When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. – 1 Samuel 8:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 30, 2012): 1 Samuel 8

Erwin McManus tells a story of a man coming up to him on his way into Mosaic (the church that Erwin pastors.) The man apparently recognizes Erwin and comes up to him and says “I am an atheist. Is it okay for me to go in here?” Erwin says that he looks the man in the eyes and replies “Sure, there are a lot of other atheists in there.” The response was not quite what the man had expected. “Really?” “Yep, but you can’t tell by just looking at them – they all look like humans.” I love the response, because they look like humans in my church, too. One of the problems is that outsiders often seem to expect something different. Maybe another way of phrasing Erwin’s response is that it is hard to find the Christians, because they look like humans too.

I have told my church that they clean up well. They do. Any given Sunday you can walk into the church that I attend and you will be hard pressed to find the ones that are really struggling – the ones that have somehow stopped believing that they really have any right to be a part of the community. But I know that they are there – they just clean up well. And I have to admit that there are days when I wish that I could just wave my hand magically over the crowd and reveal the struggles that their neighbor is suffering through, just so that they could realize - even just for a moment - that they are not alone.

One of the things that I love about the Bible is that it does not seem to pull any punches. We get to see people with all of their imperfections. I sometimes laugh at old paintings of the apostles with Halo’s over their heads, because the Bible would seem to of a different (and imperfect) set of Apostles. We see the imperfections of a Peter – or the James and John, the Sons of Thunder. In the Hebrew Bible, we see the ways that Jonah or King David failed. And all of that gives us hope, because we fail too.

But there are two exceptions - two almost seemingly perfect people in the Hebrew Bible. The first is Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold into slavery by his brothers, and the second was Samuel. Samuel was one of the godliest men in the Bible. He is never specifically said to sin, but here he seems to have fallen to the temptation, because it was never man who chose the Judges, it was God. But Samuel chose his sons to follow him. The belief seems to be that Samuel was growing too old to fulfill the demands of everything that needed to be done. And so he chose his replacements. But the problem was that God was not finished with Samuel yet, and Samuel had never been doing the job in his own power anyway – he had been doing it in God’s.

The truth is that we cannot delegate to others the things that God has placed on us. If God has called us to the task, he will give us the strength to complete the task. The reality is that Samuel choice to download the task of Judge to his sons only complicated his life. And in the midst of the complications, there were still things that God was calling Samuel to do. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 9       

And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” – 1 Samuel 7:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 29, 2012): 1 Samuel 7

Sometimes I wonder if we like our backup plans a little too much. I understand the need; maybe it would be better to say that I feel the need for the back-up plan, but sometimes I wonder how many things that God has led us to that we have left undone because we could not answer the question – what happens if we fail? Is it possible that we have become addicted to the back-up plan?

I have come to believe that the church does not fail near enough. We seem to give more fear to failure than it really deserves. The truth is that we often learn more from failure then we do from success. And failure does not always mean that what we did was wrong. There are a myriad of reasons for why something does not succeed and a many lessons that need to be learned – lessons that will go unlearned if we never even try. But maybe even worse, if God is the one telling us to go and we stay, then what we are really saying is that we do not really trust God to complete what he is – our faith is too small.

Israel was a nation that was filled with back-up plans. The plans came in the form of the various gods that the people had chosen to worship. Each god brought with it a specialty – one that Israel could trust in. Under Eli, the nation had wandered away from God, began to trust other gods. There are a number of events that make us wonder how much Eli had taught them about the worship of their God. But under Samuel, they began a journey back towards the God that had brought them out of Egypt. But as the people begin to turn towards the God that called them his people, Samuel reminds them that they cannot serve him and serve their other gods as well. To truly serve God, they would have to get rid of all of their back-up plans.

There is an old saying that asserts that if it is God’s will, then it is God’s bill. If God wants it done, then God will make sure that it gets done. And if we are not the ones that will respond to his call, then he might just call someone else. Forget the back-up plan – maybe it is time to just do it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 8

... and the men of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?” – 1 Samuel 6:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 28, 2012): 1 Samuel 6

There is a line in “A Christmas Carol” spoken by Ebenezer Scrooge. The words are spoken late in the story as Scrooge grapples with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Scrooge is already seeing the error of his ways. He is frustrated by the silence of the Ghost and he is frustrated by what he is coming to understand as the hopelessness of his situation. So he cries out. “The path that men follow will lead to certain ends, I understand that! But isn’t it also true that if a man could change his path the result would also be different?” For Scrooge, it is moment of revelation. Up until now this is not something that Scrooge has understood. Something inside of Ebenezer has changed.

Part of the reason why Charles Dickens Christmas story touches us is because we know the characters intimately, and that especially applies to Ebenezer Scrooge. We are Ebenezer. At the end of the story, Scrooge may cry out that the Spirit of Christmas – past, present and future – live inside of him, but our truth is that Ebenezer Scrooge lives inside of each of us. And that means that most of us need to find the same revelation that Ebenezer found. We need to understand that the path that men follow will lead to certain ends. But more than that, we need to take responsibility for the path that we are taking. We need to understand that walking down a path and then denying that we were ever on it will not move us to a better end. And yet, most of us live as if the denial had the ability of changing the result.

The men of Beth Shemesh seem amazed to find themselves in the trouble that they are in. And maybe they simply did not know, had never been taught, the proper respect that the Ark of the Covenant demanded. But ignorance has never been an excuse. If they did not know, they should have known. But they were also right. God is holy; he is set apart and wholly different from us. And because he is holy, he needs to be treated with respect – and even fear. It was that respect that the men from Beth Shemesh had violated when they pried open the Ark of the Covenant to soothe their idle curiosity. But what is missing from the story is an admission that they had sinned, that the penalty had fallen on them because of the path that they had taken.

The men of Beth Shemesh found themselves in a place that every person has  to travel through. It is a chance for us to be like Scrooge and admit that the path that we are walking will carry us to a certain end, or to deny the path and keep on walking into destruction. Those at Beth Shemesh chose to deny, but it might not have been the right choice, because no change could result from their denial. Maybe what they really needed 

was a visit by a certain trio of ghosts.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 7

Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven. – 1 Samuel 5:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 27, 2012): 1 Samuel 5

It is the hyperbole of bad guys everywhere. It usually follows the words of the hero, who is often gripped in agony when he says something like – “if you are going to kill me, then just get on with it.” And the proper bad guy response seems to always have been – “if you do not do what I say then I will make you wish that you were dead.” The belief of the antagonist is that it is possible to hurt someone so bad that they will no longer wish to live. But the human spirit is strong – and inflicting pain on the person only rarely makes them wish that they were dead. For that to happen, there has to be a corresponding lack of hope, because ultimately it is really only the absence of hope that can make someone want to end their existence.

As the Ark of the Covenant made its rounds among the cities of the Philistines, death was common. But those that did not die were inflicted with tumors. And part of Samuel’s message here is to stress the reality of the situation. This was not a psychosomatic malady. The effect of the Ark on the Philistines was tangible. People may be scared to death, but it was just not just death that the Ark brought with it. The Ark brought pain, and the pain that the Ark brought was accompanied by a loss of hope. The God of the Ark had fought a fight with the gods of the Philistines, and the Philistine gods had lost. And if the gods had lost, then what hope was there for the people.

The Ark moved from place to place. The story was never different. The tale of the Ark in Philistia was always pain and death. And so, the response of the people was to cry out to the heavens – their heavens. The cry went up into the real above, but there was no one there to hear the cries. The gods had left them in their greatest moment of need. The message was clear. No one could stand up in front of the God of Israel. And no one can. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 6

When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the LORD bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.” – 1 Samuel 4:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 26, 2012): 1 Samuel 4

When I was a kid I went out hunting with my Dad and some of his friends. Now, even though I lived in a red neck part of the country, hunting was not part of what we did in my family. We did not even own a gun. But on this day I remember getting up early so that we could meet my Dad’s friends and head out for a day of hunting. I do not even really remember what it was that we were hunting for. But I do remember one animal that we shot.

As we were looking for game to hunt, we came along a fence line. And there was a racket happening from somewhere along the fence line, so we explored the fence until we found the problem. An owl had got caught in the fence. As much as the bird wanted to fly away, it could not move. All it could do was cry out. I remember we tried to free the bird, but it would not let us get close enough to let it go free. Every time we approached the owl it lashed out, as much as it could, at the ones who only wanted to save it. So, finally, we did the humane thing. We shot the owl.

One of my Dad’s friends cut off one of the owls claws and tossed it to me to remember the experience. For a while, I carried that claw with me wherever I went. It became my lucky charm, even though it was not that lucky for the poor owl. For significant occasions, I would often have the owl claw somewhere on my person. I know, as Christian’s we do not believe in luck. But, somehow, it just felt right.

The soldiers had lost the battle, but the war was very much still in doubt. So the soldiers of Israel’s army were looking for something that might be able to turn the battle. They believed that they needed to find a lucky charm, something that would turn the results in their favor. And one of the generals, I think he was called Indiana Joneseth (a great ancestor of our Indiana Jones), decides that he has the answer to the problem. In Shiloh, in the Tabernacle, sat the Ark of the Covenant; the very seat of God. And the seat was not doing anything – other than being God’s seat. What could be luckier than the chair that the Almighty God sits on?

They had totally missed the idea of the Ark of the Covenant. Somehow, they had never been taught about the Holiness of God and that God had said that the Holy of Holies could be entered into only once a year, and then it could be entered only by the High priest. But they did not seem to know any of that. (Besides, in what world does stealing the seat of God sound like a good – or lucky – idea.) But, we still do it. Too often God seems to be nothing more than a lucky charm that will let our battles go our way. Somehow, we have forgotten that we serve a Holy God. He can never be our lucky charm. We serve him – at his pleasure.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 5

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. – 1 Samuel 3:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 25, 2012): 1 Samuel 3

I remember some great (probably meant in sarcasm) ‘hellfire and brimstone’ sermons when I was a kid. It was a time when those types of sermons were preached more regularly than they are now. And they were always preached to scare. The problem was that the fear never lasted long enough to keep someone on the straight and narrow path. And so the sermons slowly fell out of practice. Today they are rarely heard.

A couple of years ago a friend handed me a book that she wanted me to read. It was one of the many ‘visions of hell’ books that have hit the market in recent years. She loved the book and wanted everyone to reads it – apparently starting with me. So I sat down one afternoon and gave the book a read. Unfortunately, I less impressed with the book than she was. As I read it, it seemed like someone had taken the worst of the hell sermons that I had sat through as a kid and rolled them into a book. I had heard it all before. And I was not convinced that I it was an experience that anyone else needed to have ever again. Admittedly, my familiarity with the subject matter – and especially the descriptive way that it was presented – left me immune to the message. I just did not have the same emotional reaction to the words that my friend had experienced.

Hannah leaves her son with the High Priest, Eli. The idea in Hannah’s mind is that with Eli, Samuel would learn all about God and be dedicated to his service. Her purpose was clearly stated – she was dedicating her son to a lifelong dedication to the God that had given him to her. But Eli was apparently not following through on his obligation. The child grew, but apparently as he began to mature, Eli neglected his obligation to educate him. Samuel was still not being taught in the ways of God of Israel. And that suited God perfectly.

God had a message he needed delivered to Eli, and Samuel’s lack of knowledge made the child the perfect carrier for the message. God could deliver the message to Samuel, and Samuel would have no preconceived idea of what that message should sound like. The result would be a message spoken by an innocent child that Eli could not miss hearing.

Sometimes I wonder if God is still doing that. Maybe today, take some time to listen to a child. God might be trying to speak to you.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 4

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church sermon "Is Dad Mad" from the series "In the Hands of an Angry God" is now available on the VantagePoint  Website. You can find the link here.   

Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. – 1 Samuel 2:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 24, 2012): 1 Samuel 2

Every once in a while I have an uncomfortable conversation with someone and the main question is this – do you know that you are being lied to? And often the accusation is regarding one of my key leaders that I have invited to share ministry with me. Now, in answer to the question, I probably do not realize when people are lying to me. I really want to trust the people that are around me – in fact, I need to be able to trust them. If I cannot trust someone, then it is really hard to have them as part of my team. But when I have these conversations, there is also part of me that questions the truth of the statement. The question is not because I think the one bringing the accusation is lying to me, but rather because sometimes I know that members of my team struggle to find the right words to match their thoughts. And, sometimes, they make the wrong word choice. I have become great at interpreting tongues, because when they talk to me I know that they do not mean what they say. But I try hard to hear their hearts Culture has taught them a speech pattern that just does not work. And often the problem is that they are speaking beyond their knowledge. (All of this is why some people accuse me of being a Pollyanna.)

One of the offending phrases is the simple words “I know.” There are a couple of reasons why I feel that we need to stop using the phrase. First, the phrase “I know” shuts down the conversation. There is nothing to say after someone says that they know something without calling the person a liar. And, second, we use the phrase too often when we are only guessing at the answer. I am aware that there are times when people have told me that they “know” something, but they were mistaken - they did not know. I get that our self image is quite often tied up with the things that we know, but when we use the phrase and we are wrong, we have shut down a conversation that actually needed to continue. And we have lied, even though we maybe did not mean to. And our standards simply need to be higher than to allow that to happen. 

As Hannah responds to God, she starts off with a warning to the proud. This might have been directed toward the people who had doubted God’s ability to give her a child – and you can almost hear the accusation in her words; you said that you knew, but you were wrong. She continues on to call God the God Who Knows. We may not know, but God does. Our knowledge is often relative, but God’s is absolute. Her connection of knowledge with deeds might also indicate that some had connected her inability to have a child with sin in her life. But God knew her deeds. And in the end, his is the only knowledge that matters.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 3

So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there. – 1 Samuel 1:28

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 23, 2012): 1 Samuel 1

We are conditionally emotional. Our happiness or sadness – or whatever the emotion of the day is – entirely because of the situations that we encounter. And that has been so pervasive in our society that we do not even realize that that is not the way that it has to be. I have to admit that the return of the Great Depression is a nightmare scenario for me. Now, I think we learned the lesson that 1929 held for us, and if that is true the Great Depression may never occur in the way that it did at that end of the 1920’s, but the sky high unemployment rate, the loss of savings and investments, drastic uncertainty for the future and the presence of rampant poverty is still a scary picture for me. And I know my own reaction during the tough economic times that I have experienced – I know my own reaction to that kind of monetary pressure – and so I cannot imagine how I might react in the face of that kind of an economic downturn. And yet I also know that in the midst of the horrible poverty, were some people that were filled with great joy. And I know that it is not just during the depression, but all through history there have been two reactions to poverty. Some have become bitter and depressed because of their outward situation but others have experienced great joy in the same situation. And that is sometimes almost beyond our own comprehension.

Elkanah and Hannah had been unable to have children. And this brought them no amount of concern. It was beyond just the fact that their name would disappear from the annals of Israel, but in this day children were the safety net. If something happened to the health of mom and dad, it was the children that would take over the tasks and allow the household to run. But with no children, the same situation would cause the house would fall into ruin.

And that is what makes this story so unusual. Hannah becomes pregnant and gives birth to the child that she and her husband wanted and needed. And Hannah rejoices in the gift that God had given to her (situational emotion) and turns and gives the child back to God. And she rejoices and worships her God in what is basically the loss of her child. Samuel would never grow up and be the safety net that his parents needed. And yet she worshiped God in this act, and that somehow does not make sense to our modern ears.

Hannah sacrificed, and part of the reason that she could do that and rejoice was that because God had given her Samuel, she was convinced that God was still in control. And her sacrifice would remove her and Elkanah’s much needed safety net from their lives, but would give Israel the safety net that the nation needed. Samuel would be the last of the prophets, and the man that would change Israel by giving the nation their first two kings. And all because of the sacrifice of one man and one woman, who had simply prayed to God for a child.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 2

At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.” – Ruth 4:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 22, 2012): Ruth 4

I am a bit of a Richard Dawkins fan. That may be surprising to some people, after all I am a Christian Pastor and Dawkins is a one of the world’s leading atheists and a militant personality in the war against not just Christianity, but all religion. But I like to people that make me think and at that task he definitely qualifies. I first began to be aware of Dawkins when I read his book “The Selfish Gene” back in University. I liked the way that he described the gene, and even liked his idea of a meme – which is basically just an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. It all made a lot of sense to me.

I was recently in a discussion group which discussed some of Dawkins ideas (actually the discussion focussed around Alistair Mcgrath’s book “The Dawkins Delusion.”) One of the comments that had been made during the discussion concerned Dawkin’s belief in morals. It seemed to the people that had gathered that concept of morals was something that should be the domain of just religion. But Dawkins has always argued that morality can be the product of memes. The idea is that because morals and altruism strengthen the community, natural selection can be at work – even if the morals weaken the individual person. So a man giving his own life for someone else actually can be selected for by natural selection because it can strengthen the community in which the man lives.

But, altruism is not always present, even in religious cultures. In the story of Ruth and Naomi, Boaz goes to the one that had a closer claim to Naomi and her land then he did and he offers it to him. The man is willing to redeem it until he realizes that there is a widow involved in the transaction. The problem was that if he took the land and the widow, and if he had a child with the widow, the land would no longer be in his name – the land would be held in the name of the widow’s deceased husband. It was one of the provisions of the Mosaic Law that would attempt to make sure that no family line would ever be erased from the tribes of Israel. And that was too much of a risk for the man. He did not want to spend his money to redeem land that may not have been able to stay with his family and in his name.

The part of the story that amuses me is that, in spite of the law, it is not Ruth’s deceased husband that we remember. It is the one who decided that Ruth was worth the risk that we honor, and it is him that we recognize in the lineages of both David and of Jesus. Boaz took the risk and he was the one that would received the honor.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 1

Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. – Ruth 3:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 21, 2012): Ruth 3

The winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1960 was a movie called “The Apartment.” The movie starred Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray and it is a dark comedy about a man who has an apartment close to the big office at which he works. The apartment becomes the place that the men can take the women from the office without their wives knowing. The comedy is built around the open door policy of the apartment, which works (kind of) for Baxter (played by Lemmon) until he realizes that one of the girls being brought into his apartment (and this one by his top boss play by MacMurray) is the girl of his dreams (played by MacLaine.)

In the story of Ruth, Boaz’s threshing floor had the potential for the same kind of action as Baxter’s apartment. The threshing floor was a place with a roof overhead, but no walls. The result was that anyone could come and go from the threshing floor without being seen. It was a place where people could hook up at night without anyone knowing (and without having to pass a key around like Baxter had to in “The Apartment.”) And on this night that was exactly what was going to happen.

Boaz had already been kind to Ruth, but Naomi’s plan was to try to figure out exactly how deep that feeling went. So her plan was to send Ruth to Boaz at the threshing floor. Unlike the action at the apartment, in this plan it would be the girl that would be the sexually aggressive one. But at the end of the night, Naomi would know whether or not Boaz would be the one to come to their rescue.

There is a bit of poetry in the story of Ruth. After all, two women who are stuck in their own dark nights of the soul seek for the answer in a dark night at the threshing floor. And their answer lies in the willingness of someone to buy them back from the darkness.

And we wait in our dark nights for the one that will come to buy us back. And he has come, if we could only realize that.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ruth 4

“The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.” – Ruth 2:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 20, 2012): Ruth 2

I used to watch “The Walton’s” when I was younger. I always found the story kind of bitter-sweet. It told the story of a family during the great depression. It was a time of great poverty, but on Walton’s Mountain it was also a time of great joy. The Walton’s, in the midst of great pain, had rediscovered family and the ties that bound them together. From a modern standpoint, it is almost impossible to imagine a large extended family all living and working under one roof – but the Walton’s made it work in a heart warming way. Their safety net was each other – and somehow that seemed like the way that it should be.

One of the effects of the Great Depression was the development of the social welfare program. What had once been the responsibility of the family became the responsibility of the society. The safety net was not born, but it was moved. It was a great idea, but in some ways it was another event in the weakening of the family unit. We no longer needed each other to survive in rough times – we had other alternatives.

The whole story of in the book of Ruth is about a family in search of a safety net. When Naomi and her family moved to Moab, the last thing on her mind was that she would be in need of a safety net beyond that of her own family. She had a husband, and in the event that something happened to him, she had two healthy sons. But now they were all gone, and she is left with a Moabite daughter-in-law. And the truth of Naomi’s situation was that Ruth was more dependent on her for survival then she could be a help to her.

Enter the Kinsmen-Redeemer – the safety net. Actually the whole idea of a Kinsmen-Redeemer existed only in the mind of Naomi – and later in the mind of Boaz – at least in the manner in which she presents it to Ruth. The Kinsmen-Redeemer was real, but the problem was that it could not be Ruth’s safety net – it was Naomi’s. Ruth was a Moabite, forbidden to marry into Israel and beyond the protection of the Law of Moses. Naomi could be redeemed, but not Ruth.

It is a fact that is conveniently over looked in the book of Ruth – and for good reason. The story of Ruth foreshadows the coming of the Messiah and the purpose of the book is to establish a link between Ruth and David – and therefore Ruth and Jesus. And when the Messiah would come, he would come for everybody – and that would even include Moabite women like his multi-great grandmother, Ruth.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ruth 3

... both Mahlon and Kilion also died,and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. – Ruth 1:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 19, 2012): Ruth 1

One thing that I admit that I do not understand is the prosperity gospel. I understand why there is an interest in that biblical teaching. There are not many of us who, deep down, would not like the troubles of this life to be lessened (or even to have them removed.) But I struggle with those that believe, not only that a problem free life is possible, but that God actually wills it. But that does not seem to match with our lives, or even with the great men and women of faith in history. I have walked with people who have been thrown away by churches because of the problems in their lives. For the faith community, their problems just proved that there was a lack of faith in their lives – and the persistence of the problems indicated that they were not willing to do anything about their lack of faith.

Yet, so much of the Biblical story seems to be about people that are living in the liminality of life (literally living on the border between life and death.) The question that plagues me is this – did they exist in those liminal moments because they lacked faith, or did they live in liminality because God knew that there he could work through them.

One of the great stories on liminality is found in the book of Ruth. Naomi is an example of a person living on that border between life and death. After her husband and her sons die, she exists in a dark place in the society. As a widow, she would have had no rights that she should claim as her own. All of her dreams for the future would have died with her husband and her sons.  And her situation was only complicated by the fact that she was living in a foreign land during a time of famine. So, when she decides to return to Bethlehem and Israel, her return makes sense. What does not make sense is that her son’s widow would make the move to Israel with her. As a Moabite woman, all she was doing was condemning herself to a life stuck in liminality. What both women needed was someone to walk with them through their dark border existence.   

But what we cannot say is that while in Moab Naomi did not have faith, but she did have faith in Israel. It might be that, in the story, Naomi does not find her faith until the very end of the tale. What Naomi does seem to have is someone walking with her throughout the liminal experience. She had Ruth and a God that had never left her, and loved her in spite of a lack of faith and the death of the men in her life.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ruth 2

Now the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites. “Today one tribe is cut off from Israel,” they said. – Judges 21:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 18, 2012): Judges 21

I love Data’s (Star Trek: The Next Generation) definition of friendship. Data is an artificial life form. In the Science Fiction series he is Pinocchio, always wishing that he could be a real little boy. But many of the human feelings and emotions are beyond him. All he can do is dream of the day when he might become real. So, he often sees and defines things differently from the way that we might describe them. All of this works because in the foreign language we often find the truth about ourselves and his definition of friendship is one of those truths. Data defines friendship this way. "As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The inputs eventually are anticipated and even missed when absent." I get that.

 

I often grieve for the people that I have lost in my life. I was talking with a friend the other day and our discussion turned to a mutual friend that died almost a decade ago. And all in a sudden the memories came rushing back. I could see her standing with her family as if it was just yesterday that I last saw her. But the anticipated sensory inputs were missed and the pain returned.

People do not have to die for us to lose them. Sometimes they just walk out of our lives for other reasons. But the pain is just as real. And there is a good reason for that. Whether we want to admit it or not, we were designed for community and we have an effect on each other. And when that effect stops, no matter what the reason, we experience pain.

The men of Benjamin had committed a sin, not just against God but also against the community and rest of the nation felt that they had to do something in response. They met the men of Benjamin in battle and just about wiped the tribe off of the face of the earth. But when it was over, they grieved and felt the pain. Their brother was gone. And things would never be the way that they had been ever again. But as tragic as the story was, it might have been more tragic if the destruction of the tribe had not met with grief – because then it would have meant that they had never made a difference to the community in the first place.

It is good to be missed – because that means that on some level we made an impact on community and on the individuals in the community. And that is exactly what is supposed to happen every time we come together.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ruth 1

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church Sermon "A Tale of Three Arks" from the Series "The Road" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here.

The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, “Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?” The LORD replied, “Judah shall go first.” – Judges 20:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 17, 2012): Judges 20

Everything that I have learned in life I have learned from Spiderman – well, maybe not every lesson, but a lot of them. I feel sorry for those who have never immersed themselves in the comic saga of Peter Parker, because in the pages of those comic books are found numerous lessons for life. It is okay to be a wall flower, because Peter was. It is okay to be smart. I think most adults wonder at the statement while a lot of smart children know the pain of their intelligence – but Spiderman was smart. But maybe one of the biggest lessons was the first lesson, the one that Spiderman learned as he knelt beside his dying uncle. It was the lesson that pursued him all of his life and it was this – with great power comes great responsibility. The truth of Peter’s dying uncle was that Spiderman had the power to stop him from dying, but simply had decided not to bother. And nothing could take away that pain.

Sometimes I wonder why people aspire to lead. The repeated truth of life (and of the Bible) is that leaders have great power, and therefore bear great responsibility. It is never something that I have ever wanted to aspire to. And there are seldom lonelier moments than when we I have to don the role of the leader and step out and take responsibility for something that has to be done. I am never lonelier than in those moments where, as a leader, I have to confront someone whose behavior just is not measuring up. Those are not the moments that I look forward to as a leader.

Jacob (Israel) set the tribe of Judah up as the future leader of the nation. And there would be many glory days for the tribe of Judah, but there would also be the times of great responsibility. As the Tribe of Benjamin stood in need of being dealt with, it is the Tribe of Judah that God indicated must take the lead. They are the ones that must bring justice to the nation and confront their brothers who had committed sin against the nation. Judah must go first.

And later after Saul, another descendant of Benjamin, had ruled over Israel from Gibeah without respecting the things of God, it would once more be David and the tribe of Judah that would need to set things to right.

We are Christians. We are the followers of another member of the tribe of Judah. And as Christians we are chosen to lead, to bear the responsibility and set the world once more to right. We cannot abdicate our responsibility. It is time for us to lead and be about the task of restoration – no matter what it takes to get that job done. With great power comes great responsibility. Even Spiderman knew the truth of that.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 21

When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. – Judges 19:29

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 16, 2012): Judges 19

Only ten days after the re-election of Barak Obama to the office of President of the United States, there is already an online movement petitioning the newly elected government for permission for certain states to leave the union. Four more years under the current democratic leadership is just not seem to be an option. And if I believed all of the hype (and I know some that do) then I would have to believe that the world we know is swiftly coming to an end. I am not sure that anyone really wants to dissolve the United States (except for her enemies.) What people want – and need – is to know that someone is listening to their concerns. The online petitions are really just on the same level as a child threatening to hold their breath until they die. Neither can actually carry through with the threat – and even if they could, they would be the ones to suffer most of the pain. (For those States who wish to secede, just start to tabulate the amount of the national debt that you have to assume to leave the union and you will begin to understand the magnitude of the problem.) But that does not mean that a message does not need to be sent – and for most who have signed the online petition, it is the message that they hope will be received, because they truly believe that the nation is in deep trouble.

The story of the Levite and his concubine is a warped story in so many ways. But at the end of the story the concubine is returned to Levite. She is dead; destroyed by the abuse that she had suffered at the hands of the men of Benjamin.

Consumed by his grief, the Levite takes extraordinary measures. He gathers his former lover into his arms and takes her home. And there, he cuts her up into twelve pieces and sends the pieces out to each of the tribes of Israel. It is the insane gesture of a man suffering from a deep pain – but it was also a message. Hear O Israel, you have rejected your spiritual King. If you had not rejected him, things like this would never happen in our nation. But if you are not going to listen to your King, to the God who created you and has led you, then maybe it is time that we cried out for a political king. We need someone who can stop the pain. And we need a nation that is unified and working toward a single, just purpose.

Ultimately, it is only our spiritual King that can soothe the pain that life brings with it. But, sometimes, we just need someone to hear us and recognize the pain that we are in. And for that reason, I hope that the Government of the United States responds to those citizens who are scared and in pain. And I hope that the citizens realize that they can do more together than they can apart. In this time, it is unity that we need more than anything else.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 20

In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. – Judges 18:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 15, 2012): Judges 18

One of the biggest societal problems that we face is not poverty; it is the difference that exists between those who are rich in the community and those who have nothing. That difference means that something has broken and is no longer working. And the break is really on two sides. First, the biblical expectation is that we would take an active interest in the well being of other people. That is, that we will actually do something about the poor in our midst. Even just the acknowledgement that we are responsible for our own families is a start. There is a natural rhythm to life. In the beginning we are taken care of by our families, but the reality of life until very recently is that we would also be cared for by family at the end of life. Today, it seems easier to let the poor – even the poor that we are related to – to be taken care of by the government rather than by us. And often it is not that we do not have the resources to take care of the problem, but rather that we have not well used the resources we possess.

But there is a second problem. The problem is revealed by what some critics call the welfare state. The problem is this; we are seeing an increasing number of people willing to be taken care of. It is not a new problem. Even in New Testament times, there was a group of people that were willing to simply move from community to community and be cared for. And the result of both of these problems is an the ever widening gap between the haves of the community and the have not’s. Because there is a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, the entire community begins to suffer from a lack of health; impacting almost every area of life - including physical health, life expectancy and violence.

The author of Judges repeats the phrase – In those days Israel had no king – and then proceeds to reveal the problem that no king brought with it. In this case, there was an inequity between the tribes that had received their inheritance and those who had not (or those who had received an inheritance but had been unwilling or unable to take and inhabit the land.) The result was an increase in violence as those who did not have moved against those that had. The resultant violence was a major indication of a lack of health of the nation.

But the reality of the phrase – In those days Israel had no king – was also a statement of the spiritual health of the nation. Israel had a king. They had been designed to be a theocracy – a nation built with God as their king. But the nation had lost sight of that fact – partially because they had been left without a strong leader (other than the episodic Judges) since the days of Joshua. In those days, it was not that Israel had no king, but rather that there was no one to remind them of their king, and the health of the community suffered because of that lack.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 19

And Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.” – Judges 17:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 14, 2012): Judges 17

I used to have a lucky shirt. It was an oversized hockey jersey in the colors of the Boston Bruins, but with no logo on it. And for a number of years it was simply my go to shirt. No matter what it was that I was doing, if it was important, I knew the shirt that I wanted to wear. The last time I saw the shirt was probably more than twenty years ago in the laundry basket. By that time it was full of tears and holes, but I still loved the shirt. But one day it just vanished (my wife probably had something to do with mystery disappearance.)

Probably comfort more than luck was the reason why I wore the shirt so often, but sometimes when you are comfortable, things just seem to go better. There is no real reason why they should, but they do. Micah wanted the blessing of God. Unfortunately he did not seem to have any idea of the things that would be God honoring. First, he makes idols for the house, breaking one of the Ten Commandments. But his folly does not end there. Micah builds a chapel in his house and then installs his son as the priest of the house. But Micah and his son were of the tribe of Ephraim and a priest was mandated to be from the tribe of Levi.

But as the story continues we see that Micah is at least a little uncomfortable about the decisions that he has made – and recognizes that he may have made himself an enemy of God. So when a Levite comes along, he engages in a business transaction with him, hiring him to be his private priest. The problem was that neither of the sides of the transaction had the legal right to enter into the contract. Micah had no right to engage a priest and the Levite had no right to accept the engagement. So the reality is that nothing had changed in the house Micah.

As a result of all of this, Micah’s statement becomes a statement more about luck than assurance. The reality is that the presence of the Levite in the house of Micah was more about the priest acting as a lucky shirt for Micah than it was about inviting the presence of God into the house. But Micah did not really want God’s presence – he did not want to be about the things God – all he wanted was for God to be about the things of Micah.

Often, that is all we want as well. We want to know the words to pray, or the rituals that we can complete so that God will be about things that we are about. But, while that might be our purpose, it has never been God’s. God’s purpose has always been that we would be about the things that he is about.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 18

But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. – Judges 16:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 13, 2012): Judges 16

A few years ago I attended a youth event where people were having their heads shaved for charity. The original intention was that one person would get his head shaved for missions and we had brought in a hair dresser for precisely that purpose. At the end of the evening (which actually happened just past midnight) we brought him up on stage and began to remove his hair. But there is often some sort of a momentum that seems to be built up within a community in these things. So when we finished with the one guy that was supposed to have his head shaved, all in a sudden we had a line up of people wanting to get their heads shaved for a twenty dollar donation to missions - and we had our single hairdresser working over time.

After about four or five people walked away with their new hairdo (for the curious, the count was four guys and one girl) the cry started to go up for my head and the head of a friend of mine. At the time, our hair was fairly long – and watching a guy with a crew cut get his hair cut is one thing, but for some reason it is much more exciting to watch someone with hair down to his collar get his shaved off. My friend did not miss a beat. He smiled and said, “Garry and I would love to get our hair cut, but we are Associate Pastors and we cannot get our hair cut without our Senior Pastor’s permission. Sorry” And then he stepped back and leaned over to me and continued “Besides, at our age there is no guarantee that the hair will grow back.”

If there is a category in the Bible for most obvious sayings, this statement has to lead the pack. A friend of mine once commented that this was also part of another group of sayings – stupid things the Bible says. The point is that it is the nature of our hair to grow – even after it has been shaved - notwithstanding the concern of my friend at the shavefest. Of course, author of Judges, his hair began to grow – we are created that way.

But that also misses the point that the author is trying to get across. Just a reminder, Samson’s strength was not in his hair. Samson’s strength was in his relationship with his God, which was symbolized by his long locks. And as the author makes the comment about Samson’s hair immediately beginning to to grow, the meaning that he wants us to hear is this – God immediately began to re-establish the relationship that he once had with Samson.

Perry Noble is great at telling guys that God’s will is that the man will pursue the woman. And I agree, but the model we are following is that God has continually pursued us. Even in those moments after we have shaved our heads and destroyed our relationship with God, God immediately continues his pursuit of us. 

When we have broken our covenant with him, God’s response is to pursue us and begin to restore that relationship with us – and Jesus Christ on the cross is proof that I am worth the pursuit.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 17

Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines. – Judges 15:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 12, 2012): Judges 15

One of the most misunderstood Presidents was, in my opinion, Jimmy Carter. Carter was in office in the late 1970’s. He came to power as the first elected president after Richard Nixon’s team self destructed. (Gerald Ford was the next president after the abdication of Nixon, but he came to power because he was the vice-president.) Carter single term was during one of the most tumultuous times in American history. Worldwide inflation had reached epidemic proportions. The Vietnam War had ended, but its aftermath still gripped the American people. And foreign policy problems had made the average American a target whenever they ventured outside of the North America. This was a time of kidnapping and hostages; finishing with the hostage crisis in Iran at the tail end of Carter’s single term. History looks back at this time in history and sees an American President that simply could not keep up with the task at hand. It was a failed Presidency and, for most of us, I am not sure that it was an event we could recover from.

But for Jimmy Carter, the 1980 election only brought a close to a chapter of his life. The next chapter was only beginning. Consistently Jimmy Carter is ranked among the worst of the Presidents. But he is also ranked among one of the best of the ex-presidents. After his presidency, he became one of clearest voices for peace in our world. In fact, only three sitting presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama, have received the Nobel Prize; Jimmy Carter is unique in that he received the award for his actions after leaving the presidency. When the landslide political rejection happened to Jimmy Carter in 1980, it did not end his life – it only closed the book on a chapter in his life.

Samson led (literally judged) Israel – that is that he ruled over them and protected and avenged them - for twenty years. And he did it with a moderate amount of success. But Samson never finished the job. Unlike Jimmy Carter, but so much like most of us, his success came first. With these words the author closes this chapter on Samson’s life so that he can begin the next chapter; which is the story of his downfall and destruction. But the author seeks to remind us of his success before he tells us of his failure.

Samson led Israel for twenty years. It could have been longer. The job of defending Israel against the Philistines was incomplete at the close of the twenty years – and maybe it did not have to be left that way. But Samson’s pride was about to lure him away from the God that had given him the success in the first place.

And that is the great moral reminder of Samson’s tale. It is a recognition that what is good in our lives and what is successful in our lives never comes from us – but always comes from the God that we seek to serve.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 16

Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her. – Judges 14:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 11, 2012): Judges 14

One of the things that bothers me is to hear a parent excuse the behavior of their child because of their age. I agree that we should have age appropriate expectations for our children, but the key words are age appropriate and expectations. We seem to forget that the things that we learn as children set a course that we will follow for the rest of our lives. And, as parents, in the early years we are the ones that are responsible for setting that course. That means that things like reading to our kids and getting them involved in the arts (like music, drama, or dance) will be very important to who they are as they grow up. And so will the things that we expect of them as they grow. Each element is a building block that will eventually produce a mature person – and hopefully a person that will strengthen their community.

Samson may have been a person called by God to a particular task, but he also had some key character flaws. Eventually it would be his own pride that would bring him down. He would end up valuing his own strength over his relationship with God. And the result of that pride would have disastrous consequences. But the seeds of that pride were apparent early on.

In eastern cultures, social interaction between the sexes was both rare and limited. Unlike modern Western cultures, marriages were arranged by the parents of the couple, and contact between the man and the woman often did not happen until after the engagement had been agreed on by both sets of parents. Add to that the fact that the engagement was also a permanent contract and that the dissolution of an engagement required a divorce just as a marriage would, and we begin to see how inappropriate, in that culture, Samson’s conversation with the girl was. But Samson at some point just stopped believing that the rules of the society applied to him. And that was the advent of his pride.

And maybe we begin to see why pride goes before a fall. Pride brings us into situations that we should not be in – and allows disaster to follow. Pride overrules the natural caution with which we should enter into every situation, and considers unnecessary open eyes and ears and even the knowledge of what is expected of us in that situation. Pride declares openly that all that is important is itself. And that is what makes pride so dangerous.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 15

Note: In some countries, today is the day that we celebrate those who put themselves in harms way so that we can enjoy our freedom. Thanks does not seem to be enough, but to all of our military and veterans -  we are very thankful.

... because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” – Judges 13:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 10, 2012): Judges 13

Every Christmas I hear a song that expresses the idea that there is hope for the future because a child has been born. The song is “When a Child is Born” and strictly speaking it is not a Christmas Carol, it is actually a song of Advent because it is a true song of waiting. But “When a Child is Born” is also not a song that is written in the anticipation of a Messiah. It is a song that recognizes the treasure that is found in every child – it is all about the belief that every child has within them the potential to change the world in which we live.

It is an old idea. History is filled with world changers, and every one of them started off as children. Most of the people that God uses in the Bible are called to fulfill his purpose when they are adults. But there are a few exceptions, beside Jesus, of people that were called to a divine purpose from even before the moment of their birth. The most notable of these exceptions would be John the Baptist, Samuel - and Samson. And most people would take the Nazirite vow for a short period of time as adults. But all three of these exceptions took the Nazirite vow as babies for life. Their lips would never touch alcohol and their hair would never be cut short; in fact, their hair would become an outward sign of their commitment to God and of something that God was doing inside of them. The world would change because they were born.

Each was called for a specific purpose. Samuel would be the last judge and would usher in the era of the Kings. John the Baptist would spread a message that the age of the Messiah was close at hand. And Samson would deliver the nation of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. And all three would fulfill the purpose they were called for. But Samson’s life would end in tragedy. The most remembered story concerning the life of Samson involves the cutting of his hair near the end of his life. But it was not that Samson’s strength was in his hair. Samson’s strength lay in the commitment that Samson had made to God – the sign of which was his hair. And in that moment when he tells Delilah about his hair, what he is violating is his Nazirite vow and the very special relationship that he had with his God – a relationship that he had shared with God since birth. Without God he was just another man.

Every child has the potential to change the world. But when the child decides to walk with God, that potential is magnified as God works through them.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 14

The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head.” – Judges 12:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 9, 2012): Judges 12

Why do we seem to find it so hard to rejoice and cheer each other on? Maybe it is just the company that I keep, but sometimes it seems that we struggle with the good news of others, while he have to try hard not to rejoice in their failures. And it is one of the reasons why good leaders fail. If a leader is afraid that someone on the team will do better than the leader will, then they only have two choices open to him. Either the leader will choose people for the team that do not appear to have the capability to do a better job, or the leader will subconsciously sabotage the efforts of the one that is following or micromanage them so that their talents cannot shine. But either way, the leader is the one that really loses.

Ephraim was given a position of leadership over his older brother by his grandfather - Jacob. It was a moment that the descendants of Ephraim refused to forget. Jacob had given them leadership and Joshua, the one who led the nation into the Promised Land, was their brother. The result was that Ephraim felt that they were, in fact, the real leaders of the nation. And from the very beginning, Ephraim believed that they deserved the benefits of leadership. Not only did they demand the best piece of land as their inheritance, but they demanded that they be consulted on every decision that the young nation would make.

The Ammonites had become a problem for the people that lived close to the borders of the fledgling nation. Like the Midianites, they seemed to like the idea of border raids on the Israelite settlements. And so the people cried out. At first, their cries were directed at their brothers (including the descendents of Ephraim), but no one came to their help. But the problem was not their silence. The silence simply indicated that there just was not an easy solution to the problem. So the cries of the people turned to God. And God sent a judge – and avenger – to solve the problem. The problem for Ephraim was because the answer to the problem came from someone outside of their tribe. As leaders of the nation they were convinced that any answer should come from them.

It was the same problem that the Pharisees had during the time of Christ. God’s answer should have come from them, but he chose a different path. Whenever, as leaders, we think that the answer has to come from us, we are making the same mistake as Ephraim and the Pharisees – and we are limiting the power of our own leadership. As leaders, Ephraim should have rejoiced that God had found an answer – even if that answer did not come from their number. And s should we. If we want to be used by God, sometimes we have to realize that our purpose is to be the cheerleaders of the community. Sometimes that is the most important thing we can be.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 13

When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break.” – Judges 11:35

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 8, 2012): Judges 11

There is a great story about a man who is sentenced to hang in Russia in the nineteenth century during the reign of Czar Nicholas I. According to the story, the sentence was carried out on a cloudy Russian afternoon. The convicted felon was marched up onto the platform that had been built for the purpose of hanging him. The rope was placed around his neck and the priest gave the criminal one last chance to confess his sins. Finally the charges were led along with the verdict and the condemned man was given a chance to say his last words. And when all of this was completed, a hood was placed over the man’s head and the hangman pulled the lever that would cause the platform the condemned man was standing on to release - and the man fell to his death. But in this case fate decided to intervene. Rather than snapping the man’s neck, the rope broke and the man fell to the ground – bruised, but very much alive. The criminal rubbed his neck and looked up at the platform and the broken rope and exclaimed “Only in Russia, the land where they do not even know how to make a proper rope.” Normally, a broken rope was thought to be an act of God and the one to be hanged would be given a pardon and sent on his way. But a messenger was dispatched to the Czar with the news of what had happened – and also the words of the man regarding the ability of Russians to make a rope. The Czar apparently sent this message back to the execution. ”Prove to him that he is wrong. Hang him again.”

So many of the cautionary tales we tell our children seem to carry this theme – be careful what you say, because your words have a life of their own. As adults, we simply know the truth of the tale. There is sometimes nothing that scares me more than the words that I have said – and too often I reach the end of a conversation and wish that I had said less.

The tragedy of the story Jephthah is twofold. The first is that there was no reason for him to make the vow that he did. While he acts like the victim in the story, there were a limited number of things that could have come out of the door of his house – and a number of them were bad. And yet he made the vow anyway. But the second tragedy was that it was only his pride that made him follow through with the vow. Again, it was not what God was asking of him. The words that he had given life to with his vow, he was too proud to destroy.

Our words have a life of their own, a life that can destroy us. But sometimes that life can be stopped – if we are willing to swallow our pride and admit that our words were wrong when we spoke them in the first place (and that was a path that both Jephthah a certain Russian criminal should have taken.)

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 12

But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. – Judges 10:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 7, 2012): Judges 10

I recently rewatched the classic black and white movie “Judgment at Nuremburg.” The movie is a fictionalized account of the Judges Trial that took place after the Nuremberg Trial of key German defendants (the latter of which historically included Hermann Goring and Rudolph Hess) concerning the commitment of War Crimes during World War II. The Nuremburg Trials were highly publicized and also highly criticized. Historically it has been included in a list of trials condemned for its execution of “victor’s justice.” But the Judges Trial (which essentially put the German legal system on trial) suffered under the reverse criticism with many feeling that the sentences given were much too lenient.

As I watched the movie (and as one too young to actually remember the atrocities perpetrated during the war) the question that the movie deals with seems to be to examine the limits of what we would call “the freedom to choose.” Could those accused of atrocities truly have said no, or were they coerced into their actions? And an overview of both of the trials at Nuremburg includes both those that seem to be coerced and those who actually shaped the destiny of the country under the influence of the Nazi party. But no matter the level of coercion, it would seem that everyone could have said no – and suffered the penalty for making that decision.

I am convinced that there are limits to God’s power. Now, admittedly, they are possibly self imposed limits, but they are limits just the same. And the limits only seem to come into effect when the pinnacle of his creation is involved in the events of the earth. In other words, we serve a God of limited power, but the limit on his power is ... us. From the opening moments of creation God has seemed to be reluctant, if not outright unable, to overrule our own will. God gives us what we want, even when what we want is detrimental to our own future well being. A self imposed limitation? Probably, but one that God has been quite consistent in following.

The Book of Judges makes the comment that because Israel had run off to serve other gods, their own God – Yahweh – has decided that he will no longer run after them and save them. God’s decision is really that he will leave us to the decisions that we have made – that he will not interfere with our free will, even though those decisions will cause us pain. And that is a limiting of his power. But the judgment of God on our actions – and the subsequent limiting of his power – seems to emphasize that each one of us is responsible for the actions that we take. That means that every decision we make should be weighed carefully – because the hands of God are bound by the things that we decided to do.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 11

He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding. – Judges 9:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 6, 2012): Judges 9

The quest for power leads us to do things that I am convinced we would never consider outside of the quest. It is the reason why we believe that power corrupts. In the core of who we are, we believe that there are certain things that we have to do to obtain power. And that lesson we learned early on in life. It does not seem to take long for us to figure out that who it is that we are will never be worth anything. In fact, the lesson we learn is that who we are is only worthy of ridicule. Therefore, a choice has to be made – a path that we have to choose to follow.

I recently had a conversation with a spiritual director. He raised a question that actually has bothered me ever since our conversation. The question was this – how can you change what it is that you do (your actions) without overhauling who you are. The backdrop of the conversation was that Paul totally changed his behavior because there was a massive overhaul of his identity on the Damascus Road. And although I understand the question, I think that it is misdirected. Paul had already overhauled his identity long before his Damascus Road experience. It happened as he studied the Law of Moses under the supervision of the Jewish rabbinical system. If Paul wanted to become one of the premier leaders of the nation, there were certain things that would be expected of him. And the result of all these expectations was that Paul found himself persecuting the Christian Church. His identity had changed. What he really wanted was to please God, but his experiences had brought him to a point where he was actually persecuting that God. It was a place I do not think that Paul ever dreamed that he would find himself in. What happened on the Damascus Road was not a massive overhaul of Paul’s identity; it was the restoration of his identity back to its starting point. And from that point he could be released to become everything that he was ever intended to be.

The tragedy of the story of Abimelech is that in his pursuit for power he had to adjust his identity far from its starting point. Being brought up in the house of Gideon, Abimelech would have heard all of the stories – he would have known of his father’s reticence to enter the battle, of his absolute dependence on God in his rise to power and of his refusal to claim the crown that Gideon felt belonged to his God. None of what had happened was because of his own genius; it was all because of God’s presence. But as Abimelech began to rise to power all of what he had learned from his father had to be discarded. In order to claim power, he had dishonor everything that his father stood for – claiming the throne his father spurned and killing the sons his father loved.

Outside of God, the path to power will always cost us something. And that cost is something that we cannot afford not to count - because power corrupts by reshaping our core identity, and God only seeks to restore it to where it was always intended to be.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 10

Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. – Judges 8:27

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 5, 2012): Judges 8

A number of years ago a good friend of mine went to a church that he did not normally attend. Apparently, it was an amazing service and there was a move of God in the service that was unlike anything that he had ever experienced before. And at the close of the service the worship band sang the Bill Gaither standard “More of You.” And apparently at that moment God came crashing down into the service. People who had not spoken civilly to each other for decades were seen seeking each other out to ask for forgiveness. Tears were everywhere as old hurts were being dealt with. God finally was able to reach through barriers and people began to realize that what they needed the most was not vindication or the ability to say that they were in the right in a decades long argument – their need was simply Jesus. What they really needed was more of Him.

But when my friend came back to his church it became apparent that somehow he had missed the point of everything that he had witnessed. His request to the worship leader was that every Sunday for the next few months the congregation be led in the Gaither standard. The idea that had implanted itself in his mind is that God would move in his congregation as long as the people sang the song “More of You.” The song had moved from being a tool that had been used by God to a talisman that would bring God to bear on a problem. And the song, in a very real way, had become an idol to be worshiped.

God did amazing things through Gideon. But Gideon was only an instrument in the hands of God. That was the meaning of the entire struggle Gideon went through to gather the army. God was saying that he would use him, but the victory would remain God’s. And I think that Gideon had great intentions after the battle. He turned down the cry to make him king and to make his sons kings. But he did take a token of the plunder and with that plunder he meant to build a memorial to God, but he unwittingly created an idol – one that would cause a problem to both his family and his people as they came to worship it rather than the God to whom the victory belonged.

We are a superstitious people. And we would often prefer to place our trust in the things that we create rather than the God that created us. It happens too often inside the church. And our only defense is that we remember that what we are really in need of is more of Him.

More of You, More of You.

I’ve had all but what I need just more of You

Of things I’ve had my fill and yet I hunger still

Empty and bare, Lord hear my prayer for more of You.  

(Gloria Gaither, William Gaither, Gary Paxton – 1977)

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 9