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Dinner in Babylon

Icon of Daniel and the Three Holy Youths Circa 16th -18th Author unknown

Daniel decided that he wouldn’t pollute himself with the king’s rations or the royal wine, and he appealed to the chief official in hopes that he wouldn’t have to do so…Daniel 1.12, CEB

I suspect that we are all familiar with the expression “when in Rome, do as the Romans do…” in other words, when you are wherever you are, you should follow the customs and traditions of the local people to avoid offending anyone. Certainly in many contexts that can be good advice. There are many things that we have to do to keep our jobs, to make sure that we can live to see another day, but they are often at odds with our Christian faith. The things that mark us as the people of God are fine for Sundays, for dealing with each other, for charitable causes, but the rest of the time we have to survive at work, we have to survive at school, we have to survive in a world that has its own set of rules that have little or nothing to do with Sunday. The truth is, if we are in Jerusalem, we can do it God’s way, but we don’t live in Jerusalem.

Which is where we find Daniel in chapter one of the book that bears his name. Daniel is living far away from Jerusalem and he had to find ways to survive in a world that that was at odds with his faith in more ways than you can count. When asked to take on a new name, he did not protest. When he was offered a free ride to the University of Babylon and indoctrinated with the language and literature of the Chaldeans, he did not refuse. When he was pruned for a life of service in the court of a foreign king, he did not reject the opportunity. In an ideal world, Daniel, would likely have refused these things. But Daniel did not live in an ideal world.  He was in Babylon–not Zion.

Daniel insists that, even in Babylon, God is still God, and he and his friends are still His people. They declare where they stand when they refuse to eat the food from the King’s table because eating food from the kings table would have been a public declaration of entering into a covenant with him. Daniel knew that the way to survive in Babylon isn’t to be partners with Nebuchadnezzar; it’s to remain part of the people of the God of Abraham and Jacob and Isaac, the God of Daniel, the God of us all.

“And Daniel continued there until the first year of King Cyrus…” It’s the last verse in the chapter and seems a bit odd because it has jumped 70 years ahead to the end of the exile. However, it tell us that Daniel will outlast the exile. He will be there when a new king comes to power and the Jews will go home. God’s people will outlast Nebuchadnezzar; they will survive pretenders to the throne. Today, living in the Babylon of the now not yet of Christ’s return, we also have that promise of survival, that we will live until the year of the King – the time when at long last we will be released from the bondage of exile, but like Daniel, we must make a choice as to which table we feed from – Nebuchadnezzar’s or the table of King Jesus.

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THE POWER YOU POSSESS

Say we want a revolution// We better get on right away// Well, get then on your feet// And enter the street// Singin’ power to the people, power to the people// Power to the people, power to the people, right on… John Lennon, 1971

Hold on to your socks because whether or not you think so, you are a very powerful person! But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God… John 1.12, NRSVUE. God has given you power to live triumphantly, to move mountains instead of tripping over anthills, and to transform the world instead of conforming to it. It’s tremendous power, so take a few moments to reflect on that.

You have the power to change for the better. Yup, you do! The good news is that you do not have to remain as you are. If you feel discouraged, fearful, angry, or confused, you have the power to find dynamic new life in Christ and God will help you. God himself will help you become more like Jesus, our model for holiness, goodness, righteousness and perfection. “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3.18). You can change for the better, if you want to.

You have the power to choose for the truth. Since the beginning of time, God has given people the power to choose the course of their destiny. “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live…” (Deut. 30.19). No living being has more power to choose than you. You can’t always control events, but you can control your response to them. Conditions color life, but you can choose the color! It’s your choice to rise above mistakes and hurts, to love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, and open your heart to the transforming love of Christ – or not. Today choose right – choose life, choose blessing, choose Jesus. You have that power.

You have the power to challenge yourself and others. “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1.9). Be bold in your faith! Challenge yourself and others to change for the better and choose for the right.

Today, don’t just stand there with your hands in your pockets – use the power you possess. God grieves when Christians fail to show evidence of His strength. Concentrate on your power, not your problems. The world needs to see the children of God courageously challenging themselves and others to change for the better and choose for the truth.

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Prison Time

Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“Paul in Prison”, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Many of the heroes of the Bible suffered trials and hardships for God. Hebrews 11 tells us about Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others who dared lived by faith.  It wasn’t always pretty: “…Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two; they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented…”(35-37). Don’t forget Joseph, John the Baptizer, Peter and John – they all spent time behind bars. And of course there was Paul, “an ambassador in chains” (Ephesians 6.20) with his stints in the cooler. 

Jails and penitentiary’s are not places most of us are familiar with, but that doesn’t mean that many are not experiencing imprisonment. We do not have to be behind bars to be in jail. There are some who live in a prison of despair or hopelessness. Still others are held captive in prisons of fear, bitterness, or low self-esteem. Maybe it is the prison of an addiction or habit that we cannot control. As Peter said, “…for people are slaves to whatever masters them” (2 Peter 2.19).

If you are trapped in a dark, spiritual prison today, try to understand a difficult fact – you may very well be your own jailer. Harsh, yes, but words that I offer in love. The message of the gospel is that you do not have to serve a life sentence in a dismal 6×9 cell. You have the key that will unlock the prison door and let you live in the light of freedom if you are willing to trust that Jesus can save you. Jesus is the light and the truth and the truth will set you free: “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8.36). Your release into new, triumphant life in Christ begins the moment you invite Him into your heart and surrender to His control. The Spirit of the Lord will liberate you from the oppression of sin and deliver you to unfettered love, joy, peace, and power. The length of time you spend in jail is up to you. If you are tired of the constraints of prison life, pray today, “Lord, make me a captive of yours, and then I shall be truly free.”

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3.17, NRSVUE

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Friday Failures

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19.28-30, NRSV

Good Friday – talk about a dark day in the history of the world! Crucified on Golgotha Hill, everyone thought Jesus was a complete failure. Just another flash in the pan of wanna-be’s. His disciples, who had given up everything to follow him three years before, felt cheated, bitter, and depressed and they had abandoned him. Of course, things didn’t end there. Friday’s failure had turned to glory on Sunday morning. The Cross emerged triumphant from the empty tomb. What seemed like sure-fire failure Friday afternoon became on Sunday the greatest historical event the world has ever known: the Lord is risen, indeed!  There is no stone strong enough, no tomb deep enough, no death deadly enough, to keep Christ and his believers entombed.

It’s something we seem to easily forget though. I don’t think a single one of us has escaped a sense of devastation or failure at some point in our lives and sadly, many folks never get over it. They dwell on problems instead of solutions, death instead of life, tragedy instead of triumph. The power of the resurrection has escaped them and they never experience the life intended by their creator.

“Failure” is a horribly debilitating word. If it were left up to me, I’d re-jigger things in our world that would make church something no one wanted to do without, take all of the calories out of pecan pie and put them in turnips, and erase “failure” from every language under the sun.

If you find yourself feeling demoralized by your apparent failures, take heart in knowing that there is no such thing in God’s sight if you have done your best to turn to him. I’m not invoking a Pelagianistic heresy – that if you do your best, God will do the rest. That denies everything Paul said about grace alone. When you turn to God with your heart and soul, your imperfect life will reflect the light of success that Good Friday’s failure created, even though you may trip and fall along the way.

Don’t let Friday failures cripple you. The incarnation and finally, the resurrection, affirmed that we humans are good, warts and all. A sincere faith in the triumph of the cross on a dark Friday afternoon may be the very thing which sets you off in a thrilling fresh direction tomorrow. God didn’t come in the flesh to love the loveable or to improve the improvable. God has a greater plan for you that you can ever imagine. He came to raise the dead. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29.11, NRSV

Artwork: Mikhail Nesterov, The Empty Tomb, 1889.

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He Means It

The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. Matthew 23.11-12, NRSV

Servanthood –  such a beautiful ideal, such a lofty goal. Jesus exemplified the life of servanthood and he calls us to live as he did. I pretty sure that all of us agree with the principle of servanthood, but when push comes to shove and it gets down to the specifics, I wonder how many of us take it seriously? Servanthood – oh that’s for the other guy; that’s for the minister, as if there is some kind of exception for the laity. “You mean, with my position, my salary, my skill set, I have to be a servant to that so-and-so? You mean I have to wait upon others when it should be me that is waited on? I have to pick up after everybody?” Yup! That’s what Jesus means and he means what he says, whether we like it or not. Make no mistake – Jesus is not talking about high-flying, glamorous,  prestigious jobs. He’s talking about jobs that are as menial as they come – sometimes messy, sometimes thankless – like washing a shopping cart person’s filthy feet.

Pride is usually what gets in the way – it’s the huge barrier reef with the great white sharks of our egos swimming around it, ready at all times to devour any notion of seeing others as worthy at our expense. Our human nature makes us think we are just a little bit above everyone else and we should be treated that way. Instead of seeing what we can do for others, we expect others to do things for us. Scripture has lots of warnings that pride is deceptive and dangerous: for those who exult themselves will be humbled by God himself. I love the  way Obadiah says it: “Your proud heart has deceived you, you that live in the clefts of the rock, whose dwelling is in the heights. You say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord.” (Obadiah, 3,4, NRSV) If you think you are high above everyone else, invincible, set among the stars and too good for servanthood – watch out!

Greatness in the Kingdom comes in serving, so check your ego and choose to live as a humble servant of Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, he came not to be served, but to serve. He means it! And if it’s good enough for God, it’s certainly more than good enough for you.

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The Reluctant Preacher

When you're down and troubled // And you need some loving care // And nothing, nothing is going right // Close your eyes and think of me // And soon I will be there // To brighten up even your darkest night. // You just call out my name // and you know wherever I am // I'll come running // To see you again // Winter, spring, summer or fall // All you have to do is call // And I'll be there // You've got a friend.   
“You’ve Got a Friend” by Carol King, 1971

The Book of Jonah is a whale of a tale – pun intended. Sometimes though, we get so caught up in the details of the fish that we miss the meat of the message. Jesus spoke of Jonah as a real person, and I think this reluctant Old Testament preacher has a couple of things to teach us.

We cannot hide from God. It is possible to run from God – I did it for 40 plus years. It is impossible to outrun him though. Jonah didn’t fool God for a New York minute by boarding that ship to Tarshish and hiding in its lowest levels. God was right there. In trying to escape his calling, Jonah brought trouble upon himself and others. Those poor sailors were thrown into a monstruous storm and while they valiantly fought to save him, they probably were still burdened by guilt when they had to toss Jonah overboard.

God gives second chances. If we ask for forgiveness, God will give us another shot at things. Jonah was saved when he called for help – “Waters have grasped me to the point of death; the deep surrounds me. Seaweed is wrapped around my head at the base of the undersea mountains. I have sunk down to the underworld; its bars held me with no end in sight. But you brought me out of the pit.” (2.5-6, CEB) That was a pretty deep place to be drowning in and yet, God rescued him. We are never beyond the hope of a new start with God’s help.

We may be unhappy with God’s will. Jonah preached an eight word sermon: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.” His sermon worked! The entire city of 120,000 people repented. Yet, Jonah had the chutzpah to be disappointed and unhappy. He got angry! Many of us pray for God’s will expecting to be thrilled about it, but danger, danger, Will Robinson. Where did we ever get that idea from? God’s will is unlikely to make us happy, because to obey God’s will requires us sacrifice our will and that is never easy to do.

We all have a bit of Jonah in us – some more than others – but at the end of the day, we are Jonah on more occasions than we might care to admit. Like Jonah, we often find out the hard way that we can never get away from God, no matter how long, how hard, and  how fast we run trying to escape the calling and responsibility that he places on us. Save your energy instead for doing God’s will, whether you like it or not at the moment. In the end, you’ll be glad that you did.

Just as Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights, so the Human One will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. (Matthew 12.40, CEB)

  • Artwork: Jonah, lunette painting in the Cybo-Soderini Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo by Pieter van Lint, c. 1636. Inscription on the tablet: “Tollite me, et [mittite in mare]” which means “Pick me up and throw me into the sea”
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PRAY

If there’s one thing I want you to do especially for me // Then it’s something that everybody needs…// Each night before you go to bed, my baby, // Whisper a little prayer for me, my baby, And tell all the stars above – This is dedicated to the one I love.

Dedicated to the One I Love, written by Lowman Pauling and Ralp Bass, 1957

I haven’t posted in what seems like forever – I think September of 2021 was the last time. Taking a stab at self-defense, the fall of 2021 into the spring of 2022 was a whirlwind of busyness and distraction as I was juggling three jobs – property manager for my home church, managing our food panty and serving, albeit part time, the good people of a local church as their interim minister. It was crazy, exhausting, and at times, maddeningly frustrating, as I struggled to write a sermon on Saturday, lead worship on Sunday, spend that afternoon writing next Sunday’s service – it was due Monday to meet bulletin production deadlines imposed by the administrative requirements dictated by a limited budget. Then Monday morning rolled around and…well, I hope you get the picture. It was a blessed time. No, really….it truly was.

But that is all changing. I have resigned from my role as a sexton and food pantry director to accept a full time position as the interim minister of a church around the corner from my home. God has asked me to help a congregation whose long time pastor recently departed. It is a congregation in mourning and one that is very anxious as it navigates the uncertainties that comes from transition. I am excited to embrace the tasks that  await and I am under no illusion that the challenges are very real and very difficult. But since it is God that has asked, then I know that God is in this and that’s the only comfort I need.

I suspect that too many of us often lose sight of God’s presence as we struggle with the uncertainties and pain that is part of our daily lives. The pandemic has been a very difficult period for all of us and the clergy have not gone unscathed: the pastorate is hurting as well. It was in that context that I delivered the homily that follows to a gathering of the ministers and elders from a group of churches in my neck of the woods. And while my audience may have been the ordained, in a manner of speaking, all disciples of Christ are “ordained,” so I thought I’d share with all of you what I had to offer to them…

~

At a recent ordination service, while we were waiting for things to get underway, one of our pastors shared a story with a few of us from his ordination. As hands were laid on him, the minister at the time kept pressing down on his shoulders to impress upon him the weight of what being ordained felt like – the understanding that we are being, like the sailors of old, tied to the mast, so as not to be washed overboard by the raging seas of life in which we pastors embark daily.

And those seas are raging. Eugene Peterson, in Working the Angles, describes this in terms of wreckage – wrecked bodies, wrecked families, wrecked marriages, wrecked friendships and so on. It is into and through that wreckage that our ordination calls us to step – to walk into the ruins and witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I might be the newbie on the block, but I have lived in the back stair cases of the house long enough to appreciate how difficult and exhausting this work can be. Pastoral burnout is at record levels. If I remember correctly, it was in acknowledgement of this, that the Lilly folks created grants that underwrote sabbaticals this past year.

Jeremiah knew fatigue. Jeremiah knew burnout. Early in his career, he wants to throw in the towel and walk away from the wreckage that surrounded him and the persecutions that challenged him: Lord, he prays- “So drag them away, and butcher them like sheep. Prepare them for the slaughterhouse” (12:3, CEB). That is one tired, angry and burned out dude!

Hey Jeremiah, I ordained you, the Lord tells him. Before I created you in the womb, I picked you out, set you apart as a prophet to the nations. I anointed you to run with horses, and you are tired out by the foot runners? Are you going to quit when you discover that there is more to this work than a 9-5, dinner and television life style? It’s tough stuff that I ordained you to do, but do not forget you are an iron pillar and bronze wall because I am with you. You can do it with me at your side.

I have no idea how long it took Jeremiah to respond, but we know he did – “From the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son, to this very day—twenty-three years—the Lord’s word has come to me. I have delivered it to you repeatedly, although you wouldn’t listen” (25:3, CEB). He sticks to it – he is still at it for 23 years, in spite of death threats, moments of despair and discouragement, being whipped in a stockade, thrown into a well, and daily ridiculed, his message ignored because he doesn’t buy into the lifestyle, the fads and whims of the secular life that was rotting away around him.

How did he find the courage? How did he find the deep abiding faith to live fully into what God was calling him to do? How did he meet the challenge to run with horses? Persistence. Every morning, every afternoon, every evening he awaited to hear the word of the Lord. He prayed.

Prayer was the action that Jeremiah rooted his entire day with. For 23 years he prayed to hear the word of the Lord and for 23 years, he heard it. He heard it because for Jeremiah, it wasn’t faith in prayer – it was faith in God. It wasn’t a technique that he used as a way to get things done: his were not prayers of oops, wow, gimme and thanks. Prayer for Jeremiah was a way of coming to God in faith and trust. Scared, worn out, lonely, hurt angry, discouraged, Jeremiah came to prayer with the desire to listen to God firsthand, to speak to God first hand because God had primacy in and over his life.

But what did Jeremiah’s prayer look like? How did he pray? I am indebted to a section from Peterson’s work, Run with the Horses, for his terrific exposition of chapter 15 of Jeremiah for the following.

Jeremiah prays his fear – You understand, Lord!  Remember me and act on my behalf…(15:15, CEB) You got me into this stuff and I’m counting on you to see me through it.

He prays his loneliness – When your words turned up, I feasted on them; and they became my joy, the delight of my heart, because I belong to you,  Lord God of heavenly forces. I didn’t join the festive occasions; I took no delight in them. I sat alone because your hand was upon me (15:16-17, CEB). Jeremiah lived the truth – he delighted in receiving God’s word but when he turned around, no one else was there – they were on the golf course, at the shopping mall, watching television.

He prays his hurt – Why am I always in pain? Why is my wound incurable, so far beyond healing? (15:18a, CEB) He hurts because he cares – he cares about the flock that God has charged him with and their refusal to listen to the love of God that he preaches every Sunday, hurts.

He prays his anger – You have become for me as unreliable as a spring gone dry! (15:18b, CEB) The man who once preached that God was “the spring of living water” (2.13, CEB), now accuses him of deceit. You didn’t walk the talk, God.

We all have our moments of doubt, when the pits of despair seem insurmountable, when the dark nights of the soul is so black we can’t see our own fingers in front of us. Dealing with Peterson’s wreckage day after day is not an easy thing – we are only human. Pray your anger, pray your fear, pray your hurt, pray your loneliness. Pray your love. We need to hear and rehear God’s promises, made to us in our ordinations, over and over again. Simply carrying around some memory verses in our pockets isn’t enough. We need that daily encounter that comes in prayer. The world is changing all around us – changing faster and faster it seems – but God’s word never changes. In prayer, we encounter the word that renews and reaffirms and my prayer tonight is that Jeremiah’s example may be one that guides all of us as we try to run with the horses. Pray.

Artwork: “Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem,” Rembrandt, 1603, Public Domain

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Teach Us to Pray

I was born // I was born to sing for you // I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up // And sing whatever song you wanted me to // I give you back my voice // From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise …

from the song  “Magnificent,” Bono & The Edge (Guitarist), May 2009

The disciples in Luke’s gospel confronts us with one of the extraordinary weaknesses in most of our lives – the need to pray. Life is a messy, busy affair. It is easy to fall victim to its distractions whether they be sports, alcohol and drugs, material consumption and its never ending shopping sprees, the allure of making it up the corporate ladder and so on. We are people that are always moving our buckets to the fountains of our efforts instead of to the springs of God’s grace and in the end, we never just “be”: instead we invest our identities in our own accomplishments ending up with so much harness, we can’t see the horse. We need prayer.

“Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.”

Our intrepid crew of 12 didn’t get things right very often, but here is one time I think they really nailed it. The disciples had repeatedly witnessed Jesus in prayer and recognized that they were in the presence of  one who knew the reality of prayer and knew the deep difference it made in life. They also realized how far removed they were from what they were witnessing. They were coming to see how significant and how central prayer needed to be in their lives and that alas, it was not so.

First, they knew Jesus to be a man of prayer and for Jesus, prayer was the way of life, a way of continual communication with God, his Father. They knew that sometimes he prayed all night long. There is a popular conception of Jesus being a social activist, placing emphasis on deeds, engaging in revolutionary action. All true. But Jesus was not a political activist that relied on human power to accomplish his purpose. He was at first and always, a man of prayer whose power came from those prayers. His prayers showed the necessity of prayer and demonstrated that he could do nothing without God and by extension, that we can do nothing without Christ. Do you remember the scene in Mark 9 when the our intrepid twelve failed to cast out the demon in the epileptic boy? “Why couldn’t we throw this spirit out?” they asked Jesus. Jesus answered: “throwing this kind of spirit out requires prayer.” We cannot conquer the moral and spiritual crises of our day by human effort. As Zechariah learned during the rebuilding of the temple, it would be accomplished “Neither by power, nor by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord of heavenly forces.” We need to heed that message as well. No one can be brought to new life in Christ without prayer.

A second behavior the disciples witnessed was that from the beginning, Jesus prayed before every major crisis that he faced: he prayed at his baptism, at the beginning of his public ministry and he prayed when the Galileans wanted to make him king. He went into the wilderness to pray and prayed all night before choosing the 12. He prayed at the Transfiguration and he prayed in Gethsemane on his way to his death.  Prayer is the activity that should be front and center when we are faced with major decisions and problems. We need to pray in sickness as well as in health.

A third thing they saw was that Jesus prayed alone. And in case you missed him doing so, he taught us that as well – “Whenever you go to pray, go into your closet and pray in private and the Father who sees in private will reward you.…” Solitude is important – it’s not out of shame or embarrassment, but it’s to avoid interruptions. We gather in worship and pray – it is audible and corporate, but being alone with God in prayer is the ultimate test for the reality of prayer in our lives.

Finally, the fourth thing they noticed is how Jesus continually expressed his gratitude for the blessings in his life. He thanked God for hearing him when Lazarus was raised, he gave thanks for the loaf and fish before breaking it and feeding 5 thousand. Why do Christians need to pray asks question # 116 in the Heidelberg Catechism? “Because prayer is the chief part of thankfulness which God requires of us and because God gives His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who earnestly and without ceasing ask them of Him, and render thanks unto Him for them”

“I was born to sing, I was born to sing for you…” Lord teach us to pray…

Artwork: Christ’s Prayer on Oelber, by Carlo Crivelli, 1468

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PRE-RECORDED

I listen to the wind, To the wind of my soul // Where I’ll end up, well, I think // Only God really knows…

The Wind, Cat Stevens, 1971

Over the past few months, several readers have posed a variation on the following question: “I looked up ‘Reformed’ in the encyclopedia. It said it was a branch of Christianity that strongly emphasized predestination. If, as we read in Luke 14, that all are invited to the table, how can we believe in predestination?” As the old Saturday Night Live skit would say – discuss! So let me share with you a conversation that I had with my daughter on this often sticky wicket.

Well I must say Skylar, that you raise a question that many before you, and many that will come after you, have puzzled over as well. Admittedly, this can be a difficult doctrine to understand, perhaps even one that provokes anger in some, but the short answer to your question is yes, we do believe it. I hope that I can help you to understand why, by helping you better understand what it means. The term “predestination’ otherwise known as the doctrine of election, originates in the work of St. Augustine, who was the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa from 396 C.E. until his death in 430 C.E. It was John Calvin who more fully developed Augustine’s thoughts in his seminal work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. “We call predestination, God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not in equal condtion; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others. Therefore, as any man has been created to one or the other of these ends, we speak of him as predestined to life or death” (Institutes of Christian Religion :Two Volumes, ed. John Thomas MacNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, II.21.5).

I will admit that the notion of election has always created some tension within me at times as well, and I know that it is one that continues to have its friction and tension points with our current culture that firmly believes, in Babel like fashion, that we can be whatever we decide to be. As Calvin says himself: “A baffling question this seems to many. For they think nothing more inconsistent than that out of the common multitude of men some should be predestined to salvation, others to destruction.” (Institutes, II.21.1) Baffling might be a bit of an understatement.

All of this is very interesting to consider given that the concept of election has its roots in scripture and is not new to Augustine or Calvin or anyone else, for that matter. Think of that foundational teaching that we in the Reformed tradition adhere to: ‘sola scriptura,’ by scripture alone. Augustine and Calvin did not simply dream this doctrine up in a self-righteous undertaking. There are countless places in scripture where we meet elements of election: Cain’s offering vs Abel’s; Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob and Esau; David over Saul and so forth. The psalms and the prophets are rfie with language noting God’s choice of some over others: e.g. 33.12; 65.4; 105.6, 42-43 to cite a few).

Perhaps the classic articulation of election is witnessed in the book of John, chapter six, when Jesus states “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day…” Skylar, please, please take note of what Jesus says – ‘‘unless drawn by the Father.” Because God loves us first, it is only through the grace of God that we are drawn to God to begin with. Paul makes note of this in his letter to the Ephesians: “…just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will..” (Ephesians 1.4-5, NRSV). Our status before God and our relationship with God is utterly and completely dependent upon the grace of God and God’s pre-determining action. We have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

As children of the enlightenment, post enlightenment, modern, postmodern – whatever label you might want to place on the philosophical influences that have shaped our western culture and worldviews, we think and conclude that we are. The notion that the self cannot determine its fate, especially given said fate was set prior to being formed in the womb, is a concept that not only grates against everything we have been taught and indoctrinated with regarding merit and work, it is one that is impossible to get our limited capacities in a position to understand. In the 139th psalm, the writer sums this up pretty well for me and I hope this helps you as well:

“…O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it… For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

Scripture is quite clear – God has known us before we are and written all of our days in God’s book before our days were upon us. Yes, we believe in predestination because God tells us that is it so.

Posted on by pastorkem · 1 Comment

Feet in Your Shoes

You have brains in your head// You have feet in your shoes// You can steer yourself any direction you choose// You’re on your own// And you know what you know// And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go//…So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray // or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,// you’re off to Great Places // Today is your day// Your mountain is waiting // So…get on your way!

Oh The Places You Will Go, Dr. Seuss

I recently posted a piece regarding identity within the context of Matthew 28, aka, the Great Commision(See Route 66, March 7, 2021). I want to take another run at something else that I found arresting while dwelling in the words found there.

There is a question that  begins in nursery school and morphs into one that chases us almost all of our lives – “What do you do?” What do you do is one of the first questions that comes up at any cocktail or dinner party when we meet new folks. What do you do? Not who are you, but what do you do? I’m a lawyer, I’m a teacher, I’m dog catcher, a plumber, baker and a candle stick maker. We claim our identity and that of others in a job description as if that is the sum total of who we are.

Easter is upon us and as we prepare to bask in its glow, the question of what do we do and how that doing reflects who we are, become very critical questions for us to reconsider in the light of the risen Christ who has called us to follow him. The call of Christ is a call to be something more profound than what our secular career choices claim to say about our identity and it is a challenge to the subconscious desires that drive us to believe that the good life is found in another genuflection at the altar of the shopping mall.

We are called to an identity that is something far greater and enduring.  Jesus calls us to be the people of God.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came near and spoke to them, “I’ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.”  

Perhaps you noticed this: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee…

Eleven is an odd number- odd literally and symbolically. It is not the perfect twelve, nor is it the typical biblical reference of seven for completion and or wholeness. It’s incomplete; it’s less than perfect; it’s flawed or blemished in some fashion. As my late father might say, there is a hitch in its giddy up. Eleven disciples – Matthew has Jesus sending an imperfect bunch into the world to do his perfect work.

But it gets more interesting…

They worshipped him, but some doubted – Some doubted. We really don’t know if they all doubted or just a few, the Greek is ambiguous at best. But how can they worship Christ if they have doubts? And how could any of these eleven, having just seen the risen Jesus, doubted at all? I find the notion that the disciples who worship and yet doubted as evangelical and deeply profound from a theological and spiritual level.

Just as Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, so we Christians live in a war between the spirit of worship and the spirit of doubt: the spirit of worship as God’s people and the spirit of the world’s people, Amazon Prime. Jesus doesn’t correct, exorcise or otherwise attack this doubt, choosing instead, to quietly ignore it as if it is normal. By his great commission, Jesus is teaching that the disciples will win their war on doubt by following his command. Albert Schweitzer once said – “Follow him and you will know Him.”  Doubt is part of our human imperfections this side of the resurrection and Matthew’s good news is that doubt and worship can, and do, coexist. Doubting worshippers are Jesus’ material in mission – Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven – blessed are those who worship the risen Lord and who still struggle with their doubt.

And it is these imperfect people – you and I – that Christ promises to always be with. The great commission – the great commission to be – to be disciples of Jesus, united to him in the waters of baptism by the power of the Spirit, making us the very people of God.

“You have feet in your shoes for the direction you choose.” So, whether you chose to be a teacher, a custodian, a butcher, a baker, or candle stick maker, do whatever it is that you chose to do as the person of God that you are. Bring the light, love and truth of Christ to everyone that you meet, in everything you say, and in everything that you are. Go and be.

Mirror, mirror, where's the crystal palace? 
But I only can see myself 
Skating around the truth who I am.

Winter, Tori Amos