The Andy Blog – 2009

Today is the 13th anniversary of our Andy’s death. Each year some of the memories of his life grow even more dim and I fool myself into believing that when this day comes the pain will be less. And each year I am surprised by that dagger in my chest. It’s there right now. It feels like the knife cuts away scar tissue and the pain of loss is experienced anew. The pictures of his always smiling face, the few tapes that contain his voice, the poem he was writing to be part of his music video for Mickey and Emily’s wedding – these and many more seem to contain a part of his spirit that remains with us. Andy’s zest for life and his daily excitement about God’s creation was part of the engine that powered our family’s collective spirit. And, though we continue on, it is a damaged vehicle we occupy – only to be repaired when we are reunited with him. We love you Andy!

A Thousand Word Plus Picture
We have all head the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The front page of the Nashville Tennessean yesterday contained a photograph that was worth several, if not many, thousand words. A trial is underway in a 34-year old murder case. The photo was of Virginia Trimble Ritter who was on the witness stand holding the blue checked shirt her nine year old daughter, Marcia, had been wearing when she was murdered in February 1975. This was the first time she has seen it since the day Marcia left home to deliver Girl Scout cookies. Virginia’s comment as she wept “it seems like she just died yesterday.”

I have two comments on that photograph that come from a stirred heart. First, I fully understand her comment. As a parent who lost a child almost 13 years ago, there are many, many days that it seems like yesterday and the sense of loss and heaviness of heart is still with me.

Second, when I saw the photo, my mind immediately raced back to when I had watched an interview with Virginia Trimble in February 1975. Our two daughters were 4 and 2 respectively. As I watched this woman on television share her faith and trust in God, I thought she was crazy. Clearly she must be one of those brainwashed Christians who are not in touch with reality. I was not a believer at the time. While I did not reject the concept of God, I could not relate to someone who felt so close to Him that they could express faith while grieving over the murder of her child. It just did not compute in my mind. Several years later after I was awakened to the gospel, I thought back to that television interview and prayed a silent prayer of thanks for Virginia Trimble’s strong testimony. Yesterday, I prayed the same prayer again.

Perversion of Justice
Michael Vick was sentenced to 3 years in prison for operating a dog fighting ring. Donte Stallworth was sentenced to 30 days for killing a man with his car while driving drunk. It seems that Scripture teaches us that perversion of justice is one sign of God’s judgment on a country.

Christians and Health Care Reform
This is not intended to be a definitive treatment of the subject at hand – I’m not qualified to write a definitive work even if I desired. The historical picture I paint is with the broadest brush and certainly does not apply universally. However, I believe the historical flow depicted is representative. This posting is more of an apology for how a normally conservative type became convinced to support and work for health care reform in America, even when many of my conservative friends consider this a traitorous activity. For me this became a matter of conscience and not a political or economic decision.

Once upon a time in a land far removed from 21st century America (not geographically but sociologically) there lived a people heavily influenced by the Christian concept of charity. These people were followers of Jesus Christ and understood that part of the work left for the Body of Christ was to expand the Kingdom of Heaven into every aspect of life on this planet. They understood, as did the translators of the King James Bible, that 1 Corinthians 13 should more correctly be called the “Charity Chapter” rather than the “Love Chapter” of the Bible. The translators of the KJV knew that charity is a special type of the agape love (love involving action) presented in the New Testament. Charity, as described by several Biblical scholars, is the ultimate perfection of the human spirit because it is said to both glorify and reflect the nature of God. These people of an earlier time may not have known what a “worldview” was but they certainly lived with a “community-view.” They understood when something happened to one member of the community it affected everyone in some way. Though their practice of charity was certainly not perfect, there was no misunderstanding the concept that it was to be extended to every member of their community.

Some reading this may be familiar with the Mitford series of books by author Jan Karon. Mitford is a fictional small town in the mountains of North Carolina. The main character in the series is Father Tim, an elderly and well loved Episcopal priest. The mayor of Mitford is fond of reminding Father Tim of the town’s motto: Mitford takes care of its own (more on this later). This is the community-view that so many believers held to in times past. To them, this was the Kingdom of Heaven working itself out on earth. For the love of Christ, communities took care of their own. This included caring for the sick and dying.

As we move forward in time, we see how the Church responded to society’s change from primarily rural to urban. In medieval Europe, monasteries which were located close to towns began to add facilities to care for the sick and dying. These facilities were the earliest version of modern hospitals. They accepted all comers, regardless of their ability to pay or make gifts to the monastery. As industrialization and modern medicine developed, churches built hospitals: Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, and others. These hospitals were not just mercy hospitals for the poor. These were general service hospitals, many with research and teaching facilities. For decades these hospitals were the backbone of medical care in America. The denominations which owned these hospitals saw the potential that these hospitals could become “budget neutral” as the ratio of paying beds to charity beds increased. Gradually, these hospitals moved further away from the “community-view” understanding of charity and became just another ministry of the denomination. Nevertheless, these hospitals continued the Kingdom work, even if individual Christians had little involvement. Maintaining the “budget neutral” operating model gradually became more important than treating all the poor who sought help. In many cities, the need for more charity beds increased and city-owned hospitals were built to fill this need. The government began to assume the role of “charity” provider when the Church failed to respond to the need.

About the same time, the Fundamentalist vs. Liberal debate was heating up in the Protestant community. One charge made by the Fundamentalists against the Liberals was that they had abandoned the true gospel for what was referred to as the “social gospel.” A very simplistic explanation is that the true gospel was about saving souls while the social gospel was strong on community service and weak on Biblical doctrine. The Fundamentalists (Evangelicals) began to move away from most of those activities that could be associated with the social gospel agenda, including owning hospitals. Most evangelical churches organized “mercy ministries” which were funded by tithes and offerings. However, other than educational institutions, these churches left the playing field of “social services” to the mainline denominations.

About forty years ago advances in medical technology began to accelerate rapidly. At the same time, smart businessmen began to see the profit potential in the health care field. For-profit hospital management companies began to be formed. Medical insurance companies discovered the concept of managed care. Pharmaceutical companies began to focus their research on drugs with high profit potential. The focus of health care in America shifted rapidly from caring for the needs of sick people to making a profit on every component of the health care delivery system. Health care today represents one-sixth of our gross national product. I am not inferring that there is some inherent evil having for-profit companies engaged in health care. However, most of these entities are publically owned corporations which must produce profits for their stockholders – that is their prime directive. Many of these companies have a strong self-interest in maintaining the status quo.

Returning our thoughts to the church, I believe it is fair to ask the question “do Christians still have the obligation to exercise charity (though the word is hard to find in most of our translations)?” I believe that we do. I believe the call to charity is just as strong today as it was 200 or 2000 years ago. I believe that bearing one another’s burdens includes the physical and fiscal as well as the emotional and spiritual. The problem is not a change in the Biblical command. The problem is that the playing field has so radically changed in our complex and interrelated society that it is hard for us to know how charity can be exercised outside that limited circle of close acquaintances. As mentioned previously, the church gave up much ground in rejecting the social gospel and that ground is difficult, if not impossible, to regain. I don’t think there is a church/denomination today which is considering getting back into the hospital business. It may not even be possible with the existing government regulations. However, there are areas where the church could still directly minister to the sick and dying. For example, churches could develop and operate hospice facilities. Last week I was in a hotel in Pensacola which was located next door to the corporate headquarters of a company that owns and operates for-profit hospice facilities in the southeast. If there was ever a place for Christian charity it is in caring for the dying, yet the only hospice facility I know that was started and operated by a church is located in Cape Town, South Africa.

Are the mercy ministries which are part of many churches fulfilling the Biblical mandate for charity? I have been a deacon in one PCA church and served as an elder in three others. In my role as elder, I have been involved in training men who feel called to serve as a deacon. In most churches today, the mercy ministries have funds to meet certain type of emergency needs (food, utilities, rent, etc.) but are not geared for the long haul or the large expense. Most deacons are trained to direct people with long term needs to various government agencies for food stamps, public housing, welfare, etc. Our “charity” then becomes directing those in need to some government agency for assistance. Surely we don’t expect these “social services” agencies to dispense their aid with the love of Christ, do we? Remember Mitford’s motto: we take care of our own. I don’t know of a single church today that practices this within their congregation. That is not to say that under special circumstances, congregations don’t rise up and care for some extraordinary needs. My home church has done that on several occasions I am aware of and covered some medical expenses that were beyond the family’s ability to pay. But such circumstances are the exception and not the norm.

So how does all this relate to health care reform? Today there are 46 million Americans without health insurance. In Tennessee there are over 850,000 people without any health insurance and the number is growing as further cuts are made to the TennCare program. The Church, which for most of its 2,000 years was the primary source for charity, has relinquished these roles to the government. I don’t agree with what the Church has done but I realize that to reverse this situation would take decades. I would love to see the Church begin to return to what I have called the “community-view” but I see few signs that this is occurring. We, as believers, are all called to a life of charity – it’s not optional. In some cases, that charity is worked out one-on-one. In other cases, it involves the community as a whole. Today there is a pressing need: millions of our neighbors (remember the definition of neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan) do not have access to even basic medical care. For me, extending charity to these people involves supporting sweeping national health care reform to provide every citizen with basic health care regardless of their ability to pay. For those who are saying that this would be the first step to socialism, I invite you to consider all the existing entitlement programs and explain how they don’t fit the definition of socialism. My strong preference is to see the Church recover its rightful role in Kingdom work and make charity its hallmark in the world. I pray that this occurs some day. In the meantime, to say to those without adequate health care that they need to wait for corporations to decide to give up some of their profits or for the Church to restore its charitable role is like blessing the hungry man with kind words but giving him no food.

Movie Night
Over the past several weeks we have caught up a bit on our movie watching. We have watched most of the critically acclaimed movies from the Academy Awards plus a few the critics may not know about. My favorite is Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. I’m not saying this would have received my vote for best movie of the year (definitely in the top three) but it’s the movie I liked the most. The storyline is as predictable as an old western but you don’t really care. Entertainment Weekly described the movie as a cross between Gone with the Wind and Out of Africa. I think that is a reasonable description based on the feelings I had at the end of the movie. Kidman plays an English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley. Her husband owned a cattle station in northwest Australia which she has now inherited. She decides to visit and determine firsthand what to do with this property. As it turns out, the largest cattle baron in that area has been plotting to take the property, which is the only cattle station he does not own. Lady Ashley is helped by Hugh Jackman’s character, Drover (that’s the only name you get through the entire movie). He is definitely the John Wayne or Glen Ford type character. Their only hope of saving the station is a long cattle drive across the desert to Darwin. The film is set at the beginning of WWII and Darwin is bombed by the Japanese during the last part of the movie.

The movie is filmed in a beautiful but somewhat desolate part of Australia. Faraway Downs (the name of the cattle station) is a place everyone wants to visit, especially after the seasonal rains turn it from a drab brown landscape to a colorful, park-like setting. Like the old westerns, the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and Faraway Downs (just like Tara) is preserved. It’s a “feel-good” movie for sure and one that I will probably buy.

Shocking Report?
I was not shocked but certainly dismayed a few mornings ago when the front page (above the fold) of the Tennessean had an article that reported 62% of those calling themselves Evangelical Christians supported torturing prisons to gain information. The very faith that was the foundational element for the establishment of our government seems to have now abandoned a key element of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The faith that is called to be above politics and serve in a prophetic way in calling our government to righteousness has sold out in order to have a “meaningful role” in the political system. Shame on us!

I am reading/praying my way through this year’s 50 Days of Prayer devotional leading up to the PCA General Assembly in June. This year the focus is on the minor prophets. Yesterday (May 14) the selected verse was Amos 5:24 “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” In that entry, the editor, Rev. Michael Ross, shared about his friendship with John Perkins when he was serving as a pastor in Mississippi. Perkins is a well-known Christian leader, a civil rights advocate, and the founder of Voice of Calvary Ministries. In closing his devotional, Ross had this to say about Perkins: “You know, I never knew if John Perkins was a Democrat or Republican. He never talked about elections. But John was used by God in both Church and State. He understood the prophets.” Shame on us if we don’t!

He Knows Me
What matters supremely is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it–the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind.

All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is not a moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters.

This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort–the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates–in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me. – J. I. Packer

Toxic Talk
I have been working on a defense of why I still make New Year’s Resolutions and had hoped to post it by now. But it’s not ready so I throw out these thoughts. Yesterday was a historic day in the life of our country. Barack Obama is now President Obama. I’m old enough to remember when John Kennedy took the oath of office and made his very quotable speech. The excitement and optimism across the country was palpable. The same was true yesterday. Our country is in trouble and, for the moment, President Obama is our best hope. It seems that a broad spectrum of our people is willing to give him a chance, even if they did not vote for him.

I was in a meeting during the ceremonies and got into my truck in time to hear the last five minutes of his speech. The station to which my radio was tuned usually has a “conservative” talk program during that time slot. Within thirty seconds of the end of the speech, the host of the program was back on demeaning the speech and the person who gave it. I’m sure that he believes that is what he is paid to do but I immediately turned the radio off and gave thanks for my resolution not to listen to this type of hate speech this year. I am convinced that “conservative” talk radio has become a dishonest, divisive, and potentially destructive part of our culture. It is truly Toxic Talk and I am done with it!

Christ The Lord: The Road To Cana
By Anne Rice

This is the second book in the series telling the story of Jesus from his perspective: quite an ambitious undertaking. When I read the first book I expected to be disappointed and critical concerning all the “mistakes” I thought I would find. After all, what is right does an author known for vampire stories have to write about Christ? Ms. Rice answers that question in a lengthy personal testimony as an Afterward to the first book. It seems that a few years ago she returned to the faith of her childhood and felt that God was calling her to use her gifts in a way that would bring him glory. One of the things that made her vampire stories so popular is the research she did about the historical periods in which she sets her stories. Her readers learn a good bit of history and culture in each book. I remember hearing some critic commenting that she did a similar level of research as James Michener did for his epic novels. Ms. Rice shares with her readers that she read over 300 books in preparation for writing this series. That amount of reading, of course, does not guarantee success but in her capable hands it brings first century Palestine to life.

Now that I have finished the second book I confess that I was actually very intrigued by both the story lines and by the way Ms. Rice gives us insights into what the God-man may have been thinking. The first book begins with the return from Egypt and carries through the journey to Jerusalem when Jesus is 12. The second book picks up just before Jesus begins his public ministry and carries through the wedding feast and the calling of the first group of Apostles. In the second book she gives her opinion on what it was like for Jesus to be tempted: both in the day-to-day occurrences of life and by Satan after his forty days in the wilderness. In some respects I don’t like to think about Jesus being tempted because I closely acquaint temptation with sin. How could Jesus look at a woman and somehow be sexually tempted? I don’t know – but if he didn’t then he has not walked where I walk and Scripture and the Church Fathers are wrong about his humanity. Even more interesting is the way she handles the encounter with Satan. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s reading, so I won’t give any details. I will say that it is very creative, consistent with the Biblical account, and, I think, most insightful into the character of the Great Deceiver.

Luke 2:52 tells us that after the visit to Jerusalem and Jesus’ encounter with the Teachers, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature.” In both books, Ms. Rice gives an glimpse as to what it may have been like for Jesus to grow in wisdom while being fully God and fully man. I look forward to the next story.

Bail Out for the Bowls?
There may be a need for one more of those wonderful, outrageous bail outs we have now grown accustomed to. In case anyone has failed to notice, each bailed-out entity has expanded its size before letting anyone know how serious their problems were. In essence they became “too big to be allowed to fail.” General Motors was working hard to acquire Chrysler for that very purpose. We know now the college football bowl games are following the same outrageous method. The number of bowl games has been expanded to the point that there are now more Division 1 teams playing in bowl games than those teams sitting at home watching. Why the big increase? Because if the bowl system is replaced with an actual playoff system, the argument can be made that there will be some teams left out of the mix – and we wouldn’t want that to happen. The latest BCS calamity occurred this evening – Utah dominated the mighty Alabama team to become the only undefeated team in the country. The Utes have a legitimate claim on the #1 ranking but will not get the chance to either play for the championship or to be recognized for their achievement because the BCS has a vital interest in declaring either Florida or Oklahoma the championship. The “bail out” the bowls need is not monetary (thank God for small favors). They are going to need a credibility bail out because once again the BCS (and the bowl system) has failed to give football fans a true champion!

Goodbye 2008

“We always enjoy looking down a long road lined with beautiful trees. The trees are a delightful sight and seem to be forming a temple of plants, with strong wooden pillars and arches of leaves. In the same way you look down a beautiful road like this, why not look back on the road of the years of your life? Look at the large green limbs of God’s mercy overhead and the strong pillars of His loving-kindness and faithfulness that have brought you much joy. Do you see any birds singing in the branches? If you look closely, surely you will see many, for they are singing of God’s mercy received ‘thus far.’”

This quote is from the December 31 devotional in Streams in the Desert. It is such a fitting quote as I say goodbye to 2008. It was a year that was sprinkled with God’s blessings which stand out so brightly against the dark, foreboding background of much of the year. It was a year that was filled with much pain. It was a year in which I was forced to question some of the things that had become almost like bedrock in my life. It was a year in which emotional turmoil was manifest in real physical distress. It was a year in which others in my extended family were enduring different but very difficult circumstances. In my book, 2008 is being filed away with 2004, 1999 and 1996 – very hard years which would not have been endurable without those branches of God’s tender mercies.