finding the sweet spot

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

Depending on a good number of things, people will find their sweet spot in different places. What do I mean by “sweet spot?” That place where one is most alive, we might say, most themselves, what God intended and intends for them.

This doesn’t mean that when people find this, it makes life easy. Life is what it is, challenging both externally with what happens, and internally with how we process it all. The external challenge seems greater today than at any point in my lifetime. Internally we not only react, but we have to process it in a way that is healthy to ourselves and others. That’s not easy, either, but necessary.

The psalmist lived in difficult times, too. And two places they look: God’s creation, and God’s Word. Somehow they get settled through both. It’s in terms of response as well as finding one’s footing and fulfillment.

I’ve been a Bible person much of my life, I personally don’t think all that good at that, but I’ve stayed in it. If I could do only one thing, I suppose it would be to have Bible in hand, maybe a good study Bible along the way, a cup of coffee, and classical music in the background. One thing I haven’t been consistent at is getting out in nature, in God’s creation. Not enough of that, though I have seen some of it.

Don’t underestimate the power of nature. Just getting out on the beach to enjoy the sand, the vast lake or ocean, the sky in all its glory, the birds, the breeze, the peace that comes with that, can do one a world of good in a short time. And then there’s places where there are trees, marshes, hills, mountains, etc. I’m not a nature guide, but I know there’s nothing like nature to fill one with a sense of awe and wonder, or at least to help ground one in a healthy stillness and peace.

The Bible seems to be an old, crusty, outdated book to many. And it definitely has not only its odd features, but sometimes seems lost itself, at least to me. The only intended way to make sense of it is to see and measure it according to the life, teaching, works, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Each part has to be taken seriously on its own, but we have to come to see it all in the light of Jesus as revealed first in the four gospel accounts, and then what follows.*

If one is a novice to the Bible, to start in Genesis and read straight through to Revelation is commendatory, especially if you make it all the way through. I would recommend starting in the gospels. To make it simple, just read it through as it is in our Bibles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Or maybe in more of a logical order: Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. Mark, Matthew, John, then Luke followed by Acts would be another logical approach. All the rest of Scripture must be seen in the light of those four gospels.

An essential is easily lost in all of this for us who live in an individualistic world. This psalm is actually meant to be read to, or read and heard by God’s people together. We have limited ourselves by making everything an individual endeavor and have lost an untold amount in the process. The appreciation of God’s world and Word is by far best appreciated in community and especially community in and through Jesus. Yes, we need those times alone, too. I highly value some solitude. But Jesus is especially present in the communion of people gathered together in his name. We will be blessed in ways we didn’t recognize at the time, when we make community in Jesus an ongoing priority in our lives.

Where do you find your sweet spot? I don’t think it always has to be in nature and Scripture, though where you find it will be related to both. Nature, we could say includes what comes natural to us, what makes us tick, what we have a knack for and more than interests us.  God’s Word is evident everywhere, if we just develop an ear for it.* In both, extended out in vast, limitless ways, we can find our sweet spot, a continued endeavor from the gift of God.

*Nonviolent Word: Anabaptism, the Bible, and the Grain of the Universe, by J. Denny Weaver and Gerald J. Mast

note, too, related to this post, The Strange New World Within the Bible, a sermon by Karl Barth which he delivered in 1917

the peace of Christ: what kind of peace is it?

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.”

John 14:25-31; NRSVue

Conflict is a part of life. Unfortunately for humans it seems like it’s inevitable not only in say, family squabbles, but in out and out war along with armed conflicts. There really seems to be no end to it.

Enter Christ. I almost hesitate to use that title or name because of its closeness to Christian and then Christendom. Christendom’s history has been marked with armed conflict and wars. They evidently believed in the Pax Romana, or “peace through strength,” that is through military might and power. What else would humanity know? But is that what Jesus meant by peace? What did Jesus bring?

To understand that, you would need to read the entire chapter, Jesus saying that he is the way, the truth and the life, along with the rest of the four gospel accounts. You would need to start there. And then you would need to read Acts and all the follows through Revelation. A faithful read of that would be hard pressed to see anything other than the way of the cross, the cross ultimately the means by which peace is made.

I can’t help but think that the idea of peace for too many, even Christians is at the end of a gun. They have peace in significant part because they have a gun ready to take care of any intruder or threat which might come their way. Or the inner peace they have might come from any number of other things like a large bank account and portfolio, a safe neighborhood, and so on. But the peace of Christ is something else.

Jesus taught his disciples that he would be with them by the Holy Spirit, that they need not fear, that they are not to let their hearts be troubled even in the shadow of the cross and afterward. That he would give them his peace. It’s a peace which is only in the way of the cross, not the peace the world gives through the sword and whatever else.

The peace of the cross in Christ and the gospel is meant to bring peace through peacemaking and peacemakers. Never through force, but by the cross, which breaks down barriers between humanity and God, and the conflicts and enmity in humanity itself. That is the peace we’re given in Jesus meant not only for us, but ultimately for the world.

the Word and life

Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to observe your righteous ordinances.
I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O LORD, according to your word.
Accept my offerings of praise, O LORD,
and teach me your ordinances.
I hold my life in my hand continually,
but I do not forget your law.
The wicked have laid a snare for me,
but I do not stray from your precepts.
Your decrees are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.
I incline my heart to perform your statutes
forever, to the end.

Psalm 119:105-112; NRSVue

We have to begin at home where we live and first who we are, before we can necessarily expand our horizons to include our neighborhood and the rest of the world. That said, how we live better somehow include all else if we’re to have a biblical and more basic as Christians, a Jesus-ethic and life.

Deb and I so far are agreeing on Psalm 119:105 being included on our gravestone:

Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.

We’re told that God’s Word is not merely meant to be known; we have to act on it. That’s a big theme in the book of James. I suppose if Deb and I have one default book in the Bible which we turn to again and again, it’s the book of James. We’re told in James that we’re to “be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves” (James 1:22).

But back to the above passage in Psalm 119, the psalmist describes life in all its challenges. I find that when I’ve had a particularly tough day or feel hemmed in and even overcome by problems, I need to turn back to the Word, get into the pages of Scripture, and slowly keep going, along with prayer. All of it, just as the psalmist said, is for life. For our life as individuals and together as community in Jesus in this world. God’s Word meeting us right where we live. And not just for us, but for the life of the world. That promise fulfilled in Jesus, in God’s good news in him.

being willing to live in darkness and anonymity

I myself, Paul, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you but bold toward you when I am away!

For someone says, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.”

2 Corinthians 10:1, 10; NRSVue

Paul’s time in basic ways was no different than ours. People want the charismatic leader, one who they can rally around. There is like a messianic complex here in the United States. It’s like they’re trying to elect a Savior. Now we see the fruit of that, as the dark side of it has only grown. In the churches it’s mostly all about the sermon and whether the pastor gave a good message or not. The cult of personality as well as something great.

Paul would have none of that, in fact he was like the anti-great, anti-charismatic leader. And therefore, the still immature Corinthian church was suspect to phonies, usually men who could give a good talk, but did not walk the walk. And it set them up for deception.

Paul was certainly wonderfully gifted and a person of wisdom. He knew how to help churches grow toward maturity in Christ. But maturity in Christ is not going to be appreciated or understood by the world or even by infants in Christ. You have to bring them along in painstaking, patient wisdom.

Whatever Paul’s condition was (see 2 Corinthians 12), it didn’t make it easy for either Paul or the people he was ministering to. While I can’t begin to compare myself with Paul and we’re all so very different, anyhow, I can identify with this thought. I often feel out of place, and struggling to keep my head above water myself, for one reason or another. Of course, God meets the humble, those who humbly cry out to God in their need.

I think we need to accept the darkness of our experience and the anonymity of our lives and being not understood and put on the side. Christ is present with us in all of this. We’re not to be concerned about what others think. Christ not only meets us there but can be present for others as well. That’s the whole key, it’s not about what we can do, but what Christ can do through us (see also 2 Corinthians 13, and for good measure, it might be good to read 2 Corinthians 10-13 in its entirety).

So we must go on. Yes, do the best we can. But accept darkness, shadows and anonymity.

never acting from or out of fear and weakness

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

1 John 4:7-21; NRSVue

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:17-19; NRSVue

I have had a lifelong or at least decades long struggle with fear. Along with that has come a lot of anxiety and worry, and panic only in the sense that I will become obsessed over something and not let it go until I can find some satisfactory answer or can solve the problem myself. But none of that has lessened in the least my tendency and proneness to fall into this same thing time and time again. As I got older and especially in recent years, overall I think I’ve handled it better. But I’m still not beyond it to the point where I want to be, or surely need to be. I have been helped in the wonderful passage where Paul says that the Lord told him that the Lord’s strength is made perfect in Paul’s weakness, or strength or power is perfected in weakness (2 Corinthians 12). And that’s good. And while if I’m seeking always to live in faith I can count gripping fear as one of those weaknesses, a thorn in the flesh as it were, who wants to live there? After all, isn’t the commandment more than any other commandment in God’s Word, “Fear not?”

I remember one of our good pastors from the past telling us that we should never act out of fear. I was also just reading from another pastor, both of these pastors women by the way, that we should never decide anything when we’re tired, worn out. Much wisdom there, as well. And when one has a sense of panic and gnawing fear inside, we know that can’t be from God. As we read from the first epistle of John, quoted above.

As Jesus is, so are we in this world. No fear in love, but perfect love casting out fear. Mind boggling stuff if you ask me. But yes, we can understand how that would be true, and surely all of us with faith have experienced something of that. Just the same, too often it feels like a pipe dream, and while our experience of it is wonderful and full, it is alas all too often short. Then we’re back in the valley, sometimes in the dark valley with foreboding monsters lying in the shadows. And that sense of peace is all but gone, too often completely absent with a growing fear in its place.

God’s preemptive love out of God’s heart in Christ’s coming in the Incarnation, Christ’s life, atoning death and resurrection. All of that is the reality of love which has made itself present in the world, of course for the world and for each one of us. There seems to be a hint in the above passage that we might reach perfection in love in this life. I might not want to express it that way myself, though I believe we’ll definitely experience that at times in a full sense. But I might want to say we should be reaching for perfection in love in this life. And how do we do that? By loving each other in Christ, loving all of Christ’s body, in our own fellowship with all our quirks and foibles that each and everyone of us has. And loving everyone else in the world, our neighbor as ourselves, and as Jesus has taught us, our enemies included.

We’re to seek more and more to live in the love that is ours in Christ, living out that love everywhere with everyone insofar as that’s possible. We will get many things wrong, and will fall short, and we do live in broken world where it’s at best an uphill battle to get any thing fixed seemingly at all. But God’s love will help us through all of that. Until the end when at long last fear will be completely banished and gone forever.

life is about *us*

“Pray, then, in this way:

Our Father in heaven,
may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.”

Matthew 6:9-13

Of course we’re likely to think mainly of ourselves, maybe only ourselves. And to some extent, that’s understandable. It’s not someone else in the morning having to get out of bed. Also, if we don’t take care of ourselves or get the help we need, how can we help others? True.

But just the same, one of the key ways we are blessed and helped is through being a blessing and help to others (Proverbs 11:25). In the prayer that Jesus taught we’re reminded that while it includes us, it includes others with us. In a sense potentially it includes the whole world but in context all who are followers of Jesus. And we pray this prayer as those in community with the attitude in our fellowship and church that we’re in all of life together. 

The “I, me, mine” mindset is very western, very American, but not really Christian in the true sense of the word. Our life is not in what we can get out of it, but what we can give to others. We receive in order that we might give. And the prayer Jesus taught indicates that we’re to do so together.

God is bigger than that

…the fullness of [Christ] who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:23b

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

1 Corinthians 15:28

God is often quite confined in our thinking. I mean if there is a god, if there’s God, then wouldn’t that be larger than all the world, more than anything we could ever think of? Probably all that is universally received as the best, like goodness, love, happiness as in blessedness or well being, and a whole host of other things that together we could think of, are not only exemplified in God, but absolutely perfected in God in a way that makes God indeed, Other.

Surely much of Christian theology which in large part is the consideration of God, might in and of itself unwittingly and surely inevitably limit God in ways that Scripture and life do not. That is something, just as anything about God actually, which is well above our pay grade. We can only try to catch a glimpse, and stammer whatever our reaction might be, probably being more distrustful of what seems so coherent except for basics like God is love, and God is good.

If something of what has been said about God as I tried to say above reflects the least bit of reality, then it’s surely more than reasonable to say that God is bigger than so much that we make so big here on earth. Let’s start with our differences, whatever they may be. Political and religious, the two forbidden areas of conversation, at least in part of my culture. And whatever other differences there are. God is bigger than that, than all of it.

We tend to confine God and God’s working to just certain entities and people. Yes, we do well to turn to Scripture where we find that Christ’s presence in the church is a key if not the central part of what is happening now. But take some of the rest of that writing and Scripture as a whole, along with all of life, and we surely will begin to surmise that God is bigger than our differences. That God is at work in ways that we can’t understand beforehand, and barely begin to comprehend afterwards.

Let this be a rebuke to all of us whenever we think we have anything figured out, and settled. I believe that Christ is the center of all things, and that God is preeminently present in him and through him to all the world, and that this manifestation comes especially through the church directly and indirectly, but possibly (I would say, likely) not confined to that. This should help us beyond all that divides us, to what is the most basic of all. Even while we try to understand what all of that might mean for life on the ground here and now.

what is needed today more than anything else

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:13-19

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:20-23

Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 3:7-10

It doesn’t take long before one is reminded that it seems like people have lost their minds, and for a good variety of reasons. Yes, it’s complicated, and the world has always been challenged, with catastrophes added. It is a wondrous, beautiful, wild, threatening and broken world, all at the same time. But the God who created it is somehow present in all of this, and will make, in fact has begun to make all things new, bringing in a new existence. And that’s present now, and what is needed today more than anything else.

It is nothing more or less than the church, yes, the church. The church, which more than understandably has gotten a hard rap, and probably to some significant extent, richly deserves it. When the church buys into, or is bought into the principalities and powers, and is subsumed in them, then the church deserves critique, even scorn, and like some of the churches named in Revelation 2 and 3, is in danger of being church no longer. Yes, there’s a more than understandable saying that many love Christ, but not the church. I’m afraid that the church is often watered down and contaminated, not that any church that’s ever existed is without something of this problem.

But the church is Christ’s body on earth. And through the church, Christ somehow fills everything, whatever precisely that means. What could possibly be more important than that? It turns out, all kinds of things. Let’s make an inevitably partial list: an inerrant Bible with just the right theology and doctrine supposedly Spirit-led, nothing more than fiction; a supposed government/state, which is godly, even Christian; being “right”; everyone knowing their place and remaining there; (ab)using the earth for more and more profit; a large, powerful military; laws that supposedly facilitate justice, and we could go on and on and on.

At least something of the intent and some of what’s listed might have some grain of truth in it, even when still mistaken. In the world in which we live, faith and visions can’t be imposed on others, and there ought to be an appreciation of a common grace from God to all, so that everyone is involved when it comes to the state/government. You can see that I strongly support democracy, and am opposed to any kind of authoritarian government.

But regardless of how we parse anything and everything, as far as believers and followers of Christ should be concerned, there is one thing that makes everything else not only pale in comparison, but really not exist at all, since it’s not in that level or sphere. And that’s yes, the ordinary church. Simple people like myself, voluntarily joined together by baptism and faith, and in that entity and gathering by the Spirit, nothing less than the body of Christ.

To be present in the world, with God’s mysterious work in that. To be about doing good works in helping where help is needed. Being what the world needs, a light to expose all darkness, salt and light to influence all society for good. The church being Christ’s body on earth.

This certainly doesn’t answer all the questions, yet that is what we Christ-followers can and should settle into. Yes, we’re concerned, and there’s many things we could humbly suggest, and should do in reference to the problems of the world. But what is needed above and beyond anything else is the church, the good news of God in Christ for the world present in that church, shining out to all the world.

the desire for the Christ-life

Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry but others from goodwill. These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel; the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment. What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true, and in that I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my salvation. It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way but that by my speaking with all boldness Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet I cannot say which I will choose. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that, by my presence again with you, your boast might abound in Christ Jesus because of me.

Philippians 1:15-26

The book of Philippians catches an important connection, note, indeed song in God’s story: the proclamation of the good news of God in Christ, and the Christ-life or life of Christ that is in the middle of that. There was nothing more important to Paul than this, both on a personal level, and in ministry in service to others. This was the heart and passion of Paul. So much in Philippians is so powerful, helpful and good in our quest as individuals and in community to be followers of Christ.

Why do we want to live? As believers and followers of Christ it should be similar or related to what Paul was talking about. Christ is in the center of that, God’s good news in him. And it’s about Christ’s life existing and being lived out in us, God’s people in him. And it’s a life not only for eternity, but for the life of the world even now. If this Christ-life doesn’t result in good works and a passion for the world now, how can we really imagine that we care much if at all for the eternal good of all?

This is what we’re to be devoted to. Because of Christ, centered in him, God’s will and the good news in him. We want to be devoted and have our part both as individuals and together in community in that. That is why we want to live, even our very life.

the new world breaking into the old

In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.

John 14:19

…if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”

Revelation 21:1, 5a

I’m guessing at the moment that this promise Jesus gave to his disciples the eve of his crucifixion concerns his resurrection and appearances to his disciples, though given the context, it might somehow refer to them seeing him after his ascension through the eyes of faith by the Holy Spirit. At any rate, one thing is certain. The new world through Christ’s resurrection was breaking into the old.

This old world is beaten down, and again and again repeats many of the same tragedies, seemingly in death throes, but it seems like it survives to see a new day and again do the same. It seems pushed to the brink of extinction, at least for the human species, and at least largely from what we can tell, humans at fault. And given world history, even in recent times, why should we be surprised?

But God enters in Christ, into the old creation, and brings in something new, yes nothing less than a new creation. And somehow we’re participants in that, even in this old world. We certainly groan with all of creation, awaiting the redemption of all things when the old will be no more (Romans 8). But we also experience inwardly this new life destined to continue now and forever in God’s new creative work in Christ (2 Corinthians 4, etc).