09/14/2008 The Big One
THE BIG ONE
Firefighters are big-hearted do-gooders. Sadly, I found that often their big hearts & enormous supplies of adrenalin-empowered energy would get in the way of their best intentions. Some of the volunteers I knew, so wanted to help persons in distress, that when arriving on an emergency scene, they would dash off the apparatus without taking some of the necessary equipment to help the victims. They were little better than a passing Good Samaritan. Of course, the vollies grabbed the hose & ladders, or the AED (automatic external defibrillator), but many of the ancillary supplies, like lights, ropes, meters, & pry bars, were left on the rig. The firefighters ended up traipsing back to the fire engine to retrieve the required tools, wasting valuable time, & appearing incompetent.
As captain during those years, training & initial operations at the scene were my responsibility, so we instituted a few changes. The most important was developing a prioritized list of essential equipment that would exit the truck with the crew on every call. The basic tools would be at the ready for the chirping smoke detector with a dying battery, the overheated light ballast, the cuts & scrapes at a fender bender, as well as the raging house fire at three a.m. – “the big one,” as we called it. No one left empty-handed, anymore. The revisions were worth it.
The best preparation for “the big one” is well-trained & frequently-drilled practices at all of the little ones. In order for the routine to become second nature when lives are at stake, habits need to develop on those far-less-than-glorious nuisance calls that make up a majority of a firefighter’s duties.
As a pastor, I wonder how often church-going Christians are like those emergency service workers. Do we assume we’ll fare well when the faith crisis hits, or are we even now demonstrating the practiced & proven spiritual disciplines of improving our relationship with Jesus Christ? Do we wait for “the big one” to encounter God, or are we living with our Creator, Redeemer, & Sustainer 24/7/365?
The Apostle Paul was in jail. His “crimes” were many, but the worst, the healing & exorcism of a fortune-telling slave girl, ruined the income of her abusive masters. Seeking punishment & restitution, her owners pressed charges against Paul with the authorities in
Depressing? You know it! But you’d never know it by reading Paul’s letter to his Christian brothers & sisters in the
A few things strike me about this letter.
First, Paul pens a plain old letter to friends which ends up becoming established Christian doctrine. He did not set out to write a theological treatise about the person & work of Christ, but the doctors of the church ever since have relied on these 5 chapters to define the part of our doctrine called Christology – who Jesus the Christ is. Mind you, as far as Paul was concerned, this was “just” a humble little letter between church friends, but ever since, it has held greater influence than any Christian writings on the topic. Indeed, our unplannrd everyday words & actions reveal as much, or more, about our true selves, than the big events.
Second, Paul uses terms that to us sound rather standard, but at the time were both stunning & encouraging. The words in the opening two verses alone, in which Paul calls his friends “servants/slaves,” & “saints,” were unheard of in such a context. He stresses that humble persons of faith who don’t think too highly of themselves (servants) are holy (saints), not because of anything they do, but because of what God does. Their baptism reveals this saintly servanthood. (Because) baptism is not a mere ritual, but a bold statement that we, Christians, share in Jesus’ death & resurrection, that our old lives of sin have given way to a new righteousness that is not of our own creation, but is ours to claim in Christ Jesus. Baptism is serious business, taken sincerely by saintly servants.
Third, despite Paul’s imprisonment, he rejoices. Fourteen times the words “joy” or “rejoice” fill this epistle. The persons who consider themselves his enemies see Paul’s joy. The guards see it. Everyone who knows him sees it. Paul urges his church family to practice it. He is jailed & looking the death penalty square in the eye, yet he is joyful. That joy speaks volumes, & it’s not confined to the pages of holy writ.
I went to a family funeral a few weeks ago. The wife of my father’s cousin died one of those agonizingly slow, painful deaths from cancer, the kind of physical wasting away that preceded her closed casket. The body was unrecognizable. That we can understand. Her spirit, though, was also unrecognizable in the best possible way. That soaring spirit was captured in these words spoken in her final days, “I never knew dying was so much fun!”
There’s my friend & colleague, Roland Carlson. During much of his life, he lived in constant pain due to fibromyalgia. No treatments would cure him. No pain relievers or therapies provided relief.
I was leading Youth Music Camp one summer as the foundation for a new lodge was being laid. While the young construction workers were laying down for their afternoon break from the late June heat, 80-something Roland was lugging cinder blocks around the site with great ease. “I’m in pain whether I lay in bed all day or work, so I might as well work,” he reflected to me.
Pastor Carlson in his white, short-sleeved shirt, long pants, & broad-brimmed straw hat not only built the Pocono Plateau lodge bearing his name, but this saintly servant also labored alongside countless volunteers (like Sue Weir) constructing buildings around the world for decades with the Discovery Service Projects he & his wife, Barbara, founded & organized. His pain became joy. A joy for self & others.
Closer to home is our friend Barb Curtin. She’s been selected for a clinical trial to address her cancer.
“How are you, Barb?” I asked when I called her at work two weeks ago.
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When faith is not a practiced part of daily life, frankly stated, it is not a part of life. When piety is not lived everyday, it is not a vital piety. When Jesus doesn’t impact us beyond our time in church, we have a brand of religion that is not the relationship-based Christian faith that Jesus gave us, that Paul lived, that the three people I just mentioned claimed as their reality. Experiences of the divine happen in the ordinary that is transformed into the extraordinary. When God is a welcomed, invited, central focus of everyday routine, we can more easily focus on him on the day that is so beyond the routine. When you’re in Christ, life is different, better, the best.
What I’m saying is: Don’t just make a decision for Christ & be satisfied with that event. Actually, Jesus never instructs us to make a decision like that. Instead, surrender your life to Jesus. That’s what he asks. Surrender to him, & not just once during some crisis or mountaintop experience, but yield to him each new day in each new situation. Don’t be converted once in your lifetime, but be regenerated/renewed in Christ daily. Don’t make conversion/salvation a once-&-done incident. Make it a lifelong process of transformation, of sanctification, of “being made perfect in the love of Christ,” as John Wesley preached. A Christian faith that is not active & lively today will not magically be activated on the crisis day or even our last day, no matter how much wishful thinking & how many good intentions we have.
Our youngest daughter, Krista, would often become upset when she finished a box of cereal or a bar of candy or a bag of cookies. Her reaction is not unusual. When those kinds of goodies are done, one’s disappointment is predictable & normal for a lot of us, not just children. Think of the end of vacation, or when a child goes off to school or gets married. We often grieve the loss.
On one day, Krista was particularly disturbed when friends she had over to the house finished a box of her favorite Goldfish crackers.
“Krista Rose,” her mother said, “your daddy can buy you more at the supermarket. He always does. It’s important to share. You don’t need to become so upset.”
“It’s not about sharing, Mommy,” Krista retorted indignantly. “The box says, ‘Best when eaten by’ some date, & I never get to that date when it’s the best! It’s always gone too soon!”
Krista Rose already had the best. She fully enjoyed everything that she was supposed to enjoy. Like the firefighters, &
Neither do we.
In the Name…. Copyright 2008 by G.D.Knerr at