Wearing the Mess You Made

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Do not gloat over me, my enemies!  For though I fall, I will rise again.  Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.  I will be patient as the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him.  But after that, he will take up my case and give me justice for all I have suffered from my enemies. The Lord will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness.  Then my enemies will see that the Lord is on my side.  They will be ashamed that they taunted me, saying, “So where is the Lord—that God of yours?”  With my own eyes I will see their downfall; they will be trampled like mud in the streets.  In that day, Israel, your cities will be rebuilt, and your borders will be extended.  People from many lands will come and honor you—from Assyria all the way to the towns of Egypt, from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, and from distant seas and mountains.  But the land will become empty and desolate because of the wickedness of those who live there.  O Lord, protect your people with your shepherd’s staff; lead your flock, your special possession.  Though they live alone in a thicket on the heights of Mount Carmel, let them graze in the fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead as they did long ago.  “Yes,” says the Lord, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.”  All the nations of the world will stand amazed at what the Lord will do for you.  They will be embarrassed at their feeble power.  They will cover their mouths in silent awe, deaf to everything around them.  Like snakes crawling from their holes, they will come out to meet the Lord our God.  They will fear him greatly, trembling in terror at his presence.  Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people?  You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love.  Once again you will have compassion on us.  You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!  You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago.  Micah 7:8-20

Of course the story of Israel, starting with Abram, is like the story of us all, starting with Adam.  The story begins with God’s kindness and gifts; it quickly progresses to a fall.  Sin is more than endemic, or pandemic, it is universally common to human DNA.  I have (what is probably) an annoying habit of taking impromptu surveys when I preach.  I may have asked one question more than any other; how many of you have NEVER sinned…not even once?  In 40 years of preaching I’ve never seen a single hand raised to claim perfect innocence.  The obvious conclusion is that we ALL make a mess of life.  Jeremiah said so in the Old Testament, and Paul validated it in the New Testament: 

Lord, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors, too.  We all have sinned against you.  Jeremiah 14:20
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Romans 3:23

If you listen very closely to what Micah wrote about Israel’s mess-up, and how the prophet steps into Israel’s shoes, he, on behalf of his people, is owning it, confessing it, wearing the mess.  And in the middle of that messy-dress admission of guilt, the prophet speaks a word to every one of us who possesses human DNA:

When you’ve messed up it’s right to confess two things:

     1.     That YOU messed up, you’re not a victim; you’re the perp!

     2.     That God’s not done with you, because you’re willing to admit the mess-up, and ask for help to change.

For You Today

It’s important to see the hand of God mete out punishment for our sinfulness.  And it’s just as important (maybe more so) to see that God derives no joy in doing so; as the perfect parent, our Heavenly Father punishes in order to correct.  And that tells us He hasn’t written us off.  You correct what you are still going to keep and use; you don’t throw away what you love.

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^©

Ambivalence with Confidence

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Friday, December 7, 2018

For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.  But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ.  So I really don’t know which is better.  I’m torn between two desires:  I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me.  But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.  Philippians 1:21-24(NLT)

Of the things of which I’m unsure about Paul is whether the Apostle packed a Christmas tree on his missionary journeys.  I am certain beyond a reasonable doubt if he did have a tree, he never had to deal with a tangled mess of lights in his Advent celebrations.  Not having electricity in the first century made this a non-issue!

Well, a number of years ago my distaste for dragging home a freshly cut pine tree (and the term “freshly cut” is up for interpretation) …well, it turned that yearly season of joy into something of an anguish-filled battle for how little I could participate in the decorating process and still be a pastor.  Between the sap of a dying tree all over my car’s roof and the interminable mess of pine needles littered everywhere for the next six months…not to mention the pine sap and scratches all over my arms from pushing/pulling the thing through doorways…there were times I considered investigating Judaism.  After all, you might run into fire code violations with an eight-stemmed Menorah candelabra, but the absence of a pine sap rash for a holiday gift that keeps on scratching might be worth it!

My bride made gracious compromises, taking over most of the decorating chores, as well as conceding a change from having a fresh-cut tree, to having a live potted tree we could plant after the festivities.  The weight of that 9-foot tree with its huge burlap ball full of soil forced an even bigger compromise the next year to our first artificial, realistic-looking plastic tree. 

Mercifully, here we will not recount for you the anguish over how much storage space that behemoth box takes up between January and November. 

I must add that the concession from a live tree to artificial was turned on its ear a few years later when a second tree (also artificial, but a little smaller than the Hoover Dam) was added to grace the back room.  We now set up two trees.  The kicker in this is that the back room means this tree sits right in front of my desk, making it the one thing I see from November to January when I’m trying to write sermons.  And the thing has angels all over it – made of OKRA.  Yup, that’s right…my arch-enemy, okra, that slimy menace, masquerading as a vegetable, is in my face for Advent.

Now, before you get the idea I’m a Grinch who despises Christmas, let me assure you this tale of Christmas woe is true, but not the end of the story.  I’m not really satisfied with my attitude about the tree business, and I do spend time and personal energy to overcome it.  I pray, asking God to help me be better than the sour old guy who ruins other people’s joy in the season. 

I’m working on it.  But attitudes – especially less-than-gracious attitudes – take time.  They’re like big ocean liners…you don’t turn an entrenched, selfish, loathsome mindset on a dime.  But, that said, it is possible!

Paul had a lot of questions rolling around in his Apostle brain about his immediate future.  He also had a great confidence that God was going to do just exactly what was best.  Paul had that love-hate ambivalence about the ordeal of sitting in a jail cell on death-row.  It was good that in that circumstance he could witness to the Roman guards, but he really wanted to be continuing his itinerant ministry, starting churches and helping people grow in Christ. 

And this is where my Christmas tree rubber meets the road of Christian service.  I really like Christmas trees; I just hate setting them up.  In the same way, the confidence Paul had in God’s handling all the details of what was going to happen was ambivalently-connected to his anxiety of not-knowing what that outcome was going to be.

Like John Wesley’s question about perfection – even though we’re not perfect yet, are we confident, even in our ambivalence – that we are going on to perfection, and will be made perfect in love in this life.  Paul was:

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.  But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.  Philippians 3:12(NLT)

For You Today

For Christian believers, it’s never been a question of if you’ve got it all perfect; it’s always been the question of whether you’re perfectly confident, even in your ambivalent imperfection, that God has it all perfect…and that’s where you’re headed!          

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

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[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth photo