El

Genesis 14

Through a mess of activity of various kings and armies, Lot and his household get carted off. This puts Abraham in a role we don’t see him in elsewhere: military commander. In fact it seems odd.

At any rate, we get to the real meat of the chapter when the action subsides, especially with reference to “God Most High” on the lips of the king of Salem (later to be known as Jerusalem), and this is in the course of pronouncing a blessing on Abraham.

The “Most High” is the usual translation of an ancient word for God that transcends cultures, as we see it does here. The Hebrew name is Elyon, or El for short. What’s really interesting is that the name didn’t’ start with Israel, but Israel appropriated it. In this passage, it facilitates the trans-cultural exchange between the king of Salem and Abraham, and then Abraham makes reference to the same name in his dealings with the king of Sodom, in which he insists on the integrity of his journey under him. I just find this really cool.

It gets better if we fast forward to the New Testament and find an instance of the Greek version of the same name at Acts 7:48. It is in Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin. What precipitates that speech? Stephen is charged with speaking against the temple. He begins his speech at the beginning of Acts 7 reviewing the history of Israel starting with guess who: Abraham. When he gets to Solomon’s building of the temple in question, points out that “the Most High (italics mine) does not live in houses made by men” (Acts 7:48). Then he quotes Isaiah 66:1-2, and tells the assembled religious rulers that they have resisted the working of the Holy Spirit and murdered the one sent by God.

It is always dangerous talk in a religious community to point out it is wrong to be more interested in buildings and institutions than in the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

Stephen was stoned.

But the church still grew and flourished because of the truth of what Stephen pointed out: God is not contained by the packages we try to put him in. And because he is Elyon, he will continue to try to bring us together in a way that goes beyond who we think “us” is.

Prayer:
I just bow before your greatness, God, Elyon, Ancient One. Who can discern your purposes, except by following you in trust, even imperfectly, as Abraham, and seeing where you take us, and to whom. Through Christ. Amen.

Lift Up Your Eyes

Genesis 13

Here we jump right from the disturbing episode at the end of chapter 12 to a heartening account of Abraham’s promise-believing, faithful, and magnanimous action with Lot. Together the two scenes don’t seem to make sense, but isn’t that the reality with any of us? Well, maybe not you, but it is with me.

What this and the preceding episode have in common is the intervention of the Lord; in the first, in response to unfaithfulness; now, in response to action that is promise-believing. He tells both Lot and Abraham to look up to see the scope of what is before them (verses 10 and 14).

It seems to be part of God’s economy that the scope of the response to faithfulness is vastly greater than the scale of response to unfaithfulness. It’s not that he doesn’t take unfaithfulness seriously. He just seems to respond with great excitement and pleasure in us when we respond to life’s circumstances with faithfulness.

So which is better?

Prayer:
God, we like to talk about the complexity of situations. Maybe we make things more complicated than they need to be because we are reluctant to see through to the choice in the situation that is really very clear. The easier way is so often the less faithful way. Don’t let me fear the way that seems more difficult. Through Christ. Amen.

"F" on the First Test

Genesis 12:10-20

In Genesis 12:1-9, Abraham seems pretty much perfect. Suddenly we find him putting his wife in danger to save his own hide. The opening of the chapter presents him as a model of faithfulness. Now he is an anxious man who has forgotten the promise of God.

The encounter described is between a vagabond with nothing but a promise behind him, and a powerful empire, the head of which can act without answering to anyone. In the middle of this is the action of the Lord.

We have here a first appearance of a recurring theme in the story of Israel: survival of a powerless minority. Part of the way to make any sense of this is to realize how the story will be received by its first readership: tiny Israel in the midst of powerful nations and forces. For them this story is an encouragement. It even mocks the great power of Egypt in that the Egyptians right up to the emperor look beyond all the women of their own empire and find attractive the mother of Israel, who, in addition, is ageing.

There is still the moral question. I mean, Abraham really looks bad here. While I don’t think we’ll find any justifying reason for Abraham’s conduct, we might consider this:

Abraham was told that all families were to be blessed through him. There could also be curse through him (12:3). Maybe we are not supposed to gloss over the unsavory nature of Abraham’s action, but to see that this unfaithfulness to God does bring a curse – but not on Abraham (verse 17). It points to the hard reality that innocent people suffer when God is not trusted.

It also shows – whether right by our morality or not – that Abraham is protected.

Reading the text this way foreshadows a dynamic of life in Christ. When we are in Christ our destiny with God in heaven is assured. But we still foul up and people get hurt, sometimes badly. But our journeying with God and our role to be a blessing to others is not taken away. Our place is still assured. Is that fair? Of course not. But because of grace and not because of any goodness of ours, God’s purposes will prevail. He will choose to use for that whom he chooses. It’s about his choices and his purposes; it’s not about us.

It makes me feel really humble. Salvation is once for all, but repentance is a daily necessity.

Prayer:
Father, your Son said for his followers daily to take up their cross and follow him. Each day may a little more of my sinful, rebellious, untrusting nature be crucified, that more and more, day by day, I may be more like Jesus. Amen.

To Be an Altar in Canaan

Genesis 12:1-9

“What will God do next?” I asked. Humanity is now spread out and in a state of not-hearing – not hearing either God or one another. In the midst of this God calls one family, and one man in particular. This is the new way. Yes, God has addressed individuals before, but not with the purpose of forming a whole nation through whom he will work, with the rest of humanity in mind. It may well be we get to see some of the intended dynamic of this working through the particular toward the larger scene in these few verses.

First we should acknowledge with appreciation the nature of Abram’s response. It is pointed out that for ancient people to leave home and break ties with ancestors was unthinkable. But the response here is a new listening and doing in relationship to the Lord.

And then amongst the Canaanites Abram sets up altars to his God. There is no sign of preaching here, just openly acknowledging the one who had called him and brought him this far. The Christian community will be called in time to do something more in the midst of their surrounding culture, but what happens here may be viewed as the foundation without which further witness will be fruitless: That is to let your life be a matter of worship, i.e. listen and respond to God and acknowledge him as the author of your journey.

Prayer:
Should the world around me get to fit too comfortably, Lord, it is surely a sign I am not listening and following you and the journey you call me to. Make me faithful to the Way, who is the Christ. Amen.

Expecting

Genesis 11:10-32

The human map is continued here from chapter 10. But where before there was a sense of expansion, now there is a movement through one family line, ending with the family of Terah, one of whose children is Abram.

It is noted after all this ‘begetting’ (as an older version says) that Sarai is “barren.” The narrator adds “she had no children” maybe to underline that this was not a new condition. It’s also not foreign to the language to add something that says the same thing a different way (e.g. ‘I was silent and did not speak’). At any rate we get the point. It is especially ironic – and meaningful for what God is doing – that we are a point that is full of expectancy. We have come to a sort of impasse, both in this family line and in the story of humans. The chasm between God and humanity has widened. Now God has dispersed humans in a confusion of language and there is no evident word of grace in the description of that. What is God going to do now? If this were a TV series this episode would be the season-ender. But we should have learned enough about God’s ways by now to know that the degree of apparent hopelessness just increases the anticipation. Sarah and her family, along with all humanity – at any time - , can indeed be expectant and expecting, even in her/our barrenness. Maybe especially so.

Prayer:
Lord, at this time I think of ____________, who I know to be in need of hope right now, and some practical sign of hope. Enter __________’s heart, and show me some way to be the means of hope in you, some way I will really act on. Through Christ. Amen.

Babel 4

Genesis 11:1-9

We have seen stages along the way that have separated humankind farther and farther from God. God responds to these chasm-widening events with judgment, but also follows that judgment with a way through. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, Cain was sent away, there was a flood. In each case there was as way beyond the catastrophe and a new way to go forth into the earth. Now humankind is dispersed into the earth, but with no evident word of grace to accompany the dispersion.

I’ll reflect on the rest of chapter 11 tomorrow. Then we’re at the end of the “primeval” history, which describes God’s dealing with all humanity. He still will deal with all humanity, of course, but chapter 12 will begin the story of God working through a specific people (and further on in the Bible through a specific individual, the one the Apostle Paul called the new Adam).

The word of grace, not evident here, is coming in a new and powerful way.

Prayer:
God, help me trust in you and your purposes even when you seem absent. In Christ. Amen.

Babel 3

Genesis 11:1-9

This passage is often read along with Acts 2 at Pentecost, celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit to the waiting church. The gift of tongues there wasn’t the inspired utterance that we read of elsewhere, but the ability people were given to understand one another even though they were speaking different languages (Acts 2:5-11).

God said, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other” (Genesis 11:7). I understand this in the same way I do another, even more difficult passage, Isaiah 6, where we find the Lord telling Isaiah to go and tell the people, “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving” (Isaiah 6:9). The only sense I have ever made of that is that in order for the people to get the message they will have to experience the full consequences of their disobedience. God, in a sense, abandons them to their own nature, but does not forget them.

Here, humanity uses the gift of language only to build a monument as a physical graph of their own human-based aspirations. The basic sin we have seen all along comes to a climax here: They have stopped listening to God and are only listening to one another, so God confuses their language so they can’t do that. They will have to learn to depend on him again, listen to him again, in order to be able to communicate with one another. The end result will be even better because they will listen to one another from out of cultural diversity. This sets up a beautiful vision of what humanity could be if we would truly place God first.

Prayer:
Lord, will I really be listening to people today? Will I get what’s in someone’s heart, or just hear what I find useful? Let your Spirit come upon me as I encounter people, so their language will be mine, and ours will be yours. Through Christ. Amen.

Babel 2

Genesis 11:1-9

Most scholarly commentary on this passage actually sees humour in the coming down of God and his heavenly host to inspect this work of humans. God doesn’t really have to come down to see anything, but this is an expression of the puniness of human aspiration to attain to divinity. The direction of the building may be vertical, but the spirit is horizontal; it’s a monument to humanity and as such it gets heavenly derision.

I asked in the previous post if the scattering is simply preventive punishment against such future folly (it can't be a matter of any threat to God), or whether it is instead – or also – a way God worked through human circumstances in fulfillment of his own command reiterated at the beginning of chapter 9 for the people to spread out and multiply. This line of thought comes from an elegant expression of the “it’s both” scenario by Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, who goes on to talk about the nature of true unity of people under God, to the effect that it’s not about conformity but a unity of Spirit within diversity – a much needed message for the world and, frankly, for the church, in which too much the sense people outside the church get is that people already in the church are more concerned about people adapting their way of things than getting to know and follow their God. This is doubly tragic because I know that this is not what church people intend to convey, because at heart they really do just desire for people to know God. This isn’t just about the ‘old’ ways. Newer ways can very quickly become idols. It’s the opposite of human consumables in that what’s inside is always good. It’s the container that has a shelf life.

Two more entries on this passage at a pivotal point in the Biblical story:
Wednesday: About language.
Thursday: As a prelude to Abraham and the story of Israel.

Prayer:
God, I can never come close to the reality of you on my own. We can’t even do that together. It is only because you have truly come down to us that we can know you, love you, and share life together as your image on earth. We welcome your Spirit in whom we find true unity, expressed in a multitude of ways. In Christ. Amen.

Babel 1

Genesis 11:1-9

Been mulling over this passage more than with anything for a while, and I may linger here for a while yet. I’ve preached on this probably a half dozen times but I’m looking at this in new ways. So far, every time humanity has messed up, God has pronounced some judgment on it, but there has been a way through. This seems different. Is the scattering here simply on judgment on human temerity? Is it, in a more positive sense, God’s way of further fulfilling his will for humanity to go forth and be fruitful? Is it both? This is the end of what the scholars call the “primeval history” section of Genesis, with the beginning of the story of Israel about to begin in Chapter 12. What’s the significance of that? Stay tuned. I think we'll spend a few days at this transition point.

Prayer:
God your Word is both mystery and truth. Thank you for the marvelous ways in which you have shared yourself and your will with your creatures. Give us a special measure of discernment as we enter into this part of your Word. Direct us through your Word to the living of our personal lives and the shaping of our life as your church for our place and time. In Christ. Amen.

A Dynamic Map

Genesis 10

In an echo of a command earlier in Genesis (Genesis 1:28), God had told Noah and his sons, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). Once again God’s Word has creative effectiveness. Chapter 10 sets out a kind of verbal map of the ensuing world. With God’s continuing sovereignty of nations, we should understand this description not as any set ethnic delineation. On the contrary, this table of nations foreshadows the world of interconnectivity that the nation of Israel would be called to bless. Although this chapter doesn’t make for obviously exciting reading, it is very impressive for the vision of an interconnected, dynamically-related world from and under the Lord. The peoples who repopulated the world after the flood would do well to treat one another with respect, along with the father (yesterday’s post) who set them in relation with one another in the world.

Prayer:
God, please send a wake up call from heaven to those nations stirring dangerously in their illusion of individual destiny. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Respectful

Genesis 9:18-29

I get a real looking-forward/looking-backward feel to this passage. As it turns out, Canaan would be a people known for false gods and related immorality (like temple prostitution). On the surface of things, the vehemence of the judgment here seems harsh. Most of us would see maybe some impropriety here. But there is the suggestion that the attitude of Ham, father of Canaan, was such that this transgression was something more than an oops. I guess we’ll never know exactly.

What’s probably most key here is that it is Shem’s (name leading to the term “Semite”) God who is blessed (verse 26). What we’re to see, I think, isn’t an ethnic bias but a theological one. Canaan would come to represent ways of people who would have only a god whose ‘worship’ would suit their own inclinations – a projection of themselves, in other words.

Our God is with us, but we would never forget the power of his being with us rests on how greater and “other” than us he truly is: a father-God to be feared in his might and authority, but a dad in his love. The sons and daughters who fully respect this God (note the totally respectful actions of verse 23) will be blessed (verse 27). But those who don’t treat him with utmost respect, well, consider Ham.

Prayer:
Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven on high
With wisdom, power and love,
Our God is an awesome God!
- Rich Mullens

Unchanging But Not Unmoved

Genesis 9:1-17

With his fresh resolve toward his creation, the Lord renews and strengthens the responsibility given humanity in the beginning. Along with that, he will consider every individual life with his/her blood of immense value to him. Even more, God hangs up his bow in the sky as a declaration that he is not at war with his creatures. On the contrary, he is unalterably committed to their well-being. As he remembered Noah, he will remember his covenant and those who are to benefit from it. To be remembered is to be honoured. As Red Saucer has pointed out, to re-member can be thought of as putting together. There’s nothing worse than being forgotten. In the midst of our troubles we view ourselves as forgotten: by others and by God. God remembers and makes a difference. He’ll pull things together. He is not unmoved by the flow of our lives or that of the world. God remembers. God remembers.

Prayer:
God, you know I’m always forgetting. I’m distracted and put off by many things. You are steady and unchanging, but now unmoved. Thanks for remembering each one of us today. Through Christ. Amen.

Flooded Heart

Genesis 8:15-22

The flood changed nothing in the heart of humans. What is revealed is an even stronger commitment on the part of the Lord toward his creation. He knows that human persons and human community cannot save themselves. This intensifies his compassion. His commitment to humanity is costly. How costly? Who can measure the flood of compassion in the heart of God? We get a pretty good picture of that centuries later.

Prayer:
God, thank you for sticking with us. I think I’m persistent? I think I can stick out the tough stuff? There is nothing like your commitment to your creation. There is nothing you desire more than for any one of us just to turn to you in returning love and trust. I now renew my declaration of reliance on you. Through Christ. Amen.

Remembering

Genesis 8:1-14

God “remembered” and new action kicks in. He carries through. It doesn’t mean he forgot anything.

Olive trees don’t grow at high elevation, so when the dove came back with the olive twig, “Noah knew that the water had receded.” And yes, this is the origin of the dove and olive branch as a sign of desired peace.

We sometimes say we’re going to “remember” someone in prayer, maybe recognizing that prayer is not a futile last resort, but part of our active faithful life. Maybe these days we should all put the remembering and the olive branch together and pray for the self-isolated regime in North Korea, and for wisdom for all those dealing with them.

Making a note to keep this "remembering" in mind for Remembrance Day.

Prayer:
God, you have shown you want to be at peace with us, and for us to be at peace with one another – not just the absence of conflict, but peace in which we truly and actively remember one another, and seek the best. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

100% Chance of Precipitation

Genesis 7

It is significant that only just before his final entry into the ark did Noah learn of God’s plan to destroy mankind by a flood. Noah completed the entire structure without knowing God’s intentions. That was to test Noah. Build a huge ship on dry land. R-i-g-h-t. (Part of Bill Cosby’s genius is in knowing great material to start with.)

The other main thing that strikes me out of the vastness of this story is the nature of the inundation – and that’s exactly what is described. If you started out with me in this reading through Genesis, you may remember that the “expanse” or firmament that God called “sky” was viewed in the cosmology of the time of writing as a thin layer holding back the waters filling the universe. So when God decided to destroy life all he had to do was open the gates to that watery chaos, and that’s what came in.

One other thing I should probably address: Whatever historical memory lies behind this whole story, it cannot now be recovered. If we concern ourselves with authenticating the history we’re going to take off on a detour from which we may never find our way back. Historical accuracy is not the issue here. As with Genesis 1, the God who deals with us could well have done things exactly and literally as described. Or it could be that the inspiration given to the writer caused him to draw on whatever traditions and stories that were around that would help him convey the truth God was giving him. To put it another way, finding the ark on Mount Ararat adds nothing to our understanding or the truth of the narrative. Not finding it proves nothing either.

The essential points are these:

• God was intensely grieved at a creation that had cut off relations with him.
• He showed he is a God who desires to cleanse and renew. That’s our great hope.

Prayer:
Lord, there are mysteries you hold in your heart that are just too great for us. You plant in us inquiring minds, and may it be our joy to learn more of you and your ways all the time. But most of all, give us that trust that Noah had, to listen and follow you, knowing the results you have in mind will be the best for us. Through Christ. Amen.

PFD

Genesis 6:9-22

We now get a note that introduces a counter-melody. Noah’s character and trust moves against the flow of sin and deterioration from chapter 3 on. Something new is at work here. Noah accepts his being as a creature who answers in trust to God’s Word to him (6:9, 22).

Sometimes just when we think things can’t get worse, well, you just don’t say that, right? But God has an answer for our cynicism. Just when it seems things can’t get worse, God will provide a way. When things seem at their worst, there is still the possibility of faith. It is in many ways a dismal world, but that’s not the whole picture, and certainly not what God intends for us. We get to choose between dismal or a boat. We could be like the early church, which thought of itself as a ship.

Prayer:
God, you could be like one of those space movie alien empires that decides life on earth is a blight on the universe and to be terminated. And you will one day end the world as we know it. But not just to destroy. I guess not even you can do what is against your own character. Let me join wholeheartedly with your grace-full alternative. In Him. Amen.

God Grief

Genesis 6:5-8

It seems that in 6:5-8 the narrator is stepping into the story to say, “Here’s where we’re at; it’s real and it’s not pretty.” What’s more, God has revealed to him something astounding: a glimpse into the divine heart and mind. We have been getting a description of the growth of sin and the deterioration of the created order God intended. Now we get God’s response. It is utter grief. It is well to remember that whatever suffering is sustained in creation is multiplied in the heart of God.

It has been pointed out that the word “wipe” here can also be translated “wash,” so it may be that God in deciding to destroy life already has Noah in mind as a way through total, irreversible destruction. So it’s not like God just has this fit of anger and trashes the place and then later will say, “OK now where was I?” No, his purpose is salvation. Washing away with water will come up again in the Bible.

Prayer:
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
Let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 51:7-10 (NIV)

Not So Super, Man

Genesis 6:1-4

There was and continues to be a fascination with characters who combine super-human and human traits. They inhabit a realm in a view of the cosmos that is half-way between heaven and earth. The Bible’s initial vision of things does not allow for that (there will be only one who has such a place). Recent world memory knows of an attempt to establish a super-race. It was horrible.

This little section represents the overlapping of boundaries that God has set. The order of creation is fractured. It is an extension of the breaking of the direct conversation and relationship between God and humanity that we saw in Chapter 3, with humanity aspiring to knowledge, power and control that it can’t handle on its own.

At this point in the Bible story, the intended order of creation has been thoroughly shattered. God’s intent for his broken creation is now the big question. What will he do?

Prayer:
Lord, we know you are not a defensive God. How unlike humans you are! You are not offended for your own sake that we abuse the position of trust you give us in your creation. You are hurt because you know we are hurting ourselves. No parent wants to see his kids wrecking a good thing. Let us instead be part of your solution, in Christ. Amen.

Nothing Never Happens

Genesis 5

Genealogies may not make for the most exciting reading. But they serve to show that God reveals himself in and through human events.

The ages here are astounding. Methusaleh lived to be 969 and so is the oldest person in the Bible (and this was before OHIP). The longevity of the pre-flood characters in the Bible is sometimes attributed to their proximity to the energy of creation. Others say this description is influenced by Babylonian writing that speaks of the early reign of kings of thousands of years (couldn’t the influence be in the other direction?).

With the birth of Noah there is a note of hope, and the stage is set for one of the most famous Bible stories.

Prayer:
Lord, I get so enthralled with the “big names” of the Bible it’s too easy to overlook everyone has their part in the fabric of history and the shape of things. We are each big name players for our own time and place. Help us to realize the role you have for us. Through Christ. Amen.

Civilized

Genesis 4:17-26

Humanity banished from the purity of conversation with the Lord, and even from connection with the ground from which he came, now starts out on his own endeavours. The ensuing elements of society have mixed effects. Metal working, for example, produces implements for agricultural purposes, but the same implements can be used for war. There is music but there is a also a multiplication of murder.

The pursuits associated with the growth of civilization will be both worthy and deadly. Every apparent advance will have its dark side. The hope will be in the purity of the call on the name of the Lord (verse 26).

Prayer:
Lord, help me see my true motives in things without getting tied up in knots of self-absorption. Let me live instead in the spirit of the Psalmist who asked you to examine his heart and give it a good cleaning out. Let my daily conversation be with you that what I do will be more naturally for your sake. Through Christ. Amen.

Marked

Genesis 4:1-16

The question from God that arises here is now not “Where are you?” but “Where is your brother?” The story of Cain and Abel is a chapter out of the primeval history of man. The torn relationship with God shatters peace among his creatures. The divisions have begun – at separate altars to God, no less. The terribleness of the sin is just in that it is committed not apart from God but as part of connecting with him.

What was the difference in the sacrifices? Who knows? God can make whatever choices he wants. We run into it every day. The critical part is how we respond. God tried to warn Cain. But sin appears as a monster he can’t control, making the distance between hateful emotion and hateful action very short indeed. God’s warning reminds us, however, that we are not helpless about this.

Abel’s blood cries out from the ground Cain had made a living from. Now there is a shattering of the relationship between him and the earth from which man himself had come.

Life belongs to God. That’s at the heart of the sin, but it is also the reason Cain gets protection. The meaning of ‘Nod’ is ‘fugitive.’ Murderous man’s home is a state of restlessness, alienation, no belonging. And yet God protects his life, because it still belongs to him.

Prayer:
God, your ways are mysterious. Yet we are not without insight, wisdom, much that you reveal to us as we go forward in faith. May we celebrate interdependence with one another as we go, and find you in the relationships you give us. Through Christ. Amen.

The Sentence

Genesis 3:8-24

Trust wasn’t enough for the couple. But the Gardener will not give up on them. He won’t yield his creation to anyone or anything.

For their part, the focus of the couple has changed; it is not the Gardner. A tiny little pronoun takes over: “I” (verses 10-13). Along with it: fear, hiding, blame.

The sentence that God pronounces on them seems heavy, but we need to recall 2:17, where it was indicated that death would follow disobedience. So grace appears in the sentence given here. They have life, but it will be apart from the Garden, and it will be life that is lived hand in hand with death – but we will find God dealing with that too.

Prayer:
God, give me self-awareness without self-preoccupation. Let me see and acknowledge my own rebellion. You have inexhaustible patience with those who are honest about their sin. Hiding is doubly silly becomes I am completely transparent to you, and yet you smile on me when I admit to you what you know anyway! Apparently as well as being fully of grace, you have a sense of humour. Thanks, in your Son’s name. Amen.

Analysis, Concepts and Shame

Genesis 3:1-7

There is something new here in that this is the first language about God. The serpent (not a phallic symbol or Satan but more like the first theologian) presents himself as knowing something about God. The first question posed contains a lie within a truth. There was a prohibition but it wasn’t about all trees. In reacting to this the woman exaggerates the prohibition.

The language of calling and loving response has turned to analysis and calculation. From here on, and with this as on ongoing psychological reality, joy becomes an elusive part of human experience. It seems we weren’t designed to analyze but to respond to and enjoy the divine presence. With analysis there is distortion, and the relationship of trust with God is fractured and guilt is born. Guilt has its own weight. Shame is its twin. Instead of just experience of God and one another as a matter of community and joy, we begin to have concepts. Instead of just being the reality without thinking about it, nakedness becomes a concept. The concept overlays the reality and it is something to avert our eyes from. To be naked with one another in body, mind and spirit becomes a problem. Over to you, Leonard Cohen.

Prayer:
Renew me in purity of conversation with you, Lord. Amen.

No Shame

Genesis 2:24-25

What is to explain the powerful drive toward sexual union? The answer of this text is that we began as one flesh, so have a desire to be joined together. This is a drive that overtakes even ties to the parental home. Sexual union is part of creation.

Shame and all the other angst that can be part of sexual relations is a sign that creation as it was intended is out of kilter. There are powerful drives and emotions here, which may be partly to explain why the church historically has had such a problem dealing with it. Sexual sin seems to have a special obsession. I mean, when was the last time you saw a news report about a church body having extended debate about poverty or the environment, to the same extent we end up debating sex stuff?

The sex stuff is important. As the preamble to the marriage vows in my church observes, “Marriage is a sign of the kingdom of God on earth.” The drive toward union may be a sign of the God’s intended design to bring all things together in him. Physical sex is like fire – vital and beautiful within God’s design, but dangerous and destructive when taken out of context, particularly when it becomes pornographic. That is to say, when the drive itself is what is focused on instead of being part of a relationship. That leads to the objectification of persons, leading often to the linking of sex with control and violence.

Sexual relations are where issues of trust become particularly important. Sexual sin is serious because it invariably involves – and perhaps may even be defined by – a betrayal of trust. The gift of sex is best celebrated, on the other hand, within a relationship of complete trust and growth together, in which two people can be naked together in every way, and not be ashamed.

Prayer:
God of love, you lavish on us an extravagance of all kinds of gifts. Among them is this gift of great pleasure. You are a God who intends joy for us in our service and friendship together in all kinds of ways. You truly are great and to be praised. Thank you. Through Christ. Amen.

The Mysterious Other

Genesis 2:18-25

Poor Adam. He has no “helper.” Now, I know one meaning of that word very well. I’ve done enough crummy jobs to know that a helper is the guy who does what the boss doesn’t want to be bothered with. But this goes back to the fact that it’s just not a good thing to be alone.

From the available parties, no one quite qualifies. God himself is, well, God. The man needs some companionship a bit more on his own level (although that will come even from God.) The companionship he needs is not going to come from among the animals he has had the privilege of naming either.

So something totally wonderful happens. He gets a companion who is both her own person and yet is also intimately connected to him by origin. The culture out of which the writing comes is of course scandalously patriarchal by today’s thinking. But we need to cut through that to the beautiful mystery at the heart of this: There is something deep within us that longs for union. That union is best lived if it includes respect for the mystery of the other. We are deeply connected, and yet are individuals. By some wondrous irony of God’s design, we are more connected by respecting the mystery of one another than if we make a lot of really crude assumptions about people. I don’t really need to know everything about you. It’s nice to get the end product of your appreciation of bad puns, Bach, and anything chocolate (or whatever some of your favorite things are). If you choose to let me know about anything deeper that’s up to you, and I am honoured by your sharing.

More tomorrow on the sexuality aspect of this passage.

Prayer:
God of all, I thank you for the personhood of each person sharing in this prayer with me. Through Christ in whom we are complete. Amen.

Streaming

Genesis 2:8-17

The picture is one of spreading blessing. The trees in the middle of the garden will come up again later. A couple of things here:
1. There was work to do. Work is honourable and intended for people from the beginning. The man was to take care of the garden.
2. The garden is connected to the rest of the world by means of the rivers: living, flowing energy. This image will be picked up more through Scripture, in Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Revelation 22:1-5. Every time, the image conveys the intended design of God that where his dwelling is acknowledged, it is a source of blessing for all that is around.

Prayer:
God of all, I am reminded that there is nothing that comes from me. There is only stuff that passes through. I haven’t had an original thought in my life. Nothing good I have done started with me. Yet you give me the privilege of having a part in shaping things along the way, and yet not me except as part of a community. The whole thing is multiplied by all taking part in it. What a river, what a God. Amen.

Becoming

Genesis 2:4-7

We head ever deeper into a story, a road traveled. There is important teaching here, but the teaching is not prior to the story. In other words, it is not moralistic in the sense that someone said something like, ‘I want to teach this so I’m going to tell this story to convey it.’ It’s more like real life, because that’s what it is. There are things to be discerned in our own stories, but our life stories are not concoctions to convey points. God could do that, but he seems to take our personhood more seriously than that.

We should be prepared, therefore, to find more questions raised than answers provided. But the more we are drawn into it, the more we will see ourselves in it, be drawn together and to the author. The answers we seek will come from living that story together.

We are living beings because of the breath (the same word can be translated ‘spirit’ or ‘wind’) of God in us. We can depend on him for the inspiration we need in every respect.

Prayer:
Your Word is so full of wonder, God. It has all the excitement of fantasy, but is even more intriguing and involving because it is anything but fantasy. May your Word fill my heart as well as my mind, that my understanding may come from closeness with you. Through Christ. Amen.

Sabbath

Genesis 2:1-3

Creation came into being through gracious speaking. Now God provides for the creation’s reflection on life as a gift. Sabbath rest remains a reminder that life does not depend on us and our self-seeking. It may come as a shock to some of us that the world will not fall apart if we bring a halt to our endeavours. The word relies on God’s Word and God’s commitment, not on us. It’s a way for us to say, “It’s not about me.” It is, beyond that, a welcome break from every effort we might be inclined to make to remake the world, the people around us, the organizations we’re part of, in our own image. Some of us need to be relieved of the burden of thinking nothing will work right without our stamp on it. The world has already been made, and claimed. Praise God.

Prayer:
Remind me that observing Sabbath rest is more than just showing up for worship. Let me truly rest, let go, shun the normal things of the week, get back to what it’s really about, and be remade. Let my every prayer be a Sabbath moment. Through Christ. Amen.

Ruling through Serving

Genesis 1:28-31


Man ruling as God’s representative, but with no blood shed, not even for food: That was the picture in the beginning. This is a kind of ruling we don’t usually think of, the kind the ensuing pages of Scripture will picture as shepherding. It will be embodied by the one who will rule over all, but who counted the position of ruler to be nothing (Philippians 2:5-7). There is subduing (verse 28) that is about subjugating, and there is subduing that is about instilling a spirit of peace, the biblical ‘shalom’, which is about well-being in every respect.

Prayer:
God, you make pretty clear how we are supposed to exercise whatever authority you entrust to us. If your own Son said he came not to be served but to serve, what does that say about me? In Him. Amen.

God's Image

Genesis 1:24-27

The land animals other than humankind have their own attention and blessing. But then man is made in God’s image. The cultural context of the writing is one which abhors any idea of a humanly-fashioned image of God (e.g. Exodus 20:4). Man, instead, is made in the image of God: a living, breathing, social entity. This is linked directly to his stewardship of the rest of the creation. Man is to be God’s responsible representative, standing for God and bearing his character in the world.

If the passage looks toward humanity’s care for the rest of creation, it should be a no-brainer that humans care for one another, a forgone prerequisite. Something, it is painfully obvious on this date, has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Prayer:
God, why is your image so distorted? Would you turn hearts to you, toward the new man, the first-born of a new creation? Turn me nearer to you and to be part with others of what it is to be your image, as I welcome your Son more fully to be your new life in me. Amen.

Teeming

Genesis 1:20-23

Abundance. Not a word you hear a lot in normal conversation but it’s what this passage exudes. God just gives the word, and all sorts of living things respond with their own worshipful movement and language – the broadly inclusive scope of this is underlined by the mention, first, of mythical sea-creatures, which presumably live far from the experience of humankind that likes to see itself as the centre of things (he/she’s not even on the scene yet, and look at all the blessing of life there is!).

Prayer:
God, forgive us for looking at the rest of creation as being for our selfish use. We can see the results. We rightly worship only you, but we also honour you by respecting every part of your creation. Let me see what I’m doing today with what is the home for all your creatures, and ask what could be different. In Jesus. Amen.

Day and Night Lights

Genesis 1:14-19

The lights appearing in the sky are described in functional terms. They serve a purpose. They do not have the divine status that they might have in some world views that would surround Israel. It’s intriguing that the sun and moon are not named. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that those names would be the names of gods for some. However significant the lights in the sky are in their function, we are to see that they do not compare with the light that is before them and of which they can only be a reflection.

Prayer:
God, when the circumstances and round of events of this life seem overwhelming, remind me that my worth and my destiny need not be determined by present circumstances. Your call to let there be light still echoes. That call is prior to and more powerful than anything else that might seem to be regulating my life. With you all things truly are possible. Open my heart and mind to your possibilities. Through Christ. Amen.

DeFence

Genesis 1:9-13

The third day completes the ordering of the waters, by gathering the water that is under the sky to allow dry ground appear.
The picture that remains is of chaos and danger all around the edges of the world that is to be inhabited. It previews a condition of there being something, on an ongoing basis, hostile to God and his responding creation. But the creation can be assured God is watching over this situation and has power over it, power exercised for the creation’s blessing (Psalm 104:7-13).
The note about the varieties of plants indicates the order and beauty God intends for his creation.

Prayer:
God, may I love your beauty, and the beauty of all that you have made. There is something of that darkness and chaos within, however. I have done my share of cooperating with that which would work against the joy you intend. The light is good. Your design is wonderful. Your purposes will not fail. Let me love the right things. Through Christ. Amen.

Making a Place

Genesis 1:6-8

On the second day God made the “expanse” or firmament to separate the waters above the earth from the waters below. At the time of writing people thought of the sky as a kind of upside down bowl made of hammered out metal. Attached to this were the lights regulating day and night.

Although we see the physical world differently now, the most basic reality is the same. As in the other days of creation, we see creation as living and able and willing to respond to the voice of the creator (“Let there be …”). The recurring refrain that God saw that it was good is the cue for subsequent life and living as a matter of worship and celebration. It expresses that life is a matter of God’s calling and the creation’s (including us) joyful response. What a vibrant view of what life is about!

The separation of the watery chaos is the beginning of the establishing a place for God’s creatures to enjoy his love. And one variety of his creatures will have the great privilege of being able to respond to him in intelligible ways: ways of worship, growth, service and echoing the whole response to others.

Prayer:
God, we know of so many who think they don’t matter, that there is no place for them in this world. How that must sadden you. Use us, use me, to spread the word in every way about what you have done, and live out your actions in what we say and do. Through Christ. Amen.

By His Will

Genesis 1:3-5

God spoke and it came to be. There was light We would note that there are yet no light-giving bodies. The NIV Study Bible notes that this light enables us to perceive the rest of his creation, and gives life. It is God speaking to us that brings light and life. He still calls for light, and those who hear and allow his voice to work in them are filled with light and life, and pass on light and life.

But what is described here is not merely metaphor for what God does on an ongoing basis. This is a critical point. I said yesterday that what we find here is not history or science as we usually understand them, but there was a beginning, as red saucer notes. We don’t understand the particulars of that – whether God’s days were 24 hour days or seasons of development doesn’t matter. The point is it happened, and still happens, because there is a God who willed it, and spoke these realities into being. Why? We will see that he was preparing a place for a people to love, a people who would be his image in mirroring his light-giving love in their daily lives. But I’m jumping way ahead.

Prayer:
God, thank you that you purposed to bring about what we see and know. What are we doing with it? Amen.

In the Beginning

Genesis 1:1-2

I spent a term in university studying the first eleven chapters of Genesis in Hebrew. I remember the professor saying he believed in creation ex nihilo – that God created the universe out of nothing – but that you can’t draw that belief from this text. (You can combine it though with, say, Ephesians 1:3-4, which celebrates that God knew us before the creation of the world!)

I believe the professor was right on both points. To believe that these verses give us that teaching would require us to take verse 1 leading chronologically to verse 2. More likely verse 1 is a kind of title, or summation in advance. The writing comes from a faith community which already had rich experience of the sovereignty of God over the elements (e.g. Exodus 15:1-21), and his exercising of that sovereignty for the building of a community that would be focused on him and be the means of witness to the world.

Make no mistake, we can stake our lives on the truth of these words, but they are neither history nor science in the way we usually understand those things. So the next few weeks will in many ways be an explanation of the previous sentence (some of you are saying, “You’d better explain it!”).

To God be the glory.

Prayer:
God, with relief and joy I celebrate that you specialize in bringing beauty and life out of chaos and darkness. The slightest breeze of your Spirit makes a huge difference in favour of life. The darkness stirs so easily within, yet is no match for your welcomed Spirit, or the slightest beam of your light. I know I will get what I truly desire. May I prefer your beauty over the chaos of my own making. Through Christ. Amen.

Resuming

Through my time away from work I finished going through John and I re-read Philippians, since it is the Scriptural basis of the Beta study group that has carried on through the summer. Now I think I’ll work through Genesis.

That will begin with the next entry. Now just let me briefly finish off commenting on John.

What comes after the last part I commented on in John is the appearance to Thomas. This section (John 20:19-31) contains the basic theme of John: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (verse 29). John conveys that it is just as possible for us to believe as those who walked with Jesus. This is possible because of the gift of the Holy Spirit (verse 19). That gift laid on the disciples, then and now, the joyful imperative of being midwives for others to new life in Christ, as the next chapter with its fishing scenes underlines, along with demonstrating the reality of the fellowship of the risen Christ with the disciples, even though he was transformed.

I recommend some time soaking in the poignant scene of the restoration of Peter in chapter 21, along with considering what a great mission he had for him.

On another note (pardon the pun), I spent a good chunk of my vacation time finishing off some recording, finally getting Melissa to record one track, which has been heard on Life 100.3’s Praise and Worship Sunday. I’m already plotting out the next project, with lessons learned from the long time working on this one. I’ve learned a lot technically, and, I think, about what will make something commercially viable. It’s tempting to go back and rework much of what we’ve done but I think I’ll let this project stand for what it is and apply the lessons to the next project – e.g., get Melissa on lead for more of it with more ‘stand-out’ vocals, get hold of a for-real recording mic, and generally just get more edge to everything (the test will be if our boys really want to listen to it!). So Mondays will be for working on that. You can hear three of our tracks on the Knox website (“Turn a Life Around” is the one that’s been on the radio).

See you next entry and we’ll plunge into Genesis!

His Voice and Your Name

John 20:10-18

Back in John 10 we read that the Good Shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know his voice. This moving episode connects knowing Jesus’ voice with his speaking our name. Last time I wrote I talked about experiencing the risen Lord as the determining factor in coming to faith, but that there are as many ways of coming to that experience as there are people.
I admit some speculation here, but I like to think that when Jesus speaks your name to call you to be part of his mission (faith is not the goal in itself), he considers very much who you are. That of course has everything to do with what the nature of your ministry and mission will be, as part of his overall plan. Why would that consideration of who you are not also apply to how you are called to faith, as the beginning of that venture? If want to hear him, but haven’t, it may be you are expecting something like what other people have experienced.

Prayer:
Wonderful God, thank you that you see us and value us each as individuals. You call us into community with you and others, and that community is all the stronger and all the more beautiful and powerful in the world, because you take seriously our individual experience and character. Let us encourage one another accordingly. Through Christ. Amen.

Random Access Mercy

John 20:1-9

John notes that he (I’m assuming “the other disciple” is John) and Peter still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. In chapter 19, however, it seems John did put two and two together from Scripture and what he was experiencing, so I’m supposing that verse 9 here means that at that point they hadn’t pieced things together.

It seems to me that there is something very important here about our understanding of coming to faith. That is there is no set order of things. There is, however, one critical factor, and that is an experience of the risen Christ – and here it is not even direct contact with the risen Jesus (as it will be in subsequent verses). This is hugely important for us, since we don’t have the same contact with the risen Lord that we’ll find that Mary had, or the disciples Jesus subsequently appeared to. In fact this is a key, maybe the key point for John in his writing of this Gospel. At 20:28-29 (we’ll dwell on it more when we get there) there comes a great climax with his record of Jesus saying, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” My own take on the past tense there (have not seen) is that Jesus is speaking from his glorified perspective and taking in the whole scope of what is to come.

What it means: There is hope for us all. We can, any one of us, experience the reality of the risen Lord. Whatever else the Lord leads us through toward that, or beyond it, that is the one critical factor in our coming to faith. How that comes is as varied as our exerience, but it must be acknowledged (as with the doubter, Thomas, John 20:28) and then built on. That’s when we delve deeper into the Scriptures to help us put the pieces of our experience and of Biblically-illuminated history together. That’s when we turn to intentional Christian fellowship and growth opportunities. That’s when we develop spiritual habits of prayer, giving, study, meditation. We are led, we are all brought (John 10:16) into a growing, transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.

The person who is truly free is the one who lets nothing: no religious formulas, no guilt, no fear, no modesty or conceit, no present experience, no burden of intellect or lack of learning or experience stand in the way of the universally available experience of the risen Jesus, who died and rose again for the whole world.

I believe it follows from this that spiritual experience is non-linear. We tend to have our experience ordered from one event, one life-experience or development to the next. God can and does break into our experience and our self-imposed order of things and expectations at any time. That can even mean (and this can be the tough part), that even what is experienced as painful can become the means of bringing something new, revealing, and empowering to our life. Or, especially as we live prayerfully, he can just surprise us with unexpected gifts of peace, joy, or turn our head to some new path.

Prayer:
Teach me, Lord, to expect to be surprised by your grace. Amen.

Emerging from the Shadows

John 19:38-42

We have just experienced the witness of the disciple, probably John himself, who knew the Scriptural background of the stark events in front of him (John 19:35-37). Now we see maybe a different kind of believer, at least in how belief comes. Both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus seem to emerge from the shadows, like figures who have been keeping close watch and now step into the scene. Maybe this is not to suggest cowardice but simply caution, the kind of caution exercised by those who have lived much and are wary of disappointment, betrayal, and things that just seem to good to be true. Now, it would seem, they are convinced, and they do what they can in the moment.

Prayer:
Lord, let me never judge how people come to faith. You are the author of their journey. Those you have already given faith have the greatest of privileges: to be present at a birth. Thank you for leading Joseph and Nicodemus out of the shadows into the light of truth. Give courage to countless souls today who are hanging back, wondering what you are about, highly suspicious of your church, afraid of being burned. Let our compassion for them be your compassion for us all. Through Christ. Amen.

The Symbol in the Reality

John 19:31-37

We have observed numerous times through reading John’s Gospel that the disciples were missing a grasp of who and what Jesus really was until he would rise again. What he said and did would fall into place, and even at that with the empowerment and understanding that the Holy Spirit would bring.

Here faith is realized through his death, without any reference toward what would yet come. It was enough for the one bearing testimony to the death that he saw in it the fulfillment of Scripture, and a conviction coming from simply being present at the scene, impressed especially by the flow of blood and water from Jesus’ side. This is both evidence of the reality of his death (so medical types tell me), and a built-in symbol of the life of the church he was giving birth to with his death: with water and blood becoming the central symbols of salvation, in the sacraments of baptism and eucharist. The poignant combination of hard reality and profoundly elegant symbolism – all in one horrible act – could only be the work and message of God himself.

Prayer:
God of both mystery and truth, I submit all that I consider real and important to your reality and your purposes. May it be so today and always. Through Jesus. Amen.

Finished

John 19:28-30

Jesus came with a mission of universal scope, yet also showed personal concern for the one who had brought him into this world. With his mother cared for, events accelerated.
His thirst was real and severe. There is one more indication here that all of this was in accordance with a divine plan, since Scripture had anticipated even the thirst (Psalm 22:15).
There was sour wine (“vinegar”) at hand. A sponge was soaked with it and held up to Jesus’ mouth. The presence of hyssop in the incident further points to the broader scope of what is happening here, since hyssop was associated with sacrifice (Exodus 12:22).

“It is finished” refers to more than the present agony, more than Jesus’ life, to the purpose for which Jesus’ came, accomplishing death for the sins of the world.

Prayer:
Lord, if we would all stop long enough to ponder what you accomplished, how different things would be. But then, I stop and ponder and still act at times like it never happened. So I thank you further that you do not give up on me, on us. Keep your cross before me, to remind me of the extent of your love. Amen.

Four Men and Four Women

John 19:23-27

John notes what transpired with the soldiers and Jesus’ clothing. This further underscores that those directly responsible for the action in these events are unwittingly part of a greater drama, since there is here a fulfillment of Psalm 22:18.
In contrast to the callousness of the four soldiers there are four faithful women standing by.
Perhaps for those of us who have been part of recent discussion about the Da Vinci Code book and movie, there is a footnote here that the church Jesus was establishing was in no way intended to be so partriarchal as it turned out to be.
At any rate, as I just let these few verses soak in a bit, the word that floats to the surface for me is “treasure,” a treasure undiminished by the soldiers, and pointed to in the sense of passing on of responsibility for the sharing of light and truth, present in the faithful ones standing by the cross.

Prayer:
Lord, we confess that we demean you when we become preoccupied with the various forms of clothing we put the Gospel in. Help me to treasure and live and grown in the treasure at the heart of everything, the reality your transforming presence in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Gracious Invasion

John 19:17-22

The irony continues to the end. The title of king written over Jesus helps Pilate justify having Jesus crucified – suggesting he was an insurgent aspiring to kingship, even though he himself had tried to demonstrate Jesus was far from this kind of threat. Pilate would not have realized that Jesus could have chosen to be that kind of king. What is meant as condemnation and degradation appears as truth in a different light. His death between two criminals portrays his oneness with sinners. The languages the sign was written in help to indicate Jesus truly was and is a king for all peoples. In Pilate’s refusal to change the sign, he is used to show that Jesus actually did go to his death as a king.

Prayer:
Occupy my heart, King Jesus. Invade all our spaces. Assert your sovereignty over my thoughts and actions. You be king. Let me be more like you in your servanthood. Amen.

Power Play

John 19:1-16

The deeper the hatred, the more the words and actions are turned to God’s purposes. The most telling part is this regard is verse 11, where Jesus tells Pilate his power is not his own.
Still bewildered by all this, Pilate apparently hopes that the flogging will make Jesus seem so pathetic as to be ludicrous as a king figure, and a threat to no one. But the taste of their obscene victory being at hand, the enemies of Jesus press on – to the point of an otherwise unthinkable outburst about having no king but Caesar - and Pilate’s stew of sympathy, superstition, and self-preservation leads him to hand Jesus over.

Prayer:
So many power-plays at work in the world, Lord, all so oblivious to the smallness of the plans at work in comparison to your grand pland and your working through it all: plots to wreak havoc here; individuals pulling strings here and there – kidding themselves that there is some motive of good behind it; sad young people plotting destruction because of cruel slights against them: it’s all about power in one way or another; rarely is it what it seems to be, whether ostensibly good or undisguisedly evil. Expose it all, Lord. Show your power; manifest your grace; exercise your judgment through your unfailing light that shows all for what it is. Through Your Son. Amen.

The Sinful Manipulatee

John 18:28-40

The enemies of Jesus were determined not only that he die, but that he die by crucifixion, and therefore as one cursed (Deuteronomy 21:23). We see here the irony of the enemies of Jesus fulfilling God’s purpose – with his Son receiving the curse that would justly fall on rebellious humanity.
Pilate just wants the whole business to go away. He has nothing against Jesus but will do whatever he needs to do to avoid trouble, so he goes along with the plot. When he asks, “What is truth?” it almost seems like he asks it as he is turning away, with the cynic’s attitude that truth has nothing to do with much of anything. Life is for him more a matter of expediency, survival. The truth is much different, and much more than that. Pilate’s question seems to me more than ever not a seeking of light but a symptom of darkness. Meanwhile the truth and the light is before him. And the darkness will not overcome it.

Prayer:
What elaborate schemes your creatures concoct, God. What twisting of facts, manipulation of circumstances and people your creatures put in motion in order to promote and preserve status, prestige, a sense of superiority, influence and control. Let your light overwhelm it all. Amen.

Released by His Presence

John 18:12-27

It’s bad enough to undergo a humiliating interrogation. It’s worse if the interrogation will be used to know how to be all the more effective in an ensuing trial. Add to that the betrayal by a disciple, the denial of knowing you from another, and the running away of still others.

The one who went through such things is certainly equipped to carry us through times of a similar character. Why do we call such times “trials?” Maybe because we feel judged as persons, with our worth challenged, because of troubles we go through. That becomes a vicious circle because then you feel less like sharing your burden with others because of what you imagine they might think of you. And we all know things are worse when we try to deal with them alone.

We can start breaking such a pattern by recognizing the one who carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:3-5) is with us even before we ask.

Prayer:
Thank you, Jesus, that you are beside me even when I forget to acknowledge you. I even deny you in my words and actions, and yet you do not forsake me. Release us more to one another and we recognize your own gracious presence with us. Amen.

His Choice

John 18:1-11

It seems every moment, every action, every word in Jesus’ life has its own power. Such a moment came when the soldiers fell back to the ground as Jesus confirmed his identity – an affirmation of that identity, and a confirmation of what Jesus had said earlier about laying down his life of his own accord, as a matter of doing the Father’s will. No one took Jesus’ life; he laid it down (John 10:17-18). At any time in what now transpires, Jesus could have said, “stop.” His determination is signaled immediately as he stops Peter from interfering in his arrest.

Prayer:
Jesus, Lord and Friend, give me even an ounce of your resolve and determination to meet the ordinary challenges and opportunities of this day. I pray for people undergoing personal trials, or concerned for people who are. May they know and experience the power and purpose of your friendship. Most of all I thank you that your resolve gave all humanity the opportunity of a new start. Amen.

Connecting

John 17:20-26

Most of us know a lot of people. But how many people do you really know? Who really knows you?

There is unity, a bond, with God and one another for which we have an inborn longing. As Jesus approached his death, he prayed that all who knew him and would yet know him would be bound together and united in him with the same unity and purpose that flowed from the Father to and through him.

You can know all kinds of people, but we enjoy a true bond with others in being united with Jesus in the same way he is united with the Father.

Prayer:
How different life can be, Lord, from the disconnected, restless, aimless existence so many people settle for – so often because they just have no opportunity for anything else, and because your church has been so distant from their lives. Help me – all of us - ever more to be part of your moving in the world, conveying that movement and purpose in word and living to our children, and sharing it together in and through our church family to the aimless souls all around. Never let us settle for anything else. In Christ. Amen.

Sanctified, Not Weird

John 17:6-19

Sanctify. Christ-followers are to be sanctified. How? By the truth, specifically God’s Word (verse 17). What does “sanctify” mean? Well, I guess you could work backwards: It’s what happens when you let the truth that – or who – is God’s Word have its/his way with you. At least that’s a way to keep from getting put off by any baggage you might associate with the word “sanctify.”

One of the things I like about a less formal way of doing church is that it becomes a symbol of what sanctify means: It’s not an add on, like vestments or processions and responses now seem to be to me, but rather it has to do with what we allow God to build into our everyday life and living. How? Spend time in God’s Word. Don’t settle for what some guy writes about Scripture. Soak it up for yourself. And be sanctified.

Prayer:
Wonderful God, thank you that we can receive your Word together, and as a very personal matter. Let your truth shape my next hour, my next day, and reveal to me my destiny as being yours. Through Christ. Amen.

Glorious Loser

John 17:1-5

In Old Testament times God’s glory was understood to have a visual aspect. God’s glory in its fullness was unbearable to look at (Exodus 34:33-35). But Paul talked about Christians increasingly reflecting the Lord’s glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

This may be a clue to understanding Jesus’ words here. The emphasis here, I believe, is that Jesus wants to be the means of making God’s glory plain. The disciples have just commented they now find Jesus speaking more plainly (which has more to do with their increasing perception that Jesus’ speech). Now it will be visually plainer that God’s glory is revealed in Jesus - starkly, on the cross. God’s glory is his persistent love for a humanity that largely rejects him. Jesus is now completing the task of making that love graphically visual. He will then return (verse 5) to the position with the Father from which he came. His glory is most clearly known in seeing both sides of his glory – his rightful place with the Father, and his choice to subject himself to complete ingloriousness for our sake.

Prayer:
God, I think of the way we tend to think of glory – achievement, recognition, and comparison, especially comparison. How much do we stop to think about human glory being about comparison with others - as the best, as winners (meaning there are losers)? Help us to know and reflect your glory. Through Jesus. Amen.

A Clear Path

John 16:23-33

We pray “through Jesus Christ” and “in Jesus’ name,” but this passage portays direct access to the Father, made possible because Jesus made himself one with us, and then returned to the Father. He activated the terminals at both ends. We pray “through Jesus” not so much because he takes our questions, pleas and praises and looks them over and passes them on, but because he has cleared the path. As we are “in” Jesus through acknowledging him as Lord, how can the heavenly Father ignore us (even if he were of a mind to)? When he sees us, he sees his Son. He treats us as his very own children, through adoption with Jesus as our brother.

Prayer:
God, thank you for bridging the enormousness of the gap between you and me. Through Jesus. Amen.

Use Your Joy

John 16:16-22

The disciples, Jesus warns, are about to experience intense grief. Not only will they see Jesus die in an apparent defeat, that defeat will represent an apparent win by the forces against him. But he wants them to know that this will lead to vindication and enduring joy. The vindication will not be of a “so there” variety, but rather a celebration of promise fulfilled, that the truth and light highlighted throughout this Gospel will win out. It is anything but vindication of the “so there” variety because the ministry of those vindicated will be to the world that appeared to win against him and them. But they will have with them – as may we have – a deep and abiding joy.

This is no fading glory type victory (like for, say, the Carolina Hurricanes), but just the beginning of an adventure. They will take the joy of knowing truth and light with them. In Christ, we know we have a place with God. This is a hardly a matter of smugness or better-than-othersness, because it’s all of his doing. We don’t have to do anything more to gain that place; it’s already ours. As noted yesterday, Christians, as the Body of the Risen Christ who loves the world, have a great responsibility toward a world that largely will reject and even mock our efforts. But the responsibility is beautifully wrapped up inside the joy.

Prayer:
Jesus, thank you that my salvation is not my responsibility. But I sense that my joy in it is my responsibility, my choice, my decision. I can choose to wear this responsibility heavily, somberly, and so fulfill it ineffectively; or I can make it my life’s breath, with a spirit that is lighter than air. Since you’ve promised I won’t lose it, I choose joy. Amen.

Shot Deflection

John 16:5-15

One role of the Spirit is to convict the world of its sin. But wait. How is the conviction announced? We have to note that when the Spirit came in place of Jesus’ bodily presence, it made no difference to the world. The court proceedings evidently take place in the mind and heart and ministry of the disciples. The church has a ‘conviction’ of the sin and guilt of the world. God, for the time being, does not judge the world for being the world. It doesn’t know any better. He loads all the responsibility for it onto the Body to which the conviction is made known.

Prayer:
Lord, some of us find it so ironic that our friends see our Christianity as a crutch. Thank you that there is indeed wonderful and certain comfort, assurance and encouragement in our faith. But it comes in the course of fulfilling a critical purpose: being your ambassadors to a world that you persist in loving even though it rebels against you. Help us all to know our part. Through Jesus. Amen.

Stirred, Not Shaken

John 16:1-4

Jesus mentions twice in this little section (verses 1 and 4) why he is warning the disciples about the persecution they will face. It is so they will not be shaken out of their faith. This connects with the role of the “Counselor” as described in John 14:25-27. When Jesus is no longer physically with them the Spirit will keep them in the Truth and give them peace.

One can imagine how necessary and powerful this would have been for the disciples to recall in the wake of the resurrection. It might have seemed that they should be entering an era of bliss, and yet worldly troubles would still haunt them. There is a parallel in this for the person coming into faith, who will find that Christians experience the same kind of trials and disappointments as the rest of the world. The tension may be all the more acute because of the power of darkness that wants to use the circumstances of this world to shake our faith, just when it is most needed.

Prayer:
God, breathe your Spirit in us when something disturbs the expected pattern of life, when peace is fractured and hopes are tattered. Thank you for the support and friendship you provide. Let there be light. In Jesus. Amen.

Acceptance

John 15:18-27

Hate is such an ugly word. I hate it.
I am grateful, however, that my body hates germs. There is stuff in my blood that hates germs and works to kill them off because the stuff knows those germs don’t belong in my body. People who do transplants have to take this into account and work around it or counteract it (I have no idea how they do that) without forever preventing the body from fighting off stuff it should fight. It’s an amazing and heroic thing to accomplish.
It would seem that Jesus is a foreign body to the world, and so also are those who are “in” him. The world tries to reject him and those who are in him. Funny, we don’t mention this in church ads.
How did Jesus handle this? He let the world reject him, and then came back and gave us the job of spreading his wonderfully illogical love for the world that rejected him.

Prayer:
There is so much sense of rejection everywhere, Lord Jesus, and so much need for simple acceptance and unconditional love. Thank you for bearing rejection for us all, and for accepting me as I am. Help me live and convey your Spirit of acceptance, and grow together with others into what you know we can yet be. Amen.

Sap In Your Veins

John 15:1-17

The image of the vine brings forward the importance and imperative of fruitfulness in Christian life. The fruitfulness of Christian character is probably what is in mind. Other kinds of fruitfulness are important, and connected, to that character – like the bringing of new believers to the church – but it would be in keeping with what we’ve read so far in John and with other New Testament passages for us to focus here on Christian character as a product of the Spirit, who has been at the center of Jesus’ discussion just before this.

The vine is to John what the Body of Christ is in Paul’s language. The Christian must have a vital, living link with his/her Saviour. Any part of our life that impedes that life-flow must be dealt with decisively. Just as Paul in 1 Corinthians said anything that is not of love – no matter how outwardly valuable it may seem – is not just not what it should be, but worthless; so here we need a living connection with our Saviour for authentic faith and life. It is also a variation on a theme contained in the conversation of Jesus with the woman at the well in John 4. There we reflected that we depend on the flow of life from Jesus; we have no reservoir. It is true of the natural world that there is no life without movement. There is no true Christian life without continuous growth: new ways of reaching out, increasing purity of motive in our offering of our lives back to God (worship in the midst of life), deepening intentional fellowship, and expansiveness in our giving and serving. We can grow at a different pace at different times, but there is no standing still, no mere pew-sitting.

If there is any attitude, any habit, any resentment, jealousy or inertia that is keeping us from growing, we need to prune it, or we will be like the fellow Nicky Gumbel of Alpha talks about in a “Beta” talk, who found he was saved but wasn’t really living.

Prayer:
Lord, teach me the difference between self-preoccupation and self-examination. Through Jesus. Amen.

Leaving and Peace

John 14:25-31

I often quote verse 27 at the beginning of funerals. I’ve just seen a new significance in bringing these words to that human context filled with every kind of thought and emotion.

It has to do with clinging and releasing. Jesus promises peace to the disciples as he is leaving, which would be really tough even though he is promising to return. At that moment, and until they experience him resurrected, they would be just overflowing with fear and perplexity. The natural reaction in that experience is to cling to something. But here Jesus says their peace is necessarily connected with his leaving, because only in leaving will he fulfill his purpose, and it is in taking up his mission, in fulfilling that purpose, that the disciples will truly know peace. The Counselor/Spirit comes not just to comfort but to empower them (see John 20:21). “I do not give to you as the world give,” he says. It is the world’s approach to peace to acquire, to medicate, to cling – and it goes nowhere good.

The prince of this world, the world that clings, has no hold on him! So neither does the prince of this world have any hold on those who are united with Jesus, and live and breathe with the Spirit of truth.

Peace is release and release is peace. But no one says it’s easy.

Prayer:
God, you are so wise in your ways I hesitate to say so for fear it sounds like I’m evaluating you. You define wisdom, you are love, you alone bring peace. I only perceive these things in and from you because they come from you in the first place. If at some moment I appear wise may it be your wisdom that is acknowledged and lived. Thank you for the peace that comes with it. In Jesus. Amen.

Believe, Welcome, Glorify

More on
John 14:15-24

This chapter started with a promise about a dwelling place for the disciples of Jesus with God. Now Jesus says “we will come and make our home with” anyone who loves him and obeys his teaching. “We” refers to Jesus and the Father. But he has also said loving and obeying him will lead to him asking the Father to send “another counselor,” the Holy Spirit. So the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to be with us “forever” (verse ) seems to be a condition for the further loving of the Son and obeying him that leads to the indwelling of the fullness of God.

The indwelling of the Spirit also adds to our understanding of doing greater works than Jesus (John 14:12). Jesus leaves for “a little while,” and returns in his post-resurrection appearances, but the Spirit remains and empowers the human parts of that Body and the Body as a whole, to do things with exponentially growing power and effect (see Acts 2).

It is a simple order of things we ought to be able to follow: believe and obey the Son, welcome the Holy Spirit to empower us to continue as Christ’s Body, and glorify the Father. Believe, welcome, glorify. You could organize a whole church, or your life, around it: Believe, welcome, glorify; mirroring the work of the Trinity in and through us.

Prayer:
God, may I believe your Son died for me and now intercedes for me before your throne, welcome your Holy Spirit to bring to birth and empower new life, and glorify You through all you do through me as a result. Amen.

Delegated

John 14:15-24

I marvel at this. God could choose to accomplish what he wants to do any way he chooses. But he lets us “help.”

A lot of times, as a leader and as a parent, I’m tempted to just do things myself. In some ways it’s simpler. But one of the ways my church, Knox, is growing, is in expanding leadership and involvement. That’s what makes it especially exciting these days, and a great sign of the new thing happening in Midland in and through Knox Church. To release leadership and ministry to others is arguably the greatest joy, and reward, of effective leadership.

In the realm of parenting, I find that our boys are at the stage where letting them do things is no longer a matter of humouring them. In other words, they can really help. Again, sometimes it would be easier, Melissa and I find, to just do things ourselves. It would be less hassle, some mornings, to just make their beds rather than insist that they do it. But that wouldn’t really help them, and persisting in such a discipline develops in them stuff that they will appreciate in the long run (one hopes).

I think this is the kind of experience from which we could approach this text. When Judas (not the betrayer) asks why Jesus is revealing things to the disciples and working through the them rather than manifesting himself directly to the world, I think the answer is that God sees great value in doing what he wants to do through his kids. His kids are first of all those who are such through adoption, an adoption effected through belief in his “begotten” son. We therefore become his adopted children, and come under his care and loving discipline. He seems to think it’s better for all concerned if he works through his adopted children walking this earth than through some cosmic sign revealed to all that would probably get explained away as mass hallucination or something anyway.

Our great resource in this enterprise is the Holy Spirit, probably the most ignored aspect of divinely-empowered life in the church tradition of which I am part. I’ll stay with this passage another day to talk about the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:
Jesus, make me more and more a doer of your will, that in my obedience I may experience your presence, and have some small part in the acknowledgment and welcoming of your Kingdom. Amen.

A Transforming Union

John 14:8-14

“Through Jesus Christ our Lord” or “In Jesus’ name” are not just formalities at the end of a prayer. They signify a desire to be aligned with Jesus' purposes. It goes without saying, I hope, that just adding them doesn’t make it a reality. To pray in Jesus’ name is an outcome of union with him, and therefore also with the Father. If that is the reality, we will pray with a concern that whatever we pray will lead to furthering the work Jesus started in his earthly ministry. God will certainly honour that!

Does that leave room for praying for, say, help with an exam, or for help through any anxious time? Of course! For one thing, like any loving parent God just loves to hear from us with any request. Secondly, as we continually grow in our walk with Jesus it becomes more and more the reality that any and all prayers we bring to God – even those that might seem selfish in some way – end up glorifying him because we dedicate every aspect of our life to him.

To put it another way, life in union with Jesus is the truly free life, because there is nothing that is not turned to the purpose of glorifying God. We live with joyful, open hands, just giving everything to him.

Prayer:
God, what a warm, wonderful thought to know you care about my every care. Thank you. Reveal to me today how some personal or seemingly selfish concern can be transformed through my union with your Son to work to your glory. Amen.

Troubled

John 14:1-7

You can understand Thomas’ confusion, and appreciate his honesty. Jesus has just told them they can’t go where he is going (John 13:33). They can’t, of course, follow in the path he is about to take, but he assures them he is going to prepare a place for them. He will come back and take them there. Still, “How can we know the way?” is a real good question.

Besides, I suspect that “Do not let your hearts be troubled” doesn’t capture the compassion with which Jesus would have said it. Consider how “troubled” the disciples must have been. I mean, they left everything to follow him, and now he’s quite willing to spiral on down into a very ugly death. What will become of them? It’s no wonder they made no sense of all this until after the resurrection.

How can someone be “the way” (the connection to God), “the truth” (what is reliable in a world of lies and deception) and the “life” (a matter of relationship with the divine rather than physical life alone) when it appears he will be judged and executed as a low-life criminal? It just doesn’t add up. And the way, the truth, the life? The definite article already makes the claim that all hope rests in him.

The only answer that makes sense of any of this comes immediately in the text: in really knowing him. You can debate around these things endlessly, but the only answer that will ever make any enduring sense is in getting to know him. I know, that presupposes a certain outcome to any debate about his reality, the authenticity of this Scripture, etc. But as for me, I find most compelling what real people, including me, have actually experienced: This Jesus does touch troubled hearts. This Jesus does overcome things that seem insurmountable. To know him is to know the Father. He will come back. He does indeed have a place for you and me. And it’s really, really big.

Prayer:
Jesus, help me just to know you better, through intimate knowledge of your words and actions in Scripture, through my prayer life, through fellowship with other believers, through facing the needs in hearts and in the world that distress you, through the hope you bring in making all things new, and through a church that is truly alive. Amen.

This Is Glory?

John 13:31-38

The last verse we read announced, with Judas’ choice of betrayal, “And it was night” (John 13:30). This is loaded language in John’s talk. By what strange order of things does the next verse say, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.”?

God’s glory is revealed not just with the resurrection, but with his stooping to endure the worst of human cruelty, hatred and betrayal, out of love. How can we not then love one another? The command to love others is not really new, but it is new coming in this way and in such a powerful situation. The command and the passion in it comes not just from the words but even more from the surrounding action.

Prayer:
Jesus, we think we’re being gracious to love others who have done stupid things to or affecting us. You loved knowing what stupid and mean things would be done by those you were dying for. You even died for those who perpetrated your death. You know every stupid thing I will yet do and still you love me. I resolve to live your command. Amen.

And it was night

John 13:21-30

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
John 3:19

As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
John 9:4

As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
John 13:30

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
John 20:1

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (NIV notes “understood” could also be “overcome”)
John 1:5