The Wilderness Way #29

I offer two stories for consideration at the opening of a New Year: The first is the well known story of Delta Airlines Flight 253. You have no doubt read or heard how heroic passengers threw themselves on the terrorist to extinguish the flames and save the plane. By all accounts it was a chaotic scene. Reporting on the incident Time Magazine notes that as some aided in subduing the terrorist and putting out the flames, “Other passengers screamed; some ran to other cabins. ‘I don’t want to die! I want out!’ yelled one.”[1]

Story number 2: I was in one of our churches for the first Sunday of the New Year. To start the year off, the pastor opened with Holy Communion. We were sitting closer to the front and so were among the first to take Communion. As we returned to our seats, I sat listening to the beautiful music and meditating. My quiet revere was broken by a young family that knelt at the altar rail. Their two little girls (probably 7 and 5) enthusiastically took part in a winsome way that brought smiles to the heart. Finishing, the family turned and walked back down the center isle to their seats. The girls walked on either side of their father holding his hand. The five year old on his left broke into a huge smile and started skipping down the aisle. Somehow she got an incredible joy from communion and worship that we more serious adults had trouble with.

Now I ask you, of the two stories, which one best captures the essence of the gospel. Which one brings us into the New Year with the fullness of what has just taken place at Christmas? Which one recognizes that this is 2010 A.D. – Anno Domino, the year of our Lord?

Confessionally, I’ve been in situations where I felt like running down the aisle yelling “I want out!” I’ve felt like that even when I’ve metaphorically been on a plane at high altitude. Often gazing at the news or wrestling with the landscape of our changing culture and church environment, I’ve longed for an easier earlier time of religious popularity. On my bad days, (which, praise God, are not that many!) I feel like that.

In my more faithful living, I embrace the insights of the little girl skipping down the aisle. I understand that even my bad days are days the Lord has made, and I need to rejoice and be glad in it. The Apostle John in that great opening overture of his gospel states: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) The phrase “lived among us” means literally that the Lord pitched His tent in our midst.

Think about it. God incarnate (in the flesh) in the person of Jesus has taken up residence in our neighborhood – next door. This is not an invitation to a Pollyannaish ignorance of evil, destruction and pain. Nor is it a whistling by the graveyard. Terrorist still do board planes. War still rages. Disease, hunger, prejudice, death, etc. are still real. The difference, the huge difference, is that if we understand 2010 as A.D. (Anno Domino, the year of our Lord), we can embrace the New Year with grace and truth guiding us. Wilderness journey need not be a lonely walk of desolation but a joy-filled eager embrace of the new future God has in store for us.

[1] “The 4 Lessons of Flight 253, Time Magazine, January 11, 2010, p. 28

By: Bishop Mike Lowry On 1/8/2010

Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world