Be careful what you wish for.
Wishes say a lot about you.
Better to pray.
Prayer lets the Lord, God have a say.
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Wishful Thinking
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If only…
Exod. 15:22-16:10: The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’
Well, that’s one way of looking at life – through the ‘if only’ lens. And at this moment in history and God’s time, it is just how the freed slaves of Israel were looking at things – here on the other side of the body of water called the Red Sea, now in the desert lands of Elim, moving slowly through a strange land.
And it seems they are not happy with their lot – a bit more than grumpy, actually, at the turn of events – all the expectations of what freedom would bring are not being realized. They’re tired. They’re hungry, and they greet the days with an anxious heart, a fretful petition, If only we were back home. It may not have been an easy life, but at least it was known, and we had food on the table, and work to do. And, well, it was pretty secure, too, and though we were pretty miserable in many ways, we were sure not to have died of hunger, we had a roof over our heads, and provision…if only. If only we had stayed put…if only…
The reading gave me pause, today. I waken of late with a long and ever expanding list of ‘if onlys’ running through my head. It begins as I lay down to sleep and try as I might to pray myself into slumber, the list must trump the prayer, because I wake with it before me.
So, I pray…again. I turn to God’s word – to the readings for the day and though I bring to my morning prayers a bit of anxiousness and fret not unlike the Israelites, I know the Lord is pleased I’ve come to Him,
“Bring me your complaints. Loved one – draw near.”
I’m not complaining, Lord, God. I’m not blaming either. I’m just saying. Really? Why am I at another crossroads? If only I hadn’t followed you out of the known into the unknown, then…hmmm…I don’t think I’d be where I am…hmm…if only…. This is so, so hard! I am so over this, Lord, God. I trust you. You know this. But really?
And as I pray, a ‘peace that passes understanding’ begins to settle me down, give me breath, give me pause. He leans in as I draw near,
“I lead you here by your faith in me and mine in you for nothing more than the possibility of loving me, your Lord God, more deeply than you even knew possible. For the possibilities, loved one, of life lived in truth, in love, in Christ.”
Ok. Right. I remember. It’s not about me. Got it. Good answer, Lord, God. Onward.
Lectionary: AM Psalm 119:1-24; PM Psalm 12, 13, 14
Exod. 15:22-16:10; 1 Pet. 2:1-10; John 15:1-11
Even the gift horse needs training…
Ephesians 4:14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Jesus teaches us to come to him like a child, (“receive the kingdom of God as a little child”) receiving grace unadulteratedly (not as an adult?) with delight and joy and no perversion of doctrine or academic criticism or or over-thinking or trickery. In other words, Jesus might say, ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,’ when you first come to him. Receive it freely as given freely in truth and love.
Paul reminds us in today’s letter to the Ephesians of what it takes to live as one who has joyfully, earnestly, and honestly received the gift of salvation. It takes maturity, discernment, commitment, right intention – not blind childlike faith. Nor distraction from the Word by the winds of time which anchor doctrines to the law. No, a member of the body of Christ comes to the body with a childlike awe, but grows with and strengthens the body by nothing short of hard work, commitment, personal responsibility, and obedience.
How are you doing? Did you come to Christ joyfully, receiving the gift of love and forgiveness gratefully as sweetly as a little child only to let it idle there on the playground? A gift horse untrained? Unused? Left in a stall as a show horse, “I am a Christian, see?”
Comfortable or committed?
That is what I hear the Spirit asking me in the readings, today.
Lectionary Readings January 2, 2014: AM Psalm 34; PM Psalm 33
1 Kings 19:1-8; Eph. 4:1-16; John 6:1-14
Posted in Whispers
Tagged context, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, love, scripture, truth
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Thy will be done; God, and only God, connects the dots
From today’s gospel reading:
But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…
From the lens of the law, Joseph resolves to divorce Mary quietly. From the lens of the law, Joseph goes to bed settled upon the ‘right thing to do,’ by himself, by Mary. From the lens of the law, Joseph connects only dots he can see in a way that relieves his wounded ego, his reputation, his dilemma. From the lens of the law the meaning of this chaos, this disruption, this very bad news eludes Joseph. Too wounded perhaps to even wonder what God was doing in his life; what the purpose of such an unexpected and unwanted relational crisis was intended for. Resolved through the lens of the law, Joseph sleeps, expecting to set in motion the separation and divorce from Mary come morning.
But God doesn’t play to our expectations. God shows up. While he sleeps. In his dream. A Holy Spirit whisper. A third way. A better way. For Joseph. For Mary. For the world. God’s way. The only way. Dots connected.
Thank God, Joseph slept. Gave the Lord space, time, to speak to him. Let his rational, law-grounded, self-care, black-white, thoughts be put to rest. The armor of his ego and reputation shed for a few hours to sleep. Vulnerable, open. God comes to him. Speaks to him. Space for grace. That’s where the heart is touched and transformed to a life lived for God’s will to be done. Where dots connect and grace happens.
Lectionary Readings January 1, 2013: AM Psalm 103; PM Psalm 148
Isa. 62:1-5,10-12; Rev. 19:11-16; Matt. 1:18-25
Level ground, holy ground, His ground
I begin a new season of discipleship and ministry, today – one that moves me into an activated state and out of the contemplative one where I have taken refuge for a very long time.
12 My foot stands on level ground;
in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.
And this final couplet of today’s psalm has me thinking about all the little steps I have had to take to arrive here. Steps out of what was, for all intents and purposes, very solid ground. Steps that took me away from all I had known and put me into new territories. New lands. New homes. New roads. New companions. I have been oriented-disoriented-and reoriented more times than I ever in my wildest dreams desired or thought I had the capacity to navigate faithfully and steadfastly.
Where was God in this new ground? This new space, place and time? Was I reading the compass right? Was this where I was to go? Be? Lord, Jesus. Abba Father, where are you?
Like so many times throughout the contemplative season in which I have been immersed, it was a simple phrase from scripture that triggered a pause, and a Holy Spirit moment. The words ‘solid ground’ almost made me laugh out loud. Solid ground? Hardly. The earth beneath my feet has not stopped moving, undulating, throwing me up, off, around over and over.
And yet, the reality that though I am in a foreign place once again, I am not, disoriented. I am at true north. I am where He has lead me. Where I am to be. And in that sense, I am on solid ground.
Not just a new season for me but new ground in every way. And I am here only because I have followed the still small voice that calls me to ministry. When I think of all the disruptions that have occurred over the past years that lead me here, I wonder. I wonder what God will do through me for whomever I meet in this new place – His place, His ground.
Just a piece of my story for His glory.
Praise Him. I promise, I will, Lord, God.
12 My foot stands on level ground;
in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.
Lectionary Readings: AM Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39 Deut. 4:15-24; 2 Cor. 1:12-22; Luke 15:1-10
Letting E-go…letting God
Lk 11:21When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. 22But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. 23Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Armor protecting not just the house and success and all that a person might presume had come their way by virtue of their own worthiness, but also, and more significantly, the ego and pride of a person.
What happens to a person when our ego – our self – our pride is assaulted? How do we respond? What do we do to defend? Do we defend?
That’s what a walk with Jesus is really all about – how we respond.
I think Jesus is saying if we choose to defend our hearts, our egos, our ‘stuff’, our lives, we choose not love, light and life. If we choose to defend ourselves against attacks on our egos – our selves – rather than giving in and up our hearts, our egos, the credit to God, our lives to Him, then the path we set ourselves from that point forward will be broken, fractured, scattered and absent of all that God had brought to our life when we joined ours to his by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The process of sanctification is ongoing, beginning the moment we are baptized into the body of Christ. And at every point along the way we are given choices for ‘how then we are to live’ – how to respond – how to defend – what would Jesus do.
Letting E-go, letting God. That’s what I think Jesus is saying here. Don’t defend your ego, pride, your ‘stuff’. Bottom line is that it will set you on a different path and I, Jesus, won’t be found, there. You’ll have your ego, pride and some of your stuff, but you’ll have trouble finding me close by, let alone in you.
Lectionary Readings: AM Psalm 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13)
Ezek. 43:1-12; Heb. 9:1-14; Luke 11:14-23
Gray area is discipleship territory
Luke 10:38-42
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ 41But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing.* Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’
The scene between Mary and Martha and Jesus has been used so many times to describe one person’s ministry against another that I find I regularly dismiss the teaching, not identifying with either of the women. Are you a Mary or a Martha? Such a territorial question, like what camp are you in? As if discipleship and ministry can be distilled down to either listening or serving? Both and.
Well. Maybe so. The gospel reading was just the right one for me on a day when I launch into a new season of discipleship – of following Jesus. I am making my way to a new territory, a place where I will pastorally serve – to do the work I have listened to, studied, written about and felt called to do for so long.
If I had to choose, then, it would be Mary with whom I identified. I have sat at Jesus’ feet and listened for a lifetime. Quietly listened, observed, serving Him rather privately while around me are a million Martha’s buzzing – doing.
Time to do. Not to fret. Not to worry or whine as Martha does here. But to get up as Mary would have from Jesus’ feet and feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, clothe the poor.
Embodied in this story is another testament to the whole-ness of the gospel, to its ‘holi-ness.’ No stoned left unturned in the teaching of our Lord on sanctification – on being worked on and made holy as we live in Him and He in us.
Discipleship is not black and white. The gospel is not black and white. Not law or grace. Both And. Listening, learning, maturing. Doing. Being. Works. Mary. Martha. Both And. Gray area.
Both. And. Amen.
Lectionary readings: AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32 Ezek. 34:17-31; Heb. 8:1-13; Luke 10:38-42
We’re all on the same page…whether you have a Bible with this page or not
Whether you are familiar or not with the Scripture featured below, just read without trying to locate it in the Bible. Allow the Holy Spirit to read to you.
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. 2 In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, 3 and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. 4 For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. 5 Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; 6 like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt-offering he accepted them. 7 In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. 8 They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them for ever. 9 Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones, and he watches over his elect.*
Now read this next passage from Scripture in the same way.
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled* in his fleshly body* through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— 23provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.
Different parts of the Bible, but sounding as if penned by the same person. Aha moment! It is the same…Holy Spirit is the author.
What is curious to me is that the first reading comes from a book in the Bible that many evangelical, protestant Christians do not even read. It comes from Wisdom. And the book of Wisdom is in the Apocrypha (meaning, ‘hidden books). The books of the Apocrypha (Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom, Ben Sira, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, Bel, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasses, Additions to Psalms, 3 Maccabees, 2 Esdras, 4 Maccabees) were separated out of the King James Version Latin bible in the 16th century by Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation.
In that period of rebellion against the Church (capital, not small ‘c’, as in Roman Catholic church), Luther determined these books were ‘not Holy Spirit’ inspired. He went even so far as to suggest that some were in the canon at the behest of the Church to support their own doctrines of salvation and sanctification. In other words, the words of these books were the words of the Church, not the Lord, God. Hmm.
Sola Scriptura was the phrase coined to distinguish a church of the reformation in opposition to the Roman church. No mediator needed or allowed. In Scripture all that was necessary to sanctification (process of becoming Holy) and salvation was to be found. Well. Pause. All the scriptura to be found in a redacted, edited, bible, that is. Hmm. I wonder.
To this day most evangelical churches and many mainline Protestant churches proclaim and teach and preach from bibles that have purposed to hide or even exclude some of God’s Word. What churches? Well, any that use any one of these bibles, New International Version, New American Standard Version, The Message, and The English Standard Version. Interesting. So many of these churches self-identify as ‘bible-based’ and preach against churches that to them don’t dwell in the Word.
Ah, the paradox and mystery of our Creator, our Abba Father.
Surely, He speaks to us through time and circumstance and promises that the good news will reach “every creature under heaven.” We believers – followers – disciples – we are all on the same, page, aren’t we? God speaks to us through all of His time, no?
Sanctification and Salvation are ours. We are all sought. We will all hear the gospel, as Paul reminds us and the Colossians in the epistle reading today and as Solomon describes, just as Paul would have, in the Wisdom passage. These two were certainly on the same page. One authored by the Holy Spirit.
Whether we lived before Jesus came incarnate, or whether we hear an edited version of the good news from our preachers and teachers. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit speaks, transforms, reconciles, loves, redeems from the beginning and for ever and ever.
Praise Him.
The bible is not a rule book, but a game plan…
From the Gospel of Luke in this morning’s readings, another reminder of how Jesus teaches us the big idea – the kingdom come – the forest through the trees – the game plan:
Luke 6: 1-8: One sabbath* while Jesus* was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing what is not lawful* on the sabbath?’ 3Jesus answered, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?’ 5Then he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’
6 On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’ He got up and stood there.
And here is the point of departure – once again- between Jesus and the rules, between Grace and Law, (so warmly illustrated by Antonia Rolls in the illustration posted above):
9Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?’10After looking around at all of them, he said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored. 11But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Though the Bible isn’t a rule book, it also isn’t only a game plan. The method to the madness is a compilation of X’s and O’s moving by some standard, guidelines, rules. 
To play in the game, you have to learn it, first. God gives us the rules and then lays out the plan. The rules are how we learn of God, learn the meaning and intention of the life He created. The rules serve us as we come to know His plan. Both And. X’s and O’s.
And it is through Jesus’ breaking of all the rules – on every single level – that we know how we are to play the game. The game plan revealed in its entirely, perfectly, once for all.
God’s plan for redeeming the world has only two rules: Love God, Love your neighbor. And on these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.
Praise Him.
Let go. Let God. God’s time…
Amongst many other things, today’s passage from Daniel reminds a contemporary Christian about God’s time. All in God’s time.
I thought of a county song (shared here, but be warned it is country with a capital twangy “C”) which proclaims this truth to be revealed even in our dreams – the kind of day dreams, wishful dreams that we have about our little lives. What we will grow up to be. Who we will be partnered with. Where we will live. How we shall live. And for how long. As a child of God we wonder about our dreams and how they will be worked out in God’s time. Not like the King of Babylon. He didn’t consider himself a child of our God. But he did have a dream. A different kind of dream. A prophetic dream which Daniel was left to interpret.
Daniel who had been gifted with dream interpretation (a holy spirit gift) describes with some level of anxiety to King Nebuchadnezzar ‘s that his dream was a a cautionary tale, of sorts.
25 You shall be driven away from human society, and your dwelling shall be with the wild animals. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen, you shall be bathed with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you, until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals, and gives it to whom he will.
I hear the Spirit describing through Daniel’s interpretation to the King the process of sanctification; that is, this is the way God works in each of us and in the world. God’s hand is a disciplining hand. It is a tough love type of discipling to bring us (in this case the King) back in line with Him. And here, Daniel says it will be seventy years worth of work. God will bring down the kingdom he gave the King seven times until the people recognize and have learned that no higher sovereign in the universe is God and that God is in control of absolutely everything.
God’s love is a disciplining, perfecting, sanctifying love that will reconcile and make right each of us who seek Him. In this biblical moment, it is the King and His chosen people who are being sanctified, disciplined, worked on, redeemed. There was nothing to do but to anticipate and, as Daniel urged the King, take heed:
27Therefore, O king, may my counsel be acceptable to you: atone for* your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged.’
In kinder, softer, language, was Daniel saying to the King, “Don’t get a head of yourself. Slow down. Let go. Let God. God will have His way, anyway, in the end. Pay attention. See God at work not just in your dream, but in your life,”?
We can’t do anything to expedite this process. God’s will be done on and in as God ordains it to be. And in His time everything makes sense in this crazy world, as country crooner Hauser sang.
Indeed. In God’s time even crazy dreams make sense.
Praise Him.
TRINITY SEASONS 