Today's Scripture focus: Psalm 32 A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in a small room on the third floor of the west tower in the Buncombe County Detention Facility. It was a Thursday morning around 10:45 and we were there as part of our church's prison and jail ministry. At the end of our Bible study, we always try to leave room for the members of the group to ask questions or bring up topics that they may have been thinking about during the week. Aaron, one of the regular members of our study, had been very courageous that day, confessing that he often felt lost in the Bible studies. He didn't have a lot of background in the church or in the Bible and often didn't know what people were talking about, couldn't really follow the conversation, and didn't really know how to grow in his faith. As we talked about the importance of prayer, I mentioned that there are times that I find prayer very difficult. During those times, I often turn to the Psalms because they served as the Book of Worship for the Hebrew people (containing songs and prayers for use in worship). I told the group that I sometimes use the psalms as a starting place for my prayers, praying them aloud until my own words come. Aaron was shocked. "That's what I'm talking about," he said. "I had no idea that the psalms were songs and prayers and that the Hebrew people used them in their worship. That is really helpful to know." This story came to me as I was reading today's scripture. I have a tendency at times to read the songs and prayers of the psalms in a very 21st Century American manner (i.e. very individualistic) - as though these were strictly the psalmist's personal prayers to God (or, when I'm feeling really narcissistic, my own personal prayers). I read today's psalm and I immediately think of times of personal confession - admitting my sins to God. I think of the countless times I've gone to God and admitted the same thing as the psalmist, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” It truly does make sense to me to understand this Lenten journey as a wandering in the wilderness of my own sin and rebellion . . . a time to confront myself and agree with God that I "have fallen short of God's glory." And yet . . . And yet, I have to remember that these psalms were not only the private worship book of the people, but the public worship book as well. In reading this psalm together, it was not just an acknowledgment that I, as an individual, have sinned, but that the community has sinned (I'm not going to go into detail on that because I included it in the accompanying booklet that goes with this blog. For more on this, see the section in the Lent book titled "Confession" on page five - you can access the digital version of the book here). At its root, confession is a deeply relational practice. While the "justice" system in the United States is structured so that people are convicted for breaking a law of the land or of the state, the biblical picture is that sin is a break in relationships - our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. Confession, likewise, must be understood in such a relational manner. When we confess, we are acknowledging that have wronged one another, we have broken the sacred trust of our relationship, and we have damaged our relationship with God. Confession is an act of seeking healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation as a community (with one another and with God). As a result of this corporate confession, we find that divine forgiveness is no private affair either. As we confess our sins to one another and to God, we also become the mediators of God's forgiveness. What did Jesus say in the gospels? He said, "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18 ESV) Isn't this the essence of community, confession, and repentance? As we loose one another from the obligations and guilt with which sin has imprisoned us, God will likewise loose them in heaven. As we bind ourselves to one another in love and reconciliation, God will likewise bind us together into the beloved community, the body of Christ on Earth. Yes, we will have to say confession is a courageous act. It is not for sissies. It is for those who are daring enough to live into a radical community of reconciliation and healing - one where we dare to lay our sins bare before our brothers and sisters, only to hear these words echo in our ears, "I forgive you. I love you." Prayer: God, give me eyes so that I may see the truth of my sin. Give me a broken heart over the relationships I've damaged. Give me strength to confess those sins to you and to those in my community. And give us healing and forgiveness in Jesus' name. Amen.
1 Comment
Today's Scripture focus: Romans 5:12-19 I am glad for second chances. We live in a culture that teaches us the following pieces of "wisdom":
As I read today's passage, I get the distinct impression that Paul is saying to us, there is good news - Adam gets a second chance in Jesus. Where disobedience came through Adam, obedience comes through Jesus. Where death came in through Adam, life will come in through Jesus. Where sin came through Adam, righteousness will come through Jesus. Where judgment came through Adam, grace and forgiveness will come through Jesus. Jesus, the "second Adam," comes to redeem the fallen Adam and all those that have been stained by his failure. It got me to thinking, though - what about Eve? Eve was Adam's wife. As the scripture says, a man will leave his mother and father and cleave (be united) to his wife. Following that train of thought, we might ask "Who would be this equivalent in Jesus' life?" A quick look at scripture reveals a striking answer. In the letter to the Ephesians, we find these words: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV, emphasis added) Did you catch that? If Jesus is the "second Adam" then the church is the "second Eve." It is as though Genesis were repeating itself. Adam is placed into a deep sleep (a death, maybe) and from his broken body Eve is drawn out. God breathes the breath of life into this new being (the word for Holy Spirit means "breath" or "wind" - see John 20:19-23 or Acts 2:1-13). Eve is united with Adam. You see, I believe that the church is intended to be the perfect fulfillment of God's divine plan for Adam and Eve, even for all creation - "And they were naked and not ashamed." "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." "She is [Eve,] the mother of all living." Now, I have been accused of being an idealist more than once. I know that you don't have to look very far to see that Church has fallen far short of this great opportunity. Divisions, squabbles, wars, violence, hatred, pain, prejudice, fear - all these can be traced back to the Church. But it doesn't change the fact: the Church is the bride of Christ, who "gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word." Did you catch that last part? You see, that is what I'm finding in my life this Lent - cleansing from the word of God. I need to hear God speak these truths over me: "I love you. I created you. I accept you. I want you. I desire to be close and intimate with you. I long for you." I think that if we could fully grasp this identity as Christ's bride - sanctified, cleansed, the fulfillment of Eve's fallenness - we just might be on the road to making it a reality. We might be fruitful in the ways of justice and peace in the world. We might multiply forgiveness, reconciliation, love, honor, respect, and healing. We might begin to embody God's shalom. We might be naked - not in our clothing choices, but in being transparent with one another, taking off all the masks and pretentions - and have no shame. We might just find that we are becoming the bride of Christ. We might just find that we are becoming the Second Eve. Prayer: God, it is a high calling to be a part of your bride. We confess that we have fallen dreadfully short of living up to that call. We confess that we have succumbed to the temptation to live by the culture of this world - hiding behind power, manipulation, fear, and hatred. Help us to come to you. Wash us with the water of your word. Let us stand before you, naked and unashamed, for we have been made holy by our Groom. Amen. Today's Scripture focus: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 I can still hear their voices even today: "You can be anything you want to be when you grow up. The sky is the limit." Maybe it was a school teacher, parent, or well-meaning aunt, but I believed them. I knew that I really could be an astronaut one day (my brother and I stopped counting on the 36th time we watched the movie, Space Camp, growing up). I really could be that member of the police S.W.A.T. team that busted down doors and arrested the bad guys (we would practice kicking in the door to the clubhouse in our backyard). I really could be the firefighter that climbed up the ladder to the fifth floor window and rescued the girl that was choking on the smoke billowing out from the tiny opening (we did get in trouble for climbing on the roof on numerous occasions). As I grew up, I found that there was a catch, though. My eyesight is not so good and you can't be a pilot, much less an astronaut, with poor eyes. I'm not a big fan of guns (though I do know how to use one), which is not so good for the police officer charged with carrying high powered ammunition. I'm not a big fan of heights (sometimes my knees shake), which could pose a serious problem if I had any real aspirations of climbing up tall ladders to save people and fight fires. You see, in all this thinking about what I wanted to be, I hadn't yet grasped the idea of who God had created me to be. When you get right down to it, I can't be "anything I want to be" because I've not been created to do just anything. I have been created for a unique purpose. The church mothers and fathers referred to this as vocation. In our modern terminology, we think about vocation in terms of what we do for a living, but this is not what they meant in using this term. The term vocation comes from the Latin term vocare, meaning "to call." By vocation, they meant who God had created/called you to be - what unique gifts, abilities, and inclinations you possess. You may very well use your vocation to make a living, but you may not. You may be an artist who puts food on the table by working in a bank. You may be a musician that pays bills by waiting tables. You may be a writer, a carpenter, a dancer, or a golfer, but you earn a living by some other means. They also thought of this idea of vocation in terms of our spiritual calling as well. Some people had a vocation to join a religious order and to commit their lives to God as a monk or nun. Adam had a vocation. "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). Adam's vocation was to care for the garden in which God had placed him and to live in relationship with God and the other people God had created (namely Eve). He was to care for a creation that he had not made - to be a steward of this gift he received from God. There is great freedom that comes with this vocation as well. God tells Adam, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden," (Genesis 2:16). You can enjoy, feast, run and play. There is but one limit, however. There is one tree that you must not eat of, one rule that you must follow, one command you must obey. What do you mean one tree - I thought I could eat from ay tree? What do you mean that my eyes aren't good enough to be an astronaut? What do you mean that my scores aren't good enough to get into medical school? What do you mean that I'm not strong enough or fast enough to pass the physical examination? I can be anything that I want to be! I can do anything I want to do! I live in the United States of America - the land of the free, the home of the brave. What do you mean that there are rules that I still have to follow? I thought that Jesus came to set me free, that he came to give me abundant life - what do you mean that I have to follow these laws? The temptation of the serpent is to question the vocation of our first parents, to question God's command, to question God's goodness (God is just holding out on you). We hear the serpent's subtle voice time and again, "Did God really say...?" In our society, we have elevated this idea of freedom and choice to idolatrous levels. I get to decide what I want to do. I get to decide what is best for me. I get to decide what is right and what is wrong. I, I, I. Me, Me, Me. It's at the very center of Adam and Eve's temptation and it's at the heart of all our subsequent temptations (you will be like God). It's at the very heart of this season of Lent - dying to self and coming alive to the one who created us, who gifted us, and who called us. By surrendering the freedom to choose any life and embracing God's life for us, we just may find the real freedom our souls so richly desire. Prayer: God, You created me. You know me. You have given me gifts and abilities. You have called me and given me a vocation. Help me to discover that call and find the freedom of living it out. Keep me from the temptation to make freedom an idol in my life and to find my satisfaction in You alone. Amen. Today's Scripture focus: Mark 1:9-13 One of the great spiritual highs I have as a pastor is the privilege of baptism. It is such a powerful picture of our identification and connection with Jesus - going beneath the water to die to our old self and being raised up again to new life. It is so awesome to be able to lead people through this initiation into a community of people who are seeking to model their lives after Jesus of Nazareth. Sometimes during baptisms, I'm pretty sure that I can catch a glimpse of the heavens parting and the Spirit of God descending on those baptismal waters like a dove. I sometimes think that I can hear echoes of those words Jesus heard at his baptism, "You are my beloved child, with you I am well pleased." The baptism of Jesus was surely a high point of his thirty or so years on earth. It was a confirmation of what the angel had told his mother those many years ago: "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:31-33 ESV) It was a confirmation of his identity, his uniqueness, his calling. Very quickly, however, we find that the Spirit has descended on him for another reason as well - to strengthen him for a time of temptation. Today's scripture says, "The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness." Now, I have to admit that there are a number of things about this one sentence that give me pause. First, it says that this happened immediately following Jesus' baptism. Was there no celebration? No time to bask for a moment in his sonship? No time to just hang out on this spiritual mountaintop? I know that when I baptize someone, I encourage them to make a big deal about - to throw a party, to take it in slowly and savor. It's as if Mark is saying, Jesus didn't come to hang out on the mountaintop, but he came for the wilderness. That brings to the second thing. There is something about the wilderness in scripture. Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian man and went out into the wilderness area. It was here that he met God in the burning bush. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty before entering the promised land because of their disobedience, but God cares for them and provides for their needs. Elijah meets God in a cave in the wilderness. It's as though the writers of scripture are trying to tell us something - while there may be times that we meet God in the safety and comfort of the city, more often than not, we are going to truly have a life-changing encounter with this wild, untamable God in the wilderness areas of our lives. This wilderness can take many forms - the wilderness of sin and temptation, the wilderness of loneliness and isolation, the wilderness of sickness, the wilderness of losing a job, the wilderness of a broken relationship, the wilderness of depression, the wilderness of addiction - the list could go on and on. The point is, whatever wilderness we find ourselves in, we should look around, listen closely, and pay attention because God may be trying to do something awesome in us through that experience. Finally, I am struck that it says that "the Spirit . . . drove him out" into the desert. It's the same language that we find in Mark 11:15 where Jesus "entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and bought in the temple." It seems, in a way, so violent - the Spirit driving Jesus away from this experience of love and affirmation, this spiritual high place. What does it mean that the Spirit would drive Jesus out into the wilderness to face temptation? I mean, seriously, didn't Jesus himself teach us to pray, "lead us not into the temptation, but deliver us from evil?" Even if the Spirit is not the one directly tempting Jesus, this sure seems like the Spirit is at least leading him to a place where he will be tempted. I can't help but think of the words of the Apostle Paul to the believers in Rome when he wrote, "suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5 ESV) I have to believe that, while the baptism of Jesus affirmed his identity, the temptation of Jesus solidified his character. It allowed Jesus to stare his humanity in the face, to see the enemy, and to win the victory, paving the way for us to follow. I need to be reminded often that temptation is not a sin. Temptation is an opportunity to stand with Jesus in looking at my humanity, looking at our enemy, and surrendering to the power of Christ to overcome sin on my behalf. Prayer: God, thank you for the wilderness areas of my life. Thank you for the times when all the excess stuff and distractions are stripped away, and I can honestly see my great need for you. As I face temptation on this lenten journey, let me throw myself on you and feel your victory coursing through my life. Amen. Today's focal passage: Matthew 4:1-11 Let me begin by saying, "I don't like to fast." I don't like the feeling of being hungry. I get irritable. I get short-tempered. I sometimes get headaches (though, admittedly, this may have more to do with a caffeine addiction than going without food). My wife doesn't really like it when I fast, either (for all of the above reasons). She often becomes the recipient of my irritability. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, though. Isn't that what we do? Isn't that one of the real temptations of Lent? We want to focus on anything but our own failures, our own short-comings, our own addictions and attachments in this world. We want to put the spotlight on someone else. I'll speak for myself, though. Through fasting from food, I come face-to-face with my own struggles in this area. I don't want to deal with my own unhealthy relationship to food, so I take out my guilt and shame on those closest to me. I don't want to be confronted with my true self, so I deflect my shame, guilt, anger, etc. onto someone else. The problem is - this is what Lent is all about. It is about holding up the mirror and getting a good look at ourselves, then casting all of that at the foot of the cross of Jesus. There is a historic connection between the forty days of Lent and the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil. As we begin this journey together, I am struck by the fact that the first temptation Jesus faces hits at such a basic level. We all need food to survive. In the book of Genesis, God looked at all that was created in the Garden of Eden (including food) and pronounced it good. Going without this basic necessity causes our body to scream out in protest, "But I need food to survive!" While this is true, there is little danger that my body is going to have serious adverse affects from a little fasting. What it really gets at is much more telling - what is my relationship to food? Obviously, I eat to fulfill my biological needs for nutrients that fuel my body. But it's more than that. I eat because I enjoy the taste of food. I eat because of the psychological effect it has on me (can anyone say "comfort food"). I eat because I'm bored sometimes. I eat because it's the socially acceptable behavior in certain circumstances. Yes, food can be good, but food can be an idol. While the cravings I feel are, in part, my body telling me that it needs nourishment, it is also my spirit saying, "Don't take away my god!" (god, not God). It is my self-indulgent spirit saying "gimme, gimme, gimme." It is also a reminder of how blessed I am. I can go the cabinet, pull out an evening snack, and the hardest choice I'll have to make is "which one?" It is hard for me wrap my head around what it is like for Tayson, the child we sponsor in Zambia, on a daily basis. I don't know what it is like to not have adequate resources of daily food and water. It is difficult for me to imagine what it is like to look into my children's eyes as they beg me for food, knowing that I have none to give them. And yet, this is the reality for many of fellow brothers and sisters around the globe. So, I'll say it again, "I don't like to fast . . . but I need to fast." I need to hear Jesus speak into my life, "Man does not live on bread alone" to remind me about my sometimes idolatrous relationship with food. But I also need to hear Jesus say, "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat" to remind me about my relationship with others in the world who aren't nearly as fortunate as I am. May this Lent be a time for us all to take a long, hard look at our relationship with food. -Steven |
Ecclesia Writer's ConsortiumWe are blessed at Ecclesia to have a number of gifted writers and teachers. Here, you'll find devotions, meditations, and musings from a sample of those writers. Archives
June 2015
Categories
All
|