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Chapter-a-Day

Cutting In at the Cultural Dance

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Cutting In at the Cultural Dance (CaD Matt 10) – Wayfarer

As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
Matthew 10:12-14 (NIV)

Other than a four-year collegiate sojourn in the Chicago area, I have lived in Iowa my entire life. I just read an article a few weeks ago about the fact that Iowa has among the happiest people in the world. You’ll never read that or hear about it in the news. Every year you’ll hear the major news streams buzz about Scandinavian countries and Bhutan being the happiest places on earth, but that whole thing (like most things coming out of the main stream press these days) is a complete sham.

Of course, happy places have their quirks, and so it is with living in the midwest. For example, there is an etiquette to visiting others and being visited. When you arrive, it’s customary to bring something with you for your host. Typically it is food of some kind. Wine is what Wendy and I most often bring with us when invited to another home for dinner. I once invited a musician over to the Vander Well Pub for a pint. He brought the entire collection of his jazz combo’s CDs as a gift. There were, like, six of them. Awesome. I love jazz.

There is also an unspoken but well-worn tradition of guests leaving a host’s home here in Iowa. You don’t just leave. There’s a type of dance you do that begins with non-verbal signals to everyone that it’s about time to leave. This proceeds to small verbal hints like saying, “Well, this has been lovely. Thank you.” Then there’s the rising from your seat and continued banter as you make your way toward the entrance. More conversation. More giving of thanks and offers to reciprocate. The host makes a show of sending you home with the leftovers of whatever food you brought, which must be rebuffed. The promise of returning your casserole dish is given, by which you turn it into an invitation to have your hosts over to your house. You put your coat and shoes on as the conversation continues and discussion of possible future get-togethers commences. If you know your hosts well, you might experience a series of good-bye hugs during this entire culturally choreographed good-bye dance. It can sometimes take upwards of a half-hour from the first non-verbal hint you’re ready to leave to the point you are in your car driving home.

I thought of this as I read today’s chapter. Jesus sends The Twelve out into towns and villages to proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God has come near. Jesus gives them instructions for entering and leaving hosts’ homes and tells them to bring their “Greeting” which in the Jewish tradition of the day meant bringing the blessing of “Shalom” which translates as “peace” but means so much more than that. Jesus then offers instructions for when the disciples are not welcome or if the hosts turns on them once they hear the message the disciples bring with them. If that happens, Jesus tells them to let their “shalom” return to them, shake it off, and go on their way.

Sometimes on this chapter-a-day journey I run across a passage and God’s Spirit whispers to my spirit that I need to spend some time meditating on that. So it was with these verses I pasted at the top of today’s post. I have never once heard a sermon given on these instructions of Jesus. They are verses that I myself have read countless times without even giving them consideration. Yet there is something there in the being a guest and how I enter and leave another person’s home that I think is worth more consideration.

When I enter another person’s home, what do I bring with me? I’m not talking about a casserole, dessert, or bottle of wine, but shalom. Do I bring a blessing? Do I enter with God’s peace and presence to gift to those who invited me in? What spiritual blessing can I gift and impart to my host and their family? In the quiet this morning, I find myself needing more time to meditate on these instructions and to consider what it might mean for me and Wendy, especially in light of the well-worn cultural dance of entering and leaving here in Iowa. I’ve learned along my life journey that sometimes one has to do something novel in order to “cut in” during a deep-seated cultural dance.

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

TGIF

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TGIF (CaD Lev 23) – Wayfarer

“‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.’”
Leviticus 23:3 (NIV)

It has been so woven into the fabric of our lives for so long that we don’t even think about it. It is universal. It is unequivocally a basic human right.

The weekend.

It wasn’t always so. For most of human history, the toil of daily survival and commerce ground on mercilessly without fail. There was no stop. There were no weekends, or PTO, or rest from the grind. It was just as God poetically told Adam it would be after he and Eve ate the forbidden fruit:

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground…”
Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)

And so, the painful toil had been going on for the ancient Hebrews all the days of their lives. As slaves in Egypt, they toiled seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, every year of their miserable existence in chains.

Then God showed up.

God introduced Himself to Moses, delivered them from Egypt, and is now instituting a fresh start with them. He is going to live with them at the center of their camp. He is going to teach them a new way of living in community with Him and with each other.

I’ve observed along my life journey that God gets generally characterized as a tyrannical killjoy. I’d like to refute that generalization by offering as Exhibit A today’s chapter. For the record, God has laid down plenty of rules to live by so far. The most repeated rules have been don’t commit child sacrifice and don’t have sex with your own family members. Other rules include don’t drive your daughter into prostitution. Then there’s If you’ve got a festering sore, you might want to spend some time in quarantine outside the camp. Oh my goodness, what a killjoy.

We get to today’s chapter and God demands of His people a series of festivals, celebrations, and it begins with A DAY OFF FROM WORK EVERY WEEK! A day of celebration and rest EVERY WEEK!

What a tyrant.

The “sabbath” was a radical social concept in 1500 B.C. Take a day off every week. Rest from your labor. Gather with your loved ones, your community, and with God. This pattern, by the way, had already been set when Father, Son, and Holy Spirit finished creation in six days and then took a day off to rest, celebrate, and enjoy what had been created. God is teaching His people to follow His own divine example.

But it doesn’t end with just a weekend day off. God goes on to establish annual festivals and celebrations for the whole nation to rest, gather, celebrate, mourn, and remember. Once again, NO WORK! There are eight in total when you break it down, which we’ve already learned in this chapter-a-day journey through Leviticus is an important metaphorical number. Seven is the number of completion (e.g. seven days of creation) and eight is a new beginning after the completion. So the annual festivals God ordains follow the flow of His peoples annual trip around the sun and then the beginning of a new one. God is teaching His people about the flow of life and time, and God is all about flow. It’s an essential part of who He is.

So, when we get to the end of the work week and say, “Thank God it’s Friday” we can take that literally. Sabbath was a particularly Hebrew tradition until the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine, learned about God’s Sabbath and decreed that the entire Roman Empire would get one day off each week. With that, what became the modern weekend was born.

By the way, the two-day weekend would not be firmly established until the 1800s in the midst of the industrial revolution. This time it was the British Empire (which had become, and remains, the largest empire in human history) that became the source of the social change. While the additional day of rest evolved over time and the lobby for it came from a host of sources, church leaders were on the front line of the crusade arguing that having Saturdays off would lead to a refreshed workforce and higher church attendance on Sundays.

So, in the quiet on this Thursday morning as I approach the end of another work week, I find myself feeling grateful for God who by His very nature enjoys rest, celebration, gathering, and festivity. I’m consciously thankful for something I have always taken for granted. I am reminded once again that the God I encounter in the Great Story stands in contrast to the killjoy tyrant that others have perceived Him to be, often twisted by humanity’s own fundamentalist religious perversions of His intended guidelines for life.

Tomorrow morning, when my eyes open and I climb out of bed, I can truly, sincerely, and genuinely utter, “Thank you God. It’s Friday.”

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

Calvinball

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Calvinball (CaD Lev 6) – Wayfarer

They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering.
Leviticus 6:5 (NIV)

I miss Calvin and Hobbes. The comic strip about a young boy and his stuffed (yet very real) tiger has always been one of my favorites. One of the recurring themes in the world of Calvin and Hobbes was Calvinball, a game of ever-changing rules based on Calvin’s whims and whatever gives him an edge in winning the game. It’s sort of like our grandson Milo, who loves to have Papa get him past the difficult part of the video game level and then abruptly steals the controller out of my hands. It’s abundantly clear who is making the rules regarding how this works.

I thought of that as I meditated on the chapter this morning. God, having established the five major offerings He wants His people to bring to the altar, now provides some specifics for each one and how they are to be handled by the priests.

It’s hard for me fathom, but the Hebrew people had no formal code of law or order at the time Leviticus was given. Life together was one big game of Calvinball. People could make up their own rules at their own whim based on whatever benefitted them the most. I take for granted that I have never known a world without a formal structure of social law and order. I can’t imagine living without it.

This is one of the things I find most helpful in reading through the book of Leviticus. On a macro level, God is eliminating life as one big game of Calvinball and establishing an ordered system of living life together in community: God, me, and others. What does God establish first and foremost? Voluntary offerings of gratitude, blessing, and devotion (burnt, grain, and fellowship). After that comes the mandatory offerings for sin and guilt based on the sinner realizing his or her responsibility and acting on it. Nowhere in what I’ve read so far in Leviticus do I find a condemning God breathing hell-fire and damnation nor an absent God living in another spiritual reality with little concern for humanity. Rather, I find God initiating and establishing a system by which He and humanity can live together in harmony.

The underlying theme of the five main offerings is my human responsibility to be considerate of God and others, and to take the responsibility for my own actions and make things right. In today’s chapter, God even ups the ante in situations in which I am responsible for stealing, breaking, or losing someone else’s stuff. God through Moses establishes that before the Hebrew perpetrator brings his or her guilt offering to God, first he or she must make restitution in replacing the stolen, broken, or lost item and add twenty-percent of its value in interest. I couldn’t help but hear the echo of Jesus’ own teaching in my soul:

“This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.” Matthew 5:23-24 (MSG)

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about human’s ability to play Calvinball even with our established system of laws and regulations. How can I twist the letter of the law or bend the meaning of that regulation for my own selfish purposes? By the time Jesus arrived on the scene, that’s what His people had done with the laws of Moses that we’re reading about in Leviticus. Jesus was not changing the rules, He was teaching me to get back to the heart of it:

“Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.” Matthew 5:17-18 (NIV)

The heart of what I’ve read so far is about acknowledging both God and others in my life, and doing right by them in relationship. Loving God as He has loved, saved, and provided for me. Being responsible, treating others as I’d want to be treated, and making things right (with others and with God) when I make mistakes.

Seems like a pretty good system to me.

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

“The Why”

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For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

On a shelf in my office you’ll find some notebooks. The notebooks contain character studies of different parts I’ve played as an actor. When I trained as an actor in college, I was taught that being an actor is not so much pretending to be a character (like putting on a costume, from outside in) but understanding a character so thoroughly that you transform into that person from the inside out. A great performance on stage begins, not on stage, but in my study with a notebook, the script, and all the resources I can muster. Understanding why my character makes certain choices, says the words he says, and does the things he does requires a cocktail of psychology, imagination, investigation, and meditation. The “why” is critical to the “what.”

Along my journey, I have found this to also be a spiritual truth.

Today’s chapter contains two verses that are foundational to an understanding what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9 are well known verses:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

I have found, however, that this is one of the most difficult truths for people to truly believe. Not just cognitively understand, but experientially understand. Throughout my life journey I have continually observed believers who pressure themselves (and their children) to do the right things, say the right things, and keep up appearances of goodness in order to conform to religious social pressure, avoid being ashamed, and to hopefully live a good enough life to be welcomed into eternity with a “well done, my good and faithful servant.”

The problem with this scenario is not in the what but in the why.

As I meditated on the chapter in the quiet this morning, it struck me that I’ve heard Ephesians 2:8-9 quoted regularly my entire life. Not once, however, have I heard someone quote verse 10 with it:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Yet this is a critical and essential context! The “good works” flow immediately out of being “saved by grace through faith.” If I were an actor doing a character study of a sincere disciple of Jesus, I would dig into the “why” of their good works and find that the motivation is gratitude for Jesus’ kindness, grace, and mercy. I have observed in others that their good works are motivated by ingratiation — both the hope of maintaining acceptance and social status among the religious set and also punching one’s ticket of admission into heaven.

This distinction of “the why” is critical for any true understanding of Jesus and His teaching. I make certain choices, say the words I say, and do the things I do “because of his great love for me, God, who is rich in mercy, made me alive with Christ even when I was dead in my transgressions.” The good works don’t flow into salvation but out of it.

If I, in my heart and soul, don’t get the “why” right, then all of my good works are simply a shitty performance on the stage of life.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Game Changer

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Game Changer (CaD Acts 10) – Wayfarer

He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.
Acts 10:28 (NIV)

When I was in high school, our school had the most diverse student population in the state of Iowa. At least, that’s what I remember being told. Between desegregation and the wave of Asian immigrants who entered the state after the Vietnam War, we had a mix of three very distinct ethnic groups. Layer on top of that mix the fact that the white kids had very distinct social groups of nerds, jocks, burnouts, etc.

Our educators created a group made up of leaders within all of these ethnic and social groups. The idea was for the leaders to get to know each other, talk to each other, and share with each other their stories and experiences. As a teenager, this experience was pretty amazing. It taught me a lot about empathy and respect for others.

I believe it is hard for a modern reader to comprehend the level of religious, cultural, and ethnic separation that existed between first-century Jews and the non-Jewish (aka Gentiles) around them. God had been clear in the Law of Moses that His people were not supposed to mistreat foreigners living among them but rather to bless them. Over time, it became less about blessing and not mistreating and simply became segregation. In today’s chapter, Peter himself says that it was inappropriate to associate with anyone who wasn’t a Jew.

Jesus had already laid down both the teaching and the example that His Message was for all people. He’d commanded the disciples to take His Message to all nations and to the ends of the earth. We’re now several years into the Jesus Movement and it’s still primarily operating as a Jewish sect centered in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem.

In telling the history of those early years, Dr. Luke chose to confine the story to some of the most pertinent events. The acceptance of, and mission to, Gentiles will be a radical game changer for the devout Jews who have, to this point, made up the core of those in the Jesus Movement. It will create huge rifts and there will be a tremendous struggle for Jewish believers to let go of the cultural divide they’ve lived and believed in their entire lives.

In setting us up for this tectonic shift, Luke shares two key events.

The first was the radical conversion of Saul, who became the greatest and most zealous proponent of taking Jesus’ Message to the Gentiles. Being educated and well-connected in the Jewish establishment, Paul will also leverage his clout and former standing to give Jewish believers an example to follow as well as comfort in the shift.

The second key event happens in today’s chapter. Peter, the undisputed leader of the Twelve, is given a vision and then a divine appointment with a Gentile. Not only was Cornelius a Gentile, but he was also a Roman Centurion who was reviled by zealous and patriotic Jews living under Roman occupation. God makes it clear to Peter that the old Jewish rules of “clean” and “unclean” food and people no longer apply. Jesus’ Message and the indwelling Holy Spirit are for people of every tribe, nation, and language.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the cultural divides that still exist, even in my own fairly heterogeneous small town in Iowa. My job is to love others in my circles of influence, but that includes all of those with whom I have contact. Even in a small community, I confess that it is easy to stick with my peeps. How many people do I have the opportunity to engage, but choose not to because it’s uncomfortable breaking out of the normal, daily, cultural routine?

I can do better.

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

Chapter-a-Day

No Signs Needed

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No Sign Needed (CaD Jhn 4) – Wayfarer

And because of [Jesus’] words many more became believers.
John 4:41 (NIV)

For the past four months, since the heinous events of October 7, 2023, the headlines have been dominated by the intense conflict between the terrorists of Hamas and Israel. We have seen heated and sometimes violent demonstrations around the world. We have witnessed the impassioned feelings on both sides of the conflict. What many fail to understand is that the conflict between people groups in this region can be traced back thousands of years. They were as real for people in Jesus’ day as they are today.

In the first three chapters of John’s version of Jesus’ story, he has made a point of the “signs,” or miracles, that Jesus performed. He went on to describe the religious leaders for whom no “sign” was good enough as they demanded a bigger, better, more magnificent miracle, while the crowds who saw Jesus’ miracles/signs at the Temple during the Passover festival believed because of them.

For the largely Jewish audience that John was addressing when he wrote his account, today’s chapter takes a shocking twist. Jesus leaves the region near Jerusalem and heads back north to His home region of Galilee. To get from one to the other in a straight line, Jesus had to travel through a region called Samaria. This was an issue.

The people in the Samaritan region were Jews who hundreds of years before Jesus had intermarried with non-Jewish inhabitants during the time when the northern kingdom had been taken into exile by Assyria. To Jesus’ people, the Samaritans were half-breeds (or mud-bloods if you’re into the whole Harry Potter nomenclature). Good Jews would walk miles out of their way to avoid walking through Samaria. I can’t help but think about the delineations drawn today between Israel and Palestinian regions and the antipathy between them. Jesus was like a Jew walking into and through Gaza or the West Bank.

Jesus not only leads His disciples directly through Samaria, but He strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman. It was socially unacceptable for a Jewish man of Jesus’ day to speak to any woman in public. Jesus strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman. If Jesus was playing poker with the cultural rules of His day, His conversation with the Samaritan woman was Him going “all in.”

I find it fascinating that John shares this episode so early in his version of Jesus’ story. John’s audience was well aware that the Jesus movement had torn down traditional social and cultural distinctions between men and women, Jews and non-Jews, along with slaves and slave owners. In writing about Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, their two-day stay with the Samaritans there, and the Samaritans’ belief in Jesus, John was providing his readers with the reason that Jesus’ followers were so revolutionary in crossing such entrenched social mores. It’s what Jesus did Himself, and the example Jesus commanded them to follow.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I couldn’t fail to notice one small detail that I find of profound importance. John has already established how important Jesus’ “signs” and miracles were in leading His Jewish audience to believe in Him. When it came to the Samaritan woman and her people, there were no miracles worked. There was no “sign.” Instead, John specifically states that these socially unacceptable half-breed deplorables believed Jesus simply at His word.

I’m reminded this morning that as much as the world has changed since Jesus’ two-day stay in Samaria, the human condition hasn’t changed. People groups still hate one another with generationally perpetuated hard hearts and homicidal intensity. Individuals still seek “signs” from God as a prerequisite to belief. I find in the despised Samaritans an example I hope I emulate every day on this chapter-a-day journey: Simply taking Jesus at His word without the need for any other signs.

I couldn’t help but think of the episode John will share in the final chapters of his account. The risen Jesus invites Thomas to touch His wounds and verify that it was really Him. After Thomas proclaims his belief, Jesus responds “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

God, make me less like Doubting Thomas and more like the Samaritans.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Jesus, the Impudent Dinner Guest

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Jesus, the Impudent Dinner Guest (CaD Lk 11) – Wayfarer

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
Luke 11:37-38 (NIV)

Along my journey, I have found that people across the spectrum, from antagonistic critics to well-intentioned church members, have an ignorant perception of Jesus based on what others have said about Him or how religious institutions have portrayed Him. It’s one of the reasons I continue on this chapter-a-day journey. As I return again and again to the primary source material, it never fails to inform me in often mind-altering ways.

For example, in today’s chapter lies an episode about Jesus that I’ve never heard directly addressed in a sermon or a book.

Jesus is making His way toward Jerusalem, stopping in towns and villages along the way to do His thing. He teaches, heals the sick, and casts out demons from the possessed. He is, however, facing increasing criticism and opposition. The greatest opposition is coming from the institutional religious authority over the very faith Jesus is from and represents.

In one town, a Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner at his house. The Pharisees were a powerful organization within the larger Hebrew authority system. Made up mostly of prominent, wealthy, and connected businessmen, the Pharisees presided over local religious matters along with lawyers who were experts in the Law of Moses. Think of a cadre of the most wealthy and influential businessmen in your town or city having authority over commerce and religion and civil affairs. Being invited to a Pharisee’s home to dine with his lot would have been a huge deal.

Jesus accepts the dinner invite and becomes arguably the most impudent and offensive dinner guest in recorded history.

First, Jesus refuses to wash before dinner. To this day, you’ll find washbasins out in the open in the restaurants of Jerusalem for the orthodox to ritually wash before eating. Jesus’ refusal is a slap in the face of his host, and He does it in order to make a point. Jesus looks at this local cabal of mucky-mucks and says:

“Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”

This is rude. Jesus is insulting His host and his fellow dinner guests. In the culture of Jesus’ day, this was socially unacceptable. It’s hard to even put into today’s terms. It would be like taking your drink and throwing it into the face of your host. The Pharisee and his colleagues would have been appalled and immediately defensive, thinking “How can this country preacher from the sticks say I am not generous to the poor?! He doesn’t even know me! I always give exactly the tithe that God’s Law dictates I must give!”

Jesus raises the ante on His boorish behavior by reading their thoughts and continuing:

“Woe to you Pharisees! Yes, yes, I know you dutifully give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs to keep the letter of the law, but you neglect the heart of the law: justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.“

Jesus doesn’t wait for their reply to this before He raises the stakes even higher:

“Woe to you Pharisees! All you care about is having VIP seating in the synagogues and having people in town treat you like you’re all that and a bag of chips!”

There, dining with the Pharisee is a lawyer, who is not technically a card-carrying member of the Pharisee club, but a prominent colleague and social ally. The lawyer comes to his insulted host’s defense, calls Jesus to a social point-of-order, and informs Jesus that when He insults his Pharisee host, Jesus is insulting him as well.

Jesus quickly goes all-in to insult the lawyers as well.

“And you lawyers, woe to you! You load people down with your authoritative lists of ‘dos and don’ts’ that make their lives more difficult. You feel all powerful, telling people what to do, but then you sit there feeling smug and won’t lift one finger to help them.”

While Luke doesn’t provide the details, I don’t think Jesus got anything to eat. In fact, Luke implies that the Pharisee and his friends threw Jesus out of his house, or perhaps Jesus simply walked out, because the next thing the good doctor writes is: “When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on both the fact that Jesus acted in a rude and socially unacceptable manner and that in 2000 years since we rarely address or acknowledge this fact.

In His dinner party rant, Jesus provides a clue to both His anger and His impertinence. He states that from “Abel to Zechariah” (which is like me saying “From Genesis to Revelation”) it has been the institutional religious fundamentalism and authority thing that His host and friends represent that led to the murder of the prophets God sent to the Hebrew people throughout history. And, the handwriting is already on the wall. Jesus told His disciples in yesterday’s chapter: This same system will kill Him, as well.

I’ve observed along my life journey that the institutional religious fundamentalism and authority thing can be found amidst all of the world’s major religions. I believe that it’s what happens when sinful human beings turn religion into a kingdom of this world. I have always found it fascinating that it was the one thing that Jesus opposed so vehemently that He was willing to break every socially acceptable custom in order to call it out. Ironically, with acts like His impudent dinner behavior, Jesus pushes His opposition to call His bet, go all-in themselves, and kill Him.

The further I get in my journey, the more contrast the eyes of my heart see between the ways of God and the ways of the institutional religious fundamentalism and authority thing. And, the more my heart desires to pursue the former while joining Jesus in opposition to the latter.

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

Chapter-a-Day

“The More Things Change…”

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"The More Things Change…" (CaD Am 1) – Wayfarer

“The Lord roars from Zion
    and thunders from Jerusalem…”
Amos 1:2 (NIV)

It was a time of incredible prosperity and affluence for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah when God called Amos to proclaim his message. Amos was not a noble member of the court like Isaiah. He didn’t hail from blue-blood priestly families like Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Amos was a blue-collared common man. He was a shepherd. He worked with his hands harvesting figs to make ends meet.

What Amos sees around him is that the rich get rich off by oppressing the poor. The powerful use corruption to keep themselves in power. The weak don’t stand a chance. And it’s not just the northern kingdom of Israel or the southern kingdom of Judah. It’s everyone in the region. At the feet of the powerful and wealthy lies hatred, human trafficking, violence, genocide, greed.

So God gives Amos a message. The Lion of Judah is about to roar.

As I read today’s first chapter of the prophet Amos’ message, I couldn’t believe how relevant it felt to today. Just a week and a half ago, the terrorist group, Hamas, brutally attacked Jewish communities just outside of Gaza. Screaming words of hatred, women and children were killed. Babies were cut from their mother’s wombs. Infants were beheaded. Families were kidnapped. A girl was raped next to the body of her dead friends.

Amos’ opening message addresses the kingdoms surrounding Israel and Judah, including Gaza which was Philistine territory in that day. God through Amos, describes their behavior that has stoked His anger. It seemed to me that it came right from this past week’s news:

“…she took captive whole communities.” (vs. 6)
“…she sold whole communities of captives to Edom disregarding a treaty of brotherhood.” (vs. 9)
“..he slaughtered the women of the land.” (vs. 10)
“..his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked.” (vs. 10)
“…he ripped open the pregnant women in order to extend his borders.” (vs. 13)
“I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses.” (vs. 7)

Amazing.

As I read today’s chapter in the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but think of the prophet Amos as an Oliver Anthony of his day belting out his own version of Rich Men North of Richmond. Amos sees the same things in his day that Oliver Anthony sings about from his perspective today. There are double standards. The rich get richer by oppressing the poor. Corruption flourishes and the powerful get away with their crimes. As Bob Dylan sang, “You know the Golden Rule? The one who’s got the gold rules.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. History changes. Technology changes. Knowledge increases. Yet, the human condition remains the same. We need justice today as much as humanity has ever needed it. So, I’m anxious to hear the cries of the blue-collared working man’s prophet, Amos in the days ahead. If the human condition and the circumstances haven’t changed all that much since his day, and it appears that they haven’t, then I think he just might have something relevant for me, my life, and my times.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Sticky Wicket

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The Sticky Wicket (CaD Matt 19) – Wayfarer

Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
Matthew 19:3 (NIV)

I married as a young man with every intention of never divorcing. I was blessed growing up that I didn’t experience it in my own family. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have feelings of shame and failure when it actually happened seventeen years later.

Divorce is a sticky wicket among many Christian persuasions. Among some more Fundamentalist branches divorce is leveraged as a major litmus test to distinguish the pure and the unpure, who is “in” and who is “out,” who is “holy” and who is not. When my first wife and I were amidst our divorce I received a handwritten letter of some 8-10 pages from a “friend” who felt it important to explain to me why I was going to hell in no uncertain terms and would be forever sealed with the scarlet letter “D” for the rest of my days. According to him, divorce was an unpardonable sin. There was no grace, no redemption, and no going back. What was really interesting about it, however, was that this friend’s wife had left him many years before that, divorced him, and got remarried though he steadfastly refused to acknowledge that they were, in fact, divorced. He continued to wear his wedding ring and live in denial.

Divorce brings out all sorts of emotions in all sorts of people.

In today’s chapter, the fundamentalist religious leaders approach Jesus with the motivation of testing Him. If you want to “test” someone, just ask the person to take a stand on a controversial issue knowing that you’ll make at least half your audience angry. Politicians and journalists do it all the time. It’s a tactic from a well-worn playbook.

The test for Jesus was the sticky wicket of divorce, though modern readers may not comprehend the full context of the matter in Jesus’ day. Among the Hebrew religious lawyers at that time, there were two schools of thought when interpreting the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 in which a man who “finds something displeasing” about his wife “because he finds something indecent about her” then he can write a certificate of divorce and send her from his house. One legal camp focused on the term “finds something displeasing” and contended that any man could divorce his wife for any displeasure no matter how small or trivial. He might simply divorce her for burning his steak. The other legal camp focused on the phrase “because he finds something indecent about her” and believed that divorce was confined to some kind of indecent sexual immorality.

In Jesus’ day, divorce was a much larger social issue. Women had no rights. Women had no legal standing. Women had virtually no means or opportunity to survive and provide for themselves. Thus, a widow or a divorced woman was placed in the precarious position of having very few options available to them. They could find another husband (good luck finding a husband with that scarlet “D” on your tunic), they could live off the charity of family or friends, or they could become sex workers. A man who dismissed his wife was not only placing her in an impossible position but was also adding to a larger social problem for which there were few good answers.

Jesus, of course, pointed back to the pattern of creation as God’s intent: one man and one woman who become one flesh for life. I find it intriguing that polygamy was not a heated religious issue given this fact and its prevalence throughout history.

In the quiet this morning, I guess you could say that I’m wrestling with my demons. Shame is a constant for me. Jesus certainly pointed to the ideal as God’s desire for us, though my experience is that the ideal is rarely seen or experienced on this life journey in any context. In this fallen world, divorce is a human reality as old as humanity itself. It will never be ideal. At the same time, my personal experience is that God was never absent during the breakdown of my marriage or during the time of my divorce. And, my experience through it all was ultimately that of God’s love, grace, restoration, redemption, and the germination of new life in multiple ways. Old things passed away, and new things began.

There are so many sins and mistakes that wreak havoc on lives, families, and, society. Divorce is one of them, but certainly not the only one. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in my 40 years of following Jesus, it’s that the very heart of His entire mission was to take broken things and to redeem them, to make them new. Wendy and I have seen this and experienced it in countless ways, despite the pit to hell that my “friend” dug for me in his letter all those years ago. I can’t help but remember the words of Corrie ten Boom: “This is no pit so deep that God’s grace isn’t deeper still.”

Note: I will be taking a break next week while I’m out on a business trip and focusing on my client. Feel free to use the Chapter-a-Day Index to go back and read some old posts. You can also scroll back through old episodes on any of the podcast platforms. Have a great week!

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

Chapter-a-Day

“Ins” and “outs”

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“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
Mark 9:38 (NIV)

Over the past five years, I’ve quietly watched as divergent lines of political, social, and religious thought have become more and more entrenched behind walls of prejudice and across what appears to be a “no man’s land” dictated by either and/or both sides of the great divide. It grieves me to observe, and to experience, the lack of grace, tolerance, love, and simple human kindness for other human beings.

Like every other human being, my life journey has been dotted with observing and experiencing the “ins” and “outs” of social groups. Favorites emerge in family systems. Sides are chosen on the playground. The new kid on the block must navigate how to earn acceptance from the neighborhood gang who’ve known each other their whole lives. Social groups with unspoken rules of “in” and “out” emerge out of the shared identities of being jocks, nerds, band geeks, and stoners. Sororities and Fraternities create shared loyalty through their pledging, hazing, and strict hierarchies. Corporations have well insulated “C-Suites” where executives are sequestered in corner offices with private bathrooms. Churches manage who’s in and out with membership cards, doctrinal litmus tests, and unspoken religious rules about dress, speech, morality, and acceptable political stances.

In today’s chapter, there’s an interesting exchange that, in my experience, doesn’t get much air time. In my forty years of following Jesus and regularly attending the gatherings of various groups of fellow followers, I have never heard one sermon, lecture, or lesson on this exchange.

It comes from the mouth of John who bears the moniker, “the one whom Jesus loved,” and one of the three who comprised what’s known as “Jesus’ inner-circle.” It was that “inner circle” (James, John, and Peter) whom Jesus took to witness His transfiguration in today’s chapter. I have to wonder how that went over with the other nine. I think I can guess.

Jesus and His “twelve” are together in someone’s home, away from the crowds. Jesus is holding a little child in His arms, telling his disciples that in the economy of God’s Kingdom the “greatest” are those who are humble and willing to welcome and serve “the least” of society with open and embracing arms.

John then looks at Jesus (who is still holding the child as a living word picture of this lesson about humility, love, openness, and inclusion), and says, “Teacher, we saw some guy we didn’t know today performing an exorcism in your name and we told him to stop, because he’s not one of us!”

He doesn’t belong “in” our group.

You didn’t choose him, like you chose us.

He hasn’t left everything and followed you like we have.

We don’t know where he is from or what he truly believes.

Be proud of us, Jesus, we’re keeping “out” those who don’t belong “in” your entourage!

Jesus, still holding the child in His arms, rebukes John for what he’s said and done. John can’t see the disconnect. Jesus then tears down the wall of John’s “in” group distinctions: “Whoever is not against us, is for us.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself contemplating all of the walls of distinction that have been erected by various social groups on every side of every issue. And this is where my heart lands as I consider Jesus’ words in today’s chapter, and picture Him holding a little child in His arms:

First:

When I go downstairs this morning to have coffee with Wendy and peruse the news of the day…
I am only going to see what their cameras want me to see.
I am only going to hear what their editors want me to hear.
I am only going to read, watch, and listen to the sources I choose who, let’s face it, I choose because it makes me comfortable in.my.own.groups.

Second:

What I will see, hear, and read is an infinitesimal and skewed vision of the daily lives, experiences, conversations, and interactions that I and billions of other human beings will have on this planet on this day.

Third:

I can’t control what others may think of me or what they perceive me to be. People may very well choose to hate me and be against me in any way one chooses. Nevertheless, no one is going to get me to hate them any more than they could get Jesus to hate them.

As a follower of Jesus, that’s my calling, my mission, and my heart’s desire.

Forgive? Yes. Hate? No.

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