He ain't heavy...or is he?

 In a world where everyone is a sinner there is no possible community, true, loving community, without dying to ourselves and laying our lives down for the good of the other.

There is no possible way to die to ourselves and lay our lives down for another without pain.  Without loss.  Without absorbing and being willing to absorb damage!  Innocent as doves, yet being willing to be afflicted both for and BY another in order to gain them.  In order to love them.  In order to one day see them and the community healed, whole, shalom.  To sometimes suffer long years in silent service for nothing more than the hope that God may use it to change their hearts or simply because we love them, and we would rather be hurt ourselves than stand by while they hurt themselves.

Are we willing to jump on a grenade for ...anyone?  Who do we love enough to sacrifice for?  Our family?  Our church?  Our neighbors?  The kids down in Sunday School who need teachers?  The "difficult" guy or girl that few people like?  Our sibling who still just doesn't get it and keeps dropping grenades in their own lives?  

Our society is largely rich enough to make many historic forms of suffering a choice now.  If you have enough resources, you can quite often avoid wholesale many forms of pain and trouble and hard work that our ancestors took for granted and therefore learned how to live with!  We lost a lot more than the ability to suffer when we became unwilling to.  We may have even lost the ligaments of community.

My version of Imagine

 "Therefore, I urge first of all that petitions, prayers, requests, and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all people, on behalf of kings and all those who are in authority, in order that we may live a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable before God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony at the proper time, for which I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am speaking the truth, I am not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and dispute." 1 Tim 2:1-8

Oh that it should be so, Lord! Oh that your people were of one mind, one heart, one body! Oh that we with one breath, and that of the Spirit, plead with you for the lives of our families, the lives of our neighbors, the lives of our nations! That we would beseech you on behalf of all people everywhere! The small and the great. The servant wench and the general. The head of state and the lowliest beggar child. The leper and the supermodel. The athlete and the lame. The junkie and the CEO. The billionaire and the single mom on food stamps. What if we all, with one voice, cried out to You and tore our clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and fasted and denied ourselves until you heard from heaven and it rent your heart and you could not bear our sorrow any longer? What if the church actually was the church, your voice here on earth, your heart here in the midst of the people, in the midst of a lost world? What might You do then? What miracles might we see in our day?

This is my version of that inane song, Imagine.

Saved alone. What shall i do?

 Horatio Spafford was a successful Chicago businessman and elder in a Presbyterian church.  His lovely wife Anna and he had five beautiful children, a son and four daughters.  In 1870 their son died of Scarlett Fever.  In 1871 their business was wiped out by the Great Chicago Fire.  In 1873 they decided to holiday in Europe for time but business concerns held up Horatio so Anna and the girls took ship before him and the plan was he would take a later one and catch up with them presumably in France.  

On November 22 at 2AM, the Loch Earn, an iron sailing ship, collided with the Ville du Havre.  In the darkness, the Ville du Havre broke apart and sank in twelve minutes taking 226 passengers with her.  Four of those were Horatio and Anna's daughters.  Pulled from the water unconscious, Anna was taken to Wales.  Stricken with grief and paying by the word she sent this telegram to a husband who probably only knew the ship had sunk and was desperate for news:  "Saved Alone" "What shall I do"

Horatio immediately booked passage to England.  It comes down to us that during that voyage, the Captain of his ship called Horatio to the deck one day to tell him that they were over the resting place of his children.  The nature of steam and sail travel is time.  Time we don't usually have or take these days.  Horatio, a lawyer by profession, used this time to pen a poem. 

Horatio and Anna would have three more children as the years went by.  One of these would die of pneumonia.  They seemed to live a life Job would understand and one would be inhuman not to ask God why?  Why one family so much suffering?  

i don't know why.  i don't know why every day millions of people ride motorcycles and never strike a deer.  i don't know why every day millions of people have terrible accidents and are hardly bruised.  i don't know why my brother is in a coma or when he will wake or what his life will be like after.

But i do know that i am so very thankful that Horatio, my brother in Christ whom i never met, did not waste his grief or that idle time spent on  his voyage.  For almost one hundred and fifty years after he did, sitting in a lovely, shady little courtyard underneath the room where my brother's body lay in a hospital, his mind sank deep where none but God can go, i was able to sing Horatio's poem and find comfort in the God who knows all things and Savior who descended deeper than hell to rescue me.

When peace like a river attendeth my way

when sorrows like sea billows roll

whatever my lot Thou has taught me to say

it is well, it is well with my soul

Though the devil may ruin, dark trials will come

let this blest assurance control

that Christ has regarded my helpless estate

and he shed his own blood for my soul.

It is well

with my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought

my sin, not in part, but the whole

is nailed to the cross and i bear it no more

it is well, it is well

with my soul.

And Lord hast the day when my faith shall be sight

the clouds be rolled back as a scroll

the trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend

even so, it is well, with my soul.

It is well,

with my soul,

it is well, it is well with my soul.

"Everything i have is yours..."

If it doesn't hurt, it's not generous.
If it doesn't cost you, it's not a gift.
If you don't absorb the debt, you didn't forgive.

If you don't lay your life down, then it isn't love. 

Covenant

 Grace.  Unmerited favor.  Undeserved blessing.  You initiate the covenant with us.  The covenant.  i say it As if it was a thing that just existed and we all just fell into it, or a contract that you signed with us.  Instead it is the deepest form of relationship there is.  The most powerful form of intimacy possible.  And it started, it emanated, it begins in You.  For the Covenant is the expression of and essence of Who You Are.  You are love.  You bleed for us.  You ache for us.  You grieve over us even before we know you.  Even before we existed outside of your imagination.  You knew us and loved us.  You committed yourself to us.  So much so that you would become one of us, suffer as one of us, more than any of us, For you took the justice we deserved for breaking your covenant, breaking your heart, for dishonoring your majesty, dismissing your affection, rejecting your love, rejecting You. For love’s sake, you forsook yourself, to save your lambs, to fold us into your love, binding us to You eternally.  For what you love can never be lost.  What you love can never diminish.  What you love can never die.  We will go on and on, ever more filled with your love, ever more filled with You, Consummating, completing, never knowing lack yet always there is more, ever more, at last, able to love you.

just a thought

 Of course we understand that the Spirit uses the good news of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection to change lives but do we understand that the very way we live those lives for those of us who believe actually increases the believability and desirability of that message? By living generous, sacrificial lives, even we who are not gifted evangelists make the job of the preachers so much easier! For they will be able to see the proof of the preacher's claims in us and our communities.

Hey Jealousy

 "Cruel is wrath and overwhelming is anger,

but who can stand before jealousy?" Prov 27:4

"..for I AM YHWH your God, a jealous God.." Deut 5:9

The greater the love, the greater the jealousy. Harm or dishonor that which He loves and of course wrath must follow. Dishonor and fail to uphold His holiness. Harm and exploit His creation. Harm and exploit and disregard the poor. Harm and exploit and dishonor His Bride the church. And of course incur His wrath.

But even so, all of this can be forgiven. But how much more if you dishonor Him by rejecting, disdaining or even just ignoring His only beloved Son in whom He loves the most and His most true act of love which He has done to win you?

For a time such as this...Esther 4; Only took a year...

 "Mordecai learned all that had been done and he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes.  And he went through the middle of the city and cried out a loud and bitter cry; he went up to the entrance of the gate of the king, for he could not go to the gate of the king in sackcloth."  Esther 4: 1, 2

It's been a while so let's review.

• This is an interpretation of the Book of Esther from the viewpoint that it is a parable, an allegory of the gospel itself.
• The King is God.
• Haman is Satan
• Esther is the Son of Man
• Mordecai and the Jews represent us

Got it?  With me?  No?  Well, then, go back to February of last year and read those posts first.  Or just muddle through like you did in high school when you didn't read the assigned pages and everyone was discussing the chapter and you were like, i have no idea what is going on here and i dearly hope the quiz isn't today!

The word has come down from on high.  Those who have been deemed the King's enemies are to be executed, not right away, but at a later date.  Their goods plundered.  All is lost!  Those who understand are distraught; they are the dead men walking.  They put on sackcloth and ashes and mourn loudly.

"And as the angel of YHWH spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people wept bitterly.  And they call the name of this place Bokim (weepers), and there they sacrificed to YHWH."  Judges 2: 4, 5

"And when the king heard the words of the law,  he tore his garments..."  2 Chron 34: 19

"For all of the people wept when they heard the words of the law."  Neh 8:9

Astonishment, fear, trembling, despair, these are what the Law of God bring us if our hearts are responsive and our minds not blinded by our sin.  God's law is perfect.  God's law is holy.  There is none of us righteous, no not one.  

    "Who may ascend the mountain of YHWH?

    And who may stand in his holy place?"  Ps 24: 3

    "Who has ascended to heaven and come down?  Who has gathered the wind in the hollow of his hand?  Who has wrapped water in a garment?  Who has established all the ends of the earth?  What is his name and what is the name of his child?  For surely you know."  Prov 30:4

Mordecai cannot come into the presence of the King himself.  He cannot even come into the near presence of the king in mourning.  He cannot advocate for himself and his people.  Another must do it.  Another who has position he does not.  Another who has power he does not.  Another who has access he does not.  If they do not, he and his people will surely die.

But one does take compassion on him. 

"And Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and they told her, and the queen was deeply distressed..."

One from the palace does care.  One does identify so closely with him and his people that she will share his fate, the fate of her people.  

"And no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven--the Son of Man.  And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, thus it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up..."  John 3: 13, 14

"Therefore, since the children share in blood and flesh, he also in like manner shared in these same things..."  Heb 2: 14

"Who knows?" Mordecai muses to his niece/daughter Hadassah, his own flesh and blood, "Perhaps you have come to a royal position for a time such as this."

"For everything there is an appointed time, a time for every matter under heaven..." Ecc 3: 1

"But when the fullness of time came, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that he might redeem those under the law...." Gal 4: 4, 5

But Esther is no suicidal fool.  She knows the law.  She too may die in the attempt to approach the king and all would be in vain.  The journey is too great for her, she needs the favor of God.

"Esther replied to Mordecai: "Go, gather all the Jews that are found in Susa and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, both night and day.  I and my young girls will fast likewise, and then I will go to the king..."  

"And they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray."  And he took along Peter and James and John with him, and he began to be distressed and troubled.  And he said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death.  Remain here and stay awake."  And going forward a little he fell to the ground and began to pray...."  Mark 14:32-35

 Just a crumb from reading Genesis 25 this morning...

Esau.  

Impulsive.  Crude.  Unrefined.  He eats, bolts down, slurps down, wipes his mouth on the back of his hand and leaves.  Maybe he belches.  Maybe he doesn’t because he doesn’t feel like complimenting Jacob on his stew.  He does not think of the future.  He doesn’t hardly think at all.  He is like a beast.  A hairy red beast.  That is how the narrative wants us to think of him.  Interestingly appetite is the metaphor for both Esau and Isaac.  Appetite.  Men of their stomachs.  

How’m i doing, Lord?  How often am i not ruled by my stomach?  Forgetting even to thank you for my food before digging into it.  Fasting is ruling over the stomach.  Ruling over the appetites.  A beast thinks only of its next meal.  Survival.  A man can fast.  Can chose to forego the meal in order to seek something greater.  An infant screams because it is hungry.  A weaned child can sit calmly.  A man must rule over his appetites, desires and physical weakness.  Self-control.  A gift of the Spirit.  An attribute of Christ.  Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word which comes from the mouth of God.  Give us appetites for the Bread of Heaven.