Heightened Faith

There are times when our faith becomes flat and unimaginative.  We lose our sense of childishness with God.  It is odd to consider just how wide the age gap is between ourselves and the Lord and how little we know about anything compared to Him.  The silliness of our complaints and the pretentiousness of our insights would be irritating to Him if He were not God in every way.  Nothing speaks more of the   grace of our Lord's love than His response to the preening pride humanity brings to the relationship.   Like a child who screams at his mom for not letting him play with the rattlesnake on the trail, we convince ourselves we know more than the creator of the universe.  Rather than happily playing in the front yard, we sulk in the back because we have chores to do.  Faith in God brings back the joy of our childhood.  With wide-eyed enthusiasm, every experience had a touch of heaven built in it.  We loved beetles and mud puddles and hikes to the "top of the mountain" and puzzles and helping take out the trash.  Every step outside is an adventure; every trip to the store a journey.  Faith opens for us a freshness to life; a laser sharp attention to all the joy that can be found in it.  If we know that God will put our children back together and open a way out of our financial distress and take us through the loss that has devastated us, we can relax and look for the good God is working out for us.  Faith for Abraham included all the dreams he had of playing with his son as he watched his eighty-five year old barren wife start dinner.  Faith gave David as he fled from Saul's army time to day dream about the party that would be thrown when he was crowned king.  Faith brought a grin to Moses' face as he contemplated the celebration that would occur when all of Israel crossed over into the Promised Land.  It is impossible to taste the sweetness of the plum in my hand when I am fretting about the meal for tomorrow.  Faith, not success or even healing is the gateway to joy.  An entire universe of happiness is available if you would believe God will take care of you and guide you through the rough waters that have made your boat ride more adventurous than you planned.

Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.   You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.   Isaiah 26:2-4 NIV

Easter Blindness

Luke 24:15-16 NIV

As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

Have You Missed Something Lately?

Several times I went to Russia to teach for a few weeks at a Christian college in Moscow.  Although I did not speak any Russian, my lecture was translated to the students in Russian.  This meant for extended lag times when I waited for the translator to finish before I moved forward with my teaching.  I kind of liked the gaps; it gave me time to compose my thoughts and make sure I was staying on topic.  It made it a bit tedious for the students though as they had to wait for me to say what I had to say before they could find out what it was.  However, there was an interesting dynamic to this class that it took me a while to recognize.  I tried to entertain the students a bit by giving funny anecdotes from my life and sometimes I realized there were students laughing before the translator finished.  At first I thought maybe the translator was saying something funny or making comments about what I had said.  This happened several times and because I was insecure, I assumed that maybe the translator was adding to what I was saying to make my lectures more interesting.  Then of course it dawned on me what was happening.  Some of the students were laughing before the translator finished translating because they understood English and were laughing along with me as I told my stories.  It was like within my class there was a secret society of English speakers who I was not aware existed.  They could have remained embedded there for the full time I taught if they had not let the cat out of the bag by laughing before the translator repeated my stories.

There are many times when we don’t pick up on crucial information…like when we don’t realize how angry our wives are, or when we don’t notice that our husbands don’t like what we just cooked.  Perhaps you have talked about someone and didn’t realize that person was right behind you.  You might find out that there was a deduction you could have taken off your income tax but didn’t know about it until it was too late.  Maybe you had not realized one of your children wasn’t doing his schoolwork until you saw his report card.  Maybe you thought you were having a great conversation with someone only to discover the person didn’t like you.  Have you ever believed you were doing badly at work only to have your boss complement you for what you are doing?   You might have discovered someone close to you had cancer but were not aware of it.  Maybe you found out when you were in school that a classmate had a crush on you and were oblivious to it.  Our world has lots of secrets it keeps from us…some because we aren’t paying close attention, others because we don’t have a way of accessing the information.  Easter Sunday was one of those days when what seemed to be the case, wasn’t always as it seemed.

The first Easter was a day full of surprise.  After watching Jesus brutally beaten, his skin shredded by a Roman flogging, and then suffer his agonizing death on the cross; Jesus’ disciples and close friends were emotionally devastated.  Some were afraid for their own lives; others were in shock over what had happened to Jesus.  No one was prepared for the events of Easter Sunday and it took them all a while to realize what had happened.  This becomes clear when we take a close look at what transpired. 

Somewhere near dawn, Mary Magdalene and some other women came to the tomb of Christ hoping somehow to put anointing spices on His body.  They were of course well aware that a heavy stone had been placed in front of the tomb entrance and there guards were stationed there to keep Jesus’ body from being removed.  How they planned on pushing back the stone, we have no idea.  Perhaps they thought they could talk the guards into doing it for them.  When Mary Magdalene and another woman got to the tomb, they found the stone rolled away and the guards gone.  This shattered Mary Magdalene’s already fragile psyche and she rushed off to tell the disciples that Jesus’ body had been stolen.  Peter and John hustled back with Mary Magdalene trailing far behind them.  When she got to the tomb, Peter and John had already been inside and ran off another way carrying with them the startling news that something supernatural had taken place in Jesus’ tomb and His body was gone.  At the tomb, two angels greeted Mary Magdalene but she was so distraught she did not know it was angels talking to her.  Let’s listen to John the Apostle’s description of what happened. 

Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.  They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"  "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."  At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. (John 20:11-14 NIV)

There are two interesting assumptions Mary Magdalene made that are very normal and understandable and they are related.  The first is that the angels she met inside the tomb of Jesus were not angels.  Who she thought they were is anyone’s guess but she certainly did not realize they were angels.  Either she completely overlooked the tell-tale signs or there was no evidence for her to consider that would lead her to recognize them as angels.  Immediately, Mary Magdalene turned around and saw Jesus but shockingly, she didn’t know it was Jesus.  Neither His voice nor His look gave Him away.  "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." (John 20:15 NIV)  Why did Mary Magdalene, staring straight at Jesus, not know it was Him?  This is of course a mystery to us.  The same thing happened with two disciples who were walking away from Jerusalem toward the small village of Emmaus.

They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.  He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"  They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"  "What things?" he asked.  "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.

(Luke 24:14-19 NIV) Here these two disciples were; talking about Jesus of Nazareth, not knowing the entire time they were talking to Jesus of Nazareth.  Like Mary Magdalene, Jesus was unrecognizable to them even though He was perfectly Himself.  Luke says these two disciples were “kept from recognizing him.”  What that means we have no idea but that is the case.  What should have been so easy to realize, that they were with Jesus, was a complete secret to Mary Magdalene and these two disciples.  They could not see God right in front of them.

It is getting more and more difficult for people to realize they are having God moments.  Like Mary Magdalene they are either kept from seeing God at work or they aren’t open to noticing Him.  The Bible is filled with ordinary moments becoming extraordinary experiences with God.  The prophet Jeremiah noticed an almond tree branch and God confided in Him that He was “awake” to accomplish all He promised to do.  Likewise, when Jeremiah came across a tilted boiling pot, the Lord informed Him that disaster was coming upon Jerusalem from the north.  How did David have the inspiration for writing one of the most well-known poems in literature, the 23^rd Psalm?  He did his job watching sheep for his dad and he thought about how much God cares for us.  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. (Psalm 23:1-3 NIV)

James the brother of Jesus watched plenty of boats sailing upon the Sea of Galilee and thought about how such a small item as a rudder could force a big boat to turn.  At some point, the Lord pointed out to Him that the rudder of a boat is like a tongue.  Both are small but each has a huge impact.  Paul the Apostle spent time on farms and saw how the branch of a wild olive tree could be grafted into the trunk of a cultivated olive tree.  He then heard from God that the Lord did the same thing by bringing Gentiles into the Kingdom of God through the Jewish people.

There are perhaps a hundred different moments when God can break into your day and speak to you.  You might be blind to it like Mary Magdalene or like David you might see as clear as day God moments.  Something as simple as a trip to the mechanic or a stop light could be the moment God breaks through to you.  You could be preparing dinner when the Lord has something to say to you or working out in the gym when He shows you something.  If an almond tree can be a great revelation for Jeremiah, what might a rose bush be or a conversation with one of your children.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves at least this.  God does not need our help to conquer death or anything else for that matter.  He didn’t search out the disciples on the road to Emmaus because it was essential he get advice from them on how to strengthen and encourage the rest of the disciples.  He came to the disciples because He loved them and wanted them to live in Him rather than just hear of Him.  You too are on the road to Emmaus.  God may say something to you at any moment.  He might show you something when you are not prepared to see it.  Our Lord does not just want you to read about Him, He wants you to have personal experience being with Him.  Praise Him.  Think about Him.  Ask Him questions.  Thank Him for what He gives you.  Gradually you will become aware of Him and you will know how to recognize Him speaking to you.  Sometimes you will think God has spoken to you but it won’t be Him.  As you keep turning to Him again and again though, you will hear Him and it really will be Him.  He will be present with you and your heart will skip a beat because you will know Jesus Christ Himself is there right where you are.  No longer will it be a story about Him; someone’s statement about Him, it will be you with Him and He will speak to you so that you know it is Him.  It will be your Easter Sunday!

Battlefields and Storms

Have you gone far enough with God to actually trust Him?  When Peter stepped out of the boat and into the storm, it was a most unhappy outcome for him in some ways.  He was soaked and nearly drowned by the lake and then rebuked for his lack of faith.  But he alone was willing to go out enough after God to risk disaster in his "faithing" and gain through it the "grip of God".  You don't have to look far in the Christian community to find boat sitters who prefer the safety of imagined faith over deadly storm faith.  It has been made popular lately to scoff at David's courage in stepping out against Goliath as if he had some secret weapon or deadly insight into Goliath's fatal weakness.  No one else stepped forward and advanced away from the safety of the battle lines.  Was David the only one who knew how to use a sling?  Was Goliath feeble and clumsy and half blind? Would the Philistines really have been so drunk with contempt for the Israelites to send such a creature out as their champion?   If so, wouldn't someone else among the Hebrew soldiers have seen it too that Goliath posed no real risk?  What David possessed was storm faith.  He would not let his fear stand in the way of going out into the chaos of walking with God.    And that really is the discovery of 1 Samuel 17.  Rare is there such hope in God, a sort of violent hope, that keeps the few strong while the rest hide behind the safety of the battle line and never experience that hope gained as the hot breath of Satan blows upon them.  Are you among the elite who will risk all you have to gain God on the battlefield, in the storm, at your office, school, mission field or home?  Is there a heroic urge to go with God into the fiery blast of the furnace and stand firm there beside Him?  Has God already pointed the way out of complacency and lukewarm faith and do you stand at the edge of the boat, trying to decide if you will be the one to step out into the storm?  Will it be said of you in the pavilions of eternity that when everyone else hesitated, you walked with God even as Satan cast his horrific gale into your face?  You stood and kept your post when all others abandoned theirs and in the moment of despair you found Christ strong and faithful and His courage sufficient for your hour!  Few discover supernatural courage and strength because they never go where it is needed.  What grace there is for those who abandon themselves to the Christ who calls them to come forth from the boat and join Him in the events where legends are made and tales of faith are told forever!

As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.     1 Samuel 17:23-24 NIV

Obedience—The Great Uncovering Step 2

Genesis 28:16 NIV

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it."

Are You Aware Of God’s Work In You?

Perhaps the most odd of all my actions in college was when I got involved in a “love triangle”.  Now I am sure that the girl in the triangle did not think of herself as being in a love triangle.  She was just having a good time going out with different guys.  My two friends though who liked her and who wanted her to choose between them felt very much like they were in a love triangle; or at least in a very attracted to this girl triangle.  For several weeks each of these two guys pined to me about his affections for her and how he could not tell if she liked him or  was just pulling him along to feed her ego.  I liked these friends and didn’t want either one hurt and so finally when I heard the girl was going out with a third guy at our school, I decided we should do something about this.  A group of us guys snatched her one day, brought her to the school fountain at the front of the campus and tossed her in it.  Now some would say this was a very mean thing to do and although the girl was laughing and mad all at the same time when she got out of the fountain and perhaps in some strange way liked all the male attention she received that day, I was doing something that had to break some rule.  Even though I never read a single regulation in the school handbook prohibiting guys from throwing girls in the fountain, I cannot say that what we did was “right”…funny perhaps but not right.  What struck me in this was that it probably revealed more about me in organizing this prank than it did about Ella who we all thought deserved to be “baptized” in the fountain.  The question is, what did this rebellious and somewhat mean spirited act reveal about me?

We are unconscious beings who carry below the surface a vast assortment of memories, ideas, convictions and desires.  Who we think we are and what we decide about ourselves isn’t necessarily the complete picture and perhaps not even a true picture of us!  There is much to us that we don’t grasp…some we recognize but try to keep from others and a lot that is hidden from us of which a little, unbeknownst to us, has trickled out where it is observed by friends family members and even strangers.  The question is not whether or not we have a significant unconscious world within; it is what shall we do about that unconscious world and will we let it determine key aspects of our lives.

The Bible provides us with rich insight into our inner world and it is of great value to study the people who are described in it.  One of the most important players in the Old Testament is David, the eventual king of Israel whom some would call the greatest of all the Hebrew kings.  David was courageous, intelligent, creative, godly and passionate.  But he also was lusty, narcissistic, bull-headed and ambitious.  He was a wild tangle of conflicted personality traits that God worked through to establish a culture of faith among the Hebrew people and make into a “man after his own heart”. (See 1 Samuel 13: 14)  David knew there was much below the surface of his personality that he didn’t understand and he invited the Lord to probe it.  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)

There is a powerful and critical way the Lord reveals our hearts to us and it is astounding how effective it is.  The law of God not only defines holy behavior but it also uncovers layers of buried material that unconsciously drive many of our actions.  The Sermon on the Mount is a surprisingly effective way God reveals to us our hearts and the hidden wounded parts of our soul.  Consider just the directive to forgive.  For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15 NIV)  It is amazing how difficult it is for us to do this.  In fact, it could be argued that it is nearly impossible for many.

The painful description of David’s relationship with his first wife Michal illustrates just how illuminating the law of forgiveness can be.  David was the golden boy of his time, the conquering war hero who could do no wrong.  Yet it is likely that deep resentments that were developed in childhood haunted him.  His father saw so little in David that when the great prophet Samuel came to their town and called for everyone there to meet him for a sacrificial feast, the boy’s dad never bothered to call his youngest son back to the house.  He left David out in the fields tending sheep while every other child of Jesse was at the party.   To get a perspective on this, suppose Michael Jordan or Bill Gates were to come to your neighborhood and everyone on your block was invited to meet him at one of the homes down the street from you.  You had eight sons but brought only seven of them to the meet and greet.  How would it have felt to have been the only child not asked to come?  Later, we see what this mindset of the father did to David’s siblings.  When the older brothers went off to war to fight the Philistines and David’s father sent David to the front lines to bring food to his brothers, the oldest brother had a bitter reaction to David’s natural curiosity about the taunts of the giant Goliath and the way the soldiers planned on responding to Goliath’s challenge to fight him.  When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." (1 Samuel 17:28 NIV)

Of course, we know that David not only ended up watching the battle but played the most important part in the Israelites winning the fight.  As a result of this bravery and other successful accomplishments in war, David was made a high ranking general in Saul’s army.  His popularity exploded and he was revered by the Israelites.  In fact he was more beloved than the king himself.  This infuriated King Saul and his jealousy inflamed his hatred of David.  The king concocted a plan to have David killed.  He told the boy that if he could somehow kill one hundred Philistines, he would give his daughter Michal in marriage.  Michal was in love with David and it would seem the feelings were mutual for David agreed to the bridal price.  David successfully killed one hundred Philistines and won Michal as his bride but their marital bliss did not last long.  Saul’s hatred of David grew so bitter that it became clear soon Saul would kill him if he did not immediately go into hiding. His wife Michal helped in his escape despite the risk she took enraging her father.  She knew it was possible that he would kill her for the part she played in David’s getaway.  But her love for David was too great for her to worry about her own life.  She had to help David save his.

What followed is tragic. The timeline isn’t clear but this marriage of infatuation and sacrificial love fell apart.  Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five maids, went with David's messengers and became his wife.  David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.  But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim. (1 Samuel 25:42-44 NIV)  Did first Saul force Michal to abandon her husband and marry someone he handpicked to replace him or did David first marry Ahinoam and Abigail and as a consequence Michal abandon her marriage to David and marry Paltiel upon her father’s direction?  We don’t know.  Probably Michal was the first one to remarry based upon Saul’s fury with David and Michal’s fear of her father.  David now had been rejected by the two most important men in his life, his father and the king who had taken him under his wing.  Michal may have been a mere pawn in her father’s hand but her rejection of David clearly stung David and his bitterness over her betrayal worked like dry rot in his soul.  He never forgave her.  One might argue that he couldn’t.   He was still the little boy whose father did not think he was good enough to warrant attendance at the party.

Ten years passed.  David had now added at least five more wives and perhaps more, fought a bitter war with Saul’s son and Michal’s brother Ish-Bosheth to gain control of all of Israel and no longer had King Saul to fear due to his death six years before.  Ish-Bosheth’s general Abner had become incensed with Ish-Bosheth and so decided to form an alliance with David and pave the way for David to be king over all Israel.  David was more than happy to make this agreement but first he had a requirement if he was to make peace with Abner and his army.  The general had to bring Michal back to David so that he could force her to be his wife again.  For perhaps ten years Michal had been with her new husband and he loved her deeply.  She was his only wife…he was her only husband.  David on the other hand had at least seven wives and many more he would take later.  What sort of bitterness of soul could lead to such a cold hearted, spiteful demand?  It was an ugly scene.  David told Abner and King Ish-Bosheth, "I will make an agreement with you. But I demand one thing of you: Do not come into my presence unless you bring Michal daughter of Saul when you come to see me." Then David sent messengers to Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, demanding, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for the price of a hundred Philistine foreskins."   So Ish-Bosheth gave orders and had her taken away from her husband Paltiel son of Laish.  Her husband, however, went with her, weeping behind her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go back home!" So he went back.  (2 Samuel 3:13-16 NIV)

Consider an imaginary conversation taking place between David and Jesus, one much like what happened between Christ and the rich young ruler.  David asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus tells him as he tells us all in the Sermon on the Mount to forgive, “Forgive Michal for marrying Paltiel and come follow me.”  David replies, “I can’t; it’s too much to ask, to demand I forgive her!”  Now, why couldn’t he forgive Michal for remarrying?  Why did he make her return to him?  He no longer loved her.  She didn’t love him anymore it seems.  Why couldn’t David just forgive Michal and move on in his life and let her move on too?  What drove his determination to ruin Michal’s life and Michal’s husband’s life even though it is a fundamental principle of God’s Kingdom to forgive those who hurt us?  Perhaps, it was because David always had to prove he was the biggest man in the room, always had to be the conqueror, always needed to have the prize in his hand, always needed to be respected and appreciated.  He could never let anyone get the best of him, never be disrespected. He had a deep seated need to prove his worth, to be someone!  Why might that be?  Perhaps, his bitter disdain for Michal and her needs and his unwillingness to forgive her was rooted in something deep and ugly…perhaps it had to do with his battle to prove his worth to his dad.  Maybe, there was a wound in David’s soul that had never healed and when someone he cared about deeply reminded him of the rejection he experienced when he was a child, he could not let go of the hurt it uncovered.

What if though, everything went in a different direction and the rich young ruler did give up his wealth and follow Jesus and David did forgive Michal for marrying someone else?  Is it possible that in doing the command of God, by forgiving Michal, David might have been freed by God of his need to prove himself, freed of his neurotic need to live up to the expectations of his father?  We cannot say what might have been but we do know this.  The commands of God are not intended to take apart the joy we have in being independent and free.  God’s demands are based in love and if we obey Him, there is power in God to make us more free than we ever thought possible.  Consider the promise found in Malachi made to those who take God seriously enough to do as He commands; who believe that in all His ways He is good, even when He tells us to do something that we feel is too hard to do.  But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. (Malachi 4:2 NIV)

Ends and Means

Have we caught the vision God has for us?  Are we prepared to be wholly His?  When Israel by neglect and indifference failed to capture all the land God had for her, she tragically left herself open to all the curses that come to those who sin.  The nation, rather than doing away with the idolatry and immorality of the region, embraced it and welcomed it.  Bethlehem felt the wrath of Israel's new heritage as a religious half-breed when Herod, rather than welcoming the Christ child tried to stamp him out by killing all the other babies of the village.  The Pharisees and Sadducees thought their religious ways had blotted out the corruption of their hearts but instead the religion they coddled betrayed the God they claimed as theirs when with one voice they cried, "Crucify him!"  Was it just David who suffered when he slept with Bathsheba or did all the generations that followed him fall under the shadow that sin cast?  It is a narrow way, this pursuit of God's grace in normal activities, letting the life of Christ work through our lusts, jealousies and frustrations.  You have a conscience, not so you will be hang-dog guilty but so you will act in the crucified life of Christ at the dinner table and the office.  A redeemed Christian has at his or her disposal all the power of the resurrection to get right the little things that make a life big and eternally good for every generation that encounters it.  Holiness is the heritage you leave behind you and later the heritage you take with you when you "share in your Master's happiness".

 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'   Matthew 25:23 NIV

The God Twitch

The God twitch is a spontaneous turning of one’s spasmodic concentration to God.  It is the sudden, spontaneous reaction to the Holy Spirit poking at your hot nerve.  Some are more reactive than others; quicker to flinch in God's direction.  If we don't realize what is happening we may mistake the poke as a crisis, as a terrible occurrence, as a heartbreak.  It is not.  It is the Lord making Himself unmistakably visible.  David felt it when Saul came after him in the wilderness.  Stephen felt it as he faced his martyrdom.  Jonah faced it as he sat in the belly of the great fish and Peter came upon it as he wept uncontrollably in the dark closet of Jerusalem Good Friday.  We may question many matters in our life but when Job like you was hit in the head by the lightning flash of God he became silent as a door knob.  There is nothing to do when God comes upon you with the force of heaven itself.  You must silently wait upon Him as He works Himself through every cell and corpuscle you possess.  Why should we think God would always deal with us peacefully and comfortably when the greatest people in the Bible were struck dumb by the weight of His awful Presence?  As Christians, we must stop making excuses for God; quit sugarcoating the ways He moves within us.  Did Ruth lose her husband or not?  Did Elijah face the terror of Jezebel or not?  Did Paul get beaten with rods or not?  It is anathema to make God out as some kind of silly puppy who bounces about mindlessly whenever we meet Him.  He is stern in His determination to make us face Him.  Should we think His glory is casual and light?  It is not!  It is as heavy as the weight of the firestorm that fell upon Sodom.  Nothing stops the force of our God's entrance when He decides to make Himself known to us with finality.  Just look at the picture we have of Jesus in Daniel 7 and try to wiggle out of this one simple attribute of God.  He is holy...terribly holy and it is a grave error to mistake Him as Santa Claus.  Sin is not a bad move on our part; it is the terrifying rebellion of a fool who dares come up against the Almighty God.  We must never mistake God as a doting father who overlooks every offence of his child.  He is not.  That is why the cross of Jesus Christ is such a roiling cauldron of chaos for Satan and the demon world.  Jesus Christ crucified is the lightning bolt of the Father that makes the entire world twitch in horror or in wonder.    The sins of the billions embedded within the dying body of the crucified King of Kings makes stones shatter in wonder and the universe come unglued in the end.   Are we so silly as to think God will only deal lightly with us when He comes upon us?

"As I looked, "thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.  His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool.  His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.  A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him.     Daniel 7:9-10 NIV

The Effect of the Follow

When David danced wildly before the Lord as the Ark was being brought into Jerusalem, he offended his wife Michal.  In hindsight, most of us would look upon Michal as petty and childish but she had plenty of baggage she carried with her that may have inflamed her sensitivities.  Her husband used her to make his escape from her father.  David greedily married numerous other women rather than holding fast to his loyalty to Michal.  When Michal was forced by her father to remarry, she built a new life with her husband but had it ripped from her when David demanded her back into his harem as his condition for peacefully accepting command of the united nation of Israel.  All of David's faults aside, he was doing as the Lord directed when he took up his place at the front of the procession and held nothing back in his celebration of the Lord's presence.  The backlash of his obedience hit is wife Michal squarely in the face.  Abraham as he marched up Mt. Moriah to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, had to stifle his own emotions but more importantly, let his wife suffer violently the horror of the projected outcome.  Paul never forced his young friend Silas to accompany him on the missionary journey but he did not shield him either from the brutal treatment he suffered as a result.  Our children may face terrible difficulties and our friends might suffer greatly when we do as the Lord tells us but we must not shy away from our obedience to the Holy Spirit.    Jesus knew Peter would suffer for following Him to the end but Jesus did not apologize to Peter for it nor did He waver in the call to follow.  The cross is not heavy just for us but for all those who walk with us as we heft it upon our shoulders and they heave their own crosses upon theirs.    If we are to be crucified with Christ, why would we try to prevent others from dying themselves?  Do we not want them also to have Jesus as Lord?  Are we more merciful than God Himself who lets others suffer alongside us as we take up our cross daily?  If God calls us, we must go regardless of the effect it has on others.  Jesus went to Calvary knowing full well the anguish it would bring His own mother but He did so because the Father beckoned Him onward.  If we are to follow in His steps, we cannot hesitate at the point at which we bring crises and trials upon others.  They are in God's hands just as solidly as we are and to not go would be to demand the Lord drop us and them too. 

A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Luke 23:27-28 NIV

An Extension of Christ

Do you know a "hard case", someone who is so far from God that he seems to be impossibly lost?  Have you come across the soul who is irascible, who is such an irritant that you are ready to be done with her?  The great temptation is to give up on certain people; to dump them in the hopeless bin.  And yet there is not a single person who is "hopeless"; otherwise what good is the cross of Christ.  Zacchaeus was content in his greed and selfishness and certainly many must have prayed for his demise.  Was he hopeless?  Saul was a human butcher, cruel and a prig.  He must have been the subject of many a cry for destruction, the Christian community surely longed for God to take him apart.  Was he hopeless?   We are astonished by David's miserable wailing when he found out Absalom had been killed because it was Absalom who despised David more than even his worst enemies; who although a son, wanted him dead and publicly humiliated.  Was Absalom hopeless?  David didn't see him that way and he is our standard for evaluating others.  No one is too wicked to be scorned; no one is too lost to be rejected.  Jesus died for all, not just those who were good prospects for holiness.  If His love extended beyond the natural bounds of affection, then ours can and must too because He lives within us.  We never have an excuse for giving up on another; for quitting on her.  We may be discouraged by the outer show of things but our Lord went straight for  the heart and loved even the most haughty of sinners.   We must stand firm in Christ and let Him love through us and not confound His efforts by letting our dislike for someone keep us from being the Lord's good and faithful servant.  It is no use complaining to the Lord who was beaten in the courtyard of Caiaphas.  The Lord sees a place of hope in your Pilates and Matthews.  Nothing warms the heart of our Lord quite as much as having a friend who sees that hope too.   Ananias did not want to go to Saul and touch Him but he did and the world has not been the same.  Extend your reach past your feelings and let Christ win you over.

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.  Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus…"  Acts 9: 17

Forgetting The Past

Philippians 3:13-14 NIV

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

When I was in seventh grade, there was a boy named Mark Munschausen who used to make fun of me incessantly.  I was the tallest kid in the school and he was the shortest boy in my class.  He used to try his best to humiliate me in front of my schoolmates for what reason I don’t know.  Of all the other kids at the school, I was his victim.  After perhaps six months of this, I finally exploded.  On the grass field of the school playground while a group of us including Mark were playing football, he said something to me that set me off.  I chased him down and tackled him, began punching him relentlessly and then started choking him.  All the while tears were streaming down my face.  I had never been in a physical fight before…and haven’t since.  Someone must have pulled me off Mark because I don’t remember quitting on my own.  The fight ended, as much as you could call my pummeling him a fight, and as far as I can recall, I was never disciplined for it, never even brought to the principal’s office.  We settled our dispute on the playground and he never made fun of me again.  As I look back upon the “encounter” I must say I never made it my goal to look for other Munschausens in the world to fight them.  I never took out my rage on others of German decent.  I didn’t make it my determination to crush all other short people.  The name Mark has never had a negative connotation for me since the fight.  And freckled kids (Mark was freckled) have not stirred my anger.  All I have since then is a rather indifferent attitude toward the whole business.  I don’t feel guilty for what I did and I am not in any way still disturbed by the teasing I suffered back then.  It might as well have never happened it is so insignificant to my life now.

There is much made of how our past influences who we are today and there certainly is a great deal of truth to that contention.   Children who have been abused are generally scarred for life by it.  Plenty of men and women are afraid to get married after their first marriage failed.  Many people have trust issues because they have never forgotten how someone they loved betrayed them.  Some people won’t eat peas because they got sick at one time eating them.  There are adults who have never gotten over their fear of swimming because someone they knew drowned or of dogs because they were bitten when they were young or of going into dark rooms because they were molested when they were a child.  Perhaps you had a tough time liking someone who reminded you of someone else.  You might flinch when a car comes too close to you as you are driving after having been rear ended.  Plenty of people who came out of the depression continued the rest of their lives saving milk cartons,  old cans and scraps of wood just in case they might someday need them.  Many people try to run from their past by moving as far away from their home town as possible.  Some leave careers because of bad experiences that traumatized them.  The past for many is a terrible prison where they have been trapped; for others the past has kept them from trying new things and making new friends.  The past is not always our friend.

There is a person in the Bible who never escaped his past and it caused his downfall.  The third son of David, King of Israel was haunted by his past.  His sister was raped by his older half-brother and for three long years, Absalom plotted how he might avenge the crime.  As the years went by, Absalom grew increasingly bitter about the lack of action his father took when he heard about the rape and decided he would take justice into his own hands and take vengeance on his sister’s rapist .Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad; he hated Amnon because he had disgraced his sister Tamar.  (Genesis 13: 22 NIV) Finally, Absalom made his move and murdered Amnon, his half-brother who had committed the rape.  But Absalom’s rage was not stemmed by his revenge.  He then began to plot the overthrow of his father’s government and take the crown from him.  Absalom planned four years the revolt and eventually had enough support within the nation to rebel against his father’s rule.  He was eager in fact to have his own father murdered in the process.  Absalom, for whatever reason, his father’s lack of support when Absalom was young or David’s seeming indifference to the rape of Absalom’s sister Tamar, never forgot how he had been wronged by his dad. In the end, Absalom’s inability to forget his past cost him his life when he was killed in battle trying to destroy his dad.

There are millions around the world like Absalom who do not let go of their past even though it damages them psychologically.  In contrast Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and despite winding up in prison for a crime he did not commit was not governed by all the wrong done him.  In fact he faced his brothers fully and rather than condemning them, reminded them of the part God played in his exile to Egypt.  “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping.  But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.” (Genesis 45:5-9 NIV)

Notice in this that Joseph never blocked out his past; he saw it as redeemed by God.  He did not deny the evil that was in the hearts of his brothers, he redefined though their work.  Nothing you or I have endured is too monstrous to be reconstituted into a resurrection of sorts.  Joseph did not forget his past; he was in a sense governed by it and not how the vast majority of us are governed by our past.  Getting sold into slavery was the only way Joseph would have voluntarily left his father to resettle in Egypt.  When Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of trying to rape her, God used her accusation to bring out Joseph’s own true loyalty to God and moral fortitude and establish the two joined together as his determining personality trait.  The idiotic assumption Potiphar made that Joseph was guilty led to Joseph gaining a rock solid trust in God to see him through any trial he might ever face.  It also landed him in the sole place where he could establish for one of Pharaoh’s most important officials the power he possessed as God’s personal servant and prophet.  We must not pass by this too quickly.  Only at the point of great desperation and need could Pharaoh’s cupbearer be ready to ascertain the most important bit of information he would encounter ever.  The Lord was intervening in his life and he might never have known this without meeting Joseph in prison; might never have been able to help Pharaoh see that God was intervening in the king’s own life if he hadn’t met Joseph in prison.

Given the monumental place our past has with regard to our present, we must see it for what it is.  The Apostle Paul had every reason to be consumed by the pain of his past.  After all, each time he made it back to Jerusalem he must have encountered some widow or orphan Paul personally put in that condition.  He came across in cities all over the western world men and women who had ugly scars because of what Paul had done to them.  It is not easy to live with a past such as Paul’s, especially given the insatiable hunger Paul had to love each soul he met.  If anyone had a dreadful past he must have wished to bury, it had to have been the Apostle Paul.  Yet he never seemed emotionally crippled by his past and he certainly never buried his past.  This is why.

Everything changes when we take for ourselves Jesus Christ crucified, including our past.  When Jesus, God in flesh died on the cross, He redeemed us.  That means He gained for Himself by dying everything there is about us and immediately transformed it into something completely new including what we have faced before.  The transformation cuts both ways…forward and backward.  We have a future that is different and eventually perfect and we have a past that is different and eventually perfect.  When we are born again, God does not leave us with a fragmented and awful heredity that leaves us psychologically crippled.  He makes our past right and good.  No experience we have had once we have been totally redeemed by the Cross of Christ is a gaping wound…it is God’s own place of strength.  Imagine a separated shoulder that after it is surgically repaired is stronger and more helpful than ever.  Your past, once God has had His way with it through the Cross of Christ is your ally and valuable resource for the enhancement of your life as well as the lives of a multitude of others.  It is only as we defy our Lord to make good of our past by unbelief that we limp about, crippled by our past.

Paul’s rallying cry, of “forgetting what is behind”, was not a spin doctor’s challenge to pretend like nothing happened to us before.  He simply stated how it is when we give our lives to Christ.  The past is just as good to us as our future not because we decide it is but because it really is.  Consider this about the forgetting.  Imagine you have suffered a terrible back injury.  All you think about is that back of yours because it through pain demands your attention.  Day and night, each movement and activity is ruled to some degree by your aching back.  Your back comes up in your daily conversations, is a big part of your praying and constitutes your rapt attention.  But suppose that back of yours begins to heal.  You think about it less, pray about it more infrequently and it comes up in fewer and fewer of your conversations.  You don’t even notice your back when you lift something or sit or take a walk.  It is so completely healed that you forget your back.  That is what Paul is talking about your past.  In Christ, as you in faith put your past into the body of Jesus crucified, your past gets more than healed; it becomes perfected…the perfect past for one as important and beloved of God as you.

The revelation from God that you have sinned is the point at which you start to see your past become your great friend.  The Bible makes it clear what you must do about your past.  Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you — even Jesus. (Acts 3:19-20 NIV) When you turn from your sin and face God squarely, which is what “repent” means, a miracle happens.  The Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you are not the same person you were before.  Christ enters you and you begin to work in His power and you think with His mind working by means of your mind and you love through Christ and bless through Christ and help through Christ and encourage through Christ and heal through Christ and pray through Christ.  Everything changes when you turn from your sin and face God.  Your mind does not think with a limp and you do not act lamely but capably, effectively as Jesus Christ lives through all you do.  Repent, for you as a Christian, does not mean a groveling, despair over your past; it is a turning to God that Christ may live thoroughly through you. Our road map through our past into our future is Galatians 2: 20.  I have been crucified with Christ.  That is your past.  And I no longer live but Christ lives in me.  That is what you are now. And the life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.  That is your past combined with who you are now determining what you will be from this point forward.  Take a moment to remember some things that you have had happen in your past…good or bad that have shaped you and influenced you now.  Fling those memories of what happened into the crucified body of Christ and miraculously, perfectly, God will transform them and they will be…each one of them, cause for you to be happy.  They are and forever will be your friend and your help as you move forward in Christ.

Body and Soul

I was asked recently by one of my children what I thought he would be like if he had a different biological father or mother.  Of course this seems like a sensible enough question except for one misconception.  We don't exist as a person outside the body we have been given. The soul came into the man after the body was formed and not before.  Adam became a living soul or nephesh after the Lord breathed into the body the breath of life.  Before that, there was no "soul" of Adam.   There is no scriptural evidence for baby souls or incubating souls waiting somewhere for God to distribute into bodies.  Rather what we have is that the physical body initiates the birth of the soul.  Thus when the body is formed, the soul comes into place, is breathed into it by God.  The body is picked out and then the soul is created.  When the egg is fertilized by the sperm, it is a mystical moment of conception, not just with the forming of the body but the initiation of the soul as God puts life into place.  We don't exist before the body comes to be but when we are brought to life, we are from the outset God's life.  He breathes into the body its being, its soul.  David talked about the work God did knitting him together within his mother's womb and creating him stitch by stitch as it were.  But moving down just a bit in Psalm 139 to verse 16, we come to the most interesting part of this .  When God saw us in His mind before we were even formed, our days were already established; they were written in His book.  It is as if out moments are a part of our DNA; the days we have written even within our body.  But take this one step further.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 indicates that our bodies also contain eternity in them; the heart is the receptacle of forever.  The body is no mere addendum to the soul...and the soul is not as U2 implies stranded in "some skin and bones".  The body and soul are intertwined as one, each a part of the whole God established when He decided to create good.  The body is either the whipping post or idol of humanist thinking.  It must be neither.  It is created by the Creator to establish the person Christ died to save. You are peculiar in the best sense of the word.  Made by God, particular to God, defined by God, known by God, loved by God.

Passion

1 Samuel 13:14 NIV
But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command."

Now, of all the compliments we find in scripture, this is perhaps one of the most extraordinary! God looked about and of all He considered in Israel, there was one person who was “after His own heart.” As far as I can tell, no one else is described in such a lofty way. There are others in scripture that are praised but none to this extent. Now as we attempt to unravel the gist behind the Lord’s accolades, the Hebrew does give us a few extra clues to best understand the comment. Before we go any further, we must point out that it is young David, the eventual second king of Israel that God is referencing. Saul, the king being addressed by the prophet Samuel, has just failed miserably in God’s eyes with his kingly vocation. As a consequence, the Lord picked out someone else to take his place as king. But not just anybody, it was an after his own heart king.

There are two key parts to this characterization. The first has to do with the seeking. There are two ways to look at this Hebrew verb. The first is that God went out on an intensive search and frantically looked high and low for someone who could replace Saul as king. The implication is that the Lord has to figure things out, sort through things…as if he went out among all the Israelites and checked each psychic resume before stumbling upon the right man for the job. The second way this verb can be read is that sought to make the right person ready for the task before him. God sought to secure the will and character of the future king and that one became a man after God’s own heart. For obvious reasons, this seems to be the better reading of this. God made David who he was. It wasn’t David’s marvelous make-up that convinced God he was the one. God secured David and got him ready to be a man after His own heart. What else were those attacking bears and lions that threatened his little flock intended to do but steel his character? And what of those “few sheep” his brother Eliab derisively characterized David’s chief vocation? Why did God saddle him with such a lowly career when David was good enough to be king? That too was God’s “sought”. The family he had, the village where he was raised, the dusty fields where he worked all became God’s seeking.

The second part of the characterization is the “after his own heart”. What does this mean? Heart is the Hebrew word for the inner parts, the part of us that we are inside…our soul, our personality, our mind, our emotions. It is us. “After His own” indicates as is. In David, God said He had someone just like Him. That David is like me! It is just as if you watch your daughter do the exact same thing you would do in a situation and you go, “Wow! That was me!” But then you might respond, “So what?” How does that change my life? Of course this doesn’t. But there is something that does. How was David just like God in who He is and what would I be like if God said the same of me? That is an intriguing question.

There are many traits of David that could qualify. He was courageous…But for courage there must be something that makes you afraid and how would God get there? Perhaps it was the cool way David wrote praise songs….of course that wouldn’t make sense other than maybe the adoration he offered God warmed the Lord’s heart to him. Was it his adultery with Bathsheba…that was a joke! Could it have been his warrior persona? Now I think we are getting somewhere. He was told that he couldn’t build the Temple he so badly wanted to construct because he had “shed much blood.” So it wasn’t that he killed lots of people in battle. But, I do believe there is something in the way David went out and conquered that made him a man whose inners were like the inners of God.

Everything about David exuded passion. Whether it was the way he was undaunted by Goliath’s height or girth and insisted he could lick the big “fella” or his ability to rally a crowd to join him when he was an “enemy of the state: David was passionate and it rubbed off on those around him. Several stories come to mind. The first is David’s response to the bravery of his soldiers who broke through enemy lines to grab some water from the well at Bethlehem. It was a foolish risk of life but done out of deep love and respect for David. When the men returned, despite his clear craving for that well water, David poured it out on the ground “to the Lord”. Embarrassed by his selfishness, he responded almost bizarrely. No one would have faulted him for drinking the water, particularly since it could have been misconstrued as disrespecting the efforts of his men to bring it to him. But the passion of David could not be swayed by his concern with propriety. Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this!" he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it. (2 Samuel 23:17 NIV)

Of course we are well familiar with David’s near erotic dancing before the Lord as he led the procession bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. His wife Michal castigated him for his passion, calling it an embarrassment to his office. But David did not care what others thought of his behavior. He was deeply in love with God and could not stop the effervescent flow of affection bubbling up out of him. Listen to some of the Psalms he wrote. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. (Psalm 33:3 NIV) My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you--I, whom you have redeemed. (Psalm 71:23 NIV) Not only did he shout for God, he also shouted happily for his friends when they got it right. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. (Ps 20:5 NIV) Something tells me, when I reflect on David stripping down and wildly dancing in front of the Ark all the way through the streets of Jerusalem, when David said that he would shout…scream if you will with joy when you were victorious…he meant it. Passion

There is one other lesser known example of David’s passion that caught my eye. When told that he would not be allowed to build the Temple himself, David was saddened but undeterred. He gathered 3,750 tons of gold and 34,500 tons of silver for the construction of the Temple he would never live to see built. Listen to David’s detailed concern that the Temple his son would construct be precisely correct in every way. He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple of the LORD, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service. He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles to be used in various kinds of service, and the weight of silver for all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service: the weight of gold for the gold lampstands and their lamps, with the weight for each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for each silver lampstand and its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand; the weight of gold for each table for consecrated bread; the weight of silver for the silver tables; the weight of pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls and pitchers; the weight of gold for each gold dish; the weight of silver for each silver dish; and the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense. He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and shelter the ark of the covenant of the LORD. (1 Chronicles 28:13-18 NIV)

Honestly, if this was a friend of ours, who in old age made such elaborate instructions for so many almost insignificant details, we would think he was at best a bit anal. Why would David care in the least how much the serving forks in the Temple weighed? He had psalms to finish, governors to instruct, generals to manage, wives and children to correct and take on vacations. Really, what did it matter if the table was 12 pounds of solid gold or 11.8 pounds? The answer is found in the next line of 1 Chronicles 28. All this," David said, "I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan." God gave David the details down to the minutia for the construction and he refused to deviate even an inch from what he was told. That, my friend, is passion.

Let us now turn to the most important person in our life, Jesus. What can we say about the passion he exhibited? Perhaps the most enlightening passage found in scripture outlining the psyche of Jesus is John 11. Three details catch my eye. The first is His devotion to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus certainly puzzled many by His actions but perhaps the most surprising…at least from the standpoint of His friends was the way he responded to the news that His buddy Lazarus was sick. Hearing of it, He dawdled where he was an additional three days. Rather than panicking and immediately taking off in a rush to heal Lazarus or at least reassure Lazarus’ two sisters who had to have been worried sick, Jesus kept up His ministry with the people across the Jordan river. Now, John tells us it was very successful ministry as “many believed”, but did that justify Jesus’ leisurely response to the deadly illness? What is intriguing is that Jesus’ enthusiasm or should we say “passion” for the people coming to Him trumped His concern for his friend’s condition. Perhaps one day dawdling would be seen as enthusiasm for the work, three days has to be labeled extreme passion.

The “b” part to this entire account is Jesus’ response to either the weeping of His friends, the hopelessness of the crowd or some other aspect of it all not explained. Jesus, at the moment He was going to raise His friend from the dead, burst into tears. There is another word for weeping which is for more often used in the New Testament to describe the response to sorrow but the specific word chosen is a derivative of tears. Now, I ask, why did John, as he pondered what happened that day, not use the more normal term for weeping rather than the one that emphasized tears? I think it is because the Disciples were caught off guard by how many tears Jesus shed, the sheer rush of them. As John look back nearly seventy years later, he still could not shake the picture of Jesus bawling. The passion of it stunned them all.

Move now to the “c” part of Jesus’ psyche. When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, we are told that He “shouted”. It is the same expression used to describe the uproar of the crowd when it screamed for Jesus to be crucified. Again, it is the same phrasing to express the passion of the voice from the throne (Jesus there also) shouting the end of time as we know it and the crushing of death along with the completed reign of Christ in heaven and earth. This is the shout of the stadium when home team wins the championship of the world and the fans jump from their seat in spontaneous uproar. Jesus could, and did scream with joy.

Now, let’s consider the passion of the Father. I realize most of us think of God the Father as the austere, subdued thinker who is a bit overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of running the universe that He doesn’t get overly emotionally involved with most of us. We are there, but so are the other six billion out there. But Jesus, who should know what the Father is really like described Him as a Father who has a missing son…you and me. When that son finally comes to his senses, (and yes it feels like an eternity to the Father) repents of his sins, and comes home, God the Father rushes to the boy in a mad dash, throws himself upon him and affectionately kissed him. There is nothing austere about this description of the Father. It is embarrassingly goopy passion.

What do we make of all this? I think we are most like Jesus when we shout more about him, are openly wild in our affection for one another and when we pump fist more often even the tiniest of steps forward we fellow pilgrims make in this plodding journey of faith. If you look at the bad guys in all three stories, whether it is the account of David’s passion, the story of Jesus’ passion at the tomb and the Father’s passion for his returning son, it is always the sour puss observers who think it beneath their dignity to overlook flaws, revel in God and shout out loud about the kindness and mercy of Jesus. I have never been very comfortable expressing myself loudly…perhaps it was the way I was raised, maybe my own personality but I am completely in love with the way the Father greets us on our way home. If there is anything the Christian community can do to make us more like God, wouldn’t it be nice if we threw our arms around one another more often and made fools of ourselves. And what if, somewhere, someplace, we would every once in a while fist pump the air and shout a praise to God that was as bold and brave as David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. .