Grafted In: a Lesson Learned from a Weeping Cherry Tree*

 Every Easter at the home of my adolescence, my Mother would host the family Easter gathering after church. There was usually ham, sweet potatoes, a congealed salad, green beans, red velvet cake, and sweet tea. There was lots of laughter and fun. The Easter Egg hunt was what my cousins and I looked forward to, even into our tweenage years. (We also enjoyed dying the eggs the day before.) We couldn’t wait to take off our Easter “Sunday Best” clothes and put on some more comfortable “egg huntin’ clothes” and compete with our cousins in the annual decorative colored oval orb quest in the front yard. BUT before the meal and the egg hunt was the family picture in our Easter clothes… ugh. This happened in the front yard, usually in front of the Weeping Cherry tree if its blooming corresponded with Easter that year. Though I probably didn’t acknowledge it at the time, this tree was beautiful. Its weeping branches filled with copious pink cherry blossoms looked like a mushroom fountain of flowers spraying up and over and running to the ground. It wasn’t until a storm broke a branch from the tree and it became just a tree no longer weeping, nor producing as many pink flowers…actually kinda ugly… that I learned what had to happen to produce this kind of beauty in the first place. My Dad explained that at some point, the trunk had to be cut and branches had to be grafted-in and the wounds of the tree and the grafted branch had to heal and grow together to make a new tree that was both weeping and produced a beautiful fountain of flowers. 

 

As I think back on that tree, I’m reminded that our broken humanity is just sad, disappointing, and ugly until we are grafted into the Divine through the scars and death and resurrection of Christ. We are redeemed to be a new creation that is compassionate, connected, and beautiful. Easter communicates to us what God had to do to graft us into His beautiful family, adopt us as His, so we could become beautiful like Him, and belong to Him. God had to cut, bruise, and wound His own Son Jesus, in order that we could be forever firmly attached and grow with Him. He says, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...” (Isaiah 49:16a NIV) God’s disappointment with our ugly, rebellious, meanness doesn’t overcome His loving desire for us to be His children forever. “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5 NIV) When our stiff-necked pride is broken and we confess our failure and sin and ask God to forgive us and connect us with Him, He takes our broken and helpless self and attaches us into Jesus’ humble but perfect self and our wounds heal and grow us together. He was cut and broken for our sake. On that first Resurrection morning the new growth from the grafting begins… Paul uses the symbolic language of grafted trees to tell us what happens when we let God attach us to Himself through Jesus. We are connected to God as His people forever. He says, “…and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root… ”(Romans 11:17 NIV) We become a new creation, capable of both weeping and beauty, compassion, love, connection, and great joy that spills out to be shared with all those around us. We then continue becoming the full God-redeemed creature that He had in mind to make us from the beginning. 

 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Maundy Thursday, What Is It?*

When I was a young Baptist kid, I only knew of two days of the Holy Week, Palm Sunday and Easter. One involved Palm Branches and a Hosanna song, clapping our hands and stomping our feet, and the other day was shared by the Easter Bunny and Jesus (kinda like Christmas being shared by Santa Claus and Baby Jesus). I imagine I loved making the Easter scene with popsicle-stick-Jesus, Mary of Magdala at His feet, and an Angel, including an empty toilet paper roll and a construction paper stone to roll away. I also loved dyeing, hiding, finding eggs, chocolate bunnies and Cadbury Egg commercials (bok, bok). This Christian/Pagan yearly ritual could be confusing.

But then I learned about Good Friday and Maundy Thursday. There was always a mention of the cross and Good Friday, but I never knew why it was called GOOD Friday, especially if Jesus was beaten and killed that day (I later learned that it was called “God’s Friday,” the day He redeemed the sins of the world for all who would belong to Him. Some speculate that it is similar to the farewell words, GOOD bye, that were a shortening of the traveler’s blessing, “God be with ye.”) And I just thought "Maundy Thursday" was the expression of some confused Southerner trying to say Monday, but remembering it was Thursday. Then I learned the most marvelous thing… That "Maundy" comes from the Latin rendering of the word “Command.”

Many wonderful things happened on Maundy Thursday, Jesus showed us what humble leadership looks like by washing the feet of His disciples. He summed up the most important parts of His ministry with the Last Supper and His last words to those who belong to Him. He reminded us to keep the most important commandments to Love God and Love Others, by remaining IN Him. He tells us we Love God by honoring the boundaries and expectations that He lovingly gives us. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”(John 14:15 ESV) He also tells how we will be known as someone who belongs to Him, this is where we get the “Maundy” from. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”(John 13:34–35 ESV). Notice He doesn’t say, you will be known as my disciples if you: have superior scripture knowledge, have better behavior, never mess up, pray more, have more quiet time, go to more religious rituals, are more righteous than others… You won’t be known as His disciples by the number of converts you make, or if you can prove why you are right. He tells us that the proof of being known as one who belongs to Him is balanced on the fulcrum of loving each other, and He adds, “as I have loved you.” He really upped the ante with this statement, because Jesus had just modeled how to love people by washing their feet (even Judas, who betrayed Him). Jesus loves everyone, even His enemies. So Maundy "New Commandment" Thursday is an important life altering day in the Passion Week. Jesus was reminding us that day, how it is like “those who are His,” to act.

So, Happy Maundy Thursday People. Let’s love one another!

So, Happy Maundy Thursday People. Let’s love one another!

When Things Don't Go Our Way...

 When things don’t go our way… In elementary school, I participated in Royal Ambassador basketball. “Royal Ambassadors,” or “RAs,” was a Baptist missions organization for boys. Every week we had a Bible Study and learned about people who were telling the Good News around the world. Every winter we had RA basketball where we competed with other RAs from other churches around the city. We had some great coaches who were quite good at basketball and they invested their time in teaching us the game. We practiced on Sundays after church, which was kinda weird for the time (early 70’s) in Knoxville, TN, because there were still “blue laws” and Sundays were set aside for church, rest and Sunday drives to the country-side. However, no one could practice any other time during the week, so we brought our tennis shoes, knee socks, shorts, and t-shirts to change into from our “Sunday Best” and had practice after church. McDonald’s was open on Sundays. So, after leaving church, we would run to McDonald’s, get a Big Mac and a Coke, devour it quickly, change clothes, go to the gym and hopefully not hurl it back up when running laps. Before our church had its own gym, we went to the local school to practice. We learned to dribble, pass, shoot and learned the rules of basketball. One year, our coaches were so good we defeated all the local teams and were invited to the state RA basketball tournament in Nashville. We were all giddy. We got there and as I recall, won our first game on Friday night. Then we were all wired up about being in a hotel for a sleepover, juiced up on Coke and Cheetos, we somehow coerced our coaches into letting us watch “Crack Through the World'' movie on television. It was a disturbing late 1960’s apocalyptic movie about how the earth was destroyed by an ill-fated plan to harness the Earth’s geothermal energy by shooting a nuclear bomb deep into the earth. This of course, as you would guess, began the earth ending crack through the world. The movie showed many people dying in horrific ways (landslides, train wrecks, molten hot lava - to which one of the boys quipt “fried to a crackly crunch. Cheetos, cheese that goes crunch!” We all laughed, but kind of guiltily.

Of course, I didn’t sleep at all because I was so disturbed by the images seared into my brain, not to mention the copious amounts of fizzy caffeine and sugar that I consumed. Needless to say we were all tired the next morning. We played our next couple of games and won, which should have made us RA State Champions, but the host church decided that their team needed one more chance to defend their title against us with their best player who had not been able to play the earlier game. So they required a short play off game. I knew that this was not right and in my sleep deprived, elementary school immaturity, I threw a tantrum and began to cry, stating that I would not play another game...not that my playing had any impact on the team, I wasn’t that good, but I wasn’t bad at dribbling, passing or defense. I gave myself a free pass to act badly, because I perceived someone had disrespected us. The coaches tried to remind me that we had come to play basketball and agreed to the rules of the tournament. They also reminded us that we needed to represent God and our church well. So, in my “self-righteousness,” I still sulked and sat on the bench, while the rest of my team battled the title holders. The host church’s plan worked, they won the short winner-take-all game and we went home with a 2nd place trophy and my little tantrum, justified or not, did nothing but make me look like a crybaby and abandon my team.

We were supposedly “Royal Ambassadors,” we represent The King of Kings. Our motto was, “we are ambassadors for Christ,” taken from 2 Corinthians 5:20. Paul was reminding the young and immature church at Corinth, that they belonged to Jesus, and they represent Him now, so their behaviors had to change. Their own selfish, childish ways in which they used to live were not okay anymore. Paul tells them, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”(2 Corinthians 5:17–21 NIV) Things don’t always go our way, but that is not a free pass for us to act badly. When we belong to Jesus, we act like Him even in difficult situations, when sleep deprived, wronged by someone else, angry, tired or _____. Our identity changes when we are "in Christ," and we mature into acting like Him more and more regardless of our circumstances.

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Why Are We Still Here?*

Why are we still here? I sometimes wonder how kids survive ‘til adulthood. I had gotten an archery set for a birthday in elementary school, not the rubber stopper arrows, but actual practice tip arrows. Not sure what my dad was thinking, because the whole BB gun thing had gone badly a couple of years before (you can see that story here: https://williampmcg.blogspot.com/.../parents-dont-run...). Eventually, after shooting my arrows at the target for a while, I became bored and began shooting at "other things." Then, I don’t know what possessed me, but I decided to shoot the arrow straight up into the air. Once I released the arrow and it disappeared from view in the Sun, the realities of Newton’s Law came flooding into my pre-adolescent brain… “what goes up, must come down”… Oh no! The panic set in and I began running as hard as I could aimlessly to try to avoid being impaled. Odds of getting hit by said arrow would probably have been better had I just stood still. Thinking about it now, it was silly that I didn’t run under the protection of the carport. Thank goodness I heard the thud of the arrow as it stuck in the moist ground several feet away. So, what did I do next? Not take my bow and arrow and put them in time out until I could use it more responsibly… NOOOO!, I did it AGAIN! Thank goodness Mr. Gravity and the soft spot covering my yet to be fully formed brain didn’t join forces for a significant injury. I later heard of kids in a neighborhood across the lake who did this as a group activity. Standing in a circle, the kid in the middle shot the arrow into the air and everyone ran in all directions as soon as the arrow was released. One poor kid was taken to the ER, impaled by an arrow through his neck and shoulder. Fortunately it didn’t hit any vital vessels or organs. In spite of my reckless childhood thrill seeking, God had plans for my life. Why is God so gracious to us when we willfully challenge the laws He has put in place physically, relationally, or spiritually? He must have plans for us.

I’m encouraged by the words of Moses as He talks about how God protects His people for His purposes, sometimes even when they were not being so smart. God has us here for a reason, to be His people, to represent Him well. Moses could look back and see the many times God had taken care of His people as they escaped from Egypt, from plagues, armies, pestilences, starvation, thirst, and other terrors. Moses tells God’s People, “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say concerning the Lord, who is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust: He himself will rescue you from the bird trap, from the destructive plague. He will cover you with his feathers; you will take refuge under his wings. His faithfulness will be a protective shield. You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in darkness, or the pestilence that ravages at noon. Though a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, the pestilence will not reach you.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭91:1-7‬ ‭CSB‬‬ Satan misrepresents the second part of this passage to Jesus, when he was tempting Him in the wilderness. Matthew 4:5-7 says, ”Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." Jesus told him, "It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God."

I am so thankful for God’s grace, all the many times, against better judgment, we test His gracious compassion and protection for us, in ignorance or by willful rebellion. God has plans for those who have chosen to belong to Him… we are to be His people, to love and represent Him well, and to love those He loves. He will protect and keep us so we can represent Him until it is time for us to come Home.

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Who Has The Keys?*

Who has the keys? In my tweenage years in the Summers, I was outside playing most of the time, playing pickup football, basketball, stickball, tennis, fishing, or riding my bike. Occasionally, I would return home and find that I was locked out of my house. One day, I had gone to the churchyard next door to play football with the local “gang.” The game ended and I climbed the steep grassy hill for home, sweaty and grass stained. When I got home, the house was locked up. Every door was locked, and no one was home. This was before there was an exterior garage door key code panel, so, I did what I usually did when I was locked out, I looked for the “spare keys.” But whomever (probably me) had used them last had failed to return them to the top secret and secure location, i.e.under the doormat, just like most other people. So, then I went to my usual plan B, which was climbing up the side of the house to the balcony, jimmying one of the sliding glass doors and getting in. However, this time, the sliding glass door security pole (a.k.a. sawed off broomstick) was securely in place, but it allowed the door to open just enough for the alarm to sound. In a panic to get in and silence said alarm, I jimmied the other door, but it too had the failsafe broomstick. Then, I was in a real mess. The alarm was obnoxiously alerting the neighborhood that someone was breaking in the McGinnis house and I was stuck on the balcony. BTW climbing up the side of the house is much easier than climbing back down. Once on the ground, I tried all the doors again, but to no avail. In spite of all my best efforts, I was still outside, alarm blaring, I had exhausted all my efforts, I realized I was helpless. Finally, in despair, I sat down in the grass, and cried until my mother returned with the keys, turned the alarm off and let me in. Glad to be inside, I washed my dirty tearstained face, and appreciated the benefits of belonging in the McGinnis home. From that day on we made sure a set of keys was available.

Six times in the book of Matthew, Jesus indicates that outside of heaven there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” He tells all who will listen that entry to God’s kingdom is not about our efforts, knowledge, goodness, cleverness, or anything else we can do, it's about a loving faith relationship with Him. I’ve always wondered what gnashing of teeth meant. One commentator says the word connotes "extreme anguish and utter despair." The apostle John, as he was writing to one of the early churches, says, Jesus, the Holy One, always has the keys to let us into a secure relationship with God. No one can lock us out from being with God when we belong to Jesus. He says, ““Write to the angel of the church in Philadelphia: Thus says the Holy One, the true one, the one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will close, and who closes and no one opens: I know your works. Look, I have placed before you an open door that no one can close because you have but little power; yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”(Revelation 3:7–8 CSB17) Apparently, it is very important that we remember Who we belong to, that we identify with His name. The keys to God’s Kingdom are granted by our loving attachment to God through Jesus, who died and rose again to secure that relationship with Him forever. What is the evidence that we have the keys?... We are an insider; we belong to God, we are His child, we are in healthy loving connection with God, we love God and treat everyone in the ways He tells us in His Word. There is no jimmying the door, there is no spare key, there is no pretending nothing is wrong, the alarm is sounding and there are no other ways into heaven. Jesus says, “I am the Way.” Our salvation is not a problem to be solved, it is loving attachment to God to be secured and grown and the key is loving, trusting and belonging to Jesus.

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Who Is Speaking For You?*

 Parents, Who is speaking for you? After college, I had the opportunity to travel to South Africa for a month with a college friend. The country is beautiful, rich with natural resources and very culturally diverse. The Afrikaan family that hosted us lived on a large and lovely farm not far from the Mozambican border. After several days in the sprawling guest house, the host family sent us to explore the rest of the country. They probably needed a break from the Americans, but they also wanted to “show off” their wonderful country. We visited the amazing and historic Cape Town, the beach town of Durban, as well as Johannesburg and Pretoria. The highlights also included a night in a lodge in Kruger National Park and a couple of nights in a private Game Farm on the edge of the park. Our game viewing experiences were awe inspiring and wonderful with lions, elephants, zebras, giraffes. We saw almost every African animal you can think of. We met many new friends and explored several regions. There were, however, a few harrowing experiences while we were there. The first involved a lion roaring just outside of where we were staying in Kruger Park… there were no fences between us and the king of the beasts, it was terrifying. The wildebeest it was about to eat was probably terrified too. The next scariest was a night we were supposed to stay with our host family’s friend near Cape Town. He had two large and ferocious Dobermans who did not want us to stay there… we opted, rather than being eaten, to sleep in the car! But perhaps the most nerve-racking, was a night in Pretoria. Again, we were staying with a family friend of our host family’s son. He was in his young 20’s like us, fun, and always up for an adventure. It was winter there, but after some coaxing, verbally and with distilled liquids (these were during my, not-so-proud-of “rebellion years”) we all decided to take a swim in the above ground pool in 30 degree weather at midnight. Needless to say, we were frozen when we went inside. Our host had a fireplace, but no kindling to start the wood to help thaw us out. So, he suggested that we go outside and get some “dennebol,” aka, pine cones as a fire starter. He sends us out with large black bags to collect any dennebol we could find. What we didn’t know, because we had arrived after dark, was that the South African equivalent of the White House was right next door. So, as we are unsuccessfully wandering the neighborhood for the illusive fire igniting pine cones, we see lights and hear sirens of a rather intimidating paddy wagon speeding to where we are. Tires squeal as they stop, two soldiers jump out with Uzies locked and loaded. They begin shouting at us in Afrikaans, my friend and I drop our bags, throw our hands in the air and look at our friend, who begins laughing and speaking in Afrikaans. Our lives were in the hands of a brand new, fairly intoxicated friend we didn’t really know, who also didn’t know us, advocating for us a language we didn’t know, in a country we didn’t know. I envisioned at that moment being thrown into a South African prison and never to be heard of again. The national police were not amused by our friend’s humor and they kept shouting, guns raised and walking toward us. It was a couple of very tense moments of our Afrikaan speaking friend, talking fast and trying to explain our silly decision to take a frozen swim, and subsequent search for “dennebol” to start a fire to warm us up, that somehow, between his words and our petrified faces, these soldiers finally realized we were not a threat, lowered their weapons, and let us go, with instructions to go straight home. As the open air, steel barred, paddy wagon drove away, we counted our blessings and quickly returned to the house. At the time we were in South Africa, there was much turmoil and tension. There are 23 different people groups there, including Asians, Indians, English, Afrikaners, and several different African tribes represented, each with a different perspective and agenda for this rich and beautiful country. It was a time when some unfairly repressed people were on the edge and many people had ideas about how to resolve the many difficult issues in that nation. For all these national soldiers knew we had some agenda too. Our agenda was only to have more fun and find a little warmth from pine cones. I still don’t know what our friend said to the officers, but I’m glad I’m not writing this from an African jail.

I’m also glad we don’t have to come before the God of the Universe with no advocate. We live in a hostile spiritual world that we know relatively little about. The Apostle Paul tells us that when we belong to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, is our advocate before the throne of God the Father. We don’t know the words to say, we don’t know what to ask, we don’t even know what we need… There are so many things we don’t understand about God or the Heavenly realms. But Paul tells us as he encourages the early church, “In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27 (CSBBible) I am so grateful to have the Spirit living in me, but also that the Spirit, who is God, can intercede for me for things I don’t even know I need, much less able to verbalize. Who has a God who loves like that? A God who loves us so much He sends His Spirit to live in us when we become one of His children? And then, because of Who He is, He has His Spirit advocate for us, even in our ignorance of godly things, for our good and His glory. Who is speaking for you? If it is the Holy Spirit, join me in being grateful! If you are still attempting to still speak for yourself, I would welcome you to choose to belong to Jesus. Jesus has also not only advocated for us, but taken our punishment on Himself so that we can belong to God and be His child. If you decide to accept His forgiveness and belong to Him, you too will have The One who knows God’s language, knows God’s country, and also knows what you need because He is living in you AND He is interceding on your behalf.

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

What Do You Do With Your Strength?*

 What do you do with your strength? As a kid, I looked forward to getting up on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons in my pajamas on the console TV while eating Sugar Smacks (wow, just wow, but that’s another conversation). I anticipated the mindless entertainment of a good, humorous Looney Tunes short. Mel Blanc was the man of a thousand voices and he voiced the cartoons in a way that seemed to perfectly match the characters. One that I remember was Ralph the Wolf (who looked strangely like Wylie Coyote) and Sam the Sheepdog. They would both greet each other pleasantly and punch their time card. Then "it was on!" Smart and savvy, Ralph would try to steal the unassuming and vulnerable sheep in some novel way, sometimes even dressing up like the sheep to get closer to them, but the then strong, protective Sam would catch him, disable the predator in some way, return the sheep to safety, and bring peace back to the flock.

We all have strengths. The important question is, “what do we do with our strengths?” Do we use them only for our own advantage, to exploit the weaknesses of others? Do we keep others down or do we use our strengths to protect and elevate others, bring peace, and help people thrive? It really depends on our identity and who we belong to… (to whom we belong, sorry English teachers). This world and its Evil Ruler say, “look out for number one,” you gotta look out for yourself because no one else is going to, its survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. Jesus says of the Evil One, he ONLY comes “to steal, kill and destroy.” But Jesus comes as a Shepherd, to love, save, protect, and help people thrive. So, If we belong to and identify with Jesus, we use our strengths to protect people, grow them, nurture them; we will have compassion for their weaknesses and love them well. However, if we belong to the Father of Lies, we will use our strengths to lie, cheat, and steal to take advantage of people and exploit their weaknesses for our own benefit, all while trying to appear "a good person," (i.e a wolf in sheep's clothing). Our society seems to value competitiveness over compassion most of the time.

When the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was reminding the early church of who they belonged to, and how it was like them to act. He said love was most important. Jesus had said that those who belonged to Him would be known by their love for one another and Paul was reminding the church of what that kind of love looks like. He says, love is not self-seeking, “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV) When we get scared or are provoked or we are feeling vulnerable, sometimes we forget who are and Who we belong to and we go back to self preservation mode. We act like Ralph, taking advantage of and harming the sheep. It is in our human nature to look for weakness, whether we realize it or not. It is innate in us, we can spot vulnerability it from a distance. It is what we do with our strength when we discover a weakness in someone else, that reveals our identity… are we going to be a “Ralph” or a “Sam”? Predator or Protector? Child of the Devil or Child of God?

Hang in there people! God is always glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!