The Day of the LORD

Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

Alas for that day!

For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

(Joel 1:13-15)

A persistent theme of the Old Testament Prophets is “The Day of the LORD” – the moment in history when God shows up in person and makes everything right. God’s people assumed they’d be the primary beneficiaries of God’s restorative action. In the course of making the world right, God would do away with the evildoers and restore the fortunes of his chosen people. The words of the prophets disabuse God’s people of any such illusion. Amos writes, “Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD. Why do you long for the Day of the LORD – that day is darkness, not light!” The prophets confront their people with the fundamental error we all make: assuming that what’s wrong with the world is all those other people. Assuming that God’s on our side. Assuming that justice should always flow our way. The prophets warn God’s people that they’re on the wrong side of justice.

When God talks about justice, he’s not talking primarily about crime and punishment. He’s talking about making life right. And that’s where everyone’s culpable. Everyone holds a narrow view of justice – one that serves one set of interests while ignoring many others. The prophets confront God’s people with perpetuating economic, political and religious policies that protect a privileged majority and persistently push others to the margins. All the while priding themselves in their moral purity and self-sufficiency.

Through his prophets God tells his people, “You may be comfortable. But I will not rest as long as there single parents and children going to bed hungry; as long as there are displaced people who are homeless and unemployed; as long as there are people who have to resort to crime because you’ve given them no dignified way to support themselves.” God tells his people, “Don’t come to me with token words of worship or pleas for assistance if there are people in your world whose voices you’ve silenced or cries you’ve ignored.” God’s justice is sweeping and world-renewing. Justice is bad news for the beneficiaries of injustice.

But it’s good news for those who have suffered injustice; who have protested injustice; who have set aside their privilege and taken their place alongside those who mourn injustice.

We can split hairs about what’s injustice and what isn’t. About what destructive attitudes and policies are justified and which are not. Our rhetoric may protect us now. But it will not stand up in the cosmic court of Almighty God. He is coming to make it right once and for all.

There’s one way to take the terror out of the Day of the Lord. It’s to choose justice now. To leverage your power and privilege on behalf of someone who has none. To call injustice injustice. And to abandon your way for God’s way. A way that affirms the dignity and humanity of every person; a way that promises the means of life to everyone, and fights to protect them; a way that places everyone on equal footing in a place of equal importance in the economy of God’s love and the new order of God’s Kingdom. If that sounds bad to you, you may need to heed the prophets’ warning about the Day of the LORD. But if it sounds right – like the way it’s supposed to be – then take heart. The Lord has come. He is even now redeeming our seemingly irredeemable world and reconciling our seemingly irreconcilable differences. Justice will come; justice and mercy will consummate their long-distance relationship; the wrong we so desperately want to be made right will be made right. Don’t give up. The Lord will have his day.

Lord, Lord

Passage: Matthew 7:15-23

In a memorable sequence of the final season of Six Feet Under, character David Fisher picks up a charming young hitchhiker. It doesn’t take long for David to learn why “Don’t pick up the hitchhiker” is such a tried-and-true TV trope. The young man pulls a gun; gets David to drive him all over town; robs him and leaves him alone and terrorized in an alley. David spends weeks dealing with post-traumatic stress. Then, miraculously, his abductor is arrested for another crime. David has the opportunity to confront him. David sits across the table from his shackled tormentor. And the young man says, “David, I’m so glad you came to visit me. Did you miss me?”

“Miss you?”

“Well, yeah. Aren’t we friends? Don’t you remember what a good time we had?”

“Good time? You threatened to kill me!”

“Oh, I was just having fun.”

“I’m leaving.”

“Well, didn’t you at least bring me something?”

The young hitchhiker is so pathologically self-centered that he has no understanding or regard for his victim’s feelings. And no real recognition of the real person sitting across from him.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that at the end of time people will come to him claiming to have a relationship with him. When in reality no such relationship existed. They’ll say, “Lord – my lord; my buddy – didn’t we have good times together? Look – I performed miracles in your name. I cast out demons!” Jesus will say, “Get away from me - I never knew you!”

So what does it mean to know Jesus? Isn’t claiming him as Savior enough? Isn’t declaring him your official religion enough? Isn’t it enough to go to church and say your prayers and read the Bible? Apparently not.

To know Jesus is to embrace him for all he is. Jesus is not just the embodiment of God’s love. Jesus is not just the means of God’s saving grace. Jesus is also the human expression of the full extent of God’s power and majesty. To know Jesus is to come face to face with almighty God. The place from which to start responding to Jesus is on your knees.

To have a relationship with Jesus is to place him at the center of your life. To set aside every other value and priority in favor of him. To set aside even your self. You can do important and even sensational things in the name of Christ or for the cause of Christianity. All while serving yourself – your need for recognition and praise; your need for significance and status. If you are at the center of your life, you can’t possibly know Jesus. Because to know him is make him your everything.

According to Jesus, the true test of whether you know him is obedience. To submit every part of your life to his scrutiny and his will. Jesus says,

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

But when we offer Jesus our lives, he gives us his. A life of abundance and adventure and true peace now. And a life that cannot be taken away, even by death. Call Jesus Lord. And let him be Lord – Lord of your world, and Lord of your life. 

Loving Enemies

Passage: Matthew 5:43-48; Philippians 1:12-14

Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount summarizes Jesus’ most well-known and least-loved teachings. I say least-loved because the stuff Jesus tells us to do feels almost impossible. Most difficult is what Jesus tells us to do with enemies. Love ‘em. Pray for them. Seek what’s best for them and appeal to God on their behalf. Enemies are by definition people whose best interests we don’t have at heart. People whom we want God to give exactly what they deserve.

In Philippians 1, the Apostle Paul gives us a brief glimpse of Jesus’ new, love ethic in action. He writes this from a prison cell:

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

Paul’s hope, among other things, is that even those who imprison him will come to know Jesus as Savior. Paul sees the agents of his suffering and oppression – his enemies – through a lens not of anger and hatred, but mercy and grace. How is this possible?

Because Paul is well aware that this is the way his enemy treated him. Paul began his life as Saul of Tarsus – hater of Jesus and persecutor of the church. It was when Paul was in the process of hunting down Christians that Christ came to him in person and offered him redemption. Paul articulates it this way in 1 Timothy 1:

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

Paul prays that his enemies will experience the same mercy and salvation he experienced at the hands of Jesus. Although we often think differently, we were to Jesus what Saul of Tarsus was to Jesus: natural enemies. We were to Jesus what our enemies are to us. Jesus refused to give us what we deserve. So doing Jesus ushers us in to a new reality. One in which our greatest hope is to see our enemies redeemed by the grace and love that redeemed us. One in which God’s goal for us is the fulfillment of humanity’s oldest dream: to be reconciled to God, and to one another.

The Trouble With Shepherds

Passage: Ezekiel 34:1-16; John 10:11-18

Throughout Scripture God uses the term “sheep” to describe his people. If you know anything about sheep you recognize that this isn’t a compliment. Sheep are stupid, nearly defenseless creatures that, left to their own devices, would die horrible premature deaths. Sheep need to be shepherded – they need to be guided, protected, nurtured and corrected by someone whose perspective and insight far surpasses their own. Although sheep often make life difficult for those entrusted with their care, they will submit to the commanding presence of a shepherd.

However this vulnerability makes sheep highly susceptible to abuse. Sheep are completely at the mercy of their shepherds. If a shepherd is neglectful, sheep wander into crevasses and swamps, fall prey to predators, or exhaust their grazing land and go hungry. If a shepherd is abusive, sheep become an outlet for his anger or even his next meal. An inadequate shepherd treats the sheep as though they exist to meet his needs.

For much of their history, God’s people live under the watch of “shepherds” – prophets, priests and kings who represent God’s authority and provide much-needed direction and protection. But not all these shepherds serve their God-given role and a God-honoring way. Like sheep, God’s people are highly susceptible to abuse and neglect. God’s shepherds, as often as not, use God’s people to meet their own needs. The people’s response is always to look for a better shepherd – a more honest prophet; a more selfless priest; a more honorable king. In the end each proves to be as fallible as the last. Through his prophet Ezekiel, God condemns the bad shepherds of Israel, and confronts his people’s naïve willingness to simply give themselves to anyone in a fancy suit who tells them what they want to hear.

How is it that God’s people haven’t changed all that much? We continue to fall for preachers and leaders who shine up nicely and talk a good game. We buy into celebrity preachers and TV personalities who tell us the version of God’s Word that best fits our agendas. And then we recoil in shock and horror when they take the money and run, take up with the church secretary, or otherwise demonstrate that in the end, we were serving them instead of the other way around. They seemed so nice; they sounded so convincing; how could I have so badly misjudged them?

Through Ezekiel God promises a solution. He says,

I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

God tells his people, “You will no longer, haphazardly, bounce from one bad shepherd to the next. I will shepherd you myself.” But how?

In his Gospel, John introduces a God who “takes on flesh and makes his dwelling among us.” Jesus – God in person – recalls Ezekiel’s promise, saying,

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

Jesus invites us to familiarize ourselves with his voice. We benefit from the guidance of brothers and sisters gifted with wisdom and knowledge of God’s word. But we are all fellow sheep. Our only shepherd is the only good shepherd – the one who lays down his life for us. Arm yourself against self-professed shepherds who will use you for their own ends – in the form of book proceeds, donation checks, or “likes” on social media. Get to know the voice of the Good Shepherd, who gives himself unreservedly for you. 

For the Sake of My Name

Passage: Ezekiel 20:1-20

The prophet Ezekiel has a job no one wants. It’s his job to explain to his people – the people of God – exactly why their life has unraveled. The cause, it turns out, is their serial unfaithfulness to God himself. Through Ezekiel, God reminds his people that he’s given them one second chance after another, after another. They have disregarded his overtures of love and forgiveness; they have disregarded his warnings; and now they will face the consequences of repeatedly choosing their way over God’s.

What most outrages God is the fact that all of his instructions and all of his interventions have been for his people’s benefit. God should have abandoned his people long ago – right after the first time they rejected God in favor of the idols and indulgences of their pagan neighbors. Again and again God has shown them grace, and offered another chance to get it right. Why has God – often labeled a harsh judge – shown so much leniency?

Because as much as God cares about his chosen people, he has a purpose in mind for them that is greater than their comfort and their care. In fact God’s purpose in choosing Israel was to reveal himself, through their life as a nation, to the rest of the world. God refuses to let his people fall at the hands of other nations because those nations must see that, however flawed and weak the Israelites, their God is beyond compare.

God tells Ezekiel:

…the people of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws—by which the person who obeys them will live—and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the wilderness. But for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 

God’s work through the Israelites can only benefit them. Even God’s Law – which seems like an exacting imposition on them – is intended to shape their life for optimal flourishing. But regardless of their rejection of God and his way, God accomplishes his purposes through the Israelites. The Israelites are exiled to Babylon as a consequence for their unfaithfulness. Yet during this time God uses Israelites to reveals himself to the kings of the pagan Empire – through Daniel; Esther; Nehemiah and many others. God does preserve a remnant of his people. And centuries later, true to God’s promise, the Savior of all humanity is born to them.

God perpetually works on behalf of his chosen people. But more importantly, God perpetually works on behalf of all people. So that even when we as God’s people reject God’s overtures of love and his intervention on our behalf, God has his way. He continues to claim us by the blood of Jesus Christ. And he continues to show his grace and glory to an unbelieving world. Make no mistake. Everything God does is, first and foremost, for the sake of his name. When we appeal to God’s grace, we do so with an eye for God’s glory. When we ask God to bless us in specific ways, we remember that God always answers our prayers in a way that points to him. May we who belong to God be, like God, committed first to the glory of his name.  

Why Obey?

In The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard argues that Christianity ceases to have an impact on the world when Christians cease to be obedient to Jesus. Contemporary Christians balk at obedience to Jesus for two major reasons. The first is that Jesus commands us to do things that go against our nature and put us at odds with the world around us. Obeying Jesus is costly and painful. The second is that, having been indoctrinated into the concept of “salvation by grace alone”, we mistakenly believe that Christians have been set free from any behavioral standard. Jesus teaches clearly that reconciliation with God and eternal life come to us through Jesus’ action on our behalf, and can never be secured by our good behavior. And yet Jesus teaches repeatedly that if you have been ushered into his new life, your life will look radically different. Your new life in Christ comes to expression in clearly defined, costly, countercultural action.

The difference lies, however, in our motivation. A person who is simply religious believes that good behavior is the way to secure a good life now, and a decent life after death. In other words, the motivation for religious behavior is self-interest and self-preservation. And the point at which the religious behavior stops serving the cause of self-interest becomes the moment at which it is abandoned.

Listen to what Jesus says about obedience to him:

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”     (John 14:23-24)

What’s our motivation? Love. Because I love Jesus, I will do what he requires, no matter the cost. If you struggle to do what Jesus teaches – or even struggle with the idea of doing what Jesus teaches – you don’t yet know Jesus. You’re still treating Jesus as an object. As a means to an end. But if you know Jesus; if you know his gentleness, his compassion, his grace that come to us through his poured-out life, then you love him. You see his commands as an expression of his perfect love. Not as an imposition on your life; but as the framework, the foundation, the essence of the new life Jesus gives.   

Sin, Death, and Resurrection Life

In The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus introduces a whole new way of life. But the starting point of this new way of life is not the adoption of a new set of rules, morals or guiding principles. The starting point is that Jesus has ushered in a new reality. Jesus’ teaching is punctuated with references to “the Kingdom of God” and “the Kingdom of Heaven”. Both terms refer to the same thing: the intrusion of God’s presence and God’s restorative power into human space. Jesus’ physical presence on earth initiates a process of world transformation whereby the old rules of death and decay have been replaced with renewal, reconciliation, and resurrection. So when Jesus says, “This is how you must live,” he does not mean, “If you do the right things you will bring heaven to earth.”  He means, “Heaven has come. This is what it looks like to live at the intersection of Heaven and earth.”   

Jesus begins to illustrate this new reality when he turns water into wine, heals the sick and disabled, feeds thousands, and walks on water. “See?” he says, “The old rules no longer apply.”  But Jesus’ words don’t fully make sense until his ultimate sign: Jesus goes to the cross. Is buried, having incontrovertibly been killed. And Jesus rises from the dead. All of a sudden the world has a crystal clear image of the new life Jesus has been talking about.  Resurrection life. Life that death cannot touch.

One of the witnesses of the risen Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul, devotes a chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 to talk specifically about the resurrection of Jesus.  He concludes the chapter with these words:

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 5:54-57)

What is the connection between sin, death, the law, and Christ’s victory? It’s this:

The inevitability of death has shaped human life for most of our history. In reaction to death, our every instinct is survival – the preservation of our own flesh.  But almost every action made in response to the fear of death puts us at odds with each other and with God. In other words, actions made primarily for self-preservation are almost always sinful.  You can act out of nothing but self-interest until you are unconcerned for your own life. The only way you can be chronically unconcerned for your own life is if you are convinced that you won’t die. Nothing in this world can convince you won’t die except the introduction of a person whose life is untouched by death.  Enter Jesus.

Paul says it is only the victory of Jesus over death that sets us free to live without self-interest and therefore without sin.  Prior to Jesus’ victory over death, overcoming personal sin was seen as the only way to gain salvation.  But that pursuit was impossible.  God’s law, which once and for all made clear what is and isn’t sin, proved to be too high a standard for any human to meet unassisted.  The law served the cause of sin, that is, to force people to be preoccupied with their own survival and self-interest. 

And yet, through Christ, two things become possible.  The first is a life that isn’t ruled by self-interest and personal survival.  The second is true observance of God’s law, summarized in two simple commands: love God with your whole being; and love other people as yourself. Love is nothing if not the willingness to set aside your needs for the needs of someone else. You and I can love with abandon because someone has already set down his life to secure everything we need for body and soul, in life and in death. This is the power of Jesus’ resurrection, his victory over death.  

Who's the Hero?

Passage: 1 Samuel 17

Last year Malcom Gladwell published the book David and Goliath.  He used the familiar Bible story as the backdrop for his discussion of “Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants”.  Gladwell pitches David as the classic underdog.  And argues that a collision of circumstances – including David’s confidence and Goliath being less formidable than he seemed – led to the shepherd boy’s victory over tremendous adversity.

The problem is that this is not the story the Bible tells.  The stakes in the battle with Goliath are not David’s honor or even the honor of his people.  What’s at stake is the honor and reputation of the one true God.  In fact this is what’s at stake in every chapter of the biblical narrative.  The story of the Bible is God’s story.  The story of the God who created and rules the universe.  Who knows and owns every human life.  And whose goal is both to make himself known to humanity and to restore humanity to right relationship with God and the rest of Creation.

The showdown between the Philistines and the Israelites is a showdown between their gods.  In the ancient world this is always the case.  When the Israelites make the battle about themselves and their objectives, they always lose.  When they enter battle in the name of the LORD – Yahweh, the one true God – it doesn’t matter if they’re armed with sticks and stones.  They win.  They win because they are acting as God’s agents.  They win because they serve God’s objectives: to reveal God’s presence and God’s power to an unbelieving world.

In case we’re tempted to think otherwise, look at what David says as he walks onto the battlefield:

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)

The battle is always the Lord's.  The Lord is always the hero of the story.  If you insist on being the hero of your own story, you will lose – even when you think you’ve won.  If, on the other hand, you let God be the hero, you can’t lose.  Every battle belongs to him. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

Passage: 1 Samuel 8

One of the reasons people of faith obsess about God’s will is that we’re convinced God wants to give us nothing but happy and comfortable lives.  We assume that if we just figure out God’s will, everything will go according to what we consider “good”.  And that when things seem to go badly for us, it must be an indication that we have strayed from God’s will.  A close reading of the biblical narrative reveals that this is simply not the case.  God repeatedly permits or even actively delivers his people into circumstances that are difficult or even disastrous.  Ironically, God also sometimes gives his people exactly what they want as a way of teaching them a lesson. 

Take, for example, the Israelites’ demand for a king.  The life of God’s people has been haphazard and chaotic ever since they settled in the Promised Land.  They assume the chaos is due to an absence of unified government.  The simple solution?  Get a king.  Actually, their problem is something different – something God predicted right before they entered the Promised Land.  Deuteronomy 8 records God’s words:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 

If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

(Deuteronomy 8:10-14; 19-20)

God’s prediction comes true.  As soon as they have tasted the luxury of the Promised Land, God’s people forget God.  They become exactly like every other nation of godless pagans.  And when things unravel for them, they adopt exactly the same strategy as every other godless nation: They have kings?  We need a king, too.  The Israelites go to God’s prophet, Samuel, and demand a king.  Samuel, sensing his own failure as God’s representative, laments the request before God.  God says, “It isn’t you they’ve rejected; today they have rejected me as their king!”  Then God tells Samuel to give the people what they’ve asked for.  Samuel tells them,

“This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 

“He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 

“He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

God will give the Israelites the thing they want.  But in getting in, they will get far more than they want; and will miss what they really need: the presence and provision of almighty God, the one true King.

Like the Israelites, we run the risk of trading in the currency of God’s blessing for the currency of this world; and mistaking the stuff of this world as the stuff of God’s blessing.  The wealth and comfort and security of this world become a curse when we expect it to do what only God can.  To our detriment, God sometimes gives us exactly what we want.  But God in his mercy has also given us what we most need.  The truth is that we need a king, and receive that king in the person of Jesus Christ.  The true king has come to break the power of sin and death and hell and to set us free.  All we have to do is stop looking around for substitute sources of security.  And embrace the King on his terms.  When we do, we discover that the true King came not to take, but to give.  And that belonging to him means getting more than you dreamed possible.  

I Matter...to the Only One Who Matters

Passage: 1 Samuel 2:1-11

The story of Samuel’s birth is one of the most poignant sections of the Old Testament.  Hannah, Samuel’s mother, is one of two women married to Elkanah.  Elkanah’s other wife has born several children.  Hannah is childless.  Although Elkanah clearly loves Hannah more than his other wife, she feels abandoned and insignificant.  In desperation she cries out to the God that has seemed silent and far away:

LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…(1 Samuel 1:11)

God answers Hannah’s prayer.  She gives birth, and spends a blissful year and a half raising her boy from infancy into toddlerhood.  But then it comes time to make good on her vow to God.  She brings tiny Samuel to the temple.  And leaves him.

And the heartache that must consume Hanna is in no way reflected in the song of praise that escapes her lips:

My heart rejoices in the LORD;
    in the Lord my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
    for I delight in your deliverance.

What deliverance; what delight when the child that should have made Hannah’s life complete has been taken from her? 

The deliverance is this: prior to giving birth, Hannah was convinced that she didn’t matter to God.  Her baby is incontrovertible proof that her God is with her; her God hears her prayers; and her God cherishes her.  Nothing – not even her baby – can replace that deepest longing of her heart.  Of every human heart.  So Hannah can do what every parent must eventually do anyway: entrust her child to the care of the Lord. 

In the end, every gift of God that we covet and long for and live for is just a placeholder.  Just a symbol of the thing we need most: the attention, care, and love of God.  The fundamental need with which we were all created is this: to know and be known by God.  To matter to God.  Even when our earthly desires are unmet and our flesh’s appetites are unsatisfied, we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we matter to God.  How?  Because God took on flesh and made his dwelling place among us.  He came to us in the person of Jesus – Yeshua, “the LORD saves”.  Jesus who is also called Christ – the Anointed One. 

Hannah concludes her song of praise with this:

The LORD will give strength to his king
    and exalt the horn of his anointed.

The irony is that in Hannah's lifetime Israel has no king.  1 Samuel follows on the heels of Judges and Ruth, whose steady refrain is, “At that time there was no king in Israel”.  So who is Hannah talking about?  The ultimate king, and deliverer of God’s people, Jesus Christ.  Because he has come, and delivered, we too can sing Hannah’s song of praise – no matter our circumstances.  

God the Leveler

Passage: Jeremiah 39

Jeremiah chronicles the days leading up to the exile of God’s people into Babylon.  Jeremiah the prophet is commissioned by God first to warn his people against continuing to flout his laws and turn their backs on God; second to state plainly the judgment that will befall them for ignoring the warnings.  God tells his people that the instrument of his judgment will be the Babylonian Empire under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar.  In fact, God goes so far as to call Nebuchadnezzar his servant:

 With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please. Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him.  All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him. (Jeremiah 27:5-7)

The day finally comes that Nebuchadnezzar and his forces sack the city of Jerusalem and take its people captive.  And the story of the exile contains a very interesting detail:

But Nebuzaradan the commander of the [Babylonian] guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields. (Jeremiah 39:10)

One of the transgressions God repeatedly holds against his people is their failure to observe his law and take care of the poor; the displaced; the homeless and the marginalized.  When God commands his people to take care of the vulnerable and under-resourced, he adds that if they don’t take care of them, God will. 

And so God does.  God removes from his people the privilege of serving his purposes.  And gives that privilege to their enemies – the pagans whom God’s people have always condemned.  Here in a great reversal, God claims the Babylonian king as his servant, and passes his own people by in order to accomplish his purposes.  God once and for all wrests power and wealth from the hands of the powerful and wealthy.  And ensures that the poor whose cries have been ignored will receive the blessing he promised them, too. 

God offers us the privilege of serving his purposes.  Bringing the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to our neighbors and the nations.  Acting as agents of justice and shalom – leveraging our resources and influence on behalf of those who have none.  But God will not hesitate to bypass us in order to fulfill his purposes.  And God will level out the inequalities that plague humanity – whether we participate or not.  God is in the business of reconciling the world to himself.  And God is in the business of renewing creation.  What a tragedy to pass up the opportunity to join God in this great work.  Be claimed as God’s child through Jesus Christ.  Having been claimed, claim your role as his servant.  Embrace God’s work of leveling and making right.  

Go Buy a Field

Passage: Jeremiah 32

The Book of Jeremiah is full of dire warning and divine condemnation.  Through his beleaguered  prophet, God tells his people repeatedly that their idolatry and infidelity have reached a critical point.  God has insulated them from the consequences of their wild abandon as long as divinely possible; and now they will be abandoned to their inevitable downfall.  God’s people will fall into the hands of his instrument of cosmic judgment: the marauding Babylonians.

And yet, sprinkled throughout this narrative of impending doom are kernels of hope.  Jeremiah, whose prophecy comes to expression both in words and symbolic actions, buys a field.  Why?  Why, after declaring that the Babylonian scythe is poised to raze the Promised Land to stubble does Jeremiah lay claim to prime wasteland? 

Because it won’t always be wasteland.  The God who burns also plants.  The God who lays waste also renews.  Where human eyes see only irreversible devastation, the eyes of the Lord see new life.  The Lord tells his prophet,

Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’  (Jeremiah 32:14-15)

How often do we find ourselves confronted with the devastation of our short-sighted and self-serving behavior?  A failed marriage; a failed business; kids who won’t talk to us; friends who will no longer acknowledge us; a neighborhood blighted by our neglect; a city torn by our prejudice?  We survey the devastation, pull up stakes, and move on.  Because our efforts can only ever land us here – failure; brokenness; wasteland.  Could it be that what landed us here was a failure to trust in God right from the beginning?  And could it be that the God we ignored in the beginning is still right here – inviting us to turn to him; inviting us to trust him; inviting us to follow his way instead of ours?  Stop trusting strategies that have only yielded disappointment.  Start trusting the one true God – the only one who can turn wasteland into fertile ground.  

God's Will and God's Purpose

Passage: Judges 14:1-4; Acts 16:6-10

People of faith devote endless time and energy to what we call “discerning God’s will”.  At best this means seeking to faithfully invest ourselves in God’s Kingdom in the most faithful way possible.  At worst it means trying to get God to show us the quickest and easiest way to get what we want.  It’s easy to place undue emphasis on “discerning God’s will”. 

Because what we discover, as we study the Scriptures systematically, is that God works his will whether we’re on board or not.  When we’re not on board with God’s will, our lives don’t go that well.  And yet even when we faithfully shape our lives according to God’s express will for us, things don’t always go that well for us personally. 

We find this illustrated in the lives of two characters from the Bible. The first is Samson, whom God calls and equips to rescue his people from their enemies.  In spite of his miraculous calling and extraordinary strength, Samson doesn’t live a particularly godly life.  Ironically, God uses Samson’s flaws and fleshly appetites to accomplish God’s will.  For example, Samson finds a prospective mate among the pagan Philistines – a direct violation of God’s stated law.  He insists, even though his parents object.  Listen to what the narrator says:

His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

This violation of God’s law actually serves God’s purpose.  However, in the process, Samson’s own life gets pretty messed up, and he suffers tremendous heartache.  Samson’s story ends when he does the one thing God forbade him to do; his great strength is taken away; and he falls into enemy hands.  However, even here, in captivity, Samson strikes a greater blow against the enemies of God’s people than he did when he was free.  God uses Samson’s disobedience for his purposes.  But the collateral damage is Samson’s own life. 

Then we turn to Paul.  He starts his life as Saul, a man utterly opposed to Jesus Christ.  When Jesus comes to Saul and changes his heart, he states, “Saul is my chosen instrument; he will see how much he will suffer on my behalf.”  Paul devotes his life to serving God’s purposes in Jesus.  Paul constantly follows the impulses of God’s Holy Spirit.  This translates into countless adventures; countless changes of plan; and countless hardships.  If Paul were to treat his struggles as evidence that he had strayed from God’s will, he would have given up long before God’s purposes were complete in him.  Ironically, Paul’s life ends in a way similar to that of Samson.  He dies at the hands of the enemies of God’s people. 

So what’s the difference?  Why make an effort to live according to God’s stated will and God’s rules at all?  After all, God will have his way whether we obey or not.

The difference is the state of our hearts.  Samson ends his life in despair.  He kills himself while taking thousands of God’s enemies with him.  But he dies with a deeply held sense of failure and alienation from God.  Paul on the other hand dies with praise on his lips, knowing that no matter what, he is in perfect union with Jesus, his Savior and his God.  Listen to what he writes from a prison cell:

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1:18-23)

God will have his way with you.  And your life will serve his purposes, whether you shape your life according to God’s rules and principles or not.  You life may seem to go smoothly at times or not so smoothly – regardless of how faithfully you follow God’s way.  Your circumstances are not a reliable indication of whether or not you are following God's will.  What we really hope for is the assurance that God is with you; you are on God’s side; and God is using all the circumstances of your life for his good purposes.  How do you find that assurance?  By shaping your life around God's explicit will, clearly expressed in his written word, the Bible.  

Planted in the Stream

Passage: Jeremiah 17:5-7

Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
    and makes flesh his strength,
    whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
    and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

One of the themes repeated throughout the New Testament is new life through Jesus Christ.  Paul writes about this in detail in Romans 6-8, where he contrasts in vivid terms what he calls “life in the flesh” versus “life in the Spirit”.  According to Jesus himself, and the authors of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just awaken our hearts to faith in Jesus.  He actually inhabits our hearts, transforms us from the inside out, and becomes an alternative life source.  Our biological life is sustained imperfectly and finitely by food, water, and other physical necessities.  Eventually our biological life runs its course and we die.  Jesus offers a new source of life that truly satisfies and never runs out.  He uses metaphors like “living water” (John 4) and being grafted in to the “true vine” (John 15) to describe our new, inextinguishable life in him. 

When we systematically study the Old Testament, we discover that this theme isn’t unique to the New Testament.  Throughout the Scriptures God repeats this message: True life is found in me; life without me is death.  Through Jeremiah God reiterates the teaching of Psalm 1: that people rooted in God flourish, grow, and never perish.  The illustration in both passages is that of a tree planted next to a stream.  In the arid world of the Middle East, there are forms of vegetation that spring up quickly when moisture presents itself in the form of precipitation.  These forms of vegetation flourish – as long as it keeps raining.  As soon as the rain stops, they dry up and blow away as quickly as they appeared.  A tree planted by a stream or river derives its life-sustaining moisture from a constant source.  Its life is therefore not dependent on rain, which comes and goes. 

According to this persistent, biblical metaphor, our natural tendency is to seek sustenance from inconstant sources of life: money; professional achievement; the affirmation of employers, clients, fans, and facebook friends; sex and romance.  We strive to sustain our lives by our own hard work, popularity, or moral righteousness.  Jeremiah calls this “trusting in man and making your flesh your strength.”  God invites us to make him our strength, and to be sustained not by our flesh, but by his Holy Spirit.  We do this by entrusting the course of our lives to God’s guidance; submitting to the teaching and principles of Jesus Christ regardless of the cost; and resorting to prayer rather than relentless strategizing when we are stressed or troubled.  God tells us repeatedly: Don’t depend on the rain of fleeting resources and changing circumstances for your sustenance.  Instead be rooted in the limitless flow of my Spirit, and find your security and strength in me. I will never let you down.  

God's Inheritance

Passage: Psalm 50; Ephesians 1

What do you get the person who has everything?  If you have a wealthy friend or family member, this is a dilemma you face every Christmas and birthday.  If that wealthy friend or family member is insecure and capricious, the dilemma becomes a game.  The gift becomes an emblem of your love and loyalty, and every special event becomes a pass/fail proposition. 

Throughout history people have thought of the gods as insecure and capricious.  Relating to the divine has been a pass/fail proposition, as human beings have tried to figure out what offering or sacrifice might win the favor of those who have everything.  The one true God constantly encounters people who are enslaved to this way of thinking.  People who believe that God is insecure and capricious, and demands sacrifice and offering as a way of appeasing his wrath; boosting his ego; earning his love.  What the one true God communicates again and again is that he doesn’t need anything from us.  In Psalm 50 God tells his people,

I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

We can’t offer God anything that isn’t already his. 

So what does God want?

In Ephesians 1, Paul refers repeatedly to “God’s inheritance.”  Paul is clearly talking about the gifts and blessings God offers us.  Through Jesus Christ, Paul says, God has claimed us as children and full heirs of the riches of heaven.  The inheritance comes in installments.  We get to enjoy some of it now, via the Holy Spirit, who assures us of God’s love and begins to make us new.  We’ll experience it fully when Jesus comes back.  God’s inheritance is God’s gift to us.

And yet God’s inheritance is also something God receives.  Paradoxically it’s an inheritance that flows two ways.  But what could God possibly be waiting to receive?  What do you give the one who has everything?  The one thing no one else can give.  Yourself.  Mother’s Day is coming up. This week countless kids will go shopping with their parents’ cash or credit cards.  They’ll give their moms gifts their moms have essentially paid for themselves.  And yet countless moms will be deeply moved and gratified by these gifts.  Why?  Because the gifts are symbolic of what the parent wants most: the love of their child.  Symbolic of the reality that this child, who has occupied the deepest part of your heart since their birth, has a place in their heart for you, too. 

God owns everything.  He owns you.  He owns the money you donate and the time you volunteer.  God doesn’t need that stuff.  But God can’t take your love.  He can’t own it unless you give it to him.  God has given himself in love to all humanity.  What God awaits is the moment we reciprocate.  Do not doubt that God loves you.  He knew you before you were born and reached out to you in love even then.  He poured out his life for you; and continues to pour his life into you.  The question is whether you will love God back.  The love God has shown you until now is a deposit on an incomparable inheritance.  Your love is the inheritance God is waiting for.  

Fear and Salvation

Passage: Numbers 13

The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

This is how Numbers 13 begins.  After rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, God has led them on a circuitous journey through a barren wilderness.  The only thing keeping them going is that they’re on their way home.  Their journey will end in the lush and fertile land where they can start living the dream.  In Numbers 13 the Israelites have reached the border of their promised paradise.  God tells Moses to organize a reconnaissance mission – “Send some men to explore the land I’m giving the Israelites.”

Moses does so.  We’re given a list of names.  You may have skimmed over the list – after all, the only way you get through Numbers is skimming over the seemingly endless lists of items and names.  It’s as though the author knew you were going to do this.  Because he adds, parenthetically, at the end of the list, “(Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)”

Why is this important?  First, because this Hoshea is the Joshua who becomes Moses’ successor.  The leader who ultimately brings the Israelites into the Promised Land. 

But second, because Joshua’s names are a sermon in themselves.  His given name – Hoshea – means “salvation”, or “he saves”.  This is the name of one of Israel’s great prophets who,  more than 500 years after the Exodus, declares that his fallen people’s only hope is the love of a God who has never given up on them.  Joshua means, “The Lord saves”; as God’s appointed leader Joshua becomes an emblem of the God who relentlessly delivers exactly what he has promised: freedom from slavery; a life of abundance; rescue from death itself. 

Joshua is only one of two spies who, when the rest of the spies and the entirety of Israel give up for fear of “giants in the land”, insists, “The LORD is with us.  Do not be afraid!”  Later, God repeats this word when he commissions Joshua as leader:

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

The Israelites despair because they do exactly what you and I do every time we encounter trouble.  They look at their circumstances.  They look at their resources.  And they recognize – accurately – that they don’t have what it takes to overcome.  Why does God rename Joshua?  Because it’s not Joshua who saves.  It’s not the people who save themselves.  It’s not you and I who somehow find in ourselves the strength to overcome.  It’s the Lord who saves.

The names Hoshea and Joshua reverberate throughout the story of God’s people.  And finally we hear echoes of the same name as the story of the Israelites reaches its fulfillment.  Through the prophet Hosea God says,

How can I give you up…How can I hand you over, Israel? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man-- the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:9-10)

God comes to his people not in a firestorm of judgment, but in person.  In a person known as Yeshua – “The LORD saves”.  Jesus, who bears the brunt of God’s wrath so that all we experience is God’s love.  Jesus, who is “God with us” – the guarantee of God’s eternal presence and acceptance.  Jesus, the embodiment of God’s constant word to his people: Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.  Jesus, who saves us from all that we fear.   

Hungry and Full of Praise

Passage: Proverbs 27:7,20-21

One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.

Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

I have a friend who is a professor of literature.  He recently mentioned he was preparing a lecture series comparing the characters of Job and King Lear.  Never needing to be asked for my opinion, I enthused about the Book of Job.  Many Bible-believers are simply confounded by Job; non-religious people – even those who appreciate the book’s artistic merits – are offended by the God it presents.  I argue that in fact Job is the key to understanding not only the Bible, but the Christian faith.

Here’s why: the Book of Job is a response to the charge that God is not intrinsically worthy of praise.  The book opens with a confrontation between God and Satan (or ha’satan, “the accuser”) in which Satan alleges that the only reason for Job’s devout worship is the nice things God has given him.  “Take away all his stuff,” says Satan, “and Job will curse you to your face.”  The wager between God and Satan isn’t a wager about Job’s righteousness.  It’s about God’s praiseworthiness.  What the book maintains is that God deserves human praise regardless of what’s going on in human life.  Job’s righteousness is his simple insistence: no matter the evidence in my own life, God is God; and God is good. 

The Book of Job is classified, along with Ecclesiastes, Psalms and Proverbs, as the “Wisdom Literature” of the Bible.  Proverbs, which seems practical rather than theological, nonetheless upholds the lesson at the heart of Job – namely, that the good life revolves around God rather than goods.  The verses above highlight the fact that a life built on goods – possessions, property and pleasure – is not only unsustainable; it’s ultimately unsatisfying.  The three verses seem at first only loosely related.  In fact they build on one another.  The first verse establishes a truth that is plainly visible in our experience: those who have a chronic overabundance of anything – food, sex, stuff – experience decreasing enjoyment of anything.  This leads in turn to the obsessive pursuit and acquisition of more, the subject of the second verse, which also identifies insatiability as a natural tendency of fallen humanity.  

But what of the third verse?  The true test of a person is the consistency and quality of their praise.  What happens to your capacity to praise God when you have been deprived of something you want or need?  Do you praise God only when you have more than enough?  Or can you, like Job, declare at any time, “God is God, and God is good?”  True faith looks for the gift and grace of God in any circumstance.  And true faith maintains that God and God’s actions are always praiseworthy.  

Noah, and Why We Don't Get our Theology from Popular Culture

I’m looking at a pamphlet entitled “Worldly Amusements in the Light of the Scripture: Theatre Going, Dancing, Card Playing, Etc.”  It was published for the annual Synod of my denomination (the Christian Reformed Church in North America) in 1928, and presents a case against Christians engaging in any kind of popular culture or entertainment.  Anticipating a possible “baby-with-the-bathwater” rebuttal, the authors argue the following regarding plays and movies:

“…some of the so-called good plays are more dangerous than the bad, because of the false conceptions of religion and morality which they set forth.  [Also], by attending the theater occasionally one incurs the risk of developing a taste for theater-going.  The whetted appetite will cry for More! More!  Who knows how many inveterate theater-goers have started in their sinful course by viewing the occasional good play!  We believe that the safest course is the way of total abstinence.” 

This was the default position regarding film and television in many corners of the CRCNA as late as the 1970s.  What turned the tide for many households was television broadcasts of Sunday afternoon football and the release of films that were explicitly biblical or evangelistic.  Since then the CRCNA has adopted a far more affirmative stance regarding Christian engagement in culture and the arts, recognizing the redemptive potential in them along with many other human endeavors and disciplines. 

That said, there continues to be healthy debate about how cautious, discerning, and discriminating Christians should be in both their consumption of popular culture and their production thereof.  One of the captions in the aforementioned pamphlet provides a guiding principle we are well-advised to revisit: “Even when our amusements are not spiritually and morally harmful, they should not be allowed to occupy more than a secondary, subordinate place in our life.”  We go the way of our culture when the primary informative voice in our lives is popular culture; when news media, television and film comprise more of our diet than the Bible and the faith formation of the church.  This should go without saying.  But it is neither a foregone conclusion nor guiding principal for many self-professed Christians. 

And it becomes problematic when we encounter any cultural form that makes a statement about God.  There’s an easy way to evaluate the god-statements of popular authors and filmmakers.  You compare them with what God says about himself in the Bible.  You can’t do that if you aren’t familiar with the Bible – not a short list of your favorite verses, but the whole thing, the entire chronicle of God’s redemptive action throughout human history.  It has always been human instinct to create our own versions of God.  Because of this, we either avoid the Bible entirely, or read it very selectively.  We want to cut and paste the parts that present God in our image.  To some extent we all do this – even the most orthodox and well-read preachers and theologians.  No one person’s interpretation of God and God’s word is wholly reliable.  Which is why it is dangerous to base one’s theology solely on the books of Rob Bell, CS Lewis, Joel Osteen or NT Wright; or the TV shows of Mark Burnett; or the films of Darren Aronofsky.  None is God’s word; and each is processed through the fallible filter of one person’s experience. 

So when am I going to get to Noah?  I’m not.  At least not personally.  A lot of Christians have condemned the movie (some without having seen it).  Some have seen fit to defend it.  Of all the reviews I've read, the following, in three parts, has been the most helpful.  The author is Seventh-Day Adventist, so his theology on certain issues diverges from mine; however, his evaluation of the film is thorough.  In addition, his conclusions about the film's theology, and what it says about the church's responsibility in shaping our culture's understanding about God, is invaluable.  If you've seen the movie or plan to do so, take the time to read all three parts of this review.  

Noah,Part 1

Noah,Part 2

Noah,Part 3