Of Lament and Longing

 

Thursday, June 24, 2021

From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help.  Hear my cry, O Lord.  Pay attention to my prayer.  Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?  But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.  I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him.  I have put my hope in his word.  I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.  O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love.  His redemption overflows.  He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.  Psalm 130

It is a well-known fact that we come into this world crying-out in objection to the change of a comfortable womb to the rude awakening of a birth canal and a smack on the backside.  A book I’m savoring at the moment has this in the first chapter:  Every human being has the same opening story.  Life begins with tears.  It’s simply a part of what it means to be human – to cry is human.[1] 

The Psalmist writes to all the Jewish pilgrims of the land as they head to Jerusalem to worship.  He records the deep lament of his own heart as an encouragement to those who come after him to follow his example of crying-out.  But this crying-out is not just wailing in pain; rather it is pain with purpose.  The purpose draws our longing into looking…for God.  The pure fact at the base of our being is that we long for God, and it compels us to search for Him.  

As the ancient church father Augustine has it, we are born with a God-sized hole in our heart (inner being), and cannot be at rest until that void is filled.

The Psalmist takes us deeper than Augustine’s hole-in-the-heart; he shows us the pathway that leads to what to do about that longing – how to open the heart by placing our hope in the Lord even before we understand Him.  The Psalmist proclaims the forgiveness of the Lord for our sins.  This is the hole-in-the-heart problem that every human understands innately, without any prompting from parents, religion, or the culture into which we’re born.  We KNOW we’re sinners because we feel the hole separating us from every part of our Creator, in whose image we were made.  And we KNOW something must be done about that, otherwise the possibilities are only two – we die in shame, or go insane. 

But, if we are to address the problem, God gives us faith that redemption from our sin comes from the unfailing love and mercy of God…Who forgives.  To place our hope and trust in God’s covenant love is the Psalmist’s solution.

If you look for any other solution you will come up dry.  Lament is different than being a victim, or (on the other end of the spectrum) an arrogant mover and shaker victimizer of others, or anything else in-between or different.  Rather, lament is facing the fact that the hole does exist, and it is yours, chosen when you decided to take your will above anything God said. 

God will forgive that, but only when we fully place our hope in Him, and cry-out to Him in faith for that forgiveness.

For You Today

For those who will not lament over the hole-in-the-heart which separates them from God, there is no hope.  But for those who will lament, and seek, and knock, and ask…the door of mercy will swing wide-open.  And, inside God’s place, beyond the door of mercy, there is a mansion of joy!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

---

[1] Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds Deep Mercy (2019, Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois), 25

PERSEVERE

 

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.  Keep on seeking, and you will find.  Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7

There is nothing about the Gospel which is simple or easy; especially Jesus’ call that we take up our cross and follow Him.^[1]  Living your life in response to that call is dangerous.  Following Jesus can be dangerous to your popularity; you must make decisions that sometimes run counter-culture.  Following Jesus is dangerous to your health or even your life, because in some places Christians are still persecuted.

The previous six challenges we’ve considered in this series validate how hard it is to live the Christian life, particularly in 21^st century America.  Review those challenges with me:

1.     Believe – having faith in Jesus Christ means trusting Him, not yourself…counter-culture

2.     Prayer – also counter-culture – we are a nation of action!

3.     Forgive – is not only counter-culture, it’s counter-intuitive in human nature!

4.     Give – is counter-cultural in a world that lives and breathes “getting”.

5.     Minister – is ultra-counter-cultural in a world which never puts others first.

6.     Prosper – is overwhelmingly counter-cultural when nearly every TV commercial promotes self-centeredness over soul maturity.

Today we are going to consider the last of eight challenges to “embrace the grace of God”.  I’ve labeled these the 7 most important things I’ve learned over the past half-century about following Jesus.  Our word today is “persevere”. 

Perseverance brings forth images of epic struggles.  And there is a type of perseverance like that.  In Chinese mythology Jingwei is the daughter of emperor Yandi.  Still young, she drowns in the East Sea.  According to the myth, after her death she chose being a bird to exact revenge upon the sea by bringing stones and small twigs from the mountains to fill it up.  In a short dialogue the sea mocks the princess, claiming that in a million years she couldn’t fill up the sea; Jingwei retorts that she would then take ten million, even a hundred million years – whatever it takes, so that others would not have to perish as she. 

From this myth comes the Chinese expression, Jingwei filling the sea, meaning a dogged determination and perseverance in the face of seemingly impossible odds.^[2]

While the Sermon on the Mount is hardly to be compared with mythology, commitment to a mission that is fierce, and has as its object the good of others, seems to be a pretty good description of the kind of asking, seeking and knocking Jesus told his disciples they needed to consider.

First United Methodist Church in Gastonia looks much the same as many of the “red brick and steeple” churches you’ve seen.  One year I attended a conference there and noticed that the main entryway has a bit of landscape shrubbery in an unintended place.  A tiny weed grows out of a sea of brick and mortar; it’s not supposed to be there, but it is!  The weed probably must fight for every bit of nutrient and moisture, but, despite the conditions, that weed perseveres.  When I first saw it, I immediately thought, if ever a sermon on perseverance had a ready-made centerpiece, there it is; and so it is (our centerpiece of perseverance this morning)!

What kind of asking, seeking, and knocking is the weed doing?

The key to every part of this series is contained in these three little words (ask, seek, knock), but they are overshadowed by one other word – disciple.  It is the follower of Jesus who is pictured here.  The way the world looks at us, we are the weeds growing on a brick building…persistent, somewhat annoying, always surprising.

At the end of this passage Jesus talks about narrow gates guarding the way of life.  It’s one of His metaphors for being in right relationship with God.  In short, Jesus says only those who are serious about being His followers need ask, seek, or knock.

Let’s unpack the nature of this progression of asking, seeking, and knocking:

Ask

Asking is natural; we begin life that way.  An infant child asks for food with a wail.  A baby chick opens its’ little beak with a screech and the mother sets aside her own appetite and feeds.  A baby lamb’s bleating cry not only brings Mom to the rescue, but it also causes the milk in her udder to begin secreting.  The cry of a child brings the response of the parent.  Jesus was showing us just how ready our heavenly Father stands to answer when we ask.

Seek

The Psalms writer gives us an important principle of seeking; it is an inside job:

Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.  Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”  Psalm 50:14-15

Generally, after “asking” God, we begin seeking for stuff to meet our needs.  But here the seeking is an internal search for anything that stands between us and God’s response.  What exactly is it for which you seek?  Well, what is it that your heart condemns?  Are there promises you’ve neglected?  Is there a bad attitude?  Are you insincere?  Get your heart right before you seek for answers.

We should also seek for what is truly the desire of our heart.  At times we receive an answer we didn’t expect because God is speaking to our heart, and our selfishness gets in the way. 

St. Augustine's mother prayed that God would keep her son with her until she could win him to Christ.  But the boy left and went to Rome.  It seemed like God hadn't listened.  But while in Rome Augustine met Ambrose, an eloquent preacher, and was converted, and became an important instrument in God's hand.  What Augustine's mother REALLY desired in her heart, was given by a most gracious Father.

Knock

Action must always follow the search.  This is where the rubber of prayer meets the road of faith.  The apostle James^[3] tells us that merely talking or wishing is not what comprises real faith.  You must somewhere along the line INVOLVE yourself with what God wants to do.  In prayer, a step of faith is:

·       finding something you can be totally dependent upon God for (ASKING)

·       banishing selfishness from the matter (SEEKING)

·       finding something connected with the matter and helping-out until God reveals His heart in the thing.  (KNOCKING)

A man feels unhappy with his career.  He is a Christian and desires to honor God with what he does for a living.  So he ASKS , Father, I give this job situation to You. Because I think I need another job, one where I can be used better in Your kingdom.  

He SEEKS, Lord, help me to know the reality of my desire.  Is it just that I can't stand Horace who works in accounting?  Am I money hungry; is there some kind of selfish thing driving my prayer?  Father, what’s going on INSIDE ME that’s not in-sync with YOU?  Search my heart, Lord; see if there’s anything unholy in what I’m asking.^[4]

And he begins to KNOCK.  The next day he asks Horace about his spiritual condition and makes up his mind to witness to him for a while before he makes any final decision about a new job.

It ain’t over till it’s over

Yankee baseball legend Yogi Berra often said about a ball game that it ain’t over till it’s over.  What that lacks in grammatical correctness is made up in its spiritual depth.  Yogi was saying a team member never gives up until the last out is made. 

In spiritual asking, seeking, and knocking we must also never quit.  In Jesus’ statement all three words are in the present tense, meaning there is a continual action: Jesus-followers:

          ·       persevere, we keep on asking,

          ·       persevere, we keep on seeking,

          ·       persevere, we keep on knocking. 

There is a saying that God is not finished with me yet; and it is also true that He isn’t finished with the circumstances you can see. 

The Finish Line

The follower of Jesus who gives herself or himself over to being a servant of God is:

·       one who believes, rests in God’s strength alone

·       one who prays to develop a relationship with Jesus

·       one who forgives, because she is forgiven

·       one who gives, because all is given to him

·       one who ministers, because in serving others we serve God

·       one who prospers in his soul, because we want to believe, pray, forgive, give, and serve stronger tomorrow than we did today.

For followers of Jesus who take these issues seriously, asking, seeking, and knocking become possible. 

And, when that happens, the kingdom of God is glorified, and our Lord is pleased.

Our Prayer

Father, nothing would be better for us than to please you by being people who live as children of the King in His Kingdom.  Empower us, we pray, as we turn our hearts towards serving You, and turn our backs on self-serving.

We pray as those who would humble ourselves, seeking your face, all the while turning from our wicked ways, knowing the only possible source of true healing for our land is to live in your land, the Kingdom of God.

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

 

Title Image:  original photograph, Russell Brownworth   W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

Watch Sermon Video

---

[1] Matthew 16:24

[2]  In Wikipedia, quoting Long, M., C. H. Langley 1993. Natural selection and the origin of Jingwei, a chimeric processed functional gene in Drosophila. Science 260: 91-95.[1]

[3] James 2:14-17

[4] Psalm 139:23-24

Surrender to Joy

[1]

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees.  Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?”  Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom?  Of course not.  But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”  Then Jesus gave them this illustration:  “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment.  For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.  “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.  For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.  New wine must be stored in new wineskins.  But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”  Luke 5:33-38(NLT)

Cedo and Raymond lived next door to us in 1955.  They had a grape arbor off the back porch.  It had wonderful grapes, big, and juicy.  When we boys crawled under the vines down at the farthest place from the house, his Momma couldn't see us...or so we thought.  That woman swung a mean wooden spoon.  We enjoyed the new wine, but if we got caught in the grapes, she also did skinning!

Wine, in modern Western culture, is associated with substance abuse, excess.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, I won't be as those who spend the days complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it. 

Wine has always been considered part of the joy of life.  Jesus turned ordinary water into wine to save a wedding reception.  Jesus gave wine as part of the symbolic remembrance of His supreme gift of the Cross.  Wine is also pictured in the Gospel accounts as part of God's sacred wedding reception for the Bride of Christ.  Wine plays an important role in our understanding of the Spirit-filled life.  Wine is associated with joy.  Everyone wants joy; everyone wants to be happy.

In this parable Jesus is attempting to show the religious leaders (who were upset with His methods) that their old, dead religion just couldn't handle the blessing God wanted to give them.  The wineskin stands for the way we receive God and hold Him (after all, we cannot see Him).  Our worship of God begins in the heart, the center of the wineskin of our faith.  Jesus' Gospel of love and forgiveness is the new wine. 

How do we become new wineskins?  How do we prepare to receive the Savior?  It is a matter of being made new in Christ.  People have always tried to reach up to God with their religion (be nicer, more generous, don't smoke, drink, cuss, chew, or associate with them that do).  Jesus says that kind of approach will just find the new wine of joy spilled all over the carpet.  God is not held in what we do for Him; He is received by a heart that is willing to make a complete surrender to Him.

You can become a new, expandable wineskin, ready for the new wine by completely offering yourself to Jesus.  Paul said it this way:

…you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.  Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.  Colossians 3:9b-10(NLT)

And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.  Romans 8:10(NLT)

We call him Augustine; history knows him as Saint Augustine.  But if you read his story before his conversion it was anything but what we’d describe as a saint.  Augustine’s life was filled with lust for women and wine…as much as he could squeeze into every 24 hours.  It was degradation piled on top of debauchery. 

Soon after being converted, Augustine was walking down a street in Milan.  There he saw a prostitute he'd known. walking his way.  They passed, and she recognized him.  She called, Augustine!  But he did not answer.  She called again, Augustine, it is I.  Knowing the temptation before him, Augustine simply replied, Yes, I know, but it is no longer I.  That, my friends, is buying new wine -- putting the old wineskin of self out in the trash.  It is giving up on the idea that you can offer God anything at all.  It is simply giving up to Him, total surrender, white flag, unconditional.

For You Today

If you want to give God anything at all worthwhile…give Him YOU.  The joy will be worth it all!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

Restless

[1]

Thursday, July 12, 2018

“Have the people make an Ark of acacia wood—a sacred chest 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high.  Overlay it inside and outside with pure gold, and run a molding of gold all around it.  Cast four gold rings and attach them to its four feet, two rings on each side.  Make poles from acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.  Insert the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to carry it.  These carrying poles must stay inside the rings; never remove them.  When the Ark is finished, place inside it the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, which I will give to you.  Exodus 25:10-16^(NLT)

When I read Scripture there is always something that grabs my attention.  This morning, well before sunrise, the phrase never remove them leaped into the foreground.  It is a reminder for me today that the Ark of the Covenant, Israel’s symbol of the God they could not see, is like the God they cannot see:  restless.  The Ark’s carrying poles were to always be at ready, never cast aside, as if the sacred chest had arrived, and was now entrenched…not to be moved again.  For an unchanging Sovereign, He is ever on the move!

In his youth St. Augustine (eventually bishop of Hippo) ran as fast and far as he could from God.  But he could not outrun the prayers of his Godly mother, nor the pursuing, prevenient grace of God’s loving Spirit.  Hear the restless heart of Augustine, longing to know the peace of resting in his Creator:

Alas for me! Through your own merciful dealings with me, O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord; open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let me run towards this voice and seize hold of you. Do not hide your face from me: let me die so that I may see it, for not to see it would be death to me indeed.[2]

To be restless is not that you cannot rest; in the case of our Creator, it is that He will not rest until his family is complete, and (at last) home!  He will not rest until we are at rest!  And yet, like the acacia wood poles that are always in position to move, God moves us forward, ever prodding, leading, guiding, calling, and inspiring to move.  We are called into His rest, yet we are ever mindful that our souls can never rest until, as Augustine reminds us, we are at rest with Him.

Like the carrying poles, we are never to be away from the presence of the ark of God’s safe embrace.  This is why we are called to this early morning dance with the Spirit.  In these early hours our hearts are finding the pathway to that rest. 

It is the lifetime employ and quest of our spirits to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, along with (and in) the fellowship of His sufferings[3]. 

And this in-Christ rest is what we discover is the only true rest a human can know – a peace beyond all human comprehension and joy[4].

For You Today

This picture of the carrying poles at the ready is a constant reminder that we are not home yet; we’re passing through this life, and it’s a restless occupation until we see the Father’s face.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 1, Chapter 1

[3] Philippians 3:10

[4] Philippians 4:7

This Holy Week - Part 4

[1]

Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, March 29, 2018

“These are your instructions for eating this meal:  Be fully dressed, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in your hand.  Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover.  On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt.  I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord!  But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying.  When I see the blood, I will pass over you.  This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.  “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord.  This is a law for all time.  Exodus 12:11-14^(NLT)

Friday evening Jewish families will be gathered all over the world to celebrate Passover, the moment God’s very special chosen nation was born.  They ate the bread of haste, and marched out of Egypt on their journey to the Land of Canaan.  Now that sounds simple and jubilant, doesn’t it?  It was jubilant; how could the end of 400 years of slavery be other?  But simple is another story.  Passover is a beginning, not a conclusion.

That rest of the story includes many battles, wrong turns in the wilderness, judgment and conquest.  Winning the right to occupy the Promised Land was a snap compared to walking the straight and narrow of keeping it!  The whole record of Israel’s history is spiked like the stock market…up one day, and crashing the next.  Every time you blinked someone was doing evil in the sight of the Lord, getting punished, and the next day the cycle would start all over again.  Rags-to-Riches, Hero-to-Zero, and back.

If that story strikes a familiar chord with our life experience, it’s because Israel’s story is our story too in this way:  Like Israel, we are born into humanity in an instant; the next threescore-and-ten years are a labyrinth of exploration, pain of wrong choices, momentary happy times, and lots of surprises.  It’s not all melancholy, but Life-101 can be a tough teacher! 

If repeating the mistakes of our ancestors isn’t enough, most of us also find new ways to create potholes in navigating our life’s highway.  Trouble, like Job’s sparks flying upward from the fire, is the way of humanity.  If it isn’t a natural disaster, we create enough unnatural ones, wars, terrorists, meddling relatives, greed, lust, envy…and so the minefield continues.  

The people who celebrate the Passover are the same as those who come to the Lord’s Supper table.  We all eat the bread with urgency, with the taste of bitter herbs on our tongues, remembering the acrimonious darkness of sin and how it enslaves us.  And we try to heed the instructions to be fully dressed, wearing sandals of peace, helmet of salvation, belt of truth, and staff/sword of the spirit in hand[2].  All of this signifying we’re ready to move-out, drop it all, leave everything behind at the sound of our Lord’s voice.

Is it any wonder the Christian life is called a pilgrimage?  When you live life as a pilgrim, home is always somewhere else.  As with Augustine[3], how can we be at rest anywhere until our souls are at home with Him?

For You Today

If you celebrate a seder (Passover) meal, or the Lord’s Supper this week, remember this is the mark of a pilgrim; you’re a traveller…you’re not home yet. 

So, travel well, be sure-footed and safe, as you stay close to He who leads the way.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Ephesians 6:10-18

[3] Augustine, Confessions