Three Forces Rule the World (CaD Acts 19) –
Wayfarer
The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. Acts 19:32 (NIV)
I saw a meme on social media over the weekend that caught my eye. It was a quote from Albert Einstein who said, “Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear, and greed.” The more I meditated on this notion, the more I realized the truth of it.
The quote came to mind this morning as I read today’s chapter because all three forces are at work during Paul’s stay in Ephesus. Paul’s presence and Jesus’ Message had a powerful effect in Ephesus. So many people were choosing to believe in Jesus that the local union of idol makers began to fear (there’s the fear) that they would lose significant income (there’s the greed). So, they grabbed two of Paul’s companions and started a protest in the city’s amphitheater. The protest grew into a confusing, riotous mob, and many of the people who joined in had no idea what they were rioting about (there’s the stupidity). Eventually, a local official got control of the crowd and convinced them to disperse and take up their grievances through proper legal channels.
The local Jews had been so obstinate in refusing to believe Jesus’ Message through Paul, that Paul gave up going to the local synagogue. I found it fascinating that the local Jews participated in the idol makers’ protest. How fascinating that for hundreds of years, God spoke through the prophets and sent His people into exile in part because they wouldn’t give up their idolatry. Here, the Jews of Ephesus reject God’s Son and support the local idolatry union. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
In the quiet this morning, I found myself meditating on how the forces of fear, greed, and stupidity are at play in our own time and in our world. Paul and the disciples in Ephesus displayed the opposite of fear, greed, and stupidity. Paul was unafraid of the angry mob but wisely chose not to go to the theater and make a bad situation worse. When an entire group of sorcerers became believers, they chose to burn all of their sorcery and witchcraft scrolls which were worth fifty thousand drachmas. A greedy person would have sold them instead.
On the night of His arrest, Jesus told His disciples that He wanted them in the world proclaiming and living out His Message. In a world driven by fear, greed, and stupidity, Jesus wanted His disciples to live lives of peace, generosity, and wisdom so that others in the world could see the contrast, and be drawn to the Message. It’s a good reminder as I start another work week. Lord, help my daily life to be marked by your peace, generosity, and wisdom.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NIV)
Contrasting statements. On the desk in my office is a list of fourteen contrasting statements. These contrasting statements are key differences in understanding between members of a certain team of people. They are the source of conflict within the system and because of them, every member of the team is experiencing a lack of peace on multiple levels.
Systemic conflict lies at the heart of the Great Story. In the beginning, God creates the universe and everything in it. He caps off creation with a man and a woman, places them in the Garden, and calls it “very good.” There is shalom, the experience of wholeness, goodness, completeness, and peace. Then the evil one enters the garden and introduces both doubt and temptation to the man and woman. Interestingly, the evil one’s basic tactic in the disruption of shalom was the introduction of contrasting statements: “Did God really say…?You won’t certainly die!“
From that original sin, humanity has been yearning for shalom and God has been actively acting to restore it. That’s the Great Story in a nutshell.
In today’s chapter, we are approaching the climactic event of the entire Story. The key players are all involved. At the beginning of his account, John introduced us to Jesus as the God of Creation who came to Earth in human form. The evil one, having successfully filled the head of Judas Iscariot with contrasting statements, has put the wheels into motion to have Jesus arrested and killed. Both Jesus’ followers, His enemies, and the crowds are the humans across the spectrum of belief to whom Jesus seeks to provide restoration, redemption, and the new life of shalom.
Jesus’ followers have no idea of what’s about to happen. They are expecting the restoration of shalom the only way the world, and the Prince of this World, knows how to deliver it: gain power, exert force, suppress resistance, maintain control. God, however, had long ago tried to explain to humanity that His ways are not our ways. He will provide shalom, not by power but by suffering, not by force but by surrender, not through the suppression of resistance but through love, forgiveness, and freedom from sin and death.
Throughout Jesus’ final discourse to His followers, He continues to bring up the peace that He will provide. In the same manner, this peace is not like the peace the world seeks or promises. The shalom Jesus provides is not peace from trouble, but peace in the midst of trouble. Jesus continues to warn His followers of the trouble, persecution, resistance, and suffering that will be theirs to experience and endure. At the same time, Jesus promises them the peace of God’s Spirit to, as Paul put it to the believers in Philippi, “guard their hearts and minds” as they experience trouble and walk in Jesus’ footsteps of suffering, surrender, and love.
In the quiet this morning, my mind is on contrasting statements that don’t appear to offer a path forward. Then I think about the contrast between the world’s way and God’s way. As a disciple of Jesus, I have been provided the footsteps to follow into humility, surrender, and maybe even suffering. The way of Jesus reveals to me that death is the path to new life. And, I will find peace along this path.
I’m back on Facebook for those who liked to read my chapter-a-day posts there! Facebook refuses to give me access to my old, hacked account, but I have started a new account. Please feel free to search for me on Facebook and friend me. If Facebook won’t let you friend me, please go to my Facebook profile and “Message” me on Facebook Messenger, which should then allow me to friend you. Cheers! -Tom
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
Generalities and Perceptions (CaD Job 30) –
Wayfarer
Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. Job 30:26 (NIV)
I was listening to a song yesterday that hadn’t been in my queue in many years. I listened to it a lot back in the day. It’s about the unexpected joy of meeting “the one” when life is a simple as getting married, settling down, and having children. I played this song a lot when Wendy and I were engaged because “the one” the songwriter meets is a girl with “mahogany hair, and eyes of sweet amethyst,” which is just so Wendy. The song so aptly captured those days.
As I drove and sang along with the lyrics it struck me that it does all seem so simple when you’re high on love and, as my friend the marriage therapist says, “The pixie dust hasn’t worn off yet.” It does seem so simple at that waypoint on life’s journey: get married, buy a house, have children. But, things don’t always happen as envisioned. Wendy and I got married, bought the cute little house, but the children part would never come to fruition.
In a moment of synchronicity, shorty after I contemplated these things, I found out that a young person I know has been diagnosed with cancer. I officiated their wedding just a few summers ago.
Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.
Today’s chapter is part two of Job’s closing arguments in the mock trial he envisions having with God. In yesterday’s chapter he waxed nostalgic about how good his life was before the fateful day when his life was turned upside down; The day everything went from being blessed to being cursed. Now, Job contrasts the realities of his suffering with “the good ol’ days” when life was as simple as doing the right thing, and being blessed for it.
Amidst the bitterness of his suffering, Job once again accuses God of being the perpetrator of his misery. He not only accuses God of attacking him ruthlessly, but also of standing there staring and gloating like some kind of psychopath.
Job then states that nothing changed in his life or behavior that would justify the curse his life has become. For so long, the Santa Clause formula worked for him. Job was a good man. He was generous and gracious to those less fortunate, and his life was blessed with wealth, health, and honor in his community. Nothing changed in his behavior, he argues, and yet the blessings were stolen away and the terror of physical suffering became his 24/7 reality. Based on his previous experience, Job had every reason to expect a life of goodness and light, but he now finds himself experiencing nothing but evil and darkness.
Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.
As I meditated on this reality in the quiet this morning, I was reminded of a couple of observations I’ve made along my life journey. Those visions I had of how life would turn out are based on generalities and perceptions. Yes, for a large group of humans, life appears to follow a general pattern: childhood, high school, college, career, marriage, children, climbing the ladder, empty nest, grandchildren, retirement, and golden years. And, my perception of those around me is that everyone has a “normal” life in which these things happen routinely with little trouble.
But generalities and perceptions are not reality. I’ve been blessed to spend most of my life in intimate friendships with a large handful of very different friends. A casual observer could easily look at any of these friends and perceive a blessed life following the general pattern. However, they don’t know the things I know about my life, or the lives of my friends. They haven’t witnessed the struggles, the tears, the bitter disappointments, the chronic physical suffering, the diagnoses, the chemo, the family insanity, the miscarriages, the lay-offs and terminations, the affairs, the coming out of the closet, the marital struggles, the deep depressions or the suicide attempts. These are all part of the the life realities I’ve experienced walking alongside the every day “blessed” lives of friends and loved ones. Yet these negative realities and struggles are hidden from the casual observer who simply sees individuals and couples whose lives fit the general pattern and appear relatively blessed and trouble-free.
In the person of Job I find an extreme black and white contrast. Once again, I find that we as humans like things reduced to simple binaries, and Job gives us what we like: he boils his circumstances down to a simple black-and-white. The past was good, his present is bad. He was in the light, but now everything is darkness. I confess that life and the evil one have thrown Job an exceptionally wicked curveball. Yet, I also know from 57 years of experience that life is not a simple binary. Even the most apparently blessed lives have painful struggles. In the midst of my deepest suffering, I still have blessings to which I can desperately cling.
Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.
Life rarely turns out like we envisioned.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
(Un)Like Father, (Un)Like Son (CaD 2 Sam 18) –
Wayfarer
The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!” 2 Samuel 18:33 (NIV)
A few years ago I ran into some old friends of the family whom I had not seen since I was a teenager. When the gentleman looked at me he exclaimed, “My goodness, there’s no mistaking who you are. You look just like your old man!” As I get older, the more comments I get about looking like my father.
“Chip off the ol’ block,” they say of children who become like their parents. As Wendy and I spent time with our young grandchildren this week, we couldn’t help but have the requisite conversations regarding who each of them resembles in the family.
It is interesting the ways we are similar and dissimilar from our parents. This morning I found it interesting to think about, not the similarities, but the contrast between David and his rebellious, patricidal son Absalom:
As a young man, David was the anointed king but refused to take the life of Saul or take the throne by force. He waited and suffered for years to let God’s plan unfold. Absalom schemed and plotted to take the throne and kingdom away from his father in a coup d’etat.
David was a warrior with blood on his hands, but he also stayed opportunities to kill his enemies, and he even ordered his generals to afford Absalom both respect and gentleness. Absalom, on the other hand, was more indiscriminate. He killed his own brother out of revenge and arguably would not have afforded his old man the same courtesy his father sought to afford him.
David made his share of mistakes, but he also acknowledged his failures when confronted with them. While not perfect, David’s self-awareness led to humility and he was constantly aware that even the king was subject to a higher authority. Throughout the story, Absalom’s actions appear to have been motivated by anger, pride, and hatred. His actions were a pursuit of vengeance and ultimately, the pursuit of personal gain.
I was struck this morning as I pictured David mourning for the son who had caused him and his kingdom so much injury. I imagined what Absalom would have done had he been successful at stealing the throne and confronting his father. I can’t picture Absalom being as gracious and forgiving.
As a parent I am fully aware of the ways our adult daughters have inherited my DNA, and how they have each been affected by my words and actions both positively and negatively. I believe David was aware of this, as well. David understood that the seed of Absalom’s rebellion took root in the wake of David’s own moral and relational failures. It did not absolve Absalom of his poor choices, but it afforded David the ability, much like the father in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, to be gracious in his attitude toward his son.
This morning in the quiet I find myself thinking about motivations, character, family, and choices. We don’t get to choose our family. We must all play the hand that we’re dealt. As I’ve progressed in my own life journey I’ve discovered that there is a fine line between acknowledging and understanding the ways our parents and family system affected us and using that knowledge as an excuse for our own poor choices. I think David and Absalom, father and son, are great examples of living on opposite sides of that line.
A Note to Readers I’m taking a blogging sabbatical and will be re-publishing my chapter-a-day thoughts on David’s continued story in 2 Samuel while I’m taking a little time off in order to focus on a few other priorities. Thanks for reading. Today’s post was originally published in May 2014.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
Quick Note to my subscribers: Due to some scheduling challenges this week, I may not be posting my regular chapter-a-day regularly week. Feel free to browse the archive for a fix if you wish. Cheers!
This past week I delivered a message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers. In the message, I referenced John 8:31-32 which contains one of the most well-known statements Jesus ever made: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” That famous statement, however, is part of an if/then statement, which means that the statement by itself will always be out of context.
Jesus was speaking to a group of believers to whom Jesus was differentiating from those who were disciples.
I was raised to be a believer in Jesus but later I became a disciple of Jesus. Looking back on my experience and observations of growing as a disciple of Jesus for over 40 years, I penned the following list contrasting the two. I was asked by many to make this publicly available. Here it is:
• A believer makes a mental agreement that Jesus was who He said He was and that the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament are both true and worthwhile. • A disciple makes a life-long decision to willingly and obediently think, speak, and act in accordance with the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament.
• A believer goes to church on Sunday, at least occasionally, because it is expected. • A disciple attends worship regularly out of a desire to corporately worship God and make meaningful, relational life connections with other disciples.
• A believer brings their Bible to church to follow along with the preacher (and because it looks good to have it with you). • A disciple devours the Bible continuously as spiritual nourishment and Life sustenance.
• A believer prays in church on Sunday, says the Lord’s Prayer, prays over meals, and prays in time of need. • A disciple acknowledges Holy Spirit’s indwelling and God’s ever-presence, making everyday life an ongoing conversation with God.
• A believer “fellowships” on Sunday mornings before & after service with other believers. • A disciple lives everyday life growing in increasingly intimate relationships with fellow disciples: loving one another, confessing to one another, forgiving one another, admonishing one another, building up one another, bearing one another’s burdens, being generous with one another, and comforting one another.
• A believer seeks assurance of entrance to heaven after death. • A disciple seeks to die to self each day in order to be a citizen and ambassador of heaven on earth.
• A believer excuses their lack of knowledge, education, training, standing, goodness, holiness, purity, and/or godliness, in order to justify leaving the work of ministry to paid professionals on staff of the local institutional church. • A disciple receives God’s grace, forgiveness, and indwelling, translating it into an embrace of the spiritual reality that Jesus made every follower a minister of the Gospel of Christ at every moment of every day no matter one’s age, gender, education, ability, sinfulness, or past failures.
• A believer gives God a place in their lives. • A disciple surrenders their life to God in response to the life that His Son gave for them.
• A believer comes to the bricks-and-mortar church (or watches the YouTube feed) to pay God a visit. • A disciple is the flesh-and-blood church taking God’s love & presence to every person with whom they visit.
Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” Revelations 19:9 (NIV)
I mentioned yesterday that Wendy and I were at a wedding this past weekend. The dinner was amazing. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know that Wendy and I love a great meal, especially when it’s the trifecta of a great meal with great people enjoying great conversation.
At one point between savory bites, Wendy looked at me, her eyes as wide as saucers. “This is not only the best wedding meal I’ve ever had, but it’s right up there with maybe being the best meal I’ve had, ever.”
High praise, for sure. A great meal is always special amidst the love, laughter, joy, and celebration of two lives being united as one.
The metaphors of a wedding, of a bride and bridegroom, are used repeatedly by Jesus. At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the metaphor was even understood and shared between Jesus and His cousin, John the Baptist:
[John’s disciples] came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
Sometime later, the same disciples of John asked Jesus why His disciples didn’t religiously fast the way John made them fast:
Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.“
Toward the end of His ministry, Jesus was still using this metaphor. He told a parable of ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom to arrive so they could accompany him and his bride with their oil lamps to the wedding feast at the house of the bridegroom and his family. Some of the bridesmaids got tired of waiting and they didn’t have their oil lamps filled, trimmed, and ready when the bridegroom arrived.
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that the ancients often used weddings and funerals as metaphorical contrasts. John uses this ancient device in yesterday’s chapter (a funeral dirge for the demise of “Babylon the Great”) and today’s chapter in which Jesus, the Bridegroom, having tarried like the bridegroom in His parable for 2000+ earth years (as of today), finally celebrates a heavenly wedding feast and is united with His metaphorical bride, all of His followers whose names are written in the Book of Life.
But the contrasts aren’t over! There’s a feast to come that is a stark contrast to the wedding feast of the Lamb. An angel in heaven cries out to all the vultures and carrion fowl on earth to prepare for their own morbid picnic.
Jesus and a heavenly army then descend to meet the unholy trinity and all of the kings and kingdoms of the earth, those who had steadfastly refused to repent during the great tribulation, gathered against Him. The only weapon brought to the battle is the metaphorical sword of Jesus’ words. The anti-christ and his false prophet are captured and thrown into a lake of fire. Their followers become the entree du jour for the vultures.
In the quiet this morning, I’m struck by the simple roots of these contrasting metaphors. A funeral and a wedding. A death dirge and a wedding feast. The eerie silence of a battlefield when the battle is over and the carrion fowl pick at the corpses, and the raucous cheers of a wedding party, blessedly satiated and maybe a wee bit intoxicated, unabashedly dancing to “YMCA.”
I can’t help but be reminded of what God said to His people at the outset of this Great Story:
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses…I have set before you life and death…”
I made my choice. I sent in the RSVP.
I’m simply waiting for the bridegroom to arrive.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
“With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.” Revelations 18:21 (NIV)
This past weekend, Wendy and I were honored to be part of a friend’s wedding. I officiated and Wendy coordinated the rehearsal and the ceremony, so we were there with the family, friends, and loved ones for the entire shebang. We knew relatively few members of the wedding party and the families, so I spent a lot of time simply observing those involved and their celebration. There really is nothing quite like a wedding to celebrate life, love, family, and community in both the moment as well as its perpetuation.
In ancient literature, writers often contrasted weddings with the lamentation of funerals. Talk about a powerful contrast: the joyous perpetuation of life and the harsh reality of inevitable death. Revelations chapters 18 and 19 are an example of this contrast on an apocalyptic scale.
Today’s chapter, Revelations 18, heralds the final execution of judgment on “Babylon the Great.” Babylon first appears in the Great Story in Genesis 10. The Babylonian empire destroyed Jerusalem and took the Hebrews into exile around 600 BC. The ancient kingdom of Babylon became a metaphor for evil human empires in the prophetic and apocalyptic literature throughout the Great Story.
In John’s day, those reading his Revelations understood “Babylon the Great” to be the Roman Empire. It was Rome who had persecuted Jesus’ followers with cruel and unusual punishments. The Romans were known for their creatively tortuous execution methods, including the tying of a giant millstone to the neck of a victim and tossing the millstone and victim into the sea or a deep river to drown. As people who had seen the luxurious excesses, human cruelty, and unjust persecutions that the Romans flaunted, John’s readers would have read today’s chapter as God’s promise to judge Rome, raze it to the ground, and “pay her back double for what she has done” (vs. 6).
It’s hard not to read Revelations and try to connect the apocalyptic characters to specific people or nations. Throughout my entire spiritual journey, I have heard and read speakers and authors hawking their interpretations to the masses. In the quiet this morning, I read the chapter and thought about the way the global economy works. It is more interconnected than ever before and the economic troubles we are currently experiencing around the globe seem eerily familiar in the text. Merchants lament that they suddenly have no customers to export their goods. Sailors cry out because there are no open ports for their cargo.
As I pondered this, it made me wonder if “Babylon the Great” is less about one specific nation and more about an entire world order that oppresses the poor and vulnerable in order to traffic everything from gold to humans in order to amass wealth for the insatiably rich and powerful kings and kingdoms of this world.
Ultimately, I believe that today’s chapter is about the execution of divine judgment and the funeral pyre of human injustice on earth, complete with the catastrophic ripple effect that comes with the demise of such a system.
In the quiet this morning, my mind can’t help but turn back to current events. The last two years have been an object lesson in just how intertwined our economies and supply chains have become. A global pandemic has led to diverse and widespread social, political, and economic instabilities. As I ponder this, I’m struck by two, make it three, thoughts. The first is just how easily a small group of power-brokers might manipulate and control economics on a global scale. The second is how quickly such a system might fall apart should catastrophe strike, leading to a descent into global chaos.
The third is that John’s Revelations envision both scenarios.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
Abimelek son of [Gideon] went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, “Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember, I am your flesh and blood.” Judges 9:1-2 (NIV)
I still have vivid memories of the bully. I remember his name. I can see his face in my memory along with the bathroom at Woodlawn Elementary school where it happened. I was in second grade and he was a year older than me. He was bigger than me. He was mean and intimidating. He demanded that I give him my lunch money, but I didn’t have any. I brought my lunch to school. This made him mad and he feigned that he was going to hit me. He then told me that after school he would find me and was going to beat me up. The two-and-a-half block walk home was sheer terror, but I managed to walk with my neighbor who was two years older and that gave me some comfort.
That was my first experience with a bully, and it obviously left a strong impression on me. History is filled with those who use threats, violence, and intimidation for personal gain. What begins as bullying on the school playground can easily become a way of life that in adulthood turns into gangs, organized crime, and rackets. The same tactics of power and intimidation get “cleaned up” but still fuel political parties, corporate boardrooms, and union organizations. I’ve also experienced the same basic bully tactics from powerful individuals in churches.
The stories of Gideon and his son Abimelek form the center of the book of Judges. Ancient Hebrew writers, poets, and lyricists commonly used a literary device and placed the central theme of their work smack-dab in the middle. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that one of the central themes of the book of Judges is the tension the Hebrew tribes were experiencing as they tried to be a theocracy and follow God as their ultimate King and the reality they were experiencing with their enemies of what a powerful leader/king could do for a city or region. At the center of the book are two contrasting examples of this very tension. Gideon and his son take two very different paths to power and end up in very different places.
The story of Gideon provides the example of a powerful leader who humbly refuses to be made king, and he calls on his fellow Hebrews to recognize God as their only true leader. In today’s chapter, Abimelek provides a contrasting example. He takes the path of the power-hungry individual who will stop at nothing to seize and maintain his power.
Beneath the story of Abimelek are other subtle themes that were crucial in their time, and they still resonate today. Abimelek was one of some seventy sons of Gideon, the offspring of Gideon and a Canaanite slave. It’s likely that the biracial son of a slave was treated as less-than by his pure Hebrew half-brothers, the sons of Gideon’s legitimate wives. Abimelek uses his Canaanite blood, and his position of relative power as Gideon’s son, to convince the Canaanite people of the city of Shechem to appoint him their king. He then goes all Michael Corleone and “settles accounts” with all the potential threats to his power, his brothers, by killing them all (with the exception of the youngest brother, who escapes).
Chaos, political intrigue, violence, vengeance, and the continuous struggle for power follow Abimelek through the entire chapter. The Godfather epic is an apt parallel. Once he stepped down the path of power by violence and vengeance, Michael Corleone could tragically never escape the consequences of where it led. Abimelek found himself on the same tragic path.
In the quiet this morning, I said a prayer for my elementary school bully. I hope God led him to find a better path in life. He taught me a lesson that day. He provided me an example of the person I never wanted to become. I’m grateful for that.
I also find myself pondering the simple contrast between Gideon and his son, Abimelek. Gideon wasn’t perfect, but his deference to God’s power and authority kept him from the tragic ends experienced by his son.
I’ve learned along my life journey that whatever positions of earthly power and/or leadership I might find myself should come because I am led to them, not because I seized them for myself. As a follower of Jesus, I am called to the path of humility and service to others. Looking back from my current waypoint on Life’s road, I can tell you that it is a path that has always led, not always to easy places, but ultimately to good places.
I think I’ll stick to this path.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Genesis 13:10-13 (NIV)
Wendy and I were invited to join dear friends at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary last night. They asked me to lead those gathered in a time of praying a blessing over them. It was so beautiful to lay hands on them, to hear the prayers of love, to hear their laughter, and to see their tears. It’s one of the coolest things about giving a blessing; I always end up being blessed in return.
As we socialized into the evening I was asked by one guest if I was a pastor. This is always an interesting question to answer because culture tends to be mired in the 1800 year old paradigm of the institutional church in which being a “minister” or “pastor” is defined as professional, institutional vocation tied to a specific denomination and/or local church. Technically, I am businessman leading the research and assessment firm I’ve been a part of for almost 30 years. God led me to this job and this role, and I consider it a ministry. That said, I am also blessed to enjoy the opportunity given me by my local gathering of Jesus followers to serve in a pastoral role though I am not a member of the staff. No one wants to hear this long answer, so when asked if I’m a pastor I usually simply answer “No.”
Today’s chapter is a study in contrast between ol’ Abram and his young nephew, Lot. They’ve both prospered and have vast flocks and herds, so many that it was causing conflict among their respective herdsmen who were fighting over provision for their herds. Seeing this, Abram makes the call to separate and settle in different areas. While Abram was the elder and could have demanded the right to choose the land he wanted, he generously relinquishes his rights and allows Lot to choose his land for himself.
Abram’s relinquishing of rights and generosity are quickly contrasted by the younger Lot who sees that the plains to the east of the Jordan River were lush, green, and well-watered. There are also cities nearby for provisions and supplies. He selfishly chooses the “best” land for himself and settles near the city of Sodom.
After Lot’s departure, God tells Abram to look at the land God “is giving you and your offspring forever.” This is yet another contrast. Lot looked himself and chose what appeared to be the best. Abram waited for God to tell him where this land was. Abram is still believing the promise God made at the very beginning of this story in yesterday’s chapter. Abram and his family end up back at Hebron where he had previously built an altar to God.
Their respective destinations are yet a third contrast. Lot, having made his own choice, ends up near Sodom which already has a reputation of being Sin City and dwells in proximity to its temptations. Abram ends up back at the altar he’d once made to God and returns to a monument of his persistent faith that the childless Abram and Sarah will, indeed, experience God’s promise of descendants who will fill the earth like stars fill the sky.
I find myself back at the theme of contrast between humanity’s ways, and God’s ways. Lot made a perfectly reasonable human choice: “Hey, the grass is greener over there!” Abram chose to trust and have faith that God was going to fulfill His promise to lead Abram to “a land that I will show you.”
This brings me back in the quiet this morning to my own vocational choices. Early in my life I struck out on the path toward professional, institutional “ministry.” Then God made clear to me (it’s a long story) that He had a different path for me to follow. It was a path that led me to a more expansive understanding of God’s definition of ministry, and abundant blessing I’m still experiencing. Like the blessing of last night.
Over the years, my mother occasionally would ask me, “Are you ever going to go back into the ministry?” God love her. Her eyes were fixed myopically on what she perceived to be the lush, green grass of the old institutional paradigm. I get it. Old habits die hard.
My answer to her was always roughly the same: “Mom, I never left the ministry. Its boundary markers simply got expanded to include a land to which God wanted to lead me.”
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” Mark 7:18-19 (NIV)
When I was a young man, I spent a short period of time working in a county office building where I participated in the the legal investigation and documentation of real estate transactions. I did it for less than a year, but it was an eye opening experience. I observed and learned how government worked under the control of a political machine. I observed and learned how people use the letter of the law to circumvent the spirit of the law to achieve their own selfish ends. I learned and observed how people try to use real estate to con others, and once or twice I actually caught people doing it. It was a crash-course in “how the world works.”
In yesterday’s post/podcast I mentioned that it’s easy to get stuck looking at the text with a microscope while ignoring the bigger picture. I can lose the forest in the trees, as the old saying goes. In today’s chapter, what resonated most with me was, once again, not mired in the minutia of Jesus words, but the larger context of what is happening in the story.
Jesus ministry, at this point, has taken place in the rural backwaters of Judea. If I were to use the United States for context, I would say that Jesus has been spending all of his time and energy in fly-over country while avoiding both coasts. All of the miracles, crowds, and exorcisms have Jesus trending off the charts and the establishment powers-that-be have begun to notice. Since the beginning of time, power-brokers at the top of the political, commercial, and religious establishments have known to ceaselessly look for any threat to the stability of their power and the continuity of their cashflow.
I found Mark’s observation fascinating:
“Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.”
The more they talk about it, the more of a potential threat Jesus becomes to the religious powers-that-be. In the beginning of today’s chapter, Mark notes that an entourage of political and religious leaders from Jerusalem come to see for themselves what the hub-bub is all about. They are big fish coming to the small pond of Galilee, but along the blue-collar shores of Galilee they are not in their own environment while Jesus is definitely in His.
The Jerusalem entourage are here to find ways to discredit this threat to their control on the religious institution and the lives of all who adhere to it. They quickly call Jesus out for not washing his hands before supper, which the establishment long ago elevated onto the checklist of religious rituals and behaviors they used to maintain their self-righteous judgement of who is naughty-or-nice, who is in-or-out.
Jesus response resonated with me because He calls them out on a point of legal order. Nowhere in the Ten Commandments or the laws of Moses was ritual hand washing a thing. The religious-types, over time, had created rules that were part of legal codes which codified and expanded the interpretation of the original spiritual principle. Jesus turns this into a very simple illustration that gets to the core of the difference between His teaching and that of the institutional human religious establishment.
The religious leaders made a spectacle of their ritual hand-washing before meals to show how pious and righteous they were. Jesus quickly points out that at the same time these same religious leaders had used the letter of the law to allow children to avoid the obligation of adult children to care for their elderly parents. They allowed people to bring “offerings” as a charitable donation to the religious establishment which would otherwise have been the money needed to pay for their parents needs. They then declare a form of bankruptcy as to escape their financial obligation to their elderly parents with the absolution of the religious institution who benefitted handsomely for it.
This is a version of what I observed and learned in the county office building when I was a young men. This is how the Kingdoms of this World work.
Jesus’ response was a simple word picture. Along with hand-washing, the power-brokers from Jerusalem also had many dietary restrictions which also fell into the category of religious rule-keeping. Jesus’ observation is so simple. Food, he says, goes in the mouth, through the stomach, and out the other end. Whether eaten with ritually cleansed hands or dirty hands, the food never passes through the heart.
From a spiritual perspective, the distinction is essential, Jesus says:
“It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.” Mark 7: 20-23 (MSG)
The entourage will return to Jerusalem. Their dossier on Jesus will speak of a popular teacher among the poor and simple masses who follow Him in throngs, hang on His every word, and are won-over by His miracles. He will be labeled an enemy of the institution. He threatens the stability of their power, their control over the masses, and ultimately the stream of cashflow from their religious racket. We are still a couple of years away from this religio-political machine condemning Jesus and conspiring to hang Him on a cross, but the pieces are already moving on the chess board.
In the quiet this morning, I find myself once again inspired by Jesus. The more I read the story, and read His teachings, the more I see the contrast between the heart-principles of the Kingdom of God and the religious rule keeping of the institutions of this world. I am compelled to continue following the former with all my heart while exposing the latter for what it is. In other words, I want to be more and more like Jesus while shunning the religious institutions and establishments who point to their moral codes and religious rules and say, “this is what Jesus meant.”
I believe that humans will perpetually turn eternal Truth into earthly rules and religious systems. C’est la vie. It’s part of the fabric of a fallen world in this Great Story.
Nevertheless, I get to choose every day which I follow.
“Hang on Jesus. I’m lacing up my shoes for another day. I’m right behind you. Where are we headed?”
Wayfarer 