Articles in this section are from the past 6 to 12 months,
There is a new phenomenon happening in Japanese culture. People are gathering in groups to view, for 40 minutes or more, sad commercials and videos for the purpose of having a group weep. These events are called rui-katsu, or “tear seeking.” These events have been held at mental health centers across Tokyo beginning in 2013. Organizer, Hidefumi Yoshida, claims that crying “clears the mind and reduces stress.” The crying must be done in a group, however to achieve the desired effect. Some think that these events are so popular in Japan because of 37 nationalities polled, the Japanese are the least likely to cry. Americans are among the most likely to cry.* What would John Wayne think about that?
We are reminded in Ecclesiastes 3.4 that there is a time to cry. The New Testament not only accepts that weeping is part of the human experience in this sinful world, but encourages us to share in each other’s tears: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep (Romans 12.15). Jesus certainly models such behavior. He appreciates and values the tears of the prostitute who washes his feet with those tears (Luke 7.38), and when he sees Mary of Bethany crying at his feet for her dead brother Lazarus he weeps as well (John 11.35). I really love that in the versification of the New Testament, those 2 words, “Jesus wept,” are set apart as a single verse. They stand apart like a monument to His humanity, His empathy, His love.
In John 11 Jesus is joining a group weep. Mary is surrounded by family, and friends who have come to support her, cry with her. The text tells us that Mary’s tears, along with the weeping of the others cause Jesus to become so disturbed that He trembles (v.33). His first response (the response of almost any man to a woman’s tears), is to get about making things better. He says, “Where have you laid him?” (v.34). But before He can head to the tomb, his emotions overwhelm Him and He cries with them.
It is Jesus’ impulse to fix things when He sees a woman crying. This is not only true for those he knows well, but for complete strangers. In Luke 7.11-17, as He is entering the city of Nain, a large funeral procession is leaving it. The funeral is for the deceased only son of a widowed mother. When Jesus sees her He has a visceral reaction, and says “Don’t cry” (v.13). Then He raises her son from the dead.
In Isaiah 25, the prophet is singing a song of praise for all the blessings Yahweh will bestow when the Messiah comes. He writes, “He will swallow up Death for all time, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces” (v.8). Revelation 21.4 refers to this specific promise, and says it will happen when Jesus comes again. This group weep occurs after Jesus has descended, but before God declares “I am making all things new” (Revelation 21.1-5). The weeping is universal among the saved, but the experience ending this final group weep, although experienced by all, is very personal. It is tactile. It involves God touching each individual face. We have all seen and experienced the gesture – a thumb on the cheek, wiping away a tear. John tells us the bliss of eternity begins with God’s thumb upon our cheek, banishing tears forever.
Jesus tells us of another reality going on at the same time. In His last major sermon, the one in which He talks about final judgment, He describes being severed from God as a place of “outer darkness,” where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25.30). This is a group weep which will not “clear the mind and reduce stress.” It will not end with the caress of God’s comforting hand.
At the end of the universe, of space and time, there will be two groups – both weeping. One will be comforted, and weep no more. One will weep forever. Each of us will be in the group we have chosen.
* “Crying it Out,”by Patrick St. Michel in The Atlantic, May 2015, p.23.
In Hebrews, the writer takes an opportunity to instill some personal responsibility in the early church membership.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I have often wondered what the writer had in mind when he penned those words. Do we really have an understanding of them as we attempt to apply them to our lives today?
Just what is meant by “spur one another”? I know that those who ride horses typically were a pair of spurs attached at the bottom of their boots to tap the horse to get its attention to do what he/she wanted it to do. I know that if someone poked me with one of them, I would definitely pay attention and respond accordingly. I think the church today has lost this art of spurring one another.
Just what is meant by “not giving up meeting together”? Did they have a special place and time as we have today? Did their meetings have similar activities as we do today in our times together? What was it about their meetings that made them so special? Just what was expected to be gained by being there? Unfortunately, this topic is seldom, if ever, spoken to those who need to hear it. If you don’t believe that to be true, compare those in attendance on Sunday morning, to those on Sunday night, to those who come on Wednesday night. Perhaps folks don’t feel a sense of urgency to be with the family more than once a week. And when they do come, those of us, Like Linda and I, often approach them as visitor only to be reminded they are members here. I wonder who is more embarrassed, us because we didn’t know them, or them because they are not here enough to be associated with the membership.
Just what is meant by “encouraging one another”? What type of encouraging were they to provide? How did they know what the individual needed? It is really hard to encourage someone without knowing that person. We don’t encourage because we don’t know our brothers and sisters. How are we to provide encouragement to those whom we don’t know? Oh! We may say – that is the job of our elders…aren’t they the one charged to keep watch over our souls. Surely they know the needs of all the members. As one who served for 20+ years as an elder, this is impossible task. But wait a minute – surely the minister has time to know the needs of all the members…isn’t that what we pay him to do? We sat by each other during the various periods of attendance, and yet we don’t take the time to get to know them much less encourage them.
Hebrews 3:13 - But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Just what is meant by “as you see the Day approaching”? What day is being referenced here? Was the writer trying to indicate they needed to get ready for some troubling times ahead? Were they all aware of what “the Day” meant? Is there a Day coming in our lives? It amazes me the reaction of people when severe weather is being forecast. Grocery store shelves empty out very quickly. Big box stores run out of material to help us prepare for the event. But there are those of us who simply didn’t prepare for that day to come. Like weather forecasters, God’s word is warning us there is a Day coming and we better be prepared.
Hebrews 2:2-3 - We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishmenthow shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?
Are we ready for that day?
After more than 33 years, I finally watched the NFC Championship Game capping the 1981 season. This was the game which featured “The Catch” - Joe Montana to Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone with less than a minute on the clock to defeat the Dallas Cowboys 28-27. Since it was a late game that Sunday afternoon, and since we had evening worship at 6:30, I ran out to the car after worship to listen to the final drive on the radio. When I turned the radio on the Cowboys were up 27-21. The 49ers had the ball just inside their own 10 yard line with two minutes and change left on the clock. I immediately thought my Cowboys would lose. 6 points wasn’t a big enough lead, and there was too much time on the clock. Montana wasn’t polished yet, but he had “juice” the way Roger Staubach had “juice.” Danny White was polished (he was the top-rated passer in the NFL that year), but he didn’t have any “juice.” Predictably, and methodically Montana moved the ‘Niners into scoring position, and on a third down scramble, while he was back-pedaling out of bounds, Montana hit Clark for the winning touchdown.
It has been nearly 20 years since I followed the Cowboys, but I haven’t been able to watch that game until a week ago when NFL Network replayed it. What I never knew before was that when the Cowboys got the ball back, with nearly a minute on the clock, Danny White hit Drew Pearson on a deep slant on the first play from scrimmage. It was a play Pearson nearly broke for a touchdown. The San Francisco corner got a handful of jersey, and then brought him down from behind with a wicked horse-collar tackle. The Cowboys were inside the ‘Niners 40 yard line – almost within the range of kicker Rafael Septien. But on the next play Danny White took a sack and fumbled the ball. Game over (I told you he didn’t have any “juice”).
The game was being called by the great Jim McKay and former Chief’s coach Hank Stram. They kept commenting on the fact that if the rule against break-away jerseys hadn’t been in effect Pearson would have scored a touchdown. I kept thinking that if the rule against horse collar tackles had been in effect the Cowboys would have gotten the ball inside the 20 after the penalty, and would have made and easy field goal for the win.
That’s the way it is with sports. A year earlier, a few years later, a step faster and the outcome would have been different. If Everson Walls hadn’t given up on that fateful third down, Dwight Clark wouldn’t have made “The Catch.” If, if, if….always if. As Ecclesiastes tells us:
Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, and the battle is not to the strong, and neither is bread to the wise, nor wealth to the discerning, nor favor to men of ability, for time and chance overtakes them all. Ecclesiastes 9.11
It is an amazing and astute observation by the writer – that in this sinful word things rarely work out as expected. Happy endings usually surprise us. Things don’t conclude the way they ought. This is true for every human endeavor – sports, war, education, economics, and politics.
The writer of Ecclesiastes does identify a constant for us humans living here “under the sun” in this sinful world:
The conclusion, when all has been heard is: Fear God and keep His commandments. This applies to every person. Ecclesiastes 12.13
“What if?” can be a productive question to ask as we seek to do a better job next time, but “If only…” is a destructive reverie to indulge. No matter how much we obsess about things we cannot change the past. The constant in every human life, as we move forward, is God. God is. God is good. He should receive our reverence, and our obedience. A life of reverence and obedience is immune to any doubt about what would have happened “if only….”
The cherry tree outside my window is, as Houseman describes, “hung with snow.” I am reminded of that little gem of a poem, the second in A Shropshire Lad, every April. Having been so recently shrouded by snow, one would think that such a display would not be as dazzling – but it is. Every spring it is. Elliot, in his poem, “The Wasteland,” begins by saying: “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land.” There is that as well – the idea of mortality present on the surface of a blooming, youthful world. Even Houseman’s poem is concerned with mortality:
Now of my three score years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Of my three score years and ten, 53 will not come again. The older one gets the more springtime involves thoughts of mortality.
My cherry tree was planted eleven years ago by the elders as a memorial to my father who had recently passed. Despite major surgery he succumbed to cancer eight years before he reached his allotted three-score and ten. The tree itself lives only because of major surgery, performed by David Bobbitt three years back. The tree was large and lush but a bacterial infection was splitting the trunk. David prescribed major cutting to get all the infection out. When he was done nearly half the trunk was gone, and only one branch, bearing one leaf was left. I placed a single red Christmas ball on the branch for a few days, and then took it down because no one thought it was funny except me. David promised it would be back to health and fuller than ever in a few years and he was right. It is the very symbol of spring and new life – though the trunk is still visibly scarred.
The phrase “three score years and ten” is from the King James Version of Psalm 90 – the only psalm attributed to Moses. Moses’ ethos is closer to Elliot’s than to Houseman’s. He writes: The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four-score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away, (Psalm 90.10 KJV). His intension, though, is not to depress us, but to “teach us to number our days” (v.12).
The Bible is not bleak. It teaches us to learn from the beauty of God’s handiwork. David tells us to look at the heavens and comprehend the glory of God (Psalm 19.1), and Jesus tells us to consider the lilies of the field and comprehend His provision (Matthew 6.28ff). The lilies are not in bloom yet. This week we look to the crocus, the daffodil, the forsythia, and the snow-laden cherry to understand the same. Even Psalm 90 ends with Moses asking that “the beauty of our LORD God be upon us” (v.17).
Spring leads us to look, like Janus, both forward and backward. In autumn we look back in the comfort of nostalgia, but not forward. Spring reminds us that, as the writer of Ecclesiastes posits, there is a time for everything as the wheel of time turns – a time to be born and a time to die, a time to sow and a time to reap (Ecclesiastes 3.1-8). Life and death are points on the same circle.
The writer of Ecclesiastes also asserts that God has set “eternity” in our hearts. We have in us the notion that there is an existence beyond the wheel of time. It is more than a notion, really. It is a yearning. Every perfect cherry blossom, or snowflake reminds us of the perfection of the God we serve. If there can be such beauty here – how beautiful will heaven be?
And so we say, with Moses: Teach us to number our days, and may the beauty of our LORD God be upon us.
- Barry Bryson
T
he 1860 handbook, Etiquette at Washington, claims that: “every citizen of the United States who visits Washington considers that he has a claim to visit the Chief Magistrate of the Union.” It seems that average citizens did have such access. Etiquette at Washington reports that President James Buchanan “receives visits every day from eleven till one o’clock.” The etiquette for such a visit with the Commander in Chief was fairly strict. The 1860 handbook claims that a visit should never go beyond a handshake and commonplace niceties, and should never extend beyond six minutes – the President being a busy man.*
Such access seems not so much a feature of the past, but the feature of an alternate universe. But there was no security detail assigned to the President then. Lincoln had not been assassinated yet. Andrew Johnson would be the first President protected by the Secret Service. Since 2002 the average citizen can’t even expect to take a tour of the White House short of a pass from one’s Senator.
As to any etiquette the average citizen is expected to observe regarding the President nowadays – that seems to be more a thing of the past than Presidential access. I was raised to respect the presidential office regardless of my opinion of the man occupying it. I have to admit I had a hard time being true to my raising twenty years ago when the Lincoln bedroom was being rented out to campaign donors. But I still believe that one should disagree with a man’s politics as strongly as free speech and good manners allow, but that we all lose when anyone disrespects the office. Sixty seconds on the internet, or listening to talk radio would be enough time for anyone to establish that I seem to be in the minority.
A startling contrast to the way things were in 1860, and the way things are in 2015 is this familiar passage from Hebrews 4.
Since then we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has in every respect been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of Grace that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4.14-16 RSV
All citizens of the kingdom are welcome to the throne of God. We are welcome 24/7/365 from now until time ceases to exist. We are welcome to stay as long as needed. As to etiquette, reverence is the natural attitude to take, but so is confidence – because we are welcomed there. Our interview need not be confined a few niceties – we are there to bare our souls, to open our hearts. We receive more than a handshake. We receive mercy and grace.
Jesus is the reason we enjoy these blessings of access, and connection. He alone makes them possible. He is our High Priest. During = the 1500 years of Mosaic Judaism, the High Priest alone had access to the Holiest Place in the Tabernacle, then the Temple. He went only once a year into the presence of God as a representative of God’s people. Jesus stands in the presence of the Father to welcome us in –all of us, every hour of every day.
This state of things is amazing. More amazing is how blasé we are about it – how little we make use of our access.
*I found this information in the wonderful, and now defunct magazine of the Library of Congress, Civilization: August/September 1996, p.35.
