A Part of the Kingdom

Sometimes old memories seem as fresh as this morning.  One of those old but vivid memories was created while I was sitting on the edge of the gym bleachers in the eighth grade waiting for the coach to open up an old box that contained basketball team uniforms that had been worn by boys before me who had made the team.  So many of the previous afternoons had been filled with the sounds of out of breath boys doing wind sprints up and down the gym floor, basketballs bouncing up and down and up and down again, and the hollering voice of the coach who kept after us to get it right.  But, this afternoon with the boxes being opened, there was a hush that had settled over all of us as we waited.

It is one of my first memories of belonging and of receiving something which marked me as one of those who did.  It had cost a lot of effort, a lot of time, and a lot of sweat, but no one was counting the cost as those shorts and jerseys were pulled out of the box.  Years later I came to understand that an invitation was being given to me to become a part of the Kingdom of heaven.  It took me some time to understand that it cost me nothing, but instead, cost Jesus so much.  There were times when it seemed like a costly venture on my part, but in hindsight, I have come to understand that my presence within the Kingdom of God is all about grace.

When Jesus died on the cross, the door to the Kingdom of God was flung wide enough for all the sinners of the world to gain admission, including me.  Since that night so long ago when I said "Yes" to Christ, I have been a part of His Kingdom.  Despite all the teachings of Jesus and all the parables, there remains such mystery surrounding my understanding of what it means to be a part of what God is doing in the world.  The gratitude owed for being brought into this realm of life is one which can never be adequately expressed and neither are any words of joy sufficient. 

The Invisible Necessary Ingredient

My excursions into the kitchen have not always ended well.  The first time I tried to make corn bread, I used baking powder instead of cornmeal.  What I intended to be a surprise was more than any of my expectations!  So, when I say I know little about yeast, it is certainly believable.  I have seen yeast and seen what it can do, but when I read the parable of the yeast in Matthew 13:33, there is very little practical experience to guide me toward understanding. 

 

What I do understand about yeast is that it makes a tremendous difference when it is mixed with the dough that makes bread.  What I also understand is that in the rising of the dough, the difference can be seen, but only the difference, not the yeast.  The yeast is the invisible ingredient.  Once it is cast into the mixing bowl, it is never seen again.  All that can be seen is the effect it has on the substance into which it has disappeared.  And, so we hear Jesus saying, "The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast..."

 

The Kingdom of heaven is ever present, but not always seen with the human eye.  Jesus talked about the Kingdom being in our midst and also something still to come.  It is not always something visible to us with eyes that can see only the physical things around us.  The Kingdom is like another universe that exists alongside of the one in which we live.  Invisible but present.  Unseen but seen.  Sometimes understood but always a mystery.  It is the necessary invisible ingredient in the realm in which we live and we see and experience it most clearly as we see the effect it is having on the people and the world around us. 

Coming in the Small

There are numerous parables about the Kingdom of Heaven.  No single one says the definitive word about the Kingdom, but each one opens a different window for us to catch a glimpse of what Jesus was setting forth in His Kingdom parables.  If there is any view which defines the Kingdom, it surely must be the cumulative view that brings them and so many other teachings together.  Some of those Kingdom teachings are more commonly known and more clearly understood, but all them offer something unique.

One of the more familiar Kingdom parables is the parable of the mustard seed.  When we stop and think of the grandeur and majesty of God's Kingdom, it seems strange to liken it to something as small and insignificant as the tiny mustard seed.  While the fruit of the mustard seed is described in the gospel as "the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree," (Matthew 13:32)  most of us think not of a mustard tree, but of a green leafy edible plant grown in most fall gardens.  The common denominator for both, however, is the tiny seed.  Anyone who has tried to plant one mustard seed at a time soon gives up on the task and mixes it with some sand before broadcasting it in the garden. 

What is clear from the parable is that the Kingdom of heaven is experienced not in the grandiose, but in the small.  From something as small as a mustard seed comes the Kingdom.   The Kingdom can be seen and experienced in the smallest of things.  When Jesus came into the world, He came not in the vestments of a king, but through something so small it was nurtured within the womb of a woman.  As we open our eyes up to see the small things like the widow's mite, the smile that greets us in the morning, and the kind word giving us grace we begin to understand something of what Jesus meant when He spoke of the Kingdom being among us, yet, also coming. 

Not Even a Whisper

After the parable of the sower, Matthew remembers another agrarian based parable taught by Jesus.  This second parable found in the first gospel is known as the parable of the weeds among the wheat.  Older and more traditional readers know it as the parable of the wheat and tares.  Like the parable of the sower, this one, too, lends itself to an allegoric interpretation and is one explained by Jesus.  (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43)   Verse 37 spells it out.  "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the Kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil..."

 

This Kingdom of Heaven parable is one which teaches us that even though Jesus has come and evil was overcome at the cross, it is still present in the world and will be until what the Scripture refers to as the end of the age.  It is not hard to figure.  In the world in which we live, we see evidence of how Christ is at work in the lives of so many, but we also see that the power of evil is still present seeking to undermine the good of the Kingdom of God. 

Good and evil exist alongside each other.  It has been that way since the beginning.  It was certainly that way in the time of Christ and it remains the same in our own day.  The parable makes it clear that evil is not going to be eradicated within the lifespan of humanity, but that there will come a day when the prayer we pray Sunday after Sunday will indeed come to pass.  "Our Father....thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..."   The thing for which we pray in the prayer first prayed by Jesus will not come to pass today or tomorrow, but it will come to pass.  As surely as Jesus passed through the manger, to the cross, and out of the empty tomb that day will finally come when evil will not even be left with a whisper.  It will be no more. 

A Parable about Hearing

Matthew, the gospel writer, introduces us to the parables of Jesus by remembering the parable of the sower.  (Matthew 13)  Although the Word says, "And He told them many things in parables, saying, 'Listen, a sower went out to sow..."  what is called a parable has always had more the feel of an allegory.  Another thing which makes it different from other parables is the way the parable itself is explained by Jesus.   With the explanation given by Jesus, this rendering of a parable lacks the mystery which requires those who hear to figure it out. 

As we look toward understanding the parable of the sower, the one phrase which keeps re-appearing in some form contains such words as "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom...(vs. 18)...this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it...(vs. 20)...this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world...(vs. 22)...this is the one who hears the word and understands it...(vs. 23)  Perhaps, the parable is not so much about the seed, or the ground, but the hearing of the Word of the Kingdom when it is proclaimed.

As we know, there are different kinds of hearing.  Some of our hearing is done while doing a kind of auditory multi-tasking.  Some of it is done through the filter of pre-conceived notions about what is being heard.  Some of it is listening that speaks more of toleration than hearing.  The kind of hearing to which the parable moves us is the kind which goes beyond anything physical, but to a kind of hearing which can only be received thought the senses which are unconsciously at work in our lives through every kind of communication.  But, more importantly the hearing which enables us to hear both the words and the mystery within the words of the Kingdom is a hearing not just of the mind, but of the heart. 

Something to Chew

When you read a good story, it is not just coming to the end and closing the book.  A good story with an ending like "Grapes of Wrath" is carried around long after the book is closed.  A good sermon is the same way.  A good sermon is not forgotten after the benediction, but has some staying power that requires some after preaching chewing.  The Parables Jesus told are like this as well.  When people heard them, something was carried forward into the tomorrows still to come which had the power to bring back the moment.

What Jesus did was to take such ordinary things like a man sowing a field, or a woman working with yeast, or the experience of losing and finding something of value.  These were the kind of things which everyone could touch in their own life, but when Jesus finished handling them, the ordinary things were no longer the same.  They became memorable.  They became something filled with the transcendent.  No longer ordinary, they became holy.  To walk down the road and see seed being cast on the ground by a sower brought back the words of Jesus.  In what seemed to be a random and ordinary moment, an echo of a Kingdom truth sounded deep in the heart.

Anyone who reads the gospels encounters these parables of Jesus.  And even though we cannot hear the sound of the voice teaching them, the Holy Spirit works a miracle in the heart of those of us who are willing to sit and chew on something so filled with the ordinary that it seems impossible God could have something to say through it.  The surprising thing is that He always does.  We can read the parables of Jesus by calling the words, or we can read them as a hungry beggar who needs the spiritual food for the life of the soul within us.  When we chew on them as one who is hungry and thirsty, there is no end to what God might say to us through one of those ordinary images overflowing with the holy. 

Why Parables?

The disciples asked the question long ago.  "Why do you speak to them in parables?"  (Matthew 13:10)  It seems that Jesus could have avoided a lot of confusion and misunderstanding by just saying what He was saying.  There are times when the truth of one of Jesus' parables just stares you in the face, but there are also times when we read and wonder if there might not be something we are missing.  They are simply not as easy as a tried and true three point sermon!

Jesus answered the question of the disciples that day.  A few verses later we hear Him saying, "The reason I speak to them in parables is that 'seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.' " (Matthew 13:13)  The answer is for many of us hardly an answer at all, but just adds to our head scratching.  Certainly parables are not the favorite of the "give it to me in one or two simple points people."  Parables require some thinking and figuring.  They require some sitting and thinking and meditating.  Those with everything already figured out and who are in a hurry to get where they are going are those who will never have much use for parables. 

It really does not appear that Jesus was trying to speak in some religious code.  Nor does it seem that He was afraid that someone with authority and power might figure out what He was really about with His ministry.  He did not use the parables to hide spiritual truths.  Instead, it appears that He used parables to help people do some of the hard work which is necessary for spiritual growth to take place.  A parable is like an invitation to "Go figure" and when we do we are far more likely to see some Kingdom door opening up for us enabling us to see a truth not seen by those whose hearts are not open to the possibility that God is trying to say something new in our midst. 

Parables of Jesus

These days Sunday worship puts me on what I call the wrong side of the altar.  I would much prefer a place behind a pulpit, but this is a season for sitting in the pew.  Last Sunday's worship featured a preacher who used one of the parables of Jesus for his text.  It set me to thinking about the parables.  I realized I had not focused on them much lately.  So, my take away from the Sunday sermon is to spend a little more time in the upcoming days with the  parables of Jesus.

 

One of the things which we preachers are tempted to do is to turn the parables into allegories.  What this means is that  in an allegory different people and events might have some symbolic meaning all their own, but parables are different.  It is an error to take a parable like the parable of the lost coin and give some spiritual significance to the house in which the coin was lost, or to speak of reason it was a woman who lost the coin, or to make a point of the lamp she burned in her search.   The parable has one point to be preached and it is found in the last verse, "Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God  over one sinner who repents."  (Luke 15:10)

 

A parable has a single truth.  It is not to be handled as if it every part of the parable has a special meaning all its own.  Jesus loved to use parables in teaching spiritual truth.  One of the parables which defies this definition actually seems more like an allegory that is mislabeled and that is the parable of the sower.  But, who am I to say?  I am only a reader of the Word.  The Holy Spirit is the author and the inspiration of the Word.  It is very likely that He has insight into what Jesus was seeking to communicate that day that I do not have.  Still, I find myself wondering, but then, causing wondering is one of the points of those parables of Jesus. 

True for the Goose

This past Sunday the place of worship was not inside a walled sanctuary, but outside in an open air Pavilion.  Like the tabernacles remembered from camp meeting days, the Pavilion had no sides to shut out the creation all around it.  The service was called Boat Church as the people in attendance were mostly those camped at the State Park, or those who used their boats to take them from lakeside homes across the lake to the place of worship. 

 

What might surprise some was the fact that the Pavilion was filled to overflowing.  It was attended by 200 or so folks, a dozen dogs, and a flock of Canadian geese that did a noisy flyover shortly after the first song which was "I'll Fly Away."  While every one else was only focused on the preacher, this preacher got mentally side tracked with the flying geese and their honking.  In the moment I wondered if they were joining with us in offering their version of praising God.  The 148th Psalm has words that read,  "Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds....Let them praise the name of the Lord..."  (vs. 10, 12). 

 

In the midst of my mental holiday from the listening to the preaching, I decided the honking was suitable praise.  After all when any member of the creation does what it is supposed to do, it is bringing glory to God.  When Canadian geese do what Canadian geese were created to do, it is surely a manifestation of the creator God.  Fulfilling their purpose is surely heard and seen as praise by the Creator who brought them into being.  And, in the midst of my mental holiday, I also decided what is true for the goose is true for me and for you. 

The Gifts of the Church

Maybe it is because preaching is what preachers do that my Young Harris College friend, Harold, and I agreed to do some preaching in a couple of small country churches over the state line in North Carolina.  The Annual Conference of that area had assigned one pastor a charge of eight churches which provided us an opportunity to fill in where he could not be.  Each Sunday Harold and I would put on our best preacher clothes and head out to try our hand at some preaching.

 

It is interesting that we both remember those churches when nary a soul there is likely to be remembering those two green college students who came to preach.  What I am declaring it that those small mountain churches had more of an impact on us than we likely had on them.  It was not the first time the church has blessed the preacher more than the preacher blessed the church.  When I finally did get appointed to a charge of three churches here in South Georgia by a Bishop, I went figuring to wow the world with my preaching only to find that those churches blessed me in immeasurable way through their patience and prayers and grace giving.

 

There are times when we sell the local church short.  There are times when the local church seems so afflicted with problems that nothing positive could possibly come from it.  But, such is not true.  Every church I have served had one or two cantankerous folks who seemed to enjoy mixing it up with the preacher, but for everyone of them there were so many others who wanted nothing more than the best of God's blessing for the church.  More than I remember any troublemakers do I remember the saints who showered me with the gift of encouragement, the power of their prayers, and the grace of their presence Sunday after Sunday.  May the Lord continue to bless the church and may He continue to give life to the blessings it has planted in the lives of so many preachers like me.   

Plow Your Patch

When I went to Young Harris College on a day long gone, I carried in my baggage a high school diploma and a call to preach.    I knew what to do with the high school diploma, but it took awhile to figure out the call to preach.  I do remember that the call to preach was like a written invitation to join the College Ministerial Association.  Besides meeting from time to time, I do not recall what we did.  But, before my two year stint at Young Harris was over, I had been chosen to be the Bishop of the Ministerial Association which is what the president of that campus organization was called.

 

One of my parishioners at the Talbotton Church often said I would make a Bishop some day, but I just told him I had already been elected Bishop so that was, therefore, an unnecessary election.  The truth is many a preacher has been ruined by ambitions and aspirations for a bigger pulpit, a higher steeple, or bigger political clout.  Regrettably, I have not always been immune to such temptations through the years.  One of the best pieces of advice I have received from an older clergy mentor was, "Plow your own patch."

 

"Plowing your own patch" speaks of contentment with where God has placed us.  It is not just a good word for preachers, but for anyone regardless of the "patch being plowed."  Many a life has been less than what it could be because the grass always seemed greener over the fence line.  Too many times we get so wrapped up in getting something we do not have that we miss out on what is in front of us as well as what we are seeking.  Contentment is not characterized as laziness, nor is it the route of the disappointed whiners.  Contentment is about trusting God to bless us where we are and allowing Him to bring into our lives the opportunities that He has planned for us. 

Expiration Dates on Prayer

Have you ever wondered if there was an expiration day on a prayer that is prayed?  Maybe there is on those prayers we deliver to the throne room ultimatum style.  Or, maybe those prayers never make it.  The more I learn about God, the more it seems He is not really into being told what to do.  His agenda and time table is far more set than most of us want to believe.  Or, maybe prayers prayed for someone are held in trust as long as the person lives and only then are they canceled out. 

 

While I am not sure about prayers with expiration dates, I do know that some prayers hang out there wherever prayers hang out for a long time before God seems to act on them.  And, it also seems true that some prayers just are prayers that take a long time to come to fruition.  For example, the first prayer I prayed for both our daughters was a prayer I prayed when I held them in my arms shortly after their birth.  It was a simple prayer as I prayed that each one would grow and come to love Jesus.  It took some years, but it is a blessing in both their lives for which I am eternally grateful.

 

Other prayers are similar.  We may pray and pray for a healing, or for a restoration of a relationship, or the return of a loved one from a dangerous place.  We may pray for someone who suffers from an addiction, or who battles with an inner darkness, or who seems determined not to respond to offers of the love of Jesus.  Jesus taught us to be persistent and sometimes that provides our only hope.  One thing I have come to believe is that the effect of our praying may be one of those things which outlives us.  It may be a heritage we leave behind when we leave this earth for the heavenly place. 

The Mystery of Prayer

I have always been impressed by those prayer stories of folks who were awaken in the midst of their sleep, or called apart during the day to intercede for someone in a distant place.  If I had only heard or read of one such story, I might dismiss it as the creation of someone's imagination, but there have been too many testimonies of such happening to disregard the reality of God being at work through prayer.  Surely, it is true that God can do what God wants to do without the praying of some soul left wondering what just happened.

 

It is one of the mysteries of our faith walk with Christ.  The only thing we can really say with certainty is that God apparently chooses to involve us in what He is about in the lives of other people. And, another thing which has been proven true is that our prayers seem like tools God uses to accomplish His purposes.  Could He accomplish His purposes without our praying?  Most likely He could, but it also seems that He chooses to bring us into a kind of partnership with Him which is in itself a truly amazing thing to consider.

So, I will continue doing as I have always done and others have done and are doing as well.  To pray is to engage in a spiritual discipline which does not always provide for us eyes to see its effects or power.  Instead, it is one of things we do with a full measure of faith.  I would rather stand alongside the witnesses of powerful intercessory prayers in Scripture and those not so ancient saints who have proven themselves to be faithful in prayer.  If I can choose my company, I would rather walk where these have walked and prayed. 

Simplify, Simplify!

When I sat in a seminary classroom I was a much, much younger man.  I was also a man who thought he knew a good bit more than he actually knew.  At a time in my life when it seemed good to make things complicated, there were always voices which hollered out the word from Walden Pond, "Simplify, simplify."  A preaching professor often said to preach to folks in the pews as if you were preaching to sixth graders.  He was not saying that pew sitters were not very educated, but that preachers tended to make things more complicated than they needed to be.

 

When it comes to an understanding of how it is that God is One, yet Three, there are many complicated and confusing ideas out there to read and consider.  One simple illustration has served me well over the years as I have struggled to understand this mystery and communicate it in a simple understandable way to others.  Simply stated, I am one man.  But, with my wife I express myself as husband, with my daughters I express myself as father, and with my mother I express myself as son.  I am and have always been and will always be only one and, yet, am known through many different expressions of myself.

 

This simple oversimplification of a profound theological truth may seem far short in terms of meeting all the right criteria for a correct theological response, but it where I must, nonetheless, go.  In the final analysis there is more mystery in the doctrine of the Trinity than my intellect, common sense, theological training, and a life time of living can grasp.  What I do not doubt is the holy truth behind the Biblical understand of One God who makes Himself known to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Understanding it all and putting it in a neat theological package is not a necessity for me.  Maybe it works that way for others as well. 

Reminders of the Trinity

As we delve into understanding Celtic spirituality, we learn very quickly that it is a Trinity oriented tradition.  When the midwife would deliver the newborn child midst the gathered birthing women, she would touch the child three times with water, once for the Father, once for the Son, and once for the Holy Spirit.  This first baptism proclaimed blessings of the Trinity from the very beginning.  The practice of invoking the blessings of the Trinity began at that moment and continued through the prayers prayed during the ordinary things of daily life.

 

The doctrine of the Trinity is, of course, a part of our own spiritual tradition, but it is something which is more a part of our head and intellect and not something really known and experienced in our heart.  One of the thing I have recently found myself doing to be reminded of the presence of the Holy Trinity in my daily life is to take three handfuls of water and splashing them on my face saying, "Bless me now, Father....Bless me now Christ....Bless me now Holy Spirit."  It is such a simple thing borrowed from the Celtic tradition, but it brings me to a moment of intentionally seeking the blessings of God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

The Celtic tradition is one which invokes and recognizes the presence of the Trinity in all the mundane things of life.  The lighting of the fire in the hearth in the morning and laying up the ashes in the evening, making the food for the family, and watching the day come and go are all ordinary mundane moments when the heart is turned toward the holy presence which is as near as the moment which is about to come.  I am one of those who needs reminders for in the going from one thing and place to another, it is easy to falsely think that it is all about me when it is the blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which moves me along in my journey. 

 

Blessed Trinity

As far back as my mind will take me, I remember singing that song, "Holy, Holy, Holy."  Looking back I was probably more captivated by the singing part of the song than the its theology.  "Holy, holy, holy!  Lord God Almighty!  Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.  Holy, holy, holy!  Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity!"  This first verse is full of exclamation points which probably means it should be sung strongly.  Unfortunately, the church has too often sung it with a wimpy spirit!

Over the years I did not do a lot of preaching about the Trinity.  Of course, there is a Sunday on the Church calendar celebrated as Trinity Sunday, but even on that Sunday most preachers will choose another topic.  Perhaps, we do not quite know what to do with this theological understanding of God.  We stay so focused on worshiping one God that we do not quite know what to do with the idea that God is known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And when we do deal with these three dimensions of divine revelation, we usually do so in such a way that the distinctiveness of each one is affirmed without speaking of the three in a wholistic manner. 

What I have been too slow to learn is that it is not heresy to address prayers to Christ or the Holy Spirit even as I do when I begin my prayers with the "Our Father."  Doing this has been a discipline of  reacquainting myself with the multi dimensioned nature and work of God.   It has always been a struggle to stay out of ruts of the routine when praying.  When congregations can anticipate the prayers of their pastor before he prays them, or when folks like us end up praying prayers filled with a sameness, there might be some questions to be asked about our praying.  What I have learned is that praying with the Trinity in mind brings something new and fresh to a spiritual discipline that has been practiced a life time. 

One In Three

When the Apostle John wrote as his first words, "In the beginning was the Word..." (John 1:1), he surely must have had in mind that ancient Hebrew writing which had as its first words, "In the beginning when God created..."  (Genesis 1:1).  The  Apostle certainly places Jesus in the middle of the creative act as he goes on to write, "All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being." (John 1:3)  The book of beginnings makes no direct reference to the Son being in the mix of creation, but it does explicitly name God as creating and the reference to "a wind from God"  surely beings to mind the Holy Spirit.

 

References to the Trinity are not always spelled out as clearly as we would like to see them in the Scripture, but they are present, nonetheless. Later as the Word speaks of the sixth day we hear it saying,  "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness..."  (Genesis 1:26).  It often seems that we have become hesitant to speak much of the Trinity lest others get confused by references to three instead of one.  One of the things obvious to us as we read the Scripture is that it does not require consistency of itself.  It actually is written in a way to encourage our moving into mystery instead of complete understanding.

It is, perhaps, true that we all have our own simple way of understanding how God is One God; yet, One who expresses Himself in three ways.  St. Patrick often used a clover.  Others speak of the way in which we all express ourselves through different roles.  While explaining the Trinity may not be as simple as we would like it to be, the thing is that it does not have to be understood.  It is what God has chosen to do in making Himself known in the world.  We really need to know nothing more.  After all, this walk with God is not about understanding, but about faith. 

Hid From Our Eyes

It is easy to read and run on to the next verse or two thinking that we have read something we have not really read.  In the early verses of the book of Genesis, we find the seven day account of creation.  Shortly after the beginning on the first day, the Word enables us to hear God saying, "Let there be light."  (Genesis 1:3)  We know the rest.  There was light and it was good.  But this light which was different than darkness had nothing to do with the sun and moon and the stars.  As the account unfolds, we see that these great lights were creations of the fourth day.

 

So what was this light spoken of as a creation of the first day?  If the Word is not speaking about the light of the sun and the moon, what is this light?  In pondering these questions and this passage, I have found myself remembering the old hymn which sings, "Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes..."  Could these ancient Words from Genesis be speaking of a light that shines, yet, one which is inaccessible to the sight with which we are blessed?  While it is not true of the light of the sun or the moon, is there a light which is hid from our eyes?

It is surely true that God is the One who is unseen and seen.  He is the One who is visible, yet invisible.  He is the One who is as present as the one who stands beside us, yet, not here but always there.  He is the One who can be understood, yet, the one who is always mystery.  Given this reality, perhaps, these words speak of the essence of life which was brought into being by the Holy Three. The light of the first day seems to point us to the unseen foundation, the invisible undercurrent, the impossible to understand truth upon which all of creation depends for its ongoing life. 

What God Does

The one thing we know for sure is that we do not know what a day holds for us when we rise to meet it.  Those who think they do live in a world inhabited only by fools.  In that Word from God which is filled with very practical Words of wisdom, we hear, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.'  Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring...Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.' "  (James 4:13-15) 

Only the Lord knows about the rest of today and tomorrow.  In the midst of these same verses James also writes, "What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."  I remember a church member from some years ago who was an anesthesiologist.  I commented that her job was to put people to sleep for surgery and she quickly replied, "No, my job is to wake them up."  When put to sleep in that manner we want someone to wake us up and when we sleep at night we want someone to awaken us.  The One who does this each morning is God.  He is the One who opens our eyes and who strengthens us for the time that is before us.

We are here, but only for a time.  Like a mist, we are here and then gone.  We are here and then there.  Where is there?  It is where here is.  In both the here and the there part of our life we are with God.  He does not forsake us in this life and His promise to us through Christ is that He will always be with us, even though the darkness of death.  Everything about our life is in the Lord's hands.  To think anything else is to live in the midst of an illusion.  What more do we need each day?  What more do we need when we walk into some of life's unthinkable moments than to know that God is with us, caring for us, and loving us.  It is what God does.

What is Missed

Often we do not see what is staring us in the face.   We miss the obvious because we are looking elsewhere.  Our focus is not on the present, the here and now and the people who are a part of that present moment, but on something out there in the future which is yet to come.   The Word of God is quick to tell us to stay in the present.  "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today's trouble is enough for today."  (Matthew 6:34)  And in another place it says, "Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time..." (Ephesians 5:16)  These things we know, but the present is still a hard place for us to live.

Every day I go about some farm chores which are really nothing more than tending to the animals.  People who have dogs and cats as pets know about tending to animals entrusted to our care.  Each day I make sure the cows have water, cast an eye down the fence line, and count them as they move about the pasture.  The chickens, too, need water and feed each day.  And so it goes.  As far as I know none of them have any anxieties about the food and water coming to them each day.  When they see me, they seem to know that I am the one who is caring for them. 

Maybe we live in the future instead of the present because we have forgotten Who it is that is really caring for us and providing for us.  When we come to a place of thinking tomorrow and tomorrow's provision is all about me, then we do have reason to worry.  If we stay focused on God coming, we are free to find what it is in the present moment that is giving our life meaning and value.  Knowing that each day is a thing of meaning and value is something lost in the midst of our hurrying and worrying about tomorrow.  It is gift with which God seeks to bless us and it is too bad we spend so much time missing it. 

The Quadrilateral Substitute

The Wesley Quadrilateral states that good theology is based first on Scripture and then on tradition, reason, and experience.  It served the early Methodist movement well from the eighteenth century world of John Wesley until recently.  Today the Quadrilateral of Wesley would be called an anachronism, or something which simply no longer works in a society as complex as ours.  And while everyone may not be a fan of Wesley, what our culture has put in place of something like the Quadrilateral is leading us into dangerous theological waters.

 

What our culture is substituting for something like the Wesley Quadrilateral is common consensus.  If enough people declare it to be true, then it must be true.  If enough people declare it to be the way, then there can be no other way.  The theology of the church and so many who lead it is being shaped more by the reasoning of men and women instead of the mind of God as it is revealed to us through the Sacred Word.   In the days of the Old Testament prophets most of the Hebrews were worshiping at the altar of the Lord and the altar of Baal.  Everyone was doing it so it had to be good.

One thing which is sure to change is the majority opinion.  What is true today was likely not true yesterday and may not be true tomorrow.  Theology based on common consensus has no roots.  It is blown one way and then another.  It ignores what has been tested by people of faith for centuries and centuries.  Many times it even ignores the Scripture.  Perhaps, I am just an old fashioned, narrow thinking preacher, but actually, I see myself apprehensive about the logical conclusions to which we must surely go given some of the theological disarray present in the church today. 

Brothers and Sisters

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them."  (Genesis 1:26-27)  Is it really true?  How can it be that every person who stands before us through the span of a day is one bearing the image of God?  Maybe this is something Jesus had in mind when He spoke to His disciples that Word about feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, and giving a drink to the thirsty.  (Matthew 25) 

 

Maybe it was inconceivable to Jesus that a back would be turned, a cold shoulder turned, or a degrading word spoken to someone who bore the image of the Creator.  If it was to him, and surely it was, it is not so for us.  Too many times we have been careless about the ones who stand in our path.  Too many times we have seen the externals, the clothes, the filth, and status symbols instead of seeing the reality of divine presence being present with us through the presence of another.

 

I remember a song from much earlier days which had a line in it that said, "If I have wounded any soul today, if I have caused one foot to go astray, Dear Lord, forgive."   None of us would intentionally wound the body, heart, or spirit of another, but it happens inadvertently through hurried and careless living.  As we begin to understand this image of God stuff to mean that every single person bears His image, it surely causes us to see ourselves differently and the people around us as well.  After all, if we all bear the same image, we must be brother and sisters.

Mindboggling

Mindboggling and amazing is what it is.  "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them."  (Genesis 1:26-27)  What one of us can comprehend?  What one of us can begin to figure it out?  What we have in these few words recorded in the book of beginning is a mystery understood only by the Writer of the Word. 

 

One of the things which becomes obvious as we begin to consider this great mystery is that there are no exceptions.  Each one of us regardless of our status bears the image of the Creator.  And, this also means that not even the stain of sin in our life changes the fact that we bear the image of God.  There are things we are able to change about ourselves.  We can change our appearance.  We can change how people perceive us.  We can change what we do, or where we live.  What we cannot change is the reality that this holy mystery exists in us at the core of our being.

 

It would seem that our sin, especially those which we might regard as the terrible sins, would somehow destroy this holy image which exist in us, but not even sin can obliterate the image of God which was imprinted upon us when we were created.  Our sin may make it difficult for people to think of us as one created in the image of God.  Our sin may obscure our awareness of it at the essence of our being, but once created in the image of God, we carry it with us throughout the whole of our life.  It is one of God's gift to us.  He does not take it back.  The journey toward God through Christ is about allowing who we are at the core of our being to influence every moment we live. 

The Spittin' Image

After my father's death, I took comfort in hearing that I looked like him.  There were times I would stand in front of the mirror and watch myself trying to hold my eyes as I saw his eyes in a much looked at picture.  I always stood a little straighter, felt a little prouder, and seemed more like a man than a boy when my aunts and uncles said to me, "Boy, you're the spittin' image of your Daddy."  To this day I like to think that I still reflect something of his image.

 

On the very first page of the Word of God, way back in the beginning of the book of Genesis, there is this Word which says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them."  (Genesis 1:26-27)  Even as we bear something of the physical image of our parents, so do we bear something of the essence of the Creator Himself.  This divine image with which we are marked does not manifest itself in the visible and the physical, but in the invisible and the spiritual.

 

It is indeed a thought which goes beyond the ability of our minds to completely comprehend.  But, then it is not a matter for understanding, but a matter for praise.  As the Psalmist marveled at his own creation, he cried out to God, "I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are Your works."  (Psalm 139:14)  If looking at our physical body and seeing how it is  intrinsically put together causes praise to the Creator, how much more this is true when we consider that there is some integral part of us which bears the image, the marking, of the One who brought us into being.  How blessed we are to be seen in the heavenly places as one who bears the spittin' image of God. 

Cemetery Stories

Today I walked in a cemetery which has grown next to a country Methodist Church for over a hundred years.  I was stopped in my tracks by a small headstone which read, "Infant child of (and then it named the father and mother) born and died June 1895."  And then only a step away was another small headstone exactly like the first with the same inscription.  The only difference was it read, " born and died September 1897."   Suddenly the air seemed to be pulled out of the place where I was standing.  Next to the two was a larger headstone with the mother's name and it read, "died 1897."  Cemeteries tell stories no one wants to read.

 

Whenever I stand in such places and get captured in such a moment, I am caused to think that here came and stood broken and grieving people.  Where I stand is where tears of broken hearts have been poured upon the ground.  While I understand clearly the definition of holy, it has always seemed that ground made wet with the tears of the grieving is made holy in a way that defies definition.  I can understand why my mother always cautioned us about stepping on graves and playing on grave markers.  Where those stories are spoken, there needs to be the fullest measure of respect and honor given.

 

Grief is something all of us experience.  Reading the story of this family who lived over 125 years ago brought some of mine to the surface again.  I wept for them.  I wept for me.  As I left there I hoped that someone stood with them and read the holy words, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." (Revelation 21:4)  And I hope, too, that whoever stood with them that day quoted what Jesus said at the tomb of Lazarus, "I am the resurrection and the life."  (John 11:25)  I pray they were comforted and that they live rejoicing in the heavenly place. 

The Blessing of Stillness

The Word tells us, "Be still, and know that I am God!"  (Psalms 46:10)  It sounds easy enough.  Experiencing stillness and finding silence does not seem like such a difficult task until we start moving in that direction.  What makes it so difficult is the competition.  We can choose to turn off the noise makers, the attention getters, and the things that intrude into the present moment, but these things are like a kind of addiction.  We may lay them aside for a moment, but unless we know the deep stillness in our heart, these things will once again regain control of who we are.

When the Word calls us to "Be still," it is speaking not so much of turning off the external stuff as it is speaking of learning to experience and know holy presence midst all the confusing chaos of life.  After Elijah had his great moment on the mountain, fear overcomes him and he runs to a mountain hiding place.  Once there he is told to get ready for the Lord is about to pass by.  As he stands at the mouth of a cave, he experiences a great wind, the sound of breaking rocks, the roaring fire, and then "a sound of sheer silence." (I Kings 19:12)   With the sounds of turmoil gone, the sound of sheer silence came and with it came the Word of God for that moment in his life.

Most of us cannot go to a cave, or to a desert, or to a monastery, or to some place where silence will surely surround us, but the stillness spoken of in the Psalm is not made of external stuff, but a product of the Holy Spirit being allowed to roam and rule in our heart.  The stillness that enables us to know God is one given to us as a blessing of the Holy Spirit.  It cannot be manufactured.  There is no on and off switch which we can push.  It is a gift which comes to us from the Spirit and one which creates in us a heart readied for the holy presence of God.