Going Home

Trekkie Alert!

In the series premier of Star Trek Voyager, the Voyager ship and crew find themselves in foreign space, needing 70 years in space travel to get home.  They're so far away that they don't even have voice or data communication with earth. 

For most of the Voyager episodes, life goes on.  The crew meets alien beings and encounters unique situations, just like in other Star Trek shows.  

But the Voyager crew is always aware they're in foreign space, and "finding a way home" is continually on their minds.

Voyager Arrives Home

Then, in the surprising series finale, the crew manages to get home, after only 7 years!  

Every time I watch this episode, I have a sense of joy when Voyager emerges into home space, amidst a fleet of waiting starships.   



As I watched the finale recently, I thought, "Why is this so good?"

I was reminded of my time in the military and how I felt about coming home for Christmas. 

But I think it's bigger than that.  The whole premise of Voyager is that they're working and living in foreign space, learning and growing...but their aim is to get home.

And...I thought about the Christian life. 

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Philippians 3:20

A wise man once told me to "Embrace the journey."  That's not always easy, especially when bad things happen - money issues, relationship problems, health concerns, spiritual struggles, and death.

But what makes it a "journey" is that the "journey" isn't the final destination.  The journey brings experience, maturity, faith.  And then...sooner or later...it ends.

I confess that I often live like the journey, success in this life, is the main thing.   

At the Naval Academy, we always knew the exact number of days until Christmas break.  And once we turned in our last final exam, the semester was over.  Freedom!

Today, I'm just like God's people in the Old Testament - who lived in a foreign country, waiting for freedom, waiting to go home.

My prayer for this New Year is to "embrace the journey" and always remember the destination, that the journey will take me to someplace better, home.  Heaven is a promise and a hope that's sure.

Amen, come Lord Jesus. 

Why Do You Go To Church?

On the Christmas episode of The Middle, Axl Heck asks his mom, Frankie, why she goes to church.  

 
Frankie's first response is:

• You're supposed to go.
• To see my friends.
• I get to dress-up and sing.
• For the donuts.

Of course, Frankie gives a better response at the end of the show, and while waiting for her final answer, I considered the question.

I've often heard Christians give these reasons for attending church: "I want to be motivated and encouraged to do better this week, to be a better person" or "It's interesting.  I always learn something."

In the show, Frankie's final answer is that she wants to be part of something bigger and better than her ordinary and sometimes cruddy life, and that church makes her feel better.

While all of the above may be "true" answers for why people go to church, I would answer in a different way, and these verses come to mind:

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8 

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Psalm 81:10b

I go to church with my fellow Christians to receive the Lord's gifts and to take refuge in Him.  God's in the business of giving.

• When we confess our sins together, I hear and receive God's forgiveness and peace, from the mouth of my pastor.
• When we proclaim our faith together, I experience the Communion of Saints.
• When we pray together, I have hope and certainty that He will answer.
• When we hear His Word read and then preached, I receive His grace.
• When we partake of communion, Christ's body and blood, I again receive His forgiveness and peace. 

Although songs, praise, worship, offerings are all a part of our church service, the truth is...He doesn't need my gifts. 

But I need His. 

And as an added gift, He's given me His church.  When we Christians "assemble together" we receive His gifts, and we're an encouragement and witness to each other, just by being there. 

A New Identity

Parents Weekend - Aug 1980

Just a few days after I turned 18, I entered the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1984.  And my life changed forever...

At the Academy, an incoming midshipman is a plebe, whose training is overseen by the upperclass midshipmen.  This begins in July and continues to mid-May.


And a plebe is the "lowest form of life" in Bancroft Hall - the dorm that houses over 4000 midshipmen.

Plebes aren't allowed to talk or loiter in the hallways of Bancroft.  When they have somewhere to go, plebes run down the center of the hall, saying "Beat Army, Sir" or "Go Navy, Sir" at every corner.  And, that's the easy part.

During the six weeks of plebe summer, my identity changed. 

The girl from Kentucky, who got straights A's and watched Kentucky basketball, who liked softball, track, cheerleading, knitting, and writing poetry - that person was no more.  

At first, life as a plebe was about surviving and staying out of trouble.  

But as plebe year continued, and even later...as a midshipman, as a Marine Officer, and as a wife, mother, friend...life became about serving, doing what needed to be done, not looking for praise - even avoiding the spotlight.

And that's the way of any type of "basic training."  A person gets broken down, shown his own weaknesses...and then is given a new identity and a new way of life.

From Reading Romans with Luther by RJ Grunewald:

The chief purpose of this letter [Romans] is to break down, to pluck up, and to destroy all wisdom and righteousness of the flesh. 

From the same book, and quoting Luther:

Christ wants our whole disposition to be so stripped down that we are...unafraid of being embarrassed for our faults and also do not delight in the glory and vain joys of our virtues. 

Reading that, I immediately thought of plebe year, and I realized that Romans is the basic training, "boot camp" letter of the Bible.

Romans shows us our own sin and our own need, and inability to keep God's law.  His law breaks us down.

...as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. Romans 3:10-11

Even when I read God's law, I can't "will" myself to not sin, and to obey, from my heart.  It's too much, and it's a foreign place to be.

But God makes it His work. 

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

He forgives, shows me His grace, clothes me with Christ's righteousness, and gives me a new heart.

And after showing me my need, giving me a new identity, Romans further shows me how to live and serve others (Romans chapter 13 and 14) with the example of Christ (Romans 15).

To Paul and to Luther, this wasn't dry theology or a self-help manual.  This was life, experienced, thru knowing sin, guilt, and hopelessness...to knowing grace.  A new identity, lived in Christ.

Disobedient Children

My son Al just finished reading Romeo and Juliet, and one of our discussion topics was "The Penalty for Disobeying Parents."  

Our literature program had this to say:

The law of God is very clear about children who are incorrigible delinquents.  The penalty is death (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)...The Puritans in New England had a law that required the execution of disobedient children.  However, the law was never used, because there was no recording of a child being disobedient.  Thus, the law with its capital punishment ensured obedience.*

Those last sentences make a bold statement.  They claim that the Puritan children didn't sin, never disobeyed their parents, because of the law.  

Who knew?  The remedy for sin, that really works, is the death penalty.

But I don't believe those Puritan children never disobeyed their parents.  And it starts in Genesis...

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  Genesis 2:16-17   

And what happened?  Adam and Eve sinned...and death came to man.

We live in a fallen, sinful world.  And man is always looking for an answer.  Some people believe that by enacting certain laws and enforcing punishment, we can fix the world.  But the law can't and doesn't...

...For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.                                 2 Corinthians 3:6

and

...if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Galatians 2:21 

The truth is, we're all deserving of death.  Not only do we sin, but we're not even capable of keeping the law.  We're all disobedient children.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Romans 7:24

That's why the good news of Jesus is Good News.  

Because God did and does the same thing that those Puritan parents did for their children - He shows mercy and love to His children, giving them righteousness that they didn't earn.  

He accepts the work of Christ on our behalf, on my behalf, and gives life.

The hope for this world is not perfect laws, perfect rulers, perfect government, perfect parents, perfect children.  That's not even possible.

The hope for the world is Jesus.  Jesus for me, for my sins.

 
*Smarr Publishers Survey of British Literature, Romeo and Juliet - Lesson 5, by Robert Watson