Monthly Archives: March 2015

Chapter-a-Day

Living Metaphors

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"Ezekiel's Wife Dies" by Michael Buesking at http://prophetasartist.com (click on the artwork to be taken to his site)
“Ezekiel’s Wife Dies” by Michael Buesking at http://prophetasartist.com (click on the artwork to be taken to his site)

“Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandalson your feet; do not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners.”
Ezekiel 24:16-17 (NIV)

Last night in my Language of God class we talked about how God specifically uses metaphors in prophecy and through the prophets like Ezekiel. While prophetic messages and metaphors are woven and layered throughout the books of law (Genesis through Deuteronomy), history (Joshua through Esther) and poetry (Job through Song of Songs), the prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) occupy a special time and place in the Great Story that God is telling throughout His Message.

For roughly 400 years (c. 800-400 B.C.) the prophets lived and shared their prophetic messages with the people of Israel and Judah. Their prophetic messages were delivered through an array of mediums including:

  • written word
  • spoken word
  • visual art
  • performance art.

Most fascinating for me, however, is when God called upon the prophets very lives to become a living message and metaphor. God told Hosea to scandalously marry a prostitute who would be unfaithful to him and suffer through the agonies of that marriage so that the prophets very life and marriage would be a living metaphor of how God’s people were being unfaithful to Him. How’d you like to explain that one when you take her home to meet the parents?

What has fascinated me about Ezekiel as we’ve journeyed through his story this time around is the fact that Ezekiel encompasses all of the prophetic mediums in the course of his messages. In today’s chapter, God tells Ezekiel that his very life is going to become a living message and metaphor for God’s people. God informs Zeke that his wife, the delight of his eyes, will be suddenly taken from him. When his wife dies unexpectedly, Ezekiel is instructed NOT to cry, weep or publicly mourn for his wife. God knows that Zeke will be groaning internally, but he is to carry on with his prophetic messages and not let the people see his sadness and grief.

God is creating a living metaphor through Ezekiel’s life experience. Ezekiel is like God. His wife is like the people of Judah who are going to suddenly experience death and be taken away by the Babylonian army. Though groaning inside, God will not openly mourn this event. It is an act of judgement brought on by the corporate sins of the nation.

Today, I am fascinated by the thought of our very lives as word pictures of God’s grace, judgement, salvation, and redemption. While the prophets occupied a very specific time, place and purpose in the Great Story, God continues to use the same prophetic mediums in different ways through those called and gifted in such ways. What message and word picture does my life convey? How does my life convey different messages to different people, and is the message dependent on the person peering at it?

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Chapter-a-Day

God’s X-Rated Word Pictures

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Egyptian Phallic StatueThere she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:20 (NIV)

You’re likely not going to hear a sermon at your neighborhood church on today’s chapter. The MPAA would rate a movie of Ezekiel’s word pictures NC-17 in the blink of an eye, and depending on the Director of the film, it would likely end up X rated. Today’s chapter reminds me that there are those sections of God’s Message commonly chosen for public consumption on Sunday morning, and there are those that are commonly avoided.

However, as I’ve read and studied the entirety of God’s Message over the years, I find that it does not shy away from base human realities. Sex and violence are a very real part of the human experience. Even the “heroes” of the faith are revealed to have core character flaws and to be guilty of all sorts of wrongdoing.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The pornographic imagery that fueled ancient fertility cults are akin to graphic porn on our computer screens to which many are addictively drawn. I look around my local gathering of Jesus followers and know those who have been physical, verbal, and sexual abusers as well as victims of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. These are core realities of the fallen state from which we all need to experience repentance, healing, forgiveness, redemption, and salvation.

The ancient prophets like Ezekiel were not given to social propriety and white washing the truth in idyllic terms. They were given to speaking in honest, base terms about the human condition. Today’s chapter is a prime example in which God gives Zeke a word picture that many starched, religious church goers I know would prefer to simply skip over. The metaphors center on two female prostitutes who have given themselves over to their insatiable sexual lusts. The sisters represent the divided kingdoms of Israel (Samaria in the north and Judah in the south) who, in God’s graphic word picture, whored themselves out in political and religious alliances with their neighbors rather than being faithful and trusting of God.

This is not subtle, read between the lines, imagery. The things a person experienced in Ezekiel’s day is almost unfathomable to our relatively puritanical, politically correct world. There were sex cults and child sacrifices. Graphic, giant phallic (penis) imagery in sculptures and graphic depiction were a normal part of pagan societies, and God through Ezekiel’s message addresses these things in equally graphic terms. Desperate times call for desperate messages, and God does not shy away from speaking directly, graphically, and emphatically to his people.

Today, I am reminded that prophets are not only fore-tellers but forth-tellers who are not afraid to shock people out of their comfortable, proper religiosity to say what needs to be said. I am reminded that socially or religiously cloistering ourselves from the realities of fallen humanity does not insulate us from those realities or their consequences. Blissfully ignoring and piously avoiding any public evidence of our sin doesn’t immunize us from sin and its disastrous effects, rather it keeps us from honestly addressing sin in healthy ways that will promote positive change, healing and redemption.

I believe that messages like Ezekiel’s are God’s way of shocking us out of our religious duplicity to address this base reality.

Chapter-a-Day

Fire, Dross, Faith, and Joy

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Aluminum Dross (source: Wikipedia)
Aluminum Dross (source: Wikipedia)

“Son of man, the people of Israel have become dross to me; all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but the dross of silver.” Ezekiel 22:18 (NIV)

In today’s chapter God uses the metaphor, or word picture, of dross to describe the ancient nation of Judah, the city of Jerusalem and the people (specifically the rulers and power brokers). So, this morning I’ve been doing a little internet search on metallurgy and learning about dross.

Dross is solid waste material made up of impurities and appears when you fire metal with intense heat into it’s molten, liquid form. The impure dross floats on top of the molten metal and, in the way it would have been dealt with in Ezekiel’s day, was skimmed off as waste.

The word picture is clear to those who had been following and listening to Ezekiel’s messages. The fire of God’s judgement would reveal the impurities in the rulers of Jerusalem, marked by corruption, idolatry, and moral failure. When the heat was turned up (the Babylonians were coming to lay siege to Jerusalem) the corrupt and impure leaders would be skimmed away like dross off of molten metal.

The thing I love about the metaphors God uses throughout His Message is that they are layered with meaning across time and space. Over 500 years later God would speak through Simon Peter in his letter to persecuted Jesus followers scattered across the land:

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

 Once again we find the fires of persecution blazing, this time in the form of the Roman persecution of anyone claiming to be a follower of Jesus. Instead of the fire revealing and skimming off the dross, the fires accomplish a different purpose. The fire refines and reveals the genuine gold, which is the faith of those who were willing to be thrown to the lions in the Roman Circus rather than recant their belief in Jesus.

Today, I am reminded that all of our lives are subject to times of suffering intense heat in circumstances that can run the gamut from judgement to persecution to tragic circumstances that defy reason. I have learned along life’s journey, however, that there is purpose in the pain. Suffering reveals things about our souls and our character. It separates the pure metal from the dross. For those who have faith to see, we find inexplicable joy amidst the suffering.

Wayfarer's Journal

Vander Well Update

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So, we’re a few days shy of two weeks in the new digs. Everyone is asking me how things are going. After the first few days of complete and utter shell shock, we are loving the new house and feeling extremely grateful. Life in the new house has quickly fallen into what I consider to be three distinct types of living “zones:”

Zone 1: This space has to be relatively set up and have a semblance of order for me to sanely function (Like my home office):

office

Zone 2: This space is functional, but may be relatively messy and you might have to still hunt through a box or two to find what you need. About 80% of the house is still Zone 2, like the Great Room in the basement where you can watch television, play a game, or watch a movie, but you’ll have to dig through three or four boxes of DVDs to find the movie you want to watch.

great room basement

Zone 3: I don’t even want to think about Zone 3.

storageBut, we are getting back to normal life and that has been fun. It has helped that the past week has been GORGEOUS spring weather with sun and temps in the 60s (and even touching low 70s).

In other news:

  • TaylorTaylor is deep in the 2nd semester of her Master’s program at the University of Edinburg, Scotland. She works a couple of days a week at Steampunk Coffee and is doing an internship for the contemporary art museum in Inverleith House in the middle of the Royal Botanical Gardens. She recently nailed down an internship (which will serve as the study for her Master’s dissertation) with Art in Healthcare, which sources and places an impressive collection of artwork in healthcare environments across Scotland. She will be finishing her dissertation and returning to the States in late summer. Yes, Wendy and I plan on visiting her but have not set a date. Likely May/June time frame.
  • MadisonMadison is back in classes at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs after a short respite. She will finish her degree in Communication in the next semester or two. She continues to love Colorado and can often be found hanging out at Peak Place Coffee. When not in school she’s a flight attendant for Sky West Airlines and serves mostly on regional flights for United Express. She’s also running Madison Kate Cleaning on the side and putting in some time in sales and training with DermaDoctor. Goodness, I don’t know how she does it all.
  • Suzanna as AnneSuzanna, Wendy’s youngest sibling, is still living with us. The weekend of our move she starred on the local stage as the lead in Anne of Green Gables. It was a three hour production in which she had the lion’s share of the lines, was on stage most of the show, and had just short of 6 million costume changes. Suzanna is working days at Total Choice Shipping and a few nights a week at Kaldera. She is saving for college and intends to head off to Hawkeye Community College in the fall with a plan to transfer to UNI to be a theatre major.
  • Wendy and I have been pretty focused on the move, but finding time to continue positions on the Board of Union Street Players. I’ve been teaching a Wednesday night class and have been delivering messages on Sunday mornings every 4-6 weeks or so.
  • My dad was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma this past month which has been scary for all of us, but we have been assured that it is perfectly treatable, he is in relatively good health, and he will begin treatment as soon as possible. Meanwhile, mom feels like her Alzheimer’s meds are helping her and is still considered to be in the early stages. We really enjoyed having them visit this past weekend.
  • Wendy and I make our first trip of 2015 to the lake next week, baseball has been seen on our tv screens, and we grilled hamburgers last night, which means summer can’t be far off!
Chapter-a-Day

“YOU’RE GOING TO PEE YOUR PANTS!”

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source: neratama via Flickr
source: neratama via Flickr

And when they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt with fear and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and every leg will be wet with urine.’ It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord.” Ezekiel 21:7 (NIV)

The prophets had to have been a strange lot. They were prone to do strange things and act out obscure (what we would, today, call “performance art”) productions in public places. Their personal lives were often metaphors for the messy spiritual condition of the culture. Their steady stream of public messages were not known for their tact or their propriety.

Take today’s chapter, for example. God tells Ezekiel to stand out in the public square and groan. Not just a little “I think the cream cheese on that bagel didn’t agree with me” groan. GROAN like your beloved mother just died. GROAN like a husband who just found out his wife was sleeping with his best friend. GROAN like you feel a hideous creature ready to burst out of your insides as in the movie Alien. Make a public spectacle of yourself so that people will circle around you in wonder and mothers shoo their young children away from you in fear.

Then, when people start asking Zeke what’s wrong, God tells him to say, “When I tell you YOU’RE GOING TO PEE YOUR PANTS!”

While I’m not sure they would make the most enjoyable dinner guests, there are times when I find the old prophets really refreshing. They remind me that, while there is a time for propriety, there are also times in life for saying things in a way that would make your Aunt Nita blush and shrink back in shame. There are moments for communication that smacks of brash, in-your-face impropriety.

Of course, wisdom is required in choosing the right moments. The key part is knowing when to speak and when to keep silent.

Chapter-a-Day

Did I Just Strike Out, or Did I Hit a Home Run?

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2013 06 08 Nathan VL Baseball 02

Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, they are saying of me, ‘Isn’t he just telling parables?’”
Ezekiel 20:49 (NIV)

For the past couple of months I have been teaching a class for a handful of brave souls from our local group of Jesus followers. The class was intended for a those who feel that they may have a spiritual gift in preaching or teaching. I have been asked to teach and to mentor them. I encouraged anyone interested in being a better communicator to join us and a number of people did.

In the first week of the class I announced to the group that we would be breaking some new ground and that there was the distinct possibility that I could really miss the mark. Most people are used to taking a class that follows a published book or video series of some kind. What we are exploring, however, is how God uses the language of metaphor. We’re talking about metaphors in creation, metaphors in the names we find in God’s message, metaphors in the sacraments, metaphors in prophecy, metaphors in parables, metaphors in the arts and creative expression, and etc. Along the way, we are also touching on some practical advice for preparing and delivering an effective presentation or message.

One of the most important points I have made to my class is that when you deliver a message the job is to prepare and communicate the material to the best of our ability and leave the response and results up to the Holy Spirit. That is easier said than done. We all have a natural desire to know if our words have accomplished their purpose. Last night as I left the parking lot I called Wendy to tell her how the class went. “I’m not sure,” I ruminated, “if I struck out swinging or hit a home run.”

The question still nagged at me as I read this morning’s chapter. For 20 chapters Ezekiel has been preaching, prophesying, and performing his metaphorical productions as God instructed. Then, at the very end of the chapter Zeke questions God about his audience’s response. I can feel his heart. “Is any of this landing? Are my messages having any impact? Am I making any kind of a difference? Have a stuck out swinging or am I knocking it out the park?”

I’m sure Zeke would have been encouraged to know that 2500 years later his prophetic messages would still be having lasting impact as we read them, meditate on them, study and appreciate them. But, in the moment, he’s just a messenger wanting to know if he’s making a difference. How very human, and in that I am encouraged this morning as well as being reminded of my own words to my class: “Just keep doing what you’re called to do to the best of your ability. God takes care of the rest.”

Chapter-a-Day

Prophets and Political Satire

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“This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”
Ezekiel 19:14c (NIV)

One of the popular theatre events in London these days is a play entitled King Charles III in which the playwright audaciously imagines the reign of Queen Elizabeth’s son. What makes the plays so controversial is that the characters are still alive and the events depicted haven’t happened yet. Queen Elizabeth is stubbornly alive and remains on the throne. Her son, Charles, is still waiting to ascend to the throne of England that he’s been preparing for his entire (and, at this point, long) life. The play created quite a stir when it first opened and more than a few people questioned its propriety.

In a similar fashion, today’s chapter would have created quite a stir when Ezekiel first performed it. The chapter begins and ends establishing the fact that it is a lament . In fact, the last line (pasted above) is an authors note to the reader/performer that it is lament and is only to be used as such. It is a poem, perhaps put to music and sung, meant as a funeral dirge. But, the metaphorical subjects of the lament were members of the royal house of Judah who were very much alive.

Ezekiel’s lament was both prophetic and politically satirical. It was an SNL skit of his day. It would have offended, poked, and prodded the political power brokers of his day. He was trying to make a point: your days are numbered and we will all be lamenting your eventual downfall.

Today, I’m thinking about the power of satire, which I believe has been a part of culture since the birth of culture. Even God was not afraid of using his prophets to satirically poke at His ancient people and their rulers. It’s one of the things that I love about theatre in all of its various forms. It has the ability to provoke thought, conversation, and change. It’s too bad the institutional church of our day is so uptight. We could use regular doses of satire.

Chapter-a-Day

“Every Subject’s Soul is His Own”

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church elders“Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.” Ezekiel 18:30 (NIV)

This morning as I read today’s chapter I was reminded of a story shared with me by a man raised in a very conservative, religious family. In his youth, the man had been a real hellion, getting involved in all sorts of unhealthy behaviors and rebelliously acting out against his parents. Because of his rebellious reputation, the elders of the religiously constipated church paid weekly visits to his father, shaming him for not being able to control his son. In turn, the son seemed to carry a sense of guilt and shame for what he put his parents through.

In a land and culture of rugged individualism and personal freedom, I think it’s hard for most of us to fully grasp the social realities of living in a staunch, patriarchal society like that of Israel in Ezekiel’s day. While there are still pockets of it as in the example I shared, I think most of fail to fully appreciate how power, wealth, and position flowed from father to eldest son or male relative. From a societal perspective, shame and guilt was shared in the same way. A father’s shameful acts tainted the son’s reputation. A son’s shameful acts tainted the father’s reputation and ability to control his family.

I have observed that in these types of patriarchal sub-cultures the truths of God get easily and confusedly mixed up with the cultural rules and power plays of the local authority figures (family fathers, church elders, town council, secret cabals of local businessmen, and etc.). So it was in Ezekiel’s day, and in today’s chapter God attempts to set the record straight through Ezekiel.

A child is not guilty for the sins of his or her parent and a parent is not guilty for the sins of his or her rebellious child. Each person must stand in judgment before God for his or her own actions. Period.

“Every subject’s duty is the King’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.”
– Shakespeare (Henry V, Act 4, Scene 1)

Today, I am thinking about ways I may have mindlessly allowed one person’s actions or reputation taint my feelings or actions towards that person’s other family members. And, I’m determining to change my way of thinking.

Chapter-a-Day

An Epic Production; A Bit Part

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2012 12 USP Joseph Backstage Grovel LR

All the trees of the forest will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.
Ezekiel 17:24 (NIV)

Ezekiel’s prophetic parable in today’s chapter is specifically related to the political circumstances of his day. Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem and carried off her royals, nobles and promising young talent back to Babylon. A royal family member, named Zedekiah, was set on the throne as a political puppet of the Babylonian king. But Zed had his own ideas and conspired with the Egyptians to deliver Jerusalem from Babylonian control. Today’s chapter is Ezekiel’s prophetic prediction of Zed’s failure and downfall.

Two things struck me this morning as I read the chapter this morning and considered the regional intrigue of Ezekiel’s day.

First, I am mindful of the Israeli Prime Minister’s controversial address to the U.S. Congress earlier this week and the reality that the political intrigue of that region of the world continues 2500 years later. The Israel of today has its capital in Jerusalem, the same capital city destroyed by the Babylonians in Ezekiel’s day. The Egyptians to whom Zedekiah pled for help remain a nation to this day. The ancient Babylonians are today’s Iraq. The Assyrian empire of Ezekiel’s day is today’s Iran. The names are slightly changed, but the peoples and the players are the same as are the regional power struggles and conflict. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Second, I was struck by God’s word through Ezekiel that there is a divine plan being worked out in all of this. God can bring down the powerful from their lofty heights and raise the lowly to positions of prominence. All the world’s a stage and there is a Great Story being played out amidst the proscenium of time. We are part of the same production.

All of this makes me and my silly little troubles feel small and insignificant. And yet, Jesus reminded us that there are no small parts. I may be a bit player and an extra in the chorus of this epic production, but the costume department considers me important enough that  every hair on my head is numbered and the Producer/Director knows my name. I have a part to play, as small as it may be and as insignificant as it may seem. It starts with loving my neighbors as I love myself, and acting accordingly.

Chapter-a-Day

Marriage as Metaphor

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Michael Buesking illustrates another prophet, Hosea, whose adulterous marriage became a word picture of God's relationship with His people. Buesking's artwork can be found by clicking on the image or at prophetasartist.com
Michael Buesking illustrates another prophet, Hosea, whose adulterous marriage became a word picture of God’s relationship with His people. Buesking’s artwork can be found by clicking on the image or at prophetasartist.com

“Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.” Ezekiel 16:8 (NIV)

Across all human relationships, the marital relationship is unique in many respects. Two people choose to enter into a covenant relationship with one another, to be exclusively faithful and more completely intimate with that person than with any other. Marriage is the closest thing we have on Earth to embody the relationship God desires to have with each of us, and God uses the marriage relationship over and over again to embody the intimate relationship He desires to have with each of us.

In today’s chapter, God once again instructs Ezekiel to use marriage as a metaphor describing God’s relationship with the people of Israel. He uses imagery around the marital traditions of that day. God chooses Israel as His bride and enters into a marriage covenant, but Israel commits adultery by chasing after other lovers in the form of the many gods and idols that were popular in that culture.

God makes it prophetically clear that He will not ignore the unfaithfulness of His bride. There will be disgrace and consequences in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. Yet, in the end of the chapter God makes it clear that He will continue to honor His covenant; There will be a remnant who will survive and return to Jerusalem. God says he will make atonement for the adulterous sins committed; He will send His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for sin, once for all.

Today I am struck that God, through Ezekiel, has been speaking the same message in many different metaphors and word pictures. I find that in the human experience not everyone “gets” a message the same way. Some people connect with one medium, some with another. A word picture may be profoundly revelatory to one person while another person remains blind to the message. Across the book of Ezekiel I am impressed at how God is desperately trying to get through to His people, His spouse. He keeps trying to get through.