Month: January 2018

A Pop Can More Precious Than Gold

You’ve heard the saying, “You can’t take it with you!” meaning you can’t take anything earthly with you to heaven. Well, there was a rich old miser who showed up at the gates of heaven with a suitcase full of gold. When Peter saw it, the apostle laughed and shook his head and wondered aloud, “Why did you bring a sack full of paving stones with you?” (The streets of heaven are paved with gold. Get it?)

In the 19th century the complexities of refining aluminum ore made the metal more precious than gold or silver. In fact, Napoleon III, the first President of the French Republic, served his state dinners on aluminum plates. Rank-and-file guests were only served on dishes made with gold or silver!

It’s a little known fact that the Washington Monument is topped with a pyramid 9 inches high by 5.6 inches square of pure aluminum. At the time (1884) aluminum was a precious metal and many didn’t even believe they could cast the capstone from the stuff. The pyramid was to cost a phenomenal $75, but the final bill came to a whopping $225. (Remember those were 1884 dollars!) Before being placed atop the monument, the capstone was put on public display at Tiffany’s in New York City where visitors could step over it so they could all boast they had “stepped over the top of the Washington Monument.”

The problem with aluminum was how to extract the metal from its ore. Heat extracts iron, but not aluminum. Finally, in the 1820s, a German chemist was able to extract a few precious flakes and people fell in love with the shiny silver metal. In the mid-1800s, ingots sold for $550 per pound! The French government proudly displayed bars of aluminum alongside their crown jewels.

However, shortly after the Washington Monument was capped, scientists discovered a very inexpensive way of extracting aluminum from aluminum ore, the most common metal in the earth’s crust. In 1888 Alcoa managed to produce almost 50 pounds of the metal a day. Twenty years later production soared to 88,000 pounds per day! The price dropped from $550 per pound to 25 cents per pound (1850 prices). Today aluminum can be found everywhere from pop cans to baseball bats.

On the spiritual side, I worry about how people value grace. The precious blood of Jesus takes away our sins. Grace reconciles us to God. What could be more valuable? But, perhaps, because grace is available to all, we don’t value God’s gift the way we should. Just because it is free doesn’t mean it is cheap!

The Fashionable Sloth

Yawn.

One of the most memorable characters from the book of Proverbs is the “sluggard.” He is a lazy man. He can’t leave his house because “the sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!’”

“As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.”

“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth,” (Proverbs 26:13-16).

The sages of the middle-ages called sloth “the first deadly sin.” Sloth, in modern vernacular, means “laziness.” We might think of laziness as a weakness or common fault, but would we call it a sin? (See Proverbs 6:6-11.)

There are two categories of sin: sins of commission and sins of omission, the failure to act. Think about the parable of the Good Samaritan.

My first observation is that laziness doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of activity. Heaven knows we’re packing more and more into already too busy lives, but is it purposeful activity? Are we moving towards a goal or are we just bouncing off the walls? Do we believe it because we’ve heard something so often we accept it as truth or do we believe (and behave) because we have discovered a precious truth?

Second, sloth prevents us from escaping lazy preoccupations and paying attention to the things that have eternal significance. For example, for the lazy of the world, love is something that “just happens.” We “fall in love” and we “fall out of love.” Marriages are based on phileo (friendship love) or eros (erotic love) with the result when the attraction is over, so is the relationship.

Christian lovers are attracted to each other and they are friends with each other, but marriage is based on agape (a love that is controlled by the will). Agape can never be lazy. It is proactive and involved. It works. It builds. It does. Therefore, if love is something we should do, then lazy people, who are unwilling to put forth the effort to love, should be justly condemned!

Let’s look at another example. Unfortunately, many Christians have just enough gospel to make them miserable, but not enough to make them joyful. They know enough about the biblical message to keep them from doing those things the world is tempting them to do; but they do not have enough of a commitment to God to do those things through which they might experience the fullness of His joy! I am convinced more people will be condemned at the Judgment because of sins of omission than commission.

Tony Campolo wrote, “Sloth deadens, but the Spirit gives life. Sloth thrives on feelings of inferiority, but the Spirit gives us the assurance that we are the children of God. Sloth is self-centered, but the Spirit creates a burning desire to change the world. Sloth leaves us bored and empty, but in the Spirit we find the fullness of God’s joy.”

What’s the Diagnosis?

Once there was a very uncomfortable man so he went to the doctor to find out what his problem was. “What are the symptoms?” the doctor asked.

“My eyes bug out and my ears are ringing.”

So the doctor examined him carefully, drew blood and announced, “Your tonsils need to come out,” and so they did, but the problem persisted. The poor man went to see another doctor.

“You poor man! Clearly your teeth are the issue,” so the he went to the dentist and had all his teeth pulled out. Alas, the problem continued so he called in a specialist who gently told him, “I’m sorry but you only have six months to live.”

Shocked, the man decided to live life to the fullest. He traveled around the world spending his life savings. Finally, after five months of extravagant living, the man went to a tailor to be fitted for the suit he would be buried in.

The tailor announced, “34 inch sleeve. 16 inch neck.”

“That can’t be right,” the man objected. “I wear a 15 inch collar.”

“Well,” the little tailor said, “if you wear a 15 inch collar, your eyes will bug out and your ears will ring.”

Why do we try to make things so complicated? We buy computers that could run the space program when all we really want to do is check our email or balance a bank statement. We buy cell phones with features we will never use to impress people we don’t really like and have you looked at baby strollers lately? There is a place for your latte (and a cup-holder for junior’s), a place to plug in your iPhone, stow the baby bag (and all the gadgets that come with that), sunshades, air bags, air conditioning and a place to put the baby complete with enough straps and snaps to ensure you will never get anywhere on time.

Church can be the same way. We can become so concerned about the fine points of theology, the nuances of grammar, the implications of archaeology and the opinion of everyone else that we forget what it’s really all about.

Why does it have to be so complicated? I just want to be a Christian! So let’s put down the laptop, turn off the cell phone, unplug the iPhone and take a deep breath. Didn’t that feel good? Go ahead – take another. Now sit quietly for a moment and smile.