Pay What You Can?

 

I just got home from the post office, with two pieces of mail for the church and one for me. The ones for church were the gas bill and the renewal for the license plates, on either the church car or van. I left those bills unopened, as they can go directly to our treasurer and I don’t have to know what precisely what we owe in those cases. There are some expenses I keep close track of but not either of those.

The mail addressed to me was also a bill. It was for the renewal of a magazine I subscribe to. I opened it up to see how much it was for. $48 for another year. I don’t recall what it was last time, when I may have renewed for two years, but $48 for another year sounded okay to me. But then I noticed the next line, which read “I’d like to renew my 1 year subscription and I can pay $____.” That got my attention. What was that about?

I unfolded the entire renewal notice and read of a special offer in recognition of their 30^th anniversary. A “Pay What You Can” special. Now that sounds interesting. Given that I put gas in the car on the way home from the post office the unexpected opportunity to save some money is, frankly, appealing. 

But in the offer there is that little word, ‘can’. The offer isn’t “pay what you want” but “pay what you can,” and I can afford to pay $48, and so I will. But the whole thing got me to thinking about the gospel and the good news of a healed relationship with God through faith in the saving work of the Lord Jesus. Someplace floating around in my head was the idea of eating and drinking without cost.

Google to the rescue, because it’s faster than a concordance. Isaiah 55:1 reads:

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Isaiah speaks to the people of his day and calls them to return to the Lord. But his words also look farther ahead in history and are fulfilled in the finished work of Christ.

Jesus offers what exactly we need. We need the forgiveness of our sins, so that we can be in a healed relationship with God. We desperately need this forgiveness, and Jesus is the only way.

If we attempted to “buy” forgiveness through our obedience to God’s law, we’d fail completely. If we attempted a trade, our good works to remove the bad, our efforts would be fruitless. If I had the combined wealth of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and gave that to the church I still wouldn’t have the slightest chance. The only way is to trust in what Jesus gave, His very life, for me, on the cross.

Salvation is not “pay what you can” but “trust in Jesus who paid what I could not.” And He has paid in full. Amen.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Maps

 

While I was out for a run this morning I looked ahead and saw a car, a large truck, and another car, all with flashing yellow lights on top as they headed towards town. It was a truck with an oversize load and two escort vehicles, one in front and one behind. I moved to the far side of the soft shoulder as they approached and then passed me. A minute later I turned around and headed back into town.

I turned left at the first intersection when I got to town and when I looked down the road I saw the escort cars and truck, about a half-mile away, stopped on the side of the road. As I drew closer they were beginning the process of getting turned around and as I continued my run I looked over to the US highway leaving town and saw them on it. My guess is that as they came into town they knew there was a left turn coming up and for unknown reasons turned at the first opportunity rather than the second. Instead of staying on the highway they took a road that looked similar but headed to a different destination. Perhaps they misread their map.

Maps are quite useful. We may have lived in a place many years and know all of the streets and locations within our community, so that we can get around just fine by memory. But when we go to places that are less familiar, or perhaps completely unknown to us, then a good map and the ability to understand and follow it become essential. And with the arrival of the smartphone having quick access to a good map is very easy.

In a similar manner there are many ways in which having something similar to a map is useful, and even essential, for guidance through life. We progressed through childhood and adolescence with guidance from our families, friends, schools, employers and the culture that we live in. And then as a we head off into life on our own we are free, for better and worse, to look at any given situation and make our own choices as to how to proceed. If your life has been like mine, and I don’t think mine has been particularly unique, there are choices you’ve made that were good and other times where you clearly took a wrong turn. A wrong turn that may have been evident right away, such as the oversize truck this morning, or may have only been clear over time, as that truck driver would have eventually figured out while traveling a road that looked right but really wasn’t.

I confess a bias at this point. The very best “map” that we can use to guide our life each and every day, is God’s word, revealed in the Bible. It is a good and perfect map, but must be used properly in order to be of benefit.

To open it at random and read whatever may be before your eyes may be helpful on rare occasions but is actually quite risky. There is an internet story that strings together several examples of this method that are humorous as they illustrate the hazard of this method.

To read it as someone who doesn’t really believe in God is also not recommended, as it won’t really make any sense. Reading it as an unbeliever may lead you to believe in God and trust in the Lord Jesus, but until that happens your reading will mostly be like road signs in a place where you don’t speak a word of the language. The words may be legible but the things they signify will be incomprehensible.

But to read the Bible as a believer, regularly and methodically, such as reading a particular book from beginning to end, will give you guidance for your life that will always prove to be correct. Read and consider what it is you are reading. Take time to observe what you read. Take time to think about what it might mean. Take time to understand how it might apply to your life. And do all of this prayerfully, asking God to give you understanding, and being willing to follow where He may be leading you. If you’ve never done this the Gospel of John is a great place to start, and to make things easy click on the link to one of many places you can find the Bible online.

Maps help get us to our destination, and there is no better map than the Bible.

 

Friends

 

My hiking boots are dusty. Really dusty. I last wore them when we went to Go Jii Ya. 

Go Jii Ya is a fall celebration on the reservation. It takes place at Stone Lake, about 20 miles south of town. It is an annual event that often draws Jicarilla Apaches living in other place back home for a few days. In August families begin working on their campsites, so that everything is ready on September 15th. 

The main event of Go Jii Ya is a footrace between the men of the two clans. Tradition holds that if the red clan wins then hunting will be good the following year. If the white clan wins then the next year will be good for crops and harvesting. 

The race itself is quite exciting to watch and there are also pre-race and post-race rituals that take place. Non-tribal members are not allowed to take pictures and we tell our friends that Go Jii Ya is much better experienced than described. Arrange your visit to take place on September 15^th and you’ll go home with memories you’ll never forget. After the race people return to their camps to eat, usually a variety of traditional foods, virtually all of it cooked over open fires. They eat, and then go visit other camps. 

Because of the pandemic Go Jii Ya was held in a much more limited and largely ceremonial fashion in 2020 and 2021. This year was the first more normal celebration in three years, and because we took our 2019 vacation in September it was our first time there in four years.

This year the grounds at Stone Lake were dusty. It was dusty watching the footrace, which lasted nearly 40 minutes. It was dusty during the post-race rituals, and it was dusty as we visited camps.

We usually camp during Go Jii Ya but the woman we used to camp with passed away during the pandemic. We saw her son during the race and accepted an invitation to eat at his camp. It takes some time after the race for food to be ready and so we wandered a bit and then headed in the direction the camp of an extended family within our church.

On the way we saw two women we know and haven't seen for a long time. "Come eat with us." We sat down for a bowl of cabbage soup, bread and melon. And good conversation, especially when the father of one of the women got to camp. He is truly a local legend, in the very best of ways, and I feel honored to hear him call me his friend.

Back to walking on the road to the top of the hill. We happened on the camp of a woman from our church and her sister. That woman is a dear friend of Robin. The food wasn't ready and after some conversation we set off for our original destination, the camp of an extended family within our congregation. 

It's a big family. Brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They aren't all connected to our church but they have always treated us very well and invited us to many family gatherings. We ate well and enjoyed spending time with friends. 

Then we wandered back towards the race track and ended our day at the camp where we had first been invited for a meal. The food was good but to sit and talk, face-to-face, for the first time in far too long, was the best part.

It was a good day, and bittersweet when we had to leave to take our sons to soccer. There were other camps I would have loved to drop in at just to visit. And truthfully, if I had the entire day I wouldn't have gotten to them all.

I've got a dusty pair of boots. And that dust, today, reminds me that of the many blessings of ministry on the reservation, perhaps the richest is in the many people who nine years were unknown to us, who were strangers, and are now dear friends. 

Cast Your Burden

One certain thing about pastoral ministry on the reservation is that it is not boring. There are many things that need to be done on a regular basis and have an element of consistency to them, such as planning worship and preparing to preach each week. Then there are things that happen less often but have an element of routine to them, such as meetings related to church business or shopping for things needed at church. And then there are the many things that could come up on any given day for which I can be both prepared for and unprepared at the same time. Broadly-speaking I would call these things pastoral care.

I keep a spreadsheet related to pastoral care. There is a page for each year and on that page I track the things I do in pastoral care. Date, person, and a very brief note as to what took place, including what scripture passage I may have used in praying with them. Pastoral care includes visits to the hospital, home and nursing home. It includes conversations with people ringing the parsonage doorbell. It includes counsel and prayer over the phone in the middle of the night. It includes a few other hard-to-label things as well.

This year has been a banner year for pastoral care. According to my spreadsheet I have had more instances of pastoral care so far this year than any year except for last year, and I’m on pace to break last year’s record in about one more month.

More significant than merely the number of contacts I’ve had this year, and last year too, is the nature of things that I have talked and prayed with people about. My predecessor here in Dulce mentored me over my first few months and he said that it would take five years before I had a true sense of this place and the people here, and them of me. Five years. I was skeptical, but he was right. 

In the last four days I’ve spent time with seven different people and in each case found myself talking and praying over things that I never would have been asked about or told of in those first years. And that is where the idea of being both prepared and unprepared comes in. I can rarely anticipate the particulars when someone rings the doorbell but I can seek the Lord each day and ask Him to give me wisdom and guidance as the day unfolds. I’m no one’s savior and I am not an unfailing source of wisdom or peace or strength or whatever else might be needed at any particular time. But I can be used by the Lord Jesus to point people to Him for all of those things, for whatever they might be in need of at the time. Psalm 55:22 says: 

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.”

In whatever you may be struggling with in life, seek the Lord, and know, on the promise of His word, that He will sustain you. Amen.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.