Reflectionary II

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

You let enemies ride over our heads; we went through fire and water; but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.

… warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.

Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?

Who are your enemies?

Your ex-wife or husband? Your boss? Your in-laws? A neighbor? A friend that has been gossiping about you? A co-worker? Someone in your distant past, that has influenced every bad decision you made in your life?

Or is that too harsh of a word: "enemies"?

If you're like me, you find yourself wishing ill upon another person, or other people, maybe several times a day. When we observe children expressing such views, we recognize it instantly as immature and self-centered. Nevertheless, when you wish bad things would happen to someone else, is it fair to say that that person is your "enemy"? (Someone will protest and say - "No, that person is not my enemy. I love her and that's why I want her to learn a lesson." But I guess that makes it okay, as long as it's not a child making the same case.)

But God tells us that, when we are in some unfavorable situation, to pray for the ones responsible for it, and to work for their welfare! Your ex-spouse continues to be someone whom you should serve and help!

God says that these hateful circumstances that others visit upon us, are things God lets happen; but in the end He gives us peace and rest! Your clueless boss is actually working on your behalf, as God's agent! (She just doesn't know it!)

These people that are spreading hateful, and harmful gossip about you, are actually bringing ruin to the people they are talking to!! In fact, anybody gossiping about you, or fostering divisions among us, are actually not hurting you at all, unless you listen to it!  

And in the end, the people that end up getting words of wisdom like the above, end up being the one you would least expect: someone on the edge of society, an outsider, a foreigner, an underprivileged person - - - people that come first to mind when you think of "enemy". They are a deep minority, like 10%, or less, of the total population. You do not see them because you are looking in the wrong places for people that will lead you to God. In fact, I daresay that many of us will discover grace and wisdom outside the walls of our Church, from the least likely places. 

So I think that we need to let go of the very concept of "enemy." In the first place, the person you think is your friend may very well not be. The person you would think is your enemy is the one with your back. But what matter? You're supposed to pray for your enemies anyway. And if you're busy enough serving others, and thinking good thoughts about everybody, you will not have any space in your mind for negativity and gossip. 

And while you're at it, you might try avoiding gossip, from the very start. It looks like listening to it is as bad as repeating it.

Reflectionary I

"How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!"

"It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD."

"So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails."

"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him."

"Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us."

"So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

There is a sense in history, that despite the best efforts of good men and women, to advance the cause of justice, peace, purity, honor, and wealth - that the world itself conspires to return to violence, carnality, poverty, slavery, and chaos.

Every Moses has his Pharaoh. Every Ghandi, his Pol Pot. Every Lincoln, his Booth. Every Christ, his Caesar.

If the Universe is expanding, becoming more random and disorderly, then it makes sense for the Great Designer to create the method for it to be attracted back to that good state that was at the very beginning. We stray, and God calls us back to Him. We stray again, and the process repeats itself. 

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God and the Word was toward God." I write "toward," because I have read that this is much more accurate translation than "with", as in "The Word was with God." It denotes God's Word, His plan, being simply this: the plan that would draw everything back to Himself. God lets us go our own way, knowing that we will choose violence and slavery. Yet He speaks a Word (and that's all it takes) - and, hearing it, we may choose to return back to Him, to progress back, if you will, to the original state of innocence and peace. Except that, having lived our lives in this realm, we have gained the knowledge that comes from pain, disappointment, failure, and heartbreak. A hurt being is an empathetic being is a compassionate being is a loving being, and so on.

Western culture has twisted the meaning of slavery, so that it can never mean something good. But as Dylan said, you've got to serve somebody. We are never without being subject to someone's whim. Our response to God's word, our return to Him, is hastened by our becoming His slave. If your master builds you into your true self; If He provides your needs; If he cares for you more than anyone else. If he can, and does, offer you eternal life, then this is a slavery worth having. It's all in the return to the Universe's first voice. You can either go out and make your own way, and take the randomness that will follow. Or you can get with the program - - - with the team, if you will. Like a well-tuned instrument, your willingness to be bent and adjusted to your own best fit, puts you in sync with the world's true Social Network. You get into a zone like no other.

The world and its programs, even the good ones, lead nowhere. But listen, wait, be still, and hear the voice that calls gently, but more persistently and lovingly than any other. 

The Difference Between the Testaments

`What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' (From Acts 11)

He . . .  gave them a law which shall not pass away. (Psalm 148: 6)

And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." (From Revelation 21)

 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. (From John 13)

If you had to pick the one thing that made the New Testament truly new, what would it be?

The faith of a friend of mine was severely weakened by his lifelong ponderings about the inconsistencies within Scripture - facts that don't match up with other accounts, or statements which seem to go directly counter to what is known in Science and history, etc.  The usual stuff.

This friend also believes that the first generation Church had every reason to believe Christ would return in its lifetime. And when He didn't, that represented a complete lack of follow-through, and a sense that the most important promise of God never happened, at the time it was supposed to happen.

The New Testament is called "new," because of a rather notable departure from the basic tenets of the Old. Why call it "new" unless something was different, enough so to merit making a distinction between the two? The difference would have to be distinct enough, that someone well-versed in the Old, would not recognize it, without an element of faith that would tie it all together.

In Christ, God turned everything upside down. Suddenly, things that were forbidden: foods to eat, associations to make, habits to cultivate, were now allowed. The outward manifestation of one's faith was no longer to be based on these specific requirements. You could not as easily identify a believer by his clothing, his daily routine, his associations.

God said to John, on Patmos, that He is making all things new. Not promised, not far off, but now. Christ's new commandment was now, and it was a law that will not pass away. It was to be eternal, present, and clear: love one another.

Yes - love. Not the way the world loves. Not through physical touch that benefits the giver as much (or more) than the taker. No - love that is totally self-sacrificing. We no longer sacrifice animals. We sacrifice ourselves. And how do we do this? By truly loving . . . as Christ loves.

This is the difference. Christ should be evident, and present, in the world today, because of a Church that loves, and is growing. Let the Church follow this one and only important commandment, "Love one another," and the case will be harder to make, that Christ has tarried too long.

Genesis and Matthew XXIX

"Now let me go down and see: if they have done according to its cry that has come to me - destruction!


"I want mercy and not sacrifice."

"Why would God permit so many African children to die of hunger?

"Surely you're not saying the 911 attacks were God's judgment upon American immorality!"

If you apply the world's definition of love to its problems, like hunger, disease, war, natural disasters, and famine, it can get quite easy to become angry with God. Surely, would not a loving God care for His children?

The Old Testament is full of accounts of God solving problems by wiping them out entirely, then starting all over. And so the question is, how can this not be defined as merciful, or loving? When an animal is in great pain and will not recover, we advocate "mercy killing." End the pain and suffering. Sometimes the only way God can relieve people's pain, is to take their lives.

This idea of sacrifice carries with it an understanding of death. If there were no such thing as death, then sacrifice would have no meaning. If you have eternal life, you've got it all! "Sacrifice" is part of the equation that keeps the world in balance until death is destroyed at the Return of Christ. We sacrifice because it is a reminder of our mortal predicament. If we give something up, then we understand that it will help someone else who is suffering, thanks to the curse placed upon the earth since the time of Adam's disobedience.

But God prefers mercy, not sacrifice. Sacrifice is Old Testamental. It is self-focused. It is legalistic.

But mercy, which is understood by the mature believer, is New Testamental. It is outwardly-focused. It is based on freedom in Christ. It is conceived and driven in godly Love.

God heard the cry coming from Sodom and Gomorrah. There were those within its boundaries, in great pain due to its rampant sin. So it is today. God does hear the pain of those suffering in the poorest parts of the planet. He calls on us to serve, to act mercifully.

In the end, if the Church does not show up to help, God may be left with only one merciful option.

Genesis and Matthew XXVIII

. . . and all (Abraham's) household people, whether house-born or money-bought from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.


"Put my yoke on and learn from me: I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls, because my yoke is kindly and my load is light."

We cannot enjoy the restful life that Christ offers, while we carry around our sack of burdens. The person with worries, or troubles, or stress, is too focused on those things to enjoy Christ. A troubled person is not a restful person. Yet we are called to rest.

Is that not what we want? We want a stress-free life! We wish we could be as care-free as we were in the days of our youth. The burdens of life, which grow heavier by the year, get in the way! But what is the source of these worries? How can we root it out?

Symbolically, a practice was in place, instituted by Abraham, under God's direction. It begins with a cutting away of the flesh, And there is no part of humanity more "fleshly" and harmful than our obsession with sex. We can live without it, yet we are prone to treat it as beasts do, as an urge that must be satisfied. A reading of all of my other posts would indicate that I consider the human male to be particularly at fault. He tends to be the aggressor, the tempter, the seducer. He does not use his mind to plan out his paths. He does not do what is right!

Circumcision cuts away at the most troublesome part of the male physique. It involves the shedding of blood. The removal of the flesh, or of sin, from our lives is not pleasant. Neither is it necessarily a clean process. It is painful, but must be done.

Our worries, our temptations, our fears, our burdens, are all the same as the sin that keeps us back.

Remove the sin in your life - a task that is not easy - and then you are free to enjoy the rest in Christ.

Genesis and Matthew XXVII

"Walk in my presence! And be wholehearted!"
"I assure you, among all those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist - but the lowest person in the kingdom of the skies is greater than him."

Abraham was known for his unquestioning obedience to God. To trust God, and to do what God expects, is the very essence of faith.

John the Baptist lived a simple life marked by an almost fanatical devotion to serving God. He had no regular job, no home, no things. Yet Jesus called John the greatest in God's kingdom.

In the Easter sermon at Dexter United Methodist Church, less than a week ago, the pastor made this point - that everything we do: all our strivings, schedulings, activities, stressings, etc., really count for nothing. The only thing that matters is serving Christ. It was part of a sermon series entitled The Hard Sayings of Jesus.

How about these three things:

* Walk with God.
* Be wholehearted (sincere, pure, righteous).
* Give up everything to serve the Lord.

Abraham believed God, and followed Him. John the Baptist gave it all up. These are two very hard lessons.

Are we ready to rejoice at the wealthy guy that gives it all up to preach to the poor? How about encouraging our friends and family to drop their hobbies and busy schedules, so that they can spend reflective time in God's word and prayer? How about taking a bold stand for virtues such as honesty, sincerity, loyalty, purity, charity?

These pretty much say it all. But on the other side of obedience, trust, purity, and simplicity, are land as far as we can see, a family too numerous to count, and a seat of honor in God's Kingdom.

Do we believe this? What may we conclude by our behavior?

Genesis and Matthew XXVI

He (Ishmael) shall be a wild-ass of a man, his hand against all, hand of all against him, yet in the presence of all his brothers shall he dwell.


What did you go out to the desert to see? . . . A prophet? Yes, I tell you, a prophet and more . . . 

There is a wild man at the beginning of each testament. In the old, it is Ishmael, first son of Abraham, father of the Arab nation. In the New Testament, it is John the Immerser, Jesus' cousin. John was a child sent from God's promise, born to a woman too old to have children, as was Ishmael's half-brother, Isaac.

Promises abound, and so often it has to do with miraculous births.

Ishmael was not a child of promise. But he grew to be a great nation. He represents the Old Testament. Clans, nations, tribes are everything in the Old Testament. Warfare was the primary mode of building kingdoms. It was, basically, the way the world did things. Yet God operated and worked His will in this context. Today, the descendants of Ishmael are still known for their adherence to this Old Testament way of doing things: rigid laws, heavily male-dominated, use of warfare and its ancient rules (you are to wipe out every trace of life of your enemies).

John comes along, in the days of Christ. Both he and Jesus were born according to a promise. John is the wild man of the New Covenant. He has cast off all worldliness. He does not seek, or need, a "job." He just proclaims the word of God. This is the most important thing. He is not worried about having a son to carry on his name. In the New Testament, to be "wild" means to have nothing to do with the world and its trappings.

Sons in the Old Testament (including Ishmael) were made holy via circumcision. But in the New, all people are made holy by way of belief, demonstrated in the act of immersion first made essential to the church, by John the Immerser.

We become part of a New Family.

Ishmael's nation was blessed, and continues to be so, today, in terms of the multiplying of its population. The messenger of God told Ishmael's mother, to return back to the tent of Abraham, to her family, regardless of how she had been treated.

He calls all of us today, to return back to our families, through Christ.