A Blessing in the Advent Season

A shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse,
and a branch will grow from its roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. (Isaiah 11.1-4a)

My friends, it is Advent, and the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Let us pray that we will bear the fruit of repentance in our lives.
Let us pray that we will be people of righteousness, justice and faithfulness.
Let us pray that we will not judge by what the eye sees or decide by what the ears hears.
Indeed, let us pray that we will have eyes to see and ears to hear the good news.
Let us pray that we will have eyes that will see beyond our stereotypes,
…ears that will listen closely to the stories of our neighbours,
…eyes to see each others gifts,
…ears to hear each others joys and sorrows.
Let us pray that we will have the eyes to see a shoot that shall come out of the charred stump of Jesse, out of the charred stump of our own lives.
Let us pray, Amen, come soon Lord Jesus.

Some quality thoughts by Brian Walsh on Empire Remixed.
Here's the complete post...focused on judgmentalism.

The God of the Long Haul

I took two classes in modules these past two weeks at NTS.  The morning module was Genesis and the evening module was Congregational Discipleship.

One of the assignments for Genesis was to read through it in one sitting.  That took a LONG time and it was well worth it.  Then we got to do it three times, each time we took more notes on the stories and characters.  Through this process I was reminded time and time again of the beauty, power, awesomeness and gracefulness of our God who created the universe with care and precision, gave humanity free will and when the first humans sinned in the Garden he did not leave them alone but graciously provided covering.  I was also struck by the brokenness of humanity, even those who had been chosen by God to be his people set apart.  I had forgotten that Abraham lied twice about who his wife was!  But even in the brokenness God pursued his people wherever they were.  One of the commentators called God the "mobile God" because there was no place that He could not be found (recalling the Psalmist's words "where can I go to flee from Your Spirit?" from Psalm 139).  God showed up time and time again on behalf of his people, giving direction, correction, safety, promises, interpretations and provisions.

It's always interesting to see how the content of my various classes interact with each other.  My other class was Congregational Discipleship, which focuses on how the church sees and structures itself so that it will effectively disciple all members of the congregation in the way of Jesus.  There was much in this class on spiritual development, teaching techniques and educational theory, and all of these combined pointed to one thing: EVERYTHING we do as the community of God plays a part in the formation of the people.  Everything says something about and reinforces what we believe.  Yet, because the structure of church is made up of people and relationships, there will always be an incompleteness and room for growth in God's grace.  


This is where Genesis swoops in.  God is the God of the Long-Haul.  As God bore with the people in Genesis and gave direction, correction, safety, promises, interpretations and provisions, so God bears with the church today.  Like Abraham we are called to be his people and sometimes failure happens.  Broken relationships, missed opportunities, gross misunderstandings, overlooked needs, etc...But God remains faithful.  Time and time again He proves himself and takes over where we mess up.


A friend just shared with me a story about her dad accepting Christ into his life just six weeks before he passed forward.  He had thumbed his nose at God throughout his life.  And it was largely in part because of hurt received from the church.  But in the end, God worked his way in, softening his heart so that he did open his heart to Jesus.  The God of the Long Haul.  Awesome!

And I quote...Tom Smail

Tom Smail in The Giving Gift where he explores the personhood of the Holy Spirit. What he says here has vast implications for the unity of missional and cruciform living.

"...think of the Spirit much more personally and creatively as an artist whose one subject is the Son, and who is concerned to paint portraits of that subject on countless human canvases using the paints and brushes provided by countless human cultures and historical situations. On such an analogy the Christological center is fully affirmed and maintained. It is Jesus, the incarnate Son of the Father, and no other that the Spirit seeks to portray. Each portrait is successful and creative, not because it makes of him what he is not, by forming him in our likeness and conforming him to our preferences and predilections, but because it uses ever new cultural approaches and historical situations to bring out more of the infinite variety of saving truth that is in him."

Tom Smail, The Giving Gift, 77

with jesus in the boat you can swim with sharks

As we ate our breakfast this morning Cadence exclaimed, "look daddy! My apples look like boats!"

I replied, "that's crazy!" "No. It's not crazy. It's awesome! Because Jesus was in the boat with his disciples," she retorted.

"Oh yeah..." I say.

With her eyes widening and eyebrows lifted she went on with her story. Raising her arms to the sky, "and the rains came down." Lowering her hands to the ground and lifting them while she spoke, "and the waves came UP!" Waving her arms in circles above her head, "and there were rain clouds sending down water."

"And you know what Jesus did?" She asked excitedly. Without waiting for a reply she went on ending with a yell..."He said to the rain STOP!"

With that flourish she ended her story.

"But what happened after Jesus said that?" I inquired.

"They all fall into the water."

"Who?"

"Jesus and his friends fell into the water and went swimming. And there were SHARKS!"

I love these kinds of stories.

What Jesus Thought of Humanity

?In all Jesus? contacts with people never did He show a condescending attitude or think of man as ?mere man.? To him they all seemed savable. His deep respect for each person no matter who he might be, how evil he might be, what his response was to Jesus, did not show a hint of a ?superior complex.? The very anger He displayed toward some, the whip He wiled in the Temple, all said in effect, ?You are My equal. My anger shows My respect for you. Now, be the man you can be and ought to be.? He never forced himself on anyone. He did not call any man to Him under false pretenses?promising an easier yoke than would be the case. He called men to die with Him. He tried to push back all self-deception and faced men with what they were in themselves. He made people think for themselves?and think honestly. All this is Jesus? estimate of man.?

Mildred Bangs Wynkoop A Theology of Love 128.

Joy

What does joy look like?

I've been thinking about the passage in Hebrews where the writer describes Jesus going to his death "for the joy set before him". Here it sounds like the destination (the result of his death and resurrection) is the joy for Jesus. In this we see that joy is not the fleeting bounciness of a beach ball, but more like a tenacious bull dog that won't let go.

I read somewhere (I think it was John Ortberg's The Life You've Always Wanted) that "joy is serious business." Which makes me ask myself, how often am I intentionally developing this. I know that I ask myself how I can love others, but I don't often ask myself how I can be joyful. But as I think about it, being joyful invites others to experience the same joy...love and joy are intimately connected. Maybe I'm being picky...but I feel challenged to ask myself on a regular basis...am I set on the joy before me?

So...what brings you joy?

Wrestling with God

As I have been thinking about Jesus' journey to the cross, I keep coming back to Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane. I am struck by how Matthew describes Jesus in this scene...Jesus throws himself to the ground in prayer. This is not a light-hearted prayer, but a gut wrenching, lay-it-all-out-on-the-line prayer. He asks God, "take this cup from me...but not what I will." There is so much emotion here.

In the process of thinking about this, I am reminded of the time in Gen. 32 when Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel. Jacob's about to meet his brother, from whom he has been estranged for many years. The last time they met, it wasn't a happy meeting. So Jacob has sent all his family and belongings to the other side of the river where Esau is. He waits overnight, when he is met by God...in the form of a man...and he wrestles with him until he gets a blessing from the man.

For some reason my spirit is trying to connect these two stories. The background to each story is very different, but I think there are some profound connections...and I am wondering if anybody would like to venture in exploring those with me.

Any thoughts?

Jesus and Time

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus ever had to schedule out his week and if he did what it was like.

“Well, let’s see. I think I’ll walk on water on Monday and feed 5000 people, plus women and children on Tuesday—no, that won’t work, because I’m healing that blind guy on Tuesday and arguing with religious hypocrites—I guess I can fit feeding 5000 people on Monday—then since Tuesday is already booked I need to visit my mother on Wednesday and help that lame guy walk—oh yeah I can’t forget that dead girl I’m gonna bring back to life…that will have to be plugged into Wednesday as well—and Thursday looks like a good day weather-wise to do a little teaching on the mountain…that will probably take all day, so I probably can’t exorcise any demons until Friday—that activity will take all morning, so I can probably do some more teaching until the Sabbath comes at sundown.”