Sunday, December 30, 2007

First Sunday After Christmas, 2007

In the dark night of her soul, homeless Judah receives a word of promise and hope. Her captivity has ended, a new day has dawned and a new name is given to her. She will no longer be referred to as "Forsaken" and "Desolate." Now she will go by the name, "My delight is in her." Her Land will be called, "Married." Once again God will rejoice over her (Isaiah 62:4-5). So great will be the turn-around that God's people will now be referred to as a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of…God (Is. 62:3).

What a transformation. What a God. From disconnection and disenfranchisement to the place of community and home and future, all because of the grace of God. To this Isaiah simply says one thing, "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep quiet" (Is. 62:1). It was too powerful, too wonderful, too dramatic, and too awesome to remain quiet. It had to be shared.

We still share it today. What happened in the life of Judah is available for every person. God has spoken and the future can be different than the past. Old can be replaced with new. Deadness can be replaced by life. What once defined our lives no longer has to be that which defines our lives. "Desolate" and "forsaken" no longer must be our names. God is present to be in our lives so meaningfully that we become a crown of beauty and a royal diadem.

The new life was to be so wonderful for Judah that Isaiah said, "God will rejoice over you" (Is. 62:5). What an image, God rejoicing over His people. In a way, though, it makes sense. Being shaped and formed in the image of the God of all grace brings a people to that place where God is free to do what He longs to do in the lives of His creation; Bless them with honest and authentic blessing.

Live in God and have a grace-covered rest of your life.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Fourth Sunday of Advent

In Matthew’s Gospel the birth of the Son of God into human history isn’t told. The closest we come to a telling of the story is Joseph’s dream about what was happening to Mary, and that only takes eight verses, or about 200 words. The genealogy of Jesus’ family tree at least gets 17 verses, and you’ve got to really know your history to appreciate those 17 verses. My goodness, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address took 278 words, and historians tell us it was far too short a speech for the importance of the occasion.

I’m not sure what all this means but I do find it intriguing that an event so important to the human situation is more referred to than told. Apparently, we don’t need the details of the birth of Jesus. What we need is what those details reveal. And, what they reveal is that this baby is no one less than “Immanuel, which translated means, “’God with us’” (Matt. 1:23). This fact takes a few more verses and a whole lot of words to explain its meaning. It fact it takes four Gospels, a historical telling of the story of the first church, several letters and a prophetic revelation to give us understanding about what it means for God to be with us.

I am thinking that what we really do need to absorb into our lives in Advent is the meaning of the birth of Christ event and not the event itself. After all, if God really is with us this is huge. I mean, this is really huge.

I remember the day of my children’s birth. It is burned into my memory. However, time moves on and kids grow up and life unfolds. You can’t spend too much time on the birth experience because there is a whole lot of living to do after that event.

The day of Jesus’ birth means something to us only because of the years following His birth where He really did reveal that, in deed, God is with us. Now, that is a cause for outrageous celebration.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Third Sunday of Advent 2007

Sometimes I feel like getting my self on a mountaintop and proclaiming to the top of my voice, "Behold the wonder that is God." Mountaintop or not, however, we followers of the Christ ought to find ways in our living and in our being to proclaim the wonders of God.

Think about it. God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, comes up close and personal so much so that to capture it all Isaiah the prophet turned to metaphor and hyperbole to speak of what it means when God is present. In his telling of the story he uses phrases like, "the wilderness and the desert will be glad, and the desert will rejoice and blossom (Isaiah 35:1). He speaks this way to describe the difference God will make even in dry and barren places of life. There will be rejoicing and glory and streams of fresh flowing water in the desert. It will be a time when everything is stamped with grace and the glory of God will be seen and experienced everywhere.

In those days people will see "the majesty of our God," (Is. 35:2), and the good word to "the exhausted, the feeble and the anxious" will be, "Take courage, fear not" (Is. 35:3-4). The healing power of God will be present and the influence of God's love will spring up like pools of fresh water in the blistering heat of the desert.

A highway of the holiness of God will makes its way through the barren places and those who say YES to God will be invited to walk on that highway, and the blessings on that journey will be so great that Isaiah says the people, "will come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads" (Is. 35:10). People who walk on that highway, Isaiah says, "will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away" (Is. 35:10).

God has invited us to join up and be with Him. He is the difference out there in the heat of the day. It is His presence that makes all things new. The desert is still the desert but the desert is not God. God is God, and He is present to touch our lives and to draw us to Himself that in Him we might live.

Come to God, Isaiah says, "and "He will save you" (Is. 35:4). He will save you from anything that keeps you from hearing and receiving His take-courage-and-fear-not word.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Second Sunday of Advent 2007

We live in a violent world. It’s hard to ignore the daily news of man’s inhumanity to man that seems rooted in every culture, every neighborhood, every city and every nook and cranny. Where there is a way evil will raise its ugly head and somebody, many times the innocent, will suffer the consequences. There is no safe place anymore, but there ought to be.

The one safe place ought to be in the community of those who have come within the embrace of God. The Church is that people who have come to God’s holy mountain in order to be shaped and formed by His life. Therefore, the Church is that people who are led by God’s Messiah, and they are led in paths of peace. People of God’s Church live and move and have their being in Jesus, and in Jesus the remarkable and unfathomable occurs.

To illustrate just how remarkable and unfathomable the prophet Isaiah turned to story and imagery. He speaks utter nonsense when he speaks of the wolf and the lamb dwelling together and of the leopard and young goat lying down together and of the calf and young lion being together and the cow and the bear grazing together (Isaiah 11:6-7). What Isaiah is saying is that the incompatible are at peace with one another.

The Church must be that place where the incompatible find a home. It must be that place where swords are hammered into plowshares and where spears are hammered into pruning hooks (Is. 2:4). It must be that place and that people where war is studied no more and where peace reigns. It must be that place where nations and peoples no longer lift up swords against each other.

Impossible? Sure sounds like it. Yet, in Christ all things are possible. So, we proclaim God’s “little boy” (Is. 11:6). We bow our lives to Him and we submit to His Lordship, and those who have really done these things stand amazed at what God can do.

Monday, December 03, 2007

First Sunday of Advent 2007

Would-be presidents are roaming the country these days, with the cameras rolling of course, telling us how they will resolve world conflict. Forgive me if I don’t get too excited about it all. I’ve just been through too many presidential campaigns to take anybody too seriously.

I do take the son of Amoz seriously, however, partially because of his brutal honesty and partially because of his forthright passion to let the truth fall where it falls. Isaiah had very little tolerance for teeing up and spin doctoring ideas. When he came on the scene he told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth because he felt truth was more essential than loyalty to his nation. Actually, he felt that truth telling was essential to being loyal to his nation.

Through Isaiah God lays out His peace plan. It is a simple plan but in its simplicity it gets complicated. Why? Because God Himself is the peace plan, and lots of folks just don’t want to have much to do with the God of the Bible. Still the peace for which our planet longs, most of the planet any way, comes to us not in declarations and treaties and promises of governments but in the very life of God Himself.

He invites us to go up to His mountain and there learn His ways so that we may walk in His paths (Isaiah 2:3). He says that if we will do so there will be no need for nation to lift up sword against nation and that, in fact, “never again will they learn war” (Is. 2:4).

I would sure love to live to see that day. However, until that day the invitation is extended, “Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Is. 2:5).

This is what the Church should be doing, walking in the light of the Lord and modeling the peace that comes in that walk.” I’m not sure how well we do it, but the peace for which we long should begin at the altar of God and at the table of Jesus.