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God’s insane abundance

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

God is teaching me about economics Jesus-style.

One of the most important passages in the Bible on the subject of giving is 2 Corinthians 8-9. Paul is collecting money from the Gentile churches of Macedonia and Asia Minor for the poor Jewish Christians of Jerusalem.

This was the climax of his life’s work.

The principles I see in these verses are:

  • Give (money) as God has blessed you.
  • First give yourself totally to God.
  • Jesus’ self-emptying, descending from heaven’s throne to Calvary’s cross, is our prime example.
  • Sow little, reap little—sow much, reap much.
  • Hilarious (the Greek word) giving celebrates God’s insane abundance.
  • God gives us more than enough to be generous—both grain for food and grain for seed.
  • Giving enriches the giver!

God reinforced these lessons in my heart today. I want to thank God for the generosity of Trinity church and friends who reached out to help us with medical bills in past weeks and months.

Paul wrote:

For, as I can testify, they [the Macedonians]  voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints– and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us.

2 Cor 8:3-5 (NRSV)

For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

2 Cor 8:9 (NRSV)

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

 As it is written,

“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
     his righteousness endures forever.”
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.

2 Cor 9:6-12 (NRSV)

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Skeletons in the Closet

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Women in Jesus’ Genealogy (Matt. 1.1-17)

Matthew begins with 17 verses of “begats.” Mostly we skip it. There are theological insights hidden there, however, like Easter Eggs in a  DVD.

Three groups of 14. In gematria, the Jewish system of number symbols, 14 is David’s number. D is the 4th letter in the Hebrew alphabet, W (V) the 6th. Add the numbers, you get 14. So each group announces Jesus’ relation to David. The breaking points are highlights of Israelite history, starting with Abraham, then David the stellar king, and after the deportation to Babylon.

The list includes five women (except Mary, each of them a shady lady in some respects): Tamar (v. 3), Rahab and Ruth (v. 5), the former wife of Uriah (v. 6). This week our Bible study groups looked at Tamar, Genesis 38.

Tamar’s story interrupts the saga of Joseph, just as he was going down to Egypt as a slave. Judah had three sons; he married Er the eldest to Tamar. But Er died. Judah told son #2 Onan to do his duty and raise up an heir for his brother. (This is levirate marriage, see Deut. 25.5-10.) Without knowledge of the resurrection, you needed offspring to keep your line going. Onan, however, didn’t want an “heir” of his elder brother’s to inherit 2/3 of his father’s estate; so he practiced a crude form of birth control to prevent pregnancy. Onan also died.

Many biblical interpreters have used Onan’s story as a way to discourage boys from masturbation, but that’s a misuse of scripture. The issue here is that Onan refused to follow the law and raise up an heir for his brother.

Judah didn’t want to lose his third son Shelah to a “black widow.” He shelved his daughter-in-law in her father’s house. When she realized he was not going to let her keep her dead husband’s name alive in israel, Tamar took action.

She disguised herself as a temple prostitute, a woman involved in Canaanite worship through ritual sex. Not knowing who she was, Judah had sex with her, but not before she secured tokens from him that would identify him at a later date. (A comparable act would be giving her his driver’s license and VISA card, until he brought cash payment.) But when his friend returned with payment, the so called temple prostitute had disappeared.

Family discovered Tamar was pregnant, and planned to burn her. (Double standard! No sweat for the man.) But she produced the items belonging to Judah, proving she had acted only to secure an heir for her husband, and keep the line going.

Since it is the line eventuating in the Messiah, God also wanted to keep the line going. Her loyalty and hutspah served not only her husband, but Almighty God as well! In that way “she was more righteous than Judah.” (Gen 38.26)

Tamar took grave risks of being maligned, even being burned, to accomplish what in her time and place was an honorable goal. As a single woman, she had no power. Yet she confronted the head of a clan, successfully.

Jesus must have known the stories about his mother, and have felt the sting of slurs against himself as a “bastard.” When he was confronted with the woman taken in adultery (John 8.1-11), did he think about Mary’s suffering?

The Messiah’s genealogy includes the most powerless, poorest people of the society—single women, and not even the “respectable” ones! Surely, we too need to think of women who are left out and lost by our society, if we are truly to be part of Jesus and Mary’s household.

Next: The Miss Kitty and the Longbranch of Jericho, Rahab (Joshua 2)

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Hollow cake

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

I tried my baking skills the other day. I had an orange-cranberry muffin mix, which called for an added cup of water.

Flush with the success of earlier efforts, I added a protein booster whey powder, a couple eggs, and two tablespoons of oil.

After 25 minutes in the oven, the knife came out clean.

We cut the cake the next day to store it. It consisted of an outside ring, inside ring and center.

The outside was perfect, a dream of a cake.

The inside was still semi-liquid, doughy.

The center was empty.

T. S. Eliot:

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Wow! What an image of spiritual life!

It is critical for our spiritual lives to be real, nourishing, whole.

Not cream puffs without cream.

And, when you’re starving, a good hearty piece of bread is better than a pastry.

I’m reading Dom Helder Camara in the Orbis Books series Modern Spiritual Masters. I was intrigued that I never heard of him before, yet the blurb identified him as a major player in Vatican II and an archbishop (?) who implemented changes to move the Brazilian and Latin American church toward ideals of Poverty and Service.

He embodied the bishop Victor Hugo described in the opening pages of Les Miserables. Fluent in French,  he must have known that book well. The Brazilian dictatorship of the 1960s silenced him in the country, but could not outside.

Conservative, fervent anti-Communist pope John Paul II dismantled most of his accomplishments. His writings are largely in Portuguese and housed in Recife, I believe. Orbis is doing world Christianity a great service in bringing the riches of his thought to light.

I confess I  got a flyer offering them at half off. I purchased:

  • Dom Helder Camara
  • Pedro Arrupe
  • Thomas Merton
  • Evelyn Underhill
  • Simone Weil
  • Writings on Contemplation and Compassion, ed. Robert Ellsburg.

Easily a year’s worth of reading and reflection.  I was introduced to the series by the volume on Dorothee Sölle, the German theologian. That led me to read her magnum opus The Silent Cry, which I’ve written about.

Reading is a way out of despair for me. It helps me in these increasingly dark days. Advent is around the corner, my heart cries out for light, light, light!

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In Spirit and Truth

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

I always get into what I’m reading. I’ve been wanting some biography, and happened on Before Night Falls through a book list. It’s a memoir of Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban poet, freedom fighter and gay activist.

Not the kind of book you’d expect a preacher to be reading. Lots of rowdy sex.

Besides that, what I like in this book is the longing evident from early days in Arenas’s life, a longing for something missing in the Communist paradise he grew up in.

Maybe food. As a boy he often ate dirt to fill his stomach.

His writing brought him to the attention of the literary community in Cuba. Despite the many parasites who sold out to State Security, there were others who gathered in small groups to read their work.

In one meeting the poet read his original poems, then burned the only copy in a hibachi to the gasps of the crowd. In Cuba it’s criminal to write except in connivance with the State.

Arenas’ friends smuggled his work out of Cuba, and it was published in France, winning acclaim.

He writes that tyranny hates the Beauty of a poem which cannot be enslaved to its purposes.

He would have liked Ephesians 2.10, “We are God’s works of art…” [lit. poema] NJB.

In my heart is a longing that Arenas somewhere, somehow met the God, who might be known by other names—such as Beauty, Medicine, Truth, Justice, Love. Transcendent names.

I don’t know. I’m just really clear that the system I grew up with, in which people were either saved or lost (no other possibilities), doesn’t cover all the people I know.

There are those souls who long for a better God than all the gods they know, souls who serve their better God even though they have no proof their God exists, souls who put many “saved” folks to shame.

C.S. Lewis wrote of one such soul in The Last Battle. Emeth [Hebrew word meaning faithful] was an enemy soldier who loved the pagan bird god Tash fiercely, risked his life to catch a glimpse of Tash, only to learn in Aslan’s country that he had worshiped the great Lion all his life.

Lewis explained, you can’t offer true worship to a false god; nor can you give false worship to the true God. By whatever name they call God true worshipers serve the true God; false worshipers, false gods.

O true God of mercy, love and grace, you have other sheep, belonging to other folds. May you bring them home in peace at the last. Amen

 Note: high pain today, so I can’t write a lot.

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When darkness gathers

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

An Advent devotion to be in a booklet of such from Trinity United Methodist Church.

As fall deepens, days grow short and the air gets cold. Daylight Savings Time begins—suddenly night falls. You huddle with your school children at the bus stop as if in the wee hours.

This is one of the two great seasons of penitence that the Church observes: in the spring when light lengthens, it’s Lent; in the fall when darkness gathers, Advent. During this season we watch shadows grow, until the winter solstice, when the sun stands still, and the light once again begins to win back the hours.

Imagine ancient humans tending their fires, keeping watch, without explanation for the war between darkness and light that took place in the heavens, dreading that one year darkness would win, and the ice and endless night of long ago would return.

Imagine something closer to today: existing without hope of a Savior. Perhaps you live under tyrants who suppress religious faith. Or, maybe your family taught you that only good looks, money, success give life meaning.

In either case, you’re still in the dark, still waiting for the dawn to come. Perhaps grace has awakened in your heart a love for the Light you have yet to fully see; you live in what little Light you have; you work to give Food to the hungry, Healing to the sick, Justice to the powerless. You long for the Daybreak which you cannot name.

Advent is for you!

It answers that ancient fear of the dark, as old as the species. During the four weeks of Advent we prepare mind and spirit for the victory of the Light in our lives. We ready our community for the birth of the Child whose Life is a turning point for all humankind.

Advent is for all of us who walk in darkness. In our heart is a longing for the Light. Advent tells us, “Lift up your heads! Redemption is drawing near!” (Luke 21.28)

—I’ll have more to say about this, related to the book Before Night Falls, by Cuban poet and activist Reinaldo Arenas.

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Immanuel people

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Immanuel people are those who remind us that “God is with us.”

1600 years ago a child went missing, a sign child went missing, and  is still missing today for most folks.

Child 1: Shear… “A remnant will return”

When God gave the faithless king Ahas a sign through the prophet Isaiah, he said, “The ‘almah is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him ‘Immanuel’—God with us.” (Isaiah 7.14).

Isaiah and his wife the prophetess already had a child Shear-jashub (’A remnant shall return.’)

God instructed the prophet to take his son Shear-jashub with him to meet the king (who sacrificed his son to pagan gods). As prophet and king talked, perhaps the child ran around, as children do.

The prophet called out to his child: “Shear-jashub! Shear-jashub!”

Each time he proclaimed God’s message to the king: “A few will return.”

This means either “only a few of the enemies you fear will survive to go home” or “only a few Israelite exiles will return from Babylon.” Or maybe it means both.

The exiles returned from Babylon in 538 BCE about 200 years after Isaiah confronted the king. We know the date because in that year Cyrus issued an edict allowing exiles to go home.

Child 2: Maher…. “The spoils speeds, the prey hastens”

Isaiah 8 tells us of the child we miss.

Isaiah has a legal document drawn up and witnessed which says: “Belonging to Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz” (The spoil speeds, the prey hastens.)

Then Isaiah makes love to the prophetess (presumably his wife), and nine months later his second child Maher… is born.

The young woman, the ‘almah, of 7.14 has to be first the prophetess (700 years later, another maiden, a virgin named Mary fulfills the prophet’s word again. Matthew leaves no question about Mary’s being a virgin.)

Isaiah makes his point to king Ahaz twice (Isaiah 7.16 and 8.4). Before Maher is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, the small neighboring kingdoms who are bullying Ahaz will be destroyed by Assyria, the mighty empire to the northeast.

What’s the big deal?

Prophecy is first fulfilled in the near future in the prophet’s time. Then, sometimes it may have another fulfillment later. This is true of Isaiah 7.14.

Suppose you go God and say, “Lord, I’m hurting, I need your help.”

“Fine,” God answers, “in 1000 years I’ll do something miraculous.”

How does that help you in the immediate time frame?

God doesn’t leave us hanging for long periods. The answer comes soon. Maybe not as soon as we’d like.

And yes, 1000 years is like a day.

Nevertheless, and especially in the case of Isaiah 7.14, God’s answer came in nine months. And again in 700 years, nine months.

Child 3… Jesus

When Mary’s child was born, not that many people noticed.

Historians did not notice. Three kings from the East noticed; they alerted Herod, tragically.

An innkeeper didn’t notice. Most of Bethlehem didn’t notice.

A few ecstatic shepherds told of a sky full of angels singing “Glory!”

When Mary and Joseph took him to the Jerusalem temple, most overlooked the little boy they brought to be circumcized.

Except an old man Simeon, and an old woman Anna.

They saw the Light of heaven nestled in Mary’s arms.

Two lessons

Our neighborhood Bible study group saw two lessons at least in Isaiah 7-8.

1. If we open our eyes, we can see God with us all around. Especially, there are Immanuel people, who remind us of God’s presence.

2. We as followers of Mary’s child are called to be Immanuel people, carrying the Light with us to everyone we encounter every day.

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Thou shalt love, not hate

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

I had occasion to think about Sodom and Gomorrah tonight. The prophet Isaiah addresses the leaders  and people of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, as “you rulers of Sodom, you people of Gomorrah.”

They must have been shocked, because then, as now, Sodom and Gomorrah smelled bad.

Though not for the same reason.

The modern mind equates S & G with gay sex. That’s been so for about 1600 years. (But not before that.)

According to Genesis 19, however, the men of Sodom were as willing to gang rape Lot’s virgin daughters as his strange visitors.

The issue is gang rape, violence against persons to whom is owed the sacred obligation of hospitality and the protection that comes with it.

It’s not homosexual people.

Ezekiel 16 is the only place in scripture that spells out the sin of S & G (the “you” addressed is Jerusalem):

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.  Samaria has not committed half your sins; you have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed.

Ezek 16:49-51 (NRSV)

Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned for pride, selfishness, indifference to the suffering of the poor.

I know the arguments about homosexuals get hot and heavy. The prospect of gay marriage bothers many folk.

We live in a society that promises every individual “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” What’s more basic to human happiness than freedom to build a life with the person you love?

Jesus built his life on loving God and neighbor. Isn’t he more offended by loveless arguments and loveless lives than by who we choose to love?

Yes, there are a few “Thou shalts” and a few “Thou shalt nots.”

Keeping two people from promising to love each other, and no one else, for a lifetime, however, has nothing to do with “Thou shalt” or “Thou shalt not.”

It has to do with hate.

Which, last time I looked, is at the top of God’s  list of “Thou shalt nots.”

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Background for 8th century Isaiah

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Essentials of Hebrew History

All dates are BC (or BCE Before the Common Era)

Background

  • 2000-1500?— Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
  • 1300?—          Exodus from Egypt
  • 1200-1020?— The Judges (Deborah, Samson, Gideon, etc.)

Israel becomes a monarchy. Three kings rule over a united kingdom.

  • 1020-1000?— King Saul
  • 1000-960?—   King David
  • 960-930?—     King Solomon

Because Solomon’s heir refuses to lighten the load of forced labor and taxation, the northern tribes split from the southern tribes. This is the Divided Kingdom.

Neighbors

Throughout the history, Israel’s neighbors (enemies, occasionally friends) are Syria (capital, Damascus), Moab, Philistia, Edom, Ammon, etc. A major power, Egypt constantly struggles for control with the empires to the East. Dominant in Palestine for a century or so, one after another, the eastern empires are:

  • 8th c. Assyria (capital, Nineveh), (742—Isaiah’s call vision, ch. 6)
  • 7th-6th c. Babylon (capital, city of Babylon,) becomes symbol of evil enemies in NT
  • 6th -5th c. Persia.

 

Divided Kingdom and Exile

Northern Kingdom: Ten tribes. Capital is Samaria. Called Ephraim or Israel. Monarchy unstable, succession sometimes occurs by murder and intrigue.

  • 721— Northern Kingdom falls to Assyria. Ten tribes taken into exile, go extinct.

Southern Kingdom: Two tribes. Capital is Jerusalem. Called Judah; after fall of Northern Kingdom, it is also called Israel. Monarchy stable, succession always in the House of David.

  • 586— Southern Kingdom falls to Babylon, king Nebuchadnezzar. Two southern tribes taken into exile to Babylon.

 

Return from Exile

Babylon is conquered by Persian king Cyrus.

  • 539-538— Cyrus decrees the Jews may return to their homeland.

 

Coming home is no picnic. The remnant who return face hardship and enemies.

  • 515— Second Temple completed, despite local opposition.
  • 458— Ezra reads the Law aloud to the people of Jerusalem (this marks beginning of Judaism).

Sources: Anderson, Understanding the OT, 4th ed.; New Interpreter’s Study Bible.

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Be Still My Soul

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

06:05 Sunday morning

There are two building blocks for this meditation: the hymn and Psalm 46.

The Hymn

One hymn I love especially: “Be Still My Soul.” You can hear Selah’s rendition here.

Be still, my soul–
The Lord is on thy side!
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide.
In ev’ry change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul–
Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul! thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul! the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul! when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

According to my vast research of 15 minutes on the Net, it was:

  • In context of German Pietism
  • Written by Katharina von Schlegel in the 17th century
  • Translated into English a century later
  • Set to Jean Sibelius’ “Finlandia”
  • A favorite of Scottish runner and missionary Eric Liddell. The film ”Chariots of Fire” records his refusal to run on the sabbath in the 1924 Olympics.

Psalm 46

God’s Defense of His City and People

     1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
     though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam,
     though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
     the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
     God will help it when the morning dawns….
10 ”Be still, and know that I am God!
     I am exalted among the nations,
     I am exalted in the earth.”
11 The LORD of hosts is with us;
     the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Psalms 46:1-5, 10-11 (NRSV)

We will not fear

I love this psalm because it assures me that God is with us. As the Pietists insist, the inner flame of God’s Spirit illumines every heart.

The prologue of the gospel of John has it, “The true light (Jesus) enlightens everyone.”

Therefore, the witness of scripture and of Spirit in unity say, “God is nearer to us than our breath, our heartbeat, our DNA.” Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Liddell taught the hymn to fellow prisoners in a POW camp in China during World War II, where he died.

Looking with physical eyes only, some would say he was deluded. But, looking with the eyes of God’s Spirit, you realize that God led him every step of the way. He was a witness at the 1924 Olympics, and a witness in the POW camp.

Circumstances do not define us. In Night of the Iguana, the Mexican innkeeper (Ava Gardner) describes the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon as a broke, anxious drunk. The thin standing-up female Buddha (Debra Kerr) says, “Those are only his circumstances, not the man.”

Circumstances do not define us. God’s love does.

The psalm compares the white water, the uproar of war among the nations, with the quiet waters of the river that runs through the city of God.

The prophet Isaiah urged King Ahaz not to cower in fear before his little enemies the Northern Kingdom and Syria. But Ahaz refused, turning instead to the rapacious Assyrian Empire, which would help itself to most of Palestine in a few years. Isaiah warned, “You have refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently,” and chosen instead the flood. (Isa 8.6)

You lead me beside still waters, another psalm says.

God can quiet and reassure the trembling heart. Circumstances may or may not change. But God’s love enables us to stand, no matter what.

And, the psalm continues, God will destroy  the weapons stockpiled by the nations (Ps 46.6-9).

Then, the words that inspired the hymn: “Be still and know that I am God.”

Certainty comes to the soul of those who wait on the Lord. But it also is plainly seen in all the earth: God is exalted.

God is with us. Immanuel!

God is closer to us than our breath, our heartbeat, our DNA.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Is the last best?

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

cana wedding

Wedding at Cana, Vermeyen, 1530

Has it been worth it?

Looking back over my life,  this is what I see:

Long before the “conservative resurgence” that reshaped the SBC into its present form, I was born a Southern Baptist in West Texas.

(I now belong to no denomination. I am smply a Christ-follower.)

We were naively fundamental in belief, but moderate in politics, generous in spirit.

Beneath the surface my family was anything but the God-fearing sanitized version everyone saw; we were mired in a vicious transgenerational cycle of alcoholism and abuse.

I was baptized at age five, having to stand on a cinder block in the baptistry. At age 13, during a Billy Graham crusade, I made a second profession of faith, one more conscious and independent than the first. At 16 I was licensed to preach, at 19 ordained.

For a male it was a simple process.

I enjoyed school, and made As and Bs. I earned college and two seminary degrees.

I was pastor of five churches. The small country churches I served while a seminary student were sweeter than the conflicted full-time churches which followed seminary. I ended my career as chaplain of a nursing home, before retiring on disability.

My wife of nearly 40 years has an earned doctorate and is a United Methodist minister. Our 35-year-old son lives nearby and checks in on us every day or so.

Both she and I endure major illnesses.

Has it been worth it?.

John 2 begins with Jesus attending a wedding at Cana in Galilee, today an unknown village. The servants tell his Mother, “They’re out of wine.”

In some ways that describes us. Wine, the symbol of gladness, joy. We struggle with pain and disability. Clearly our lives are curving downward.

Mary approaches Jesus. “Woman,” he replies, “what has that to do with me?”

There’s nothing remarkable about two older people growing. Why should God be distracted from running the universe for their sake?

Jesus tells the servants to “fill full” the six large ceremonial jars in the house.

What do you do in difficult times? Exactly what you do every day. Live simply. Pray without ceasing. Love without limit.

“Now,” Jesus tells them. “Take some to the steward of the feast.”

They do so. He drinks, and says, “You kept the best for last.”

Is it true? Is the best joy in this life to be had at the end?

I don’t know. I’m not there yet.

But people I love and respect who have reached the end of life have said, “Yes. It’s worth it. God does save the best for last.”

As Tolkien put it: when the silver rain parts, you discover white shores, a far green country, and a swift sunrise.

Today is tough. Tomorrow will be tougher.

And often there is joy and peace today. There will be joy and peace at the last.

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