How about a break from the inane kabuki theater that Washington politics has turned out to be? Besides, by the time you read this there is hope that some sort of political compromise will have been reached to deal decisively and realistically with the government shut down and debt ceiling limit. Consider instead this report from the engineering company Boston Dynamics. This is the company that invented the Cheetah, a quadrupedal robot able to run on a treadmill at over 28 mph (faster than Husain Bolt’s top speed of 27.78 mph!). A few days ago they unveiled their new creation, a robotic piece of machinery dubbed the Wildcat. While not as fast the Cheetah, this engineering marvel (watch a video of it in action: http://rt.com/usa/running-war-robot-darpa-754/) is able to rise, turn and run up to 16 mph on flat ground. Charles Osgood, in his syndicated daily radio column, The Osgood Report, explained this week that the new Wildcat advances the possibility of robotic machines fighting this nation’s future wars. What a happy thought! Instead of humans gunning and bombing each other to death, opposing armies could send their robots into action and let the outcome be determined by the best engineers. Scientists are warning, however, that such potential robot wars introduce the possibility of the computer brain one day outsmarting its human creators and turning on the human race. So much for a cheerful paradigm shift in fighting history. The only paradigm shift Holy Scripture predicts in the history of war is the eventual eradication of war from both this planet and this universe. After all, heaven itself was plunged into cosmic battle: “And there was war in heaven” (Revelation 12:7). A civil war raging still and still called “the great controversy.” No robots in this internecine fight to the death. Instead the brilliant minds of intelligent life forms that include the once celebrated but now fallen human race. And it is the latter that is this war’s quest—a desperate battle for the loyalty of every earth child. Which is why the Creator and King of the universe Himself has plunged into this deadly conflict between Light and darkness. “For God so loved the [fallen and wounded of this] world that He gave His only Son” (John 3:16). And the stunning news is that He wins in the end! Not by a hair or through a negotiated truce—the predicted divine outcome to this cosmic rebellion is that God wins—totally, decisively, eternally. And then—and I love this line—“they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). No more war—not in Washington, not in our souls, not on earth, nowhere in the universe. The old spiritual is right: “Ain’t goin’ to study war no more.” No more war—the promise of Calvary—to which every battle fatigued heart can surely breath: Hallelujah and Amen.
Pastors' Blog
By Pioneer Pastors
They say the young Pakistani sixteen year old, Malala Yousafzai, has an inside track to the Nobel Peace Prize this year. We’ll know in a few days. If she wins this much heralded prize, she will become the youngest recipient in its illustrious history. And why not? A year ago today Malala, an outspoken public advocate of the value and importance of education for young women (a notion radically opposed by the Taliban forces operating inside Pakistan), was riding home from school in the back of a small pick-up that doubled as a “school bus” for children in her town. A masked man stopped the truck, while an accomplice singled Malala out and shot her in the head. She should have and would have died were it not for the quick intervention of Pakistani doctors who performed emergency surgery on Malala. Her condition still grave, the surgeons learned that a British physician, Fiona Reynolds, happened to be in the country that day. As it turns out, Dr. Reynolds is an intensive care specialist with the Birmingham Children’s Hospital—and she recommended that Malala be flown overseas for specialized treatment. The rest is history. Today, thoroughly healed and adamantly undeterred by Taliban extremism, Malala continues—now with an international platform—to champion the right of girls and young women to full education and schooling, in Pakistan, in every village on earth. From the beginning of time our Creator Himself has championed the value and right of education for all His Earth children. “‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children’” (Deuteronomy 4:10). And His vision is no small one: “God’s purpose for the children growing up beside our hearths is wider, deeper, higher, than our restricted vision has comprehended. From the humblest lot those whom He has seen faithful have in time past been called to witness for Him in the world’s highest places. And many a [child] of today, growing up as did Daniel in his Judean home, studying God’s word and His works, and learning the lessons of faithful service, will yet stand in legislative assemblies, in halls of justice, or in royal courts, as a witness for the King of kings. . . . Millions upon millions have never so much as heard of God or of His love revealed in Christ. It is their right to receive this knowledge. They have an equal claim with us in the Saviour’s mercy. And it rests with us who have received the knowledge, with our children to whom we may impart it, to answer their cry. To every household and every school, to every parent, teacher, and child upon whom has shone the light of the gospel, comes at this crisis the question put to Esther the queen at that momentous crisis in Israel’s history, ‘Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’ Esther 4:14” (Education 262, 263). The vision of the divine Teacher to teach the children to reach the world—what could be more radical than that? Malala is on the right path. Shouldn’t those upon whom the light of God has shined so brightly be on that same path, too?
It’s not like we haven’t been here before. Those who can remember back to 1995 recall that the government was shut down in November that year by our perennial two-party squabble. The reason I remember is because I happened to be in Honolulu for a prayer conference, when the morning news announced that the U.S. government had entered a financial stoppage of sorts. But the world didn’t end. A major difference this time for this nation, and for the world beyond this nation, is that this government shut-down is days away from a major debt-ceiling debate in the same Congress that is now stalemated. If the two parties continue their refusal to compromise and the U.S. debt ceiling is not raised, the Treasury will theoretically be without funds (perhaps by October 17), forcing the U.S. government to begin defaulting on its ever-due debt payments to nations that have purchased portions of our national debt (China, Japan, et al). It all sounds terribly complicated, and the easiest way to deal with it is to simply dismiss it all as the game of political “chicken” or brinkmanship—but the truth is that the global economy is so jittery and unstable now that a major default from the world’s largest economy could eventually result in seismic economic tremors the world over. And what would happen next is the stuff of doomsayers. The mission of this Fourth Watch blog is to keep a prayerful watch on the unfolding events of this nation and planet. Why? Because the quotation my blogger friend Herb Douglas cites at the end of every blog (“Red Alert”) is strikingly pertinent: “Those who place themselves under God’s control, to be led and guided by Him, will catch the steady trend of events ordained by Him to take place” (Review and Herald 8-5-1902). Which simply means that for those of us who seek to heed Jesus’ admonition—“When you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31)—keeping a watchful, prayerful eye on local, national and global developments is the better part of prudence. How can an apocalyptic movement like this one afford to do anything else? But watching and praying are not enough. The compelling national and ecclesiastical needs of Japan (where I just spent two weeks), as well as the “steady trend” of unraveling developments in this nation, are a clarion call for the church to act. How? The political process hardly needs the church to dictate a solution to the government. The towering need of society here and abroad is, as Jesus prayed to the Father on the eve of His own death, “That they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). For that reason we’ve invited my friend David Asscherick to spend a few days on campus (October 18-26), seeking to connect with those who do not know God. Because if knowing Him is life’s greatest purpose, then helping others come to know Him is life’s greatest mission and greatest joy. So won’t you please help us help Him by extending an invitation to those who need Him now? Too much is at stake.
Our Tokyo 13 mission completed, yesterday Karen and I were two thirds of the way up the world’s tallest tower, the Tokyo Skytree. At 634 meters (2080 feet) the Skytree is only exceeded by Mt Fuji in the hazy distance. The highest point visitors are permitted to ascend (by an elevator that travels at 10 meters/second) is 451.2 meters (1480 feet). From our glassed in vantage point we could look down on the thirteen million people that live within Tokyo’s immediate city limits—but beyond them as far as the eye can see is the megapolis that makes Tokyo and vicinity the largest urban sprawl on the planet (37 million people). Towering glass and steel corporate offices, surrounded by tiny two-story Ma-and-Pa stores with their cramped upstairs residences, intersected by freeways and alleyways, the criss-cross of mass transit (emphasis on the mass), in the midst of which is the thick green folliage of the Imperial Palace where live an emperor and empress—this is Tokyo, with nearly one out of every three people in Japan (and one out of every 189 people on earth) living beneath the Skytree’s gaze. But what is the God’s-eye view? “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth” (2 Chronicles 16:9). Beyond Tokyo, as His eye sweeps over Osaka and Seoul and Beijing and Singapore and Perth and Calcutta and Istanbul and Soweto and Nairobi and Moscow and Prague and London and Sao Paulo and Mexico City and Toronto and New York and Houston and Santa Fe and Seattle and Benton Harbor, beyond “the smoke of a thousand villages—villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world” (Robert Moffat)—what is His God’s-eye view of this civilization? When He gazes through the mortar and mud, the steel and glass, the tin and cardboard behind which are huddled the masses of earth, what does God see? For “the eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). We see a world separated by its radical diversities, segregated by its racial/socio-economic/geographic divides. But the clearest and most penetrating vision belongs to the God atop the cross who still so loves the world (John 3:16), who still these millennia later sends His friends and followers into it, all of it (Matthew 28:19). The truth is God stills sends missionaries—student missionaries, lifelong missionaries, short-term missionaries, volunteer missionaries—to the furthest reaches of civilization. The crying needs we witnessed in the Land of the Rising Sun (where 1/100 of 1% are members of our community of faith) have convinced me that the day of missionaries is hardly past. In fact I believe the day of missionaries has a new dawning for this generation at this critical time. “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me’” (Isaiah 6:8, 9). Today when you overhear His voice asking that very same question, I hope the Spirit of God will embolden you to make that very same reply.
There is a crisis quietly unfolding far away from the headlines of Syria’s chemical attacks, North Korea’s erratic leadership, California’s raging wild fires, and this nation’s economic unraveling. The crisis concerns the land of my birth, the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan. While the international news media are focused on hot spots elsewhere, the sobering reality is that Japan has simply been unable to recover from the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. It is reported that thousands of those who survived but whose homes did not are still living in emergency shelters or housing. The Fukushima nuclear plant continues to dangerously leak radioactive water into the surrounding land and sea. And “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men” seem unable to staunch the national hemorrhage. The church in Japan is caught in the clutches of the national crisis. While the church in China and South Korea continues to explode with numerical growth, the church in Japan enjoys no such success. For they are tasked with reaching a society steeped in Shinto belief that Japan is the country of the gods and her inhabitants are the descendants of the gods. Thus what need do they have for what they consider to be inferior belief systems or ideologies. If you are descended from the gods, what need is there for a Savior? Christianity as a consequence is a marginalized religion at best, with less than 1% of the 128 million adhering to faith in Christ. Every morning Seventh-day Adventists in Japan (less than 15,000 members or around 1/100 of 1% of the populace) awaken to that debilitating reality. And so when the leaders of the church in Japan wrote and asked if I would come and conduct a series of evangelistic meetings for Tokyo 13 (as they are calling the emphasis), I knew immediately that of course I must go. For not only was I born there—I spent the first fourteen years of my life living there, the son of missionary parents. I speak the language (terribly rusty now, I’m afraid). I am a child of that land. In a few days I will fly across the Pacific to Tokyo. And I am earnestly appealing to you for your intercessory prayer cover and support. All summer long we have been claiming God’s promise, “I will do a new thing. . . . I will pour water on the thirsty, and My Spirit on your descendants” (Isaiah 43:19/44:3). But all summer long I have prayed this promise not only for this campus but also for that country. It is clear for both sides of the Pacific that our hope of revival lies solely in the resurrecting, recreating, reigniting power of Christ. Only the Spirit of God can penetrate the heart and soul of Japan and the heart and soul of this campus. Hence we must pray with “shameless audacity” (Luke 11:8 NIV) to the Savior of the world. But we must also act on our prayers. And so I go to Japan. Our weeklong series is entitled, “The Hope of the Rising Sun.” Because that is Japan’s only hope—that the “Sun of Righteousness” promised in Malachi 4:2 “will rise with healing in His rays” over that proud but desperately needy nation. And when Christ rises over Japan—as I believe He will one day—then at last she will truly become the Land of the Rising Sun. And therein lies our hope.
For days now America has listened and relistened to the fifty year old black and white video rendition of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” impromptu homily on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. As the culmination of that peaceful march on Washington in protest over the segregation and inequality that Negro Americans were suffering in this “land of the free” five decades ago, King stood to speak. But the preacher struggled with a speech that had been “drafted by too many hands late the previous night.” Mahalia Jackson, the renown Black soloist, was standing somewhere behind him and sensed King’s struggle. “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin,” she called out. And with that his reigned in spirit soared into “speaking words of American scripture, words as essential to the nation’s destiny in their way as those of Abraham Lincoln, before whose memorial King stood” (Jon Meacham, TIME, August 26, 2013). Countless bloggers and talking heads have opined over whether or not in the past half century Martin Luther King Jr’s dream in fact has come true. But I leave the celebration of racial advances and the decrial of racial division to them. Instead I wonder aloud if in the promise of God we have been claiming this summer—“I will do a new thing. . . . I will pour water on those who are thirsty and My Spirit on your descendants” (Isaiah 43:19/44:3)—there is embedded in fact a divine dream for a radical equality within the community of faith. Could it be that in our petitioning of heaven for this “new thing,” we are opening up our own hearts and schools and congregations to the Holy Spirit’s tearing down the walls that have grown up among us? Racial walls, to be sure—but gender walls, socio-economic walls, theological walls, emotional walls as well? Could it be that God Himself dreams of a people on earth so united in and by His relentless love that they actually, physically portray the “as We are one” unity of the Trinity that Jesus prayed for (John 17:22)? This I know. Joel 2:28, 29 makes it abundantly clear that before the “great day of the Lord,” there will be such an outpouring of God’s Spirit “on all flesh” that the walls of gender (“your sons and your daughters”) and age (“your old men and young men”) and class (“menservants and maidservants”) will crumble. God has prophesied the obliteration of inequality amongst His people before the return of Christ. So we must not abandon our prayers for God’s “new thing.” But beyond praying, we must also work tirelessly with the Spirit of God for the fulfillment of His dream of equality—in this nation, in this world, in this university and in this church. Praying without working to answer our own prayers ensures that the dream remains but a dream. It will only be fulfilled in the lives of those already working for it.
The news bulletins out of Syria this week have cast a desperate pall over the already bleak Middle East. Observers on the ground in Damascus reported that the Syrian government launched a major WMD (weapons of mass destruction) attack on its own hapless citizens in the suburbs of that ancient city. Early rumors placed the nerve gas death toll at over 1300 victims. The Syrian government has denied the charges, with the insinuation that rebel forces themselves instigated a self-inflicted strike in order to arouse global sympathy for their plight. Who can say? The political situation in Egypt is hardly much better. Muslim Brotherhood loyalists to ousted President Morsi have engaged in street battles with armed soldiers of the military coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Egypt. The death toll is still climbing. Whatever happened to the much heralded Arab Spring of two years ago? Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt—is there no resolution for this desert turmoil? And in the cross-fire, what of the fledgling Seventh-day Adventist church with its small membership in that sea of Islam? Actually, the news is not all bad. In fact, on the front page of the August 18 edition of El Akbar, one of the main daily newspapers in Cairo, were two pictures of the Cairo Seventh-day Adventist church. The article reported that some 300 unruly demonstrators marched up the street past our Adventist church. But not a stone was thrown, not a flame ignited, as was the recent fate of other church premises. Why? The two front page photographs are of a group of bearded Muslim men, who with locked arms, are surrounding the church, preventing it from destruction. Muslim friends who stepped forward in that crisis—as one church official noted, “It is these kinds of people that are the hope of Egypt, and we are grateful to them.” “I will do a new thing” is the promise of the Almighty enthroned above this earth. If ever this civilization needed the intervention of its Creator and Redeemer, it couldn’t be more needy than right now, could it? All summer long we have been claiming God’s promise in Isaiah 43:19/44:3 to “do a new thing” by pouring His Spirit on His people. The recent newspaper front page in Cairo is a reminder that the friends of God are all over the earth, in every communion and every community. Which in turn must become a reminder to us here at Andrews University that the “new thing” we have been calling upon God for isn’t only for us—it is truly His promise for all. How relentless is God’s love that longs to rescue and save as many of His earth children as He can! After all, those two newspaper photographs—the object of God’s compassion isn’t the building in the pictures, is it? The object of God’s love has to be those Muslim strangers who stepped forward to protect that little church. Guardian angels indeed. So pray on.
Here at summer’s end they’re now telling us that brushing our teeth and washing our hands are threatening our prized Great Lakes. And let’s be honest—what would Andrews University be without Lake Michigan? (Union College, of course!) What’s up with this headline? Turns out that beauty product manufacturers have discovered we rather enjoy the gritty feel of that toothpaste on our teeth and the sensation of scrubbing our hand soap gives us (good-bye little germs). And so they’ve embedded tiny plastic microbeads to create the feeling of scrubbing. The trouble comes when these minuscule beads are washed down the drain into our sewage, piped to water treatment plants and—because the beads are too small to be caught by the plant filters—subsequently washed out into the rivers that flow into our lakes. But even worse these plastic beads absorb contaminants. As a result fish and other lake creatures are ingesting these pellets, thus inserting them with the contaminants into the food chain of higher ups, including humans. Ecologists have actually discovered vast patches of these microbeads now floating on our oceans. What shall we do? You could, as a recent Chicago Tribune editorial suggested, check for the ingredient “polyethylene” in your favorite beauty aid and write the manufacturer. But poised as we are just a few hours before a new school year at this university, reflect for a moment on the power and influence of something considered by many to be so small as to be inconsequential. Prayer. After all, like a plastic microbead what is one prayer on the sea of life? But the truth is that your prayer combined with my prayer combined with all their prayers can very quickly become a vast and influential swath to be reckoned with, can’t it? For 98 days we have shared a preseason of prayer for this new school year. And to God our prayers have hardly been inconsequential plastic microbeads. Rather He Himself has stirred up this preseason of intercession, as men, women and children have day and night been earnestly calling on Him to fulfill His promise for our lives, our university, our congregation: “I will do a new thing. . . . I will pour water on those who are thirsty and My Spirit on your offspring” (Isaiah 43:19/44:3). How will God respond to this laser-beam focus of our praying? In many ways He has already begun to fulfill His promise, for “the more earnestly and steadfastly we ask, the closer will be our spiritual union with Christ” (Christ’s Object Lessons 146). Intense and focused praying results in deepening our walk with Jesus, irrespective of the object or answer we seek from God. Our lives have been changed simply because we have been praying. But we are asking for more. Much more. And so on this dedication Sabbath let’s keep our prayers banded together and become “The Circle Maker” and stay in the circle until God opens the floodgates of heaven and does what is truly His “new thing.”
On the occasion of this farewell for the first woman pastor to serve the Pioneer Memorial Church, I would like to digress from the usual focus of this Fourth Watch blog and reflect on the pastoral ministry of Esther Knott and the journey of women in ministry during her sixteen years of spiritual leadership in this congregation. I first met Esther, when she was a graduate student here at Andrews University. I was still new in the Pioneer pastorate, when she stopped by the church office for a visit. Active on campus as a student leader and having served already as campus chaplain at Broadview Academy (Illinois), there was no question Esther felt called of God to pursue pastoral ministry. I listened as she described her deepening conviction to serve Christ as a shepherd, as a pastor. We talked about the limitations women who sensed God’s call to pastoral ministry were facing, with most career opportunities at that time limited to hospital chaplaincy or Bible teaching. I remember her tears and our prayer that God would open the door someday somewhere, little realizing that more than a decade later she would be invited by the Michigan Conference to serve as one of the pastors of this university congregation. The past sixteen years have seen major strides in the ministry of women pastors within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. No longer confined to chaplaincy and teaching roles, more and more women within our community of faith are now exercising spiritual leadership as pastors and denominational administrators. And I know you join me in praising God for the way in which the Holy Spirit has opened “a great and effective door” (1 Corinthians 16:9) for the women in our movement who sense God’s call to gospel ministry. However, we are not there yet. That is why the world church has established a Theology of Ordination Study Committee to prayerfully and biblically examine and recommend what our denomination’s next step needs to be in regards to ordaining women pastors to the same spiritual leadership and authority that their male counterparts now enjoy. Both Esther and I are on that committee. I firmly believe that God will work through this very human process to guide this church we love toward the mighty fulfillment of Joel 2:28, 29. But let me be quick to note that over the past sixteen years Esther has never raised her voice in defense of her calling or in petition for her ordination. Rather, she has effectively gone about the ministry of Jesus, who “with the Holy Spirit and with power went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). And that, I believe, is the eloquent and effective testimony she has brought to our collective conversation about ordination—her faithfulness and fruitfulness in pastoral ministry in both our parish and our conference speak volumes to God’s shared calling, His shared giftedness and the Spirit’s shared authority in gospel ministry for both genders. While Esther moves on now in obedience to the divine call to focus her ministry energies and gifts for equipping the pastors of the North American Division of our world church, her sixteen years in our midst will remain a shining testimony to the inestimable value of women pastors the world over. And for that we thank God for her, and we say Amen!
The South Bend Tribune ran a fascinating cover story this week on the Museum of Biodiversity housed on the campus of Notre Dame University. Closed to the public, this climate-controlled museum features a priceless 150-year-old collection of plant specimens from around the globe. The entire herbarium collection is now numbered at 280,000 specimens. But the goal of the university’s scientists is not simply to enlarge the specimen collection. They are looking for “type” specimens—“the exact specimens the original scientist used to catalog and describe the plant species” (SBT 5-29-13). Each collected “type” specimen is carefully photographed and digitally stored for posterity in a huge online database called Global Plants (on the database website JSTOR) that now has 1.9 million entries. We’re not talking little snapshots, either. Each image, in fact, is 200 megabytes, which means each picture could be enlarged to cover a wall and still be clear. So while the museum is closed to the public, its treasure trove can be examined and admired by online visitors for years to come. The Museum of Biodiversity collection has been expanded now to include animal fossils, vertebrates suspended in jars of formaldehyde and even a large collection of preserved insects. But I wonder—do you suppose we could find the fossil of a moral leader somewhere in that collection? Moral leaders are becoming a rare breed on this terra firma, aren’t they? You remember the “type”—that man, that woman, that young adult or teenager (or even child, for that matter) who was uncommonly known as someone who unflinchingly stood up for conviction. Never mind the numbers of those around them who found it inconvenient to stand up at all, let alone to buck the crowd and have to stand alone. Moral leaders—those individuals who in a committee or on a board or in a classroom or dorm room are unafraid to politely but firmly defend what they are convicted is the right moral course to pursue, irrespective of popular opinion. Moral leaders—are they but a fossil relic from the past anymore? Nobody said moral leaders would ever be in the majority, but history has taught us that even just one of them can shift the tide of humanity and rewrite the narrative of history. Just one. But imagine what more than just one moral leader could do—imagine a band of them on a campus like ours. I imagine God imagines just such a reality. In fact, it really is no imagination at all. He predicts it: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy’” (Acts 2:17-18). A band of moral leaders—young and old, men and women “in the last days.” For that reason this summer we in this congregation and on this campus are claiming God’s promise in prayer—“I will do a new thing.” We have put off that prayer for too long. It is high time—for the sake of this university and the world into which God is sending it—for His “new thing” to become a reality on this campus. And so with 76 days until the new school year begins, we are praying for new moral leaders. Would you be willing to join us in this prayer?
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