Reading the Bible–It’s Not Always What You Expect

 1 Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.  2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.” 3 But Naboth replied, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” 4 So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. 5 His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?” 6 He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” 7 Jezebel his wife said, “Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” 8 So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. 9 In those letters she wrote: “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.” 11 So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. 12 They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 13 Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. 14 Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.” 15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead.” 16When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.

–1 Kings 21.1-16 (NIV)

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

–1 Corinthians 1.1-3 (NIV)

It never ceases to amaze me when folks trot out all kinds of reasons why they don’t read the Bible. Usually most of the excuses demonstrate that the person has never really spent much time with the Bible and is showing his/her ignorance of it by parroting criticisms he/she has heard from others. I suspect if many critics of the Bible really understood how foolish they look when they level uninformed criticisms against Scripture, they would be truly embarrassed. I know I would be. I know I have been!

Take today’s OT story for example. Here we have a great non-example of how not to act. Ahab and Jezebel’s behaviors are bad enough in their own right. They are even worse because read in its broader context, we are reminded that Ahab is king over God’s people and this is not how to bring God’s love to bear on the world. As the writer of Kings tells us, “Ahab…did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him”
(1 Kings 16:29-31). Yup.

If we take this story seriously (and God’s call to Israel and those who follow his Messiah, Jesus, to be his holy people whom God can use to help redeem his broken world), we are reminded in a powerful way that there is a better way to do things than what the world has in mind. In this story alone we see selfishness, greed, abuse of power, and pride–all of which lead to murder. God seems to be saying to us through the author, “Don’t do that. If you want to be my people, you must imitate and follow me and this isn’t the way to do it.”

So the point is this. We should read the Bible to see how God and his people interact–and the story is not often pretty. This is why it is doubly disgraceful for God’s people to act badly. If we are called to bring God’s healing love to the world we had better learn how to do that. We had better learn to behave in ways that will turn heads in a good way and cause people to ask what is our secret. That is why it is a good learning strategy to look at both examples (how to do something) and non-examples (how not to do something) and then let the Spirit use these stories to help shape us into the people he created and wants us to be.

This is what Paul has in mind when he writes the Corinthians. He reminds them who (and Whose) they are. We have been called to be God’s people and we’d better understand that there are both awesome privileges and responsibilities when we say yes to following Jesus. Normally, we like to focus more on the privileges than the responsibilities. But you cannot read Scripture in any systematic way and not be struck by the fact that God expects his people to act in ways that are truly human and good.

Why? Besides the fact that behaving in ways that are truly human is tremendously wholesome and freeing, we who call ourselves Christians must act accordingly because the world is hostile toward God and his people. Consequently, they are just looking for excuses not to submit to God’s rule. “Look at how badly those Christians behave!” is a charge I hear regularly. “They are just a bunch of damn hypocrites and I want no part of them!” And while I am always tempted to tell folks who are hypercritical of Christians and churches that people who live in glass houses should be careful not to throw stones, I usually stifle that temptation because it serves no good purpose. It really does no good to argue with closed-minded people and you find them more often than not outside of churches rather than inside them. But that is a different story for a different day.

That notwithstanding, Christians have a solemn and sacred responsibility to behave in ways that bring God through Christ honor and glory. That means we cannot behave badly; and when we do (as we inevitably will because we too are humans under construction), we must be quick to admit our mistakes and ask forgiveness. This is where knowing the story intimately of God and his people can help us to embrace ways of behaving that are pleasing to God.

I am not talking about acting in phony, syrupy, unreal ways that everybody instinctively knows is unreal and just plain weird. Rather, I am talking about learning how to behave with humility and a servant’s heart, stuff that does not come naturally to us. Yes, we are bound to make mistakes but the more deeply we get into the story of God and his people, the more stuff we have to help the Spirit form us into the very image of Jesus. That should be the goal of any Christian, hard as it may be to get there.

The next time you pick up your Bible, remember the overall Big Picture. It is the story of how God has decided to rescue his broken and fallen world and his human creatures from their sin and the death it causes. It started with God’s call to Abraham and his descendants, the people of Israel, to be God’s blessing to others. It culminated in the perfect Israelite–Jesus the Messiah. Along the way we can read many stories that the Spirit can use to help us grow into full maturity as Christians. We do that by learning examples and non-examples of good behavior. We are to avoid acting like Ahab and Jezebel (and countless others in Scripture). We are to put on Christ and imitate him in all of his doings.

How are you reading Scripture these days (or are you)?

A God Big Enough to Overcome Our Fears

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we mark the 10th anniversary of the day when unspeakable evil confronted us as a nation. When evil of that magnitude confronts us directly it makes us afraid, in part because we do not know what to do with it or how it will show itself next. Not only that, the government has issued new warnings of another possible attack on or around the anniversary of that terrible day and that only increases our fear and anxiety. I am not talking about a normal fear reaction that we all have on a regular basis. I am talking about the kind of debilitating fear that is always present and that enslaves us in hundreds of ways.

Nor is evil the magnitude of 9/11 the only thing that makes us afraid. Usually the things that make us afraid are much more personal and far less spectacular than flying planes into buildings. Some of us fear old age or catastrophic illness. Some of us fear economic ruin. Some of us fear living alone or in isolation. Some of us are afraid of death and dying. The list is almost endless but you get the point. We live in God’s good world gone wrong through human sin and there is a lot out there that frightens us. And so we wonder where God is in it all and whether God is big enough to protect us and address our fears.

The answer to these questions, of course, is yes. God is big enough to protect us and address our fears, but it requires that we practice the three Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love that Paul identified in 1 Corinthians 13. So how do we do that? If we are to have a growing faith that will protect us against debilitating fear, the kind of fear that the forces of evil want us to develop so that they can crush us and enslave us completely, it is precisely during the times when we are most afraid that we must be intentional in examining and rehearsing the record of God’s dealing with his people, and we must do that both individually and together as Christ’s body, the Church.

Take today’s OT story for example. If you have ever wondered if God is big enough to overcome evil, you needn’t look any further than God’s rescue of his people from their bondage and slavery in Egypt. Put yourself in the Israelites’ sandals for a moment. You are being pursued by a ruthless and relentless enemy who has vowed to destroy you—and has the means to do so. You come to the Red Sea and realize that you are trapped. You are confronted with a classic Sophie’s Choice, much like the passengers on Flight 93 were confronted with. You can die at the hands of your oppressors or you can drown in the sea. Great choice, isn’t it?

But God doesn’t do Sophie’s Choices because God is all powerful and relentlessly opposed to evil. God will not let evil triumph ultimately over his people and so God delivered them in a mighty display of power. God did this so that both his people and the world they were called to help God redeem could see God’s power and believe that he is not a God to be trifled with or ignored. The God who accomplished this is the same God who watches over us and protects us today. There are countless other stories like this in Scripture and we need to learn and rehearse them until they are second nature to us so that we can recall and apply them in appropriate situations when we are confronted by evil or our own inherent fears.

“But wait!” you say. “I haven’t seen any mighty acts of deliverance similar to what God did for Israel at the Red Sea. Get real.” Fair enough. We haven’t seen a moving pillar of fire or a sea’s waters part in two lately. That is why we need to know the entire story of God’s rescue plan for humanity because as Christians, we believe God has delivered us from sin and evil, but not in the way we expected. In other words, we have to know how God has operated on our behalf and in our history. We have to know where to look. Do you know where that is?

We start by looking in the NT at the cross of Jesus Christ because it is there that God has defeated sin and evil decisively (Colossians 2.13-15). But that is not what we expected! God did not come and rescue us as a mighty warrior. Instead, he came in human weakness and suffered a terrible and shameful death for us (Philippians 2.1-11). God did that because he hates sin and evil and does not want us to be overcome by either. God did this because he created us and loves us and wants us to enjoy a relationship with him, both now and for all eternity. And so he came as Jesus to bear his own awful judgment and the fury of his wrath himself by suffering and dying for us so that we can live without fear. In doing so, we believe that God has also defeated evil, although that victory has not been fully consummated. But again, this is not how we expected God to deal with sin and evil and so we will likely miss it if we are not looking for it.

All this, of course, must be accepted by faith and that is why we have to read and learn the overall story individually and together so that we can remind ourselves and each other of God’s demonstrated ability to deliver us from evil—and from our own fears. I am not suggesting this is particularly easy. But it is necessary if we are to live our lives with meaning, purpose, and power. If we fail to learn and rehearse the story of God’s rescue plan for us that culminated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are doomed to be overcome by evil and its forces because they are stronger than us. But when we are willing to spend the time and effort to really learn God’s rescue plan and how it so unexpectedly manifested itself, we have a power that is not ours to help us overcome all that threatens to destroy us as humans because we will know where and how to look for God’s Presence and Power in our lives and the lives of others.

For example, we saw the power of God at work in the first responders of 9/11. How many thousands of lives were saved by the self-giving love of those heroes? They gave their very lives to save others, just the way our Lord did for us and encourages us to do for others. When we know intimately the story of Jesus’ cross and the hope and promise of New Creation that we get a glimpse of in Jesus’ resurrection, we learn how God wants us to live in the midst of evil so that he can use us to bring about his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

What does that look like? Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 and Jesus tells us in part in today’s Gospel lesson. Paul tells us that since we have been reconciled to God through the cross of Jesus, we are to be agents of God’s reconciliation in a world that is hostile toward God and others, especially those who follow Jesus. As Paul puts it, we are to be Christ’s ambassadors. But what is interesting is that Paul tells us this in the broader context of his musings about the hope and promise of God’s New Creation where evil will finally be banished forever. That is our ultimate hope and it gives us our marching orders for how to behave in the present—with the help and power of the Holy Spirit living in us, of course.

And if we are to be God’s agents and bearers of his reconciliation, we have to take seriously Jesus’ command to us to be forgivers. When Jesus told Peter that he was to forgive 77 times, Jesus didn’t mean that on the 78th time we should stop forgiving. No, we are to always forgive because we have been forgiven an impossible debt by God first. And until forgiveness is effected by both parties, reconciliation is impossible. It would take a whole series of sermons to begin to explore the treasures in Matthew 18 that speak about human relationships and there is no time to do that now. Suffice it to say that despite the fact that forgiveness is terribly difficult and really not possible without the help of the Spirit, we are always to offer forgiveness, even if others do not want to take it. As followers of Jesus, we dare not be the guilty party who blocks reconciliation. Otherwise we will be like the wicked servant in Jesus’ parable and can expect to share his fate. As Paul reminds us in Romans 12, we are to work for peace to the extent we are able. When we do, God will use our efforts to advance his Kingdom even when they do not yield ostensible results, which of course requires a strong and informed faith on our part.

In the context of 9/11 and its aftermath, what this means in our relationship with Muslims is this. We do not need to forgive the vast majority of Muslims for 9/11 because they were not responsible for it. But neither are we to prejudge Muslims or demonize them. We are to bring Christ’s love to bear on them just as we would anyone else who desperately needs his love. Yes, we are to name and confront evil when it happens, but we must be very careful and precise in doing so. The men who plotted and carried out the attacks on 9/11 are wicked and evil, and they will have to answer to God for their wickedness. I do not envy them. But we are not to demonize a whole population of people for the wickedness of a few. We are to treat them charitably. In doing so, hopefully God will use our efforts to bring some of them to a saving faith in Christ, which should be every Christian’s goal because it represents a real love for the other.

Do you see how the virtues of faith, hope, and love are illustrated in all this? Our faith in God’s rescue plan and his victory over evil in the death and resurrection of Christ gives us real hope to live in the midst of a world filled with hopelessness and despair. Our faith and hope give us strength and power to persevere, to overcome our fears, and to bring Christ’s healing love to others, especially our enemies or those whom we might otherwise fear, and that love is both a powerful indication and result of our faith and hope in Christ.

Of course, to do this, it all starts right here at home in how we treat each other as fellow members of Christ’s body, the Church. If we are not willing to forgive each other when we make each other mad or we are not willing to offer support and encouragement to each other during the difficult times of our lives, we will not likely be able to do so with people who are hostile or indifferent to us. This means we will have to do the difficult work of getting real with each other. But when we practice imitating the self-giving and humble love of Jesus, Paul, and all the faithful Christian saints, the sky is the limit because God will bless us and use us to bring about his Kingdom here on earth.

None of this is easy and none of this is our own doing. We have, and must count on, the help of the Spirit living in and through us. But make no mistake. We are human and need the human touch. We have to do our part. The good news, of course, is that God can, and usually does, work through humans to accomplish his good will and purposes. And as we grow in faith, hope, and love, we will come to realize, if we haven’t already, that God is big enough to deliver us from evil and our own fears. He has done that primarily because he signaled evil’s defeat on the cross and has promised us a glorious eternity living in his promised New Creation. All this reminds us that we really do have Good News, now and for all eternity, even when confronted by the kind of unspeakable evil we saw on 9/11. May God bless and help us accomplish his good will and purposes by being faithful imitators of Jesus. And may God bless the USA.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jonathan Sacks: The 9/11 Attacks are Linked to a Wider Moral Malaise

From here (HT: T19)

As we near the 10th anniversary of that dreadful event, a thoughtful and provocative reflection by the good Chief Rabbi.

Two things have haunted me since 9/11. The first is the pain, the grief, the lives lost and families devastated, the sheer barbaric ingenuity of evil. The scar in our humanity is still unhealed. The second is our failure to understand what Osama bin Laden was saying about the West. We did not hear the message then. I’m not sure we hear it now.

After the shock and grief subsided, two theories began to be heard. The first was that this was an event of epoch-changing magnitude. The terms of international politics had been transformed. The Cold War was over. Another war had begun. This time the enemy was not the Soviet Union and communism. It was radical, political Islam.

The second was the opposite. 9/11 was terrifying and terrible but it changed nothing because acts of terror never do. Terrorist campaigns have been aimed at other countries. Britain suffered similarly from the IRA in the 1970s. The most important thing is not to overreact. Terror may bring dividends in local conflicts but it never succeeds in its larger political aims.

There is something to be said for both theories. But there is a third, no less consequential. Why did al-Qaeda attack America? Because it believed that it could. Because it thought the US was a power past its prime, no longer as lean and hungry as it believed it was.

Please take the time and read it all.

CT: Battle for the Bible Translation

A thoughtful piece regarding the row that has developed over the recently released NIV translation. From Christianity Today online.

At their annual summer convention, the Southern Baptists passed a resolution expressing “profound disappointment with Biblica and Zondervan Publishing House” for publishing the 2011 New International Version, concluding that “we cannot commend the 2011 NIV to Southern Baptists or the larger Christian community.”

The resolution strikes us as divisive, shortsighted, and something that brings us, and no doubt the majority of the Christian community, profound disappointment.

Read the whole thing.

How to Renew Your Mind

16 So Obadiah [the prophet] went to meet [King] Ahab and told him [that Elijah would appear before Ahab], and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. 19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” 20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. 22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”

25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. 30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. 36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”

–1 Kings 18.16-39 (NIV)

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

–Philippians 2.1-11 (NIV)

The apostle Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewal of our mind (Romans 12.2). All well and good, Paul, but how do we do that? Paul intends for us to examine the evidence before us so that we can use our minds and God-given reasoning to bolster our faith–all with the Spirit’s help living in us. True, we are saved by grace through faith but God wants us to have an informed faith, not a blind one because the latter must inevitably fail us.

Take today’s lessons for example. King Ahab’s response to the prophet Elijah is classic. Ahab calls Elijah the troubler of Israel, implying that Israel’s problems are all the prophet’s fault. Ahab apparently never stopped to consider that his practices and the practices of his people were to blame. Likewise with us. We are too eager to point out the sins of others while we conveniently ignore our own. Unfortunately for us, God does not ignore our sins anymore than he ignores the sins of others.

But I digress.

What we are interested in today is Elijah’s response because he is essentially telling Ahab and the Israelites to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. And so he proposes a contest of sorts so that folks can see for themselves who worships the real God and who worships the fake ones. Interestingly, the people agree with Elijah’s proposal. After all, who wouldn’t want to see evidence that their beliefs are true or not (besides unreal people and narrow-minded ideologues)?

And so Elijah shows the people exactly who the real God is and why worshiping Baal is a bad idea. God delivers–Big Time. Baal didn’t (and couldn’t) because Baal is not real; he is a figment of human imagination. Again, don’t let the historical context throw you off track so that you miss the point of the story. What Elijah did was essentially to propose a demonstration that the people of his day could understand and relate to. We may scoff at animal sacrifice and Baal worship. Fair enough. But how many of us have adopted a variant of these things when we worship money or sex or power or fame?

In the end, when we are on our deathbed, we likely won’t be calling out to anyone or anything except God because only God can give us life and raise us from the dead. Unfortunately as today’s OT story demonstrates, we can too easily get distracted so that we put our hope and trust in other, lesser things and when we do that, it inevitably leads to our death. That’s why Elijah felt it so important to demonstrate God’s power to his wayward people so that they could have their minds renewed and repent of their waywardness and live. That’s what real love is always about and it is rarely an easy thing to do because frankly many of us do not want to be loved unless it is on our own terms. Elijah would find that out for himself because later in the story Ahab’s wife vows to kill the prophet and forces him into exile.

So why did I include Paul’s magnificent piece from Philippians today? Because in Christ, we have to know what we are looking for as demonstrable signs of God’s power. Unlike the manifest display of power in our OT lesson, Paul reminds us that God’s power is visible and demonstrable in humility, sacrifice, and a loving service to others. When we deny ourselves, take up our cross every day, and follow Jesus, we are imitating him and when we imitate him, we are imitating God’s power. The world did not expect a crucified Messiah. It still doesn’t. Rather, it looks for overt signs of power as the world defines it. You know–who carries the biggest stick or holds the highest office or the most money or political clout. But that is not the power of God and if we are not looking for it, we will likely miss it.

If you want to have your mind renewed, then look for signs of faithful Christians imitating their Lord by their selfless love and giving to others. You will find them among the poorest of poor. You will find them helping those who are in need or just being present to those who are desperately lonely. The list of Kingdom building activities is endless and it doesn’t require that you look for someone famous like a Mother Teresa. You will likely find faithful Christians in your own neighborhood and if you pay attention and know what to look for, you will see the love and power of God made manifest by those who confess Jesus as Lord. After all, the symbol of God’s justice is the cross and it is at the foot of the cross that we will find out what real power is all about.

If you are struggling with your relationship with God, think on these things and then hit the Book regularly to renew your mind. In it you will read stories like the ones above. As you read these stories make note of what speaks to you and what puzzles or troubles you. But keep reading because in doing so you will learn that your mind is being formed and shaped (i.e., renewed) by God’s word. This, in turn, will sharpen your vision to spot God at work in and through is people. They won’t be calling attention to themselves but in their actions they will be inviting folks to gaze on the true power of the Living God made manifest in Jesus the Messiah. Don’t be surprised that if after awhile you find your struggles lessening and your mind renewed.

Columbus Dispatch: Kasich Reduces Sentence for Akron Mom in School-Residency Case

Good for our Governor. Showing compassion in the face of the world is never an easy thing to do and will surely give his opponents one more thing to carp about.

From the Columbus Dispatch.

Gov. John Kasich today gave a “second chance” to an Akron mom jailed for fraudulently switching her children to a neighboring school district where they didn’t live.

Kasich approved gubernatorial clemency for Kelley Williams-Bolar, reducing her felony conviction to a first-degree misdemeanor. The clemency was approved despite a unanimous negative recommendation from Ohio Parole Board, which decided she was “wholly undeserving candidate.”

Read it all.

Hope in the Midst of Hopelessness

29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. 30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.

1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there.6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” 12 “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” 13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.’” 15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah. 17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” 19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” 22 The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

–1 Kings 16.29-33, 17.1-24 (NIV)

[Paul wrote] Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.

–Philippians 1.18b-23 (NIV)

I have several friends and acquaintances who are carrying heavy burdens of all kinds. This reflection is written with you in mind. Take the time to read the entire passages above. There is a lot of reading but they tell a story and if you are to understand the message in the story you first have to understand the dynamics of the story.

1 Kings is an account of God’s interactions with his people Israel. It is brutally frank in its description both of God’s faithfulness toward his called-out people and their unfaithfulness to him. One cannot care about people and not be heartbroken over Israel’s continued rebellion against God. Today’s story is one such example.

Ahab has just become king of the northern kingdom of Israel (called Samaria here) and has done evil in God’s eyes by his idolatrous  worship of pagan gods. This results in the covenant curses being invoked against him, in this case in the form of drought and famine. Simply put, when Ahab chose to enter into a foreign alliance with the king of Sidon and worse yet appropriate the Sidonian worship of Baal, he essentially thumbed his nose at God and told God that he did not really  believe in God or trust God to watch over and protect him or his people. Don’t let the historical context of this story lull you into self-complacency. We still do the same thing to God today by the things we choose to do or not do. How many of us put our faith in money, power, or sex (to name just a few) and thus thumb our nose at God?

And it is here that the story gets really interesting because the author paints for us three vignettes that poignantly remind us of God’s ability to deliver and protect us. In contrast to the general famine and deprivation of God’s people Israel, God uses ravens to miraculously sustain his prophet Elijah. Regular consumption of meat by ordinary people in that day was quite unusual and so the author seems to be telling us that God’s prophet was feasting at the very banquet table of God himself! Moreover, the author seems to be telling us that even in the midst of great despair and deprivation God can and does sustain those who put their hope and trust in him.

Likewise with the story of the widow of Zarephath. This story is even more remarkable in that the widow is a Gentile and not one of God’s chosen people. But we see in God’s providing for Elijah and this widow and her family a preview of coming attractions. We get a glimpse of God’s promise to offer healing and redemption to all people, even when things look ostensibly hopeless. We see this powerfully illustrated in the widow’s desperate comment to Elijah about gathering what little food and water is left so that she and her son might eat what’s left before they go home and die. But notice Elijah’s response. Don’t be afraid! God is with you and you will see it for yourself when your meager provisions do not run out! Talk about requiring a leap of faith on the widow’s part! Talk about God’s willingness to show the widow that her faith was not misplaced! And as we reflect on this, we empathize instinctively with this widow because we too know what it is like to be in despair and lose sight of any hope in our lives. It is precisely then that we need to hear God’s word to us: Don’t be afraid! I’ve demonstrated my ability to deliver to you in multiple ways so that you can have some real substance to believe my promises!

But perhaps the most powerful and poignant part of this story is when Elijah raised the widow’s son from the dead. Like each of us, Elijah and the widow are confronted with the awful reality of death and wonder how they can reconcile this reality with God’s promise to us to give us life. But unlike this story, we are not used to having a prophet come and resuscitate someone from the dead (I’m not thinking here of the many medical miracles that come to mind). How often have you prayed to God to heal someone, only to have your prayers apparently go unanswered? What are we to make of this? Why should we not lose hope and faith?

First, from the context of the story, it is clear that God used Elijah to provide another and even more powerful example to a faithful Gentile what God can actually do in the lives of his people. In God there is life and not even our mortal death can separate us from those of us who are in Christ.

Second, we must remember that God’s promises to us in Christ are far better than anything Elijah did for the widow’s son. Yes, Elijah resuscitated the boy but he would eventually die again, this time for good. Physical death is a sad fact of life and was brought about by human sin–Adam’s sin. But God has overcome the curse of sin and the death it brings by bearing the curse himself when he became human and suffered and died for us. And this is where Paul comes into the picture because in today’s passage he gives us a glimpse of the hope Christians have.

Our mortal death will not be the end of things. Rather, it signals a new beginning. We will go and be with Christ until God brings about his promised New Creation. From what Paul tells us, we who are in Christ will not be unconscious when we die. Otherwise, how would we know it is far better to go and be with Christ? No, whatever it looks like from the time we die until the day of New Creation, we will be with Christ who is life. That’s the Christian hope and promise. But it is a hope and promise that requires faith, not a blind faith but a faith that is formed based on the historical evidence of the biblical witness.

Sadly, however, there are forces who want to rob us of our hope that is in Christ and that is why it is critical for those who call themselves Christians to keep their nose to the book and in close relationship with other believers so that the Spirit can use our work to strengthen and sustain us by reminding us of our hope that is in Christ.

None of this, of course, will lessen the pain we feel when we see our loved ones suffer and die. To pretend otherwise is an affront to all that is true and good about love and wholesome relationships. What our faith will do for us is to give us real hope by reminding us that our mortal existence is not the end game and that God is big enough to deliver on his promises. He has done so in the past, most notably in Christ’s resurrection, and this track record will help us remember that God’s promises are worth our best hope and efforts.

This is the antidote to despair and it is the only real antidote. You can muck around and try to find other, lesser substitutes but they will inevitably fail you because they are not from God. Only God can save you from sin and death because only God is the Source and Author of all life. You will not be asked to blindly accept this. Instead, God invites each of us to examine the record carefully and to join with other people so that through his Spirit he can sustain us and give us real hope.

If you are dealing with some crushing burdens in your life, read and reflect carefully on today’s story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. When you do you will be reminded that God is a God of history who acts in and through his faithful people to deliver them from despair, hopelessness, and ultimately death. If you are grieving over the loss of a loved one who has died in the Lord, remember that he/she is in the Lord’s presence right now, enjoying the mind-blowing love of God in his direct presence while awaiting his/her new resurrection body and an eternal future in God’s New Creation. Sure, you will miss your loved one but how can you not be happy for him or her?

Or if your loved one is not dying but is currently suffering mightily, remember that even now he or she is in Christ’s presence and that nothing in all creation can ever separate your loved one from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (cf. Romans 8. 36ff). But you are going to have to make the effort to consciously remind yourself of this and you will need the help of good friends to do likewise for you, with the Spirit’s help.

Your pain and grief will not be magically ended but you will find power to help and sustain you by reminding you of the hope and destiny that is your beloved’s and your own. Like Elijah, like the widow in today’s story, like Paul, and like countless other Christians, you will find reason to hope and rejoice in the Lord, even in the midst of your trials and tribulations.

On Attending the VWHS Class of 1971’s 40th Reunion

Clarence Page wrote a great editorial today on why class reunions are a good thing. I couldn’t agree more.

Now mind you, I didn’t have a particularly great high school experience. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. I was basically a fat, shy wallflower and because of that, I wasn’t part of the “in” crowd, although I never felt disconnected from my classmates (at least I don’t remember feeling that way). Moreover, I suspect that my high school experience is not that much different from the average person’s.

So why do I love attending our class reunions? As I thought about it, I realized that it’s more than just about my high school experience. It’s about my Van Wert experience. For most of my classmates, we were blessed to have grown up in stable homes within a tight-knit community. There were lots of eyes on us and that tended to keep most of us out of real trouble. More importantly, we grew up together. Yes, there were several elementary schools but I grew up with a lot of my classmates, from kindergarten on. As a result, we developed a bond that is really quite powerful for me. There is a sense of community that for the most part just isn’t present in this country anymore and I think we have lost something very precious as a result.

So when I see these folks at class reunions, even those with whom I was not particuarly close, it is a poignant delight. For the most part, we have aged pretty well and most of us have done well in our lives (at least the folks who show up for the reunions—I can’t speak for the others). All of this is a delight.

What’s poignant for me is to remember from whence we came and sadly what is no more. That’s why I am always delighted to reconnect with my old classmates, even if I wasn’t a close friend to some who come to the reunions. It just doesn’t matter that much because we share a common gift of community. I remember a time when I couldn’t wait to leave Van Wert so that other people wouldn’t be in my business. It didn’t take long for me to realize, however, that this was a better alternative than living in anonymous isolation in a bigger city.

And so when I come back for these reunions, I revel in seeing my old classmates and enjoy hearing about them. It all goes by too quickly, of course, and I always leave them with a sense of wanting more. Yet I also realize that it cannot be because life moves on. Sadly, this reunion is the first for me without either of my folks being alive and that leaves an obvious hole for me this time. But the point is I had two great parents when I really needed them and for that I am ever thankful. I suspect most of my classmates would say the same thing about their folks and that’s precisely the point.

That is why I am profoundly thankful for the opportunity to physically reconnect with my old classmates, i.e., to reconnect with my old sense of Van Wert community, and for having been part of a community that helped establish this wonderful connection that time and space just cannot break—at least for me.

It was really good to see you, Class of 1971. Take care of yourselves in the next 5 year interim so that we can reconnect again. In the meantime, know that I’m never far from you, even when geography suggests otherwise.