Long Way Here

On this day a couple of years ago I lost a friend I dearly loved–my family loved. He was dear to many of us. When he died something changed in me, something I have yet to fully understand, largely due to the circumstances surrounding his death. But I know that because of what happened the previous year I will see Tommy again. He was born April 29, 1964. He was reborn in Christ on Aprile 20, 2014. He left this life and entered into the next on April 15, 2015.

He was a loyal friend and one of the hardest working men I’ve ever known. I miss him.

A few weeks ago an older man entered into the worship gathering at WCC. Afterward he came to me and introduced himself. He said, “I am from Maryland. I wanted to come and worship God here today because two years ago I lost a dear friend named Tommy. In my desperation for hope I found your article, ‘What Tommy Taught Me.’ I discovered you had lost a Tommy too. Your article comforted me and I wanted to meet you and worship with this Church.” I cried.

I told this man how humbling it was he would join us. I shared with him how this article I wrote for Christianity Today was a process of personal healing and that I was grateful to God that he found it as source of some small measure of healing too. In honor of Tommy’s precious life, I share this with you all today:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2015/november-web-exclusives/what-tommy-taught-me.html

I want to thank Christianity Today for making this article freely accessible today.

Tommy’s Bible

 

In the Cross, God speaks what is true for those who believe. As the Word Incarnate died upon it the Cross becomes His voice. In the Cross, God offers this message of truth in both a promise and summons. The promise is new life lived with God now and forever. The summons is to live this new life with a deep-seated trust and obedience to the way of life witnessed in Jesus, and to do so in community with others who believe. In the Cross, God speaks what is true. 

No longer lost, we can live in light.
No longer dead, we can come alive.
No longer blind, we can see.
No longer suffocating, we can freely breathe.
No longer broken, we can be healed.
No longer numb, we can feel.
No longer stained, we can be made pure.
No longer weak, we can endure.
No longer deceived, we can know the truth.
No longer must we search, His love is proof.

He is our way. He is our light.
He is always true. He is our life.
He never leaves. He is our peace.
He is our help and sweet relief.
He is our strength. He is sure.
He is more than enough. He is the crucified Lord.

Liberal. Conservative. Progressive. Republican. Democrat. Libertarian. Etc. Etc. Etc.

I’ve been called all these and more. I’ve even thrown some at others. I bet you have too. 

After years of label making and label taking I agree with Danish philosopher, theologian and poet Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) who once said, “When you label me, you negate me.” 

Placing labels upon another demonstrates a woefully pitiful tendency to childishly avoid dealing with whatever issue is at hand. Casting down labels is a stubborn refusal to deal with another’s personhood. 

However, as one who has confessed that Jesus is Lord there is one label I’ll readily take: Christian. It is what I am. All other descriptors and labels are frail attempts to categorize others based upon a faulty logic of managing one’s own party-political ideology. 

Jesus won’t be managed. He won’t fit in our ideological categories no matter how hard we squeeze and cram. 

Jesus is the Redeemer, not a Republican. Jesus is the Lord, not a Libertarian. Jesus is the Day Star, not a Democrat. When he chose to walk this earth he was a brown-skinned man hailing from Nazareth, not a white man hailing from the West. In self-giving love on a blood-stained cross He showed us that He would rather die for His enemies than kill them. As risen Lord and God of all creation we must come to realize that He may “fit inside your heart” but he will not fit inside our preferences. He is Lord of lords. He is King of kings. He is the ever-present almighty God of life-changing eternal Love. When all other kingdoms become a footnote in the pages of history, His will stand. And He won’t accept split allegiances. 

I think Christians in these United States would do well to remember this. 

As for me, I am a Christian. I pledge my allegiance to the Lord alone and I am grateful that His grace welcomes a wretch like me. 

Selah.