Daily Reading 10/27

"Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, "Ascend and enter. I'll show you what happens next."

I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne, suffused in gem hues of amber and flame with a nimbus of emerald. Twenty-four thrones circled the Throne, with Twenty-four Elders seated, white-robed, gold-crowned. Lightning flash and thunder crash pulsed from the Throne. Seven fire-blazing torches fronted the Throne (these are the Sevenfold Spirit of God). Before the Throne it was like a clear crystal sea.

Prowling around the Throne were Four Animals, all eyes. Eyes to look ahead, eyes to look behind. The first Animal like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a human face, the fourth like an eagle in flight. The Four Animals were winged, each with six wings. They were all eyes, seeing around and within. And they chanted night and day, never taking a break: Holy, holy, holy Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong, The Was, The Is, The Coming.

Every time the Animals gave glory and honor and thanks to the One Seated on the Throne—the age-after-age Living One—the Twenty-four Elders would fall prostrate before the One Seated on the Throne. They worshiped the age-after-age Living One. They threw their crowns at the foot of the Throne, chanting, Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God! Take the glory! the honor! the power! You created it all; It was created because you wanted it."

Revelation 4:1-11 (The Message)

Usually I don't quote entire passages from the daily office readings, but I decided to begin with this one because it's hard to describe without citing the whole thing anyway. So I figured I would just let you read it on your own!

In this passage, after John has already seen The Alpha and Omega, he sees these thrones. Just take a minute, read the passage again, and try to envision it all. It's pretty intense in the reading-I can only imagine what it would be like to see this in reality. The sense we get here is one of overwhelming majesty-the throne of God is surrounded by 24 thrones for the Elders, and representations of the four Gospels are prowling about the thrones (we have these in the church window above the altar, but in case you don't know which is which, Mark is a lion, Luke is an ox, Matthew is the human-faced being, and John is the eagle). They circle the throne and sing Holy Holy Holy all day and all night, for ever and ever (this is the Sanctus we sing/say at the Eucharist every Sunday-the translation here is a little different so you might not recognize it right away). The elders then cast their crowns before God, acknowledging God's majesty over our own (I'm going to be preaching on this in about a month so I won't say anymore about this here, you'll just have to come to church that Sunday...or check the website after that point to listen to the sermon).

I have to admit that the thought of constantly circling God's throne and singing God's praises has always sounded a bit...boring. This isn't the first place in the Bible where we find this image-it's present in the Old Testament as well (see Isaiah 6:3). Heaven is often conveyed to us as a place where we can have everything we want-not a place where we constantly glorify God. But everything in the Bible seems to point us in the direction of this constant glorification. So what's heaven all about then?

The realization this bring to my mind is how awesome (or aw-full-as in full of awe) it would be to circle God's throne and constantly sing God's praises. But until I'm made whole I won't be able to understand it-but I have to have faith that it will be the most amazing thing ever.

This post itself seems incomprehensible even. Talking about heaven is hard...

Daily Reading 10/26

Identity. Who do we say we are? Who are we really? How do we relate to everyone around us? How do our experiences shape the ways we see the world? How does being a Christian fit in with our identity?

I ask these questions because today's Gospel reading seems (to me) to be bringing us face to face with the issue of Christian identity. The passage is Matthew 12:43-50. There are two things happening here, and I'm interested in the 2nd part (the first part is about demons coming and taking over your soul-it's important but I'll save that for another time). The verses we'll think about here are 46-50. The Message version reads:

46-47 While he was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers showed up. They were outside trying to get a message to him. Someone told Jesus, "Your mother and brothers are out here, wanting to speak with you."
48-50 Jesus didn't respond directly, but said, "Who do you think my mother and brothers are?" He then stretched out his hand toward his disciples. "Look closely. These are my mother and brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys my heavenly Father's will is my brother and sister and mother."

It's a pretty tricky passage, because it seems Jesus is rejecting his earthly family in favor of his heavenly family, if we think of the heavenly family as those who obey God. Imagine how much this must have stung his mother-all she and Joseph had to go through in order to bring Jesus into the world, and keep him safe (the scandal of a young, unmarried, pregnant girl-the exile into Egypt-these were no small things!). And one of the major values of this time period, and one could say still lingers, was respecting one's parents. Jesus seems to do the opposite here, and says these people here are my mother and brothers-implying that those folks over there (who were related biologically) just might not be.

What does this mean about identity? Well, it means that Jesus is calling us to remember that our identity as followers of God-and followers of Jesus-is the central part of who we are. It informs everything about how we approach the world. It shapes everything about us. We are Christians first and everything else second.

The implications of this are pretty staggering when you think about it. Our call to be Christians comes before our call to do anything else.

But it's not all bad. Remember that our call to be Christian does NOT negate our family and friend relationships. In fact, it will often enhance all of our relationships because we strive to see Christ in every person when we live out our Christian identity. Jesus sometimes used more extreme measures to make his point, however. In this case, he is striving to help people understand that your relationship with (and thus your identity) God takes priority over your relationship with a family. Or, to put it another way, in a time and a place where familial heritage was important, Jesus was making the point that it wasn't the most important thing in the world. You could be a nobody-but if you were in relationship with God, your family heritage became unimportant.

So-How do we live our identities as Christians first in our own lives? How does this shape our approach to the world? Does it at all?

What do you think?

Daily Reading 10/21

Today's Gospel lesson, Matthew 12:1-14, is about the Sabbath. The Pharisees see that the disciples were picking heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath, a day when it was law for no work to be done. Then, in an effort to trick Jesus, they ask him if it was lawful to heal someone on the Sabbath; this was a trick because on the one hand the healing would be work, but on the other hand it would be a good deed. To prove his answer, Jesus pointed out that anyone would save a lamb that had fallen in a hole--if that was OK, then it was most definitely OK to help someone who needed healing. He healed a man's withered hand to drive the point home.

The crux of this passage is Jesus's condemnation of the Pharisees' concern for ritual for it's own sake, without understanding what was behind it. The Sabbath provided a talking point for this discussion. Jesus ultimately appeals to his own authority as the Son of Man, stating that he is in charge on the Sabbath, not the ritual.

Coming from the Anglican tradition, many of us know what ritual is like. Our Sunday Services are steeped in ritual-we wear different clothes, have different colors at different times of year, do things in a certain way and order. All of this is a kind of ritual that orders our Sabbath. Is it wrong? Are we stifling the movement of the Spirit with this ritual? This has been an argument made against the Book of Common Prayer since it was written--that having a pre-written prayers and a pre-ordered service keeps the Spirit from moving within us. Others, however, find great comfort in the order of the Prayer Book services. If you're familiar with it, you know there aren't going to be any major surprises from week to week, and you can settle into a more meditative state as the service goes on, not having to focus on finding the "right words" because words have already been provided-words that are prayed by yourself and by the community as a whole.

So where do we strike a balance? How do we keep our own Sabbath rituals from becoming Lord instead of Jesus? I'm sure many of us have had moments in the liturgy (the technical term for the church service itself) when we feel that the language is outdated, or we don't get the point of why the cross goes before the torches, or we feel that moving a hymn to a certain place would make the service better. When we stick to the rules for the sake of sticking to the rules, that's when we can run into problems. The Pharisees were sticking to the rules not because this would help them "be holy as God is holy," not because it provided rest for people who worked all the time, but because the rules were the rules and had to be followed. When we fail to look deeper into our own rituals and try to understand why we do them, we fail to discern how God is working through them. We focus on the building instead of the foundation, but it's the foundation that allows the building to exist in the first place (I'm not sure that metaphor makes the most sense, but it's the first one that came to mind).

For example, if we say the cross goes before the torches just because that's how it's supposed to be and that is how the service is ordered, we miss the point of the message that is conveyed when the cross comes first-we forget that the redemption wrought for us by Jesus on the cross is first and foremost in our lives as Christians. And while there is a certain amount of "following the set rules" about this, if we understand what is behind those rituals they take on a deeper meaning. They allow God to rule our worship, and not ourselves.

So feel free to ask questions about the liturgy. Ask myself, or any of the ministers on staff and we'd be happy to talk with you about it. If you don't go to Grace, leave a comment here and I'll do my best to answer it. We have to seek to understand-that's what the Pharisees failed to do. They stopped at the door (the ritual) and didn't look to see what was on the other side.

St. Luke

Today is the feast of St. Luke! I say that with some excitement because Luke is my favorite of the four gospels, and always has been. Some of you may know this, and others may not, but Luke wrote more than just the book of Luke; he is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles, making his contribution to the New Testament longer than any other writer (even Paul, who is one wordy bloke!). In scholarship, you often see these books referred to as Luke-Acts, as it is believed they were parts 1 and 2 of a longer story. Indeed, if you read the books back to back, you'll find that Luke deals with the story of Jesus while he was here on earth, and Acts is about the Spirit working in the earliest days of the Christian community (in other words, right after Jesus ascended back to heaven). The two books are not side by side in the Bible, but it helps to read them in tandem.

The readings for today expose us to several aspects of this Luke guy. On the one hand, in the New Testament readings we see Luke's introductions to his books: Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-8. Here we have the author stating his purpose.

"So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story's beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught." (Luke 1:1-4, The Message)

"Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he said good-bye to the apostles, the ones he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. After his death, he presented himself alive to them in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but "must wait for what the Father promised: the promise you heard from me. John baptized in water; you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And soon." When they were together for the last time they asked, "Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?" He told them, "You don't get to know the time. Timing is the Father's business. What you'll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world." (Acts 1:1-8, The Message)

So you see, in the first book (Luke), Luke wants to lay out the story of Jesus in a methodical way, relating what he's heard. I've heard Luke compared to a newspaper approach before; however wrong or right that might be, he's trying to cover the major aspects of who Jesus was and what he did. Interesting is the fact that the one story we have in a canonical Gospel (meaning it's in the Bible, and not another Gospel-like Judas, or Thomas) about Jesus as a child is in Luke. He's trying to cover everything he's heard. Then he starts Acts by giving a short synopsis of what the Gospel was about and he sets up Acts as a book about the working of the Holy Spirit. If you think about it, you'll notice in church that during the Easter season we're always reading out of Acts-that's because Jesus is risen and we're learning about what happened after (and what is still happening after!).

That's one aspects of Luke: Luke the author of Luke/Acts. Another aspect comes in the Old Testament reading. Luke is also an evangelist: the word "Gospel" comes from the Greek "euangelion" which is "good news" (from "eu" good and "angelos" message/news). I won't go into my long thoughts on evangelism here, but suffice it to say that Luke, through his writing, spread the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament reading also speaks to this. In Ezekial 47:1-12, Ezekial is brought to a stream that eventually becomes a torrent. Of this stream, Ezekial notes,

"While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river. He told me, "This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds. Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore from En-gedi all the way north to En-eglaim, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean. "The swamps and marshes won't become fresh. They'll stay salty. "But the river itself, on both banks, will grow fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won't wither, the fruit won't fail. Every month they'll bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing." (Ezekial 47:6-12, The Message).

The waters are those of life and healing, and pretty common theme in the Bible. Luke's word provides such a stream-the life that comes through Jesus Christ and the healing that life can bring. The healing is also notable as Luke is also thought to have been a physician.

Healing, good news, and the Holy Spirit. These are some big themes in the Christian story, and Luke has played a part in all of them. Even if you haven't read Luke intentionally, there's a good chance you've been exposed to his Gospel, especially at Christmas time. Linus recites part of Luke 2 (the Christmas story) in the Peanuts Christmas Special. Luke and Matthew provide the two Christmas narratives we hear in church, so you're more familiar with Luke than you might think!

So think about Luke. Maybe read some of his stuff. I would recommend starting at chapter 1 verse 1 of Luke. It's a good place to start. :)

(I couldn't find the writer of the above icon, but I found the icon at this website. There's a signature in the bottom left corner of the icon, though; if anyone has more info on this source please let me know so I can give the person due credit).

Daily Reading 10/14

Today we've got more about speaking. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14, is still talking about speaking in tongues versus speaking plainly (what The Message calls private prayer language or tongues and plain truth speaking). The whole passage for today is 1 Corinthians 14:13-25, but I'd like to draw your attention to verses 20-25:

"It's written in Scripture that God said,

In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
but they'll neither listen nor believe.

So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn't help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you're all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won't they assume you've taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they're going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you."

The sentences that most jump out at me are when Paul says "Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers...But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and prove their hearts." WOW.

There are two things I'd like to note in those sentences. The first is that plain speaking goes to the heart of not only unbelievers but believers as well. Even if you already believe in God and the Good News of Jesus Christ, if you're not speaking honestly and plainly about it, you might not understand (and won't be using your adult mind, as Paul asks us to do earlier in today's lesson). Our plain speaking is for the benefit of everyone, not just those who don't believe!

Furthermore, Paul acknowledges the awesome power of speech. If you were to walk into a church where the Gospel were really being preached, that would probably stand out to you (even if you're already a Christian). One of the things that draws people to particular churches is how good the preaching is, for example. But if we're preaching the truth, this will cause those who don't believe to come face to face with it. In other words, we can make God's love known by what we say.

This can be a hard thing for many of us. I know so many people who say they spread the Good News through their actions--if you're nice to people, someone might ask you why you're so nice and then (maybe) you can tell them about Jesus. We talked about this in Sunday School Awesomeness recently. How do you talk about Jesus without offending someone? How do we act as Christians in the world without stepping on the toes of those who have other beliefs? How can we be a missional people who are also compassionate towards others (and not condemning)? These are questions that we raised just by talking about our actions.

But Paul is telling us here that it's speaking that can be important, and while actions are still an important part of our work in spreading the Gospel, we have to be able to talk about it clearly and truthfully. But never fear-developing a "faith language" is something that we all struggle with--it's a growth process and it will change as we change. The important thing is that we are speaking about God's love in the first place. There are questions we can ask ourselves when we pray to think about how we talk about God.

Here's one for you: Who is Jesus? Who is he to you? What does he have to do with me ("me" being a friend who might be asking you this question)?

How would you answer these questions?

Daily Reading 10/13

Sheesh. It's been 3 weeks since my last post. Sorry for that! I'll try to be better about posting from now on...

Today's daily readings are, I will admit, a bit difficult individually and as a whole, but I'll try and make some sense out of what's being said (to me, at least, you could take something entirely different from these lessons!). The readings for today are: Jeremiah 36:27-37:2, 1 Corinthians 14:1-12, and Matthew 10:16-23. To summarize each passage quickly: Jeremiah deals with the king's refusal to listen to Jeremiah's prophecy about the Babylonians; Corinthians discusses speaking in tongues and prophesy; and Matthew has to do with Jesus speaking about the coming persecutions for those who follow him. Pretty heavy stuff, eh? But once I read each of these passages, the thing that came to me most strongly was the idea of speaking God's truth, and what that could mean.

In the case of Jeremiah, we have a prophesy that no one wants to hear. King Jehoiakim saw the first scroll from Jeremiah, which said the Babylonians were going to invade and conquer Jerusalem. So, Jehoiakim had it burnt. God wasn't so happy about this, and told Jeremiah to write it down again. God's response goes something like this (from The Message):

"And send this personal message to Jehoiakim king of Judah: 'God says, You had the gall to burn this scroll and then the nerve to say, "What kind of nonsense is this written here—that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land and kill everything in it? Well, do you want to know what God says about Jehoiakim king of Judah? This: No descendant of his will ever rule from David's throne. His corpse will be thrown in the street and left unburied, exposed to the hot sun and the freezing night. I will punish him and his children and the officials in his government for their blatant sin. I'll let loose on them and everyone in Jerusalem the doomsday disaster of which I warned them but they spit at.'" (36:29-31)

This is a pretty heavy condemnation-Jehoiakim is basically being told that none of his descendents will sit on the throne-not to mention the fact that he won't be buried properly. What's absent from today's story is how Jeremiah felt about all of this. Imagine having to tell the king news like this--granted, Jeremiah wrote it on a scroll and sent it but still; I wouldn't want to email anyone telling them that God wasn't happy and that the land was about to fall to a foreign power. At other times, Jeremiah isn't really happy with his position as a prophet. In chapter 20 he expresses his dislike of the prophet position he holds:

You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it.
You were too much for me.
And now I'm a public joke.
They all poke fun at me.
Every time I open my mouth
I'm shouting, "Murder!" or "Rape!"
And all I get for my God-warnings
are insults and contempt.
But if I say, "Forget it!
No more God-Messages from me!"
The words are fire in my belly,
a burning in my bones.
I'm worn out trying to hold it in.
I can't do it any longer!
Then I hear whispering behind my back:
"There goes old 'Danger-Everywhere.' Shut him up! Report him!"
Old friends watch, hoping I'll fall flat on my face:
"One misstep and we'll have him. We'll get rid of him for good!"
(20:7-10, The Message)

So that's one kind of speaking--speaking truth to power, as the saying goes. And in Jeremiah's case, power didn't want to hear the truth (and how often do we ourselves really want to hear the out and out truth? Probably less than we'd like to admit!)

In Corinthians we have more about prophesy. Paul is discussing the difference between speaking in tongues and between prophesying, and he has a definite preference for prophesy. The Message translates this differently from the NRSV; in The Message version you'll see tongues referred to as a kind of individual prayer-language (but just so you know, there are Christian traditions where speaking in tongues is part of the worship life of the community. About tongues versus prophesy, Paul writes:

"The one who prays using a private "prayer language" certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God's truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don't stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It's more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God's presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all." (14:4-5, The Message).

In other words, what Paul's trying to tell us is that we need to go out and speak the truth to all people in words they'll understand. This will build up the Church-the difficulty is (and I'm not sure Paul points this out) finding words that people will understand. Can you think of a way to explain Jesus and everything he means in words that people will really get? That's a challenge we all face, I think, especially in a world of scientific skepticism (and I'm not bashing science here, I'm just saying we're taught to be skeptical and look for proof and things like that). How do you explain to someone that God became human and lived and died and rose from the dead and that death doesn't have a hold on us anymore? I'd be interested in your take on this. How do we spread the message in ways that people will know what we're talking about but ways that stay true to what we believe?

Jesus warns us about what might happen when we preach the Good News. The situation was different in Jesus's time-the Romans were occupying the land and to preach as Jesus did was eventually seen as politically dangerous-just look at Jesus's crucifixion for an example! They were concerned that he was called "The King of the Jews" for a reason-it made the occupying power nervous. Anyway, back to the passage. In Matthew's text, Jesus warns people about what will happen when they preach the Kingdom message. Jesus says:

"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words. " (14:17-20, The Message)

I'm not sure many of us would be hauled in front of a judge for talking about Jesus with someone. There are cases where this could happen-when you preach the Good News through some sort of nonviolent civil disobedience, for example (take a look at the Civil Rights movement for a good example of this!). It's not easy speaking truth to power, but Jesus gives us encouragement-the words will come. God said the same thing to Moses. Don't worry that you can't speak that well-I'll give you the words.

How do you speak the truth of God's message? Do you feel like Jeremiah? Do you have a language for talking about Jesus?