Tag Archives: Story

Chapter-a-Day

The Mystery of Melchizedek

4 Comments
Melchizedek
Melchizedek (Photo credit: Lawrence OP)

Chapter-a-Day Genesis 14

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High, brought Abram some bread and wine. Genesis 14:18 (NLT)

Time to put on your Geek glasses this morning and connect some dots. Melchizedek appears in today’s chapter. Mel is an interesting figure on the landscape of God’s story. Let me share a few reasons:

In today’s chapter, Melchizedek is called “priest of God Most high” but he lived and is identified as “priest” many centuries before the priestly system of the Old Testament was established in the Law of Moses. At this point of history, there is no mention of an organized and systematic worship of God. We’re not sure who Melchizedek really was or where he came from.

In the lyrics of Psalm 100, David refers to God as “High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.” It presumes a divine and priestly position separate, older, and greater than the priestly system established in the Law of Moses.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, a great conflict rose up among the Jewish followers of Jesus and their Jewish leaders. Those who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah argued that He couldn’t possibly be because the Messiah would be God’s “High Priest” but priests in the law of Moses could only be from the tribe of Levi. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. It’s an interesting argument anyway because prophecy clearly pointed out the that Messiah would also be King in the line of King David of the tribe of Judah, so how one person could be King from the line of Judah and Priest from the line of Levi at the same time is a head scratcher.

In the book of Hebrews (see chapter 7), this argument about Jesus having to have come from the tribe of Levi is addressed. The author points out that Jesus is, indeed, God’s High Priest, but not from the earthly system established by Moses through the tribe of Levi, but through the older and more eternal order of Melchizedek just as David established in his song.

Notice that when Melchizedek goes to meet Abram he brings bread and wine, a interesting parallel to Jesus’ last supper when He established bread and wine as a metaphor of His eternal sacrifice.

One of the cool things about an ongoing journey through God’s Message is the way the layers of time, teaching, and tradition fit together in the larger story that God is telling. I’ve always said that those who avoid reading and learning about the story of the Old Testament are missing the opportunity to mine the depths of meaning that exist in the life and teachings of Jesus.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hosea 1

4 Comments
from loren javier via Flickr

When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” Hosea 1:2 (NLT)

Hosea was written in whacky period of ancient history about 750 years before Christ. After King David and his son Solomon, the small kingdom of Israel had been broken up in a civil war. The southern kingdom was called Judah and their kings followed the lineage of King David. The northern kingdom continued to call themselves Israel and their throne was occupied by anyone who could plot, assassinate or politically maneuver themselves into the position.

There are two things that I love about Hosea. First, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute and I love to imagine how that conversation went over with his parents.

“God told you WHAT??!”

Hosea stands as an eternal reminder that God does not fit inside a box of our own finite  cultural, social or political sensibilities. God is not subject to the limits of our own definition of propriety. In fact, the only limits God fits are those He has ordained for Himself.

Second, I love the way God made Hosea’s very life became an object lesson. His marriage to Gomer became a metaphor for God’s “marriage” to the idolatrous and therefore adulterous nation of Israel. Hosea’s poor children became metaphor’s for God’s message to Israel. The Great Creator as master artist turned Hosea’s life into a work of performance art.

I think God does the same with my life and yours.

How interesting to think of our very own life journeys being a metaphor for what God is doing. It’s why I love history. There are lessons, eternal spiritual lessons, to be learned from each person’s story. A few days ago I asked the question “What’s your story?” Today, I’m asking the same question for a second time with a different twist:

What is the story God is telling through your life?

(Note: Those following along on a chapter-a-day may wonder why we haven’t finished the book of Psalms. Because Psalms is 150 chapters long, I’ve opted to break it up a bit so as not to get fatigued with it. Psalms is broken up into five distinct sections or “books.” The first book ends with Psalm 41 which we walked through yesterday. We’ll pick back up again with the second section in the near future.)

Related articles
Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 40

3 Comments

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
    out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
    and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Psalm 40:1-3 (NLT)

Those who traverse the faith journey have a story to tell. The journey is a story in progress. It is a Pilgrim’s Progress. I started here. I followed Jesus. Now I am here. I have changed. I have progressed. That was old. This is new. That is now dead to me, while this is now alive in me.

While stuck in the Dallas Fort Worth airport this past Saturday I struck up a conversation with a man sitting next to me. He was from Nigeria and was studying for his master’s degree at North Texas University. He was a poet and a filmmaker. When I asked him about his filmmaking he said unashamedly that he decided to make films because it is the best vehicle to share the good news about Jesus. “When people asked Jesus a question,” he said, “Jesus did not respond with a chapter and verse or a sermon. He told a story.”

I thought of my friend this morning as I read the opening lines of psalm 40 and as I heard U2’s song going through my head. Everyone on the journey of faith has a story to tell.

So, what’s your story?

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Acts 8

1 Comment
CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 02: Kyle Korver #26 of th...
CHICAGO, IL – APRIL 02: Kyle Korver #26 of the Chicago Bulls passes the ball under pressure from Courtney Lee #5 of the Houston Rockets at the United Center on April 2, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. The Rockets defeated the Bulls 99-93. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.  Acts 8:2 (NLT)

The other night I watched a snippet of an interview with Kyle Korver of the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls have struggled all season with their star player injured and on the bench. The other players rallied behind their ailing MVP all season and ended with the best record. In the first game of the playoffs, however, their now “healthy” MVP blew out his knee. Now the team has to face the playoffs without their most important player. No one is giving them much of a chance.

“We’ve got a great story here,” Korver said in response to the situation. He’s right. No one wants to read the story of a team who packs their bench with the biggest stars and then waltzes to a championship everyone expects them to win. The story of a rag-tag team of bench players who rally together and win against all odds – that’s a story people want to read, and watch, and be a part of.

A shake-up can be a healthy for all of us. Tragedy and persecution are thought of as bad things, but God’s Message says in many places that we are to be joyful when we encounter trials and tribulations. Difficult times force us to grow. Tragedies refine our character. Pain pushes us to persevere. Maturity is found at the end of a difficult stretch of the journey. And, they are all the stuff of great stories.

In today’s chapter, the followers of Jesus experience a huge wave of persecution. People are being hunted down, arrested, imprisoned, and stoned to death. It is no longer safe to be associated with Jesus and His followers. People scatter out of the city and the region to avoid the persecution. I’m sure some were fearful and anxious asking God why He would allow such a thing to happen. By the end of the chapter, we begin to see the fruit of the persecution. Jesus’ message is carried with the fleeing followers to every corner of the country and beyond. The movement spreads out to reach more and more people and the incredible stories of people believing, miracles happening, and lives being changed begin to pile up.

Having a difficult time? Feeling beat down and persecuted? Be joyful. What you’ve got is a great story in the making. God uses temporary tough times and tragic earthly circumstances to tell an amazing eternal story. We’ve just got to open our eyes to see it, trust God to see us through, and press on.

Go Bulls!

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day John 14

1 Comment
Source: jonragnarsson via Flickr

“No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.” John 14:18 (NLT)

Last weekend Wendy and I were in a production at the local community center. As part of the development of our roles each actor in the play was required to create a character study. The director then printed edited versions of the character studies and hung them in the gallery for audience members to peruse during intermission. As I was getting the gallery ready before the performance of Sunday’s matinee one of my fellow actors was reading through all of the character studies.

“It’s interesting,” he said, “how many of these characters had fathers who were missing or dead.” Sure enough, a majority of the actors had written that their character’s father was unknown, dead or had abandoned them.

Along the journey I’ve come to recognize just how large of a hole is torn in one’s soul when a child feels or is abandoned by their father. The effects go deep and are long lasting. I had to ask myself how many of the actors in the show last weekend were projecting their own personal pain into that of their characters.

I don’t think I’ve appreciated how this profoundly personal issue is intertwined in Jesus’ story. Jesus makes a point of telling His followers that He is not abandoning them, even as He prepares to be taken from them for execution. Despite what they may think, feel, perceive and experience in the coming days, they are not abandoned – they are not orphaned. Jesus even encouraged His followers with these words less than 24 hours before He Himself would take on the sins of the world, suffer a cruel death and cry out from the cross “My God, why have you abandoned me?”

Today as I prepare to observe Jesus’ betrayal, death and resurrection in the coming weekend, I’m struck that the core human fear of abandonment is woven throughout the story. I’m also reminded that while the scars of abandonment run deep they are not lethal, nor inevitable, nor impervious to healing. Addressing and healing, once and for all, the pain of abandonment is at the core of why Jesus came to us in the first place.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day John 9

6 Comments
David Tennant used the skull of pianist Andre ...
David Tennant used the skull of pianist Andre Tchaikowsky for Yorick's skull in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” John 9:39 (NLT)

Wendy and I love Shakespeare, and we love to see Shakespeare staged whether it’s our local Pella Shakespeare Company‘s performance in the park or the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. One of the things that I’ve learned in watching the Bard’s work is that you always want to pay particular attention to the fool. The fool is never quite as foolish as you think he is, and quite often the fool winds up confounding the wise.

That’s why I’ve always loved today’s chapter. It has all the qualities of a great Shakespearean scene. On one side we have the wise, learned, pompous religious leaders with all of their power, wealth and education. Before them stands a lowly, poor, once blind beggar who is not the fool they think he is. Jesus gave physical sight to the blind fool so that the spiritual blindness of those who claim to see could be revealed. That’s great drama.

This morning I’m chewing on the reality that Jesus, while repeatedly reminding his followers that they were not to judge anyone, continually explained that He came to judge. I find that we love Jesus the lover and healer, but no one really wants much to do with Jesus the Righteous Judge. Today’s chapter reminds me that Jesus not only came to give sight to the blind, but to judge those who think they see for their spiritual blindness. Jesus said He came to both save and condemn. One without the other makes for both a boring story and a weak character.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hebrews 7

2 Comments
First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pi...
Image via Wikipedia

Jesus became a priest, not by meeting the physical requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. And the psalmist pointed this out when he prophesied, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 7:16-17

Some sections of God’s Message are difficult to understand outside of the context of the time and situation in which they were written. Because Jesus was Jewish, and his initial followers were Jewish, the early followers of Jesus were simply one of many sects of Judaism that have existed through the centuries. As Jesus’ followers began sharing that Jesus was, indeed, the Messiah that had been prophesied, they encountered a myriad of questions about their claim as it related to Jewish law and tradition. The book of Hebrews was, in fact, a letter written to address some of these questions.

For example, a priest is one who stands in the gap between man and God and who represents man before God. In Jewish tradition only the high priest can enter the holy place of God and he can only do so once a year to make atonement for the sins of all the people. Jesus’ followers has been explaining that Jesus, God’s Son, was the Great High Priest who came from Heaven to Earth to make atonement once for all with His sacrificial death and resurrection.

“Point-of-order!” their good Jewish brethren responded. Jesus could not be a High Priest because Jesus was from the tribe of Judah and the law of Moses states quite specifically that only members of the tribe of Levi can be priests.

In today’s chapter, the author of Hebrews addresses this question and refers them back to a verse in the Psalms in which the messiah is described as “a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” Melchizedek was a mysterious figure who enters the Biblical narrative during the time of Abraham, 500 years before Moses and the Jewish law. Melchizedek was recognized as High Priest by Abraham before there was a Jewish law or a Jewish tradition because Abraham was the father of the Jews. The author of Hebrews explains that Jesus was not a High Priest as defined by the constrictions of Jewish law of Moses. Rather, Jesus fulfilled the prophesy in Psalms and was a High Priest in the tradition of Melchizedek. Melchizedek presupposes and represents a higher, more ancient order of priesthood.

Today, I’m reminded that what I believe is a story that has been planned and revealed in chapters that span thousands and thousands and thousands of years. The story began long before my lifetime and will carry on long after this Earthly sojourn of mine is completed. While I believe that the great story is already written, today I continue to live out my own chapter of that same story in my life, my words, my actions, and my relationships.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Proverbs 27

4 Comments
FARMER FRANK OTTE WITH HIS FAMILY ON THEIR FAR...
Image via Wikipedia

Be wise, my child, and make my heart glad. 
      Then I will be able to answer my critics.
Proverbs 27:11 (NLT) 

I happened to be visiting with a farmer and his father yesterday. Finding ourselves sitting there with a little time on our hands, I began asking questions and making some small talk. The family farm had been passed down from his great-grandfather who came to America from the old country around the turn of the 20th century. When I asked if any of his children were going to carry on the family farm, I kicked the pebble which started an avalanche.

A long, sad saga of parental woe flooded from the farmer’s mouth. One son said he wanted to take it on and carry on the family legacy, but he didn’t show any actual ambition to do any actual work or finish the degree he felt short of completing. A second son had attended a year of college here and a year of college there to study this or that but didn’t want to finish and ended up working a low paying job in the area. For reasons the father had not been told, the son lost that job and was currently unemployed. The third son was a similar story. He went to one year of community college and then quit. He apparently had no job and showed no signs of finding one. The father stared blankly out the window as he talked. You could feel the heavy weight of his heart.

I sat and quietly listened as the farmer went down his descriptive checklist of passive, undisciplined, and aimless children. I tried not to be judgmental, but to listen graciously and offer no comment. I realized that I was hearing the father’s perspective and the sons, had they been there to offer testimony, may have shared a very different story. A lone perspective rarely, if ever, offers an accurate picture of the family system.

Nevertheless, I walked away saddened by the tragic story the farmer told of his children and the empty, disappointed look in his eyes as he told it. I suddenly felt a surge of gratitude for my children and for their passion, their ambition, and their heartfelt desire to make a positive mark on their world. I felt the stark contrast between the farmer’s story and the one I get to tell.

Today, I am grateful that I am blessed with children who make my heart glad.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Mark 15

2 Comments
This is a diagram of the Biblical tabernacle o...
Image via Wikipedia

And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Mark 15:38 (NLT)

For those unfamiliar with the larger story of God’s Message, this obscure reference in the middle of today’s chapter makes little sense. When God gave Moses the blueprints for the Temple back in the book of Exodus, it included an inner room that was blocked off by a huge curtain. It was behind that curtain that God’s presence resided and it was considered so holy that only the high priest could go behind the curtain, and he could only do it once a year to make atonement for the sins of the people. The word picture was obvious and powerful. There was a separation between God and man and no man could stand before God in His holiness.

When Jesus died, that curtain was mysteriously and miraculously torn in two. Once again, the word picture is both obvious and powerful. With the death of Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, the penalty for sin was paid once for all. There was no longer any separation between man and God – not because of anything man did to earn God’s favor, but because of what God did to pay the penalty of humanity’s flaws.

Today, as I look forward to Christmas, I’m thankful for God who sent his Son. A baby, born in the most humble of circumstances, who would eventually give Himself up to a cruel death to make a way for me to enter through the curtain of eternity.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Deuteronomy 22

2 Comments
Jesus and the woman taken in adultery.
Image via Wikipedia

If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both must die. Purge that evil from Israel. Deuteronomy 22:22 (MSG)

One of the reasons that I love the journey through the Old Testament is that it helps bring important perspective on the familiar stories of the New. Take the law I pulled out of today’s chapter, for example. When I read it, I immediately thought of a familiar story from John’s biography of Jesus:

 Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.

Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”

“No one, Master.”

“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”

All of a sudden, there is greater complexity in the story of the woman caught in adultery and I have a greater appreciation for what Jesus did. Knowing that the law specifically called for both the man and woman caught in adultery to be killed, Jesus was wondering “where’s the dude?” But, Jesus didn’t make it a legal argument, he made it a personal argument. Rather than pointing them to the law, Jesus pointed them to their own sin and shortcomings.

God’s Message tells a story from beginning to end. I may have my favorite chapters, but I will never have the whole picture if I don’t know the whole story.

Enhanced by Zemanta