Safe keeping: A Few Words for Advent

Matthew 5.15
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Have you ever put something in safe keeping and it was so safe you couldn't find it again? I have and as a matter of fact, I actually found something that was in "safe keeping" just the other day. It was not anything earth shattering or even that incredibly important. Just a 4GB USB drive with some random files on it. It went missing a couple of months ago and I had already given up hope of ever finding it again. The replacement drive is already over a month old.

Anyway, I was working on something the other night at our local donut place (because they have wifi the jelly donut gave me an excuse to be there) when I discovered the lost drive in the bag for my laptop's power supply. As I said, I had given up on ever finding it when suddenly, there it was. When I saw it i remembered putting it in the pouch thinking, "This is a good safe place for it." It was so safe that I totally forgot where I had left it.

The discovery made me think about how we keep our faith. It seems that I hear a lot of people talk about "keeping the faith" or "keep your faith safe" as if faith is something that needs to be protected. We hide it away lest some thief should make off with it like, well, a thief in the night. We put it up in secret places, hiding it away in dark places. Then, like my USB drive, we forget where we put it.

Have we done such a good job protecting the faith that we have completely forgotten it and replaced it with something else? Perhaps we have taken the dangerous message of Christ and put it such safe keeping that nobody will find it again.

The good news is that this dangerous message will, like my USB drive, turn up from its safe keeping when least expected. Have a good Thanksgiving, a wonderful Christ the King Sunday and may Advent deliver your faith from its safe keeping.

“Trivializing the Cross: When a Symbol of Faith Becomes Costume of Jewelry”

I was reading in John’s Wisdom, a commentary by Ben Witherington, when I was struck by something he said. “Our own culture has successfully trivialized the cross by turning it into a mere article of jewelry without pausing to think that the modern equivalent of wearing a cross would be wearing a little golden electric chair around one’s neck.” It would seem that we have completely mistaken what it means to “take up your cross.”

In ancient times the cross was nothing but a symbol of violence, heartache, shame and suffering. For those who saw it and those who employed it, the cross pointed to failure in the face of raw power. To be crucified meant being a powerless victim of a greater power.
It is no coincidence that the biblical writers consider anyone lifted up on a cross or “tree” to be accursed. For the one being crucified, death was a blessing that could not come quickly enough, nor was it supposed to. Crucifixion was meant to be slow and painful. Its goal was to make an example of its victim through the spectacle of their suffering. Struggling for breath, perhaps lingering for days, the condemned would suffer in exhibition. All those who looked upon a crucifixion were meant to remember that it could happen to them. No one took the cross lightly. Everyone feared it.

For Christ to boldly approach the cross meant that its power, violence shame and grief was about to be directly challenged. Christ stood before his cross knowing full well that in it all of the wrath, vitriol, hatred and anger the world could muster lay within its timbers. It was the final solution against this God / Man who challenged power with authority, hatred with humility, death with faith. As a besieged city falls back within its walls, so to, a world reluctant to yield to its creator resorts to its last best hope – the threat of a violent death.
After all, how could one defend against such a thing? We had him where we wanted him. The trap was set. There was no escape. For all of his talk of love, this Jesus would now have to show his true colors. If he wished to survive he would have to resort to violence. He would have to match our power.

In a world that values power as an end in its self, and gives honors to those who can knock the most heads, responding to violence with violence is a fool’s ploy. Christ is no fool. Confronted with the cross Jesus’ response was to extinguish its fire with forgiveness. He knew that a world full of hatred could be lost in a sea of grace. In the end, the wildness of death could be tamed by faith.

Like Moses before him, who lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Jesus repurposed the cross and lifted it up as a sign of life. That which symbolized failure now represented vindication. An implement of destruction now stood for rebirth and newness of life. What was meant to be feared now symbolized hope.

For Jesus’ followers the cross came to represent all of these good things, including Jesus himself. They lifted the cross high, the captured standard of a defeated foe, and marched forward into the future behind it. Many called them fools for doing so. It was, as Ben Witherington says, the equivalent of our lifting up the electric chair.
What if someone were to do that today? Would it not draw some questions? Perhaps even some heated exchanges. Many people would doubtless have visceral reactions to that image so proudly displayed.

Yet no one today gives a second glance to a cross pendant or earrings - unless, of course, the diamonds happen to be spectacular. We tattoo crosses on our bodies (in inconspicuous locations of course, lest anyone take offense). Bikers put crosses on their rides to make them look “tough”. Once, Madonna announced that she thought crucifixes were sexy because they had a naked man on them.

Scandal has been so far removed from the cross that we decorate our homes with them. The symbol which encouraged martyrs in the face of death can now be found at Kirkland’s in a pleasing array of styles! Of course, you can always find them for less at Wal Mart.
The only time the cross seems to get any attention at all is when some congregation places a forty foot tall vinyl clad monolith next to the interstate in an in-your-face statement of “faith”. Well, at least they have gotten it noticed. Other than that, it seems as if the church, in an attempt to please the world, has made the cross, safe, clean and palatable. In exchange the world has made it meaningless.

Does all of this mean you can no longer wear that cross pendant? Does it mean you should have a laser burn off that tattoo? No. It simply means that you should re-capture for yourself the “scandal” of the cross.

When you see the cross, remember the passion of the one who died upon it. Remember that something so crass and ugly as an executioner’s cross lifted up someone so beautiful as the Savior of the world. Remember that God brings life out of death and creation from destruction.
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim!

“Just Another God: Abraham, God and the Binding of Isaac”

There are things that children look forward to doing with their fathers. It is those times when they get to “go with Daddy” on some special job or errand that makes them feel all grown up. For little boys especially, a trip to the hardware store, the auto parts store or, better yet, the junkyard, gives them the feeling that they are a welcome part of this mysterious club called “grown ups”.
You might imagine Isaac’s pride when his father Abraham put him to bed early saying, “We have to get an early start in the morning.” Imagine how proud he was when his father told the servants to stay behind while he and his son went on alone. He was probably fit to be tied when his father asked him to carry the wood for the fire! Just a boy and his father heading out into the wilderness to make a sacrifice to God, but where is the lamb?
Loving fathers have feelings about their children that are hard to express. Somewhere in between pride and adoration, the true love of a father flows from a deep well of joy. Doubtless, it hurt Abraham to hear his son ask where the sacrifice was. He watched Isaac scramble up the slope under his burden, determined to not let his father down. Abraham’s heart must have broken. How could he tell him?

“Father, we have wood and fire but where is the lamb?”
“The Lord himself will provide…”
The Lord! How could he ask such a thing? After all he had already asked of Abraham – how could he do this? Abraham had waited for this child, his beloved son, Isaac. He was a child of promise, the symbol of everything God had asked him to do. When this living God told him to go and leave his father’s false gods behind he had obediently followed. And now, here he was asking Abraham to sacrifice his son just like all those other gods he had left behind. Abraham had left hearth and home and for what, just another God?!
But no, there had to be more to it than that. What was it about Abraham that would make God put him in this situation? What was it about God that Abraham should follow such a command?
Did God need reassurance that Abraham was worth the investment? Did he need proof of Abraham’s faith? What doubts could God have about Abraham’s intentions?
It seems that God had more doubt about Abraham than Abraham had of Him for; rising early he patiently and deliberately went about the nasty business. Saddling his donkey, did he remember how God had been faithful to him ever since the day he had left Ur? While chopping the wood for the fire, did he remember how God had haggled with him over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, showing compassion for the sake of just ten righteous people? On the long journey to Moriah, Abraham took up the fire and the knife.
In plodding silence Abraham and Isaac set out on the last few miles of the journey alone. As the puzzled faces of his servants melted into the distance, Isaac broke the awkward silence.
“Father!”
“Here I am son.”
“The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Abraham could no longer shroud his thoughts in silence.
Isaac’s question forced him to give voice either to his doubt or his faith.
“God himself will provide a lamb for a burnt offering my son.”
The two of them walked on together with this creed ringing in their ears. For Abraham it was a statement of faith that the God who had provided for him in the past would again respond to his faithful obedience. For Isaac it was an insight into his father’s heart, an invitation to follow. The two walked on together.
Something in Abraham’s heart told him that no, indeed, this was not just another god finally showing his true colors. This was not some blood thirsty stick of wood like his father used to carve. This God could speak. This God could act. This God could call.
Abraham had known this God for a long time. He had given up his past to him and now, if need be, he would trust him with his future.
What was it about his father that allowed Isaac to lay down upon that pyre? Did he have faith in his father, his father’s god, or did he have faith in the God of his father’s testimony? At the moment Isaac let himself be bound and laid upon the wood he committed himself to his father’s creed. “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”
How far would God let this thing go? How much taste for brinkmanship does God have? Would he vindicate their faith by resurrecting Isaac, restoring him to his father? Would he let it go that far? How much proof did he need?
Knife poised, fire at the ready, a voice calling out, “Abraham, Abraham!”
“Here I am.”
“Do not lay your hand upon the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” There, with its head encircled, ensnared by a thorny thicket, lay the offering prepared by God – a mighty ram – the vindication of a father’s faith. It seems we always demand signs and miracles from God. We want him to prove his faithfulness to us, al the while expecting him to take us at our word. The truth is he has shown himself faithful time and time again. It is we who may need to show evidence of our faith. God seeks to be our past, our present and our future. Will we be faithful trust? Will we follow?

For your reading pleasure: An article on heaven and the Christian

Heavenly minded: It’s time to get our eschatology right, say scholars, authors - By Robin Russell managing editor for the United Methodist Reporter.

Blessed

What does it mean to be blessed? In order to answer that question you have to talk about perspective first. Perspective is important because it can dramatically change the way you see things. Your point of view or perspective is the place from which you view things. It is the place where you stand. It is your view point, reality as you see it.
Perspective can do funny things to the way we see things. It can cause us to see things that are not there or it can cause us to ignore the most important things which are right in front of us. From our perspective it seems that the sun, stars, moon and planets revolve around us. Drivers often hit things because their perspective is limited by blind spots.
Our perspective or lack there of can either hinder or help us. Sometimes, having a unique perspective on things can give us the ability to see things others can not. In society we tend to seek out leaders who have this unique perspective. We hope that they can see the terrain ahead and lead us there. Sometimes this means learning to value things differently than we otherwise would.
And so, what does it mean to be blessed? Well, let’s think about our “American” perspective and what is typically thought to be a symbol of blessing. For most people the thing that comes to mind first is wealth. Having a good job, a good income and lots of stuff usually tops the list. One only has to look as far as the news stands for proof of this. The American dream is sold to us in full color on glossy paper.
Now, this is not to say that having a good job is not important, but even the way we define a “good job” is tied up in ideas of wealth and prosperity. We often ignore the intangibles of fulfillment and satisfaction. Feeling fulfilled by your work, feeling that you have genuinely accomplished something meaningful, means having the satisfaction that your work has some lasting meaning that will outlive you or your paycheck. Often times the biggest blessing that can come from our work is simply the knowledge that we have made things better for someone who could do nothing for themselves. It is at that point when we realize having the power to do something about the ugliness in the world is more important than simply buying our way out of it.
I love the PBS series called NOVA. I grew up watching it with my Dad and to this day it is one of the highlights of my week. When it comes to perspective, a show like NOVA does a great job of broadening your horizon. Last year they aired a program called “A Walk to Beautiful”. In this program the filmmaker follows several women in Ethiopia who suffer from fistulas. A fistula occurs when the barrier between the birth canal and the bladder is damaged leaving a passage between the two. For the women who suffer from this condition the malady is accompanied by shame, rejection and humiliation. In many instances they are rejected by their husbands and even their own families. They are excluded by the community at large and are looked upon as accursed. Caused by the traumas of child birth complicated by their youth, these women have suffered the double indignity of a still born child and ostracism.
The film follows several of these women as they journey to a mission hospital in Addis Ababa for treatment. At one point the film maker takes us to the bedside as the surgeon gives his patient the good news that she has been healed.
Her reaction is joy and as her surgeon walks away she calls him a blessed man. Is he blessed because he is a doctor? Is he blessed because he is more well off than others in his country? Surely, these are all realities of his life but his patient calls him blessed because of what he is able to do for those who can not do for themselves. He is blessed in his work of healing. From her perspective, anyone who can make such a change in the life of another must be blessed.
Later on, as the doctor shares the final results with his patient, we hear from the doctor himself that his joy comes from the privilege of being able to participate in healing the women who come to him. At the end of the day his joy, fulfillment, satisfaction, his blessing, comes from changing another’s life for the better. From his perspective, being truly blessed means creating good in the life of one who has only known the bad in life.
Paul tells us that whatever we do we should do it in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him. In other words, the work we do should be done with the perspective that it blesses not only us but our neighbors, our Christ and our God. In doing our work in this way Pauls tells us that we are actually giving thanks for what we have been given. Interesting, is it not, the perspective of a truly blessed person is one of thanksgiving and service rather than gain and achievement.

Genuine Imitation Christ

We live in a world where everyone seems to be looking for the “real deal”. Genuine this and genuine that. We want genuine food, genuine friends and genuine experiences.

Yet, as Christians we have this odd little secret. We are called to be imitators. It seems that, for a Christian, genuine is the last thing you would want to be. Being called an imitation is really rather complementary.

It may be that as Christians we have realized we are never so genuine as when we are imitating. But the question then remains, what is it that we are to be imitating? Are we to imitate the world around us? Are we to imitate our friends and families? Should we try to emulate in our lives the high and mighty: those who have strength and power? Whom should we imitate?

Contrary to what you might think, you and I are not the first people to ask this question. For eons human beings have asked this same question, hoping to find some model on which to base their lives. Success or failure could rely on who you imitated. Here are a few options.

Imitate the powerful - imitate the king! There you go! Wear what the king wears. Speak the way the king speaks. Agree with what the king says. It all works well until one day the king is no longer the king and everything connected to him falls out of favor.

Imitate the wealthy! If you can not be rich then do your best to dress and act rich. Buy as big a house as you can get. Shop at the stores they shop at. Drive the cars they drive. Now, you may not be successful but you sure do look the part. That is, until the bank calls in your loan.

I know. Imitate the famous. That’s it. Imitating the famous is sort of like imitating the rich but it is as much about attitude as cash flow. Bootleg fashions will help you copy the look on the cheap but copying the attitude will not cost you a thing. Or will it? If you behave toward your friends and family the same way that the glam and fabulous do what will happen?

The list goes on and on. There seems to be no end to what we can imitate. It is not enough, however, for us to merely say that we should be imitators for a great amount relies on what we choose to imitate. As I have explained you can easily be undone by the very thing you imitate.

Perhaps the problem with many of the things we imitate is that they are of little consequence over the long run. Whether it is a lifestyle, a person or a philosophy, imitating the wrong thing can lead you down a path of sorrow.

Paul has given us an odd piece of advice which at first sounds very conceited. He tells us that we should imitate him. In all fairness to Paul that is only half the story. He tells us that we should be imitators of him as he is an imitator of Christ. Actually, he was telling the Corinthians who to imitate.

Why did he need to tell the Corinthians to imitate someone else? Simply it is because the way they were living their lives was problematic. Rather than going into how they were living their lives it is easier to look at the life Paul is telling them to imitate.

Before Paul makes this statement he explains to the Corinthians the philosophy he follows in life. “Do not seek your own advantage but that of the other.” In other words he is telling them that he is willing to give up a little bit of the liberty he has in order to benefit another person. Paul is willing to sacrifice some of the freedoms he knows are his not only for the benefit of the other person but for the glory of God as well.

It is in this that the artistry of leading a virtuous or “holy” life comes forth. Indeed it is in the truth of his statement that the true nature of following Christ comes forth. If either you or the Corinthians were expecting a laundry list of do’s and don’ts from Paul you were mistaken.

His words are a challenge to the Corinthians to think beyond themselves for the good of their neighbors and the good of the Kingdom. While things they may do are not necessarily sinful or wrong the effect that those things can have on another might be. In Paul’s mind an individual’s freedom does not trump her responsibility to a neighbor.

As Paul says, to imitate him in this is to imitate Christ for Jesus himself yielded his liberty for the benefit of others. To understand this is to understand more fully the truth of the atonement. To offer himself as an atonement for all of humanity was, for Jesus, to forgo a personal good for the good of others. In light of the atonement we, the Corinthians and Paul can do nothing else than imitate his example.

In our world people argue constantly about what their individual rights are. It is my right to do this. It is your right to have that. It is her right to be this. It is his right to think that. The conflicts arise when these rights compete for the same space. What happens when pursuing my “right” gets in the way of your “right”. When this happens it is often and only the powerful, proud and loud who “win”. It is these we are told to imitate, creating an ever deepening spiral of hate, disgust and resentment.

What would happen if we took Paul’s advice? What would happen if we tried to at least be like him and imitate Christ, keeping our liberty and our rights in tension with the needs of others and the reality of the Kingdom? What if we considered not only what is expedient for us but also good for our neighbor. What if we all considered the advantages of the kingdom before our own? What if?

A Line in the Sand

We all know what it means to draw a line in the sand. When a person ‘draws a line in the sand,’ it means that he or she is putting a limit on something. When I think of the phrase, ‘drawing a line in the sand,’ I think of confrontation. Drawing a line in the sand says, “this far and no further.”

We draw lines in the sand all of the time. We put boundaries up against things and people we do not like. Sometimes these lines are for our convenience. Other times such boundaries are for our well being. Regardless of why lines are drawn, they are for our purposes and needs.

On occasion, however, we will take a stand and draw a line for those who can not draw that line on their own. History is full of people who have confronted someone powerful on behalf of the weak. Taking a stance may involve a situation as grandiose as going to war against an oppressive nation. More often than not, however, it simply means standing for someone when everyone else stands against them.


Sticks and Stones
In the gospel of John, there is a story of a woman who found herself on the losing end of conflict. She had, we are told, been found to be in adultery. Now, where was the man with whom she had been found to be in adultery with? We will never know. None the less, the woman was convicted by the great and righteous, and led to her slaughter.

Dragged before the new teacher in town, the woman waited for him to hurl the first stone at her; an honor offered him by the crowd. She watched as this teacher, named Jesus, knelt down. Was he picking out a stone? Was he deciding how best to dispatch this unclean woman from his presence?

No. His interest did not seem to be with her at all, but with the crowd who condemned her. As he knelt he drew in the sand between himself and the crowd. To the woman’s amazement, those who had condemned her dropped their stones and walked away.
Cowering, the woman heard Jesus speak; asking if there was anyone present who desired to condemn her. She confessed that no one was to be found. “Neither do I. Go and sin no more,” was Jesus’ response.
In the woman’s weakness, Jesus had drawn a line in the sand. He stood for her when she could not stand for herself. Her guilt was not in doubt. Jesus did not doubt the accusations. His concern was not for whom the woman was at the time; or even for whom she had been. His concern was for who she could be.

Loved to be
As Howard Thurman said in his book Jesus and the Disinherited, Jesus loved the woman in a radical way. He loved her in a way that led her to become the person she wished she could be. He loved her as if she were that person already. Jesus loved her in a way that challenged her to better herself. All she needed was for someone to draw a line in the sand.

Jesus said to those who would take her life, “You have come this far but you will go no further.” At the same time he drew a boundary for her as well, saying: “From this point on you must be different than you were.”

All people draw lines, and make boundaries. It is not often that we will draw lines on behalf of others. It is not is also not often that others draw lines on our behalf. Jesus is drawing a line in the sand for you. Who will you be after that line is drawn?