Last night, I took the dog for a walk at 7:30 p.m. The sky was already dark, the stars bright. It was a beautiful, crisp night. It seems that the stars shine more brightly when the sky is an inky black. They stand out in contrast to the darkness.
I hate it when people don't come to church because they are struggling with something. I will not see someone for weeks, and when they return, I'll ask them if everything is OK. When they tell me that they didn't come to church because they felt depressed or sad, doubting or questioning, I get so frustrated! There is no better time to come to church than when you are down and out! How in the world have we come to believe that church is only for happy people or certain people? We are a community that is searching for Christ in the darkness and everyone is invited to search with us.
There is a parable that Jesus tells us about these bridesmaids that go out into the darkness to meet the bridegroom. In Jesus' day, it was customary for the women and girls who loved the bride to take their lanterns and go out at night, to search for the bridegroom in the darkness. When they found him, they would bring him back to the home of the bride, where there would be a great feast.
I can just picture these women, stepping out into the dark night, lanterns in their hands, searching in the darkness for the symbol of love itself, searching for the one who would enable them to celebrate life. But they could not start the celebration before stepping out into the darkness to look for him.
It strikes me that one of the best places to find Jesus is in the midst of the darkness, at the very center of our own pain and suffering. That is what the cross is about. That is why the Incarnation of God comes to us at the darkest part of the year, when the light is limited and our days are short. Christ comes in the darkness.
There is an amazing book that has been published recently. It is selling off bookshelves all across the country. It is called THE SHACK. The story is about McKenzie, a dad who loves his kids. He takes his three youngest on a camping trip. They have a great time, canoeing, pitching their tents, roasting marshmellows and lying on the ground watching the stars shining in the dark sky.
On the day that they are to return home, McKenzie's two older kids decided to go out in kayacks on the river. Mack and his little daughter, Missy, stay on shore. He watches the action on the water and she colors at a picnic table.
Mack's son capsizes. Mack watches intently. He does not see his son appear above the water, so he dives in and rescues his boy, who has somehow gotten his pants leg caught on something. When Mack finally gets his son above water, the boy is unconscious. Mack carries him to shore and does mouth-to-mouth until his boy coughs up water and begins to breathe. By this time Mack is crying with relief.
And then he looks up to find that his little daughter is missing. Frantically, he and his two other kids search the campsite. They alert the authorities. Someone reports seeing a man push a little girl into a truck.
The police search for days. They find Missy's body in an old, abandoned shack.
Mack enters what he comes to call The Great Sadness. He can no longer see color. He doesn't know what to think about God. He is lost. For three years, he lives in The Great Sadness.
And then he gets a letter in the mail. Come and meet me at the Shack, love God it says. Mack thinks that it may be the work of the murderer or some other quack, but he cannot stay away. He puts a shotgun in his car and goes to the shack.
When he walks in, he sees the blood stain on the carpet where his little girl died. He screams and screams, crying out his pain...
And God comes to McKenzie that day in the Shack. I will not spoil the book for you. I find all fictional depictions of God to be inadequate, but this is one of the least inadequate descriptions I have found. It is well worth reading.
My point is that Mack would not have encountered God if he had not been willing to go to the place of his greatest darkness, the place of his living nightmare. He found God in the darkness, and God fed him there.
If you are in the dark, please know that God wants you to come to church. Christians are not eternally happy, perfect people! We are full of doubts and despair just like everybody else. BUT WE LOOK FOR CHRIST IN THE DARKNESS. We seek Him. We long for Him.
I am looking for the coming of Christ. That is what we say as the days darken and Advent approaches. I am looking for the coming of Christ.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Lazarus' Perspective
Do you get mad when people are late? I do.
My aunt Diana and my uncle Russell were always late. And not just late by a few minutes, late by four hours! We would expect a visit from them and they were once four hours late! So we waited and stewed and waited. And I’ll never forget the two of them barreling out of their station wagon, their two boys piling out behind them, full of smiles and candy and apologies. It was hard to stay mad at them because they were so much fun!
Jesus was late for Lazarus. He was intentionally late and not just by a few hours, but two days! They sent a messenger to him about Lazarus’ illness but he didn’t take off the moment that he heard. He waited. Of course, the disciples didn’t think that he should go at all. It was dangerous territory. The Jews were planning on stoning him if he returned to the area in and around Jerusalem and that’s where Lazarus lived, in Bethany, just a short walk from Jerusalem.
So Jesus alienates everyone. He ignores the advice of his disciples who don’t want to go into danger, and yet he waits to go, so that by the time he arrives Lazarus is dead and his sisters are distraught.
“If you were here, my brother would not have died!” Martha and Mary both say this. You can just see them, standing there with their hands on their hips, wild-eyes with exhaustion and anger. Where had Jesus been? Was he their friend or not?
But let’s think of this from Jesus’ perspective. He knew God. Or I should say, he knows God. For Jesus, eternal life is already here. Death is just a transition, a journey to another place, closer to God. Resurrection was within his very self.
So Jesus was not upset about Lazarus’ dying. He knew that Lazarus would be an occasion for a great miracle, to glorify God. And he knew that death was not the enemy.
But when he arrives at the home of his friends, Jesus becomes upset. He sees grief first hand. He sees fear and anger and abandonment in the eyes of some of his dearest friends. He sees the loneliness that comes when someone that you love leaves. He sees the depth of the human ignorance and fear that surrounds death and it is that darkness, it is that pain that makes him cry. He cries for us, for those who are left behind, not for the dead.
Diana and her family used to go skiing. Her husband and boys loved to go over a ski jump. It terrified Diana. She would describe the jump as if it were over a ten foot gorge. But when her boys and her husband arrived safely on the other side, and they dared her to follow, she would go. Racing down the mountain, she would scream all the way. And when she landed safely on the other side, she would hoot and holler.
They found a melanoma in Diana’s eye last year. By the time it was removed, it had spread. She died six months later.
I know that she made it over the gorge of death to be with Christ on the other side. I know that she whooped it up when she saw the beauty and majesty of the face of God. But her husband and her boys wept at her funeral. And I cried too. I cried for them, not for her. For she has Lazarus’ perspective now. Diana is fine. It is the rest of us who remain in pain, hoping and trusting that there is indeed something wonderful on the other side.
My aunt Diana and my uncle Russell were always late. And not just late by a few minutes, late by four hours! We would expect a visit from them and they were once four hours late! So we waited and stewed and waited. And I’ll never forget the two of them barreling out of their station wagon, their two boys piling out behind them, full of smiles and candy and apologies. It was hard to stay mad at them because they were so much fun!
Jesus was late for Lazarus. He was intentionally late and not just by a few hours, but two days! They sent a messenger to him about Lazarus’ illness but he didn’t take off the moment that he heard. He waited. Of course, the disciples didn’t think that he should go at all. It was dangerous territory. The Jews were planning on stoning him if he returned to the area in and around Jerusalem and that’s where Lazarus lived, in Bethany, just a short walk from Jerusalem.
So Jesus alienates everyone. He ignores the advice of his disciples who don’t want to go into danger, and yet he waits to go, so that by the time he arrives Lazarus is dead and his sisters are distraught.
“If you were here, my brother would not have died!” Martha and Mary both say this. You can just see them, standing there with their hands on their hips, wild-eyes with exhaustion and anger. Where had Jesus been? Was he their friend or not?
But let’s think of this from Jesus’ perspective. He knew God. Or I should say, he knows God. For Jesus, eternal life is already here. Death is just a transition, a journey to another place, closer to God. Resurrection was within his very self.
So Jesus was not upset about Lazarus’ dying. He knew that Lazarus would be an occasion for a great miracle, to glorify God. And he knew that death was not the enemy.
But when he arrives at the home of his friends, Jesus becomes upset. He sees grief first hand. He sees fear and anger and abandonment in the eyes of some of his dearest friends. He sees the loneliness that comes when someone that you love leaves. He sees the depth of the human ignorance and fear that surrounds death and it is that darkness, it is that pain that makes him cry. He cries for us, for those who are left behind, not for the dead.
Diana and her family used to go skiing. Her husband and boys loved to go over a ski jump. It terrified Diana. She would describe the jump as if it were over a ten foot gorge. But when her boys and her husband arrived safely on the other side, and they dared her to follow, she would go. Racing down the mountain, she would scream all the way. And when she landed safely on the other side, she would hoot and holler.
They found a melanoma in Diana’s eye last year. By the time it was removed, it had spread. She died six months later.
I know that she made it over the gorge of death to be with Christ on the other side. I know that she whooped it up when she saw the beauty and majesty of the face of God. But her husband and her boys wept at her funeral. And I cried too. I cried for them, not for her. For she has Lazarus’ perspective now. Diana is fine. It is the rest of us who remain in pain, hoping and trusting that there is indeed something wonderful on the other side.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
I AM: The Name of God
Moses was a murderer. He couldn’t control his temper when he saw one of his own people brutally beaten. He went out of his head and started hitting. Next thing he knew, the Egyptian was dead.
Moses was a hit and run. He saw the dead body and he knew that his life would be over if he did not flee. He ran away from everything and everyone he knew. He died to himself that day. And then he tried to start again.
Strange that God would speak to a man who had such a temper, a man who did not have the courage to face the music when he murdered, but who ran away and hid among the sheep of Midian. Strange that God would reveal the Divine Self to someone who messed up so badly. But then again, most of the saints of the Bible were wrecks before God came to them.
Moses turned aside when he saw the burning bush. He stopped what he was doing and he focused on the bush. He was willing to pause, to let the sheep wander off, to put his life on hold to witness this miracle and it was for that reason that God was able to speak to him.
When we do not turn aside from our own business, how can we hope to hear God’s voice?
God told Moses the Divine Name. I AM WHO I AM. It is the most mysterious, incredible fact that God could even get that name into words. The name of the maker of the Universe is something that cannot be contained.
I AM, not I WANT or I DO, but simply I AM.
If you want to experience the presence of God, you must awaken to the PRESENT MOMENT. There is no other place that God exists. When Jesus told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, he meant it. God dwells here and now, in this very moment, not in the past and not in the future.
The only way to find God is to just be.
Moses was a hit and run. He saw the dead body and he knew that his life would be over if he did not flee. He ran away from everything and everyone he knew. He died to himself that day. And then he tried to start again.
Strange that God would speak to a man who had such a temper, a man who did not have the courage to face the music when he murdered, but who ran away and hid among the sheep of Midian. Strange that God would reveal the Divine Self to someone who messed up so badly. But then again, most of the saints of the Bible were wrecks before God came to them.
Moses turned aside when he saw the burning bush. He stopped what he was doing and he focused on the bush. He was willing to pause, to let the sheep wander off, to put his life on hold to witness this miracle and it was for that reason that God was able to speak to him.
When we do not turn aside from our own business, how can we hope to hear God’s voice?
God told Moses the Divine Name. I AM WHO I AM. It is the most mysterious, incredible fact that God could even get that name into words. The name of the maker of the Universe is something that cannot be contained.
I AM, not I WANT or I DO, but simply I AM.
If you want to experience the presence of God, you must awaken to the PRESENT MOMENT. There is no other place that God exists. When Jesus told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, he meant it. God dwells here and now, in this very moment, not in the past and not in the future.
The only way to find God is to just be.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
About Sin
I sat in the office of my spiritual director. It took me years to find her. She is a Quaker with a PhD in spiritual direction and she is good.
I tell her about the darkness that I see, the way the people can’t stand it when you speak of money, the way that they actively undermine efforts to grow the church, the way that they hurt one another. I tell her about the brokenness.
“That is what you are supposed to see now,” she says. “When one begins to really pray, when one takes time alone with God and that time begins to shape your life, one of the first things that happens is that you open your eyes to the brokenness of the world around you. You see that we have fallen from God. And you see how hard it is to avoid sin.”
What in the world is SIN? It’s such an old word that it has lost much of its meaning. It has been stretched to accommodate so many varieties and nuances of our language that it is like an old bag, worn out and having almost no shape to it at all.
With most young people, I call our sin, our “issues.” That makes them perk up and nod. I can see the recognition before me. They know what it means to struggle with your issues, and everybody who is even the tiniest bit introspective knows that they have them. We all fall short of perfection. Simply go on a trip for two weeks with the person who you vow is perfect and they will show you their issues. Believe me, something will come out. It won’t take long.
Not only do we have issues, but the world itself is confused. After all, we all know that things don’t always work the way that they should. Most people, by the time that they reach adulthood, have felt acute pain, either emotionally or physically. Most have realized that the world isn’t fair. Most have found themselves wondering if this is how it is supposed to work. Most have realized that the course of their lives is not entirely for them to determine, and their lives might not look anything like the success stories that they see in the movies. Life is difficult. It doesn’t take much to see that.
Just like the Bible, sin must be constantly translated into the events of modern day. As we have progressed technologically, sin, like a virus, has adapted itself to our new mediums. It has come with us because it is a part of us. It is time for us know rename the word SIN. Maybe we need lots of words. Just because it changes constantly doesn't mean that it has gone away.
I tell her about the darkness that I see, the way the people can’t stand it when you speak of money, the way that they actively undermine efforts to grow the church, the way that they hurt one another. I tell her about the brokenness.
“That is what you are supposed to see now,” she says. “When one begins to really pray, when one takes time alone with God and that time begins to shape your life, one of the first things that happens is that you open your eyes to the brokenness of the world around you. You see that we have fallen from God. And you see how hard it is to avoid sin.”
What in the world is SIN? It’s such an old word that it has lost much of its meaning. It has been stretched to accommodate so many varieties and nuances of our language that it is like an old bag, worn out and having almost no shape to it at all.
With most young people, I call our sin, our “issues.” That makes them perk up and nod. I can see the recognition before me. They know what it means to struggle with your issues, and everybody who is even the tiniest bit introspective knows that they have them. We all fall short of perfection. Simply go on a trip for two weeks with the person who you vow is perfect and they will show you their issues. Believe me, something will come out. It won’t take long.
Not only do we have issues, but the world itself is confused. After all, we all know that things don’t always work the way that they should. Most people, by the time that they reach adulthood, have felt acute pain, either emotionally or physically. Most have realized that the world isn’t fair. Most have found themselves wondering if this is how it is supposed to work. Most have realized that the course of their lives is not entirely for them to determine, and their lives might not look anything like the success stories that they see in the movies. Life is difficult. It doesn’t take much to see that.
Just like the Bible, sin must be constantly translated into the events of modern day. As we have progressed technologically, sin, like a virus, has adapted itself to our new mediums. It has come with us because it is a part of us. It is time for us know rename the word SIN. Maybe we need lots of words. Just because it changes constantly doesn't mean that it has gone away.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Abraham"s Sacrifice
Then God called to Abraham and said,“Abraham, Abraham!” and Abraham said, “Here I am.” And God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall show you.”
Genesis 22:2
What does it mean to make a sacrifice? Abraham, the father of our faith, the first man to conceive of and worship one God, made a sacrifice. He was willing to take his only son, his life’s blood, and kill him upon an altar for God, to demonstrate that he loved God above all else, above even his offspring.
In Abraham’s day, there was no notion of eternal life. One lived on through one’s offspring. To not have children was to cease to exist when you died. And Abraham had waited his whole life to have a child. For decades, he had remained childless, wondering how God could possibly promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. How could God make such a promise when Abraham didn’t even have one child?
Finally, Isaac was born. I cannot imagine the joy that Abraham felt watching his baby boy grow, his own child, his own flesh and blood. Watching him learn to crawl and walk, to make sounds and then to speak. We see our own best selves reflected in our children. Abraham must have seen his whole future in the face of this one small child.
Then God made a terrible request. God told Abraham to take his son and sacrifice him upon an altar, taking his life in obedience to God.
The Book of Genesis does not say what Abraham went through when God made this request. It does not describe his feelings, the anger, the horror. The Scripture just takes us to the next moment, at the base of Mt. Moriah, when Abraham is about to leave his servants behind and make his way to the site of the sacrifice.
Stay here. The boy and I will go over there and worship God and then we will return to you.
Did Abraham know that God would save his son? Did he somehow believe that God would not allow him to follow-through with the sacrifice? Or was he just lying to his servants, so that they were put at ease and did not follow him?
On the top of the mountain, Abraham takes his son and lays him upon the altar that he has constructed. He takes out his knife and prepares to slit his son’s throat. And God intervenes. And God provides a ram for the sacrifice. And God blesses Abraham. Forever, God blesses him.
Today Abraham’s descendants truly are as numerous as the stars in the sky. All Jews, Muslims, and Christians are descendants of Abraham. God fulfilled his promise.
What does it mean to sacrifice today? Does God still ask us to give up those things that we hold dear in order to prove our obedience? Are we ever asked to prove that God is our first priority?
There is a pastor who lives in China. His name is Pastor Xion. He is a devout Christian. He has been asked to renounce his faith in Christ many times. And each time the he refuses, he is imprisoned. He has been tortured, isolated, interrogated and threatened. And yet, he persists in his obedience to his belief, to his faith in Jesus. He wrote to some Christians in the United States and this is what he said.
I consider that these imprisonments have provided me with an opportunity to sacrifice for my faith. I pray for you Christians in America, who live in abundance and who are not given this opportunity. I pray that you will have the opportunity to one day make a sacrifice for Jesus.
Is it possible to make sacrifices in the USA in 2008? I believe that it is. In fact, I believe that we are given the opportunity to make God our first priority every day. When we are behind the steering wheel, when we face difficult decisions at work, we will find that we have a choice. If we are to be faithful, then we must give up our righteous anger, our popularity, our reputation. God gives us these decisions every day. And each time we put ourselves and our comfort above God’s will, we fail to sacrifice. Each time we succeed, we are blessed.
Sometimes following God, making God the bottom line, is painful. But it is the only way to find true peace. Putting yourself or your children first will never bring you what you truly seek. It is only in God that we can find true fulfillment.
Genesis 22:2
What does it mean to make a sacrifice? Abraham, the father of our faith, the first man to conceive of and worship one God, made a sacrifice. He was willing to take his only son, his life’s blood, and kill him upon an altar for God, to demonstrate that he loved God above all else, above even his offspring.
In Abraham’s day, there was no notion of eternal life. One lived on through one’s offspring. To not have children was to cease to exist when you died. And Abraham had waited his whole life to have a child. For decades, he had remained childless, wondering how God could possibly promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. How could God make such a promise when Abraham didn’t even have one child?
Finally, Isaac was born. I cannot imagine the joy that Abraham felt watching his baby boy grow, his own child, his own flesh and blood. Watching him learn to crawl and walk, to make sounds and then to speak. We see our own best selves reflected in our children. Abraham must have seen his whole future in the face of this one small child.
Then God made a terrible request. God told Abraham to take his son and sacrifice him upon an altar, taking his life in obedience to God.
The Book of Genesis does not say what Abraham went through when God made this request. It does not describe his feelings, the anger, the horror. The Scripture just takes us to the next moment, at the base of Mt. Moriah, when Abraham is about to leave his servants behind and make his way to the site of the sacrifice.
Stay here. The boy and I will go over there and worship God and then we will return to you.
Did Abraham know that God would save his son? Did he somehow believe that God would not allow him to follow-through with the sacrifice? Or was he just lying to his servants, so that they were put at ease and did not follow him?
On the top of the mountain, Abraham takes his son and lays him upon the altar that he has constructed. He takes out his knife and prepares to slit his son’s throat. And God intervenes. And God provides a ram for the sacrifice. And God blesses Abraham. Forever, God blesses him.
Today Abraham’s descendants truly are as numerous as the stars in the sky. All Jews, Muslims, and Christians are descendants of Abraham. God fulfilled his promise.
What does it mean to sacrifice today? Does God still ask us to give up those things that we hold dear in order to prove our obedience? Are we ever asked to prove that God is our first priority?
There is a pastor who lives in China. His name is Pastor Xion. He is a devout Christian. He has been asked to renounce his faith in Christ many times. And each time the he refuses, he is imprisoned. He has been tortured, isolated, interrogated and threatened. And yet, he persists in his obedience to his belief, to his faith in Jesus. He wrote to some Christians in the United States and this is what he said.
I consider that these imprisonments have provided me with an opportunity to sacrifice for my faith. I pray for you Christians in America, who live in abundance and who are not given this opportunity. I pray that you will have the opportunity to one day make a sacrifice for Jesus.
Is it possible to make sacrifices in the USA in 2008? I believe that it is. In fact, I believe that we are given the opportunity to make God our first priority every day. When we are behind the steering wheel, when we face difficult decisions at work, we will find that we have a choice. If we are to be faithful, then we must give up our righteous anger, our popularity, our reputation. God gives us these decisions every day. And each time we put ourselves and our comfort above God’s will, we fail to sacrifice. Each time we succeed, we are blessed.
Sometimes following God, making God the bottom line, is painful. But it is the only way to find true peace. Putting yourself or your children first will never bring you what you truly seek. It is only in God that we can find true fulfillment.
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