A creed for every occasion would be a daunting assignment.
Imagine how many occasions would cry out for and demand their own creeds!
A creed, one creed, to cover all possible occasions would equally if not more intimidating.
The core wording could be reduced to utter simplicity, but the commentary and definitions would fill volumes of annotations. It is a take to broaden one's creedo and a take to reduce it.
I had a professor who spent a chunk of his life writing theology books to address various life stages, challenges, and questions. He could have used 200 years to get a good start.
I spent several hours settling on two words that are somewhat tentative, but expandable: Coram Christus.
Rather than translate it literally, I will say what I mean by it.
It is to live in awareness of and to reflect the presence of Christ in the world.
It is based upon a lifetime of premises and branches into a lifetime of implications.
I chose seven to apply to the moment:
Resist evil - In myself first, but also in the world, I desire to be part of the resistance. That has to mean being for something before I am against anything. I believe that resistance to evil manifest in hate, injustice, ignorance, corruption, and human suffering is the very definition of God's wrath that is neither opposite of or complimentary to God's love. It is God's love.
Stand - It is a continuation of the resistance and is the steady and sometimes static movement that places our lives and fortunes on the life for our convictions and for the people with whom we stand. It reaches beyond cause to the cause of the cause and it takes energy, courage, and faith.
Nothing in hand but an extended hand - We do not come to the world with a show of force, intimidating power, financial leverage, or violent intentions. We come extending our hands. We do not come with all the answers or the people who are going to rescue the world. We come as partners and fellow pilgrims. When we are with the poor, we are the poor; when we are with the oppressed, we are the oppressed. We are the immigrant, the ostracized, the marginalized, the maligned, the woman caught in adultery, the prodigal son, the Pharisee, and Publican.
Accept pain - It is our lot in life to suffer on three levels. We will suffer because suffering is the common experience of humanity. We take our chances, roll the dice, breathe the air swim in the gene pool, live with fallen people, and draw the cards. We will suffer because we make mistakes and bad decisions that effect our health, welfare, relationships, and economic outlook. Finally, we will suffer because we are doing what is absolutely right and there are those who wish to stop us or because our sacrifice will work for their redemption. Ours is to accept our pain whether it is random, deserve, or redemptive through our own persecution. To define our lives by pain avoidance is to miss living.
Inflict none - That is the goal. While we do not run from our own pain, we sprint away from the possibilities of hurting others. We will have some misses. We will, just by living and ultimately by dying, bring pain to people's lives, but our intent is to never do so, not to our loved ones, not to our friends, not to our enemies.
Always love - This is getting even closer to the core. Jesus reiterated the Law and the Prophets that our chief duties are to love God and love our neighbors. It is the standard by which we evaluate all of our motives and all of our behaviors.
Never back down - From what must we remain steady and steadfast? Not our personal rights and prerogatives. No. We must never back down from resistance to evil, standing for righteousness, extending our hands to others, accepting hardships and adversity, nonviolence, and love. We must never back down from the call to be the presence of Christ in the world when that means sticking out like a sore thumb.
If we practice these, we can move toward being the Coram Christus, the presence of Christ in the world.
“In this modern era of cosmology, evolution, and the human genome, is there still the possibility of a richly satisfying harmony between the scientific and spiritual worldviews? I answer with a resounding yes! In my view, there is no conflict in being a rigorous scientist and a person who believes in a God who takes a personal interest in each one of us. Science’s domain is to explore nature. God’s domain is in the spiritual world, a realm not possible to explore with the tools and language of science. It must be examined with the heart, the mind, and the soul—and the mind must find a way to embrace both realms.”
― Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
What is the purest science?
What is the purest language?
Is there a cosmic language of God that serves the purposes of God within the created order and somehow reveals a glimpse of insight into the eternal language of God that is and transcends Logos?
Is it mathematics?
Is it a Fibonacci sequence?
Is it physics?
Is it a universal theory of everything and ...
If everything, what is everything?
Is it a question or is it an answer?
If it is, can it matter if we have no filters or universal translator?
Is it more dark than what we perceive as light?
Is God speaking through it? If God is speaking, are we listening at all? Have we any capacity to listen?
If the heavens declare the glory of God, how much are we perceiving?
Is direct revelation in history and prophecy a concession to our inability or unwillingness to perceive more deeply what is clearly evident?
Or is the Word being made flesh clearly the clearest message of all?
And bendable, vulnerable flesh tells more than brittle word pictures for only flesh can truly celebrate the mystery and ambiguity of not knowing while embracing what is and can be ...
Frontispiece from edition of Everyman published by John Sklot c. 1530.
I am every man. I embody every extreme. I am the plundered poor. I am the plunderer. I am he who treasures and keeps the Word. I am he who wanders. I am guarded. I am he, from whom the guarded must be protected. I am pure and I am vile. I am all in one - a complete package. I am beloved ... I am grateful. I need and receive grace. At every punctuation mark of this precious Word, I see myself. I identify. I do so, reluctantly.
God, you have done so, in Jesus, intentionally and redemptively. Today, I shall rather be plundered than plunder. I shall prefer to be defrauded than to defraud. Let me not exalt vileness. Let me not wander. May I cherish that which is precious and ... May I live in the grace that is freely given. Thank you for another day to learn to learn ... To embrace your truth and to be transformed by it.
Of all the people I know, I most desperately need it.
" The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times."
"You, O LORD, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever. On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man."
- Psalm 12:6-8 (ESV)
For those who enjoy mysteries, a mystery is compelling.
The misery is to uncover the answer too quickly.
We want to know it all and follow every angle.
Even if the mystery is contained in one's own body, the intrigue of it all is not diminished.
No one body is identical to another. None can predict the resiliency or mortality of the human machine. The more we know, the less we know, and the more we want to know. Is it this or is it that or is it both or neither?
I am often the patient, but also an interested observer, student, and process participant in this mystery-adventure. I am grateful today for information and those willing to make it available.
Part of me enjoys this visit to a university teaching hospital , as learning and teaching center.
Part of me dreads coming back for more tests.
Most of me is fascinated by opportunities to learn, grow, and pursue health.
All of me is grateful to God and humanity for the curiosity that leads to answers in the pursuit of mastery of mystery.
I see this pointing to some eternal lessons and about those mysteries, I reflect and journal.
Sometimes people polarize around prayer and get energized or offended by the object of a prayer request.
Sort of misses the point of prayer.
God, fashion my prayers within me that they might flow through me and return to you with a sincerity, purity, and compassion that is beyond my capacity ...
... and divorced from my proclivities.
Prodded, perplexed, pondering, persuaded, and prompted to activation is often my story like a God awakening in pain to heal and stir my heart.
Let me not be polarized by prayer, neither within my divided heart nor in division from my brothers and sisters.
We are one flesh. We are one blood. We are one broken bread.
The very audacity that I should use my limited capacity in bombastic utterence to exclude or posture for position.
"He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me." - Psalm 18:19 (ESV)
That is for me.
That is for you.
I must place myself in the place where the space is wide enough to receive you and to receive grace.
And whether I speak these words of myself or others, may I pray their intention daily:
I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes. - Psalm 6:6-7 (ESV)
I know this describes where some of you are today, weariness, tears, weeping, groaning, and weakness.
Know this from the psalm, that it is OK to tell God. Know this also, that God knows, understands, cares, and enters into your experience.
My those of us who intercede, enter in as well.
Know even more that there is a parallel story being written about your journey.
It is a story that is far more accurate because it is wrapped up in the final paragraphs, more accurate because it knows and tells the unseen and unperceived realities that are active all around you.
It is a joy to do so. Just the idea of being chosen for anything thrills and humbles me. Unworthy as I am, you see something in me that you can use because you put it there.
Ignite it, God. Fan the flame and let it burn ... that it ... that something ... that investment you made in me by your grace.
I am here. I have some things to do, but that is all I know about the agenda for the day ... dates, times, places, tasks. These are important, I know, but they are not the real agenda. You know that. You know why I got up this morning and why I am praying this prayer.
Frankly, I wear a bit of confusion and uncertainty about today and tomorrow and the next day. Sometimes that feels like adventure. Sometimes that feels like being a bit unfocused or vulnerable. But that is OK. I have learned by faith and experience that you are guiding me in ways that I can only perceive through reflection and observation in the moment. I trust you.
I want to truly love you today and serve you and I sense that I must do that by loving the ones you love so much.
Love them through me. I expect to encounter some difficult people, some folks for whom love will not flow naturally for and from me. It will just have to come from you through me and, for that, I am available. In that process, change my heart. Make me more loving in a spontaneous way.
I want to follow Jesus today.
I want to keep in step with Him and see things the way He does. I have opinions, preconceptions, biases, and more than a couple pet peeves. But I sense that He walks right through these leading me in unexpected ways. When I follow Him ... when I follow you, I end up in some very strange situations, sometime caught off-guard, surprising places where I discover that He is already working and I am at home. I can't explain this life, but I embrace it.
Enter into my tasks, dear God. Enter and transform so that everything mundane job becomes worship of you.
Take my mood swings, my crusty gruffness, my irritability, my selfish desires, and my quirky quips and nail them to the cross. One they and I have died, re-resurrect them and me into something usable for you.
Thank you for forgiving me at my worst and loving me there,.
Thank you for this new life and for all the precious companions you have brought my way to share my journey. Bless them. Some of them are going through very hard times, times and challenges that I cannot even sort out, pain I cannot imagine. Love them, Lord. I know you do. Love them through me. Meet them in their trials and lead them through.
Bless your church and your churches, those that I am honored to serve and those that my friends serve. As we serve them, may we and I see your bride, Jesus, a people for who you gave all of yourself in sacrifice.
May I discern your body, flawed on earth and perfected in eternity. May I learn to love your bride here especially in light of what she is becoming in you.
It is a great mystery and I only perceive it in small doses.
But I am praying that the body of Christ will somehow recenter, refocus, and realign itself with you and your purposes. In any way that I may be an influence in that direction, make me available to you.
I also am flawed, very flawed, very vulnerable, imperfect, and needy. I limp to your altar. I am unkempt, unshaven, a bit battered, and joyfully expectant. Clean me up, Lord and send me out. Grace - I drink it and it rolls down my lips. I take it from your well and pour it all over me. Grace!!!!
Gracious God! Thank you.
What a mighty, awesome, fearful God you are. You are like the lion Aslan to me.
Something says "stay away" as you roar. My natural man fears your power and worships you in your glory. But you draw me in mercy and love and I cannot stay away. What I fear calls me to come.
What I dread compels me. What shocks me, creates in me a wondrous curiosity to love you and know you and the more I know, the more I love and the less I know and the more I know and the more I want to know and the more I know that I do not want to spend one second away from you or outside of this glorious calling.
I don't have to figure it all out. If I follow, I will get it little by little and I will be where you want me to be because I will be with you and find you in the oddest places and circumstances.
Keep my eyes open today for that sort of thing.
There are many I desire to bring along on this journey and I have named there names before you.
Others are in my heart and I bring them to you. Some are broken on the wheel of life and need mending. Some are deeply troubled and need peace. Some need healing in their bodies. Some are right here on Facebook, reading this prayer, praying it with me, and are included in the circle of love that is ever-expanding,.
This prayer is for them as while ... my beloved .... Your beloved.
Abba, Father, Dad. I did not really know how to pray today.
You know me. You know I have days like that. Far from being a spiritual giant, I am a spiritual child, but you accept me and allow me to pray as I will and you meet me there and teach me there. This is private prayer in a quasi-public "place and there is much more within that is very private that I expose to you and you know and you meet me there.
It is a Romans 8 sort of thing. But I sense that I am ready now, readier than I was a few moments ago. You have a word for me and I am going to read it, digest it, and get going.
Sometimes we avoid controversy and sometimes we seize it as an opportunistic and teachable moment.
"When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, 'Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.'"
Paul had nothing to lose and a great opportunity to gain by stepping into the middle of a great debate and offering a third alternative.
His was an alternative of hope and it took him far above his personal competency, able scholar and debater that he was.
Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.
While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, "Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God."
Then the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth. At this Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law you order me to be struck?" Those standing nearby said, "Do you dare to insult God's high priest?"
And Paul said, "I did not realize, brothers, that he was high priest; for it is written, 'You shall not speak evil of a leader of your people.'"
When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead."
When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.)
Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees' group stood up and contended, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"
When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks. That night the Lord stood near him and said, "Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome." - Acts 22:30-23:11
Perhaps, I sometimes get into life, meaning, and theological/philosophical thinking way above my "pay grade."
Do you ever over-agonize the bigger, deeper, loftier issues in the land of awe and wonder? It is not a call the shallow thinking or disengagement of our intellect, but a reminder of the limits of our consciousness.
We come to the end of our capacity where we integrate, frustrate, of meditate. It is there where we can emancipate ourselves from a world of care by becoming children again, resting as with our mother, not quite an infant, but not yet big kids either, just little children.
There, we are hopeful.
There, the resurrection is our one, viable, living, breathing, sustaining, and certain reality. Then, of that, we speak.
In a disturbing, confusing, complex, and deeply divided world, we are not going to figure it all out.
We are set in a far more chaotic universe where the order of things does not always readily appear. But we must live daily and daily, we must make little decisions.
How do we calm and quiet our souls when we want to take charge and fix everything and issues vie for our attention and everyone is shouting their own opinions at each other and we somehow long for non-synthetic synthesis and quiet?
How?
We keep ascending and we consciously, keep resting and hoping in God.
And we keep reminding ourselves that some fixes will always be above our pay grades.
" A Song of Ascents. Of David.
O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore." -Psalm 131 (ESV)
Whether above or below our pay grade, we have one great message. It is a simple message and it is a message of great hope.
Yesterday, I was visited by four homeless men at our church.
Two just came to hang out. They are my friends. They updated me on their lives. One had a cup of coffee, told me I looked tired, and advised me to go home and get some rest.
That was Rodney - a really good guy, but a clear SSI candidate who has somehow become severed from his check by a glitch in the system.
Rodney hung out and advised several people who came by with his insights into life. Mostly, he was right.
He did ask one favor. He borrowed my phone to try and call his elderly mother.
Another friend just asked for some water and we talked. While we were talking, two guys about to be on the street came by and we tried to coach and advise them. This guy has a short frustration fuse, but a really good mind and a desire to work.
He does work. Survival is very, very hard work.
This was yesterday. These were just people ... valuable people ... God's people .... our people.
Moses Indignant at the Golden Calfby William Blake, 1799–1800
How do we become like the idols we create?
What are the characteristics and limitations on the objects we worship that shape us into their own image?
We make them in our images and find ourselves sucked into that place where we were when we made them and from there, we descend.
But these are the the psalms that follow after the Songs of Ascent. We have arrived at the holy hill and we must decide what we will worship.
We can still go higher, but not as long as we impose our own ideas, desires, motives, and biases upon our own worship. We cannot build our truth around our lifestyles.
We must conform our lifestyles to truth.
Not only our lifestyles, but our thoughts, our theological constructs, our worship, and our devotion must conform to truth.
What we worship will always shape us.
We will become more and more like what we worship or who we worship.
If we worship what we ourselves create, then we are worshiping something less then ourselves (much more -- far less than God who created us). We will be worshiping that which, by nature, disintegrates and we shall disintegrate as well.
It is not that we are not made in the image of God nor than our creations are made in our images. It is that, We are not God and they are not us. With each degree of separation, there is disintegration. We must aim for what is authentic and true ... and above us.
If we worship that which infinite and eternal ... the potential for growth is eternally expansive.
It is our choice.
"The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. "-Psalm 135:15-18 (ESV)
August 20, 2019
What is remarkable about the story and the reason for its retelling by the gospel compiler, Matthew, is the person being addressed.
1. First, she was a foreigner who was (a) the object of hostility and (b) outside the scope of Jesus' immediate (but not ultimate) mission focus.
2). Second, she was astute to Jesus' humor and saw beneath the words being spoken by Jesus to set up a teachable moment. He might have seemed to be putting her off or putting her down, but he could tell she would not be deterred.
3) Third, she was not easily detracted. She had a real need for her daughter's well-being and she was not going to take "no" for an answer. So, she got in touch with her sassy, witty side and responded in kind.
Jesus interpreted that as faith.
Matthew does not record the smiles and winks, but if you read between the lines, they are embedded in the dialogue.
Matthew 15:28 :Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
We've been resisting the same sucking vacuum since the first century. It is shaping the gospel of the kingdom into the framework of our old thinking and commercial/political/cultural (whatever) interests rather than allowing it to shape us into a new way of thinking, living, and relating.
We are predisposed through our old nature to accumulate and celebrate our own power and wield it over others. It may be the power of position, money, influence, or control. It may be spiritual power that we want for our own purposes.
But power exists as an outflow of God's nature and for His purposes and He entrusts it to us freely to serve Him and to serve people.
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you."
"For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”
And Simon answered, 'Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.'"
- Acts 8:14-24 (ESV)
Simeon's money was doomed to perish with his thinking and his very life if not transformed. He needed and, after rebuke, sought a new way of thinking that started with humility.
We are not safe people with power short of humility and an understanding that the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity are wicked and signs of a heart condition.
Gall poisons us. Iniquity binds us. When we want, want, want what we want and lust for power over people, we poison and enslave ourselves.
Like so many bad examples, Simeon provides a very useful mirror to our own souls about what we need to ask God to forgive and to change in us.
Find your own personal power, centers of influence, and spheres where your voice is heard, and exercise them for justice, truth, righteousness, love, and peace.
God has given them to you to use for what is right.
It is up to you to find and use them.
Here is that whole text:
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night."
"Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, 'We don't serve colored people here.' I said, 'That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.'"
Then these three white boys came up to me and said, 'Boy, we're giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we're gonna do to you.' So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, 'Line up, boys!'"
"Once I accept injustice, I become injustice. For example, paper mills give off a terrible stench. But the people who work there don't smell it. Remember, Dr. King was assassinated when he went to work for garbage collectors. To help them as workers to enforce their rights. They couldn't smell the stench of the garbage all around them anymore. They were used to it. They would eat their lunch out of a brown bag sitting on the garbage truck. One day, a worker was sitting inside the back of the truck on top of the garbage, and got crushed to death because no one knew he was there." - Dick Gregory
Here is my take-away today:
The man on the back of the garbage truck, making the best of his situation and environment, died because no one knew he was there.
To borrow the title of Ralph Ellison's 1952 classic, he was an invisible man.
His contribution to society was invisible and unseen. So was the injustice that shaped his invisible world. His pain was unseen. His body blended in with the garbage around him and he was swept up in the indiscriminate sweep of all that seemed disposable.
Yet, in death, he became visible.
And Dr. King saw him so vividly and clearly that, in his light, he saw the hundreds of people in the same situation and he went to Memphis to help make them visible.
In his visibility, he became a target and there,in Memphis, he died a martyr's death.
Once I accept injustice, I become injustice.
We cannot accept injustice or let it remain invisible. Nor can we accept the fact that any of our brothers and sisters can sit in the garbage without anyone knowing they are there.
We cannot allow people to be swept away in the daily removal of waster and refuse.
I say it again:
Find your own personal power, centers of influence, and spheres where your voice is heard, and exercise them for justice, truth, righteousness, love, and peace.
I heard about pernicious unbelief and assumed the definition until I was diagnosed with pernicious anemia ... then I wanted a more accurate definition. Pernicious means deadly.
Thankfully, there is a cure for pernicious anemia, an injection of B12.
The cure for pernicious unbelief is a decision to seek and be open to the truth that becomes clear to our hearts.
"You have seen me, but do not believe."
In John 6, Jesus has been asked for big signs, bigger than the mass feedings, bigger than walking on water, bigger than calming the sea, more like daily food for the rest of everyone's life.
"Lord, always give us this bread,"
they say after asking,
"What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe?"
Without exasperation, but with some penetrating insight, Jesus declares in verse 36,
"But I said to you that you also have seen me and do not believe"
The indictment here is not on those who have not seen. It is not on those who are seeking truth with all their hearts. It is not on those who are struggling. Folks who struggle with faith issues get a lot of slack from Jesus. Remember the guys who said,
"Lord I believe, help me with my unbelief?"
Jesus had no problem with that man.
Jesus is slamming the guys with an agenda who have to work hard not to believe.
You won't catch me maligning, ridiculing, or stereotyping you as evil if you are an honest atheist or agnostic.
That is not what Jesus is doing either.
Imagine someone being presented with all the evidence anyone would ever need to receive a truth as truth. Imagine that the truth was clearly embodied in a person and that person was standing before you. Imagine that you know that he is true, but you refuse to believe.
The most common case is the conversation in John 6.
Perhaps the most egregious is seen in Judas who, knowing what he knows, and believing what he believes with his mind, chooses unbelief of the heart - his own personal agenda.
That is what Jesus is criticizing.
When the psalmist says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God, he is referring the the decision making capacity of a person.
The heart is the control room of ones life in ancient usage of the word. It is where we decide and commit. We know things with our minds and then, in an experiential way. We can even start the process of believing with our minds. However, if it does not reach our hearts where we commit to it and begin to internalize it, it is the kind of faith without works that James says is dead.
There are many who profess belief in God, even in Jesus, who are "fools" by this definition. They are not honest intellectual atheists. They are practical atheists. The men who were grilling Jesus for more proof already believed more than they were willing to commit to in faith.
They were just resisting.
I am not advocating for atheism or agnosticism. Whatever journey you are on, I pray that you are seeking through the possibilities that there is something greater than you or the universe that gives the universe and your own life, meaning and purpose. God is very patient with seekers and we should be as well.
I am talking about the hard of heart whose motives for not receiving truth have more to do with their own self-interests and prejudice than with their doubts.
When not believing starts to take more effort than believing, then it becomes stubbornness. That, then, is what Jesus means when He says,
"You have seen and do not believe."
The cure for pernicious unbelief is a decision to seek and be open to the truth that becomes clear to our hearts.
Just too lighten things up a bit, here is a song about joy ... or not.
Concerning our current level of national discourse ...
I am discouraged, but not hopeless.
I am skeptical, but not cynical.
I am weary, but not worn out.
I will continue to advocate for better conversation, dialogue, and discourse ... and that will involve naming some behaviors that hinder it.
It was Thomas Fuller who penned,
"'They say so' is half a lie."
Fuller was still a relatively young man when he died in 1661, but he lived long enough to grasp this reality.
Those who say, "they say," are really saying, "I think, but I don't want to say that I say.'
In the first place, "they say" is deceptive because it implies that there is a large body of agreement among the masses. If that were true, THEY would have spoken with a louder voice.
In the second place, "they say" is deceptive because it insinuates that "they" have appointed "you" as "their" spokesperson. That is seldom the case.
In the third place, it is deceptive because the speaker is masking his or her own opinion as that of others and taking no responsibility for it or ownership of it. There is a suggestion of neutrality that does not exist.
"They say" is essentially dishonest, divisive, disruptive, and intentionally discouraging to the person being addressed. It is manipulative and passive aggressive in its content and delivery.
So, how does one respond to the "theysayers" and "naysayers?"
One response would be, and courtesy is recommended, "Thank you alerting me to this, but I would like them to tell me what they think. What I am interested in now is what do you think?"
Another would be, "Before you tell me more, can you tell me who they are? It is only fair that I speak with them personally about this since this is their opinion and I cannot ask you to convey my answer to them. I am sure you would agree that would not be an honest way for me to deal with them."
What we must never do is give prolonged audience to this form of gossip and thinly disguised criticism.
Fuller lived with controversy and was, himself, controversial.
Controversy is not a bad thing. It can be very beneficial. Neither is conflict negative. But dishonest communication, murmuring, negative whispers, and third party communication are never productive and never solve problems.
Just as authentic theology is about meeting face to face, so is all human communication.
"They say," is, in fact, a very big lie.
And furthermore ...
"A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions." - Proverbs 18:2
Am I in monologue or dialogue?
"An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment. " - Proverbs 18:1
Unfriendly and "unfriended!"
To employ graceless conversation, strategies, and methodologies to simply win at political debate is a foreign concept to the Jesus ethic.
To malign ones opponents in pursuit of gaining advantage is sinful.
" Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!" - Psalm 120:6-7 (ESV)
We have private and public grief as well as cultural grief.
Cultural grief sometimes finds expression in the death of high profile people whose lives, work, or reputations have touched, informed, and enlightened our own lives.
We tend to mourn them in public comments, statements, and rituals and those movements of our lives teach us how to better deal with our grief in our personal lives, families, and communities ...
It is best if we do not do so alone.
When We Mourn Together ...
... we heal and grow.
There is always more to any of us than meets the eye.
May we all take time to look into the eyes and hearts of our neighbors, ask questions, stop and listen, and listen some more and sometimes just sit and stare and the sky together.
Life is a vapor, but a very wonderful vapor. With all the pain and sorrow, may joy envelop your days for in joy, there are moments of grace.
It is good for a people to mourn together.
Jewish tradition has given us an example of a formal ritual prayer of mourning called the Mourners' Kaddish.
Mourner’s Kaddish in English Translation
Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will.
May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.
May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.
May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.
He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.
"Where there are no doubts, no questions, no perplexities, there can be no growth into the regions where He would have us walk. Doubts are the only means through which He can enlarge our spiritual selves." -George MacDonald
Doubts giving birth to deeper faith.
This is the ministry of perplexity.
This is the simplicity of complexity and the complexity of simplicity.
This is the resolution of struggle in the quest for that rest that will not rest in easy answers or shallow understanding.
Gravity is drawn toward the pebbles on the surface, but truth calls to the deeper rocks hidden beneath that surface.
Faithquakes come and that which is anchored endures, but that anchoring has come through some Peniel nights where we wrestle for the blessing.
Salvation is free, by grace, through faith, but growth in faith is a pricey proposition.
It stretches us and then, settles us till the next quake and opportunity to dig deeper.
Aerial photo of the San Andreas Fault in the Carrizo Plain, northwest of Los Angeles
"At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he's seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he knows he can't." - Clarence S. Darrow
I guess I'll have to wait a few short years to find out, but I do not believe that is true in all cases.
I know people who have truly awakened for the first time at 70.
Nelson Mandela was nearly 72 when he was released from prison and began to reshape South Africa. In his 90s, he was still reforming the world.
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, best known as Grandma Moses, did not start painting seriously until she was 78. In 2006, one of her folk art paintings sold for 1.2 million dollars.
In their obituary, when she died, The New York Times said,
"The simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and luminous color with which Grandma Moses portrayed simple farm life and rural countryside won her a wide following. She was able to capture the excitement of winter's first snow, Thanksgiving preparations and the new, young green of oncoming spring... In person, Grandma Moses charmed wherever she went. A tiny, lively woman with mischievous gray eyes and a quick wit, she could be sharp-tongued with a sycophant and stern with an errant grandchild."
Harlan Sanders did not start Kentucky Fried Children until he was 65 and invested his Social Security check. Sanders allegedly had 1,009 rejections when trying to establish his franchise. Among them, was the grandfather of a friend who gave me a personal account of his story and regrets.
Stan Lee of Marvel Comics fame, created iconic characters into his 90s, but did not start until he was 39.
Likewise, Julia Child did not publish her first cook book until she was 50.
Samuel L. Jackson got his acting break at 43.
Ray Kroc, who successfully franchised McDonald's, did not buy his first franchise until he was 53.
Astronaut and Senator John Glenn returned to space in his late 70s to study the dynamics of space travel related to aging.
It is a long list and gets even longer when it includes those who started young and remained active well into their golden years.
Big dreamers never stop dreaming and hoping. They do so because they believe they can make a difference.
Darrow may have been right about a couple of things:
1. We learn we cannot change the world all by ourselves. It takes teamwork, community, and cooperation.
2. We learn that it can't be done overnight and we may not live to see all the changes we desire. The writer of Hebrews says that the heroes of old days died in faith embracing a promise that would only be fulfilled in later generations.
However, that is no reason for discouragement because real dreamers have visions that extend beyond themselves and their lifespans.
Growing old is and can be a wonderful thing.
In fact, I know a freedom today that I have never experienced at any other time in my life. I plan to use that to make a difference.
Growing old with others can also be loads of fun.
Let's keep changing the world as long as we are breathing.
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!" - Robert Browning
Courage emerges Valiantly When you know what to do And you know the cost And you know that you must And you face your fears And do what must be done.
Faith raises its hand To be recognized When you know the reasons Not to believe And, not sure That you believe You breathe a prayer, "Help my unbelief," And jump.
Love sings. Present and melodious When all the reasons Not to love Are obvious And you set them aside To do your best For the one you choose To love In joy!
Joy bounces To the forefront When tears Well up And heartaches Swell up And you choose To rely on God And rejoice in God And receive from God, Shalom.
Peace manifests When storms toss your boat, And you've lost your way, With no guarantees And no visible way around the fear And you trust.
Trust is always ...
Timely Resting Under a Simple Truth:
God loves me. God is with me. God will see me
And protect me.
My life is in God's hands.
Grace Dances onto The stage Bows, Grins, Smiles, Chuckles, Roars with laughter, And then, Starts passing out presents For no reason at all.
Courage, Faith, Love, Joy, Peace, Trust, All present ...
30So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.""
32Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
34"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."
35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
Jesus takes us further and deeper. He does this in answer to their very shallow questions. They ask for signs. Jesus points to Himself.
He is the source of satisfaction.
He is the source of purpose.
He is the source of soul nurture.
He gives eternal life.
Looking at both of these passages, and slightly ahead, the observation can be made as an acronym for BREAD.
B - Behavior flows from being and believing. It is Jesus' being and our believe in who He is that transforms who we are and how we behave/work.
R - Receiving the gift indicates that He has received us. Jesus is the Father's gift to us and we are the Father's gift to Jesus. When we receive Him, He receives us and never loses us. They asked for Him to give them the bread, but after He explained it, they were not so sure about receiving it.
E - Eating is what we do with bread. There will be more on this next week. However, today, the message is that we taste eternity and are nourished by our relationship with Jesus to the extent to which we eat, which is to say, internalize His presence in our lives.
A - Agree with Him as to who He is. Attend to His words. Anticipate His promises. Announce them. In so doing, we will be involved with Him in His work. If we are what we eat, in this case, it means total alignment with Jesus Christ.
D - Decide that Jesus is the bread of life and that He is all the food you need for living life in the Spirit in the midst of time.
Those are some glimpses and thoughts to propel your own insights into Jesus, the Bread of Life
Why do we abuse power? I think it would be dangerous to oversimplify the answer, but we have some hints.
We do not understand power or appreciate its purpose.
Power is given to any of us for the purpose of service. We are entrusted with it, but it is not ours. It is a stewardship, but we grow possessive of it.
That is when we get into a danger zone. What we think we own, but suspect we do not, we grow to like too much and we start to defend it at all costs.
We divide the world into friends and enemies of our protected power and quest for more power. Our addiction to power, like any other addiction, causes us to act irrationally and even brutally.
We cannot handle power unless we work to maintain the attitude of a servant who is merely a steward of power that is not our own.
It can happen any time, to any people, anywhere that abuse of power becomes institutionalized, justified, and memorialized. Even if it grows out of a good cause or a noble endeavor, we must handle power as the powder keg of potential abuse that it is.
Jesus asked the right question, "Do you want to be healed?"
The man heard it through his own filters and thought his answer was contingent on his preconceptions of getting in the water.
That was not the case.
Right question, wrong answer, but Jesus did not give up and the man was healed.
" Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked."
"Now that day was the Sabbath."
-John 5:2-9 (ESV)
The last statement brings up a whole different subject and yet, the main subject of the story
- how we get locked in by our limited thinking and the boxes in which we try to fit God.
People ask if I preach ON sin, judgment, heaven, hell, this, or that.
No.
What do you preach on?
I don't preach ON anything.
What do you do then?
I preach FROM something and TO something and TO someones.
FROM the scriptures and TO people, the times, people living in the times, issues, and answers.
Preaching ON is grabbing topics out of the air. It is the wrong starting place. The Bible addresses all of the issues directly or indirectly.
If we take it seriously and let it penetrate our hearts, it will expose our racism, our self-centered ways, our idolatry for wicked oppressing systems, and everything else we so easily avoid by preaching ON them, ABOUT them, or AROUND them.
It brings eternal truth to bear upon temporal circumstances and choices.
We do not avoid the issues; we just start with what God says to them.
And the Holy Spirit can bring deep conviction and conversion ... and sometimes uses us to tighten the screws.
So, having said that, here is an application from a couple of years ago:
ALT-RIGHT is really ALTERED-RIGHT and is ALL-WRONG.
A depiction of the woman of Tekoa before David, by Caspar Luiken.
Here is a story.
It is a story about a homecoming.
A wise woman of Tekoa tricks the king of Israel into bringing his son home from his flight.
Absalom had murdered his brother who had raped his sister. None of it is a pretty story.
David is conflicted between what he assumes to be the polar opposites of love and justice...
or love for one...
or the other.
It is a story of humanity, flawed and raw.
It is the story of people working it out, not always honorable.
Yet, there is a spark of openness, a yearning for truth,
... a glimmer of love.
It is very, very human.
It is very real.
We have experienced much of this.
And we ask, "How is this in the Bible?"
How is this the Word of God?"
The real question is , "Where do we find God in the midst?"
God is always in the midst, then and now ....
present in every flawed human interaction,
present in every space where ugliness prevails.
And God is ever present in the now,
in our own ugliness,
in the middle of our manipulative, decisive, and deceptive ways.
Ours is to seek and ask ...
"What is God saying?"
In the midst?
And it is not always simple.
It is sometimes a wrestling match where we get
exhausted,
wounded,
marked for life ...
... and that is a good thing ...
It shapes us."
Because the Word comes to do more than inform us or tell us an interesting story.
And...
It always involves a homecoming.
2 Samuel 14:1-20 (NRSV)
Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's mind was on Absalom. Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman.
He said to her, "Pretend to be a mourner; put on mourning garments, do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead. Go to the king and speak to him as follows."
And Joab put the words into her mouth. When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance, and said, "Help, O king!"
The king asked her, "What is your trouble?"
She answered, "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. Your servant had two sons, and they fought with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. Now the whole family has risen against your servant. They say, 'Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he murdered, even if we destroy the heir as well.'"
"Thus they would quench my one remaining ember, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth."
Then the king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you."
The woman of Tekoa said to the king, "On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father's house; let the king and his throne be guiltless."
The king said, "If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again."
Then she said, "Please, may the king keep the LORD your God in mind, so that the avenger of blood may kill no more, and my son not be destroyed."
He said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground."
Then the woman said, "Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king."
He said, "Speak." The woman said, "Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again. We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up."
"But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence. Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid; your servant thought, 'I will speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant. For the king will hear, and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would cut both me and my son off from the heritage of God.'"
"Your servant thought, 'The word of my lord the king will set me at rest' for my lord the king is like the angel of God, discerning good and evil. The LORD your God be with you!"
Then the king answered the woman, "Do not withhold from me anything I ask you."
The woman said, "Let my lord the king speak."
The king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?"
The woman answered and said, "As surely as you live, my lord the king, one cannot turn right or left from anything that my lord the king has said. For it was your servant Joab who commanded me; it was he who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. In order to change the course of affairs your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth."
Before we can get the right answers, we need to ask the right questions.
Moral decisions are often made with knee-jerk reactions, through emotional filters, or with limited information. Sometimes, they conform to a predominant narrative we have always believed, but never fully or critically examined.
Yet, the decisions are crucial and that makes the questions crucial.
The Apostle Paul gives us some guidance in his letter to the Corinthians.
“'I have the right to do anything,' you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.No one should seek their own good, but the good of others ... So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved." - I Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33 (NIV)
It is laid out for us with three questions which are self-administered and asked in the light of scripture and the Spirit's scrutiny.
Is it beneficial? I I about to make a decision that will be of benefit or will it be harmful? Is this choice God’s best or just a concession to the moment? Will it help anything or anyone? Is this a the best choice for the moment? Is it beneficial?
Is it constructive? What are the positive results of this choice for the Kingdom? Does it build or destroy? Does it encourage or discourage? Does it lift or tear down? Does it lead on to more good choices or down a path of destruction? Is it constructive?
Is it good for others? How will my choice affect and effect other people? Will it better their lives or make their lives harder? Will it lift their spirits or cause them to feel defeated, berated, or marginalized? Is it good for others?
Then, there is finally, an over-riding issue that encompasses and informs all three questions. It is about God's will, God's purpose, and God's glory.
One Absolute Principle: So, whether you eat or drink, or what ever you do, do it for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble...
Portrait of Speaker Reed by John Singer Sargent, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives.
"An indefinable something is to be done, in a way nobody knows how , at a time nobody knows when, that will accomplish nobody knows what." - Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 1889 to 1891 and 1895 to 1899
Known for his sharp-tongued wit and distaste for business as usual, Reed wanted to make the work of legislating more efficient and effective.
Time and distance have made most of the issues he addressed moot. That usually happens with the issues that fire us up. They fall through attrition.
I love the observation, however. We can use it as a template that transcends time and ideology.
Governments and most institutions are well skilled at spending a much time and effort to accomplish little.
That could change, but Reed was never able to pull it off.
Perhaps, if Reed could have been clearer and more definitive.
Perhaps that might have been called leadership.
Yet, both of those statements are misleading.
Reed's words were descriptive, not prescriptive. The fact is, he was a man of clarity. He was sometimes successful, and sometimes not, but he was always a leader.
Reed was the son of Congregational minister, Rev. Samuel H. Merrill. He was born in Portland, Maine and died in Washington D.C.. He was a Republican who had defeated William McKinley for Speaker of the House.
With friends like Henry Cabot Lodge, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Adams, John Hay and Mark Twain, he stood out as a man of acerbic wit.
Once his name was floated as a candidate for President. His response was that they could do worse and probably would.
In fact, Reed sought the Republican nomination for President in 1896, but the convention nominated Ohio Governor William McKinley.
Mark Twain said of him, "He was transparently honest and honorable, there was no furtiveness about him, and whoever came to know him trusted him and was not disappointed. He was wise, he was shrewd and alert, he was a clear and capable thinker, a logical reasoner, and a strong and convincing speaker."
It is said of Reed that he exercised greater influence than any prior or future Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was sometimes called, "Czar Reed."
He instituted "Reed Rules." This solidified the Speaker's power by limiting the ability of the minority party to prevent a quorum. He used Parliamentary procedure effectively to keep things moving, especially legislation that his party advocated. "Reed's Rules: A Manual of General Parliamentary Law" became a standard textbook for some legislatures.
He helped pass the Lodge Bill to protect African American voting rights but it failed in the Senate. It was not the first time that he was a champion of civil rights in the South.
The legacy did not end with him. His daughter, Katherine Reed Balentine, started a monthly magazine in San Francisco called The Yellow Ribbon, which promoted women's suffrage.
We have been and will be confronted with "an indefinable something ... to be done, in a way nobody knows how , at a time nobody knows when, that will accomplish nobody knows what."
It will be up to some of us to step up and offer leadership that defines the indefinable, that offers a way, that suggests a deadline and timetable, and that paint a clear vision of what things will look like when the task is accomplished.
We need leaders like Speaker Reed who can do that.
It was three in the morning and the small room was crowded with undergraduate and graduate students all the way to the PhD level.
A stack of punched cards 9 inches high or higher was in my hand, each with one statement of code. After waiting in line for my turn, I inserted them into the feeder for the giant computer. Within a few minutes the printer sends out pages and pages and pages of repeated text:
---- error --- error --- error ----
It would not even read my name.
Somewhere, along the line, early on, I had made a syntax mistake or some other kind of error.
One error cause a cascade of misinformation and a compounding error. The main frame computer just could not get past it.
The computer was unforgiving ... and even into the days of DOS and, to some extent, even today, requiring precise language
Thank goodness Google has become intuitive and often knows what I mean.
Truth and precision seem to matter in the mathematical realm.
It sure makes me appreciate grace.
There was no grace built into Fortran or Cobol.
However, it exits in abundance in the fabric of God's spiritual universe.
At the same time, God loves and embodies truth and has also built in a passion for precision which the psalmist celebrated.
Whether art, science, ethics, morality, doctrine, or scholarship ... or driving a car, details and diligent attention to the fine print can make a very big difference.
It can deepen our worship or make all the difference in our success or failure.
The scripture commends it to our attention.
" You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently." - Psalm 119:4 (ESV)
It is not the devil who is in the details, but God. It is in the fine-tuning of God's perfection that we discover beauty and wonder along with God's best for our own lives.
Statue of a monk and stone soup (sopa da pedra) in Almeirim, Portugal. - Adriao
"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." -Mark 9:23
In ministry, we are in the business of helping people believe—first in God, then in the possibilities of God working in and through them to accomplish His purposes.
Belief is the most powerful attitude in the universe. It is absolutely essential for realizing God’s promises and our own potential under God.
It is the great missing component of people’s lives who are defeated, discouraged, and frustrated by the details of life. Belief precedes reality because it is rooted in faith:
“the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 1:1).
Faith is substantive.
Therefore we can build it on a shoestring. We don’t need any resources other than substantive belief to build belief. As we share our faith, we lend our confidence and hope to people who are operating on a deficit.
The wonderful story of Stone Soup illustrates the power of positive belief when it is shared and multiplied in the lives of people and in communities.
To recognize more fully the power of belief, observe the consequences of unbelief. Take note of the despair, hopelessness, and cynicism prevalent among those who have chosen the path of the skeptic. Observe the parade of dejected masses who travel along the highways of routine existence fearful of change and suspicious of any radical call to absolute discipleship.
Do you believe in God enough to believe in His potential for the people among whom He has called you to serve?
If so, start communicating that faith and instilling it in others. Then, step back and see what He can and will accomplish through you.
Then said they unto him, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God" Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." - John 6:28-29
Again, I say: Either work is easy or belief is hard work.
I am going to presume that both are true.
Belief-work is what produces lasting satisfaction in our lives. This is the preface to Jesus' teachings on the bread of life. Because people are hungering for more, Jesus is addressing that hunger and providing Himself as the source of "food that endures to eternal life."
So far, they have labored with frustration and only temporary satisfaction. There is a need in every human to produce something of lasting value.
Futility is the fruit of meaningless work. Jesus offers more.
Belief is not a passive thing. The word for "believe here is πιστεύητε (pisteuēte), "to keep on believing." I have always been intrigued that the root of the word is used for our modern word, "pistol."
Pistols launch projectiles into open space and belief launches our lives and efforts to a place beyond ourselves.
The work of God is to believe. Once we accept that, we can begin to learn what it means to believe. We can be taught by God what the implications of living faith really are. We can begin to be shaped by our beliefs as they take shape within in us.
As a starting point, as well as an ending point, Jesus gives us focus, to believe in Him whom the Father has sent.
"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." - John 6:27, (NIV)
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness' - Isaiah 55:1-2
After a miraculous meal, the crowds worked very hard to find Jesus.
He gently questioned their motives in order to get them to do the same about themselves.
Your harried, frantic efforts to feed yourselves are futilely flawed, he seems to suggest. Everything in which you invest your time, energy, and resources is already in the process of spoiling.
There is, however, a food that produces eternal satisfaction.
Place your focus there.
Thus, Jesus introduces a lengthy discussion of the bread of life. He started by stimulating their hunger and thirst to hear more.
What does it take for God to make us aware of our profound hunger for more?
Further Meditation
What Motivates Me?
I am not asking you this question because you cannot answer it.
I am suggesting you ask it of yourself.
I am working on it.
When I find the answer, I can cooperate with God in shaping my life by "setting myself up," to produce the motivators that produce the behaviors that produce real success.
I am confident that the full depth of understanding of the answer is just beyond my reach even if it is within me. I need the help of the One who knows me, fashioned me, and is intimately involved with guiding my life toward His own purposes. It is He who defines the success I seek.
And it is He who knows what will motivate me to move in that direction.
It behooves me to prayerfully meditate, diligently seek, and fervently pursue.
"In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem." -II Samuel 11:1 (ESV)
We live is a raw world where nations go to war to grab power and place and people commit adulterous sins which lead to even more devastating sins where lives are destroyed and ended. Some of those people have the hand of God upon them and they wrestle with their humanity on the battlefield and off.
I am not for war. I am for peace. However, the story is raw and real and about real and really raw people. David was the king and the leader. He was supposed to be somewhere else fighting another battle when he was in a position to fight the battle of his life - and lost.
What if he had been where he was supposed to be?
He was not in his place and so he had to fight his battle within.
Whether it was right to go to war every spring just because it was spring is a matter for another discussion. The point is that he had a role and was not playing it and so, in the wrong place at the wrong time, his eyes fell upon Bathsheba and he wanted her.
He wanted her badly.
His lust was greater than his sense of duty, responsibility , and integrity. It was greater than his loyalty to a loyal friend. It was greater than his will power.
It was greater, in the moment, than his own strength and he did not cry out to God for strength.
That is because lust is a strange meeting place of need (or distorted perceived need based upon real need) and arrogant power than pivots the universe around our own egos.
He wanted it and he could have it ... so he took it.
There will always be a battle unless we surrender to the enemy of our souls.
Sometimes the bad choices begin when we choose to stay home and not be where we are supposed to be.
The choices have devastating consequences. Two people died. Bathsheba was wounded in her heart. David was scarred for life.
But afterwards ...
"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."- Psalm 85:10 (ESV)
If we have made the wrong choices in the wrong places. we can find forgiveness and a new beginning so that the next time, things will be different.
Illustration from the Morgan Bible of Mephibosheth kneeling before David.
David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” - II Samuel 9:1
The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?” - v3
So, with a question, repeated the second time with the variation, "God's kindness," David found Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan. He was lame in both feet. David brought him to Jerusalem and, when brought before the kind, he was uncertain and most likely, afraid.
He bowed and told paid homage only to hear these words:
“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
So, this son of, David's friend who was also the grandson of his enemy, King Saul, became like a son today. He and his household enjoyed the kindness of God and the kindness of the king.
And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet. v.13
It raises a question for each of us:
Is there any to whom I can show kindness today?
Do I have a Mephibosheth in my world?
What i we made that a mission for today and tomorrow?
"My hat's in the ring ... stripped to the buff."
Teddy Roosevelt is quoted in 1912 as saying, "My hat's in the ring. The fight is on and I'm stripped to the buff."
It strikes the eyes a bit crude and un-presidential, but the blunt truth is a pretty fair template for our undertakings whether they are in business, ministry, or social entrepreneurship.
Throw your hat in the ring. Make and announce your commitment and do it in such a way as there can be no backing down. If you decide to do something, tell some people who will ask you about your follow-through. Secret goals are too easy to lay aside when things get tough. Assemble your group of encouragers and keep them posted.
Get in the fight. To know that the fight is on is an invitation to engage. Don't wait for a second invitation. Do something today in movement toward your goal. Make a call. Write a note. Explore an idea. Take tangible actions. Make sure at least one of those actions involves interaction with human beings. Then, at the end of the day, pause and report to your encouragers.
Strip to the buff. Do keep your clothes on, but strip off all the other encumbrances. You know what they are. They are excesses, unnecessary expectations and activities, unreasonable expectations, old messages playing in your brain, defeatist attitudes, excuses, and a million other articles of luggage that will hinder you. Prepare to travel light and let your team know what you are shedding.
So, what are you waiting for ... a second invitation?
"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
It is such an enduring truth and ever inspiring plot of great drama - the triumph of the underdog against all odds. Some soul, armed only with a great idea and audacious belief, makes a commitment and follows through. Ridicule is spurned. Obstacles are overcome.
Criticism is ignored.
Hardships are endured.
The price is paid daily.
The goal is pursued.
"Fred Smith wrote a term paper based on an idea for reliable overnight delivery. His professor gave him a C because the idea wasn't feasible. Years later, many potential investors agreed with the professor, refusing to send capital Smith's way. The funds he did raise in 1971 and '72 were gone by '74, along with his investors. One catchy slogan and several million dollars of hard-won capital later, Federal Express was on its way to profitability and long-term success. Read more here."
The key for people of faith is one simple concept:
"What is impossible with men is possible with God." - Luke 18:27
You can choose what to do with the volumes of well meaning advice you will receive when you set out on a great venture. It will be your choice and not the words of discouragement that will contribute most you your success of failure.
There are no guarantees but one.
That guarantee is this: If you never attempt it, you will never accomplish it.
It Couldn't Be Done
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done, But, he with a chuckle replied That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that; At least no one has done it"; But he took off his coat and he took off his hat, And the first thing we knew he’d begun it. With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin, Without any doubting or quiddit, He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done, There are thousands to prophesy failure; There are thousands to point out to you one by one, The dangers that wait to assail you. But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin, Just take off your coat and go to it; Just start to sing as you tackle the thing That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.
" Reproach has broken my heart, and it cannot be healed; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I could find no one." - Psalm 69:22
I serve a God manifest in a man ... A man with a broken heart. How can I not follow one who so willingly ... Wore a broken body And bore a broken heart?
Some years ago, pastor, researcher, and author, Ed Stetzer dedicated a day on his blog and social media feeds to answer "stupid questions,"
STUPID Questions
After you ever asked or been asked a stupid question?
That posting prompted me to think about stupid questions. What constitutes them. How does the asking of them often nullify their stupidity?
There is an old adage that the only stupid question is the one we do not ask. That is true sometimes, but there really are stupid questions that are asked.
Therefore, a stupid question is one that is numb, disengaged, apathetic, or drunken.
To break it down with an acronym, a stupid question has these characteristics:
S - Surface - It is exemplified by the student who, after a moving lecture of the meaning of life, raises his hand and, as the professor prepares of an insightful and probing question asks, "Is this going to be on the final?"
T - Trivial - With the opportunity to probe some pretty profound principles of perpetual truth, we focus on insignificant details. Another professor, Dr. Charles Tyer,once lectured us from a classroom overlooking a bucolic mountain view. He asked us if we were focused on the view or on the fly specks on the window. Trivial questions miss the view for the fly specks.
U - Unconsidered - Any question worth asking someone else is worth asking oneself first. The ask if (a) you could not find the answer within yourself, (b) you want a second opinion, or (c) you sense that there are any number of answers and approaches to the question and you wish to enter into dialogue over it. Once you have wrestled a while with a question, it is no longer stupid.
P - Perfunctory - A perfunctory question is one you are using to accomplish something other than the quest for truth. It is an obligatory question like the one at the blood donation center when they ask if you have had marital relations with a non-human primate in the last 12 months. It is the question where you state your name for the record. It is merely functional and automatic. Anyone can ask it given a script.
I - Inflammatory - An inflammatory question is asked when you know that the answer is going to embarrass,indict, inflame, or discredit the person giving the answer. In online forums,people who asked such questions used to be called "flamers." They were just trying to start fires. There was no value placed on the quest for truth.
D - Disengaged - This is the essence of stupidity in every area of life. As Forest Gump's mother said, "Stupid is as stupid does." That is why Gump was never stupid in spite of his lower than average intelligence quotient. In spite of the challenges he faced, when he set out to do something, he fully engaged in the process. When he asked a question, he really wanted to know the answer. He looked beneath the surface of things. He thought about life and the big questions. Gump was, as his drill sergeant said, "brilliant," because he was fully engaged.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. No question that digs beneath the surface a bit, ignores the fly specks, is given some thought, comes from your own heart and mind, seeks real answers, and is fully engaged can ever be a stupid question.
In the Fourth Watch of the Night - That is when it happened, perhaps at about 3:00 A.M.. It is that unique time when the extreme night owls are thinking of retiring and the extreme early birds are rising.
It is also at that time when "graveyard shift" workers are starting to yawn and requiring a second wind to make it through.
At such a time, a second wind came for the disciples in the boat Jesus sent on ahead of Him while He prayed. it was a big wind, the kid that beats and batters and threatens to beach even the most seasoned mariner.
In the hours leading up to this cataclysmic event, Jesus had been praying alone and the disciples had been trying to cross the body of water as the storm got worse and worse.
We really don't know exactly when the storm came, but when Jesus looked in on the disciples, they had only moved about three and a half miles and they were straining at their oars, desperately trying to survive. Matthew 14, Mark 6, and John 6 give essentially the same accounts, but Matthew records more of the dialog.
They see Him and He looks ghostly. At least they suspect He is a ghost - even more so when He starts moving toward them walking on the water.
Question: What beats your boat?
What winds are against you? What has got you nearly swamped? What forces are so overwhelming that you are making little or no progress? What are you rowing against that is defeating you?
To you, in your present situation, Jesus speaks three words and then a fourth and finally a fifth. First, "take courage; it is I; do not be afraid."
1. Take courage. The original Greek meaning was to lift or carry and came to mean endure, dare, suffer, and be bold. Thus, it is to have courage, to bear up under the great burdens, hardships, threats, and challenges that we face in spite of our fears and apprehensions and the odds against us. When we take courage, we refuse to throw in the towel and quit. We keep rowing when we think we are going nowhere.
2. It is I. Mark said that even after Jesus crawled into the boat with them, they were amazed, lacking in understanding, and hard of heart. Yet, knowing it was Him ought to have and did give them some comfort. It should strengthen out hearts and encourage our souls to know that in the midst of the storm it is Jesus walking toward us, above the storm and above the waves.
3.. Be not afraid. He will calm our fears so that we will not be crippled or driven by them. We have many choices available to us. It is those we make based on terror or fright that will usually be shortsighted and poor.
It is at that point that Peter had a streak of boldness and made an audacious request. He asked Jesus to call Him out of the boat and into the water. "If it is you, bid me come to you on the water."
I admire the fact that Peter is unwilling to leave the boat if it is not Jesus and if Jesus does not call. That is wise.
Mark does not record this and Peter had Mark's ear. Matthew "tells on him."
Jesus utters the fourth word.
4. Come. It is a gracious word. It is inviting, affirming, and challenging. It is still the word He speaks to us in crisis. He is always, in the storm or in the calm, calling us to Himself to meet Him and to experience Him in a new way. We could hope for no better outcome.
Yet, Peter loses focus and then faith and falters. Ray Steadman said, "If your faith fizzles before the finish it was faulty from the first." Peter had what we used to call in Virginia "a ways to go." In his defense, he was the only guy willing to get out of the boat.
Peter cried out for Jesus to save Him and Jesus effortlessly reached for him and lifted him up. This gave occasion to His third word for the stormy moment.
5. You of little faith. Why did you doubt? I have heard this and said this before. Why did you stop? You were doing so well. You were almost there. You could have made it.
We get so close and then we stop in panic, retreat in horror, or slink away in a loss o confidence. The storms are real, but just a moment before, we were rising above them. We have lost our focus, our short term memory, and our faith. We have "a ways to go."
But none of that stops Jesus. He comes to our boat, we invite Him in, He climbs in, and eventually (or sometimes immediately) the winds subside. It is then that we declare again, "Truly You are the Son of God."
In 1925, Gertrude Ederle sought to swim the English Channel . "She had less than seven miles to go when her trainer, Jabez Wolffe, who thought she was too tired to keep going, pulled her from the water."
Some have said that it was because she could not see the shore that she grew weary.
The next year, she would not be deterred. She captured a vision of the prize in her mind and kept going. She became the first woman to swim the channel. More people have climbed Everest than have accomplished this.
For us, it is the vision of one who walks on the water in the fourth watch of the night who becomes the focus of our faith. We may not be able to walk on water, but we can certainly ride out our storms in the boat with confidence and courage as we take Him on board.
" The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord strengthened King Eglon of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord." - Judges 3:12
It is easy to point the finger at these ancient tribes and say, "Look how evil they were."
Don't single out the Israelite family based on this scripture and history. It is our story too.
They are simply a prototype of all of us.
Is there hope for an America that seems to have lost it's heart of compassion and instinct for justice and has done so periodically through its history?
Is there hope for those of us who trade moments of security and prosperity for a lifetime of truth and love?
Is there hope for us when we raise and salute the banner of commercialism and greed, erect idols of self-satisfaction, and irreverently turn our backs on the simple way of Jesus?
And then, we dishonor the One who is One and calls us to ultimate loyalty and worship.
There is hope.
We are given this record so that we can relate and so that we can track the mercy of God to take a people of purpose and keep forgiving. restoring, and recommissioning consistently, persistently, and repeatedly through time.
This is the story of the relentless love of God. We know this because it was one of many such times and through the centuries, God never rejected the people.
Judgment is not the flip side of this. It is included in it - not as a paradox, but as an exclamation mark because, throughout the Hebrew scriptures, God's judgment of His people was designed to lead to repentance and renewal of the covenant.
Sometimes the path to redemption is rocky and hard.
Sometimes, it involves retracing the steps of our rebellion and heartless oppression of others.
But it is never a trek that we make alone, even when it seems so.
And it is never about erasing or eradicating our own guilt or redeeming ourselves.
It is a journey of grace and reconciling love.
What is evil in God's sight is what draws us away from God and God's love for us.
Sometimes, God will strengthen the hands of our enemies to draw us back into that relationship for it is only in the relationship that we can thrive.
For that reason, we ought to shun sin and embrace the discipline of a God who passionately and sacrificially draws us into a relationship that is on His terms, knowing that His terms ooze with love, grace, and mercy ... even when it hurts.
From The Mission, a story of redemption and forgiveness.
"Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) enters the Guarani lands in South America with the purpose of converting the natives to Christianity. He soon builds a mission, where he is joined by Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro), a reformed slave trader seeking redemption."
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