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Archive for the ‘Ordinary Time’ Category

Time and Tribulation

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2012| 2 Comments »

From this point in the book of Revelation and forward, there is a flurry of activity, none of it good. But the “white robed ones” are the survivors. Like most God events, I believe this tribulation multitude stands outside of time.

Revelation 7:14
And he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation (persecution), and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. [Amplified]

My slow walk through the book of Revelation is becoming more and more difficult. Yes, this book is rich with symbolism but it is also filled with confusing texts and “timelines” that have been peeled apart by the most studious of scholars. As noted before, I am totally out of my element. And yet, I want to get something from the book that I can use and apply to my life, that I can engage in my heart and embrace. I am not interested in the controversies of pre-millennial or post-millennial; pre-tribulation or post-tribulation. I just want a nugget of understanding, a glimpse of truth.

The multitude referenced in verse 14 is huge, uncountable. This is no special group of 144,000, but another collection that represents the peoples of the earth. These are people who have known deep affliction, persecution, and sorrow. Are the tribulations or grievous trials referenced here, are they the ones to be described next (linearly). Or, are we simply seeing the “survivor benefits” on the front end, or, is this some huge group of people that has already had enough pain and are being given a reprieve? I don’t know. Does it matter?

In my “earthly time,” I’m not in this group on either score.

But there is an inherent promise to the verses, 15-17. Extrapolating from the description, I see these promises:

  • to experience close proximity to God;
  • to have opportunity to serve and interact with God;
  • to be protected from any subsequent dangers;
  • to be satisfied and all needs met;
  • to be comfortable;
  • to be guided and have clear direction;
  • to be filled; and,
  • to be happy.

Some people have taken these promises as the state we will enter in “heaven.” And perhaps that’s true. These are the goals that most humans seek in their corporeal lives, aren’t they? Isn’t everything we do, particularly as believers, built on these long-term objectives?

Life is hard. Whether people are rich or poor, healthy or sick, there are challenges and tragedies which cross most human lives. Why do we bother to keep living? Because we believe in life. We believe in the evolution of the soul; we believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit; we believe in a purpose.

Or, we die. Those who have lost sight of the “golden ring,” no longer believe in human, in God, in a future, often give up and choose death over suffering.

People who dissect the book of Revelation believe the worst is yet to come. And that may true, but that should not discount the sorrows, the wars, the persecutions, the deaths, the miseries, the tortures that have already happened to many parts of the world, to many people through human history.

In or out of time, there is still the promise of the divine.

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Offerings

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew

The ultimate offerings at the center of the universe then, this throne that is surrounded in concentric circles of devotees, are seven words or seven blessings. They identify the One who is worthy to receive them and they engage the giver who recognizes their value.

Revelation 7:11b-12
They [angels and elders] fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

1. Praise: approval and admiration; good job! way to go.
2. Glory: resplendent beauty and magnificence as well as “high praise” and distinction.
3. Wisdom: knowledge of what is true and right coupled with justice; enlightened understanding.
4. Thanks: expression of gratitude, appreciation, and acknowledgment.
5. Honor: honest, fair, and worthy of respect.
6. Power: marked ability to do or act; a force.
7. Strength: courage, firmness, as well as mental and/or physical power.

Amen, they cried out. So be it. This is the God we worship. This is the God we trust. This is the God we love.

And these are the merits and offerings we should be recognizing and offering to others. If Spirit is source, then these must also come from there. Is there anyone who cannot benefit from them?

Want to pray for something? Pray for these.

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How Many Must Die?

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , on February 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Martyr has become a dirty word over the last twenty years as Islamic terrorists and extremists have usurped its meaning through rampant suicidal bombings in the name of their God. And yet, even they fit the basic definition: a willingness to suffer or die for a belief or cause. Would I?

Revelation 6:9, 11
When the Lamb broke open the fifth seal, I saw at the foot of the altar the souls of those whose lives had been sacrificed for [adhering to] the Word of God and for the testimony they had borne. . . . [they were] told to rest and wait patiently a little while longer, until the number should be complete of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed as they themselves had been. [Amplified]

And there’s yet another negative definition for martyr, that one who seeks attention by feigning or exaggerating pain. Sometimes, it’s just a person who dramatically takes on the weight of any project with great long suffering. It’s a sham.

How has this word and its intended meanings gotten so distorted?

Of course, not every martyr must die to show his or her strength in following the heart of God. Many are persecuted today in various closed or restricted countries for their faith such as China, Zimbabwe, Eastern European countries like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, Muslim countries where western faith is scorned, and so on. These men and women are often imprisoned for basic activities such as prayer, bible reading or distribution, and corporate gatherings. Other martyrs are those work with the poor and sick such as Mother Teresa, William Booth (Salvation Army), David Livingstone (Africa), and Corrie Ten Boom [see more]. They are following an inner vision, a knowing that this is the way they must walk.

In John’s time, martyrdom had become a norm for the Christ follower, in fact, persecution and execution continued up through the 4th century until the time of Constantine. These deaths were not the result of a person’s actions, but merely by their affiliation. Other faiths and peoples have experienced this same kind of broad swathe of death, such as the Jews in Russian pogroms and throughout World War II, or the genocide of Rwandan Hutus in 1994 or African-Americans in our country. The list goes on and on.

So, there are two questions in all of this? Would I have the courage to stand for my faith in the face of death? And secondly, why must it be necessary?

In John’s vision, the implication is that more would die. Apparently, that magic number has yet to be reached.

Even in today’s pop culture, there’s this idea that a lover would die for another:

I’d catch a grenade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’d jump in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I’d do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, oh
I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for ya baby
But you won’t do the same . . . [Bruno Mars]

But really, isn’t it all just a type of posturing?

And yet, some men and women do enter the armed forces and put their lives on the line. Perhaps some don’t really believe they will die but others know, the possibility is there and something inside drives them. They are called heroes. It’s an idealism, a sense of sacrifice for the sake of the many, a belief in good and evil. Is my faith so strong?

How many more must die?

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The Four Horsemen and Me

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are well known by all, particularly as a metaphor for global death and destruction. But I want to know is what these passages have to say to me as an individual. Who are these horsemen to me?

Revelation 6:1a, 2-3a, 4a, 5a, 7a, 8
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals.. . and there before me was a white horse! . . . and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. . . When the Lamb opened the second seal, . . . another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. . . . When the Lamb opened the third seal, before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. . . . When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, . . . and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were [all] given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. [emphasis mine]

Whether it’s the new enthusiasm in the coming close of the Mayan calendar or extremist predictions of the end of the world, they all focus on a cataclysmic finale. The four horsemen fuel this expectation. Historically, the most popular meanings of the horses and their riders are:

  • White Horse: tyranny and the threat of power
  • Red Horse: slaughter
  • Black Horse: famine
  • Pale Horse: death

In actuality, the commentaries and books about these horsemen and their significance are innumerable. Amazon alone displays almost 3,000 titles about the four horsemen. Many speak of the end times, while some hold the view that these destructive events have already happened in the post-Jesus era, and still others view the horses as representative of various epochs. See a concise Wikipedia article on these interpretations for an overview.

But can I relate to any of these interpretations? Am I to watch the skies and quake at the slightest inkling of the end? Do I pray for a quick finale or plead, as Abraham did, for God’s hand to delay for the sake of ten righteous souls? [Genesis 18:16-33] Does it really matter to my daily life whether I believe the horsemen and their seals portend the future or the past in this world? Does it build my faith or set me on fire to act for the good of humankind?

I am thinking the four horsemen, their weapons, and their capabilities are broad stroke types for the attacks on the individual soul. Human is the microcosm of earth. Which horse will strike a person most effectively? I can see how each individual is taunted or seduced or tempted by one or more of the horsemen.

For me, the white horse is plenty effective. I can see where the machinations and impact of the rich and powerful through our Western culture on me every day. Truthfully, haven’t I succumbed, buffeted by a desire to have more and more, both in worldly goods and personal power and influence at work or in my community? This attack begins from the outside but consumes the soul all the same. For others, this power may be more manifest through local governments, dictatorships, verbal abusers in a family, or control freaks. It’s pressure, it’s pushing the right buttons, it’s influence.

The red horse brings the evil of violence against one another. Individuals are hurt every day through the lashing out of physical power: shootings, beatings, torture, and unrelenting restraint tear away at the fabric of the human spirit. Where the white horse evil is exercised through laws or rules or containment, the second one is hands on and brutal.

The black horse symbolizes famine or deprivation. Any news story of third world countries will show the power of lack, whether it’s food or water or shelter. The human’s will to survive is strained to its greatest limits physically and mentally.

And lastly, the pale horse, the one that brings death, may not necessarily bring death to self (a release from pain and sorrow), but the death to those around us, loved ones and innocents. It is a mind game, a despair game, telling the survivor that life is no longer of value when death cheats love, family, community. Catastrophic illness is another player in the game of soul killing, putting the specter of death before a person each day as he or she faces trauma, humiliation, weakness, and body disintegration.

Recently, I had sinus surgery, a minor operation really, and although I had some days of pain and discomfort, it was a far cry from a death march. And yet, those days were spiritually empty. I did not pray or contemplate my inner life. I did not rest in the arms of spiritual bliss. It was all about my physical discomfort. I didn’t need one of the four horsemen to visit, a little pony was plenty.

So, this is my own discovery: the four horsemen may not be some future phantasm at all, but a way of identifying the main pressures along our quest to be fully human. These are our archetypes.

Of the few commentaries I read, I was struck by an older one written by Earl E. Palmer, a popular Presybterian minister, now retired. What captivated me in his comments about the horsemen was the reminder that they were given “boundaries.” They may not be the boundaries that I would like or want, but there is comfort in knowing that they exist. Pain and sorrow and loss and death will not carry the day. This release may come through discovery, through grace, through stubborn resistance, but it will come.

I am looking for this boundary. I want to come out from the influences of the white horse. This is something tangible and real, hand in hand and heart in heart with the Holy Spirit who can direct me onto the more unlikely path, the paradox road, where true power manifests in humility, service to others, and sacrifice: the road less traveled.

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A Coronation Tale

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2012| 2 Comments »

If you thought the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton was a extravagant affair, just wait until the next royal or papal coronation. I reviewed the YouTube footage of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953: thousands and thousands and tens of thousands . . .

Revelation 5:11, 13
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. . . . Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To [the one] who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

This is the picture I imagine as John describes his vision of the throne, the lamb, the living creatures, the elders, and the angels, all singing, all joining voices in adulation. For John to be able to describe this picture, he is somehow separate from it, like a television camera. He is not in the event nor part of the event. He is an observer, a witness of a unique sort, a reporter.

Here in the United States, it is outside our ken. We have well attended inaugurations and there is a type of pomp but nothing on the order of Great Britain’s royalty. And now, with modern television, the numbers who are watching have multiplied exponentially. It is as though the the entire earth can witness these events.

This “heavenly” coronation image is the only way John can wrap his mind around and give image or voice to the importance of the moment. The Christ, who entered human form and by God-given power, was able to propitiate (satisfy or atone) for a previously made agreement or covenant that Human made with God and then broke.

This is not the stuff of soccer and Facebook, football and Miss America. This has to do with the fabric of creation outside of our three-dimensional sensibilities.

John did the best he could with what he knew.

In today’s world, we have other visionaries and artists who try to imagine or conceptualize this non-dimensional place or rather, an actuality. But we fall short. Instead, we have our own versions of celebrations and weddings and coronations in an attempt to capture the importance and wonder of a vow, a promise, a covenant, a new identity, a new responsibility.

Why do we have ceremony? Why do you? What is the message?

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Who is Worthy? Who is Able?

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Most exegesis accedes that the “Lion of Judah” represents the Christ. And it is that One who is worthy . . . and able . . . to change the course of civilization in general and more specifically, to change my life.

Revelation 5:4-5a
I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able . . .

Who is worthy in my sphere of friends, family, and colleagues to impact my life? Who has earned the right to speak into my choices, to redirect my path, to open my eyes?

There are people who took on influential roles and circumstances. My mother, by default, spoke into my life as I was growing up. She was able. My older brother, also, by proximity and sheer force of will, taught me lessons whether I wanted to learn them or not. Boyfriends and husbands carved out sections of my heart, by will or by relentless time. I learned through the silences of loss like my father’s death when I was nine, or the loneliness of being a latchkey kid, or the bitter and repetitive mistakes that led me down roads I regretted again and again. These people and experiences were “able” to bear upon my life. But who actually earned a place?

Here is the role of God, the mission of Christ, the engagement of the indwelling Spirit. God, by sovereignty is worthy; Christ by personal sacrifice is worthy; Spirit by faithful presence is worthy.

If these do not exist in my life, then where is my confidence? Human is fallible. All of us. When we trust people, we must understand that trust is given and received within the limits of human experience and faith. But it is elusive, at best. It is unreliable, no matter how hard we “try.”

The whole point is to trust God, not human, to trust the Christ, not leaders, to trust the Holy Spirit, not tradition. Freedom and forgiveness are possible and more easily extended to others when my expectation is solely on the One who is able and worthy to exist in our midst.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory . . . ” [Ephesians 3:20-21a]

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Understanding What We See

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , on January 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

M.C. Escher

We see every day with our eyes. And we interpret. But how much do we really understand about what we see? How much is true and pure and how much is affected by our past experiences, our former seeings, our expectations?

Revelation 4:6-7
And in front of the throne there was also what looked like a transparent glassy sea, as if of crystal. And around the throne, in the center at each side of the throne, were four living creatures (beings) who were full of eyes in front and behind [with intelligence as to what is before and at the rear of them]. The first living creature (being) was like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature [was] like a flying eagle. [Amplified] [emphases mine]

Some years ago, I was the victim of a theft at an ATM. Although it was terrifying, my first instinct was to give chase (too many television shows?). In the end, the purse snatcher realized I had the wallet under my arm and the bag was rendered useless. He stopped and tossed it back to me. Later, I sat on a short brick wall, nursing my scraped knee and listening to the various witnesses who “saw” what happened. Not one of us could agree on the clothing, the race, the height, the weight or anything else of the thief. We each saw and yet didn’t see at all.

In Revelation, John is in a spiritual trance of some kind and has visions. He is describing to us what he sees as best he can with an understanding born of his era. I cannot help but wonder how I would describe the same scene. Would the beings look “like” animals or something else? Would the images become a movie set? Would my love for fantasy enhance and exaggerate my imagination? Would my love for science fiction give me Star Trek interpretations?

How many miscommunications do we have every day? How many times do we misinterpret what we see in a gesture or a facial expression?

The other day, I was looking at a newspaper photograph and it actually took me a full thirty seconds to see the picture and understand its content. It was in a group of “art” photos and so I must have assumed it was something with deep meaning and ethereal intentions. Finally, my mind collected itself, and I realized I was looking at a ballet dancer’s shoe on point. That’s all. Why couldn’t my mind understand this image initially? Was it truly a “senior moment?” Is this how people who have suffered strokes experience the world? Inside, we know it’s something familiar but we cannot seem to process it.

I believe we are all doing this through the day: many assumptions, many judgments.

It’s one of the reasons people struggle with modern and post-modern art. Their minds are trying to “understand” what they are seeing. They want a label. Instead, I think these artists are calling us to simply see without words, to allow colors and shapes and densities to open up new synapses.

by J. Albers

I am just about sick to death of the phrase, “out of the box” thinking. Most people can’t “think” or “see” out of a box because those things defy easy description or understanding. Creativity demands a certain amount of sustained chaos.

The things of God, of Spirit, are no different. There is no single interpretation or understanding. God is fluid. Faith is a moving target. The Holy Spirit is outside of time. And the images that John saw in Revelation were his way of describing a vision, a vision of adoration and worship.

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