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Posts Tagged ‘Bible’

Patience and the Word

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Mortimer's First Garden

While some folks may focus in on the correct/rebuke others portion of this verse, I’m much more drawn to the idea of talking, sharing with people with “great patience.” With patience as the umbrella, even a correction would be done with utmost concern and gentleness. That makes sense.

II Timothy 4:2
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

I hate “sparring” about verses in the Bible. Face it, there are tons of people who know the scriptures a lot better than I do and they have committed themselves to memorizing hunks of useful phrases, ready to debunk (correct/rebuke) and possibly even “expose” me and my understanding or interpretation of the words. I don’t go there anymore.

But I’m thinking today that “preach the Word” may actually mean “preach Jesus” moreso than expound on scriptures. For me, that means to speak about Jesus and his life, to explain the concept of a Christ in this world, to share the impact of Jesus and His Holy Spirit within me, to give the gift of what I personally know. When I add the words from scripture to my personal story, when I share how those words helped me understand the truth of the Christ in my life, then it’s a package of love. I am not a leader/teacher/preacher. I am no Timothy. I am just a follower of that Way.

But, what is preaching? Is it part of my role at all? Is it just proclaiming, teaching, exhorting, advocating, and admonishing or can it be all of these things? When I purposefully add “patience” to any of these definitions, the tenor of the words is much softened. It’s more like explaining or story-telling to a child, spoken with patience and even love. It’s not self-edifying, it’s not deprecating or sanctimonious. It’s not screaming or challenging. It’s not clever. That other kind of preaching/teaching is incompatible with patience, or at least, in my mind, they are not easily partnered together.

Jesus is patient; has been and will be throughout time. God is patient. Love is patient.

The other day, I read a cute story to some kids at the library in which Mortimer the mouse planted a seed and was quite disgruntled the next day when there was nothing to show for it. We all know that seeds take time to sprout. Why aren’t we as loving and patient with the Word?

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Testing My Heart

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 27, 2011| 2 Comments »

Photo by Charles C. Ebbets, 1932

Are there people out there who actually like taking tests? Not me. Conceptually, I understand the reason for them, they inform me and reveal to me what I know. But I have contorted this process into a performance: good score, good girl and vice versa, or worse, pass/fail. That’s not how it works.

I Thessalonians 2:3-4
For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, . . . We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.

It’s unlikely that God’s intent is to grade Paul on his experiences in Thessalonica in the process testing his heart. Bible translations slightly differ on how they interpret the Greek word, dokimazo. The long definition would be “I put to the test, prove, examine; I distinguish by testing, approve after testing; I am fit.” So, in this context, heart testing is a way to reveal what is really there. It’s an authenticity gauge.

Unfortunately, but most of us don’t really know or understand our hearts. Generally, we get a vague idea based on our behaviors, our decisions, and subsequent fall-out. Sometimes, we create a scenario to see inside. I remember how that turned out a long time ago when Mike and I went to a marriage retreat and were instructed to discuss with each other what we would do if either one of us was trapped on a very high beam that was stretched between two skyscrapers. Would we, despite our fear, go out to the middle of the beam to save the other one. This exercise, I suppose, was to show our sacrificial love for one another. Of course, Mike said he wouldn’t come out. “What ifs” are dangerous games.

Bottom line, heart testing has to be the real thing. It’s the only way to exercise an authentic response to a situation. This is where courage and fear wrestle, where practice becomes second nature, where our progress can be reflected, straight out.

When Captain (pilot) Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully “ditched” U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River with no loss of life, he was sorely tested. And yet, he responded with all the practice and all the experience he had. He assessed his situation, he evaluated all the choices, and he acted.

I must be willing to do the same. I cannot know in advance how I will react in a situation. I can only work on responses and the health of my inner life and relationship with the Christ Spirit within me. I may need to be more conscious now in my choices as a way of building up my heart’s understanding so that I can respond instinctively to the next situation.

Another word for this sanctification.

Test me, O LORD, and try me,
examine my heart and my mind;
for your love is ever before me,
and I walk continually in your truth. [Psalm 26:2-3]

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Caretakers of the Word

Posted in Christmas Through Epiphany, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

A believer, grafted to the tree of faith, still has some responsibility despite all that grace. I do, after all, need to participate in the tree… “be a tree” and not something else, like a mushroom or a dandelion.

Romans 3:2b
First of all, they [the Jews] have been entrusted with the very words of God.

When I accepted Christ, I agreed to give up some things in exchange for the embedded words of God. Those words have power and can transform a life. I agreed to keep them safe by treating them reverently.

Oh, it’s not like the “words” will go away if I am faithless. I can even cast them aside and God will not be changed in any way. But I will have broken trust… it’s a type of betrayal, a broken covenant.

God is teaching me about God through those words. And Jesus is teaching me. And the Holy Spirit is teaching me. And as I learn, I become a stronger part of the tree.

An image that comes to my mind is the great tree in the movie, Avatar. It was a life force, a home, a safety net, a fortress, a symbol… it was all of these things and more to the native peoples. And so is the tree of life for me. Unlike Pandora’s tree which was destroyed by evil, our tree of life lives on forever. But it really thrives when the parts contribute to the tree with love and joy and obedience and faith and truth and confession.

As a believer, I have been entrusted with the words of God. They are only seeds. The life of those word-seeds must be planted and nurtured to manifest.

Similar metaphors are used throughout the scriptures to help us understand. Do we? Do we take these gifts seriously? Do I? If I truly understood the words of God to be like the metaphors that Jesus used about the kingdom (e.g. a mustard seed, yeast, treasure in a field, a pearl [Matthew 13]), would I sell everything to gain the full value of this treasure?

Oh Lord, give me a love for your words that will bear much fruit. Give me wisdom and understanding. Help me to be a better caretaker of your truth.

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Sadducees and Pharisees

Posted in Advent, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

This post could have the heading, Protestants and Catholics, or Shi’ite and Sunni, or Orthodox and Reform, that’s how little monotheistic believers have changed over the centuries. One God… and yet, they become divided over the details.

Acts 23:7
When he [Paul] said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

Paul used his knowledge of these differences between the sects to show the Roman commander how easily religious fervor could end in violence. The commander had assumed there was something much more sinister behind the attack on Paul and wouldn’t have believed that differences in faith practices could come to blows.

Nothing much has changed. Catholics and Protestants still kill each other in Ireland. Sunnis and Shi’ites kill each other in the Middle East. Orthodox and Reform basically ignore each other but there is plenty of hostile rhetoric.

Who has the truth? Which way is the absolute right way? The Christians will say the Bible is our authority and truth is there. I believe that. And yet, there are more than forty denominations who use the same Bible and interpret it differently. Islam has the Koran and Jews the Torah. But it is not enough to keep them together either.

For a season, everyone is united when there is a common enemy, but as soon as that “enemy” is vanquished, the in-fighting begins anew. Is this the true inheritance of the “tower of babel?” [Genesis 11:9]

Jesus was neither Pharisee nor Sadducee. He was a Jew. He brought to the world the simplicity of two truths: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. [Luke 10:27] There is no faith, no denomination, no sect, that cannot live by these two truths. They defy interpretations, unless someone wants to split hairs on what love means. But, as humans, born to love, I believe we know how to love. We simply choose not to do it.

This is a good day to love. I can choose to love. Unconditional love does not split hairs. God blesses those who love.

Oh Lord, bless me this day. Teach me. Remind me throughout the day to love.

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Fifty Thousand Drachmas

Posted in Advent, tagged , , , , , , , on December 7, 2009| Leave a Comment »

There is so much power in the written word that many people have died for what they have written or what they have read. And historically many great books and writings have been lost, mostly because the words were feared.

Acts 19:19
A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.

Of course, in this story, the scrolls that are burned are actually writings used in sorcery. I’m not sure how they manged to place a dollar value on them… was it the cost of buying these scrolls? If so, this is a huge amount of money. A drachma is a silver coin usually assumed to have the value of a day’s wage. Relatively speaking, what would that be in today’s economy? Even at the low end of $50 per day, this is still millions of dollars. What writings have such value today?

The books in Paul’s time were destroyed because of the way they were used. Their power was in the person who “wielded” it. But we miss that point and instead, we fear the writing itself.

This is such a compelling concept that Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 back in 1953 and it is still considered a “must-read” by all students. Hitler too destroyed books that might challenge his authority. Communists did the same and tightly controlled what would be published.

I am a librarian and a book lover. Reading is one of my greatest pleasures and I read a wide variety of books from fantasy to contemporary fiction to religious nonfiction and reference books. When I first started working at the library I had a flashback of myself at my childhood library. I spent many many hours there since it was within walking distance of my home. I remember holding my body flat up against the books on a shelf wondering if I could absorb the words by osmosis. I wanted them all inside me.

We are now living in an age of information. Words are everywhere, particularly since the Internet has brought words and information of all kinds, both healthy and perhaps unhealthy, depending on one’s point of view. Words are even translated into hundreds of languages all over the world. Information is there for the reading. Unfortunately, it is not all true or accurate. And here is another challenge.

Some people are afraid of words. It is true that words have power but that power can be diffused or endowed by the reader. We must read with intelligence and discernment. Not every book that is labeled Christian is good. Nor is every book that is not Christian bad.

What is the value I place on the words I read? What is the value I place on the scriptures on my book shelf?

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Freedom with Strings

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Acts 15:19-20
It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

Well, this threw a little wrench in my understanding today. By only looking at small pieces of Bible text at a time, at one moment there seems to be complete freedom and then the next chunk adds the strings. This shows how important it is to have the ability to see the forest and trees.

But I am not a bible scholar. Each day I’m just trying to find what God might be saying to me through the Word and how to apply what I read to my heart walk.

The verses of Acts 15:19-23 put unexpected boundaries around the freedom I had felt in earlier verses. I would need to do much more reading, but from the little I did read this morning (Here a Little, There a Little website), I realize that it’s important to understand more about that time period and culture.

The believing Jews did not expect or want the incorporation of Jesus into their world and faith to separate them from their Judaic heritage. Jesus was/is the Messiah and therefore the completion of many prophecies. He was a Jewish phenomenon and, from their perspective, Jesus was providing a way for the gentiles to be adopted into the faith.

As mentioned in the “Here a Little, There a Little” article, James released the gentiles who were coming to Jesus from circumcision but they would enter the faith with the same restrictions as “strangers” who wanted to live among the Jews (as written in Leviticus 18). And then, they would learn about the law of Moses (verse 21) in their local synagogues. In other words, the disciples expected everyone who came to Jesus to ultimately become a Jew with faith in the Messiah.

This makes sense. But, history shows that things did not work out that way. Instead, over the years, the “Christians” or Christ followers who were gentiles, absorbed their faith in Jesus into their own traditions and faiths.

The strings that James attached to the Christ followers of Asia Minor were not strong enough and Jesus faith morphed and morphed and morphed. Many bible readers say we are following the word of God literally… but if that were true, then we would all be Messianic Jews. That’s not a bad thing at all, but it hasn’t happened that way. And at this point in our world, I doubt it ever will.

So, where does that leave us gentiles today? Hanging onto grace… that’s all we can really do.

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A Rabbi’s Yoke

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , on April 4, 2009| 3 Comments »

Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I am reading a fascinating book called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell. I have always been interested in language and the meaning/interpretation of words. So often, we take the most common words for granted. This kind of questioning started back in my theatre days when we were challenged to investigate, “what does this phrase or word really mean?” The Bible is full of words that are loaded: love, grace, sin, hope, faith, truth… that’s just a few for starters!

Anyway, Rob Bell speaks of this meaning and interpretation of words as one of the responsibilities of a Rabbi. And those disciples who studied under a rabbi understood that he was the one, after much study and prayer, who would make the final determination/interpretation. For instance, if the law said that no work could be done on the Sabbath, it was the Rabbi who interpreted what “work” might mean. Different Rabbis had different interpretations. One might say that walking 3 miles was permissible but walking more was work. While another might say 2 miles, etc. As a result, people would choose or align themselves with a rabbi whose set of interpretations they would follow. This set of interpretations was called the Rabbi’s Yoke!

Of course, you can see where I’m going here: Jesus, the Rabbi, brought a new yoke to the people. He even announced it and invited others to follow because His yoke was easy! This is the way of Jesus even today.

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