The temptation was overwhelming. Jan and I were at the San Diego Municipal Docks on Shelter Island this week. It was good to see old friends and make new ones. I was able to help a new friend, William, a sailor from Alaska, repair one of his sails. We really hit it off and I discovered he was looking for two more crew members to help sail his beautiful 50 foot sailboat to the South Seas. As we put the repaired sail back up, William turned to me and asked, “Well, how about it? Can you and Jan break away for six months? You could fly home from Tahiti. I’m leaving in four days.” Sigh. Warm clear water, swaying palms and desert islands. Sigh.

As I write this column sitting in McDonald’s, reminder alarms are going off on my phone and messages are flooding in on my laptop. People are rushing to work balancing hot coffee, cell phones, and egg McMuffins. It’s a hectic world and I’m just as guilty as anyone of being distracted by it and I’m far too busy.

Sigh. Tahiti. Then it dawned on me, the same thing can be said about our spiritual lives. Jesus is inviting us to join him on a grand adventure – destination heaven! Life with a capital L! But I’m distracted, too busy. I make excuses for not putting God first. Someday maybe I’ll find time. Someday I’ll slow down and focus on spiritual matters – after the kids are gone, after I pay off the house, after I retire. Someday. Someday. Sigh.

“Today, if you hear his voice” the Hebrew writer exhorts us (Hebrews  chapters 3 and 4). Today if you hear his voice, enter the kingdom. Today if you hear his voice, start living, really living. Today is the day! Don’t wait! Don’t put it off. I’m going to do it. Will you join me? Please forward my mail to heaven. Let the adventure begin! (I’m still considering Tahiti.)

It seems the date of the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been a source of controversy almost from the beginning. There is no doubt that Jesus was crucified during the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate on Friday, the eve of the Passover, nearly 2,000 years ago. However the exact date of that Friday is a matter of controversy.

We know that Passover fell on the 15^th day of Nisan, but because the Jewish people followed a lunar calendar based on cycles of the new moon, the exact date is difficult to determine exactly. Pontius Pilate ruled from 26-36 A.D. so that narrows the date down to a decade. People have also used a chronology based on the life of the Apostle Paul to narrow the date down a bit more while others have appealed to astronomical models to determine when Jesus died. Since Matthew tells us there was an earthquake during the crucifixion, scientists are even analyzing the geologic record to find the date (although I have yet to find an earthquake fault with the day of the week inscribed on it). The two best dates based on all these facts are April 7^th, 30 A.D. or April 3^rd, 33 A.D. (I personally lean toward the earlier date, but certainty is nearly impossible to achieve.)

So when is Easter? Jesus was crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday, so rather than celebrate Easter on a fixed date, most Christians celebrate Easter on a fixed day: Sunday.

Even here there is division. The Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) decreed that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon (the Jewish Passover moon) following the March equinox. Once again, there is controversy because on most years the actual equinox falls on March 20^th, but for church purposes it was decreed the equinox is on March 21^st. Wait! It gets more complicated than that because we have to ask, “Which calendar do we use: the Julian calendar or the Gregorian calendar?” (The Gregorian calendar was adopted by Catholic countries in 1582 to ensure that Easter would fall in the right season.) Right now the two calendars are about 13 days apart. Generally speaking the Eastern Orthodox churches follow the Julian calendar while the western churches follow the Gregorian calendar, hence two different dates for the celebration of Easter.

Let’s add one more controversy: “What shall we call this holiday: Easter or Resurrection Sunday?” While most people connect Easter with the resurrection of Christ, the historical background of the name “Easter” seems rooted in a English pagan holiday for Eostre – a fertility goddess or perhaps the Babylonian goddess, Ishtar (thus bunnies and Easter eggs) .

Confused? Don’t be. The one thing we know for certain is Jesus really lived and really died and Christians celebrate his resurrection every Sunday not just one day a year, so celebrate every Sunday of the year!

I’ve heard a lot of talk lately about how we need to reach out to non-Christians. It seems everyone has an idea about a program or a method for evangelism – and that’s great, but I believe it should be easier than that. I’m not enthusiastic about learning what is the equivalent of a sanctified sales pitch. Perhaps we can learn a lesson from our car radio.

As you are driving down the road, you attention is arrested by a great tune. Something speaks to you. It captures your attention and then you begin to listen to the words so you can sing along. We should be like that. Our lives are the music. If we live them well, it gets people’s attention. They begin to observe and listen and perhaps even ask questions. They want to learn the words so they can sing along too.

If I was going to write my own program for teaching people how to share their faith, it would have three parts. The first is simple: smile. Try this experiment. Smile at a perfect stranger. Chances are they will smile back. Christians have a lot to smile about so how did we get such a sour-puss reputation? If thinking about what God has done for you doesn’t make you smile, please do us all a great favor and don’t tell anyone you’re a Christian! We need to talk!

The second point of my plan came from an avowed atheist, the magician Penn Jillette (the talking half of the team Penn and Teller). He made an excellent point in a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhG-tkQ_Q2w). If you really believe in life after death, you must really hate me not to tell me about it. Ouch! So why is it easier to go on spiritual safaris to share the gospel with perfect strangers and we can’t talk with the people we love? Don’t we want to see them with us in heaven?

My final point is closely related to the second. Perhaps we don’t share the good news with the people we love because we’re not sure what to say or we’re afraid we won’t know the answer to a question they might ask or perhaps we were taught it’s not polite to talk about religion or politics. The solution is honesty. Just share why you are a Christian: If there is a God – and I believe there are great reasons to believe there is – then it makes sense to listen to what he has to say. (You’re not one of those guys who is afraid to ask directions or read the instructions are you?) Honesty. If you don’t know, just say, “I don’t know – but let’s find out!” Honesty. Do you need to ask someone’s permission (just to be polite) before you push them out of the way of moving truck? So why is it impolite to talk to people about hope and love and the Abundant Life?

So start smiling! It’s the first step.

Danny Simpson of Ottawa, Canada made two tragic mistakes in 1990. Desperate for money, Simpson decided to rob a bank. He visited the bank every day for a week to plan his hold up and then the night before, Danny had dinner with his parents. While mom and dad were cleaning up the dishes, he slipped in to his parent’s bedroom and took the 45-caliber pistol from the drawer in the nightstand beside his father’s bed.

The next day, Simpson made off with two bags of cash worth over $6,000 from the bank. When the Mounties reviewed the surveillance tapes, they quickly identified Simpson as a “frequent visitor” and made the arrest. Danny Simpson made two big mistakes. First was robbing a bank and the second was using his father’s pistol. While Simpson stole $6,000 from the bank, his father’s pistol was a very rare 1918 .45-caliber Colt semi-automatic made by the Ross Rifle Company valued at over $100,000! The pistol went to a Canadian museum and Simpson went to jail.

As Christians we might desire the gifts someone else has: their respect, ability to teach, or sing, but God has given each one of us unique abilities (Romans 12:6-8) that make us special. What’s your gift?

People are fascinated with the end of the world and that fascination doesn’t just belong in the world of religion. Many “scientists” have erred just as poorly as the myriad of “gloom and doom prophets” who have plagued Christianity.

The appearance of a comet in the sky has repeatedly heralded the end of the world. For example, in April 1910 Halley’s comet reappeared. This was the first time scientists were able to perform a spectroscopic analysis on a comet and one of the substances discovered in the its tail was cyanogen, a toxic gas. French astronomer Camille Flammarion claimed that when the Earth passed through the comet’s tail on May 19^th, the gas “would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet.”^[1] You can imagine the panic than ensued! People bought up gas masks and “anti-comet” umbrellas and swallowed “anti-comet” pills!

Nine years later Albert Porta warned that the combined effects of a planetary conjunction on December 17, 1919 would destroy the world. History has a strange way of repeating itself. In 1974 two astrophysicists, John Gribben and Stephen Plagemann published a best seller, The Jupiter Effect, which warned about the effects of a similar nine-planet alignment on March 10, 1982.

Likewise San Diegans remember the Heaven’s Gate cult committed mass suicide here in March 1997. They believed a giant spaceship was hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet and would take them home if they freed themselves from their mortal shells.

So why are people so interested in the end of the world? It might be because the world seems so overwhelming that a little bit of knowledge feels like power – even if that knowledge means the end of everything. Alex Newton, author of Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, wonders if those who hope the world will end need a little excitement in their lives or secretly want society to start over.

Christians believe the world will come to an end and we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, but Jesus himself taught us not to obsess or worry or even try to predict the end. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only Father,” (Matthew 24:36).

Pelicans are funny looking birds. They have long thick bills with a pouch for catching fish beneath. As they dive for fish, they thrust their heads into the water at the last minute to catch their prey before their whole body follows it with an awkward crash into the sea. On the other hand, nothing is more magnificent than a flight of pelicans skimming together in close-packed formation inches above the waves with their fantastic wings barely moving. They are a familiar bird to most Southern Californians but did you know they were also an early symbol of Christianity?

Most people know the cross is a Christian symbol. Some know the same is true of the simple fish, but starting in the second century, the pelican also became a Christian symbol. They are common in stained glass windows and carved into massive cathedral doors. There is a line in the 12^th century hymn “Humbly we adore thee” that describes Christ as the “loving pelican divine.” Queen Elizabeth of England chose the pelican as her symbol and at the top of the title page of the very first King James Bible (1611) there is an etching of a pelican feeding her young. (See the illustration.)

We can understand the symbol of the cross – that’s where Jesus died. We understand the symbol of the lamb, since the gentle, sacrificial lamb often represents Christ in the Bible. What about the fish? The letters from the Greek word for fish (ichthus) represent the first letters of the phrase “Jesus Christ God’s Son and Savior,” but how did the pelican come to symbolize Christianity?

For the answer to that question we need to visit Alexandria, Egypt in the Second Century. A Christian author penned a book of morals for children. In it he described various animals, birds, plants and even stones. He would describe one of these and then its special attributes and encourage children to imitate them. The book is called the Physiology. It’s still available. (Although originally written in Greek, it’s been translated into Latin, Syriac, English and a host of other languages. See Amazon.com.) It’s richly decorated and was very, very popular.

So how does this relate to the pelican becoming a symbol of Christianity? Have you ever watched a pelican at rest? Her beak often lays on her breast and they characteristically rub it up and down. The Mediterranean pelican’s pouch is blood red during mating season. Thus the legend was born that a mother pelican, in times of famine, will pierce her breast and heroically feed her children on her own blood. As a result, the pelican came to symbolize the sacrifice of Jesus who gave his blood that we might live.

Procrustes was very friendly, but he may have been the worst host of all time. He invited all passersby on their way from Athens to Eleusis to stop and spend the night at his house. He even graciously offered them the use of his famous iron bed. There was only one problem: if the guest was too short, Procrustes would stretch them out until they fit his bed and if they were too long he would simply cut them down to size.

Of course there truly is no such thing as “one size fits all” in clothing or in congregations. Churches are such a diverse lot aren’t they? At my congregation, Canyon View, we have old and young, rich and poor, people with strings of degrees after their name and those without. We speak English, Spanish, Tagalog and Texan. We love spicy food and bland. Our diversity is our strength, but it can also become our greatest vulnerability. I truly fear those who would, like Procrustes, insist we all fit the same mould.

Think about the church in Corinth (chapter 1). Some people loved listening to Paul. He wasn’t a trained orator and often talked too long (ask Eutychus), but the depth of his understanding has never been equaled. On the otherhand, there were those who loved the “Eloquent Alexandrian” Apollos. Others were entranced by the sincerity and first-hand knowledge of Peter. How did they ever get along? It should come as no surprise that the Corinthians struggled in this area. What advice would you give them? I like this oft quoted maxim from Rupertus Meldenius (circa 1627):

“In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”

In truth tempered by love there is unity!

One of the oldest churches in Christendom is the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It is a UN World Heritage Site – the first in Palestine and Israel. Constantine the Great’s mother, Helen, was responsible for building it in 339 A.D. It was constructed over the traditional site of the birthplace of Jesus, a cave below the church.

If we were to climb down into the cave by the circular staircases on either side of the altar, we wouldn’t recognize the grotto below the church as a cave. Today it is hung with tapestries and lit with lamps. There is a simple altar and there on the floor, supposedly over the very spot of his birth, is a fourteen pointed silver star. While it is likely that Jesus was born in a cave (they were used as stables in those days), it is highly unlikely anyone would remember exactly which cave much less exactly which place in the cave was the exact location of the birth of a carpenter’s son almost 400 years earlier!

What is fascinating for Bible students is why they would choose a fourteen-pointed star to mark the place? Why not a six pointed star of David or even a five-pointed star of Solomon? If you’ve been following our suggested daily Bible reading plan for 2014 (copies are available in the foyer), last week you read Matthew chapter 1. Do you remember verse 17? At the conclusion of the genealogy of Jesus Matthew writes:

“So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.”

Thus the silver star has fourteen points, but even that raises more questions. Matthew was wrong! For the fourteen generations from Abraham to David, Matthew had to count both Abraham and David. The make the next group of fourteen generations, Matthew had to skip three kings and conflate Jehoiakim and Jechoniah. The last group had to include Jechoniah and Jesus to get fourteen but since it covers a period of 500 years, Matthew may have omitted a few people.

To our western way of thinking, the genealogy is wrong but Matthew wasn’t one of us. He wasn’t trying to give us an accurate genealogy at all. He was trying to emphasize Jesus is the Son of David. Ancient people used their alphabets to count with. (Do you remember Roman numerals from school?) So the Hebrew name for King David, dwd, has a numeric value: (d = 4) + (w = 6) + (d = 4) = the number 14!

Matthew is trying to emphasize to his Jewish readers: Jesus is the son of David (14), son of David (14), son of David (14). And now you know why there are fourteen points on the Star of Bethlehem.