With apologies to all you N.T. Wright fans, I think I like the idea of “a home on God’s celestial shore” from the old Gospel hymn, I’ll Fly Away. (Theologian N.T. Wright insists that we should avoid talking about “going to heaven” and think more about “heaven coming to earth.”  He has a point often over-made by his enthusiasts. Psalm 90, the Psalm of Moses, however, reminds us:
                The years of our life are seventy,
                                or even by reason of strength eighty;
                yet their span is but toil and trouble;
                                they are soon gone, and we fly away. Psalm 90:10 [ESV])
 
I’ve been thinking about when I come to die not because of any health problems or other concerns – I’m hoping to make at least eighty years of life by Moses’ reason of strength before I fly away. What has me pondering death is a disturbing article in the Wall Street Journal. Under the headline “Inside Putin’s $26 Billion Quest for Longevity,” the story tells how “Russian state scientists appointed by Putin have focused on two key technologies: bioprinting, or 3D-printing living tissue, and xenotransplantation, or growing human organs inside mini-pigs, a porcine breed deemed genetically compatible to humans.”
 
Putin’s idea is that we (he) can avoid or at least postpone death by trading in old and worn-out organs – hearts, livers, kidneys – with new ones spit out by our 3-D printers or grown inside some poor lab pig.    
 
Add the tech bros who want to upload our minds to the matrix, and we’ve got a problem.
 
Our problem is, and has been, death. It happens. Dictators and digital billionaires may try to cheat death or buy their way out of it, but death, the final enemy, cannot be defeated by high tech or lots of money. There is only one person who has overcome death and, amazingly, he invites us to share in his victory (1 Corinthians 15:57-58)
 
The Wall Street Journal article about human attempts to cheat death was disturbing. Much more reassuring have been the stories and interviews with former Senator Ben Sasse who is expected to die soon.  Diagnosed last fall with terminal pancreatic cancer, Sasse has turned to his Christian faith rather than high-tech hopes.
 
If you prefer video, I suggest this 60 Minutes interview from late April (start at the 31-minute mark). Readers might want to access this from The Dispatch.
 
In response to a question about fearing death, Sasse said, “I don’t really feel much fear. I believe the stuff I believe theologically, (so) I’m not afraid of death, but the dying part doesn’t sound very fun.”
 
As to why God has not answered the thousands of prayers for his healing, Sasse replied, “I wouldn’t want a sovereign God to defer to all of my prayers with a yes. I’m not omniscient. I don’t know what the weaving together of the tapestry of full redemption should look like, but I know going through the period of suffering that I’m going through is a benefit because it is a winnowing. I’m filled with dross. This suffering is not salvific, but it’s sanctifying, and I’m grateful for it.”
 
How do we find peace in the face of death as Ben Sasse has found? How do we avoid the desperation of Vladimir Putin, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos? 
 
 “I was blessed to be raised in the church and to be catechized, and always believed myself to be a sinner,” Ben Sasse says. “I’ve never, never doubted the need for a substitute for me.”
 
Believe what we believe. “You can have all this world but give me Jesus.”
 
When I die, Hallelujah, bye and bye, I’ll fly away.

Churchgoers of a certain age may feel a twinge of PTSD when they see a photo of an old Kodak Carousel slide projector. We remember the guest missionary setting up the screen and projector for the program after the potluck. And we remember our quick prayer, “Please not all three trays.”  But all three trays it was.

My apologies for loading the third tray of Brazil trip slides.

The photo in the header was taken in the woodshop of a friend in Brazil. He and his wife live not far from Igreja Presbiteriana and are faithful members of the church. The photo offers just a glimpse of the craftsmanship that emerges from this non-descript shop next to a non-descript house in a non-descript neighborhood.

Becky and I and Pastor Michael visited our friend and his workshop our last full day in Brazil. As we were admiring the beauty of his work, he told us a little bit of his story. His wife is an architect, but prior to the Covid pandemic, he had not yet settled into a satisfying vocation. His job as an Uber driver ended with the pandemic lockdowns. Forced to stay at home, he took up woodworking as a way to spend the time that was suddenly his to spend. Pastime became vocation. His vocation is now a growing business. Here is our friend’s business Instagram page if you would like to see more. Continue reading →

We are back from Brazil. The collage of photos is an incomplete chronicle of the trip, each photo telling a story – some of those stories are reminders of wonderful things in the past, and some point forward to relationships and works that may yet come.

Those reminders of the past are rooted in the many short-term mission trips to Brazil we were able to take over many years. Wonderful trips.

While the short-term missions phenomenon has not yet spent itself, it may not be as robust as it was prior to the pandemic. From the 1990s through the 2010s, short term trips were at the heart of many American churches’ mission outreach. Youth and adults alike would raise vast amouts of money, book passage to some foreign country and spend a week running a Vacation Bible School for the kids they found in the villages and towns of the foreign country, painting the building of their host church, or passing out evangelistic tracts to people whose language they did not speak. It felt so good to help those poor people, and feeling good is what American Christians are all about. Pastors would drop in for a week of training indigenous church planters and return home with a PowerPoint presentation for their sending congregation showcasing the amazing effectiveness of their teaching. Bragging rights never end. Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned our upcoming trip to Brazil a couple of times (here and here). Well, the time has come and we will be on our way in just a few days. We visited Brazil last fall, thinking it might be a last trip to see a place and a people so important to us. But now we are going again (one more time?). The occasion is the 30^th anniversary celebration for Igreja Presbiteriana no Jardim América, the congregation to which our lives have been so deeply bound for most of those thirty years. As I have said before, we were at IPJA for its 10^th anniversary and for its 20th anniversary. It seems right to be there for the 30^th.

The photo in the header is a view of the church’s community taken from the church and looking uphill towards Favela da Ventosa. I share the photo not to commend ourselves for helping poor or disadvantaged people, but as a reminder of a place dear to us and the home of friends who are a gift from God. Continue reading →

Becky and I are heading for Brazil in about twelve days’ time. More on the trip next week. We’re not quite at the suitcases-out stage of preparations, but both of us have to-do lists in our minds. One of the things I need to do is to call the bank and buy some Brazilian reias. The real (plural – reais) is Brazilian currency, and I should be able to buy about five reais for a dollar.

Brazil is a highly digitalized country, and we won’t need to use our reais often, but we are going to spend a few days near a small village, and we might want some paper currency in our pockets if we visit one of its shops or restaurants. A dollar may buy five reais, but the shopkeeper or the restaurant owner in Florestal won’t want our dollars and may not have internet access to process a credit card payment.

The currency in Brazil is the real, not the dollar – almighty as we may think it is. We call the process of exchanging one currency for another “conversion.” Hm. Continue reading →