It Started with a Kiss

I was referred to a news story from a daily blog post - a news story I probably would have missed otherwise: “Couple’s love story began with a CPR kiss.”Yes, it does have a bit of a tabloid sound to it, but it could be worse.

It’s the story of a man training for one of those endurance athletic contests - this one involved a paddle board. He had run 10+ miles the day before. Toward the end of this session, he had burning in his chest, and just hoped to make it back to the car, which he made, but not quite. He collapsed, and then had no heartbeat for 17 minutes. 

A woman friend who had also been training and was trained in CPR, immediately began administering air to his lungs, supplying oxygen until paramedics could get his heart going again. It took six defib shocks, and then he was on the road to recovery. But without CPR, without that first kiss, he wouldn’t have made it. 

Well, the man and woman are now a “thing,” and any future kisses are due to that first kiss.

The Gospel tells us that we were dead in trespasses and sins, and without that “first kiss,” that initiative from Jesus that was completely outside of our power or control; without his entry into this world and submission to the sacrifice which saved us from our sins; without our hearing of the Gospel and the Spirit opening “the eyes of our understanding” to see and receive the truth; without all this, there would have been no hope.

Another strange parallel to the story was that, in a way, Jesus was not the one who gave the first kiss, but rather the one who received it. But that kiss was not a kiss of mercy, or help, or rescue. It was a kiss of deception, administered by one of his disciples, who should have been for him, but proved rather to be against him. Our salvation started with that kiss, that Jesus knew was coming, and received it anyway, so that we could have life.

There are a few lessons here:

1. there are different kinds of kisses: CPR kisses; kisses of betrayal; holy kisses, etc. Not all are the same.
2. some of our best relationships are not planned out by us, especially our relationship with God through Jesus
3. endurance training guarantees … nothing

Every Day Sweeter

We used to sing a chorus in Sunday School, “Every day with Jesus, is sweeter than the day before.” It’s poetic. But is it realistic? Can each subsequent day actually be better than the day before? Because that’s not how it normally happens in this world.

This world is subject to a number of downward forces - things like gravity, and frailty, and entropy. By nature, things fall. Old things fall .. apart. Energy evaporates, or leaks.

It happens in relationships. The burdens of life weigh heavily on a couple, and, though they once glided along with their hearts in the clouds and their feet scarcely touching the ground, now they are being ground down into the dirt. Their zest for life gives way to recliners placed far from each other across the room. There is scarcely energy to talk anymore. Maybe just grunt.

But a relationship with Jesus is different. For one, he is not from below, but from above, and so the relationship is not subject to the same gravity as that with another sinner (and, we are all sinners, save, of course, Jesus). He is not frail or fading, but eternal. He is our energy resource, a “spring of water welling up into eternal life.” It truly can be the kind of relationship in which “every day is sweeter than the day before.”

Two illustrations: Jesus turns the water into wine. But the story is not about whether you prefer water or wine. It is about the quality of the wine, better than the best wine that the proud papa had provided at the beginning of the wedding, because what Jesus supplies is always better than anything else you have experienced before. A relationship with Jesus will similarly outstrip the best of what this “passing away” world is able to offer.

The second illustration is Ezekiel’s stream - not exactly Ezekiel’s, but God’s, which streams from the holy city, and, as it flows, it becomes, not more shallow, but deeper, exactly what you would not expect. Further, as this water flows richer, fuller, deeper, it reaches the sea, and, instead of becoming salty when coming into contact with the salt sea, it has a freshness that makes even the sea waters fresh as well. If “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul,” then the fresh water of the Lord is pure, converting the sea.

Perhaps those words are not merely poetic. Perhaps they are, in addition, prophetic - because, with Jesus, every day is sweeter than the day before. 

Failure to Land

There is a phrase out there in popular culture called “failure to launch.” I suppose the stereotype would be the son who graduates from college, but lives at home, unable or unwilling to begin a career and form meaningful (family) relationships. But this story is not about “failure to launch.” It is about “failure to land.” 

Richard Russell, 29, a member fo the ground crew at Sea-Tac airport, without formal flying lessons, learned enough online to take a commercial plane for an unauthorized spin. He had studied to learn how to take off and to do some rather elaborate maneuvers given the size of the plane. It became clear in conversation with air traffic controllers that he was not prepared to land the plane safely, nor did he intend to. This was to be his only flight.

It’s a heartbreaking story, especially since he refers to himself as “just a broken guy.” But it strikes me that his flight is not all that much different from that lived by men and women all over the world. We learn how to engage in this flight called “life,” and perhaps to undertake some rather interesting projects, but as we approach the end, we have to admit that we have made no preparations whatsoever to land this thing. It’s a two-part story: live large; then, crash and burn.

We find such a man in Jesus’ parable of “the rich man and Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-31). The rich man lived large, until the end. And then he “failed to land.” He finds himself confined to Hades, in torment, and is informed that the preparations for avoiding that end should have been made before, not after the point of his passing.

There are a million books on “how to live well.” Not so many on “how to die well.” But there is a good one, called the Bible, and a Person, a Guide, Jesus, who, having died and rose again, never to die again, can prepare us through “the landing” so as to make sure that this flight is not your last; that this is not all there is; and that you are prepared to live and enjoy not only this brief life, but also life that is eternal.

The news report concludes with this line: “The flight lasted about 75 minutes before the plane crashed into the tiny Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, ..” And so many other “life stories may similarly read, “This life last about 75 years, before he/she crashed ..” due to “failure to land.” 

Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary

This is a bit of a book report, titled above, and written by J.D. Greear, a Southern Baptist pastor who was recently elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention (they often elect pastors as presidents). The church he pastors, Summit, in North Carolina, is in the “mega-“ category. He is 45 years old.

His thesis is that a clear, captivating understanding the Gospel is essential for Christianity to exercise its power in the lives of Christians and churches. Mere religiosity will not do. Theological convictions, while necessary, are not the vehicle of power. Rather it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not to grow up and go beyond the Gospel. Rather, we are to go deeper into it.

As a personal tool, Greear has developed and explained this “Gospel Prayer.” It is not magic. Rather, it is a tool that he uses to daily set his mind in a Gospel frame. It guides him in how he thinks about God and himself; what he really needs in order to be fulfilled and happy; what is his calling or mission; and what are the limits (or, lack of limits) of what he should expect God to do through his life and ministry.

  

“In Christ, there is nothing I can do 

that would make You love me more, and nothing 

I have done that makes You love me less.”

“Your presence and approval are all 

I need for everlasting joy.”

“As You have been to me, so I will be to others.”

“As I pray, I’ll measure Your compassion by the cross 

and Your power by the resurrection.”

If we were to sit and have some honest, deep-reaching discussions about how our Christianity works (or doesn’t work) in our lives, we would have to admit that we are at odds with this prayer at certain points. We sometimes fall into thinking that we have to “earn” God’s love. We often find that our desires are wrapped around lesser things than God’s presence or approval. We measure our obligations to others by how they have treated us, rather than how God has treated us. We think small, forgetting that God loves to blow out expectations and do the unthinkable.

Try praying this prayer for a few days. See if it changes how you view yourself and your world.

Christ crossed the World, and it Led to the Cross

Christ crossed the world. He did not show proper respect to the respectable. His true righteousness poked holes in their religiosity. He did not walk the party line. We are familiar with this story. But we forget that others besides Christ and Christians pay a price for crossing the world.

A.W. Tozer said “I do not see why the world has any attraction for anyone. Anybody who can read anything about history will understand that the world always destroys its own.”

I’ve mentioned in a couple of recent sermons songs by Seals and Crofts (1970’s era). I mentioned their song “We May Never Pass This Way Again,” and then “King of Nothing.” Much less known is a song called “Unborn Child.” In accordance with their Bahai faith, an eclectic religion that seeks to accept and integrate all religions, they sang for the value of life, and pitched a song which begged for this consideration among mothers. The lyrics are not subtle: 

Oh unborn child, if you only knew just what your momma was plannin’ to do. 

You’re still a-clingin’ to the tree of life, but soon you’ll be cut off before you get ripe. 

Oh unborn child, beginning to grow inside your momma, but you’ll never know. 

Oh tiny bud, that grows in the womb, only to be crushed before you can bloom.

You might remember that Roe v. Wade was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1973. “Unborn Child” was released in 1974. S&C’s “Summer Breeze” was at the top of the charts. But this new song was boycotted on radio stations. Their concerts were picketed. Why? Because it’s not profitable to cross the world.

Our value for human life is grounded in the Biblical teaching that humankind was made by God, in the image of God, to represent Him and bring Him glory. Though humankind’s fall into sin left that image marred and distorted, it is not erased. Humans have value as image-bearers. Further, this distorted image is restored by faith in Jesus, Himself the express image of God who faithfully fulfilled what it means to be a human in the image of God - by faith in this Jesus, we are being restored as we become more like Jesus. Our reverence for life is grounded in the fact that humans, in creation, and then in redemption, are image-bearers. 

The world, on the other hand, is fully committed to a radical expression of one’s individual freedom, more valuable than the life of another, and certainly more valuable than a life in the womb. If you want to sell records, don’t cross the world. And if you want to save the world from itself, realize that it involves bearing a cross.