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.

life is not for the faint of heart: the need for courage

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh—
my adversaries and foes—
they shall stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.

One thing I asked of the LORD;
this I seek:
to live in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD,
and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.

Now my head is lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off; do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will take me up.

Teach me your way, O LORD,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they are breathing out violence.

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!

Psalm 27; NRSVue

Pressed all over the pages of Scripture, and evident in life is the basic need for courage. Life is not for the faint hearted.

The psalmist takes courage in God in the midst of dangers along with the difficulties, disappointments, and even disasters that life can bring. This is all good news. We can and must take courage in God in spite of things, not because of them. Our confidence should not be and ultimately is not in our circumstances. There’s not a one of us who likes difficulties. None of us sign up for that. On the other hand, simply to live as a human on this planet, in civilization as it is, in many places is to face severe challenge. Though people can live privileged lives beyond the imagination of most of us, so that they may be shielded from much of this, even they cannot escape death, nor unexpected trouble.

We have to move on, no matter what, look squarely on what is in our face, and in the midst of all of that, find our help in God. We do so as we can see from Psalm 27, as those entirely devoted to God, seeking God’s face. We do it in service of something much bigger than ourselves.

Therefore we’re to wait for God, be strong and take courage, “be stouthearted,” a nice rendering in the NABRE. Believing that we will indeed see God’s goodness in the land of the living, for the good of all.

what is life? and the American dream (part two)

He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Luke 12:22-34; NRSVue

Yesterday we considered Jesus’s parable of the rich fool, which precedes this passage. It’s good, even important to consider that with what follows. Hoarding in significant part is tied to a sense of insecurity. It seems natural to do so when one sees the possibility of economic fallout up ahead or has experienced that. Probably many of those who came out of the Great Depression here in the US were known for their thrift and conservative spending, not bad things in themselves, along with hoarding for not a few. That might merely be a part of one’s post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), certainly nothing to condemn anyone over.

At the same time, all of us must be wary of just where we put our confidence. If it’s in the capitalist free market, then there can never be full assurance that all will be well. A good community in the heart of love for one’s neighbor as oneself, will at least see to it that all are taken care of, that no one is left behind. Ultimately Christ-followers believe one’s trust should be in God. But that does not at all alleviate the necessity of peoples doing what they can to help each other.

None of that is diminished in the least in what Jesus says above, yet it was in a setting in which Rome’s rule was galling, debilitating for the average person and family living in Judea and Gallilee. The vision of God’s rule/kingdom that Jesus brought in harmony with the Old Testament prophets cast a vision in which all are taken care of, no one is left behind. In the meantime, while that vision is beginning to be seen and realized, Jesus’s disciples are to totally trust God, that God as their Father(/Mother) will take care of them, will meet all of their needs. That indeed, even “the kingdom” is theirs. And that they’re to be generous in the very same way that God is generous to them.

God’s goodness is everywhere. And we are recipients of that. We’re to seek that first, a goodness that is for all. Where our heart as followers of Jesus is supposed to be.

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.

“Return, O my soul, to your rest…”

I love the LORD because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD,
“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”

Gracious is the LORD and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
I walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
I kept my faith, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my consternation,
“Everyone is a liar.”

What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD;
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

Psalm 116; NRSVue

I didn’t want to quote the entire psalm since I realize that few if any readers will bother to read it and won’t take the time to read most any post I write, unless it is mercifully short. This was something like what I wanted to quote:

Gracious is the LORD and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

Psalm 116:5-7; NRSVue

Or maybe the opening paragraph with that. Or just:

Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

Psalm 116:7; NRSVue

In links I like to include context, depending on the paragraphs and headings of the Bible translation I’m quoting. It is so important to read Scripture in context. First, we have to do that before we might consider broadening the context of any one thought. But technicalities and those thoughts aside, I now want to hopefully hone in on something which I think is vitally important to many of us, perhaps everyone to some degree, but is especially acute in the experience of some people like myself.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that clinicians of the present day would talks about writers of many psalms in terms of mental health. And actually, to talk about that is no different in a way than referring to one’s physical health. It’s essentially getting at one’s wellbeing or sense of wellbeing. I know a fellow who when I asked how he was, he always said, “I am well.” I don’t think I’ve ever given that reply. More like, “I’m okay” or something more or less than that. Or what’s expected.

But this psalm is so helpful to us just like all of Scripture, if we just take the time to meditate on it, time more than well spent. There is a rest which God wants for us. I’m not sure that the God of Scripture is always at rest, so I’m not sure why God would expect us to never become unsettled given the unevenness and even the dangers we encounter in this life. To have such experience doesn’t necessarily mean for one second that one’s faith is abated or lessened. But no matter what the case, whatever our experience might be, God does want us to return to our rest. Like the psalmist, God would have us tell ourselves to return to our rest since God has been good to us.

To some extent I probably need this every day, and really, who doesn’t? And sometimes acutely so. And then we can turn to a Scripture passage like this psalm and be blessed and helped.

slow down, breathe deeply

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!

Psalm 27:13-14; NRSVue

Psalm 27 is one of those classic psalms and well worth reading not only for context, but just because of all it says (click link). That said, it’s also good to focus on one part of it at times.

We’re told that we not only need to believe in God’s goodness, but that God’s goodness will become evident and real in life, “in the land of the living.” We can be so down in the mouth about life at times for this and that reason. But faith in God means something other than that. Of course, it doesn’t mean that all is hunky dory all the time, or that we don’t face reality. Again, read the psalm in its entirety. But it does mean that no matter what we face, even experience, whatever we are up against, we can believe that God is present, that God knows, and that God in God’s goodness will act.

For me, this means I need to take deep breaths and slow down. Sometimes I can go about what I do, even praying, not thinking that much of it, that yes, surely God honors it, but I can hurry through things. But I have found it helpful to purposefully slow down, take deep breaths, and do the same things slowly. We might consider that a way of waiting on God. After all, without God’s blessing all is for naught. But we believe in God’s goodness and in that goodness that God will act.

So let’s keep taking the deep breaths, slowing down and waiting and relying on (NET) God.

new depths

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.

I wait for the LORD; my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.

Psalm 130; NRSVue

Life has a way of surprising us in ways we could not imagine and would never choose. Naturally we want everything to go well, to have no problems whatsoever. But of course, it doesn’t work out that way. Admittedly, this is especially true for some. Like the woman and her son who recently died of heat and thirst in the Sahara Desert with little hope of escape due to the inhumanity of peoples, sadly. Many of the problems where I live are first world problems, but not all.

And when problem piles on problem, and especially when a problem seems threatening and insurmountable, then one might eventually move past fear and anxiety into depths of despair, except because of faith in God, we can’t accept that all hope is gone, and that God can’t make the needed difference.

That is reflected in Psalm 130 in which the psalmist voices depths in their experience, but also expresses faith in God through calling out to God in prayer. Psalm 130 seems like a model prayer of faith during a most trying time with hope as in belief in God, God’s redemption and goodness. And it’s a faith which is tenacious, which refuses to let go. There is persistent waiting and expectation.

Another good psalm to meditate on, memorize, and above all put into practice.

submission to God

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

James 4:7-8a; NRSVue

Yesterday we looked a bit at resisting the devil. This is in the context of the community not getting along and at the heart of that was a worldly spirit of wanting more possessions or acclaim or whatever it was that people wanted, perhaps more than anything else to get their own way. They are then told that God resists the proud, but favors the humble. Therefore they’re to submit themselves to God. Just what would that mean for them and for us?

Submit has the idea of putting oneself under someone, or accepting authority given. It might actually end up being interactive authority as in wives and husbands submitting to one another in the fear of God (Ephesians 5) or the body of Christ in worship submitting to one another as each takes their turn in sharing a prophesy or whatever it might be (1 Corinthians 14).

In the case of God, by nature we’re always and forever in submission to God. One might say that God in humility and in Christ by the Spirit might submit to us in hearing and even being moved by our prayers. In answering specific prayer in the affirmative and in specific ways.  But we’re told specifically in this context that we’re to submit to God. Of course God is the authority to whom we must always submit, even while God might include God’s self in submission to humans at certain points of time in certain ways.

Submission to God is like accepting reality. We might not get it, we may at times not even like it, but it is what it is. In the case of God though, it’s personal and thoroughly benevolent, good and loving to the core. But given what we experience in life and our own bent for whatever reasons oftentimes to wrong, it might very well seem a test to us to so submit. But that is part of our calling.

And while in this case that’s good in itself, we see from what follows that it isn’t just a matter of submission to God. We have a devil opposed to us which we’re to resist. And more. The rest to be covered tomorrow.

waiting for God

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted,
but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:27-31; NRSVue

There’s no question that we’re lacking in strength as finite, fallible and fallen human beings. When we think we’re strong, that actually is quite often a mere boast of pride. Even those bursts of strength are destined to be cut short at one point or another.

Israel of old felt that God had lost their way. If you read all of Isaiah 40, you are given a magnificent picture of God’s goodness and greatness. Moving and awe inspiring. In light of that, faltering and flummoxed Israel is called to simply wait, wait for God.

The promise is that as they do so, God will renew their strength, and they will be more than equal for the day. But only as they wait. A promise for us as well in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).

all will be well

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

Romans 5:15; NRSVue

With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 1:8b-10; NRSVue

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Julian of Norwich

I am a Christian universalist, or if you like, a universalist Christian. Though for that and other reasons, many would not consider me a Christian at all, or at least not much of one. But that’s okay. It is par for the course with reference to any age, and was definitely the case during the early Anabaptist movement.

I’m not qualified to make the case for this because I’m not a scholar. The church obviously is divided on this subject and always has been. Though a good number of early church fathers not only entertained the notion, but indeed believed it. Perhaps the greatest of the early church fathers, Gregory of Nyssa is a prime example. And closer to our times, the one whom C.S. Lewis regarded as his mentor, George MacDonald thought the same.

You should at least be open to such an idea would be my argument. When you see judgment in Scripture, it is often blazing and leveling, no doubt, but you’ll find over and over again that people and indeed the earth reappears and has come out on the other side. I take all judgment not as retributive, though in the front end there might be some of that at work. But ultimately it is restorative. At the very least you can see hints of this possibility within Scripture as seen in the passages above.

Yes, grace is present and faith is required (Ephesians 2:8-9). There is always the need for repentance and faith, and Christ and the cross of Christ is at the center of this. It’s not a free pass for all regardless and everyone entering in so that whatever violates true love is approved. Not at all, heaven forbid. It’s a work only God can do and I take it, will do. At the same time there’s an ambiguity present for us now, which means we have to walk by faith in a measure of darkness, since our experience does not comport with this. Indeed we struggle enough ourselves.

But this is something to consider and explore. No one is left off the hook, indeed every sin which in its essence is a violation of love is and will be judged, no doubt. The God who is love will prevail. By the very present Spirit. All of this in and through Christ.