Monthly Archives: June 2023

Chapter-a-Day

“What’s it to You?”

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"What's it to You?" (CaD John 21) – Wayfarer

When Peter saw [John], he asked [Jesus], “Lord, what about him?”
John 21:21 (NIV)

I grew up fishing with my dad, though I never acquired his love for it. I am too impatient, and was especially so when I was a kid. As a young man, both my body and imagination were too active to sit in a boat for hours waiting for fish to bite. Nevertheless, I do have great memories of doing so.

There is one day in particular that stands out. I was around eleven and Dad and I were fishing on the Canadian side of the boundary waters. We fished a couple of coves on an island we’d never fished before. Oh man, the fish were definitely biting that day. It was unlike anything I’d experienced fishing. It felt like every cast of my Johnson’s Sprite pulled in a fish. In a couple of hours we had our limit, including two or three of the largest fish we’d ever landed. And, we’d thrown a lot of them back. I’ll never forget that day.

I think of that day whenever I read about one of the miraculous catches Jesus facilitated, as in the one in today’s chapter. Jesus told the disciples to go to Galilee and wait for Him there. So they did. And, they waited, and waited, and waited, until Peter couldn’t handle waiting and decided to go fishing. All night they fished, and didn’t catch so much as a minnow. Then the dude on the shore frying up some breakfast yells out to try the right side of the boat. “Voilà!” Suddenly there’s 153 lunkers in the net and the net is too heavy to pull into the boat! I remember that shot of adrenaline and the rush of dopamine flooding through my brain that day dad and I had our big catch.

The boys know in the moment that it’s Jesus on shore cooking breakfast. Peter abandons the boys with the net, dives in, and swims to shore (Did he, perhaps, think for a faction of a second of trying to walk to Jesus on the water?).

John chooses to end his biography with one of the most interesting conversations recorded in the Great Story. Jesus asks Peter to go for a walk, and John follows. Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” and three times he commissions Peter to “Feed my sheep.” Peter probably didn’t even understand what Jesus was doing in that moment.

Three affirmations cover the three denials Peter uttered the night of Jesus’ arrest. “Leave your shame behind, Rocky. The Good Shepherd is heading home. You’re the shepherd in charge now.” Jesus then tells Peter to plan on a rough end to his earthly journey. He will be forcefully taken where he doesn’t want to go. He will be stretched out. As the appointed shepherd, they will crucify him, too.

Then Peter does something so human. He looks over at John and asks Jesus, “What about him?”

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that we humans have a thing with equity and fairness. I love the idyllic fantasies of everything working out the same for everyone. I so easily fall down the rabbit-hole of envy and jealousy cleverly disguised as political and social righteousness. I so easily grieve when looking over at the grass that appears so much greener on another person’s lot in life.

As a follower of Jesus, I’ve had to submit to the reality that my notions of equity and fairness are not part of the Kingdom economy. That’s why Jesus responds to Peter, “What’s it to you if I have different plans for John? We’re not talking about him, we’re talking about you, Peter. You each have a part to play in this Great Story but the roles are different, your lives and experiences will be different, and your deaths will be different. Peter, you’ll die about thirty years before him. The Romans are going to crucify you. John will live to old age, be exiled to an island, and pen the visions given to him of the final chapters of the Great Story. What’s it to you?”

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a follower of Jesus is that my focus is to be on God’s Kingdom, even on this earthly journey. Not checking-out and biding my time, but rather bringing a Kingdom perspective and mission to all that I am, think, say, and do. Jesus said to “set my heart on things above,” which means my earthly perspective has to change.

Like Peter, I have a journey to walk and a mission to accomplish, but I’ve had to let go of the notion that everyone’s journey looks like mine, or that my mission is going to look exactly like someone else’s. My father was beautifully and wonderfully made to be a gifted accountant, artisan, and patient fisherman. I’m not anything like that, so what’s it to me if dad’s journey looks different than mine, or mine looks different than his?

The good news, Jesus promised, is an equitable eternal homecoming where there is no more sorrow, or pain, or envy, or jealousy. Until then, like Peter, I’m called to contentedly walk my own journey and allow others to walk theirs, even if it appears to me that their journey is better, or easier, or more fun, or [place your favorite envy descriptor here]. I have come to believe that when I look back from eternity, I will see how wrong our human perceptions were with regard to what a “good” life looked like on this world, and also believe my eyes will be opened see all the “good” I experienced but never really saw or appreciated.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Joel (June 2023)

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Below you’ll find a list of chapter-a-day posts on the book of Joel written and published by Tom Vander Well in June 2023. Click on the image to be directed to that post.

Joel 1: Plague and Blessing

Joel 2: God Beyond Distinctions

Joel 3: The Day

Chapter-a-Day

The Day

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Swing the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Come, trample the grapes,
    for the winepress is full
    and the vats overflow—
so great is their wickedness!”
Joel 3:13 (NIV)

I have been fascinated of late by the headlines. Corruption is everywhere. That is not news, of course. Corruption is always there, on both sides of the aisle, and around the world. History has taught me this. Corruption is woven into the fabric of the kingdoms of this world. Netflix is rife with documentaries uncovering the breadth of it. Corruption is part of the human condition since the Snake slithered in the Garden of Eden. The kingdoms of this world create systems to keep their corruption from public view and most of the time those systems work to protect corrupt elites from both exposure and consequences. Of late, the reality of corruption has been seeping out the cracks of the closed doors and smoke-filled rooms across the political spectrum. I’m not convinced that it will amount to anything. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that the systems meant to protect the corrupt will occasionally crack but rarely do they break.

Once again, I’m talking about both sides of the aisle and across the gobal political spectrum. Corruption has always been an equal opportunity racket for powerbrokers of all persuasions, even religious ones. The Godfather taught me this, not to mention the events of Jesus’ arrest and execution.

The result of corruption is always suffering and injustice. You’ll see it everywhere is you have the stomach to honestly look, and let’s face it, most of the time I don’t. I hold endless mental distractions in the palm of my hand most of the day, every day.

The Great Story, however, never ceases to remind me of what I often would choose to ignore. The overarching storyline from Genesis to Revelation is the human condition and the havoc it wreaks on everything from my individual willingness to make wrong choices to the corrupt systems you’ll find lurking in every human institution, especially those of global politics and finance.

The prophetic message of the ancient prophet Joel stands out among the ancient prophets because his metaphorical message points to a Day of Judgement at the end of the Story. It goes by different names like Judgement Day, the Day of the Lord, a Day of Reckoning, and sometimes just The Day. It is described as the day when the “books are opened” and everything, both good and evil, is accounted for. Justice is meted out on the grand scale of God’s Kingdom once, and for all.

As I read today’s final chapter of Joel, it echoed everywhere. In fact, the verse I quoted at the top of the post is clearly present in John’s Revelations:

I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 
Revelation 14:14-19 (NIV)

As a disciple of Jesus, I cannot escape the fact that He mentions this Day of Judgement again, and again, and again.

In the quiet this morning, I feel myself holding a certain tension. It is both the cynical weight of human corruption and the seemingly foolish hope that The Day will, indeed, one day arrive.

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
-Jesus (Matthew 12:35-37)

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

God Beyond Distinctions

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“And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.”
Joel 2:28 (NIV)

“Teacher,” asked the student, “I have been reading the prophets and I have many questions.”

“Rightly so,” answered the Teacher. “Many look to the prophets for answers when often the greatest treasure found in their words is the discovery of the right questions.”

“Is the prophet writing about a time that was, or is it about a time that is, or is it about a time that yet will be?” asked the student.

“Yes,” answered the teacher, softly.

“I don’t understand,” said the student. “Which is it?”

“Of course you don’t understand,” said the teacher. “Your confusion is rooted, my child, not in the words of the prophets but in your understanding of God who revealed to them their message. In your mind, you’ve confined God inside of time. But, time is a construct of creation and God existed before creation. Therefore, God exists outside of creation and is not confined by the construct we call time. Thus, you must consider that those marvelous things God reveals to the prophets may, like God himself, be at once about what was, what is, and what will be.”

The prophetic message of Joel reverberates with the words of the teacher. Today’s chapter is at once about what was happening in Judah, what would happen on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts, and what has yet to happen.

It was verses 28-32 of today’s chapter that Peter quoted on the miraculous day in Jerusalem recorded in Acts 2. Jesus’ followers, male and female, young and old, were gathered together when the Holy Spirit came upon all of them like a rushing wind and they all began to speak in all of the various languages of the throng of Jewish pilgrims crowded into Jerusalem for the Pentecost feast.

One of the things that strikes me about both the words of the prophet and the event on Pentecost is the loss of delineation between nations, gender, and age. The pouring out of Holy Spirit on and into the followers of Jesus was not discriminatory, neither was the manifestation of the Spirit in the proclamations being made in various languages of the world.

The further I get in my spiritual journey, the more I have come to embrace the understanding that the gifts and callings of God’s Spirit are not discriminatory in any way. Just as the teacher revealed to the student a God who is not confined by time, so Joel’s prophesy and the events of Pentecost reveal a God’s whose indwelling Holy Spirit, the spiritual gifts Holy Spirit gives, and ministry to which Holy Spirit calls individuals are not confined by human distinctions of race, gender, age, education, nationality, political world-view, or socio-economic status.

It is only we human beings and the institutional church that we humans built that has chosen to pick-up those distinctions that God blew away and discarded on the Day of Pentecost and set them back in place within our religion.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that the Great Story reveals God to be exceeding, abundantly beyond all that I could ask or even imagine. Like the student, my problem is so often rooted, not in my understanding of the Story God is authoring, but in my very understanding of who God has, is, and will reveal Himself to be.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Plague and Blessing

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Plague and Blessing (CaD Joel 1) – Wayfarer

A nation has invaded my land,
    a mighty army without number…
Joel 1:6a (NIV)

For Father’s Day this year, the girls bought me a Wisteria vine in honor of my mom, their Grandma Jeanne, who crossed over into eternity back in March. My mother’s favorite color was purple and the Wisteria blooms with large purple flowers.

When I went to plant the Wisteria, Wendy instructed me to plant it a long distance from our patio. Flowers bring bees and m’luv Wendy has a thing about bees and wasps. With her gorgeous mane of thick, curly hair, Wendy has a fear of a bee or wasp getting caught in her hair.

Of course, one can only control nature to a certain extent. So, during the summer months, Wendy is often confronted with the random reality of her flying nemesis “buzzing her tower” like Maverick in his fighter jet. Her intense reactivity to the presence of the flying pests is a sight to behold.

This week, our chapter-a-day journey is going make a quick trek through the short, ancient prophecies of Joel. Joel is a bit of a mysterious prophet on the historical landscape. The historical record both within the Great Story as well as non-Biblical tradition are silent regarding who exactly Joel was and when exactly he lived and carried out his prophetic ministry. He appears out of nowhere and writes one prophetic poem warning of a coming plague and calling the people of Judah to repentance.

The plague Joel warns about is a plague of locusts. For a modern reader here in America, this sounds archaic and mythological, but plagues of locusts devastated parts of Africa just a year ago. It’s horrendous.

As Joel opens his prophetic prognostication, he compares the swarm of locusts to “a mighty army without number.” This isn’t the first time that this phrase was used in conjunction with a locust plague. Psalm 105:34 uses the same phrase to reference the plague of locusts used against Egypt in the time of Moses when Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.

I mulled this over in the quiet this morning. It’s a fascinating connection. In Exodus 10 the locust plague is used against the Hebrews’ antagonist to motivate a change of heart. Now, Joel predicts, God is going to use the same natural plague against His own people to motivate a change in theirs.

What goes around, comes around.

I’m reminded that there is so much in this life that I do not control. As Jesus said in His famous message on the mountainside: “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Tragedy sometimes befalls the best of us, while blessing sometimes rains down on the worst of us. I have observed along my life journey that in either circumstance, Jesus’ question remains essentially the same:

“What will I do if the plague tragically strikes? “

“What will I do if I’m undeservedly blessed?”

Joel is promising the former, and calling his people to respond accordingly. But how I answer both questions and how I respond in either circumstance is equally important in God’s Kingdom economy. I’ve observed that we as humans like to think of earthly things in simple binary terms. I’m either the victim of tragedy or blessed beyond measure. The truth of what Jesus taught is that I will likely experience both on this earthly journey, and how I respond is a barometer of my spiritual health.

For Wendy’s sake, I just hope I planted the Wisteria far enough away from the patio.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Malachi (June 2023)

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Below you’ll find a list of chapter-a-day posts on the book of Jonah written and published by Tom Vander Well in June 2023. Click on an image to be directed to that post.

Malachi 1: Profane
Malachi 2: Finding the Thread
Malachi 3: Money Matters
Malachi 4: “Wait for It”
Chapter-a-Day

“Wait for It”

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"Wait for It" (CaD Mal 4) – Wayfarer

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.
Malachi 4:2 (NIV)

My vocational career has been spent surveying customers for various clients around the world. One of the fascinating trends I’ve seen over the years is how customer expectations have changed since the advent of the internet age and the proliferation of cell phones. In the wake of Big Tech, time-related dimensions of service have become bigger drivers of customer satisfaction. In general, we are more impatient. We want faster answers. We don’t like to wait.

Wendy and I often muse how much we appreciate having information at our fingertips. We’ve kind of become Jeopardy! geeks and sometimes the answers prompt more questions about things we didn’t know. The other night, Wendy didn’t have her phone next to her as we were watching, so she simply lifted her Apple watch to mouth and asked Siri a question. Her watch immediately and audibly provided her with the trivial answer.

“Did you see what I just did?” she marveled at me.

Instant answers. Immediate gratification. Endless distraction.

Welcome to the 21st century.

For a disciple of Jesus, this trend represents a tremendous challenge. The spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus is fraught with waiting. Spiritual growth is an organic process that requires time for roots to dig deep in the Spirit, for growth to take place, and for fruit to emerge. Faith is “the assurance of what we hope for” which, by its very nature, means it’s out there and I have yet to fully take hold of it but believe with hope that I will. Paul put it this way in his letter to the followers of Jesus in Phillipi:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Press on. Persevere. Reach. Strain. Those are the elements of the Spirit journey. It becomes an even greater challenge in an age when the expectation and normal human experience is immediate information and satisfaction right from your wristwatch.

One of the most fascinating things about the prophetic works of Malachi is its placement in the great story. Malachi was the last of the ancient prophets. His book was placed at the end of the prophets. Malachi was prophesying around 430 B.C. The next book in the Great Story is Matthew‘s biography of Jesus four hundred years later.

Today’s brief chapter is a set-up to the wait that is coming.

Revere my name. Remember the Law of Moses. Watch for Elijah.

A big Day is coming.

Wait for it.

In the quiet this morning, I spent some time looking back at my own spiritual journey. There have been so many time when I had to wait for promises to be fulfilled, prayers to be answered, and waypoints on the journey to be reached. The waiting, in turn, required praying, keeping the faith, hoping, pressing on, and developing patience. And, that’s the point. God’s goal for me is spiritual maturity, and that never happens in an instant.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Money Matters

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Money Matters (CaD Mal 3) – Wayfarer

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings.”
Malachi 3:8 (NIV)

I have a confession to make.

For much of my life I was terrible with money. It started as a child when I spent money as fast as I received it, and not wisely. I loved the thrill and experience of new things. When I got into college and discovered that Sears would give me a credit card and I could buy that cool stereo and pay it off over time, I was like a drug addict taking his first hit.

During my childhood, I was also taught about tithing. It’s a concept that goes back to the law of Moses. The first ten percent you make is offered to God in thanksgiving.

That felt very legalistic.

So, as young adult I gave on occasion. When I had a little extra. Which wasn’t often. Especially when my debts were piling up.

You get the picture.

The subject of money, wealth, and possessions are deeply and intimately personal. In some cases, I’ve observed that it’s a more taboo subject than sex. One friend of mine, who has been in pastoral ministry for decades, told me that the most harsh and angry reactions he has ever received from his messages over the years has been when he talks about money.

Here’s what I’ve learned along my own life journey: A true disciple of Jesus cannot escape dealing with the subject of money, wealth, and possessions. Jesus talked about it more than almost any subject because it has such a huge impact on my very understanding of myself, of God, and of others. When I hadn’t surrendered to Jesus’ teaching about money, I found my spiritual growth and development stalled in pretty much every area of my life.

Today’s chapter was instrumental in changing my fundamental perspective about the relationship between my finances and my spiritual well-being. It was in my memorization and meditations of verses 8-10 that were life-changing. I began to realize that my thoughts and perceptions about money were flawed at the very core. When I thought about tithing and giving God the first portion of my income as a legalistic rule, it was because I mistakenly thought that the money was mine. Therefore, wrenching my money from my possession was limiting the amount of my money that I could spend on the my desires.

Then I came the realization of what Jesus really taught. As a disciple of Jesus, I am to understand that nothing is mine. Everything is God’s. My job and my income are God’s blessings I have been graciously given that I might be a generous steward. And, I’ve learned that God’s modus operandi is the wise management and investment of resources for the sake of extravagant generosity which God has modeled for me and asks me to practice with others.

The story of my spiritual journey is inextricably woven with the story of my financial journey. My progress in the former is predicated on my progress in the latter. I humbly admit to making many mistakes along the way, and I am by no means perfect. Nevertheless, over a period of time I changed my core understanding of money, wealth, possessions and resources. I clawed my way out of debt. I learned how to practice financial discipline. Perhaps most importantly, I began to increasingly take the resources God has generously given Wendy and me and generously channel them to God and others as we are led.

It’s really what God was trying to teach His people through the prophet Malachi: If you don’t get the money thing right, you’ll never get the Spirit thing right.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Finding the Thread

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Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
Malachi 2:10 (NIV)

Over the past couple months, I gave three “whiteboard” messages among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers. We were going through the metaphorical “I am” statements Jesus made as recorded by John in his biography of Jesus. I used the same approach in each of the three messages, which was to unpack the fact that in proclaiming the metaphor for Himself (e.g. “I am the bread of life,” “I am the gate,” “I am the resurrection and the life” – each links to YouTube of the corresponding message), Jesus was connecting to spiritual themes throughout the Great Story from Genesis to Revelation.

One the pieces of repeated feedback I’ve received from people with regard to these messages was that they’d never seen the connections or recognized the metaphorical thread that ran throughout the Story. I get it. I’ve observed it to be very common for individuals to simply look at a verse or a chapter with a myopic magnifying glass. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but when that is the only way one views it, they effectively look at every verse or chapter with blinders on. The context of the larger whole is never seen or understood.

That’s why I continue in my chapter-a-day journey, even through what most people would consider the “boring” texts. I have found the text to be “boring” only if I expect it to read the same way as the biographies of Jesus or one of Paul’s letters. The text of the prophets expects something different from me in the way I read, study, and think. One of those expectations is for me to see the connections; To see the thread of consistent message running through them.

For example, I recognized in today’s chapter a message thread running through the messages of Jeremiah, Malachi, and Jesus. In today’s chapter, Malachi specifically addresses the priests and religious leaders. It’s the same group of people Jeremiah confronted for being “shepherds” who only led the people astray with their heartless corruption. It was the reason God sent His people into exile, hoping they would learn the lesson, repent, and return with a different attitude. They obviously didn’t, because Malachi addresses the same lot and accuses them of being hypocrites and bad examples who effectively were the same covenant breakers that Jeremiah prophesied about 150 years before. It is the same lot for whom Jesus saved his most scathing rebuke and condemnation.

But the thread doesn’t end there, and this is most critical to understand.

After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the entire paradigm changed. No longer was the priesthood confined to a small group of people with certain strands of genetic DNA or with institutionally educated and approved “ministry” professionals. Every follower of Jesus, indwelled with the Holy Spirit, becomes what Peter called “a royal priesthood.” Every follower of Jesus is essentially a priest, a conduit through whom others are to find Jesus by the examples we set in our lives, words, relationships, and actions. The institutional church has never truly embraced this. Human institutions, by their very nature, consolidate power among a few in order to control the many.

This means that the same lot that Jeremiah addressed, the same lot that Malachi addressed, and the same lot that Jesus addressed is now….me.

Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” In other words, Jesus expected all of his followers to live by our loving example towards others. It’s the same message Malachi addresses to the priests. The way they were treating their own people profaned God’s established covenant relationship (see yesterday’s post).

In the quiet this morning, if I truly understand that I am now part of the “royal priesthood of all believers” then I can’t help but feel the sting of Malachi’s prophetic rebuke. In the realm of the Spirit and the Kingdom of God, I am just as much a priest as the Levites Malachi is addressing. The expectations of being a loving example of Father God is as much on me as it was on them, if not more so.

And so I enter another day of the journey, endeavoring to be a living example of Jesus’ servant-hearted love in my peace, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Pray for me.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.