Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him. – Mark 6:20

Today's Scripture Reading (December 31, 2023): Mark 6

The victory of former President Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton was a surprise to a lot of political observers. But there were a few of us, and I will include myself in this number as one of the many amateur observers who wondered if Donald Trump hadn't become a guilty pleasure for many people. These people would never tell a pollster that they intended to vote for Trump in an election, but in the voting booth's privacy, they would do precisely that and spend their vote on him. And I believe that was what happened. Those who held Donald Trump as a guilty pleasure swung the election in favor of the real estate mogul. We all have guilty pleasures, things that we would never admit we like, yet deep down, these beliefs are woven into the fabric of who we are.

God had been silent for four hundred years. It had been four hundred years since the last Prophet had roamed Israel's territory. And then came John. As he became known to the people, John the Baptizer was a bit of a caution. You never really knew what John was going to say. And because of that, he was great entertainment.

Herod was kind of proud that finally, after four hundred years, God had sent a prophet to Israel. The King felt honored that this Prophet had come during his reign. But this was not the King Herod who had ruled in a paranoid rage at the time of Jesus's birth, but rather one of his sons. 

We have evidence that the son, just like the father, liked to disguise himself as a commoner and walk among the people. It isn't hard to imagine this King walking out in disguise to hear John preach. Mark says that Herod feared and protected John, but it also says that the King listened to him. He heard his words. They puzzled him, and he spent time thinking and trying to evaluate the Prophet's words.

His Dad had killed all of the infant boys in Bethlehem because he heard a prophecy that a king might be born there. The son was much more willing to listen to and believe the words of the Prophet. Herod heard John's message of repentance, and he listened to his message of the coming Messiah. He had heard the comments, and Herod believed. Herod believed in John the Baptist, and the King believed in the God of John the Baptist. As a result, he protected John and his right to preach.

Herod never intended to execute John; Herod thought of himself as the Prophet's self-appointed protector. But his beliefs surrounding John were really his guilty pleasure. It is not something that he wanted to admit publicly. So, when the tipping point came, Herod reluctantly issued the command to execute his guilty pleasure. And that would be a decision that would haunt Herod for the rest of his days.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 14

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. – Matthew 10:28

Today's Scripture Reading (December 30, 2023): Matthew 10

I admit that I don't speak much about hell. To be blunt, I don't think hell is a central part of the Christian message, although I also know that others disagree with me. I believe that the central belief that we need to be teaching is that we serve a God of love and grace. However, the Bible does teach about hell. And so, let me take a few moments and reveal what I believe about hell. But let me stress that you don't have to agree with me. There is room for disagreement in our conversation about Hell. So, with grace in your heart, let me answer some questions that I have been asked about the Hell of the Bible.

Is Hell real? Yes, I believe it is. There is enough of a story and content to make me believe in the reality of Hell. I believe that Sheol and Hades exist as a transitioning point that I really don't understand, and I don't think the Bible helps us out there. But Sheol and Hades exist in some form. I do not believe that Tartarus exists (In Greek mythology, Tartarus is a deep abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked), even though Peter mentions it in 2 Peter. I think he is trying to illustrate a point about False Teachers, and he uses the Greek idea of Tartarus to make his point. I believe that Gehenna is also an illustration of the real spiritual hell, or maybe Gehenna is the lake of fire mentioned in Revelation.

Is the Bible literal when it comes to hell? No, I don't think so. I have heard the argument that you have to take hell literally or the Bible is worthless, but I disagree. There is much in the Bible that is symbolic. The Bible is made up of many genres of writing, and it uses many tools to get the message across, and those tools include stories and illustrations. Gehenna is an excellent example of an illustration. Gehenna existed just outside of Jerusalem, and it made sense that Matthew would especially use it as an illustration. But it is just an illustration, although it is a pervasive one. An argument that the Bible must be literal plays into the hands of those who want to tear the Bible apart, so it is not necessarily a card that we want to play, and to me, it doesn't make sense because that is not how we communicate. I believe Hell exists, but we have no idea what it will be like, except to say that I would not want to condemn anyone to that eventuality.

Is Hell made of fire? There is a story about a young girl acting out in class. At her wit's end, her teacher decides to educate the young girl on the trial of Hell (something that I don't approve of, just in case someone is wondering). But the girl's behavior does not change. Finally, the teacher asks the child if she is afraid of being sent to hell for her behavior, and the girl shrugs her shoulders and answers, "Not especially; my Dad sells air conditioners." Okay, it is an old and not especially politically correct story, but I am not sure that air conditioners will help. No, I do not think that hell is fire. Fire is an excellent example of destruction. A few years ago, I wrote a blog post on Job 31:12 (It is a fire that burns to destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest). Here is part of what I wrote.

One more note about hell. Job's comment about the fire of Abaddon or Destruction or Hell indicates how long this association between fire and hell has existed. But we need to be careful not to think that Hell is literally fire. I do not believe that this is true, and Job's comment here seems to support the idea that hell is made up of a figurative fire, not a literal one. For Job, it is not that Hell is literally going to burn his life and uproot his crops. But fire has long been seen as a force of complete destruction. Just like some had chosen to destroy their lives with an affair, so hell is like that, a place where we choose to be, and yet a place where we can only be destroyed.  And the fact that we freely choose destruction only makes hell an even sadder and scarier place. (Garry Mullen – June 20, 2018).

What is Hell like? I don't know. Traditionally, I would have said that Hell was a place where God was not. We cannot imagine the evil of a place that is a direct result of the absence of God. Even in the valley of Hinnom, with the people sacrificing their children to this false god, God was still there. I believe that he was holding the children, that his tears bathed the valley as we disobeyed him and committed this unthinkable evil. Even in the worst moments of World War II, in the gas chambers and the mass graves, God was there holding and weeping over his children. In the worst moments of your life, God is with you. We need to reclaim the phrase "Goodbye" as Christians. Too often, the sentiment is that "We don't say goodbye, we say see you later. Goodbye is too final." But the origin of the word goodbye is "God be with ye." Why would we ever let someone leave our presence without saying "Goodbye" or "God be with you." If Hell is a place where God is not, I don't think that we can imagine the horrors that such a place would hold.

But Hell is still not our primary focus. Let me close with this thought from 2 Peter. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Our truth is that God is waiting for us to come to repentance. And if we do, then Hell is unimportant in our lives.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 6

At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!" – Matthew 9:3

Today's Scripture Reading (December 29, 2023): Matthew 9

It was his first sermon. At the time, we had a tradition that the Youth of the church would take the service one Sunday evening a month. And if an older teen was willing, one of them could preach. On this night, one of the teens was ready to preach his first sermon. His name was Doug (his real name), and he had decided to preach from the story of the paralyzed man being brought to Jesus. In Luke, the story starts with a group of four men who carry their paralyzed friend to the place where Jesus is teaching, but when they arrive, the crowd is too large for the friends to get into the house, let alone close to Jesus. So, the men decide to get to Jesus by digging a hole in the roof. Doug was graphic as he described how these friends carried the paralyzed man up on the roof of the house and then found the place where Jesus was teaching and began to dig through the roof. He described what it must have been like in the room with the noise from above and the bits of dirt that fell onto the crowd below. He wondered what the house's owner must have been thinking as the men were dismantling his roof.

But eventually, they created a hole large enough to fit the paralyzed man through, and they lowered him through the hole in the roof to Jesus, who healed the paralyzed man. It is a great story that was well told by Doug.

But when Matthew takes up the story, he leaves the house, the roof, and even the crowds out. And a good question to ask is, why? The love that drove the friends to climb up on the roof and cut a hole in the ceiling is a big part of the story. Matthew, why did you leave that out?

The most likely response from Matthew might be that he didn't want the story of the roof and the dirt to steal the focus away from the actual subject of the story: four men brought a man who needed help to Jesus. The focus of the friends was on the man and Jesus. They had faith that Jesus could do something. Jesus's focus is not on the roof but on the man. He sees him and his friends.

I grew up in a church where people were experts in the many names of God. And I have said that I have a favorite name for God, but it is not one of the more popular ones. My favorite name for God is not El-Shaddai, which means God Almighty, or even Jehovah Jireh, which means the God who provides. My favorite name for God comes from the story of Sarah's Egyptian slave, Hagar, running away from Abraham and Sarah. Hagar is pregnant with Abraham's child, but Sarah, whose idea it was for Abraham to sleep with Hagar in the first place, is jealous of her slave and has mistreated her.

Hagar meets with God in the wilderness, and God promises to bless her child. And in response, Hagar calls God by the name "El Roi." It is the only place in the Bible where this name is used, but I love it. El Roi means "the God who sees me."

Jesus fulfills this name as he comes up against the four men carrying the paralyzed man. He sees them, all of them. The Scribes and the religious elite refuse to see them. Their focus is not on the people but on the law and sin. All they can see is that Jesus is doing something they don't believe he can legally do because the first thing that Jesus decides to do is forgive the man for his sins. The Scribes also thought this man was paralyzed because of his sin, and they had no mercy. The paralyzed man was getting what he deserved. Their focus was on sin because that is what they saw. But Jesus saw the man and had mercy on him.

Is it fair to admit that sometimes we share the focus of the Scribes? We miss the person and focus on the sin. We boldly proclaim that God hates sin but loves the person. However, we struggle with putting the idea into practice. Jesus saw the man and his friends, not their sin. Because the Scribes saw the wrong instead of the person, Jesus focused on what the Scribes concentrated on and first forgave the man before him, placing him on equal ground with the Scribes. And in the process, he opened himself up to a charge of blasphemy.

In the manger, when everyone that mattered missed the birth, God saw Jesus and sent the shepherds and the Wiseman because he remains the God who sees.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 10

Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." – Matthew 5:19

Today's Scripture Reading (December 28, 2023): Mark 5

When we become Christians, Jesus calls us, and we hear his call. And there is a deep desire for us to want to go with him. Follow me means to do just that. And it is the immediate response of the demon-possessed man that Jesus has just healed: Jesus, I will go with you. But often, our greatest temptation in that moment is that we decide to seclude with Jesus. As a result, we get into Bible study groups and prayer groups. We spend more time at church. We lose contact with secular friends because we don't have time for them anymore, not if we are going to be with Jesus.

There is nothing wrong with this; we need Christian friends and community. It is precisely what Jesus did. Jesus got away. He spent time with his Father. Jesus secluded. But he didn't stay there. Mark tells this story.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"

Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons (Mark 1:35-39).

Mark is often referred to as the action Gospel. Jesus is always going somewhere. And it starts early in Mark's story. Jesus is a rabbi on the move. He goes off by himself, but then the disciples in town find him, and they tell him that the people in town are looking for him. But Jesus has to keep moving; Jesus has no desire to stop and seclude in a good place. He gets away to be with his Father and then moves on to the next place.

It seems to be the theme of several TV shows I watched in my youth. I didn't realize that shows like The Fugitive, The Incredible Hulk, and even The Littlest Hobo, about a dog that just keeps moving on, were kind of based on the life of Christ. This is the way Jesus lived his life. He came to a place, made friends, and changed lives in an area, then moved on to the next location. The theme from "The Littlest Hobo" describes this concept;

So maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down.

Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on (Theme from "The Littlest Hobo").

In each of these shows, there was a tension between settling down, building a home, and moving on. The invitation was presented, but the hero had to move on. But what he left behind was a people who were changed in some way, people who would remember the stranger that walked into their lives.

Jesus had a plan. He would be the one to move on, and the people he met along the way would become missionaries to their homes and neighborhoods. Jesus had no intention of building a Jesus community where everyone hunkered down with him. His idea was to spread the good news to the world around them. And that meant the people needed to be sent out, away from the concept of seclusion with him.

The man Jesus has just healed wants to go with Jesus, travel, and seclude with him. But instead, Jesus sends him home as a missionary. He is told to go and make a difference. It is the central portion of our faith: the concept that we will be the difference makers.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 9

Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." – Luke 8:8

Today's Scripture Reading (December 27, 2023): Luke 8

I graduated from High School in a small rural town. Now, I am a city kid, so when my family moved to a rural community before the start of my junior year in High School, it was a bit of a culture shock. I didn't know much about rural life. One of the things that was new to me was the annual May Day competition. The May Day competition was held in the spring of the year, around the first weekend in May. Each grade class nominated a May Day Princess, and then we, her subjects, went to work, quite literally, to raise some much-needed funds for the school. We worked odd jobs, and the money went toward school upgrades. The result was that the grade that raised the most money had their princess crowned queen.

So, I went to work at jobs I had never dreamed I would ever have to do. One of my tasks was to muck out barns, a very interesting job for a city boy who didn't spend much time around horses. Another job that I did was picking rocks out of fields. I freely admit it; I am a city boy, and the city boy inside me thought that if you picked stones out of an area once, you wouldn't have to do it ever again. So, when they told me that rocks needed to be picked out of a field regularly, I didn't get it. I mean, who was throwing rocks into these farmers' fields? I want to know.

But the reality is that fields grow rocks. I didn't know that. Picking rocks was often part of the yearly preparation of the field. Every year, the field has to be turned, weeds and bugs must be dealt with, and rocks have to be picked. It is just standard procedure.

I am part of a church that serves an extravagant God. And he has called me to work in the field. Sometimes, an extravagant God spreads seeds that hit the rocky ground or ground surrounded by weeds. But the condition of the field just might be part of my responsibility. This is the heart of the mission. Under the direction and power of our God, we are the preparers of the mission field.

Missionaries learned long ago that preaching the Gospel in the Majority World Areas (formerly Third World) was useless because the field had to be cultivated, weeds had to be pulled, and rocks removed. And so, Christians started to minister to the physical needs of the people. We began to send Doctors and Nurses, Builders and Teachers. We made our way into their lives and made their lives better. And then we found that we would have the opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

A man sat with some friends long ago and dreamed a dream. He wondered out loud what it would be like if they could bring some of the Characters he had developed to life. His name was Walt Disney, and the characters he wanted to bring to life were Mickey Mouse and his friends. What if they could build a park where the characters walked around right with the people? What if they could get someone from Montana or Canada to spend their holidays driving to this park and staying there for two or three days? What would that be like? Then, the question that Walt asked his friends to consider was this: When they get home from their trip and they get their pictures back from the drug store (because back in the day, that was how it was done), what do we want the images to be of that they place into their photo Album. Then, Walt and his friends built the dream of Disneyland around that outcome.

God is asking us a similar question: We have been called to cultivate the ground and help God take the pictures of life. But the question we wrestle with is what those pictures should reflect about life. I would argue that most of the images we see flash across our screens do not reflect the world God wants to see. It is up to us to cultivate the field by loving our neighbors and then wait for an extravagant God to spread the seed.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 5

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means "God with us"). – Matthew 1:23

Today's Scripture Reading (December 26, 2023): Matthew 1

Most of us have dreams for our kids. If we were asked what our dreams are for our kids, we would probably reply that we would be happy if they stayed healthy, but our dreams most likely go just a little deeper. We want them to make a difference in their world. We want them to find a suitable spouse to complement and strengthen them and help them achieve their dreams. We may not wish great financial success for them, but we do want them to be comfortable, to be able to pay their debts, and save enough money to purchase a house and someday retire in some degree of comfort. We don't want them to spend their lives living from paycheck to paycheck. All of this is part of our dream.

Things haven't changed much in this respect. We still dream for our kids like the parents of centuries past dreamed for their kids. So, when Mary and Joseph discovered they would have a baby, they were given a name. The name described all that the baby boy was meant to be. The angel told them to call him Jesus. A few years ago, archaeologists found a grave marker of a family that contained the names of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. A thrill went through the world as people wondered if we had found the burial spot of the holy family. Then, we started to do the math. Mary was the most popular name for girls in Jesus's time. A quick look through the bible confirms that Mary was not an unusual name. Joseph and Jesus were also very popular names. Israel 2000 years ago was filled with little boys named Jesus. The probability of a family having the names of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus was actually relatively high, probably higher than any other combination of names.

Parents would name their sons Jesus, or a variant of the name, simply because they desperately wanted a name that would sum up all their dreams and hopes for their child. By naming the boys Jesus and the girls Mary, they gave a name indicating that their children were important. But no one was giving their children the name of Immanuel. No one wanted to claim that their child would be "God with Us." Sometime in the future, one would come who would be "God with Us." No doubt, parents would have loved to name their children Immanuel, but that seemed a little too forward.

The angel spoke to Joseph. Mary will have a baby, and you will call him Jesus, just like so many other boys he will grow up with, but he will also be Immanuel. He is God coming to us and being with us.

We don't worship Jesus; there are too many of them. We worship in the name of Jesus, who is also Immanuel. God has come to you and me. And no one is more worthy of my praise.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 8

Originally Published on December 26, 2010

 

 

 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" – Isaiah 52:7

Today's Scripture Reading (December 25, 2023): Isaiah 52

On December 24, 1865, Phillips Brooks found himself in Israel. Depressed and defeated, he had journeyed to Israel to try to gain a bit of perspective on his life. And so, on Christmas Eve 1865, he had traveled to Bethlehem on horseback. He had been warned not to go; the area was filled with thieves and murderers; it was not the kind of place that a depressed Pastor should try to get to, yet Brooks went anyway.

Three years later, in 1868, he was back home in the United States, and as he looked toward the Christmas Eve service that year, he remembered Christmas Eve 1865 and that scene he had witnessed that night. And then, he put pen to paper and wrote his famous poem, "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

The poem talks of a peace that existed over the town of Bethlehem on that night, which Brooks describes as lying in stillness, even though something significant was happening within its borders on that night so many years ago. It was a peace that was conspicuously absent on the night that Brooks penned his poem. The area was a dangerous place to be on that night in 1865, with thieves hiding around every corner. Today, Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, and it remains a dangerous place. The peace of Bethlehem almost seems to be a cruel dream.

And yet, on that first Christmas Day, peace entered into the world, but we were so busy looking for that peace that we missed it. And we continue to suffer from the same paradox. In our frantic search for peace, we continue to ignore the peace that has been born to us.

For most people, today will also be a busy day. For some, it is a sad day in which it is too easy to reflect on what we are missing and feel a similar despair to that suffered by Phillips Brooks in 1865. In both circumstances, it is too easy to miss the peace.

Today, in the town of Bethlehem, a child is born. A child who brings peace and good tidings designed to benefit all the people, regardless of their skin color or nation of origin or what they believe. He is our salvation. His name is Jesus. And "Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in" (Phillips Brooks).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 1

Originally Published on December 25, 2010

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9:6

Today's Scripture Reading (December 24, 2023): Isaiah 9

I don't want to pretend to have all of the answers. For me, pretending that we know all of the answers just adds to the trouble that we suffer through in our world, and the cause of much of our suffering is an unwillingness to have the conversation in which we need to participate. Therefore, we never learn the lesson we need to come to understand. I do believe in the sanctity of life, every life. And one of the reasons is that we have no idea at the point of birth who the difference makers are among us. But maybe even more importantly, I think we are all pieces of the puzzle; I may not have all the answers, but together, we have many more of them than we might think. Every life on this planet that we share has the potential to make a difference. I might even assert that every life has the potential to become a world changer, but whether we do is often up to us.

And that is part of the power of Christmas. A child has been born, and the world has changed. God has come to dwell among us, beginning that life of change as a child. The birth in Bethlehem wasn't how we expected God to come, but it is how he came. And now, every time a child is born, we are reminded of God's miracle and the potential for even a child to change our world.

What God did on a significant scale we repeat on a minor scale regularly in our everyday lives. Part of the Christmas miracle was that God didn't do anything unusual; he has used the same mechanism to change the world since the beginning of time: For unto us a child is born.

Christmas is about the child in all of us. And about the potential for change that exists even among the smallest of those who walk with us. The time has come to honor the child in all of us, and the one who came that changed everything.

Welcome to Christmas Eve.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 52

Originally Published on December 24, 2010

"Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. – Mark 4:24

Today's Scripture Reading (December 23, 2023): Mark 4

James Keegstra, an educator and mayor of a small town in Alberta, Canada, passed away on June 2, 2014. But Keegstra is not known because of his political or educational proficiencies. He is known because he believed and taught his students that the Holocaust was a fiction that had been visited on Western culture to enrich the reputation of people of Jewish descent. According to Keegstra, Jewish people were involved in a world conspiracy to destroy Christianity. He taught that Jews were treacherous, subversive, sadistic, money-loving, power-hungry, and child killers. His students were expected to reproduce his teachings on exams and reports, or their marks would suffer. Keegstra was tried in Alberta under the Criminal Code. The charge was that Keegstra "did unlawfully promote hatred against an identifiable group, to wit: the Jewish people, by communicating statements while teaching to students at Eckville High School contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Code." The trial lasted seventy days, and many of his students testified against him. A jury convicted him of the charges, although the penalty was only a $5,000.00 fine.

However, the danger of Keegstra's teachings was problematic to our society. The attention that Keegstra received from international media highlighted another problem. It allowed the small-town teacher to influence an international group of disciples who believed what the teacher taught.

Keegstra also emphasized that we must be careful about what we teach and to whom we are willing to listen. Not all teachers are equal, and we must be cautious about who we might allow to guide us. Even I am not immune to that requirement. Some have accused me that the lens that I view the Bible through is love, but I am okay with that. For me, one of the key biblical passages was spoken at the Last Supper. Jesus told those who gathered with him, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35). I take Jesus at his word; the world won't know we follow him because of how we act or what it is that we might oppose; they will know who we are by how we love. As a result, love features high in my teaching. If we make a mistake in understanding the Bible, we should decide to err on the side of love.

Jesus takes this a step further and argues that we will be judged by the scale we use. If we think Christianity is about righteousness, then God will use that as the measure he uses to evaluate us. If we teach love, then that is how we will be measured. So, if you are going to listen to someone who teaches love, make sure you are willing to try to love whoever you meet or wherever you go.   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9

Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. – Matthew 13:5

Today's Scripture Reading (December 22, 2023): Matthew 13

I live in an ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) world. In fact, I have often joked about my attention problems. I think our politicians understand this aspect of our society. Whether or not they are ADD themselves, they make the most of the fact that the prevailing culture struggles with short attention spans. So often, we seem to be consumed by the next shiny object long before the last thing that caught our attention runs its course. And when problems arise, the solution is easy. It is as if we have become a culture of magicians who misdirect our audiences' attention with sleight of hand so that we can achieve our goals, whatever they might be. We forget the problem in the magician's right hand as our minds chase the object in the magician's left hand.

Of course, in an ADD world, nothing lasts very long. Another shiny object is always ready to take the stage and grab our attention. Nothing has roots; everything resembles the seed that falls on rocky ground; nothing makes a lasting difference. In an ADD world, we like things to grow quickly and, then, just as quickly disappear as our attention wanders off, following the next thing.

My ADD world perfectly illustrates what Jesus was talking about when he spoke of the seed that falls on the rocky places. The seed did not die immediately. It did not lie dormant until some future time when the conditions might have been better. Instead, the seed grows quickly but has no root that can dig into the fertile ground and get the moisture needed to continue the growth process. The seed becomes just another shiny object that grabs our attention but then quickly fades away.

While I recognize that I live in an ADD world, I am convinced that my faith was never supposed to be the next shiny object. It is something that needs to have roots in my life. My faith and understanding of the world will shape how I handle the shiny objects vying for my attention. The roots of my faith will allow me to get at the moisture that feeds my love for those around me and will enable me to treat them with respect. The core of my faith demands this. Loving just at the moment and then watching that love shrivel up and die because it has no roots is not an appropriate Christian response to the world in which I live.

God demands more of me. Loving others during comfortable circumstances when our love makes sense is not enough. God requires more of me. Loving those who love me is not worthy of the faith that has taken root in my life. God demands more of me.

The shiny objects of our ADD world will come and go, but love and faith must not be one of those shiny objects. These things must take root inside of me even while shiny objects appear and then just as quickly disappear. If faith and love cannot find their roots and become permanent in our lives, then there will never be a solution for societal issues like racial injustice and poverty, and all of the other scars that mar this planet. And, I believe God demands more of me and us. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 4

See Also Luke 8:6 and Mark 4:5

 

 

 

After John's messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. – Luke 7:24-25

Today's Scripture Reading (December 21, 2023): Luke 7

Sometimes, the easiest purpose question to ask is what do you see? How does the world look to you from your perspective? It is an interesting question, and the idea that we all don't view the world in the same way is something that we sometimes struggle to comprehend.

It is an idea that William Booth explored in a dream. In his vision, he was on a ship in the middle of the storm. In fact, Booth dreamed that he was on a rescue boat. Booth wasn't the Captain, but he was an officer on the rescue boat. And on the rough seas, the inevitable happened. A ship floundered and then started to sink. The alarm bells were raised, coordinates were given, and the rescue boat began to move toward the area where the ship was going down. When the rescue boat arrived, the sinking ship was still afloat, but people were in the water. If something didn't happen soon, the result would be inevitable. It was time to get the rescue boats into the water.

Except in Booth's dream, nothing was happening. The crew was standing and watching the other ship as it started to sink. And yet none of the boats were being launched; none of the crews were getting ready for the rescue mission. In his dream, Booth says he went to the Captain and asked, "Why are we not launching our boats?" The Captain replied that the seas were too rough and the boats and equipment were too valuable to risk under these conditions.

There was a problem between Booth and his Captain with what was seen. For the Captain, what captivated his vision was the size of the waves. For Booth, it was the people drowning because of the storm. Booth said, "Captain if we are not going to launch our rescue craft, if we are not going to fulfill our purpose, what are we doing here? If we are not going to fulfill our purpose, why aren't we home in bed where it is warm and safe?

And then he heard the fateful crack as the ship in trouble began to break up. As the ship sank, a few men climbed on top of some broken wood planks. Even fewer could get close enough to the rescue ship as it stood outside the danger area. A few survived, but most died.

Booth says he went to his birth and wept over the losses. But then news of another ship arrived, and the rescue ship moved into the area where another ship had floundered, and the process started over again. But there was a difference; this time, Booth wasn't willing to stand around and wait. This time, Booth began to issue orders and get the men moving, which brought him into conflict with his commanding officer.

Jesus asks, what did you go into the desert to see? What was your purpose? You didn't go to see royalty; they are in the palace. What did you go to see? Is that not exactly what you found? A prophet in the wilderness speaking of something that is coming. John was never supposed to serve the purpose of a king; he was a prophet.

Part of our problem today isn't all that different from the issue in the day of Jesus. Because we crave purpose, we will serve a purpose. It just might not be the right one, and those who came to see John wanted an alternative to the answers issued by the King. For the Captain in Booth's dream, the answer the Captain had arrived at to the question was that his purpose was to keep the equipment clean and in working order. We can't afford new rescue boats, so we must keep the ones we have in order.

But Booth saw the people, people who needed to be saved. What do you see? Equipment? A church building? Do you see the outward attributes of those who gather? Or people in need of rescue? Is it worth the sacrifice of things to save people? William Booth thought so. And so did John. The people needed to be saved; nothing else mattered. And it is the reason that we celebrate this time of year. Jesus stepped down from his throne to live with us and eventually die in our place. He did it because we are essential in his eyes. And when God looks down on the earth, he doesn't see our things; he sees us.

Do we see him?

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 13

Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see." – Matthew 11:4

Today's Scripture Reading (December 20, 2023): Matthew 11

In the late 1970s, I made a quick visit to a Mexican border town. We left our cars on the American side of the border, crossed on foot, and then hired a cab to take us into town. It was most definitely a unique experience. The drive was wild, confirming that we made the right decision not to drive into Mexico. We arrived, and then we proceeded to wander the town. At one point, we walked by an alley where it appeared a murder was taking place; at least, that was what my young eyes reported was going on. The adults of the group just pushed us quickly by the alley. But ever since that day, almost fifty years ago, I have wondered what it was we saw taking place in that Mexican alley.

We know how fallible eyewitness reports can be, yet nothing feels more accurate than what we see taking place. Did something happen? If we saw it go down, we know that it happened. So, Jesus tells John's disciples to return to their teacher and tell him what they saw. Go and tell him the miracles that you have witnessed.

Sometimes, I wonder if we see so little because we are pessimistic. We celebrated a Picnic instead of our usual end-of-summer party a couple of years ago. It was near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we decided to do something a little less than we would typically do. One of the factors that led to the picnic was that we didn't have the volunteers we needed to pull off the usual "end-of-summer party." But we wanted to do something, and so we threw a picnic. It was rainy, misty really, and miserable. The covering over the instruments leaked, and our sound people and band had to solve the problem while playing one of their sets. And no, there were not as many people who attended the picnic as there were at our usual party.

But we did it. I was talking with a friend who wasn't here, and he said that he had heard only eight people showed up. And I was mystified. Did we have the hundreds who usually would attend the event? No, but we had a lot more than eight. And more importantly, God showed up and moved through the event. It was a day of miracles. One of them might seem weird, but it was the weather. Yes, it was cool and misty, but the next day was even colder, and the rain fell harder. We couldn't have put on the event if the weather had been like it was the very next day. We got to share Jesus with our neighbors. I heard the story of one Muslim child who came to the event while her parents cautiously looked on from across the street. We got to welcome our neighbors onto the lot. We had more than eight workers at the event, and I am so thankful for every one of them. And I had a blast, even if someone didn't see it.

Jesus sent John's disciples back to John with an eyewitness report. But Jesus also made sure that he told them what was happening. "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor" (Matthew 11:5). You have seen these things, now go tell John what it is that you saw.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 7