Happy (Belated) Yom Kippur

(This was obviously written a few days ago.  So apologies for posting it late here)

“29 “And this shall be a lasting statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you must deny yourselves and you must not do any work, whether the native or the alien who is dwelling in your midst, 30 because on this day he shall make atonement for you to cleanse you; you must be clean from all your sins before Yahweh.” (Lev 16)

Yesterday I asked why pray?  Not a segue I would have chosen for Yom Kippur but I’m not in charge.  Today, is the Jewish Day of Atonement.  The one day of the year the High Priest was allowed, no, required to enter the Holy of Holies, the Sanctuary, the Holy Presence of the Only Real and Almighty Creator of the Universe, there in physical form in a cloud of glory and make atonement for the sins of the people.  If that isn’t the picture of prayer, I don’t know what is.  Face to face with God!  Sprinkling blood for his own sins.  Sprinkling blood for the people’s sins.  Bringing in coals from the eternal fire.  Burning incense, its recipe prescribed by God, the smoke the visible symbol of prayer going up before the Cloud of Glory upon the Mercy Seat.  All a picture of the throne room of God where we will someday come face to face with our Creator.  That’s Prayer!

Leviticus 16 goes through the rite.  This was no joke.  Aaron’s sons had been slain for doing it wrong (Lev 10).  God will not be mocked by those who should know better, particularly to His very face,“3 Therefore Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke, saying, ‘Among those who are close to me I will show myself holy, and in the presence of all the people I will display my glory.’  Since the very first day we sinned, God’s been showing His amazing grace in even this most simplest of ways: by hiding His Holy Face from us, so we would not be consumed by His Holiness.  He has to hold back or we would be scorched right off the face of the earth!  Even Moses was only allowed to see His back.

So… Wow!  God of the Old Testament, eh?  Mr. Angry God.  Really scary dude.  Different God than we got now.  Right?  Jesus is the kindler, gentler God.  Guess God went soft in his old age or something, eh?

Wrong.  Same God.  Even Balaam knew it,

“19 God is not a man, that he should lie,


    nor a son of humankind,


that he should change his mind.


    Has he said, and will he not do it?


And has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num 23)

In our soft focus, baby kissing, blue eyed, feather haired Jesus era it’s easy for us to forget that Jesus is God.  The same God who struck down Nadab and Abihu.  The same God who opened the Earth and swallowed Korah.  The same God who ordered the complete destruction of every man, woman and child of Canaan.  The same God who drowned the Earth and all but eight of its inhabitants.  Some say it was Jesus himself who spoke with Abraham about Sodom and Gomorrah.  Why am I pounding this point?  Am I just an angry guy?  Am I trying to diminish the soft focus view of Jesus?

Heavens forfend!  I am trying to make it all the more wonderful!  If God changed his mind, if God himself could change, then what glory is that?  A little, maybe.  But if God the Eternal, God the Immutable, God the Unchanging came to Earth to offer Himself for our sins??  If our sins are every bit as punishable as Nadab’s, Abihu’s, Korah’s, the Canaanites, the antediluvians, Sodom’s, Gomorrah’s, then how great is His love, how great His mercy, how great His grace that He made a way for us to be saved!? 

“16 For people swear by what is greater than themselves, and the oath for confirmation is the end of all dispute for them. 17 In the same way God, because he wanted to show even more to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his resolve, guaranteed it with an oath, 18 in order that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge may have powerful encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us, 19 which we have like an anchor of the soul, both firm and steadfast, and entering into the inside of the curtain, 20 where Jesus, the forerunner for us, entered, because he became a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 6)

Melchizadek.  You know what this mysterious priest-king of the Salem (Peace) brought out for Abraham?  Bread and wine. (Gen 14)  Jesus, God became our High Priest!  But more than that, He was our sacrifice!  A perfect, spotless lamb.  A truly pure human, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life.  “14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep which are not from this fold. I must bring these also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock—one shepherd. 17 Because of this the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take possession of it again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down voluntarily. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take possession of it again. This commandment I received from my Father.” (John 10)

Now go back to Leviticus 16 and read it as what it is, the promise of Jesus.  Washed; dressed in pure white; his blood making atonement; his body slaughtered and burned and taken outside the camp; our sins on him to wander the desolate wastes forever, far from us; entering the Holy of Holies to see God face to face!  Only now, he doesn’t do this for one day only.  He does not sin, so He has no need to leave the presence.  He is there eternally!  Eternally, every minute of every day, asking God for mercy for us!  His blood atoning for our sins, every minute of every day!  Now, now we have peace with God!  “27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you—not as the world gives, I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You have heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.” (John 14) 

And because His sacrifice is perfect and eternal, because we have this peace with God, we are now made right with Him, we are adopted Sons and Daughters.  The veil is torn asunder.  There is now no division between us and the Holy God!  We may enter the sanctuary where our sacrifice and our High Priest plead for us!  Every day is Yom Kippur!  Every day is Passover!  Every day is Communion.  We are in the Holy of Holies!  Why would we pray?

How could we NOT?

God's or gods?

“26 And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image and according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every moving thing that moves upon the earth.” 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven, and over every animal that moves upon the earth.” (Gen 1)

Why did God make people?  I could tell you but then I’d be a heretic.  I don’t know but I’ll bet it stems from His Love.  Once He conceived of us, He loved us.  Then I’ll bet He couldn’t conceive of NOT making us!  Even knowing all of what we would become!  He made an entire Universe, a beautiful, perfect world and then, knowing we would turn on Him, knowing we would side with the Devil and try and become gods in our own right, by our own might, knowing we would spit on Him, mock Him, beat Him, scourge Him, and then kill Him…

He gave it all to us anyway!

Do you see the irony?  We were masters of the world!  Made in the likeness and image of God!  The animals obeyed us, everything we saw was ours: We were as near to gods as we’ve ever been!  And we gave it all up to be god.  And the worst part is… we’re still doing it!  We keep trying to kill God so we can be god!  When Jesus died so we could be true Sons of God!  We will sit on thrones!  We will be in the Holy of Holies, in the very presence of the Eternal God Almighty! 

But we want to live our seventy or eighty years here our own way because God can’t be trusted you know.  What if we suffer a little bit?  What if people don’t treat us nice?  What if we don’t get the promotion?  The dream job?  What if we get sick?  What if our parents get divorced?  What if something happens to our children?  What if we don’t get children?  What if she dumps me?  What if he sleeps around?  What if he won’t wait for me?  What if she thinks I’m a geek?  What if they come for me?  Torture me?  Take my children?  Take my wife?  Take my life?  What if I die???

Then you go to be with Jesus in the throne room of God.  You decide whether you go there as a competing god or as the Son of God.  “26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3) 

How do we know the difference?  What do gods do?  In a phrase, every god does, “what is right in his own eyes.”  I am the boss of me.  I am the definer of morality.  I am the center of my world.  I am not to be mocked.  I am not to be shamed.  I am not to be slighted. 

What do Sons of God do?  In a word, “Worship.”  “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing from himself except what he sees the Father doing. For whatever that one does, these things also the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself is doing.” (John 5)  God made everything and gave it all away to undeserving people.  People who were his enemies!  God chose a people, separated them, cleansed them and made them holy.  He gave them Himself, taught them worship, love and obedience and dwelt with them.  He fed them, clothed them, blessed them.  Why?

“2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. 3 And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse. And all families of the earth will be blessed in you.” (Gen 12)

So they could teach us to love the Father!  And why did God choose, separated, wash and consecrate you in the blood of Jesus?  So you could be another temple of the living God.  He has taken up residence in You!  “23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and will take up residence with him.” (John 14)  “19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body.” (1Cor 6) 

We are priests, we are temples, we are the very sons and daughters of God!  Every single thing we do is to be done in worship.  Our jobs, our relationships, our art, our hobbies, our charity, our coming and going done to point back to our Father.  In grace.  In love.  In gratefulness.  In little baby, practice-grace steps, not earning but learning to do what Daddy does!  Not trying to become gods, but learning to be God’s.

No Sleep Till...

“10 On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. 11 When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.” (Luke 9)

I get the impression Jesus was a “I’ll-sleep-when-I’m-dead” kinda guy.  When the time came to begin his ministry it was like he knew a clock was ticking and he had but three short years to do all he meant to do besides all of the unscheduled stuff he would want to do along the way.  He taught and healed until late into the evening often and we’re told he spent a lot of nights and early mornings praying.  He had a goal it would seem: he wanted to come to the end of his life with nothing left to give having given it all away.  To die flush, so to speak. 

It also appears this wasn’t just an ingrained habit with him.  It wasn’t just something he picked up from Joseph in the workshop.  A family trait.  Good breeding.  It was a credo.  A conscious belief in how it should be done which he tried to pass on to his followers.  Take this passage in Luke for instance. 

The disciples, the twelve, were sent out in two man teams to preach, heal and drive out demons from all the nearby towns.  They went on a mission trip.  Exciting!  Exhilarating!  Exhausting!  These are not professional missionaries and from what I’ve read and learned of professional missionaries, the most common killer among them is burnout.  The mission field is taxing!  The point of the spear feels very alone.  They were walking with fear and anxiety in every step and Jesus made sure they would by telling them to take nothing for the journey, in some versions, not even a staff!  They didn’t know where they’d eat.  If they would eat.  Where they would sleep.  If they’d be arrested.  Beaten.  Killed!  You know the feeling you get in your stomach right before you try and tell some stranger about Jesus?  Yeah, extend that over all day, every day for who knows how long and throw in a very real chance they will kill you.  We’re not told how long their mission was but when they came back, you can guess they wanted to regale, rejoice and REST! 

And Jesus is not indifferent.  He wants those things too.  Remember, he loves these knuckleheads.  “30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.” (Mark 6)

They get into “the” boat.  This is Mark who I’m told got his story from Peter.  “The” boat is probably Pete’s boat.  This may be confirmed by their destination as told by Luke, Bethsaida.  Pete’s hometown (John 1).  So they get into a boat and Pete sets sail for home.  Where else would you want to go to rest?  When was the last time he had seen his family?  Home and hearth and Mama’s fresh baked bread.  MMMMMmmmmfff, I can almost smell it! 

Alas, it was not to be.  “33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6)  Please, please mark, this is not planned!  Jesus didn’t see this coming!  He was sincerely trying to get some rest and alone time for his followers and himself.  He could smell that bread too!  He had a tummy!  But Jesus, when forced to choose between loving his closest companions by giving them rest and loving a crowd by giving them healing and the Word, chooses the latter.  Jesus goes with the greater need! 

Jesus.  Is always.  On.  Mission.

And if the Chief Shepherd is at work, then you can bet your bottom denarius the undershepherds are busy too.  Not just from incidental contact but willfully.  “12 Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” 13 But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” (Luke 9)  The twelve, the dirty dozen, have just come off a mission trip, where they were specifically told to take no provision for the journey, they returned and had no time to eat because of the crowd, they got into a boat, tummies grumbling and plopped out here…to another crowd!  They got nothing!  Jesus, look.  We get the whole, rely on God thing!  Kay?  We saw how people took us in while on the little mission trip.  Kay?  We get it!  But look around!  People, people everywhere but not a crumb to eat!  Kay?  These people can’t feed themselves!  How are we supposed to feed them?

I don’t know if Jesus smiled wryly or was slightly disappointed, but I can picture him either way saying, “What say you?  Where do you think the food on your journeys came from?  Did it come from men or from your Father who sees you and knows what you need?”  Then as if to prove the point, Jesus blesses five loaves and two fish and feeds five thousand men, untold numbers of women and wives, countless children and possible slaves.

Jesus lives at a breakneck pace.  Jesus gives as if there will always be more.  Jesus loves with reckless abandon.  Because Jesus knows whom His Father is!  You cannot exhaust the inexhaustible!  God is infinite!  In-fin-ite!  Without end!  You are finite!  You need rest.  You need to eat.

But Jesus, which is getting to be my favorite phrase, says, “32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12) 

Work now, give now, stay on mission!  We’ll sleep when we’re resurrected!

Worst to First

“6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (1Cor 5)

Judgment.  As a topic, it’s about as comfortable as a noose.  We who are walking by faith know there “is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1)  Our sins are forgiven!  “38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8)   So, deep breath, put the baby to bed, we are justified.  Done.

So what’s all this talk of judgment seats?  What is the Parable of the Talents about?  The Parable of the Minas?  Why does it sound like there are degrees of honor in God’s kingdom?

Simply put, because there are.

The disciples understood this.  The hierarchy of heaven was of great concern to them.  “27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matt 19)  Don’t take my word for it; take the Word’s word.  When asked who would be greatest in the kingdom, Jesus didn’t tut-tut and shake his head, “You guys.  Don’t you understand?  It’s pass/fail.  There’s no first or last.  You’ll all be part of the collective uni-mind.  There’s no greatest, no least, you will just Be.”  Instead, he tells them, “You wanna be great?  Be least.”  “27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.  28 “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, 29 and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Luke 22)  Jesus is no stranger to hierarchies.  He invented them.  They are how he works.  Heads over bodies.  Kings on thrones.  Authorities.  But he also demonstrates how they are supposed to work. 

He deliberately juxtaposes his own servanthood, his obedience, his submission, his own humility and meekness, his own laying down of all his rights as King of Creation and Creator God, for the good of a few, measly, meager, sinful, wormy, filthy, whoring, rebellious people.  US!  This is greatness!  This is a life worth living.  This is what we are to do!  AND!  This is the power by which we do it!

Again and again we come back around to: Love God with all your heart, mind and strength and Love each other as I have loved you and love as the total submission to the other for the good and glory of the other.  They are not on our To-Do list.  They ARE our To-Do list!  They are the pass/fail grade of every item we planned to do today.  Does it love God?  Does it love my brother, sister, neighbor, community?  Does it bring glory to Him who sits on the throne?  Or does it bring shame and dishonor?  Or is it for my glory?  Does it demonstrate His mercy?  Does it demonstrate grace?  Who is benefiting?  This isn’t a nice idea.  It’s not pie-in-the-sky philosophy.  It’s brutally hard, messy work!

Which is why we run back, again and again to the Gospel for who has been forgiven much, loves much.  The Cross.  The Power.  The Spirit who comforts and helps and guides and intercedes.  It’s why we start praying before our feet hit the floor, adoring, confessing, thanking, supplicating, lather, rinse, repeat, ceasing only once we’re asleep.  Why we meditate on the Word.  We run back to the beatitudes.  Blessed are the poor.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Blessed are the hungry.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Blessed are the meek.  The peacemakers.  The persecuted.  Jesus knows this cup is not easy to drink.  He drank it!  He knows suffering.  He knows temptation.  He knows you will fail and he knows your sin.  He died for it and there is now no condemnation.  But He’s not content to leave you in it.  “22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8)  He’s conforming you to his image for your adoption.  Those times of true worship, when you did something selfless, when you feel his pleasure and enjoyment with and in you… those are but the first fruits!  He’s filled the cup with exactly the right amount of trial and tribulation to accomplish the finished work of art, the purification of the perfect bride he wants you and I to be, “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5)   

That’s why the reward for drinking it is so great!

Who's in the boat?

“22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (Luke 8)

Whew!  Tense!  Glad we’re not in that boat!  Or are we?  In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m mildly obsessed with the question, “What are we to do?”  Jesus has done all required for us to be saved.  We have his righteousness.  Nothing we did to save ourselves mattered.  Only by falling on His mercy can we enter into the Kingdom of God.  It is finished.  Done.  Put that baby to bed cuz it’s passed out on the couch… or the back of the boat.  So maybe it isn’t so much, “What are we to do?” but “What are we to do NOW?”

“19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  ...” (Gal 2)  Something significant happened the day I believed.  The day I chose Jesus’ righteousness over mine, I died and was raised again as something wholly, holy different… on the inside.  This I think is one of the problems the world has with ‘born again’ Christians.  They don’t SEE a difference.  We don’t glow.  We don’t change color or shape or size.  We are sealed by God, “13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Eph 1) but it is a seal like those at the amusement park; no one can see it until it fluoresces under Holy light.  It is a guarantee of a future inheritance.  We are royalty!  We are rich!  We are immortal!  We are holy!  Trust me, you just can’t see it yet.

Unless we have deeds.

How would a royal, beloved prince of the only all-sovereign King of the Universes, secure in his throne, not because of anything he had done but strictly and only because of who his father is, surrounded by legions of loyal, all-powerful bodyguards act?  How would he treat the lowly?  How would he treat his brothers?  How would a woman, rich beyond her wildest dreams and perfectly secure in all her future incomes, with so much wealth coming in, she can’t even contemplate savings because no vault could hold it for even a minute, how would this woman in a waterfall of wealth, handle finances?  Treat the poor?  How would a man who could not die, feel about death?  What would he fear?  How would a woman, stolen as a child, beaten, abused, raped and used, bought and sold until she learned to beat, abuse, rape and use, buy and sell others, who then is rescued and washed, healed and loved, pampered and restored to utterly blinding, ravishing beauty and glory by a husband fairy-tale perfect, spend her time?  Her money?  Her love?  Her forgiveness?  How would a people with the greatest message in all of time and space spend their few, short years in time and space?

I’ll tell ya how: in a boat in a storm.  Look at this story from Luke 8.  Jesus has come and done all he thought he needed to do.  And it was a lot.  Read over the list of miracles, crowds, long nights spent in prayer and walking he has done.  He’s crashed.  He’s sleeping the sleep of the honest innocent in the back of the boat.  Arrayed in front of him are his handpicked, chosen men, fully invested, fully devoted followers… fighting for their lives!  At least half of them are fishermen from this very lake, probably as the balladeer sings, sons of sons of sons of sailors.  They know how to do what they are doing.  They’ve done this before.  Tonight however, their ticket is punched.  Their luck has run out, they’ve done all they can and it wasn’t enough.  They have been weighed, measured and found wanting.  And it irks them that the guy responsible for them being here is asleep for it.  So, darn tootin’ they wake him up! 

“And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?””   Luke sugar-coats it, we can forgive him, he wasn’t there.  Matt and Mark, who I’m told, got the story direct from Peter, record Jesus’ words a bit differently, “40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”” (Matt 8, Mark 4)  It sounds harsh until you realize even Jonah, the hardhearted and wayward prophet of fish food fame, knew his God well enough to sleep during storms and was completely confident in His ability to still them as well. 

So what do we learn?  How does this answer my burning question?  “What are we to do now?”  The story tells us.

Secondly, we obey.  (Yeah, I know, stick with me.)  Jesus said, “Let’s go”.  They went.  Some storms come because, like Jonah, we don’t obey.  We who are his, need to read the Word, pray to the Word and listen to the Word and see where the Word is telling us to go.  Third, go.  Action.  Jesus wanted to go across a lake.  They did not sit on a beach and pray for a miracle.  They did not step onto the water and expect it not to give.  They went and got a boat and sailed and when the wind became too dangerous, they rowed.  They worked.  They did what they knew how to do.  Some of them, like Matt the accountant, had to learn new skills.  And that’s it.  Pretty simple, huh?

If we do the first thing first: have faith.  Faith, as I’ve tried to show ad nauseam, is knowing.  We need to be with Jesus.  We need to have Jesus in the boat when we go.   But most of all, we need to know. Who. Jesus. IS.  We don’t bring Jesus with us, we are with HIM.

On the surface, these men were faithful.  They were obedient.  They were following Jesus.  In their hearts however, they had no idea who Jesus is.  They were following what they saw.  Jesus leads them right into a storm.  Following Jesus doesn’t mean life will make sense, today.  In this story, as in Jonah’s, the boat and the sailors are saved.  In Acts 27, Paul’s boat is lost but everyone on board is spared.  Paul lives… to finish going to Rome where he is beheaded.  Following Jesus doesn’t ensure a happy ending…that the world can SEE!  Everyone Jesus healed, died.  Everyone Jesus raised from the dead, died again.  If we live for what we can see, we will die.  If we die, living for what we cannot see, what we know without seeing, we. Will. Live!  And maybe, just maybe, someone else will see THAT and believe!

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1Pet 1)

It May Be The Lord

“9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’” (Luke 8)

Jesus tells a parable of a man sowing seed.  A story about the condition of ground in which seed grows best.  It occurs to me as we see this story told, it is a parable within a parable. 

The Son of God went out to tell a parable to a great crowd.  On some it fell on deaf ears.  Their hearts were hard and it only made them angry since the man would not speak plain and the devil came and took the words away.  Some latched onto it quickly, it tickled their fancy, but the meaning never sank in and they could not recall the story by the time they got home.  Some received the story eagerly, even understanding what it meant.  Mostly.  They could recite it for a while, even discuss what it might mean, but their own viewpoints and hot button issues colored their interpretation of it and so it did not change their lives.  Some grabbed hold of the story, turned it inside out, looked at it from every angle, loved it, loved the Son of God who told it to them.  They did not try to change it, but let it change them.  People noticed.

What kind of ground receives seed best?  What kind of ground is best for farming and producing a crop?  Broken ground.  Plowed, furrowed, all the rocks removed, soft, not growing anything else.

Ground doesn’t often, if ever, get in this condition by itself.  The farmer tears at it, drives sharp, hard, heavy steel through it, digging at it, turning it over, exposing the roots of weeds.  It’s a violent, dirty business. 

What kind of heart receives Jesus best?  What kind of heart is best for the Spirit to grow fruit?  A soft heart.  A humble heart.  One not confused with lies, already full with pride or hardened by fear, doubt and worry.  Like the rocks, like the weeds, these must be removed.  The heart must be turned over, broken, softened.  This is a violent, dirty business.  It’s done through trial and testing and discipline.  It’s exposed in prosperity and poverty, plowed in adversity and suffering.

But all these trials are preparing us for the Word!  So they are Grace!  They are Good.  They are gifts!  “2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1)  The parable cannot be received by the indifferent listener.  It cannot be understood by the closed mind.  It cannot be understood correctly by the narrow mind.  What kind of heart receives without judgment?  Without anger?  Without preconceived notions?

“2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 19) 

Jesus is clear.  The Word will never take root in us if we do not allow ourselves to be molded by the Potter.  Plowed by the Planter.  Weeded by the Lover of our souls.  How much is our effort and how much is Grace?  I would suggest we lack the powers of perception to answer this.  The man treading water is working very hard and feels as if no one is helping.  He is alone in this.  Yet, he did not make his body, nor give it the ability to move.  He did not create the laws of buoyancy or Newtonian physics.  Everything keeping him afloat is from God… but it’s near impossible to realize this when treading water. 

Jesus’ parable makes it clear God is the farmer, we’re but dirt.  Dirt has no power to affect change upon itself.  Yet in the same story, Jesus uses action verbs in his warnings to the disciples.  “hold it fast”, “18 Take care then how you hear,” finally summing it up with, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”  And there are no shortage of calls to action elsewhere: strive, turn, become, obey, open, enter, come, serve, labor.  From our vantage point then, it may always look like we’re doing all the work, but don’t give pride any purchase!  When we have the advantage of paradise-based points of view and heavenly hindsight, we will see clearly God was in all.  Picture the child with their plastic lawnmower out in front of dad with the real one.  When the child looks at the last row, he sees it mowed.  So he feels he is accomplishing something.  Dad however is just enjoying the scene and the time together.  Submission, the beginnings of love.  It’s not a divvying up of chores, we’ll do this and God does that.  It’s the wheel within the wheel.  We know not if we turn because we’re pushing forward, being pushed forward or the ground is moving underneath us.  We are in Him and He in us! 

Can we see this as Caleb did?  ““You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. …10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.” (Josh 14)

Or as Jonathan?  “6 Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.”  (1Sam 14)

Notice, neither of them knew, they suspected, but only the outcome would tell the tale.  Can we this day, pray for this childlike faith then get up, go to the shed, grab our plastic rakes and hoes and go till some ground?  It may be that the Lord will work for us.

Let's get dirty

“4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 8)

I’m gonna skip right over verses 1-3.  It’s not that I don’t see anything there, all scripture is God breathed.  I’m sure there’s plenty for us to consider in a short description of how Jesus traveled and with whom he traveled.  (Did the “sinner” from chapter 7 tag along?  What must it have been like when this troop of at least twenty people showed up in town?  How did the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager meet Jesus?)  It’s just, given my present season of unemployment, I don’t want anyone thinking I’m saying women should be supporting me. 

What is infinitely more useful to us here is WHY Jesus was traveling.  “8 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.”  Luke, I’m finding, is delightfully structured.  From here to verse twenty-one, he follows one theme-the Word of God.

Jesus is sowing his seed.  Freedom for the captives!  A light to those living in darkness!  Come without money, buy bread from Him.  Humble yourselves and fall on God’s mercy and He is faithful to forgive, seventy-times seven!  All who come are welcome!  The outcasts are now Sons and Daughters!  The year of the Lord’s favor has begun!  Good News!  No more religion!  No more, what-you-have-to-do!  Now it’s what-God-has-done!

But Jesus is no fool, he’s no sparkle-eyed naïf, so sure his message is going to unilaterally change the world overnight.  He knows how his seed will be received.  Some hearts are too hard.  Too set in their ways.  Too settled into their systems.  Too packed and full to receive something so … unsettling.  Seeds sprout, they push things aside, they demand nutrients, water, resources the ground had other designs for.  It is not just the hostile atheist whose ground is too hard, anyone can be too full for Jesus.  There the seed will lay on the surface, un-embraced, unloved by the soil, where any unclean bird (demon) can come and snatch it away.

Some hearts will receive it joyfully… at first.  It’s novel!  It’s new!  It’s exciting!  We’re gonna change the world!  I’m loved!  Then the seed starts demanding those nutrients to live.  The root reaches down and touches something hard.  Some desire.  Some coping mechanism.  Some habit.  Some lust.  Some pain.  Some addiction.  Some one.  Some thing, which cannot exist with the Word and the heart has a choice to make.  Grab onto this seed, this newcomer, this disturbing revelation or hold onto the known.  Sure, it’s abusive, it’s killing me, it’s wrong, it can’t last but it’s mine.  The pain, the cold comfort I know is better than the possibly painful cure I don’t.  Unfed, unloved, the seed withers and dies.

Some hearts accept the seed just fine… as long as it’s willing to grow in the garden with the other seeds.  They are generous hearts.  All plants, all philosophies have merit.  Come Jesus, you’ll fit right in over here in the corner next to my ambitions and my other concerns.  Watch out for those thorns!  Haha, aren’t they cute when they draw blood?  The Word is in competition here.  There’s only so much water and nutrient to go around.  There’s too much shade and not enough Son.  No one weeds this garden of weeds.  The fruit growing here is not good for eating.  It blesses no one.  The Word is even very little benefit to the soil itself.  Easily forgotten amidst the competing foliage.  Tragedy, trial and suffering come and this heart is as lost as the unbeliever when the true tragedy is the Truth, Comfort, Peace and Love it craves is right there, hidden among the thorns.

Then there’s the heart Jesus is looking for.  Soft, broken, torn up by the plows of life, soaked by the rain, flooded by the river every time it overflows its banks, all of the rocks it leaned on, held onto, was sure of; all of the plants it hoped in, dreamed of, nurtured ripped out and removed.  Forgotten.  Fallow.  Empty.  Hungry! 

And the seed falls.  The seed is embraced!  The seed is fed.  Sheltered.  Loved!  Unchallenged, it grows without competition.  Everything the soil has belongs to the seed and everything the seed has belongs to the soil until there is so much fruit, the heart overflows! 

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!

Dead Woman Walking

“11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”” (Luke 7)

Before the gecko, before you were in good hands, before the corporations were on your side, before we made a profession of caregiving, before we expected the government to take care of us there was another system in place to insure people would be provided for in adversity, illness and their elder years…

It was called a family.

You didn’t have to find one; God had set it up so you were in one at birth.  A boy would be schooled and cuddled and scolded and trained up until the age of thirteen in one and then he’s ready for the workforce.  He would be apprenticed, either to his own father in the family business or farm or possibly to another man in town who needed a helper or in whose trade the boy had shown a talent.  Perhaps he may be a scholar and continue his education with the scribes, still a form of apprenticeship.  After a time, say five to seven years, he should be established.  He would now know his trade and be ready to take the next step of adulthood: to establish a family of his own.

For the daughter it would begin very similarly.  In the home, some schooling but mostly spending time with her mother and sisters and aunts and grandmother and cousins until she too reached the age of around thirteen.  By this time, she knows her trade; she has spent the last thirteen years learning the ins and outs of the household.  Her body has now told her she is able to bear children and so her father finds for her a suitable husband if he hadn’t had the lad picked out already or he and a friend hadn’t made arrangements much earlier.  This lad is most likely, or ideally a fellow around eighteen to twenty who has recently completed his apprenticeship for you see, the main point of the family unit is to provide!  To insure that his little girl is taken care of.  The cynic, the feminist may bemoan the patriarchal, archaic, authoritarian yea even despotic system that subjugated the will of the woman (remember, she may be thirteen but her body betrays her as an adult now), but if the father loved his little girl (and what kind of real father doesn’t?) and we see in the Bible many instances of fathers who doted and loved their little girls, he would obviously be trying to find the best man he could for her.  Someone from a good family, a hard worker, a lad going places.  This is the ideal of course, towns were small and so selection was most likely limited.  Some years there may be a good crop of raven locked, ruddy rascals to pick from and some years there may just be little Moishe the meager fishmonger.  Oy vey!

To our coddling culture that has extended adolescence right up to the Mid-life Crisis, full of boomerang kids playing videogames in their mommies’ basements and producing a generation of men who not only expect women to take care of them, they are so emotionally handicapped, they need them to, this ancient system sounds strange.  Regardless of how we feel about it, it had merits and it worked much of the time.  A woman was in a system of provision initiated by her father, was handed to her husband and in her declining years would be the purview of her children, most notably an eldest son.

But what if the woman were a widow?  What if she only ever had one son and then he died too?

It doesn’t take even much of a search of the Bible to see God the Father takes a serious view of how sojourners (aliens, immigrants, homeless), the fatherless and widows are treated.  Without even going into Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and those guys affectionately known as the minor prophets, we have God’s original manifesto given in Exodus….

“21 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.”” (Ex 22)  Pretty straight forward, pretty cut and dried.  God may or may not help those who help themselves but He most certainly saves the helpless! 

“5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows


    is God in his holy habitation.” (Ps 68) 

And God has come in the flesh to Nain.  A city where a widow follows the bier of her only son.  A young man on whom all her protection and provision and hopes lie dead.  She wails.  Does she wail the words of this very Psalm?  Does she wail the words of Exodus and Deuteronomy to her neighbors on whom she must now trust for aid and alms.  Can she trust them or will she have to resort to the only two trades now left open to her: begging or prostitution?  Both of which will cut her off from community and communion with God!  Her wail, whether of words or guttural howls, is not a request for aid; it is the last cry of a woman at the end of her means looking over the precipice of her doom.  She is undone.  She is a dead woman walking.

Except, God does see.  God does hear.  God is moved!  God does ACT!  In this case, He acts in a way no one could have predicted, no one could have believed, no one could have been praying for.  He stops the funeral procession.  The perfectly pure touches the unclean corpse and says to the mother, “Do not weep.” 

“3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” (Rev 21)