Movie Disease
I suffer from an affliction, and I don’t know how many of you can empathize. So often in life I rent a movie, and it turns out to be really bad, really lame, but I must watch it all the way thru. It is monumentally difficult for me to stop a movie part way thru. This has lead me to see a lot of sorry movies, in their totality.
I have also seen some movies that began pretty slow, but around the midway point starting heating up and got good. And I was glad for the inability to walk away at the rough start.
The story of Jesus isn’t like that. From the beginning, things are happening and people are popping up that demand our attention and warrant our sticking around to see where this thing goes.
Think for a moment with me of the way this the story begins to unfold…
⊕ Zechariah and Elizabeth, barren, visited by an angel, and conceiving a son. John is their son, who would be known as the Baptizer, the forerunner who would lay the finishing touches for the arrival of his cousin.
⊕ Of course, there’s Mary and Joseph, engaged, visited by angles, unexpectedly and seemingly miraculously pregnant, caught up in a sudden political necessity that sets them on the road for Bethlehem on the eve of her delivery… Bethlehem, the town of prophecy, a humble place, and yet a place where the prophets of old had pointed and said, “Watch.”
⊕ Jesus is born and more angles appear, gathering some shepherds from the fields to come and bear witness. I’m comforted folks, that these shepherds are called to witness… we aren’t told they’re in the line of kings, they aren’t priests, they’re humble shepherds. If they can be called to bear witness, then I know that I can be as well.
⊕ As an infant Jesus is taken to the Temple and there awaits Simeon the Prophet who raises Jesus and proclaims to God, “I have seen your salvation!” And then there’s Anna, the sweet widow Anna, who praises God at the sight of Jesus and picks up where the angels with the shepherds left off, telling everyone she sees, “Jesus is here.”
⊕ But, we’re not done yet, because some wise men of the East still have to drop in looking for this child, the new king of the Jews. They had seen his star in sky… the arrival of Jesus being what it was, an announcement seemed to be placed in the sky for those able to read it, and follow the directions, even from far away.
⊕ And the arrival of the wise men leads to a dramatic escape to Egypt for the family of Jesus, fleeing the murderous wrath of the petty King Herod who could not stomach the idea that prophecy and events were coming together to announce such an arrival.
No, this story starts off running and soon careens into the political and religious maelstrom of the day. And we find more and more characters along the way, who like the humble shepherds, invite us into the story with their authenticity and honesty. One of my favorites is the man in Mark 9, when a father brings a son to Jesus and his followers for healing… and ends up in a fascinating conversation with Jesus… Mark 9::14-29. When a story like this one starts rolling in such a fashion, it’s hard to not be a little overwhelmed. And I relate to a parent who believes that going to Jesus is the right move, but there’s still room for growing that belief! It’s an expression of humility and inadequacy when caught up in a compelling story that feels just too good to flip channels and look away.
“Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed,
‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’”
Mark 9:24
I love the season of Advent. We need to start again each year, returning to the beginning of this story, the conflict, the miraculous, the hopes and machinations of both God and humanity. It becomes for us a needed anchor, a place to remember the belief of a previous year and the need for even more belief in the year that waits to begin.
My prayer for this Advent Season, for myself and for this church family, is to humbly join that father in Mark 9, “We do believe, help us in our unbelief!”
I have enjoyed the writings of a very smart lady named Marva Dawn, and in a book she co-wrote with Eugene Peterson she penned these simple but true words, “You cannot help but be disillusioned if only Santa Claus come to your house. But if the one you yearn for is the Christ Child, you will never be disappointed, for he always comes.”
So, welcome to Advent.
Filed under: Devotional Thoughts | Tags: truth christian search life authenticity
I’ve been plowing my way through a new book for the last week. It hasn’t been a fast read, but it’s been good. The book is called Eyes to See, Ears to Hear by David Lonsdale. The book is an introduction to Ignatian Spirituality. I’m reading it because I’m in an Ignatian Daily Life Prayer Retreat this week. So, far, I’ve been reading about the images of God, Christ, the World, etc., and the experiences that made Ignatius tick. As Lonsdale moves into a discussion of discernment he has this quote, which I considered worthy of sharing:
“Today we are more ready than we have been in the past to acknowledge that being a Christian is more a search for genuine truth than a secure position of certainty from which to survey the world and pass judgment. Trying to be a Christian means learning how to respond with love to God, to people and circumstances. It means searching for ways of living out the two great gospel commandments of loving God and our neighbour, while recognizing the imperfection of our attempts. It also means searching honestly for the most authentic truth; not just the knowledge that can be learned but makes little difference to how we live, but also the deeper gospel truth that makes little sense in fact until it becomes the truth which governs our lives.”
August was a long month for Senator Larry Craig. If you’ve watched the national news, or local in Idaho, you’ve undoubtedly heard it all. Of course, you and I won’t ever know exactly what happed that day in an airport bathroom. We have accusations from a peace officer and we have a plea of guilty to lesser charges… and we have the national circus that comes to town when there’s the smell of fresh blood.
My question is for us of faith… for we who should never be caught viewing a human being as anything other than a beloved of our God, regardless of seen and unseen brokenness. Where do our concerns and priorities lie? Do we value the political spectacle of Senator Craig’s situation over the obvious brokenness in his own life and the life of his family? Are we Republicans and Democrats, Libertarians and Moderates, Communists and Anarchists, and all the political spectrum therein, before we are disciples of Christ? I don’t mean this as a rhetorical question. I mean it as a serious “this really needs some attention” question, because the answer to the question will determine how we respond. Some of us are immediately drawn to the political feast and others may be scared into silence and shame.
Will we respond with prayer for a man and his family, or respond with ridicule and malice, or silence and apathy? I’m not debating guilt here, I’m wondering about healing. I’m not asking if he should or shouldn’t have made his resignation, I’m asking about hope. I’m wondering if we have any role in the healing and hope, or if we only interact with this particular human being in the political arena. Under what circumstances do we cease to have spiritual obligations to our fellow, broken beings? When do we stop carrying obligations of forgiveness, words of life and peace, and humbled service?
So, Sunday morning we raised Senator Craig before God’s throne, along with his family, for healing and help. That in this time of undeniable pain and hurt, God would do the needed work of peace, making whole, and giving joy.
The world doesn’t need another Democrat. The world doesn’t need another Republican. The world can’t really do much with another howl of “hypocrite!” or bout of snide laughter, or silent judgment.
The world could use some folks on their knees in prayer and on their feet in love… the world could use a fresh perspective on things.
Filed under: Devotional Thoughts
I’d like to go on the record and say that I am officially fatigued by the political rhetoric of the day. The vilification of presidents and opponents has risen to the level of ridiculous, and important values and traditions like reconciliation and giving someone the “benefit of the doubt” seem to me to have vanished…
And I’m not without some political history. A couple of years ago I read a great book called Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis. It was my first real window into the historical animosity that our political system has sustained from its very beginning. From name-calling to pistol duels, our political landscape has been fairly well stained with the blood and tears of some magnificent souls.
And today we continue to litter the hillsides with the careers and lives of our fellow American travelers. I’m tired of it. And I’m tired of Christians joining the fray, perpetrating some of the most tasteless dialogue while claiming a moral high ground. I’m not talking about the LEFT, and I’m not talking about the RIGHT… I’m talking about BOTH.
I want to believe it when St. Paul says that within the sovereignty and presence of Christ there is a new creation. I want to believe that many of the old orders will slip away. I want to believe that the people who claim Christ can act and speak in such a way that humans are blessed on both sides of the aisle.
How do we actually begin giving the benefit of the doubt back to others? Do we need a mantra to chant each morning, “All Democrats don’t hate the military, all Democrats don’t…” Or maybe it’s something like, “Bush isn’t actually stupid, Bush isn’t actually…”
Could it be that “loving our enemies” might fundamentally demand that we begin from the benefit of the doubt? Can the people of God hate their political opponents?
I’ve recently known a Christian minister to call President George W. Bush a bastard, and I’ve also heard many a Christian pass along their favorite jokes about President William J. Clinton’s sexual misconduct. Sickening.
I recall that one of my least favorably received sermons was during the Clinton years when I compared most conservative Christians of the day (me included) to Jonah sitting on the hillside at the end of the biblical book bearing his name. You know the whole story, right? Jonah never gets it… at the end of the story Jonah is still sitting on a hillside maliciously, maybe even gleefully, waiting for the fire of judgment to fall on the city. And that’s where so many Christians in those days sat, on the hillside hoping for a judgment and condemnation, with a nary a prayer for the man.
So, specifically, here might be some benefits of the doubt to start with:
- Gore is truly concerned about global warming, because he loves the earth.
- Bush is doing his best to keep us safe from extremists.
- Democrats really want to help the disenfranchised do better.
- Republicans really want to help the disenfranchised do better.
- Folks on the LEFT can be some amazing Christians!
- Folks on the RIGHT can be some amazing Christians!
- The goofiest commentator on the RIGHT doesn’t represent them all.
- The goofiest commentator on the LEFT doesn’t represent them all.
- If anyone says they’re trying to follow our Christ, believe them.
- Even if you disagree with their conclusions, believe a person’s stated intentions and desires.
Christ said that we should love our enemies… that aught to change our speech and lead us towards paths of reconciliation. Now that I’ve made my little list up there I feel like it barely scratches the surface. If fact, I’m embarrassed by how anemic it looks and feels. Surely the words, “love your enemies” carry more weight than that.
Maybe we have too little faith that God can take care of this world and too much belief that the wrong politician can actually destroy it.
I’m going to go pray for Nancy Pelosi and Rudy Giuliani now. I’ll spend some time in my Book of Common Prayer, pages 388-389 (Form IV) and pages 820-822. And I’ll try to love some the folks who most drive me crazy in today’s political carnival.
Peace, Todd
I had one of those moments in the car yesterday… my six-year-old is rifling thru my CD’s and holds up Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason and asks, “Um, Dad. Can we listen to this one?” Somehow thru tears of pride I choked out,” Oh, yes son, we can.”
I love that album, because you see, I also love to hear the gospel, no matter who’s sharing it at the time. Listening to that album back in ‘88 was my introduction to the song On the Turning Away… these days I also have a concert version of it on the album, Delicate Sounds of Thunder. That song captures the heart of Jesus so perfectly when he’s announcing his life’s dream (and God’s desire) of making the world a better place for the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. (Luke 4:14-21)
The CD was still in this morning as I drove to work so I skipped over to track 5 and dug on it again… have you ever really thought of all the power structures and systems that Jesus just ignored? He could have gone after the Roman political structure… the church did after only a few hundred years, but not Jesus. Jesus didn’t need political backing.
On the opposite of the political spectrum he ignored the cause of the zealots who fought Roman power… Jesus didn’t bother with being an anti-establishment activist.
Jesus also ignored a highly organized and earnest Jewish religious establishment… even though he seemed to have several Pharisees who believed and followed him. At different times you can almost get the feeling that if he had just toned down a little of the rhetoric, stopped talking about the poor and disenfranchised so much, and focused more on the average person’s sins and on being good Jews a little more, he could have gone far.
But then, he never really left the whole Jewish system behind either… always at the Temple, always at the feasts, always reminding people of the heart and intent of the Law.
What do we often do today? We strive in the opposite directions… we crave political power and political results, either left or right of the aisle. We might even proudly go guerilla activist in defiance of the powers that be. We seek opinion leaders in culture and woo them or pay them big bucks for motivational speeches. We bow to religious systems and build empires based on the potency, or lack of, in these theocracies.
While Jesus preaches good news to the least likely to receive any.
I’m actually in a good mood today… for reals. I hope you don’t think I’m ranting in a morose fit of depression. I guess I’m just feeling a little out of touch with Jesus’ folks. I haven’t spent much time lately with the disenfranchised, defeated, disheartened and dispossessed. My bad.
Peace, y’all! Todd
You know I didn’t do this kind of a post for Mother’s Day… I hope you can forgive me. But I thought I would collect here some of my thoughts I am sharing with a class tomorrow morning, the Sunday which we celebrate as Father’s Day.
What does our Bible most often give us, as pertaining to God? My thoughts are running something like this:
The scriptures give us (not exclusively) images of God in a quest to help us know God and love God. I’m daring in my sense of over-simplification, but I think the idea rings true enough.
Not being divine oursleves, not divine in essence or personality, we’re not able to perceive God in a full, undiluted manner… so the images of scripture quite naturally flow from our own context and existence to be understandable and cogent.
And here’s a point of distinction… these images must be allowed to function in ways that help us know and love, but not allowed to funtion in ways that circumscribe God. It’s healthy to remember that scripures aid us in knowing God, not “figuring God out.”
So, let’s cruise some (just a few) images: father, mother, bridegroom, shepherd, potter… and later in a fuller way, son and spirit. To help enliven our images we have some amazing verbs that come along with the God of our scriptures… God loves, hates, marries, becomes jealous, divorces, forgives, molds and fashions, protects, calls, sends, speaks, listens, and remembers.
I was in an unexpected and interesting snatch of conversation this past week when a friend bemoaned the fact that some of the push towards inclusive language in church culture and vocabulary was actually excluding the masculine. So, in a rush to make God not exclusively masculine, we might try to make God not masculine. But God is masculine. And God is feminine.
And God is so far past those adjectives and realities that after they help us understand and love God a little more than we have previously, we have to remind ourselves that our being drawn to God is the point of this exercise, not divine sexuality. When the images wear a little thin or start to get too bossy, leave them aside for a few weeks and come back to them… let them breathe a little.
Fellas, there’s not a doubt that the father image, the masculine image, is the hands-down winner of which image pops up most through the scriptures. But I don’t think that really gives us much reason for self-congratulaion or high-fiving. If anything, we might uniquely have a bar set pretty high for the love of a bridegroom, the patience of a father, the sacrifice of a parent. *sigh*
So, let us do what honor to the Divine image that we may! Let us give someone something to celebrate in the way we love, are fathers, and are husbands.
Filed under: Devotional Thoughts
The reality of a Risen Savior once again takes center stage in our lives and threatens to change everything that we take for granted and hold dear.
I’ve often wondered how the Risen One had changed and transformed the lives of the earliest Christians… what new realities and even some older realities suddenly opened up before them?
Were there any Jewish believers who suddenly understood the story of Jonah’s adventure in the belly of a great fish in a new light? Did anyone suddenly perceive the “temple” language of Jesus in full clarity as the risen temple of his body walked the same roads he had stumbled down toward his death?
Are there questions and doubts and fractured frustrations in our own lives that can be finally and fully put to rest in the arms of the Risen One? In the light of a new reality, can we find the wholeness of life and peace, even within the brokenness of the other realities that swirl around us?
The new thing that has been birthed today is the hope of all who are trapped, dying and even dead in the grave of despair and pain. The Risen One offers life on a new set of terms… participation in a whole new reality.
“O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Book of Common Prayer, Page 291
Be blessed in the Easter Season!
Filed under: Devotional Thoughts
And some deaths will be germinal… as the tomb in which Jesus now lies is waiting to birth a new thing in the morning. And a patient Lord waits in the depths for the God of Israel, the God of Redemption, the God worth waiting for, more than the watchmen wait for morning.
Psalm 130
Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
If you, LORD, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
Sleep well, the waiting is worth it!
Filed under: Devotional Thoughts
Good evening, friends. It’s Friday night, the cross is empty and the grave is full. Good Friday is finished, and now we wait. What will Sunday bring? How long will Saturday last?
We’ve all stood at the edge of a grave and wondered what would come next. We’ve all wondered, “How long?”
We never stand at that edge, with those questions, alone.
Psalm 21:1-11, TNIV
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
But I am a worm, not a human being;
I am scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me feel secure on my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
Peace to you as we wait for our answers.
Filed under: Devotional Thoughts
I hit a wall of technical difficulties yesterday that prevented me from my daily Holy Week email. I was so mad at myself last night! But, it is holy Week, so I forgave myself.
And today is Maundy Thursday. Yesterday with the youth we looked at the passage in John 13 when Jesus clues the other followers in on Judas’ impending betrayal. Jesus does this at the meal which we commemorate today.
You know what gets me? Jesus loved Judas so much… and I don’t think he ever stopped loving him. Jesus must have known that Judas would one day betray him long before this dinner. Yet Jesus never drove Judas away from him. In fact, Jesus also knew that Peter would soon deny him, but he kept Peter around, too! What about poor Thomas? We’ve castigated him through the centuries as “Doubting Thomas” as if he were the only one having problems figuring out that maelstrom of events. Jesus moved through a world of betrayal.
And Jesus didn’t let the betrayals slow him down one step. He didn’t stop loving or serving or keeping to his course. Can we live like that? I know I want to…
But I also know I sometimes don’t. In truth I’ve realized lately that I have been bound by the recent, past betrayals and perceived betrayals of my life and ministry. I have been bound and unable to fully engage new friendships and trust some very trustworthy folks. I can’t live like that… it’s neither healthy nor godly.
So as I sit and imagine Jesus around the table with broken, betraying, weak folks who are just like me in their faults and sins, I’m determined to leave behind some of the damage of this life I’ve seen. I’m determined to live more like my Christ. My list of folks who have betrayed my trust is no where near as long as Jesus’ list would be, and I have no idea how it compares to yours… but I know that life must be freed all such entanglements to continue to shine and sing.
Speaking of singing, today’s Psalm is chapter 69… let’s share verses 1-4, 13-16:
1 Save me, O God,
for the floodwaters are up to my neck.
2 Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire;
I can’t find a foothold.
I am in deep water,
and the floods overwhelm me.
3 I am exhausted from crying for help;
my throat is parched.
My eyes are swollen with weeping,
waiting for my God to help me.
4 Those who hate me without cause
outnumber the hairs on my head.
Many enemies try to destroy me with lies,
demanding that I give back what I didn’t steal…
13 But I keep praying to you, Lord,
hoping this time you will show me favor.
In your unfailing love, O God,
answer my prayer with your sure salvation.
14 Rescue me from the mud;
don’t let me sink any deeper!
Save me from those who hate me,
and pull me from these deep waters.
15 Don’t let the floods overwhelm me,
or the deep waters swallow me,
or the pit of death devour me.
16 Answer my prayers, O Lord,
for your unfailing love is wonderful.
From beside you at the table of Christ,
I wish you peace.
