Bowling Green Covenant Church

The Traveler’s Advisory Friday

21 July 2006

“For God made two great lights, the sun and the moon, to shine down upon the earth. The greater one, the sun, presides during the day; the lesser one, the moon, presides through the night. He also made the stars.”—Genesis 1.16 [NLT]

What happened July 20, 1969? Do the words, “Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed,” jog your memory? On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first human beings from earth to land a spacecraft on the moon. Later that day, they became the first human beings to walk on the lunar surface. Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the lunar surface, is remembered for saying, “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”

The landing was an anxious adventure. Armstrong had landed the lunar module, the Eagle, manually, but just barely, with only 15 seconds of fuel left. Soon after landing, the two astronauts prepared for their excursion on the lunar surface. Before doing so, Buzz Aldrin did something many people neither know about nor remember.

What Aldrin did might be dismissed as the stuff of urban legend and myth. It is not. It happened. The event is described in his book Men From Earth, and is included as part of a review of the book by Fred Howard that appeared in the NY Times, July 2, 1989:

“After the two astronauts in the lunar module Eagle had landed on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility, but before taking those first uncertain steps on the moon’s surface, they broadcast back to Earth. Mr. Aldrin, a religious man, was bent on giving thanks for a safe moon landing but he had been forbidden to do so. Complaints had been received when a former Apollo crew had read on the air passages from Genesis the previous Christmas Eve while orbiting the moon, and NASA wanted no more confrontations with antireligious groups. After requesting silence, Mr. Aldrin opened a miniature Communion kit prepared by his Presbyterian pastor and poured out sacramental wine from a vial ‘about the size of the tip of my little finger’ into a tiny chalice, observing that in the moon’s light gravity the liquid swirled about the miniature chalice more like syrup than wine. Before going back on the air, he ate a tiny Host and swallowed the wine and silently ‘gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility.’

Aldrin’s celebration of Communion on the moon adds depth to Genesis 1.16. It also enriches the texture of Scriptures such as Psalm 19.1, “The heavens tell the glory of God. The skies display His marvelous craftsmanship,” and Psalm 24, “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.”

As long as there are people on earth, and on the moon, God will be worshiped. He is to be worshiped because He created the earth, the moon and the universe. He also created humankind. And He gave men and women the intelligence, creativity and courage to dream big dreams and risk it all on big dares. Thus it is a melancholic moment when an anniversary of such importance passes unnoticed—not because it fails to celebrate human achievement, but because by forgetting such an achievement we forget to honor God who made it possible.

Ah, but there is Communion. And we are brought full circle to remembering an event of even far greater importance and meaning than men landing on the moon. And perhaps that is what Buzz Aldrin also gave thanks for that July day on the moon thirty-seven years ago. Perhaps it is what we should be thankful for as well, now and always until the Lord comes back.

You think about that.

MM

The Traveler’s Advisory

Friday 14 July 2006

“When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” —1 Corinthians 2.13 [NLT]

There is a hidden danger in becoming too familiar with what the Bible says about the words we use to communicate truth. The comfort with which we read these words from the apostle Paul can detract from the awe with which we should regard them as well as the power woven into them. Let us remember that the Gospel is not a human invention. We did not create it. The Gospel is God’s work. The Gospel is God’s Word. It is, in fact, the Word. Those who hearken to its message and believe what it says confess faith in Jesus Christ.

Now think for a moment of the great condescension of God in all this. How are we saved? How is faith created within us? It is not by force. God does not inflict salvation upon us. He does not “twist our arm” to believe in His Son. Faith does not originate in the human heart, neither is it conceived by our own decision. To the contrary, “Faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News (i.e., the Gospel) about Christ,” (Romans 10.17). Faith—saving faith—is an act of God. It is conceived by the Holy Spirit as we hear the Word—the Good News. We are saved by grace through faith—faith that comes by hearing the words of Jesus recorded in the word of God.

By misusing words, the serpentine Satan tempted Adam and Eve and convinced them to disobey God. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the Devil did not make them do it. It was Adam and Eve who sinned. They sinned because they believed words that appealed to human wisdom. Satan does not force us to disobey. He simply presents us with the option. He dresses sin in the tempting garment of what is natural and reasonable. He appeals to common sense and personal convenience. But there is a razor in that apple. There is poison in that logic. There is death in the act.

Life, specifically, eternal life comes from hearing (and believing) the Word of God. The Gospel of John tells us Jesus Christ is the Word made Flesh. His death paid the penalty for our sin. His resurrection is the assurance God accepted His death as the satisfactory sacrifice for our sin. This is what Paul and the apostles, as well as the early Church preached as the Good News. It is still the Good News.

To preach the Good News is to use of words correctly. It is to use “words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths,” to communicate the Truth. And the Truth once known cannot be un-known. The Truth is sin is the most natural thing we do. In contrast, faith in Jesus is unnatural because in order to come to faith we must experience spiritual rebirth; hence the need to use the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.

The power of our words lies less in the presentation, than in the Person of Whom we speak and in the Spirit who gives (inspires) them. To preach the Good News is to tell the truth about who Jesus is and what Jesus did. It is not that we invite people to receive Christ as much as we challenge them to believe in Him. How the Spirit gives us the words to say, as well as the words we use are part and parcel of the mystery connected with how He works. You will find it easier to harness the wind than to harness, diagram, chart and program how the Spirit works.

One thing is certain—the Holy Spirit is more likely to be at work when we eschew words of human wisdom and choose instead to speak with “words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” That is the only way to insure that our words are relevant, powerful and real.

You think about that.

MM

The Traveler’s Advisory Friday 7 July 2006

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”—1 Corinthians 2.12 [ESV]

Over the past two weeks I have been watching the play downs to the final match of this year’s World Cup of Soccer, er, Football, as it is called in Europe. Most Americans don’t get Soccer (to call it Football is to really confuse the issue). It’s too slow. There is not enough scoring. We don’t know any of the players (maybe that’s why the great ones use only one name). Add to this our unfamiliarity with the rules and Soccer is not only a game we don’t get, it’s a game we don’t watch.

So why is all of Europe and most of the world, for that matter, so caught up in World Cup fever? Could it be they know something we do not? Can it be they get it? Yes. And we don’t. Furthermore we are proud of our ignorance.

As Americans we take pride in the fact we don’t get Soccer. And our pride is evidenced by the fact that we insist on calling it Soccer when the rest of the world calls the game by its proper name, Football. No, we insist, Football is a game played by two teams of eleven men wearing shoulder pads, helmets and cleats. It is played on field 100-yards long with two goal posts, we call them uprights, at the back of each end zone. If, as Americans, we are to enjoy Football (Soccer) we must be converted and become Football fans. For this conversion to occur, we must, if such a thing existed, receive the spirit of Football.

And now you can see where I am headed. There is a great similarity between the world’s attitude toward the Bible and the Church and our American attitude toward Football. People who know Jesus get what the Bible says because they have been converted. They have received the Spirit of God. They are given insight into the Bible and the nature of the Church.

How this conversion takes place is a mystery. How the Spirit of God is given to us and dwells in us is also a mystery. But it must take place or we will not understand the things freely given to us by God. Chief among the things God freely gives us is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

It is the Holy Spirit of God who explains most clearly to us what it means to have redemption through the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins. It is the Holy Spirit of God who empowers us to forgive others as we have been forgiven by God through Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who makes us a fan of the Church. It is He who converts us from those who don’t get it to those who do.

So the only question now remaining is do you get it or not? Football is a game. It will always remain so, national and international passion notwithstanding. Eternal life and the things freely given to us by God along with the power for insight and practice of the mysteries of our faith come to us only in this life.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, there is a Football match to watch. Viva Italia! Andiamo!

You think about that.

MM