Blinded by the Law

John 5:1-17 tells the story of a man who was paralyzed for 38 years. The man was lying on a mat by a pool that was believed to possess healing powers for the first person into the water after an angel of the Lord stirred it up.

6) When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
7) "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
8) Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
9) At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
10) and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

The reaction of the Jews, the religious establishment, was to attack the man for not keeping their legalistic view of the Sabbath. Their worldview was so firmly rooted in their interpretation of the Law that, instead of seeing a miracle, all they could see was a man carrying his mat on the Sabbath! They must have known the man, he had been living with this disability in their community for 38 years. He hung out at this public pool, waiting for a chance to be healed. But the Jews, instead of rejoicing with the man and praising God for the miracle of healing, judged and attacked him. Their religion blinded them to the Grace and Healing of God. They were witness to a miracle and blew it. They missed it.

Why does this sound so familiar? I think it is because the Truth in this story is timeless. We so easily fall into the same trap as these religious folks did. When we see hurting people healed, broken people mended, dysfunctional people finding direction, when we see God at work. So often, we critique theology or methods that may differ from our own religious traditions, instead of praising God for His Grace and Healing. We should praise God wherever He is at work. We should praise God no matter who He is working through. We should join God where He is at work. God is so much bigger than the religious boxes we try to force Him into.

I think that when we see God in the box of our traditions and religion, the box is really like the frame of a window, a window in a box into which WE have confined ourselves. God is outside, unconfined, like sunshine and radiance pouring in. If we want to see God, we need to keep our window clean and clear of the smudges and haze that this world deposits on it. We need to draw closer to our window, to gain a wider view of the bright Outside, instead of backing away from it. Backing away only narrows our field of Vision. Better yet, we can work to enlarge our window, to let more of Him into our life. Or best of all, open our window and crawl out into the bright Morning of His Day, freeing ourselves from our religious box. Maybe crawling out is not an option in this life, maybe we will instead be lifted out of the window, in His Hands, when this life is over. In the meantime, my hope and prayer is to draw close to my window, work to keep it clean and clear, and to make it bigger, all with His help. If I get close enough, maybe I'll forget about my box altogether. :-)

(photo by swamprose)

Greater Things

Marriage at Cana by Giotto

Immediately preceding chapter 2, John tells us how Jesus had told Nathanael:

50) Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."

I wonder if Nathanael had any idea what Jesus had in mind when he said "greater things".

John goes on to describe in chapter 2 the story of Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. John describes this transformation in John 2:11 as the first of Jesus' miraculous signs.

Lately, I've been hearing the phrase "greater things" over and over. The lyrics of Chris Tomlin's (fantastic) song "God of This City" declare:

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

After being laid off from my job of nearly 15 years, I've been assured by friends praying for me that greater things are in store. As my church prepares to move into a new, much larger building, we have claimed greater things for the mission of ministry into which God has called us.

"Greater things" sounds great. For my city, I envision better relationships between all the very different people living in our community. For my job, I envision a pay increase, or a position that is better suited to my calling and passion for work. For my church, I envision reaching hundreds more people with the message of God's Love and Grace. I'm not sure what Nathanael envisioned when he heard Jesus promise "greater things". Maybe hope for some relief from Roman taxes and oppression? Maybe a promise of more freedom to worship God instead of bowing to Caesar? Who knows? It doesn't say.

There is no question, those things would have been greater. But I suspect Nathanael wasn't expecting the miracle, the sign from God, that Jesus performed at the wedding. At that wedding party in Cana, Jesus took "greater things" to a "Whole Nutha Level ". Which leads me to wonder... are my expectations for "greater things" measured on my limited scale of "greater", or am I using God's scale?

"Lord, open my eyes, to envision 'greater things' on Your scale, not mine."

John 1 - The Word

John Chapter 1 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. The Word of God. Often we hear the Bible itself referred to as the "Word of God". But this seems a bit of a misnomer after some reflection on John 1. As wonderful and truth-filled as our scriptures are, I see the books, the chapters, the sentences, the words, and even the letters all step aside as they testify to and witness to and focus on the True Word of God, Christ. This Word is described so beautifully in John chapter 1.

1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2) He was in the beginning with God. 3) All things came into being through him. And without him not one thing came into being that has come into being 4) In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

Wow. Then it goes on to say...

14) And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.

C.S. Lewis writes about this in Mere Christianity:

"He is the self-expression of the Father-what the Father has to say. And there never was a time when He was not saying it."

and from a side-note in my Bible:

Jesus the Word
John used language with special meaning for both Greek and Jewish readers. In Greek philosophy, "word" (logos) was a key term, often referring to the power of reason undergirding all creation. For Jews, too, "word" had great significance, for God spoke his word to create the world and to transform his people. Yet John's meaning passed beyond the Greek and Jewish ideas. An eight-year-old girl expressed it well. When asked why Jesus was called the Word, she said, "Because Jesus is all God wanted to say to us."

Yep. She got it. If we are to know God, we need to know the Word, Jesus.

Something else jumped out at me in John Chapter 1... something that hadn't before. Some priests and Levites were sent to John to find out who he was. After a series of incorrect guesses, they repeated their question:

22) Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
23) He said,

"I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord'"

as the prophet Isaiah said.

Part of John's answer jumped out at me... "I am the voice of one". I'm still computing on that phrase. Seems like it should apply to me too. I have a voice. I feel like I'm in the wilderness at times. Am I crying out? Does what I say and do "Make straight the way of the Lord"? What do I "say" about myself? When asked who I am, how do I answer? Or more importantly, regardless of how I answer out loud, what is the real answer to who I am and what I am saying with my life? Hard stuff.

To be continued...

Lars and the Real Girl

We watched a really great movie this evening called "Lars and the Real Girl". There are many wonderful, in fact, downright inspirational aspects to this film. I was very moved by the support of Lars family for him, and the unified support of his community. I think that we can all learn from this movie, about how to love and support someone with extraordinary needs, helping them to walk through rough times, and to grow beyond them. I highly recommend viewing this movie if you have the chance. It is available to rent on DVD. (read review)

interview with Adam

Check out this excellent interview with Adam Hamilton in the Wesley Report. Also, check out his blog, and his sermons at the Church of the Resurrection website. Adam's wisdom, insight, and surrender to God's Word inspire and challenge me. I hope you are blessed as well.


In addition, Adam's new book entitled "Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity" sounds like a must-read. It is reviewed here. I want to get a copy and read it ASAP.

day by day

"I suppose living from day to day ('take no thought for the morrow?') is precisely what we have to learn - though the Old Adam in me sometimes murmurs that if God wanted me to live like the lilies of the field, I wonder He didn't give me the same lack of nerves and imagination as they enjoy! Or is that just the point, the precise purpose of this Divine paradox and audacity called Man - to do with the mind what other organisms do without it?"

C.S. Lewis in a letter to Mary Willis Shelburne 30 Oct 1958

the edge of the cliff

A friend sent this to me today. Awesome timing.

I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
Revelation 3:8

When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go, only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly! 'The power of one sentence! God is going to shift things around for you today and let things work in your favor. If you believe, send it. If you don't believe, delete it. God closes doors no man can open & God opens doors no man can close. If you need God to open some doors for you...send this to ten people. Have a blessed day and remember to be a blessing...

A "higher" judge?

Oh how easy this is to say, but how difficult it is to actually do.

"I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him."

C.S. Lewis in a letter to a Miss Breckenridge 19 April 1951

Do It Again!

"All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself, it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal, it would vary; if the sun were alive, it would dance...
...The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children. when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite for infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

G.K. Chesterton in "Orthodoxy", Chapter IV, "The Ethics of Elfland"

Cats and Dogs

From Dogs and Kitties

"We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares you out of countenance he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!"

C.S. Lewis on Luke 18:9-14,
in a letter to Mary Willis Shelburne
12 March 1955

The Shack

http://theshackbook.com/

"Mack, if anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again." -- Sarayu

If you have not read this book, get a copy and read it! It is an exceptional parable on the Person and Nature of God and His relationship with us. I am in awe at the reverence and love the author put into writing this wonderful story. I am inspired and challenged by this story. Please read it, and spread the word to everyone you know. This story will change lives.

• Interview with William P. Young
• William P. Young's blog
• Paul Young’s Short Bio

Ekklesia

check out this excellent sermon:

Title: Ekklesia
Preaching/Speaking: Rev. Adam Hamilton
Date Presented: Oct 19, 2008
Sermon Series: Illuminate
http://www.cor.org/worship-sermons/sermons/show/sermons/Why-Are-We-Here/

the Month before Christmas?

You know, after watching the Advent Conspiracy video, reading this little poem included below (which was forwarded to me by e-mail) makes me think that the solution for putting "Christ back into Christmas" is NOT undoing all the politically correct holiday phrases as the poem suggests. Joining together with other Christians to wish "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" does not put Christ back in Christmas. Instead, as the Advent Conspiracy video points out, we should be putting Christ back into OUR LIVES! Surrendering our lives to Christ and loving and serving others will make Christmas (God wrapped up in human flesh) real again. It takes more than clever bumper stickers, Jesus bling from the Christian bookstore, or singing Christmas carols, to put Christ back in Christmas. "Christians" are the "Christ" who are missing from Christmas. We are to be His body, but instead of giving the love and grace of Christ to others, we are debating what we should call this season and how to spread the word. Talk and words are pretty cheap. The Word of God taking on human flesh is not. The unbelieving world aren't the ones leaving Christ out of Christmas, they don't even know Him. "Christians" are the ones who have dropped the ball on this one. We are the ones who are missing. We are to be the Christ in Christmas!

Subject: Twas the Month before Christmas...

Twas the month before Christmas
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a 'Holiday'
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,not Happy Holiday!
All Christians join together and wish everyone you meet

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christ is The Reason for the Christ-mas Season!

If you agree forward, if not, simply delete.

ps. I'm going to comment on what I wrote above. I apologize if I was overly critical of folk's efforts to put Christ back in Christmas. I think they are well meaning and that the efforts will be blessed if done in the right spirit. But I don't believe that is the full solution. I believe that the solution to putting Christ back in Christmas is for us to incarnate Christ in our lives, especially at this time of year when we celebrate His Incarnation among us. Immanuel. God is with us.

On Suffering

We are told that even those tribulations which fall upon us by necessity, if embraced for Christ's sake, become as meritorious as voluntary sufferings, and every missed meal can be converted into a fast if taken in the right way.
- letter to Mary Willis Shelburne Aug 10, 1953

.. you know already the things we have been taught - that suffering can (but oh!, with what difficulty) be offered to God as our part in the whole redemptive suffering: that suffering itself does not fester of poison, but resentment does: that sufferings which (heaven knows) fell on us without and against our will can be so taken that they are as saving and purifying as the voluntary sufferings of martyrs and ascetics.
- letter to Mrs. D. Jessup Jan 5, 1954

taken from "Yours, Jack - Spiritual Direction from C.S. Lewis" Paul F. Ford ed.

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.
- Colossians 1:24 - NRSV

Advent Conspiracy

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

On the Word

It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers will bring us to Him. When it becomes really necessary (i.e. for our spiritual life, not for controversy or curiosity) to know whether a particular passage is rightly translated or is Myth (but of course Myth specially chosen by God from among countless Myths to carry a spiritual truth) or history, we shall no doubt be guided to the right answer. But we must not use the Bible (our fathers too often did) as a sort of Encyclopedia out of which texts (isolated from their context and not read without attention to the whole nature and purport of the books in which they occur) can be taken for use as weapons.

-- from a letter written by CS Lewis to "Mrs. Johnson" on 8 Nov 1952.

On Life's Interruptions

"The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’, or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life - the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time - ”

-- C.S. Lewis, in a letter to his lifelong friend Arthur Greeves, Dec 20, 1943

On Disinterested Choice

"My conversion involved as yet no belief in a future life. I now number it among my greatest mercies that I was permitted for several months, perhaps for a year, to know God and to attempt obedience without even raising that question. My training was like that of the Jews, to whom He revealed Himself centuries before there was a whisper of anything better (or worse) beyond the grave than shadowy and featureless Sheol. And I did not dream even of that. There are men, far better men than I, who have made immortality almost the central doctrine of their religion; but for my own part, I have never seen how a preoccupation with that subject at the outset could fail to corrupt the whole thing. I had been brought up to believe that goodness was goodness only if it were disinterested, and that any hope of reward or fear of punishment contaminated the will." ... “God was to be obeyed simply because he was God.”

-- C.S. Lewis, in “Surpised by Joy”, chapter 15

On Spiritual Efforts

"We read of spiritual efforts, and our imagination makes us believe that, because we enjoy the idea of doing them, we have done them. I am appalled to see how much of the change which I thought I had undergone lately was only imaginary. The real work seems still to be done. It is so fatally easy to confuse an aesthetic appearance of the spiritual life with the life itself - to dream you have waked, washed, and dressed, and then to find yourself still in bed..."

-- C.S. Lewis, in a letter to lifelong friend Arthur Greeves June 15, 1930

On Gender Hierarchy

"More theologically, if we return to the Genesis text, we are astonished at the usual misunderstandings: Eve is inferior, it is said, because she is created after Adam. This superb logic makes Adam inferior to the great Saurians after which he was created. Creation is in fact an ascending act, and Eve, who is created last, comes at the climax as its crown and completion. Again, it is said that Eve is inferior because she is not made out of primal clay but out of a part of Adam. This is equally absurd reasoning, for Adam, who carries the name Earth, is made out of inanimate matter, but Eve, who carries the name Life, is made out of animate and hence superior matter."

-- Jacques Ellul, in “The Subversion of Christianity”, ch 4