Scribbler Works

2012-02-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

WHY KEEP THE LAW?

Whoever the annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5: 19-20)

Jesus offers up some interesting tidbits in these two sentences. First off, there is preferential treatment in heaven for those who do keep the Laws of God. And secondly, that it might not be very easy to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Let’s look at that second one first.

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Elsewhere and many times we can find Jesus condemning the so-called righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. But the point about this statement is why he condemns them: their righteousness is all on the outside. They “keep” all the laws in their actions, but never let the laws touch their hearts. The scribes and the Pharisees have forgotten God’s purpose in giving the laws. The failure of the scribes and Pharisees is not that they keep the Laws, but rather that they no longer see the Laws as a means of coming close to God but rather an end in themselves. To the scribes and Pharisees, the Laws must be kept simply because they are the Laws of God. They have lost all perception of the love of God, and because of that they have come to believe that God is somehow in the Law, rather than beyond it.

How many bow down before the rules and regulations as if they are an end in themselves? How many stick so strictly to the guidelines that they no longer see where the guidelines are going nor what the Big Picture is? We all know people in our lives whose perceptions are set that narrowly, who worry more about the Law and keeping it than they do about why God laid out the Law in the first place.

That is why Jesus says that to enter into the kingdom of heaven, our righteousness must be greater than the scribes and Pharisees. He isn’t talking about keeping the Law better than the scribes and Pharisees. As we continue on through the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll find that He is very aware of how easily we stumble. What He is talking about is how well we remember the purpose of keeping God’s Laws: that they are designed to bring us closer to the Holiness of God, to bring us into His presence to stand before Him. The Most High wants to bring everyone to that place, because He loves us so very much. He doesn’t want to leave anyone out. But the reality is that His very presence burns away unrighteousness. And if we have let the substance of our being become so contaminated by unrighteousness, there won’t be much left of us when we stand in that place.

Which brings us back to the warning Jesus gives in the first part of this passage. Whoever annuls or alters even the least of the commandments of God, and who teaches others to do likewise, that person shall be among the least in the kingdom of heaven.

Now that is an interesting point. Jesus does not say that such a person -- someone who is righteous enough to remember the purpose God has in giving the Law and who still decides to dismiss one such – is condemned and excluded from the kingdom of heaven. He just says that they are the least. He goes on to say that the person who does keep the Laws and teaches them to others will be called great in the kingdom. Such a one will be near to the throne of God and not far off.

These two verses are like breathing in and breathing out. We need to remember both parts of the passage, or we can end up like the scribes and the Pharisees, rigidly following forms while forgetting their purpose. The forms are necessary to get where we want to go – into the presence of God – and yet they cannot become more important than the destination. We cannot mistake the forms that are supposed to be our means of transportation for the final destination we are trying to reach.

We can ride the train of the Law right into the station called Heaven. We have to stay on the train, though. For the only entrance to the station is the gateway through which the tracks are laid. You can jump off the train and try to get to the station by other means, and you may indeed find the outer walls of it, but there is no other entrance to the final destination, the lobby that is before the throne of God. Let us not be one of those who has become so enamored of the train ride that we refuse to get off the train, even when it has reached the station.

Do not mistake the means for the end. The Laws are to bring us closer to the God who loves us. He has His reasons for them, and even if we don’t understand the specific reason, we should trust that He has a point to it. But most importantly, we should remember that our Lord is a merciful God, and His desire is that we strive to come as close to Him as we can. We are not excluded for failure to keep specific Laws, we exclude ourselves when we forget the purpose of them.

2012-01-31T08:23:00.000-08:00

LAYING DOWN THE LAW

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.(Matthew 5: 17-18 – NAS)

In these two verses we see Jesus addressing something that certainly hounds many believers today – wanting to get out from under “The Rules.” I find it interesting that He saw the same impulse in His followers back then. Evidently, some who followed after Him thought He would relieve them of their obligations to God. And perhaps, the “religious authorities” of the day were also complaining that Jesus was not only breaking all the rules but even throwing out the ones He hadn’t broken yet.

Jesus has an answer to all that, and the answer is “No, I’m not throwing out the Laws.”

The point that Jesus wants to make here is that the Laws of God shall always have value. The Lord gave His Laws for a reason. God has a purpose in mind, and He gave guidance for how we are supposed to achieve that purpose.

But the Lord knows the difficulty we have in trying to follow the Laws. We get pulled one way and the other, and have a hard time sorting out what to apply to any given situation. Eventually, it becomes so confusing that we just give up and stop paying attention. Because we lose sight of the purpose of the Laws, they become dry and harsh, and we let them kill our hearts and souls.

There is something unbending about the Laws of God, and we break ourselves upon it. Or we break others upon it. For some people, the Laws of God seem draconian in their intent, unreasonable and harsh, unjust even, and thus they turn away from them. They often say, “If God would smite someone over this matter, then He is unjust and unworthy of allegiance.” For others, who are happy to have rules they don’t have to figure out, the Laws of God become something to hide behind. For these people, the Laws become a rock wall between them and the World, something they can continually push outward, letting the wall crush those on the other side. They don’t have to really see or interact with those on the other side of the wall of Law, so surely they are “of God.”

But the problem is that both of these sets of people have lost sight of the purpose of the Laws of God. And the purpose is to bring us closer to the holiness of God, to bring us into His presence intact.

So Jesus tells his followers that He has come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.

“Fulfill the Law”? What does He mean by that?

He came to show us how to walk through our lives in such a way that we could every day fulfill the intention God had in giving the Laws. So that we could with each step draw nearer to our Father in Heaven.

Instead of cold words carved in stone, we would have a living, breathing example of what it would look like in a person. In Jesus.

“What Would Jesus Do?” That became a catch phrase a while ago, a populist reminder that we should be trying to “live the Christian life.” But how seriously did the people who touted the phrase follow it? Did they apply the instructions of Christ carefully to their interactions with their friends, and forget to apply them when they encountered a pan-handler outside the convenience store? But even though the phrase has been trivialized down to initialism (WWJD), the point of it gets to the heart of what Jesus meant by His fulfilling the Law.

He doesn’t mean that since He lived the perfect life and obeyed all the commandments that was the only purpose of the Laws and they could be shoved aside. No, He means that the whole purpose of the Laws was to let all of God’s people become like Jesus, perfect and worthy to stand in the presence of the Most High and Holy One.

Jesus drives this home by saying that not even the smallest bit of the Laws of God will be tossed away until everything is accomplished. We can’t be sure what that means. So we might as well stick to the guidelines we have. We don’t know how long this “not yet accomplished” state will go on. Jesus says that the time to throw away the Laws would be when “heaven and earth pass away.”

It seems that God will unmake heaven and earth before He will undo the purpose of His Laws.

For me, when I am confronted with situations where I don’t know which Law of God to apply, that perspective is what I turn to. What is it that God’s over-all purpose is? It is to bring us closer to Him. So, then, which choice do I make when it seems that ethics and justice are being challenged? I go back to ground level: God is Love.

It disturbs me when I see believers use the Law to brow-beat and castigate others, when they take the harshest stand of judgment of the actions of others. I know they feel they are making the righteous choice. I know they feel that they are in the right in condemning others who they see as breaking God’s Laws. But when they lose all sense of mercy toward others by clutching to the shape of the Law, when they use the Law to hack down those they disagree with, I am really left thinking that perhaps they do not understand the purpose God has in mind. When we use the Law to crush someone else for their choices, are we not hardening their hearts toward God? We tell them, “The Laws of God say that This is what is righteous. And because you will not do This, you will be condemned!” Why are we not remembering that God more than anything else wants to draw people to Himself?

For the overriding commandment is that we love God, and then others. That is the ultimate Law of God.

2012-01-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

BE SHINY!

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.(Matthew 5: 14-16)

I think this is something that many believers often overlook and downplay, at least in the sense of how these words of Jesus reflect upon their self-identity. It is easy to understand that as His followers we are to be bringing His message to others, for He is the Light of God, after all. But they don’t look at this passage closely.

Jesus does not say “You are bringing my light to the world.” He says, “You are the light of the world.”

Each of us, individually, as the person God created us, we are the light of the world.

In other words: none of us are wall-flowers, easily overlooked, so stop trying to disappear.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

I live in Los Angeles, in the midst of a tremendous, sprawling empire of urban development. When I was growing up, I would hear stories of how big LA was, but I had no reference or comparison. I lived in Houston, which is a rather sprawling city in its own right, and I thought I knew “big.” That lasted until the day I flew into Southern California for the first time to attend a conference, in Claremont, east of Los Angeles. The plane crossed over a mountain pass, and immediately below I could see the beginning of the urban carpet. From those mountains to the ocean shore, about 70 miles away, it seemed to be continuous city. Suddenly I knew what they meant by “greater Los Angeles.” Even though there are many independent cities in this conglomeration, they get bunched together for reference purposes. There is no hiding that this is a City.

Jesus tells His followers that this is what they are like. Something that absolutely cannot be overlooked. He mentions the city likeness to drive home the point about what kind of light He is calling His followers to be.

“You are the light of the world.”

We have all at some point been stuck in pitch darkness without a light. We know the power and attraction of discovering some small spot of light in that darkness. We are drawn to it. We cannot see in the darkness, but we can see in the light, so we move toward even the tiniest flicker of light.

And as believers we treat ourselves as Christ’s witnesses as if we are that little flickering candle. That little bright spot that others can see. Friendly, humble little wax candle, limited in scope, with a small magnitude of light. We can illuminate our little spot. That’s enough, right?

The truth is, we do behave like we’re trying to hide our lights away, to put them under baskets because we don’t want to be noticed. Jesus reminds us that nobody really does that with their lamps. He points out that the lamp is there to illuminate the whole house. It is mounted high, so the light can reach the far corners.

I always liked His humor in saying that nobody puts a lamp under a basket. Baskets, woven of dry, combustible materials are definitely not something you want to put over an open flame of any sort. Because you know what will happen in fairly short order – the lamp will set the basket on fire!

You are the light of the world.

Certainly, Jesus wants our behavior before others to reflect well upon our Lord. He says people should “see your good works and glorify our Father in heaven.” But notice that He makes that a consequence of our being light and not the definition of it. We ourselves are the light.

God created each of us to be individuals. He gave us each specific talents, a specific heart and desire. He doesn’t repeat Himself. Even identical twins end up having distinctions between them, because they are indeed individuals. Nobody else has had exactly the same experiences we have had, made exactly the same minute choices we each have made. And God prizes each individual.

That is what Jesus is calling “the light of the world.” The person you are, right down to the smallest part of you. Everything that you are was meant to be bright, shiny, glowing, beautiful in the darkness. There is nothing that you were made to be that is not of God’s light.

How much do we consider that? How much do we hide away for whatever reason? It doesn’t even have to be because we are ashamed of some aspect of our personality. It could simply be that there is something about ourselves that we do not value. So we “stick it in a corner” and neglect it. Maybe the World tells us that a particular aspect of our nature isn’t important, that it is worthless or ugly, that it isn’t useful. And we let their judgment of that override our sense of self, of who God created us to be.

Jesus tells us that our Father made us to be bright lights, to be people that cannot be overlooked.

And yet we hesitate about really being that noticeable. We’re willing to be the small flickering candle, because we can understand that, perhaps even control it. But little candles are easily snuffed out, whereas big cities on hills are not wiped out quite so casually. Is it that we fear the attention bright lights can bring? In an age that easily falls into worshipping celebrity, that craves attention, you would think that our reactions would be different when it comes to being “the light of the world.” But the thing is, we want to be in the light, so we can show off and then slip away. We don’t want to be the light.

Light is attractive in its own right. But it also shows the world around it as it really is. It drives away shadows that can hide realities. It exposes the nature of objects: something that looks handsome and solid when sitting in shadows is shown to be painted, feeble cardboard when it is brought into the light. Because not only is light beautiful, it has a job to do. And we don’t always want to be doing that job, perhaps because we think it might be difficult.

Jesus tells us that we are already the light. If we are the person God created us to be, we will by nature do the job of light. We will so shine that the people around us will wonder at it and know God made it so.

We need to stop trying to remake ourselves, stop trying to be what others want us to be. What we really need to do trust what God made us to be.

Are you hidden under a basket? You, the light of the world? Set that basket on fire.

Be shiny.

2012-01-26T10:53:00.000-08:00

HOW TASTY ARE YOU?

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
(Matthew 5: 13 – NAS)

In the modern world, we are so rich in salt that we use it to excess, to the endangerment of our health. We appreciate what it can add to foods in terms of flavor, but we no longer register the other aspects of salt that made it so valuable to the ancient world.

And it was very valuable indeed. The word “salary” comes from a salt reference – it was the money paid Roman soldiers so that they could buy their personal supply of salt. The city of Venice built its trading empire on the production of salt. Celts in middle Europe became wealthy mining salt and trading it to the Mediterranean region.

Salt not only adds flavor to foods, it helps preserve them. This is part of what created its value. Mint adds flavor too, but it doesn’t have the power to keep meats edible as long as salt does. Salt is also important to the process of tanning animal skins, making them useful as garments.

Our bodies need a certain amount of salt. It helps us retain water in our cells, preventing dehydration. Because of its quality of absorbing fluids, it is useful in cleaning wounds (yes, it stings, but it helps dry out the wound).

So when Jesus calls his followers “the salt of the earth,” He is declaring that they are very valuable. He looks to them to accept their place as crucial parts of the society they are in.

It makes for an interesting question then: just how necessary are we to the people around us? What do we bring to their lives?

Salt brings out the flavor of a food. You could say that salt makes a food taste more like itself. Do we do that for the people around us, or do we try to make them into what we think they should be? Do we try and reshape them into being someone else, either some made-up personality or reflections of ourselves? It’s a danger mentors run into, making the mistake of creating mini-versions of themselves, instead of guiding their students into being more fully the individuals they were meant to be. As salt in this situation, we should be encouraging each other to be better, brighter versions of themselves, whatever that might be.

But more than that, salt also has its own flavor. If we are “salt,” what sort of flavor are we to those around us? Are we tasty and pleasing, or are we bitter and sour? Are we bland and flavorless, or exciting to encounter? Are we so distasteful that people find a single encounter is more than enough, or are we so flavorful that people keep returning to be with us?

How often do we think of this as a commandment from Jesus: “be the life of the party”? So often the person that gets tagged with that title is actually the pathetically dangerous drunk who has lost all restraints. But, to be the true life of a party or of any gathering, we would have to be that which brings life to others. In other words, function like salt.

What about the other qualities of salt? How well do we act like those? Are we any good at preserving things so that others can use them? Do we, by nature, take care to sustain those around us? Are we any good at cleansing wounds, whether they are physical, emotional or spiritual? Are we any good at drawing the toxicity out of a hurting soul and cleaning that heart so that it can be healed by God?

When Jesus calls us the salt of the world, there is so much more than being tasty, then. We have functions, duties, uses. And they are obligations that are subtle because they are part of the very fabric of life.

We should be nearly invisible as we go about our jobs as salt. For that is another quality of salt, it is for the most part without major color. It absorbs itself into fluids and substances, and doesn’t leave much visible trace – unless too much is used.

But Jesus has a warning for us as well. He reminded His followers that the salt they knew could lose its flavor and become useless.

We could stumble over this in the modern age, dismissing it, because our basic high school chemistry tells us that “salt is salt.” It doesn’t really change. This is where knowing a little bit of history and basic use becomes important to understanding what Jesus is talking about here. In His time, salt was not purified the way it is for us now. There were often minerals mixed in with the salt. Additionally, exposure to humidity could leach the salt off the minerals. If care was not taken to protect the salt, it was easy enough to lose those aspects of it which made it useful. What would be left when this sort of thing happened? Inedible particles of minerals and bitter salts. Nothing useful could be done with this, so it got tossed out the door into the walkways of the community.

When we are struggling with the basics of our own lives, we have a hard time thinking about this call from Jesus to be flavorful for other people. Where are the salt-people of our own lives, we wonder? But are we looking for the over-load of salt on a potato chip (a less than nutritious “comfort food”) or are we looking for the light seasoning that makes bland food better?

“You are the salt of the earth.” Go be tasty, useful, necessary, and nearly invisible as you work your saltiness.

2012-01-18T12:05:00.000-08:00

THE COMPANY OF PROPHETS

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you, because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.(Matthew 5: 11-12 – NAS)

After telling his followers that they are blessed when they are persecuted for standing in righteousness, he goes on with the cheerful news that they can expect even more persecution because they are His followers. It’s almost as if He is really challenging them, testing how deeply they are committed to following Him on the path He is showing them.

I’ve always thought that was the distracting thing about reading the Beatitudes. All those sentences beginning with “Blessed are” create this calm, serene atmosphere like an empty church sanctuary lit by warm light setting stained glass windows glowing. But then the qualities Jesus speaks of are nitty-gritty, down and dirty, hard-nosed actions. Perhaps that is one of the things that contributes to our not giving these verses close attention.

Everything that has come before this moment has had its pragmatic point. But here Jesus removes the last worldly veil of what He is talking about. Here He tells us that because of Him we are likely to become the targets of persecution. And not just attacks and hostility, but lies and slanders about our characters and actions, all because we follow Jesus. For that is what He means by “falsely saying all kinds of evil.”

Nobody likes to have their character or actions misrepresented. We do take pride in our integrity. It pleases us to shine in our own virtues, as it were. So when someone comes along and throws figurative mud on us, we do not take it well or easily. But Jesus warns us that even though we will be blessed because of those virtues, our commitment to following Him will also bring these unpleasant attacks.

He makes a point of comparing this “fate” to the treatment that the prophets were given in older times. Treated as outcasts, outlaws, disturbing personalities, the prophets of old rarely got soft treatment. Few people wanted to have a prophet in their house. But in the elder days, a prophet was also usually a selected individual, selected by God, and usually alone in his era.

But when Jesus tells His followers that they were likely to be treated the way the prophets had been treated, I think He is also indicating that unlike “those who were before you,” His followers were each blessed as prophets. No longer was the message from God to be brought to people by individual, isolated prophets, but rather every single follower of Jesus. They would be a company of prophets.

Suddenly, the mantle of Elijah falls not just to his chosen heir Elisha, but to every single person sitting there at the feet of this teacher from Galilee – and to all of us who follow Him even now.

Oh, my. Do we even consider that these days? Or do we just look at the part about being persecuted for the sake of Jesus? Ah, martyrdom! Pious images of the committed believer patiently enduring being stoned, as Stephen was. Deep in our commitment, we want to believe we can stand that ground and not give in and grovel for mercy. But let us remember that Stephen wasn’t silent as they killed him. Like one of the prophets of old, he continued getting his message out.

We may be willing to accept the possibility of being persecuted and lied about. But are we willing to be prophets? I don’t mean in the sense of fore-telling the future, but rather as being messengers of God. To really stand up in public and speak of what is important to the Lord?

We generally do not see prophets as being followers. They don’t sit quietly in pews listening to insightful instruction from pastors and then spend the rest of their week with their attention on their mundane job. They aren’t contented with singing praise songs in worship and then returning home to lunch and football games. Prophets stand up in the middle of things and take our attention off worldly things by talking – loudly – about God.

It would seem that Jesus expects us to have that kind of passion about our commitment to Him. But He also tells us to rejoice about this, because our reward in heaven will be great.

Now, that must be something indeed, for we know already that just being part of the kingdom of heaven is a great and marvelous thing to start with. Yet Jesus says that in all that glory, when we are persecuted because we are His followers, we shall be the great among the great, the glorified in the midst of glory.

These beatitudes challenge us about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And He gives us these challenges before He even unfolds the greater details of the way to live a godly life. He makes no pretense that this is going to be easy. He even goes so far as to say explicitly it will be difficult, painful, and possibly even deadly. But if we stick it out, our reward is great.

2012-01-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

PERSECUTION AND AUTHORITY

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.(Matthew 5: 10 -- NAS)

This is one of those points where what Jesus has to say boggles our minds. “Wait!” we exclaim, “Persecuted? I’m going to be persecuted? And you expect me to think of this as a good thing?” We really don’t want to go there.

Everyone at some point has felt put upon or bullied. Some have endured even more intense abuse. But are these necessarily “persecution”?

The term “persecution” gets used for a very focused pursuit with intent to cause injury and agony, usually because of the victim’s beliefs.

So, being harassed just because someone dislikes you is not the same thing as being persecuted, at least for what Jesus is talking about. And that’s an important thing to remember, the “for the sake of righteousness” qualifier that our Lord included in this statement. Many people who become the target of public criticism try to put on the cloak of self-righteousness, claiming to be “rising above” the perceived attacks. Is that what Jesus meant?

We looked at the matter of righteousness before, when we considered those who hunger and thirst for it. It’s that mixture of a sense of justice and balance, and a commitment to the divine order. There’s nothing in all that about our own ego or vanity or self-image. When we are committed to righteousness, we’re committed to God’s causes.

What Jesus upholds here then, are those who are willing to take a stand on principle, regardless of the social consequences. And he is pointing out that such a choice will bring persecution down upon you. There will always be those who have no interest in seeing righteousness prevail.

“Seeing righteousness prevail.” That’s very “churchy” talk there. What does it actually look like? What are those right things in the world, those divine things? Refusing to break the law, when peers are urging it, that could be one instance. But seriously, how often do our friends do that? Well, except for things like grabbing the handicapped parking spot even though no one in the car is disabled, because it’s “just a quick run in and out.” Or asking a friend to lie about your absence so you can attend the football game where you’ve got seats on the 50 yard line. All around us, every day, there are the tiny cracking sounds of little bits of rule-breaking. But surely they don’t matter.

The problem is that we get so comfortable with tiny instances of rule-breaking that we stop distinguishing when the matter becomes more serious. And that can be dangerous. If you’re standing on a sheet of ice, and you’ve been ignoring all the tiny cracks running away from your feet, all the small noises of fractures forming, you could very suddenly find yourself dropped straight down into icy cold water that could kill you very easily.

We really don’t like it when someone with us says “You shouldn’t be parking in the handicapped spot.” We get unhappy when our close friend says, “No, I’m not going to lie for you.” We feel put-upon unjustly, even though the reality is not injustice but rather our immediate desire being thwarted. We run into a brick wall, and think it is the wall’s fault for not moving.

When we set our hearts upon righteousness, and are willing to hold onto that, there will be moments when we have to say “no” to the small rule-breaking that everyone urges us to do. By choosing righteousness, we are, in a sense, making ourselves part of the “brick wall.” Are we ready to face what will come as a result of that?

People don’t necessarily like being reminded of righteousness. It isn’t comfortable, when that’s not the route they’re choosing. They don’t like the reminder that they could be better people than they are. They don’t like the reminder that their choices could be damaging to others. And when they are reminded, their impulse is to blot out the reminder, tear up the envelope, throw the annoying message into the trash.

In a word, persecute the righteous one.

Jesus says that the person who has made the choice to stand upon righteousness, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

I’m not sure that’s a “reward” we find easy to grasp. What does He mean by that?

I don’t think He intended it as a consolation for enduring the slings and arrows of outraged self-indulgence. I think He’s giving an affirmation to those who make this choice, to be principled, to stand their ground, to hold to righteousness. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” If they possess heaven, then, that means they have some aspect of the authority of heaven. They are in command. God puts His power into the hands of these people who are willing to stand up for righteousness and become targets.

Underneath this verse lies the issue of martyrdom, those who are attacked and killed because of their beliefs. Many people take up the causes of righteousness and boldly declare their intention to stand their ground, no matter what. They proudly declare that they are quite willing to be “martyred” for righteousness sake. And Jesus was not blind to the fact that being killed was a possibility. But “dying for the cause” is not what He is looking at here. Look again at what He says.

“Blessed are those persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It isn’t “Blessed are those killed for the sake of righteousness for they get to go to heaven.”

In that moment when we are being attacked because of our stand upon righteousness, what are we thinking? Are we focused on defending ourselves? Are we feeling powerless to have any effect on others, other than impressing us with our rock-solid commitment? Do we ever remember in that moment that we have the authority of heaven in our hands?

And if we do remember that we possess the kingdom of heaven in that moment, that we are the wielders of the authority of God, what do we do with it? Do we browbeat and chastise our persecutors? Do we mock and ridicule them for their efforts? Or do we try and do as the Lord has done, dispensing justice and mercy and love to them?

You make a commitment to the Lord, and stand your ground on His law, for “righteousness sake”. And someone comes after you, persistently attacking you because of that stand. The authority of heaven is in your hands, you possess it. What do you do with it?

2012-01-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

UNTANGLE FROM THE ENDS

I gave myself a break from the Sermon on the Mount study this weekend. I realized that I had been writing to specific points every day for seven weeks straight. Every day without a break. And suddenly my mind balked and said it wanted a day or two off.

So I did. (I'll pick up again with the study on Monday.) Besides, a side thought had occured to me that I wanted to muse upon. I think, in the future, I'll be posting daily entries for The Measure on weekdays and use the weekends for either breaks or thoughts on other things.

I should say something else about The Measure Dealt To Me, though. I've been writing about 1,000 words per post on this study, but have come to realize that for some of them I still haven't said enough. So what will be happening "behind the scenes" as I go along is that those posts will likely be expanded with additional illustrations and personal experience. So the final book, when it is completed, will be much more than these blog posts.

The discipline of writing daily to specific points has been very good. And it's given me a lot of food for thought. Which brings me to the title of this post.

I was washing my hair the other day, and reached the stage of working the conditioner in. For a long time, I'd had the habit of putting the conditioner on the top of my head - at the roots, and then working it through, hoping it would disentangle my very fine hair. When you have light, fine hair, it gets tangled very easily, and just yanking a comb or brush through it only pulls it out. Now I've known for a long time the instructions recommend putting the conditioner on the ends first and then working back up the strands. Yet, I'd persist with the top down practice.

However, lately, I've finally got that turned around, starting from the loose ends. And of course, this works much better, and makes it easier to get the whole hair shaft treated with the conditioner. Because by untangling the loose ends first, it makes it easier to separate them upward toward their roots. Working downward always resulted in the places that most needed untangling being the last to be separated.

Yes, there is actually a spiritual / psychological lesson here. Because that's the way my mind works at times.

What I realized is the importance of making changes by starting with the small things. Or I should say, saw something I already knew from a new perspective. Everyone always does say "Start small" but when faced with so many things that need changing, it's hard to choose a starting point. But as I was standing there, working the conditioner into the loose ends first and feeling them separate and untangle, it was like a revelation. You cannot effectively condition the roots of the strand until the small loose ends have been freed from their tangles. Massage the roots all you want, but if the conditioner hasn't freed the loose ends, the tangles still remain.

It's just one element in some self-evaluation I've been doing. So, I'm starting with some small things, and am working my way toward some bigger matters. After all, God actually is interested in our "small stuff" as much as He is interested in our "more important" things.

2012-01-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

MAKING PEACE

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
(Matthew 5: 9 – NAS)

Few people really want to be peacemakers. It is not a fun task. And yet, when one steps in everyone is thankful that the person was there.

We’ve all been in family or social or work situations where a conflict has sprung up between two people. The reasons for the conflict don’t even matter. These two people are clashing in public and are affecting everyone around them. The atmosphere becomes uncomfortable, and usually the onlookers cannot escape. Sometimes, the conflict spreads, as the onlookers take up one side or the other. The chaos and anger expands outward, disrupting everything.

Who in their right mind wants to get into the middle of all that? Who wants to step up and get between fighters? Who wants to become the sudden target of everyone whose emotions are caught up in the battle?

Nobody.

Nobody wants to do that, I should say.

Conflict throws things out of balance. It causes everyone to lose their equilibrium. And we need to have that in order to move onward effectively in our lives.

So someone has to step up.

What does it take to be a peacemaker, to restore balance to a situation?

It takes a sense of vision, to be able to see both sides of a situation. It requires the ability to know how each side arrived at their current place. The Peacemaker needs to be able to determine where things “went off the rails.”

It isn’t possible to resolve every single conflict around us. Some clashes run very, very deep and are beyond the ability of any one person to bring back into balance. But we all have the capability of nudging things back toward the point of equilibrium.

Telling anyone that they are wrong – even when they are – is no easy task. Because most people stand at a point believing they have done everything right. Pointing out to them everything they have done wrong doesn’t help, because they can’t always see it. It takes work to get some who is in a conflict to even look at the causes for the conflict, because hurt feelings and a sense of self-righteousness get in the way of direct examination.

I don’t like the vibe of conflict around me. But that’s an incomplete statement, for I’m as willing as the next person to get into an argument with someone about an idea or a principle or a choice. I can be just as passionate about my opinions as the next person. But there often comes a point when the arguments and disagreements move beyond mere contention and move into outright battle. And that’s where I prefer to stop. It isn’t that I fear being destroyed, though. I fear my ability to destroy others. I don’t care if I get wounded – well, not much, because I can recover from a wound. But how do I recover from so crushing someone that they bleed out (figuratively speaking)? Because I know I am just as capable as the next person in delivering such a blow. I pay attention to those around me, and I often know exactly what their weak spot might be. I’ve even been known to take jabs at those points, when I’ve been down, distress, and feeling resentful. Not a pretty picture.

But in knowing how easy it is to damage and crush someone, I find that the prospect of doing it gives me no pleasure at all. I want to get back to a balance where I can enjoy things.

And that is what can motivate someone to step in and risk being attacked by both sides of a conflict. It is the search for balance for everyone.

Making peace does not mean that everyone has to walk away all happy and lovey-dovey. That isn’t always possible. Sometimes, making peace consists of getting both sides to agree and acknowledge that neither will get everything they want, but yet a working balance can be achieved between them. This doesn’t have to be done in big ways, for even small things can have big consequences.

I once knew a man who, when I got to know him, spoke of his ex-wife almost always as “Annie’s mother” (Annie being the daughter they had together – and yes, the name has been changed here). Since he and I and the ex-wife (by this time happily remarried) all moved in the same social circles, I found his circumlocution ... disappointing, to put it mildly. It was, I felt, a way for him to deny his ex-wife’s personhood, and it didn’t really do any of them, or me, any good. So I refused to play along. I never said to him, “She has a name.” (Or at least I don’t think I did.) Instead, if she came up in conversation, I would refer to her by name. The change was not immediate, but gradually, as he became more willing to speak his ex-wife’s name, he also became more willing to be publicly gracious to her and get on with his own life. I like to feel I contributed a little bit to that, by restoring a balance that had been lost.

It’s one thing to do this when you are the disinterested third party, not directly in conflict with either of the contenders. It’s quite another thing to be the peacemaker when you are one of the parties in conflict.

To become the peacemaker in that circumstance means cultivating the ability to step back and examine one’s own behavior. It isn’t fun being honest with yourself about a clash you have with someone else. On top of that, the other person is often resentful and doesn’t want to deal with you. But if balance and peace are important to you, you shouldn’t put it off. You have to be honest both about your own actions and acknowledging how they obviously were received and about the actions of the other person and how they set you off. I’m not talking about accusing the other person of anything but rather simply a “When you did this, this is how I reacted, how I felt. And that’s why I then did this other thing.” Avoiding the matter of who is right or wrong means that the other person doesn’t have to dig in their heels to defend themselves. This is a harder process.

But look what Jesus says about those who can do this – “they shall be called sons of God.” Okay, so he was speaking to a patrilinear society where the position of women was rather subordinate, particularly in matters of inheritance. In one of his letters, Paul makes clear that the inheritance extends to all believers, and I think this is what Jesus is speaking to here. The Peacemakers shall be called the immediate heirs of the God of Creation.

What a splendiferous thing that is! If we choose to exercise this quality, we shall be seen and named as being of the direct family of God. Now that is a blessing indeed. Are you bold enough to reach for it?

2012-01-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

WHAT'S IN YOUR HEART?

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.(Matthew 5: 8 – NAS)

There are not many variations to this declaration. In fact the only variation I could find says “Happy are the clean in heart – because they shall see God.” This is Young’s Literal Translation.
What does it mean to be “pure”, I wonder? Particularly when it comes to ourselves?

The word “pure” is simple enough: to be unmixed with other matter; to be free from contaminated substances; to be ritually clean; to be free from that which does not belong. Everything else the word might mean flows from these. But it has to be something more than just "clean."

So what does that make “pure in heart”?

In the ancient world, the heart was considered the location of thought and feeling. That’s why Mary “pondered things in her heart.” Even though we now know scientifically that that mass of cells in our head is where the processing of both thought and emotion lies, we still use phrases like “I know in my heart” as a way of conveying those things which we are most certain about, even if it is beyond reason. We know how vital our hearts are to keeping us alive, and so we imaginatively locate all our important things there.

People tend to generally regard the description “pure in heart” as meaning basically someone who holds to all the virtues. The “really good” people. And I think that’s a good place to start. But is it the totality of what Jesus meant?

Remember, people in that time considered the heart the seat of thought and feeling. And then there are all those scriptural references to “the desires of our hearts.”

There’s something bigger here than just “well behaved” people, then. So let’s look closer.

“Pure in thought.” We talk about people who “keep their thoughts pure” and often throw in a slightly mocking tone, because what we conjure up with that is someone who doesn’t let their thoughts stray toward “dirty matters” like sex (in any form, apparently). But humans were created as sexual creatures. Why should “purity” involve excluding something so basic and so intense in our experience? We try to shut it down because it is so intense that it often leads us astray, that’s why. We get into a mindset that it would be better not to think of something at all rather than risk going astray. What would happen if we stopped focusing on physical gratification and instead focused on commitment to our mates, emotional honesty, dedication to fidelity and honoring our partner?

But there are also the issues of how we lay out our plans in our careers. What choices are we making and are we clear about them, or are we just drifting along? “Pure in thought.”

What about “pure in emotion”? This isn’t just about holding on to all the “good” emotions. Those are certainly the ones we want to have most if not all the time. But I don’t know anyone who really succeeds in that. To me, being “pure in emotion” means being honest about what we are feeling. We can do so much damage, to ourselves and others, if we hide our emotional reactions to things. And when we deny, even to ourselves, that we have a particular negative emotion, that only festers inside us. If you are angry, be angry and deal with it. Don’t push it down and pretend it doesn’t exist. That only causes its toxicity to leak into other areas of your life. But if you face it, you can deal with it, and get back to those much more positive feelings you do enjoy. Putting something off until later does no one any service.

And when it comes to “the desires of our hearts,” what then? For I don’t think the Lord was talking about our incidental lusts for that shiny new car or the newest whiz-bang smartphone. When scripture uses that phrase, the writer is talking about something much more inherent in each specific individual. We each have something in us, buried deep in our fibers, that we want to do or be. But the world can easily divert us from those goals. They may be difficult to achieve and we can fall by the wayside in striving for that achievement. They might be something we want to do, and we are regularly thwarted from learning the necessary skills. And yet, somewhere deep within, there is something alive that wants to be manifested – the desire of our hearts.

Can we keep ourselves pure in that? Or do we let disappointments drown out its song? Do we let other things get mixed in with it until we no longer recognize that desire?

“Pure in heart” then is indeed something much bigger than just being virtuous. It involves remembering just what God created us to be, and holding onto that. It means being ready to let go of those things that don’t help us purify our very natures.

Why does it matter? Look at what Jesus says – “they shall see God.”

Before your very eyes, unveiled in His glory, you who have burned away the impurities in your hearts shall see God. Not as a stern judge and executioner. Our Lord and Father shall be there for us to see, our safe home and comfort. As a reward for striving to be so entirely the self he made us each to be.

2012-01-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

THE QUALITY OF MERCY

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.(Matthew 5: 7)

Mercy is an interesting quality. We certainly want to be on the receiving end of mercy. The cop pulls us over for a minor infraction of traffic rules and we hope he’ll be merciful and just give us a warning. Or something awkward is said in front of the boss, and we hope that he’ll be merciful and ignore it.
So we do know what mercy is, on the receiving end.

But Jesus is talking about mercy from the active end. “Blessed are the merciful.”

To be merciful is to extend compassion to those before us, especially when our next action can have a major effect on the other person’s life. It’s easy enough to be merciful to those whose actions have not affected us, and who won’t really be touched by what we decide. That is why there is a certain hollowness to declarations of charity directed at third parties who don’t even know the charity was extended. Where is the mercy in that? If I declare that I have pity for a teen who robbed some money in order to buy food for his hungry younger siblings, yes, that is a certain amount of compassion for him. But is that mercy? He didn’t steal from me and I don’t even know him.

Mercy requires a direct connection. There is nothing merciful at a withholding of action from a remote distance; that is just something that did not happen. True mercy cannot be done at a removed distance or through proxies.

Ah, so that is where it starts to be difficult: it has to be done face-to-face!

Starting with the instances where we are just extending compassion to someone and no injury has been done to us, this isn’t too difficult. We can encounter a needy panhandler and easily give some money, because their need is evident. There has been no injury to us, only the discomfort of seeing someone who is in great need.

But when the offense is done to us directly, it is not so easy to be merciful. It requires us to accept the injury done, and present a compassionate front to the offender. That’s a very different game.

Start small: there are daily instances where we can be slighted or disrespected. How do we respond to these? Is that matter of such importance that we really need to behave resentfully and create a confrontation? If it is not, then Jesus' call to us to be merciful comes into play. That means being compassionate enough not to make a scene about it. The offender may not even know he or she has in fact offended.

And let us make no mistake: Jesus really is calling us to develop the qualities mentioned in the Beatitudes. He hopes that we will choose to be those described as “blessed.”

But refraining from getting into hassles with those around us because of small offenses, we do end up presenting an appearance of meekness. Unfortunately, many people take that as being submissive in the weakest way. And protesting that interpretation rather negates the whole of the choice. This is when we start to realize that the life Jesus calls us to is going to be constantly misinterpreted.

Does it matter whether others understand our choices in behavior? It shouldn’t.

But there’s more to this. As we become more practiced in being merciful about minor injuries, we learn how to be merciful about larger matters.

It’s not impossible to be able to extend mercy to someone over a major injury or infraction. But it can be a struggle to exercise it, when one has not practiced it much in the smaller things of life.

Jesus does say that there is a “pay off” to being merciful toward others, though. He says that such people receive mercy back.

Something in our character is changed by being merciful toward those around us, and that change is such that it attracts merciful responses from others. Jesus doesn’t say that the merciful receive mercy from those to whom they had extended compassion. He just says “they shall receive mercy.”

We don’t know when we might need mercy from others. Even if we go through life without intentionally doing harm to others, there will still be occasions where something goes wrong and we injure others. We all need mercy at some point. Wouldn’t it be a good thing to have developed a character which attracts the impulse for mercy in others?

The real challenge is the mercy in small things, those incidents that are slight. Not big dramatic moments where we can make a public display of our mercy to a terrible person, but rather the small moments when we’ve been sneered at or insulted and not only did the other person not realize what they had done, but we have to behave as if it did not happen. Refusing to exercise our anger in public can be an act of mercy not just to the person creating the injury, but also to anyone else within range.

So maybe this mercy thing isn’t so easy after all. But it is certainly well worth doing.

2012-01-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

DO YOU WANT TO BE HUNGRY AND THIRSTY?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
(Matthew 5: 6)

It is so easy for us to focus on the conjunction of “hunger and thirst” with “they shall be satisfied.” We may even want to skip over that “for righteousness” part. So many other verses in the Bible speak of how God watches out for us and provides for our needs that we just want to stay with that. But even though Jesus will say something about that later, that’s not what he’s saying here.

Instead, He’s talking about something else.

“Righteousness.” What is that to us, in this day and age?

The New English translation says “those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail.” Is that enough? The New Living Translation says “hunger and thirst for justice.” So what does “righteousness” really mean to us these days? According to the dictionary (I do like going back to that resource), to be “righteous” is to be “acting in accord with divine or moral law; arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality; genuine, excellent.” That is more than mere “justice” at the least.

There’s something bigger here than having things right in a worldly sense. Social justice is about balance in society. It doesn’t have much to do with balance between us and God. But it isn’t too surprising that we try to downplay the nature of “righteousness.” How far we have come from divine law! Even “moral law” is getting ground down. We live in a society that mostly focuses on just “law,” the civil regulations we have drawn up to make social interactions run smoothly.

People worry about what is legal, what they can do legally. Far too many people have stopped thinking about whether their actions are moral. Having an affair may not be moral, but the legal consequences of the action are dependent on what the people involved choose to make of them. Even fewer people consider anything related to divine concerns.

But Jesus speaks of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – those things which God considers right or wrong. Jesus challenges us here. He makes us look beyond what society expects, He wants us to look to God Himself.

To hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God. That’s a far stronger desire than merely wanting things to be right.

I have a bad habit of not drinking enough, of anything, but especially of water. I get wrapped up in my activities, and don’t take a drink of anything. But then there comes a moment when I pick up my filled water bottle and drink. Not sip, not taste, but drink. The immediacy of water is a wonderful thing in the body. We don’t linger tasting flavors, it goes straight down, and our bodies absorb it into the system easily. It refreshes us.

And hunger, what about that? For most Americans, being really hungry isn’t an issue. They can have access to food fairly easily. It might not be wonderful to taste, but it can be sustaining. We very rarely have to do without. But say the day comes when there isn’t much food at hand, nor the means of getting any. If we’re not being particularly active, we can hold on for a time. If we don’t burn many calories, our bodies can draw on reserves stored up. But eventually we need more protein.

It is hard to step back and realize our body needs real food, not just the incidental fuel that carbohydrates provide. We’re hungry for true sustenance at that point, and when we get it, we know we have all that we need for the next day or so.

This is what Jesus is talking about: those who want God that way, who need to drink in the righteousness of God. He praises those who want God so much that they want and need to drink Him right into their very being. He praises those who need God as their daily sustenance, to fuel them through all their day’s labor.

Jesus calls these people blessed. But that isn’t all: they also will be satisfied.

They are not thirsting for the impossible. They are not hungering for the unattainable. They will be satisfied.

The desire for God’s engagement in their lives will be fulfilled. And it’s an engagement for a right balance in all aspects of life. Not just the worldly laws and justice working, but the divine sense of balance being exercised all around us.

Do we want that righteousness, though? In the play Hamlet, the prince chastises a courtier who says he will treat the play-actors “as they deserve.” Hamlet reproves him with “Use every man according to his desert and who should 'scape whipping?” Far too often we hunger for fairness (meaning we are not the one who loses). Far too often we hunger for revenge and call our desire justice. Far too often the balance we seek is that those who have oppressed us should suffer as we have suffered.

But the righteousness of God is available to all. Are we willing to give up our desire to dictate to God whom He can bless?

For a statement that seemed easy at the beginning, this has turned more complicated. And yet, here it is, something Jesus is upholding as highly desireable. To hunger and thirst after righteousness, God’s sense of what is right or wrong. It requires that we let ourselves become hungry and thirsty in a very specific way. But it also promises something quite remarkable: it promises that we will be satisfied. How can we not want that?

2012-01-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

MEEK AND HUMBLE, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
(Matthew 5: 5 – NAS)

Most translations use the word “meek” for this verse, but the New American Standard has the word “gentle.” The New Living Translation uses the word “humble.” These possibilities are all interesting.

For modern usage, the word “meek” has fallen on hard times. The first definition given in the dictionary says “enduring injury with patience and without resentment, mild.” That doesn’t sound so bad. But it goes on with “deficient in spirit and courage; submissive; not violent or strong, moderate.” It is those later definitions that give the word its troublesome effect.

“Deficient in spirit” sounds similar to “poor in spirit,” but we tend to use “deficient” in a more negative sense, as if one has chosen to lack a quality. And I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about. “Submissive” also carries a negative weight. The use of “humble” for the quality Jesus is referring to here might be closer to his intent. To be humble is to be something other than arrogant or proud. After all, it is possible to imagine that someone can be proud and still gentle (to a degree).

I think that Jesus meant a mix of these elements. I think he meant people who do not exalt themselves, people who will take the time to be kind to those they encounter, who are willing to be patient with the people they deal with each day.

In the musical Camelot, Mordred has a song where he mocks the virtues that King Arthur extols. He sings, “It’s not the earth the meek inherit, it’s the dirt.” He sees no benefit in being meek. The meek get trampled on, until they end up under the dirt, buried like trash – according to Mordred. That’s not a fate anyone desires. His attitude is the one that most of the world holds toward those who are meek and humble.

And yet, Jesus says it is these people who will inherit the whole earth. What’s going on here?

Let’s back up and look at the people he’s talking about, what they will look like when we see them.

Someone who is meek and humble will be patient with those around them. The meek and humble person is the woman in the line at the coffee shop, who when someone cuts in front of her, merely smiles and shrugs instead of making an angry protest. This person is the cashier in a store who is patient with the protesting customer, listening carefully and trying to explain the problem as calmly and clearly as possible, not giving into anger. The meek person is the one who quickly stops to help someone who has dropped packages on the sidewalk, and then goes on without any fuss.

These are simple enough actions, so why are they worthy of note?

They’re notable because we just don’t do them, not easily. And the fact is that when we do see people who act with humility and gentleness easily, we are impressed by them. We are touched by their acts of kindness.

Jesus says that these people will “inherit the earth.” That means they will be given “the earth.”

We don’t admit it, but we really do appreciate those who treat others with patience. We admire their ability to stick with the choice, acknowledging that we probably would not be able to do likewise. That is why they become the recipients of this divine inheritance. God trusts into the hands of these people the whole of the earth.

How do we change ourselves to become one of these people? What do we have to do to be one of the meek, humble, gentle?

One of the first elements of it, I believe, is that we have to be willing to swallow our own pride. Our personal dignity is not dependent on always getting deference we think is our due. We need to be ready to do the job at hand when it needs doing, and we need to do it without complaining. Our eyes cannot be on “the prize” because the minute we start looking for a reward, we stop paying attention to what is immediately in front of us. And that is why “the prize” is an inheritance – it is the choice of the giver, it is not a wage that is earned, and there is no indication of when one would receive the inheritance.

This is one of the qualities that Jesus praise (and blesses) that seems a bit easier to get into. Perhaps more of us should try it more often.

2012-01-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

DEALING WITH HOLES IN OUR LIVES

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
(Matthew 5: 4 - NAS)

So, now we have an idea of what it means to be “blessed,” and it is something that we can see working with those who are “poor in spirit.” When you know you need God, sure, we can see how that can be addressed by the Lord.

But Jesus then immediately follows that “just spiritual” condition with something everybody meets in their “ordinary” life. We may not have cause to mourn every day, but nobody gets by without some sort of loss that they mourn.

What does it mean to “mourn”? The dictionary says it means to feel and show or express grief.

To show or express grief? Oh, wait a minute here.

Our modern culture has taken a very problematic attitude toward grief. We’re not really very comfortable with the grief of others. It disturbs us.

Yet, on the one hand we make a great show of certain moments of grief. A celebrity, especially an entertainer, dies and there is suddenly an huge outpouring of public displays of grief, where fans give show to huge emotional displays of loss. I’m not trying to say that their grief is fake. The loss of a talent that has inspired many, given pleasure to many, is indeed a sad thing worth grieving over. Artists enrich our lives and we are diminished when we lose such individuals.

But our idolization of entertainment providers becomes a form of worship. It doesn’t seem to occur to people that they are raising up a god that comes before God. I have heard commentatory speak of wailing fans as being “inconsolable” – meaning they could not be comforted. Doesn’t that run contrary to what Jesus is saying?

But there’s another side of our expressions of grief. There’s a tendency for us to pressure those who have suffered a personal loss to either get over it quickly or to make a bigger, more public display of their grief. There seems to be an expectation of public display when the loss is unexpected, tragic, and caused by human agency. We put up “shrines” (and they are indeed called such) at the spot where a person was killed by some reckless driver, or where some other unjust end occurred. We institutionalize the memory of the lost one, and focus all thoughts on the fact that the dead person is lost. On the other hand, we also urge people to “get over” their grieving when the loss comes about in less dramatic ways. When the loss is some physical ailment, without heroic resistance to the ravages of some “famous disease,” many people urge the grieving to move on, get back into the flow of life.

As a culture, we are terribly inconsistent about dealing with grievers.

Loss hits us hard in the core of our being. We grieve over losses, because it changes our lives drastically. We want to express the distress of deep changes, because that expression lets the emotion flow through our being and “get out.” We used to have a broad cultural customs that dealt with the process of grieving. A year of mourning, wearing black in various ways in order to communicate to those around us that we had major loss. But we don’t do that any more. Or not much. We don’t give people very much temporal space in which to deal with their losses. Instead of formally grieving for the loss of a loved parent for a year, we zip across country to attend the funeral, maybe having a week for the “public display” of loss, and then we expect the griever to return to the usual pattern of life, and get on with things as if the loss were no different than a minor holiday weekend absence.

Perhaps the answer to this lies in the other part of what Jesus says. “They will be comforted.” What does that mean?

We do know what it means to be comfortable. That means our physical being is not being stressed. It’s possible to be comfortable in action, if we are moving in such a way that does not stress our bones and muscles. But we usually think of it as being at rest. We extend that sense of balance to our emotional lives when we mean that we are being emotionally comforted – we are brought to a place where our emotional distresses have been at the very least balanced by reassurances on the positive end of our emotional spectrum.

Mourning is a way of letting the negative baggage of loss get out of our system. Yes, it can affect the people around us, making them discomforted because they don’t know how to deal with it. And that is part of why they try to limit mourning. They feel as if they are expected to provide the comfort and they don’t know how to do that, so they want to eliminate their awareness of loss and mourning around them. Those who do try to comfort, sometimes do it badly (though not intending it that way), urging replacements on the griever long before that person is even ready to look beyond the loss.

Mourning is a way of valuing the people, places and things in our lives. When we lose them, by whatever means, we have cause to mourn. Something that was significant to us is now gone from us, for whatever reason. In order to cope with that, we do need to spend some time thinking about the value of the Lost One to us. We do need to sound out the shape that person had in our lives. But the time for mourning should be about knowing and acknowledging that loss, not taking residence inside it.

This is the difficulty about mourning, and where that word “inconsolable” comes into play. Each loss makes a hole in our lives. Some people fall into that hole, pouring the entirety of their lives into the much smaller space of their loss. “He was everything to me!” I don’t wish to belittle the importance of anyone’s grief, but that’s not true. There is only one thing, only one person that is bigger than the shape of our whole lives, and that is God Himself.

We need to address the hole that loss makes, the way we would deal with any wound. It has to be cleaned, dressed with healing ointment, and bandaged. A bandage does not hide the wound, but instead shelters the wound while it heals. There may be scars left by the healing process, so that we always have a marker of what that event was. But a scar is healthy. The wound is no longer bleeding. The wound no longer has exposed nerve endings sensitive to even the slightest brush. Mourning and the period of mourning is the time of emotional healing, and a cultural mourning period used to allow for the bandage protection and ointment that we need.

But when people start making their loss more important than their own life, they are keeping the wound open and bleeding. They are weakening themselves by letting it keep bleeding. They are feeding infection. When they do that, they make it impossible for healing and comfort to get to them.

We actually have a choice in this. Accepting the possibility of being comforted does not mean that you are diminishing the importance of what is lost, it does not mean you are disrespecting that person or place or thing. To mourn means that you are allowing yourself to express a loss, to define the shape the loss had in your life, to clean the empty space, anoint it with healing balm, cover it over to protect that place – and then move onward. The wound may heal with no visible scar, or it may leave a mark. But either way, comfort has been brought to us.

No loss is bigger than the whole of our life. If we still breathe, and do not crawl into the hole of our loss, comfort will come to us in the process of mourning and healing. We should not let others rush us through it, but we should not make the empty space our temple.

It’s easy to focus on the loss that comes from death, since such losses are our most primal ones. But we lose other things in our lives which also need to be mourned. We need to allow ourselves that process as well. Any change can be perceived as loss, and we need to accept it. Accept the comfort that comes from acknowledging and grieving those changes.

Those who mourn will be comforted.

2012-01-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

WHAT IS "POOR IN SPIRIT"?

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5: 3 – NAS)

“Blessed” is not a term we use much in our daily lives. It really is “church talk” for many people, because it just doesn’t seem to convey anything we are familiar with in the mundane, outside-church activities we engage in. So perhaps, before we go further (especially since the Sermon on the Mount begins with a whole string of statements using the term) we should define what the word means to us.

The Amplified Bible gives some variations for the translation – “happy, to be envied, spiritually prosperous [that is, with life, joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions].”
Really? Let’s look a bit more closely at these terms.

“Happy.” In the end, using “happy” as an alternate translation makes it all read like “pie in the sky” spirituality. Happy according to whom? Because the condition Jesus talks about, “poor in spirit” seems to indicate someone who certainly isn’t happy in the eyes of the World.

The same goes for “to be envied,” at least on a worldly level. Again, envied by whom? For those who do not seek a spiritual life, or a serious walk with God, why would they even care about the spiritual condition of others? On the other side of the fence, for a believer ... well, we can come back to that in a moment.

“Spiritually prosperous” is the next suggestion The Amplified Bible makes, and this seems a bit more promising. It at least addresses the sense that Jesus is talking about something that may not be visible in “ordinary life,” except in the behavior of this “blessed” person.

So, I turned to the plain ordinary dictionary (actually, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary which I keep at hand for writing purposes), and found the following tidbits: “held in reverence, venerated; honored in worship; beatific; of or enjoying happiness, especially enjoying the happiness of heaven; bringing pleasure, contentment, or good fortune; used as an intensive.” Well, that’s quite a lot to bite off.

“Held in reverence.” Now that’s unusual. That describes the act of giving respect to others. It’s not something we usually think about in our daily lives. At least it seems that way, given how rampant rudeness is. But worth keeping in mind. “Beatific” is another “church-word” and doesn’t help us define “blessed” for daily use. “Enjoying happiness,” well, we’ve met that already. I don’t think that Jesus is talking about behaving like an aggressively bouncy cheerleader. However, there might be something to “enjoying the happiness of heaven. “Bringing pleasure or contentment” might be what could fit, although in the following verses, Jesus mentions some very unpleasant experiences, things loaded with lack of contentment. And “good fortune”? Again, according to whom?

“Enjoying the happiness of heaven” perhaps is the closest to what Jesus means. But it still bothers me, mainly because I once heard a speaker make a distinction between “happiness” and “joy.” Happiness, the speaker contended, is something that “just happens” to us, and is an emotion. As an emotion, it ebbs and flows depending on circumstances. And I don’t think that Jesus means that there is an ebb and flow to God’s blessing. But this particular speaker went on to say that joy is a choice. To have that sense of well-being that is joy is something we can choose for ourselves. If we take that back to the sense of what being “blessed” means, then, perhaps we can say that such people gain that internal benefit of joy, and they get it by choice.
Wait! By choice?

Interesting possibilities. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

What does it mean to be “poor in spirit” then, especially if the reward or benefit of that state is the “kingdom of heaven”?

We usually think of “poor” as meaning those who are severely economically deprived, but that’s not what Jesus means, because He made sure to add “in spirit” to the description. So, He’s really talking about people who feel spiritually poor, who feel they have such an emptiness where their relationship with God is concerned.

Now there might be quite a lot of people who really are “poor in spirit,” who have a great emptiness in their relationship with God. But I think Jesus is speaking of those who will actually admit they feel deprived of that relationship.

People do not like to admit that they are in need. It doesn’t matter what sort of need it is, we generally don’t want to appear incompetent or lacking or (seemingly worse) an object of pity. Even when we are. We live in an age where Pride rules. We don’t like to humble ourselves to admit we lack something.

What Jesus says here is that those who know they do not have enough of God, those folks are blessed and the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

And that’s another interesting point. These needy folks are not just in the kingdom of heaven. They possess it. They have the power and authority that belongs to the kingdom of heaven. Because they know they need God. And because they can admit that they need God, they are also blessed, they are also making a choice in favor of joy about their need.

This really makes for quite a different picture as to what this person looks like to an outsider. We’ve gone from someone who is feeling so bad about him- or herself that they were all “poor me,” to someone who is so needing God’s presence they have turned their face to God, seeking Him, and in that seeking they have found Him, carrying the kingdom of heaven with them wherever they go.

Do we as believers really admit how much we need God? Or do we consider it “enough” that we spend time in prayer, for others and for ourselves? Do we think it “enough” that we go to church, are involved in church activities, that we may work with a charity or two? Isn’t that enough contact with God?

If we think we have “enough” of God, then we’re not “poor in spirit.” Because “enough” means we neither need nor are seeking more.

So then... what Jesus recommends here is that we try to be people who know how much they need God in everything they do, because they will have the power and authority of the kingdom of heaven in them, which will bring them the joy of a connection with God. It’s a choice.

2012-01-06T11:53:00.000-08:00

GO

But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
(Matthew 28: 16-20)

Epiphany is the day that celebrates the visit of the magi to the Christ Child. It is to remind us of the manifestation of God-in-flesh and the showing forth of the Child to the wider world.

But when I was drawing up the verse selections to add to the original Advent readings (which ended at Christmas), I wanted to look beyound the usual boundaries of the Christmas story. Because it seems to me that we need to remember the bigger purposes God had in this strange story that we have coated over with enamel and jewels and sugar and sentiment.

The Lord came among us in order that we would know Him even better than we (as humans) had. God knows the vast distance that seems to lie between the glory of His majesty and the daily struggles we face, the conditions that are far from glorious, the emptiness that sucks the joy out of our lives. He wants to bridge that gap, and took this step of becoming manifest in Time in order to give us an anchor point for our relationship with HIm.

No longer to we look forward to some vague time when we might be brought to His presence. Instead, He came to us! But not just for that moment in Time, caught and pinned by the census that Caesar Augustus ordered. No, He is with us always.

One of the things I found as I have made my way through these verse selections for this season has been the call to witiness and testify to the glory of God, to praise Him for His promises -- and for how He delivers on those promises. Traveling hand in hand with that has been God taking action in my own life, showing me that the things I have been writing about and meditating upon are not "just spiritual" things, but in fact what He will manifest for us every day, if we just open the door for Him.

The Lord God is very great.

Yet, every day, it is so easy to slide away from just how great He really is. We step out of our doors to take the trash out, and wonder what to do about a pending bill we cannot meet. Fear sneaks into our hearts, as we wonder if we'll be "carried out" like the trash because we cannot find a way to address our obligations. We sit down and something someone nearby says about their relationships sets us to thinking of all the damaged or toxic relationships in our own lives, leaving us grieving and bleeding because we don't know how to recover from cuts given by those closest to us. The doctor tells us our body is crashing in on itself and we wonder how we'll be able to deal with it, alone and with limited funds to pay for the care we need. On every side challenges are manifested, touchable, pressing in on us, and we start feeling that the Lord stands outside that circle of impending disasters, just out of reach, intangible in so many ways. In our distress with the here and now we forget Who made those promises, Who has delivered on them in the past and will do so again, Who it was that came and lived as one of us.

It was the Creator of the Universe, our God who holds the very fabric of existence in His hands, That's who made those promises.

Jesus was and is the Lord made manifest to us, and all authority in heaven and on earth rests in Him. If we abide in HIm, if we wait upon Him, if we endure in Him, that glory wraps around us. Seek out a picture of the vastness of galaxies, drink in that image, think of how vast that mere segment of the whole of the universe is, and then remember that in all that, God also concerns Himself with the smallest sub-atomic particle in your being. He has pulled us close, sheltering us. He has sought us out, come hunting for us, fought off the predators. Yet we get like the myopic sheep, relying too much on our weakest sense. We cannot see clearly, and what we think we see frightens us so much we keep pushing forward out of fear. Stop. Listen for His voice. Let Him bring us back to His protection.

God doesn't expect us to do everything. That's the wonder of this relationship. In one part of our minds, we hear the charge to "Go and make disciples," and we think we have to get our act into order. That the only way we can show the glory of the Lord is by way of "being perfect." But that isn't what the Lord expects from us. He just expects us to speak of what we have seen. "Write what you have seen." Praise the Lord for the little things He has done.

The glory of God shines brightest when we stop trying to be perfect on our own. To make disciples of others, we need only show them how much we ourselves need the Lord. We need only testify to the daily small ways He meets us in our own lives. The glory of God travels with us, and each little drop that falls from our own lives into the lives of others opens the way for them. For those around us who are sitting in "great darkness," even the smallest bit of light from us shines greatly. If we carry that to others, God Himself will make so much more of it in them.

Go. Praise the Lord. Write of what you have seen. For your eyes have seen the Salvation of the Lord. You have witnessed this, tell it to the others around you so they will know what the Lord has done.

2012-01-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

IT'S NOT A SECRET
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things."
(Revelation 1: 12-19)

"Write the things which you have seen."

Very few of us are given a direct vision of the Christ standing in Heaven. So we're not going to run out and talk of the Being Made of Light, at least not as something we'd give witness testimony about. But I think there's more to the commandment than Christ telling John to write about his vision.

On every side these days, society pushes for people to be more discrete about their faith. The thinking seems to be that if people "don't go public" with their faith, those around them will not be disquieted or made uncomfortable. We've somehow reached a place where being comfortable is equated with being at peace.

This man we speak of began his life in a stable and spent His ministry walking back and forth across His country without a settled home, I don't think He was particularly concerned with what is "comfortable." Oh, He certainly did believe in the kind of comfort that is consolation, the soothing of the raw emotions of loss, grief, hurt. But He didn't seem particularly interested in whether or not we were "comfortable" in the sense of being settled easily. In fact, he seemed best pleased with unsettling the people He met.

I don't know about you, but I would be greatly unsettled to encounter the one John describes in Revelation -- One standing in the midst of light, who had such brightness around him that His face and hair seemed white, whose feet glowed like molten metal, who held stars in one hand. Such a one can speak with a high degree of authority. And this Person charges John to write of what he sees.

We're not told to be silent about the things we witness, particularly not as believers. Instead, we are told to proclaim the glory of God, to praise Him. Why would we even think that we should refrain from speaking of what we have seen God do in our lives? When we try to dismiss the incredible, as Zacharias did, we might be stricken silent. But that was in order to impell him to his declarations -- because he wouldn't accept the news, and instead made a joke of it, he had to be silent once the news was confirmed, silent for a long stretch until the baby was delivered. But once he could talk again, the first things out of his mouth were praise for the actions of the Lord. When the shepherds were told by angels of the Christ's birth, they immediately ran to see the wonderful Child and then as they returned to their jobs, they told everyone they met of the event. They could not keep silent.

Why would we keep silent when the Lord meets us in small ways every day? Because for many of us, those small encounters are far more important that a dream-vision of Heaven. The small encounters that allow us to pay a looming bill, that help us deal with an immediate injury, that change a flat tire on our car; these things are important to us. The gentle touch of a hand when we've been wracked with loneliness, the soft voice speaking just to us when we haven't been spoken to in days, the unexpected gift from a friend when we've been struggling with something. Are these not so wonderful to us that we just can't keep quiet about them?

And yet we do.

We don't speak of these small shining glimpses of Heaven. Instead, we speak of the dark clouds that sit on us, the tangling vines that keep us from moving, the sticky mud that slows us down. We let our obstacles become more important than our destination. I'm as guilty of doing that as much as the next person. It's so easy to talk about what is right in my face - bills to be paid, jobs to be hunted, things that can't be done because I don't have the means right now, food I don't have, companions I'm without, pleasures denied.

Why do we do that? We don't really get any pleasure out of complaining, nor does it give joy to anyone around us. Why do we choose to testify to the unglorious things that happen?

The Shining One of God has come and dwelt among us. He has met us where we are. His coming was promised, and He did indeed come. He seeks us out and He finds us, no matter how far we stray from the flock. He shelters us, even in our most humble circumstances.

"Write of what you have seen."

Here are my drops of glory this moring, these little splashes of God's presence --

I had a friend spot me some funds for a pleasing dinner last night. I was hungry and didn't have much at hand, and he blessed me, and not out of pity, but out of respect and affection.

The sun is shining outside right now, and the weather is amazingly mild and warm for the season - something the hand of no human could accomplish.

I have before me at my desk two photographs. On one side, a photograph of my parents that I took on a lovely day, my favorite picture of them. They are relaxed and joyful, and the memory of that particular day shines bright in it. On the other side, a picture of a delightful couple that are as dear to me as my parents, a couple that moved beyond being professional mentors and inspiration.

Near at hand is a small book written by a friend, telling of many obstacles he has overcome, pages shining with encouragement and persistence.

These are the small gifts from the Lord, the immediate things. These are the things of Heaven that I have seen. If I can speak of these, I can speak of the bigger things too. Of the assurance that the Lord is with me no matter what. Oh, there've been times when I would have rather not traveled with that knowledge, when I was feeling resentful that I wasn't getting what "I wanted." But even then, knowing I could not out-run the Lord gave a sense of shelter.

The world is uncertain around us. The next instant could bring wind, fire, earthquake, sickness, loss, disaster. But no matter what, the Lord stands with me. I abide in Him, and His glory is around me. All I need do is open my eyes and let myself truly see.

I have seen the salvation of the Lord, and His love is beyond measure. And it waits for everyone.

What have you seen?

2012-01-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

MY EYES HAVE SEEN

And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

"Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel."

And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.
And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed -- and a sword will pierce even your own soul -- to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."
(Luke 2: 25-35)

Simeon had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. Because of this, and his comment about now being released to "depart in peace," he is traditionally considered to be an old man when he met the Holy Family at the temple. He had been waiting a long, long time for the coming of the Promised One.

We spend the season of Advent preparing for the coming of the Messiah. Once we are out of the season and past Christmas, we often settle our lives back into a daily pattern of doing our jobs, taking care of our loved ones, struggling with the challenges in front of us. We don't keep thinking about Christ coming to us. We go back to thinking about His being "with us" and accept it as part of the background of our lives.

But Simeon seems to have spent much of his adult life waiting and looking, expecting something remarkable. He had been promised the Christ, not just as a participant in the general promise to the People, but as someone who had an individual promise made specifically to him. He would see the Lord's Christ.

This is the wonder of God: He makes big general promises to His people, but they also apply to specific individuals. We have been promised that Christ is with us, as a people and as individuals. We have been promised that the Lord has planned good things for us, that He will provide for us, that we are partakers in His glory.

We face a new year, and we like to make dividing lines between the things that were and the things that have not yet come. We stand on this threshold, and we want to believe that what lies ahead are indeed good things, especially if what we've just been through has been challenging and stressful. I'm certainly feeling that way. Last year was the least comfortable year I've had, in so many ways. Oh, there were good things in it, to be sure. But much of it made me feel I was caught between two very rough stones, being squeezed and ground down.

The challenges don't really go away. Sometimes aspects of our circumstances keep stretching onward - financial challenges, repairs to our home environment that are needed but we don't have the means to address at present, relationships that are difficult but cannot be avoided, work that needs to be done. It's not easy to let go of our anxiety about these things, giving them to the Lord and trusting Him to provide for these matters. The imagery of the Good Shepherd is comforting. But our brains tell us that we don't live on metaphors. The world around us expects bills to be paid, jobs to be done. We sit and wonder, where is the Lord's Salvation for those things? How can we see it?

Did Simeon know that he was waiting to see a baby, I wonder? If he had waited many years to see the Promised One, I would imagine that he had spent a lot of time studying everything that spoke of the Promised One. And some of them mention a child to be born. So maybe he did know that a child would be involved. But maybe he looked to see an adult. I think all he knew for certain was that the Holy Spirit had promised he would see the Christ. He seems not to have worried about the details, but rather to have entirely trusted the promptings of the Holy Spirit (which is why, I suspect, he was given this particular promise in the first place). The Holy Spirit had prompted him to be at the temple at that time, on that day. And he knew the face of his Messiah when he saw it, even though it was a baby.

"My eyes have seen your salvation."

What have my eyes seen?

I have seen people prompted to give me assistance in my need, and I know the Lord's hand has been in that. I have seen the Lord moving people in advance of danger, and though they lost nearly everything in their home, they themselves were all safe from harm. I have seen the Lord provide a new home to a couple, one their hearts had been set on and which seemed to fall away from their grasp. And I have seen others waiting for the salvation of their worldly circumstances and challenges. I am waiting too.

But I ask myself, on this eve of Epiphany, am I really waiting to see the face of the Lord? Or am I just waiting to see some fiscal providence? I want to think that I am waiting on the Lord.

I have seen the hand of the Lord touching lives in varioius ways. I have to believe that He won't stop now. He is the Good Shepherd, and He is on the job.

2012-01-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

THE PURPOSE OF ENDURING

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
(Colossians 3: 1-4)

Abide. Endure. We are partakers of the promise of the Christ, of the Good Shepherds. That is the reason for perseverance in our commitment to the Lord.

We launch ourselves into a new calendar year, using the date as a dividing point between what was and what we want to do and achieve. We hope for better things to come in our daily lives. And we think less and less about what Christmas was about. We pick up the wrapping paper of the gifts we've received and put the trash out. We take down the holiday decorations. We remember fondly the parties and fellowship we had during the holiday season, but we get ready to buckle down to work in the new year.

But for believers, the real dividing point should always be the coming of Christ into our lives. Every day is always a new day. Our "old life" wasn't what was "last year", it was "before Christ came."

Remember, we are called into the celebrations of Christ in His kingdom. We are given the witness of the angels of God, and told we can come see the face of the Christ, God made manifest in flesh and blood. We are assured that we will be watched over, protected, led in safe places. We have been told that the very Creator of the Universe abides within us - and with that in us, we are asked to endure, to wait upon the movement of the Lord.

The glory of our lives is that we are to be found in the glory of the Lord. As Christ stands in Heaven, we stand in Him.

What does that mean in our daily lives, though? I mean, it's a pretty picture for some vague time in the future when Judgment Day falls upon us. But what does that mean this morning, this day, as I settle back into the mundane pursuits of doing what is in front of me to do, the small jobs, the hunting for gainful employment?

I think it is far too easy for us to think of "God business" as being "out there" or in a "time to come." But as I look back over all these readings from the beginning of Advent through today, what I see is something far more immediate. Christ is about the here and now. Jesus wasn't talking about vague futures, He was talking about this very hour, this very minute, this very second.

If Christ abides in us each and every moment, then we bring the glory of God with us to every thing we do. When we take the trash out, God comes with us. When we try to nose our way onto the packed freeway at rush hour, Christ is with us. When we move among the people of the world, we bring Jesus with us.

Do we remember that the glory of God sits upon us? If we can't even remember that Christ abides in us in order to give ourselves reassurance, how can we show Christ to others?

Are we like Zacharias when the angel told him the news of his coming child? Do we laugh at the idea that we would be that significant to God? Oh, for ourselves we do want to be that important, because it means that we get invited in to God's party. But do we consider that there's more to God's purpose than that? Do we consider that we might be like the Bethlehem shepherds, that we should be telling everyone we meet about the wonderful things we have seen?

Do we let others see the glory of God on our faces? Or do we hide from the world the fact that we abide in the Lord? Do we cover up God's presence?

I admit that I don't always think of that. Even when in the ordinary course of events I try to behave "as I ought to" as a believer, I don't think about the possibility that my face and my voice might be the only visible thing of God that the people I encounter might see. That's a lot of responsibility. But ... it's also an intriguing idea. God comes with me everywhere, not just for me. If I abide in HIm... what do others see?

2012-01-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

THE TREASURE INSIDE

As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to decieve you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
(1 John 2: 24-27)

John reminds the faithful of an important aspect of the teaching of Jesus: that it abides in us, and because of that we abide in the Father and in the Son.

The promises of the Lord are not somewhere "out there" but are always within us. Even when we listen to the world around us, when it tries to rattle us and deceive us, God's Word is written inside our hearts.

All of these days of Advent, preparing for the coming of the Lord, we have been reminded of God's promises. The Lord is with us, the Lord watches over us, the Lord remembers us and brings us into His own celebrations and kingdom. Whether we are safely with the flock in the fold or a lost sheep strayed into rough territory and tangling briars, our Shepherd watches over us. When we are with the flock, He keeps us in secure places. When we are lost, He comes seeking us, to rescue us wherever we are - even when we let fear drive us further and further away from the safety of the fold. His promises are written in the very fabric of creation, beyond the power of any worldly authority to eliminate them or obscure them. He moves in advance of those who would harm us, keeping us from utter destruction. For those who believe, we shall see the very face of God.

John was well aware of how our daily lives, our daily struggles, can cause us to forget these things. He knew that it is in our nature to start thinking of these promises as being outside ourselves, and he wanted to "cut that off at the pass." He wanted to remind the faithful that all these things that we have learned "from the beginning" abide in us. And because they are in us, we are in God.

"Abide."

It's a word we don't use a lot outside "church language" and poetry. It's from a German root meaning "to wait", from Latin origins meaning "trust" and Greek "to believe." "Abide" itself in English means to wait for something, to endure without yielding, to withstand. To bear patiently, to remain stable or fixed in a state. Abide.

James said that trials come to us in order to build our endurance. John reminds us to endure in what we have learned. God weaves all these things together, back and forth, taking the single strands of our lives and making strong fabric from them.

How easy it is to let the promises slide out of the forefront of our minds. How easy it is to let anxieties nibble away at our assurance that the Lord watches out for us - after all, broken-down cars, shrivelled bank accounts, empty cupboards, these things are immediate to us, right in front of our eyes. We forget that the Word of the Lord abides within us, the Word that was in the beginning of Creation, present with God.

John must have seen those anxieties weighing down on believers in the community. He must have seen them getting rattled and shaken in their faith. He really wants to remind them of what they have become a part of, because he repeats it in this passage. The Word is in you, the Lord is in you, the Word of the Lord is in you, and because it is rooted in you, you are likewise rooted in the Lord, inside the very being of God the Father and His Son.

Do not let your faith be shaken, for not only is the treasure of the Word inside you, but you are the treasure inside the Lord. You are deep in the heart of God. How can you think that He would not protect that? How can you think He would forget what is in His very heart? How can you think that He would lose that?

Abide in the Word. Hold on, stand fast, endure in the Word of the Lord, and God Himself, the Word that was from the beginning will abide in you.

Abide

2012-01-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

THE INCURABLE OPTIMIST

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have annointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
(Psalm 23)

Years ago, when I was in graduate school, I hit a low time. I ran out of money. I had finished my course work for my Master's degree, but had not yet finished my thesis. I'd been making the rounds at the university, applying for every position I could possibly do (I had a college wardrobe, which limited the options outside that arena - "dressing for work" being even more restrictive back then). I rode the bus into campus (there was a free shuttle between the student apartments and the campus), and on the ride every day I recited the 23rd Psalm to myself. Several times a ride, in fact. Yet, nothing seemed to happen, not job came through.

I came to the conclusion that David had been an incurable optimist.

When I was growing up, Saturday mornings were house-cleaning time. One of my chores was dusting bookshelves. In one bookcase we had a number of small knick-knacks, items my parents had gathered or that had come from the household of my great-aunts. One of these items was a shell the size of a child's fist, and on it was carved the 23rd Psalm. Inevitably, as I dusted the shelf and the items on it, I would read the Psalm. So it was very ingrained in my mind.

In those days on the shuttle bus I wondered where my green pastures were, where the still waters were. Nevermind the table before me in the presence of my enemies. Goodness and mercy did not seem to be following me. They must have fallen behind on the pathway somewhere, because they didn't seem to be anywhere in sight.

I've thought about those days quite a lot in the last few months, because I seemed to be going through the same territory once more. Haven't I done this once already, Lord? Don't I already know these lessons?

There is a big difference though. That time, back then, was the first time I faced the challenge of totally relying on the Good Shepherd to watch out for me and provide for me. Before that time, while I was growing up, I relied on my parents. But in graduate school, I was "out on my own."

But God came through.

The last working day of the month, I got a call from the main library on campus, with the offer of a clerical job. I could take the orientation session on Monday and start that very day. The orientation part was rather important, because you had to take it to get into the pay schedule. And the university paid only once a month. If I had not taken it that day, at the end of that month, I wouldn't have been paid (it would have rolled over into the next period). On top of that, my younger sister visited, and she paid my immediate rent. At the very last minute (from my point of view), God stepped in and did take care of everything.

So during this time of recent trouble (which isn't really over yet, though it has been eased), I could never quite get lost in utter despair. I had seen before that the Shepherd was indeed good.

I still think David the Psalmist was an incurable optimist.

But that is the challenge of following the Lord. How boldly David declares his faith! Not only will the Shepherd watch out and provide for him, with the basic good things that keep a sheep healthy (good pasture and still water), but His protection is at hand. The rod was used to drive off the predators, while the staff with its crook was used to keep the sheep on the path, even to rescue those that had stumbled away, lifting them back to safe ground even when they'd fallen "out of reach." Those were the things that David knew from his daily work. But he declares that God does not stop there! God spreads a feast for him in front of enemies; God anoints him; God fills his cup to overflowing. Always going beyond our expectations. As with the criminal on the cross, who only asked to be remembered, God "goes overboard" -- and promises we will be at the heart of the party, celebrating right with Him.

God has filled my cup before, and what I drank from that cup ... it does not really dissolve and disappear. It's an infection that has stayed. Incurable optimism.

I'm not particularly fond of walking through the valley of the shadow of death. It is dark and grim, empty and filled with loneliness. And it does rattle me. I'm perhaps not as secure as the psalmist, for I do fear it a little bit. But I stick to the path, and trust in the Lord's rod and staff. They are a comfort, when I remember them.

I may still be waiting on that feast, on the anointing, on that overflowing cup. But I do know beyond a doubt that the goodness and lovingkindness of the Lord walk with me all the days of my life. I know where my Home is.

2011-12-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

THE PROMISE FROM THE SHEPHERD

For thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest," declares the Lord God. "I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment."
(Ezekiel 34: 11-16)

We have seen many passages where the writer compares the Lord to a shepherd. To a pastoral culture, it was a ready and familiar comparison. In this passage from Ezekiel, we find that the Lord Himself chooses this comparison. From the days of the offerings of Cain and Abel to now, the shepherd and the flock have been a favored image to our God. Not that other activites have been disrespected. It is just that something about that work of a shepherd greatly touches the heart of God.

Here we find all the promises of good care from the Shepherd, that He will lead His flock to good pastures. But there is more than that. The Lord God promises that He will seek out His scattered sheep, no matter the circimstances. I particularly like the mention that He will seek the lost even when scattered on cloudy and gloomy days.

Here is the purpose of Christmas from God's side of the event: He wants to seek us out, to find us wherever we have wandered, no matter what darkness and gloom our scattering behavior has taken us into. At just those points when we are wailing that we have been forsaken, the Lord is heading toward us, intent on bringing us back to safety and to plenty.

If God is coming after us, why then do our times of trials seem to go on so long? James reminded us that trials serve to build our endurance, and that's "nice". But if God seeks us, why does it "take so long"?

We are sheep. Near-sighted, easily alarmed, stubborn creatures. If we wander off, we seem certain we can find our own way. I wonder ... when we find ourselves in barren territory or tangled in briars, do we stop moving and wait for the shepherd? Or do we try to push on, sure we can find our way back to the safe pastures on our own, even though we cannot see the bluffs that drop away on one side or the turbulent water that can drown us on another. Perhaps it is our own tendency to try and keep moving that stretches out the time it takes the Lord to reach us.

Until we are ready to be found, can we be found, even when the seeker is the Lord God Himself?

Very little children love the game of peek-a-boo. For a brief time as they grow, they place an amazing belief in the power of seeing: they believe that if they cannot see you, you aren't there; if they cannot see you, you cannot see them. As adults, we play along with this, because the simple delight of the child when he or she sees the face of the adult delights us in turn.

Sometimes we treat God that way: if we don't look at Him, He won't see us and we won't see Him. We can laugh with delight when we choose to turn to Him.

But we are stubborn. And sometimes we push on by ourselves.

Yet, all the while, the Divine Shepherd is seeking us. Not to punish us, but rather to rescue us and bring us back to all the good things we need for life. He finds the lost, the broken, and the sick, and will restore them.

To me, I think that is another reason for us to not attack those who hate believers and would destroy those who follow the Lord: since God seeks those who are lost and scattered, do we know who they are? When we look around us, and see other people scrambling, is our spiritual eyesight good enough to know whether it is a lost sheep or a mountain lion? Better if we leave that to the Shepherd.

Of course, there is the warning in the end of the passage: that the Lord will destroy the fat and sassy who linger in the midst of the flock.

It is interesting to me to realize that the Lord has expectations of us. Not that we simply follow Him and trust Him. He wants to provide us with everything we need for a healthy, secure life, but He has no interest in seeing us become so glutted on that life that we waddle along weighed down with fat.

On every side, we are reminded that our God is pro-active. He watches over us, protects us, provides for us. He seeks us, even when we are lost in our own wandering. He does not stop. (Humorous side thought: in the film The Terminator, Reese tells Sarah Connor that the Terminator will not stop in his quest for her. The word "terminator" led my mind to "Alpha and Omega" - "omega" being the last letter of the Greek alphabit, the end, the termination. Our God is like the Terminator, hunting and seeking. The big difference, the important difference, is that the Lord does not want to destroy us, but rather return us to the safety of the well-tended flock.)

The Lord will always seek us, whether we are looking at Him or not.

2011-12-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

TRIUMPH BEYOND TRIALS

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anthing from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position, and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
(James 1: 2-12)

When I began writing the meditations at the beginning of Advent, I was feeling that I was in the midst of very great trials. I really needed God's intervention in my circumstances. And one of the things that really pulled at me, challenging me, was the beginning of this passage: "Count it all joy." I was certainly not feeling particularly joyful at facing Christmas in so much need. Yet everything and everyone around me told me to hold on and trust the Lord.

Simple endurance. But more than that is needed. James says that we must "ask in faith without any doubting."

I admit that at the beginning of Advent, holding onto complete faith and expelling all doubt was very difficult. And as a result, each day brought a great ebb and flow to my emotions - very, very low when I let myself fall into worrying about what would come next, followed by a quiet peace when I would put anxiety out of my mind. But each day brought that same rolling of the "surf" and tossing from the "wind," until I stopped and let go of all doubt. There came a day when there was absolutely nothing more I could do on my own, when I finally admitted that I would have to rely entirely on God.

Just as James had said, so long as I was doubting, I could not fully receive what God had to give. Oh, I had been given help prior to that point, for God's providence to those who love Him will not fail. But my hands had been clutched closed because I was so afraid of losing what I had.

I know that some read these words of James about the fate of the rich man and think he is condemning the wealthy. But I don't think that is what he means to convey. I think James wants to remind believers that all circumstances in this world are temporary, whether poor or rich. When circumstances change in either direction, James challenges us to give glory to God. Which ever way we move, we need to remain focused on the Lord.

James says we are blessed when we persevere under trial. It certainly doesn't feel like a blessing when we are going through the experience. It feels like we have been abandoned, forsaken. I began Advent with Psalm 22, the deeply heartfelt cry of a forsaken believer. Or rather, someone who felt forsaken. But once again, there is that warning from James not to give in to our feelings, which spring from doubt. Even the psalmist moves away from his "poor me" wailing and praises the Lord for His faithfulness to His people.

Troubles and difficulties tend to isolate us from the people around us. Or rather, we let them isolate us. Our distress makes us back away from others, because we don't want to spill that bitter stuff on other people. We feel we need to endure these things all by ourselves. Ah, those feelings again!

Joy is something that lets others come close to us again. Joy is a choice, not a feeling. We can find joy again, when we chose to praise God for His majesty, no matter what is happening to us at a particular moment.

Joy opens our hands, allowing us to receive the great bounty that the Lord wants to give to us.

If we remember that as believers we have already "been approved" perhaps we would do a better job of chosing joy. But when we are in the midst of trials, even that isn't easy to remember, because we get caught in the idea that we need to earn that approval. When we find ourselves stumbling over that, we need to go simpler and remember that we are the sheep in the flock of a Good Shepherd. He watches out for the dangers we cannot see. When we have to go past rushing, troubled waters, when the lion and bear try to get at us, the Shepherd deals with those threats. We may tremble in fear, but if we trust the Shepherd and stay put, instead of running away, we will find that He is trustworthy. If we endure this moment, we will come through to His blessings.

2011-12-29T11:50:00.000-08:00

A PRO-ACTIVE LORD
Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him; "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me/"

And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do."

The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. (Acts 9: 1-9)

Like Herod, the young Pharisee Saul was really intent on resisting the Lord. He was so focused on getting rid of every trace of Jesus that he was tracking down disciples all the way to Damascus. He worked very hard at this hunt.

But remember, we're talking about the Creator of the Universe here. We're talking about a God so deeply engaged with our lives that He became one of us, walked among us. We're talking about a God who moved magi in a far land to seek the Infant Christ, a God who impelled Joseph to flee before Herod's destruction swept down upon the Child.

I see a parallel here between Herod and Saul, which is why I brought this reading into the Christmas story. I think we really need to remember this side of God's involvement in our world. He takes a pro-active interest is what goes on. This is the Lord we've been looking toward, the Lord whose coming we prepared for during Advent, the Lord who became one of us.

What happened to Saul gives us another way of looking at those who resist the Lord, who mock and persecute the believers. And I think it shows us that we need to rethink our reactions when our faith is attacked.

At one point, Jesus said "Seek and you shall find." And that is exactly what happened to Saul. He was so intent on his pursuit of Jesus and His followers, that he found what he was seeking. Of course, what he found was not what he expected. But isn't that what usually happens when the Lord becomes involved?

When we as believers stand in the midst of hostile company, do we remember moments like this? Do we remember that God led Joseph and Mary and the Baby to safety from the hunters of Herod? Do we remember that Jesus met Saul (who was out to capture and murder believers) on the road to Damascus, knocking him flat on his rear? I think we instead remember that Herod's troops slaughtered innocent children in Bethlehem, and that Saul witnessed the stoning of Stephen. We think of those children and Stephen, and we wonder if that's the role assigned for us.

God only knows that.

But I think we would be wiser to remember the Bigger Picture. God is not stand-offish. He is eager to be engaged in our stories, our lives. He is right there with us, and even ready to stand on the path between us and those who would harm us.

Here is the balancing point of being a believer: on the one hand we have a God who shepeherds us, watches over us, even to the point of becoming one of us, and we are called to witness and testify to His actions in our lives; on the other hand the world around us is hostile toward that testimony, possibly even to the point of wanting to erase us from existence. The very thing we are most called to do - proclaim the glory of God - is the very thing that could get us killed.

I have joyful news for you! Christ the Lord is born! Go tell it on the mountain! Tell it everywhere! Oh, and remember that you will be persecuted for the sake of the name of the Lord.

But we are not sent out into that hostile, cold world without support. God is with us. When our persecutors are on the road to reach us, Jesus meets them on the way. We may not see it happen. The believers in Damascus weren't there to see it, but it happened. We need to trust the Lord to deal with those who are "after us." Yes, it is terrible when believers are persecuted, and we should not stand silent when it happens. But when we break our silence, it should not be to proclaim that we should be exempt from persecution, but rather that whatever happens to us, the Lord is engaged in our lives, in the world around us, even to the degree of having His hands upon the lives of those who would destroy us.

We are the sheep of His flock. It is our shepherd's job to deal with the threats to the flock. And He is on the job.

2011-12-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

RESISTING THE LORD

Now when they [the magi] had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him." So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called My Son."

Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.
(Matthew 2: 13-16)

One of the consequences of the intersection of spiritual matters and worldly matters is the reaction of those who have no interest in spiritual things. Those who can only see worldly matters believe that the only "actors" in events are worldly ones and the only motives and purposes are also worldly.

Even though the magi had told Herod they had followed heavenly signs, even though the scholars he consulted were telling him the words of God's prophets, Herod only heard the words "child born King of the Jews." For Herod, there was only one interpretation for that, the worldly one. And as far as he could tell, this child was a threat to him. Or at least, that's the way Herod looked at it. So, he decided to do something about this threat. Eliminate it early and he won't have to deal with it later.

Of course, Herod was not seeing the whole picture. He was discounting any spiritual aspect to events, nevermind Someone active on that level of things.

As believers, we need to remember that this goes on around us. We share the world with people who cannot see God's signs around them, not even when someone speaks about those signs rather dramatically - like foreign magi showing up at court asking about a prophesied child because of a star in the sky. Believers live in the midst of people who not only do not think there is a God who intervenes in events, they don't think there is a God at all.

It's a little bit upsetting for believers to have what to them is a major part of their lives discounted by the worldy and mockers. We are human enough to want to argue, to defend, to protest that God indeed does interact with our lives. After all, aren't we called to testify about what God does for us? Isn't that what praise is about?

Well, no. Praise is what we give to God. Worship is the interaction between ourselves and the Lord. These things are not intended to be spectacles for an outside audience or demonstrations of proof. Praise and worship only have meaning to those who are engaged in the relationship.

Our testimony to outsiders is about what God has done for us. We don't have to pay any attention to non-believers say about our praise and worship.

But beyond that, this story of the Holy Family flleeing Herod's actions shows another thing: that God watches out for us, that He moves us well ahead of impending distruction. As believers our lives are both spiritual and worldly, and the Prime Mover of all things is spiritual. We know this. If we trust God at all, we need to trust that He will also move us away from what could destroy us.

I'm sure that Joseph and Mary thought the order to move to Egypt, and to go immediately, was just about the worst thing to happen to them. It meant that Joseph was leaving behind his home and work in Nazareth. It meant that Mary, who had just given birth would now have to face a journey at least twice as far as a Bethlehem to Nazareth transit, if not three times as far. It was going to be a hard journey, for which they were not prepared. But the angel of the Lord told Joseph to go immediately, and they went, without question they went.

Herod's troops swept down on the Bethlehem region and killed all male children two years old and younger.

But the baby Jesus was gone.

Joseph and Mary were told why they had to go, but often God does not tell us the whys. Do we trust Him?

When we listen to the world around us, which downplays the presence of God, dismisses God as an effective power in events, our trust in the Lord gets shaken. At times like that, we need to remember this story. We need to remember that the Creator of the Universe is not a remote figure, not an outside observer, but rather an active participant in events.

This morning, there was a passing story of entertainment "news" about Bill Maher mocking quarterback Tim Tebow for his open faith in God. Like Herod, Maher only sees the worldly manifestation. All he sees is a young man bowing down before "something" that isn't there. If he (Maher) can't see it, it must not exist. It certainly isn't effective or active in the world he lives in.

Those who resist the Lord will resist our declarations of His presence. They may even try to act against those who believe. Jesus told His followers to expect persecution.

But against that, we have a God who is an active player, who keeps His eyes upon us, and His hands upon our lives. We need to remember that when we are suddenly trudging through the desert to a destination that had not been in our plans, that seems to take us way outside the expected shape of our lives. There is a Bigger Picture in events than what even we can see.

Yes, Herod was dangerous. But remember, Herod failed in his intention.

The Lord intervened. The baby lived, and grew into a man who changed the world. And as believers, we are partakers in that power and majesty.

Do not resist the Lord.

2011-12-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

WHEN SPIRITUAL AND WORLDLY MATTERS CROSS

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.'"

Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him."

After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And after coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.
(Matthew 2: 1-12)

Usually, when looking at the story of the magi seeking the baby Jesus, I'm thinking just about their intention to seek the Christ and bring Him gifts. They travel a rather long distance to perform this act of worship, and the gifts they bring are precious and significant. But this time, having recently considered the public clash of belief with unbelief over things like the public display of Nativity scenes, my attention was caught by another element in the story - the clash with King Herod's worldly concerns.

The magi made the trip from their distant home very much as an act of faith. Whatever the significance of the Star was to them, they couldn't be sure of what they would find. Their lack of certainty shows in their choice to go straight to the currently ruling "King of the Jews", Herod. Their own intention was to worship the baby they knew had been born, that they (somehow) knew would be a King, so perhaps it is not surprising that they sought this child with the worldly king.

How easily do we mistake spiritual matters for worldly ones? Fairly easy. Even the Wise can do it.

The magi knew they had traveled to offer worship, worsihp to one born to such a dramatic destiny that the very heavens proclaimed the news for those who could read the signs. The cosmos told them about the baby. And yet, it didn't occur to them that this special birth might be something other than of mere worldly import. So, knowing the child was destined to be king, they sought the current king, apparently assuming the child was of Herod's family.

Herod's own worldliness shows up in his reaction to this visitation. His family were actually Edomites, not Jewish, but in ruling over the Jews he'd obvioiusly become familiar with the fact that in Jewish history rulership didn't always proceed from tather to son, but also that the culture was riddled with prophecies and expectations. He turned to the learned scholars of his court and asked about the Messiah. He knew of the prophecies of an expected ruler who would overturn the worldly authorities. He was paranoid enough about his position to want to keep track of any possible threat to his kingship, and that included that prophesied savior. He too was thinking about worldly matters.

Herod was politic enough not to conceal the information from the magi. When his scholars told him that Bethlehem of Judea was supposedly the place for the Messiah to come from, he sent the magi on their way. He requested with seeming disinterest that once they'd found the Child, they come back and tell him about it all, so he could follow their example. Oh, yeah, all he wanted to do was offer worship to a Child that might one day replace him.

That factor may not have occured to the magi, because they were foreigners. The political, civil state of Judea wasn't of importance to them. They just wanted to worship the child the heavens declared king.

What a situation ripe for disaster!

But God watches out for the things that are important to Him.

God had the Star continue to serve as a guide to the magi, leading them to the Child, still to be found in the small, humble town of Bethlehem. Mary, Joseph and the Child had moved into the house, probably because the crush of out-of-towners had ended, with most of the visitors having gotten their census business done and gone back to their regular lives. But a young mother with a newborn child, they're not going to be shoving off for a cross-country journey right away. So now there was room for them in the inn. The magi arrived, presented their gifts, and performed the worship that they had traveled all this distance to make.

But then God intervened. Instead of allowing the worldly matter to take hold, instead of affirming worldly rulership, God warned the magi to avoid going back to Herod.

God knows perfectly well how civil matters affect our lives. But the birth of the Christ Child is at once more intimate and more vast than the issue of civil, worldly government. Christ became flesh to get God "under our skin", to change our thinking about God from being "out there" to something more intimate. That closeness and immediacy is more important to the Lord than the mere civil picture.

We live in the world. The sounds and sights and touches of the material and civil world press around us, drawing our attention and focus. We look to the worldly authorities for the shaping of our lives, because they do have such power.

But the magi were not seeking a worldly authority. They might not have known that when they set out. even though the sign they followed was distinctly unworldly. But by the time they found the Child, God made it clear to them that the matter of this Child was not something that was within Herod's purview.

Many Christians in the world have for long enjoyed a degree of security within their cultures, being allowed to gather and worship without disturbance from the civil rulers. Of course, just as many do not have that security. In America, I think we've taken it for granted. We have an expectation that the civil authorities will actually protect us as we go about our worship. Some even consider this protection to be ordained by God and therefore inviolate. But that was not the situation Jesus was born into. If the infant Christ was not born into a world where the civil authorities bowed to spiritual worship, why do we expect our situation to be different?

That can be a scary proposition, knowing that our worship might not be secure from disruption by the civil authorities. But look again to the story. God watches out for the things that are important to Him. The magi reached their desitantion. They performed the act of worship they had come so far to give. They saw the face of God Incarnate in the Infant. And then the Lord warned them not to return to Herod. This Child was none of Herod's business.

The Lord puts spiritual matters first, He protects those matters. Danger and persecution may prowl around, but God guides the believers and seekers to Himself, meets them, and then sends them onward by safe (if obscure) paths.

Are we looking to the civil rulership for matters that are spiritual, that belong to the Lord? Are we bestowing spiritual kingship upon worldly leaders instead of seeking the One born King? It's an easy thing to do, even when extraordinary signs hint that the matter is far bigger than a worldly ruler.

Do you see that Star? Do you know where it is leading? And who did you ask for directions? Are they trust-worthy? The Lord awaits your coming.

2011-12-26T11:50:00.000-08:00

TESTIFY, BROTHER!

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life -- and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us -- what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too many have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
(1 John 1: 1-4)

The shepherds witnessed the proclamation of the angels and sought out this unusual child, and then they talked about these wonders to those they met. When Zacharias was confronted by Gabriel, he was too anstonished to believe the wonder, and instead resisted it - with the result that he was muted for nine months, until his son was born. But then he testified to the wonders and glory of God, first thing out of his mouth.

John wrote his letter at a time when Gnosticism was beginning to infiltrate the community of believers. Gnosticism in its teachings questioned the very basic nature of the Incarnation of the Christ, that the divinity of God would merge with the material flesh of human beings. They also wanted to keep a sense of "specialness" about spiritual knowledge, a sense that only a few knowledgable persons could know the deepest truth about God and our relationship with Divinity.

Since the indications are that the writer of this letter was indeed the disciple John, son of Zebedee, it must have been frustrating in his old age to see such thinking start to take root in the community of faith. It ran counter to everything he had known in those three precious years of walking with Jesus. All the things he had seen and done in that short but powerful time was being treated as something ethereal.

Walking back and forth over Galilee and Judea with Jesus, talking with people. Watching Jesus lay hands on the sick and heal them. Listening to Jesus teach to crowds and see people changed. Hauling in baskets of food after a crowd had been fed, when all they started with was a handful of loaves and fishes. Holding the broken, empty body when it was taken down off the cross, getting it hastily wrapped and placed in the tomb before the Sabbath began, and then coming back after the Sabbath and finding the tomb open and the loved one he knew was dead instead standing in the garden, bright and living. Walking with the risen Jesus for days after that event, lost in the wonder of what had happened. And then standing watching as Jesus was taken into heaven. And in the years since those events, watching how the teaching of Jesus changed lives, healed lives. Enduring perseuction from a determined young Pharisee, who felt the followers of Christ were an offense to God, only to be smitten by the Lord and changed into a powerful voice, a devoted lover of Jesus. All this John had seen and endured, and now there were those who treated the heart of those events -- that God had become flesh and walked among us -- as a sort of fiction.

He cannot be slilent. It was no fiction. It was no joke.

He had seen it, touched it, walked with it. And he spoke of it so that others could join in the fellowship. Because John had discovered that his experience with Jesus was communicable. It could be passed on to others, so that they too would know that intimate relationship with God through Christ. He (and the other apostles) discovered that by teaching others to know Jesus, the students really did come to know Christ personally. It wasn't just the absorbtion of information about an admired "historical figure." If nothing else, the conversion of Saul into Paul showed the community that the Lord was pro-active, interactive. It was no flat, exterior, untouchable entity they were following now, but rather Someone beyond mere flesh, and yet as immediate as the touch of a child.

"I saw this. I touched this. This happened to me."

There is a tendency in society around us to dismiss many aspects of personal experience as "merely subjective." Those things which cannot be pulled out as objects so that others can directly handle them get treated as mere personal fictions rather than anything "real." Oh, my own experiences and feelings and emotions are real (so the mindset goes), but since you cannot objectify your experiences in such a way that I can have them too, they're not "really real." It's not the truth, of course, or else the act of communication would not be possible at all. Nor would storytelling be the least bit effective. If it were impossible to share non-material experinence generations of storytelling would never touch anyone's heart. And we know that is not true. We respond to the heroics of Homer's Iliad, we understand Odysseus' desire to get home to his wife, we fall into the dreams of Don Quiote because we've had those dreams too. Generation after generation we share the hearts of those who went before. And those are "just stories."

So John insists. The stories of Jesus and his power, and his being as the Son of God made flesh, they are not "just stories." John had walked with the man, talked with the man, ate fish with the man, fish cooked on an open fire by the Sea of Galilee even after his very public and definite execution on a Roman cross. It happened and he was there for it.

How is it that we manage to be so silent about the presence of the Lord in our own lives?

Are we really subdued by the fiction that subjective experience cannont be conveyed to others? Do we really think that because we cannot hand someone a material object the presence of the Lord is not with us?

Years ago, I regularly attended a Bible study lead by a wonderful teacher. It met in someone's home, and was usually packed to the gills with people, sitting on every possible surface - the chairs, the sofa, the footstools, the floor. And when the group prayed, there was an electricity to the air. At one period, one of my friends (who did attend this Bible study as well) was going through a time of trouble and doubt. He wasn't "feeling" the presence of Christ. At one point he actually said he needed the assurance of actually touching Jesus, very much like Thomas and his doubts. This particular night, I was thinking and praying about my friend and his doubts, praying very intensely that if that was what he needed, that Jesus manifest Himself for my friend in order to be reassured. Deeper and deeper into that prayer I went as the time of group prayer continued. And suddenly, I had that sense that Someone had walked into the room, the way people often do when someone arrives late to a function. The sense was so strong, that my eyes flew open, I jerked my head up and looked to a specific spot across the room in the entry way to the living room. There was nothing "extra" there for my eyes to see, but I knew that Jesus was present.

Oh, we pay lip service to it often enough: "Wherever two or more of you are gathered in my name, I will be there." But I'm not sure how seriously we take it. But that night, I knew with a certainty the Lord had been among us.

Of late, I've had my cage of certainty rattled a bit. I've had questions about whether the Lord will indeed provide for my needs. I have wondered if my own lapses and inconsistencies have put me out of the favor of God. But I couldn't quite let go, and the prayers of many have strengthed my grip. And the Lord has met me in my need. I have been touched by the care and concern of others, knowing that their expressions have been boosted by the Lord's hands. I do not believe that God was making anyone do anything that was not already in their hearts. But I do believe that the Lord gave them more power to act upon what was in their hearts, giving them that extra little jolt of energy that made them move. This I have seen with my own eyes. I have seen a man who had once been told that he only had three years left to live because of cancer in the fourth year after that diagnosis (the year I met him) have the joy of the birth of a son, and in the following years endure recuring challenges to his health (that experts expected would kill him), and yet continue on in his ministry (for yes, he is a pastor). This man is still among us, touchable, accessible, and a walking witness to the power of God, and it's now over twenty years since I first met him.

"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life .... These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

Testify, brother!

2011-12-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

WITNESS TO THE GLORY OF GOD

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness , and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1: 1-14)

So often, when we cite the beginning of the gospel of John, especially at Christmas, we drop out the middle of this passage. We focus on the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. This is the glory of God, that He became human and lived with us. We drop out the middle because we don't want to distract from that.

But is it a distraction?

This year, there's been a major aggitation in Southern California over the holiday displays in Santa Monica in the city park along the Palisades. Activist atheists, irritated by the tradition and seeing as the city "establishing" religion made some moves against the practice. They are, in fact, wrong about the legal issue -- private citizens actually do have a legal right to place religious displays on public lands, so long as they are not the "government" property (ie, city hall). It's a matter of free speech. Anyway, because there were more requests for display space than there were spaces, the city opted to assign the spaces by lottery. Any individual could request multiple spaces. So the atheists organized and basically gamed the system, each requesting the maximum number of spaces. The result was that most of the spaces ended up in the hands of the atheists, and only a few in the hands of those who wished to put up religious displays.

What was achieved here? The atheists limited the amount of public expression of religious belief during the season of some major religious holidays (both Christian and Jewish - and even semi-secular, if you count Kwanza). They've presented themselves as blatantly hostile to the public expression of religious belief, claiming that such declarations are oppressive to them. Their own actions aren't the least bit oppressive or injurious to free speech, of course.

In a photo of one of the atheist displays there is a sign that reads "37 million Americans know MYTHS when they see them" Below that is a row of pictures, supposedly of "mythic" figures -- the photo was tiny, so I couldn't quite make the details of what three of them represented, but one was an image of the adult Jesus. Below that was another line of text that says, "What myths do you see?"

What can I say? It made me smile.

Because there is so much wrong with the declaration.

Let us just begin with the images. Although I couldn't see the details, it was clear to me that three of those four images were of fictional figures, whereas Jesus actually lived in history. The historicity of the New Testament documents has been well established. There certainly was some human being who inspired a movement notable enough to be commented upon by the ancient historians Josephus and Pliny the Younger. The display attempts to imply that by simply placing the images together they represent the same class of object. It's very poor logic from a group of people who profess high respect of "reason and logic."

Then there is the word "myth." When atheists use that term, they mean it entirely in a very narrow definition, that being "an unfounded and false notion." And by "unfounded," it is meant that it has no grounding in fact or relaity.

As noted, since there is historical support for the claim that an actual religious visionary named Jesus gathered a group of followers around himself, the atheists are already losing the logic argument on the "unfounded" aspect. There actually is some foundation for the beginnings of Christianity.

It's the God part they really want to dismiss. If they can get rid of that, they can then ignore the actual precepts of the Christian faith.

But "myth" isn't about "unreal fiction." Myths came into being as ways of describing what is meaningful to people. They reflect the reality of the world and display the meanings people give to the world around us. I'm a writer. I've studied mythology for years. For most mythologies, what is important is not whether or not the "story" happened in actual fact, but rather what the significance of that story is to the people who tell it. I could easily go on for pages about this aspect of myth-making (in fact, I've written a whole book about it!), but that's not the point here.

Christianity does indeed tell a mythic story: God became human; that human, Jesus, lived a life teaching people how to draw nearer to God; He died to bring that cycle to a completion; and then He rose from the dead.

It's a story of deep meaning. We can come close to God. We are given a hope of closeness with God that goes beyond the boundaries of our mortal life.

And it really happened, in a specific time and place. And there were witnesses to it.

Which brings us back to what the gospel writer was trying to get across by including reference to John the Baptist in his celebration of God becoming flesh.

John the Baptist was a witness. He went before Jesus, declaring the coming of the Lord. And the writer of the gospel was there to see the events that followed.

There is nothing for a believer to fear in the atheists' declaration that Christianity is "founded on a myth." They are truer than they imagine in putting out that statement. The problem is that they do not understand the words they are using. They use the word "myth" because they think it is squishy enough to serve their purposes, to cloud the issue. They are afraid to say "Christianity is a LIE." They are afraid to say "Jesus NEVER lived!" They are afraid to say, "No aspect of this story EVER happened." Because those statements can be challenged on the ground, the very foundations, of what they consider to be their exclusive realm - "reason and logic."

It is Christmas Day. Do I believe that Jesus was born on this exact day of the year? I don't find that an important question, and I don't see why any believer needs to fear it or be mocked by it. It is the day upon which I choose to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Because He was born and did live among the people of that time. That is enough for me. It happened. It's real.

I will stand on a corner, proclaiming like John the Baptist -- "a voice crying in the wilderness" -- that Jesus is born! The Lord God became a little child! My Redeemer has come and lives today!

May the blessings of Christmas be upon you. Because it really did happen, at a specific time, and a specific place. The Glory of the Lord was and is with us.

2011-12-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

A DRAMATIC BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because thre was no room for them in the inn.

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepehrds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.
(Luke 2: 1-20)

A couple of years ago, I chanced upon someone critiquing Luke's story of Christ's birth, calling it fiction because of the detail about shepherds with multiple flocks being gathered in one place. According to the critic, shepherds are usually out in far-flung fields, where the flocks would not mix at all. The critic felt that because Luke got this detail "wrong," it made the whole story about angels appearing and shepherds running into town to see the baby suspect.

When I read that, I could only shake my head. Again, all that research I had done years before about King David and the actual practice of shepherding in those lands had taught me a key detail. What I learned was that each shepherd had about a two week duty with the flock. The shepherd would lead the flock out on a circuit, slowly letting them munch their way through various pastures. One week outward bound, the second week back toward town. On his return, the shepherd would take his flock to a large fold, which had a wall (probably only 3 or 4 feet high, just enough to keep the sheep from wandering). The flock would be let into this fold, and the "on duty" shepherd would trade off with the next one. Jesse, David's father, had large flocks and many shepherds, so David was only one of several. Other sheep owners would be doing the same things with their flocks. An archeological dig actually turned up the remains of this fold outside the walls of Bethlehem.

So, Luke's reportage is actually rather accurate. Unfortunately, the good doctor was probably not versed in this detail, and didn't realize that the shepherds being at the common fold was not their "usual" place. But it does explain why there were several shepherds gathered together, why they felt comfortable leaving the flocks (all the sheep were inside a gated and closed fold), and why they were near enough to the town to even run in and see the baby the angels spoke of.

I've always been fond of this part of the Christmas story. Some of that comes from singing in the chorus for Handel's Messiah for several years. I read the verses, but hear the music in my head. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying---" In the oratorio, that's a quick, bright solo, and then the chorus bursts out "GLORY TO GOD!" What a spectacular moment it must have been.

I like the moment when the angel appears to the shepherds. Suddenly he was there, and the shepherds were terrified. It wasn't just that "this guy" suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was that whoever and whatever he was, he was of such a different mode of being that the shepherds knew without a doubt this was not some other human. And the angel has to reassure them that he's not there to destroy them. "Don't be afraid!"

I see lots of Christmas cards with angels on them, very pretty angels. Sweet feminine forms, with flowing long hair, lightly holding musical instruments, giant beautiful swan-like wings spread out behind them, feathers and all. I recognize what these figures are supposed to be, but they never mesh with the description in scripture. The angels we scatter about in our decorations these days are more an expression of our sentimental feelings about the holiday than they are invocations of the actual event. These angels are sweet, gentle, friendly, even motherly, hovering about giving soothing strokes to our hearts.

But they are not particularly terrifying. None of these pretty "angels" would have any need to say "Do not be afraid" to a group of young men whose daily job is to keep watch for dangerous animals, who have probably fought off bears or lions while protecting their sheep, who have probably even fought off thieves intent on stealing sheep. A pretty feminine angel is not likely to shake men such as that.

This is why the angels I draw tend to be fierce creatures. No feathers on my angels - I imagine them as having wings of flame and light. They were, just moments ago, standing in the presence of God, gazing at His face. So I see their faces as being as keen and pure as the freshly honed edge of a knife blade. They are brisk, not lingering - they want to get back to standing in God's glory. They have their duty to deliver this message, but the real stuff is back in the light of God's face. It's not that they are hostile, it's just there's nothing in our world to compare with the Lord's presence.

Except for that baby.

All that the angels know of heaven, of the wonder and majesty of standing in God's presence, all the power and glory that they sing praises to for ever and ever -- all that has taken up residence in a little baby, born into shabby, temporary quarters, and the only cradle space available was a feed box in a stable area.

But if that is where God is, that is where God is.

And there's the wonder of it all. The glory, power and awesome spectacle of God in Heaven has taken up residence in a tiny infant, with delicate skin, tiny hands, great vulnerability, born into the most humble of circumstances in a borrowed location. And this great announcement is made to the rough and tumble workers who are most disregarded in their society, for they are almost always stinking of the animals they have to tend. And God thinks that is appropriate.

Have you heard the news? Christ the Savior is born!

2011-12-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

THE LIGHT OF MAJESTY

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
You shall multiply the nation,
You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
For you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian,
For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore,
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
(Isaiah 9: 2-7)

As humans, we have a very strong positive reaction to the appearance of light in the middle of darkness. It's very dramatic, of course. The very nature of darkness isolates us. We cannot see. We cannot see the space around us, we cannot see each other, we cannot even see ourselves.

Light changes all that, no matter the size of the light. A little candle in a huge space of darkness is still a spot of hope, and we are drawn to it. When we sit in a darkened theatre and the lights come up on the stage or on the movie screen, all our attention become focuses on where the light is. When we are outside in the dark, we set our course to the nearest light we can see. We have an desire to move from the darkness into the light.

At Christmas time, we play with light. We string strands of small lights around trees, around windows, across the surface of our homes, so that once darkness falls we can turn on those lights for delightful displays.

Near my apartment, there is a neighborhood high up on the hills that has a clear view out over the Los Angeles basin. I like to go up there at night when the air is clear, and spend a few moments looking out over the city. The grid of lights on the busy streets, the clusters of light around businesses and high-rise buildings, all glitters in the darkness, as if a star-field had settled on the surface of the planet.

All these things are small compared to the Great Light Isaiah refers to. The light of the presence of God is promised to the people: they shall see a great light. But it isn't "just" light. The light is only part of the manifestation of the glory of God.

I think this is something we overlook sometimes. We celebrate the coming of Christ as a metaphorical coming of light (of knownowledge and peace) with this season. But Isaiah promises even more. The prophet tells us that this coming presence will break the oppressors, that war-boots and cloaks will be burned away, the rods of the oppressors broken.

These days, when we see the word "government" we automatically think of the organization of our civil social structures. City management, county rules, state laws, federal authority; we have many layers of government around us, ordering our lives and activities. But when Isaiah says "the government will rest on His shoulders," he is talking about something that also encompasses more immediate things.

To train a young ox in the work of pulling a plow, the ancients used a special yoke. Because the team pulling the plow for the training would be uneven - the youngling paired with a more experienced work-ox -- the older animal would be doing most of the work. The pressure of the yoke would be on the older ox's shoulders. The younger animal would be learning the feel of the yoke, how it sits on the shoulders, the sense of the pressure on the chest when pulling the plow. But the training yoke also kept the youngling from wandering away, kept it focused on the task at hand. It obliged the younger ox to keep pace with the older as they went down the row. So, although the young ox was not yet doing any of the hard work of actually pulling the plow, it learned the feel of the yoke, the pace of the work, how to respond to the directions from the farmer. The government, the management, of the younger ox rested on the shoulders of the older one.

That is the "government" that Christ brings to us. It's personal.

Yet, even the people of Israel looked for a civil Savior, someone who would overthrow the worldly rulers that oppressed them. There were those among Jesus' followers who expected him to take up the sword, take up the rod of rulership, to throw the Romans out of their land, dismiss the Hasmonean kings and establish a "godly kingdom." And, even now, there are those who continue to expect that of the Lord.

I don't think that God is displeased with the rulers of nations comply with God's design, ruling justly and wisely, keeping in mind the good of the governed. What would there be to be displeased in that? But I think that is a pleasing consequence of what God considers His primary concern, and not the end purpose of it.

We are the subjects of Christ's government. We are the youngling oxen being trained, trained to walk straight in the furrow, trained to move at the proper pace and not race ahead or linger behind, trained to do the work, trained to know the pressure of the yoke so that we do not injure ourselves by settling it wrongly.

There is a peace that comes from doing our work well and smoothly, with grace and ease. It is far more durable than the pauses for breath that we snatch when rushing about.

The majesty of the Lord brings us great light, a beauty spread out before us that shows us all things around us. The majesty of the Lord crushes the oppressors, removing those who hinder us. And the majesty of the Lord governs us, teaches us to work with Him, lightly, without stress, giving us peace and joy in the accomplishment of the work.

Our God is not an inactive God, sitting in splendor only, doing nothing. He brings His light down among us, setting His feet into the broken earth of the field, training us to work with Him.

Now there's a thought: to be partners in majesty with God? Isn't that breathtaking? And it comes to us because a Child is born to us.

2011-12-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

WHAT IS THIS GIFT?

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
(Titus 3: 4-7)

When I sat down to think about today's passage, my mind went skipping back over things from other days: the grace to receive God's grace; the bigger picture of God's purpose; the assurance that we will be drawn into Christ's kingdom. All wonderful threads woven together into one fabric. It is the action of the Holy Spirit that draws these things together and fits them into the flow of our own lives. Certainly for me, as I look back over the last three and a half weeks, I marvel at the journey the Lord as taken me upon, and how He has fit my own life into the course of the Advent verse selections.

So I come to this inclined to pay close attention to the words at hand.

"Kindness." The kindness of God our Savior extended to us. I am suddenly reminded not of God's majesty and power, but of His kindness. The soft, stroking touch of affection. The warmth of sunshine on skin. The fresh soothing of cool water to a thirsty throat. The kindness of God.

And "His love for mankind appeared." That's the heart of Christmas, isn't it? That God came among us as a baby, a baby that grew into a man. That man walked among us, taught us, touched us.

"He saved us, not on the basis of deeds ... but according to His mercy." It wasn't anything we did or have done that brought God's kindness to us, but His own sense of mercy. He extends his love and kindness to us not just because He loves us and thus wants to give us gifts, but because He knows we need that love and mercy.

So many people we know go through life feeling alone and cut off. There may be people around them, people that care about them, but they can't see it or feel it. They desperately need to feel the touch of God's kindness and mercy. I say "they," but I think we've all had our times of feeling lost and isolated. Even as recently as a few weeks ago, I felt that way. I think the trap for us, though, is that we become so sunk in that feeling of isolation that we mistake it for knowledge of a fact, a fact that says we are indeed isolated.

But a feeling is not knowledge, and it certainly isn't an external fact. This is something that I have happily relearned in these weeks. Which brings me to the next points in the passage.

"The washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit." I have received much grace and mercy, conveyed by the hands of friends, but I feel definitely inspired by the love from God. And a consequence of that grace and mercy has been a sense of being refreshed and reinspired. "Regeneration" - a big word for being made anew. Or rather not entirely new, but rather restored to what was "originally generated," to be put back on track with what I was "supposed" to be. And renewing by the Holy Spirit - well, being an artist and writer, inspiration is a precious gift to me. So being renewed in that is a wonderful thing.

This. then, is the gift that God is giving us, not just for this holiday but for every day -- we are the justified receipients simply because God loves us.

2011-12-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

BEING GRACEFUL ABOUT GRACE

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
(Titus 2: 11-14)

We are told that what "grace" means when we're talking about God is His "unmerited divine assistance and favor." Basically, that we get something that we haven't earned and don't deserve, something very good.

Everyone says they like it when "good luck" happens to them, when unexpected good fortune comes their way. We all like that kind of surprise.

But if we're honest, and basically good people, we also start to get uncomfortable when there's too much of it. Feelings that we don't deserve whatever it is we're getting surface, feelings that we haven't done "the work" to earn the benefit that we receive. And when those feelings start to rise, we get the impulse to back away from the "good stuff." We want to feel that we earned what we've received.

But the point of gifts of Grace is that we have done nothing to "earn" them. We don't get them because we "deserved" them. We get them because the giver wanted to give the gifts.

It is humbling to receive gifts of grace. And if you're anything like me, "doing humble" doesn't come easily. Oh, I can be grateful, deeply so. But it takes practice to receive the unexpected, unearned gifts that people choose to grace me with.

I had to overcome my own resistence, my impulse to shout that I needed to earn these gifts! The recent weeks have been a boot-camp for me on the practice of receiving grace. I have humbled myself in joy that there have been so many people willing to help me in big and small ways (some even giving me the grace of opportunities to "earn"). But it has also made me eager to thank my benefactors, and to extend that grace onward to others. As Paul says in this letter, to be "zealous for good deeds."

Yesterday, I was "graced" by a gift, a service that I am usually quite happy to pay for. But because my circumstances were known, my friend (for she has become such) did this for me without charge. I was deeply touched by her action. And we talked about how we both try to do acts of kindness when we can, giving help when we can. I guess you could call it a moment of "grace abounding." The phrase "pay it forward" has become very popular in recent years. It's the idea of keeping in mind the generousity you receive and extending it to others when you can later. It is like John the Baptist's admonition to the seekers' question, "What are we to do then?" "When you have extra, give to those in need."

Grace. To be the hands of grace. But also to receive grace.

And in Advent, we are reminded that what God gives is so much greater than anything we can possibly do ourselves in this life. We are given Christ Jesus - who redeems us from every misdeed, purifying us -- in a word, saving us. We certainly don't deserve this grace. It would be impossible to earn it - we are, after all, "only human" and we will screw it up at some point.

But the salvation that Jesus brings doesn't have to be earned! That is the wonder of Christmas. It is Grace! All we have to do is humble ourselves and accept it.

Behind all the clutter of the gift exchanges between family and friends, the Secret Santa parties at work, the clutter of commercialism, the quid pro quo of some gift-giving, there shines something much greater. It is something that all those other transfers of objects and thoughts are supposed to be representing and reflecting. It is the gift from God of Himself to us, His love abounding. Can we accept that?

Advent is our time of preparation, of learning to be graceful in accepting grace, to receive with joy and thankfulness.

2011-12-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

ALL ABOUT THE BABIES

Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.(Luke 1: 39-45)

Luke tells a story about pregnant women greeting each other that is very genuine and human.

Genuine, in that the story of a child in the womb making a sudden dramatic move, apparently in response to exterior events, is something mothers actually talk about. "I did Suchand such, and the baby gave a tremendous kick." It's not really the type of story you think to make up. But, if Luke was going around actually talking to the people involved in the life of Jesus, especially if he talked to the women in the family, it is the kind of story that they would tell.

But it is also a very human story. Most expecting parents learn of the pregnancy somewhere into the first month or so. As a result, the waiting time they have is about seven months long. It's still a long time, but it does give them time to prepare for this coming person. They prepare the nursery for the child, they inform the extended family that it is about to be added to, they gather clothing for the infant. They prepare. And the mother-to-be, as the child grows, becomes more and more focused on what the child she is carrying is doing. According to my mother, I would plant my feet on her diaphram and stretch, knocking the breath out of her.

So, just after the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she was going to have a child (most unusually, since she had never "been with a man"), she goes to visit her relative that is also "unusually pregnant." And Elizabeth, who by now was nearing the time for her delivery hears Mary calling from outside and her baby had a strong reaction to that sound.

But not only does Elizabeth's baby have a strong reaction, Elizabeth does as well. She knows that Mary's baby will be someone special, that indeed, her Lord comes to her in the womb of Mary.

What an amazing feeling that must have been!

Mothers (usually) look forward to the birth of their child as a wonderful event. It isn't just the end of having this presence inside them, it is the joy of finally having that child in their arms, to look at the face of the little one, to touch the tiny hands, to know the reality of this new being that has entered the world.

In Advent, we look forward to the coming of Christ. But often it is an external thing. We read the scripture stories. We sing the Christmas carols. We set up nativity scenes - either small ones at home or enacting them at church. But the expectation is "out there", not necessarily immediate to us.

I know expectant mothers, and parents who have just had their babies delivered. "Expecting" is a very immediate thing to them. Even a few weeks after the baby's arrival, all the waiting they went through is still vivid to them. And these are "ordinary" babies. They are children that are born of the bond between the parents, and the family enjoys the manifestation of this mixing of heritages. The parents may have hopes and dreams for these little children, but they are expecting very human lives for the newborn babies.

Elizabeth and Mary knew that their children were facing extraordinary lives. What wonder that must have added to the waiting time.

The Coming of the Lord. As a little baby. Something very human, vulnerably human. Something very familiar.

And yet .... it is the Lord that is coming. What a wonder!

2011-12-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

MORE THAN JUST A GOOD TEACHER

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When he made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
(Hebrews 1: 1-4)

Anyone who has tried to live as a Christian has encountered those who resist the entirety of what being a Christian is all about. They resist the whole "God became man" part of it, for whatever reason. When the Resisters don't dismiss the whole of the faith (meaning even the principles involved), they downplay the full significance of Jesus by saying "Well, he was a good moral teacher, like Buddha or Gandhi."

But the writer of Hebrews reminds us that "just a good moral teacher" is not the full truth of Jesus. The Christ is far, far more than a mere good man. The Promised Shepherd, the one who would watch over us and guide us and protect us, is the Son of the Most High. Everything was made through him. Christ is the radiance of the Lord, and in the life of Jesus we see the "exact representation" of the Father's nature. There's something much bigger going on than "just a good man."

Why is there this impulse to diminish the nature of Christ?

I think we sometimes get uncomfortable with the idea of God being so interested in us that He chose to come among us. The idea that the "radiance of the Lord" did come, and even regularly comes, into our presence, that He walked among us, it's unsettling. It means that there are things outside our control, big things, powerful things. We accept that there are events outside our reach, but we're not so keen on thinking about something that is both within our reach but so vast that we cannot hold it.

When people visit the redwood forests in California, they like to take pictures of themselves beside the biggest tree they can find. Here is this living thing, that is so very huge it utterly dwarfs us. And yet it is alive. It is a wonder and marvel to us. We touch it. We spread our arms across its surface, to show how impossible it would be for one person to hug the entirety of its circumfrence. But that tree stays put in its forest. It isn't going to pull up its roots and follow us home and come into our residences. It isn't going to walk beside us in our daily activities. We're not going to have to accommodate that massive redwood tree on the road while we're driving, or when we're talking with our non-believing friends. We don't have to think about it as we go about our daily tasks. We saw it in the forest, we were awed and impressed, and then we came home.

But Christ is so much more than a redwood tree. He brings the vastness and majesty of the presence of God, the brilliance of God's radiance, the glittering pomp of that which is greater than all the angels of creation, and He comes among us - with all of that. Of course it is discomforting, disconcerting.

But that is the wonder of Christmas. This glory, this majesty, is coming to be with us, to dwell with us. And He is choosing to do it in the sweetest, smallest way possible, by arriving as a little baby.

In the last few weeks, some of my online friends have had babies. One couple had twins, slightly premature, so the boys were small. In the wonders of technology, he posted pictures of the newborns. I again marveled at the amazing nature of the human construction. Here were tiny, tiny hands, where the palm of one child was barely the size of the thumb of his father's hand. Looking at the pictures of the newborns, I am very conscious of how vulnerable these precious little ones are, how delicate and fragile.

The wonder of Christmas is that the majesty of Heaven, the Creator of the Universe, the holder of all power and glory became an infant.

2011-12-18T09:58:00.000-08:00

A SHPEHERD FOR THE PEOPLE

Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power
And come to save us!
O God, restore us
And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And You have made them to drink tears in large measure.
You make us an object of contention to our neighbors,
And our enemies laugh among themselves.
O God of hosts, restore us
And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
(Psalm 80: 1-7)

In the course of writing these meditations this year, I've found so many of the passages addressing my personal life, meeting me where I am right now in my walk. It has been both a challenging experience and a joyful one. The Lord is preparing me! But this Psalm reminds me that the Promised Shepherd comes not just for me as an individual, but also as one for all His people.

Our Shepherd does not have one solitary lamb to watch over. He has a whole flock. He sits above the flock, above the angels, watching over all of us, making sure the whole flock is safe and accounted for. It's a very comforting image.

The psalmist here knows that the reality of his people, the nation he lives in, is that they've not really been following the Lord very well.He knows they deserved the troubles they were facing, the "bread of tears" that fed their distress. He looks about and knows that not only was their economy in trouble, the neighboring nations mocked them, their enemies laughed at them. Things were not good.

One of the news discussion programs was on this morning, and as I listened, these verses seemed to resonate clearly. Our people are fed with the bread of tears, we are an object of contenton to our neighbors, our enemies laugh at us. All you have to do is read the international news stories of the last couple of weeks to see this. Even within our "flock", our own society, there are those that make the fierce declaration that the United States is "not a Christian nation". The distressing thing about that declaration is the implication that not only is the U.S. not a religious oligarchy (which I do not have a problem with - government by nature is civil not religious) but that the very principles of Christianity are without worth considering. It is that second element that they are really mocking. Of late, atheists have become far more vocal and driven by activism, wanting to blot out the very expressions of faith in public.

Our enemies laugh at us.

It is not comfortable to be on the receiving end of declarations that say that the core aspect of your existence is merely superstition and stupidity, ignorance and uneducation, that it is pathetic delusion and deserving of being tromped on until it is broken out of existence. When you know that you cannot convince the mocker of that which you have actually experienced simply because you cannot give them an object they can hold and pick apart. You feel you need to defend this precious thing called Belief, and yet when you attempt to defend it you only receive more attacks.

But let us remember that we are the sheep and not the Shepherd.

We do not have the vision, the eyesight, to clearly see all that threatens the flock. We need to trust in our Shepherd, for He is indeed a Good one. He will watch over us. He will protect the flock. He will keep us safe.

And so the psalmist, after admitting that his people have been "out of favor", still calls upon the Lord to restore the flock, to shine His face upon the people, like warm sun upon the grazing flock.

Advent is not just for us as individuals, it is for us as a People. The Lord is coming not just for me but for Us. Instead of bemoaning the hard times that have come to us, let us pray for the sunshine of the Lord's favor, that even the discontented among us be made part of the flock, knowing the security of being under the care of a Good Shepherd.

2011-12-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

SHEPHERDS, SHEEP, AND FLOCKS

And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God
And they will remain,
Because at that time He will be great
To the ends of the earth.
This One will be our peace.
(Micah 5: 4-5a)

I'm pretty much a third generation urban creature. Possibly even fourth generation, since my paternal great-grandfather was a minister more than farmer. Life on the farm, that immediacy of earning a living from toiling with the soil or managing livestock are far from my personal experience. And for most of us, that become more and more the case. Yet terms from that type of existence remain with us, particularly in Christian termanology.

Shepherd. Sheep. Flock.

For most of us, we use those terms more for our faith life than for the actual things they designate. If we think about sheep at all, it may be for sheep-skin and fleece that lines or trims our cold weather garments. It's soft and warm. And maybe we think of having lamb for dinner. But that's what we know of sheep. As for shephers, we know those are the people whose job it is to manage a collection of sheep, out walking with them when the animals are munching grass. And flock is a nice useful term for a bunch of things, usually sheep and birds, but also for a group of people (usually with a positive connotation).

Years ago, I made plans to write a novel about the life of King David. I did a lot of research for this, outlining things, making lists, laying out a timeline, charting out the Psalms of David. Lots and lots of research. It was going to be a three volume project. (I still have most of the notes in my files, and I hope to return to this project in the future). The first volume was going to be titled The Shepherd of Judah and would cover David's life up to the death of King Saul. Because Daivd was a shepherd, and that job shaped his early outlook, I did a lot of research on sheep and shepherding, particularly as it was done in the ancient Middle East. And I learned many interesting things that stuck with me even after the project was superceded by others.

The general "knowledge" of sheep is that they are not very bright animals. The typical picture of them is that they are timid, easily paniced. This is true to a certain degree. If I remember correctly, sheep are rather miopic, and don't see very well. This is why they don't like suddenly moving things - like fast water and running dogs. (Yes, this is why being "led beside still waters" is a very good thing.) This is why they can walk over the edge of cliffs. This is why "wolf in sheep's clothing" is actually something that can work. The poor things just cannot see very well. This is why they need to be led, and why they prefer to stick together with those that are like themselves. It's not because they are too stupid, it is because they can't see.

They are, however, apparently very good at hearing. As I continued my research, it turned out that sheep have good hearing, and are very capable at distinguishing different sounds and different voices. When scripture says that sheep "know the voice of their shepherd," that is the truth. It is not simply a matter of knowing a voice that speaks with authority. They know the actual voices of their own shepherds. And more than that, in general, they will only respond to that voice. If a stranger should come along and try to call out to them to move or follow, they won't pay attention. (This is why the picture of cars blocked on country roads by a large flock of sheep remains a current picture. If you shout at them to move, they won't pay any attention to you: you're not their shepherd and they don't know your voice.) But not only do they know their shepherd's voice, they also know their own name. When their shepherd calls them by name, they will come to the shepherd.

So when scripture compares us to sheep, those are some of the things they knew, which they applied to our interaction with God. First off, we should perhaps get rid of the idea of sheep as stupid. I don't think God sees us as stupid, but rather that we cannot see everything that is around us and that might threaten us.

That stubbornness that is attributed to sheep springs from that reliance on the guidence of the voice of their shepherd - there's a perfectly valid reason for that stubbornness. Perhaps that is something that we need to hold on to more strongly in our own lives. Instead of listening to the voices around us that nudge and push us in every possible direction, what would happen in our lives if we stayed put until we heard the voice of our own shepherd? If we waited patiently for the sound of that voice that has proven it was trustworthy, and that calls each of us by our own names. Not "Hey you!", but by our name.

Sheep know there are dangers out there in the world, even though they cannot see them. They rely on the protection the shepherd gives them. The shepherd walks with the flock, keeping an eye out for the strays, making sure they all stay on safe paths. He is always on the alert for predators that would try and strike at the sheep, and he is ready to battle them. During his time as a shepherd, even though he was the youngest in his family, by the time he was 15, David had already killed a mountain lion and a bear which had threatened his sheep. He was very good at his job.

So when Micah calls the Promised One of the Lord, these are the things he and his audience were thinking off. They were not thinking of someone who was out there just strolling along not doing much, with a mass of mindless animals following along. They were thinking of a tall figure who could see all the dangers that they themselves could not see, someone who not only knew each of them, but who was entirely trustworthy to keep them from danger. Someone who was entirely reliable.

"The Lord is my Shepherd." Like many, I learned the 23rd Psalm when I was young. It is a very comforting psalm, even when I didn't really know much of anything about shepherding. But when I learned the details of sheep and shepherding, I came to appreciate it even more.

There is so much in life that I cannot see. Circumstances and events that happen outside my field of vision that might affect me if I walked into them blindly. There are unexpected cliffs and dropoffs that I don't always see. I get aggitated by sudden unexpected changes, even panicing a little bit. And generally, I turn toward the voices I know and that know me. I'm not stupid. I know my limits.

But sometimes I do behave like a sheep that thinks it doesn't need a shepherd. And ... yeah, that doesn't always go so well. But the shepherd does not rest when one of his flock is missing. The safe ones are led into a fold (a safe confine for them, like a cave or a walled area), secured (the entrance is closed or covered, to keep them from wandering), and the shepherd goes out looking for that lost one. When I've gone wandering and gotten lost, my Shepherd seeks me out, and brings me back to the rest of the flock and safety.

And then there is peace.

When the Promised Shepherd comes, there will be peace to the ends of the earth.

And He is coming!

2011-12-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

A SMALL PLACE OF BEGINNING

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.
Therefore He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.
The the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.
(Micah 5: 2-3)

The Old Testament prophet Micah gives word of the Messiah God promised the people of Israel, indicating that the Promised One would come from Bethlehem Ephrathah.

First off, we can take note that in God's Plan, His Promised One actually comes from a specific place. God's plans are not random. He roots them in specifc grounds, He choses a particular place to start.

As a writer, I can appreciate that planning. When I'm starting a new story, I make particular choices about how it opens. Sometimes I want to set a particular place or time. Sometimes I want to show a character in a specific state of mind. The beginning is where the reader enters into the world of my characters, so I want the entryway to be at the very least accessible to every potential reader. I don't want a doorway that is hard to open, or that constantly slams shut before the reader can get through it. Accessible. And some place specific.

So, the Lord promises His Messiah will come from Bethlehem Ephrathah. Not any of the larger cities of the region: not Jerusalem, the city of the kings; not Jericho, which had been an important trading city before the Israelites under Joshua came out of the desert; not Hebron, the leading city of Judah. Nope, the Promised One would come from Bethlehem Ephrathah, which was so tiny it was not even numbered in the clans of Judah. These days, it would be like living in a village so small it didn't even have its own Post Office.

At the time of Micah, probably the only reason anyone even remembered the name of Bethlehem was because it was where the great King David had been born. But when people spoke of the "city of David", they did not mean Bethlehem, they meant Jerusalem. David came from a really small place.

But although it may have been small, it apparently was not a bad place to live. The name Ephrathah (which seems to have been applied to the general area) means "fruitful." The name Bethlehem itself means "house of bread."

A small beginning, but a good one.

God starts all of us at some particular place. He plants us in our beginnings with intention. He wanted His Son to be accessible to all of us, and so designed that Jesus' beginnings would come from a humble place. No birth into a palace and power, into fanfare from trumpets. Instead, a tiny village so small it didn't rate having its own Post Office, but which was given a name of fruitfulness.

I don't think God expects any of us to start out with a big bang. He designs that our lives be good and productive and joyful.But He also does not dispise the humble beginning - after all, its what He chose for Himself. And if He chose it for Himself, what might we look to see from our own lives? What the Lord designed for the Christ, He wants to give to those who follow Christ.

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" ... it is great in our hearts, but was small in the World. But it was where God chose to come to us. The size of the beginning does not reflect what will come from it.

Let us begin, then. Begin in small things.

2011-12-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

COMING IN FROM THE COLD

I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts--
They came from you, O Zion;
The reproach of exile is a burden on them.
Behold, I am going to deal at that time
With all your oppressors,
I will save the lame
And gather the outcast,
And I will turn their shame into praise and renown
In all the earth.
At that time I will bring you in,
Even at the time when I gather you together;
Indeed, I will give you renown and praise
Among all the peoples of the earth,
When I restore your fortunes before your eyes,
Says the Lord.
(Zephaniah 3: 18-20)

Zephaniah tells us that the Lord will go out and gather in those who are grieving, those who are oppressed, who are out there wandering around alone.

I have had the benefit this last week of feeling that I have been drawn in to a sheltering place. But I also know many who are struggling to get by, who are feeling isolated and alone, who feel they are stuck out in the cold with not opportunity for getting into warm shelter. It all makes me wish there was some way I could by my own power pull them out of the loneliness and cold and get them into shelter (physical or psychological). But I am a limited creature.

The Lord, however, is not bound by such limits. And He promises that He will seek out those who are without shelter. And He will do more than just bringing them in out of the cold. Zephaniah mentions those who grieve at being left out and those who carry a burden of reproach for being "on the outside", and then adds that the Lord will address those feelings as well. He will turn shame into praise.

It made me think of the man I saw, sitting at the head of a freeway off-ramp on a cold, wet Sunday night. Our society is not kind to those who are reduced to begging. "The reproach of exile" as Zephaniah calls it. We start thinking, "What did you do or fail to do that has brought you to this?" And we do this in spite of knowing full well how uncertain the economy is at present, how easily anyone can fall victim to lost jobs, unexpected expenses, or simple bad luck. Perhaps it is fear that creates that scorn - when we are on the inside, we start taking it for granted. We start thinking that anyone on the "outside" could change that state by their own endeavors, if they just tried.

But some people are oppressed. Some people are lame (that is, rendered incapable of easy movement). Some people really have been cast out from their former shelters. And I have just come through a period where my own endeavors were not able to change the situation I was in. No matter what I tried, things didn't come through. I felt like I was watching the water of my life circle the sink and slowly drain away. But God stepped in, working through the helping hands of my friends, and turned that around.

The promise in Advent is that the Lord will gather us in. That He will shield us from oppression, that everything that drags us down will be driven away.

But not only will we be brought into the warmth, Zephaniah says that we will be lifted up. Renown and praise, and restoration of fortune. It seems that God doesn't bother with half-measures.

Okay, I admit it. From where I am right this minute, I view that promise with a cautious eye. God has pulled me back from the brink. He has provided for my immediate needs. I feel as if I am in a warmer shelter. But I still have to be careful of what has been given to me. I have enough for now, but it isn't yet what I would consider a "restoration of fortune." Make no mistake, I am not ungrateful. I am overwhelmed with gratitude that the anxieties that had been eating me for weeks have been washed away by the generousity the Lord has inspired. But I have seen the beginning of His promise come into existence. That makes it easier to believe that the rest will follow.

And what about that "praise and renown" matter?

Again, that takes time. What the Lord promises in that is not that we become headliners in popular culture (isn't that more a case of infamy, anyway?), but rather something better and more lasting. Renown -- to be known and honored. Isn't that something we want when we are outcast? To be remembered, to be respected as a human being? Again, this is how God works things together. When my friends reached out to help me, so many of them expressed their respect and appreciation of me. It took my breath away. This is renown. To receive praise on top of that is just frosting on the cake. But I've even had some drops of that. Perhaps they are the mere beginning drops of a shower. But even if they aren't, praise is like water to the thirst plant, the assurance that work you have done has been effective.

In Advent, as we prepare for the coming of the Christ Child, we need to be reminded that this gift of shelter from the Lord is part of what comes with Christ. More intimately, more intensely, Jesus brings God the Father close to us. With the touch of a human hand we are reminded that God's touch is far more powerful, far more encompassing than anything we can experience in our daily lives.

The Lord brings us in from the cold. All we need do is come with Him.

2011-12-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

THE FAVOR OF THE LORD

Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away His judgments against you,
He has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
You will fear disaster no more.
In that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
Do not be afraid, O Zion;
Do not let your hands fall limp.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy
(Zephaniah 3: 14-17)

So, say that we do all these things to prepare for the coming of the Lord - the repenting, the doing our duty, the being generous, and most of all, just trusting the Lord to be mindful of us and our needs - what do we get out of all that?

(Yeah, we're human. We do expect to "get" something. Mary was remarkable, because she accepted what came to her without question. Most of the rest of us keep needing the reassurance that there is some point in going through the rough stuff. Me included.)

The first thing to notice in these verses is that we are told to rejoice. Right off the top. We aren't told what the benefits of His favor are, we are told to celebrate. And not quietly. We're told to shout it out, to exult in our hearts.

Then we learn what the Lord will do for us: take away His judgments against us, clearing away our enemies. God will be with us, and we will not need to fear disaster.

I don't know about other people, but those are sort of big things to me. Not that I have many enemies that need clearing away - I really hope I don't. But "judgments against me", well, that's a different matter. I have a collection of smallish sins - of not being as diligent as I ought, of holding onto my pride for a long time, resentments and angers - a general mess of things that are not really in line with the life the Lord calls us to live. But here I am told that the Lord has cleared out the judgments against me for those things, His judgements, that is.

Instead, I'm told that the Lord is with me, and that I need fear disaster no more.

Now, to me, not fearing disaster is a rather big thing.

We are living in a tough time. So many people I know are without jobs. These are educated people, intelligent and capable people, people who want to be working at things that use their skills and abilities. These are people just scraping by, and I am one of them. Nothing ahead of me is certain. I've spent months hunting jobs and none have come through - until this last week. So I've been well into the "fearing disaster" territory.

It was hard to hold on to the intention of trusting the Lord to provide for my needs. Certainly, scripture assured me that He would meet my needs, but I couldn't see it. And yet, He did come through. For my immedate concerns. I still don't know what He intends to do about my need for a more regular income. I don't know what He intends to do for my friends who are in such need. All I do know is that He made my current relief possible, and that gives me a lot to rejoice.

But as I look at these verses, I notice one little bit of warning in the middle of all this recommendation to celebrate.

"Do not let your hands fall limp."

What's that?

Part of it is certainly about staying active in celebrating and rejoicing. Throwing those hands up and dancing and waving. But I also think there is something else about it too. I think it is also a nudge that when that turn in circumstances comes to us, and we are freed from anxiety, we are not supposed to sit back and relax. We are not to "rest on our laurels." We are not to let our hands fall limp and unoccupied.

I think we are called to take the energy of our celebrations and get on with the tasks at hand, the work we should be doing, or even giving of our extra to those in need.

But the big thing is that God is with us. He is with us in the midst of our noisy celebration, and also in our quiet moments. He rejoices over us.

For this day, that's a big - and special - deal. And I want to make noise about it.

2011-12-13T10:52:00.000-08:00

LOOKING BEYOND THE IMMEDIATE

And Mary said:
"My soul exalts the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave;
For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is upon generation after generation
Toward those who fear Him.
He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
And sent away the rich empty-handed.
He has given help to Israel His servant,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and his descendants forever."
(Luke 1:46-55)

So here is Mary, young, pregnant under (in the World's eyes) dubious circumstances, and her response is to praise God for His regard of her. Whatever the World might think of her, she accepted the message the angel Gabriel brought to her and agreed to God's plans. "Let it be to me even as you have said."

Even if she was thrilled by the simple prospect of being a mother (and for many women that is something precious to them), her song of praise here doesn't stop at that point.

She praises God because He has "regarded" her. In several of the other readings so far, we have seen that God does indeed pay attention to us, far more than we expected. The criminal on the cross only wanted to be remembered, but Jesus told him he would join Christ in Paradise. That's "regard." Zacharias, after many years of marriage without the fulfillment of parenthood, is told that he is about to become a father, something he greatly desired. That's "regard."

This is something we can all join Mary is proclaiming. The Lord regards us in our humble circumstances.

But Mary goes beyond that level of praise. She remembers the holiness of the Lord, and all that He has done for His people in the past. He humbles those who think too highly of themselves and their circumstances, and He raises up those who make no presumptions to status.

He fills the hungry with things that are good for them - and sends "the rich" away empty-handed.

For me, that particular part has some immediate meaning, for a combination of reasons.

In my current season of financial challenge, I've fallen into the habit of putting off eating, until I really get hungry. Perhaps not the healthiest practice in the world, but it stretches the groceries. So I've been getting a refresher course on hunger. Oh, I'm not depriving myself so much that I'm starving and in pain. But I do hold off on the eating until the body says "By the way, I really do need some fuel now." So when I reach that point, it is the "good things" that give the greatest satisfaction. When I am hungry, candy is not the answer.

But beyond that immediate, physical matter there is the spiritual side of things. In a Bible study I've been attending, we've been looking at the Beatitudes, and have discussed the meaning of "hungering and thirsting for righteousness." When I was at my deepest need, although I would have been happy to have, say, a lottery jackpot drop into my hands, I knew I wanted to have my needs addressed in a way that the Lord would consider appropriate. To me, that usually means that I have earned my keep. But I have been learning (or rather, relearning) the blessings of grace - to receive unexpected generousity. The rightness that comes from community and caring for each other has been "filling me with good things" - joy, love, gratitude, praise.

And what I have received is small compared to what Mary felt had been given her. The gift to me may have been small (in the perspective of the universe) but my heart is just filled to overflowing. We have so much to be thankful for, so much to praise God for. Let us not be silent about any blessing we received, because joy expressed about a small thing can grow and grow, warming the hearts of those around us.

2011-12-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

THE GIFT THAT COMES FROM REJOICING

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4: 4-7)

Last week at this time, I was really struggling with anxiety. The call to rejoice in all things and be anxious for nothing was really hard. When I was writing the meditation on last Monday's verses, the assurance that Jesus gave the repentant criminal was very dramatic to me. Faced with dire circumstances regarding my rent, I sat trying to figure out how to "count it all joy." Because I certainly wasn't feeling joyful at that moment.

And then I figuratively turned a corner and came face to face with an outpouring of love and support, coming from many different directions. I was deeply touched, often overwhelmed, by what I was receiving. Apparently my "gentle spirit" was "known to all". Often in the handful of days since then, the expressions of prayerful support or financial assistance have been accompanied by statements from the giver of what I mean to them - that I've encouraged them, supported them, done or said something that went deep with them. I have been astounded to learn so intensely just how much our seemingly small actions of attention and encouragement can affect others.

And I have to give credit where credit is due: if I'm a Good Person at all, it is because of Christ. The model Jesus gave us, the guidence in the Sermon on the Mount - those things have set the standard I strive to match. I don't claim to meet it all the time, but that is what I'm aiming toward. And there have been many times when my reaction to an action or statement made by someone else has been harsh, biting and bitter -- and Christ has either stood between me and my target, keeping me from "acting nasty", or He has nudged me to repair something I had mangled in anger, frustration, irritation or any number of negative reactions. The Lord really is near!

So, today, I have much to be thankful for!

I suspect I will continue to struggle with the "be anxious for nothing" directive. It is really hard for a control freak to let go of that, no matter how miserable it can make me.

But there is no way to express thanks and not be joyful. By last Thursday evening, when I knew the immediate concerns would be addressed, my thanks created such an inner flow of joy. I was happy to go out to be with friends. I was happy to be with them. I was happy to hear what was going on with them. I was happy just to converse about things we enjoyed, shared interests.

And it did lead to an inner peace. Perhaps it does "surpass all comprehension", for the main problem remains - a need for a regular income. But for this moment, I have much to be thankful for, and it makes me rejoice. And rejoicing increases that inner assurance that I am being watched over, guarded in heart and mind.

It isn't always easy to find ways to rejoice. So many people are facing hardships and major challenges. My prayer for others is that they find some thing to be thankful for, even if they have to start small. God builds upon small things.

2011-12-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

OUTBURST OF JOY

"Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For the Lord God is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation."
Therefore you will joyously draw water
From the springs of salvation
And in that day you will say,
"Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name,
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
Make them remember that His name is exalted.
Praise the Lord in song, for He has done excellent things;
Let this be known throughout the earth.
Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst in the Holy One of Israel.
(Isaiah 12: 2-6)

You would think that I would know better and so not be surprised. By that, I mean that I do know this truth - that God meets us where we are, and we suddenly see that He has been moving things toward a particular point - and yet, I am surprised when I see it in my own life.

Once again, I find that the sequence of verse passages for this Advent devotional meet me where I am. Even though the core of this sequence was selected two years ago.

Today, my heart is so filled with gratitude and thankfulness that joy bubbles up. God has worked through the loving hearts of many people to bring me aid. It is "salvation" in a way. I was distressed and anxious, and then God brought to me help. But not just help. He brought encouragement to me through all those who have reached out to me.

It really is like drawing water from a spring. This encouragement has been like drinking sweet water when I was seriously parched.

As I look back on recent weeks, I muse upon how a lifetime of walking with God has held me to trusting Him. For me, trusting God is rather like trusting gravity while walking on the face of the planet. It is always there. You know it will keep you grounded. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to live without it, even when I least know what God will do next. For me, the stumbling block is not being afraid. I don't like facing unknowns. I don't like facing situations where I don't know what might happen next. I want to be able to scope out the possibilities and options. I want to be prepared.

And of course, being prepared, or at least making preparations, was the theme of the second week of Advent - preparing for the Coming of the Lord.

But when I look into myself, I find that what I was calling "being prepared" was actually more a desire to be in control. And I don't think those are the same thing to the Lord.

The wonderful thing about Our God is that He doesn't give us demerits for making that kind of mistake.

This week, I was brought to a point where nothing I could do would address the challenges I faced. No amount of "preparation" on my part could improve the circumstances. I had to humble myself and openly admit that I needed help, and I was ready to accept it in whatever from the Lord chose to send it. I think it was the "unknown means" that was causing me the greatest anxiety: what was God going to ask of me in order to address my needs? Was I going to lose my current home? Was I going to have to sell whatever I could part with? The prospect of having to go down paths that would lead away from my heart's desire (that is, to be writing) was distressing me, but I was reluctantly accepting that possibility.

God's answer to my need has washed away much of that anxiety. In the midst of generous support have been some small jobs offered, and they are jobs in tune with my love of writing. They are an additional blessing to me, for they give me the opportunity to earn the support by doing something I love.

The Lord has refreshed my heart these last few days. He has met me in my need, and given me sweet water for my thirst. Given that He has done this much to bring me to this moment, I can indeed trust that He will continue to carry me forward. Yes, there are still challenges ahead of me. Yes, my need is not yet entirely wiped out. But every day, the immediate need is being met, making it easier to believe it will continue, making it easier to be less anxious.

God is indeed very good, and He comes to meet us where we are. All the time.

2011-12-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

BLESSING AND GRATITUDE

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you; always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

(Philippians 1: 3-11)

When I opened the Bible this morning to begin writing this, I checked the introduction to the Letter to the Philippians. The Bible I have at my desk is the Ryrie Study Bible with the New American Standard translation. It's very useful for quick checks of scripture (hence a good tool for a writer to have immediately at hand). Anyway, the introduction informed me that the church at Philippi was the first Paul helped established on the continent of Europe, and that the people there were dear to him. He was writing them in thanks for some financial support they had sent him in the past.

That struck very close to home for me, on this day. I've been dealing with a lack of money, and when I finally mentioned openly that I was in need and requested prayer that God provide in some way, I received not just an amazing outpouring of prayer support but also a surprising wave a monetary assistance. I'm not talking about huge amonts here, though. I mean people giving small amounts because they cared (some gave more, but I'm not going to rank anything by amount). It was the caring that was precious beyond price.

So when Paul speaks of his gratitude for these friends, it met me right where I am at this moment. My friends have been partakers of grace! They have blessed me, it seems, because in some small way I have touched them.

When I step back and look at these verses as part of the preparations for the coming of the Christ-child, I feel that it adds another layer to what we are called to be doing. Yesterday, when the repentant asked John the Baptist what they should do, he said that if they had extra, they should give to those in need. Here we see a consequence of that type of action. Paul has benefited from that sort of giving, and he is so deeply moved that the givers become even more dear to him, and he daily prays that they be blessed greatly by God.

I think sometimes we undervalue the effect that being generous can have on the recipients. I know that sometimes I have given to others because they were in need and I could do it, so why not. It was a very cool action, dutiful. But now, I understand the difference between that and the "cheerful heart" we are called to have when giving. I mentioned yesterday my first encounter after I started my "Me and Thee Fund". When I handed that man the two dollars and said "God bless you," I gave it to him with a smile. His face lit up with surprise, I recall. I didn't dwell on it, already turning back to my car as he expressed his thanks. But as I got into the vehicle, it occured to me that he probably encountered flat expressions when anyone gave him anything, nevermind the possible expressions of scorn or even non-acknowledgement of his personhood from those who simply passed him by. Apparently, the fact that I did it with kindness mattered to him. And, strangely enough, the memory of his smile is bright in my mind - a blessing to me.

And what about Advent in this?

My heart is so very full of gratitude for the love and support of my friends, and yet what they have given me could be considered small in the World's perspective. Oh, it is very big to me, make no mistake. But compared to the gift that God was about to give the World, what I have received is small. God was about to enter the World Himself, to take on flesh as Jesus, in order that we be able to come even closer to Him and His love. God's gift to us is infinitely greater than the gifts we give each other.

On Thursday evening, I attended a holiday party for an organization I belong to. I'd been looking forward to it initially just as an opportunity to get out, to think about something else for a time, to be around people I like, respect and enjoy. It was a rather tepid sort of anticipation. But then on Thursday, I began to receive support from friends, and each addition (of whatever size) increased the wattage of my relief and joy. But the time I arrived at the party, I had been so lifted up, I felt like I might be glowing. My heart had been greatly eased and it made smiling at others impossible to suppress.

I want to hold on to that feeling, and remember how small it is compared to what I really should feel in response to the gift of Christ. In our daily relationships, we live in small scale the blessing that Christ is to us. To receive blessing and to send it back out again to those around us, this is part of our Advent preparation.

So.... may God's blessings shine on you all!

2011-12-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

EXPECTATION, ENTITLEMENT, AND DUTY

So he [John] began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves,'We have Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

And the crowds were questioning him, saying, "Then what shall we do?"

And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise."

And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?"

And he said to them," Collect no more than what you have been ordered to."

Some soldiers were questioning him, sayiing, "And what about us, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages."

Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ, John answered and said to them all, "As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
(Luke 3: 7-18)

John has some pretty challenging things to say about what should follow repentance.

He is startling from the get-go, for he does not greet those who came to him with soft, gentle words. Instead, he calls them a "brood of vipers." Not just snakes, but poisonous ones. He's not letting anyone off the hook just because they showed up to be baptized. He told them that their actions after that point needed to reflect the change in their life, and he warned them against falling into the trap of feeling entitled to righteousness just because they were "children of Abraham."

These days I seem to see Entitlement in all sorts of small things on every side. Drivers in large shiny SUVs who feel entitled to abruptly change lanes in front of others, without signalling and without even being cautious about the space between them. People who get impatient in lines because "I'm in a rush!" (as if nobody else is on a schedule). During Thanksgiving week, a major department store chain had a Black Friday commercial that featured a cheerfully pushy young woman who cut into the store entrance ahead of an older woman while virtually putting her hand in the other woman's face and then later lifted an item right out of another shopper's cart. Not only is Entitlement becoming a rampant plague, it is actually being celebrated as desirable. It doesn't seem to matter that the behavior is rude and selfish.

John cut that off at the knees by basically telling those beginning to feel self-righteous and entitled. "You think you're so special because you are a Child of Abraham? Well, you're not. God could make Children of Abraham from all these stones if He wanted to. No, you're not special."

That seems to have caught the attention of many, because they started asking "Then what are we to do?"

John's answer is very simple, and yet it seems to be so hard for us to follow. "If you have extra, give to someone in need. Do your job - just do your job. Don't use it to steal from others."

We're always trying to leverage our positions into "something more, something bigger". But how often do we do that at someone else's expense?

For me, lately, I have been seeing both sides of this matter, of "what we should do" following repentance.

On the one hand, early last month as I was considering how God blesses us in unlikely ways, and how when things were short for me I tended to get very close-fisted because of anxiety, Into the midst of those thoughts, God dropped a sermon about the widow who gave of her very small savings. Jesus pointed out that although what she gave in monetary value was tiny compared to a rich man who had preceeded her in giving an offering, He said that in God's eyes, her gift was far greater. About the same time, somewhere else in my life, someone had quoted "God loves a cheerful giver."

It set me thinking about how often God unexpectedly blesses us. So I decided that whenever I did have cash-in-hand, I would take out two dollars to have available to anyone who asked. Two because one was for myself, to remind me that I needed to give, and not be selfish, and the other was for God and the needy person, God in the needy person. "Whenever you have done it for the least of these, you have done it to Me." I call it the "Me and Thee Fund." And the "rules" are that I give it to whomever asks from need, and that I give it cheerfully. The first time, I was coming out of a 7-Eleven after buying a sandwich on my way home, and I was surprised at how easy it was to give the man that two dollars - with a smile and even saying "God bless you" as I gave it. The second time, I was coming home late on a wet, cold Sunday evening, just at the top of the exit ramp from the freeway. There was a man there with the begging sign. And I thought that anyone who was sitting out there on a night like that really was in need. I got that two dollars out before I even reached him, and handed it to him as my light turned green.

Me and Thee. Even when things are tight for myself. I mean to try and be sure to have even that little to give away to someone else whose need might be far worse than my own.

And the other hand of the matter, I have been blessed to see people doing as John recommended: "If you have two and you see someone who has none, give him one of yours." At a time when so many are dealing with our damaged economy, I have received from others. They have given according to their abilities, but I am finding that their mere action of giving is so powerful all amounts are ... well, equal. The small gift is as precious as the larger one.

These then are the things John called us to do, to prepare for the coming of the Lord: don't start feeling entitled to specialness, be generous when you can, and do your duty without trying to use it for greater gain.

It seems simple enough.

2011-12-08T09:29:00.000-08:00

ONCE UPON A TIME FOR REAL

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
"'The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight.
Every ravine will be filled,
And every mountain and hill will be brought low;
The crooked will become straight,
And the rough roads smooth;
And all flesh will see the salvation of God.'"
(Luke 3: 1-6)

One of the notable things about the Gospel of Luke is Luke's desire to peg events in time, to tell us of the specific context of the story of Christ. In setting the stage for John and his baptising mission, Luke gives us several cross-references. He wants to make sure we know this really happened in a particular time and place.

I have done a lot of studying of mythologies of the world, how they grow. Many mythic stories spring from the human desire to give symbolic meaning to the things of the world around us. Sometimes, real events gain the encrustation of myth: the court of Charlemagne was for a time the core of fictive legends; it is believed that the legends of King Arthur sprang from the actions of a real person; archeological evidence indicates that there might indeed have been some sort of long seige of the ancient fortress of Troy. But there is a certain vagueness around legends of this sort - Arthur and Troy are difficult to peg in a specific time. But Luke, who seems to have been aware that "legendary vagueness" would undercut the reality of the history he was recording, takes pains to give specific references in time.

It's a way of underlining a statement of "This really happened!"

Something big was about to happen, and John came out of the wilderness to instruct us on how to prepare for this big thing.

Repentance. Forgiveness of sins.

It's hard to give up resentments. It's hard to give up feelings of "I was right and Soandso was wrong." It's hard to admit the mistakes we've made. It's hardest to admit when we have intentionally done or said something that we meant to hurt another.

But that's what repentance is. Letting go of our worser selves.

Why do we find that so hard? Perhaps because if we let go of the volume of those acts and attitudes, we know there will be an empty space inside us and we fear what might come in. "This much I know of myself. It may not be great, but at least I know what it is! If I let go of it, will I know what I might become? Will it still be me?" I think that sort of reaction is part of what makes repentance so hard. Fear of the unknown.

It's also hard to forgive sometimes. We want to be sure that the other person knows how much they injured us. We want that acknowledgement that they injured something valuable. There's often even the desire to see the injurer humbled.

But is that forgiveness? Not really. To forgive, we really have to let go of that. To make a space inside ourselves by kicking out that negative baggage of resentment and letting something else, something better come in.

But there is also the matter of seeking forgiveness for the injuries we have cause to others. And that is just as hard. Because it means that we have to humble ourselves, to admit that we have done damage to something valuable, something precious to the Lord.

But if we cannont reconcile ourselves with each other, how can we possibly reconcile ourselves to the Lord?

Paul said that Christ came for that ultimate reconciliation. And Luke reminds us that John went before Jesus in order to teach us how to prepare for the coming of Christ.

I've been learning a lot about humbling myself lately. I've known since my teens that Pride is my besetting sin, so humbling myself is not an easy thing. And yet, in this passage, John reminds us that the low places shall be filled up, the high places brought down, and the crooked and rough ways will be made straight and smooth. And my Pride can certainly been a high and rough territory. Am I readly to be "smoothed out"?

If I want to see the salvation of the Lord, this is what is needed.

2011-12-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

PREPARING THE WAY

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways;
To give to His people the knowledge of salvation
By the forgiveness of their sins,
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us,
To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace."
(Luke 1: 76-79)

These are the words that Zacharias said over his newborn son - after spending nine months unable to speak because he thought the angel Gabriel wasn't serious when the heavenly messenger said the older couple were going to have a child.

"Hello, little one! You've got a really big job ahead of you!" Happily, the baby didn't have to do it right away. He got to grow up to the job.

But for Advent, as part of the celebration, we are called to take on something of the mantle of John the Baptiser. We are called to prepare the way of the Lord. We are called to let people know what is coming.

It's so easy to get caught up in the fun of a holiday season, the pleasure of partying, of just being with people we like doing amsuing things. Do we, as believers, remember to acknowledge why we do it? I admit, I don't, not always.

And what is it again that is coming?

A light so bright it is sunshine from the highest point of the sky. A light that can reach those who sit in the darkest corners, who sit in the shadow of death.

When things are going badly in life, we feel that darkness has fallen on us. When we are scared, alarmed, anxious, we can't see beyond the immediate stuff that is disturbing or hurting us. Everything seems black around us, without hope. And that's a scary place to be. For some people, it is so terrible they cannot stand it. For some people, they do not see any spot of light that would give them hope. They are so far into the shadow of death, that they will run the rest of the way just to have an end of the anxiety and fear. It is heartbreaking to know of those who are so overwhelmed with fear that they cannot find any hope. Just this week, the brother of a friend took that route - he was swept away by fears of what might happen, and he was lost in the shadow of death.

That is why "preparing the way of the Lord" is important. It's not just an extension of "happy time" as a run-in to a major holiday.

We are lighting the candles to show those who sit in darkness that there is indeed a pathway out of that shadow. That the path goes somewhere better than dispair and loss. And that the one who is coming, who will walk down that pathway to meet them where they are brings so much light that the lost one will feel daylight and warmth - and at long last peace.

Jesus told his followers that we are the Light of the World. We need to remember how precious and important even our small lights can be to those who feel lost and trapped in darkness. There is a purpose for us to fulfill.

Prepare the way of the Lord.

2011-12-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

REFINING PREPARATION

"Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the Lord of hosts. "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jersualem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years."
(Malachi 3: 1-4)

The Lord is coming! And to make sure you are ready, He will send a Messenger ahead of himself!

We can't say that we weren't warned, when the Lord shows up on our doorsteps, especially at Christmas time. At best, we can say that we didn't pay attention to the Messenger and his message.

And why would it matter that we be warned ahead of time? God loves us, after all, doesn't He? How can that be something we need to be warned about?

Well, Malachi tells us why -- None of us will be able to stand when He comes!

Not because we will be struck down and beaten, at least not in the sense of violence being done to us. No, we will not be able to stand because the Lord is like a refiner's fire: the heat of His presence will melt us down. That's why we won't be able to stand before him, why we won't be able to endure in our current form or state His coming. We will be changed.

When I was growing up, the holiday season meant some major entertaining in our family. My parents had a set of friends that liked to gather together. At some point during the holidays we were sure to be having a Big Dinner, with the good china, and the silver cutlery, and all the best serving dishes. This meant getting the silver pieces out and polishing them. A couple of silver platters, a silver water pitcher, the silver tea and coffee service as well as the "Brown Betty" teapot with its inlaid silver ornamentation, the knives, forks and spoons, and some candlesticks. I often got the task of doing this polishing, so I became very familiar with Wrights Silver Polish. But it was a task I actually enjoyed.

I liked the sense of unveiling the beauty of these objects. Often when we took them out of their storage containers, the silver would have tarnished a bit. The darkened metal would be mottled with grey coloring. I would rinse the item down with warm water and then spread the silver polish paste over the surface. Once it had dried, then came the polishing, gently wiping the surface, letting the Wright's cream lift the tarnish off the surface of the silver.

That is what Malachai means when he talks about the "fuller's soap." It's the substance used to make the precious metal shine beautifully.

But also note, that the use of the fuller's soap is a very minor part of the Lord's coming. Much as we would like to believe that the Lord's coming involves only polishing us up, that isn't what Malachai says. He tells us that the Lord's coming is something much more drastic.

The refiner's fire melts down precious metals. In the process, any impurities can be separated out from the metal, leaving behind a much purer metal. The molten metal is then repoured and reshaped into beautiful objects, and when finished and cooled, given a final polish.

Our problem is that we resist the refiner's fire. We feel that we will lose ourselves, we will be destroyed! What will be left of ME, if I submit to the Lord's fire? We are afraid.

But look again. From the Lord's point of view, we are precious. We are silver and gold, material of great value and beauty. He wants to make us even more beautiful. But to do that, He needs to melt us down, refine us, purify our substance so that we are not marred by impurities. He will then pour us out and make us into something even more beautiful. He will take our precious essence (silver and gold) and make it into something beautiful and useful - a silver platter, a golden pitcher, an infinite variety of beautiful things. There is a purpose to the refiner's fire.

How long will we resist the refining? There is work to be done, in order to have the gold and silver prepared and purified, and then remade into the beautiful things to be used for the celebrations. We certainly want to be there bright and shiny for the celebration of the Lord's coming. To be ready, the Refiner must start now.

2011-12-05T11:03:00.000-08:00

YOU CAN ASK

Now there was also an inscription above Him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!" But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."

(Luke 23: 38-43)

So while they were dying on the crosses, one of the two criminals that were executed with Jesus apparently had to play a game of one-upsmanship with Jesus. "Neener, neener, if you're such a big deal, save yourself and us!" It's such a human impulse when we're feeling down, defeated, depressed. We want to feel that there has to be someone who has it worse than ourselves, especially if they might have been someone who in the ordinary course of events had a "better" life than we did. It's not a very noble impulse - in fact, it's downright rotten. But it is human.

But the second criminal knew that dying was serioius stuff. Apparently, he also believed that there might indeed be more to our existence than mere physical survival. He rebukes the first guy by asking "Don't you fear God?"

The second guy seems to have been honest with himself, since he points out that he and the first criminal actually deserved the punishment they were getting. He knew he did not deserve anything better and he had reconciled (ah! that word again!) himself to his fate.

But what is interesting was that even though he had accepted his fate and acknowledged that he deserved every bit of what he was getting, he had the nerve to ask Jesus to remember him when Jesus came to his kingdom. He didn't even ask to join Jesus in that realm, he just asked to be remembered.

To be remembered. To be acknowledged. We all thirst for that. It's what drives many people to chase success, to chase fame or even notoriety. To be assured that someone, somewhere, remembers that we once existed.

Remember me!

But look at what Jesus returns to him -- not "I certainly wll!" but rather "Truly, today you shall be with me in Paradise."

So much more than just being remembered. The criminal who acknowledged that Jesus was indeed Lord, he was told that in spite of his deserving this ignoble death, he was going to be joining Jesus in Paradise. What a reconciliation with God!

What has that to do with Advent?

Let's remember that God has called us to be part of His "Big Picture". We have been invited to "be onstage" to play crucial parts in the fulfillment of His design. To join in the big spectacle.

I think we have all had points in our lives when we've been outsiders, when we've stood looking at some warm glowing room filled with happy people enjoying a wonderful party, listened to voices singing joyfully together, a cheerful bubbling sound of conversation and laugher. Either literally or figuratively, we've stood out in the dark, cold winter night, stopping to look at some bright picture window across the street, where the holiday lights shine in bright colors, the room within glows with golden light, the people all face each other with smiles, and greet each other with affectionate hugs. Love, warmth, contact, and we are not part of it. And we feel that though we want to be part of it, we don't deserve to be part of it.

I think everyone has stood in that spot at some point.

But what this specific passage has to do with Advent is this: That party in that brightly lit room, that is the preparation celebration before the coming of the King. All those people in there love each other, yes, but what they're excited about is that the King is coming! And we, for whatever reasons in our lives -- terrible sins or small sins, loneliness, dispair -- we believe we don't have the right to enter that party company. Maybe because our feet are muddy, or our clothes stink because they haven't been laundered in ages, or because we did something bad to someone in that room. We all have had our reasons for knowing we could not, should not try and push our way into that room. We know we're not wanted. But... we just want someone to remember us, someone in that room to speak our name without condemnation, just for once.

"Remember me." And then we have the intention to continue walking on down the road alone in that cold, dark winter night, were the space is empty.

What Jesus answers to that is this: "I'm going to do more than just remember you and mention your name. You are going to come into the party with me. I don't care about the mud on your feet or the condition of your clothes. When I stand beside that fireplace in the warmth and hold the cup of hot spiced cider in my hand, with that wonderful scent, the person that will be standing with me, receiving the smiles and hugs.... that person will be YOU."

All you have to do is ask.

2011-12-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

RECONCILIATION MEANS FORGIVENESS

When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, "He saved others, let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One." The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying "If You are the King of Jews, save Yourself!"
(Luke 23: 33-37)

If Christ came to live among us in order to bring reconciliation between us and God, how is that accomplished? What does it look like, at least for a beginning?

If two people have been out of harmony with each other, there is likely to be necessary to be some forgiveness between them.

Forgiveness is not easy to achieve. We don't like to let go of resentments. But our role model, Jesus, look what he does -- he forgives the people crucifying him. They're playing dice for is very clothes right in front of him as he is dying, and he forgives them.

That's a real challenge for us to follow.

"But what has all this to do with Advent?" you ask. After all, Advent and Christmas, isn't this a season for joy and bright lights and happy faces, and that Baby in the Manger looking all sweet?

A good storyteller knows that shadows of the end of the story need to be present from the beginning. And in the story of Jesus, the cross looms at the "crisis point" in the story. While he was on the cross, the soldiers mocked Jesus, saying "If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!" But writer Chalres Williams, a friend of C.S. Lewis, has observed that saviors cannont save themselves. They cannot be thinking about whether or not they themselves will come through the process when they are laboring to save others.

Forgiveness and commitment, even onto death. That's what is needed for reconciliation with God. It's a tall order.

But isn't Advent a good time to work on those things? The season when Hope physically entered the world, when God came to dwell among us? The world around us has turned Christmas into the most selfish time of the year. Advertising urges us to think about all those things we want for ourselves, so we can tell our loved ones all the things we want, hoping they will go out and get them. That's because advertising plays upon our desires. But day in and day out we see these mini-stories with this theme of "Desire this! Want this! Yearn for this! And buy, buy, buy!" Everything around us pulls us away from the real point of Christ's coming.

The things of this world are temporary, comforting and pleasing as they may be. But our relationship with God is eternal, extending beyond the limits of flesh and blood and material existence. Which is more important?

The world around us moves toward the darkest time of the year (in the northern hemisphere, where the story of Jesus took place in historical time). The social world around us pulls us away from the light of Christ and toward the darkness of self-centeredness. To change our focus we need to remember where the story of Jesus is heading, toward that challenge of forgivenss in order to achieve reconciliation.

I admit it: considering the places in my life where I need to bring forgiveness and reconciliation isn't easy. And to deal with them at Christmas time, well, that's a lot of work. The serioius attention needed to achieve it, the willingness to humble myself, to seek justice between myself and the other person, those are things that seem out of tune with the upbeat happiness the world around me says should be the outlook for the season.

But who am I to listen to here? The world, which only cares about whether I spend money and indulge myself? Or am I to listen to the voice of Christ in scripture? Why is this even a question? (Oh, because I'm only human and need to be reminded from time to time.)

It's Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of the Christ. The coming of Christ brings us the manifest means, in the flesh, for gaining reconciliation with God. And part of the fabric of that reunion leads toward the cross and the need to forgive those with whom we are in disharmony. We cannot come into harmony with God if we are out of tune with the people around us. If we are to sing the Great Music of the Birth of Jesus, we need to end the clashing noises of fractured relationships, to bring harmony by forgiving others and seeking forgiveness.

2011-12-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

WHY DOES IT MATTER?
For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.(Colossians 1: 19-20)

From the outside looking in at Christianity, I suppose someone could ask why it matters whether or not Christ came at all. What's the point? Believers say that Jesus was one with God and that He "died for our sins", but what does that mean?

That's the point that Paul is trying to make with this statement: that God's intention is to reconcile all things in heaven and on earth to Himself. Reconcile - to draw together again, to restore to unity and harmony. We are given independant existence as God's creatures, free will to choose the nature of our relationship with God. But because of His love for His creations, He desires to be in harmony with us, to be at peace together.

I know many people who do not have good relationships with their parents. I was blessed to come from a loving home, where there never really was a doubt that our parents did love and care for us. And yet, even the best of parents will still run into spots where a child will be feeling unloved and neglected. I had my bouts of that. Being the "middle child" of four engendered a feeling that I was overlooked. I had it down to a standard song, in fact: my older sister was special because she was the first-born, my brother was special because he was the ony son, my younger sister was special because she was the baby - so where did that leave ME? I sometimes felt "outside" of things. I was "out of harmony."

I think everyone at some point or other has that feeling of being "out of harmony" with family or those others close to them. And that experience represents in small scale the possible chasm between ourselves and God. For those who come from seriously abusive families, there is possibly a feeling of outrage at the idea that the gap between their parents and themselves could be considered "small". I know some "children of abuse" who utterly reject the nature of their parents (usually the father) who were sorry excuses for human beings. They probably feel the gap between themselves and their abusive parent to be distances of light-years. How is that small?

First off, God is not an abusive parent worthy of being rejected. As we have seen in other selections for this Advent progress, He is a God who makes promises and delivers on them. Whatever our trials, He has plans for us, good plans. And He loves us. That is why He desires to be brought back into harmony with us. But He is also God and we are not - that gap is beyond light-years of distance.

So, He came to be with us in the person of Jesus, to dwell in Jesus and thus dwell among us as one of us.

But look again at what Paul says: it was the Father's good pleasure to do this, to seek this reconciliation, this united harmony.

Not need. Not requirement. Not demand. Not consumption, Not hunger. Not loneliness or incompleteness.

It was and is God's pleasure to come into harmony with us.

Pleasure.

Pleasure in all things in heaven and on earth. A love so complete there is peace and harmony, the most utterly complete experience of those qualities in the reunion.

Why does it matter that Christ came into the world? That's why. To be brought close to, even to dwell within, the source of love and peace and harmony.

2011-12-02T03:30:00.000-08:00

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
And He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
(Colossians 1: 15-18)

Who is this "Long Expected Jesus" that we are looking toward? God had his prophets declare his coming generations before the birth in Bethlehem, promising a savior of some sort. That's a lot of expectation.

But what does Paul say of him here?

"The firstborn of all creation." And also, "by Him all things were created."

　
In his poem, "Mythopeia," J.R.R. Tolkien told the then-still-non-Christian C.S. Lewis, "We make still by the law in which we're made." In Genesis we are told that man and woman were created in the image of God, whatever that might be. Paul here says that the Christ is also the image of the invisible God, but also specifically that the Christ is the means and master of creation. So, we could say that the nature of the promised Messiah is that of a creator.

For me, as a creative person, this is familiar territory. All my life, creative endeavors have been part of the fabric of my existence. I was born into a house of music. I drew from an early age. Later, I chose writing as a craft I wanted to pursue, to perfect my abilities in it. Making things is part of the heart of myself. So for me, it is easy to grasp the holiness of Christ as this figure.

Christ is the means by which creation came into being. Anyone who has made something original understands that. This burning desire takes fire in your heart, striving to take on a form of some sort, something outside the self so that you can look at it, touch it, interact with it. The Work of Art comes into being because of the creator. But Christ is more than this, and that "more" elevates Him far above a human creator. Because Christ is also the glue that holds the pieces of the work together. Christ is the molecular bond, the atomic fusion by which the created work holds to its unity and identity. And that is something human creators cannot achieve on their own.

Human creators are dependant on "something else" to hold their work together. But Paul says the Christ does more than that. Christ holds us together, as individuals and as the church.

There's nothing too surprising about the declaration that Christ holds us together as a body. I think most Christians get used to hearing that.

But what if we consider ourselves as works of art that Christ has been making? What then? What happens to us if we think of ourselves as a thing of beauty that Christ is shaping?

Unlike us, Christ is not working with flat, soul-less materiel. Instead, He is working with "clay" that has been given desires and free-will, "clay" that resists His shaping often, because we don't understand what He is trying to make of us.

Why do we resist? Do we really think that the God of the Universe desires to make something un-lovely? Do we really think that the God of the Universe finds even the least atomic sub-particle insignificant? And we are so much more than an atomic sub-particle.

We are awaiting the coming of the master of Creation, who holds all things together.

Our God has promised us this, that He will hold us till the Christ comes. And in the coming we will be held together even more than we are now. The very fabric of our existence holds both the promise and the fulfillment of it.

That is what we look for. That is what we celebrate.

2011-12-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

GOD'S DESIGN

'Behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. In those days Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord is our righteousness.'
(Jeremiah 33: 14-16)

Jeremiah was speaking to the people of Israel in a very trying period of their history. It can't have been an exactly joyful job to be the Lord's prophet at a time when His people were facing terrible challenges. But Jeremiah's words from the Lord are that God has a plan, a design. He had made a promise long before about His plan to raise up a Messiah. And God's Messiah would come from a specific lineage, that of King David.

God takes the long view. He lays out His plans over long stretches of time. I look at these words from Jeremiah, and I think about the length of time from the days of David to those of Jeremiah, and then the passage of time from Jeremiah to the birth of Jesus. That's a really long time.

But God had a specific design in mind. And He made it happen. Jesus was born of the lineage of David.

Elsewhere in Jeremiah we are assured that God has plans for each of us, plans for a hope and future. That's something I hold on to, particularly right now. But these present verses remind me that God's view of time and fulfillment aren't necessarily going to be the same as mine. That's not an easy thing to deal with.

And then there is also what Jeremiah declares to be the purpose of the Messiah -- to execute justice and righteousness on the earth.

I think we all consider justice and righteousness to be worthy things on a societal level.These days we certainly hunger to see more of them. But I don't think they're always the things we look for on the personal level. We do think about justice when we are wronged, or when someone near to us is wronged. But do we think about righteousness? We focus a lot on what is legal. But our commitment to "what is right" is often selective - this cause or that issue.

We'd rather hope that God's plans for us are about fulfilling our comfort.

These verses are a challenge to me right now. I have some basic needs that I have to believe God will address. He has promised to provide, after all. But here in Advent, these verses remind me that there is a much bigger picture than just my needs. God's plans for the coming of Jesus were not shaped around the purpose of making me comfortable. Instead, they were shaped toward bringing justice and righteousness to the world.

If I take these verses with the previous meditations, the call to step outside my own concerns gets stronger. We're called to be part of the bigger picture, to take part in the events that God is unfolding. And the action He is shaping it all toward isn't necessarily about making us comfortable. It's about making us and the world around us more righteous.

That's a long way from the "warm fuzzies" of our usual perception of Christmas.

2011-11-30T01:17:00.000-08:00

BEING PART OF THE PICTURE

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you ... so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.(Colossians 1: 9a, 11-14)

There is an awful lot of spectacle involved in our modern celebrations of Christmas. Pagents, music events, lights, decorations. It is very easy to sit back and enjoy the sights, to be observers. To be passive, in fact.

But that is not what God had in mind for us.

Paul tells us that we ought to be walking in a way worth of the Lord, bearing fruit in our work. He reminds us that we were rescued from the "domain of darkness" and transferred to the kingdom of Christ.

Now there's a thought. Instead of sitting in the darkened movie theater, watching everything up on the screen, we've been transfered into the picture itself, in all its color and motion and light. Instead of sitting passively watching, we are called to be moving about and doing things, doing them well.

When I was growing up in Michigan, the choirs of many of the churches in the community would join together to form a massive chorus in order to perform the Christmas section of Handel's Messiah. It was usually the adult choir members that took part in the chorus. My mother was a church musician (organist and choir director), and I not only could read a score, I could sing well. For two years, I had been intrigued by my mother and older sister going off to the special rehearsals in the weeks prior to Chirstmas. I forget how old I was when I first got to join the chorus, but I was far younger than anyone else there. I sang soprano. Over the course of the next several years, I took part in the Messiah chorus, reaching the point where I knew all the choruses for the Christmas section by heart. And I'd heard the solos often enough that I knew them as well.

Taking part in the event became an important aspect of the season for me. I didn't quite realize how much until after we moved to Texas, and it was no longer as much of a factor. Oh, the choir in our church in Houston certainly did sing some of the choruses for services (so many churches do!). But it wasn't quite the same thing.

When I look back on it now, I vaguely remember the years before I joined the special chorus, attending the performances, sitting with my father, but being restless. (I was occassionally a fidgety child.) Because so much of the meaning of that musical work is in the words, perhaps I fidgeted because the words didn't fit together in a way that reached my young brain. But once I was in the chorus, and spending the weeks learning the word, learning how the voices fit together, my connection to the performance changed greatly.

I was no longer a spectator. I was a participant.

The Advent season unfolds so much spectacle for us in the story of the birth of Jesus. We sit back and watch it. We let our thoughts dwell on the meaning of the season, the coming of Christ into the world ... while sitting comfortably on our sofas or lounge chairs.

Are we remembering yet that we were rescued from the domain of darkness? That we are now citizens of the kingdom of Christ? That we are called to walk and do things in that kingdom?

We're part of the picture. We're not the audience.

2011-11-29T00:53:00.000-08:00

A GOD WHO TAKES ACTION
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of David His servant--
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old --
Salvation from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate us;
To show mercy toward our fathers,
And to remember his covenant,
The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
(Luke 1: 68-75)

Once upon a time there was an older priest in the temple in Jerusalem named Zacharias. He and his wife Elizabeth had been childless during their long marriage. They'd basically given up on having kids, and were (he thought) past the age of having children. So one day he was chosen to burn incense at the altar, something that would happen only once in the life of a priest, and while he was doing this sacred duty, the angel Gabriel appeared to him, to inform him that he and Elizabeth were about to become parents to one who would be the forerunner of the Lord. And they were to name the child John.

You would think that a priest would know better, especially when confronted with an angel, but no. Basically he responded by saying "You're kidding me! My wife and I are too old to have children!"

Gabriel didn't have a whole lot of patience with this. I suppose when you are an angel and spend your whole existence standing before the very presence of God, uncertainty never enters the picture. He told Zacharias there would indeed be a child, but because he doubted the message, Zacharias would get to spend the next nine months unable to speak.

When the child was born, Zacharias was finally able to speak, and the first words out of his mouth were the above verses: a celebration and praise of the Lord God, for doing those things He promised His people he would do.

I can sympathize with Zacharias' reaction to Gabriel's message, though. We get so very used to the way things "usually happen" that when we get a message that something extraordinary is going to happen, even when it is something we've greatly desired (just as Zacharias and Elizabeth desired children), we still fall into that "I don't believe it!" reaction. Very few of us have the angel Gabriel delivering messages to us. But we are promised in many places in scripture that God watches out for us, that He will provide for us. He promises these things. And yet we still shake our heads, disbelieving.

God must be very patient with us. Very few of us are literally rendered speechless for nine months just because we didn't immediately get on board the good ship Lord's Promise.

And yet, when I think about it.....

I'm dealing with tough circumstances right now (as many people are - and some of them friends of mine). Anxiety has been nibbling at my psyche for months. Fear has prowled around the edges of my awareness. But I have gone through difficult times before, and the Lord has never dropped me. Yet, I let those anxieties stifle my voice, definitely stifle my praise of the Lord. I have fretted and doubted. And kept silent. Oh, I had many sessions of pleading with God, but I kept a lot of it to myself.

But then I turned myself around. Not just in the sense of talking with others, but admitting that God has never forgotten me in the past, and isn't likely to do so this time either. Feebly at first, but each day a bit more, I remind myself to speak of all God has done. As I open my fear-clenched hands, God has started putting things in them. Things not just for myself, but also to help others. Zacharias said that our rescue will enable us to serve the Lord without fear. For me, even though still in need, I now think of things I would like to do for others.

I am trusting God to provide for my own needs. I am hoping that His bounty will give me the freedom to be generous to others who are in need. But in the meantime, I've also realized that those around me have more than material needs. Everyone needs an encouraging word, an assurance of their own value in God's eyes. This doesn't cost even a penny. All it costs is a moment to step outside myself and see the person in front of me.

The Lord has visited us with His salvation. No kidding. And He does deliver on His promises. That's worth talking about.

2011-11-28T03:30:00.000-08:00

AN ANSWERING GOD

From You comes my praise in the great assembly;
I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
For the kingdom is the Lord's
And He rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,
All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
Posterity will serve Him;
It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
They will come and will declare His righteousness
To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.
(Psalm 22: 25-31)

When outsiders, non-believers look at the Christmas celebrations of believers, what do they see? What is it that we are showing them?

Black Friday, a super-commercialized day of consumerism, following on the heels of a day of thanksgiving? A day when everyone is greedily out to get those bright, shiny objects we desire for ourselves? Is that the celebration we communicate? The getting of the things we desire?

The giving of gifts has been woven into our celebration of the coming of the Lord, but for a very specific reason. We are supposed to be giving gifts to others because God has given us so much. Because He is a God who brings us what we need, so that our hearts may "live forever". He has given us so much of Himself, that He became flesh to be among us.

Non-believers look at the Christmas story and, at best, say they see a mythic tale that isn't much different from other myths that are all equally improbable if not down-right impossible (at least in their way of thinking). In their minds is the question, "If there even is a god, why would that divinity do this? What logical purpose would it serve?"

I'm not sure how to answer those questions, at least not in a way that would satisfy someone who doesn't even believe in the existence of God.

For me, I have always had a sense of the presence of God, an Otherness that was always with me, but outside me. Was this merely the indoctrination that came from being born into a believing family? A paternal great-grandfather was a pastor, and his daughter, my great-aunt was a missionary. My maternal grandfather was a pastor as well. Church activities were a regular part of our schedule. My mother was a church choir director and organist. But I am also by nature a rationalist and logician, so "indoctrination" by itself does not explain my internal response. There was always something beyond the physical world, Someone who listened and responded. A presence that was experienced, not imagined. You don't "imagine" a presence when it is inconvenient to your present activities and desires. And that was the sort of Someone Other that I experienced.

For me, the story of the coming of Jesus is real. It is spiritually real, telling of how God chose to come close to us. But I also believe it to be literally true. And by that, I mean that there indeed was a child born into the Middle East in a particular year, a year when the Romans required a census of the residents of Judea and Israel. I do realize that the pinning of this event to the winter solstice of the northern hemisphere was a later thing -- but that of itself does not make the event untrue. I don't think the early Church was blind to the fact that they were making a symbolic choice by placing the celebration at the solstice. When else would you chose to celebrate the coming of the Light of the World but at that point when the world is at its darkest? The real point is not when in the year that Jesus was born, but rather that he was born.

That is what I celebrate. That is what I want to tell to "the coming generation". The Lord God promised to answer our needs. He promised to come to us. And he did.

2011-11-27T03:30:00.000-08:00

NEEDING THE LORD IN ADVENT

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
(Psalm 22: 1-5)

2011 has been a challenging year for me. Some of the challenges are just circumstances, some of the challenges have come from folly on my part. Lately, I have been in a season where I really am reduced to relying totally on the Lord. And there have been days when the opening of this Psalm have been exactly what I have been feeling.

Usually, Christians associate this Psalm with the Crucifixion, recognizing that Jesus was crying from his very heart the words recorded centuries before. "O my God, why have you forsaken me? Why am I not delievered from this anquish?"

So why am I beginning Advent with these verses?

I'm doing it because God is indeed holy, and He has indeed delivered His people when they trust in Him. And that is the point of Advent. It is the season of a promised deliverance of salvation.

I want to rejoice in my soul. I want to celebrate God's love for His children, regardless of what lies ahead for me personally. Yes, I want to be delivered from my anxieties, I want these problems to be addressed with God's bounty. I want to trust in the Lord and not be disappointed -- in a worldly sense, I admit it. I want my daily needs to be provided for with abundance.

But even if that is what is happening inside me, it is my choice to celebrate the Lord, whatever may come.

That is why I will begin this Advent season admitting to my own frailty and fears, and yet why I will look toward the throne of God with praises. For the Lord is coming, and has come, to be among us.

2011-03-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

AT THE EDGE

When circumstances bring us to the edge of seeming disaster, we have a choice in how we will respond to it. Trusting God to keep us from falling is no easy thing.

There are many verses that assure us that God loves us, will provide for us, will supply our needs. And that is a positive thing we really want to hold onto. Yet sometimes it feels slippery in our grip. When we see our friends in serious difficulties, when our own circumstances become ... at best, challenging, fear starts sneaking in, trying to dislodge us.

Lately, I've had some challenges come at me. They have alarmed me, rattled me. I don't like having things come up on me unexpectedly. I don't like having to deal with sudden serious things in my life. I admit it, I'm a control freak, and seem to become more so with each passing year.

Yet, I cannot escape the fact that four years ago, I asked God to turn my life upside-down. Which He has done in so many ways. I do dig my heels in and whine and wiggle and cling to the things I know. And then laugh at myself. But as I get closer to the edge I feel more and more uncertain - what will God's answer be to my situation? If I know, then I can prepare for it. That's what my mind says, even though I realize it is an attempt to control things that I should leave in God's hands.

At the end of my questions, even as I draw near and stand at the edge, I know that what is required of me is to do those things that are immediately in front of me. To do the pragmatic things that present themselves, to do what is at my hand. They may not in the end provide the answer to the things disturbing me, but I don't think that is the point the Lord is interested in. I think the Lord wants to see us learn how not to let events paralize us. Shock and anxiety He understands, it is inaction that He wants us to overcome.

Perhaps the answer to what to do when standing at the edge is to just leap out, trusting Him to catch us. Is that folly? Is it testing the Lord? I admit, I'm not sure yet.

2010-12-30T18:55:00.001-08:00

THE DARK OF THE YEAR

(I wrote this on Christmas Day, but due to computer problems, haven't been able to post it until now.)

The shortest day of the year. The winter solstice. Year's end. Oh, yeah, and Christmas.

Some non-believers occasionally sneer at Christmas by arguing that the early Church just wanted to co-opt and supplant the Roman festival of Saturnalia. They point out that the actual birthdate of Jesus cannot be known - as if that somehow negates the fact that he was born at some point. It is the significance of his birth that (in absence of knowledge of the actual date) led to the selection of the traditional placement.

Christ is the light of the world. He came to give us hope in the midst of dispair, to give us life in the midst of death. So why not celebrate his coming when the year reaches its darkest point? (With the self-centeredness of the Northern Hemisphere, of course.)

I've been thinking about these points this last week because this month has been challenging for me. Mainly due to computer problems. My laptop crashed - twice (due to clueless me overworking the motherboard by using a 3-D animation program the machine couldn't handle). This produced a bit of panic for me, because I hadn't externally backed up any of my works or pictures.

Suddenly, I was forced with the posibility of losing all the projects I had in hand. Some of them had some external back up: one novel's first draft is in long-hand, another still has existence on my older computer, another couple of projects have been emailed to others and so back up exists in webmail copies. The sudden prospect of losing everything else ripped off a cover of nonchalance I have had about my writing. These works really do matter to me.

I suddenly felt as if my chldren were in danger of being lost. That was startling enough. What startled me even more was that my mind immediately thought that this is how God regards us. We are His creations, His children, and He loves us very much indeed. He wants to see us reach our "completion," our fullest incarnation.

I certainly did not expect a theological insight to arise from a personal challenge.

I had been trying to figure out how to recapture the dedication and focus I had when working on The Scribbler's Guide to the Land of Myth. The possibility of losing all of the newer works got me over that threshold. I do love my work, and I do want to finish them so that I can set them out to meet their audiences. I did not want to lose them.

The hope in the season of Christmas did not desert me. My files were not lost (and I certainly backed up everything once the machine was home). And I regained the true heart for my works. I had regained by deepest love of the act of writing some months ago. But now I have also regained my love for the works themselves. And that this personal revelation came to me in the celebration of Christmas gives me great joy.

2010-12-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

"SOUND BYTES" BITE

I've noticed something in the last couple of years that has disturbed me a bit. It has to deal with the new social networking sites, and how people communicate on such sites. It is very easy for a person to post a comment or observation on a stie like Facebook, and in the insuing responses have people clash most unpleasantly, to the pint of participants "unfriending" each other and dismissing the "offender" for their consideration forever more.

The problem for me is that no one's comment post on Facebook can actually reflect that person's full opinion or understanding of something. Not even message boards with their greater allotment of "space" for comment can do justice to a person's opinions. The nature of online interaction is so frquently transitory and immediate. It is also frequently flippant and "reactive" in the sense that it would probably not be a considered opinion.

Why are people so ready to just stop at the comment post level? And why are they so willing to throw away all contact with someone on the basis of these little "sound-bites"? Why drop "socializing" with someone without even bothering to communicate by email why you are falling out with your (former) friend? I recently watched one friend drop another as a freind on the basis of some flippant remarks on a message board. Friend #1 felt that they could no longer post on Friend #2's board because of #2's comments on a issue for which #1 had strong opinions. But the dropping was without direct communication.

Why is this considered an acceptible way of dealing with things? And why is it easier to drop "that barbarian" without taking the trouble to find out another's true opinion? Why is it impossible tohave friends with whom you disagree - even on major issues? As long as you do not believe the other of engaging in actual violence about something, how do you dismiss people so easily from your life?

It is easy to be ruffled by short statements on Facebook or blogs or message boards. But we should all remember that such things are the cyber equivalent of "sound bites." They cannot possibly convey a complete picture of someone else's beliefs and attitudes. And the reverse is also true: your own beliefs and attitudes are not adequately contained in the short statements you make.

We ought to extend mercy toward those we engage with online. Hostility serves no one, persuades no one.

2010-08-19T07:29:00.000-07:00

PAY ATTENTION

I woke early this morning, just before 5 a.m., and realized that my body was not really interested in more sleep. So I got up and decided to spend a little bit of time on a manuscript that has been sitting waiting for some revision attention for a long time.

In the manuscript, in the section I did some revisions this morning, there is a passage about paying attention to the world around us, where we are "right now". And from that point, it goes on to discuss paying attention to those people around us.

It got me thinking of an annoying thing I see in conversation from time to time: people who are supposedly engaged in a conversation, but who are looking everywhere but at the person they are "talking with."

Now, I can understand certain circumstances where the wandering eyes during conversation make a little bit of sense -- like at conventions, where there are crowds of people wandering about and you're keeping an eye out for someone you might know or need to talk to. But most of the time, it involves people who have actually stopped, faced someone and addressed them, and ostensively made a non-verbal contract to be conversationally engaged with the other person.

It really bugs me personally, when I'm talking with someone and the other person's eyes never rest on my face, never meet my own eyes. When they give no indication that they are listening at all by any of the usual visual clues. Frankly, it hurts. I know a couple of people who do this to me frequently. It feels dismissive, as if I don't really exist. I'm left wondering if my countenence is so hideous that they cannot bear to meet my eyes. I mean, I know I'm no beauty queen, but I don't think I'm that repuslive.

So I'm left with the conclusion that far too many people never consider the discourtesy that comes with failing to demonstrate that they are being attentive through the simple act of meeting the other person's eyes, at least occasionally.

It's a little weird to me, because meeting someone's eyes is such a small thing to do. It acknowledges the very existence of the other person. And I personally think there is far too much in our modern life that does not do that: automated answering menus of recorded voices ("Press 1 for Billing"), menus that sometimes do not even tell you how to get though to an actual person to speak to (whether the actual person is actually in India or not); ATM machines, which are very convenient, but definitely not personal; drive-through fast food workers, who pay so little attention to your order that you frequently have to correct them ("No, Combo Number TWO, not Three" - leaving you wondering how the sound of "two" can possibly be mistaken for "three"). By contrast, I have learned that the simple act of lifting my face from the menu at a sit-down restaurant and turning my face in the general direction of the waiter gets me better service. When I actually make eye contact and, even more so, actually smile at the waiter I get attentive service.

So why, then, is it so hard to get that attention for my supposed friends?

When I try looking at it from the other direction, the only cause I can think of that would create this behavior (besides flat out lack of interest) is that the person has taken too much to heart the saying that "the eyes are the windows of the soul" and they are afraid of truly being seen, of having someone look in and see all the things they try to hide from the world - the hurts, the angers, the insecurities, the fears.

For a time in my life, I had gotten out of the habit of looking in people's faces when talking with them. It was something of a fear reaction. It began on one specific occasion: I was talking with my best friend about Easter and what the reaction of the disciples might have been after the crucifixion. As I spun out my speculation like a story, I saw her eyes fixed on me, fascinated. It made me very, very conscious of the power of storytelling, and the power of focused attention on another person (for I had been looking right into her face while speaking). I was alarmed at having that kind of power over someone. So I shied away from it by not meeting people's eyes as much.

But eventually I changed my mind on that. People deserved a better response from me than to have me constantly looking away when they tried to talk with me. And coming back to it, I have rediscovered the power of the attentive look, the direct gaze and smile. Such a small, easy thing, to give that direct look and a genuine smile - and so nourishing to the recipient. I have seen a tired old man straighten up like a freshly watered plant, simply because I smiled at him through my car's windshield.

God looks at us every day, every minute. His attention is there and waiting, without impatience or distraction. And it is not difficult for us to do likewise to our fellow humans, even in a small way.

2010-06-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

THE TELLING DETAIL

It's the small things in life that can come back and bite you. So it is smarter to deal with them than it is to ignore them.

Let's back up a bit. Not so long ago, I was talking with a friend who happens to be not a Christian. She's a sweet person, but she didn't have much background in Christian-related things. I forget how we got into the conversation, but I was telling her about the incident where Jesus saves the woman who was about to be stoned. (John 8:3-11)

The woman in the story was "taken in the act" of adultery, and the punishment by Jewish law was stoning. On top of that, when the punishment for a breaking of the Jewish law was stoning, the first stone was to be thrown by someone who had witnessed the crime. So when Jesus is asked about it all sorts of things come into play. One big question, of course, is where is the man who was commiting this act with her? But what the accusers wanted was for Jesus to interfere -- because in Jewish law, anyone who interferes in a "just" punishment becomes subject to that punishment (that is, they wanted to stone Jesus).

Jesus' response was to say "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." By saying this he challenges them on the law. He's forcing the issue of who is the actual witness to the woman's transgression -- because, after all, she was taken in the act. Who saw this? Who knew? Either her partner in the adultery (in which case he was sinning too) or the witness was a voyeur hiding in the bedroom (surely equally sinful). But Jesus challenged them by saying that the primary witness needed to be "without sin." The accusers were not going to win this one.

It was a detail they had been overlooking, that requirement that the witness was to throw the first stone.

Details can be important. They should not be shirked. We never know when it might be the small detail that catches someone's attention.

Sometimes people say "God is in the details."

Do we believe that? Sometimes I wonder, given the way we dismiss the details when it's convenient to us.

How often do we dismiss something because it's "just a detail"? Quite often, I find. And it makes me shake my head. Do people not understand what can happen? I've seen this happen in discussions where a group of friends are giving notes to a writer in the group. Someone will mention something that bothered or tweaked them, and another (for whom that detail seemed unimportant) dismisses it, saying "That's just a detail." But how big does a crack have to be to trip someone up? Often as not, not a very big crack at all.

We should pay attention to details because they are tripping people up, or because they could be the clue to where and how to build the proper solid foundation for something. The details are important.

2010-06-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

TO BE A MISSIONARY IN INDIA

My great-aunt Lucy, my paternal grandfather's half-sister, decided to become a missionary to India in 1918-1919, and apparently wrote her parents about her choice and (it would seem) asked their blessing. When my mother died, I brought home what correspondence remained of Aunt Lucy's service in India. I have not yet begun to sort through those papers. But my sister Joan had discovered the letters Lucy's parents wrote her just after she'd told them of her choice.

My great-grandfather John Cornelius Beach had been a Methodist pastor, serving in Michigan around the area where he had grown up. His first wife, Lucy Kellogg, the mother of my grandfather Floyd Kellogg Beach, had been the daughter of another pastor (the Rev. E.L. Kellogg). She had died in childbirth a few years after my grandfather had been born. John C. remarried a couple of years later, to a widow of yet another Methodist preacher, and they had four children, Aunt Lucy being one of them.

I hadn't realized that Lucy Kellogg had been a preacher's daughter until I went online today, hunting for a few more dates about my Aunt Lucy. Nor had I realized that John C.'s second wife had been a preacher's widow before marrying him. Given that my mother's father had also been a pastor, I'd known that I came from a "very churched" family. I just had not realized that it was even more so than I'd known.

Anyway, Aunt Lucy made her decision to be a missionary and served in India from 1920 through 1952.

I was typing in the text of the letters from Lucy's parents, and was struck by how thorougly they committed their lives to the Lord. I'd like to think that I make the choices in my life with an equal consideration of God's will. But the reality is that I (and very few people I know) use the word "consecrated" about out decisions. It gives one pause.

In any case, I thought it would be interesting to post my transcription of their letters here.

****

LETTERS OF LUCY’S PARENTS

[Kept in a envelope with a postal cancellation that says “Berrien Springs, Mich. Aug 30 6PM 1918” Addressed to: Miss Lucy W. Beach White Pigeon, Michigan Return address on back flap: From John C. Beach, Buchanan, Mich. In the texts, when I couldn't make out the handwriting, I've put it in square brackets.]

Monday p.m. 27th Jan. ’19 Beach Homestead.

Well Dearest, you think the Lord wants you over in India do you? Papa said “you aren’t surprised are you?” I said yes rather. The fact is I have always thot [sic] you were not strong enough to go where you would have such physical and mental strain as you would have to have in India, China, or any of those foreign countries. Now what do you expect us to say? What do you want us to say? Can I say thy will be done? Only this morning I asked God to help me to be or do anything he wants me to be. I long ago consecrated my all, my children, my husband myself to Him. This morning as I knelt alone in prayer I made a new consecration, little thinking before the day was over I would be asked to give my precious Lucy to go to India, or some other far away country. I cannot go back on my word. If He wants you to go I say yes so far as I am personally concerned. If that is his will concerning you, and you can say yes Lord, the ways, means & health will be provided. I can scarcely write for the tears. God knows our children are very precious to us. Each one was dedicated to him before birth. We have taught you all to be interested in Foreign Missions, can we wonder at it that you should feel as you do? After all it may only be God’s way of testing your love for Him. Sometimes after the surrender has been made the way has been closed. I have heard people say it concerning their call to preach. I do not say this to put any temptation in your way. My thot [sic] is that we must be ready to say, “I go where you want me to go.” I do what you want me to do. We will pray dear that if you are called it may be perfectly plain and then I am sure we will all say “Thy will be done.” These are great days. The Lord is doing great things all over the world. This is not so large a world as it used to be. Just think of Joseph in Russia and Floyd in France. Where will Agnes be another year? and so all of us. We can say My times are in Thy hands. O God I wish them there ‐ I don’t remember the rest.

I washed this AM. This pm I left my work and called on Mrs. Deets & Cora Parketon. Poor Mrs. Deets is so sad because of her boy. I tried to comfort her the best I could. She said she was glad I came. Cora gave me her name as extension member. It is time to get supper. Daddy is doing chores. I have to wash my breakfast & dinner dishes yet. Don’t tell any one this. I must iron a few pieces for fear I will not have time in the morning. I will have my skirt to clean & press. I wish now my blue silk waist was made. Suppose Alice would choose Emily for her room, would you want them both alike! I like Jessica quite well. I also like the 2 choices for hall had not that I would pay quite [Allias]. Perhaps Laxton [?] would be all right. I expect when Alice sends her choice I will be muddled & wont know which to choose. Don’t you think Valence pretty for Joseph’s room? You know it is to be the spare room & all the furniture is white.

Your loving Mother, Henrietta.

***
Monday Evening, 27th January 1919
Sitting Room, Beach Homestead

Precious Daughter, Lucy Wadhams:

Isn’t that affectionate & formal? We have great concerns to consider. Mother it seems to me has taken the subject well in hand from all points and I need but say Amen. Thy will O Lord not mine be done. If it is India there is where I would have you. For surely to do God’s will is the greatest as well as best thing for any life. Your work in Athens, White Pigeon, [Am...?], Buchanan, Ypsilanti, Harbor Point or elsewhere if by God’s appointment and with His blessing may have been the greatest thing for you, and some lowlier place yet may be your place of exaltation for the Master. You will be perfectly safe in saying Yes, Lord here I am for whatever, wherever, whenever you may say. One could not be so sure with anyone else, but from or to Him we need not hesitate to make the fullest surrender. If India is where He would have you go as mother says “the ways, means & health will be provided.” My daily prayer for each of you children is that you may be used of the Lord to be a blessing to others and glorify Him. The consecration of your lives to this end was long ago. That time was my time of soul struggle but in the victory He gave me, all of the severe tests that have come have been borne by His grace ready for the time of need. The time I refer to was at Eaton Rapids Camp meeting, the summer before Floyd’s mother Lucy died. ‐‐ The great thing for us is, as Bro. Bancroft said Sunday p.m. (Text Acts 15: 18) “lo, hear what God has to say to us.” “What I fear is that I may be so taken up with my concerns in the things of this life that I shall not hear what God says, for He surely is here directing the affairs of His Kingdom.” It was a great sermon. It seemed as tho’ the Master was dictating each word. ‐ As for Mother and me, maybe when you have served “your number of years” in India you may come back and care for us when we shall have more need of you than now. For all our days our loving Heavenly Father will provide. He is faithfull that has promised. His promises are more reliable than government bonds. Love you! Tongue or pen can not tell how much. We will love you none the less tho’ time and distance
are between. ‐‐ If this be God’s call you have no need to worry any more than about your present situation. He will direct your steps as you commit your way to Him.

8:20 A.M. Eastern time. ‐ Breakfast & chores over. Both of us very well. About learning the language ‐ the “new method in China” by [sound] signs, may have reached India by the time you reach there ‐ so u will be able to soon mater the rudiments and the rest will keep coming with use. Already I see you with a tiny organ gathering the children and their mothers (and an occasional man) about you to hear the “Sweet Story of old, When Jesus was here among men” ‐‐ You’ll soon forget all about their color and as they learn their grime and dress [they make] their skin do will change for [salvation] & Christianization. ... Had to stop and saw a soup bone for mother ‐‐ whatever or wherever, you must take first care of your throat & health. From what your M.D. said of your throat I wonder if u sh’d sing much. B sure to follow the directions he gives for care of throat & health. Yesterday’s verse Hab. 3:19 “The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places”. (Hind = red deer, swift ‐ sure footed). Today’s “Attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me”. Ps. 86: 6,7. My song ‐ “Guide me O thou Great Jehovah”

Lovingly, Daddy John Cornelius Beach

[Then a postscript written up the right side margin ‐‐ ]

Bro. Bancroft gave me “India’s Mass [movements]” [Warne?].. I was reading it again Sunday. ‐ No wonder India appeals to you. When I heard Miss Hoffman at [Conf.] I wanted to send all my children.

****

In doing my researching today, I discovered that John C. died December 10, 1921. So his wish of seeing Lucy come home from India to care for her parents was never fulfilled. But I think he would have been very proud to see her dedication in her long service.