Safe and Free

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
I hold in my hand a glossy DVD case embossed with a gently waving American flag. The flag frames a photo of a Chinook helicopter hovering in the sky. The title on the case reads, "Memorial Service, 21 February 2007, Fort Campbell, Kentucky . . . Bravo Company, 160th Special Operations, Airborne."

This DVD was given to me by the grandmother of one of the young men remembered in the memorial service. She is a fellow pilgrim in the journey with Jesus at the top of Poplar. I will always remember going to her house upon learning her grandson had been killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. There were no magic, preacherly words to say, to make everything better, just an offering of shared anguish and of tears.

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Thinking about Osama

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
I'm about to get myself in real trouble.

Osama bin Laden is the man we all love to hate and Lord knows, he deserves it. The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on our nation unleashed immeasurable suffering and loss for thousands of American families. Further, the political and economic consequences of his diabolical design continue to define our world in costly and terrible ways.

Still, when I see those video clips of that pathetic, graying old man hunched in front of his 14" color TV set with a remote in his hand--as though he still controlled the fate of men and of nations--I find something strange, ugly, and repellent welling up within me: pity. I can't help but feel pity that some mother's son turned into such a spectacle of shame, hatred, impotence, and utter isolation, which to me is a pretty good working definition of "hell."

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What Is It About You Preachers?

by Bob Setzer, Jr.

"So what is it about you preachers? Why is preaching so important to you?"

Someone asked me that after hearing how badly I missed being in the pulpit on Easter. Thankfully, I was where I needed to be that Sunday, by Bambi's side in the immediate aftermath of her mother's death. And I knew the First Baptist family could not be in better hands with Edd Rowell as our guest preacher.

Still for me, not preaching on Easter was a significant loss. Any preacher who doesn't long to be in the pulpit on Easter, passionately proclaiming “Christ is risen indeed!”, really needs to look for a new line of work.

"So what is it about you preachers? Why is preaching so important to you?" Hmm. Let me count the ways.

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In This World=Trouble

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
In John 16:33, Jesus proclaims, “In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” It is a promise we need in the wake of seeing the devastation and ruin wrought by recent killer tornadoes.

I saw some Google satellite pics that reveal before and after shots of the tornado-seared landscape in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The swath of utter destruction left by that black, billowing cloud packing 200 mph winds is hard to fathom. The loss of life and property is mind-numbing and heartbreaking. According to one report, there are nearly 400 people dead or missing in Tuscaloosa alone.

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A Grieving Good Friday

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
On Easter Sunday morning, I worshiped in Greensboro, North Carolina where Bambi's mother, Mrs. Lilly Wilson, passed away the Friday before. Certainly given the circumstances, I was profoundly grateful for the great Good News of Easter that Christ robbed death of its prey. But I sorely missed being with God's people at the top of Poplar, rubbing shoulders with beloved fellow pilgrims, soaking up the beauty of stained-glass light, and thrilling to the music of the best choir this side of heaven.

I was thankful my friend Edd Rowell was available to fill the pulpit with his usual wit, wisdom, and passionate faith. And I was grateful for staff colleagues and others who urged me to stay by Bambi's side in North Carolina rather than rush back to Macon to preach. Still, for any preacher who loves his or her craft, being out of the pulpit on Easter is a trying ordeal.

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Holy Week

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
As this column is being written, the church is in the midst of Holy Week. But though the dark shadows of Good Friday yet loom, there is no doubting how the story will end. On Easter Sunday, Jesus will rise with the dawn to vanquish the darkness of sin and death, so on that blessed day we will gather to sing and shout our Alleluias.

The journey of Lent--the forty days preceding Easter--is a time to enter more deeply into Jesus’ suffering and passion.  During Lent, we revisit Jesus’ challenge to Jerusalem--and us--as he unmasks our hypocrisy, pride, and willful blindness. Seeing the escalating tension, we feel the tightness in our stomachs as the story rushes toward it terrible climax. On Palm Sunday, we leave the top of Poplar with heavy hearts. As one child told his mother, tears streaming down his cheeks, “They killed Jesus again!”

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Competing Processionals

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
In their short but masterful work, The Last Week, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan imagine two processions entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

The first was a peasant band, cheering wildly, as their champion rode into town for the Passover festival. John’s Gospel tells us the adoring crowds cut down palm fronds to make a carpet for their advancing king (John 12:3) The crowds cried, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!” (Mark 11:9-10). The object of their affection sat astride his donkey, gaze fixed ahead, stoic and silent. As his admirers would soon learn,  he was indeed a king, but not the king they wanted or expected.

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