Strong Enough to be Weak

Spirituality Column #198
August 24, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Strong Enough to be Weak
By Bob Walters

There is a weekly CBS TV drama called “The Good Wife” where a female lawyer more or less “stands by her man.”

The adulterous husband is a formerly high-powered public official convicted in a complex political scandal. He lives in 24-7 ankle-bracelet home detention at their trendy downtown apartment.

It’s mainly a lawyer and law-firm show, but the disgraced husband – philandering, yes, but is he wrongly convicted? – provides an interesting layer of moral dilemma.

I tend to watch cable news, history and movies, not “TV shows.” My wife … a good wife … DVRs programs to “watch” while she is sewing or scrapbooking since we rarely have the time or the inclination to watch weeknight TV dramas.

My attention was grabbed by a DVR’ed rerun of “The Good Wife” when it introduced a Christian spin in the “bad husband’s” rehabilitation.

In a nutshell, the bad husband, Peter, has a loyal private investigator / public image consultant named Eli Gold who advises him to start going to church as a public relations tactic.

Gold picks out a nearby urban evangelical church pastored by a very devout and savvy black preacher who tells Peter – who is white and grew up Episcopalian – to get out of his church. He felt Gold and Peter were using him and mocking Christ, which of course, they were.

But Peter is struck by the preacher’s sincerity and directness, tells Gold to leave, and Peter accepts Christ. Peter wants to change, confesses his sin, wades into Bible study and prayer, and the preacher begins mentoring Peter in twice-weekly home visits.

Neither “The Good Wife” nor Gold can understand Peter’s conversion, much less take it seriously. There is much eye-rolling, sarcasm, and skepticism. Peter’s mother, a formidable, smart, matriarchal, old-money type, insists Peter see the family’s long-time Episcopal priest to “put his (Peter’s) religion in perspective.”

Her final decree against Peter’s deepening faith in Christ, belief in salvation, understanding of his sin and desire for change is – irony of scriptural ironies – “I will not allow my son to be made weak.”

Weak? In Christ?

I don’t know a single Christian who believes Christ makes them weak. Christ is about humility and strength; He is man and God. But we all know, sadly, that much of the world seeks power anywhere but in Christ.

The TV show got that right.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) hasn’t regularly watched a network TV show since “The West Wing.”

Christmas Spirit, Heavenly Peace, Part 4

Spirituality Column #163
December 22, 2009
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Christmas Spirit, Heavenly Peace, Part 4
By Bob Walters

I like to wake up in my own bed Christmas morning.

My parents were resolute in having Christmas at home, and I’m that way with my own family.

In fact, I like the peace of knowing I don’t have to go much of anywhere between about noon on Christmas Eve until whenever I decide to go do something on Dec. 26. I’ll certainly go see family or a shut-in (or maybe a good movie Christmas afternoon), but I like to be home.

One enthusiastic exception is church on Christmas Eve. It was a beautiful and reverent “Midnight Mass” when I was an Episcopal kid. Now it’s a heartfelt evening worship and vigil in the Evangelical community.

The first Roman Catholic mass I attended was on a Christmas Eve in college. I was astounded by its similarity with the Episcopalian Eucharist and Holy Communion I had come to know so well as an altar boy.

I’ve only actually attended a church service on Christmas Day once that I clearly remember, in 2005 when Dec. 25 was a Sunday.

Mostly, Christmas is not a go-to-church day. It’s a lazy stay home day, or a visit with close family day. Or it might be (horrors!) a climactic, stressful and tiring Iditarod of multiple stops and logistical finesse – a Christmas dash modeled after Santa and his reindeer. No, thanks.

The Conner Prairie pioneer living museum says that in 1836 children would attend school on Christmas – the holiday was no big deal. Our culture has turned Christmas into a big deal, but our traditions really aren’t that old … often not much older than we are.

What we should feel at Christmas – what puts the Christ in Christmas – is a personal and community grounding in something far larger, eternally older, and immensely more meaningful than idiosyncratic, habitual, nostalgic personal practices that harmonize our common rhythms of worldly celebration.

The Christmas spirit and the gift of heavenly peace reside where Christ resides … alive in our hearts and in our love for each other; not in displays or trees or presents or traditions.

It’s the time of year we should take and treasure the opportunity to focus on Emmanuel – God with us; the Christ in us. Our Savior. Glorious light. It’s what the season is built for. That is God’s gift.

Use it wisely, enjoy it intimately, and share it freely. Most of all, accept it unconditionally.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is unruffled by Christmas commercialism … Christ isn’t for sale; He’s forever. John 1:14.

Pray As You Go

Spirituality Column #138
June 30, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Pray As You Go
By Bob Walters

God is constant, unchanging and eternal, while our mortal lives often change by the minute.

Prayer puts us in touch with God’s world, a peaceful and safe place. Yet we pray in response to the joy and pain, the hope and horror, the love and despair, the blessing and need, the goodness and sin, of daily human life.

We pray as we go, constantly striving for a Godly prayer connection that lifts us out of confusing human dualities and into the clearheaded, divine sphere of faith, hope and love.

It’s that wonderful place where we can “Be still, and know that [God is] God.” (Psalm 46:10)

The most beautiful and effective of prayers, to me, focus on God’s goodness, Christ’s sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of our hearts.

Traditional, denominational books of Common Prayer are filled with these eloquent offerings. For example, here is the opening “Collect” (prayer) from the Episcopal Church’s Order of Holy Communion, circa 1952:

“Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Wow. I think God deserves our best, most eloquent and sincere effort when we pray. Many of us are not especially eloquent – not like these liturgical prayers developed over centuries – but I do believe God always honors a heavenly-directed, focused, sincere prayer.

Satan, I’m pretty sure, prefers that we pray about ourselves.

The liturgical churches – Roman Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant – become nervous when prayer and/or worship go off script. Conversely, the more freeform, Bible-based and widely varying Baptist, Wesleyan, Nazarene, Brethren, independent Christian churches, etc., are often suspicious of prayers written down before they are actually prayed … scripture, of course, excepted.

I see both sides. I grew up in the liturgical Episcopal Church, did not go to church for nearly three decades, then came to Christ, was baptized and joined a non-liturgical Bible-based Christian church.

Prayer at first was difficult. I knew the Lord’s Prayer, didn’t know scripture, and couldn’t imagine an uncharted personal prayer path. But we pray as we go, using old prayers or new praises, but always with the Holy Spirit’s help directed toward God in Jesus’ name.

Can’t miss.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes for the Fourth of July that the word “liberty” isn’t in the Bible, and the word “freedom” isn’t in the Declaration of Independence.

Lent: Give Up or Give More?

Spirituality Column #120
February 24, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Lent: Give Up or Give More?
By Bob Walters

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is next week. Thus begins a 46-day run-up to Easter, the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection signifying the fulfillment of God’s promise of everlasting life.

I like Lent. It’s not in the Bible but it’s a tradition that goes back to the fourth century A.D., before the great schisms of the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman Catholic) churches.

When Luther and the subsequent Protestants rebelled in the 1500s, their re-formed Christian but non-Catholic churches largely followed the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical, or church, calendar and traditions.

As a young boy in the 1960s Episcopal Church, to me Lent meant much the same functionally as it did to the Catholics. Ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, and you “gave up” something for Lent. It was a symbol of sacrifice, what the monks would consider ascetic (harsh discipline) self-denial.

To “give up” something for Lent was a big deal. It seemed, well, pious … in a good way. It had to be something you liked and was available; no fair giving up, say, watermelon, because it wasn’t in season. But you learned to be strategic. One year I gave up “candy.” Big mistake. The next year, I gave up Reese Cups. I liked Reese Cups, but did just fine with a Clark bar.

I am now an active member of a Bible-based, Jesus-believing independent Christian mega-church – East 91st Street Christian – that does not observe the ecclesiastical calendar outside of Easter Sunday and Christmas (also not in the Bible … in fact, the New Testament doesn’t specify any holy days or even the Sabbath because – Biblically – Christ is to be honored all the time).

Still, Lent is sort of the 800-pound gorilla in the resurrection room that Christian believers of the non-ecclesial persuasion have a hard time ignoring.

We start counting down “shopping days until Christmas” on November 1. Without an observation of Lent, all of a sudden it’s Holy Week and then Easter and then it’s over. Hence, Churches not observing Lent often plan a community prayer regimen or purposeful reading program during the 40-day season.

If you don’t “give up” something for Lent, you can never go wrong “giving more” during Lent, whether it is money, time helping others, or time worshipping God. Giving is love, and love is why Jesus died for us.

Here’s wishing you a well-spent Lent.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows Lent is 40 days but said “46 days” above: you don’t count the six Sundays.

A Prayer in My Pocket

Spirituality Column #114
January 13, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

A Prayer in My Pocket
By Bob Walters

First in a series on The Lord's Prayer

Having grown up in the Episcopal Church of the 1960s, the Lord’s Prayer was a weekly staple in the worship service:

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

It was something you learned as a kid “by heart” (memorized) … like the Pledge of Allegiance or the Boy Scout Oath. You heard it over and over and just knew it in case you ever needed it, but probably never thought seriously about what it meant.

Today outside the liturgical churches such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist and a very few other denominations (“liturgy” means standardized worship services and prayers), the Lord’s Prayer is not part of the routine Christian experience. I think that’s sad.

And speaking of routine (and sad), at this point many Christians would routinely begin to argue various points of this example of the Lord’s Prayer:
- It’s “debts” not “trespasses;”
- No, wait … it should be “sins;”
- The “thy” and “thine” language is antiquated;
- “For thine is the Kingdom … ” etc., is a doxology and not part of the Catholic version;
- You should pray what’s in your heart, not some rote bit of archaic liturgy.
- It’s not a prayer, it’s an instruction.

The Lord’s Prayer comes from the Bible: Matthew 6:9-13 in the Sermon on the Mount, and again in Luke 11:2-4. Matthew, in the Greek, says “debts” (Gk opheilema), while Luke says “sins” (Gk hamartia). “Trespasses” doesn’t appear in any version of the Bible … the word was inserted in the prayer by Origen of Alexandria in the third century.

Christians often fight and disagree over all the wrong things, but here is why the Lord’s Prayer, to me, is critical:

When I wasn’t going to church and needed a prayer with no idea how to pray, I could say the Lord’s Prayer and know Jesus was listening.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes God loves all of us all the time; many of us however do a bad job of loving God. More on the Lord’s Prayer next week.

Persevering in Those Resolutions

Spirituality Column #60
January 1, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Persevering in Those Resolutions
By Bob Walters

When I was a kid at church, the Episcopal priest one day was talking about the custom of giving up things for Lent (the 40 days before Easter).

He made fun of a mythical church adult who made a big deal about “giving up sweets for Lent” and was enjoying all the attention for the effort … but also still enjoying the sweets when out of public view.

The priest’s point – which stuck forever in my mind – was that it is very difficult to “give up” something when you advertise it to others.

That isn’t just a Bible or Christian thing; that is a Truth of Life as a Human Being thing: it is hard to do something hard when people are watching you.

Fourteen years ago, Jan. 1, 1994, I quit smoking. I just stopped. A pack or more a day habit for 13 and a half years … and I just stopped. Big New Years Eve party, smoked, got home around 1:30 a.m. Got up the next day and haven’t smoked since.

I had been contemplating quitting for a while. It was the year I turned 40. With sons ages 6 and almost 2, it was my love for them and my desire to see them grow up that inspired my wanting to quit. I marveled at how much strength I somehow found to actually follow through.

It is important to note at that time I was twenty-some years into my 30-years of not going to church and seven years before I came to the Lord. But remembering that childhood sermon about Lent, I didn’t tell anyone I was trying to quit smoking.

Except I told God, who I did not know very well. But I prayed anyway … who else could I tell? Looking back, that is where my strength came from.

Yes, we are to love others, find strength in others, and be strong for others. But nothing is as strong as our bond with God through Christ. Through Christ we can do all things.

This is the time of year we all have some sort of resolution, aspiration or hope for the New Year. Don’t feel you have to tell anyone about yours … except God.

He’ll help you. And He already knows anyway.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wishes you a New Year rich in a deep, growing and abiding faith in Christ. That is something you should tell someone about.