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July 2024 Newsletter
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Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations
www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2051″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
June 6 –
D-Day plus 80 Years
I was but a gleam in my father’s eye and an embryo in my mother’s womb when Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. This invasion would prove, along with the Russian push from the east, to be the end of Hitler’s “Third Reich” less than a year later.
The Allied invasion included 6939 ships and delivered 156,000 troops. An additional 23,400 troops parachuted over France.
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One of the parachutists was Lt. Col. Robert L. Wolverton, 29, from West Virginia. Hours before his battalion (3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne division) made its jump, Col. Wolverton addressed the 759 troops under his command and prayed with them.
Men, I am not a religious man and I don’t know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask His blessing in what we are about to do.
God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy.
We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.
We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right. O Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you.
After two minutes of silence, he ordered: “Move out!”
A few hours later Wolverton was killed by German machine gun fire as he hung with his chute tangled in an orchard tree outside of St. Come-du-Mont. Using him as target practice, the Germans put 162 bullet holes into him. Of the 15 parachutists who jumped from his plane, five were killed, seven were captured, and three fought on.
Though I was yet unborn on June 6, 1944, D-Day is an annual emotional experience for me. Veterans of this war who still survive* are now 100 years old, give or take. We need to keep the memory alive so that generations born after the war will appreciate the sacrifices made for their freedoms and not take these freedoms for granted or ignore them or, even worse, oppose them.
* NOTE: In 2023 there were 119,500 veterans of World War 2 still alive, less than 1% of the 16.4 million who served. (Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
In just two years we will celebrate, God willing, the 250th Anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. Will we live out its meaning?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
– The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
These compelling words about the values imbedded in the Declaration of Independence were delivered by David Boaz, long-time vice president of the Cato Institute, in his last official address before his passing on June 7, 2024:
For millennia, with few exceptions, the world was marked by despotism, slavery, hierarchy, rigid class privilege, and literally no increase in the standard of living over hundreds of years. And then, the Western world experienced the Enlightenment, a new perspective on the world based on reason, science, a belief in progress, and freedom.
And the ideas about freedom eventually came to be known as liberalism. Human rights, markets, property rights, religious toleration, the value of commerce, the dignity of the individual. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Peace, human flourishing.
That brought about what Deirdre McCloskey calls the Great Fact of human history, the enormous and unprecedented growth in living standards, starting around 1800 in the Western world. And these ideas spread to more aspects of society and more parts of the world. Europe and America to the rest of Europe, to Latin America, to parts of Asia…[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Back the Badge
“Blessed are those who
maintain justice.” – Psalm 106:3
Concluding My Chaplain Service
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”2054″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]After “Backing the Badge” for 22 years, 7 months as Chaplain for the Seal Beach Police Department, I retired from that role as my wife and I transitioned to our new home in Temecula, CA.
The police department and the City of Seal Beach were incredibly gracious in their appreciation acknowledgements. In May I was given opportunities to address members of the department at an awards breakfast, and the community and its leaders at a meeting of the City Council.
Here are selected comments I made at one or both of these gatherings:
“What led to my chaplaincy? First, I came across a scripture that would change the course of my ministry. Jeremiah 29:7 (my paraphrase) – ‘Seek the shalom (the well-being) of the city where I have placed you, and pray to the Lord in its behalf.’”
* * *
“Second, the board at my church made a recommendation that would change my life and refocus my ministry. ‘Don, you should find some avenue of service in the Seal Beach community.’ It was great advice. Pastors easily become insular. We already have a lot on our plates serving the needs of the church. So it was good to be told to look above the fence and see how you might serve the community around you.”
* * *
“When I did become chaplain, I often said that I’d know I had been accepted when two things happened: [1] the officers wouldn’t watch their language around me and [2] they wouldn’t spell ‘chaplain’ as if it were my last name and my first name was Charlie. ‘Chappy’ was how many officers came to greet me and I liked that.”
* * *
“An officer and I looked on the body of a man at an accident scene. The officer said to me, ‘You never get used to that.’ I’ve often thought, ‘That’s the way we must think.’ If we ever get used to it, we have lost a piece of our souls.”
* * *
“Police chaplains serve in several ways. But I think the most significant is responding to call-outs. The chaplain’s phone rings any hour of the day or night and away you go. What will I encounter and what should I say and do? Well, here’s a great word of encouragement to chaplains: ‘Yours is a ministry of presence.’ On the way to the location, I’d pray ‘The Prayer of St. Francis.’ Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace!”
* * *
“I’ve been at hospitals with parents whose little boy or girl just died. I’ve been to fiery accident scenes to comfort those who got out of the car in time but others didn’t. I’ve been to suicide scenes and to homes where a spouse awoke in the morning to find his or her partner deceased. And more.”
* * *
“I’ve prayed with police officers at their request, that they might have an extra measure of strength and grace to do whatever the job demanded.”
* * *
“The greatest challenge of all—the mass murders on 12 October 2011. Less than three months from my retirement as a church pastor the most traumatic event of my career unfolded. The stress, short-term and long term, on officers, dispatchers, and medical providers was beyond words. You were all doing God’s work. May he hold you up by his strong hand.”
* * *
“Don’t forget to support chaplains as they support you. When you debrief those who faced the traumas, debrief the chaplains. They may be emotionally out of gas. I would return home in the middle of the night after a traumatic situation and wake up my wife. She’s the best debriefer I could possibly have.”
* * *
“Our law enforcement officers are called on to do their best as they face a challenging and often evil and dangerous world. Our culture has been losing its spirit of civility and community values and its respect for authority. Your police officers are there to restrain and resist and possibly reverse this trend.”
* * *
“My prayer is that God would lead us all to ‘do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God.’”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”2055″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
“The Apostles’ Creed” (Part 6)
[I believe] He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand
of God the Father almighty.
From thence he shall come to judge
the living and the dead.
As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
– Acts 1:9-11 ESV
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
– The Apostle Peter’s Pentecost Sermon (Acts 2:32-36)
To my readers: if you recognize the painting above and can send me the name of the artist and the date, I’d appreciate it much! I looked at many depictions of the ascension, good and bad, and liked this one best.
I also looked at depictions of Jesus seated at the right hand of God. Perhaps I’m being legalistic, but I don’t like depictions of God the Father. Would he really look that old, like he’s “Father Time” in late December? Do the depictions violate the Second Commandment? The New Testament declares that Jesus himself is the proper depiction of the Father (John 14:9). He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3).
This Confessional portion of the Creed has three elements:
1) Jesus ascended into heaven.
6A – Jesus had a teaching ministry with his disciples before he ascended.
He taught about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:4-8). The disciples posed a question, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus gave a two-fold reply. Without challenging in any way the “restore the kingdom to Israel” part of the question, Jesus replied,
• The TIMING of the kingdom is not theirs to know. Given the amount of speculations by Christians in my lifetime and before, Jesus might as well have saved his breath. The timing and nature of “End Time Events” have often become topics of unhealthy speculation. So Jesus’ warning is unfortunately necessary and should be ever heeded.
• Instead of concern over TIMING, they should concern themselves with their upcoming TASK. Once the Holy Spirit comes upon them, these eye-witnesses to the ministry of Jesus shall testify to the Good News of Jesus starting from Jerusalem, extending through Judea and Samaria, and then throughout the world.
Important: Acts 1:8 is “time and place and personnel sensitive.” It is NOT a call for mission work by all generations to evangelize, beginning at home, then to their country, then to the whole world.
6B – Jesus ascended into Heaven before his disciples’ watchful eyes until a cloud hid him from their sight.
Luke’s account is powerful in its simplicity (Acts 1:9-11). Once the ascension commenced it soon became “cloud-concealed” and there is nothing more to be known or talked about. “Which way, how high, where?”
What they and all heaven-gazers in generations to come need to know is Jesus will return “in the same way” as he ascended. Nothing less than a visible, physical return to earth will satisfy this promise. Jesus doesn’t “return” when we die and go to heaven, or when the Spirit came at Pentecost, or at the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, or through the church’s words and ministries (in spite of these half-truth words in the great hymn Lead On, O King Eternal: “With deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes.”).
Just as the band of disciples watched his ascent with the naked eye until a cloud concealed him, so also “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him…and all the earth shall mourn because of him [due to the world’s evil ways]” – Revelation 1:7. More unanswerable questions come to mind, but this angelic word must suffice.
2) Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
6C – The Enthronement of Jesus in Heaven
Christians who observe Good Friday and Easter miss a chance to underscore vital Christian truth if they fail to observe Ascension Sunday. When we remember Jesus’ ascension we will also recall his enthronement at the Father’s right hand.
When Jesus ascended to heaven and took his seat at God’s right hand, it signaled the successful completion of his earthly priesthood ministry:
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… – Hebrews 1:3
Now at God the Father’s right hand, Jesus receives the honor that is properly his.The Apostle Paul explained Jesus’ exaltation this way:
God exalted him to the highest place
And gave him the name that is above every name,
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)
Jesus possesses the very name of God himself—the name above every name. When every knee is bowed before him and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord, the prophecy of Isaiah 45:23 is fulfilled, where Jehovah God says:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.”
Now his present heavenly priesthood ministry includes intercessory prayer before his Father in behalf of his followers (you might say, “He has God’s right ear.”). As our high priest, he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, having been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).
From his throne Jesus also sent the Holy Spirit to his awaiting disciples and upon his church ever more. This includes the impartation of spiritual gifts for the service and spiritual upbuilding of his church. This is what the apostles taught: “Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” (Peter on the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2:33) and ‘“To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men” (Paul in Ephesians 4:7-8).
Another thought on this point. In one unique instance Jesus arose from his seat and stood as the first Christian martyr gave his life for his Lord. Stephen testified before he died, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). I can’t dogmatically generalize this thought, but at least in this one case Jesus stood to welcome his faithful servant home!
6D – So, where is Jesus now?
Jesus “localized” is seated at the right hand of his Father. To that position he personally and bodily ascended. From that position he will, at the appointed hour, return personally and bodily to earth.
But Jesus has a “special presence” in certain ways:
• Where two or three (or more) are gathered in his name, there he is in their midst (Matthew 18:15-20), authenticating the church’s authority when it acts in his name. See the “disciplining presence” of Jesus with his church in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5.
• He is “with” his church always as she fulfills the Great Commission he gave her before his ascension (Matthew 28:16-20).
• Jesus has a Eucharistic presence when his church breaks the bread (“This is my body”) and drinks the cup (“This is my blood”). Rather than “tokens” or “symbols,” the Eucharistic bread and cup constitute a dynamic sharing together (koinonia) between believers and their Lord. Read Paul’s teaching on this dynamic encounter and how it contrasts with the dynamic encounter between demons and feast-goers at a pagan temple feast (1 Corinthians 10:14-22).
The time is long overdue for Christians to move from the “just symbols” notion of the bread and the cup at the Lord’s Table to recognizing this dynamic encounter between the church and her “really present” Lord.
3) Jesus will come from his throne in heaven to judge the living and the dead.
The version of the Creed that I recited weekly in church as a child said Jesus would judge “the quick and the dead.” And I was puzzled. The “quick?”
Here in California, pedestrians who would carelessly cross our busy streets are either “quick” or “dead.”
6E – In Jesus, God will judge all humanity.
I’m impressed that our Declaration of Independence not only refers to God as “Creator” but also as “Judge.” Humankind, male and female, are answerable to the God who made them in his image and who guided them by his laws and, ultimately, by the life and teachings of Jesus.
God will judge humanity through his Son Jesus—a delegated responsibility. At his sermon on “Mars Hill” the Apostle Paul said God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31). To speak of the “Judgment Seat of God” (Romans 14:10) or the “Judgment Seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10) is to say the same thing.
If naturalism dominates our thinking, we will regard any notion of final judgment as a relic of a superstitious, pre-scientific age. But science is ill prepared to call into question whether there is a Creator or Judge.
Biblical revelation in numerous places speaks of a final judgment. Christians will differ and dicker over specifics, but this much is clear: God will judge every person in fairness and justice for the deeds done while in our earthly bodies (Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 2:5-11; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Revelation 20:11-15).
6F – A word about “Living between the Two Advents”
The Kingdom of God was inaugurated in Jesus’ first coming. His enthronement in heaven displays his kingship over all things. We might call this inaugural phase of the Kingdom the “Kingdom in Mystery.”
The “Kingdom in Mystery” will someday yield to the “Manifest Kingdom.” The Second Coming of Jesus will usher it in. His return will be dramatic, powerful, decisive, transformative. The Lord Jesus will be “revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” See 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8; Revelation 1:7, 19:11-16, 22:12.
When the church prays, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are praying for the Manifest Kingdom of God to arrive.
During the present phase of God’s Kingdom, God governs “behind the scenes.”
The rule of God is extended through the ministries of the church (be it ever so flawed) and the church’s faithful teaching about Jesus—his life and words and ministries, his death, resurrection, ascension and return. The Holy Spirit empowers and enables the church to fulfill God’s call and purposes.
God’s rule is also extended through human governments that establish and encourage justice even, if necessary, by force (Romans 13:1-7).
During this Mystery Phase the church does not seek to establish the Kingdom of God through force or politics, but through witness and godly living. But certainly the church supports religious freedom and the societal implications of biblical morality. Now during the Kingdom in Mystery the church seeks and shows “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). When we sing, “With deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes,” we must have this phase of the Kingdom in mind.
Theologian Michael Horton describes the present nature of God’s Kingdom this way: ‘”The Kingdom of God is no longer identified with any geopolitical kingdom on earth. It is no longer the era of driving the nations out of God’s holy land but of living side by side with unbelievers in charity. …It is the hour of grace, not judgment” – Michael Horton, The Christian Faith.
Just think of the neighborly implications of the present kingdom!
Both Christians and secular people who yearn for a new era of tranquility and peace are wrong if they think this “Manifest Kingdom” or “Golden Age” is fully achievable now, though we may make incremental progress. Isaiah’s prophecy that “the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together “ (Isaiah 11:6) is not attainable in the present age. If you attempt to mix animals that way now, you will need a lot of lambs and goats and calves!
Likewise, world affairs require that we strive for peace but at the same time not be naïve toward the power of evil. A state governed by peace principles alone will see itself subjected to evil domination. It’s too soon to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
June 30, 2024 – Ninety years since Adolph Hitler got rid of many whom he perceived as threats to his power in a purge known as:
“The Night of the Long Knives”
Chancellor/dictator Adolph Hitler, at the urging of Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring, ordered executions to consolidate his power. The violence from June 30 through July 2, 1934 was directed against the paramilitary group known as “Brown Shirts,” which had supported Hitler’s rise to power but which was seen as a threat by the German military. Other political enemies of Hitler were also purged by execution, including Gustav Ritter von Kahr, a political leader in Bavaria who had suppressed Hitler’s Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.
This example of extra-legal suppression of political opposition was a foretaste of much worst to come.
www.donaldshoemakerministries.com
Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He has served as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001-2024). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.
His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity magna cum laude from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment.
Don and his wife Mary have been married for 58 years. They have two children and seven grandchildren, including a grandson-in-law. They recently moved to Temecula, California
© 2024 Donald P. Shoemaker
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