Tag Archives: Purity

Chapter-a-Day

The Mystery of the Red Heifer

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“This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.”
Numbers 19:2-3 (NIV)

I do love a good mystery. In fact, over the past year I’ve been making my way through a gritty series of mysteries by Alan Parks centered on a Glasgow police detective named Harry McCoy. I highly recommend, though only for those who aren’t squeamish about the reality of the depths of human depravity.

One of the things I’ve learned to embrace and appreciate along my spiritual journey is the mysteries of the Great Story. There are certainly things that are clearly known, but then there are pieces of the Story wrapped in mystery. As always, I am reminded of Richard Rohr’s take that mystery is not something that we can’t understand but rather something that we can endlessly understand. Because metaphor is layered with meaning, the mystery is like an eternal dance in which we can participate on this side of heaven. It can move me, inspire me, stretch me, and even wear me out at times, but the dance is never done. It’s always there waiting for me on the dance floor.

So we come to one of the most paradoxical and profound mysteries in the entire Great Story: the mystery of the red heifer. According to Jewish scholarship, this is what the sage of Ecclesiastes is referring to in Ecclesiastes 7:23 which they interpret as: “All this I have tested with wisdom… but the red heifer remains far from me.” Other Jewish scholarship simply throws up its hands and says, “It’s the Torah. Don’t try to understand it. Just obey it.”

Hmmmm. Mysterious. I love a good mystery. Let’s dance.

In short, the red heifer was taken outside the camp and slaughtered. Then it was completely burned. The ashes were used to create holy water used to purify anyone who was ceremonially unclean because they had come into contact with a corpse. What’s strange is that the priest who handles the slaughter and burning of the red heifer becomes ceremonially unclean in doing so. So what is meant to cleanse the impure because of death makes the priest who slaughters and burns the red heifer impure. The red heifer is unlike anything else in all of the Levitical rituals and sacrificial system.

As I continued to let my head and heart dance with the mystery this morning, I found myself two-stepping into the metaphor as it relates to the Messiah. There are modern Jewish groups who see the return of the red heifer ritual as a critical precursor to the coming of the Messiah and what they believe will be the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem and the restoration of the sacrificial system. In fact, some farmers in Israel raise red heifers for this purpose.

Of course, as a disciple of Jesus, I make a turn on the dance floor with the knowledge that the Messiah has come, and I dip into the metaphor and mystery of the red heifer as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ sacrificial death in which the pure was made impure as He took upon Himself the sin of the world, and through that death the living water flowed into which I am baptized in the likeness of His death and raised in the likeness of His resurrection, cleansed and purified from sin and death.

Red Heifer (Numbers 19)Jesus (New Testament)
Female, spotless, redHuman, sinless, born in flesh (blood and dust)
Slain outside the campCrucified outside Jerusalem
Burned entirelyBody fully given—nothing held back
Ashes mixed with water for cleansingBlood and water flow from his side (John 19:34)
Cleanses from death’s defilementCleanses from death itself—eternal life
Sacrifice must be repeatedOnce for all (Hebrews 10:10)

So, in the quiet this morning, I emerge from this dance with the mystery of the red heifer not confused or discouraged lake the Sage of Ecclesiastes, but energized by the notion that there are layers and depth of spiritual understanding that transcend my human knowledge and understanding. It speaks to me of what Jesus taught, that purity doesn’t come from avoiding death, but following Jesus and walking through it.

Thanks for dancing with me, my friend. Hope you enjoyed spinning into the mystery.

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

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

An Eternal Covenant of Salt

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“Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the Lord I give to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring.”
Numbers 18:19 (NIV)

I’m kind of in a foodie mood this week. Yesterday I mentioned our herb garden and the things I’ve been having fun creating with it, like the parsley almond salsa verde. Last night I used the mortar and pestle to grind some fresh Thyme, and loved the breathing in the fresh scent that filled the kitchen. Wendy and I have our grandson Milo with us this week, and tonight my Dad’s coming over for a good ol’ Iowa summer celebration with burgers on the grill and fresh Iowa sweet corn bathed in butter and seasoned with salt.

Salt is an every day seasoning for us. It sits on every table. We mindlessly shake it on our food and don’t stop to realize how ubiquitous it is in almost every recipe. For most of the history of human civilization salt was life. Before modern refrigeration emerged as a household convenience in the early 1900s, salt was the way the world preserved things for thousands of years. But it was more. It was used as currency (the word salary comes from salarium, as Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt). It was used as means of governmental control through salt taxes. To ancient cultures, salt was metaphorical for life itself. This was true for our fledgling Hebrew nation, as well. And, God gave salt even greater significance in the faith, ritual, and tradition of the Hebrews.

Remember that paying attention to the order of the text is important. Two chapters ago Korah led a rebellion against Moses, Aaron and the priesthood as God set it up. Yesterday, God affirmed His choice of Aaron and his family as the chosen priests. Today, God reminds Aaron and his family that when they enter the Promised Land (God’s still maintaining his faithfulness to that promise despite His people’s unwillingness to follow Him in a few chapters ago), their tribe will not get any land like all the other tribes because God Himself, and His eternal Kingdom are their inheritance. Their provision isn’t from working the land and grazing flocks and herds. Their provision is the tithes, sacrifices, and offerings the other 11 tribes bring to God. God calls this “an everlasting covenant of salt.” If you think about it, there’s a foreshadowing here of Jesus’ teaching on storing up treasure in heaven and not on earth. Hold onto that thought.

Salt was a prescribed by God as part of every sacrifice and offering. It was used in the making of the incense used at part of the rituals in the traveling tent Temple. Salt was also used as a binding agent when making covenants. God is making salt an important metaphor regarding preservation, holiness, seasoning, covenant, and sacrifice.

And yet, salt is so common, so simple, so humble, even gritty.

Fast forward to Jesus telling the crowd of poor, humble, common people on the mountainside “You are the salt of the earth.” Wait a minute. Just Aaron and his family were given the covenant of salt in today’s chapter. Jesus blows the doors wide open on the covenant. He came to make the everlasting covenant of salt with the simple, humble, gritty, every day people. No longer is it an exclusive and elite covenant for a select few. The covenant and calling is now offered to everyone, complete with all of the blessings and all of the responsibilities of sacrifice, faithfulness, and preservation of the covenant.

One of the things that salt has been known for over history is its permanence. Pure salt doesn’t decay. The ancients, however, knew that when mingled with dust and dirt, salt could be diluted. It could lose its effectiveness.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that when Adam and Eve chose to follow their pride and appetites over obedience, the result was that they had to leave community with God in the Garden and return “to the dust of the earth.” Fascinating that Jesus first tells the crowd of common, poor, and uneducated people that they are the “salt of the earth” warning them not to lose their saltiness. A few minutes later He tells them not to store up treasure on earth that just gets covered in dust, but to store up eternal treasure in heaven like Aaron and his family who didn’t get a dusty parcel of land but rather, through being faithful in sacrifice, received the blessing of God’s provision.

Today, when I reach for the salt, I will be reminded:

That Jesus graciously made with me an everlasting covenant of salt. I am part of the royal priesthood, complete with the responsibility of sacrifice and the blessing of God’s provision.

That the dust of earthly treasure only dilutes me spiritually, rendering me less spiritually flavorful, useful, and effective.

That I want my loved ones, my community, and everyone I come into contact with to find me to bring seasoning, sacrificial servant heartedness, and a hint of God’s eternal kingdom in all I say and do.

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

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

Maturing Takes Time

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“Say to the Israelites: ‘Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord is guilty and must confess the sin they have committed.’”
Numbers 6:6-7 (NIV)

About a month ago, our grandson Milo attended worship with us among our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. Milo is seven and is an explosive bundle of unbridled, kinetic, little-boy energy. Underneath the exterior of all that normal physical energy lies one of the softest, most genuinely open hearts I’ve ever experienced in a boy his age. He asks big questions. He thinks big thoughts. He feels big feels. And, he has a passionate curiosity about God.

What was fascinating to watch that morning was the mixture of both. He was, at once, a squirrelly little boy who at times needed discipline and a sweet little boy who was genuinely trying to understand and interact with the divine. He was so eager to go up for the bread and cup that Yaya had to hold him back multiple times while it was still being prepared.

He is a boy. He is maturing. It takes time.

Today’s chapter is one of those chapters with which casual modern readers struggle. It has to do with purity and fidelity, but it is easy for the surface of the text to produce intense negative reactions. At the heart of it, God is repeating what He has already established in the priestly instruction manual, Leviticus. If God, who has delivered them from slavery, is going to live in the midst of the Hebrews, if He is going to travel with them through the wilderness and lead them to the Promised Land, then there are going to be some ground rules. He is a holy God and they have to learn to be clean from the outside in. That means dealing with their bodies, their relationships, their emotions, and their consciences.

Specifically, what God deals with in today’s chapter is:

Skin diseases (physical issues on the outside)
Interpersonal conflicts (issues within the community)
Marital infidelity (issues within the marriage covenant)
Jealousy (intense negative emotions that may cause unjust harm)
Guilt and honesty (being spiritually honest with God and self)

The example given for the last three is man who feels jealous and believes his wife has been unfaithful. He has no proof and she is adamant about her fidelity. He is to bring her to the priest. The priest is to bring her before the Lord. A test is rendered to determine if she is being honest, in which case she is cleared – or if she is lying, in which case she is potentially cursed.

By modern standards it seems harsh and politically incorrect. For human civilization in the ancient near east, this was a radical, revolutionary, giant leap of social development. In that day, and that culture, a man would typically just follow his jealousy into violence against both his wife and the man he suspected she slept with. There would be no accountability and no civil recourse. There was no law. In most small people groups there was no developed or official justice system. It was a king-of-the-mountain free-for-all in which the powerful beat, clawed, and killed their way to the top. Those who were weak simply tried to survive the powerful doing whatever they wanted however they wanted because no one would stop them.

Now Yahweh, the miraculous God who freed these weak, just surviving Hebrews from slavery to the king-of-the-mountain Egyptian empire, is telling them “You must do things differently.” He is a holy God. He demands people to be clean outside-in.

But they’re not.

They have physical ailments they can’t control.
They have conflicts and misunderstandings.
They have intense negative emotions that lead to conflicts.
They are at times not honest with themselves or others.

In each case, God provides a process for addressing each of these.

This is a human civilization in the toddler stage of development. They throw tantrums. They can’t control their emotions, and they are constantly acting out of their sheer emotion. They aren’t educated, can’t write, can’t read, and have been slaves for generations.

Father God is doing what good parents do with toddlers. He is teaching them one step at a time.

“Let’s wash your hands.”
“Give her back her ball. It’s hers, not yours.”
“Now, say you’re sorry and give her a hug.”
“Did he really hit you? I didn’t see anything.”
“Are you lying to me?”

In other words, like Milo trying to understand why he can’t just run up in his excitement and grab the bread and cup, this fledgling group of humans is slowly maturing.

It takes time.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on the reality that human civilization has matured over thousands of years. We are more educated and more developed than any generation in the history of human civilization. Yet, with all we’ve learned…

We have physical ailments and tragedies we can’t control.
We have conflicts and misunderstandings.
We have intense negative emotions that lead to those conflicts.
We are at times not honest with ourselves or others.

Lord, have mercy.

Obviously, there’s something broken we can’t fix ourselves.

And, Father God is still holy. He still demands we be clean outside in.

So, He sacrificially made a way for that to happen. It’s a gift.

I just have to receive it.

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

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

An Awkward Moment at the Pub

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An Awkward Moment at the Pub (CaD 1 Cor 5) – Wayfarer

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
1 Corinthians 5:9-11 (NIV)

A number of years ago, I was running some errands in town one gorgeous spring afternoon. It was one of those amazing first warm days of spring here in the midwest when everyone opens windows and doors to air out the house after a long winter, and everyone gets outside to take a walk and enjoy warm weather.

With a little extra time on my hands, I decided to pop into the local pub for a pint before heading home. The pub had its front door propped open and I was sitting at the bar with my pint checking email, when I heard someone call my name.

I turned to find a Christian couple I know who had been passing by and saw me sitting there. I smiled, waved, and greeted them. Then it became clear that they wanted to have a conversation because they started right in making casual small talk, but it got really weird. They refused to step inside the pub. My friends even looked down a few times at their feet to make sure he hadn’t crossed the threshold. I was sitting twenty-five feet away. They were blocking the door and talking to me as if we were having an intimate conversation while semi-shouting so that the whole pub could hear. Eventually, they continued on their way, having successfully remained pure by not entering a sinful place. I finished my pint and went home.

As awkward and silly as the episode was, I knew exactly where my friends were coming from. I spent much of the early years of my spiritual journey being taught similar behavioral legalities. Avoid such sinful places or the sinful people inside might lead you astray. Don’t associate. Stay away.

Yet, in today’s chapter, Paul provides a command to the followers of Jesus in Corinth that I’ve never heard addressed among the legalistic circles who teach such things. Paul clarifies that when he told the Corinthian believers not to associate with immoral people, he was talking about immoral people inside the church, not outside. If I refuse to associate with immoral people outside the church then how will I ever be the light of the world, or the salt of the earth? Paul’s teaching is clear. He’s talking about those inside the church who claim to be disciples of Jesus but they live lives that are the obvious antithesis of Jesus’ teaching.

In my associations out in the world, I know exactly what I’m dealing with. These are people who don’t know Christ, who have no reason to act like they do. They’re the people Jesus associated with when the good religious leaders complained that He ate and drank with sinners.

“Yes!” Jesus answered his legalistic, religious critics unequivocally. “These are the people who need what I have to give! These are the people I came for!”

The people I’m really supposed to avoid are the hypocrites inside the church who faithfully go through the religious motions and put on its outward appearances, but whose daily lives and relationships are void of love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, or patience. In fact, that accurately describes the good legalistic religious people who were criticizing Jesus. Jesus told His followers to avoid them. And that’s the very point that Paul is making to the Corinthian believers. I don’t need to worry about an immoral person I meet in the pub. They’re lives are an honest reflection of their current world view and spiritual reality. I need to worry about the hypocrites in my pew on Sunday. They’re the ones whose lives are dishonest at the core. I need to avoid them like the plague if I want to be spiritually healthy.

At least, that’s what Jesus taught, and Paul. Though, you probably won’t learn that in a lot of churches.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself looking back at the years I led a very sequestered life. I, too, would have avoided crossing the threshold of a pub. And, I spent a lot of time hanging out with some really awful people, but they claimed to be Christians, so they were on the approved list. I am once again reminded that this life is a journey. Healthy things grow, and growing things change. I’m not in the same place I once was, nor should I be. If you’re ever in town, feel free to meet me at the pub. I’ll buy you a pint and introduce you to some friends.

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

For or Against

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For or Against? (CaD Matt 9) – Wayfarer

And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”
Matthew 9:33-34 (NIV)

In yesterday’s post, I talked about Jesus’ enemies who controlled the fundamentalist religious power in his day. As I read this morning’s chapter, I found myself continuing to observe and consider the contrast between Jesus’ words and actions and the words and actions of his detractors and enemies.

In one episode, a man who was demon-possessed and couldn’t speak was brought to Jesus. Remember that this was a rural, small-town, back-water region. Everyone knows everyone or at least knows who everyone is. It’s quite possible the many in the crowd knew this man, knew his crazy affliction, and had to navigate life with and around him. When Jesus healed the man and the man spoke for the first time, they were understandably amazed.

In today’s chapter alone a paralyzed man was forgiven and then walked. A dead girl was brought back to life. A woman with a chronic bleeding disorder was made whole. Two blind men see. A demon-possessed mute is freed from spiritual captivity and is finally able to speak. Just think about all of the goodness, wholeness, and life in each of these stories. Think about the parents, families, loved ones, friends, and communities who experienced the ripple-effect of these miracles as all of that shalom resonated through each of these individual’s circles of influence.

Now listen again to the Jesus’ religious enemies: “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”

As fundamentalist systems perpetuate, only those who maintain “in-group” status are truly “good” in that system’s eyes. That goodness is seen and understood by an individual toeing the line of the system’s prescribed thoughts and behaviors. Jesus is repeatedly refusing to do so. He forgives sin (which, according to the system, only God can do). He associates with “out-group” sinners and tax collectors. He doesn’t appear to religiously fast like the system prescribes. He breaks the Sabbath rules. So this man can’t be good. In a fundamentalist system, the only good, pure, ideal people are those who follow the unquestionable rules and dogma to the letter and avoid mixing with undesireables.

“Those who are not for us are against us.”

Jesus doesn’t fit. He can’t be good. Thus, he must be evil.

In the quiet this morning, I recalled this episode:

John spoke up, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.”
Jesus wasn’t pleased. “Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath slam me. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally.“
Mark 9:38-40 (MSG)

Jesus’ reaction was the opposite of his religious enemies. Rather than being exclusionary and controlling, the way of Jesus was to be inclusive and empowering.

When I was a young man operating in fundamentalist Christian circles, being “Christ-like” meant adhering to the code of moral and doctrinal purity (as dictated by church, denomination, and/or parental authorities).

As an older man who has followed Jesus for forty years, I’ve increasingly learned that being “Christ-like” means adhering to the law of love (as dictated by Jesus).

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

Chapter-a-Day

By-Products

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By-Products (CaD Mk 11) – Wayfarer

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
Mark 11:12-14 (NIV)

As a young follower of Jesus, I remember being taught that it was my responsibility to “win souls” for the Lord. Over the years, I was prescribed a handful of sure-fire methods by which to quickly share with people how they could “get saved.”

During this same early stretch of both my spiritual journey, and my life journey, I was taught that it was also of primary importance to be “pure.” The formula of “purity” was basically abstinence from the major impurities: sex, drinking, drugs, smoking, listening to “worldly” music, and swearing.

Looking back, there is nothing wrong with either of these things in-and-of themselves. As a follower of Jesus, both being able to effectively share with someone “the reason for the hope that is in me” and being pure are things I am asked to do. Nevertheless, the further I’ve progressed in both my spiritual journey, and my life journey, I’ve come to understand that they may very well be by-products of Love’s fruit, but they aren’t the fruit itself.

With today’s chapter, Mark’s biography of Jesus enters the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. Mark shares an obscure episode in which Jesus goes to a fig tree hoping to find a snack. Finding none, he curses the tree. The next day, they pass by the tree and find it withered.

I’ve always been intrigued and a little confused by this story. Jesus was always one for using living word pictures as teaching tools, and I have to believe that later that same week He would share with his followers: “I am the Vine and you are the branches. Every branch that doesn’t bear fruit will be cut-off and used for compost.” Of course they have a mental picture in their heads of the withered fig tree.

In the quiet this morning, I took the teaching and the word picture one step further:

What was Jesus looking for when He approached the Fig tree?

Figs, quite obviously.

What is the Gardener looking for when He approaches the branches on the Vine?

The fruit of love which one knows by it’s identifying characteristics:
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
self-control

Now, sharing this love with others may lead to opportunities for telling someone how they can enter into a relationship with Jesus themselves. In the same way, any Grade A, organic fruit of Jesus’ love will be pure in all of its goodness and self-control.

Once again: These are by-products of the fruit, not the fruit itself, and it’s the fruit that produces the by-products never the other way around.

To riff on Paul’s treatise on Love:

If I memorize the Four Spiritual Laws and knock on every door in the neighborhood in an effort to win souls, but I don’t have Love, then I might very well be winning souls while losing my own.

If I live my life a tea-totaling eunuch disciplined in my vow of strict silence, but I don’t have Love, then I might very well look like the beautifully pure fruit but be void of flavor or any kind of nutritional value.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself continuing to meditate on the question I asked myself as I read the chapter:

If Jesus walks up to my life on this day of the journey like He walked up to that fig tree, what is it He wants to find on this branch?

The pure fruit of Love in all its fullness and goodness, or just a few of its ancillary by-products?

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

Chapter-a-Day

Holy Moments in the Dark

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Holy Moments in Dark Places (CaD Ps 106) – Wayfarer

Save us, Lord our God,
    and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
    and glory in your praise.
Psalm 106:47 (NIV)

Yesterday, Wendy and I found ourselves discussing the concept of holiness as we enjoyed our weekly date at the local pub for pizza and a pint. It kind of picked up on what I discussed in my blog post a few weeks ago. In my experience, the concept of being “holy” has largely been reduced by the institutional church to mean “morally pure.” In my spiritual journey, I’ve come to understand that it means so much more than that.

Our conversation sprung out a friend sharing with us about a loved one who finds themselves in one of life’s dark valleys. Wendy and I both identified with the story because both of our journeys include stretches in dark places of our own choices and consequences. Much like our friend’s loved one, the respective dark valleys on life’s road were not characterized by any kind of moral purity.

Go to any twelve-step meeting and you’ll hear people tell their own stories about dark valleys on life’s road. You’ll also hear them share that sometimes one must hit rock-bottom before they spiritually wake up to the consequences of their actions and their need to change.

In Jesus’ famous story of the Prodigal Son, the younger brother finds himself far from home, broke, alone, and literally wading in pig shit. In that rock-bottom moment Jesus shared:

“That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.“

Wendy and I discussed that this very moment, in the midst of the dark valley, at rock-bottom, and knee-deep in pig shit, was a holy moment. That’s the way the spiritual journey often works. Holiness is not confined to the definition of moral purity found at the mountain-top of righteousness. Holiness can also be found in the spiritual awakening that often happens not at the summit of morality but in the muck of a shattered life.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 106, is the final song in Book IV of the anthology of Hebrew song lyrics we know as the Psalms. It is another summary review of the history of the Hebrews. As the song comes to its conclusion, the songwriter pens:

Save us, Lord our God,
    and gather us from the nations…

This would indicate that this song was likely written from a place of exile when the Hebrew tribes had been scattered across the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. What’s different in this re-telling of the history compared to the one I just read last week is the heart of repentance. The songwriter finds himself far from home, broken, living amidst his enemies and he recognizes that this dark valley was part of the consequence of his peoples own poor choices. Like the Prodigal, like Wendy and me, the songwriter is having his own holy moment of spiritual awakening. He’s owning his part (and the part of his people) in landing himself in this dark valley. He’s making the spiritual turn.

In the quiet this morning I find myself thinking about my own journey which includes holy moments that occurred both on spiritual mountain tops and sinful, dark valleys. King David wrote in another song (we haven’t gotten to it yet) that there’s nowhere that he could flee from God’s presence. Even in my lowest, darkest moments, God was not absent. It was there He helped awaken my spirit to my need to change the spiritual trajectory of my life.

It was a holy moment.

Chapter-a-Day

Inside Out Transformation

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[Jesus] went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Mark 7:20-23 (NIV)

I was a young man when I began my spiritual journey following Jesus. The community of believers I often associated with were very concerned about religious appearance and moral purity. My hair was expected to be short and my dress was expected to be coat and tie. My ears were to be kept pure from rock music, my eyes kept pure from looking lustfully at women, and my body to be kept pure from the usual vices of drugs, alcohol, and smoking.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with these things. I’ll be the first to confess that I wasn’t perfect, but I’m also quite sure that adhering to the religious rigor kept me from getting into various kinds of trouble. As I progressed in my spiritual journey, however, I began to observe a few things.

First, my peers who were born and bred into the religious rigor as part of their strict family and faith systems were often big on obedience to the rules and traditions but really short on any real spiritual or personal maturity. They adhered (at least publicly) to the letter of the religious rules to keep the family and community appeased, but I never saw any real inner desire to pursue the things that Jesus was really getting at.

Second, the adults in these communities and religious systems were really focused on all of the easily recognized and visibly apparent illicit behaviors. People, especially young people, were publicly shamed for all the usual social vices. No one, however, seemed to care when it came to gluttony at church potlucks, gossip between the youth group member’s mothers, the man in the church with anger issues who used the Bible to justify the secret physical abuse of his family, deacon John who was not shy about his racism, elder Bob who was a dishonest businessman who’d filed for bankruptcy three times, or that the women of the church treating Ms. Jones like a social leper because her husband left her, filed for divorce, and so she must not have been the dutiful wife he needed.

Finally, I eventually found myself really dissatisfied. When I made the decision to be a follower of Jesus, it was about me being less pessimistic, impatient, immature, shallow, dishonest, inauthentic, and self-centered. It was about me wanting to grow into more self-less-ness and more love, life, joy, and peace. Checking off a bunch of religious and moral rules wasn’t addressing my desire to become more like Jesus. In fact, I don’t think Jesus would want to be with these people. I realized that Jesus would probably want to be with all the people that got shamed and kicked out of that church for their public mistakes.

In today’s chapter, Jesus is hitting this stuff head on. He gets in trouble with the religious rule-keepers because they didn’t ceremonially wash their hands before supper. He looks at the good religious people from His own religious system and explains that they are doing the same thing I witnessed among my own religious community. They were keeping all of the religious rules about washing your hands and eating only the prescribed dietary foods, but they weren’t doing anything about the anger, malice, judgment, critical spirit, discord, gossip, dishonesty, selfishness, racism, hatred, and condemnation that was polluting their souls.

This morning, I find myself contemplating the Jesus that I’m reading about in Mark’s account. I love that He was not about me keeping external rules and regulations, but about me getting my heart and life transformed from the inside out. I love that Jesus heals the daughter of a “sinful” outsider who His religious community would never have even acknowledged. I love that Jesus continues to compassionately pour out love, kindness, and healing even when He was tired and wanted to be left alone for a while. I love that He keeps telling people not to talk about the miracles because they weren’t the point; The miraculous physical healings of eyes, ears, and limbs merely pointed to the real miracle He came to perform: His love transforming me from the inside out as His life emerges from my dead, self-centered spirit.

That’s the Jesus I want to be more like, and keeping rules won’t get me there.

Chapter-a-Day

“What’s My Motivation?”

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We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)

In the art of acting there’s a lot of talk about motivation. It’s sometimes called “the want.” Let me give you an example.

An unlearned actor named John goes up on stage. He walks from point A to point B and says the line highlighted in his script. You ask John why he just did that and he tells you: “The Director told me to. It was at our last rehearsal. I have it written right here in pencil in my script. It says walk right then say the line.” As an audience member you’ll probably see John mechanically waiting for his cue, dutifully walking to a prescribed position on stage, and then saying his line out to the audience.

Now an accomplished actor named Tony takes over the role. Tony has internalized that he’s embodying a character named Ricky who is head-over-heels in love with a girl named Jill. In the previous scene Jill has sent a message to Ricky revealing that she mistakenly believes he’s cheated on her. Now, Ricky sees her for the first time since receiving the note. Actor Tony internalizes what Ricky is thinking and feeling at that moment. He is Ricky, seeing the woman he loves. He makes a b-line to her, looks her right in the eye and says his line with a sense of emotional desperation. You ask Tony why he just did that, and he tells you without hesitation: “I want to convince Jill that it’s not true I cheated on her! I want her to know I love her! I want to spend the rest of my life with her!”

As an audience member I can tell you, without a doubt, that you’ll have a much different experience, and a much better one, watching Tony play the role than you will with John.

Motivation is at the heart of great acting because motivation is at the heart of who we are as human beings. There’s a reason we do the things we do and say the things we say. There’s always something motivating and driving our behavior, though many people live their entire lives without ever thinking about it. When we begin to examine our motivations, we begin to understand ourselves on a whole new level. And while most Christians I know think that God only cares about the purity of their words and the morality of their actions, Jesus made it quite clear that He was most concerned about our motives. He knew that if the latter in order, the former will naturally fall into place.

Paul begins his letter to the believers in Thessalonica by complimenting their accomplishments, their ongoing toil, and their perseverance in the face of adversity. What’s fascinating is that Paul examines and calls out their motivations for each:

Faith has motivated the works they’ve accomplished.

Love has motivated their ongoing, laborious toil.

Hope has motivated their endurance amidst persecution.

Along my spiritual journey I’ve come to learn that motivation is just as crucial to things of the Spirit as it is to the actor on a stage. Religious people often do and say religious things because they are motivated by any number of things:

  • to keep up appearances in a community that values being religious
  • to earn admittance to heaven
  • to have an insurance policy keeping me out of hell
  • to build my business network with all those potential customers who go to that church

Motivation matters. Jesus called out the crowds following Him one day. He said, “You’re following me because I fed you fish sandwiches. You want to follow me? Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” Jesus didn’t care about the number followers He had, He cared about what motivated their following Him. The resurrected Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” and then followed Peter’s affirmative answer with a command to “Feed my sheep.” What was important to Jesus was not Peter’s accomplishment of the task, but the love that motivated it.

In the quiet this morning I once again find myself examining my own motivations. Why do I do the things I do? What is driving me? What do the things I do and the conversations I have reveal about what it is that I really want in life? Spiritually speaking, if I don’t have the motivation right, all the saying and doing won’t matter.

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Note to my regular readers: Our local gathering of Jesus’ followers is  spending most of an entire year (Sep ’18 through Jul ’19) studying the book of Acts. In conjunction with this study, I’ve decided to blog our way through all of Paul’s letters in chronological order. The exact chronology is a matter of scholarly debate. We began with Paul’s letter to the believers in the Asia Minor region of Galatia. Today we’re moving on to his letters to Jesus’ followers in the Greek city of Thessalonica. Many scholars think these two letters preceded his letter to the Galatians.

At this writing it has been roughly 20 years since Jesus’ resurrection and 16 years since Paul’s conversion. Paul had spent just a few months in the provincial capital of Thessalonica. He was forced to leave town quickly because his life was threatened. He didn’t get to spend as much time with the believers there as he had wished. It’s now a year or so down the road and he writes to encourage his friends whom he’d quickly left behind.
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Chapter-a-Day

Puritans, Relationships and Moral By-Products

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See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

“‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
Zechariah 3:9-10 (NIV)

The further I get in my life journey the more I’ve come to understand and appreciate just how much of American culture has been framed by our Puritan roots. For the most part, I don’t think this is a bad thing. From our Puritan forerunners we inherited a great number of basic virtues such as honesty, integrity, charity and a strong work ethic. These virtues have served us remarkably well as a society.

From our Puritan forerunners we also inherited a very strong sense of morality that comes packaged in black and white. The “Puritans” were so-called because they believed the Church of England was not reformed enough from Catholic doctrine and practices. They were willing to start a bloody civil war and behead a king to “purify” England of her perceived sins. When the purification didn’t go as planned, a good many fled to America to carve out life in the “new world.”

Growing up in an evangelical protestant tradition, I was taught that purity and a conservative set of moral behaviors were the pinnacle goals for me as a follower of Jesus. As I have progressed in my spiritual journey and in my study of God’s Message, I find God to be more concerned with relationship than anything else. If you get relationships right as a priority, with God and with others, then doing the right things becomes a natural consequence. Intent on maintaining a strong, healthy relationship I naturally choose to do things that will enhance relationships and cease to do things that will disturb shalom.

I see this in today’s chapter. Zechariah has a vision of the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, with Satan standing beside as prosecutor and accuser. God prophetically declares that He will send his “Branch” who will “remove the sin of this land in a single day.” He then describes what the outcome of this carte blanche grace and forgiveness will be: “you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree.”

Isn’t that fascinating?! God says nothing about morality, purity, righteousness, or remaining untainted by the world. The outcome of sin being washed away is right relationship with others: reaching out, being hospitable, sharing the shade, and loving one another.

This morning I’m thinking about my relationships with God and with others. As a follower of Jesus I want to truly follow His example. I’m reminded in the quiet this morning that when encountering those whom the orthodox establishment had branded and rejected as immoral, Jesus chose to join them for a meal and share some stories. Funny thing: When these “immoral” people (e.g. Matthew, Zaccheus, Mary Magdalene, and etc.) entered into relationship with Jesus, their lives were subsequently marked by radical life changes. These changes weren’t about adhering to some legalistic moral code Jesus maintained to judge who “made the cut.” The live changes were motivated by being in relationship with Jesus, and a desire for that relationship to grow; They chose, quite naturally, to eliminate behaviors that might hinder their relationship with Jesus.

With God, the goal was never morality. The goal has always been relationship. When you get relationship right, then making good life choices to maintain and grow those relationships is a by-product.