sacred places

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Exodus 3:1-12; NRSVue

Sacred places. Spaces that hold special meaning. We can be in awe over a site or location in which some special event happened or where some famous person used to be. In Moses’s case, as cited above, God was in a bush that was on fire yet not being consumed. God was making God’s self known to Moses and calling Moses to the task of delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt. This would be not only a marker in Moses’s life, but for those around him and who followed him, for all of us who read this account. There are those holy places and occasions that are markers to us as well of God’s presence. Like Jacob (Genesis 28), we may hardly recognize it at the time, but later we will see that God was with us.

When it comes right down to it, all of earth is a sacred space. When God created the heavens and earth in Genesis 1, all of creation is God’s “cosmic temple.”

Thus says the LORD:
Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool;
so what kind of house could you build for me,
    what sort of place for me to rest?
All these things my hand has made,
    so all these things are mine,
            says the LORD.

Isaiah 66:1-2b; NRSVue

Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:24; NRSVue

So in the truest sense there is no spot on earth that is not sacred. Strictly speaking there is not the sacred and secular, the holy and profane. All is holy, all is made clean, that becoming clear in God’s revelation in Jesus.

Nevertheless there are still those sacred times and places to remember as we come to understand more and more that there’s not a place or time in which God, the Holy hasn’t been present.

fame is vanity

Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who will no longer take advice. One can indeed come out of prison to reign, even though born poor in the kingdom. I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun, follow that youth who replaced the king; there was no end to all those people whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:13-16; NRSVue

In the decades I have lived I have seen public officials who truly were public servants, invested fully in the work they had to do, concerned only about that, for the good of people, for the good of the nation, even for the good of the world. Contrast that to people who are seeking fame, to be remembered. Sadly those are the kind that often are remembered as infamous, not famous. Adolph Hitler comes to mind and there’s a host of others.

The best of leaders will all have an asterisk beside their name. All are flawed, humans with feet of clay. And there will always be legitimate questions about their work, leadership, what they did or did not do. Abraham Lincoln comes to mind. As great as he was, he was a person of his times. He may have done well with what he understood, and there may have been little if no escape given the nation as it was at the time, but one can’t help but wonder if some other path might have averted the Civil War in which over 600,000 died (“between 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers…along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties”).

How do we want to be remembered? What value is there in fame? What about the countless number of people loved and appreciated in their family and community for good reason, little if at all known outside of that circle?

God knows. God remembers. When it’s all said and done, let’s serve one another in love, grow in that. And have a heart of compassion with feet on the ground for the people around us in need, as well as those beyond us. In the end, that’s what counts. Fame itself is vanity. It is why one is remembered and what for.

 

the importance of history for life

I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” We must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from the worship of idols. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

1 Corinthians 10:1-15; NRSVue

There is a relatively new aspect to the culture war that has been happening in the United States for decades. It is the controversy over history, historical revision occurring over slavery and what followed, and in other ways as well. History is complicated. You can’t paint anything or any person as black or white. There are various shades of gray with everything and with all of us.

We don’t do well to brush off or set aside faults of the present or the past, though we are surely often blind to some if not much of that. In a system in which, unbeknownst to us, we take for granted privilege that others don’t have, we can be mostly or entirely unaware of the gap between us and others, the advantage we have that others don’t. As someone has well said, we’re not guilty, but we are responsible for what we do with this today. We need to become informed and then we need to address this not only in the way of charity, handouts, but in seeking to change the system and redress wrongs done, a project which will include the nation, all of us together.

Paul pointed his finger at the story of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as important for believers in his time, certainly inclusive of us today. If we don’t pay attention and learn from the past, we’ll repeat the same mistakes, even fatal missteps done then. As it is said, history may not repeat itself, but it can rhyme. Certainly the believers in Paul’s day were not in the exact situation as Israel of old with Moses, but idolatry and its results were and are most surely present.

None of us are off the hook in this regard. This is an individual matter, but even more, communal. We’re in this together and we have to think that way, learn from each other, and hold each other accountable. If we think this is strictly an individualistic matter, the result will be piecemeal, relatively little, and likely in the end, negligible. I am thinking about taking seriously issues which affect certain peoples in the United States from what has happened in the past. I am definitely thinking about slavery, how much of US wealth came from that, how systemic racism has evolved over time, right up to the present with “the new Jim Crow.” See also the Equal Justice Initiative. Also the often treacherous (treaties broken), brutal displacement of indigenous peoples.

What Paul was getting at was similar. Learn from the past. Don’t repeat the mistakes made back then. And in the spirit of that, work at righting past wrongs. All of Scripture should be read partly with these kind of things in mind.

God’s heart for the lost

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

Luke 15:1-32; NRSVue

The three parables Jesus tells are all about God’s love and all the love for the lost, us lost folks, lost in a lost world. God never gives up but keeps looking until God finds each one. God in longing love patiently waits for each lost one to return. It’s as simple and profound as that.

real staying power

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For

“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

That word is the good news that was announced to you.

1 Peter 1:22-25; NRSVue

How can we keep on keeping on? Not only in profession of faith, but in actually living it out beginning in the community of faith. Only by “the living and enduring word of God.” In and through Scripture and however that word comes to us. Really, nothing else.

If we’re trying to do it on our own with all the best intentions, we won’t make it, at least not as far as God is concerned, even though I think God always appreciates and takes note of sincerely good intentions.

The word of the Lord that endures forever is our only hope in this life and in the life to come. God helps us grow and carry on well by that.

telling it like it is (not like people want it to be)

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,

‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’ ”

And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

“Now therefore hear the word of the LORD.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
Therefore thus says the LORD:
Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”

Amos 7:10-17; NRSVue

If I can say I have a favorite prophet, Amos might be it, or high on the list. His humility, honesty, and not flinching from speaking God’s word is so much needed at every time, certainly today. Not the babbling of the many false prophets who are speaking what “the king,” what those in power, even what the people might want to hear. No. But telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Amos says the most difficult things. We do no one any favor by sugar coating what needs to be said, so that the hard truth is possibly lost. No. We need to say it plainly, clearly like Amos. Only when the truth of God’s needed judgment is absorbed and accepted can the truth of God’s forgiveness and restoration come forth and be received.

Jesus praying for us his followers: John 17:6-19

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

John 17:6-19; NRSVue

Jesus praying for us. At the right hand of God, ever making intercession for us (Romans 8). What more could we ask for? His prayers most certainly are always answered being in full accord with God’s will. Or maybe that intercession simply means the heart of God in counsel and full triunity for all believers. Jesus’s prayer in John 17, certainly applying to us now, to all who are of him. Wonderful to know, to help us continue forward together in the way.

Seventh Sunday of Easter: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; Psalm 1; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, “Brothers and sisters, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”

“So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; NRSVue

Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked
or take the path that sinners tread
or sit in the seat of scoffers,
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 1; NRSVue

If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:9-13; NRSVue

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

John 17:6-19; NRSVue

Revised Common Lectionary

what in the end matters?

Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:8-10; NRSVue

When it’s all said and done, what really matters? When I say said and done, I refer to all of Scripture and specifically here, the Ten Commandments, the second part of them which have to do with love of neighbor. The answer: love, and a love understood through Jesus and God’s Word in Jesus.

This love doesn’t set aside the commandments (CEB Study Bible), but instead gives the true meaning and motivation in keeping them. It is to be done all out of love. Otherwise it’s missing the point. Scripture is really a means to that end to be discerned in community and read, meditated and studied for that purpose. Always in the light of the Jesus of the four gospels. 

Christ accepts us(all) as we(they) are

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Matthew 9:9-13; NRSVue

Perhaps the biggest scandal to the religious leaders of Jesus’s day was his acceptance of the despised tax collectors and sinners. An irony of this is that Jesus was more than willing to accept all of the religious leaders as well, but they gave him the backhand. Jesus pointed them to their scripture and to the God of Scripture, who expressly wants mercy shown instead of sacrifice made, and whose call is only for sinners, which as Jesus taught, includes us all.