Laughing at God
There is a temptation is to laugh at God’s requests, “Surely, God, you don’t mean it!”
"Osaiywa!" (Pray for me). Yelled a babbling crazy man.
Two hundred Africans packed into a mud and wattle building intended for a quarter that number; every chair, bench, and spot on the dirt floor occupied. The crazy man sat near the rear of our packed crowd. His eyes, smoky windows into a hollow room, his mind, clouded by years, yet he persisted, "Osaiywa!".
"Pray for me!" An appropriate request in such an assembly, but the timing was off. We were in the midst of the sermon. Prayer requests were for later. We ignored his first interruption, stared in annoyance at his second, and finally, on his third tirade we hushed him with the promise of our prayers, later, at the appropriate time. This satisfied him, and he sat silently through the next two hours of preaching.
Then, when we were ready, prayer requests were taken. We noted each, then sang another song, prayed a general prayer, listened to a guest youth chorus, and asked for announcements. Instructions were given to visitors regarding a special lunch for them, and someone was selected to lead the closing prayer. That’s when some thinking soul interrupted and sheepishly mentioned the crazy man -- we had almost forgotten his request.
He rose with effort and crept forward with the groping gait of one moving through a dense fog. Carefully, slowly, haltingly, he navigated through an obstacle course of legs and small children who littered the path between his seat and the front. The eyes of the crowd were on him; not compassionate eyes, but sarcastic, rolling eyes that saw absurdity and humor in the old man's manner.
When he reached the front, three of our elders circled around the hunched Patriarch and placing their hands on his trembling shoulders, bowed their heads to petition in his behalf before God. Being good men, they earnestly sought Divine intervention for the old fellow.
I noticed several teenage girls exchanging glances from beneath bowed heads (Yes. I have an amazing ability to close both eyes, bow my head and still see what’s happening in the room.). They labored to hide their amusement, but the continued trade of glances and smiles brought them to the verge of uncontrolled giggles. They obviously felt that the number of "crazies" was now up to four.
Perhaps their assessment of the situation had to do with youth -- when everything serious is silly. Perhaps, it was a bit humorous -- that old man, in the throws of senility, shuffling up before our crowd. Before the prayer concluded they recomposed themselves, donned the costume of religious solemnity, and closed their eyes just ahead of the "Amen".
Laughing at God’s isn’t something new--
-- A frantic father’s daughter is dying. Before reaching home news arrives that she is dead. Catching the words before they crush him, Jesus assures, "The little girl is not dead but asleep." The Scriptures say, "But they laughed at him."
-- "Jesus! Jesus! Heal me!" Pleading words of a beggar man rose from the streets of Jericho. "It's old blind Bartimaeus," Someone snickered, "Someone shut him up!".
-- An ailing woman, weakened from blood loss and penniless from years of paying doctors, convinces herself that if only she can touch Jesus' shirt she can be healed-- though the experts tell her she is being ridiculous and should accept her situation. She tracks him down anyway. Ever so reverently, she tugs on His sleeve. Her touch stops the Healer in his tracks. "Who touched me?" Snickers sputter and embarrassed smirks crisscross the faces of the pushing, jarring crowd, betraying their thoughts; "Is he nuts? Everyone is touching him! Ha. Ha."
-- "Roll away the stone!" Jesus commands. In the rear, smiles flare. The hired mourners catch themselves sharing the crowd's amusement, but quickly recompose and regain their professional sorrow. Even Mary questions his sanity, "Why, Lord, it's been four days. I mean by now he's..."
-- "But Lord, we've fished here all night!" Peter looks back over his shoulder and under his breath cracks a joke to his angling buddies about folks who think they know all about fishing. "All right Lord, we'll try it one more time, just for you. OK fellas, let's humor the Teacher. Pitch your end on the count of three."
-- A room bursts into panic. Those seated fall backward in startled retreat. Those standing duck low. The roof collapses; and when the dust settles, a paraplegic and his blushing friends stare straight into the face of an amused crowd and an angry homeowner. "What idiots!"
Like getting the giggles at church -- inappropriate, but uncontrollable -- the roll of awkward moments continues, when Jesus, on the brink of Divine demonstration, is heckled by snickering sinners and doubting devotees. Listen to their words:
"But how far will so little go among so many?"
"Never Lord! This shall never happen to you."
"When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind!'"
But the old adage applies that, "He who laughs last, laughs longest." Can't you imagine Bartimaeus giggling like a kid as he leapt and ran for the first time in
his life? Or can you see the little girl's flushed lips breaking into a wide grin when she opened her eyes and looked up into her Mother's face? Can't you envision a tidal wave of wrinkles rippling across the healed woman's face every time she cornered one of her former physicians and reminded him, "See, I told you so!"? Mary must have fairly soared with delight as she peeled away the linen strips from Lazarus' face, revealing that familiar lopsided grin of his. How many times do you guess Peter entertained audiences over the years with the retelling of his whale-of-a-tale fishing story? Or, in all history's laboring, can you imagine any job that may have been done with more exuberance than the re-roofing of that house by the former paraplegic?
The crowds were amazed, and we have to wonder what other rib-tickling marvels Jesus was poised to perform, but couldn't, because folks were too preoccupied giggling.
Would you laugh if someone suggested there are things, wonderful things, miraculous things, new things, world changing things God may desire to do in our own time? For the times I have laughed let me request, "Osaiywa".
"Faith is confidence -- founded upon the unfailing almighty character of God -- that the possibilities are limitless" --O. Michel
"Believe me when I say that anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these...." Jn 14:12
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Morning Coffee:Gourmet thoughts for your day.
SUNRISE
It's early. Coffee is brewing. Our mountain's hem is glowing in faint silver. The sun will rise soon.
When’s the last time you watched the sun rise? Yesterday? Been awhile? Watching this one with me?
Maybe I should clarify, because I may be asking a different question than you think. I’m not asking when you last saw a risen sun—which is also a beautiful thing. I’m asking, “When was the last time you watched the sun’s rising?"
To witness that fiery ball rupture the horizon and gradually climb into full view you have to stop and focus. Although the earth is spinning at terrific speed, the sun’s rising is almost imperceptible. In fact, without careful observance, little appears to be happening. One second the first bright edge bursts from below the horizon, the next it’s fully launched into the sky’s blue. Silently, steadily, quickly the whole thing transpires with our without our notice.
Other life events can slip by without our notice. Aging, for example. One day we want to be sixteen, then, in no time, we wonder how we got to sixty!
Our children’s growing up is like our own—here and then gone. They break in like bright rays on a steady horizon. Newborns spark a twinkle in a Dad’s eye and spread a warm glow across Mom’s face. Then, before we know it, they’ve launched out on their own...into the blue.
We miss the sun’s rising because we’re too tired, too busy, and too preoccupied. We miss our children’s growing up for the same reasons.
While it’s unfortunate to miss a morning sunrise, it’s a tragedy to miss our children’s childhood. The sun will rise again tomorrow, but their childhood is once.
Today, notice your children. Hold them. Talk to them. Read them a story, or even better, tell them one. Instead of watching T.V., throw the ball. Turn off the phone and tune into their day. Tell them how wonderful they are.
Stop! Look into their eyes. Read their posture. Search their hearts. Sit at their bedside and watch them sleep, listen to them breathe, pray over them. Cherish them.
Many of life’s most beautiful and most precious things pass silently by us unless we resolve not to miss them. No matter their age or distance pause today and enjoy your children. Go ahead. Do what’s brewing in your heart. It’s still early.
It's early. Coffee is brewing. Our mountain's hem is glowing in faint silver. The sun will rise soon.
When’s the last time you watched the sun rise? Yesterday? Been awhile? Watching this one with me?
Maybe I should clarify, because I may be asking a different question than you think. I’m not asking when you last saw a risen sun—which is also a beautiful thing. I’m asking, “When was the last time you watched the sun’s rising?"
To witness that fiery ball rupture the horizon and gradually climb into full view you have to stop and focus. Although the earth is spinning at terrific speed, the sun’s rising is almost imperceptible. In fact, without careful observance, little appears to be happening. One second the first bright edge bursts from below the horizon, the next it’s fully launched into the sky’s blue. Silently, steadily, quickly the whole thing transpires with our without our notice.
Other life events can slip by without our notice. Aging, for example. One day we want to be sixteen, then, in no time, we wonder how we got to sixty!
Our children’s growing up is like our own—here and then gone. They break in like bright rays on a steady horizon. Newborns spark a twinkle in a Dad’s eye and spread a warm glow across Mom’s face. Then, before we know it, they’ve launched out on their own...into the blue.
We miss the sun’s rising because we’re too tired, too busy, and too preoccupied. We miss our children’s growing up for the same reasons.
While it’s unfortunate to miss a morning sunrise, it’s a tragedy to miss our children’s childhood. The sun will rise again tomorrow, but their childhood is once.
Today, notice your children. Hold them. Talk to them. Read them a story, or even better, tell them one. Instead of watching T.V., throw the ball. Turn off the phone and tune into their day. Tell them how wonderful they are.
Stop! Look into their eyes. Read their posture. Search their hearts. Sit at their bedside and watch them sleep, listen to them breathe, pray over them. Cherish them.
Many of life’s most beautiful and most precious things pass silently by us unless we resolve not to miss them. No matter their age or distance pause today and enjoy your children. Go ahead. Do what’s brewing in your heart. It’s still early.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
It's Preacher Feature Time!
Some weeks back I begged my preaching minister, Chuck Monan, to submit a fine message he had delivered on the subject of unity as an article for New Wineskins - and the guy consented! On top of that, managing editor Greg Taylor accepted it, and it went live Monday. You can read it (or listen to it) and see if my risk of sycophanting up to the boss was worth the ribbing I'll get in the church office.
(Though, as I told Chuck when I accepted the communications job there last fall, he's not technically the Boss. That'd be Springsteen.)
Evidently spurred on by my dauntless courage in the face of merciless taunting, Greg Taylor lost no time asking his preaching minister Wade Hodges to contribute an article on the subject of unity and the table, which should appear in a couple of weeks.
And if Greg gets any teasing as a result, I think you'll find the article will be well worth it to him.
(Though, as I told Chuck when I accepted the communications job there last fall, he's not technically the Boss. That'd be Springsteen.)
Evidently spurred on by my dauntless courage in the face of merciless taunting, Greg Taylor lost no time asking his preaching minister Wade Hodges to contribute an article on the subject of unity and the table, which should appear in a couple of weeks.
And if Greg gets any teasing as a result, I think you'll find the article will be well worth it to him.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Bono preaches at National Prayer Breakfast
President George W. Bush asked Bono to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast today. See and hear it here.
Life on the Farm:Spiritual Insights from Rural Living
Goatee: Untangling and Untying from Sin
I was apprehensive when my ‘friend’ offered us a goat, but Benjamin’s face grew a grin. Ten year old boys don’t understand what’s involved in caring for goats, and Dad’s can’t forget when they were ten. We took the goat.
He was medium size, a long beard, long brown and black hair, and a pair of well developed horns, but his temperament was calm and he ate everything. This eating thing was my personal ambition for our new “pet”. We have lots hillsides growing briers, vines, poison ivy and such that are too steep for a tractor or mower and too large for a weed eater, unless it is a four legged weed eater.
Josh named him, Goatee.
We don’t have goat-proof fencing and Goatee doesn’t realize that I only want him to eat in certain areas. So, Goatee wears a long leash. Each morning we locate him on those steep banks or in other areas where he’ll enjoy eating all day tethered to a tree, an old tire, a post or some item that he can’t drag away. He gulps the most amazing stuff: thorny briers, vines, leaves, berries, bark, pine needles, almost everything. He’s a real eating machine, which I like very much. And so, this is an almost perfect arrangement. Almost.
The problem is Goatee’s leash. It gets tangled. He goes round and round trees, brier, vines, gets hooked under rocks or stumps. When he’s stuck he starts bleating. When Benjamin sees Goatee is tangled he has to untangle him and re-tether him again. Without that leash on his neck he’d roam those steep banks freely. That would be perfect.
Yesterday, a lady called me in distress. Her electric bill was overdue and the electric company was threatening to cut off service. She’d called before on several occasions, always with a catastrophe. So, I listened to her story. Her daughter is in jail for drug use, she and her current husband are separated, but he is living with her because his black lung check was stopped due to “someone else’s mistake”, She doesn’t get along with her ex-husband either. She is on disability for her back. All her family is estranged from her and ….. You see the situation.
I know this lady. Her real problem is that she is tethered to Sin. Sin keeps her life in a tangle of troubles. So, I clearly told her, “You know. I’ll help on your electric bill. I don’t mind that, but (her name) you need God in your life, or things like this are going to continue to plague your life.”
She replied, “Oh. I’ve been saved. I go to Church-- when I go-- to the XYZ Church.”
I interrupted her, “I not saying you need to go to church. I’m saying you need God in your life.” She didn’t understand.
What she thinks she needs is someone-- like Goatee needs Benjamin -- to come along ever so often and straighten things out. It is flawed thinking. She doesn’t need someone to untangle her messes; she needs someone to remove her leash.
All of us need is our yoke removed. We need freedom from our addictions; freedom from guilt; freedom from the power of sin in our life; freedom from that which ‘so easily entangles’. (Hebrews 12:1f) People need to be set free.
Yes, we serve those around us. We feed, we clothe, we comfort, we pay their bills, we listen to their stories, we hold their hand, we do all of this and more. What ‘more’? We go beyond their felt needs and address their ultimate one: we boldly, lovingly, courageously tell people, “You have a leash. You need to take it off.”
Satan leashes and tethers people. Helping our neighbor’s hurts, without addressing the tether is dishonest, short sighted and cheap. Christians who only love the body are either ignorant or cowardly. Certainly, we feed mouths, like our Lord did, but we also, like our Lord, seek and save the lost. We untangle their messes, but we also take them to Jesus who said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has …has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…to release the oppressed...” Luke 4:18-19
The Body of Christ has done a fair job of untangling messes, but too often, we’ve left the people tethered. Let’s resolve afresh to set the captives free, knowing that whatever we loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.
I was apprehensive when my ‘friend’ offered us a goat, but Benjamin’s face grew a grin. Ten year old boys don’t understand what’s involved in caring for goats, and Dad’s can’t forget when they were ten. We took the goat.
He was medium size, a long beard, long brown and black hair, and a pair of well developed horns, but his temperament was calm and he ate everything. This eating thing was my personal ambition for our new “pet”. We have lots hillsides growing briers, vines, poison ivy and such that are too steep for a tractor or mower and too large for a weed eater, unless it is a four legged weed eater.
Josh named him, Goatee.
We don’t have goat-proof fencing and Goatee doesn’t realize that I only want him to eat in certain areas. So, Goatee wears a long leash. Each morning we locate him on those steep banks or in other areas where he’ll enjoy eating all day tethered to a tree, an old tire, a post or some item that he can’t drag away. He gulps the most amazing stuff: thorny briers, vines, leaves, berries, bark, pine needles, almost everything. He’s a real eating machine, which I like very much. And so, this is an almost perfect arrangement. Almost.
The problem is Goatee’s leash. It gets tangled. He goes round and round trees, brier, vines, gets hooked under rocks or stumps. When he’s stuck he starts bleating. When Benjamin sees Goatee is tangled he has to untangle him and re-tether him again. Without that leash on his neck he’d roam those steep banks freely. That would be perfect.
Yesterday, a lady called me in distress. Her electric bill was overdue and the electric company was threatening to cut off service. She’d called before on several occasions, always with a catastrophe. So, I listened to her story. Her daughter is in jail for drug use, she and her current husband are separated, but he is living with her because his black lung check was stopped due to “someone else’s mistake”, She doesn’t get along with her ex-husband either. She is on disability for her back. All her family is estranged from her and ….. You see the situation.
I know this lady. Her real problem is that she is tethered to Sin. Sin keeps her life in a tangle of troubles. So, I clearly told her, “You know. I’ll help on your electric bill. I don’t mind that, but (her name) you need God in your life, or things like this are going to continue to plague your life.”
She replied, “Oh. I’ve been saved. I go to Church-- when I go-- to the XYZ Church.”
I interrupted her, “I not saying you need to go to church. I’m saying you need God in your life.” She didn’t understand.
What she thinks she needs is someone-- like Goatee needs Benjamin -- to come along ever so often and straighten things out. It is flawed thinking. She doesn’t need someone to untangle her messes; she needs someone to remove her leash.
All of us need is our yoke removed. We need freedom from our addictions; freedom from guilt; freedom from the power of sin in our life; freedom from that which ‘so easily entangles’. (Hebrews 12:1f) People need to be set free.
Yes, we serve those around us. We feed, we clothe, we comfort, we pay their bills, we listen to their stories, we hold their hand, we do all of this and more. What ‘more’? We go beyond their felt needs and address their ultimate one: we boldly, lovingly, courageously tell people, “You have a leash. You need to take it off.”
Satan leashes and tethers people. Helping our neighbor’s hurts, without addressing the tether is dishonest, short sighted and cheap. Christians who only love the body are either ignorant or cowardly. Certainly, we feed mouths, like our Lord did, but we also, like our Lord, seek and save the lost. We untangle their messes, but we also take them to Jesus who said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has …has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…to release the oppressed...” Luke 4:18-19
The Body of Christ has done a fair job of untangling messes, but too often, we’ve left the people tethered. Let’s resolve afresh to set the captives free, knowing that whatever we loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Unity (part 5)
Is diversity a necessary part of the kingdom come on earth? Is the longing I have to worship and be in community and serve with people different from me as well as similar to me part of the divine nature within me?
I want to live in a community of faith in Christ that includes both pacifists and military heroes. I enjoy seeing a cowboy elder hugging a hip-hop baggy pants wearing teenager. Give me the young reaching up to take a stick of gum from an older lady of the church over the rigorously segregated by age "assemblies" many churches have.
Diversity comes not only in a racial sense. Diversity in our churches may mean age, social, economic, denominational, vocational, beliefs, pratices.
No discussion of unity touches reality without dealing with how ready we are to have diversity.
We cannot quote one of the best Restoration pleas quite enough: in matters of faith we have unity, in matters of opinion we have diversity, and in all things charity. What we ought to be vigilant about, however, is to not allow this plea to go undiscussed, as if it's self-evident and a mantra that settles all disputes. It doesn't.
We still must understand what constitutes a faith matter, an opinion matter. For that we do well to understand what was important to Jesus, what was a faith matter to God throughout the witness of Scripture. When the Lord addresses Israel directly or through prophets, here is an example of what He says through the prophet Micah (6:8):
In order to know what is opinion and what is a matter of faith, we must understand what the heart of God says, what Jesus said when he was on earth, and determine from those words, from those actions, what is truly a matter of faith. We tend to gravitate toward this being a list of what we believe, and certainly we have every reason to have as matters of faith a set of beliefs about God, the creator who sent Jesus who was not created into the world, who lived a while among us, taught, loved and healed and was betrayed and given by his own people to be crucified yet he rose on the third day and lives now through us and in us by his Holy Spirit and we wait expectantly for the day of his appearing again.
Yet even to believe all the right things is not the heart of what Jesus seems to be saying to us when he says all the Law and the Prophets hang on the practice of loving God with every stem-cell of our being, and to love our neighbors as if we were loving ourselves. The way we treat our neighbors is a matter of faith. It's time we start taking what Jesus said the Law and the Prophets hang on literally. When will we truly start acting like we say we believe?
This applies to every area of endeavor, be it within churches as we discuss our own practices, in our outreach, in our families, in our neighborhoods, friendships, and extended family relationships, and yes even how we treat the stranger.
Christ still longs for us to be one, to be gathered and unified under his wings. Christ says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"
I want to live in a community of faith in Christ that includes both pacifists and military heroes. I enjoy seeing a cowboy elder hugging a hip-hop baggy pants wearing teenager. Give me the young reaching up to take a stick of gum from an older lady of the church over the rigorously segregated by age "assemblies" many churches have.
Diversity comes not only in a racial sense. Diversity in our churches may mean age, social, economic, denominational, vocational, beliefs, pratices.
No discussion of unity touches reality without dealing with how ready we are to have diversity.
We cannot quote one of the best Restoration pleas quite enough: in matters of faith we have unity, in matters of opinion we have diversity, and in all things charity. What we ought to be vigilant about, however, is to not allow this plea to go undiscussed, as if it's self-evident and a mantra that settles all disputes. It doesn't.
We still must understand what constitutes a faith matter, an opinion matter. For that we do well to understand what was important to Jesus, what was a faith matter to God throughout the witness of Scripture. When the Lord addresses Israel directly or through prophets, here is an example of what He says through the prophet Micah (6:8):
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.And when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, he sets the course of history on its ear when he says, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-40).
In order to know what is opinion and what is a matter of faith, we must understand what the heart of God says, what Jesus said when he was on earth, and determine from those words, from those actions, what is truly a matter of faith. We tend to gravitate toward this being a list of what we believe, and certainly we have every reason to have as matters of faith a set of beliefs about God, the creator who sent Jesus who was not created into the world, who lived a while among us, taught, loved and healed and was betrayed and given by his own people to be crucified yet he rose on the third day and lives now through us and in us by his Holy Spirit and we wait expectantly for the day of his appearing again.
Yet even to believe all the right things is not the heart of what Jesus seems to be saying to us when he says all the Law and the Prophets hang on the practice of loving God with every stem-cell of our being, and to love our neighbors as if we were loving ourselves. The way we treat our neighbors is a matter of faith. It's time we start taking what Jesus said the Law and the Prophets hang on literally. When will we truly start acting like we say we believe?
This applies to every area of endeavor, be it within churches as we discuss our own practices, in our outreach, in our families, in our neighborhoods, friendships, and extended family relationships, and yes even how we treat the stranger.
Christ still longs for us to be one, to be gathered and unified under his wings. Christ says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"
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