Pastors' Blog

The two young women, sisters, were out for a late afternoon stroll along the popular walking path in Compton, south LA. “Do you hear that cat?” one of them stopped. Both listened. Sure enough—from somewhere not so far away came a faint whimper. “Gotta be a cat.” They strained to listen. “Sounds more like a baby to me.” Impossible. Nothing there but the asphalt bike path and a chain linked fence. But they heard it again. “It’s gotta be.” They dialed 911.

Two deputies from the LA Sherrif’s Department arrive. “Can you hear it?” The deputies nod. Nothing but asphalt and a chain linked fence, until one of them notices a crack in  the paved pathway. Stooping over he pulls on the cracked asphalt—easily dislodging a piece of it, disclosing a crevice filled with debris. Scooping aside the debris, he spots the edge of a hospital blanket. And wrapped in the blanket a still breathing but cold to the touch newborn. Paramedics arrive, treat the tiny little girl at the scene, race her to the hospital—where she’s doing fine! Although truth is, covered with debris and asphalt the baby would’ve perished had someone not scooped the rubbish aside.

What a grand narrative for Christmas!

Or rather, what a provocative metaphor for this season of Christ’s birth—a season that begins with the advent of Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday, followed by Discounted Tuesday, followed by Wholesale Wednesday, followed by Slashed-prices Thursday? Et al. What is the Christmas season but twenty-four days of interminable shopping—credit-carding, lay-awaying, savings-spending, buying-buying-buying—until Christmas? But where’s the Baby?

Shoppers in this nation spent an estimated $12.1 billion on Christmas shopping this Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Add to that the more than $3 billion spent online on Cyber Monday, and Americans have already forked over $15 billion-plus shopping in this season that celebrates the birth of Jesus. But where’s the Baby?

Could it be the Baby now grown up wonders the same? Covered over with the asphalt of consumerism and the debris of materialism and got-to-have-it-ism, are we the nation that boasts “In God We Trust” on our currency?

And are we the Americans who have declared to the planet we can’t afford to allow even a 1000 Syrian refugees onto our shores or into our states for fear they might threaten our way of living and spending? Emma Lazarus’ words inscribed inside the Statue of Liberty surely don’t mean us—not this Christmas—do they?

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

What difference can you personally make this Christmas? #1—You can cast your vote against our rampant consumerism by ramping back your investments at Walmart, Target, Macy’s and their like. #2—You can choose to spend a comparable amount of money assisting a needy family in this community (mark your donation to Neighbor to Neighbor on a tithe envelope before Christmas). #3—You can decide to assist a refugee family even before they are granted asylum somewhere on earth (maybe not here) by giving a Christmas gift through ADRA.org (Adventist Development Relief Agency). #4—You can save the money you would spend on Christmas and set it aside for your “My Student Missionary Fund” so you can put legs on your compassion and go somewhere on earth to help this suffering world. You can do something!

Where’s the Baby? “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me’” (Matthew 25:40). That’s where He is.

Can you believe some individuals are actually paid to take pictures of angels? In fact there are five photographers who have been granted three-year stints to take as many pictures of angels in the air as they possibly can! I’m not kidding.

I don’t suppose telling you I read it in the news helps a whole lot. So let me quickly add that the angelic photo subjects are the Blue Angels, the crack U.S. Navy flight team that performs its high air acrobatics for gaping (and sometimes gasping) crowds the world over. Five Navy petty officers are granted the privilege (wait till you read what they have to go through before you agree it’s a privilege) of sitting in the cockpit seat directly behind the pilot of that trademark blue and yellow-streaked F-18 Hornet. Their mission? Capture heart-stopping images of the six-fighter jet team of Blue Angels in twirling spinning action.

Want to enlist for the chance? All you need is a working camera and a working faith in the combat veteran pilot who’s sitting in front of you, executing split second decisions at 700 mph while flying in formation with three other blue and yellow fighter jets roaring beside you six inches away! You’ll also need an iron stomach, because during spins, turns and other maneuvers you and your pilot will experience 7.5 times normal gravity, turning your 10 pound camera into what feels like 75 pounds in your hands. And by the way, Blue Angels pilots and their cockpit photographers do not wear g-suits, “designed to keep someone from passing out by pushing blood toward the head using inflatable bladders in the legs” (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/photographers-capture-landmarks-skylines-blue-angels-35124758). Because of the very tight maneuver formations, the pilots must maintain total control of the flight stick without being interfered by the bulky suit bladders. And so both pilot and photographer to remain physically fit and learn breathing techniques to avoid passing out. Navy photographer Andrea Perez, who has thrown up and passed out in the back seat, observes: “‘It helps to be focused on the lens and not worried about what is going on outside—whether the ground is above your head or whether you are spinning in circles’” (ibid).

So much for the Blue Angels, but what about the White Angel that flies in formation with you 24/7 (see Matthew 28:3)? The angel that, according to Jesus, was assigned to you at birth (see Matthew 18:10). The angel that, according to the psalmist, has been your personal guardian for just as long (see Psalm 34:7). The angel the Bible describes as “a flame of fire” just beyond the veil of human sight (see Psalm 104:4). What about your celestial companion right now, standing beside you as you read these words? Will you ever be close enough to take that selfie with him?

In this year’s devotional book, Maranatha, Karen and I read this week: “Every redeemed one will understand the ministry of angels in his own life. The angel who was his guardian from his earliest moment; the angel who watched his steps, and covered his head in the day of peril; the angel who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, who marked his resting place, who was the first to greet him in the resurrection morning—what will it be to hold converse with him” (314). To come face to face at last with this Being who has selflessly devoted every waking (and sleeping) moment of your life to provide supernatural care and protection exclusively for you—can you imagine the thrill of meeting your Angel one day!

The only greater thrill will be to come face to face with the King of Angels, whose nail-scarred hand on the day you were born pointed your angel to you with this two-word mission: “Save him” “Save her.” The King and His angel—one day sooner than you think you will be in the presence of both. And can you imagine the pictures you’ll be taking!  

Talking about adding insult to injury—figures released this week indicate that the top 100 CEO retirement packages here in the United States now equal the retirement account savings of 41% of all American households with the lowest retirement wealth. Go figure! So let’s do. The accumulated wealth in the retirement packages of these top 100 American executives is $4.9 billion. “The CEO nest eggs on average are worth more than $493 million, enough to produce a $277,686 monthly retirement check for life, the [Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies group] report said” (USA Today 10-28-15). An average monthly retirement check of $277,686? Compare that to the 2013 median average in a 401(K) retirement account of $18,433, yielding $104 a month! Then compare that to the 31% of the “bottom economic group of American families [who] have nothing saved for retirement”(ibid). Go figure indeed.

Of interest is the retirement nest egg of David Novak (no relation to the much poorer chemistry professor David Nowack here at Andrews University), CEO of Yum Brands (the conglomerate that runs Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut). Novak’s retirement package (including deferred compensation) is the largest of all Fortune 500 CEOs and is valued at $234 million. Compare that with what Novak’s fast food workers are able to save for their own retirement!

Reuters comments: “The figures are stunning and cast a harsh and troubling light on soaring retirement inequality. The report offers yet another indication that runaway income inequality is producing grossly unfair retirement outcomes” (www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/28/us-column-miller-pensions-ceo-idUSKCN0SM09C20151028). Or as Sarah Anderson, the economy project director at the Institute for Policy Studies, observed: “‘The CEO-worker retirement divide has turned our country’s already extreme income divide into an even wider economic chasm’” (USA Today).

Jesus’ step brother James once wrote: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.  Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth” (James 5:1-4). A bitter lamentation from the God who historically has sided with the exploited poor and the socially marginalized.

Jesus Himself warned: “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).

So what does all of this have to do with the rest of us who are squeezed somewhere between the middle and the bottom end of this economic chasm? Jesus’ words remind us that greed and covetousness are not the exclusive domain of the wealthy. You don’t have to be filthy rich—in fact we can be dirt poor and succumb to the strangulation of greed. Jesus’ parable of the rich fool, which follows his warning, ends with the solemn observation: “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). The rich fool died suddenly without spending a single penny of his nest egg. While we are very much alive, Jesus reminds us, is the right time to be “rich toward God.”

So have you been rich toward God lately?

Since we’re a generation huge on sound-bite success formulas, here’s one more—a short, punchy guarantee for success. Its genius is its simplicity—you can memorize it in twenty seconds.
A hundred years ago this year a short 5’3” woman breathed her last. But when she died, she left a legacy so stunning they’re still unpacking it! With her education cut short by a debilitating accident while in elementary school, the girl grew up and at the age of 17 received a dramatic divine calling to devote the rest of her life to speaking, writing, organizing, leading, visioning, mentoring, preaching, and evangelizing across this nation—and eventually with more speaking, writing, organizing, leading, visioning, mentoring,  preaching and evangelizing globally. As it turns out, this seventeen-year-old who said Yes to God’s call ended up investing the rest of her life, 70 years in a tireless mission and ministry for her Savior.

And when Ellen White died in 1915, she became the most translated American author ever (male or female) and the third most translated author in the world today, with a literary output totaling 100,000 pages (the equivalent of 25 million words) and 128 book titles in print today. As the result of her ministry and spiritual leadership, she helped guide her community of faith (the Seventh-day Adventist church) to become the largest Protestant educational system in the world, the largest Protestant health system in the world, the largest Protestant publishing enterprise in the world, and the most expansive Protestant missions outreach today in more countries than any other denomination.

But on a personal note I have discovered in her writings three fiery passions that flame up in my own heart whenever I read her:

1. A passion for the Savior:
“. . . look to Christ. Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love—this is the subject for the soul’s contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness” (Steps to Christ 70).

2. A passion for the Word of God:
“The Bible is God’s voice speaking to us, just as surely as though we could hear it with our ears. If we realized this, with what awe would we open God’s word, and with what earnestness would we search its precepts! The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Infinite One” (6T 393).

3. A passion for the salvation of the lost:
“As I have thought of that cup trembling in the hands of Christ [in Gethsemane]; as I have realized that He might have refused to drink, and left the world to perish in its sin, I have pledged that every energy of my life should be devoted to the work of winning souls to Him” (9T 103).

No other writer I’ve read is so saturated with these three as this woman.

So what’s that punchy success formula? “Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful” (2 Chronicles 20:20 NIV). You can memorize it in twenty seconds. But it’s a promise for a lifetime. Check it out for yourself—go online and read the short classic Steps to Christ (it’s the book that radically changed my own life at 22) or browse through the apocalyptic classic Great Controversy (www.egwwritings.org and click on to eBooks).

Been there and done that? Then in the words of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, “Taste them again for the first time.” And why not reconnect with this gift and its promise? Because isn’t it the right time to operationalize God’s success formula in your life, too?