Numbers of things...

God is not human, that he should lie,
   not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
   Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19)

God is not...   We can fill in the end of that sentence if we're ready to admit who we are, what we're like. We are "People of the Lie" as M. Scott Peck pointed out in his book by that title.  To lie is the basic sin act, I think. Perhaps the old traditional list is correct when it names pride, sloth, and the rest as the seven deadly sins, but lying is how those show up.  Lying is the shield those sins strut behind in order to remain anonymous and safe and maintain the illusion that they are clever choices. We lie, but God is not like us.

God does not lie.  There's a lifetime of reflection in that short sentence, isn't there? A modern conversation starter in all visioning meetings, whether in churches, businesses or personal growth groups, begins with this question: what would you do if there were no limitations? Consultants know that we blame our limits for holding us back; we use them as excuses. If we had no limitations, they reason, then we would be free to clarify our goals, we would become all we hope to be, go where we want to go, do what we want to do and finally be satisfied with the experience of living  or working. We would accomplish much more expansive goals. For a few moments, we join in and imagine differently. But would we recognize a limit when we tripped over it?  What really limits our lives? What keeps us from joy, from receiving loving care, from being wasted when we fail, from death itself?  God does not lie.  But we believe legions of lies from other directions and of our own making to justify not trusting him. 

God does not change his mind.  Well, I've met more than a few people who propose to be godly in that way!  Down here, we call that stubbornness.  In God, it's great faithfulness.  What's the difference? The does-not-lie part (see above). Lies squirm and camouflage themselves like chameleons to avoid being discovered.  They stretch themselves thin, hoping to be swept under the rug, unnoticed. Truth is like salt, you can taste it if it's in there. Truth is like strong light shining from a hilltop. Truth has integrity as in the very person of Jesus. Truth doesn't change.

Now comes the quiz on what we've learned. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?  It's a no-brainer, as we say. Rhetorical. No need to fill in the blanks. But there's still a large essay question remaining and lots of empty space in which to write your answer. What comes next?  How does knowing this, believing this, now shape your life?

I write.
SH

Advent 2010

“this will be a sign for you...” (Luke 2:12)


Even a little child knows
that babies should be wrapped in cloths.


So, while the shepherds were wondering
about the angel hosts
and Mary was pondering
what had just happened,
as a little child, I was worrying about that sign,
worrying that these shepherds
might not find him with those directions.


Probably not that many babies were lying in mangers,
even in Bethlehem that night,
even with all the visitors,
I reassured myself.
Yet, wouldn't they have to search a lot of stables?


Couldn't at least one angel go with them,
and hover above the nativity
with a scrolling “Gloria”?
Wouldn't a star be a better sign?
Maybe a comet with a long,
downward-streaking arrow for a tail.
Or shouldn't there be halos, like in the paintings,
so he and his mother would
stand out in the crowd?


No -- even a worried child
suspects that would not do,
suspects that was not what God was doing.


Was it a miracle they found him,
Even 'though he looked like
a regular, little child,
Even 'though he himself
had to be the sign
of what God was doing?


Or, I wondered, 
might it happen again, just that way,
even for a regular little child
looking for what God was doing
on any regular day?


"this child is set...for a sign" (Luke 2:34) SH

Productive

"Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches." (Rev. 2.7a)

Working means being productive.  I'm told I have a strong "work ethic."  It's a compliment, I'm sure.  Well, most of the time. We who are seniors do worry that that trait might die off with us. If so, we're being short-sighted, however. Society-wide, if we don't do it ourselves, we demand it.  Push.  Fix.  Make things happen. Get somewhere by the end of the day. Get to the point!

And, yet, if we pick up and read God's words with this working-agenda, which we see as virtuous, we forfeit something, I think.  We're likely to push past what seems perfunctory, preliminary, or merely preface in order to get right to work, even when our "work" is studying the bible.  With God, however, there are no little words.  Or, perhaps, better, all little words might fall into the category that my Grandma used to describe just as I would be opening a very small birthday present, "Good things come in small packages."  From God, they often do.  And that foresight makes me open such verses with expectancy still.    

That's the way I read the opening phrase in the verse above. I believe it is our Lord's hope -- our Lord's call -- our Lord's heartfelt desire that anyone who has an ear will particularly listen to this.  Let anyone who wants to put his or her ears to work as they were intended to be utilized, be alerted to this: to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to the churches?  It strikes me as I type that that isn't an open-ended question.  It isn't a question to which we should respond immediately drawing from what we already know or speculate about, based on our best judgment or what we hope for.  But neither is it a rhetorical question.  It has an answer.  The way to discover that answer is to do what our Lord says.   To listen.  Not to read on rapidly without pause or deliberation.  Not to pass judgment on all the others who obviously "need" to hear this lesson.  But to listen humbly to the words that sound forth from these pages, to let them take voice and speak to us.  All of us who are the churches.  The Church, with a capital C.   The left.  The right.  The mainstream.  The fringe.  All with ears. Many of us flawed and divided by what we've been listening to instead. 

I'm thinking this little word-package might contain a prayer.  What do you think?

Much Grace,

SH

Still Reflecting...

"So, what's that have to do with the price of tea in China?"


It's about making connections.  Years ago, that comment was someone's not-too-subtle way of telling me to get to the point. A challenge, really. Asking me to wrap things up in a way that makes sense, to be relevant.  It's the demand of an impatient and skeptical audience.  Over time, I have been on both sides of that sort of exasperation. Meandering is not well-tolerated in this age that variously prides itself on toleration and at the same time, prescribes what's tolerable.


I haven't posted here for five months.  Pragmatically, that's because I'm no longer pastoring the people of a local church family and, therefore, I'm no longer writing to and for them.  As pastor, I may not have always been the "go to" person, but I did feel the responsibility of being the "turned to" one.  It took a while for that experience to wind down.  And for my response mechanisms to relax.  I enter conversations differently when I can choose to join them voluntarily rather than automatically as pastor.  In this different role where I'm not necessarily expected to lead, I follow further back.


But, leader or not, I've discovered that my spirit only tolerates so much meandering.  Still, as surely as the fellow at the next table in the coffee shop checks the stock prices in the local paper each morning, with similar regularity and vested interest, I find myself asking this question about whatever I encounter, "What's that have to do with being a Christian?" With "much-grace"?  

Come with me.


Some pastors meet for lunch and, over steaming bowl of the soup of the day, one adamantly claims that being on-staff at a large church like his is much harder work than being a solo pastor at a small church -- like the rest of us.  WTHTDWBAC?


I tear open the envelope and read my mail as I'm walking in from the mailbox.  The major realty firm in whose hands I've placed my parent's home for sale is promoting a new program to help buyers.  They're asking sellers to absorb a discount equal to 3% of the sale price to be applied to closing costs. Sounds like a patriotic choice in these tough times.  Sounds like a gesture of good faith.  Sounds like a smart choice to make the property more salable.  They do not point out, however, that on top of the seller's loss, the buyer still has to come up with the full sale price at bank mortgage rates while the Realtor and the Bank sacrifice no income and have the added PR benefit of getting credit for being compassionate.  Even wanting to sell, can I participate in deception like this? WTHTDWBAC?


For a long time the church has viewed itself as counter-cultural. But today, after thinking further, after considering the price, I am dropping that term from my lexicon.  Rather, I'm switching around my assumptions, understanding society as counter-faith.  God's will and ways are reality and other ways and wills are counterfeit, often very good imitations passed off as sensible, but having very little to do with being a Christian.  


We need to compare what we hear each day to what we know of our Lord.  To engage the world with "much-grace" doesn't mean accepting everything.  I need to work out daily what grace requires of me, what words, what choices, what facial expression, what motives.   


Granted, Jesus didn't say, "So, what's that have to do with the price of tea in China?"  But we do read that "Jesus replied, 'Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?'"
(Mark 12:24).  Same thing.  

However, Jesus wraps up the debate that afternoon with this reminder, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength'... 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (vv. 30-31). 



SH