In this E-pistle

MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE
100 STRONG!
THE ANSWER, MY FRIEND…
I HOPE HE DOESN’T ROT IN HELL…

Make a joyful noise to the Lord the Psalmist exhorted the people of ancient Israel – and all those who worship and follow the Living God. This Sunday will mark the final time our Chancel Choir will lead us all in a joyful noise this 2005-2006 program year. Please be sure you are with us in worship for a magnificent anthem. The Chancel Choir is a rich resource for our church and we thank each member and Jungwha for the ways they have made our worship so meaningful. Thanks, too, to Graças, for the lively sound and joyful noise they add to our praise of God. Dave, Mark, Lisa, Susan, and Jungwha bring great gifts each time they sing! And by the way, both the Chancel Choir and Graças will gladly welcome new members when the new season begins in September. See Jungwha.

I’ve mentioned our own VBS and the youth mission trip to West Virginia. Add our Brazil Team members who will travel to Belo Horizonte in July to the list, and you come up with a group of Park people 100 strong who will be in the front lines of ministry this summer. Add all those behind the scenes people who so generously supply supplies and goodies, who prepare crafts and commit themselves to intentional prayer for our work, and you have a truly great cloud of witnesses testifying to the joy and the satisfaction found in that simple sentence, “Here I am, Lord. Use me!” It’s a great time to be at Park Church.

One of the tunes that is in the current cycle played from the courthouse carillon is the old Bob Dylan song, “Blowin’ in the Wind.” I hear the melody several times a week as I’m in and out of the church and think that there is surely some irony in the famous 60’s protest song being co-opted by the courthouse bell tower forty years later.

My children make fun of me when I mention the “reality defining songs” of the Me Generation and even sing a few bars (the things kids have to put up with), but, you know, despite their widely naïve innocence and the many not-so-good-things that came of the 60’s, people like Bob Dylan and songs like “Blowing in the Wind” raised some important questions that had been ignored for too long.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

The questions were important and needed – and still need – to be asked. But the answers are not just blowin’ in the wind. The answers, sometimes hard, sometimes elusive, sometimes confusing, are to be found and can be found in the Word of God as it bears witness to Jesus Christ in whom is found the yes to all of God’s promises (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Next time you’re near the courthouse and the chimes begin ask “How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?” ponder the question and know that there is an answer.

“The man was an animal and he deserved what he got. And may he rot in hell.” You’ve probably heard or read this quote from the brother of an English contractor taken hostage and then beheaded, possibly by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi himself. Read more about the story here.

From all we read al-Zarqawi was an animal and I, for one, am not willing to say he did not get what he deserved. Indeed, “all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) I also understand the relief that the families al-Zarqawi’s victims, non-Muslim and Muslim alike, feel at the news of his death. All that being said, Christians never hope for the damnation of anyone, never pray that any human person may rot it hell. Of course, there is moral accountability; there is judgment and there will be punishment. But there is also the gospel of radical grace. Our prayer and our hope is that no one would rot in hell, that all would be graciously forgiven in the redemptive love of God in Christ Jesus. If, like the thief on the cross, al-Zarqawi had come to faith in Christ even in his dying moments, he would be with Christ, “this day in paradise.”

How long until we know that too many people have died? Probably until Christ returns in glory, but in the meantime those of us who know that One died so all might live have a gospel to share – wherever we go, whatever we do, whoever we meet.

See you Sunday!