Pastors' Blog

Maybe we should ask NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to supervise things here on earth. After all, they sure do well operating on another planet! 

On April 19 the world watched as the four-pound, 19.3-inch tall drone (rotorcraft), dubbed the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, lifted off the dusty rocks of the Martian surface. Breathlessly, NASA's Ingenuity team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California monitored the action 173 million miles away, as Ingenuity whirled up to an altitude of ten feet, hovered there for 30 seconds, and returned to the Mars surface. 

True, 39.1 seconds is not a long flight. But it was unprecedented in space exploration annals, as Ingenuity became “the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet” (www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-succeeds-in-historic-first-flight).

Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk pronounced, “‘Ingenuity is the latest in a long and storied tradition of NASA projects achieving a space exploration goal once thought impossible. . . . We don’t know exactly where Ingenuity will lead us, but today’s results indicate the sky – at least on Mars – may not be the limit’” (ibid).

But what about the sky here on Earth? Have we reached our human limits? Once again, the world watched the jury conviction of Derek Chauvin two days after the Ingenuity exploit. What a somber reminder that while we can soar a box of technology millions of miles into space without a hitch, we are seemingly unable to regulate, let alone guide and protect, human life on this planet. And while the family of George Floyd sobbed in relief, the unnerving string of mass killings over the past few weeks across this land only compounds the helplessness of what feels like a society out of control.

The apostle Paul ventured to describe our generation with this scribbled prediction, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days” (2 Timothy 3:1). Terrible? How else shall we describe the knee-jerk assaults across this nation on Asians, ostensibly to express the perpetrators' anger over the China linkage to the COVID-19 pandemic? 

The point is obvious, the glory of this springtime notwithstanding. We need the ingenuity of the Holy Spirit to turn the hearts of the people back to their Creator. Because life with no notion of a loving Creator is truly a hell on earth. 

“Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water’” (Revelation 14:6-7).

The words are marked up and highlighted in my thin volume: “In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning [Revelation 14] for a perishing world. . . . There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention” (9T 19).

You and I belong to a faith community—an apocalyptic movement—that takes this too-long-ignored divine appeal to the human race seriously. It is our mission to invite the world to embrace the truth, “The Maker of all things loves and wants me.” Can you imagine what life on this planet would be like were humanity to remember we are deeply loved and wanted by the Maker of all things? Who laid down His life for this race on that long ago cross. And rose again. And is coming back sooner than we have calculated.

Ingenuity. That’s what we need—bright young minds and activists, willing to go to the streets and neighborhoods, with the urgently good news of the Maker of all things who comes soon. Ingenuity may be on Mars right now, but Heaven needs it here on this terra firma right now. So give us, O God, the Spirit’s ingenuity, we pray.

Photo courtesy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory—California Institute of Technology

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, garnered a few headlines this week. His comments about the state of life and the economy in America caught my eye. In his annual shareholder letter on Wednesday (and no, I didn’t receive a copy), he not only prognosticated about the future but also offered a candid analysis of America right now.

“Dimon wrote that the Covid-19 pandemic, the 'horrific murder' of George Floyd, and the painfully slow economic growth of the past two decades are all symptoms of a broader problem: 'inept' public policy and broad government dysfunction” (www.cnn.com/2021/04/07/economy/economy-jamie-dimon-jpmorgan/index.html).

He goes on in his shareholder letter: “‘Unfortunately, the tragedies of this past year are only the tip of the iceberg — they merely expose enormous failures that have existed for decades and have been deeply damaging to America,’ . . . adding that the nation was ‘totally unprepared’ for the deadly pandemic” (ibid).

But all isn’t doom and gloom. “‘I have little doubt that with excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE [quantitative easing—i.e., printing more money], a new potential infrastructure bill, a successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of the pandemic, the U.S. economy will likely boom,’ Dimon said. 'This boom could easily run into 2023 because all the spending could extend well into 2023’” (www.cnbc.com/2021/04/07/jamie-dimon-says-economic-boom-fueled-by-deficit-spending-vaccines-could-easily-run-into-2023.html).

But who cares what Jamie Dimon thinks? Fair enough. Though before we dismiss him too quickly, we should consider what this influential financial leader is suggesting.

America’s in trouble. The fractious events of the past year—racial, economic, political, medical—a hint of uneasy uncertainty ahead. And while there may be a euphoria-fed boom in the immediate future, existing ineptitude of public policy and governmental dysfunction, as he put it, may be ominous harbingers of what this country faces.

Was Jesus suggesting the same? “‘For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man’” (Matthew 24:38-39). 

I.e., life was carrying on, with its usual hiccups and small crises, as it always does—people eating (no sin there), drinking (no sin there), marrying (no sin there), and giving in marriage (no sin there). All of this, plain and simple, as per usual. Were there systemic fractures and fault lines evident in the day? Of course (just read the first seven verses of Genesis 6). But instead Jesus skips over Genesis 6 and focuses on the laissez faire attitude of the antediluvians.

And therein lay their fatal error.  Life was unraveling around them, but they just kept living it as if everything was going to be OK. This means Jamie Dimon’s prediction of a euphoric boom in our economy’s near future must not overshadow his warning of systemic fault lines in our society and government. Hungry for good news though this pandemic-embattled society is, we must not be willfully blind to the bad news that social and economic fissures are still widening. And so are the moral and spiritual fractures that threaten the soul of this civilization.

“‘And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man’” (Matthew 24:38-39).

Describing our own generation, The Great Controversy warns: “The end will come more quickly than [people] expect” (631).

But then what did you expect? A recovery from the pandemic that ushers in a new millennium? Hardly! Even Jamie Dimon knows better. And given the times we now inhabit, we must know better, too.

He called marriage the “M” word, the late University of Chicago ethicist Don Browning: “‘It is often referred to as the “M” word, almost in the same category as other dirty words. Of course, it is not a dirty word, but it is a word that makes people uncomfortable as a topic of serious conversation’” (Marriage and Modernization: How Globalization Threatens Marriage and What to Do About It, p viii [quoted in Mark Regnerus, The Future of Christian Marriage p 4).

Let’s face it—timeless though it is, marriage as an institution is getting whacked in today’s culture, for both the young and the old. Nothing surprising there. But as pastor of a university parish where marriage continues to be a viable option, I am concerned about numbers now being reported. Too much is at stake for me and us not to speak up. And given realities in our own small community here in southwestern Michigan, it is necessary and, I believe, expedient that we hit the pause button and plunge into the “M” word as a campus congregation.

So we’re moving that new series, “For the Love of an Animal,” into May and June, so we can clear the decks and focus on marriage in the final weeks of this semester. It will be time well spent for all of us.

Although, like Luther, I approach this pastoral domain with caution: “‘How I dread preaching on the estate of marriage! . . . The lax authority of both the spiritual and the temporal swords has given rise to so many dreadful abuses and false situations, that I would much prefer neither to look into the matter, nor hear of it. But timidity is no help in an emergency; I must proceed. I must try to instruct poor bewildered consciences and take up the matter boldly’” (Martin Luther, The Estate of Marriage [Ibid. p. 27]). 

And what better spring day to begin this new series than Sabbath April 3, 9/11:45 AM (Easter weekend). “Marriage: Fresh Hope for the ‘M’ Word—He Lives!” 

But not before we have the joy this Sabbath of celebrating the Cross of Him who is our “the Maker of all things loves and wants me” Lord Jesus. These pandemic celebrations of the Lord’s Supper have turned out to be very meaningful worship experiences, the prepackaged communion elements and social distancing notwithstanding. Come and worship with us this Sabbath (“Love Story—Return to Sender: ’So I Am Sending You’”).

If you prefer to celebrate the Lord’s Supper at home, please drop by the church this Thursday or Friday to pick up your communion element kit. And then Friday evening, let’s join with family or a friend at home in commemorating our Lord’s washing of our feet that Thursday night long ago. What a blessed Sabbath is coming: “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

Although I don’t suppose “happy” is the appropriate adjective when you’re talking about the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 lockdown in Michigan, at Andrews, and with the Pioneer Memorial Church. Twelve months ago—who can forget the warp speed with which leaders and people alike, faculty and students alike, all of us alike—very much alike in our foreboding uncertainty (outright fear, I’m sure, for some) of what was happening to our nation, our community, our congregation—we were all catapulted into the strange new world of “lockdown.”

An empty sanctuary, empty classrooms, empty offices, empty everything and everybody, except for “essential” and “frontline” workers. Who can forget?

For those of us on the congregation side of the campus, empty was driven home when on Sabbath, March 14, 2020, two days after the university lock-down, a team of media workers and a few pastors showed up early Sabbath morning to conduct worship in a cavernous empty sanctuary. Who will forget that day! (I also remember it a bit more painfully, since in my rush to get to Pioneer, I backed into the rental car of a young family who was bedding down with us for the weekend. Oh boy! Got the scars to prove it.)

It seems like an eternity ago in some ways, doesn’t it? And yet in other ways, just like yesterday. Because for all our “reopenness” it still feels like we’re locked down. Face masks (what a joy it will be when we can safely discard these cloth coverings), physical distancing (have you noticed how we’re creeping closer and closer to each other—surely God understands), hand sanitizing and washing, et al. We still battle the pandemic.

But now many of us are lining up for our vaccinations (Karen and I are scheduled for next week), in a collective effort to build some sort of “collective immunity” in our country. How will life be different once we’ve been vaccinated? Here’s a link from the CDC with its latest depiction of a less-lockdown nation: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html. 

What about Pioneer? Our children’s leaders are anticipating reopening children’s Sabbath Schools on May 15. But don’t lock that date in yet, since tenuous times mean flexible calendars. We’ll keep you posted here in our eLetter and on Sabbath mornings.

But when it is all said and done—we really do have reason to praise God for the way He has shepherded us through these past roller coaster twelve months. The Angel of the Lord has been our protector. The Spirit of Jesus has gone on ministering electronically when not in person. And you who make the Pioneer Family what it is have been faithful partners and third millennial saints in the gracious way you have rolled with the punches! And for you, we on the pastoral and office team thank God. Your commitment to safety and health, your willingness to sacrifice in order to protect those around you, as well as your unrelenting support for both God’s Kingdom and Pioneer through it all—“I thank my God every time I remember you” (Philippians 1:3).

And I am also grateful for the team of pastor professionals I get to minister beside day in and day out. They have each gone above and beyond in their dedicated ministry for Christ in spite of and straight through the pandemic. We are blessed to have their giftedness in our midst. And good news, we'll be welcoming a brand new pastor family to our team and congregation on Sabbath, April 10—a new associate chaplain to join us a Pioneer and Pastor Jose and Danielle Pilgrim in the Center for Faith Engagement here on campus.

My psalm for the day this morning offered up this prayer: “Praise befits you, our God, in Zion. . . . Blessed are those You choose and bring near to live in Your courts. . . . You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. . . . You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance” (Psalm 65).

This anniversary-of-sorts Sabbath let us gather in person and online with the praise that befits the Almighty God who has led us heretofore, and who will guide us yet into the uncharted future that awaits us. We go together. Amen.