One of the signs, they say, that you’re old is the fact that you do more reminiscing than daydreaming. Well, at 65, I still daydream. So I guess I’m not too old yet.
John Lennon Memorial, Central Park
My imaginings, however, are more realistic than, say, those that I dreamed when I was 18. Would they be considered ‘old people’s dreams’? I don’t know.
It seems to be true though that as you get older, you do more reminiscing than daydreaming. But since I do it 50/50, I guess I’m not too old yet. (Palusot!)
I take a certain kind of pleasure in looking back and thinking about where I lived and the things I did.
This morning, as Ruth and I were observing one of the first rituals of the day—having coffee together—I recalled a summer stint working as interim registrar for an evangelical seminary in New York City.
I lived and worked in the same building on West 72nd Street, New York City. So after work, I’d just take the elevator up to my apartment and did not have to worry about competing for space in some crowded subway train.
West 72nd Street, NYC
Who could afford to pay for an apartment in Manhattan, especially one that’s only about ten minutes by foot to Central Park? Definitely, not me. But housing was part of my salary package. So being a person who loved walking (still does), I frequented the park like it was my backyard. What a wonderful gift it was!
Central Park
My daily walks to the park, however, were interrupted when I started a graduate study program (PhD, Liturgical Studies) at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, which was about two hours away by train from the city.
Drew University Campus
I told Ruth that one of these days I’d like to take her back to the East Coast and show her the places I’ve been, including “my kitchen downstairs” (a Chinese restaurant on West 72nd Street), the hotdog stand and bake shop (that boiled fresh bagels each day) just around the corner from my apartment/office building, and last, but definitely not least, the Italian restaurant in Madison that, though a mere hole in the wall, served what I believed to be the best eggplant parmesan in my culinary world.
I just hope that the student-friendly Italian resto is still there. Thing is, I don’t remember its name or the street it was on. All I remember is that it was on my way to the train station and that particular mouthwatering dish.
As I look back at these and other experiences, I am grateful to Divine Providence, the gift of an adventuresome spirit and, yes, the inspiration that comes from daydreaming and imagining. If I did not daydream when I was growing up—in some unknown Philippine rural town—I would probably not have experienced the seemingly impossible and wonderful experiences I’ve had.
Central Park
As John Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” made me hum its tune in my head whenever I entered Central Park—to walk on its paths and immerse myself in the gardens’ breathtaking beauty—so I encourage you to imagine. And wildly! Wild imaginings can lead to a future of happy reminiscing. (You’ve got to force yourself to wake up though and do something about your dreams if you want them to come true.) Daydreaming and reminiscing are like a pair of bookends—each depends on the other to support the storybooks in between.
When I was in my late 30s and studying in a graduate theological seminary in Metro Manila, I dreamed of pursuing an area of study. And I was dreaming of doing it not just in any school but in a prestigious institution that was known for their graduate program in homiletics: Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ.
I studied well and did everything else to be able to compete for a full scholarship (tuition and other fees plus board and lodging). And it happened. Thank God!
After Princeton, however, I wasn’t really prepared to handle some unplanned and other things that came my way—these are things that they do not teach you at school.
I wish there was someone who took my hand and guided me as I navigated the tough life of doing further study and ministry at the same time. If you are seen by others as a confident young person, you might not get the help that you need. In that case, take the initiative.
Seek out someone, particularly an older and wiser person. And, perhaps despite your educational attainment or how smart you think you are, have the humility to open up and ask for help. I should have done that myself. But my yesterday is gone. Yours, however, may not be.
Some of Donald Trump’s supporters have expressed their delight that Trump was acquitted and that he is “not guilty” as charged. As someone braggingly puts it on a Facebook post, “I told you guys (sic) Trump is innocent.”
Apparently, they do not understand that Trump was acquitted not because he was not guilty but simply because the number of votes to convict Trump did not meet the minimum requirement. Despite that, however, the number of guilty votes (57) was more than the number of acquittal votes (43). And those that voted to acquit Trump did not do so because he was not guilty but because they do not believe the Senate had jurisdiction (despite the fact that the Senate agreed, in a bipartisan way, that it was constitutional and thus proceeded with the trial) to impeach Trump who is no longer president (thanks but no thanks to Mitch McConnel for delaying the impeachment trial).
To prove the point, after the trial and Trump’s acquittal, ‘tuso’ (cunning) Minority Leader Mitch McConnel said, “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen,” McConnell said. “He didn’t get away with anything. Yet… We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one,” he also said. Other senators who voted to acquit Trump also expressed something similar.
What the acquittal means, among others, is that Trump remains a threat to American democracy. After his acquittal, he declared that the MAGA movement “has just begun.” While others take that as a weak political threat, the fact that “almost 75 million” voted for Trump (a number he continually boasts about, even though Joe Biden got 6 million more votes than he did) is more of a promise than a threat. Why? Because when an opportunity presents itself, that number of people is more than enough to start another insurrection!
Should he run for president again, Trump could win, especially if the situation will change for the worse, or he could paint a false situation and his cult following believe his words like they are divinely inspired utterances. But even if Trump does not win, worse things could happen–he could incite a bigger mob and succeed! Unless of course, before that could happen, he is tried in criminal courts for his crimes, found guilty, and put in prison for life, and thus such grim possibility is removed.
Remember Adolf Hitler? He lost the election, nonetheless, he became Germany’s Führer. Even if one believes that ‘such a thing could not happen in the United States,’ Americans should not let their guard down–opportunists like Donald Trump would do anything to accomplish their personal ambition. And what is Trump’s ambition? What he said in praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping after the Communist Party made his tenure indefinite gives us a clear picture of Trump’s political vision: “He’s now president for life, president for life. And he’s great… And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday….”
Donald Trump, after the failed insurrection and his acquittal today, might just give “president for life” another shot.
While enjoying my freshly brewed poured-over coffee this morning, I read Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day. It is 1 Corinthians 10:13, a Scripture verse that every Christian probably thinks she or he knows very well. And that includes me.
The verse is so familiar because it is often quoted. To put that in Filipino or Tagalog, ‘Gasgas na!’ And so it is a verse that I suppose many would like to think they have already nailed down. Again, the many includes me.
But as I read the verse for the millionth time (I’m exaggerating of course), the very last phrase has caught my exegete eye in a way that it has not before: “…he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
When “a way out” is provided, it seems natural to think that the hardship and struggle in dealing with the temptation is removed so that the one who is tempted can now easily and quickly get out of the tempted state, like ‘No sweat!’ But it doesn’t appear to be that way.
The “way out” God provides, whatever that might be,” does not lead to a situation in which the one being tempted is passively led out from a spiritually perilous situation, like being swooped up and out by Wonder Woman and immediately taken to a safe place. But a way out is provided so that “you can endure it (the temptation).”
From the looks of it, when a way out is provided, the spiritual battle and struggle against temptation has just actually begun! But thank God, because of a way out that has been provided, “you (and I) can endure it” (emphasis mine)!
The struggle may be long—and longer if the temptation is something that we’ve been badly craving to do—but, thanks be to God who provides us a way out—we can endure it!
The question, however, is, Am I willing to use the way out that God provides? Are you?
Everyone knows that. What makes this Thanksgiving different is that we are celebrating it in a pandemic. Everyone knows that too! The challenge, however, might be finding things that wecan be thankful for today.
Despite the COVID deaths, lack of money and scarcity of food for many, as well as the risk of catching the deadly virus, there are things that we can be thankful for.
For one, we can be thankful for the confident assurance already shown by the incoming administration in dealing with the health crisis and, consequently, the stalled economy. We should rejoice in the fact that the pandemic will now be tackled in a scientific, clear, and comprehensive way. And that without the unnecessary drama!
For us believers, Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to thank God for what we have because of our faith in Christ. While some Christians see their faith and the things they believe in as an escape from this world and its troubles, we should see it differently.
While we too believe in the hereafter, faith has to be lived out in the here and now. Thus, the following message should be taken as a guide for how we should live our lives now in view of what we have in Christ.
What are we to thank God for? To answer that question, let us consider 1 Corinthians 1:4-9:
Thanksgiving
4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
That the Corinthian Christians are a spiritually gifted bunch—they “do not lack any spiritual gift” (v.7)—may have been a great help in the ministry of building the church, at least at the start. However, as of Paul’s writing this letter, their giftedness is obviously not serving them well.
The Corinthians are divided (vs. 10-17) and some of them “have become arrogant” (4:18) apparently because they “already have all (they) want…[and] have become rich!” (v. 8). Paul’s words of thanks for the Corinthians must therefore be understood within the context of their division and personal arrogance, among other weaknesses.
The way Paul does it is quite subtle. And yet, if the Corinthians, who may have boasted for being wise (which 1:26-31 seems to imply), read his letter very carefully, they would not miss Paul’s unmistakable message.
Paul begins by letting the Corinthians know that he “always thank[s]…God for [them]” (v. 4). Yes, despite their immaturity—being still “mere infants in Christ” (3:1) and pride. Paul’s thanksgiving for the Corinthians serves as an ego-shrinking message. How is that?
Clearly, the Corinthians could not boast about their gifts or whatever spiritual riches they might think they have. They did not create their giftedness on their own: “grace is given [them] in Christ Jesus” (v. 4).
And although they might be tempted to trust in themselves for gaining God’s favor (perhaps because of their being gifted and big ego), Paul was thankful that their future in Christ is secure, not because of them or their ability, but because of God who “will also keep [them] firm to the end, so that [they] will be blameless [despite their sins] on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and because “God is faithful” (verses 8-9).
In other words, there is no basis for Corinthians’ boasting—everything they have have been given to them by God!
Today, we too might be tempted to thank God for me when we ought to thank God for him and his grace. We might be tempted to thank God for me because…
I am not like those sinners who, for example, belong to a political party of ‘baby murderers’,
I faithfully give 10% of my income to my church (well, most of the time),
I am more obedient to God than those, say, who do not observe Old Testament festivals, rituals, and commandments,
and I am more deserving of the ‘heavenly crowns (plural)’ than others who, in my estimation, are really fake Christians who I don’t expect to see ‘in the air’ or ‘in the clouds’ at rapture as they will be left behind in a chaotic world and suffer the wrath of an angry God.
When we tend to thank God for me rather than him and his grace, it might help us overcome the temptation if we read again and again (yes, even if we have already done so many times before) the parable of Jesus in Luke 18:9-14 :
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God (italics added). For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
The horse apparently understands it is being helped. Sometimes humans do not have the same commendable instincts–they think you’re there to put them down. So they try to knock you down with a beastly kick.
And some Christians are no different. When they see you not having the same bright red color–‘the color of the righteous’–they conclude you have the ‘devil’s color’: blue. Yes, even if you’re not ‘blue’ at all and your only motive is to bring the light of truth to dispel the darkness of lies.
Today, I read 1 Thessalonians 5 and I wondered how I might apply verse 11 and not be misunderstood: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
“I am the chosen one.” THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES
Dear friends,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts through the comments you made on my Facebook posts as well as the messages and links you sent through Messenger. To me, that means you are concerned, as I am, about the current affairs.
I also appreciate the attempts you have made to defend Donald Trump and the efforts to try to show that you are right, and I am wrong, about him. The time you invested in conversing with me must mean that you care about me and that you’re worried that I ‘get it wrong’. I feel that strongly from those of you who claim that Trump is ‘God’s chosen one.’
But why would I believe Donald Trump has been chosen by God to lead this country and the world? Should I believe simply because someone says he is? Or, because he himself claimed “I am the chosen one”? On the contrary, I should not believe Trump especially because he claims he is!
Who would believe Donald Trump? According to his own niece, a clinical psychologist, he uses lying “as a power play”? If you are honest to yourself, you cannot deny that he lies all the time! But of course, you wouldn’t really know that if your sources of information are only Fox News and those that Trump recommends or whose stories align with the ‘neo-Republican’ narrative.
Ted Cruz on Donald Trump: “This man is a pathological liar.” Still is. It has not changed.
After a brief shock (“What?”), I said, “…If facts and truth make me a radical, so be it. Jesus was too!” That is why the Lord was crucified (that’s aside from the theological answer, which I assume you know).
But let us just forget everything I’ve said. Let us take it for granted that you are right, and I am wrong. Let us see how that would go.
If I remember it right, most of you have claimed, in one way or another, that Donald Trump is ‘God’s chosen one.’ So, he’s more than just an ‘abrasive individual’ who is like Nebuchadnezzar, as some of you have said. He is the anointed one, ‘the king’ who has already come!
No one has expressed such grandiose view of Donald Trump more than Wayne Allyn Root, who described himself as a “Jew turned evangelical Christian.” Such praise had not escaped Trump’s attention. How could it? Wowed by a comment worthy of royalty—no, a god!—he tweets:
“Thank you to Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words. ‘President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world…and the Jewish people in Israel love him….[sic].
“…like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God…But American Jews don’t know him or like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that’s OK, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s good for…..[sic].
…..[sic] all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone. And importantly, he’s good for everyone in America who wants a job.’ Wow!”
“They love him like the second coming of God”? Wow!”
It is no secret that many conservative Christians think highly of President Trump. He has consistently maintained high approval ratings from white evangelicals since he won the majority of white evangelicals and white Catholics in the 2016 election.
That statement seems to correlate with one message I received that goes:
“We are in the last days, almost at the time of Christ’s second coming, I’m sure.
“Did you notice that the first horseman in the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation; Chapter 6, verse 2) is about a rider wearing a crown (corona), and it came out conquering?
“As far as I know, this “corona” virus has conquered all humankind into fear, death, and stagnation of the world economy.”
Intrigued, I looked up Revelation 6:2 and read it closely: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer” (KJV).
Trump “was given ‘corona ‘virus’”
What my friend, who supports Trump, perhaps missed is that “a crown (which he interprets as “‘corona’ virus”) was given unto him”. Since we are taking it for granted that he is—and all my friends, for that matter are—right, who comes out as the one who was given the corona virus?
You got it: Donald Trump!
I spent many years in seminary studying and exegeting Bible passages, but I must confess I am not a Revelation expert. So for now, I leave it to those who are and trust their conclusion: most scholars agree that the horseman of Revelation 6:2 who was given the crown is the Antichrist.
“…the little horn of Daniel 7 is none other than Donald J. Trump. There has never been a United States president like him; of him could the prophet accurately say, ‘After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones’….
“It is significant that when the prophet saw the little horn in vision, he notes his mouth. Trump’s bragging, pouting mouth is his most frequently caricatured feature.”
What if my former New Testament professor is right? In a message he sent to me, he wrote, “He is unquestionably one of a long line of Antichrists in history. The Republican party is the second Beast of Revelation 13. Christians who vote for him are marking themselves with 666.”
What if you are right about Donald Trump being the chosen one, but not by God?
What if Donald Trump is an anti-Christ, if not the Antichrist?
What if your support of him will result in him winning the election?
And what if, because of victory, he would begin to believe that he is not just a mere man–that he is divine and the “the second coming of God”?
Just imagine what Donald Trump might do if he is emboldened by your vote of confidence and faith in him. The tremendous surge of power and invincibility, I am afraid, would inspire in Trump a deeper level of narcissism and a new and more grandiose image of himself. The “little horn” might just believe he is the Messiah, albeit a false one, and one who would bring more chaos to the world.
Christians do not see eye to eye on whether there are cases in which abortion might be deemed a right option. Some might say that abortion is acceptable in cases of rape and pregnancy that puts the life of the mother at risk. Others, however, do not see any situation that might justify abortion. To them, it is absolutely no abortion. Conservative evangelicals, in general, take that latter position.
There is no doubt that conservative evangelicals are for overturning Roe v. Wade. Abortion is the reason why many of them have become single-issue voters. In other words, they would vote for the candidates that promise to work for them on this single issue. And to many, that would mean voting straight Republican, the political party that currently takes the anti-abortion stance. (Why not if it caters to their political base?)
Sadly, however, evangelicals might have carelessly voted for incompetent candidates. If these politicians could not deliver even on what evangelicals might deem as less important issues, what’s the chance that they could deliver on more important ones, such as those related to abortion rights? For some reason that eludes me, evangelicals stick to their strategy: work with and vote straight Republican!
The last presidential election has been widely known as a transaction of compromise between evangelicals and Donald Trump. Despite Trump’s questionable reputation, the evangelicals voted for him believing that he was the “chosen one” who could deliver conservative political goals, especially the overturn of Roe v. Wade. But are conservative Evangelicals realistic in their expectations? Can the Republican Party deliver what they promise? Can they have Roe v. Wade overturned?
To answer that question, let us have a little review of the abortion right’s history. Roe v. Wade was the landmark United States Supreme Court ruling from 1973 that established abortion as a fundamental right of a pregnant woman. It is ironic that the President at that time was a Republican, Richard Nixon, and the Supreme Court Justice who wrote the majority opinion was a Republican, Harry Blackmun, who was joined by two other Republicans: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice Potter Stewart!*
In 1992, the Supreme Court, which was “now more ideologically conservative than at the time Roe was decided,” revisited the legal rulings in Roe v. Wade in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Even though it modified its ruling by abandoning “Roe’s trimester framework in favor of a standard based on fetal viability, the Court “overruled Roe’s requirement that government regulations on abortion be subjected to the strict scrutiny standard” and reaffirmed “that a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion is constitutionally protected.”**
Recently, evangelicals were again disappointed that President Trump’s conservative appointees have not delivered what they hoped their vote for Trump would accomplish. “Pro-life leaders expressed deep disappointment with the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal June 29 to uphold a Louisiana law designed to protect the lives and health of women by requiring hospital admitting privileges for doctors who perform abortions.”***
So if a “conservative” president (in quotation marks because I don’t believe Trump is a true conservative) and a conservative Supreme Court cannot or not willing to deliver on the issue that makes evangelicals one-issue voters, why stick to a political strategy that has not worked? If Republicans were the original proponents of Roe v. Wade and, as we have seen, are not really working to overturn abortion rights, shouldn’t that make evangelicals think that perhaps the issue has been constantly used as a bait to vote Republican? And since the evangelical strategy to vote Republican has never worked since President Richard Nixon (yes, even when the sitting President is Republican: Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (1974 –1977), Ronald Wilson Reagan (1981–1989), George Herbert Walker Bush (1989 –1993), George Walker Bush (2001-2009), Donald Trump (2016-present), wouldn’t it be smart to rethink it?
Politicians and political parties will always tell us what we want to hear. God does not do that. God will always tell us the truth. And God will always fulfill his promises, including the humanly impossible ones. Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:29, NIV). So, let’s trust God rather than man.
In our desire to live the American dream, we look to a political leader and enthrone him. The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at us.
We continue to fight for our politics, trumping, instead of loving, each other. He rebukes us in his anger and terrifies us in his wrath, but we don’t let up.
We insist that our enthroned leader is our sure hope and those that go against us are surely bound to hell. We’ve been warned: God has installed his and OUR KING on Zion, his holy mountain.
I like the Japanese word choku (shown above in kanji; in kana, ちょく). It means simplicity, honesty, frankness, correctness.
In this complex world, we can keep our sanity by keeping things simple. Simple lifestyle. Simple food. Simple pleasures. Simple anything. I think that even profound thoughts can—and should—be expressed simply and beautifully. In truth, verbosity can bury a good idea. And ideas are to be shared with everyone: the intellectually sophisticated individual, a simple person, and the simple-minded one.
I like the word because it also expresses how we should deal with one another: with honesty and frankness. In being direct and passionate for correctness, however, we may hurt another person’s feelings and damage the relationship. Happily, this is where choku also comes to the rescue! Alternately, the word means “to fix or repair.” And perhaps what needs repair can be fixed especially if we “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
Now I think I’m really attracted to choku, not just as a word but as a way of life.
“Mondays with Michelle Obama,” a four-week series of videos that will feature the former First Lady reading aloud from favorite children’s books, begins today with the reading of The Gruffalo, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
The Gruffalo is a story about a mouse that takes “a stroll through the deep dark wood.” There he encounters a fox, an owl, and a snake, respectively. Each of these predators is too eager to have the mouse for lunch. But the mouse who smartly (so it seems) compensates what he lacks in brawn with wit, cleverly fends off each one of them by inventing a monster.
That’s just the kind of story children, like little Donald, want to hear. Let’s continue.
In their attempt to trap the mouse, each predator asks him where he is going. The mouse tells each of them that he is meeting a scary monster who “has terrible tusks, and terrible claws,” and “terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.”
The mouse also tells each of them the monster’s favorite dish, each of which is obviously cooked up to match the one he is conversing with and apparently expected to have an unnerving effect on them: the fox, “roasted fox”; the owl, “owl ice cream”; the snake, “scrambled snake.”
“This smart mouse—he’s just like me!” Little Donald cannot contain himself. Then he adds, “I could be the ‘Mice President’ when I grow up!”
Michelle looks at Donald and puts a finger on her tightly closed lips. “Shush.” Michelle continues reading.
As the mouse points the spot where he and the Gruffalo are going to meet—which is of course where they are—each one scampers away into hiding. The mouse sneers at the predators’ gullibility because “There’s no such thing as a gruffal…?”…OH!”
The smirk on the mouse’s tiny face is quickly erased and the look of shock replaces it when a monster, scarier than a gruffalo he imagined and has just told other animals, suddenly appears:
But who is this creature with terrible claws
And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws?
He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes,
And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose.
His eyes are orange, his tongue is black,
He has purple prickles all over his back.
The mouse screams with fear when he realizes that the Gruffalo is real:
Oh help! Oh no!
It’s a gruffalo!
I wonder how scared little Donald is when the Gruffalo sees the mouse and says, “My favourite food!You’ll taste good on a slice of bread!”
Surprise! Surprise! The mouse regains his composure. Confidence in his ability to fool other animals has grown. He believes that as he was able to fool the other predators, he can also fool the scariest of them all, the Gruffalo.
Little Donald’s face lights up. He’s happy. He sees himself in this smart little mouse.
But will it work? Well, as far as the story goes, it does!
But how about in real life? Will it always work? As the saying goes, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
If I were the author of the book, I would have ended the story differently—with the mouse on a slice of bread being eaten by the Gruffalo. Why? To teach the danger of unrealistic confidence, especially when ability is in fact lacking. But it’s not my story.
The story goes on and, because of that, it is, in my estimation, one of the finest illustrations for the saying, “Fake it till you make it.”
The mouse successfully shows the Gruffalo how scared are the fox, the owl, and the snake of him (when, in truth, they are scared not of him but the Gruffalo):
“Well, Gruffalo,” said the mouse. “You see?
Everyone is afraid of me!
But now my tummy’s beginning to rumble.
My favourite food is – gruffalo crumble!”
In the end, the scary monster, the Gruffalo, gets scared:
“Gruffalo crumble!” the Gruffalo said,
And quick as the wind he turned and fled.
“Yay!” Little Donald yells as if the mouse’s victory is also his.
No doubt, the story has captivated the imagination of young listeners and, based on the rave reviews, adult readers as well!
But is the story teaching children, like little Donald, the right thing?
Faking it till you make it may not be bad if it is used as a tool to develop character. For instance, a person who has a problem telling the truth might “fake it” by saying to himself I am an honest person (despite the fact that he just told a lie) to help him stop saying dishonest things.
Anything that can help transform us, is worth trying, especially if it doesn’t cause harm. But to fake an ability that one does not have, or might never have, is a dangerous thing—your story might end this way:
All was quiet in the deep dark wood,
Except for the Gruffalo crunching a mouse for food.
Finally, is it OK to read the story, as is, to children? I think so, provided adults point out to them the wrong ideas they should not pick up.
As far as our experience is concerned, today is the first Easter Sunday of its kind—no church service, no egg hunting, no hanging out with family and friends.
So, yeah, today is Easter Sunday or, if you prefer, Resurrection Sunday. But it really feels like we’re still stuck in Holy Saturday. Although most of us have quarantined ourselves and are supposed to be insulated from the world out there, yet we smell the stench of death in a very profound way. It’s a dark Easter Sunday.
Although experts have informed us there will be an end to this pandemic, yet we do not know exactly when. And the waiting seems endless. And so we ask, except staying home and washing our hands, what are we to do?
We can think of countless things we can do but our hands are tied. No, not just our hands, our feet as well!
As I think about what the Lord might want us to do, I thought of his command to love. However, the Scripture texts in which the command show up seem to always demand the literal use of hands and feet.
For instance, Jesus said, “If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them” (Luke 6:29, NIV). Giving away one’s shirt obviously involves the use of hand.
In 1 John 3 we read:
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.*
But as I continue to read 1 John 3, I found what I think might be the word of the Lord to us today—a word that might empower us despite our very limited use of hands and feet:
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Within the context of loving, prayer is introduced in this passage. And it tells us exactly what would give us “confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask”: keeping God’s “commands” and doing “what pleases him” (vs. 21-22).
The first of the two commands is “to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Why such command? Aren’t we supposed to believe freely?
Absolutely! However, because the image of God in us has been marred by sin, we now have the tendency to rebel against God’s good will. And when we do, we forfeit what faith in God might offer. A command could definitely motivate us to stay on the right path (although I believe that, because we are free, we can choose to disobey).
If we obey the command to believe, what does it look like?
Since it is a command to “friends” (vs. 1, 21) or “children of God” (vs. 1,2), I would consider this as a command to those who already believe in Christ. Thus, faith in this context has to do with believing God who, because he “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” we can confidently believe that he will also “graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32, NIV), that is, everything within his will. In other words, if God could give us the grandest gift—his Son—how much more the lesser ones!
Wow! If we really ponder about that, our faith can grow exponentially—talk about faith on steroids! If small faith can move mountains (Matthew 17:20), how much more a giant faith?
The second command brings us back to the overarching theme of love of 1 John 3: “love one another as he (Jesus) commanded us.”
Loving is part of what we do as believers because of what we have become: children of God. “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister” (v. 10). Doing right and loving reveal our identity.
So, if loving should come naturally because we are children of God, why the command to love?
The reason is because although God has made us to be like Abel, who was righteous, when we put our faith in Christ, we still have the tendency to be like Cain, who was evil and murdered his brother. That’s why this command: “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother” (v. 12). So, again, a command could remind us of and help us choose the path of righteousness.
In these days of darkness and death, our obedience can make a huge difference in the world. If we believe in what God can do and love one another, then our prayers can move the hand of God, so to speak.
How can we love when our hands and feet might not allow us to do so?
Yes, we are “not (to) love with words or speech but with actions and in truth,” but I don’t think that the emphasis on loving with actions means that the statement carries an unequivocal meaning. If that is the case, words do not mean anything. And they do.
When someone uses hate language in a politically charged conversation, for example, we cannot miss the message. The words spoken carry with them the venom of hate and we feel its lethal power. We know that when those words are directed to us, they immediately tell us that the person those words are coming from does not love us.
Conversely, the same is true with loving words. Let me illustrate that.
After Ruth, my wife, gave a sandwich to Ezra, our grandson, earlier today, I asked him, “Does lola love you?” He said yes—she made him a sandwich! Then I asked him another question, “Does lolo love you?” He also said yes. Then I asked, “How do you know that?” He said, “Because you said I’m your favorite grandson.” (He’s my only grandson, by the way.)
What I said was as much an expression of love as his grandma’s action of making him a sandwich.
Words have power. They can be used to show hate or love. And that should make us think whether the words we write on social media, for example, are words that convey love.
I am not sure if I am free of guilt. Most likely, not. I don’t remember everything I expressed in words, but I remember negative feelings toward some of those I interacted with on Facebook. And so, for those words I said that did not make people feel loved, I am deeply sorry. Please forgive me.
To make up for that today, when I am unable to lead a congregation in worship, I am writing this to express my love to all, but especially to sisters and brothers in the Lord who need to know what to do during this dark time when even though we know the meaning of Easter Sunday in our heads yet our experience tells us that we have not really moved out of Holy Saturday—the day of darkness and death.
Aside from loving and encouraging words, we can pray.
We cannot undermine the ability of the experts and what we have come to call “frontliners” who are working so hard to put an end to the coronavirus pandemic. We thank God for them. Indeed, they are today’s heroes.
However, God’s word to us today is that we too can perform amazing things even while on quarantine—we can pray! With our faith, hopefully being on steroids, think about what prayer can do to us, our community, country, and the world!
So, let us pray.
Our heavenly Father, we bow down before you You are God, our Creator; we are your creatures Forgive us for trying to create you in our image And forgive us for fashioning idols made of hands
Let us selflessly work for your kingdom while on earth And let us be obedient subjects who freely do your will Help us to not forget your coming perfect and glorious kingdom So that we may not be tempted to build our own
Forgive us our sins—they are too many too count But we know that those sins were hatched in our hearts Please transform our hearts and let us truly love you and our neighbor And help us to love in words, thoughts, and deeds
Thank you for cleansing our hearts and filling it with your love Thank you for the gift of faith and for making it grow Today we have this renewed confidence in you And in what you will do because we pray
We pray for the suffering world because of the pandemic We pray for those who lost loved ones And those who are still suffering from the infection Bring comfort, hope, and healing to them
In these dark days, help us to remember that you are with us Not just in a metaphorical but literal sense— In Christ, you experienced death and its darkness And thus, you know what humankind is experiencing now
We thank you for the frontliners Strengthen and protect them Let them feel they are appreciated and loved For indeed that is the truth And provide all their needs
Give wisdom to our leaders and help them serve selflessly We pray for the leader of our country, even if our vote was cast not for them Give our leader good health and extend the same to her or his family And help our leader lead as she or he should, with sincerity and dignity
We pray for our loved ones—whether members of our family or not We ask that you continue to take care of them as you take care of us Remind each one of them of your goodness in Christ your Son So that they might not go astray
We pray for our “enemies” as well Forgive us if we have hurt them in any way And forgive them as well Perhaps they did not know what they were doing
Most of all, please help us end this darkness There are limits to what we can do But with you nothing is impossible So help us to believe in you and in what you can do
In Jesus’ name, we pray Amen.
___
*All scriptures are from the New International Version®, NIV®
At the outset, let me say that I like Pastor Tony Rapu’s preaching style. He is also a good communicator. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he is a popular pastor in Nigeria.
Pastor Rapu’s communication skill may be above average but the way he preached on the story of the people of Israel, who were enslaved in Egypt, is quite typical of what you’d hear from the average pastor. So what’s the difference?
The difference lies in the fact that people call his message a prophecy of the coronavirus pandemic.
Let’s be clear about what a prophecy is. As you have probably already heard before, there are two kinds. One has to do with the proclamation of the previously revealed word of God. Some have called it the “forthtelling” kind. Preaching the Scripture falls under that category.
Another has to do with the proclamation of the word of God about a future event that nobody else knows about until the prophet reveals it. The prophecy is a privileged information until the prophet makes it known to others. Some have described it as the “foretelling” kind.
When people talk about Pastor Rapu’s “prophecy” of the coronavirus in December 2019, what kind of prophecy are they referring to? Forthtelling? Or foretelling?
Within the Christian fold, some pastors were privileged to have heard God told them about the global pandemic disease, Coronavirus (COVID 19) ravaging the world as it stands now. It has affected the world that most people now resort to God to take control. This outbreak could be likened to the pestilence been mentioned in the bible and also some school of thought termed it to be the end times as the book of revelation in the bible revealed. But one of the most privileged pastors to have seen and heard from God about this global outbreak is Pastor Tony Rapu.
According to Oyediji, Pastor Rapu received privileged information and thus the latter meaning of prophecy, foretelling, applies.
And it seems very clear that that’s the kind of meaning the people who spread the message on social media have in mind. The most obvious is in the way it is introduced:
This is the Prophet everyone is talking about with the accurate 2020 Prophecy. He preached this December 31, 2019.
Here are a couple of problems I see with that claim:
1. The “prophecy” was preached on December 31, 2019
That date is very important. We must ask the question, If it was a privileged information, such as in a predictive prophecy, then only Pastor Rapu knew about the coronavirus at that time.
By the time Pator Rapu preached on the last day of 2019, the news about the virus has already spread across the globe. In Minessota, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported the following:
Health officials in China are investigating the cause of a pneumonia outbreak in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province that has sickened 27 people and seems to be linked to a seafood market.
The answer to that is, being a doctor, it is likely that Dr. Rapu knew about it. It is easy to see the reverend doctor as a person who keeps himself abreast with what’s going on in his first area of interest: health.
We do not know that for sure though. However, even if Pastor Rapu did not know about it, I still don’t think we can call his message prophetic, in the predictive sense of the word. And that’s for the simple reason that it was not a privileged information. Other people, perhaps a great number, already knew about it.
Pastor Rapu himself does not seem to claim that his sermon was a prediction of the pandemic. When you listen to him about how believers should respond to coronavirus, he does not make any connection to the sermon he preached, or at least to the “Stay in the house” exhortation (the meaning of which might have changed if he claimed his sermon as a predictive prophecy.
Also, Pastor Rapu’s Facebook posts do not show any indication that he knew something as bad as a pandemic would plague the world. In fact, on the same day he preached the sermon he wrote with optimism (which appears to contradict his “prophetic” message),
Better days are coming. Stayed (sic) tuned child of God. Get ready for 2020 The best is yet to come.
But if Pastor Rapu has in fact claimed that his message was a prediction of the coronavirus pandemic, then that’s another story. As far as I know, he has not done that.
And that leads us to the next problem.
2. “Stay in the house” in Pastor Rapu’s sermon is taken literally
“Stay in the house” does not have the same meaning as the encouragement to stay home or self-quarantine because of the coronavirus.
When you listen carefully to what Pastor Rapu said, you cannot miss the metaphorical meaning of “Stay in the house”:
What is the house? The bible is saying stay in a certain attitude, stay within a certain framework of your mind, do not panic about the situation. Have a certain attitude. It is an attitude of faith. It is an unshakable trust in God.
Any preacher who used the same Scripture passage could have used the same or similar expression, “Stay in the house.”
God said to Moses,
On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” (Exodus 12;12-13, NIV).
With those words from God–assuring his people that they would be safe in their houses–what do you think Moses could have said to the people? You got it. Stay in the house! (Or something to that effect.) That’s what any preacher might say too. And like how Pastor Rapu used it, with an allegorical meaning.
The conclusion, Pastor Rapu preached a very good reminder: Stay in the house. And what he meant by that was to have an attitude of faith. But it was not a prophecy in the predictive sense of the word.
First, I am glad (and amused at how he puts it) that Wright is well aware of the presumptuous assumptions about any human crisis, which I think Evangelicals are often guilty of: “No doubt the usual silly suspects will tell us why God is doing this to us. A punishment? A warning? A sign?”
Second, I am also glad about Wright’s emphasis on lament, even though we’ve probably already lamented way before Wright wrote the article. We lament at the suffering and death that perhaps should have been minimized if people in authority did a better job. We lament the bad politics that care more about agendas than the health of the people. We lament the falsehoods, like fake cures, peddled even by those who profess to be speaking on behalf of God.
However, lament and seeking for answers are not mutually exclusive. And to ask questions and try to find answers is not at all not part of our vocation. We are not going to find answers all the time, but finding answers and explaining them should be part of our vocation. I do that almost every Sunday when I preach a sermon!
Offering explanations about Scripture passages especially as they relate to our situation (like the coronavirus crisis) is the very core of the pastor’s vocation as well as those of us who, like Wright, has been called to teach the Bible. Ironically, however, while Wright tells us to not explain, he explains why we ought not to explain.
To say that might imply that after Wright has done his own research, he does not find any explanation worth sharing. If that is the case, we might ask the question, ‘What does he really know?’ or ‘Does he know anything?’ Or, even if he finds adequate answers, he’s not obligated to share them—it’s not part of his vocation!
Even if our main task is not to explain what’s going on in the world, yet for us to be effective in communicating the Word, we have to somehow understand the world, or else we’ll just be talking to the wall.
Finally, I’m glad that despite Wright’s warning to not give hope when there might be none, he concludes his article with a message of hope anyway: “As the Spirit laments within us, so we become, even in our self-isolation, small shrines where the presence and healing love of God can dwell. And out of that there can emerge new possibilities, new acts of kindness, new scientific understanding, new hope.”
And I’m also glad that despite Wright’s thesis–we are not called to offer explanations–he concludes that “even in our self-isolation…there can emerge new possibilities…new scientific understanding.” We may not be scientists, but I assume most of us can understand scientific explanations and there is no rule against sharing such knowledge.
PENnED 