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.