The Christmas Judge

One of the psalms used in the Advent/Christmas season is Psalm 98.  In fact Issac Watts bases his hymn, "Joy to the World" on this particular passage of scripture.  After all the calls to sing and shout praise because God has done marvelous deeds ( ie, Exodus and return from Exile) as expressions of God's remembering his faithful love toward Israel, we have the concluding verse:
let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.  (TNIV)

The occasion for singing is God's coming judgment.  Now that will stir joy in our hearts won't it.  Such news should set us to singing and dancing.  But given our religious climate and treatment of judgment, either the words of the psalmist falls on deaf ears or they shake us enough to ponder their impact.  Sadly, many of us have grown up in the Bible Belt where God coming as a Judge is grounds for shock and terror, fear and fright.

Here the writer welcomes the Judge's arrival because he comes to set the world and its people right side up.  Righteousness is God's power for life.  God's judgment is an appraisal that we need "righting".

It doesn't take much for us to be confronted with the truth that we live in a world that is upside down, gone amuck, stuck in the mire that we inherited and have continued creating for ourselves.  Any newspaper accounts come to mind?

Some signs that God's judgments are at work are people working for peace in times of international and national conflict,  works of justice and mercy all around, increased attention to the plight of the homeless, willingness to respond to the groans of neighbors near and far, and children (little girls) who face fear in order to learn and receive an education.

Come, Lord Jesus, with justice and equity and put all things right!  Bring Shalom!

If the Kingdom Fits

In the Gospels, John the Baptist comes with a pointed message, a message Jesus will later take as his own:  Repent (change your heart and your lives)for the Kingdom of God is at hand.  While each gospel has its own way of presenting the message, the impact is the same....turn Godward.  You kind of get the sense that John believes we best get on board with this drama God is writing or be swept aside.

What strikes me about all this is that John understands that God is up to something that we repent into like a train passing through town that we need to board or a wave approaching we need to surrender to.

In short, we are not trying to make God fit into our small, tiny world and its expectations.  God is inviting us to fit ourselves into the kind of world God is shaping and forming.  I am more and more aware that I practice fitting God into my neatly packaged world and avoid the sacrifices needed to fit into God's drama.  How goes it with you?

Advent Longings

Psalm 85 is a prayer for the restoration of Israel to her land.  It was probably written at the time of the exile or in post exile times. It can be interpreted as a prayer of thanks for the return from exile or as a prayer longing for freedom from exile.

Psalm 85 is often used in the Advent season, a time when we prepare ourselves for the coming of God’s love made flesh and blood in the birth and life of Jesus.  Advent means “coming”, “arrival”.  It is a time of waiting in expectant hope for the arrival of God’s presence which gathers up “the hopes and fears of all the years” and sets us free from our slavery to sin and fear with promises of shalom (peace and well-being).

As you read the psalm, listen for the sense of longing and yearning.  What do you long for in this Advent season?

As I listen to news and talk with people, a deep sense of longing for release from a sense of restlessness pervades life.  I experience more of an unsettledness of soul and a nagging fearfulness of days to come.  Others long for a renewed sense of life's purposefulness and value.

Many seem to be crying out for a glimpse of God's help and guidance not just for themselves but for the larger community of the creation.

So may it be.

 

Give me some skin!

There is a nice little story of a child who wakes up frightened, jumps out of bed and quickly heads for his parents bedroom.  One of his parents meets him in the hall way.

 After providing some needed comfort and encouragement the parent takes the child by the hand and walks back to the child's room.

 Turning on the light, the parent reminds the little person that "You know you are not alone here.  God is with you."

To which the child responds:  " Oh, I know God with with me.  I need someone in this room who has some skin!"

As i though about this story and this being All Saints Day, I am reminded that a "saint" is one who allows God to use their "skin" to make God's presence know.  The word for saint can be translated "God's holy people". 

 I am also aware that it is God who makes something or someone holy.  Meister Eckhart said, "Do not think that saintliness come from occupation; it depends rather on what one is.  the kind of work we do does not make us holy, but we may make it holy."

So on this All Saints Day, may God's Word become skin (flesh) in us!

Prayer for the Journey

The following prayer is from A Guide to Prayer by Steve Harper. 
I found it particularly helpful today, so I share it with you.

Saving God, I stand amazed when I consider that Jesus counted it all joy to go to the cross. On this day, when he did so, teach me to find joy in things I would tend to avoid or even reject. Forgive me for trying to define my Christian life in terms of the things that are pleasant, quick, and easy—especially in relation to (you name those persons or situations ).

 Teach me the joy of accomplishing your will when it can only be done through painful, slow, and challenging ways. Deliver me from a spirituality of entertainment, and replace it with one of engagement. Give me your graced ability to accept the sound of hosannas or the hammering of nails. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

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Prayer's Block

Writers often talk of struggling with writer’s block.  I know something of this struggle.  I call it sermon block.  It happens when I sit in front of the computer with all my study resources, notes, thoughts and responses laid out in front of me to put a sermon together.  My body says “I’m ready!”  But my mind seems to be saying,  “Not a chance!”  So I sit in front of a blank screen waiting for some moment of inspiration just to get started.

I also suffer, from time to time, with what could be  called  “prayer’s block”.  It’s  similar kind of dark hole where prayer seems a fruitless exercise of going through the motions, feeling little if any connection to anything or anyone remotely close to the presence of God.  Granted I sometimes act as if prayer can be turned on and off like a faucet , an iphone, or a light switch.  And I have come to realize I pray better when I take a minute or two  to “get in the mood for prayer” (like sitting silently or quietly reading a passage of scripture or simply taking some deep breaths).

But there are times when even getting in the mood to pray doesn’t aid the connection I’m seeking. Prayer’s block sets in.  All prayers have been there sometime, right?  When words  or prayers just don’t come. So what to do?

 What if we “pray the block?”  What if we simply start by acknowledging where we are….blocked… staring  at a blank computer prayer screen or a blank sheet of prayer paper?   

I tend to see these times as failures on my part.  But what if….what if God sees my prayer’s block as an open door to come seeking us?    It may be at these time that we come to realize “that when nothing seems to be happening that the most important things are really taking place.”  ( When the Well Runs Dry, Thomas Green, pg.34)

What important things?  Well, like trust, assurance, hope, confidence that God is working with us and we are not yet aware of the quiet work God is doing in us, with us or through us.

Prayer blockages are worth pondering.

Praying Psalm 51

Psalm 51 is a prayer of confession and faith. It begins with a cry for mercy and forgiveness spoken from a sense of guilt.  The writer is keenly aware of the power of sin in his life.  He knows his wrongdoings.  He offers no excuse.  He does not try to wiggle out of responsibility or pass blame on to others.  His courage to see himself as he is, with this mark of sin, attests to his confident trust in God’s forgiving nature.  Trusting that God will forgive, the writer faces his own sinfulness and need for grace.  The honesty of this psalm is a refreshing witness to the powerful work of grace.  He trust God to welcome honest confession, a broken hearted cry for grace. (See verse 17)

The writer prays for forgiveness, to be washed clean of his sinfulness.  He asks for a transformation of his heart and spirit.  “Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!...Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me with a willing spirit.” 

So how might this prayer become our prayer?  One option is to pray, “Have mercy on me, O God.”   Become aware of confessions of wrongdoing,  words or actions brought hurt or harm to someone. Let this awareness  lead you  to confession.    Another option would be to pray, “Create a clean heart in me, O God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me.”  Allow these words to lead you to consider any situations or circumstances where you need this transformation to take place.

Cares and Prayers

I saw it on a church's marquee:  "Frequent prayers lessen daily cares."  It sounded, well, religious and truthful.  Certainly an invitation to develop a disciplined prayer life.  All good intentions.

Yet, for me, only a half-truth.  Prayer does lessen some stresses, but not always.  Frequent prayer can sensitize us more deeply to hear, listen for, pay attention to the hurts and groans of the world around us.  Frequent prayer may also increase our sense of human suffering, even our own.

Paul may have known prayer as a doorway into deeper suffering.  In Romans 12, he writes of having begged God three times to remove his "thorn in the flesh".  Was this Paul's attempt to lessen his daily care and hindrance through prayer?  The answer he receives is not a thorn lessened, but a thorn borne with the promise of God's presence to go with him.  "My grace is enough, all you need; my strength is made complete in weakness."

Though the marquee sounds comforting, it is only half-true.  The rest of the story is that frequent prayer deepens our sense of pain in our world and in our own souls.  Prayer does not protect us from cares or create carefree lives.

If prayer does anything, it plunges us head deep into the groans of life's journeys.

Reflections on John 6:1-21

The events of John 6:1-15 is found, to a lesser degree, in all four gospels.  John 6:16-21 is found in Matthew and Mark.  The writer of John gives us a significant detail: It is nearly time for Passover, the Jewish festival.  John’s gospel wants us to understand the underlying significance of these events of feeding the multitude with a young boys lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fish (a meager resource in light of the size of the crowd) and the stormy boat trip of the disciples and Jesus walking on the water.  Both events are to be considered in the context of the Exodus experience of the people of Israel.

As God provided manna from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness, so God through Jesus is able to provide for (feed and nourish) the crowd with meager resources.  There is more than enough with leftovers, even when the disciples fret over the limited resources.  Jesus uses what is made available to him. The disciples are delivered through the waters of the Sea of Galilee, just as the Israelites are delivered through the waters of the Red Sea.  Their fears are no match for the presence of Jesus in the storm.

Have there been times in your life, when faced with overwhelming circumstances,  you felt hopeless, felt your resources were no match for the enormity of the situation?  And what about the times when fears seemed to have the upper hand?

John connects these events with the Exodus experience of Israel to remind his readers of God’s continued faithfulness in the ministry of Jesus.  The crowd wants to force Jesus to become “king” and Messiah.  What is a better response?

Dry Spells

The summer weather with this intense dry spell is prompting me to consider the dry spells in faith and prayer we all will experience at one time or another.  Dry spells are times when we just seem to be going through the motions, when routines become burdensome, when prayers seem to be collecting on the ceiling, when worship seems to be dry, when passages from the Bible are a jumble of words, when the waters of life seem stagnant, when we feel stuck in a muck, spinning our life’s wheels and going no where productive.

The life of faith has those times.  The people of Israel called it exile or wilderness.  Christians have referred to this as a dark night of the soul.

Our tendency is to try to get out of the muck and mire.  We may “take a vacation” from prayer, reading scripture, worship, serving.  We may seek out some new or attractive option for investing our time and energy.  Resist the temptations to step away or to chase after “greener grass”.

 God is present in the dry spells!  It is through our experience of dry spells that God teaches us.  We learn to develop some of the virtues of following Jesus, being a disciple: faith, hope, love, humility, persistence, courage,  trust, sensitivity to the hurts and needs of others, wisdom and commitment in seeking to serve Christ and be part of the way of life (the Kingdom) God is bringing on earth.

Paul’s words to the Christians at Galatia are words of encouragement:  Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we will have a harvest if we don’t give up.  So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have the opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith.  (6:9-10)

God Reigns

The Lord reigns….Magnify the Lord our God!  Bow low at his holy mountain because the Lord our God is holy!        Psalm 99:1, 9

Eugene Peterson in  Praying with the Psalms writes:

When sinners worship gods of their making, they drag the gods down to their level.  When sinners worship a God of holiness, they are lifted to his level. 

The God of psalm 99 is a God who is in charge.  He responds to cries for help with justice, compassion, forgiveness and punishment that hold us accountable for our actions.

The proper response to God is reverence, a bowing of heart and life, and adjustment of our lives….alignment to his reign. It is we who march to God’s rhythms.  God sets the pace for us…we don’t set the rhythm or pace for God.  It is we who are shaped and molded to fit God’s patterns and not God who is trimmed down to fit our patterns.

  Really?  Did I begin this day seeking to fit into God’s ways or did I assume God would find a way to fit into my patterns of agenda and life today?

Psalm 99 reminds me of my need for repentance!

O God, I do not hear your word to me today because I have gotten started out on the wrong path.  I have looked for how you fit my routines today and not how I am to fit yours.  One place I start is in prayer and word.  As I go through this day’s agendas, remind me of your larger calling and framework of truth and righteousness at work around me.   Give me courage to  enter your streams of mercy and faithfulness.  Amen.

New Home Construction

Today I read these words from Paul's letter to the church in Ephesis:
      Christ is building you into a place where God lives through the Spirit. (2:22)

So we are Christ's construction projects.  Christ is making us dwellings for God to inhabit.
In most our cases this is  remodeling and renovation work.  Sometimes dwellings have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Such is the work of Christ in us!

I think we would all live differently and more fully alive if we continually reminded ourselves that we are Christ's construction projects.

Charles Wesley catches to message of Paul's words in the hymn, "O Come and Dwell in Me":
                      O come and dwell in me, Spirit of power within,
                      and bring the glorious victory from sorrow, fear and sin.
                                   UM Hymnal #388, verse 1

The journey we are on is a construction project of the work of God grace!

God Has Not Left the House

I was in a restaurant today.  On the wall was a parking sign reserved for Elvis Presley.  My first reaction was "Elvis has left the house."  As I thought about this later, I realized that "leaving the house" is not something I/we could say about God.  God does not leave the "house" for in Jesus Christ, God has committed himself to be with and for the whole of the creation.

As I read Mark's account of Jesus' baptism, I heard the words addressed to Jesus also addressed to me/to all of us:  You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.

I reconsidered how God takes delight in us, even when our lives are not very delightful to him, when our lives and our choices bring God to tears.  Yet God is committed to us.

             "My dearest daughter, fondest son,
              My weary folk in every land,
              your souls are cradled in My heart,
              your names are written on My Hand"

              Then praise the Lord through faith and fear,
              in holy and hopeless place,
              for height and depth and heaven and hell
              can't keep us far from His embrace.
                                   Celtic Daily Prayer, pg. 305

May we live with the assurance that God has not and will not leave the house!