Brett Kavanaugh’s Name is Mud

John 9:25 – He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

Just over 150 years ago in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary set out for a night of theater. Part way through the third act John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln. He then jumped to the stage, breaking his leg.

After Booth shot the president at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, he made a run for Northern Virginia. One of his first stops was at the house of a doctor to set his broken leg. The doctor and his wife later told investigators that they didn’t know about the plans to kill the president.

Booth continued on to Virginia, where he was tracked down and killed by federal troops. The Dr. was arrested soon after and charged with being part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. He and the other defendants were brought to trial before a military commission less than a month after Lincoln’s death.

With little to no evidence, the Dr. was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Three years later, he was pardoned as a reward for treating yellow fever patients at the prison. But the taint of the conviction remained. And ever since, he and his descendants have sought to clear the name of Dr. Samuel Mudd.

Samuel Mudd has often been identified as the origin of the phrase “your name is Mud.”

The MUDD family has carried this stigma of having been connected to the assassination of one of our greatest presidents. Whether true or not, the point is that when someone says, “your name is MUD” it is saying that your name carries a stigma to it. Your identity is considered as dirty and foul as the brown sloppy mess that covers our boots during a rainy season. Not many people have a high opinion of mud. It is something all of us avoid if at all possible.

Current Mud – The politics of the Judge Kavanaugh nomination to the US Supreme Court controversy is an example of horrific mud-slinging based on little-to-no knowledge. Other than Kavanaugh and his accuser(s) I’m not sure anyone knows anything of the truth. At the end of all this we may never know and yet, true or not, Brett Cavanaugh will likely spend the rest of his life trying to wipe the mud from his name.

But, on one occasion Jesus used MUD to clear one whose name had become MUD. The account of this miracle caused me to consider the words we use to describe the reality of our spiritual state.

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“Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” —Matthew 11:3

(Continued from Blog Post of 9/11 – Excerpt from WHO IS THIS GUY? and What Have You Done with My Sweet Savior?)

In 1979, I had recently graduated college and landed my first corporate job. This entry position was with a Fortune 500 Company that took me from Connecticut to the West Coast working at their L.A. branch.

I only just recently realized that in the same year a young 18-year-old Hawaiian arrived across town at a small liberal arts college nestled in Northeast Los Angeles. Our paths likely never crossed, but who knows for sure? Perhaps our lives intersected in downtown L.A. or amongst the roller skaters of Venice Beach or in the Santa Monica surf, or at one of the amusement parks or ball parks?

Could I have possibly engaged this person described at the time as a cool, lean, black dude who liked listening to Hendrix, Earth, Wind & Fire and Billie Holiday? He was known in his dorm for his spot-on impression of Mick Jagger – perfecting the walk, the strut, the face. He wore silly hats, cocked to look cool. He was known to mix with the budding intellectuals and aspiring writers, party animals, surfer dudes as well as jocks. He was also known to have had a peculiar smoking style and smoked a cigarette the same way he smoked a joint.

I’m not throwing stones, because who I just described was any one of a number of kids I ran with in College. But, at that time, what if I had crossed paths with this young man? Would I (or any one of his peers) have ever in a million years given a moment’s thought that this person would eventually become the President of the United States? If I had run into young Barry Obama then, I’d think – No way!

All the Perfumes of Arabia

Growing up I was always known as a “good boy”. I had an innate desire to want to please people. Parents, friends, family, priests, nuns, teachers, coaches all liked the affable, friendly, hard-working, aim-to-please image that I carefully fostered. But, growing up I was doing a lot of the same things that other kids were getting in trouble for. Perhaps, I did it in moderation and was more skilled at hiding my darker side.

At some point, though, I had a growing awareness of this dichotomy in my life. Eventually, at the end of my High School career I used a cryptic quote for my Year Book picture. It was taken from Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

When the yearbook was published, I had teachers, guidance counselors and other students asking me what I was admitting to. What dark secret was I hiding? There was really no great secret, just the growing awareness of my own selfish sinfulness.

Later, in my pivotal year of 1979, an evangelist at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa challenged me by quoting Roman’s 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That truth was critical to me making the decision to commit my life to following Jesus.

What is the point of these two anecdotes? The point is, that it is hard to really ‘know’ people and certainly harder to ‘know’ who they will become.

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“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” Marky Mark 1:35

 

I hadn’t known a lot about Mark Wahlberg other than he was a Boy Band bad boy who liked to show off his underwear and actually did some jail time for battery. I’ve also seen some of his movies and my boys can do a great impersonation of him.

But, what I recently became aware of was that his life had changed. He is a practicing Catholic who also has a personal and deep relationship with Jesus Christ.

In recent interviews, Wahlberg has referred to his faith as the “anchor that supports everything I do.” In addition, he has said “my faith in God is what makes me a better man” and “it’s the most important part of my life.”

I just saw an article about his “Typical Daily Schedule”. It’s pretty shocking.

In addition to regular snacking, playing a round of golf in under 2 hours and an hour in Cryo Chamber Recovery, his schedule reveals some significant priorities in his life.

The most jarring item in his schedule is not even the fact that he wakes up at 2:30am, but the reason why he wakes up so early. Fifteen minutes after waking up, at 2:45am he nestles into ‘praying’ for a half hour! Wow! Who do you know that does that?

Hmmm. I remember someone in the Gospels who would do that regularly. Oh, yes! It was Jesus.

In Mark (Not Marky Mark) 1:35 it says, “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”

Wow, Mark Wahlberg is doing what Jesus did?

You can say, “Well, that’s Mark Wahlberg. He’s got tons of money and resources and can schedule himself any way he chooses. I don’t have that kind of flexibility. I have a long work day that begins early and I need my workout time and time with family and some personal time. I can’t do that.”

That’s true but a major part of that truth is that he can choose to schedule himself any way he wants and this is the schedule he makes for himself – making priority “1” his prayer time with God the Father. In order to do that, he skips the Hollywood pleasures and goes to bed early at 7:30pm when his kids go to bed. He then gets 7 hours of sleep before waking up like Jesus, rising a long while before daylight. This was Jesus’ precious time with his Father in intimate dialogue.

A number of years ago, the acronym WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) became popular. It is a great, challenging question we can use to guide us in our daily walk. But, I contend that a better directive and one that Mark Wahlberg practices is to DWJD (Do What Jesus Did)

If we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, then we might consider adopting some of his ways – some of his practices. That’s what the Disciples did. They followed their Rabbi – listening, watching, imitating Him. Paul later challenges us by writing, “Imitate me as I imitate Jesus.”

We don’t all have the flexibility of Mark Wahlberg but I know for myself there are routines that I have established that could be changed to accommodate more, regular time to spend with God. When I do it, I have experienced exponential growth in our relationship.

I would like to think that Mark Wahlberg sets his schedule as he does because of the joy and fulfillment it brings. He certainly schedules time with his family, time for golf, time for workouts and lots of snacking. I’m sure he enjoys all of that. I’m also sure that his dedication with spending time with his Heavenly Father as the first thing he does, he does because it is life-giving, not out of guilt or for doing some form of penance.

There is a group of guys I know that meet early every Saturday morning at 6am for prayer. Getting up early on Saturday is a challenge. But, they do it because they know God honors their sacrificial, willing hearts by showing up every time they meet – in big and small ways.

So, if you are challenged by this in any way, please don’t respond out of guilt, but consider scheduling time with The Father as a priority because of your desire to grow deeper and experience greater joy in your relationship with God – to get to know Him more fully! As the Apostle Peter encourages us “to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

So, today I pray,

“Father, give me the guidance, wisdom and strength to make time with you more of a priority. Strip away that fear of what I may be sacrificing. Replace it with confidence that those things I move around or even displace, that you are big enough to fill the gap and make me even more productive then I could ever be under my own schedule. I hand this day over to you. I’m pretty sure I know what I can do with this day – let’s see what you can do!”

(Excerpt from WHO IS THIS GUY? and What Have You Done with My Sweet Savior?)

“I couldn’t do that, could you do that? How can they do that? Who are those guys?” —Butch in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

“And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” —Matthew 21:10

In the 1890s the outlaws who went by the names Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid along with the Wild Bunch Gang moved from robbing banks to railroads, repeatedly robbing the same trains. The Railroad Owner E. H. Harriman had finally had enough. He sent a highly-trained posse out after them. Butch and Sundance were used to evading capture by easily outwitting any posse with clever tricks and diversions. But this posse was different—they kept coming. They were relentless, not falling for their tricks, tracking them through rivers and over rocks and even by torch light at night. In the film, Butch and Sundance periodically stopped to see if they’d lost them only to find that the posse was still hot on their trail. Butch and Sundance repeatedly asked each other the same question:

“Who are those guys?”

They asked each other this question because this posse was something very different from what they had experienced in the past. This posse was not just some sheriff and local townspeople—this posse had major skills, uniquely different from anything they had ever encountered before. These outlaws were confused by the uniqueness of this posse.

Have you ever found yourself with a group of people listening to someone speak, perhaps sitting in a classroom or business meeting or even in church, and you are confused? Yet, you look around and everyone else is nodding their heads in understanding. You say to yourself, I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m slow or maybe everyone else is just acting as though they understand, but it’s not clicking for me. What do I do? Well, maybe you’ll summon the courage to risk looking dumb and ask a question, but more than likely you’ll start nodding your head with the others.

I feel much the same way about some scriptures throughout the Bible. I’ll read a text and come to a part that at face value makes no sense to me. Many of the most challenging scriptures to me have to do with Jesus saying or doing something that just does not fit with my image of who Jesus is and how he would behave. But more often than not, when I come to those scriptures, I’ll read it, shake my head, and accept that it just might be above my understanding. So, I move on to those scriptures I’m more comfortable with, that I can understand, and are more consistent with my image of Jesus.

When I began to question Jesus’s behavior in these strange scriptures, I realized that it wasn’t the first time I questioned who this person Jesus really is. Back in 1979 I was invited to a Christian concert. At the end, the Gospel message was given and an invitation to “receive” Christ was extended. Something stirred within me as I recognized the truth in the words being spoken, but when I was challenged to step forward to commit my life to Jesus and to follow him for the rest of my life, this question came to me, Who is this guy Jesus? I don’t know him. Why would I commit my entire life at this moment to someone I don’t even know?

I grew up going to Catholic school and served as an altar boy, so I certainly knew of Jesus, but as I got older, I walked away from religion. At this concert, I was being told that it wasn’t about religion but about relationship—God coming down to restore a broken relationship with his creation. But did it really require me to commit to blindly following someone I didn’t even know?

Many know of Jesus. Some believe him to be God himself, come down as human flesh to die as the sacrifice for sin, to be raised from the dead so man’s relationship with God might be restored. Others believe him to be simply a good teacher, while many aren’t sure what to think.

But what is my image of Jesus? Who is this person who is supposed to be in an actual relationship with his followers, and as Jesus promised, would reside within each of them?

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“I removed his shoulder from the burden; His hands were freed from the baskets. You called in trouble, and I delivered you . . .” Psalm 81:6-7

“Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.” Psalm 6:2

Bruce T is a beloved and gifted member of our church staff. A while back he was involved in a 3-car accident while driving on Route 8. The driver of another car clipped his car causing him to lose control and flip over 3 times before landing back upright. His car was totaled with much of the glass blown out.

Fortunately, Bruce had his seat belt on. Obviously, he was shaken up and once he oriented himself, he got out of the car and stumbled to the side of the road, while checking for injury. He was sore in a number of places but could not detect any major injury. He then sat at the side of the road and waited for the police.

When the police arrived, they rushed to the car anticipating finding the car littered with seriously injured bodies. They looked over at Bruce just sitting there and assumed he was merely an onlooker. When they asked him if he knew where the passengers from the car were, he revealed that it was his car. They were a shocked to realize that he had survived an accident causing this kind of car damage, virtually unscathed.

Bruce eventually went to the hospital to get checked out but the emergency staff found no identifiable injuries. He did realize that his right shoulder was growing increasingly sore but they told him to go home and just take some Tylenol for the pain.

If the story were to end here, Bruce was already testifying to an amazing miracle of God’s divine protection over him. Look what was left of his car.

But, the story doesn’t end here.

Moving from the Natural to the Super-Natural

As days passed Bruce’s right shoulder became worse to the point that its mobility was restricted to about 50% of normal. Bruce went to the doctor who told him to continue to “flex it out” and after 3 months or so he will know the limits of how his shoulder would heal “naturally”. So, Bruce kept trying to stretch and flex it, but he could not move the elbow of his right arm to above the level of his shoulder. There was a lot of pain and it was restricting him in his work and sleep and regular life activities.

I Whiffed on the Softball

On a Sunday about a month after Bruce’s accident I was in a hurry to leave after the church service, being late for an appointment. Just as I was about to exit the front doors, I ran into Bruce. I had heard that he was in an accident but had not learned any details. Ready to bolt out the door, I asked how he was doing hoping for a quick, “Fine. I’m okay.” But, Bruce shared his story in detail. I was glad to hear it though I kept anxiously looking at my watch. When He finished, he told me of the pain and difficulty in his shoulder. I ‘generously’ shared with him how God had miraculously healed both of my damaged shoulders but I had to get going. Pushing through the door I gave him the obligatory, “I’ll pray for you.”

Jumping in my car and driving away I could feel the guilt and embarrassment well up in me. How could I just walk away from this “softball” of a healing moment to pray with a brother in pain and in need? I lifted up a brief prayer for Bruce but shook my head. I’m such a jerk!

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