Tag Archives: Great Story

Chapter-a-Day

Conflict

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Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Ezra 4:24 (NIV)

I was in my freshman acting class at Judson College. Students were split into pairs and given a generic conversational script. It was up to the pair to create a scenario, characters, and a setting. One pair of actors got up and played the scene as two friends sitting on a park bench talking. The scene played out with them sitting there saying the lines to each other.

As the professor led us through observing what took place, he deftly got the class to acknowledge that the scene didn’t work because there wasn’t any conflict. It was then that I dusted off a memory of my junior high English class, when I was taught that that every good story, in print or on stage, has both a protagonist and and antagonist. I good story must have conflict. It’s just the way it works.

I believe that all good stories are a reflection of the Great Story that God, the author of Life, is telling from Genesis through Revelation. As such, the work and will of God will always encounter opposition in this world. When good is at work evil will attempt to thwart it. When evil is at work, it is the responsibility of those of us who call ourselves good to truly and justly respond.

In today’s chapter, God is at work in the Hebrew exiles attempting to rebuild the worship of God in Jerusalem. The surrounding neighbors don’t want this to happen and they appeal to the ruling authority in Persia. Utilizing political leverage, the opposition briefly wins the battle in the king’s court. The conflict ebbs and flows.

Today, I’m reminded that in this world the forces of both good and evil exist and remain perpetually in conflict. Just as I must choose whom I will serve, so I should be ever mindful of whom I stand in opposition and my duty to do so.

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featured graphic:  31721843@N07 via  flickr

Chapter-a-Day

October

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“I am against you,”
    declares the Lord Almighty.
“I will burn up your chariots in smoke,
    and the sword will devour your young lions.
    I will leave you no prey on the earth.
The voices of your messengers
    will no longer be heard.”
Nahum 2:13 (NIV)

U2 rose to fame during my college years. The iconic band that now fills stadiums and cuts deals with Apple to release their CDs was just an avant garde group of punks from Ireland when I first heard of them. One of the early songs that was extremely popular on my campus is now largely forgotten in their repertoire. It is quite simple and short:

October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care

October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on…and on…

I thought about that song this morning as I mused on Nahum’s prophesied fall of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrian empire (a.k.a. the Neo-Assyrian empire) was one of three empirical legacies of the Assyrians. It was their final empire which lasted just 300 years, roughly from 910-612 B.C. It is ranked 119 out of 214 historic world empires on Wikipedia’s charts.

Nahum was a prophet of doom for the Assyrians. Though they had risen to heights of regional power they were now to be silenced once and for all. And, Nahum’s prediction came true when an alliance of their vassals rose up to destroy the capitol city of Nineveh a few years later.

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. But You go on…

As a lover of history, I often think about the ebb and flow of human kingdoms and empires. As the Great Story plays out from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, there is a constant rise and fall of kingdoms and empires. Hundreds of them. How many of them thought that they were it. How many claimed to be the greatest? How many claimed that they would never fall? How many rulers claimed divinity or divine right?

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. But You go on…

This morning, I’m humbled. I am suspicious of any claims of divine right, invincibility, or superiority whether that come from an ISIS propaganda video or a presidential candidate’s propaganda ad. There is a larger story being told, and the kingdoms of this world are all merely playing their part.

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. But You go on.

Tom's Messages

Discovering Our Role in The Great Story

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Our local gathering of Jesus followers has two different Sunday services that run concurrently. There’s the big room and the small room. Wendy and I have, by and large, attended and worshipped in the small room since it opened several years ago. We like it because it’s smaller and we find it more intimate. Things are more laid back. We have mutually felt a sense that it’s the place we’re supposed to be.

Over the past year or so I’ve posted audio recordings of opportunities I’ve been given to deliver the weekly message in the small room. I’m scheduled to continue being part of the team of teachers in the small room, and I get to teach every month or so.

A few Saturdays back I was trying to manage “Zone 3” in our garage when I heard a voice calling my name. I turned to find our senior pastor walking into the garage. He’d stopped to ask if I’d fill in for him in the big room on Palm Sunday while he attended to some family matters out of town.

I kind of laughed to myself after he left. With it being the start of baseball season everything in my brain get’s transformed into a baseball metaphor. So, I couldn’t help but feel like I had just been called up from the minors. I was honored to be asked. It was a nice experience and in the big room there is a video recording as well as audio. So, here you go.

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

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

Whale Sharks, Scope, and the Matter of Dreams

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Whale Shark

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
Daniel 7:1 (NIV)

Last week I had a dream and I referenced it in the message I delivered on Sunday. I dreamt of a giant whale shark that was swimming in the river Thames. It was so big that it was almost as wide as the river itself. It lifted up out of the water and a gust of wind burst from it’s wide mouth like an exhale. As this happened I thought to myself that the mighty sea beast really needed a 300 gallon bottle of Scope.

What did my dream mean? Nothing really. The previous evening in conversation someone had referenced a whale shark. The city of London had come into the conversation as well. I believe that my dream was simply regurgitating in its subconscious state the images and bytes of conversation from the previous day.

A few years ago I had a very different dream about tornadoes. I woke up and was troubled by what I had seen much like Daniel in today’s chapter. I wrote down the dream and shared it with a few individuals. I can still recall the dream in its vivid entirety, but also like Daniel, will choose to keep it largely to myself for now. I admit that I don’t understand all of what I saw and experienced in that dream but I knew that this dream was different. It had been given to me, though the reason has yet to become clear.

I have come to believe that there are two errors one can make with relation to dreams. One is to dismiss them entirely. There are numerous instances throughout history of people having very specific dreams for, it turns out, very specific purposes that cannot be wholly explained by science. We should take note and pay attention when prompted in our spirit to do so. The second error is to make too much of dreams. Some dreams are simply whale sharks in the river Thames, and I believe it a fools errand to spend too much time and energy searching for metaphorical meaning in every subconscious vision that emanates from our brains’ nocturnal processing.

Centuries later there are, and have been, numerous interpretations of Daniel’s dream of the four beasts in today’s chapter. I have read and studied several of them over the years, and I have my own thoughts on which interpretations have credibility. Nevertheless, Daniel’s dreams have little bearing on my day. I have a long day ahead of me with several presentations to make for a client, tasks that must be accomplished, and people to show love and kindness. I am reminded this morning by Daniel’s dreams that the times and eras and kingdoms of this world are part of the Great Story which, I believe, is already written and continues to be slowly revealed in the borders of time and space that were set in creation. It’s fascinating to ponder Danny Boy’s dreams, and discuss them over a pint. The bottom line, however, is that I have my own small part to play in the Story, and so I begin my day.

Chapter-a-Day

Catching a Glimpse of the Great Story

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English: Books
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What sorrow awaits Nineveh,
    the city of murder and lies!
She is crammed with wealth
    and is never without victims.
Nahum 3:1 (NLT)

We have been at the lake over the long holiday weekend, and I have been thinking big picture thoughts this morning as I write my morning pages. Such is the power of this place. Everyday busyness and the whirr of the daily grind give way to the whisper of water and wind. Perspective broadens from the to-do list on my cluttered desk to the sunrise on the horizon. Thoughts and intentions have room to move and find their being here.

It is sometimes difficult reading the words of the ancient prophets like those in this morning’s chapter. The message from a semitic writer in the middle east from two millenia past seems so distant and remote as read on an iPad in a 21st century modern world. What does it really mean to me?

In the big picture frame of mind this morning I catch a glimpse. Nahum told of the fall of a kingdom which had stood on top of the world. Kingdoms rise and fall. That’s part of the Great Story which gets easily lost in the minutae of my daily grind. But there is a Great Story  being told, and I am in it just as Nahum was in an earlier chapter. If I lose sight of the Great Story then I’ve missed the point entirely, and then it becomes a tragedy.

Sometimes I desperately need the soul elixir offered by the quiet of this place. I need to step back and gain a different, and much larger perspective than the myopic lens of my moment-by-moment, day-to-day realities. Nahum watched kingdoms rise and fall. So have I. We are both part of the Great Story.

Do I know my part?

FYI… I’m taking the rest of the week off to watch the sunrise and listen to the whisper of the wind and water. We’ll take up the chapter-a-day journey next week. In the meantime, don’t forget there’s an index of old posts if you’d like to click on a few. Cheers!