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Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’

5 Steps to Healing

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Art by Joseph Liner

Thirty two years ago, I responded to a nation-wide call to Christians around the country to fast and pray in Washington, D.C. II Chronicles 7:14 was the keystone verse to that call and that day became known as Washington for Jesus. I arrived with national hope for healing but left with disappointment.


II Chronicles 7:14
“. . . if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

I had taken the call seriously. I traveled a long way, prepared myself to fast, and meditated on the scriptures. In my imagination, the Mall would be filled with prayer like in the days of David and Solomon and the Shekinah glory would fall. Instead, there was amplified praise music and prayer from the stage area, political rhetoric, picnics, vendors selling “Jesus Junk,” street proselytizing, and tracts, tracts, tracts. Hope was being directed to a political agenda and not to the instruction and promises God had given to Solomon.

Granted, it is much more difficult to turn a country’s focus. Change begins at the grass roots level, it begins with the individual.

So, here are the steps to healing that I have gleaned from this scripture. This is where I must begin:

  1. Know who you are. God is speaking to the “people called by my name.” Am I a child of God? I am. I have accepted God’s authority over my life.
  2. Humble yourself. As long as I believe my way is the best way, I can interfere with the divine plan. Humility with others is tough; with God, moreso.
  3. Pray. There are thousands of ways to pray, from casual chat to ritualized liturgy. They are all useful as long as the heart is bent toward God.
  4. Seek God’s face. A little different from prayer, but certainly an aspect of prayer, this seeking implies expectation. If I am told to seek then I am expected to find. The key is understanding that God’s face is reflected in a myriad of ways including the faces of human beings.
  5. Turn aside from the old ways and habits. This is probably the most difficult step if it’s done out of order. It’s not just a quarter turn, it’s a 180. It’s a decision. I don’t even have to walk in that new direction, just turn, and God will show up.

These are steps that will bring healing to any situation. And physical healing? I don’t know, perhaps that too. Perhaps, as the heart and soul are healed, the body follows. But I can’t speak with any authority about that, I have not yet grappled with serious illness.

The promises are threefold if we follow the five steps: God will hear, God will forgive, and God will heal.

I am reminded of the four friends who broke through a ceiling to lower their paralyzed friend down to Jesus [Mark 2:3-5] and it’s revealing to me that Jesus forgave his sins first.

I don’t know how to bring a nation around, but I believe we could start with our own lives. The “land” is basic, it’s the foundation of our Earth. What is foundational in our daily lives?

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Made Alive in the Spirit

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Michelangelo's Pieta

Since the Sundays in Lent are generally excluded from most Lenten rituals, I decided to do something a little different on Sundays as well. I looked up the Lectionary for today, Year B. A Lectionary (a list of scripture readings appointed for a given day or occasion) is generally used by denominations that follow the church calendar such as Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, or Episcopalians. Judaism also has a lectionary of Torah readings.

Today, the readings are from Genesis 9:8-17 (Old Testament); Psalm 25:1-10 (Psalm, usually read responsively); I Peter 3:18-22 (New Testament); and Mark 1:9-15 (One of the Gospels).

The phrase that captured my imagination is from I Peter 3:18b “He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”

It is through the transformation that Jesus endured from his 40 days in the desert to his death and resurrection that his Christ-ness is revealed to Human and the Holy Spirit is given to Earth to dwell with us and in us. It is the ultimate integration of the covenant God made with Noah for the sake of all life on earth which he signed with a rainbow. Jesus began his three year ministry after his trial in the desert; his first message was straightforward: “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” [Mark 1:15] Christ=Kingdom of God.

And lastly, I had a secondary serendipitous experience. For the last 6 months or so, I have started my morning devotion time with a single scripture, to prepare my heart and mind. This is what I wrote on the top of every page: “Guide me in your truth and teach me for you are my God and Savior and my trust is You.” [Psalm 25:5] To find the same passage in today’s Lectionary confirmed the rightness of choice and serene presence, as though, I too was being made alive in the Spirit.

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With All My Heart

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

From Holy Card Heaven online Collection

The Israelites were set to enter the promised land when Moses gave one last sermon (since he was not going with them) in which he warned them of the slow falling away that would probably happen. And yet, he also promised a God way to stop the downward spiral.

Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from there [Canaan] you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

So many times, I have not recognized my own descent into old habits and ways.

How often have I successfully achieved my weight loss goal and then, slowly crept right back up again to the old weight or worse, a higher weight. I lose my tenaciousness after the goal is met. I stop paying attention. I listen to the wrong inner voice that gives me permission, “just this once” or “a little won’t hurt.”

But this same thing happens spiritually. When I experience those divine highs, it is often easy to lose sight of the way that got me there.

God is not the one who is far away. I am the one who turned aside. I lose my focus and become engaged in something along the side of the road. And soon, I am heading down a side path, picking up crumbs along the way, curious where it will lead even, but ultimately I end up in some brambles and the trail that looked so clear at first, is indiscernible.

At that point, what to do? I look up and see I am in uncharted woods. How do I seek God at that point “with all my heart?” What does that look like? When I am in chaos or depressed or caught up in a situation or relationship that is overwhelming, what is next?

That is the moment in which I must choose how to give up. But which kind? Will I give up to the moment and keep doing what I’ve been doing? Will I say, “what’s the point of trying anymore?” Will I eat the next ten pounds in resignation? Will I stay in an abusive situation? Or is there a different way to give up?

Seeking God with the whole heart and soul is a type of submission, a giving in, a giving up to a higher authority. It’s confessing my inability to fix, solve, or extricate myself from the moment.

This is the most dangerous juncture. This is the prayer point that can change everything — or not.

Each time I reach this point, the fear is almost overwhelming. If I really give this up to God, what will my life be like? Will I be the same person? What if I have to become a missionary and go to Africa or Uzbekistan or something like that? Will I have to sell everything and live with the poor in India? If I give God my heart and soul, will I turn into some right-wing Bible-thumping narrow-minded extremist?

Goofy, right? I’m just saying, that’s how my mind careens when I’m faced with true change. But, of course, it’s not like that at all. When I do pray in this letting go way, when I confess my weaknesses and my self-destructive choices, when I hand my “out-of-control” to God, slowly and methodically, the downward slide stops. Breath. And a new way is illuminated, sometimes dimly, sometimes in bright neon. But God’s promise is a faithful one.

Seeking God with my whole heart and soul is a prayer of confession and discovery. Like the prodigal son [Luke 15:11-31], my eyes are opened, and I am able to start the walk home, one foot after another. I become the small child who is learning how to walk, each step I take toward the arms of grace is a victory. And the angels rejoice.

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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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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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