A faith that changes us. 

Isaiah 1:10-17 (From The Message)

Is. 1:10               "Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders.

            Receive God's revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people.

Is. 1:11               "Why this frenzy of sacrifices?" GOD'S asking.

            "Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves?

            Don't you think I've had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?

12             When you come before me,who ever gave you the idea of acting like this,

            Running here and there, doing this and that—all this sheer commotion in the place             provided for worship?

Is. 1:13       "Quit your worship charades.

            I can't stand your trivial religious games:

            Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—

            meetings, meetings, meetings—I can't stand one more!

14             Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You've worn me out!

            I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion,while you go right on sinning.

15             When you put on your next prayer-performance,I'll be looking the other way.

            No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening.

            And do you know why? Because you've been tearing people to pieces, and your hands             are bloody.

16             Go home and wash up. Clean up your act.

            Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don't have to look at them any longer.

            Say no to wrong.

17                Learn to do good.

            Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless.

            Go to bat for the defenseless.

 

Meetings, meetings, meetings… I think we can all relate to frustration of meetings.  From many years in the corporate world, often meetings were scheduled with details, or training, or numbers, or the next new best idea.  How many times would we get to the next meeting and talk about the same problems, or just go through the motions.   But often what was needed was the time to visit people…customers, the place where the rubber hits the road.  This is what Isaiah is sharing with us…God's frustration in continued meetings.  Meetings with ideas, maybe saying the right things, or sharing the "right rituals",  kinda' going through the motions.   What God is asking for is action, the kind of faith that changes us.  God doesn't have a problem with worship.  God is angry with the hypocrisy of saying the right things in worship, but then not putting these ideas into practice.

 

Martin Luther shares the paradox that we are justified by faith alone and how this works with a responsibility to care for our neighbor.  This paradox he shares from reading 1 Corinth. 9:19 : "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none"; and "A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all".  Luther was struggling with his new revelation that we are saved by grace alone while witnessing all of the rules that "religion" had set in place.  Luther writes, "Good works do not make a good person, but a good person does good works; evil works do not make a wicked person, but a wicked person does evil works".  This is fully dependent on motive.  Understanding that righteousness is found through faith, a believer is therefore motivated through faith to do good works.  It is through this that works come as a result of faith.  It is from the eyes of faith that we love our neighbors as Christ taught us with no self-motive, but the genuine intent on fully helping our neighbor.  In our good health and abundance, it is our responsibility in faith to financially support and provide care for those in need as Luther states, "bearing one another's burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ" Motivation is measured by whether this comes from the freedom of God's grace absent from personal gain.  It is on the basis of the name Christian that Christ dwells within us that we care for our neighbor without condition or without judgment, whether friend or foe, whether thankful or thankless.

Song of Songs. 7,8
Ps. 99-101

"Do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready"

This appears three times in Song of Songs (2:7, 3:5, and 8:4). 

Going back to the post from Tuesday, from an understanding of a love poem between two lovers, the poem is saying take it slow.  Be patient with love and build a strong foundation.  As the poetry reads from highly sensuous and builds through consummation, this speaks of taking time to build a love that will last.  This will help kindle the relationship God had in mind back in the garden.  This establishes the kind of love that when offered "all the wealth of one's house it would be utterly scorned" (8:7).  We are reminded of an untamed love that is beautiful between two people, but be patient for the right person, and with the right person, wait until love is ready.  Wait, and build a friendship, a companionship where the maturity grows from the description of the little sister to a wall...like towers. 

As allegory, this works with the same parallel.  We all share different stories in coming to Christ.  Many share that moment and remember the date.  Many others grew up nurtured from birth in the church.  Our love in Christ is one that continually needs to be nurtured.  We do this by daily being in Scripture, in prayer, meditation.  Also, importantly we do this is a community of faith.  We are all stronger together as a community.  We are more complete with the many gifts that complement us as a body of faith.  All of this is necessary in establishing what we were made for, and that is a relationship with God. 

Blessings, Rob 

1 Timothy 1-4

Pig, or not a pig... that is the question?  At least that is where we often get hung up on some of the difficult passages from Paul's writing as it pertains to women.  Isolated by itself, the following is very difficult within our culture today:  "Let a woman learn in silence with full submission.  I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.  For Adam was formed first, the Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.  Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty."

 First, this is a letter.  We are only hearing one side of the conversation, only half of the conversation.  This helps open a window to what may be going on through the other side of the letter, but we only hear one voice.  Have you ever walked in and caught something controversial said, but only heard one part of the conversation?  It is also important to note that Paul was usually responding to problems within the church. 

Second, we have a cultural divide.  Traditions, dress, mannerisms, and even gender roles even today are different throughout the many cultures in our diverse world.  Lets take this idea, and then go back 1950 years ago when this letter was written.  We need to be sensitive the cultural roles play into this.

Third, we know from many of Paul's other letters that he is radically inclusive with women in leadership roles in the Church.  We know Paul did not forbid women from teaching as we see in the following: Paul often has great praise and worked closely with Priscilla who taught Apollos, the great preacher. (Acts 18:24-26).  Many other women are recognized by Paul with  positions of responsibility. This includes Phoebe (Romans 16:1), Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa and Persis (Romans 16:6, 12), and Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2). In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul writes that women pray and prophecy in church.

All this said, it is most important to look at the greater context of what Paul is saying.  This is in our Holy Scripture.  We can dry to dodge it, or ignore it.  We can also look at the Scholars who may through a detailed analysis support that someone else other than Paul may have said this.  But back to the earlier statement, this is in our Scripture, so we need to look at it with humility and gain a better understanding of what it is saying.

To look specifically at today's reading, chapter 1 opens us to the problem Paul is writing about.  "Some people have deviated from these and turned to meaningless talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions..." (1 Tim 1: 6-7)

Then, after the tough verses discussed earlier, Paul is talking about leadership in the church.  What we understand going on in Ephesus at this time is there were many false teachers.  Paul is addressing the problems, building the leadership, and in training is saying not to put anyone into leadership that doesn't have the the proper training.  He discussed the importance for elders and deacons, that they have it together, because leadership requires discipline and credibility.  Paul cares so much about building the church and the body of faith, that he really places emphasis on what he says to Timothy in having faith and good conscience.  From this perspective, we gain an understanding from a time where culturally, men were the ones educated.  Women from Ephesus are receiving training, but are not yet in a position to be teaching until they have the knowledge and experience.   

1 Timothy has so much to say to us today.  As we are seeing the diminishing influence of the church today in our culture, Paul provides us a great testament.  He writes to encourage Timothy, "For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.  These are the things you must insit on and teach.  Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.  Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching.  Do not neglect the gift that is in you... pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers."  Paul is providing encouragement in this time surrounded with false teaching. 

As our nominating committee is seeking those called to serve as elders and deacons, we see from Paul the importance of this on nurturing and leadership for within our church home and our community.  We are fortunate to have so many blessings within our congregation in both men and women.  To witness today, the influence of Virgie, and the number of lives she has touched by loving her church.  To see the example of John, caring so deeply for everyone else.  We are blessed, and when we have these kind of examples to compare to Paul's writing, it all makes greater sense.  We are so thankful for all in our church family. 

Blessings, Rob 

Song of Solomon 1-4, 1 Timothy 1-4

Wow, what a week to be the guest blogger.  We have Song of Solomon and Timothy.  Today we will catch up on Song of Solomon and tomorrow will focus on Timothy.

My first response, and how I begin is wow... an uncomfortable book today within a Bible Study and can you imagine...worship!  Why is this?  Song of Solomon is a book of love poems...very sensual, descriptive love poems.  So why is this difficult, and really, to be able to express the kind of love that is shared with us, isn't it the most amazing, descriptive, emotional love that we find in Scripture.  Reading commentaries, many scholars argue that this is a book of of secular love poetry that made it into our canon by accepting the parallel that this is analogous to God's love for Israel, which later then is shared with the concept of Christ's love for the Church.  Or is this simply love poetry expressing a deep sensual love between two people?

Some excerpts:
"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!  For your love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out; therefore the maidens love you... How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful!  Your eyes are doves behind your veil.  Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead.  Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing...Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies...You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you, Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind!  Blow upon my garden that its fragrance may be wafted abroad.  Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits."

Back to the questions:  Allegory of love between God and Israel? Or raw sensuous love between lovers?

My answer is...Yes! 

Allegorically speaking, reading this as I was discussing blogging about this with a friend of mine) makes you blush, makes us vulnerable.  The poetry paints a physical, but even more more, a spiritually deep love where we say yes.  In studying Song of Solomon in my Old Testament class, our professor helped show us how these poems take us back to the Garden of Eden.  It moves us from after the fall (read Genesis 3:15-18), and back into the garden, lost in love- in deep adoration, mutually between two lovers  (play Journey or Air Supply Song here).  This combines a deep intimacy within two lovers that make us crave a deep physical and spiritual love, a kind of love we seek with a partner, and even deeper, a connection with something much greater, the kind of love that connects us with God. 

Yesterday, I shared fellowship at the table with my father and grandfather.  We had three generations talking about television today compared with the early shows my grandfather loved.  He shared how funny at the time I Love Lucy was, and my Dad shared how shocking Elvis was when he was on the first Ed Sullivan Show.  That in the home, this wasn't allowed, but as soon as he was in the car, all the kids were singing Elvis songs.  Today, I shared with reality television and sitcoms, so much seams to have to be shocking, to the extend of out-shocking what has ever been done before.  My dad laughed and said that it sounds like I am getting old.  Why do I share this...

I share this because too often we are caught in the shocking.  I worry with our youth today on where the line is between love and lust, the physical and the spiritual.  We as a Church need to look at the kind of love modeled in Song of Solomon.  To look at it as raw sensuous love between lovers... we need to talk about this, and celebrate the kind of love two people can (and should) share with each other.  The Church too often, whether it done overtly, or through the absence by not discussing, sends a message that sex is bad.  Reading and discussing Song of Solomon can help us dispel this and show how beautiful a relationship is between lovers.  By talking about this, we can respond to the other messages being shared through media, internet, and pressures that are real to our children.  This helps share a difference between true love that is to be celebrated, and unhealthy relationships that tempt us in.

On even a deeper level, we need to allow ourselves to be vulnerable to the love of God and the love of Jesus Christ.  This is a love that changes us, helps us enter into a relationship that is fuller.  The kind of relationship that sheds the legalism and allows and instead helps us connect in conversation.  This is also the kind of love that helps us fulfill loving God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbor.

Meanwhile, I am going to borrow "Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead.  Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing" for the next card I write to my wife... 

Blessings, Rob   

 

August 26

Ecclesiastes 6, 7
Psalm 95, 96

So many thoughts again this day while reading Ecclesiastes, but this one in particular stood out to me, “In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.”  From an earthly perspective, this is hard to accept.  We like the bad guys to get zapped.  We like it when crime does not pay and the wicked are caught red-handed and made to pay for what they have done.  Like the Psalm we read earlier this week, Psalm 94, we hear the wicked say "The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed."

 If our perspective were only bound in time – birth, life, and then death was the end of a person’s existence, we might have to conclude that we agree with those who said that.  Some wicked people really do seem to flourish – they have big houses, drive really nice cars, have important jobs and influence a lot of people.  Yesterday while listening to Dr. David Jeremiah on the radio, I heard him say, “Believers have superficial difficulties and central happiness, while non-believers have superficial happiness and central difficulties.”  I have observed this to be true – for all the houses, cars, jobs and influence the wicked obtain, do any of them have central happiness? Each person must ultimately face death and each person must ultimately understand that, whatever one had on earth, it must be left behind and, as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Who knows whether he will be a wise man, or a fool?”

It is only the peace that passes all understanding that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus that gives us central happiness and contentment, knowing that this world and this life is not the end of us.  God does see and has paid heed to what has been done and each of us must someday meet Him.  Will it be joyfully, thankfully, running to meet Him, or fearfully, dragging our feet?

Psalm 95 uses an image of God’s people common in scripture; we are people of his pasture, the flock under His care.  My husband maintains that God created sheep purely as an object lesson for us.  Sheep are not the…sharpest animals in the pasture.  As most of us know, sheep will wander aimlessly, even off a cliff, if they are not carefully fenced in and given direction. It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to understand that that is exactly what we do so often in life.

In the context of Psalm 95, we are said to be the sheep under His care – it is that idea of His daily guidance and provision for us; watching over us that helps us understand how much God cares about us.  The writer of the Psalms tells us if we hear the voice of our Shepherd, we should not harden our hearts, but should listen to it, remembering that the Shepherd wants only the very best for His sheep.

 

 

 

August 25

Ecclesiastes 4, 5
2 Thessalonians 3

There are so many themes in today’s chapters of Ecclesiastes that it was hard to choose what to write about.  This verse, “As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?” reminded me of a few weeks ago when I was in my Adult Sunday School class at my church.  Someone made the comment, in the context of talking about the “stuff” we have and the stuff we want that when you look at any garbage dump in any given area, there are items in there that once were the latest and best – the brand new shiny car that someone had once saved for years to purchase, now a rusted-out hulk; the latest and best computer (16 MB!  Wow!), now discarded.  Anything we set our hearts on in this world ultimately comes to an end.  That’s why antiques are so valuable – hardly any material goods survive the wear and tear of time. 

This is not at all to say that wanting something new is wrong, nor is it ungodly to enjoy what we have been blessed with.  The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to say, “when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.” That is the right attitude about “stuff” isn’t it?  That we enjoy what we have, recognizing that it is God’s hand that has given it to us – to accept what we have and be content with it rather than forever wanting more; understanding that our true treasure lies in heaven, “where moth and rust do not destroy” (Matthew 6:20).  Praise God!

In his closing words to the Thessalonians, Paul talks about the importance of work.  He urges the Thessalonians to keep working and not to allow any of their fellow believers to be idle.  I wonder if, in context of the previous chapter in which Paul assured them that they had not missed out on Christ’s return, if some of the believers in Thessalonica had become discouraged and stopped working – does anyone know?  Comment below.

Whatever the context, Paul makes it plain that while we are earth, we are to be busy with the work God has given us to do.  Going back to today’s reading from Ecclesiastes, the writer says, “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot.”  Further, Paul says in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”  I am ready to work for the Lord today – how about you?

 

August 24

Ecclesiastes 1-3
2 Thessalonians 2

“Meaningless!” declares the writer of Ecclesiastes as I begin my morning reading, “Everything is meaningless! ... What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”  These words were written well over 2,000 years ago, and nothing has changed, has it?  We have new technology that allows us to view almost the entire world at any given time.  Is there any question for which you can’t “Google” an answer?  In fact, I Googled the question of how long ago Ecclesiastes was written.  Yet all of this technology allows us to view a world that is essentially unchanged because human nature is unchanged. 

We have read quite a bit of the Old Testament by now, over half-way through the Year of the Bible.  We have read about wars and jealousy and dirty dealing and sexual sin and murder and heartbreak.  The circumstances of each of these incidences might have been different - the people dressed differently, spoke different languages and had different customs than we do, but their experiences of life and their thoughts and feelings – their humanity, are as familiar to us as the stories we hear on the nightly news. 

When I hear people speak of “the good old days”, I wonder, really, how good were they?  Some areas of life might have been better, but the writer of Ecclesiastes says that a world apart from God is, in fact, meaningless and there is nothing new with humanity.  For every great thing about the good old days, we can find something that wasn’t so great. What do you think?

In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul writes that he doesn’t want the Thessalonians to become upset thinking they have somehow missed Christ’s return.  Apparently, some people had even sent them letters in Paul’s name telling them this.  What a rotten thing to do.  Going along with the previous theme from Ecclesiastes, nothing is new under the sun – how often have we heard someone today saying something false about Jesus’ return?  Matthew Henry, in his commentary, writes, “False doctrines are like the winds that toss the water to and fro; and they unsettle the minds of men, which are as unstable as water.”  Satan loves for us to get all upset about things like this.  The most important thing to remember is that no matter how many lies are told about the day of Christ’s return, Christ will return and that is the heart of the matter.  I am content to leave the timing in God’s hands.