helping others and each other through prayer

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and acceptable before God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For

there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself a ransom for all

—this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.

1 Timothy 2:1-7; NRSVue

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

Ephesians 6:18-20; NRSVue

It is noteworthy when looking through Scripture, the difference prayer makes. “Thoughts and prayers” are not enough by themselves, but that is where people of faith need to start. And those without faith, calling on the name of the Lord to enter into the salvation that is theirs in Jesus.

Simply pray and pray simply. No ornamentation required or desired, though if that is natural or comes, of course that’s fine, either way a gift from God. From the heart. Sometimes muddling through as something we do no matter what our inner experience is.

I have been woefully bad at not keeping people in governing positions in prayer. That is definitely something I want to change. As for the rest, I’ve tried to stay faithful in that, hopefully expanding in scope as well as Spirit-helped prayers. But again, I can’t emphasize this enough: we just keep doing it as something we do in all our weakness, stumbling, and lostness in how to do it.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Romans 8:26-27; NRSVue

And we do this not stopping, myself while being just as simply in Scripture, as well. God’s help to others through that, as well as to us when others pray for us.

faith, in the real world

Answer me when I call, O God of my right!
You gave me room when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.

How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
But know that the LORD has set apart the faithful for himself;
the LORD hears when I call to him.

When you are disturbed, do not sin;
ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the LORD.

There are many who say, “O that we might see some good!
Let the light of your face shine on us, O LORD!”
You have put gladness in my heart
more than when their grain and wine abound.

I will both lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety.

Psalm 4; NRSVue

The psalmist was hardly doing handstands. They were faced with all kinds of troubles. It’s basically all here. Life.

But in the face of that, there’s also faith. A faith which ultimately gives the confidence to carry on and even be glad. A faith that is ongoing, always needed in this life.

drawing lines, setting boundaries

Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said,

“I will live in them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Therefore come out from them,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch nothing unclean;
then I will welcome you,
and I will be your father,
and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; NRSVue

These are no ordinary times. And the stress level is often out the window, or so it seems to me.

I am against what used to be ecclesial “second degree separation.” The proponents themselves were imagined purists who were not as much about the gospel, but about a certain code of living which they surely would have said is connected to the gospel. Simply stated, it was the idea that even if they could have fellowship with a certain church or denomination, if that church or denomination happened to have fellowship with another church or denomination not approved by them, then you could no longer have fellowship with them. Usually if not always this separation was really not about faithfulness to Christ, but at least more about holding strictly to one’s interpretation and faith statement so that for all practical purposes, it was equal to God’s word. No doubt that still goes on today.

But what we’re seeing in the church now is something more akin to blatant out and out idolatry. It comes with the idea that a nation is going down the tubes and we need someone we can depend on to fix it. And they’ve found their someone and are more or less in lockstep with that. What this amounts to ends up being what Paul was warning about above. Paul’s words have nothing to do with befriending and being genuine friends of unbelievers. Rather it has to do with what amounts to idolatry, being yoked with unbelievers in a pursuit that is not of God, not of Christ, even in the spirit of the antichrist.

I hardly think we’ll have to draw lines and set boundaries, because these folks will do that on their own since they are embracing such idolatry even in the name of Christ. We have to be careful not to be yoked with them, not to have anything to do with their error. At the same time, yes, this can get complicated. Not so much in a church setting. If for instance, there’s a church heavy into something national and political which looks to the nation as their guarantor of not just religious liberty, which is a legitimate concern (along with Muslims, Jews, etc.), but want to have what amounts to rule of a pluralistic state, then such a church or so-called Christian group has lost its way and is not faithful to Christ. When it comes to family or friends who are caught up in such churches, that’s another matter. We don’t want to separate, but neither can we condone what they have embraced, or are more or less complicit in.

This is a time when lines must be drawn, boundaries set.

the clear sign of “the mark of the beast”

Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all, and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived, and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be given a brand on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the brand, that is, the name of the beast or the number for its name. This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number for a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.

Revelation 13:11-18; NRSVue

In my lifetime it has been remarkable the poor teaching that has been under the guise of “prophecy” or “Biblical prophecy.” Its popular manifestations have included the Left Behind series in books and movies preceded by the table setting of The Late Great Planet Earth. What becomes buried through all of that is the true intent of the book of Revelation along with so much of Scripture which is prophetic. It’s simply a matter of informing and forming as in warning and strengthening God’s people to remain true as a witness of God’s good news and will ultimately through Christ. It’s meant to help God’s people in times of persecution and stress, to encourage faithfulness to the end, the faithful following of the Lamb.

But to get to the point of this post, what accompanies the mark of the beast, as the passage puts it, quoted above? Basically, complete control and violence (note the passage quoted above). And why would that surprise anyone? We see it clearly at work in the world today in authoritarian regimes which might even make some show with some lip service to democracy but have insured that such is only window dressing as they clamp down harder and harder in their authoritarian rule and absolute control. And what if there’s protest or political pushback? We see it clearly: lawlessness (they’re a law unto themselves) and violent repression. Political opponents are locked up and/or killed, dissidents rounded up to something of the same fate. In other cases, the political opponents and journalists simply become irrelevant due to authoritarian control through pressures on business along with militia threats of violence or whatever else. Other regimes don’t bother with window dressing, so that resistance to them would have to be totally underground.

This is the fruit of the mark of the beast: Total control and violence to those who resist such control, who get out of line. I have often thought that there’s no doubt that the spirit of the antichrist is nearly always considered the Christ, Christian, or at least so in places where Christianity has roots. That spirit has been and continues to be at work in many guises, be they atheist, some religion, or whatever may be the case. But the most deceptive form of all would most surely, in my opinion, come in the name of Christ, in the name of Jesus. Paul warns about something like that to a church, that they might see Jesus as something he is not or receive a spirit other than the Spirit of God (2 Corinthians 11:4). In other words, that they would be deceived. I believe in some significant measure, this is exactly what we’re seeing today, at this moment in time, plain as day, right before our very eyes.

We need to recognize and some call it out for what it is, and above all, to stand firm in the faithfulness of Jesus, in the way and triumph of the Lamb (Revelation 14).

justice and mercy

He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8; NRSVue

For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:13; NRSVue

The words translated “kindness” in the Micah passage, NRSVue.

The Hebrew word חֶסֶד (khesed) is complex, sometimes translated “lovingkindness,” faithfulness,” or “loyal love.” It has also been understood as covenant loyalty.

NET footnote

Although the circumstances in the background of the two passages are different, the basic idea is the same: injustice or not doing what is right and good, and even by omission committing wrongs, as well as actual wrongdoings which are at the forefront of things.

I don’t consider “kindness” a bad translation in the NRSVue, as long as we remember that kindness is not actually merely niceness in mannerisms without any acts behind it. A graphic example of a kindness which ends up being kind in the way that can be (mis)understood today is expressing concern over bombings which kill children and women and others, while doing nothing about it. Good acts can begin with words, but words aren’t enough. Here’s a definition of kindness:

the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate… a kind act

Data from Oxford Languages

That doesn’t capture all that would be good in “kindness,” and again, we have to refer to the word in the original Hebrew as noted above. It is descriptive of God’s all pervasive, never ceasing love, a love which may at times seem hard, but is nevertheless love through and through. An effort to meet actual needs would have to be included to fulfill the true meaning of the word, at least of the Hebrew word it’s a translation of.

What is not needed nor should be desired is no accountability for truth or what is good and right. And I think based on the James passage, there should be an accent on mercy. Ultimately mercy triumphs over judgment. Given all that is so wrong in the world, and even wrong that is supported by God’s people, one is hard pressed not only to give in to despair, but to just be out and out angry and to not let go of such anger. And that’s more than understandable.

Anger is an inevitable part of being a responsible moral agent. Love is not love if not angry when love is violated. I tend to want to accentuate sadness rather than anger, but anger underlies or is on the edge of such sadness. James warns against anger, but it doesn’t forbid anger. We’re to be slow to become angry, also remembering that anger itself does not produce what is just, right and good. We can be moved by anger, but it’s an anger which we as humans can’t bear long without harm done.

Love is to prevail, an all-encompassing love: for the victims, but for the perpetrators as well. It’s certainly not a love worth being called love if the perpetrators are not held accountable. There needs to be justice always tempered with mercy. Mercy is not worth the name if justice is absent, and justice is not biblical if mercy is absent. One has to address what is wrong. Then and only then can mercy triumph over justice. Salvation means nothing at all if wrongs are brushed under the rug. Or maybe we should remove the story of Zacchaeus from the Bible (Luke 19:1-10).

At any rate, given all the madness going on in the world, we do well to hold on to both: justice and kindness/mercy/love. Remembering that we ourselves are in need of such. But taking full responsibility to be accountable for ourselves and to play our part with others in responsibly speaking out and doing what we can for what is right, good and just on the basis of love in this world.

kindness

He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8; NRSVue

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Galatians 5:22-23; NRSVue

Kindness is a type of behavior marked by acts of generosity, consideration, rendering assistance, or concern for others, without expecting praise or reward in return.

Wikipedia

“Kindness” in Micah 6:8 is the translation of the Hebrew word transliterated khesed, a difficult word to translate and pin down in meaning. Like many English words, that word can have multiple meanings, at least nuances. It basically carries with it the idea of complete reliability in goodness out of love. The Greek word translated “kindness” in Galatians 5:22 is χρηστότης, transliterated chrēstotēs, which means kindness, goodness, along with the possible meaning of gentleness.

Kindness understandably gets a bad rap, and if it’s only understood as something like niceness, simply being nice and polite, but with no substance, nothing beyond that, then its dismissal is deserved. Kindness according to the meaning listed above is something that should be a basic we could say, as part of where we start and carry on. No matter what, even when we’re tossed and tempted to do otherwise, we need to hold on to kindness in our dealings with others. With that kindness might come difficult things we have to say or do, but it should always and forever be couched in kindness, not only for our sisters, brothers, siblings, and friends, but for everyone, including our enemies.

Hard as that seems, and it certainly can be, that is part of our calling in Christ, and we’ll have the help of the Spirit of God as we endeavor to love kindness and live in it always.

Advent: staying faithful to the task at hand

Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Luke 2:8; NRSVue

He summoned ten of his slaves and gave them ten pounds and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’

Luke 19:13; NRSVue

Concerning Advent, we’re to watch (Luke 21:34-36), and we’re also to be faithful to the task at hand. There is like a Second Coming cult which stays fascinated with end time scenarios which are over and over again mistakenly imagined to be sure signs of the end times, the return of Jesus. The real thing is something quite different. It is filled with hope because of the plight of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized. If that isn’t the case, then we need to close our Bibles and quit reading them. Mary’s Magnificat or song indicates as much (Luke 1:46-55). What we’re called to do is a precursor to what will be. The Luke 19 passage, the parable of the ten talents can be interpreted differently, and it might be well to do so. But the standard interpretation probably most of us are familiar with, I’ll use here. The idea isn’t complicated. Simply be faithful and specifically faithfulness to the task at hand.

Faithfulness to whatever is before us ends up being an important part of waiting in expectation and hope for the ultimate fulfillment of what we long for and what we’re all about. Part of what Advent means for us.

take hold of everything available to you

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is blind, suffering from eye disease, forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

2 Peter 1:3-11; NRSVue

There are few things more frustrating to me than a passive religion and faith. That being said, I was faithfully instructed just recently from no less than Walter Brueggemann in my reading that there is a form of what I might call passiveness risking cheap grace necessary in waiting on God (The Prophetic Imagination). This is not a self-help endeavor, something we can work up and do ourselves. God is in it or it’s nothing at all in terms of what it’s laid out to be in Scripture. So yes, there’s that vitally important aspect of waiting through faith and prayer. But there’s also the equally important aspect we see in this passage from 2 Peter. God has given us all we need in Christ, yes. But we must take hold of it, period.

Notice what we’re to “support [our] faith with.” Excellence, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. We can say this is both in individual as well as communal terms. In the world in which this letter was written, community was a part of life and frankly a priority that it isn’t in our current day. They were together in a kind of mutual dependence which became a mutual grounding. Nowadays for those who profess faith in Christ, this is at best hit and mostly miss. People find a “good” church to get a good sermon, maybe some other good things on the side (like the worship music they like, and of course coffee, me included in the latter) and then go home. Maybe the church will press for small groups. And if it’s a small enough church, there might be some visiting afterwards. But by and large we just don’t have that same ethos or experience today. It’s much more like living in an individual existence, at the most tied together in families, but individualism so dominant that it’s mostly about everyone doing their own thing.

I say all that with the danger of losing sight of the wonderful list of what we’re to support our faith with, because we’re understandably coming to a place for many in which church is becoming more and more just a nice option. And ironically, where churches that are in danger of no longer being true churches (Revelation 2-3) are given to a community united in something other than what Peter was talking about here.

We can’t do this only by ourselves. Not. For example, how do we support our faith with mutual affection, or for that matter, love by ourselves? And given that, we can see the other things on the list: excellence, knowledge, self-control, endurance and godliness at least as much in communal as in individual terms.

We have to take hold of all that God gives us in Christ. That’s the only way we’re going to make it. And not only make it as in surviving, but actually coming to thrive and in the end gain the grand entrance Peter refers to above.

all Jeremiah could do was tell the truth

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look around and take note!
Search its squares and see
if you can find one person
who acts justly
and seeks truth—
so that I may pardon Jerusalem.
Although they say, “As the LORD lives,”
yet they swear falsely.
O LORD, do your eyes not look for truth?
You have struck them,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to turn back.

Then I said, “These are only the poor;
they have no sense,
for they do not know the way of the LORD,
the law of their God.
Let me go to the rich
and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the LORD,
the law of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had burst the bonds.

Jeremiah 5:1-5; NRSVue

I wanted to quote the entire chapter (click link above), but knew that is a bit long, but it’s well worth the read when considering my thought today. All Jeremiah honestly could do was faithfully speak God’s message; the word of the Lord given to him to God’s people. Nothing more than that.

There’s plenty of pleadings and calls for repentance in the book, along with many tears. It was hard for Jeremiah. He wanted to quit more than once, but God’s word would be given to him at certain times, that in itself a delight to him (Jeremiah 15:16), also a fire in his bones which he could never keep to himself (Jeremiah 20:9).

What Jeremiah faced is akin to what is happening today. God’s people at best don’t have the needed word to deliver, mostly at least half asleep, and too many given over to pure idolatry. That is what we face today, no less. And what can we do about it? Only what God gives us to do.

First and foremost, our lives must be a witness to God’s will and way. And some of us will have the calling in various ways to try to speak truth to people who never seem to respond, or who seem adamantly opposed to it. Much deception today, not that any of us are immune to that. But we’d better be turning the pages of all of Scripture, not at all necessarily taking it literally, but taking every jot and tittle seriously.

Like Jeremiah of old, we’re called to be faithful. God is at work and our calling is to live and speak according to God’s Word. That’s all we can do. But in God, that’s enough if we are faithful to the end, regardless of the outcome.

a blessing to others, to each other

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift so that you may be strengthened— or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as I have among the rest of the gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Romans 1:8-15; NRSVue

There is probably nothing more important and as generally lacking as fellowship with others in faith and in the gospel. Relationships in general are important, whether the other has faith or not. That is how whatever we have might become catching to them by the Spirit. If our passion and prayer is the gospel, that will come through. We ought not to force it through. Not many of us are called to proclaim the gospel like Paul did. Yet by our very lives, deeds done in love, our genuine care for others, that good news can break through.

This is a missing link in so many churches. What seems to be front and center and of first importance would be the sermon. That’s what everyone goes to church for, for the most part. Some get into the worship music time, often with a rock band which is fine. I happen to like the more traditional. Don’t forget to take your earplugs! And preferably with coffee. And don’t forget a children’s ministry; that’s good. And when all is said and done, we’re ready to head out. Most of these churches press for small groups, and that’s good if people avail themselves of such, though I doubt that most people do. Maybe you’re in a more traditional church which is smaller and where people know each other better. That’s good. But just how much of the conversation really amounts to blessing each other in the faith, the give and take of that?

That should be our acclimation. Not to talk about football, politics or the weather. One might mention something of politics with reference to the gospel, which itself, rightly understood is political also in terms of God’s good will and reign. But not wanting to get into those weeds here, we need to be open to what we can receive from others, and what God might give us to share as well. To be mutually encouraged and helped by each other’s faith should be the goal. All in answer to consistent prayer.