The Ever Flowing River

Long years ago when I was a young seminary student, I took courses which were called Systematic Theology.   The course was designed to insure that preachers being turned lose on the church had a correct understanding of theology.  As one professor often said, "You are going to be the resident theologian in your community."  Of course, every community wants one of those!  The Systematic Theology classes presented correct, proper, and precise teachings about all matters pertaining to God.  It was, well, systematic.  It was teaching geared to the mind, head understanding, and articulate communication.

 

While there is nothing wrong with correct teaching, I have thought often about the way such teaching may have been too precise.  It may have been so precise and systematic that there was no room for the heart to be involved.  In these latter years, I have come to a new appreciation for the teaching power of spiritual images.  In his book, "Everything Belongs,"  Richard Rohr writes, "...the Spirit is described as 'flowing water' and 'as a spring of life inside you' (John 4:10-14) or at the end of the Bible as a "river of life' (Rev. 22:1-2).  Strangely, your life is not about 'you.' It is a part of a much larger stream called God."  And then he goes on to add, "I  believe that faith might be precisely that ability to trust the river..."

 

My systematic theology classroom defined God, told me what He would and would not do, and enabled me to understand many different tried and true interpretations of all things theological.  All of it was good stuff, but images give room for us to sit and ponder.  They give us permission not to know everything, but to understand that there is always something more to see and know.  They are not always precise.  Sometimes they leave us in messy theological quandaries.  But, they inevitably bring us to a place of experiencing God with our hearts.  They open up the world of the Spirit and enable us to walk in the ever flowing River. 

The Face of Creation

As I walked, suddenly I was seeing what I had not seen.  The sun was losing its grip on the sky, the shadows were stretched to the point of breaking, and the darkness was settling down hard under the canopy of trees. In the moment of seeing it came with startling clarity that the face of creation is always changing.  It is never the same.  We may see a thousand moments when the light gives way to the darkness, but never is the present moment like yesterday, the day before tomorrow, or even the day still to come. 

Could it not be that the ever changing face of creation speaks to us about the way God reveals Himself to us?  Could it not be that divine revelation is ever changing as well?  We grow accustomed to looking for God's presence in certain places, in certain moments, and in certain rituals to the point that it may take a Damascus Road kind of moment for us to know that God is truly beyond even the holiest of our expectations.  What the changing face of creation tells us is that everything around us is potentially a means of holy revelation. 

To live with expectation and awareness puts us in a place where we are going to experience the holy presence of the Creator in the ongoing unfolding moments of our life.  His presence is not limited to the places our religious culture has deemed to be holy and neither is His presence limited to the holy rituals of the church.  Wherever we are, God is.  The Word speaks of our being created in His image.  But, we are not the only part of the creation which has passed through His hands.  Every part of the creation bears the imprint of His creative energy.  It is not surprising to see the ever changing, never to be seen again, face of creation and know that so it is with seeing God. 

Counting Blessings

When I was growing up, the story of the Pilgrims and the Native American Indians gathering in 1621 was inevitably remembered and told.  Maybe it is still told in some places.  Maybe being evicted from the elementary school scene by old age keeps me from hearing the story again and again.   I wonder, too, if maybe it is no longer remembered because someone saw it as a story of exploitation instead of one about two very diverse peoples coming together for a feast. 

 

What seems to have taken  the place of the old story of the first Thanksgiving is a huge turkey and Black Friday.  It would appear that Thanksgiving is more about getting stuffed and getting stuff than it is about gratitude.  The truth is gratitude is in short supply these days.  A grateful heart requires an awareness of blessings.  Being aware of blessings requires time to see what is all around us.  Not all blessings are as obvious as someone walking up to us with a large handful of cash, or watching the evening ball of fire sitting down in an ocean of water, or having someone unexpectedly offering some act of overwhelming kindness.  Some blessings come on the edge of the dark clouds of our life and can only be seen through quiet discernment. 

 

The Word of God calls us time and time again to live with a grateful heart.  It calls us to live with a grateful heart in the good times and in the bad times.  What is true is that we are blessed even in the midst of the dark things that overwhelm and confuse us.  The hand of God's blessing is never really lifted.  Blessings are always spilling out between those divine fingers.  Sometimes we allow our busy life style, the noisy world around us, or the bitterness of our own heart to clutter up our lives to the point that we no longer have any awareness of blessings.  If we find it hard to live with a thankful heart, maybe the place to begin is to do what the old gospel song calls us to do and that is "Count your blessings." 

Barefoot Praying

Silence is in short supply these days.   Finding it usually requires some effort.  It must have been much the same with Jesus.  As we read the gospels we read about his journeys into the wilderness, or up some mountain, or to some place not frequented by the clamoring demanding crowds.  In the middle of the 1st chapter of the book of Mark we hear the Word of God describing one such moment.  "In the morning, while it was very dark, He got up and went out to a deserted place and there He prayed."  (Mark 1:35)  His time into the silence was interrupted by Simon Peter and the others who went hunting for Him.

 

Walking into the silence is difficult for most of us and when we do find ourselves overwhelmed by it, there is always someone to call us back to what they would speak of as a more sensible way to live.  It does not require a serious moment of paying attention to know that silence is not really tolerated or desired by the vast majority of those who walk through this life with us.  If we follow the dictates of our culture, silence is something which must be filled.  To be in a place empty of some kind of noise is to be in a frightening place.  We might hear a Voice that is normally drowned out by the clutter of noise around us.

 

Interestingly enough, Jesus sought silence.  He sought the silence because He surely must have known that it was the place inhabited by the Father's presence and the place where the Father's Voice could be heard.  Those who say that God does not speak in these days probably do not inhabit the silence.  They likely avoid it.  Even in our praying, we shy away from the silence.  We fill our praying with our words.  If we prayed in such a way as to experience nothing but the silence, we might be overwhelmed by such a certain sense of holy presence that we would be praying without shoes.    

The Problem with Hurrying

In our town there is one traffic light.  It is not one of these fancy ones that gives instructions to different lanes of traffic, but one that flashes red on one side and yellow on the other.   There are two traffic jams each day at this intersection with the flashing light.  One comes in the morning as hordes of teenagers descend on the nearby high school and the other comes in mid afternoon when the school day comes to an end.  However, even then it is not a major traffic event.  In fifteen or twenty minutes traffic settles back into its normal slow unhurried pace.

 

Life is different in this small rural town of 900 than it is in the larger metropolitan areas not so far away.  Every time I drive into the city on its multi lane roads that move thousands of cars rather than a dozen or so, I am grateful for life in the country.  Of course, I remember the large portions of my working years which were spent inside the beltway of larger cities.  I remember the years when I was a part of the hurrying to get somewhere a little faster than the previous day.  But, even in a caution light rural town, folks can create their own fast lane as they get caught up in their hurrying.

 

When I read the gospels, the one thing I never really catch Jesus doing is hurrying.  Certainly, He did not just aimlessly meander around the countryside.  Wherever He went, there was a sense of intentionality and urgency.  Getting wherever it was He was going never seemed to keep Him from paying attention to the people who were sharing the way with Him.  On His way to wherever He was going, He was always seeing the blind man, the lepers, and people who did outrageous things like climbing a tree to see Him.  He had time for the grieving widows and the children who were often pushed aside as bothersome.  His pace was fast enough to get Him to wherever; yet, slow enough to see what was right in front of Him.  The problem with hurrying is that we lose sight of where we are and Who is going with us. 

A Holy Gift

It would never be my intent to take away from the special nature of observing Sabbath.  It is a practice commanded in the Word and has gifted with blessings the generations since the day Moses went up Mt. Sinai.  It is indeed meant to be a holy moment in our life, a moment that is set apart from other days, and a moment which offers an important perspective about who we are in relationship to the Creator and the creation. 

 

However, as I have moved along through these last years, I find myself coming to a place of believing that every day is a sacred day.  In every day God is present and working in our lives.  In every day there are moments which call us to pause and offer mini expressions of worship.  It may be as simple as breathing "Thank You, Lord" for an awareness of some blessing which is falling upon us, or it may be something which brings forth a spirit of praise from our heart.  Sunday may be the day we enter into the sacred space of a church, but everyday is a day we walk and live within the cathedral of creation which is all around us.

If holy is defined by something which passes through, or is touched by the hands of the Creator God, then everything around us is holy for everything experienced as a part of life around us is but what God has put into place.  As surely as He created the stars and beautiful sunsets, so has He created the time in which our lives move.  We define time by seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years, but God needs none of this to keep track of what is unfolding.  What is unfolding around us is the time He has created and given to us.  It is a precious gift.  It is also a holy gift.  All of it.

Brown Dried Leaves

With no day planner filled with a schedule of upcoming meetings and appointments, these retirement days sometimes seem to run together.  I have been heard to say that every day seems like Saturday.  But, the truth is there is usually no more to do on Saturday than Monday or Wednesday or any other day of the week!   A week that once was once far too scheduled has become one with no schedule at all to guide me through the day or week.

On a late afternoon walk across the farm the other day, I found myself feeling more confused than usual when it seemed like I was hearing the words of Ash Wednesday.  "You are dust and to dust you shall return."  The words came not from the voice of a preacher, but from the brown dried leaves that crunched underfoot as each step was taken.   Those leaves were far from the moment they hung heavy and green on the trees above.  Soon the dried leaves would be seen no more and each would become a part of the dirt which was waiting to receive them. 

As these sights and sounds filled my eyes and ears, it seemed as if I was hearing the intoning words of the Ash Wednesday ritual.  Actually, it seemed more like a Word from God reminding me again that this life is no more than a fragile thing which has an end as surely as it had a beginning.   As the years slip on toward that unknown ending point, this message comes with a greater sense of urgency.  It not a morbid reminder, but one which speaks to me about the importance of paying attention to everything that is around me.  What is around me is filled with the presence of God and from all that is around me comes His Word as surely as brown dried leaves crunch beneath my walking steps.   

The View From the Window

It has been said that our house on the farm is in the middle of a hayfield.  To some degree, it is true.  Out windows on three sides of the house can be seen hayfields and the fourth side gives a view of the pasture where the cows roam.  So, regardless of the perspective taken, the hayfield is always in view.  One thing which struck me as a new thought the other day is that the hayfield is always changing.  It may seem the same for a span of time, but it is always changing. 

In these days the view out the window shows a field which has all but turned brown.  Soon it will be completely brown as the grass settles into a dormant time of waiting for Spring.  Sometime before winter turns lose of its hold, flowering winter weeds will begin to spread across the brown landscape.  As the days warm the weeds wither and the green grass begins to appear.  By midsummer the grass is lush green, full of life, knee deep, and waiting for the cutting and the baling.  When the bales are rolled, the ground is once again brown and all seems dead, but life is still lurking in the ground. The green will come again with another crop of grass to be turned into hay.  And, so it goes.  Always changing. 

 

So, it goes with our life as well.  The changing hayfields speak a word about this dimension of life that is a part of the life of everyone of us.  As a younger man with what seemed to be a hundred years ahead, life could easily be compartmentalized into the four seasons of the calendar.  As an older man I have come to understand that life is full of seasons, some of them show up once, and some seem to come again and again in the years allotted to us.  The green years are not just the younger years.  Sometimes even the gray haired ones are blessed with a greening season of productivity.  The seasons that God gives to us are not always measured as we measure them on the calendar.  Like the hayfields, we are always changing and as He does with the grass which grows, God is always faithful.

The New "We"

Diversity as it is present in our society has more faces than the sky has stars.  In the Apostle Paul's day, diversity was a part of culture as well.  However, in the first century world which Paul knew as a Jewish man, diversity only had two faces.  His upbringing taught him that there were only two kinds of people in the world.  Jews were one kind.  Everyone else made up the other kind.  The other than Jewish face in the world was the Gentile face.  It might be Ethiopian, or Greek, or Egyptian, but they were still lumped together in the category of Gentile.

 

One of the early struggles of the Christian community had to do with taking the message about Jesus which came out of the Jewish culture into the Gentile world.  In the beginning there was a danger that the Jesus movement would simply be a Jewish sect instead of a faith that had world wide impact.  Paul saw himself as one called to carry the gospel into the second community, the Gentile community.  In the 11th verse of the 2nd chapter of his letter to the church at Ephesus, we hear him saying, "...remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth called the 'uncircumcision' by those who are called 'the circumcision'...

To read the larger section which begins at this point and continues to the 3rd chapter is to hear how Christ has come to bridge the gap between those who allow differences to separate them from those unlike them.  In those verses the Word of God speaks of  "one new humanity in place of the two" and how Christ "might reconcile both groups to God in one body, through the cross..." (Ephesians 2:15-16)  As the Spirit is given freedom to work out what it means for us to be new creations in Christ Jesus, we come to the place of knowing that "us and them" no longer exists.  Through the blood of Christ on the cross we have been made into a "we."

The Way to Salvation

How do we repay grace that is immeasurable and has no end?  How do we repay grace that is of greater value than a life time of accumulation of the world's gold and silver?  How do we repay a grace so sufficient and far reaching that it covers all the sin we could possibly commit with a covering of mercy and forgiveness?  There was a time when the foolishness of youthful years and beginning faith caused me to think that with enough service and good deeds I could balance the scales with the Christ's sacrifice on the cross on one side and my good life on the other.

 

And while greater men than I have walked that dead end road, including the likes of the Apostle Paul, Martin Luther, and John Wesley, my foolishness in those years surely places me in the category of history's greatest all time fool.  What God has done for us through Christ on the cross cannot be repaid.  It is a gift greater than all my sins, and yours, and all the rest of humanity.  It is a precious gift of divine grace that saves me and you and nothing else.  The Apostle Paul declared this truth powerfully when he wrote, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast."  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

In the letter to the Galatians the Apostle spoke against the heresy that something is needed for salvation in addition to faith in Jesus and here he proclaims the bankruptcy of any system of righteousness based on what we do instead of what God has done and is doing.  There is no salvation by right and decent living.  If there was such a salvation, Jesus would not have willingly walked to the cross.  He went out of love, but He always went because He knew what we are slow to learn.  There is no other way to once again be at one with God except through this saving act of shedding blood on a cross. 

Saving Grace

It is one of those verses which demands to be remembered.  Memorized and stored in the deep recesses of the soul.  It is the hallmark of verses.  There is none which has been quoted more than this one and there is likely no truth which has done more to change the face of the Christian faith than that single verse the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus so long ago.  Such an introduction to a single verse of the Word of God brings it to mind for most who have held the Scripture in their hand for a spell.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith..."  (Ephesians 2:8)

 

Already Paul has written powerful words about the spiritual blessings available to those who live in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14).  And after writing about his heart's prayer for these believers, (Ephesians 1:15-23) he reminded them of their lost condition without Christ (Ephesians 2:1-3) and then with those powerful words, "But God..." (Ephesians 2:4) he takes them into the heart of God where abundant grace is unending. (Ephesians 2:4-7)  Then comes that verse of the Word which introduces the faith response into the salvation equation. 

 

Saving grace is offered.  Delivering grace is offered.  Eternal life grace is offered.  This rich and immeasurable grace is freely given, but never forced on anyone.  It is put on the cross for all the world to see and it is the human response of faith which enables us to pick it up and begin to live a transformed and never the same life.  Salvation is never about what we have done, but about what God has done for us through Christ.  Salvation begins not with faith, but with grace.  Without grace there is nothing in which we could believe that would have saving power.  Because of grace we can choose to trust in Christ and live now, and on into and through eternity. 

God Everywhere

Where you were,
   Where you are,
      Where you go,
Three with you.
    Overflowing,
      All around.
Mystery,
    Light of Lights,
      Blowing Wind.
Come, stay, go,
    Blessing now.
      And always. 

The Unacceptable Cure

Early on in his letter to the church at Ephesus the Apostle described those who live without faith in Jesus Christ.  What was true then is true now.   What is also true is that most of today's culture would disagree with his assessment of the human condition.  At the beginning of the 2nd chapter there is this word which is surely an unpopular one in our day.   "You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world...All of us...were by nature children of wrath..." (Ephesians 2:1-3)  Many find this word about a fundamental problem peculiar to each one of us to be unacceptable.

 

Actually, this Word about human sin has a divine solution.  The solution to the human predicament created by our sinfulness is never ours to fix.  Fixing it is outside the realm of human possibilities.  The fix is set forth in the next few verses, "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great with love with which He loves us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved..."  (Ephesians 2:4-5)  The fix for our sins does not belong to us, but to God and what He has done through Christ. 

 

The real problem with dealing with our sin is not that there is no cure, but that it is an unacceptable cure.  The Jesus fix ordained by God requires depending on Another to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  Most of us have to go to deep degrees of being broken before we will come to the reality that God does for us out of His love what we cannot do for ourselves.  The human fix in whatever form it might take is bankrupt.  It cannot deliver deliverance.  It only delivers an illusion of deliverance.  What is harder than acknowledging our sin is acknowledging that we must have help in dealing with it.  The way has been made, but it is a hard and narrow way and not everyone wants to find it. 

A Definition of the Church

The church buildings which share space in my memory are mostly traditional looking.  Some were large in size and one or two others could have vied for the smallest church in the county award.  Despite the size they all are remembered as rectangle shaped buildings with a steeple and windows of one sort or another running down the sides.  Inside were rows of wooden pews that led to a pulpit behind a altar.  One thing each held in common was the way they breathed quietness. 

 

Of course, the way a church looks has nothing to do with its spirit and ministry.  Today the church seems architecturally so contemporary it is easy to mistake it for a large fitness center.  Perhaps, the building communicates something about the way the builders of the building view the church, but there is no word which sets forth the correct view like a Word from God found in Ephesians 1:23.  "And He (God) has put all things under His feet and made Him the head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."  To ponder this Word is to come to the place of understanding that the church is the expression of Christ in the world. 

 

What we do not find here is a Word which physically describes the church, but a Word which sets forth the nature of the Church as it is present in the world.  As we seek to know what it is that the church should be about, there is no better place to start figuring than the way Jesus expressed the nature of God in the world.  There is no better place to start figuring how the church should position itself in the world than to ponder how Jesus positioned Himself in the culture of His day.  As Jesus expressed the nature of God in His flesh, so does His Spirit and ministry express the true nature of the Church in any day. 

Praying for Spiritual Blessings

In all these years that have gone under the bridge, there have been many seasons of praying for the church.  More than likely those prayers have been too much about the work which was in front of me.  Like other preachers I have sought prayers for the agendas which seemed pressing, needful, and important.  Perhaps, some of them were, but more than likely too many of them were more about what I thought the church should be doing rather than what God was leading it to do.  One thing is certain.  There was too much praying about the church doing instead of being.

The Apostle Paul prayed for the church.  One of his prayers is set forth in the early part of the letter to the church at Ephesus.  He wrote, "I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.  I pray that....you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance,...and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power..."  (Ephesians 1:16-19)  His prayer for them to be blessed with hope, His glorious inheritance, and immeasurable power makes so many of my remembered prayers for the church seem paltry indeed.

It seems we do too little praying for the church to be blessed with spiritual blessings.  We pray that people will be generous so we can build our buildings and meet our budget.  We pray for bigger crowds.  We pray for a host of things which keep the institutional part of the church healthy and strong.  Too little of our praying time is spent praying for spiritual blessings to abound in the church and upon the hearts of those who are a part of it.  Knowing the divine hope, and knowing the inheritance which is ours, and knowing the greatness of His power would have been a far better prayer to offer to the Father.  It is not too late to pray such prayers.   

Self Control

There is a sense in which the self control listed in the fruit of the Spirit section of Galatians is like the last of the ten commandments listed in the book of Exodus.  (Galatians 5:23)   How is it that the "do not covet"  commandment and the last listed fruit of the Spirit are kin?  The answer is obvious.  If the tenth commandment is the guideline for life, then the first nine commandments will fall in place.  And, so it is with the last listed fruit of the Spirit.  If self control is growing in us, the other things listed as fruit of the Spirit will be present as well.

 

If it sounds like a tall and impossible order for the human will, it is.  If human will or human determination is the source of our self control, we will surely fail.  Self control is not attained from within the human spirit, but from the Spirit of God.  The ego or self within us cannot do this work.  Only the Holy Spirit dwelling in us can create in us this thing called self control which will, in turn, manifest itself through things like being loving instead of hateful, being patient instead of intolerable, being kind instead of being mean spirited, being generous instead of selfish, being faithful instead of unfaithful, and being gentle instead of overbearing. 

 

Without self control being produced in us through the work of the Holy Spirit, there can be no real self control.  Anything called self control that depends on the human will to create and maintain it is really nothing more than an illusion.  If we are to truly know what it means to live with self control, it will be because we have turned lose the control of life so that the Holy Spirit can control our inner being and do works within us which we cannot do for ourselves. 

The "Jesus plus" Heresy

The New Testament letters were not randomly written just to be keeping in touch.  Each one was written with a purpose.  To read the letters carefully is to see that the writers were aware of something happening in the church of the letter's destination.  A reading of the letter to the churches in the region of Galatia reveals two primary issues.  First, there were those present in the church who were bent on undermining the work and influence of the Apostle Paul as they claimed he was no real Apostle.  But, a more serious issue was "Jesus plus" theology being preached in Paul's absence.

 

The "Jesus plus" theology did not refute the importance of Jesus, it simply declared that something more was needed for salvation than just Jesus.  Some of the Jewish leaders in the Galatian church were declaring that what was needed was Jesus plus the Jewish law.  The Apostle Paul would have none of it.  "You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?...Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?"  (Galatians 3:1-2)  The gospel that Paul preached was a gospel which declared the adequacy of Jesus for salvation.  Nothing else was needed. 

This "Jesus plus" theology was actually a heresy.  It was a false teaching clothed in sheep skin.  It is a heresy which still afflicts the faithful today.  From time to time we hear that in addition to faith in Jesus, we need membership in a particular brand of church.  Or, in addition to faith in Jesus, we need to tithe and go to church every Sunday.  Some might even declare that baptism is a necessary plus along with faith.  It can be most anything that we would impose upon another or ourselves in addition to  faith in Christ as a litmus test for true spirituality.  The more I ponder the Word, the more it seems that the only question is the question about believing in Jesus.  We do not need Jesus plus anything, or anyone.  Jesus alone is enough. 

Led and Guided

Years ago when I was the pastor of the Vidalia Church, I went numerous times to nearby Green Bough House of Prayer for spiritual retreats.  The director of this place was one of our United Methodist pastors who sensed God's call to this ministry instead of the parish setting.  Green Bough was near a town so small it was nothing more than a black dot on the map and tucked away on the edge of everything without any billboards of flashing signs to point to its presence. 

I learned new spiritual disciplines on my visits.  It provided me my first experience of being silent while still a part of a group.  But, the one thing I remember most often is the moment Steve invited us to get up from our chairs and follow him around the room.  He led and we followed in a line, one behind the other.  At first I was uncomfortable.  It seemed ridiculous.  And, then I wanted the guy ahead of me to walk faster since I was all but stepping on his heels.  But, he could walk no faster than the one in front of him whose slow and deliberate pace was being set by our leader.  Finally, after a number of hurried missteps I got in step with the one before me and everyone else as well.

This long ago memory came back as I was reading the latter part of the 5th chapter of Galatians.  It is a section in which the Word of God speaks of living by the Spirit.  To live by the Spirit, as Paul described it, means being led and guided by the Spirit.  To be led and guided by the Spirit is not as easy for most of us as getting up out of the chair and following His lead.  We keep wanting to hurry Him up.  We keep wanting Him to walk at a pace that suits us.  We keep wanting Him to take us to what we have decided are meaningful places instead of what seems to be a walk without a clear destination.   Sometimes we go, but not as naturally and easily as we should.  Only when we get our ego out of the way can we relax and breathe and go where He is leading and guiding us. 

The Prime Directive

The Apostle Paul did not mind repeating himself.  In the 16th verse of the 5th chapter of what we know as his letter to the Galatian Christians, he wrote, "Live by the Spirit..."  No more than just a few sentences further, he sounds the same theme, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit."  (Galatians 5:25)  Everyone has some primary directive which drives the way life is lived.  That prime directive may have to do with accumulation, or adoration, or some other thing driven by the ego.  The alternative the Word of God offers is to be driven by the Holy Spirit.

 

If we are going to live by the Spirit, if we are going to be guided by the Spirit, if such a life is going to describe the prime directive of our all the living we do, it is going to be necessary for us see the importance of abandoning a life based on ego gratification.  Ego gratification creates a very small world.  It is a world where we place ourselves at the center.  When we place ourselves at the center of our life, we have given self the only place where the Holy Spirit can abide in us and do its life changing work in us.    

When the Word of God presents the contrast between a life filled with works of the flesh and one filled with fruit of the Spirit, it is illuminating the choice that has to be made in the core of our being.  We cannot live according to the demands of our own ego and live by the Spirit at the same time.  It is a situation of incompatibility.  Surely, this is one of the reasons the word "abandonment" is such an appropriate description of the basic choice which must be made if we are truly serious about a Spirit guided life. 

The Road Wisely Taken

The Biblical way is the way of contentment.  In the last verse of the 5th chapter of Galatians, we hear the Word of God saying, "Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another."   In another place at another time we hear the Apostle Paul sounding this same theme, even more explicitly, as he writes to the Christians at Philippi, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have..."  (Philippians 4:11)   Envy and competition and not being content has been the downfall of many a preacher.  It has also been the downfall of many a believer who is on the road toward home.

It is an easy thing to let the spirit of discontentment drive us to a place where we lose sight of who we are and the fact that God has put us where He wants us to be.  Usually, discontentment takes root as we start looking around coveting..  When God gave Moses those Ten Words on the mountain, the last one etched in stone was, "You shall not covet ...anything that belongs to your neighbor."  (Exodus 20:17)  While some might say that money is the root of all evil, I have a hunch that it could easily be replaced by coveting, or desiring what is not ours, but belongs to another.

When we want what belongs to another, we are not only breaking the 10th Commandment, but we are also expressing a basic distrust of God.   It is as if we are saying to God that He could do better by us, or that we are special, or that we deserve more blessings than we seem to be receiving from Him.  The Apostle Paul understood about contentment.  He could have looked at the apparently favored position of the disciples such as Peter and John, but instead he went about what God had put before him with thanksgiving and joy.  This road of contentment is a road wisely taken. 

No Looking Back

How do we know if a person is truly Spirit filled?  Is there some marker which can be used for them and even for us?  The answer is simple.  There is no visible marker.  Oh, certainly our lifestyle might show signs of the Spirit's influence in our lives.  The preacher might preach with more power and unction.  Those in the marketplace might conduct business and deal with people differently than most of their peers.  Still, if seeing and knowing is our goal, it is not something that is going to be as visible as we might like for it to be. 

The truth is the real measure of the Spirit filled life is what happens when no one is looking.  The real evidence of such a life choice and commitment happens in the places unseen by human eyes, but seen by the empowering and ever present Holy Spirit.  How we live and act and think when no one is looking to see us is the real measure.  And, the fact that we live according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit with only the purpose of pleasing God is still another.  As soon as we want someone else to know what we do and how we live, the real test has been failed.  In such a moment we are in the game of pleasing ego instead of pleasing God. 

 

One of my favorite writers, Oswald Chambers, uses the word "abandonment" often.  In fact if there is any theme which flows through the things I read of his, it is this word.  In a recent biography which I read, this spirit and attitude kept surfacing in a way that spoke of an inner decision to live his live abandoned to God and His will in a way that stirs me and others to strive for the ground higher than the one being walked.  To be abandoned to God seems to be a way of describing the ones who truly live as the Spirit filled among us.  To be abandoned to God means that His plans are not only sought but become the mandate for going forward in a "no looking back" lifestyle. 

Spiritual Predictability

One thing I have never seen is a peach growing on the grape vine.  Neither have I tasted a plum that was produced on a blueberry bush.  There is a predictability about where the fruit grows.  It grows according to the root to which it is connected.  The grapes depend on the root of the grape vine and not the root of the nearby plum tree.  To expect anything else is simply ridiculous.  There is an order to everything including the growth of the fruit that grows on trees and vines and bushes. 

 

There is a passage in the book of Galatians which speak of a spiritual predictability.  In the 22nd verse of the 5th chapter the Word says, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control."  This fruit is not the product of some ecstatic and emotional minute at the altar.  It is not the result of giving ourselves a daily dose of discipline for ten or twelve years.  It comes not because we decide to get up and make those choices one morning for the rest of our life.  The root upon which this fruit depends has nothing to do with us and everything to do with the Holy Spirit.   

Unlike the fruit of human determination, this fruit does not depend on a moment of decision making.  It does not show itself in our life because we have looked at a situation, weighed the possibilities, and made the choice to be patient or kind or loving.  Instead, the fruit born of the Holy Spirit is one born in a spontaneous manner.  It does not require thoughtful deliberation, only intentional abandonment to the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit is allowed control of our inner being these things of which the Word of God speaks begin to show themselves on the vine of our life in a natural spontaneous manner because we are depending on a connection to the root known as Spirit. 

Being Grateful

Long years ago while serving as pastor at my first appointment, I came to a moment which gave me the privilege of going to the home of one of the folks of the church for his baptism.  He was late in years and bound to the home by physical circumstances and wanted to profess his faith in Christ and be baptized.  He said, "Most people just assumed I had been baptized, but I wasn't and the older I got, the harder it was to own up to it.  Now is the time."  The moment of gathering in his room with the men of his Sunday School class left a lasting impression on this preacher.

 

Some years later I was reminded of this moment in a powerful way.    Actually, it was more like thirty rather than some.  I got a note from the old man's daughter thanking me for that blessed moment shared with her father.  Even though the note came out of the mail box, it was more like it came out of the blue.  It was good to know I was not the only one who remembered that baptism and it has always been a reminder to me to thank those who have touched our lives in the part which is behind us. 

 

Living with gratitude takes some practice for most of us.  We live in such a rush we fail to see all the people around us who are blessing  us.  To see is to live with gratitude.  And, such is also true of the past.  Some of those who have blessed our lives are gone.  Some of them we surely remembered in recent days as All Saints Day came and went once again.  While we can call their names and thank them even as they dwell in the heavenly place, we can also take a moment and remember some who still walk around us and with us.  These are the ones we can take a moment to express gratitude.  Receiving such a word of thanksgiving from us will surely warm their hearts and, in the process, it may warm ours a bit as well. 

A Word From God

During a recent morning read of the Word, I stumbled into a verse which had never slowed me down much on previous readings.  Mostly, I just breezed through the section to get on to what was next which is something most readers of the Word have done from time to time.  Why it grabbed my attention this time is just part of the mystery which goes with reading the Scripture.  It is a simple phrase which creates a militaristic image, something some readers would shun or want to put in another context. 

In a description of himself as a servant of God, he wrote, "...with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left..."  (II Corinthians 6:7)  Several thing are obvious.  Both hands are full.  The right hand would surely hold the offensive weapon and the left would hold the defensive one.  Paul surely had the Greek soldier with his sword and shield in mind.  The one making the weapons necessary is not of flesh and blood, but the very power of evil which constantly seeks to undermine and destroy the work of God in the world.

In another place in another letter, the matter is made even more clear.  "Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil...Stand therefore...take the shield of faith...Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." (Ephesians 6:10-17)  To put the Christian journey in such an adversarial context is not the most popular of views and many find it an outdated one and unacceptable as well.  But, there is one important thing which must always be remembered about the written Word. What it says is not what we want it to say, but what God wanted it to say. 

Saintly Stories

While it is certainly true that the Scripture has some deep theological sections which can even cause the scholars to scratch their heads as they try to understand what cannot be understood, it is also true that it is one great big story book.  From the Garden of Eden to the Isle of Patmos great stories abound.   Long before I had any inclination to delve into Job or Jeremiah, Romans or Ephesians, I became enthralled and captivated by the stories of the men and women who walked the pages of the Holy Word. 

 

It is interesting that there are so many stories of so many different kinds of people.  Some were deemed good and righteous and some were deemed unfaithful and evil.  There are stories which center on Abraham and all his clan, Moses and the Hebrew people, calling stories of prophets, birth announcement stories, stories filled with tragedy, and stories filled with people who dared to do the impossible.  The people of the Scripture are remembered in stories of their lives.  Even today their stories are told.

 

As we moved through a season of All Saints celebrations, it is good to remember the stories of those we remember.  We called their names on Sunday in a moment of scared remembrance.  It is also important to remember their stories.  Their stories include the way our lives were made different by their sacrifice, their love, and their hand upon our lives.  Their stories have changed our lives.  We are blessed because we knew them well enough to know their stories.  As we write the final words about this season of celebration and remembrance, may we take a moment to tell their stories, even if there is no one to hear, and to thank them and God for the stories they shared with us. 

Going to the Roost

Chickens on the farm provide fresh eggs.  Nothing like picking up eggs from the nest one day and eating them for breakfast the next morning.  Those birds also range across the place making a pass each day in the garden where they do a little bug control work.  The ones around here seem to enjoy following us around clucking and making chicken noises as they go.  In order to be good company, I have learned to mimic them which, perhaps, means I have learned a few chicken words. 

 

These chickens of ours do more than provide breakfast and entertainment.  They also teach lessons about living.  One of the lessons is taught each evening as they go back into the chicken house for the night.  They have no clocks in the chicken pen, but every evening as the darkness gets ready to settle over the farm, they head for the roost.  They work all day.  They are constantly scratching in the dirt and eating stuff I cannot see,  but as evening comes they go into rest mode as they settle on the roost.

As I reflect  back over the years, I see too many times when I lived out of sync with what was happening in the creation.  So often the creation was gearing down, darkness was settling in announcing the work day was done, and I kept going.  Getting ahead and the opinion of others was more important than self care which is what the coming darkness invites us to do.  The chickens know when it is time to call it a day and go to the roost.  Our Creator God brought a creation into being which includes the same signals for creatures like you and me so we would know when it was time to go to the roost.  Too many times I just paid no attention to the clock of creation.  Maybe one day I will be able to live more like a chicken.   

Seeing and Hearing

There are more words to hear through God's creation than a person has ears to hear.  And, there is more to see of God than anyone who walks the earth has eyes to see.  The creation speaks to us of God and reveals more of His presence than a life time of listening or seeing would allow us to know.  As it is, we might catch sight of some of it, but it is always going to be like the tip of the iceberg.  There will always be more out there in the unfolding Mystery than can be heard or seen.

As surely as the sun rises and makes its daily journey across the sky, God is present, God is evident, and God is revealing in our lives.  Our inability to fully experience this ever present divine reality in each moment and in any given hour is not the Creator's fault, but the created ones whose eyes are dimmed by the sight of lofty personal ambitions and whose ears are closed by the sound of accumulating silver coins.  This generation is not the first to deprive the soul of the revealing presence of the Holy One  and it will not be the last. 

In the Word of God there is a Word written by the Apostle Paul which speaks of the power of the creation to point those who see and hear toward the Creator.  In Romans 1:19-20 the Words speaks saying, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made."   The creation and the order which is a part of it is full of the Holy.  Some see.  Some do not.  But, whether we see or not, the unfolding plans of God for making Himself known to us is always before us, behind us, around us, and even within us. 

Heart Warmings

I am not sure when I first shared in an All Saints Sunday worship service, but what I do not know is that after one, I was hooked on making sure I gave leadership to it for all the years which followed.   Perhaps, it had to do with the way it enabled me to connect with a deep loss of my own within the context of a moment in the presence of the God who knows the day of our coming before we come and the day of our going before we go.  And at another level, it gave life to something so often ignored in our contemporary worship:  the expression of emotions that sometimes range out of control.

 

How we got to such a place has not always been easy to figure.  The early days of the history of spiritual life in this country has stories of powerful spiritual awakenings, protracted meetings, and camp meetings.  The preaching did not seek to educate, or to enlighten, but to persuade those who gathered to believe in Jesus.  While there may have been more fire and fear than love and mercy in that early preaching, the purpose was to bring people into a life changing encounter with the Christ.

 

It often seems that we have not only suppressed the expression of raw emotion in worship, but that we have also come to a place where we preach about Jesus as a nice guy who wants us to do better.  At best such preaching is a perversion of the gospel.  The gospel is about how Christ makes us new, not better.  It is about the blood of Jesus being shed on a cross as a divine means of making it possible for us to be at one with God again.  It is about a love that makes every love pale in comparison.  It is a gospel not just meant for the brain, but for the heart.  I have always liked the Wesleyan expression, "a heart strangely warmed" and wish that there were more heart warmings in worship than we seem to be seeing.

A Special Moment

The Christian calendar gives a preacher some great preaching Sundays.  Of course, at the top of the heap is Easter.  Any preacher who gives up the opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday should find other work.  Some of my other special preaching moments came on Baptism of the Lord Sunday.  I loved preaching on baptism and then standing back to watch people come for baptism who did not come to worship expecting to be baptized.  If there is a Sunday for watching the Spirit at work, it is surely this Sunday early in January.

 

Another very special preaching Sunday comes this Sunday as the church gathers on All Saints Sunday.  When I was preaching that Sunday, there was always a moment in the ritual for calling out the names of the remembered dead.  What a rich blessing it was to stand in a moment of such powerful remembrances.  It was also a Sunday when the visible community gathered around the Table with the invisible community of faithful witnesses for the holy meal hosted by the Lord.  An image which was ever before me on that Sunday was a long table.  On one end we gathered and on the other end just beyond the veil they gathered.  We were here and they were there. 

 

Gathered around such a Table on All Saints Day is what I came to understand as the communion of the saints.  Some of the saints are in heaven and some are here.  But, this particular Table gathering is one of those rare moments when the church has an opportunity to celebrate the One Community that is not separated by the veil of death.  I am grateful to the church for giving me a place to preach all these years and for the Christ who dared to call a most unqualified and inadequate boy to preach the gospel Sunday after Sunday after Sunday for a life time.