May 31, 2008

The book Morning Coffee Companion, a compilation of Sabbath Morning Companion essays, is now available through our publisher and Amazon.com. You may also order a copy through your local bookstore.  Enjoy a daily devotional alongside your favorite cup of joe. Follow the link to Morning Coffee Companion

Absalom, the Politician

What is this thing called charisma? Why do people follow a charismatic leader? The word charisma is a Greek word often translated in the New Testament as “gift”. More precisely, it can refer to a divine endowment or miraculous faculty. King David undoubtedly had some divine endowments relative to leadership. Strong men naturally followed him, even risking their lives and fortunes for him.

One of David’s sons also seemed to have a certain gift for leadership, but the example of this son is of a different nature, serving as a warning to those so inclined to pin messianic hopes on a mere man. His name was Absalom, whose name translated from Hebrew means “Father of Peace”, and perhaps there is no one in Scripture more inaptly named. He was responsible for the death by blood vengeance of his half-brother Amon. Like a petulant child he set afire his neighbor’s field in order to get his attention. He even led a rebellion against his father David. It pays to be the king’s son, for his father overlooked even his most egregious crimes, soiling David’s reputation while giving lie to the “Father of Peace” moniker that he had hung around Absalom’s neck.

Yet here was Absalom, whose history suggested a man of questionable morals and violent nature, gathering about him a following of his countrymen, and he was able to succeed because he knew how to politic. He had a way about him, that way being driven in part by the fact that he looked good. “Now in all Israel there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks.” (II Samuel 14:25) Susceptible crowds don’t often swoon over ugly people. Even Absalom’s family was photo-album perfect. “To Absalom were born three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of beautiful appearance” (verse 27). Trotting them out was a campaign manager’s dream.

Absalom knew how to play the crowd. He would announce his presence in the gate of the city with a retinue of horses and men, and early in the morning, morning after morning, he would glad-hand the people who were coming to the king for judgments and favors. “Where are you from?” he would ask. “Look, your case is good and right, but there is no deputy of the king to hear you. … Oh that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has a suit or cause would come to me! Then I would give him justice.” (15:1-4) Nothing like a subtle whispering campaign to impugn your father’s integrity and gain a following for himself.

Can you hear the echoes of the politics of our own time? If only I were in charge, I would put people first! I will bring a new dawn to America! Hope! Change! The other guys don’t care about you! Scripture says that Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel (verse 6). That is exactly what a politician tries to do in order to be elected, and sadly too many people love to have it so. As the prophet Isaiah quoted his countrymen of his day, “Do not prophesy to us right things. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy deceits.” (Isaiah 30:10)



Things don’t change much over thousands of years. Basic human nature and the machinations of political maneuvering are at heart the same in all times, and the people would rather hear the smooth deceptions of an Absalom over the painful the painful truth of a Jeremiah. Still, it would be nice to have a real statesman or two burst on the scene who would speak to the true nature of things. Many times in our nation’s history such statesman arose, and there were even times when people listened. It would be nice to have such a leader again.

Lenny Cacchio

Church of God Kansas City

May 24, 2008

Sparrows Fall from Heaven

 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.   And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matt 10:28-31 NIV)

 Comforting words, those.  If God is aware of sparrows falling from the sky, how much more does he know of our travails!  Yet missed in this talk of God’s omniscience is a troubling fact:  sparrows do fall from heaven, and God does nothing to stop it.  Many sparrows have fallen in his sight, and not just sparrows.  People fall too.  It must grieve a loving God’s heart to see the sufferings of the ages.  Pestilence and storms.  Warfare and tyranny.  The suffering of martyrs.  Earthquakes and terror.  It has all been in God’s plain view, and just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, one must wonder if the Father’s heart is also grieved over the helpless falling of many sparrows.

 I believe he does grieve, and I believe he can and does weep.  “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” God asks more than once.  (Ezekiel 18:31, 33:11 NIV)  And yet the sparrows continue to fall.  Because God’s purposes are beyond our poor power to understand, asking why can become an exercise in frustration. 

 The “why” is important, but something else is more so.  Perhaps the better question when sparrows fall is not why, but what.  What am I going to do about it?  If a sparrow falls from the sky, do I curse the law of gravity?  Do I resign myself to the inevitable evils of the world?  Or do I nurse it back to health? 

 When the storms of the world strike our brothers, do we curse God?  Do we languish in the misery of others?  Or do we rush to their aid and help carry them?  Paul calls us ambassadors for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20), and as such we need to be in the business of reconciliation.  The “what” is to be a tool in God’s hands, to offer the comfort, the support, the cold cup of water, the shelter over one’s head, or a hot meal to the fallen.

 In such times, the fallen sparrows need Christ.  As his ambassadors we represent the God of the universe, and it is through us that God lights the world and reveals his love.  If we want to see God’s hand, perhaps it is at the end of our own arms.

Lenny Cacchio

Church of God Kansas City

May 9, 2008

My Modest Proposal

Ideas have consequences, and that’s why doctrine is central to Christianity.  It’s true that Christianity is about behavior and relationships, and those are important things, but doctrine has a special place because it’s the lens through which we define how we act and how we relate

A great example might be how you view the path to salvation.  If you believe there are many paths to salvation, your approach to evangelizing the Christian message will be radically different than one who believes that Jesus is the only way.

If you believe salvation comes from keeping a set of rules and rituals, you will make different choices in life than someone who believes that salvation comes from God’s mercy.

If you believe that everything, including salvation vs. damnation, was predestined from the very beginning, you’ll relate to God and live your life differently than you will if you accept the concept of free will.

If you doubt the existence of evil and what is sometimes called the depravity of the human race, you’ll be more likely to accept Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as anegotiating partner.

In spite of the centrality of doctrine to Christianity, many Christians don’t know the Bible, are confused by doctrine, and in fact minimize
the importance of doctrine in their Christian walk.  Preachers are often reticent to preach on doctrine on the theory that doctrine can divide, and barring that, doctrine can offend.  In one sense people can be like those in Isaiah’s day who said, “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” (Isaiah 30:10)  Doctrine can be mighty unpleasant sometimes because it often demands changes in our lives.  Preachers have an obligation to preach the truth in due season, even if it hurts.

There is another reason why doctrine is absent from too many pulpits.  Teaching doctrine can be a heavy exercise for both speaker and audience.  It can take busy time in the leather, comparing of scriptures, and honest exegesis.  Who wants to go to church and work?

I would propose that it doesn’t need to be that way.  Jesus taught doctrine and a lot of it.  Sometimes he referred to Scripture (“Have you not read ”).  Other times he taught doctrine by means of allegory, which we commonly call parables.  Sometimes his listeners understood, and sometimes they didn’t, but his illustrations hinted at some heavy doctrine for those who were able to see.  The Parable of the Prodigal Son is not only a touching story, it also illustrates some heavy truths about sin and servitude, forgiveness and redemption.

Jesus’ Parable of the Fig Tree (Luke 21:29-33) teaches us some things about what to look for regarding the return of Christ.  Jesus taught about the doctrine of prayer through parables (Luke 19:1-14) and used the same occasion to teach about faith.

All I’m saying is that doctrine need not be dry.  In fact it should be about the most exhilarating, exciting, and comforting aspect of Christian teaching.  What can be more important than answering the key questions of life:  Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?  Teach it the Jesus did:  by example and by story.

Lenny Cacchio

Church of God Kansas City

May 3, 2008

Lost!

Lost!  It’s an ongoing saga on network television.  It’s also considered a theological term.  Paul used it to describe those who couldn’t understand the gospel message (II Corinthians 4:3).  Jesus used it to describe the people of Israel (Matthew 10:6, 15:24).  He talked about lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7), and the lost coin (15:8-10).

Nobody wants to be lost.  Once as a small boy I strayed from my parents in a five and dime store.  I wasn’t being rebellious.  I just wandered off without any thought, and when I looked up and Mom wasn’t there, my stomach knotted up as I frantically searched for the comfort of home.  I was lost, but I wasn’t evil.

That’s the way it is with an awful lot of lost sheep, and that’s why Jesus sent his disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6).  It’s why he told the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.  It’s also the reason he told a parable about a lost son.  That last parable is commonly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  The young man clearly did some bad things.  He demanded his inheritance even before his father had died.  He dissipated his wealth and his morals on a series of irresponsible choices. He picked false friends who abandoned him as soon as the money was gone. 

In spite of all of that, when the father in this story saw his bedraggled son returning home, the father ran to embrace him.  In the culture of the day, the normal response would be to disown the son for defying his father.  Yet Jesus uses this simple story to illustrate that God is a different sort of Father.  When he sees a lost son trying to come home, he doesn’t sit and wait, and he doesn’t try to extract the last bit of humiliation from us before accepting us back.  The Father runs to the wayward son, takes him in a loving bear hug, and celebrates the return of that which was lost.

If we want to find our way back, God runs to us.  That’s how much he wants us back.

Lenny Cacchio

Church of God Kansas City

April 25, 2008

Washing Each Other Clean

The Middle East by reason of climate and culture is a dusty place. In Jesus’ day there was little in the way of paved roads, and consequently the feet of the sandal-wearing populous would pick up the common grime of the roads as they walked through life. 

In addition to the dust that one would normally encounter walking, other sources of filth of a less savory kind were also in the streets of that day’s Jerusalem.  Livestock was abundant, given the contemporary need for transportation, economic necessity, and sacrifice.  Not only would the streets of Jerusalem be covered in dust and mud, Jerusalem would be awash in a mixture of dung and urine.  In a culture where the common footwear was the sandal, imagine how one’s feet would look and smell after a trek through the streets.

Then imagine this in the context of Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet in John 13.

Scholars remind us that the job of washing a houseguest’s feet was a task assigned to the lowest of servants. Washing another’s feet in our world might be an act of humility, but in those days more it was not only humbling.  It could be downright nasty.

Yet Jesus, the great Teacher and Rabbi, took on the role of servant and in a complete act of humility performed a service that none of the disciples would condescend to do.  He washed their feet.  He washed away the filth and grime of the most disgusting sort that clung to them on their daily walk.

John’s gospel bursts with buried pearls of wisdom that often can be found only through some digging.  This passage bursts with such pearls.  Jesus takes on the form of a servant, and he, the one who emptied himself of his divinity, took on the lowliest of chores.  Not one of the disciples was willing to take that step.  At the very time Jesus was humbling himself, the disciples were apparently debating who would be the greatest in the Kingdom (Luke 22:24-30).

In addition to that, Jesus was showing us that we need to go to him daily in order to be cleansed of the filth that our feet pick up on our normal walk through life.  At the same time he encourages us when he says that “he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10).  While we might pick up some filth of the world each day, Jesus is there to wash it from us, and even though our feet may be spoiled, he still considers us clean.

And he tells us something else.  “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” (Verse 15).  This makes foot washing into something more than a pious ritual.  It means that we in fact are our brother’s keeper.  If our brother is soiled in his daily walk, our job is to go to our brother and get him the help he needs, and his job is to help us in the same way.

That’s a huge responsibility.  A foot washing attitude is miles more than a mere attitude of service.  It is the duty we owe each other as we struggle and stride toward the kingdom.  “Bear one another’s burdens,” wrote Paul (Galatians 6:2).  That’s what he was talking about.

Lenny Cacchio

Church of God Kansas City

April 19, 2008

April 11, 2008

Judging Ourselves

“Judge not, that ye be not judged” seems to be scripture of the age, even finding itself on the lips of a presidential candidate or two.  We need to be tolerant others, we’re lectured, otherwise we are bigots, and that’s something no caring society can tolerate.

Judging has earned itself a bad name.

I’m all for tolerance, and I’m all for refraining from condemning others.  The problem is in the devil’s trick of redefining terms.  Tolerance might imply respect, fairness, and objectivity, but it does not require agreement.  While I might be tolerant of those with different opinions and even lifestyles, I feel no moral need to agree when my investigation and analysis of the evidence informs that such positions are in error.  This is not being intolerant.  It is being in disagreement.

My tolerance of those who differ with me is born, not of an acceptance of opinions or actions with which I disagree, but my acceptance of other human beings as unique creations of God.  When Jesus said, “Judge not that ye be not judged,” he was pointing his disciples to the irrefutable fact that we are all sinners, all wrongdoers, and all in need of cleansing from our sins.  We can’t see clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye because too often we have beams sticking out of our own  (Matthew 7:1-5).

Jesus words do not deny the existence of wrongdoing.  He is not saying that wrongdoing is a tolerable thing.  He is saying that we are too often inadequate judges of others because we are beset with problems of our own.  But he is clear that once we clean up our own messes, we are actually in a better position to help others clean up theirs.  That’s why such groups as Alcoholics Anonymous are quite successful in their mandate.  People who are recovered are in a more understanding – yes, even tolerant – position to help those who are not.

The Apostle Paul’s less famous admonition that if “we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged” amplifies the principal in a more personal way (see I Corinthians 11:31).  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses very real problems that this church doesn’t seem to recognize.  Their dysfunction manifests itself in lawsuits between church members, tolerance of incest in their midst, gluttony and drunkenness at the Lord’s Supper, factions, heresies, raucous church meetings, and who knows what other problems that he puts off addressing until a planned visit to Corinth (“I’ll set in order the rest when I come” – verse 34).

This was a church that was surely tolerant of sinners (a necessity if there is going to be a church).  The problem was its arrogant acceptance of sin itself.  Paul tells them that as a prerequisite to taking the symbols of Christ’s sacrifice, they must first examine themselves, lest they risk eating the bread and taking the cup in an unworthy manner.  They, each and every one of them, need to find the wrongdoing in their own lives and purge out the old leaven.  They must take responsibility and judge themselves.  Then he tells them that if they judge themselves, they won’t be judged (verse 32).

And herein is a key to understanding Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7.  “Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Jesus says if you condemn others as sinners and you are guilty of the same thing, you’ll be held to your own standards.  But if you look at your own heart, admit your wrongdoing to God, and with his help overcome those faults, you will not be judged.  In fact, God will not have to call your problems to your attention, which can sometimes be unpleasant.

I’m just saying that Jesus is not dismissing the concept of wrongdoing when he tells us not to judge.  Rather, he is telling us to clean up our own act so that we do not dishonor his sacrifice by the way we live our lives.

Lenny Cacchio

Church of God Kansas City

April 4, 2008

Mary of Bethany

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” (John 11:5)

Jesus had a special relationship with family from Bethany .  We see him teaching in their home.  He dined with them. At Lazarus death he traveled from a long way off to be with the sisters in their grief and to call Lazarus from his tomb.

We see these sisters and brother only three times in Scripture, and each time the family appears, we notice something unique about Mary.  Every time we see Mary of Bethany, she is at Jesus feet.

In Luke 10 she sits at his feet learning the ways of God.

In John 11 she falls at his feet in honor and worship.

And in John 12 Mary is anointing his feet in an act of service.

To learn, to worship, and to serve.  Not a bad reason to be at Jesus’ feet today.

Lenny Cacchio

Church of God Kansas City