: Then I plan to stand for election and become a member of Parliament.

 

            Prime Minister: Wonderful, and what then?

 

            Young man: Then, sir, I plan to rise to prominence in the party and be appointed to a cabinet post.

 

            Prime Minister: A worthy ambition, and what then?

 

            Young man: Oh, Mr. Gladstone, I plan one day to become Prime Minister and serve my Queen with the same distinction as you.

 

            Prime Minister: A noble desire, young man, and what then?

 

            Young man: Well, sir, I suspect in time I will be forced to retire from public life.

 

            Prime Minister: You will indeed, and what then?

 

            Young man (puzzled by the question): I expect then that one day I will die.

 

            Prime Minister: That you will, and what then? 

 

            Young man (even more puzzled): I don’t know sir, I have not thought any further than that.

 

            Prime Minister: Young man, you are a fool. Go home and think your life through from its end.

 

            Most of us are like the young man, fools or not. We think of our lives from the beginning on up to retirement. Oh, yes, great plans for retirement, especially in these times of plenty. But only up to retirement; we don’t think about death. We wince at any such question as And what then?

 

            I take it that the senior statesman was saying something like this: Life really begins at death, which is the transition from this world to the next. How and where one spends eternity is determined by his manner of life in this world. So, as you plan your life start at the end and work back.

 

            The young man was a fool, Gladstone thought, because he was planning to build barns without any thought of others, without any thought of God and eternity. So it is with most of us earthlings. It is a happy childhood, a good education, marriage and family, a meaningful job, retirement with grandchildren about us. That’s it, that’s life.

 

            And don’t ask dumb questions like And then what? The Prime Minister was saying that we are to live for eternity, not only for time. Indeed, we live in time in view of eternity. Start with the fact that in a few years we will be in eternity, and live our lives in this world with that in mind. Plan from the end, not the beginning!

 

            Hebrews 12:27 is saying something like that: "It is appointed for men once to die, but after that the judgment." It is an appointment we will all keep – with both death and judgment. As concerned as we may be for wealth, health, position, influence, and all this world’s attractions, they all end with death and judgment. So, there is wisdom in starting with the reality of eternity and working backward.

 

            Or as 2 Cor. 5:10 puts it: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he had done, whether good or bad." The apostle is answering the And what then? question. We are to face Christ in judgment and give an account of how we have lived in this world, and be rewarded accordingly. That’s what.

 

            The Prime Minister’s question And what then? is always appropriate. At every turn of life. To those who have hope only in this world it can be a disturbing question. For those of us who believe the question points up our assurance.

 

            Paul had his answer: "We believe and therefore we speak" (2 Cor. 4:13).

 

            And what did he say? "He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus."

 

            If we really believe that we are destined to experience a resurrection like unto that of Jesus, then we are ready for whatever this life may bring, including its downturns. Especially its downturns. – Leroy

 

 

 

AWESOME REALITIES

 

Woe is me, for I am undone. – Isa. 6:5

 

            We must take heed lest we understand too much – an understanding that comprehends all mysteries, that is. The poetess who prayed, “Backward, turn backward, a Time in your flight, Make me a child again just for tonight!,” had a point. If childlike wonder is not essential to religion, it certainly is to spirituality.

 

            Indeed, spirituality, which I define as nearness to God, reaches beyond childlike wonder to overwhelming awe. Such awe may not be frequent, but it should “do us in” now and again in our spiritual pilgrimage.

 

            I say “do us in” because that seems to be what happens to those occasional saints who experience awesome realities. Yes, that is the term I want, awesome realities, which are all about us and which we may occasionally encounter.

 

            It was so with Isaiah. His eyes saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up. Only then did he see his own sinfulness. He cried out as if in despair “Woe is me, for I am undone! “ He was disintegrating, coming apart at the seams. An awesome reality did him in, but still it led to his holy calling as a prophet.

 

            Paul’s experience in paradise or the third heaven must have been equally riveting. He said he heard “inexpressible words, which is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:4). So overwhelming were “the abundance of the revelations” that he was given a thorn in the flesh “lest I should be exalted above measure.”

 

            David was viewing the heavens when he became so awe-stricken that he was moved to ask one of life’s profoundest questions, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” (Ps. 8:4)

 

            Such experiences as these may be beyond most of us. There are nonetheless awesome realities about us, once contemplated by our inner selves, that will add new dimensions to our earthly pilgrimage.

 

            Our problem may be that we are not “tuned in” to what is going on. Such as the birth of a child or the passing of an aged saint. Nature in all its baffling diversity, and its amazing multiplicities. The complexities of personhood. Oh, to understand ourselves! The phenomena of change and growth baffled the ancient Greeks. I am awed when I view the “then and now” pictures of couples celebrating their 50th, including our own!

 

            The universe (or universes!) is a good place to start in developing our appreciation for awesome realities. The physicist Stephen Hawking tells us that our sun is only one of millions in our galaxy. And our galaxy is but one of 90 billion galaxies ! Yes, that’s billions! I find even one galaxy over-whelming!

 

            These figures have been recently updated since they sent up the Hubble telescope. They now figure that there are more than 150 billion galaxies! And the universe keeps expanding. Some scientists point out that millions of suns may have planets, and on some of these planets there may well be life. If but one planet in a galaxy has life (as with our galaxy) there would be billions of planets where there is life.

 

            If you consider this awing, then contemplate the good news that the God who created and rules over such a universe cares for us. We on planet earth are confined to a tiny speck in the universe. But still God sought us out to shower His grace upon us. God loves us more and before: “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19). That tops all other awesome realities.

 

            These realities are at our fingertips, even in our hearts, in that they are in holy Scripture. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). That is awesome!

 

            When Paul contemplated such things as these he could only declare “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33) – Leroy

 

 

 

STONES, NOT BRICKS

 

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house. – 1 Pet. 2:5

 

            As believers we are stones! It is a remarkable metaphor, drawn from the Old Testament. Except that the apostle adds a striking addition. Isa. 28:16 refers to God laying in Zion a stone – “a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.” Peter quotes that passage, but adds that Jesus Christ is “the living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.”

 

            The apostle also quotes Ps. 118:22: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” The OT passages refer to the Messiah as a tried stone, a precious stone, the cornerstone, and a sure foundation, but not as a living stone. Peter adds that dimension. And how significant that is!

 

            Synagogues, temples, elegant edifices may be built of stones, cold and lifeless stones, but God’s habitation on earth is not made up of inanimate objects such as stone and mortar, but of human beings. Jesus in the living stone that became the chief cornerstone, and all those who come to him are built into his spiritual house as living stones.

 

            It is the oxymoron or the hyperbole that gives zest to the metaphor. Stones are cold and lifeless; there is no such thing as a living stone. Except in Christ. We were dead stones in our sins, set apart as worthless. But by his grace God said “These stones can live,” so he made us living stones and built us into a spiritual house, anchored by Christ as the cornerstone.

 

            Stones, mind you, not bricks! Bricks demand uniformity and conformity. They are all alike, same size and same color. They dictate sameness. Stones are diverse in that they come in all shapes and sizes and colors. Some stones are square, some triangular, some round, some smooth, some roughly hewed. Some are so different that it takes special effort to fit them in!

 

            A newspaper serving the towns of Normal and Oblong in Illinois ran a catchy headline on its society page: Normal Boy Marries Oblong Girl. Its that way in God’s spiritual house, the church. We are all joined to squares and oddballs, but they are nonetheless precious living stones, our dear sisters and brothers. Unity in diversity!

 

            Aren’t you glad that God called us to be stones and not bricks! How dull and unexciting it would be if we all had to be alike – think alike, talk alike, act alike, dream alike. No tough questions, no challenges, no hard thinking. What would happen to all those stimulating arguments, where steel sharpens steel? Nothing to forbear! And that is contrary to the apostolic call “to keep the unity of the Spirit” with forbearing love.

 

            If unity is conformity or uniformity – if indeed we are bricks and not stones – then there is nothing to forbear. The call for unity by way of forbearance is a call for unity in diversity. It is the nature of a body to be made up of diverse parts. That is why Paul says in 1 Cor. 12: 19: “If they were all one member, where would the Body be?” And again: “You are the Body of Christ, and members individually” (1 Cor. 12:27).

 

            Some stones are sharp and jagged, which calls for tough love on the part of others. Some stones are fragile and inclined to crack, which calls for tender loving care. The secret is in what holds us together in the spiritual edifice. Jesus is not only the chief cornerstone, but his love is the mortar that holds us all together. “Above all else put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14).

 

            This metaphor of living stones built into a spiritual house also dispels the notion of individual Christianity. The community of faith on earth is eminently social. It is a fellowship of the Spirit, and fellowship is sharing in the common life. There are no stones that lie apart, separate from the others. If we are Christians we are Christians together. We all have different gifts and ministries, but we are members of the same body, knit together in love.

 

            In this stone analogy we are not to forget that we are living stones only because we come to him who is the living stone, even the living cornerstone. And he was “rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.” We too must be willing to be rejected.

 

            This truth goes far in defining the Christian faith. What was rejected by men was precious to God. This means that we are not only living stones, but stones that might well be rejected by men. But God takes the rejected stones and builds them into a beautiful, spiritual temple. Rejected by the world, perhaps even by the church, but precious to God. That is the heart of true religion. – Leroy

 

 

 

Between Us . . .

 

            In October Ouida and I flew to Boston, rented a car and drove to Portland, Maine where we were guests of longtime friends Wayne/Alice Newland. On Lord’s day I addressed the Greater Portland Church of Christ, a new congregation to us. Afterwards we enjoyed a love feast with these lovely sisters and brothers. The Newlands showed us around that part of Maine, including Kennebunkport, the home of the Bush compound. We were in Maine at the right time for the beautiful foliage.

 

            On our drive from Portland to Cape Code we stopped off in Cambridge to walk through Harvard Yard once more and to visit Harvard Divinity School after an absence of 43 years. The old reading room of the Divinity School library is now a lecture hall, but I was able to identify the spot where I spent hundreds of hours writing my Ph.D. thesis. I pointed to the lofty, stained glass windows and told Ouida how I would sit there and watch (and hear) the thick layers of snow slide off the massive roof on those lonely wintry days while she was back in Texas. We shared memories of the two years we were there together, when she worked and paid the bills. I returned to Harvard alone to write my thesis.

 

            At Cape Cod we visited old friends Stan/Dot Carpenter, who have retired there after a career of university teaching. It was our first visit to the Cape and our hosts knew just what to show us in terms of lighthouses, seascapes, historic villages, and quaint restaurants. It was super!

 

            We flew from Boston to Pittsburgh and on to Bethany College in West Virginia, another place where we had once lived and worked. It is always special to be at Bethany where the past and present seem to meet in sweet communion. This time we were there to be part of the Restoration Forum, which is an ongoing unity gathering of leaders from Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. They asked me to do my “Raccoon” dramatization, which went well enough, especially since we did it in the old Campbell church, where we gathered for several sessions. We had to cancel a service at God’s Acre, known by some as the Disciples’ Westminster Abbey, because of inclement weather. But I managed to steal away alone, not only to visit once more the graves of our honored pioneers, but to search out a new grave, which happened to be only yards removed from the Campbells’ resting place. I found a wild flower to lay on the tomb of my beloved friend Perry Gresham, who was the president of Bethany College when I was a professor there. Perry and I conspired in launching the Annual Unity Forum, which ran for a decade at colleges across the country, beginning and ending at Bethany, 1966-75. Those pioneering efforts broke ground for many such gatherings these days, including the Restoration Forum, which has now had 18 sessions. Back in those days the ground was hard to break.

 

            Speaking of these changing times, there are several encouraging events to report. The Christian Chronicle, an international newspaper for Churches of Christ, told its readers of two events of special interest, both having to do with correcting untoward attitudes of the past – reconciliation, the paper called it. Rochester College (Michigan Christian College back then) at its annual lectureship apologized to Joseph Jones for the way the college disenfranchised him for his more open views when he was dean of the college 30 years ago. Since Joseph is a dear friend, I’ve known the sordid story all these years, so I was pleased that the college took steps to ease the “pain caused by events in the past,” which included giving to him and his wife Geneva the college’s Distinguished Christian Service Award. The other event noted by the Chronicle was ACU’s apology to the black community for its segregation policy of the past. I rejoice not only that efforts are being made to come to terms with our racist, sectarian past, but also that the Chronicle deems it politically correct to give such stories prominent attention in its columns, with even an attending picture of a one-time heretic now a hero!

 

            Our readers in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area may be interested in the series I will give on our heritage at the Garden Ridge Church of Christ in Lewisville on four Wednesday evenings at 7, beginning Jan. 10. The church’s address is 102 N. Garden Ridge Rd. I will also be with the Amite Church of Christ, 305 E. Mulberry, in Amite, La., Jan. 20-21.

 

            A new title, Help My Unbelief is a book that reflects on both faith and doubt. The author, Fleming Rutledge, a woman Episcopal evangelist, offers satisfying, biblical answers to those plagued by doubt, including believers who do not see themselves as very religious. $22 postpaid.

 

            We still have copies of Our Heritage in Unity and Fellowship, edited by Cecil Hook. It is a selection of writings by Carl Ketcherside and Leroy Garrett on both unity and fellowship, along with several articles on our Restoration heritage, including the tragic story of Sand Creek that led to separation of Churches of Christ. $12 postpaid.

 

            We will send you a copy of Leroy Garrett’s The Stone-Campbell Movement: The Story of the American Restoration Movement for $25 postpaid. It covers our early Stone/Campbell history and tells the story of how a unity movement divided. There is a chapter each on Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Independent Christian Churches.

 

            Walter Scott: A Nineteenth-Century Evangelical, edited by Mark Toulouse, is appropriate for your Restoration library. This book grew out of a symposium of celebration of the bicentennial of Scott’s birth held at TCU in 1996. The lecturers include Tom Olbricht, James Duke, Dwight Bozeman, and Fred Craddock. $20 postpaid.

 

            A book soon to be released by ACU Press holds special promise, if one can judge by an excerpt that appeared in Christian Chronicle. The Crux of the Matter: Crisis, Tradition And the Future of Churches of Christ has three authors: Jeff Childers, Douglas A. Foster, Jack R. Reese. The authors look back at 40 years of our history and ask Who Me we now? They give three reasons why “the pillars of exclusivism began to crumble.” You don’t want to miss this one! We’ll send you a copy as soon as it is off the press (Feb.) for $14 postpaid.

 

            We are disposing of our back issues of Restoration Review (1959-92) at bargain rates while they last. We’ll send you 25 issues, selected at random over many years, for $10 postpaid, or we’ll send one copy of all issues on hand, 80 odd, dating back to 1960s, for $25 postpaid. We no longer have bound volumes available, only these loose copies, and no complete years.

 

            A good dictionary of the Bible is vital to an effective study of the Scriptures. We recommend “the most complete, up-to-date, and reliable one-volume Bible dictionary available,” the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Nearly 600 scholars have contributed to its 5,000 articles. It details the latest archaeological discoveries; there are 16 pages of color maps; many charts. All biblical books and subjects treated. Hardcover; its 1,417 pages make it a great buy at $45. A library in one volume!

 

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