Amazing Grace!

After the first few steps in the Christian life, we realize that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God--C.S. Lewis:  Mere Christianity

Even though I had attended church all my life and even tried to pray most of my life, there came a time when I desperately needed peace--or at least relief from constant anxiety.  I did not want to abandon my church; I still wanted to pray, but I knew I needed something more. 

I spent a few years attempting what seemed to work for others, at least in the 70's:  I tried Transcendental Meditation, Yoga (not the physical, only the mental/spiritual practice of sitting still and trying to find calm within), and Unitarianism (in the sense of reading the "inspirational" literature and trying to apply it.  

Here's what I discovered: all of these things brought a moment of peace and calm for the moment I was "doing it."  With three small children, those moments were few and far between.  I was frustrated because I could not find the time to program my soul for peace--even going to the bathroom and shutting the door was not permitted.  There was no "processing" time to re-gain my sanity; there was little time for sleep, even. 

Then, by a miracle of God's love, I needed an operation and landed in the hospital, worried about everything.  My roommate, a young girl in her early twenties, prayed for me, and the Spirit of God flowed through my body and mind with a peace I had never before experienced.  I did not need to "do" it; I did not need to think beautiful thoughts or still my body----it was all being done for me and in me by a power and a strength I had never before known.  Peace, Joy, Trust, Laughter, Goodness---everything I had been searching for began to flow through me in a tangible way. 

I was scared I would lose this gift in the midst of my busy life when I returned home, when I could no longer sit and pray---as if my sitting and praying had had this effect previously!  Since my doctor had once prayed for me in his office prior to surgery, I told him my fears.  Laughing, he told me that 14 years before, he had had the same experience, and that it just kept getting better.  "You don't have the Holy Spirit," he explained. "He has you---and He's not letting go; even if you walk away from Him, He will follow you around the corner, bringing you back." 

Reassured, I relaxed and let God take the lead. 

The next six weeks were recovery time for me, as my mom and dad took over the house and care of the children.  During that time, someone called from a newly-opened bookstore to tell me I had won a bible.  Now I had never in my life won anything, and I had forgotten that I had dropped my name in the box some weeks before at the opening of the store.  The Bible came alive to me under the annointing of the Spirit during the following days.  Not only did I have peace, but I had food for my mind and soul, food to strenthen me for the journey ahead.  When I recovered, I was hooked on the Bible, and it gradually began to replace all the negative thoughts I had been cultivating for years.  I found my anger and fear and resentment and frustration being replaced by confidence and peace and trust. 

The best part was that I didn't have to manufacture peace for myself through TM, yoga, or "thinking good thoughts."  I was being fed by a Source from above.  God Himself was moving into my life, my thoughts, my physical body through His Spirit which had been poured out on me as a Gift.  Finally, I was even able to let go of my need to find time to pray---and the resulting frustration over not being able to do that.  I "gave up," telling God that when He gave me the time to pray, I would take it, but that I would not fight for it in the meantime. 

Amazingly, the lady across the street, whose children were grown, started asking if she could take the kids with her to the bank and the post office---short, 20 minute rides which gave me a moment to sit and pray.  How does God do that?  And why would anyone without children do that?

C.S.Lewis was exactly right!  After we ask God for the Gift of His Spirit, we must realize that there is nothing we can do for ourselves.  Whatever is done in us by God will last; whatever we insist on doing for ourselves, He will let us do until we finally realize the hopelessness of trying to give ourselves what only He can give.

Transformation2

I have understood from the Lord that we must all attend the "School of the Spirit" all the days of our lives.  If our attendance is poor, if we do not walk daily in the Spirit and listen to instruction, we will not progress but will fall again into the ignorance and darkness of not knowing---

of not knowing Him or His will for us,
of not knowing the Word of life and joy and peace,
of not understanding ourselves or others,

of descending into a world of chaos, where nothing makes sense and we cannot find God in the midst of it.

But if we are faithful in our attendance, we shall begin to see as He sees.  We will know truth because He Himself deigns to teach us what we do not know.  Like all good teachers, He is always present and always ready to teach.

It is the poor student who decides to sleep in and not to learn what he needs to know on a daily basis.  That is the man who goes hungry when there is plenty to be had for the taking.  For the Lord is rich and He withholds His bounty from no one who asks.  But He will not force us to take---He will only offer eternally.

Transformation

Most of us imagine that "following Christ" means reading what He has to say and then trying to apply it to our own lives.  But it is not at all like that; if it were, it would still be the natural (sinful) man trying to do the right thing, with very mixed results.

Transformation in Christ actually means submitting all that is in us to His power and energy working in us.  Gradually, He absorbs all of our negative energy into His light, which has never been overcome by the darkness.  And as our negative energy fades, it is replaced by the eternal light and life of mankind.

We can take anger management classes and see a psychiatrist---all natural means to control the energies inside us, and not to be scorned.  But the truth is that the energies inside us are coming from places we do not know, and have no idea how to control or manage.  It is only the Spirit of God dwelling in us who knows all things and who can calm the deep waters inside us.

Ultimately, it is not the mind that has the power to control, but the spirit.  And until our spirit is connected to and controlled by the Spirit of God, we have no hope.  The opening of Genesis is the whole story---God Himself has to overshadow the spirit of man, speaking His word and His light into our dark places, pushing back the deep waters of chaos and sending His light into our darkness.  When this finally happens, not all at once, but gradually, we begin to live in the light. 

It is no accident that creation is described as occurring over a period of 7 "days," with only space being created in the first three days (sky, earth, sea) and then the space being filled with "teeming life" the 4th, 5th, and 6th days.  When God begins to "make space" in us for His action, He will not fail to fill the space with overflowing life and joy. 

But the transformation from chaos to harmony is a process.  Every part of the process Genesis describes as "good."  But the final result was described as "very good;" then God rested from all the work He had done.  Once our own process of transformation is underway, all the steps will be "good."  We may not see the final result for seven long "days," but we can be assured He will not stop His work in us until He sees that the end is"very good."  Amen.  So be it.

Calling for help!

When a fireman sees someone trapped in a burning building, he does not stop to inquire whether the person inside has led a moral life, whether he is a good man worth saving.  As soon as he sees, as soon as he hears a cry for help, he rushes to rescue the helpless person, most often at the risk of his own life.

In Jesus, we see the face of God Himself, who from the beginning tried to tell those who would listen that He Himself would be our strength and our salvation, the One who would direct our path.  Isaiah says this:

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.  How gracious he will be when you cry for help!  As soon as He hears, he will answer you.  Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful.  In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.   The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with the fork and the shovel.  In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.  The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted (30:19,ff).

The "bread of adversity" and "the water of affliction" are designed to make us realize that we are in a burning building and that we are helpless to save ourselves.  Without adversity and affliction, we do tend to believe that we are "as gods," and that we need nothing.  But as soon as we lift our voice to cry for help, He is there, lifting our burdens and showing us the way out.  Not only does he rescue us from the burning building, but He also leads us into quiet pastures where we can recover our strength and learn the ways of peace.

It is never that we have been "good enough" to be saved; it is only that we have been desperate enough to call for help.  Those who walk in the paths of peace do so only because they have seen hell, and they never want to return to that place.  Having tasted heaven, they desire to remain.



Why Did Jesus have to die?

Before I began reading Scripture, I used to puzzle over this question.  I have read and heard many explanations, including those who say that He did not have to die, but that others took His life from Him because they needed Him to die.  But none of these explanations really satisfied me until I read what Jesus Himself had to say:

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep...No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord....This command I received from my Father.

"How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Of course, these passages tell us only that Jesus had to die, that it was the will of God and foretold by the prophets---but does not explain why.   We know that it was for our sake, but it is hard to comprehend how his death helped us, except that He went before us into the ground and rose again, the first-fruits of all those who will follow Him in death and in resurrection.  That in itself---that He Himself has gone before us and has conquered death---would be enough, but there is indeed much more!

Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven."  Now we are beginning to unravel the science behind what we have always believed by faith.  Since Einstein, we have begun to realize that the entire universe is held together by energy:  E=mc2.  On one side of the equation is Energy; everything else is on the other side.

Every field of knowledge has been affected by this revelation.  Now even medicine is beginning to tap into the energy field with radiation, laser technology, etc.  We used to believe that our memories were stored in our brains, but now we know that memory is stored at the cellular level---our bodies store our memories and react to triggers of past memory, even when we are not conscious of doing so.  Our bodies are repositories not only of our own experiences, but of the experience of generations before us.  We inherit the cellular memories of our ancestors!  That is why the "sins of the fathers are passed down to the sons" (and daughters).    Even those of us who had good lives, without significant trauma, still have "bad programming" in our hard drives.  What we have inherited from "the empty way of life of our forefathers" in Peter's words is what is sending stress signals to our cells and causing disease. 

Paul says, "The body must die because of sin," but we never realized how literally true this was.  Most explanations have dealt with the concept of punishment for sin; until recently, we could not have known how corrupted our energy is because of not only our own sins but those of our forefathers.

When the medical community began doing transplants, they also began to document cases of donor recipients having the thoughts, feelings, dreams, and even food cravings of the donors.  Today many scientists are convinced that memories are stored in the cells, rather than localized in one place -- in the brain.

That is why Paul can say in Romans 7, "I do not understand myself at all....in my mind, I agree with the law of God....but I end up doing the very thing I don't want to do.....and the things I do want to do, I fail to do....unhappy man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God!  ...through Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

So, being "born again" means that the cellular memories coming to us from the time of Adam and Eve will no longer control us.  Having died with Christ, the natural man is free to put on a new nature---that of Christ.  From now on, our inheritance is from the Spirit of Jesus, rather than from our ancestors.  Christ has taken onto Himself our cellular memories and has crucified them to the cross, where they no longer have power to control us.  Instead, He has given us a new mind and body, submitted to and controlled by the Holy Spirit instead of by the past.  "It was for freedom that Christ has set us free" (Gal.) 

Thanks be to God, who has delivered us from the slavery of sin and death and set us on a new course in Christ Jesus! 

Called Out of Darkness

The Book of Genesis begins in the dark abyss, in unformed chaos, with the Spirit of God hovering above the waters.  "Light, Be!" thunders the voice of Elohim, and light was.

The Father----The Son-----The Spirit address the darkness.  The Spirit hovers, the Father sends His Own Light, and the Light was.  And the darkness has never succeeded in overcoming the Light.

Each one of us has been "called out of darkness into His marvelous light," in the words of St. Peter.  Each one of us has experienced the downward spiral of chaos, fear, evil, anxiety, entering into our own lives---an evil from which we could not extricate ourselves, an evil which threatened to overwhelm us.

Many people attempt to hold the chaos at bay by following the rules and regulations, thus ensuring themselves of order and maybe the hope of reward in the next life.  Some attempt to escape the fear by retreating to a place where nothing can harm them.  And others finally join the forces of evil, adding their own energy to the destruction.

But "the reason God sent His Son into the world was to destroy the works of the devil" (I John 3:8).  Jesus said, I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should remain in darkness (John 12:46).

The opening of Genesis sets the pattern for the rest of the story----from darkness, evil, chaos into the "marvelous" light of the Son of God.  This is the story of every individual, of every tribe, of every family, of every nation on earth.  From darkness to light.  The light was supposed to shine out of Israel to every surrounding nation, that they too might walk in the light.  The wise men from the East, non-Jews, saw the light of the world and followed it to Bethlehem.  The shepherds on the hillside saw the light and it drew them to the crib in a dark, cold cave. 

When the darkness descends in our own lives, we cannot remain in it, but must search for the Light that God has spoken into the world.  Years ago, I read a quotation whose source I do not recall:

We easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; it is harder to comprehend those who are afraid of the Light.

Psalm 139

How precious concerning me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When we were children, we were told, "God is watching you!"  But that warning carried overtones of threat:  you will be punished because God is watching you.

As parents, though, we catch a glimpse of what it really means that "God is watching" us.  I think it is fair to say that everything a child---even an adult child---does or thinks is "watched" by a parent.  We rejoice at the wonderful things a child does; we take pride in his/her accomplishments; we are grieved at the sorrows our children inevitably experience.  It is our great joy to be able to assist our children when they are in trouble, to calm them when they are anxious or worried, to listen to them when they need to talk. 

In Psalm 139, we sense the joy of someone who has just awakened to the "watching" God who never ceases thinking about those He has formed in the womb.  David, presumably, who wrote this psalm, knows that he is never without the watchful and loving presence of God; he also knows that if God is thinking about him, he can never be left alone or without support.  He knows that God/ Yahweh, like any parent, cannot stop thinking about David.

In the previous psalm, 138, David writes: The Lord will perfect [the things] which concern me (v.8).  Most translations read: The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me, but I think the first version drives home more clearly that every little thing which concerns us is a matter of God's thought and action on our behalf.  If we know this at the deepest level of our being, we can rest, handing over the "things which concern" us.

One of my students once asked, "Do you think God thinks we ask too much?"  My answer was, "I think He thinks we don't ask enough!"  I have heard people scoff at those who ask God for a parking place, as though that were the least of His concerns in a world gone mad.  Nothing that concerns us is too small to concern Him---and if we don't ask in the little things, we have no confidence even if we beg in the big things.  What is too small for God? 

Let me put it this way:  If we were shopping together and you were 25 cents short of the total, would you refuse to ask me for a quarter because the amount was too small?  Would you wait until you needed $5.00 to ask for help?  or $500.00?  (because I had bigger things to think about than your need for a quarter?)

I might refuse your request for $500.00 because you had already spent $1,000 at the slot machines, but if you wanted a quarter to throw away on the slots, I might laugh and say, "here you go!" 

I think we need to take David's insight--inspiration---literally and begin to walk with God, sit with God, and stand with God at every (tiny) moment of our lives.  Then I think David's insight will become our own---how precious concerning me are your thoughts, O God; how vast the sum of them.  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand!

On Joy

Joy is the unmistakable sign of the presence of God.

--St. Dominic Savio

The one who is joyful unmistakably knows that "all is well, that all manner of things are well," in the words of Julian of Norwich.  When my granddaughter was 2 and 3, she would wake up each morning and ask me to "twirl" with her.  Now that she is nine, though she has given up twirling every morning, she still greets each day with resounding joy.

Joy, as peace, is the one thing we cannot give ourselves.  We can discipline ourselves to diet, to exercise, to plod through the day doing what we don't really want to do, but we cannot discipline ourselves to learn "joy."  It is the gift of God; it is the gift Jesus gave to the woman at the well, who ran off leaving behind her water jar. 

Galations 5:22 lists joy as the fruit of the Spirit of God within us.  Now no tree disciplines itself to produce fruit; it is the natural result of the tree reaching out its limbs each day to embrace the sky, the wind, and the rain.  It is the result of the tree pushing its roots into the soil and drinking up the nourishment and water it finds there.  The fruit comes as the tree grows strong.  So it is with us.  As we embrace the Spirit of God and sink deeply each day into His presence, the fruit of joy is produced in us, along with peace, goodness, kindness, long-suffering, wisdom, gentleness, and self-control.

The morning we wake up with gratitude and joy, wanting to run or twirl, despite our advancing age, we know that we have encountered the Spirit of God, and that He is living within us, producing in us His own character.  If we sought nothing else in life but that, we would be rich indeed!

A Great Reward

Do not be afraid, Abram;

I am your shield

and very great reward

(or:  your reward will be very great) (Gen. 15:1).

We tend to teach our children Bible stories if we teach them anything at all from the Bible.  But sometimes I think it would be better to skip the stories (which can only be appreciated by adults anyway) and teach children the words or promises God made to his people

I am not sure that anyone would rely on God from knowing the stories themselves, because it takes some reflection to apply the stories to our own lives.  But the verse above has immediate impact.  Who would not want a "shield" around, beneath, and over their lives?  Who would not want to hear God saying, "Do not be afraid; your reward will be very great!" 

For the Old Testament people, there was no concept of reward-after-death-if-you are-good-now.  The only reward they had in mind was for this present life---and that's the way God taught them.  The blessings for obedience and "walking before Me" were plentiful water for their crops, verdant pastures for their sheep, children "like olive plants around your table," protection from their enemies, etc.  Foreigners were supposed to be able to look at the children of Israel and to understand the blessings that followed those who trusted in the Hebrew God--Yahweh.

There is only one vowel difference between the Hebrew word for blessing and the one for "spring of water."  The two words were meant to be heard together as a kind of pun in the stories, and their meanings blended.  That's why Jacob needed his father's blessing after he had acquired the birthright from Esau.  He was to inherit lots of land, but the land without the blessing would be infertile and non-productive.  

If we had no other reason for cultivating a relationship with God but that we needed a "shield" for our lives, I think that might be a good place to begin.  We might think that pursuing God for a reward is a mercenary incentive, but hey---don't all of us pursue the things that are in our own interest?  And once we have entered into a true relationship with Yahweh, He himself will teach us all we need to know to go beyond our self-interest.  It has been said that we become like the things we worship, and growing more like God through worship is ultimately altruistic and well as "a great reward."

On Obedience

Most of us have some inner fear of "obedience."  We are afraid that obedience means we will no longer be self-determined, deciding for ourselves what is right or wrong.  We want to go our own way, based on what seems good to us.  This is the "original sin:"  self-determination, refusal to listen, refusal to accept the wisdom of the Creator of heaven and earth.  Ye shall be as gods, the serpent promises.  And mankind answers, "Yes!  I can decide for myself!  I have the power!  I know what is right for me!" 

And not seeing anything but the shiny surface of a delicious-appearing apple, we bite, chew, swallow, only to have it turn sour in our stomachs.  Every generation follows the path of self-determination; from the age of two, we cry, "I do it myself!"

In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses, knowing he is about to die and leave his beloved people, cautions them to listen to God:

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.  For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Deut. 30: 19-20).

Yesterday, I wrote about Philip going to find his brother Nathanael and saying, "We have found the one Moses wrote about."  Now every Jew knew exactly what that meant.  This is what Moses had written:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers.  You must listen to him....I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.  If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account (Deut. 18: 15-19).

At the baptism of Jesus, a voice spoke from heaven:  This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.  Those who heard the voice that day had to recall the words of Moses about the prophet to come after him. 

The entire Bible revolves around the themes of obedience/blessing/life versus that of disobedience/ curse (destruction)/ death.  If we refuse to listen, deciding to follow instead the path of our own thoughts, there is nothing ahead but destruction and terror.  The Lord is Life.  From the moment He breathed His own Spirit into Adam, Adam became a "living soul."  When we cease to breathe in the Spirit of God, we begin to die.  When we are no longer in communion with God, our life begins to ebb away. 

Isaiah warned the Israelite nation, whose "hearts were far from me (God)" that only destruction would follow:

"Woe to the obstinate children," declares the Lord, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharoah's protection, to Egypt's shade for refuge....these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instruction.....

The entire chapter of Isaiah 30 is worth reading, although it is too long to include here.  Here we find graphic images of the results of not listening---terror, pursuit, destruction---versus the blessings of communion with God:

In repentance and rest is your salvation;

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength...

How gracious will He be when you cry for help! 

As soon as he hears, he will answer you....

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk in it"....

He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful...streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill...and you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people go up with flutes to the mountain of the Lord.

In America, because of our independent spirit, the thought of "obedience" carries negative overtones.  But it simply means quietly listening to the voice and plans of God for our lives.  If we can only recall Psalm 23--The Lord is my Shepherd; He leads me beside still waters and refreshes my soul,----we may want to listen to His guidance. 

Obedience simply means such a close connection with the Spirit of God that we are able to hear His voice saying to us, "This is the way; walk in it.  This is the path to life and abundance; take it.  That is the road to terror and destruction; avoid it."  If we can hear His voice in quietness and rest, we are already approaching still waters and verdent pastures, for He cannot lead us anywhere else.

Known, Understood, Loved

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."

"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."

Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

As He did with the woman at the well, Jesus seemed to be able to look at a person and know everything about the one to whom He was speaking.  Nathanael instantly knew that he had met someone who knew him inside and out, Someone who had always known and understood him, and Someone who loved him to the core of his being.

Our paradox is that though most of us are hesitant to reveal ourselves to others, we want to be known, understood, and loved for who we are.  It is good to be known so well that we do not have to explain ourselves to others.  It happens rarely in our lives that we meet someone who knows us and loves us to the core.  We tend to believe that if others really knew us, they could not accept us.  We know ourselves to be wounded from the inside out, and we want to hide and protect the wounded and weak areas.  The Book of Isaiah puts it this way:

Ah, sinful nation,

a people loaded wth guilt,

a brood of evildoers,

children given to corruption.

They have forsaken the Lord;

they have spurned the Holy One of Israel

and turned their backs on him.

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head

there is no soundness--

only wounds and welts

and open sores,

not cleansed or bandanged

or soothed with oil....

We have been so hurt by others; we have hurt ourselves.  Our innocence is lost, and we protect ourselves from allowing anyone else to hurt us again.  But if someone comes along who knows us and loves us, with all the wounds and welts, we no longer feel the need to hide.  It is a relief to drop the shield and stop protecting ourselves.  It is good to be known inside and out.

The woman at the well knew Jesus was a prophet because "He told me everything I had ever done!"  Why was she so excited about that?  She had spent her life avoiding the villagers, who also knew everything she had ever done!

Jesus knew more than what she had done; He knew her heart, which desperately wanted acceptance, love, understanding, without the need to explain.  He knew the heart which was wounded from top to bottom, which could not find acceptance, which could not undo the things she had done.  In her culture, I think it is fair to assume that she had been more sinned against and abused than sinful and abusing.  But the blame fell on her:  something must be wrong with her that every husband had rejected her.  Or maybe she was a whore, looking for someone who truly knew and loved her for herself.  In any case, her relief was so great that she became His first evangelist, running to the villagers she had been previously avoiding to announce, "I have found the Messiah!"

Nathanael, too, once he was known, understood, and loved without any reservation, fell down and worshipped:  You are the Son of God...  Because Jesus proclaimed Nathanael as a "true Israelite," in whom there was nothing false, I tend to think that under the fig tree, Nathanael was praying for a greater knowledge of God or for the redemption of Israel.  When his brother came to tell him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about," Nathanael was probably stunned to realize that God had heard and answered him so immediately.  Hesitant to believe what he was hearing, he probably approached Jesus with a little skepticism.  But Jesus' words to him brought home the full realization that God knew what it was he wanted at the core of his being and that God had already planned to fulfill his deepest desire. 

Knowing that God hears the cries of our heart and wants to fulfill our deepest desires----and will give us what we need at the core of our being----is such a relief that we cannot process it all at once.  We laugh; we cry; we are stunned; we are deeply grateful and for the first time in our lives, we are at peace.  We know the peace that the world cannot give, but that can be found only in the One Who knows, understands, and loves us to the bottom of our hearts. 

Now at last, our exposed wounds are no longer life-threatening, but can be cleansed, bandaged, soothed, and healed.  We have found the place of rest for which we have been searching all our lives; we are Home!



The Sacrament of God's Presence

Jesus is the Sacrament of God.  In Him, the love of God is made visible and accessible.  In Him, we can enter into the inner life of God, into His thoughts and feelings, into the inner dynamic of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit.  In Jesus, we can enter into the relationship of God to the world of mankind.

There is no other way; there is no one else on earth or in history that "owns" the nature and inner life of God Himself. 

Someone once asked why the Jews were the "chosen people;" what about the rest of us?  (As if we are more liberal and generous in our thinking than God is in His!)  The answer, of course, though it could be phrased in many different ways, is that the Jews were chosen to be a sacrament of God's love to all mankind.  It was not enough that Abram should be called "exalted father," the meaning of his name in Hebrew; he was to be called "Abraham," the father of nations, of many peoples.  He (and his descendents) were to be a light to the nations around them, to embody what it means to live in covenant with the Almighty, to be His people.  Their light was to shine to all in the house (planet Earth), to those far off.

Today, Abraham is considered the father of all three major world religions---Jews, Christians, Arabs/ Muslims.  In him, all acknowledge God's presence to mankind.  But Abraham was only a foreshadowing of what was to come in Christ Jesus.  What the Jews only poorly understood is now fully revealed.  Abraham was but one when he was called, but out of his relationship with God came many peoples.  How that came about is still a mystery.  If anyone had told the Jews before Jesus that their special relationship to God would open to all men everywhere, they could not have comprehended.  But the Gift given to them was never meant to be restricted to them alone.  To this day even, that is why one does not have to be born a Jew to become a Jew. 

As all religions today claim entrance into relationship with God through Abraham, so it is with Jesus Christ, the Sacrament of God's Presence to mankind.  Through Him, the Father is made known to us in a way that we can taste, see, and feel.  Through Him, we are made known to the Father, and accepted as part of the family of God.  If anyone does not know Jesus, he does not know the Father either. 

How, then, is that "fair"?  We don't know, any more than the Jews knew how their relationship with God through Abraham would be made available to the world at large.  But what we do know is that God wishes all men to be saved---and His "wishes" are not ineffectual, but full of power and wisdom.  As we worship Him, acknowledging His wisdom and power, we come more and more to understand and trust what He tells us.  If our relationship with Him is true, He will make us also 'sacraments' of His Presence to the world at large.

Come, Lord Jesus!

The reflective wisdom of Old Testament wisdom books (Proverbs, Wisdom, Sirach, Ecclesiasties) is what we might call "practical wisdom," and the Holy Spirit bestows that as a gift.  There is a passage in Proverbs, I believe, that says something like, "The farmer does not keep on plowing, but begins to sow; his God teaches him the way."  (An approximation of the verse).  And one of the wonderful "presences" of the Holy Spirit is that He does give practical wisdom in everyday affairs, much to our surprise and awe at times.

But in the New Testament, the time has come where everything speaks of one event:  the arrival in the flesh of God Himself.  As much as Paul speaks of "the way of obedience," as much as He reflects on the convergence of the Old and the New, the final word is that the New Testament does not give us a philosophy or "rules for living well."  It comes down to the narrow gate, the Door to Eternal Life, which is Jesus Christ. 

Do we enter, do we surrender, do we submit to the entrance of His Life and Energy in us, or do we stand at the door and debate, philosophize, bargain, and refuse at last to enter onto the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

Do we allow the Word of God to enter us and change us forever, so that the old has gone and the New has come?  Are we willing to give up the old man, the one who lives according to his insights and "practical wisdom," or do we acknowledge the death of the old man, entering instead the Door to Eternal Life?

Jesus said that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.  That means that we must leave behind the works of the flesh and live according to the Spirit of Jesus.  However, it is not within our own power to "follow Jesus;" He told us that we must be born again---not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. 

If we are to enter the narrow door to eternal life, we must give up our own lives, surrendering to the Word of God that re-forms and re-fashions us according to the Image of the Son of God.  Of course, we do not know how to do this, any more than Nicodemus understood what Jesus was saying to him.  All we can do is be willing and to cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!"  We cannot be good enough for Him to come to us; we can be only like the cold, empty, poor stable of Bethlehem, unfit for the Presence of the Divine.  But He will leap into an open heart and begin to live there to the glory of God. 

It is not "right thinking" that saves us, but only surrender to the One Whom God has sent to us.

More on the Wisdom of the Sabbeth

I said yesterday that the only reason for a day of "stopping" once a week was the Book of Genesis.  There is another reason, too, but it has taken science 4000 years to figure it out.  It seems that our bio-rhythms are not actually matched to the 24-hour cycle of the earth, but instead our bodily rhythms are more closely aligned to a 23-hour cycle.  That means that once every 7 days, we need to stop and breathe, so to speak---to allow our bio-rhythms to catch up to our daily routines. 

We need a day to sleep later (if we don't have dogs or babies), to gear downward, to nap in the afternoon, to gaze at the sky and lazy clouds.  Slowing down once a week allows our bodies to re-adjust to the 24-hour cycle in which we live.

Jesus said, "Man was not made for the Sabbeth, but the Sabbeth for man."  There are many things in the Bible that we don't "get" for a long time.  In this case, our scientific inquiry has finally allowed us to catch up with, and understand, the wisdom of God.

The Wisdom of the Sabbeth

Somehow it has been built into our Western mentality that we must at all times be "productive," not lazy, not idle.  So it is hard for most of us to take what the younger generation now calls "a pajama day," when nothing is planned, when no work is to be accomplished. 

But God told the Jews in the Old Testament that the Sabbeth (literally, "stopping") was to be the sign of His convenant with them for all generations.  Before the time of the Jews, no ancient society had a regular day of rest, of stopping.  There were seasonal festivals, the harvest, for example, but no weekly day to stop work. 

Of all the cycles we observe, the week is the only one not based on lunar (the month) or solar (the year) rhythms.  The only reason for a 7-day cycle with a day of rest is the Book of Genesis, where God rested after all the work He had done.  One reason the Jews were liberated from slavery was that they might observe the Sabbeth, and God trained them to do so even while they were crossing the desert.  They could not gather the manna on the seventh day, but had to gather enough for 2 days the day before. 

According to Thomas Cahill (The Gifts of the Jews), "leisure is appropriate (only) to a free people."  A well-known book about 40 years ago was titled Leisure: The Basis of Culture.  By observing a weekly day of rest, prayer, study, and re-creation, Israel was the first society to envision education as a universal pursuit---and a responsibility of those in power to ensure that those who labor have time to cultivate their souls.  Leisure is the basis of creativity; those who are free to think, to muse, to re-create, imitate the creativity and freedom of God. 

Because the slaves in New Orleans were always granted Sundays off, we have an entire culture of music, dance, and food which grew out of their creativity and celebration of who they were.

As I was growing up, there were serious discussions about what was lawful to do on Sundays---could one cut the grass? weed the flower bed? shop for groceries (once the Blue Laws were eliminated)?  Now that we have no more Sunday laws or endless discussions about what is permitted, it is up to each one of us to establish our own Sunday rhythms.  And since the Sabbeth is "the sign of the Covenant," we need to search out our weekly observance based on our relationship with God.  What the Law has no power to teach us can be found in the Wisdom of the Spirit of God, Who has promised to teach us all things.

While I was working, teaching composition, I used to spend 6-12 hours each weekend grading compositions.  Although that time helped me feel prepared for Monday morning, it did nothing to rest and re-create my soul.  Slowly I came to understand that it is not so much physical labor that we are bidden to abstain from on the Sabbeth, but whatever it is we do for a living---that which occupies us the other six days of the week.  To "rest" from our daily occupation is to trust that not everything depends on our own efforts---to rest in the assurance that God Himself is the Senior Partner in the enterprise of our lives, and that He will oversee what concerns us.  We do not have to work 24-7; we can afford to stop for a day because we are free, not slaves, and rich, not poor.

Now that I garden, cut grass, and mow the lawn six days a week, I have begun to stop that activity on Sundays and have begun to discover the joys of "puttering."  In puttering, I have no goal to accomplish, nothing that must be finished.  Instead, I am learning to flow with the rhythm of my body and mind, observing things I don't usually see when I'm "on a mission." 

In a wonderful book called The Sabbeth, Abraham Joshua Heschel describes the regular work week as living in "space," when we order, arrange, and acquire things that belong to space.  On the Sabbeth, we enter the world of "time," of eternity, of relationships---relationships with God and with other people, relationships that do not depend on where we are or on what we have.  We have time to do nothing, to "float," if you will, to think, to create, to muse, to play.

Thinking about the Gift of the Sabbeth has brought much richness to my life, and I now embrace the Gift as joyfully as any Jew.

The love of God

God does not love us because we are good;

God's love makes us good.

We do not love others because they are perfect; we love them because they are "ours"  -- or because we share some history with them.  Sometimes our lack of perfection can get in the way of our love; that's one reason we teach our children good manners.  We don't want to run people off by our gross behavior.  But for the most part, we love others despite their failings, just as they love us despite our own.  And always, genuine love makes us want to overcome the worst of our faults so as not to put up difficulties for those who love us.

God's love is the same; He knows us better than anyone else.  He knows why we behave the way we do.  He is not "put off" by our bad behavior, but because He loves us as a parent, He does not want us to isolate ourselves in our own meanness and pettiness.  His love is full of "second, third, and fourth" chances to get it right.  He wants us to revel in life in all of its greatness---in nature, in relationships, in sharing of gifts, in joy.  When we cannot do so, He is waiting to be of assistance:  I'll never leave you or abandon you.

He loves us because we are His, because we share with Him some kind of history, even if that "history" was only a fleeting thought or prayer.  If we belong to Him, He will not turn us away because of our behavior, but His love will draw us away from the destruction we are building for ourselves.   We often do not feel worthy to speak to God because of our sins---but that is the very time we most need to speak to Him. 

The Hebrew word for "mercy" is related to the word for "womb."  In His Divine Mercy, God is most drawn to the worst sinner, the one most in need of His nurturing care.  A mother or father grieves over the child who goes astray, because he/she knows what kind of misery will follow.  All it takes is for the child to say, "I'm coming home," and the parents rejoice, forgetting everything that has gone before.  And Jesus said that He would leave the 99 and go after the 1 who was lost.  What other God in the history of the world has put on His sandals to pursue the sinner?

What Has God Done?

What is confessed [in the New Testament] is not an internal religious or mystical feeling, nor is it a series of spiritual or moral teachings, nor a system of propositional dogmatics.  It is rather the work of God in the life and death of a historical person (G. Ernest Wright: God Who Acts, p. 67)

The entire Bible is made up of stories.  The "theology," or meaning, of the stories emerges from a people's reflection on why particular events actually happened the way they did.  In seeking to explain why and how God delivered a group of slaves from captivity in Egypt, "theology" developed.  In seeking to interpret history, both individual and communal, the Israelites began to form their concepts of the God who had chosen them.  There was simply no explanation of "what happened" except that God had a reason and a purpose for calling them out of darkness into His marvelous light.  He had plans for this weak and helpless nation, and that was through them, to reveal His power and His glory. 

The power of the Bible rests in its "I was there and I saw it happen" tone.

Later, as the Psalms tell us, the people drifted away from God because they forgot what He had done.  They forgot to remember what He had done for them!  The earliest "liturgies" were songs of praise and thanksgiving for deliverance.  Someone would recite the mighty works of God in words or in song, and the people would remember and rejoice with food, drink, thanksgiving, and praise.  The festivals were times of remembering their history.

Unlike the Greek philosphers who sought the perfect, ideal, world that lay behind this world, the Jews did not philosophize---they remembered their history and reflected on what it meant.  The apostles did not preach a "way of life," such as the stoics and the epicureans did among the Greeks.  They preached something they had actually lived through, although they at the time did not completely understand what it meant.  It was only later, under the annointing of the Holy Spirit, that they came to understand its depth of meaning.

The first message was very simple:  This Jesus, whom you crucified, was the Annointed One, and God has raised Him from the dead---and we are witnesses to His resurrection.  Those who believed the Apostles became Christians and wanted to know what that meant in terms of their way of life.  So Paul's epistles begin to deal with the issues that arose:  Is it lawful to....?

For many Christians today, the rules and regulations are the whole story.  But the real question is, "What has God done for us, for me?"  Can I interpret my own history in the light of God acting on my behalf?  Can I look back on my life and recall what He has done for me?  Unfortunately, in our modern churches, there is little room for "recital" and "remembering."  So no one hears the stories of how God continues to reach down and rescue us, to save us from depression and despair and enslavement.  And without the stories, it is hard to have faith in a God of the future---the same God who will continue to hear the cry of His people and act on their behalf.

The little book Guideposts is filled with stories of people who know that God intervened on their behalf.  And reading their stories helps us to look up in praise and thanksgiving to the One Who still rescues the helpless.  More of us need to recall how God saved us and open our mouths to proclaim His mighty work on our behalf!

What Kind of Knowledge?

It's often been said that it's not what you know, but who you know, that determines success.  If this statement is at all true in the natural, it is above all true in the supernatural, or spiritual, realm. 

Many people have become scripture scholars without knowing the One of Whom the Scriptures speak, the Christ of God.  Jesus told the Pharisees, "You search the scriptures because you believe that in them you have life, but you refuse to come to Me that you might have life."  Millions of people have never known the scriptures, but they have known Jesus Christ, and in Him they know they have eternal life.  There is only one "knowledge" test that all of us must pass--and that is knowing Jesus.  And it is easy to know Him:  Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open to me, I will come in...(Rev. 3:20).

He scolded those who on the last day would say, "But we performed mighty deeds in your name...." and His answer was, "But I never knew you."  If we open our lives and hearts to Him, He will know us, and we will know Him.

Knowing God does not depend upon our education or our culture.  C.S. Lewis says that one thing that used to puzzle him is this:  "Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him?  But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are.  We do  know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know [about] Him can be saved through Him."  I think that is exactly right----God has more options than we can imagine or dream of.  If we cannot imagine how the "others"--those who have never heard of Jesus---will be saved, it should not surprise us at all.  It is enough that God knows how they are saved.  Personally, I think it will be much like Barak O'Bama's surprising discovery that he has Irish ancestors---who knew?

What we do know for certain is that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Jesus---they are not two spirits, but one.  And anyone who keeps within himself the Spirit of God and listens to Him is led by God, and his life embodies the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22). 

What we also know is that those who incarnate the spirit of the world do not have the spirit of Jesus in them, despite whatever knowledge or education they have received.  And this spirit is also obvious---immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkeness, orgies, and the like (Gal. 5:19).

This does not mean that we can judge others, or even ourselves, for we are all "on the way" from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God.  At the end of time, we might all say, Who knew?