Mountains and Valley

 

Psalm 121:1-2

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

    where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

    the Maker of heaven and earth.

We have a tendency to think of events in our lives as either mountain top or valley experiences.    Those are the times we remember best - the highs and the lows.  

When we are low, in times of need, we might feel abandoned.  We might cry out for God to come to us.  We may not remember that God does not ever leave us by ourselves. 

When we are high, we might think that we got there by our own efforts and merit, and forget to thank God for the gifts and talents that enabled us to climb to that height.

A few years ago I wrote a poem about highs and low and God’s presence.  

Whether on the mountain top

Or In the valley 

God is with us

But

Most of the time 

we aren't in either of those places 

Most of the time

we are just wandering along a level place 

sort of

Same Old

Same Old

God is with us there, too.

God of steadfast love, we thank you for always being with us, no matter where we are on life’s journey.  May we remember that no matter what, you are with us, upholding us with your love.  Amen.

In loving obedience

 John 14:23. NIV

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

I wonder what the world would be like if Christians took Jesus’ teachings most seriously?  I mean, we say we follow Jesus, but if we are honest we will see that too often we are following Paul  or Moses more closely than Jesus.  What would it be like if we were to ignore what Paul wrote entirely, and allowed the Laws of Moses to be condensed back into the Ten Commandments they expanded upon? All of the household codes that we disagree about are in the Epistles, not in the Gospels.  All of the abominations we fuss about are in the Laws of Moses.  Nothing Jesus said would lead us to approve of slavery, the oppression of women, the oppression of homosexuals, or the poor.  Nothing in the Four Gospels would lead us to allow the oppression of anyone, in fact.  What if we were to focus entirely on the two most important commandments, the two upon which Jesus said all of the Law and the Prophets depend?  

Mind you, there is much good in the Letters and the Books of Moses.  Both focus on how communities should get along together, but as time went those who interpreted the laws expanded upon them, making them more detailed and restrictive.  Even today, the Laws of Moses are continually revised and updated so that, for example, no one need question whether a thing is work or not as relates to Sabbath observance.  Everything is spelled out in great detail.  Jesus, on the other hand, was always a proponent of obeying the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.  

In the story of the Good Samaritan, the people who passed him were obeying the Law in avoiding contact with a person who was bleeding so that they might enter the Temple.  In the story of the woman at the well, Jesus went against the law to speak with that woman, but that enabled him to reach the entire village with the Good News.  When the Pharisees called Jesus out because his followers were plucking and eating grains - working! - on the Sabbath, Jesus reminded them that God had said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”  Again, when they called him out for healing on the Sabbath he called them hypocrits, “Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the manger and lead it away to give it water?”. The money changers in the Temple courtyard were operating lawfully, but even though lawful their actions were immoral, so Jesus chased them out.   Paul says women should not teach men, but Jesus sent the women to tell the men about his resurrection. 

When we are making a decision about an action, I think it is better to see how our action fits with the Love Commandments than with rules written by humans.  If we are wondering whether a thing is bad, we shouldn’t go looking for whether or not there is a rule against it.  If we have to ask whether it is wrong/bad/immoral, it probably is.  

If we love Jesus, we will obey his teachings, and he will live within us.

Lord of Love, may we always keep Jesus teachings at the front of our minds. May the laws of love which he taught us guide our words and actions always.  Amen

A day for rest

 Psalm 149

1  Praise the Lord.

Sing to the Lord a new song,

    his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.

It’s been a long week.  It had the same number of days as all other weeks, but for some reason the things that filled those days was tiring.  Maybe part of why I am tired is the smoke and really bad air quality.  Maybe it’s because I had more writing and planning to do than usual.  Whatever the reason, I am tired today.

The author of the blogs I subscribe to writes daily, as I do.  But every now and then she says, ‘You know what?  I’m just too tired to write tonight.  I am going to rest this evening.  Good night, my friends.”

So I’m taking a leaf from her journal, as it were.  I will go rest and look forward to tomorrow’s worship service and sharing the Lord’s Supper with you all from afar.

Lord of Sabbath rest, you have commanded us to rest at least one day a week.  We give you thanks for permission to rest and relax so that we may be at our best in our worship and in our service to you.  Amen

Our Father in Heaven...

Deuteronomy 4:39  (NRSV)

39 So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

Sometimes I think we forget that God is not just “in heaven above”.  I mean, we’re taught from an early age that God is up there.  When a loved one is gone, we tell children that they have gone to be with Jesus up in heaven.  When things are going really well, we say “Somebody up there must like me.”. When we pray some of us lift our hands and our eyes up to the sky, and speak as if God is above us, above the clouds.  Even the prayer that Jesus taught us begins by addressing “Our Father in heaven”.

So it’s probably not that surprising that sometimes we wonder where God is when stuff is hitting the fan.  “Where is God?” we say as we look up to the sky.  “Can God not see what is happening here?”  When that happens we may get discouraged and stop trying to do the right thing.  We may feel overwhelmed and alone. I think that is most likely to happen when we insist on seating God on a throne somewhere above the clouds, basking in the worship of the citizens of heaven, enjoying the music as choirs of angels sing Alleluias all the live long day.  

I believe that our God is a working God, sustaining the movement of the universe, paying attention to all of creation.  God not only sees what is happening, but stands right next to us, sharing our troubles and our joys while looking over our shoulders at whatever we are facing.  Not controlling the situation, but lending us strength and supporting us as we go through it.  

Sometimes it feels like Christians are all about how to get themselves into heaven by and by instead of doing the work of reconciling the world to God.  That’s what Christians are supposed to be doing, so that the earth can be like heaven, a place where abiding by God’s will is the rule not the exception.  We are supposed to be about the business of building the Beloved Community, a world where no one suffers oppression, and God’s justice and mercy rule.  God is our partner in that work, sometimes whispering suggestions in our ears, sometimes finding it necessary to hit us upside the head with a “God by 4” to get our attention.  

Where ever we are, God is with us, and we can take heart from that knowledge.  We are never alone, never abandoned, never neglected.  No matter what is going on, God has our backs, and all will be well.

Loving God, who lives in the heavens and on the earth, we are so grateful that you stand with us through the ups and downs of our lives.  Help us, we pray, heal the world, so that all persons can come to know your love and your peace.   Amen.

Boils and Locusts and Frogs - Oh My!

 

Exodus 9:10-12 NIV

So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on people and animals. 11 The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.

I was scrolling through Facebook and noticed a post from a young friend that said,  “Rewatching the Prince of Egypt because its a masterpiece and also brings up fun religion stuff. Like how it is literally worded that god hardened Pharaoh’s heart for no other reason than to torture the people of Egypt with plagues. Like yeah dude thats messed up. Even if it was real, that is not okay 🙃 why would you think god is good when he did mostly evil things?”. 

She has a point.  She’s talking about the God I learned about growing up.  The big Old Testament stories we tell about God are filled with examples of God’s anger and  ruthlessness.  God destroyed all the humans and animals on the earth except those on the ark.  God told Joshua to tear down every city in the Promised Land so the Hebrews could have it, killing everything living and destroying every single item they found there - to wipe all the people living there right off the face of the earth.  God regularly punished the people of Israel for being unfaithful by having some other nation defeat them in battle, then helped them when they came crawling back.  And let’s not forget Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities with all their occupants - even babies! - totally destroyed because they broke the law of hospitality. These are pretty ugly stories, and it’s easy to see why that God, the one we tell those stories about, doesn’t really look “good.” 

The stories were written from the perspective of the people God saves.  The stories were told to remind the people just how powerful their God is.  “Look - our God loves us so much he will kill for us!  Our God is so powerful that even mighty cities cannot stand before him. Our God is so powerful that even the Pharoah, the most powerful human we know about, must bow to God’s will.” And, “Our God loves us so much that even when we do everything we are told not to do, we are forgiven and rescued.”. When those people were telling the stories, they weren’t thinking about the other people as anything other than the enemy, the oppressor.  This was their God, after all. Not the god of all those other people.  When they told these stories, they were only thinking about making it really clear that their God loved them, and favored them above all others.

The stories we don’t tell as often are the quiet stories, the stories of God answering the prayers of infertile women, or God telling the people they must take care of the widows, orphans, and alien residents among them, or God’s constant reminders to the leaders of nations that they were responsible to care for all of their people. God said, “I don’t want your sacrifices, I want you to be just and merciful.”  We talk about God kicking Adam and Eve out of the Garden, but don’t mention the part about God making them clothing to protect them from the elements.  We talk about God smiting the enemy, but not about God’s instructions to love the enemy, even to give them food and water.  We even talk about God sending his own son to be killed for us, without mentioning that Jesus was not just God’s son, not just human, but also divine, also God.  We don’t usually remember that God was willing to die in excruciating pain  for us.

Dear God, we do love to tell the stories from the Hebrew Bible of you smiting and punishing evil doers, or just people we think of as the bad guys.  Help us remember to tell the less exciting stories of your forgiveness and mercy, and your compassion for those who suffer, so that everyone hearing will know that God is good.  Amen.

Look! Trees!

 

Jeremiah 17:7-8  NIV

7 But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

    whose confidence is in him.

8 They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

that does not fear when the heat comes

    its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

    and never fails to bear fruit.

In pretty much any movie or book that includes a group of people traveling across either a desert or seemingly endless plains, at some point one of them will look up and say, “Look!  Trees!  That means there is water!”  It might be a stream or a well, but whatever the water source is, the sight of those trees in the middle of miles and miles of miles and miles brings new energy to the group.  The water their roots reach toward keeps them alive even in the midst of drought, when all the plants around with short roots have died.  When the water table moves deeper, so too do the roots of the trees.

Trust in God is like that.  Even when things seem to be all going wrong, just as the tree reaches more deeply toward the water we just reach deeper to find our life giving sustenance in God.

A friend was in a serious auto accident some years back.  She had some injuries but nowhere near as bad as you would think from photos of the car.  When she was talking about it later she said that, even when she saw the accident coming, even as the car spun and flipped off the freeway, she had confidence that everything would be ok.   If she lived through it, God would help her recover.  If she died, she would be with God.  Either way, she would be ok.

There are times when it is really hard to remember that God is always right there for us.  When things are going sideways - like now - we might wonder where God is in all of this.  Why isn’t God doing something when around the world millions of people are dying in this pandemic?  God is doing something - providing the scientists and doctors with the inspiration and intellect they need to find a cure and a vaccine, offering hope to the rest of us that they will succeed, giving strength to the health care workers who face unprecedented and unrelenting illness and death.  God is right here, holding on to us when we need to be held and encouraging us when our courage runs out. 

When we have confidence in God, then no matter what happens in our lives, just as the tree by the water survives drought, we will get through difficulties one way or another, and we will be ok, sustained by God’s life giving love.  

Loving God, let us be like the tree near the stream, green and thriving in the knowledge of your loving care for us.  Let us trust with confidence that you are always there when we need you, always ready to reach out your hand to uphold us in times of trial, for you are our God and we are your people.  Amen.

Did you say something?

 

Psalm 32:8 (NIV)

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. 

God speaking.  Me listening.  That’s the way it is supposed to work, and when it works that way God does instruct me and teach me and counsel me.

But then there are the days when I have no desire to listen to God. Or maybe the desire is kind of there but I am distracted by a million other things, so God can’t get through all the static in my mind.  On days like that it is hard to settle down to pray or meditate - especially meditate! 

Prayer is usually fairly easy.  Prayer is the asking part and even if all I can say is, “God, help me!” the prayer is there.  Even if it is simply groans or sighs, with no words available, the prayer is there, and God hears it.

But meditation - the listening part.  That can be difficult.  It’s not that I think my mind has to be completely still in order to hear God.  We are designed in such a way that we can  hear one conversation in a crowd if we are paying attention to that one.  That’s how we manage to converse while we are in restaurants and other public places, when sounds are at normal levels.  But sometimes it is rock concert loud, in which case no one can hear anything.  The same thing happens inside my head.  Most of the time I can focus my attention on listening for God’s voice even though there is a lot of other noise going on in my head.  But sometimes all of the things going on in my life - the busy-ness and the worried-ness and the confusion and the feeling that there is so much to do I have no idea where to start - are just so loud that I cannot hear that still, small voice in the back of my mind. 

When my mind gets that loud, one of two things will happen.  Either I will find a way to settle myself, or God will.  When God has to get my attention it comes in a particular way that I call a “God by 4 upside the head” - something that forces me to slow down and pay attention whether I want to or not.  Sometimes these are events, sometimes they are things other people say, sometimes it is simply a matter of running into the same phrase or idea multiple times in vastly different places.  Whatever form it takes, it feels like an “I could have had a V-8!” moment.  

Because those are often uncomfortable events, I do try to keep from letting all the things on my mind from getting so loud I cannot hear God.  I make time to allow my mind to relax.  My life is much easier when I can hear that still, small voice and allow it to instruct and teach and counsel me.  

Teaching God, may I always be willing to listen for your voice letting me know which way to go.  May I learn to keep the noise in my head to a minimum, so we can have that intimate conversation, just Thee and me, without distractions.  Amen.