from terror to peace

O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
O LORD, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.
My soul also is struck with terror,
while you, O LORD—how long?

Turn, O LORD, save my life;
deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.
For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who can give you praise?

I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eyes waste away because of grief;
they grow weak because of all my foes.

Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
The LORD has heard my supplication;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
All my enemies shall be ashamed and struck with terror;
they shall turn back and in a moment be put to shame.

Psalm 6; NRSVue

There’s not a one of us who doesn’t like to feel well, and not a one of us who likes to feel bad. That however does not line up with the human predicament in this life. Yes, we have those feel-good experiences, but more often than not, they are too few and too far in between. Well, I’m sure I don’t speak for everyone, but I’m guessing I speak for the majority of us, and certainly for myself. We do cherish those time of refreshing rest and as our faith grows, probably the experience of such grows along with it. Yet when it comes right down to it, I often find that I’m needing to manage my emotions, keep them under my hat, to myself, shared many times with my wife, but in the discipline more and more towards the goal of keeping them more between myself and God, asking for prayer along the way when need be.

The psalmist is experiencing almost as it were, violent attacks inside if not out. Shaken with terror, languishing, bed no place of rest. Internal suffering due to external threatening circumstances. It seems they had flesh and blood enemies. That translates directly in our day for the many who suffer at the hand of authoritarian regimes which are a law to themselves. And even where I live in the United States, too many languish in places of little or no hope, victims themselves of an unjust system.  For a person like me who lives in privilege compared to most on the planet, the enemies cited here would be spiritual. Yes, I believe in a power of evil that would undo creation, in fact, as it were, make something quite the opposite of such, all in rebellion against God. One sees evidence of such in different reigns of terror, as well as devasting war and violence, right up to the present time. But if we have eyes to see, we’ll see this evil at work in far more subtle ways. One can go back to Jesus as portrayed in the four gospels, stay in that for a good length of time, and that will help one discern this power at work in supposedly good ways in the world at the expense of what is really good. Jesus as God coming to be and restore our full humanity, helps us simply discern this as humans and then act, something akin to “the good Samaritan.” Note too in the psalm that the terror the psalmist experiences is ultimately turned back on their enemies.

I’m glad for God’s faithfulness in helping us, just as the psalmist notes. There is hope or assurance that God has all things in hand, that God sees, that God understands, that God will act, in fact is acting. All a matter of faith, yes, but in a reality that not only includes all the hard stuff, but the great answer even now in this present existence, with the promise of what’s yet to come.

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.

read with caution

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Hebrews 1:1-4; NRSVue

The Bible is a dangerous book. Christians, even churches, and whole denominations and traditions have justified all kinds of things, we might say by misusing and misreading it. But for one reason or another, their theology was lacking. One example I don’t even want to share here, but it illustrates my point. There was a person in charge of me when I worked for a Christian ministry who suggested that the US should bomb a particular nation based on his reading of Joshua. In no way, shape or form did his thought represent what that good ministry thinks, quite the opposite. But if anyone reads through the entire Bible, you’ll see what I mean. The Bible is indeed a dangerous book.

In various Jewish tradition, Scripture is read discerningly and humanely. God delivers God’s people in the exodus and sets up laws for them which are humane for all, other laws quite beyond the pale of that. While explanations might be given for the brutal, unsparing sentences of stoning in the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament, it does help to read the entire Old Testament through. Even then, frankly, there’s still a sort of violence that is latent in the text and story, never beyond the possibility of appearing in the name of God. There were then and are now Jewish traditions which mitigate the harshness in the text, finding what might be called more of the humane good. Some Jews and Christians will write that off as being unfaithful to Scripture, to God’s Word, to God. Most Christians would not be explicit, but when it comes right down to it, they are open to accepting violence if not explicitly condoning it.

When Jesus appears we find something quite new, even a radical newness which nevertheless is steeped in the old, a fulfillment of it which given what preceded it (consider the Apocryphal, Deuterocanonical books, as well) is easily a head scratcher since at points it seems to be contradictory and actually is. The heart and soul, spirit of it arguably, and I would say definitely is not. Love for God means love for one’s neighbor, spelling what turns out to be the goal of all Scripture.

Jesus has been aptly called God’s final word. God is seen in Jesus who is indelibly in his nature and life completely like God, so much so that indeed even in Jesus’s humanity, he is God.

Before we as Christians can interpret the meaning of any Scripture passage for our time, we need to run it through God’s word in Jesus. When we do that, we’ll see right away that there are a host of things which not only are not applicable for our time but are actually contradictory to it. One example: the famous Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha, fire out of heaven to destroy people, a bear to maul youths mocking the prophet. But Jesus roundly rebukes two of his disciples for suggesting that fire should be called down from heaven to destroy a Samaritan town which refused to receive him. Jesus told them that they didn’t know what spirit they were, since he had come not to destroy people’s lives, but to save them.

Read all of Scripture with profit. But read it discerningly. Each of us need to practice that, but it is best done together in community.

idolatry knows no boundaries

You have forsaken your people

Their land is filled with idols

Isaiah 2:6a, 8a; NRSVue

Mortal, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and placed their iniquity as a stumbling block before them; shall I let myself be consulted by them?

Ezekiel 14:3; NRSVue

“the human heart is a perpetual idol factory” (hominis ingenium perpetuam, ut ita loquar, esse idolorum fabricam)

John Calvin: Institutes I.11.8

Conrad L. Kanagy, the author of the recent book, Walter Brueggemann’s Prophetic Imagination: A Theological Biography (a thought-provoking book), recently made the point that while we do well to recognize the idolatry within white Christian nationalism, we need look no further than ourselves to find more idolatry, some of that not that far removed from the idolatry we’re calling by name and renouncing. Kanagy goes on to explain, letting no one off the hook, including those of us in his “liberal, progressive” tradition. When the focus is not on God in our thinking or reading of Scripture, we gravitate to something which takes God’s place, whatever that may be.

I find such words suggestive and helpful, even liberating. This is neither to just ignore the idols and idolatry in our midst, nor to get on a quest to determine what our own idols and idolatry could be. It is more like an openness and acknowledgement that we’re not above this ourselves, in fact that we too struggle with this in big and little, even in a multitude of ways.

There are many dangers here. One of the basic ones is that we’ll retreat into some kind of empty religious space in which life is no longer enjoyed, that only God matters. But it’s interesting that the fullness of God is often experienced in the enjoyment of God’s goodness, in God’s creation. Neither do we have to spurn the multitude of God’s good gifts in the world and in humanity. We don’t have to reject the gifts to love the Gift-Giver. In fact, surely just the opposite. It’s only when we begin to see those things apart from God that we can get in trouble. Unwittingly without us even being aware of it, they can take the place of God.

I am aware myself of issues or areas in which I may be either prone to idolatry, or in some sense even given to it, while at the same time worshiping God. That may be my imagination, and God’s grace is always at work in our lives to help us in spite of ourselves. We find a few places in Scripture where it seems that people were worshiping both God and their idols at least in some formal sense. Surely a lot of that formality goes on today. But Jesus and God’s Word make it clear that we can’t serve God and idols at the same time. It either has to be one or the other.

So before we point the finger at others, we need to look in the mirror ourselves, in prayer and in Scripture, over time, and ask God to search us and know our heart and our thoughts to see if there’s any wicked way, any idolatry in us. And lead us in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24). And that will necessarily be ongoing, because we’re never out of the woods in this matter.

the good malady from spiritual warfare

It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:1-10; NRSVue

It’s not easy for us to see any good in weakness and especially any good at all in what amounts to spiritual assault. We would rather be ever triumphant, feeling on top of things, even on top of the world. But it’s not meant to be.

Paul is the exemplar for us in that. He was given much, and he knew it. But so that it wouldn’t go to his head, God sent a messenger of Satan. God sent it. Yes, a messenger of Satan. Even though we don’t take the entire Bible literally we do take the entire Bible seriously. And I take it here to mean no less than the dark force which can swallow us and take us under.

What good can come out of that? Actually, a lot. Who of us in this present existence isn’t more than challenged by this or that or something else? Maybe a steady dripping of many things. While some may be constituted to take a lot of things like water off a duck’s back, for others of us, it can take over the mind and penetrate the heart in fear and numbness.

We do well to go to the classic spiritual warfare passage, Ephesians 6:10-20. And we always should keep this 2 Corinthians passage in mind as well. Along with all of Scripture. For me, this 2 Corinthians 12 passage is an ace. When all else fails, and that will seem to be the case at times, this word remains. And by the way, it is not wrong at all for us to appeal to, even plead with God to remove the thorn in the flesh, whatever that might be, just like Paul did. But when it’s all said and done, we need to trust the Lord and the Lord’s word to us:

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.

And then go on, not in our strength or power, but in Christ’s. Yes, in our weaknesses.

in Christ and in the world, we need each other

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

1 Corinthians 12:14-26; NRSVue

God made us humans in God’s image so that we’re meant to be in fellowship and harmony with each other. That was broken at the “fall” when humans went their own way as the story goes. We are all not only “in Adam,” but Adam ourselves in that we have each and every one turned to our own way, have sinned just as Adam and Eve did in the story. So, the ideal is broken in the separation, alienation and shame that comes with sin. But as we remember in the story, God doesn’t leave us there. God pursues us, pursues all of humanity with the intention of ultimately bringing us back into the full circle and communion in which God occupies the center, in all hearts and minds, helping us in all our gifted diversity to be and live as one.

I can’t make it by myself, or at least not very well. Yes, I have God to pray to, but God does not intend our experience to stop there. We exist in large part to help each other. In love through prayers, down to earth help where needed and a loyal, loving presence. We need each other. Any idea that we can make it on our own, that everyone should be left to themselves, that we humans are not ultimately in this together is not a thought that comes from Scripture or from God. We actually are connected to each other, all of us. Each of us has our place both to receive and give in the love of God in Christ by the Spirit.

what grounds us?

The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens
and its circuit to the end of them,
and nothing is hid from its heat.

The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can detect one’s own errors?
Clear me from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from the insolent;
do not let them have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless
and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19; NRSVue

I don’t know the lingo and concepts all that well, but it is said that there’s a grounding that humans have with earth. And the more we are involved in close proximity with earth, for example in gardening, the better for us. We are after all like the earth, dust, and to dust we will return. The poetry of Psalm 19 points us to creation, to our earthliness. I think we would do much better if we would discard much of our toys, and simply enjoy the wonder and simplicity of nature, of creation.

Along with that, for me as a Christ-follower, dare I say a Christian even though that name is being sullied and has been sullied over the centuries, but I am a hopeful Christ-follower and Christian in the true sense of what that means, but for the likes of us, Scripture as the law or direction, the Word of God holds a unique place as well. I find grounding in that, in being in God’s Word, all of it. I don’t read it as a flat book, because indeed it’s not, but it’s as living and active as the God it points us to, a living document no less, for this day and age, for every time and culture.

For myself, Scripture, prayer, our hymnbook, and more and more the wondrous simplicity and delight of nature not only captivates me, but also grounds me. I would add music to that list, in my case classical music (Mozart first on that list, lately). Music itself, a wonderful gift from God which I find, if the right music, seems also to ground or at least help settle me. All of this just as this wonderful psalm song of old tells us.

let God be God

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him,
to receive a gift in return?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Romans 11:33-36; NRSVue

I think the church at large, in general has had a penchant for wanting to tame God. Putting God into categories which honestly are problematical when one considers the biblical text. For example the idea that God never changes God’s mind. Or another, that God is above becoming emotionally involved. So contrary to the Biblical text. Just start at Genesis and read (or listen) to it all. Not.

God is God and won’t respond to our attempts to explain God. Not at all. God is free. God is sovereign. God is love. God is just. God is a God of judgment and salvation and that’s not just about the next life, but this life, too.

God doesn’t have to answer to our views of God. We do need to remember though, that anyone who sees Jesus, the Jesus spelled out in the New Testament, has seen God. Jesus is the face of God, indeed the human who is God. So we need not fear this God in some cowering, evasive way. Though proper fear of God is basic and something never left behind.

Whether we like it or not, we have to take the text of Scripture and the God of that text seriously. And note the changes in that text even in the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) and what this same God is up to in the coming of Jesus and afterwards.

God will be God regardless. Active and very much at work in the world.

stay in Scripture as it is

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:14-17; NRSVue

There is a world class pianist who says that everything is in the works of a certain composer he plays. I think he might mean something like all that’s needed to fill all of life. Those of us who are followers of Christ might well say that everything is in Scripture that we need for life.

But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Many of the churches and tradition I was once a part of seems to think that if you just have the knowledge of all of Scripture and are able to understand and explain that to others, you should be set. But I don’t think that’s the way Scripture itself works. But it has been systematized, or even worse than that, some have a certain systematic theology if you can really call it theology, often poor at best, which is placed in front of them as the template by which you read and understand Scripture, or too often more like glean its “precious promises.” No, we need to go through all of Scripture, and I would add the Apocrypha to the mix as perhaps Deuterocanonical material, “a secondary canon” having inspiration as well, important in its place, and often quoted as Scripture by early church fathers as well as early Anabaptists. Translations such as the NRSVue have translated those books. And we need to let Scripture be what it is, spared from our treatment and taming of it. We need to consider it or maybe better put, let it be what it is from Genesis through Revelation as many parts of one whole.

The last thing we should ever think we could do is figure Scripture out and have it nailed down in some sort of way. To do that would be similar to thinking that somehow we can have God nailed down in our understanding or as to what to expect. The God of Scripture is free to do what God wants. Yes, God is love through and through and completely and utterly just and good. God is faithful, but God is also sovereign, and God is God. To think that we can figure out God and how God is working even in our lives and in the lives of our community is beyond us. And that’s surely all the more so when we think about God’s working in the world as sovereign over all nations, over all. Like many in the Bible, we will be frustrated over and over again, and our patience will grow thin. “What in the world is God doing?” will more often than not be our thought. I mean if we believe that God is sovereign and active in the world. Some might say, very little, but it’s more or less about the final judgment. Though all will surely acknowledge some sort of active judgment of God in the present.

All of this doesn’t mean that we as a community of faith and as individuals won’t have plenty of thoughts from our time in Scripture, because we most certainly will.

It’s impossible to take Scripture seriously just as it is and think that God is possible to pin down and understand. And I don’t believe we can really track what God is doing. For example, in the United States right now. Or in Israel and Gaza. Or take Ukraine and Russia. Add to that China. And don’t forget as we’re prone to do, the difficult places in Africa. Everywhere. What on earth is God doing? For some, this is a secondary question. But not so if you take the Bible seriously for what it is. Or the God of the Bible for what God is as portrayed in it.

See especially Walter Brueggemann for helpful work on this and much more. 

the idolatry of ideology

Then God spoke all these words,

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”

Exodus 20:1-3; NRSVue

I am reticent to take on something which I don’t think I understand necessarily well. But ever since this thought was planted, after first wondering, I’ve been grappling with it, and it is making more and more sense to me. It’s something like the idea that when we adhere to an ideology as if it’s an absolute, we remove ourselves from God to something that essentially takes the place of God.

First though, it would be good to have a definition of ideology.

Any wide-ranging system of beliefs, ways of thought, and categories that provide the foundation of programmes of political and social action: an ideology is a conceptual scheme with a practical application.

Oxford Reference

What we’re referring to is tricky. A way of thinking and living can be provisional and might even be legitimate or good for the time and place. In some places all of that will be up for debate. That’s okay, and well and good in its proper place. One example, under certain agreed upon laws along with what is commonly expected there can be a democratic process which allows individuals and people groups to participate and have a say in a government and politics. There are places in the world where that won’t work given the culture. To hold to something is not only alright, but necessary.

We see the same thing throughout the Bible. What God’s people were to do at one time was no longer exactly the same at another time, something which can be seen in the Pentateuch, and all the more when considering the rest of Scripture. For a good number of reasons, things changed. It may seem the most radical change came with Jesus, and that may well be the case, but precedence was set before. This all involves the idea that we have to have our ears low to the ground to try to understand the world and times in which we live, and above all, raised up to God, especially together, to get sense and direction for what we might or even should do.

We must beware of making anything an absolute apart from the absolute of God’s active reign in Jesus by the Spirit. That is the one absolute in which we as followers of Christ are to live. What we accept as good for the time being is always and forever subject to that.