This Present Crisis

Wow... it has been several days since I last blogged... too much work and too little time... Since my last post, the current economic crisis has hit very close to home, as one of my own loved ones has become one of the 20,000 jobs lost every day in the US. These are tough times, things are going from bad to worse, and while everyone is looking to the government and the Obama administration for bailout, stimulus, and recovery miracles, it gives us Christians, who belong to an alternative kingdom and are citizens of a different city, cause to reflect...

What would our world look like if we ordered our life and society by God's politics? When Israel asked for a king (I Samuel 8) God's heart was broken. Through Samuel, God warned the people - you don't know what you are asking for. A king (human government) will only take and take - take your children and conscript them into military service, take your money and spend it on their own luxuries and protection, take your freedom and turn you into slaves of the very government you crave and believe will protect you and provide for you. (Does this sound familiar?) What God is really saying is, "Why can't I be your king? Why won't you trust me to provide for you and protect you?"

What would our world look like if we followed God's economic recovery plan? If Jubilee and the year of release (from debts) was not just an ideal, but an economic reality... If the wealth with which we were blessed was really available for others, if there really were "no needy person among us" but those who had plenty shared from their abundance with those in need... What if, during this time of economic crisis, we actually found it better to live more simply, more connected with family (perhaps even families living together under the same roof so that the generations could re-connect), becoming a society of inter-dependence and mutual support?

What would our world look like if we paid attention to  God's environmental concerns? If we entered into a season of de-accumulation, because most of us have way too much stuff that adds nothing to our lives, but actually takes us captive (we don't own our possessions, they have come to own us)... if we would dare to live more simply and more as a partner and caregiver of God's creation rather than her master, if we embraced our vocation to enjoy the abundance woven into the fabric of this universe rather than exploit it?

This present crisis calls for every believer and every church to bear witness to the world that there really is a way to live by faith rather than fear, to live into hope rather than out of despair, and to practice generosity, compassion, and hospitality in a time when most are closing their hearts (and their purse-strings) in a spirit of self-preservation. Where does our help come from? Our help comes from Yahweh, the One who made heavens and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2) Perhaps as we go through this season of testing, as God's people, we will learn to reorder our lives according to God's politics, God's economy, and yes, God's environmental policies - living more simply, more freely, more connected, more trusting (and less fearful) and more like Jesus. 

What a wonderful world that would be! 

Soli Deo gloria

The Word For Today - Daily Office

This was a tough one - so many favorite readings in the Daily Office this morning... for instance:

Isaiah 55:6-11 where we are admonished to seek God... how God's ways are higher than ours, God's thoughts are deeper than ours... and how God's word always bears fruit... a great text.

Then there was Galatians 5:1-15, where Paul shows the excellence of the way of love, it is the sum of all God's commands... that what really counts (as I remember Dr. Greathouse saying so often, is faith expressing itself in love... another great text.

But then, I also came to the gospel reading from Mark 8 (the hinge of Mark's gospel and one of my all time favorite texts as I recall the number of sermons preached from Mark 8:27-9:1) - if we would follow Christ, we must "turn from our selfish ways, take up our cross, and follow Jesus."

But it was the prayer book of Israel that spoke most powerfully today (not so much to me, as it spoke for me, as the Psalms regularly do - expressing our deepest cries of pain, praises, and hopes)... 

Psalm 71:18-22 Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me. Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with you, O God? You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again. Then I will praise you with music on the harp, because you are faithful to your promises, O my God. I will sing praises to you with a lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

Today, Psalm 71 became my word for the day... It confesses my deep hope, that even in life after traditional pastoral leadership, that God will use me to encourage and help a new generation of preachers to proclaim the gospel with passion and power... my hope that God will take the hardships, pains, and sufferings of my life (including those inflicted by God's own people) to give life, counsel, and hope to other pastors who are going through the fire in their churches... my hope that, though I may not use harp or lyre to do it, the praise of God will ever be on my lips - because God, who is ever worthy of praise is faithful!

Soli Deo gloria

Why Teach?

It's a great question... and Walter Brueggemann answers that question for me in his article entitled "That the World May Be Redescribed" (Interpretation, October 2002, pp. 359-367). In his words, this is the reason I teach preaching and interpretation to preachers... and why I teach the Bible to my Journey (home Bible study) group: "to enable the church to discern the world anew according to the script of the Bible with particular attentiveness to the character of the Bible, and thereby to accept the world as a place of joyous missional obedience."

WB concludes that article with this observation: The text itself is cause enough for wonder. A second wonder is that teachers (preachers) can help people find access to the text - and, given access, we find ourselves addressed and reimagined by this "strange new world" of the Bible.

Given the current crisis of our day, the unfathomable richness of the text, and the inscrutable, yet merciful Character who is revealed to us through this text, who could ask for any greater joy or vocation?