Sight . . . Freedom

"...to open the eyes ... to bring out the prisoners...."

- From Isaiah 42

The passage from Isaiah profiles the greatness of God, then talks a little about our purpose, and then finishes with several lines of praise to God.

This middle section, the one about our purpose, is very simple. We know about "Feed my sheep," about "Spread the Gospel to all nations," and "be fruitful and multiply."

God's directives to us are always about building His Kingdom . . . making it bigger and bigger. His methods are always about proclaiming the message, while taking care of widows, orhpans, aliens, and refraining from sexual immorality.

But in this particular passage, we have the interesting priority:

• Open the eyes of the blind
• Bring out the prisoners . . . those that have been in darkness

And so it goes back to method . . . to approach.

When a blind person's eyes have been opened, there is no question about what has happened. They couldn't see before. Now they can. The difference is metaphysically striking.

Prisoners are either still in prison . . . or they are now free. And it is more than apparent, whether or not they are free. 

The blind person that now sees; the prisoner that is now free . . . they are ecstatic that you gave them sight. They are besides themselves with joy, that they can now walk in the sunshine. 

If we attempt to help those that are spiritually blind, to now see . . . and leave them resentful, then there is something wrong with our method.

If our attempt to free someone from bondage to some sin only makes them crave it more; then we need a new approach. 

Because they are supposed to be thrilled beyond measure.

And if you can't persuade them with your words, then stop trying. Instead, persuade them by serving them.

Because we want them to see. And this is what God wants. 

The Hardest Command of All

Finally, brothers and sisters ... agree with one another ...

 - From 2 Corinthians 13

Yes, I know - the advice comes from Paul. These words are not a commandment from God. 

But when Paul closed his epistles, he focused on the really serious stuff. He summarized with words he hoped they got, if nothing else he wrote soaked in.

If God had ejected one of the Ten Commandments, and replaced it with this one: "Agree with one another," it would have been the hardest one of all to follow. 

Stubborn, bullheaded people.

When Jesus was praying in Gethsemane, the night before His trial, he was sweating so profusely, that blood came forth from His pores. I guess this is actually a true medical condition - stress so severe that it becomes debilitating and dangerous. 

What was His most ardent prayer to the Father, in this, His most anguished moment?

"That Your Church be One, as You and I are One."

Jesus wanted us to be united, even as much as the Son is, with the Father. That's unity.

The water molecules floating about in a pond, are not as unified as that. 

And so Paul made sure to make it a major point, with a simplified, practical prescription: "Agree with one another."

Paul seems not to even worry about whether or not somebody is right. He throws up his hands, and says "Just agree."

Do you want to know how to end social media anger, just like that? Do you wonder whether, on the scale of spiritual maturity, agreeableness ranks higher than doctrinal purity? 

Now, you can still have your rigid beliefs. But when it comes to interacting with other believers, Paul says to just agree. This is probably what will be the most persuasive to them anyway. This phrase from the Lectionary, today, could not be more timely:

Agree with one another. 

The Answer to Everything

 . . . you put all things under his feet . . . 

 - From Psalm 8

Well, maybe not everything. But these  seven words pretty much address the major objection of History's Scoffer: "Why would a loving God . . . ?"

Why? Because God put man . . . humanity . . . in charge. Of everything.

God shouldn't have had to get involved at all. We have a conscience. We know right and wrong. Even a purely evil person understands this. And in those days (week? years?) in which God walked with Adam and Eve, and maybe their children, in the Garden of Eden, surely He instructed them in all things. 

He didn't leave us without the goods to do what needed to be done. All we had to do was prove ourselves worthy of the trust He placed within us, by putting all things under our feet. 

Good teachers let their students fail, and God is a Good Teacher.

You can even take God out of the picture. Impersonal Nature did the same thing: gave us the ability to choose. And we even defy Nature, by setting ourselves above the rules that govern wild creation. We don't have claws or fangs, yet we kill. We were given the ability to choose NOT to take what we hunger for but can live without, yet we take it anyway. We have wisdom and knowledge. But we turn against it with impunity, time, after time, after time. 

Why, indeed? Why would a loving humanity allow . . . ?

This morning on Facebook, someone asserted that the cause of all of the world's problems is health and money. That's the partisan assessment that adjudges one group of people while leaving the other group innocent.

But God said from the start, that we all are responsible. And that the root causes of everything wrong with the world are selfishness and a short-term focus; a desire to serve yourself first, and to have everything you want now.

Which breeds distrust of others . . . which leaves hunger never fully satiated . . . which leads to even greater evil. 

It's all under our feet. It's up to us.

Fill The Earth

In the beginning . . . the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.

 - From Genesis 1

When you read the first chapter of the Bible, you are struck with the urgency of all of it. 

In the very beginning . . . our beginning, the only beginning that matters to us in this age, there was, essentially, nothing. We have God, and something called "earth" that was a blank canvas. It had no color. Darkness covered it. 

God is present. He occupies the vast emptiness of space, before there was anything. But then you read about a stirring wind from Heaven, like the "sound" of a wind that filled the place where the Apostles were, on the first Pentecost. And once things are kicked into action by God's Word . . . or by "wind" sent by God, if you will, ("wind," "breath," "word;" They all describe the basic action taking place) we see one thing after another being added to the loneliness of it all. In rapid succession, sky, oceans, plant life, animal life . . . humanity. 

It doesn't really matter how long it took, from a human purview. The point is that God was ready to get it all underway. It seems that He couldn't wait to set things up for the advent of a creature that would be like God Himself! Humans, made in God's image!!

In the blink of an eye . . . from God's view, it was done. All was in readiness for humanity. And to the first humans, God gave a command: fill the earth. 

The command is counter-intuitive to modern humanity. We have so much Science arguing this or that, about the problems of population and its growth. The very idea has become a point of political contention. When you think about it, population is the very hub of our biggest global problems.

Yet, in creation, the Creator can't wait for humanity to expand. There was, after all, an endless universe to explore, once the earth was filled!

What a simple act of faith it took, even in the first generation of humans, to match God's urgency, actually to fill the earth!

The point of my comments is not to argue a side in the debate, one way or another. But rather, to redirect our thoughts to an empty lonely place, and a Creator that understood everything, expressing a desire that His newest creation expand . . . and quickly.

The world, and the universe, is magnificent enough. What about the full expression of humanity reaching it's full and perfect potential, simply by making sure the creative genius of our race is maximized, through sheer population growth? 

It's a fanciful thought. I wish the reader to consider it as you would a statement by me, along the lines of "Imagine having a slice of the best cheesecake, every day, for ten years." It's a "what if," not a "why not".

Somewhere in God's first command, voiced at a point of His deepest loneliness and most ardent wishes for our well-being, came that command to "multiply and fill." We failed in doing that . . . eons ago. Our own war-likeness made it impossible within a generation of Adam and Eve. 

I suspect that, one way or the other, with or without our willing participation, God will get to enjoy, one day, the pleasure of witnessing what his children, un-tethered and without boundaries, are truly capable of. 

The Snare Bringer

You brought us into the snare . . . 

 - From Psalm 66

In my reflections this year, I feel I have spent a lot of time on the snares that the world sets for us. 

I have condemned people in our lives, that ensnare us and then lure us to act wrongly. The world wants to mock us, to marginalize us, and to keep us down.

But then right here in this Psalm, it says that God Himself brings us into the snares. The entire passage reads as if God Himself sets the snare. 

We do know that God tests us . . . not for sport, but so that we can grow. And God was willing to put Himself through trials many times more difficult than what we face, by sending His Son to the cross. There must be something good in it, if Christ had to endure suffering. 

I find comfort in the fact that God brings us into snares. And if He is the creator of the snares; if He is working in the lives of evil people that seek us harm; then, I am going to have to be okay with that, too. I cannot claim to be more wise than an eternal being.

So, I don't read this and say, as unbelievers would: "What's that supposed to mean? Is God gaming us?"

No - - - it makes me feel good that He is even active in the bad times. It's all for some good, final purpose. 

Our God reigns.

What God Thinks of Us

While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance . . . 

 - From Acts 17

History's refrain is particularly strong in our times:

"Why would a loving God . . . ?"

The phrase bespeaks a disdainful attitude toward the Almighty. I find, threaded within those words, an actual belief that there is a God.

Like a parent saying to a child: "Why would you do that?" The parent does not ask the question as a proof that his or her child does not exist. In fact, the statement is soaked with evidence that the parent believes, all too well, that the child is a real, physical being. 

Why would God look the other way? Why would He permit evil in the universe? 

What's He thinking?

When a person asks this question, do not think of it as the opening volley of a debate about the existence of God. Rather, view it as a debate about the behavior of God. 

But even then . . . it is more wise not to engage. A person asking this question is at a very private and personal point in their search.

We spend too much time fretting about what people think of God, than of what God thinks about people. And even when we contemplate His thoughts about us, it is always tilted negatively towards people that are not us. Because, you know, I'm okay. You're the one that needs correcting.

God sees us as ignorant. I would say that the majority of our ignorance is that which we cannot help. God's probably not concerned about that. In fact, He probably thrills at watching our growth, as a species, into spiritual enlightenment . . . a journey that goes back thousands of years. 

The ignorance that Paul spoke about, in this sermon, was willful ignorance: thinking there might be a God, but putting ourselves in a position of being smarter than He. 

That's ignorant. It's dumb. 

If there is any chance, in your thinking, that perhaps there is a God, or any kind of superior being . . .shouldn't our smart response to be what we can learn from Him? Shouldn't it not be, to outsmart the Almighty?

Who do you think you are, anyway? Embrace the Creator, seek Him out, learn from Him. 

Shame

...let me never be put to shame...

 - From Psalm 31

The Psalmist is in anguish. Throughout the passage, he fears for his life. He asks God to protect him.

But what is the very first concern of a person in such danger?

That he never be put to shame.

Shame: something that someone else puts you to. 

We all want to be accepted by out community . . . by some community . . . by any community.

We want not to be put to shame. We want the community neither to shun us, nor to marginalize us.

And in our politics, marketing, and almost every kind of social construct, we get this. It's not so much getting good things to people, as it is shaming people that are in your way, so that they get out of your way. For we do not like being put to shame.

But at the same time, we want to be comfortable, and in some way, "happy." We are constantly at war with ourselves: one side wants to be distinct, independent, and to be noticed. The other side wants no trouble; wants to get along, and fit in, quietly.

This dichotomy may be at the root of the human experience. Self versus community. When the self is too ascendant (i.e. as in dictatorship) we have trouble. But when the community is too ascendant (perhaps, as in our times) we have another kind of trouble. Skilled politicians and marketers know how to appeal to both sides, and to keep them in conflict, so that power may be reserved to those currently wielding it.

At the foremost, though, for our times, society as a whole seems to be in lock-step, and in united focus, against the idea of "shame." They are trying to outlaw it. They would legislate a society where it is illegal to shame someone else, for any reason. 

But what is their sole tactic for fighting shame? Well, they shame those that disagree, of course.

 . . . Which brings us full circle, to the thing that the Psalmist seemed to fear, even more than physical harm or death: shame itself.