You Feed Them

You Feed Them!

Luke 9:10-17

            I’m a Yankee.  I had never been farther south than a short jaunt into northern Virginia until I went to Texas with my wife to visit her step-family.  Our first night in her stepmother’s home provided me with an important insight into the difference between northern and southern meals. 

            There were only the three of us, but the table was covered with food.  Instead of one entrée there were at least three, one of which was a large bowl of shrimp.  There were vegetables galore, including some I didn’t recognize.  I ate as much as appetite and belt would allow and barely made a dent in the table.  A couple of other family members dropped in and ate their fill, but there was still a lot left over.

            Don’t get me wrong:  my family never starved, but we never had a refrigerator-full of leftovers either.  Mom would cook enough for the three of us, but with little extra.  We ate well, ate enough, but she cooked for those she knew would be there, and that was about all.  If we had company for dinner the amount of food increased, but only by enough to feed the guests and us.

            Jesus had spent the day preaching, teaching and healing the crowd that had gathered around him.  Now evening was drawing near, and because of the seclusion of the place, they were far from any source of food.  The disciples came up with a practical solution.

            “Send the crowd away,” they said.  “Let them go into the nearby villages to buy food and find a place to stay for the night.  We’re too far away from civilization to deal with this.”  I’m sure they envisioned little towns with plenty of restaurants and motels—right?

            Jesus had a different solution:  “You give them something to eat,” he said.

            Can’t you see the disciples’ faces?  Wouldn’t we have looked the same?  I can imagine my mother’s face if my father came through the door saying, “I hope we have enough food.  I’ve invited the whole congregation for supper.”

            How could Jesus have been so impractical?  How could he have expected the disciples, who often couldn’t find their hands at the end of their arms, to come up with enough food to satisfy five thousand men plus women and children?  Where were they going to find that quantity without so much as a McDonald’s or Colonel Sanders nearby—and even if they could, how would they pay for it?

            Of course the disciples hadn’t taken into consideration God’s power to provide.  We know what happened.  Jesus took the five small loaves of bread and the two fish the disciples were able to find and blessed them.  Not only did Jesus’ power provide enough to feed the multitude, there was more food left over than on our stepmother’s table in Texas.

            Like the disciples, some people try to come up with practical solutions.  They claim that the real miracle that evening occurred when people saw the selflessness of the one who had offered his meager dinner.  Everyone took out their own provisions and shared them.  Perhaps—but who says the solution has to be practical?  Jesus saw the problem, said to the disciples, “You fix it,” then applied God’s power to bring about the solution.

            Are things any different today?  We say, rather glibly at times, “God helps those who help themselves.”  But it’s true!  God expects us to go as far as our own resources allow.  We may feel that our problems are impossible to solve, but God knows better.  “You fix it,” God says.  Then, when we have done what we can, God supplies the power necessary to give us what we need—and more!  Much more!

Set Apart

Set Apart

Colossians 2:11-14

            Set apart.  Chosen for some special work.  Going through some ritual that declares you are different from those around you.  Belonging to a special group.  Receiving some preparation that raises you to a status that others haven’t attained.  Being a member of an “in group”—or perhaps, an “out group.”  Something happens that defines you as having been changed from the person you were to the person you now are.  Consecrated.

            The Bible has a lot to say about set-apartness.  It begins with Adam and Eve.  They were created in God’s own image—something that was true of no other part of creation.  God met with them in Eden and spoke with them.  Adam and Eve were set apart—chosen, special.  God consecrated them for a specific work—gave them specific instructions.  “Care for my creation,” God said.  “Do not eat from this one tree.”  Adam and Eve were called out by God from the other creatures for special tasks.

            Abraham was also called out by God.  He was told to leave his homeland and travel to a foreign place where he would become the father of a great people—a great nation.  One mark of the set-apartness of this nation would be circumcision.  For the males, there would be something that made them different from all other  peoples.  They would carry in their flesh a sign of their consecration.  Abraham’s descendants would be God’s chosen people.

            Moses and the people who followed him were set apart.  Like their forefathers they carried in their flesh the mark of circumcision—the mark of set-apartness.  To this was added a history of God acting on their behalf, setting them free from captivity and leading them to the Promised Land.  This God had a name—YHWH—“I AM.”  Not “I was,” or “I will be,” or “I might be,” but “I AM.”  The great I AM called them out of Egypt to be a light to the nations.  They were to be holy as God is holy—to be different from those around them.

            Throughout the history of God’s people many others were anointed—set apart for God’s special purpose:  Aaron, Esther, Saul, David, the prophets.  Each was consecrated in some way.  Each was given a task.  Each was prepared by God to perform the work God needed to be done.

            In the New Testament we find a new way of setting people apart—baptism.  John called people to repentance and baptized them in the Jordan—setting them apart, making them different from those around them, preparing them for God’s work.  Jesus insisted that John baptize him.  When John balked, Jesus let him know that baptism was necessary to set him apart for the work God had called him to do.

            Throughout his epistles Paul speaks of set-apartness.  Sometimes, as in Colossians, he couples circumcision with baptism as contrasting signs of consecration.  For Paul, who had been circumcised “in the flesh,” the old way of setting someone apart wasn’t good enough.  For him the necessary consecration was not one of the flesh, but one of dying to the world in baptism as Jesus Christ had died to the world on the cross.  As surely as physical circumcision had made God’s people different in the Hebrew Scriptures, baptism was to change them in the New Testament.  They were to be set apart, consecrated, changed—made different.

            How has your baptism changed you?  How are you different from the person you were before the act of consecration?  Christians in Paul’s time behaved so differently from those around them that everyone knew they were set apart.  Do those around you know that you have died to the world and become alive in Christ—set apart, consecrated by God for God’s special work?

The Image of God

The Image of God

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Colossians 1:15-20

            No one has ever seen God.  Of all the people in the Bible, Moses came closest.  On Mount Sinai he asked to see God.  Since seeing God’s face would result in death, Moses was allowed to see God’s back.  Even that view was enough to make Moses’ face glow in a manner that frightened the Israelites.

            It’s interesting how frequently New Testament Scriptures parallel Old Testament Scriptures.  We know Jesus quoted biblical texts—obviously Old Testament passages, since the Hebrew Scriptures were the only Bible that existed at the time.  We know Satan quoted Scripture when he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness.  Paul and the other epistle writers frequently quoted the Old Testament to help their readers understand that Jesus was indeed the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures.

            But quoting isn’t what I’m referring to here.  I’m talking about parallel thoughts, ideas or concepts, the same concept or idea expressed in similar language in both Old and New Testaments.  We have a good example here.

            The writer of this portion of Proverbs (most likely Solomon) speaks in chapter 8 about Wisdom.  He personifies Wisdom, giving the concept character—in this case a female character.  In so doing, the sacred writer stands in the European/Middle Eastern tradition of the time.  Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, was said to have sprung full-grown from the head of her father, Zeus.  Maat was the European goddess of truth, order, justice and harmony—attributes associated with wisdom.  Certainly the Israelites would have been exposed to this idea during their time in Egypt.  Wisdom, in Proverbs is personified as a female who stands in public places and cries out, calling people to follow her path.

            In the latter part of this chapter we see Wisdom’s place in creation.  Wisdom is with God as the master builder, working alongside God to bring the universe and everything in it to fruition.  Wisdom was God’s delight, entertaining God during creation.  Christians believe this passage refers to Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the Master Builder.  Jesus is God’s Delight.  Jesus was begotten before creation began, and worked alongside God.

            Now look at what Paul writes to the Colossians.  He says, “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

            Paul speaks of Jesus Christ as the head of the church—and more.  “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”  Jesus not only was begotten of God at the beginning (sprung, if you will, full-grown from God), but was also the firstborn of the new beginning, the resurrection from the dead.

            “For in [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”—all the fullness of God.  No one has seen God, but we have seen Jesus.  We know Jesus is Wisdom—Wisdom beyond all human wisdom.  “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,” Paul tells the Corinthians (1:18), “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 

            And so the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments present the same concept.  Jesus Christ is the Wisdom that helped at creation, that began the resurrection, and that shows us God.

Better Than Luck

Better Than Luck

Romans 8:12-17

“It’s better to be lucky than good.”  We’ve all heard this expression.  Many of us have used it ourselves.  I certainly have.  To a great extent it’s true.  Someone can have all the skill in the world, but have an off-day and be beaten out by someone who just happens to be “on.”  Or, someone can be well-qualified, but not be in the right place at the right time and lose out to a person who is.  There is no accounting for luck.  It just happens.  It’s chance.

            Of course, there are those who don’t believe in chance.  My mother used to say “I don’t believe in luck.”  I’ve had someone tell me quite recently about a series of events that worked out to his advantage.  He was sure that chance played no part in it, that it was God’s leading.

            So where do you stand on this issue?  One view says that there is no such thing as random chance.  God directs our lives, sets up the circumstances under which we live, and we have no choice but to follow God’s leading.  If we take this view to the extreme we are just puppets moving in pre-ordained paths while God manipulates the strings. 

            The opposite view is that everything is chance.  God does not interfere at all, but allows us to do as we please.  This fits into the God-concept that emerged in the 18^th century, the Age of Reason.  They saw God as a divine clockmaker who created the universe, set things in motion, then stepped back and let the “clock” run itself.

            Most of us fall somewhere between these two extremes, although not all in the same place.  It’s difficult for me to even articulate where I stand on this issue.  I find myself using language from both sides.  I also find myself moving back and forth, sometimes tending towards one pole and sometimes towards the other.

            Paul’s letter to the Romans might help us as we try to puzzle out our positions.  In 8:12-17 he tells us that if we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit we will be adopted into God’s family, becoming God’s sons and daughters.  We know how families operate.  Our parents tell us what to do when we are young.  As we mature, we get fewer commands from them and more suggestions—advice about how to live our lives.  Our parents eventually cut us loose, but by that time we should have grown enough to manage our own lives. 

            Perhaps this is how God works with us.  As we mature spiritually we find ourselves better understanding God’s will.  We are filled more and more with the Holy Spirit, and therefore able to make decisions that will affect our lives positively.  God helps us grow into mature Christians who know how to live in ways that are both pleasing to God and helpful to others.  This leading of the Holy Spirit is certainly better than luck.

            If we read farther into this chapter (verse 28) we hear Paul saying, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.”  One of my seminary professors talks about God weaving a tapestry.  She says that, as we make decisions about the direction of our lives, God takes those decisions and weaves them together.  The pattern is not completely predetermined, but the resulting tapestry is God’s will.  Instead, God takes our lives and our decisions and uses them for God’s good purpose.

            In my life, God has frequently opened some doors and closed others.  Once a door is closed, it seems impossible for me to open it.  On the other hand, there is often an open door in front of me.  What I do with that door is up to me, but looking back I can see how God used me. 

How does God lead you?  How do you feel God working in your life?  Be aware that, in the end, God’s purpose will be served.  How that plays out depends on us.

A Sheltering God

A Sheltering God

Psalm 91

            “What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree?  The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.” (Edward Abbey, naturalist and author, 1927-1989)

            At first reading, this statement seems silly.  Come on!  The only reason for a huge tree to exist is to provide comfort for an insignificant little creature?  Surely there must be more to it than that—more reason for the giant sequoia to take up space on this earth.

            Of course there is.  At the same time the sequoia is providing shade for the titmouse it is also providing shade for many other creatures.  It aids the ecology of the planet by removing carbon dioxide from the air and supplying needed oxygen.  Its root system helps keep the soil in place.  Added to its practical purposes is its aesthetic value.  It is beautiful to look at and provides nurture for our souls as well as our bodies.

            Could Abbey have been short-sighted?  Why would he reduce the value of such a glory of nature to so small a purpose?  Could he not see the big picture?  Did he value the titmouse so much that all other usages of the sequoia paled in comparison?  Or was Abbey a visionary who saw more than the little things—or, perhaps, saw big things in the little things?

            Metaphors are always imperfect.  Every metaphor breaks down at some point.  It must, or it is not a metaphor but a perfect replica of the thing it is supposed to represent.  This is our problem with understanding God.  We come up with all sorts of metaphors for God, but every one falls far, far short of explaining the divine Being.  How could they not?

            The psalmists frequently use metaphoric language to try to explain God.  They say God is powerful enough to make mountains skip and trees dance.  We know these things don’t really happen, but we understand why the writers of psalms speak metaphorically.  They are trying to explain the unexplainable, to describe the indescribable.  When we ask the question, “What is God like?” we need someone to give us an answer.  That is what the psalmists attempt to do.

            Psalm 91 is a good example of metaphoric language.  We know that much of what we read here is hyperbole, but we also understand that this is an attempt to help us see God and God’s care for us.  In this way it’s like Abbey’s statement about the sequoia and the titmouse.

            Perhaps the most accurate statement about God comes from John’s first letter:  “God is love.”  This is a simple statement, to be sure, but as accurate a one as we can make about God.  God is love, and because God is love, God cares for us. 

            Is God’s care for us like the care of the sequoia for the titmouse?  Not really.  The tree is, after all, a tree.  It is difficult to imagine the sequoia loving the titmouse.  Still, the tree’s protection of the bird is important, for without it, the bird perishes.  And the bird, though not consciously aware, trusts the tree to give it shade and a home in its branches.

            Yes, God is love, and because God is love, God cares for us.  God offers us protection from the one danger that can cause us irreparable harm, that of losing our souls.  When we trust in God with the same unwavering faith that the titmouse has in the sequoia, God will care for us, and keep us safe until the day of redemption.

            What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree?  The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.

            What is the purpose of God?  God is love, and the purpose of God is to provide the care we need; protection from the dangers that threaten our souls.

Silent Women

Silent Women

1 Corinthians 14:33b-35

            Paul doesn’t leave much room for misinterpretation here.  Women are to keep silent in church.  They are not to speak at all. Paul also says if women want to know anything they should “ask their husbands at home,” for it is “shameful for a woman to speak in church.”  This passage has been used by the patriarchal church for centuries to deny women the right to be ordained and to preach.  If a woman believes she has been called by God to a preaching ministry, all the “church fathers” have to do is point to Paul’s words in Corinthians to deny her the right.  How could she possibly be called by God when Paul says she is to keep silent? 

            To say that these words have caused trouble in the church is an understatement.  Paul said some wonderful things to the early churches, but many people believe this isn’t one of them.  How can the church deny women the right to preach if they feel God’s call to do so?  The only possible argument is to claim that God wouldn’t do such a thing, and that gets into dangerous territory.  Where does anyone get the right to say what God can or cannot do?

            This is the story of a remarkable woman who changed her husband’s mind about women speaking in church, and by doing so changed the history of the church.

            William Booth was a Methodist minister in England in the mid-nineteenth century.  Ordained in 1858, he was assigned to be an evangelist.  This was the work to which he felt called, and for three years he was allowed to do it.  At the church conference in 1861 (Methodists hold yearly conferences to reach decisions) his future was discussed at length. Was he to be allowed to continue his work, or would he be sent to a church as its pastor?  Apparently there was some dissatisfaction with his method of evangelism.  This may have had to do with the fact that he was reaching out to people the church didn’t approve of and trying to bring them into Methodist congregations.  It could also have been, at least in part, jealousy over his success.

            Whatever the reason, the vote went against him.  He looked to his wife Catherine, seated in the gallery for her reaction.  She did something unprecedented.  She stood and exclaimed, “No, Never!”  It was unheard of for anyone in the gallery to speak, let alone a woman; yet she did.  Booth bowed courteously to the chair, walked to the gallery stairs down which Catherine had come, embraced her, and with her by his side, left the conference and the Methodist Church.

            Catherine Booth’s history of speaking in church had begun approximately a year earlier.  On Pentecost Sunday, 1860, she sat in her husband’s church listening to him deliver the morning sermon.  She heard God’s voice calling her to speak.  She also heard the devil telling her that she’d make a fool of herself.  As she said later, the devil “overdid himself.”  She realized she had never been willing to be a fool for Christ.  Now was her chance.

            She approached the front of the church as Booth finished, and said, “I want to say a word.”  Astonished, he turned to the congregation and said, “My dear wife wishes to speak.”  And speak she did, telling the congregation that she had been disobeying God’s call for several months.  When she finished, Booth stood and announced, “My wife will preach this evening.”

            William Booth, with his wife’s help, went on to found The Salvation Army.  Catherine Booth is referred to as the Army’s Mother.  From the beginning of the denomination, women who felt God’s call to preach were ordained to do so.  Throughout the history of the Salvation Army women have answered God’s call to preaching ministry, my mother and two of my aunts included.

            I think Paul got this one wrong.

Your Best Years

Your Best Years

Isaiah 43:16-21

            When were your best years?  I have a friend whose best years are long gone.  When I’m with him he speaks most often about the past—past good times, past events, past friends.  Even when he brings these relationships up to date the past still overshadows everything else.  He seems to have no present and no future.

            Every year the TV sports networks make a big deal about high school stars in football and basketball (especially these two sports) and where they’re going to college.  I suspect that if, four years later, you looked at the lists of starters at major colleges, you’d find a lot of those names missing, and a lot of new ones added.  Same thing for college stars turning pro.  Many people follow the pro drafts like they were the most important events of the year.  But how many of those drafted actually play pro ball?  Frequently we read of a former Heisman Trophy winner who disappears from the NFL, not good enough to make it even as an average player at that level.

            How do we account for this?  Are the experts so wrong in their evaluations?  Certainly that’s part of it.  Like experts in so many other fields (finance, government, the media) they are often proved wrong by actual results.  Much too frequently we read of stock market results that were higher—or lower—than the “experts” predicted.  But there’s something more basic at work here.

            I believe that we each have a time when we reach our best years.  Some athletes, some students, some members of the social scene reach their peak in high school.  When we meet them at reunions years later we find they couldn’t adapt to the higher level of performance required of college students.  The same is true of people who have outstanding careers in college.  Many never quite become successful in the world of work, whichever field they choose.

            Israel had been going through an extended bad time.  Several evil kings in a row had dragged the nation down.  Bigger, stronger neighbors had wiped out the northern kingdom entirely.  All that was left was tiny Judah.  Too many times these wicked kings had corrupted their people instead of being shepherds.  Too many times they had become involved in bad alliances with other countries.  The final humiliation was exile.  Anyone of worth had been taken captive to Babylon and forced to live under the watchful eye of their captors.  You can experience the peoples’ despair in Psalm 137.

            But God wasn’t finished with Israel yet.  There were more good times to come.  Through Isaiah, God says, “Forget the past.  Stop dwelling on the old stuff.  Look!  I’m going to do something new.  It’s already beginning.  Do you see it?  I’m going to provide water where there is no water:  streams in the desert, and rivers in the wilderness.  My people will have enough to drink, enough to satisfy their thirst, both physically and spiritually.”

            Israel still had many good years left.  So do we.  Christians must believe that our best years lie before us. I’m not talking about our future in heaven.  Of course those years will be the best.  I’m talking about our lives here on earth.  As we grow in grace and in our knowledge of Jesus Christ, and feel ever more strongly the Holy Spirit’s presence, our lives should grow better and better.  We should be so overwhelmed by God’s presence that day by day we grow to be more like Jesus Christ.

            So…when were your best years?  If you say, “The ones still ahead of me,” congratulations.  You haven’t peaked yet.  God still has new things in store for you.