Ephesians 2:1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah (The Message).
Today, I realized the significance of these words: “You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live.” In our culture, it is very easy to let the world tell us how to live. We wake up to our radio alarm clock and hear the DJ give us the latest spin on crime, gang shootings, political wrangling, the economy, job losses, real estate prices, or homelessness. Not only do we hear the supposedly objective newscasters assessment of our world but then the “morning personalities” give us their own cute chit chat about the news of the day. Somehow we seem to think they might know more about these things than we do.
The newspaper headlines scream out their messages with words like “economic tsunami,” “investor outrage,” “predator,” “terrorist,” and “death squad.” The online dictionary I use to look up a word definition for this blog has a picture of a buxom bikini babe telling us how she lost twenty pounds.
It is easy to succumb to the messages of this world. It is easy to adopt the attitudes of the DJ, or the newspaper, or the talk around the water-cooler at work. It is easy to be pulled into the thinking of the surrounding empire.
But we, who follow Jesus, are part of a different kingdom. We are ambassadors from a foreign land. We are strangers and aliens in this land. We are called upon by the king to give a report and an assessment of this world. Our report must be tinged with sadness for the way these people live in this empire and joy for the standards of the world from which we come. We can rejoice that we have a kingdom that is very different from this world. It is a kingdom where justice, joy, peace, and love are the themes.
Part of Romans 12:1-2 says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (New Living Translation). Empire attitude or Kingdom attitude, the choice is ours.
Romans 12:1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (The Message).
Poets are often better at expressing concepts of the heart. The music group “Casting Crowns” has a song called “Somewhere In The Middle.” Here are the lyrics.
Somewhere between the hot and the cold
Somewhere between the new and the old
Somewhere between who I am and who I used to be
Somewhere in the middle, You’ll find meSomewhere between the wrong and the right
Somewhere between the darkness and the light
Somewhere between who I was and who You’re making me
Somewhere in the middle, You’ll find meJust how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control
Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense
Deep water faith in the shallow end and we are caught in the middle
With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle
Are we caught in the middleSomewhere between my heart and my hands
Somewhere between my faith and my plans
Somewhere between the safety of the boat and the crashing wavesSomewhere between a whisper and a roar
Somewhere between the altar and the door
Somewhere between contented peace and always wanting more
Somewhere in the middle You’ll find meJust how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control
Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense
Deep water faith in the shallow end and we are caught in the middle
With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle
Are we caught in the middleLord, I feel You in this place and I know You’re by my side
Loving me even on these nights when I’m caught in the middle*
Wow, Mark Hall has captured how I feel many days. I am a “fearless warrior in a picket fence” with “deep water faith” that plays around “in the shallow end.” I want to go deeper, I believe I can go deeper, and yet I am caught in the middle. Lord, Jesus, help me to be a true warrior who ventures into the deep end.
*Written by Mark Hall
© 2007 My Refuge Music/Club Zoo Music/SWECS Music (BMI) (admin. by EMI CMG Publishing). As published at http://www.castingcrowns.com/album_aatd.htm
In the spirit of St. Patrick, I offer this
Prayer for Starting the Morning Fire
I will rekindle my fire this morning
In presence of the holy angles [sic] of heaven,
God, kindle Thou my heart within
A flame of love to my neighbour,
To my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all,
To the brave, to the knave, to the thrall . . . .*
Not many of us kindle our own fire in the morning but we might turn up the thermostat. This morning I flipped on the switch that starts my gas fireplace and as I did I prayed this prayer.
It is a prayer I need to pray more often. It is not easy to love my neighbour. It is much easier to love and protect myself. It is easy to find fault with my neighbour. “God, kindle Thou my heart within – A flame of love to my neighbor.”
*From the Carmina Gadelica as quoted in George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West. . . Again (Nashville: Abingdon Press) p. 33.
A few days ago I quoted this prayer from St. Patrick, the first Christian missionary to Ireland.
Prayer for the Faithful
May the Strength of God guide us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us.
– Against the snares of the evil one.May Christ be with us!
May Christ be before us!
May Christ be in us,
Christ be over all!May Thy Grace, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.
For several days I struggled with the sentiments of this prayer. In my mind, the prayer seemed rather selfish: guide us, protect us, direct us, defend us – the faithful. Yesterday, I read some of George G. Hunter III’s amazing book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West. . . Again. I realized that I needed to understand the context from which this prayer was written. Patrick was indeed asking for protection, care, and guidance from God. But he was not asking for protection while he sat in the safety of his home. Patrick was the first missionary to conclude that God loved the ‘barbarians’ and that missions should be launched to show the love of God and the good news of Jesus Christ to the people of this place now known as Ireland. Hunter describes these people as warring tribes and
“emotional people, volatile personalities known for letting the full range of human emotions get out of control. In warfare, ‘all the Celts . . . stripped before battle and rushed their enemy naked, carrying sword and shield but wearing only sandals and torc – a twisted, golden neck ornament . . . [while] howling and, it seemed, possessed by demons!'”
These are the people who had kidnapped Patrick from his family when he was young and with whom he had been a slave for many years. No wonder he prayed for protection.
After his escape from slavery, Patrick was trained as a priest before sensing a call to return to these wild barbarians. Patrick asks the triune God for protection as he willingly walks into certain danger. He travelled with a small band of faithful Christians who worked hard to get to know and to love the people to whom they were called. This is the context of his “Prayer For the Faithful.” May my life be marked by a similar willingness to go where God leads, to take the risks necessary, and to ask for God’s protection in the midst of the mission.
Galatians 6:7-10, New International Version:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Paul, speaking to the Gaulish, ancient Celtic people of Galatia, reminds them not to be deceived. This is a common theme in the book of Galatians for these are a people who still held a memory of being deceived by and oppressed by druids, and now are in danger of being deceived by those who put more emphasis on outward appearances than upon matters of the heart.
I meet good people every day who do good things. I am not always sure of their motives for doing good things. How much of it is about outward appearances? How much of it is from the heart? For most of us our motives are probably a mixed bag of true and good reasons and selfish reasons and so I don’t want to be hard on others or even hard on myself if I find a hint of selfishness in helping someone else.
But these words make logical sense and ring true in my heart. We cannot turn up our nose at God; we can’t fool Him into thinking we are doing good if we are truly just doing things for our own selfish nature. We can justify all we want. But “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). We will reap what we sow. If we sow selfishness, we will reap the fruits of selfishness. If we sow spiritual seed, we will reap spiritual fruit. I don’t have to worry about other’s motives or the seed they sow. God takes care of that. I don’t have to worry if God understands my motives. He does. He knows my motives better than I know them myself. I can rest in Him knowing that He is worthy of my trust and I can get on with doing good to all people. It is the one who sows to please the Spirit that will reap eternal life.
I am memorizing Isaiah 55:1-13 (scroll down to see the entire passage). They are powerful words for our time. We so readily “spend our money on food that does not give us strength.” We rely on our own thoughts, our own ways, our own wisdom. But there is an alternative. There is “food that is good for the soul.” There are “ways that are higher than our ways.”
I will seek the Lord while I can find Him. I will call upon Him while He is near. God’s word always produces fruit and will accomplish all He wants it to do. Where once there were thorns, good trees will grow. Where once there was darkness and evil, joy and peace will burst out.
I don’t want the expensive, sugar-laden, drinks that our world offers. They do not satisfy. I want this never-ending drink that satisfies and is good for the soul. Jesus said, “If you are thirsty, come to me!” and “If you believe in me, come and drink!”(John 7:37-38). That is the kind of refreshment I need.
Isaiah 55:1-13
“Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free! [2] Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen, and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul!
[3] “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake. I am ready to make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the mercies and unfailing love that I promised to David. [4] He displayed my power by being my witness and a leader among the nations. [5] You also will command the nations, and they will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.”
[6] Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. [7] Let the people turn from their wicked deeds. Let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
[8] “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. [9] For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
[10] “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. [11] It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. [12] You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! [13] Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up. This miracle will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; it will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.
Lots of people are talking about these theses again. They are worth another look. MP3s of the original lecture are available at http://soupiset.typepad.com/soupablog/Brueggemann_19_Theses.html
1. Everybody lives by a script. The script may be implicit or explicit. It may be recognized or unrecognized, but everybody has a script.
2. We get scripted. All of us get scripted through the process of nurture and formation and socialization, and it happens to us without our knowing it.
3. The dominant scripting in our society is a script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism that socializes us all, liberal and conservative.
4. That script (technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism) enacted through advertising and propaganda and ideology, especially on the liturgies of television, promises to make us safe and to make us happy.
5. That script has failed. That script of military consumerism cannot make us safe and it cannot make us happy. We may be the unhappiest society in the world.
6. Health for our society depends upon disengagement from and relinquishment of that script of military consumerism. This is a disengagement and relinquishment that we mostly resist and about which we are profoundly ambiguous.
7. It is the task of ministry to de-script that script among us. That is, to enable persons to relinquish a world that no longer exists and indeed never did exist.
8. The task of descripting, relinquishment and disengagement is accomplished by a steady, patient, intentional articulation of an alternative script that we say can make us happy and make us safe.
9. The alternative script is rooted in the Bible and is enacted through the tradition of the Church. It is an offer of a counter-narrative, counter to the script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism.
10. That alternative script has as its most distinctive feature, its key character – the God of the Bible whom we name as Father, Son, and Spirit.
11. That script is not monolithic, one dimensional or seamless. It is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent. Partly it is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because it has been crafted over time by many committees. But it is also ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because the key character is illusive and irascible in freedom and in sovereignty and in hiddenness, and, I’m embarrassed to say, in violence – [a] huge problem for us.
12. The ragged, disjunctive, and incoherent quality of the counter-script to which we testify cannot be smoothed or made seamless. [I think the writer of Psalm 119 would probably like to try, to make it seamless]. Because when we do that the script gets flattened and domesticated. [This is my polemic against systematic theology]. The script gets flattened and domesticated and it becomes a weak echo of the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism. Whereas the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism is all about certitude, privilege, and entitlement this counter-script is not about certitude, privilege, and entitlement. Thus care must betaken to let this script be what it is, which entails letting God be God’s irascible self.
13. The ragged, disjunctive character of the counter-script to which we testify invites its adherents to quarrel among themselves – liberals and conservatives – in ways that detract from the main claims of the script and so too debilitate the focus of the script.
14. The entry point into the counter-script is baptism. Whereby we say in the old liturgies, “do you renounce the dominant script?”
15. The nurture, formation, and socialization into the counter-script with this illusive, irascible character is the work of ministry. We do that work of nurture, formation, and socialization by the practices of preaching, liturgy, education, social action, spirituality, and neighboring of all kinds.
16. Most of us are ambiguous about the script; those with whom we minister and I dare say, those of us who minister. Most of us are not at the deepest places wanting to choose between the dominant script and the counter-script. Most of us in the deep places are vacillating and mumbling in ambivalence.
17. This ambivalence between scripts is precisely the primary venue for the Spirit. So that ministry is to name and enhance the ambivalence that liberals and conservatives have in common that puts people in crisis and consequently that invokes resistance and hostility.
18. Ministry is to manage that ambivalence that is crucially present among liberals and conservatives in generative faithful ways in order to permit relinquishment of [the] old script and embrace of the new script.
19. The work of ministry is crucial and pivotal and indispensable in our society precisely because there is no one [see if that’s an overstatement]; there is no one except the church and the synagogue to name and evoke the ambivalence and to manage a way through it. I think often; I see the mundane day-to-day stuff ministers have to do and I think, my God, what would happen if you took all the ministers out. The role of ministry then is as urgent as it is wondrous and difficult.
Prayer for the Faithful
May the Strength of God guide us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us.
– Against the snares of the evil one.
May Christ be with us!
May Christ be before us!
May Christ be in us,
Christ be over all!
May Thy Grace, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.
John 2:1-11.
According to the gospel of John the first miracle of Jesus was to change water into wine. I have often wondered why this would be the first miracle Jesus would choose to perform. Why would he not heal someone or raise someone from the dead? Wouldn’t calming a storm be a more fitting first miracle? Verse 11 tells us that the result of this miracle was that Jesus revealed His glory and His disciples believed in Him. Wouldn’t a healing have been a better foundation for faith? Why did Jesus choose to turn water into wine for a crowd at a wedding who had already drunk enough wine to not notice the quality of the wine they were served (verse 10)?
The hosts had run out of wine. This was a serious breach of hospitality in middle-eastern culture and Jesus’ mother was concerned for the wedding party. This would not look good for them and might have had longer-term relational impacts in the community. Despite Jesus’ initial words (verse 4), He also shares His mother’s concern and decides to do something about it. It may not yet have been the precise time for God in the flesh to reveal His glory in a miracle but He shows compassion for this human situation. So He brings out a 750 ml bottle of table wine and adds it to the banquet table. No, He decides to supply the party with at least 450 litres of wine (the equivalent of 600 bottles of wine). And it is good wine; the best wine that had been served that day and maybe the best wine that has ever been consumed.
Jesus uses the six stone water-pots which were normally used for the Jewish custom of purification (verse 6). In contrast to their usual solemn and legalistic use, Jesus uses them to make wine, which as Psalm 104:15 says “makes man’s heart glad.” He blesses a wedding with a gift of joy and ushers in a new joyful Kingdom of God on earth. Wine is freely offered in an abundant supply just as His own blood will one day, when His time has come, be poured out for all.*
Jesus looks deeper than the immediate needs of humans and offers abundance for our true needs. I know that I can joyfully trust Him to supply my true needs.
*Some thoughts in this paragraph have been gleaned from RVG Tasker in the Tyndale Commentary on The Gospel According to St. John. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1977.
Sometimes I wish that I could see a miracle that would once and for all show me that God is truly involved with our day-to-day lives. If I could have just seen Jesus walk on water or feed 5000, if I could see an undeniable miracle of God today, then I know I would be really dedicated to Him.
Then I read about a widow in I Kings 17. God through Elijah, saves her life and the life of her son by providing them with food for a significant period of time. Yet, it is not until Elijah brings her son back to life that she says, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.” And what about those who saw Jesus walk on water and raise Lazarus from the dead? Did they fair any better? Peter still denied Jesus and all the others ran away. They still failed to see that He was God in the flesh.
It seems that seeing miracles does not ensure that we will follow or even believe. I guess this is what Jesus meant when He said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”.