Tag Archives: Jerusalem

Chapter-a-Day

Death & Discipleship

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Death & Discipleship (CaD Acts 21) – Wayfarer

When [Paul] would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
Acts 21:14 (NIV)

The great German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him ‘Come and die.’”

That’s not the kind of sentiment you’ll find stamped on key chains and coffee mugs at your local Christian bookstore. Nevertheless, the path of discipleship is one of surrender and obedience to go wherever I might be led. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that people love Jesus’ statements about knowing the truth, loving little children, and being set free. His statement that no one can be a disciple unless they are willing to suffer and die doesn’t get as much airplay.

In today’s chapter, Paul makes his return to Jerusalem despite the fact that it was a tremendous risk for him to do so, and Paul knew it. In yesterday’s chapter, he was convinced he would never see his friends in Ephesus again. In today’s chapter, a prophet proclaims that he will be arrested and bound if he goes there. Everyone tries to convince him not to do it. Paul will not be deterred. He declares to his friends that he’s willing not only to be arrested but also killed if it comes to that. Indeed, this will be a fateful trip that will set the course for the rest of his earthly life.

Luke does not record Paul’s reasoning for being so adamant about going to Jerusalem. From his letters, it is obvious that Paul was constantly seeking divine guidance regarding his travels and ministry. His stubborn determination and resignation regarding his fate can only lead me to believe that he believed, without a doubt, that this was what God was leading him to do.

Having just been through the season of Lent and having just completed our chapter-a-day journey through John, I am reminded that Jesus went to Jerusalem with equal determination. Jesus was urged not to do so for fear of being arrested. Jesus literally pushed the buttons that led to His execution. Paul is doing the exact same thing.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on this core tenant of being Jesus’ disciple in which one comes to understand that an earthbound perspective is all wrong. God’s eternal kingdom is the ultimate reality while this earthly existence and journey is but a shadow of that reality. Paul understood that well. He wrote to the disciples in Corinth: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” He wasn’t afraid of what might happen to him. He welcomed it.

There’s always a tension for me in contemplating this sense of ultimate surrender while readily acknowledging that I live in the most free and affluent human society that the earth has ever known. Nevertheless, I think it worthwhile to honestly contemplate how surrendered I really am. If I really believe what I say I believe, then death is not to be feared but embraced as a gateway to the realization of eternal reality.

Note: I will be out the next two days, returning to this chapter-a-day journey next Monday.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Kings and Kingdoms

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Kings & Kingdoms (CaD Lk 19) – Wayfarer

As [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”
Luke 19:41-42 (NIV)

In yesterday’s chapter, I talked about the meaning that is hidden in plain sight, waiting to be found in the connection between the episodes in a given chapter. Once again this morning, I found spiritual treasure in connecting the dots.

Dr. Luke wrote back in chapter 9 that Jesus “resolutely” set out for Jerusalem. In today’s chapter, He finally arrives. But Dr. Luke adds two key episodes to give me, the reader, to put that arrival in context.

As He enters Jericho, Jesus sees a man who has climbed into a tree to get a better view of Him. This wasn’t just any man. His name was Zac, and he was a regional director for the Internal Revenue Service of that day. Just like every human system of government, the system in which Zac was an authority was filled with corruption. Zac profited from that corruption. He was part of the system that fed the evil Herod Administration and the occupational forces of Rome. He was ostracized and held with contempt by the fundamentalist religious system. Like Jesus’ disciple, Levi, Zac had chosen in to the corrupt system in order to get rich and live the good life. His own people despised him for it.

Jesus invites Himself to Zac’s house for dinner. In doing so, Jesus sets off a host of mean tweets from those who had chosen in to the fundamentalist religious system of that day in order to appear righteous and holier-than-thou. Ironically, Jesus found this system to be no less corrupt than the one to which Zac belonged. Jesus’ visit to Zac’s house ends with Zac repenting of his greed and making a decision to give away half his wealth while making restitution to those he wronged by paying them four times what he’d cheated out of them. Jesus celebrates this prodigal son who has found his way home to God’s kingdom affirming that Zac’s transformation is evidence of the kingdom He came to bring.

Jesus then tells a parable about a man of noble birth who goes to a distant land to be made king. The people despised and rejected this king. He leaves and puts people in charge of his wealth while he was away. Some invested the wealth, made a huge return, and were rewarded. One man did nothing and was stripped of what he’d been given and sacked.

First, Jesus goes to the house of a sinner so that he might find personal salvation that transforms his life and all those who know him. Jesus says, “This is what my kingdom is all about.”

Next, Jesus tells a parable about a king who goes to a distant land to be made king (much as He left heaven to bring His kingdom to earth) and leaves his followers in charge (much as He will, in about a week, leave His followers to care for the mission of His kingdom on earth). The king eventually returns and settles accounts (much as Jesus promises a Day that He will return to settle spiritual accounts).

Jerusalem is the epicenter of the Great Story. It is David’s capital city. It is where Solomon built the temple. It is where the prophets proclaimed God’s Message. But since banishment from the Garden in Genesis 3, the kingdoms of this world, under the dominion of the Prince of this World, always stand in opposition to the Kingdom of God. It happened in the wake of David’s kingdom, and Jesus knew it must happen again just as He had described in his parable earlier in the chapter: “his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’”

So the “King” enters Jerusalem as Jesus weeps for the larger spiritual tragedy that is unfolding, saying, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

With this statement, Jesus prophetically describes the very thing that will happen in 40 years when Rome lays siege to Jerusalem and destroys the city and the temple with it.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself reminded of an observation I’ve made along my spiritual journey. I find that humans, myself included, want God to be like us and the Kingdom of God to be like the earthly kingdoms we know. This is the fatal mistake that Jesus is calling out in the saving of a major sinner named Zac, in the parable of the King whose subjects hated and rejected, and in the prophetic proclamation of the city and the earthly kingdoms who were going to execute Him in a few days time.

As a disciple of Jesus, I’ve had to learn along the way that when my thoughts, words, actions, and worldview start looking like a kingdom of this world, then I’m out of sync with the Kingdom of God that Jesus invested in me, His disciple, just like the administrators in His parable. In the parable, the King’s subjects were given money to invest. In the case of Jesus, His disciples were given love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to invest.

So, how does my investment portfolio look? What will be the return on those investments Jesus finds on the Day when He returns to settle accounts?

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

Chapter-a-Day

Profane

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Profane (CaD Mal 1) – Wayfarer

“But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’”
Malachi 1:12 (NIV)

Having just finished the prophecies of Jeremiah and the events of Jerusalem’s destruction on this chapter-a-day journey, I’m going to travel in time 150 years to the future. I’m going to spend the next few days back in Jerusalem around 430 B.C.. Taking a quick view of the landscape, I notice the contrast to the rubble I left behind at the end of Jeremiah.

The walls of Jerusalem have been rebuilt. People are once again living inside the walls of the city. Many have returned to their homeland from exile in Babylon. It’s certainly not the splendor of Jerusalem in its glory years, but it’s home. There is a new Temple standing where Solomon’s Temple once stood. It, also, is not quite the same. Solomon’s Temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This Temple is, well, functional if not awe-inspiring.

Jerusalem and the surrounding area is now a back-water province of the Persian Empire. There is a Governor in charge. The new temple was finished some 85 years earlier. The walls completed some 30 years earlier. The rebuilding was a monumental task carried out and documented by Ezra (a priest) and Nehemiah (a governor). Exiles returned. The city is back on the map! What a comeback story! Ezra and Nehemiah charged the people to follow the law of Moses, to be faithful in worshipping of God as prescribed in the Law of Moses.

So, as I look around the streets and listen to people talking in the courts of the temple, why is everyone so depressed, so cynical, so…negative?

Enter the prophet Malachi. He is the last of the ancient Hebrew prophets. His four chapters close the door on the period formally known as the Old Testament. After Malachi there will be four hundred years of political upheaval and prophetic silence until we hear the cries of a newborn baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

Back to the temple courts around 430 B.C. Life is, more-or-less, working. The word functional keeps coming to mind, but not flourishing.

The design God gave the Hebrew people through Moses was an entire system designed to perpetuate life, health, and blessing throughout the entire community and beyond. The temple would be the center of the community. People would honor God, bring their first-fruit offerings and unblemished sacrifices to the temple. The priests and temple workers were provided for through these tithes and offerings and, in turn, blessed and served the people. When everyone puts their heart into it, it works relatively well.

Therein lies the problem.

Witness the people bringing a meager offering to the temple, certainly not the ten percent tithe the law requires. They also bring grain and animals for sacrifice, but that lamb is certainly not the shepherds best. The thing is half-staved and looks to be diseased. The priests go through the motions of accepting the sacrifice, but they certainly don’t want to feed themselves and their family with this farmer’s harvest dregs and diseased, meager livestock.

The system isn’t working. Everyone is going through the motions, but no one’s heart is in it. They hear the promises of Jeremiah and Isaiah of a blessed and abundant restoration under a glorious messiah, but that’s not what they’ve experienced. They’ve lost the faith. They’ve lost hope.

In God’s opening message through Malachi, God addresses the people’s cynical, defensive, and defiant attitudes.

“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?'” (vs. 2)
“But you ask, ‘How have we showed contempt?'” (vs. 6)
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?'” (vs. 7)

God through Malachi goes on to tell the people that what they are doing amounts to “profanity” (vs. 12). To modern readers, “profanity” is synonymous with saying naughty words. But the concept of profanity is much deeper and is differentiated from obscenity or vulgarity. Profanity is when I empty something of its original meaning. If I take my family’s precious and priceless fine china and antique silver spoons and use them to feed a stray dog on the back patio, I’m profaning it. If I take the name of Jesus, who I have chosen to make my Lord and believe to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and believe that someday it will be at that name that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, and I use his name as a common expletive when I’m pissed off at somebody or something, I’m profaning that name.

In the quiet this morning, I enter the time machine once again and fast forward to present day. I’m in a church building watching people walking in and out on a Sunday morning. I watch myself (welcome to the multi-verse!) entering and leaving worship. I compare myself in worship to my daily life, words, actions, relationships, and attitudes during the week. Is my heart and soul in it? Or, am I just going through the motions? Am I bringing my best to God, or just the leftovers of my time, energy, and resources? You know, the minimum required by my conscience to be free of any guilt and shame?

Does my daily life profane the very faith I profess to believe?

As God says through Malachi in today’s chapter: “I’d rather you just the shut the doors and not even pretend, than simply go through the motions because that’s profane.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Faithful Tenacity

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Faithful Tenacity (CaD Jer 40) – Wayfarer

However, before Jeremiah turned to go, Nebuzaradan added, “Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the towns of Judah, and live with him among the people, or go anywhere else you please.”
Jeremiah 40:5 (NIV)

Jerusalem is in ruins. The walls that kept the Babylonians out for some 30 months have been demolished. Solomon’s Temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, is demolished along with the Palace. The Babylonians burned the entire city. It lies uninhabitable.

Having failed to find a puppet King of Judah who didn’t rebel against him, Nebuchadnezzar follows his destruction of Jerusalem with destruction of the monarchy. He proclaims the region a Babylonian province with its capital in Mizpah. He appoints a man named Gedaliah as the new provincial Governor answering to Babylon.

Interesting, that both Gedeliah’s father and grandfather are mentioned when the Babylonian Commander suggests that Jeremiah go to live under the Governor’s protection. Gedeliah was from a family of Scribes. Scribes were held in high esteem in those days as the number of people who could actually write were very few. Even in the days of Jesus some 500 years later, Scribes were the ranking authorities within the powerful religious party of the Pharisees. Jeremiah being a prominent prophet, he would have been well-known by the Scribes for his prophetic work. But, there’s even more of a connection with Gedeliah.

Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry half-way through the reign of the reformer King Josiah. It was during this period of time that Gedeliah’s grandfather, Shaphan, who presented the rediscovered Book of the Law to King Josiah, leading to sweeping religious reforms in 2 Kings 22. Jeremiah would have been politically and religiously in alliance with Shaphan, King Josiah, and the sweeping reforms that temporarily put an end to idolatry and called upon the entire nation to worship the God of Abraham, Moses, and David alone. Back in chapter 26, when Jeremiah’s enemies attempted to have him killed, it was Gedeliah’s father, Ahikam, who protected Jeremiah from the mob. Gedeliah and his family were supporters and allies of Jeremiah.

It’s equally fascinating that the Babylonian Commander, Nebuzaradan, offers Jeremiah protection should he decide to return to Babylon. It was very common in religions of that day to believe that when a prophet spoke, it was his or her words that caused the prophesied events to happen. They would have believed that if Jeremiah had kept his mouth shut, the siege, the famine, the death, the destruction, and the exile would not have happened. The fact that Jeremiah was right would not have gotten Jeremiah off the hook. It would have made him an even bigger target as a scapegoat whom people could blame for their dire circumstances. Nebuzaradan understood that Jeremiah needed protection and was willing to provide it if Jeremiah was going to Babylon. If he was staying, Gedeliah was best person with the political power (backed by Babylonian force) to get the job done.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about Jeremiah’s life journey and the incredible things God asked of him throughout his entire life. There was never a point at which he was not in danger of insult, mockery, public humiliation, verbal attack, physical attack, or the threat of death. And in the multiple cases in which attacks were made on his life, God always provided a protector whether it was Gedeliah, Ebed-Melek, or an Akikam.

We aren’t sure when and how Jeremiah died, though Jewish tradition from extra-Biblical sources hold that he was taken to Egypt where he continued his prophetic proclamations to the exiles and was finally stoned by his fellow countrymen. Given the historical record we do have, this sounds quite plausible. I have to admire Jeremiah for his faithful tenacity in the face of perpetual threat.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Tension

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The Tension (CaD Heb 8) – Wayfarer

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
Hebrews 8:13 (NIV)

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is, and likely will always be, a place of constant tension. The three major world religions consider it sacred space, and this means that there are frequent disputes that take many different shapes. The Al Aqsa Mosque with its gold dome sits atop the Mount surrounded by ancient walls. Below the western wall of the Mosque are remnants of the ancient Jewish Temple, commonly called “the wailing wall” where Jews and Christians pray daily. There is always tension.

I and my two companions were there during a particularly tense political period, things were largely locked down and access was limited. We had two interpreters and guides. One was an older woman, Jewish by birth, who had become a believer in Jesus and considered herself “a completed Jew.” The other was Arab by birth, Jewish by citizenship, and Christian by faith. He was a carpenter in Nazareth.

As we walked along the open area leading to the wailing wall, our female guide spoke of incidents in which Muslims violently attacked and killed Jews at the wall. A few moments later, our male guide quietly leaned into me to explain that the area where we were standing had once been a poor Arab neighborhood which the Jews bulldozed to make public space at the wall. Our time in Jerusalem was like that. Our guides, both followers of Jesus, saw everything from vastly different perspectives. They loved one another, but they often argued (always in Hebrew, which they both spoke but we didn’t). It was a microcosm of the much larger tension that exists there.

Our Arab brother, in particular, quietly saw to it that we experienced the tension first hand. The Temple Mount and Mosque were shut down to tourists because of the tensions, but he insisted on trying to get permission for us to see it briefly. We were grudgingly allowed to ascend a building of the Temple Authorities to view the mosque and its courtyard from the roof over the wall. The entire time we were followed, watched and made to feel the contempt and authority of our disgruntled hosts.

In a separate experience, our guide snuck us as tag-along with a group of Jews visiting the area’s Temple center. Not knowing that four Christians were in the audience, we were treated to hear about the group’s rabid desire to someday rebuild the Jewish Temple and return to the sacrificial system of Moses (complete with blueprints, exhaustive construction plans, and multi-media presentation). As a bonus, we got to hear the presenters speak mockingly of both Jesus and His followers.

I thought of these experiences this morning as I mulled over today’s chapter. The author of the letter to the Hebrews is facing similar tension as he explains that a spiritual shift of tectonic proportions has taken place through Jesus’ death and resurrection. For his fellow Hebrews, this means every religious thing they’ve ever known has changed. The old covenant between God and Moses is literally “obsolete” and a new covenant has taken its place. He then states quite emphatically that the “outdated will soon disappear.”

As I read this I had two thoughts. One was simply that tension that must have existed. Humans don’t like change, and I’ve observed it to be especially true when it comes to well-established and deep-seated religious traditions. The second thought was of Jesus and His followers as they left the Temple mount just days before His impending crucifixion. His followers were impressed with the Temple complex, but Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

And that’s what happened in 70 A.D. when Roman legions descended on Jerusalem to stomp out the Jewish rebellion against Rome. The Temple was torn down. All of the Jewish genealogical records were destroyed, ensuring that it could no longer be definitively established who the descendants of Aaron, Levi, or any other tribe were. Because only descendants of Aaron could be priests, and only Levites could serve in the temple, the sacrificial system was essentially wiped out with the Temple’s destruction.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that Jesus promised His followers that there would be trouble in this world, along with trials, suffering, and persecution. He said that there will be wars and rumors of war. Nations conspire, people plot, and rulers rage.

There’s always tension.

At the very same time, Jesus told His followers not to allow their hearts to be troubled by such things. He said that there is a peace with which He would leave us. It’s not an international peace, but an inner and interpersonal peace that “passes all understanding” available to me.

In just a moment, I will descend to the kitchen to peruse today’s headlines with Wendy over breakfast. I already know what I will find there. Wars and rumors of war. People plotting. Rulers raging. Tension. I needed the reminder of peace this morning. The words of Isaiah come to mind as I wrap up today’s post:

You will keep in perfect peace
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    because they trust in you.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Thin Places

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Thin Places (CaD Ps 48) – Wayfarer

Walk about Zion, go all around it,
    count its towers…
Psalm 48:12 (NRSVCE)

Throughout the history of the Jesus Movement and Christendom, there have been various geographic locations around the world that have come to be known as “thin places.” The concept is a very simple metaphor. It is a specific location where the divide between temporal and eternal, heaven and earth, matter and Spirit, is thin. The power of the Spirit seems to flow more palpably. “Thin places” might be locations where spiritual revivals have occurred, miracles have occurred, or where people experience God’s presence in extraordinary ways.

One of the things I’ve noticed in moving from Book I of the Psalms (Psalms 1-41) to Book II (Psalms 42-72). The songs in Book 1 are mostly songs of David expressing his personal emotions and faith. In the first six songs of Book II we’ve had a variety of songs that were written with specific liturgical purposes. There’s been a diplomatic wedding of royalty to another nation’s princess, a song celebrating a king’s enthronement, and a community plea/prayer after suffering military defeat.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 48, is a song that celebrates Jerusalem as the center of Hebrew worship. It celebrates Jerusalem as an ancient thin place where people find joy, where God has done great things, where the things of God are pondered, and spiritual guidance is found.

It was very common in ancient Mesopotamian cultures for major cities to have patron deities and temples to those deities. The Hebrews would have experienced this while in slavery in Egypt. They would have been familiar with the concept, and way back during the Hebrews flight from Egypt God made clear that a city would be established as the place where Yahweh would dwell and be worshipped (Deut 12:5). How fascinating that over 3000 years later pilgrims from all over the world continue to flock to Jerusalem and pray at the Western Wall of the temple ruins. It is still considered by many to be a thin place.

In the quiet this morning, Psalm 48 has me thinking about thin places. I have been to Jerusalem, I have walked its streets, and I have prayed at the Western Wall. Personally, I didn’t find Jerusalem to be a thin place but a dark place, despite knowing that the Great Story makes clear it still has a role to play in history’s climactic events.

I have, however, observed that our place at the lake is what I’ve experienced as a thin place. It is a place people have found peace. It is a place where both myself and others have found healing of both body and soul. It has been a place of retreat, of soul-searching, of life-changing conversation, of joy, of love, and of Life.

In my spiritual journey, I’ve come to believe it vital to identify and regularly visit a thin place. I’m reminded that Jesus regularly slipped away alone or with his closest followers to the top of a mountain along the shores of Galilee to pray. Interestingly enough, when I visited that mountain-top location in Israel, I found it to be the thinnest place I personally experienced in my tour of many, many sites in the Holy Land.

This world bombards me ceaselessly with data, information, opinions, advertisements, and pleas for my time, energy, and human resources. My spirit needs a thin place to recharge, even if it’s a thin place just to me.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Refuge Within

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Refuge Within (CaD Ps 46) – Wayfarer

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1 (NRSVCE)

It seems strange in today’s world, but when I was a kid we walked to school and we would walk home. There were safety patrol members standing at the busy corners to make sure kids didn’t walk across the street when the sign said “don’t walk.” It was a sea of childhood humanity flooding out of the school and making a daily pilgrimage home.

Once you were off school grounds, of course, there was no adult supervision. It’s amazing how quickly we learned that there was safety in numbers, and since I had older siblings I had the advantage of knowing a bunch of kids older than me. I could tag along and feel the relative safety of being with a “big kid.”

The real goal, however, was home. There was a certain sense of safety once I got to my own block. That was my territory. I was known there. I experienced real safety, however, once I was inside my house. Any fear of bullies or anxiety of potential trouble melted away. I was safe at home.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 46, is a song that celebrated refuge. For the ancient Hebrews, home base was the walled city of Jerusalem. The temple was there on Mount Zion. For the Hebrews, God was there in His temple. Their warrior-king was there in his palace. Troubles may rage, but they celebrated the safety they felt being safely in the place God resided. For those who remember growing up singing the great hymns, today’s psalm was the inspiration for Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress is Our God.

As I have written about on numerous occasions, Jesus changed the entire spiritual landscape. He made it clear that God’s “temple” was not a bricks-and-mortar edifice. When I open my heart and life and invite Jesus in, God’s Spirit indwells me. The temple is me.

How radically that changes the metaphor of refuge. Refuge is no longer without. Refuge is within. Writing to the followers of Jesus in Phillipi, Paul explained that God’s peace, which is beyond human comprehension, guards my heart and guards my mind. Though troubles may surround me on all sides, I may find a peace within sourced not in me, but the Spirit in me.

In the quiet this morning, I’m taking comfort in that.

Very early in the Jesus Movement, believers began a ritual of “passing the Peace.” They would say to one another “the peace of Christ be with you.” It was a tangible way of reminding one another of this spiritual intangible of God’s refuge within.

In this world, we have lots of troubles. Jesus told us to expect it, and not to worry about it because He overcame the world. The beginning of another work week. Here we go.

The peace of Christ be with you, my friend.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Open Spiritual Eyes

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Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.
Luke 19:47 (NIV)

I’m am spending a couple of days this week working on-site with a client. I will meet with members of my client’s inside sales team and talk to them about the service they’re providing customers on the phone, which we have assessed. We’ll listen to calls together and I’ll share tips and strategies for improving the customer’s experience in those “moments of truth.”

Over the years I have learned, however, that there is something much broader that is always going on when I’m on-site with a client. The agents I train don’t work in a vacuum. There are all sorts of things going on around them, systemically, that affect their behavior and attitudes which spill out, often unintentionally, in their conversations with customers. Office environment, corporate policies, relationships with managers, and crazy-makers on the team can all have a significant impact on an individual agent’s thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. If I don’t have my antennae up to understand the larger picture, I’m going to be ineffective at helping my client focus on what he or she needs to do.

When reading through a chapter, it is so easy to focus on the individual stories and lose sight of the larger context of what is happening. In today’s chapter, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for His final, climactic week.

Politically, the hottest issue of that day was Rome’s occupation of Judea. There was constant tension between Rome and the Jewish leaders. The temple was more than just a religious center. It was the epicenter of power and finance in the area. The religious leaders of Jerusalem who held sway had a very lucrative racket going.

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for the biggest religious festival of the year. The Passover attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims to Jerusalem and the temple. Jewish faithful were required to offer sacrifices and offerings while they were at the temple. Often those sacrifices and offerings were sold outside the temple, but the temple had its own currency. Pilgrims first had to exchange their currency before they could buy their sacrifices. The leaders were making money on both the exchange rate and the sacrifices and offerings they were selling.

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, He tells a parable about servants who are given money by their employer to invest while he’s away. It’s a parable that Jesus has told before, but on the eve of His arrival in Jerusalem He changes it. In this telling, the employer leaves to be made King, much like the local monarch, Herod, would have traveled to Rome to be given authority for the area by the Roman Empire. The pending ruler’s people in Jesus revised telling do not want this person to be King. Nevertheless, he returns as King and pays back his followers based on how they’d invested what had been given.

Jesus immediately heads into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling an ancient prophecy, as His followers proclaim Him as King. The religious leaders vehemently complain much like those in the parable who did not want the protagonist of the story to be King.

Upon His arrival, Jesus goes to the Temple and drives out the money changers and vendors selling sacrifices. Again, it relates directly to the parable Jesus just told. Those leaders of God’s people who had been entrusted with oversight of God’s people and God’s law. Rather than investing in love and generosity, the leaders perverted it for their own self-centered power and personal wealth while treating others with self-righteous contempt and condemnation.

Jesus was not the first “messianic upstart” the religious leaders had dealt with. They had a well-worn playbook of getting rid of anyone who threatened their power and wealth. Jesus was in their sites. Jesus knew it.

As He entered Jerusalem, Jesus offered a lament for the city and its religious leaders. They didn’t see, perceive, or understand what God was doing and saying through Jesus. Like the parable, they would suffer the consequences. Within a generation, the political resistance to Rome would boil over. Rome will surround the city and fulfill Jesus’ prophet words. The city and the Temple would be utterly destroyed.

On Sunday Wendy and I were traveling. We were talking about our “word” for the year, and conversing about where we find ourselves in our spiritual journeys and our life journeys. We don’t want to live in a vacuum, unaware of what God is doing in us, through us, and around us. We prayed together, seeking for those things to be revealed and not hidden.

This morning I’m praying for spiritual eyes that are open to see what’s happening systemically in my client’s office, to see the subtext of what’s going on in today’s chapter, to see the bigger picture of what God is doing in and around me and Wendy as we walk this journey together.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…

Ephesians 1:18a

Chapter-a-Day

Poet, Chorus, Character

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I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.

And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.
Zechariah 11:12-13 (NIV)

One of the things that I love about acting is the opportunity to bring a character to life. The first step in almost every rehearsal process is the “read through” in which all of the actors in a play sit down with the director and simply read the script out loud around a table. Then, over the process of a few weeks, those words are transformed as the actors embody the characters, are transformed by the costumers and make-up artists. Finally, they give action, expression, and relational interaction within a detailed setting on the stage.

One of the difficult parts of reading the ancient Hebrew prophets is that they often used different devices in their writing for different effects. In today’s, chapter, Zechariah begins with poetry just as he had in the previous chapter (vss 1-3). He then switches to prose and relates the message God gave him concerning a shepherd and a coming time of destruction (vss. 4-6). Zech then switches to writing in the voice of first-person. Much like an actor, he embodies the voice of the Shepherd.

Much like the prophet Isaiah whose prophesied the Messiah as a suffering servant (Is 53), the prophecy of Zechariah foreshadows a Messiah-King who is rejected by the flock. His payment is thirty pieces of silver. Historians say that this was the common price for a slave, and represents an insult.

Anyone familiar with the Jesus story will immediately recognize the foreshadowing of his final week in Jerusalem. The chief priests and leaders of the temple in Jerusalem were supposed to be shepherding God’s people but instead were running a religious racket that oppressed the people and made themselves rich. They reject Jesus (who, btw, claimed the mantel of “The Good Shepherd”) and they pay one of his disciples 30 pieces of silver to betray him. Judas later laments his decision and throws the silver back to the priests.

The description Zechariah gives of destruction, devastation, and even cannibalism is an accurate picture of the Roman siege of Jerusalem and subsequent destruction of the city and the temple in 70 A.D. The historian, Josephus, records that cannibalism did occur within the city as food supplies ran out during the siege.

At the end of the chapter, the “worthless shepherd” (a corrupt ruler over the people) is struck in the arm (arm is a symbol of strength) and his “right eye” (right is metaphorically associated with favor) is blinded. I can’t help but be reminded that in destroying Jerusalem, the Romans also torched all of the Hebrews’ genealogical records. Without being able to see and confirm direct descendence from Aaron or Levi, they are blind to who can offer sacrifices and run the sacrificial system. The sacrificial system of Moses was effectively ended. Without being able to see and confirm direct descendence from David, they are blind to know who can ascend to the monarchy of Judah. The earthly monarchy of David was effectively ended, as well.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself once again fascinated by the prophetic. It’s artistic the way Zechariah switches style three times within a chapter. He starts as a poet, then becomes the chorus, and then takes on character as he accurately envisions events that would occur some four hundred years later.

Once again, I’m reminded that there is a flow to the narrative of the Great Story God is authoring from Genesis to Revelation. There is a Level Four storyboard. I am endlessly fascinated by the mystery of it and repeatedly encouraged to know that the story is being played out, even in the crazy events I observe in the world news each day.

Chapter-a-Day

Measuring Up for a Move

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Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. I asked, “Where are you going?”

He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”
Zechariah 2:1-2 (NIV)

It’s been a few days since I’ve written my chapter-a-day posts. One of the things I’ve observed along my journey is that sometimes life interrupts my routines. I can’t control when it happens, so I do my best to be present in the moment and not get too stressed out it. The life interruption of late has been two-fold. First, there has been a rather intense travel schedule for work that includes early morning flights and scrambling to prepare for presentations, meetings, and client deliveries.

The more intense interruption, however, has been the health of my parents. My father has been hospitalized for nearly two weeks with acute pain. Seemingly endless tests have led the doctors to believe that he has a nasty infection and they are growing cultures in the lab to find out just what they are dealing with. In the meantime, my mother’s Alzheimer’s requires that my siblings and I must be with her around the clock.

My parents’ situation has caused us to realize that it is time for them both to get a higher level of care. This week we will move them out of their independent living apartment into a smaller assisted living apartment in another building within their retirement community. And so, we find ourselves measuring furniture and determining what’s going to fit where, and what may need to go away.

The “measuring line” was a common theme in the prophetic visions of the ancient Hebrew prophets. In today’s chapter, Zechariah sees an angel with a measuring line. He says he’s headed to measure the city of Jerusalem. In Zechariah’s day, Jerusalem was a rubble heap. He was among those feverishly trying to persuade the Hebrew exiles living in Persia to return and rebuild.

My observation is that there are two reasons a measuring line is used as a metaphor in prophetic writing. One is to find that something doesn’t measure up and judgement, therefore, awaits. The second is that something is going to be built or restored. That is the image that Zechariah is providing for his fellow exiles. It’s a vision of a grand, restored Jerusalem that might inspire his reader’s and listeners to return.

In the quiet this morning, I find my thoughts scattered (An unexpected head cold is not helping!). Zechariah was trusting that God would enable and bless the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem. As the events of today’s chapter took place, the very idea of a restored Jerusalem had to have seemed a daunting task. It did happen, however. Jerusalem would become a major city and sprawl well beyond its ancient walls just as Zechariah’s prophecy predicted. It remains so to this present day. Zechariah and the Hebrew people had to have faith, and the willingness to act on it.

And so I bring myself back to aging parents transitioning into new living arrangements amidst so much uncertainty and so much that is unknown. We are measuring and moving. We are trusting for a sense of restoration for them on the other side of dad’s quizzical medical issues. I’ve observed, and have come to accept, that there are moments along this life journey in which I have to accept that I can only do my best to make wise decisions, and trust God with the rest.

I stayed with my mother last night. As I wrote this post she woke from her slumber and began her dementia laced morning routine. It will take her a few hours to get ready and we’ll go to the hospital to check on dad. My siblings and I will continue the tasks of packing up my parents’ things for a mid-week move to a new place. We’re trying to make the wisest decisions. We’re trusting.

Now, where did that tape measure go? (Knowing my mother’s Alzheimers, it might be in the freezer!)

I pray for all who read this a blissfully routine week.