The Word for Today - Daily Office

Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger bringing good news, Breaking the news that all's well, proclaiming good times, announcing salvation, telling Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Rev. 21:22-24 But there was no sign of a Temple, for the Lord God—the Sovereign-Strong—and the Lamb are the Temple. The City doesn't need sun or moon for light. God's Glory is its light, the Lamb its lamp! The nations will walk in its light and earth's kings bring in their splendor. 

Matthew 12:18-21 Look well at my handpicked servant; I love him so much, take such delight in him. I've placed my Spirit on him; he'll decree justice to the nations. [19] But he won't yell, won't raise his voice; there'll be no commotion in the streets. [20] He won't walk over anyone's feelings, won't push you into a corner. Before you know it, his justice will triumph; [21] the mere sound of his name will signal hope, even among far-off unbelievers.

COMMENT: Today is Epiphany - celebrating God's revelation and salvation for all people. Again, the Daily Office has conjoined 3 texts that speak strongly and alternatively regarding the way of Jesus in this world. First we have Isaiah's gospel proclamation to people being delivered from exile - our God reigns. In verse 10 we are invited to see God's muscle... God's sleeve is rolled up and all the world can see God's saving action. We are called to exodus (to come out), a verse that I have always heard to mean separation from the world (don't hang out with sinners), but in this context, seems to operate not so much out of fear from contamination, but more out of a focus on the glory that lies ahead. I love how Peterson paraphrases verse 12: But you don't have to be in a hurry. You're not running from anybody! God is leading you out of here, and the God of Israel is also your rear guard. I know that I have lived too much of my spiritual life in fear, as if the whole point of salvation is running away from the evil influences of this world (only to find that some of the greatest evil we ever encounter lives in and among God's own people)... 

But the text invites us to see and think differently - we are not running "away from" in this journey of salvation, we are running "toward." Hence, the second text from Revelation is a grand picture of the beauty and glory awaiting us as we journey toward God - "Higher up and further in," as Lewis depicts the pilgrimage into New Narnia in The Last Battle, a vision of the new, redeemed creation that is "bigger on the inside than it is on the outside." 

The Matthew text is a quotation from one of the servant songs in Isaiah 42 - a text that speaks quite clearly about the alternative way of Jesus in this world - not pushy at all, but winning the world's heart through love.

So what is the "epiphany" that enlightens my mind this morning? It is simply this - as people called to follow the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we do not follow God or live our God-called lives out of fear. We do not need to be so hung up about "associating" with "sinners" (Jesus surely wasn't, but it sure seems like most of the church prefers the "holy huddle" over "getting into the game" of loving this ungodly world that God so loves). Isaiah even gives us a great image - of a God who not only goes before us, summoning us into this adventurous romance that God has with sinful humanity... but also that this same God has our back (rear guard) and will protect us and keep us safe as we do God's work in the world - keeping our focus on the prize that is set before us... and always walking, living, and loving in the Jesus' way - the way of love, the way of humility, the way of peace.

As I go to work today and live this vocation out before co-workers and clients, may my way be the way of the servant - bound to the Master in love and devotion, and unafraid of any evil that may be lurking around faces friendly or unfriendly - because "God is leading me out of here... and the God of Israel is my rear guard." Or to quote another great poet named John: "There is no fear in love, because perfect love casts out fear." Let me love God - and others - like that today!

Soli Deo gloria

The Word for Today - Daily Office

Hebrews 12:2 Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.

COMMENT: On this eve of the Epiphany, the Daily Office has woven together a powerful triad of texts... Joshua 1:1-9, Hebrews 11:32-12:2, and John 15:1-16. In the OT reading, the reins of leadership for God's people are handed over to Joshua as the people are about to enter into the Promised Land. With days of challenge ahead of him, Joshua is encouraged by God: "Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul...  Haven't I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don't be timid; don't get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take." God's work is done in partnership with the strong God who makes and keeps promise, who invades our life with holiness (the love and power to live faithfully before a holy God).

Next I read this wonderful Hebrews text that comes at the end of the preacher's recital of the great heroes of faith. Keep your eyes on Jesus and learn from him how to run with perseverance the race that has been set out before us. Jesus' singular focus on God gave him strength to endure anything that was thrown at him. We need that same singularity of focus. It is interesting to look at the life of Jesus - the people who gave him the most trouble were not the "so-called" sinners (or as we tend to say these days, people of the world); it was the religious community itself (today, we would say, the church) that criticised him and hated him for loving and living the way he did. But, through his baptism (and the reaffirmation of his baptism on the mount of transfiguration), Jesus knew both his identity, as Beloved of God, and his vocation, as Servant who pleases God by his obedience unto death, even death on the cross (see Matthew 3:17; 17:5; and Philippians 2:8). 

Knowing our identity and our vocation is critical as we walk through this life, and especially as we encounter criticism and discouraging situations. Unfortunately, many of those things will come from the source where we should least expect it - the body of Christ. At times, the church in its efforts to justify or even sustain itself, fails to act in love and witness to the way of Jesus in the world. Just yesterday, I heard of a local newspaper (with an irreverent slant) who did a less than flattering article on its visit to several local churches - and the author has received written and verbal threats from members of the "offended" congregations... Hardly the way of Jesus! I also learned of a church pastor who is being threatened by denominational leadership for some kind of rumor that has been passed around about the pastor - and no one from the leadership side has even contacted the pastor to see if there is any substance to the accusation... Hardly the way of Jesus! So, how does a pastor, or any person, who experiences these kinds of things keep going? Hebrews says we must keep our eyes on Jesus and learn to live out of our baptismal identity and vocation - to never lose focus of who we are in Christ and what we have been called to be and do in Christ. That is good news for all of us today!

And finally, the Daily Office took me to my favorite parabolic image of Jesus - The Vine and the Branches in John 15. Verse 5 reads: "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing." For me, this verse is one of the keystones for living the abundant life in Christ - Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing! By God's grace and call, we are invited to be joined with Jesus, the relation intimate and organic - and the harvest will come. God produces the fruit in us and through us - we do not produce fruit on our own. It is a divine-human partnership. The life that we have, the life that we enjoy, and the life that grows and bears fruit - is the resurrection life of Jesus in us (see Romans 8:1-11)

So let the devil, or the wicked person, or the church representative do or say what they will - we are promised strength, power, endurance, victory (vindication), and fruitfulness - as we find our life intimately and organically bound up in Jesus Christ, keeping our focus on Jesus and his way in this world, living by and trusting in the promise of God who calls us to be strong and courageous because God has pledged to never leave us or forsake us. 

Today, I choose to remember my own baptism - and the many reaffirmations of that baptism... when I was baptized again as an adult because my Nazarene pastor told me that my infant baptism was of no value - shame on him for saying so and shame on me for believing that... when I was confirmed in the church... when I took my vows of ordination... and the many times that Christ has met me on mountaintop and valley to remind me that I belong to God. I am God's beloved, called to be God's servant... and they can't take that away from me, no matter what!

Soli Deo gloria

The Word for Today - Daily Office

1 John 2:15-17 Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. (THE MESSAGE)

COMMENT: Peterson wrote years ago in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: "An old tradition sorts the difficulties we face in thelife of faith into the categories of world, flesh, and devil. We are, for the most part, well warned of the perils of the flesh and the wiles of the devil. Their temptations have a definable shape and maintain an historical continuity. That doesn't make them any easier to resist; it does makke them easier to recognize... The world, though, is protean: each generation has the world to deal with in a new form. World is an atmosphere, a mood. It is nearly as hard for [us] to recognize the world's temptations as it is for a fish to discover impurities in the water. There is a sense, a feeling, that things aren't right, that the environment is not whole, but just what it is eludes analysis."

The text from 1 John, chapter 2, does give some help in identifying just how the "world" does its insidious work in our hearts - wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important...The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out... This incessant wanting is so much a part of our "American" world. It is the essence of the Madison Avenue message of acquisition... It is part of the baby boomer culture into which I was baptized (my parents, having gone through the Great Depression, were determined that our lives would be better = have more stuff). But when you come to the premature end of a career (as has recently happened to me) and you are faced with the very real possibility of losing your home and the stuff you have accumulated, you also begin to realize how unsatisfying it is to gain and acquire more and more stuff. This is simply not what life is all about!

I have seen this reality before -in the biblical story of Jesus (who had no place to lay his head) and in Paul's testimony of the Macedonian church (who in severe poverty were extremely generous and joyful - see 2Corinthians 8:1-2). But I have also seen it first hand, on the mission field - in the Dominican Republic, and especially in Guatemala - where we lived and worked among people who were poor by the world's standards, but rich in faith. I will never forget the villagers of Guatemala - the shacks in which they lived, the sacrifices they made, the outdoor kitchen in which they prepared a meal for us gringos (making tamales from scratch and killing and cooking the only available chicken to fill their guests' tamales with meat, while they did without), how they prayed and worshiped (even on mud floors), and how thier life was rich with friendship, generosity, joy, and peace. In fact, we brought a computer and DVD for the kids (something they had never seen) and I thought as the kids sat, fascinated by North American technology, "Lord, are we ruining these kids, by exposing them to this "stuff" that we suppose they are missing out on (stuff that we and our kids simply can't live without)?"

In these later (and, hopefully more mature) years that God gives me to live, serve, and testify, I pray that God will keep me more aware of this "atmosphere" called "world" and the ways that it has held me captive in my imagination and desires. I pray that my desires will be shifted, as 1 John 2:17 hopes, so that I will want what God wants... my sole desire to "glorify God and enjoy God (God's world, God's will, God's work, and God's ways) forever!

Soli Deo gloria

The Word for Today - Daily Office

Genesis 28:13-15, 20-21 Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. [14] Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. [15] Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you." …[20] Jacob vowed a vow: "If God stands by me and protects me on this journey on which I'm setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, [21] and brings me back in one piece to my father's house, this God will be my God. (THE MESSAGE)

Of the 3 patriarchal sagas (Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph), I am most fond of the middle story. Abraham (the mac-daddy of faith for all of us) is pretty appealing, because of the riskiness of his faith - it seems he would do anything God asked... yet, when left to his own devices, he could mess up with the best of them (so I can identify with Father Abraham in that sense). Joseph is almost too good to be true. Now bad things do happen to Joseph, because he is surrounded by mean people (and that I can identify with, too!), but he's like the golden boy, every step backward is followed by several giant steps forward (and that has certainly not been my experience!).

Jacob is simply a scoundrel - and I think that is why I like his story so well. (I love Buechener's nickname for Jacob in his novel, Son of Laughter, he calls him "Heels!") Of course, that is a play on his name (being born as a heel-grabber), but even more fitting, it is a name that defines his character - he is, more often than not, a real heel. This scene in Genesis 28 (known as Jacob's ladder, or the Bethel encounter) has been far too romanticized in my mind. But I do find it a compelling story of the struggle most of us have with faith and life with this prickly God who summons us to live in covenant... Life with this God is far from a bed of roses!

Along comes God (in an unexpected place and time while Jacob is on the run for his life) and God appears in a fantastic dream and makes some pretty amazing promises to Jacob. It is the passing on of the Abraham blessing: land, descendents, blessing... and a promise to be with Jacob, protect Jacob, and bring Jacob home at last. Now, considering Jacob's record so far, this says some pretty scandalous things about a God who would not only associate with, but bind God's own self and future up with, such a rascally scoundrel. That is not only mystery to me, that is good news... because there is hope for us scoundrels... we can be part of God's family and participate in God's inscrutable ways in this world.

But I am also thankful for the raw honesty of the biblical record. After receiving such an amazing revelation as this, Jacob does not suddenly turn into and model the great hero of faith, his grandfather Abraham. (Remember, that when God first spoke this incredible promise to Abram out of the blue...God called Abram to leave his home and follow, and Abram just got up and left it all, no questions asked). But Jacob, true to his name (schemer) does not make a mountain-top confession as Father Abraham did. Jacob makes a bargain-basement kind of deal with God... "Tell you what God, you make good on your promises to me, and... if it all pans out well for me as you say, then I'll let you be my God."

Come on, what kind of faith is that? I have prayed that prayer a thousand times... God, help me pass this test... God, get me out of this mess... God, help me win the lottery (by finding the winning ticket laying on the ground, of course)... God, if you bless me, and do good by me, and get me out of this trouble I'm in (trouble which, more often than not I have brought upon myself), then I will serve you." This is not one of your Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith moments, is it? But it was enough for God! 

This story blows me away! And I am glad that it falls in this beginning of the new year in the Daily Office - because my earlier posts have been looking at the human response of faith with a bit of rose-colored glasses... Lord, help me be entirely devoted to you! But this text brings me back down to earth. It reminds us that God still speaks, moves, works, blesses, summons, journeys with and employs people whose faith response is less than ideal. And that does give me hope today. The ones who are just (righteous, live "in the right" with God) do so not by their own faithfulness, but by the faithfulness of God (to paraphrase the prophet Habakkuk). 

Maybe, for today - while it is great to aspire to be a Father-Abraham kind of responder to the call of this Mysterious God-of-our-future... it is enough to know that, because of the faith and the faithfulness of this God, our future is settled and secured in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, we can rest assured that when our faith response is at best a Jacob-like bargain, God still makes room for us and will use us in some small way to keep us on the journey and moving forward toward the consummation of God's great saga of redemption.

Soli Deo gloria

The Word for Today - Daily Office

Psalm 33:16-22 No king succeeds with a big army alone, no warrior wins by brute strength. [17] Horsepower is not the answer; no one gets by on muscle alone. [18] Watch this: God's eye is on those who respect him, the ones who are looking for his love. [19] He's ready to come to their rescue in bad times; in lean times he keeps body and soul together. [20] We're depending on God; he's everything we need. [21] What's more, our hearts brim with joy since we've taken for our own his holy name. [22] Love us, God, with all you've got— that's what we're depending on.

Genesis 12:1-4 God told Abram: "Leave your country, your family, and your father's home for a land that I will show you. [2] I'll make you a great nation and bless you. I'll make you famous; you'll be a blessing. [3] I'll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I'll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you." [4] So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

Hebrews 11:1 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see.

COMMENT: The Daily Office has stitched together these texts on faith. They all speak of the kind of trusting obedience that has characterized the people of God from the call of Abraham to today. As Peterson paraphrases in the Hebrews text - this way of trusting God is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. Trusting God - that is what Abram did when he stepped out of Ur into God's preferred (but risky) future. Trusting God - that is what the psalmist advocates as remedy to horsepower and muscle (human self-reliance schemes).

I think this is a challenging lesson for the church today. It may be the central reason why so many American churches are in crisis today - we have been so thoroughly schooled in the story of self-reliance, we do not even hear the cacophonous cpunter-witness of Scripture that self-reliance is a dead-end street piled high with the wreckage of human lives lived on our own strength rather than by the kind of trusting faith. Peterson paraphrases it this way in Mark 8:35, "Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. " and in Hebrews 6:1, "The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God..."

God of Father Abraham, "You are out in the future, summoning me to come to you and trust you in everything. Your future is unknown to me. But I also know, based on the testimony of Scripture and on my own experience of your past mercies, that your future is to be preferred over all the futures that I could concoct or manufacture for myself. Like Father Abraham, may I respond to your call with a risky obedience that pleases you - because it shows that I trust you, even though I do not know where I am going. Help me to enjoy the adventure. Help me to never turn back down the dead-end road of self-reliance. Keep all my senses attuned to your summons today, as I interact with people at work, or spend time with my family as we gather to celebrate this new year. Every day... may my life be one long, obedient response to you - fully trusting in you for everything that I need to live life to the full - the abundant life your Son gives... I pray in His name. Amen

The Word for Today - Daily Office

Genesis 17:1-2 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, "I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I'll make a covenant between us and I'll give you a huge family." 

Colossians 2:11-12 Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. (THE MESSAGE)

COMMENT: What an appropriate collection of texts for the first day of 2009! The Genesis text speaks of the inauguration of God's covenant with Abraham. I love the phrase in the message - live entirely before me... Other versions render it: "walk before me and be perfect/blameless" - the Hebrew behind this phrase is tamim - a word that is not fully captured by either of the common translations of "perfect" or "blameless." Both terms (perfect / blameless) miss the real significance of the Hebrew term “tamim.” It is a word that means whole or complete – fully mature – all that a thing was meant to be… and in the context of this call to faith and trust in God’s promise, the word means complete, unqualified surrender. El Shaddai, the Sovereign God, the Almighty One has called Abram to a daily walk of complete trust, absolute loyalty, and total surrender. In other words, God says to Abram, if you wish to walk in covenant with me, you must give me your all, just as I have given you my all – in total devotion.

My prayer for 2009 is wrapped up in this call to "tamim" devotion to God. May I never be satisfied or content with cheap grace (to borrow Bonhoeffer's phrase)...the kind of discipleship that Peterson suggests is for sale in an instant society. The God who makes promises and commits unconditional and unfailing love to God's people is summoning forth a people who will walk daily in God's presence with unswerving love and loyalty. We walk this walk as a faithful response to who this God (El Shaddai... the God who is fully known in God's own Son, Jesus Christ) and what this God has done, is doing, and will do (make a great family through a 99 year old Abram... cover the earth with saving, transforming grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus). May I live daily before a God like that with the kind of trust and obedience that is best demonstrated in Father Abraham, as he offers up his very capacity to reproduce and bear children (what reasonable 99 year old, childless man would submit to the knife of circumcision, when one of his unrealized goals was to bear many children?). Abram offers this up in covenant to God... because God has offered God's very own self in covenant to Abram. I pray that I may live every day of 2009 in that kind of responsiveness to the God who has embraced me in Christ.

Is that a resolution? I certainly hope so! Love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all! Soli Deo gloria

The Word for Today - Daily Office

Isaiah 26:1-4, 8 At that time, this song will be sung in the country of Judah: We have a strong city, Salvation City, built and fortified with salvation. [2] Throw wide the gates so good and true people can enter. [3] People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit.  [4] Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing… [8] We're in no hurry, God. We're content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you've done are all we'll ever want. 

COMMENT: What a powerful paraphrase that speaks to the depths of my heart this morning! The kind of people God is producing are pilgrim people - or, sojourners - people who are on a journey, with God, and with one another, and are learning the practice of walking-with-God-in-community. This has been the charter of Israel from her foundations - incipiently, when our forefather Abraham began his journey in Ur of the Chaldeans, trusting in the promise of the One who calls and goes before (who is already out there before us, summoning us into his preferred future). It was the lot of Israel in exodus in wilderness, to learn with patience and courage to keep up with this God-on-the-move. And Isaiah, speaking to a people far from home and longing for return, now speaks of a day when the people will return to the City: people whose minds are set on God... people who are steady because they don't give up...people who have learned to depend on God and God alone... people who know the necessity of waiting and listening and watching for God to move first, who are not determined to make things happen, but content to let God be God and follow faithfully... people who are happy in God and what God has done, who find their highest joy in being-in-relationship with this God who will bring us all home!

This passage reminds me of something I read a long time ago by Eugene Peterson, who was quoting Frederich Nietzsche: "The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is... that there be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living." (from Beyond Good and Evil). Oh, that my own life in God may be so described: a long obedience in the same direction! As Peterson notes, this is the call for us who want to walk the path of discipleship in an instant society. Disciples are not made in an instant, and as I journey with God and God's people, I find that I need that regular, even daily encouragement from the Pioneer and Perfecter of our Faith (the one who has truly blazed the trail of faithfulness to God) and I need regular encouragement from my fellow travelers on this road of discipleship - a long and winding road that leads to Your door (to quote Paul McCartney).

Lord, may my whole life be one long obedient response to you! In the name of Jesus, the Pioneer. Amen.