Daily Thoughts on the Daily Scriptures - April 23, 2007

Psalm 97:1-12; Daniel 4:19-27; I John 3:19-4:6; Luke 4:14-30

It's been a few weeks since y'all have heard from me. We were in Marguaritaville, sunny Key West to see our son and his wife and then a week to "re-enter" the real world followed. What a beautiful escape! Key West is the home of Earnest Hemingway, and Jimmy Buffett, and every kind of Marguarita imaginable.

I confess I did not read the Bible on vacation. We even skipped church. I did pray for people as God popped them into my mind. But the disciplines I practiced were to relax by catching up with our kids, snorkeling, eating, a good book and plenty of beach time.

Coincidentally, our daughter-in-law, the photographer for the Key West Magazine, was doing a feature story shoot on "Keeping Faith in a Hedonistic Town," or something like that. It required that she interview and photograph the pastors in Key West about the faith of their Key West flocks, and attend a few worship services. Now she and our son don't attend church. However, on our Sunday there, she spent 2 1/2 hours at an AME worship service, and when we caught up with her afterwards she said it was cool, the energy and the Spirit. All of a sudden I really missed my church family. I was ready to come home. Interestingly, I also realized I missed the daily discipline of reading the lectionary with you all (yeah, I'm a Bible geek). And then, on Monday the 16th waiting in the airport for our fight home, we saw the news unfolding of the Virginian Tech shootings. Like the psalmist says, "clouds of thick darkness were all around me," as I was reminded we live in a world of evil and brokenness, not a tropical paradise.

How soon I had become disconnected from the world's pain and tragedy - it's heartbeat, and drifted from the heart of God. All I had to think about was shopping for souvenirs and what restaurant we'll eat in. I returned a bit restless. My flesh was relaxed but my Spirit was still hungry, my heart kind of dull. When you don't read the Word, that can happen to you. When you isolate yourself form the world's evil and tragedy, hedonism is contagious. That has upset me this week.

When we lose perspective on God's ways, God's purposes, and God's truth, we lose ourselves. How tempting it is to seek an escape from the very hard work of showing compassion and of taking a stand against injustice and evil, to pursue our own pleasures and protect our own positions of power. We are faced every day with choices as the dark clouds enter our neighborhoods, our businesses, our schools, and we can choose to follow Jesus' heart for peace and mission to the poor and grieving and exploited, or we can follow our own.

Daniel shook in his boots having to tell the King the truth about his dream: that the King was going to fall from his place of power and have to live with the wild animals, because of his hedonism. He challenged the king: ²⁷Therefore, O king, may my counsel be acceptable to you: atone for your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged." Tough words to muster to your boss, huh?

John's words remind me that we DO know right from wrong - our hearts condemn us, but obedience to the truth is the problem: to obey God and love each other. How easy we can be led astray by "other spirits" that make false promises, keep us politically correct, that satisfy our flesh, and tell us we can play it safe, cut us off from others' needs.

Jesus did anything but that. He brought the spirit of truth not the spirit of error. He lived and stayed among the poorest, getting away for a time to be with God, not escape. He came for the poor and the exploited, bringing freedom not slavery. And like all the prophets before him, he was run out of town for preaching righteousness and justice and love. (Luke)

I loved my vacation. We all need to take breaks and I will take many more to places of beauty and paradise. But I will take the Word with me, and seek God in all places, so as not to waste away in Marguaritaville.

⁹For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth;

you are exalted far above all gods.

¹⁰The LORD loves those who hate evil;

he guards the lives of his faithful;

he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.

¹¹Light dawns for the righteous,

and joy for the upright in heart.

¹²Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,

and give thanks to his holy name! (Psalm 97:9-12)

Amen.

Holy Week Thoughts April 3 2007

Psalms 34, 25; Jer. 15:19-21; Phil. 3:15-21; John 12:20-26

These scriptures today, in my first reading, give me a path to walk on in my Christian life as a pastor, and for all of you who seek to serve God with your speech and your life. The prophet Jeremiah, has become discouraged (to say the least). The "precious utterances" God has given him have been met with bitter rejection by the people. Jeremiah laments: ⁵O LORD, you know; remember me and visit me, and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance do not take me away; know that on your account I suffer insult. ¹⁶Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.

He's considering turning and running. God tells him - Turn back to me, and keep those precious utterances going - the Law, and the prophesies, the encouragement, the truth. All are sweet to God who alone gives us words for the moment. Turn back to me, God says, and I will deliver you when you speak for me. Turn back.

Paul encourages me to hold fast to Jesus - who will transform the humiliation we often experience as Christians, as Jesus did, into his glory. We have already attained glory, though we can get caught up in the world's scourges. Hold fast to this truth and the vision of yourself in glory. Hold fast.

John's gospel reading convicts me, that even with good intentions to be good disciples, we can be burdened with "stuff" that makes the witness heavy and unattractive, that makes the sweet word of God, bitter. Jesus then tells me to let go of the past, as a seed would die before it becomes new life. Truth and steadfastness can only bear fruit in my life, and be a witness if I die to myself, as Jesus died to himself. There's a lot of work to do here! Every day. Let go.

And then, follow Jesus. Jesus says, follow me without the baggage of the past and the wealth and glory we create for ourselves here, leaving our sins in Jesus' hands to be forgiven by God. And where we go, Jesus will be.

Turn back. Hold fast. Let go. Move out.

How often when we only want to share the good news with people, how tempting it is to return to the old life of comforts and security, simple facts and tidy resolutions. How often we can become disillusioned that our lives don't matter to God anymore, or to anyone for that matter. Have you wondered how you can be a Christian witness, a prophet in a dark world that hates the words you live on - who suspect the "precious utterances" of God's truth are just sweet talkin' foolishness.

Pray like crazy - like David, in his excruciating prayers of lament and agony, when the enemies surrounded him, he prayed for strength and wisdom and direction, for forgiveness and security, honest to God.

⁴Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. ⁵Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. ⁶Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. ⁷Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD!

Remember and pray.

Good Friday approaches again. But the cross is foolishness to the world. This week we Christians will be asked by God to carry the cross with Jesus - a task that would no doubt make us all want to turn and run - and as we walk, and as we struggle, we continue with the sweet utterances of faith in the One who carries us every day of our lives, to glory.

Turn back. God will deliver you. Hold fast. Jesus has saved you. Let go. The Spirit will equip you. Follow Jesus. He will never leave or forsake you. And pray daily. Your precious utterances are sweet to God.