Humility: Trading Status for Glory

Years ago I was part of a puppet show done for neighborhood kids at a church. For one show, a good friend of mine, Scott Homesly, was playing the part of the "tax collector" who, when he prayed, "would not even look up to heaven, but would beat his breast and pray, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'" Scott's puppet character would slowly beat his breast with his chubby little cloth hands and bow his head with obvious shame, creating a perfect visual of what it means to be humble. I think of this visual every time that I read Luke's account of Jesus parable.

Jesus ends his parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee by saying that God justifies and exalts the one who is humble. From this parable, I think that we can understand that humility means acknowledging our sinfulness, our need of God and our complete lack of judgment of others. The tax collector prays away from the others because he considers himself unworthy to be around them. It is God's business to judge them for hypocrisy, not his. He is so aware of his own shortcomings that he has no time, place, nor inclination to consider theirs.

I do not believe that God wants the focal point of our lives to be our own sinfulness. Our focal point should be thankfulness for the goodness and greatness of God that is shown daily in his love and mercy. At some point, to focus on our own wretchedness becomes a selfish act and even denies the all-sufficiency of God. But just the same, humility is key to our relationship with God. Isn't it great to know that the key for us is not how much we love others, how well we serve, or how well we use our gifts? The key thing for us is to realize the truth from the bottom of our hearts: we are sinners; we deserve nothing. This is precisely the point at which God can justify and exalt us.

Ok, so what do I do right now?

I have been an "ok, so what do I do right now?" kind-of-guy for some time. Maybe always. This has been my gut response to anyone who claims to have some kind of teaching that I am supposed to embrace or, more generally, some kind of sermon/harangue that they wield. What is it that I am supposed to do right now if what you are saying is true? The fact is if there is nothing that I am supposed to do in response to a lecture, I am not inclined to keep listening.

When I began hearing God for what seemed like the first time, it was immediately obvious what I was supposed to begin doing right now. I was to stop living so selfishly and being so full of pride and began loving other people, looking after their interests instead of mine own. Begin loving right now. Start being kind. And gentle. And everything else that I'm supposed to do and be but don't and aren't.

Another thing that I began to do, another heuristic that I began to live by, was to be a servant. Join into God's work of by being a servant. It is the way that God was teaching me to express love, serving others instead of myself.

To love and to serve others is not a bad way to try to orient your life. Loving and serving is what Jesus did and does. But my thinking is continuing to grow as I think about some of the things that N.T. Wright says in Simply Jesus, his new book in which he tries to get us to think about and respond to Jesus in a fresh way. Jesus rules. How did that happen, how does he exert his rule now and what is our part in that rule right now?

So what about you? What is it that you live by? What is your response to Jesus right now?

Sad but True

With as many serious problems that there are in the world, some people are incredulous at the thought that the use or non-use of instruments in a church assembly would be a grave matter for anyone. But I know that it is extremely important for some folks.

I wish that I could persuade everyone for whom this is a concern, to apply these words from Paul to this issue:  

    ....Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
      Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. 
                                                                       Romans 14

Right now, I can't think of a better passage than this to address the instrumental music "issue." I cringe just writing the sentence, because it feels like defeat to even consider the use instrumental music in a church gathering an issue - aren't there better, more significant things to occupy ourselves? Still, this is an honest concern for some, especially, if not exclusively, those who on Sundays go to buildings marked "Church of Christ" to sing, pray, listen to preaching, etc. with other believers.

To get a perspective on this issue, let's rewrite the initial passage of Romans 14 and see if it doesn't ring true to the original:

  

       Also those who use instruments in their assemblies, use instruments in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain from the use of instruments, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. 

Now let's look at what Paul said earlier using this "update:"

         Those who use instruments in their assemblies must not despise those who abstain from using them, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who use instruments; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

I think that there is a reason why this understanding of the Romans passage escaped the notice of that particular branch of the Restoration from whom we in the Churches of Christ descend. In essence, they believe that a passage from Ephesians 5 is a clear, unambiguous command regarding assemblies hat trumps Romans 14. 

Let's take a quick look at the Ephesians 5 passage:

         Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It seems hard to believe that someone could think that this passage is about not using instruments in assemblies, but that is what I was taught and what I believed when I was young. For many years now it seems clear to me that in this passage Paul gives us a way of living during evil days. He is saying, "Don't get drunk, filling yourself with wine. Instead, fill yourself with God's Spirit. Instead of living in debauchery, you should live in praise." 

I believe that mangling this passage into a command that tells us not to use instruments in our assemblies constitutes a serious misreading of the passage. To make the English translation (Southern dialect) conform more closely to the Greek, "Consider how ya'll live," and "Ya'll give thanks to God the Father at all times." Not only do these words address how all of us should live instead of what we should do when we are in assembly, they do not forbid the use of instruments or anything else -  except to forbid being foolish (which, of course, includes "getting drunk on wine").

But what does Paul tell me that my attitude should be toward those brothers and sisters who strongly believe that they must abstain from the use of instruments in assembly? Taking my clue from Paul in Romans 14, I think that the answer is clear.

   

        

Since I Don't Preach: It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfun...

Since I Don't Preach: It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfun...: This past week you probably heard the stories of animals in the northeast that sensed the earthquake before it arrived. Lemurs sounded an al...

It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfunkel once told us)

This past week you probably heard the stories of animals in the northeast that sensed the earthquake before it arrived. Lemurs sounded an alarm, apes abandoned their food, flamingos rushed into a huddle, and a gorilla let out a shriek before the magnitude 5.8-quake. I also saw on ABC news videos of dogs that before earthquakes rushed to get out of rooms or began barking excitedly.

This fascinates me and apparently fascinates our newscasters. How did these animals know? What is this sixth sense that these animals have?

Maybe why this fascinates us so much is that it points to realities that we cannot see or feel or hear. But those realities definitely exists. There are ways of knowing things that not only can we not use, we don't even understand. There is a dimension to reality that we remain oblivious to.

Two things to note: Apparently, not all animals, maybe even the vast majority of animals noticed anything. I saw interviews with various pet owners that said their pets basically slept through the quake or were just as startled as themselves when it occurred. Evidently, not everyone was paying attention to what they could have known. Second, there was obviously a lag time between the animals alerting and the earthquake that caused them to alert. The reality that was true and real to them was invisible to the rest of us and there was no way that they could "prove" it.

There has to be a lesson here somewhere.

This is in the Bible?

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

 Those born of an illicit union shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

 No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. (Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.) You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live. 

                                                                                    Deuteronomy 23: 1 - 6

I do not know how the Jewish people interpreted this passage of scripture during Jesus' time. I know that unlike our times, every Jewish male had memorized this passage along with the rest of the Pentateuch. This passage was not unfamiliar to them. I know that for "hardliners" the statement, No… Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord – even to the tenth generation shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord… You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live, must have been something of a problem scripture as they tried to reconcile it with the story of Ruth, the wonderful Moabite woman whose welfare was very directly promoted by the Jew, Boaz. And it was the third generation from her that David, the greatest king of Israel, the friend of God, was born.

We may think that whatever we read between the covers of the Bible has to be accepted in a completely straightforward way, but obviously, the writers of the Old Testament did not feel that way as can be seen in the story of Ruth. It appears to me from the way that scripture is sometimes understood in scripture itself that discernment is needed in the way that we understand the its authority. God revealed himself to Moses, spoke to Moses and Moses gave us God's words. But Jesus distinguishes at times between what God says and what Moses says. (See Mt. 19, It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.) 

Understanding God's will can confuse us. But Jesus was not confused. He knew that this command in the Old Testament that said, You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live, was not meant to keep him from loving everyone, no matter their ethnicity, religious background, their appearance, or their customs. It wasn't meant to keep him from dying for them. What if we thought that everything in the Bible needed to be understood through Jesus and the two commands that Jesus gives us, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves? His love is the authority by which we understand what God’s will is.

Learning How to Pray, Part 3

There are two other "prayers" that I have learned to make part of my daily prayers. The first one is  "Lord have mercy on me" and is called "The Jesus Prayer." I think that I first saw it in the book, The Way of the Pilgrim. Some people take it from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, others from the Canaanite woman who had a sick daughter, and still others from Bartholomew, the blind man outside the city of Jericho. It seems to have become a prayer of the early desert fathers and from there, it became important in the Orthodox churches. Many people have used it as a "centering prayer," one that they repeat over and over. I, instead, try to make it a point to pray those words early in the morning. It is designed to open my heart to God as I realize that I am like everyone else who comes to him, in need of mercy.

The second "prayer" I got from what I understand is a Jewish custom. Scot McKnight says that three times a day, people who are serious about their Jewish faith will repeat the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." But we know that Jesus added something else to this foundational scripture. Jesus said that there is a second commandment that is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This was a scripture found in Leviticus 19: 18, tucked away with a lot of dos and don'ts that make Leviticus a tough book to get through. But Jesus says that this little command is like the great Shema. 

So,  I also have made it my practice to pray the two commands that Jesus says that "all the law depends on." It is a reminder and my prayer to God to help me love him and love others - that boils our task down to the essentials, doesn't it?

Learning How to Pray, Part 2

Some people see prayer as a divinely-sanctioned way to get what they want. Pray and receive. When they do not get what they want, there is a crisis of "faith:" there must not be a God.

To be sure, we are told to ask for what we need (Jesus) and to pray for what makes us anxious (Paul), but neither of those instructions define what prayer is or reveal its importance to us.

In the prayer that Jesus gave us, we see that prayer molds us to want what God wants as we become who God is. We ask for all to worship God as we worship him ourselves. We pray that his will is done, pointing our hearts to consider what his will is. We pray that his kingdom come, causing us to meditate on what that kingdom is like and considering our part to play in this coming. We pray for what we need for the day, training ourselves to be content and thankful on a daily basis. We ask God for forgiveness, not because of an anxiety-ridden fear of exclusion, but as a reminder of the character of God that we now share: we forgive as he forgave us, learning the price of love. When we pray for his guidance and protection, we are reminded of our own weakness and his strength and power to save. We are remembering who he is as Creator and who we are as the Created, and in the remembering a completely natural and appropriate humility is nourished.

We pray and so from the heart are being molded into the free people of God, beautiful in humility, shining in graciousness, free to laugh, love, create and serve without fear.

Learning How to Pray, Part 1

‘When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  ‘Pray then in this way:
  Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name.
   Your kingdom come.
   Your will be done,
     on earth as it is in heaven.
   Give us this day our daily bread.
   And forgive us our debts,
     as we also have forgiven our debtors.
   And do not bring us to the time of trial,
     but rescue us from the evil one.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  

                                                                                Matthew 6

A long time ago I was taught that it was suspect to have written prayers - that would be praying "by rote." Later in life, when I began to understand that God was a real being who, amazingly, was actually interested in me and loved me beyond imagining, it seemed so natural just to talk to him about whatever was on my heart. The idea of me taking someone else's prayers and trying to pray them would be like taking someone else's notes on a Valentine card and giving it to my wife as if they were my own - how could I? To do that would be fake.

Of course, what I could never quite come to terms with was the idea that God gave us an entire book of prayers (they are called the Psalms), and Jesus told his disciples, "Pray then in this way...." and he goes on to give them a very specific prayer. Why was God giving us prayers for us to pray that weren't "from the heart?"

Loving God passionately where you gush out your thoughts to God in one continuous stream of praise and pleas is good and beautiful. But I have discovered that learning how to pray and letting God mold me means learning from him what to say and think even in my prayers. 

Part 2: Don't give a fig?

...from the least to the greatest
   everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest
   everyone deals falsely.
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
   saying, ‘Peace, peace’,
   when there is no peace.
They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
   yet they were not at all ashamed,
   they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.
When I wanted to gather them, says the Lord,
   there are no grapes on the vine,
   nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
   and what I gave them has passed away from them.

In Jeremiah 8 God is speaking to the "wise" of Israel. The wise, however, are not very wise. There are four things that God explicitly tells them about their sin:
         1. They are greedy for unjust gain.
         2. They deal falsely.
         3. They treat the wounds of the people carelessly, saying "Peace, peace when there is no peace."
         4. They are unashamed of their abomination.


Although this list may seem to be combining unrelated acts, I don't think it does. I believe that all of these actions relate to the first, the greed for unjust gain.

The "wise" in Israel are the ones who are profiting from economic injustice. (I know that I am not providing evidence for this claim. To do so would require more space and time that I have now. A reading of the Old Testament prophets, I think, substantiates my claim as well as historical scholarship).  They are greedy for unjust gain, gain that they get through "dealing falsely." They make matters worse when they tell the ones who are being robbed, "It's ok. Everything is good," when, in fact, nothing is good about the injustice that is being committed or the situation that the poor, who are victims of others' greed, find themselves in. To make matters worse, the ones who are committing these economic crimes are completely unashamed of their "abomination." They worship the god of mammon without a blush.

The religious system had become corrupted by its power to profit. Its victims were the poor. When God comes looking for the fruit of righteousness, the evidence that the leaders of his people were taking care of the flock with care and concern, he finds instead this horrible state of affairs. There is no fruit, only the madness and unrelenting cruelty of the idolatry of mammon.

When Jesus comes to "the wise" of Israel, he finds exactly the same thing. The temple has become a den of thieves. The high priests have formed an unholy alliance with the powers that be, and the Jewish people are languishing in the land.  The leaders who should be looking with care and concern for even the least of these, instead, are building their own barns, feasting on what they have not sown and gathering what they have not reaped.

Jesus' action with the fig tree is a prophetic device, an object lesson, a parable for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Judgment has come. He has looked for the fruit, and it is not there. Jesus is doing the work of God, looking for evidence that the leaders he has left in charge are caring for the Master's possessions and not for their own pleasure. But there is no fruit. The fig tree withers and dies as will the religious power structure of the temple. The leaders are not doing what they have been called to do. Soon, they will find their place destroyed and their destruction will be complete. 70 A.D. is coming, and the already withered temple powers will be uprooted and burned without mercy.

What is Christ finding now when he looks to us for his fruit? Is our wealth as a nation based on an economic exploitation of the poor? Do we dress in fine clothes and live in luxurious housing by the sweat of others' labor? Are we looking to how we can enrich the lives of others or are we relentlessly driven to make money from money while the poor starve for lack of bread to eat and clean water to drink?

It appears to me that Jesus does not give a fig for our excuses.

Part 1: Don't give a fig?

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.

Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?
   But you have made it a den of robbers.’
 
And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea”, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.’ 
                                                                                                    Mark 11


For a long time I did not know how to understand the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. It seems unlike Jesus. Jesus is hungry, wants to eat, goes to a fig tree for its fruit, then gets mad when it does not have any. So Jesus, the one who refused to turn stones into bread, is using his power to curse a fig tree because he is hungry? This story makes Jesus sound stressed out and lacking self-control - not to mention not being environmentally friendly:) - or forgiving.

But set this passage alongside the passage from Jeremiah 8, and I think that you will start understanding why Matthew and Mark knew this story had to be in their gospels. The disciples may not have understood what was going on at the time, but this may have been one of the connections that Jesus made for them during that 40 day period after his resurrection and before his ascension:

... from the least to the greatest
   everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest
   everyone deals falsely.
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
   saying, ‘Peace, peace’,
   when there is no peace.
They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
   yet they were not at all ashamed,
   they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.
When I wanted to gather them, says the Lord,
   there are no grapes on the vine,
   nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
   and what I gave them has passed away from them. 

Learning to Listen to Tejano

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 
                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                    Paul, 2 Corinthians 5

I wake up hearing the low vibration of my neighbor's car stereo. Self disclosure: It irritates me to hear the thudding of the mega bass player and the bouncy Tejano music blaring next door. Why do I have to listen to my neighbor's music? Don't they have any consideration for others? Ok, for me?

When I begin thinking this way, I am drawn up short. If you consider yourself an ambassador for Christ, if you want to announce that God has reconciled himself to us and that our sins no longer count against us, you simply have bigger fish to fry than your irritation over loud music.

We are a new creation; we are living in new creation; we have a new purpose and a new reason for living. The old human point of view must be rejected.

I guess if God can reconcile himself to me, I can reconcile myself to booming bass and the bajo sexto.

Since I Don't Preach: Mark 13: Keep Alert!

Since I Don't Preach: Mark 13: Keep Alert!: "Mark 13: 23 - Be alert! Mark 13: 33 - Keep alert! Mark 13: 35 - Keep awake! Mark 13: 37 - Keep awake! ‘But about that day or hour no o..."

Mark 13: Keep Alert!

Mark 13: 23 - Be alert!
Mark 13: 33 - Keep alert!
Mark 13: 35 - Keep awake!
Mark 13: 37 - Keep awake!

 ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’ 
                                                                                                                         Jesus, Mark 13: 32 - 37
Great passage of scripture. This chapter used to confuse me a lot. I actually think I understand it now. For us, the most important thing is to remember that we "each have a work to do." Amazing and scary responsible. We each have a work that I think God will ask us about. He has given it to us. Now are we going to party to suit ourselves, or are we going to take seriously our status as co-workers with God in his new creation, doing what we has delegated to us to do? We are not supposed to worry about all the American standards of success that permeates our thinking: "Are we good enough? Are we successful? Are we effective?" I think that we will simply we judged by our self-evident response to this question: "Have we been faithful?"

In these words Jesus is giving us the key to faithfulness: STAY AWAKE, STAY ALERT.,

Jesus' Identity

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say this, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately."


Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 
   Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
                                              Mark 11: 1 - 3; 7 - 10


Jesus understood who he was. The scriptures had said that the Messiah would come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Jesus knew that his time had come - he needs a donkey! So he sends his disciples on this trip so that everyone who hears this would know that this was no accident, that Jesus was not caught up in the current of events but was fully aware of who he was, what he was doing and what was to come. He knows that he is Messiah and what is waiting for him in Jerusalem.

Every Day

Seek good and not evil,
   that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
   just as you have said.
Hate evil and love good,
   and establish justice in the gate....
                                                     Amos 5: 14 - 15


Every day, hate evil and love good. It isn't so difficult to understand, is it? Just not that complicated.

This is what it means to seek good and not evil. I have not run across anything like this in other ancient writings although it may exist. It is a beautiful, righteous message that God gave to the Hebrew people and then to us:

Hate evil and love good,
   and establish justice in the gate....


Every day.

The Way of Peace and Blessing: Matthew 14: 13 - 21

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 

I think that this is how it always it: Jesus gives to us, then we turn and give what we have been given to others. It is the way of peace and blessing.

Who's in Charge? Mark 4: 35 - 41

Reading again the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat and his response to his students when they wake him up, terrified by the storm, I think that Jesus is telling us, simply, if we trust God, fear should have no part in our lives, no matter how bad things look. I know that this is an incredibly facile thing to say, sitting in my nice, comfortable house, insulated from weather by central air and heat, living in a peaceful neighborhood, served  by a local police department, in good health and having a relatively sound mind. But it still seems true to me. We have God as our father. Jesus is in our boat. There is nothing that is going on or will go on that he does not know about and that he cannot handle. His love and provision is perfect. The world may be ruled by the evil one, but we live in the kingdom of God where He reigns.

But there's more. When Jesus is awakened, he sees and hears not only the terror of his students, he sees and hears the storm. The storm is incredibly fierce. The waves are huge, and they are swamping the boat. So what does Jesus do? He COMMANDS the wind and the sea is cease and desist. There is something to do, and he does it. This shows his students then and his students now, the way things are done in the kingdom. When we find ourselves with reason to fear, we meet the situation with faith and confidence that we are children of God who have a Father who loves us and is in control.

I know that it is natural to protest, "Well,  Jesus is the Son of God. He has power that we do not have; he can do things that we can't." True - but, didn't Jesus say that his students "anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father"? (Yes, he does - Jn. 14: 12). 


I believe we are called to a life of faith that has this firm confidence in God's love, wisdom, provision and competence. It is not that "if we just have enough faith" we can stop every harm. It is not that we believe that there will be no tragedies. In fact, we believe that God let his son die one of the most awful, "unjust" deaths imaginable. It is not that we believe that no harm will ever come to us or our loved ones. God's saints have died every possible way that people die - except, they have never died without hope. But we do believe that Jesus has shown us and made possible for us the way of the kingdom: we know who is in charge. We know Emmanuel, He is with us. We do what we do, call on who we call on, because we live in a new creation where all the old rules no longer apply.

Daniel 3

I read from chapter 3 of the book of Daniel this morning. This was a morning of random reading: my Bible was open to that spot; I thought about how Jesus had obviously read Daniel, almost certainly, in fact, had memorized this book along with the rest of the Old Testament (I know people who would point out that he, actually, wrote it all), and it made me feel a little closer to him, knowing that this was something that we shared together with God's people across the centuries: we were reading the same scriptures "together." I want to "hear" the scriptures as Jesus heard them.

I soon was drawn into the familar story: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - men of God living in a foreign land among people who worshipped other gods. They had "positions" in society where their faith would make them "stand out" among their peers. Maybe, their distinctive faith would not always be noticeable, but there are times when it was painfully obvious. This was one of those times.

I am especially intrigued - excited, even, when I read their response to their boss' edict to worship the idol "or else:" They are not sure what God will do - "If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us..., let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you. O king, that we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up." Apparently, they have had no special revelation from God, no vision, no word, no dream that gives them audio/visual proof that God is going to work a miracle. From the wording of the NRSV translation, it sounds like they have never experienced what we might call God's "miraculous" intervention in their lives (maybe he can deliver, maybe he can't). But, miraculous intervention or not, they are going to serve and worship him and him alone.

Our job is not to be a God-predictor, a God-defender or a God-apologist - just serve him, call on him and accept the consequences.

It will turn out well.

Psalme 17: Spirit and flesh

A friend of mine whom I have not seen for a long time came to my house, and we talked for hours. Actually, we talked some, and he preached a lot. I don't think that he thinks that I am any more of a sinner than him or anyone else, but I may be one of the relative few who willingly listens and who agrees with most of everything that he says. Last night, he preached a lot to me about the importance of realizing that we are "two-part beings, spirit and flesh," that we have to understand our identity and origins and respond accordingly. Instead of realizing this, most of us live as though we are flesh only. All of our plans and all of our actions are based on an understanding of ourselves as merely fleshly beings. We live only for this world and in this world, taking only account of what we want for our sensual, physical, flesh-related needs and desires.

We never stop to consider that we are spirit, too - that our spirit needs to be fed, that if we neglect our spirit that it will shrivel and die. Instead, we need a resurrected spirit: we need to be born-again; we need a God who is Spirit to quicken ours, that with his help and ministry to us our spirit, we will thrive, not die. We need to make provision for our spirit, feed it, nourish it, and most of all humbly and sincerely ask God to come to us, because we need him - our spirits need him.

This morning my Bible was open to Psalm 17. I read it. In verse 14 the psalmist speaks of the wicked who are "mortals whose portion in life is in this world." They are the wicked ones who are seeking to destroy him. But the psalmist says in contrast, "As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness, when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness." The psalmist is saying that there are those whose concerns and rewards are all centered around this world; he, on the other hand, lives for his Father - his concerns and rewards centered around God. In the end he will wake and see the beautiful face of the one who is Spirit.

Approaching the Cross and Easter Sunday

Let us sing 

Let us enter the city with God today
Let us sing hosanna to our king
To the son of God riding on a donkey
With shepherds and prostitutes,
With the blind and the leper
With the abandoned and oppressed
Let us shout for joy at Christ's coming
And follow the One who welcomes the sinner and dines with the outcast
Let us touch and see as God draws near
Riding in Triumph towards the Cross

Christine Sine 

John 11

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ 


Says it all, doesn't it?


Asks it all too.

Psalm 46

What a beautiful psalm!

There are three verses, evenly spaced that give us the theme of the psalm: 1, 7, 11. God is with us (Emmanuel - who is Jesus, the Christ); he is our help and strength.

The first verses of the psalm refers to extraordinary natural catastrophes: the earth changing, the mountains shaking in the heart of the sea, earthquakes, tsunamis.

In the middle of these terrifying events, exists the city of God (Zion, see Hebrews 12: 22). In it, everything is calm and at peace, even joyful, because it is being fed by the river of God and God is in its midst. (See Jn. 4 for the water that always and completely satisfied - again, it is Jesus, the Christ). All other nations are in an uproar; the city of God (God's people, his church, his assembly) is unmoved; it is secure.

So it is God who makes desolation on the earth. Look and see the desolation that he brings: he makes wars to cease; he breaks the offensive weapons (bows and spears) and defensive weapons (shields), and says, "Be still and know that I am God!" The desolation that he brings is the desolation of men's violence. Violence that exists because we do not trust him and know that he is God.

I don't think that this psalm could have been written when there was no war or threat of war in Israel's history. War was always taking place or on the horizon. Yet, in faith, God calls us to see what he brings. Even in times of tumult, by faith we see our God bringing an end to all wars and all violence.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Jeremiah 9: 23 - 24

Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord. ²⁴

 In the end the only thing that counts at all is that one has come to understand that our God is God and that he acts, always, in steadfast love, justice and righteousness. This is no harder to believe now than it was for the people of Jeremiah's time. But to understand God in this way gives us the way that we can come to know him.

Deuteronomy 7: 17 - 26

 If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰Moreover, the Lord your God will send the pestilence^* against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed. ²¹Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God. ²²The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you. ²³But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great panic, until they are destroyed. ²⁴He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them. ²⁵The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God. ²⁶Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

1. So interesting to me that Moses says that "Yahweh, your God" will clear out the evil nations, "little by little ... otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you." Why doesn't God work the miracles we want for our perceived good instantaneously? He has his reasons, and those reasons are for our own good. It is God who has to do the hard work of crushing our enemies, but that does not mean that it happens quickly and without our agency. We fight, but it is his might. Maybe if it happened quickly, we would think it was our own agency that won the battle, forgetting God's power and letting loose the wild animals of human pride and arrogance.

2. The idols of the enemy you must destroy; you might think that you can take it and make it into something good, but you can't. No matter how valuable the substance might be in another context, it cannot be converted to something useful and good to you. Its power to ensnare has not been diminished. You must completely destroy it. So, for instance, don't think that you can love money "in the name of the Lord," somehow redeeming that idol.

Psalm 42:10

In the tenth verse of this psalm, the psalmist refers to his adversary who does him harm. I always translate adversary, "enemy." "Our battle is not against flesh and blood." Our enemy is Satan. He is the one who constantly seeks our harm. Call on the Lord: this is the constant reminder of the psalms.

The Holy Ones: A Sunday Morning Reflection

Hagios - adjective, holy; when used alone, holy one(s)

By my count hagios is used 43 times in the New Testament to refer to Christ-followers. Not particularly sainted followers - your everyday run-of-the mill followers. The Corinthians are hagios; the Ephesians are hagios; the Colossians are hagios, and the list goes on. Fundamentally our identity is not sinners. Not that we haven't sinned or that we don't continue to sin. Not that it hurts us to think sometimes like Paul does, I am the chief of sinners or to consider James when he quotes and applies scripture to the saints, Wash your hands you sinners (Isa 1: 16). But the designation of sinners for the saints is so extremely rare as a way to write or to think about those who are now Christ-followers. In fact, these two passages that I have referred to are it - the sum total of the sinner designation for Christ-followers. Meanwhile, over and over again - 43 times, in fact - it is hagios. 

So you think that the majority must have been saintly in behavior and had their doctrine down to a t? Think again. Better yet,  read the Corinthian letter: what was their moral situation? What was their doctrinal situation? They, like us, are hagios not because we never sin or we have all of our beliefs in exact conformity with reality. We are hagios because we have been called that by God, made that by Christ and continually cleansed and guided into that by the Spirit. We are being called into our future - holy ones who will reign with God.

Every Sunday we meet to reaffirm this as we eat the Lord's Supper together. We are his hagios, and we eat this meal of him and with him, looking forward to the time when he returns.

My Revised Project for Writing in New Media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rP6vKZz6a0

Psalm 63

Psalm 63

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
   my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
   as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
² So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
   beholding your power and glory.
³ Because your steadfast love is better than life,
   my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
   I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,^*
   and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
⁶ when I think of you on my bed,
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night.
for you have been my help,
   and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
⁸ My soul clings to you;
   your right hand upholds me....

Sometimes people make fun of Christians who seem to be in ecstasy as they worship, eyes squinched shut, tears streaming down their faces, hands in the air, the word, Jesus, on their lips. These critics can have a valid point. Some Christians' faith can be out-of-touch with everyday life or with the death in the culture that surrounds us and may only be seeking an escapist experience. For Christians who have compartmentalized their lives in this way, church becomes entertainment, a place to be distracted from real life, to forget the demands of mundane existence and to experience euphoria for its own sake.

But don't reject the "mystical;" don't reject the experience of God; don't reject food and drink; don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater."

Here the psalmist sees the power and glory of God, not in nature, not in the lives of his people, but in the sanctuary, a place that exists solely for the worship of God. Looking in the sanctuary for God, he finds him. Praising God, thinking about God, looking for God, he is "satisfied as with a rich feast;" his thirst is quenched; he is revived; he realizes that God's "steadfast love is better than life." He clings to the God that loves and blesses him.

The experience of God, his praise and meditation, do not have to be a form of escapism, but rather what gives us life - the life we need to live in the middle of responsibilities and, even, threats to our existence (see the rest of the psalm).

This poem in its use of food and water points to Jesus as we see him in John's gospel: the water who gives us life, the bread that we must eat if we want to truly live.

Psalm 57, 108, 112

My heart is steadfast, O God,
   my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.
⁸   Awake, my soul! Ps. 57: 7, 8

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;^*
   I will sing and make melody.
   Awake, my soul! ^*Ps. 108: 1

He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast,
trusting in the Lord. Ps. 112: 7

In one scene from The Passion of the Christ, Jesus is shown quoting these words: My heart is steadfast O God. I forget so much - especially when it comes to movies. But these words of Jesus when he was in the greatest torment and physical abuse of his life have haunted me: My heart is steadfast O God. 

When things are going badly for us - not just badly, horribly - and our souls feel dead, we are called to sing, calling on God to wake us up from the deadness we feel in the depths of who we are.

When I read these psalms, I read them as a commentary on the thoughts of Jesus facing the cross.

Ruth 4

For you Ruth, who loves you, is more to you than seven sons. (Ruth 4: 15 paraphrase)

Ruth is such an odd little book and so beautiful. It is so odd because it deals with what appears to be entirely ordinary events. No kings here. No prophets. No great men of God being spoken to by God himself. Just a family that during hard times leaves their homeland to go to another country to find work, illegal immigrants that during tough times go where they are not wanted except for the labor that they provide. Not surprisingly, the story is sad. The men die, father and sons. The wife is heartbroken and dirt poor. She decides, of course, to go back home where. at least, she can live among her relatives and not starve to death. There is love between her and her daughter-in-laws. But all of them are poor, no-name individuals that would have hardly been noticed by anyone - nameless faces in a crowd of poverty, moving around the country, going wherever they think they can find a little work and something to eat.

But among these nameless people, there is love, and God blesses love. God blesses love among the rich and the poor, and this story becomes a fairy tale. The rich man Boaz falls in love with the the young widow, Ruth. By the end of the story Boaz, head over heels, is throwing away his shoes and his honor and his wealth to marry into a family that is poor in everything but a love for each other, a love straight from the heart of God. And Naomi, an old woman bereft of husband and sons, again is the star of the story, the everyday, ordinary woman, who has seen more than her share of sorrow and grief, now with hope and joy rising within her because of a baby in the womb, an almost grandson, and Naomi's family becomes a family of kings.

An ordinary story of the kingdom and the family of the Messiah... an ordinary story that shows you that to live in love creates an extraordinary world. Read and believe.

Psalm 130

Psalm 130

Waiting for Divine Redemption

A Song of Ascents.
¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
²   Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
   to the voice of my supplications!

³ If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
   Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But there is forgiveness with you,
   so that you may be revered.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
   and in his word I hope;
⁶ my soul waits for the Lord
   more than those who watch for the morning,
   more than those who watch for the morning.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord!
   For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
   and with him is great power to redeem.
⁸ It is he who will redeem Israel
   from all its iniquities.

After last night, waking up before 3 a.m. and never being able to fall back asleep, tossing and turning, thinking of everything that is wrong in what I see at work, and thinking of my own failures to be the man that I believe God wants me to be, to lead the way that I think that God wants me to lead, to love with courage, wisdom and self-sacrifice, this passage is just what I needed. Thanks and praise to God who always speaks just the right word to me at just the right time. Lord, help me to believe from the heart.

Psalm 123

Psalm 123

Supplication for Mercy

A Song of Ascents.
To you I lift up my eyes,
   O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
   look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
   to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
   until he has mercy upon us.


Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
   for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill
   of the scorn of those who are at ease,
   of the contempt of the proud.

This a psalm about a plea to God that the petitioner not be held in contempt. He says that he has had enough of it Most of my life I could not say that I have related to this psalm. For the past few years, though, I could relate to the plea of this psalm. It is so good to me to know that God cares about how we feel when we feel like we are being treated badly.

Psalm 150

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
   praise him in his mighty firmament!^*
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
   praise him according to his surpassing greatness!

³ Praise him with trumpet sound;
   praise him with lute and harp!
⁴ Praise him with tambourine and dance;
   praise him with strings and pipe!
⁵ Praise him with clanging cymbals;
   praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
⁶ Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

                                        Psalm 150

What a great way to end the psalter - praise God, praise everything about Him. And take every instrument you have to do it: your voice, your lyre, your cymbals, your cowbell - whatever you have, take it and praise Him!

Psalm 19 gives two great reasons to praise Him: his creation and his law. For me, to praise God for his creation is a natural. As a child of the 60s, I am less inclined to understand the giddy praise of God for his law. When law is used as a club, it is hard to see it joyously. But when you understand law as an expression of love, of the Word that engenders all beauty and light in the middle of a world that is killing and dying in darkness and fear for the lack of knowledge and Life, then you begin to understand its true goodness and the great gift that it is

These readings are taken from the daily lectionary of the PCUSA.

Psalm 104

You make darkness, and it is night, 
    when all the animals of the forest 
    come creeping out. 
The young lions roar for their prey, 
     seeking their food from God.
                                    Ps. 104: 21

Short and to the point: this way of thinking is so different from the way we think today in our "Enlightenment" society. The psalmist sounds more like very unscientific Native American or the Christians that I met in Ghana. God is written all over nature. God feeds us, not our own hands; God feeds us, not natural processes. Sure, the lion is not sitting in its den, waiting for his meal to come and insert itself in his mouth. A lion does what a lion does - but it is God who feeds him. Read the whole psalm. It is a completely joyful celebration of God and of nature, a nature that is created by God. And lions eating  their prey cause no theological or moral problems at all.