The Easter Hymn

(dated 2nd-3rd century AD)

Christ is risen, Hell is in ruins.
Christ is risen: the demons are fallen. Christ is risen: the angels rejoice.
Christ is risen: the tombs are empty. Christ is risen from the dead indeed,
the first among those who have fallen asleep.
Glory and power are his forever and ever. Amen.

Charles W. Colson (1931-2012)

From Ruthless Power Player in the Nixon White House to
Born-again Christian, from Felon in Prison to Founder of Prison Fellowship and a Major Contributor to Christian Thought till he collapsed giving a speech on March 30, 2012.

April 21 marks the 10th Anniversary of Charles Colson’s death.
The column below was published in The Los Angeles Daily News and other newspapers affiliated with the Southern California News Group.

Donald P. Shoemaker:
Watergate’s Charles Colson transformed lives and ideas

By DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: April 24, 2012

“If this is to be a government of laws and not of men then those men entrusted with enforcing the laws must be held to account for the natural consequences of their own actions. Not only is it morally right that I plead to this charge but I fervently hope that this case will serve to prevent similar abuses in the future.”
So said soon-to-be prisoner 23227, aka Charles W. Colson, at Alabama’s Maxwell Correctional Facility in 1974. Special counsel to the president and hatchet man for the Nixon administration, he loved to hear Mr. Nixon say, “Chuck can get it done.” Time Magazine reported in 1974 that “Of all the assorted characters in the sordid Watergate cast, Charles Colson was widely viewed in Washington as the wiliest, the slickest operator.”

Between his departure from the White House and his guilty plea for obstruction of justice, Mr. Colson experienced a dramatic conversion to Christianity. Sparked by his friend, Raytheon President Tom Phillips, and C.S. Lewis’ book “Mere Christianity,” Colson turned the page in his collapsing life on August 12, 1973 as he sat in his car that night and, by his own account, cried like a baby.

Colson emerged from prison determined to speak out for prison reform and oppose the incarceration of nonviolent offenders who instead should re-enter society productively and pay restitution for their wrong. He established Prison Fellowship, now a worldwide ministry to prisoners.

Each Christmas season, Prison Fellowship’s “Project Angel Tree” provides gifts to children of prisoners. He ministered in prisons every Easter Sunday for the 34 years before his sudden illness this Easter season that led to his death on Saturday. Colson would lead this ministry for almost 40 years and spin off other projects such as, in 2009, The Colson Center for researching and promoting a Christian worldview.

Colson was often identified with the religious right and has been described as its last prominent spokesman. True, he did embrace many of the religious right’s agenda items, but he also stood apart in significant ways.

One was his refusal to embrace the call to elect “godly Christian leaders.”
He knew the proclivity to both good and evil in politics. Sometimes we must vote for the lesser of two evils.

He warned, “We made a big mistake in the ’80s by politicizing the Gospel. We ought to be engaged in politics, we ought to be good citizens, we ought to care about justice. But we have to be careful not to get into partisan alignment.”

In 2011 he declared that the war in Afghanistan had long ceased to be a “just war” by the classical definitions. He reasoned that “nation-building” failed the “just cause” test and the conflict did not have the reasonable likelihood of success.

On illegal immigration, he upheld the rule of law against both those in the country illegally and those who employed them. But he also laid down the challenge: “Christians must work to see that the immigration debate generates light instead of heat. We must insist that the illegal-immigration issue be addressed without treating millions of Americans, many of whom have died protecting our country, as a kind of fifth column. That is the very least we can do if we are obedient to God’s command to welcome strangers.”

Colson possessed a brilliant legal mind and spoke accordingly. Evangelical Christianity benefited greatly from this outsider who challenged our patterns. His perceptive, nuanced weighing of the issues should make us all more reflective. He mentored a generation of Christian leaders and workers and, in the opinion of this writer, was their best contemporary model for thoughtfulness and good deeds.

Donald P. Shoemaker is pastor emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach.

Charles Colson’s Final Speech
March 30, 2012 – Charles Colson fell ill during his speech at the Wilberforce Weekend Conference hosted by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
I happen to be one of those who believes that societies are changed by movements at the grassroots . . . So it comes right back to us. Look in the mirror, that’s where the problem is. And if we can, through the church, renew the church to really bring a healthy cultural influence, then there’s some hope that we can be changed.
This is a moment when the time is right for a movement of God’s people under the power of the Holy Spirit to begin to impact the culture we live in. Desperately needed . . .

Worship: Who and What and When and Why and How
– 3rd Essay on Worship for 2022

“Let My People Go!”
The Word of the Lord through Moses to the ruler of Egypt

God wanted his enslaved children released, and this phrase has been a powerful challenge against human oppression everywhere, anytime. Good!

But the phrase is fundamentally a “Call to Worship” (literally, a call to be released for worship). It was not an emancipation call, but would lead to that.

This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (Exodus 9:13 NIV)
“Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.” (Exodus 5:1)

So, who is worshipped and who are the worshippers? Worship is foremost an encounter between God and his spiritual children—those who have willingly come to give honor to God and receive his gracious blessings. Not everyone worships or even cares to. And certainly not everything should be worshipped (unlike pantheism). The God who created all things, who is the Father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose Son we know as our Lord and Savior—this God we worship. And we worship him exclusively (Luke 4:8; see Commandments I, II, III in “Bible Insight” below).

“Worship” is the response of adoration that men and women make to God their Creator and Redeemer, whether through ceremony and song, through Word and teaching, through nature, or through human life—work and play, activity and rest, creativity and character.

Worship can be a formal activity (scheduled, planned, gathered) as well as a constant personal activity (anytime, unscripted, alone or with others).
Even “small acts” should be worship: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). So we sing:

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Up to this point I’ve covered the “Who” (God and his spiritual children) and “What” of worship and touched on “When.” Here’s more about “When.”

True, we worship God throughout his creation.

When I look down from rocky mountain grandeur,
And see the brook and feel the gentle breeze.
Then sings my soul, my savior God, to Thee,
“How great Thou art! How great Thou art!”

As a hiker, I love to sing those words. I even tried it once with a group of men as we arrived at the top of a 10,834’ peak. (Lesson learned: high-altitude singing by panting men not recommended!)

But there also must be a special time and place for worship—the gathering of believers. Scripture is so emphatic on this: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another” (Hebrews 10:25).

Call it “church” or call it something else if that word isn’t trendy enough for you. The early Christians regularly met for worship (likely on the Sabbath or, for Gentile believers, more and more on Sundays—Acts 20:7).

From Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians we learn that the verb “come together” (sunerchomai) was practically a technical term for worship gatherings. During those times, the Christians would sing, pray, eat, observe Communion, use their spiritual gifts to serve one another, hear Scripture read and explained, and more (1 Corinthians 11:17-34; 12-14; also Acts 2:41-44; 4:31; 20:7-8).

Paul is often correcting abuses in 1 Corinthians 11-14, so our task is to construct positive worship principles from both his exhortations and his criticisms. One key principle: we are to approach worship not for what we can gain but for what we can give. “All…must be done for the strengthening of the church” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Gathered worship is not for self-edification but for the upbuilding of all. The question is not, “Did it serve my needs?” Rather, “Did I serve the needs of others?”
Why do we worship? Because God is great and God is good. Hence, God is worthy of our worship (Psalm 107:1; 148:13).

Worship the Lord with gladness;
Come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his.
Give thanks to him and praise his name,
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever. (from Psalm 100)

Worship is a key avenue for expressing love for God with all our hearts. Worship is also a key step in our becoming more like God in our love for others. Loving God and loving others are the “Two Great Commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40) and worship will enhance our obedience to both.

Finally, a word on the “How” of worship. Much of my Christian upbringing and training put a great emphasis on the intellectual side of worship. The Sermon was the central feature of worship—all else seemed secondary. But such worship is unbalanced. We are more than our minds. At least two other features of our reality should be engaged in worship: (1) our bodies and (2) our emotions. Without all three, our worship is truncated.

Our bodies are to honor the Lord always (1 Cor. 6:19), especially in worship. So in bodily worship we sing with our lips and vocal chords, clap our hands, lift our hands, use our fingers to give money—even dance to the Lord (if you know how!). We play instruments (if you can!) skillfully with a loud noise.

All of this involves our bodies and draws on our emotions. Worship shouldn’t be rich in mind but poor in body. Nor with our emotions on and the mind off. All my career I have prayed and worked for balance, and often I have found it.

Thus, all my gladsome way along, I sing aloud Thy praises,
That men may hear the grateful song my voice unwearied raises,
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart. Both soul and body bear your part.
To God all praise and glory! – Johann Schutz (1675)

Next month: “The Psalms—The First Christian Hymnbook”
Please continue with me in this pilgrimage!
“A republic, if you can keep it.” – Ben Franklin (1787)

“Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried.”
– Winston Churchill (1947)

“Au-TOC-ra-cy” – A form of government in which a country is ruled by a person or group with total power.

What If I Dreamed about Creating an Autocracy?

I’d concentrate power in the Executive Branch.
• Govern by executive orders every way I can.
• Take advantage of real or imagined “Emergencies” to expand my authority. Gov. Newsom (CA), who has used emergency power for two years to issue over 500 edicts and no-bid contracts, would be my model.
• Eliminate term limits for myself if I can get it passed.
• Have the military advance executive goals, not just defend the country.

I’d minimize the authority of the Legislative Branch.
• Reduce authentic legislative debate—push legislation through.
• Have it yield as much authority as possible to the Executive Branch.

I’d end the Judicial Branch’s independence and make it subservient.
• Pack the court until a majority supports the Executive Branch.
• Subject its decision to approval or rejection by the Executive Branch.

I’d dilute the protections of the First Amendment that allow contrary voices to raise moral, practical, legal and political objections to my rule.
• Freedom of the Press and of Speech (especially in academia) must be curtailed. Prohibitions on “Hate Speech” must be expanded.
• Freedom to Assemble peacefully in opposition to autocracy must stop.
• Use Covid as a reason to restrict Freedom of Assembly and of Religion.
• Very important: Freedom of Religion must be minimized to little more than the right to believe what you want, but not act on it.

If I achieved these, I could rule as an autocrat. Benevolently, of course!