Daniel J. Sparks

  • The pain is still there

    The death of an American soldier in combat is painful. The agony of loss is heart-wrenching. I’ve looked at the faces of the dead, those who were beside me talking only a few moments ago.

    I’ve looked in the faces of their friends; for some, friends for years: through basic training, AIT, and a first assignment together. These are friends who were in pain. Their grief was visible. Sometimes is came out in anger, sometimes in laughter, sometimes in tears, sometimes in rigid features that could not express the pain.

    I’ve looked in the faces of their family members: wives, parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and others. Sharing memories with them was an a privilege. Hearing their memories was an even greater privilege.

    Those men weren’t angels, but they are heroes. Cut down in the prime of life, they gave it all. None of them awakened thinking it would be a good day to die. Instead, they simply performed their duty, a duty that led them into harm’s way. They fulfilled their sworn duty with the full measure of their lives; they gave it all so I might live in peace.

    The pain is still there for the families and the buddies. Yes, my own pain is still there, too. In some sense, it is compounded by knowing that those families and friends bear the pain; I suppose this is a pastor’s calling–to grieve and to bear the grief of others.

    If you don’t know someone who gave his life for this country, ask me. I’ll tell you about these honorable men. They were my friends.

    In grateful memory of those men of my military flock who died fighting our nation’s enemies:

    • Elias Elias
    • Allen Jaynes
    • Michael Balsley
    • Alexander Fuller
    • Jay Martin
    • Alexander Funcheon
    • Brian Botello
    • Eric Snell
    • Mikeal Miller
    • Jason Fabrizi
    • Tyler Parten
    • Michael Scusa
    • Christopher Griffin
    • Stephan Mace
    • Brian Pedro
    • Nathan Carse
    • Alexander Povilaitis
    • Tristan Wade

    Comfort their families and their brothers in arms.

  • How to talk to veterans about war

    Wes Moore talks about his experiences in war and how to engage with veterans. He explains that the cliche “Thank you for your service” only addresses a small part of what a veteran has done, that a veteran’s service extends beyond a deployment.

  • Why veterans miss war

    Sebastian Junger talks about why veterans miss war after they come home. His presentation provides profound insight every veteran’s family members and friends should hear.

  • Small Church Music

    If you’re a small parish with few resources for church music, SmallChurchMusic.com is for you.

    Ways you can use this site:

    • If you don’t have an organist, download the accompaniment tracks to play for services.
    • If you need sheet music, download it here.
    • Find lyrics to hymns.
    • Cross reference hymns that share the same tune.

    Thanks to the hard work of recording, scanning, typing, and uploading done over many years, Mr. Clyde McLennan from Perth, Australia has given the church a vast treasury of musical resources.

    Music Resources for congregational and small group singing. Audio MP3 files, midi files, PDF scores and lyrics available.

  • Bishops R Us

    If you’ve never seen “Bishops R Us“, you’ve missed out on a real treat.

    • Are you hankering for a fast track to ordination?
    • Do you have urges to play dress up for church?
    • Do the trappings of the episcopate make you giddy?

    Then you should head over for a visit to “Bishops R Us” to get things done quickly. This is especially handy for those who want to start their own jurisdiction/denomination or give themselves titles that sound profound.

    Be sure to scroll down the page and click the link for those in a hurry!

  • Imprimis

    Imprimis is a monthly publication offered by Hillsdale College. It regularly features excerpts of addresses by notable speakers covering a variety of important current issues. Subscription is free, and the content is thought-provoking: well worth the few minutes it takes to read each issue.

  • On the responsibility of parents for their children before God

    Reflections on Ephesians 6:1-9.

    Some of the memories I have of childhood are from the primary Sunday school class. My mother was the teacher for most of what I can remember, though there were some other teachers in later years. I obviously benefited from what I was taught in those early classes, and I still draw on the knowledge that was imparted to me there.

    One of the unique things about my childhood Sunday school class, perhaps not so unique when compared with many other classes of the time, was the flannel board. Do you remember the flannel board? I’m not sure if they are still in use these days in our high tech world when we seem to prefer moving pictures over anything else, but the flannel board seemed high tech in the 70’s and 80’s, at least to a small child.

    It seemed a bit like magic how Moses and the entire Hebrew people could walk across the wilderness right in front of the class, passing through water without getting wet. Flannel board Jesus turned those water into wine before our eyes, and it was almost as miraculous as when the real Jesus did it. And, of course, in my little country Pentecostal church, we were pretty sure we could feel the heat from the paper tongues of fire that appeared on the disciples’ heads as they tarried in the upper room.

    Flannel boards and the like have their usefulness as tools for instruction. Yet, they can’t convey the fullness of the faith. Two-dimensional Jesus can’t really turn water into wine. Even though the fall of flannel board Eutychus from a third story window might help press home the image of how dangerous it is to sleep during the sermon, what I really learned wasn’t bound in the paper images of Bible characters. Instead, my learning was necessarily bound with my mother’s heart. My learning was tied with how my mother treated the Scriptures. She believed in them. She knew they were alive. These stories she told me weren’t from the Brothers Grimm collection. They were history; they were moral instruction; but they were also real–they are also real.

    Parents are entrusted by the Lord with a special responsibility for their children. The Lord gives parents children as a blessing, a blessing of great joy. In so giving, he requires the parents to care for their children, and not only physically and emotionally, but also spiritually. Parents bear responsibility for their children before God.

    Parents bear responsibility to teach children how not to be conformed to the world. We do this with structure and discipline. We do it with mercy and compassion. We do it with a firm but gentle hand. In teaching them, with both words and deeds, our goal is to help them have renewed minds, not minds that are shaped by the world, the flesh, and the devil. A parent’s example of life is his foremost tool in so shaping his children in the image of Christ.

    Does your example convey how sincerely you hold the faith? Doubtless it does, whether you intend it so or not. The Proverbs exhort us to disregard the fool because imitating him leads to folly. The Proverbs also exhort us to pay close attention to the fool so we will know what behavior not to imitate. All of us, living in the fallen world and tainted by sin, will continue to make mistakes, sometimes big mistakes. Yet, through confession and God’s forgiveness, we can still provide a worthwhile example to our children. When they see that we acknowledge our sins and are sincere in our repentance, they’ll understand all the more how we are sincere in our devotion. We can show them that it is only the fool who, having stumbled, goes on his way without dealing with the stumblingblock.

    What is our goal? Toward what end are we nurturing and teaching children? It is, of course, to teach them what is their “reasonable service”. We are to show them how to be living sacrifices: to be holy and acceptable to God. We teach them how to emulate Christ so that the Father in heaven might receive honor. We instruct them in righteousness, teaching them that we are not our own, but we belong to God; that we do not live and die to ourselves, but that we live and move and breathe because God himself wills it; that all we say and do in life is either honoring or dishonoring his holy name.

    We teach them that man does not come to God on his own terms. While the tenets of postmodernism suggests that man can create his own world, do his own thing, please himself, the worldview of the Christian mandates that we bring pleasure to the Lord. We are to teach them, to show them, to lead them, and to equip them so that, in the end, when they think and do for themselves, they may “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”.

    As the Lord does with his children, we are to gather these chicks under our wings, saying, “Come, ye children, and hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Psalm 34:11).

    Gathered around the kitchen table with her six children, my mother read to us the words of Scripture before sending us off to school each morning. I’ll probably forget many things about my early years, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget hearing the Psalms and the Proverbs and other passages of the Bible being read at that table. Sometimes, my mother read; at other times, she’d have us read. Sometimes, my mother would pray, and at other times, she’d have each of us offer a petition.

    Teaching children to read and meditate on the Scriptures and teaching them how to pray: these are duties of parents. In some moments, children are intrigued and inspired by what they hear; at other times, they may find it more difficult to concentrate and understand. At all times, they are observing us, learning from us. They will know if we believe, and because we believe, they may understand that what we teach is real and begin to take it for their own.

    May we teach and exhort our children, as St. Paul did with Timothy (2 Timothy 3:14-17),

    But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

  • Foundations of ethics

    “Ethics is the study of how humans ought to live as informed by the Bible and Christian convictions.” So wrote Stanley Grenz in his book The Moral Quest. This is the Christian view.

    Both the Christian and the secularist draw on the ideas of the Greek philosophers in understanding ethics. Western thinking on the subject has been significantly influenced by Plato and Aristotle. Their teaching centered largely on virtuous living. Traditional philosophy of ethics is based on reason. (more…)

  • The Pharisee and the publican

    This, then, is a terrible, fearsome lesson concerning the Pharisee who, uncondemned before the world, is damned because of his haughtiness and disdain for other people. For where such pride, as described in our text, is present, there forgiveness of sins cannot be. It was pride that precipitated the noblest angel out of heaven; and the most excellent people on earth, Adam and Eve, were driven from Paradise when they became proud and wanted to be like God…..

    Therefore, let everyone humble himself before God, be caring toward his neighbor and not despise him, serve and work faithfully to earn his living, eat and drink; let him take care not to become proud and puffed up, as he sees that he, too, has unclean hands. To these God gives his grace; but those who do not obey will be cast out. For God cannot endure pride, as Mary recounts in her hymn of praise, “He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts; he hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.”

    –Dr. Martin Luther on Luke 18:9-14, the Gospel passage for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

  • The Church is not in despair

    1 Peter 2:11-17.
    John 16:16-22.

    Accounting

    Last Monday being Tax Day, no doubt, you felt relief. Relief because you had already filed your tax return, because you mailed it off that day, or because you requested an extension for time to file. On the other hand, if you owed taxes with your return, perhaps you weren’t feeling relief so much as exasperation.

    April 15th, or thereabouts, is the day we’ve learned to dread every year. We either dread it because our bookkeeping is behind and we know it will be a monumental task to get it all together; or we dread it because we’re afraid to see the last number on the return: will it be positive or negative?

    We all know that this settling of accounts is coming around each year. The wise consider how their actions throughout the year will affect their tax liability. The foolish live in the moment, oblivious to how what they do now will impact their future.

    My work in accounting has shown me that the field is aptly named. Sometimes, there is a daily accounting of the financial situation; at other times, there is a monthly or quarterly accounting, and there is always the annual accounting that follows the close of the fiscal year. In working with a lot of small businesses, I’ve learned that one of the principle reasons businesses fail is a lack of accounting. That is, the business fails because the owner goes along thinking all is well when he really has no clue; he hasn’t examined the books well enough to know whether he’s actually turning a profit. This man is often found driving a Mercedes while living with his wife and children in his mother’s basement.

    How shall we live?

    In the reading from St. Peter’s epistle appointed for today, we see the apostle admonishing the followers of Christ. He describes how Christians should walk uprightly, bringing honor to the Lord. He exhorts believers to embrace the disciplines of the Christian faith. He does so by expounding the virtues of the Christian life, the demands of the Christian life, the necessary behavior of the man committed to the cause of Christ.

    We must abandon the works of evil. Those who are committed to the cause of Christ must forsake all that is of this world, all that is fleeting and ephemeral, all that is selfish and self-righteous, all this is opposed to the holiness of our Lord. Instead, we must embrace those things of Christ’s kingdom, that which is lasting and eternal, that which is selfless, and that which brings humility before the majesty of God.

    We do this by following the apostle’s direction found in this passage. We do that by obeying the Lord’s commandments. Instead of walking as the ungodly, who are vain, ignorant, and blind–“who have no compassion because they have been dulled by greed and lust and immorality”–let us be like Christ. We have heard the truth from him through nature, the Scriptures, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. Let us not join with those of reprobate character when they seek to fulfill the works of the flesh. Instead, let us forsake the corrupt conversations and lusts, and let us be made new in the likeness of God according to his righteousness.

    Having so received the Lord’s forgiveness, how do we uphold his commandments in the world? St. Peter tells us: be honest; obey the civil magistrate; honor everyone; show love to fellow believers; fear God; and honor the king. The reprobate has become callous to the things of God, but the Christian remains sensitive to the Lord’s will. The Christian, being driven by the Spirit, will be motivated to good deeds by the desire to honor the Lord. The man who recognizes God’s holiness will be desirous of good works because he wants to please the heavenly Father.

    Soon comes an accounting. Soon comes the reckoning. After the short balance of our lives is done, we see judgement.

    I think of the Babylonians, partying, oblivious to the consequences of their behavior before God. Though not invited, the Lord broke in on the party and wrote, with his hand, a message upon the wall. The idolater Belshazzar was called to give an account of his life. He was weighed in the balance and found wanting. That night, he was killed.

    Unlike Tax Day, which comes at a fixed time each year, we are sometimes called to account at odd times. Whether our reckonings in this life occur with regularity or infrequency, we shall all be weighed in the balance. The evil man, the man who brings a reproach to his Creator, will be found wanting. But let us, as followers of Christ, be found worthy of our calling. Let us be found honoring his name.

    We are not able to do so except by submission to his will and his Spirit. Our animation in good deeds comes from him. He has saved us by his grace and called us to good works, all for his glory.

    Headlines and Hope

    These are all top news headlines from the past few days. I thought of reading excerpts from a few of the articles, but the headlines are sufficiently descriptive of the content.

    This is a vastly evil world in which we live. Man’s sin has touched all the world. Those who put their trust in things of the world are filled with anxiety. Sometimes, the attitude of others can be infectious. If we soak up the dread of others, we too may become filled with feelings of hopelessness.

    Jesus knew that’s how his disciples would feel after he died. Thus he spoke those words we heard today from St. John’s Gospel. He told them that he’d soon go away, but that they would see him again. They didn’t understand his words. It must have been a bit like picking up a book in a foreign language for the first time: none of it makes sense. “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me.” Is this a riddle of some sort?

    Christ’s death left his disciples in despair. They all forsook him at his trial and crucifixion. They denied they even knew him. The One on whom all their hopes depended had been killed. He, knowing all things, knew that they would do this, and he warned them about it. But he also knew that they would come back to him, that, in the end, they would be faithful. In the moment of his death, they were overwhelmed with anxiety. In the moment of his resurrection, they were overwhelmed with his glory.

    Reading the headlines, we may feel a bit like the disciples when Jesus died. We are troubled by the things going on around the world, the things going on in Washington and Austin, the things going on in our neighborhoods. And we are often troubled by the things going on in our own homes. There is much to be concerned about, understandably. We are to discern the times and assess how we should live.

    Some have given up hope. They have determined that evil shall triumph in this world, that the future is certainly filled with the extermination of mankind, with endless calamity, with pain and misery that only ceases upon the death of all. They despair of this world. They have resigned themselves to simply biding their time here, treading water until the earth is destroyed.

    We are “strangers and pilgrims”, as Peter calls us. We are temporary visitors to this time and place. Yes, we eagerly await the Second Coming of Christ in glory and the consummation of all things. That yet more glorious day shall come.

    In the meantime, however, we are not men of misery. We are not proceeding to the scaffold. We do not lurch about as men having no hope. Even in the face of boundless uncertainty in the world today, we do not despair. We know the promise of the Lord and we know the ends of his mercy. We are not to sit idly on the platform, tickets in hand, waiting for appearance of the train that will take us to heavenly places.

    The work God has given us is to be done here. And we shall not please him if we are not engaged in his work. We may weep and lament while the world rejoices, but our sorrow shall be turned into joy.

    It is this message that we hear constantly from the Scriptures. Certainly we should be sober-minded, filled with an understanding of the world’s sinfulness and our own. But we do not despair. We are not filled with dismay at the misery of the world, at the injustice of the world, at the pain and agony inflicted by evil men.

    Do not look for a way out: our Lord has placed you here. He has placed you here to reflect his glory, even amidst the cesspool of wickedness of those around you. He has placed you here as a beacon to wayward ships, tossed about on the seas of skepticism, immorality, abuse, and faithlessness. He has placed you here as a witness of his gospel–that all men might return to their created purpose, that they might worship, that they should not fear his judgement.

    This was the promise of Christ to his disciples before his crucifixion, and it is the promise to all who follow him. He has not left us comfortless. We are not without hope. We are not defeated. The church is not in despair.

    Living Faithfully

    As Christians, we are not yet perfect. We must maintain humility before the Lord and continually plead for his forgiveness. We must daily repent of our wrongs, and we must daily seek to do and to promote the will of God.

    Let us remember that, one day, we shall all stand before the Lord in judgement. On that day, he shall require an account of all we have done. Will we be found faithful to his cause or will we be found as practitioners and enablers of unrighteousness? We must care for the things of God and care not for the spite or the ridicule of the world or our own flesh. If, in this finite and temporary world, we stand without compromise, we shall find comfort in the eternal things of God. It is only by being faithful to our Lord that we shall find true satisfaction.

    “A little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” We shall go to the Father also, and there shall we see him. For a while, in the church militant, we resist the world, the flesh, and the devil; in a little while, we shall join the church triumphant, having our robes washed clean in the blood of the Lamb.

    When the pain of delivery is over, a woman with child rejoices. She no longer remembers that pain, but she is delighted to hold the baby to her breast. So, too, shall our joy be in due season if we faint not. We endure here for a season; let us do so with diligence in the Lord’s work. We shall not please him in the glorious day of his appearing if we do not please him now.