I have often puzzled over this verse. Gen. 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." When I've heard people talk of it, it often sounds like guessing and it does lend to imagining, and probably more often then not I've heard people begin to reverse engineer what the 'image of God' must be. That is, because God is Spirit and in Genesis he's creating things from nothing, it is hard to imagine similarity with him. By default we seem to begin thinking of him in terms us and self-understanding. But that isn't right. That's not understanding him. "In our image" is...after us...emulating our character...desiring our relationship...where? on Earth. "Having dominion" and "multiplying".
1 Jn 3:2 says, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." We don't know "what we will be" beyond the grave, but we will know the image of the invisible God when he appears, because we'll be like him. We'll see Jesus as he is. We were made in God's image to see Jesus.
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Valley of Vision
There's an incredible passage in Isaiah 22, called "An oracle concerning Jerusalem". I think it's both a historical/geographical commentary and allegory. What's catching is the language. It's as though God is speaking to people in that valley and to Himself and also in the third person of events that will pass. God says to people in the valley (paraphrased), "What are you doing...on the rooftops? You were thriving and 'exultant'. ...your people aren't dead in battle as you think. They fled and they were captured without a fight." [I wonder why they fled.] Then God says he can't be consoled. He's so grieved over the 'destruction of his people'. But 'the day' was appointed. The valley of vision was supposed to be thrown into a 'tumult'...and even trampled down. V.8 [Third person] "He has taken away the covering of Judah." WHY??? For reasons I kind of get and from a historical perspective...don't. God said, "You looked to your weapons and all your plans to protect yourself, but you didn't look to me. And I planned this long ago." He says, "I asked for 'weeping and mourning', for contrition, but you didn't hear. You didn't hear because you wanted to live as though tomorrow you were going to die." God says, "That's what you will pay for while you live." ...Does that not rattle you?
Then begins the more inscrutable verses. The oracle transissions from tangible people to something prophetic, but which I do get generally if it is in reference to the cross. God says, "go ask the 'steward' of the town or valley, what have you done here??? You've fortified yourself safely? on this height, in this rock above the neighboring valleys? 'The Lord will hurl you away violently. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land.' There you'll die, you shame of your master."
This is all leading to the oracle. God says, I'm going to put another man, Eliakim, in that man's office. That makes sense, a transfer of power, but then he says, "he's going to be a father to Jerusalem and Judah and I'm going to give him a key. 'He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.' ...what? Who is Eliakim? The passage doesn't offer an explanation, but it does say that God determined to "fix him like a peg...on which the whole honor of his father's house and offspring and every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons was to hang." That's some imagery to end with.... A jubilant valley, appointed chaos, inattention to God, a steward violently removed, and a man God determines to fix in place and hang every honor on. ...a peg isn't remarkable, but this peg bears the whole house, all the earthly possessions. Then in another appointed day, God says, 'the peg will give way. It will be cut down and fall, and everything on it will be cut off.' And that's the end of this perplexing passage.
I can imagine this valley and the bustle of a town and the fear of war. I can picture the panorama of seeing in a valley. I can kind of identify with the 'tumult' and uncertainty of God timing (what is He doing?). And I think I can even identify with the terror of God's warning to the steward. I don't understand the implications of lineage being cut off. But I do believe God fixed Jesus in place...made for a little while lower than the angels (Hebrews 2). It is Jesus we must see - the one who made himself nothing, a servant (Philippians 2) - at the center of that farsighted, encompassing vision.
O God of grace,
Thou has imputed my sin to my substitute,
and has imputed his righteous to my soul,
clothing me with a bridegroom's robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong ar so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing for the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day's work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.
Then begins the more inscrutable verses. The oracle transissions from tangible people to something prophetic, but which I do get generally if it is in reference to the cross. God says, "go ask the 'steward' of the town or valley, what have you done here??? You've fortified yourself safely? on this height, in this rock above the neighboring valleys? 'The Lord will hurl you away violently. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land.' There you'll die, you shame of your master."
This is all leading to the oracle. God says, I'm going to put another man, Eliakim, in that man's office. That makes sense, a transfer of power, but then he says, "he's going to be a father to Jerusalem and Judah and I'm going to give him a key. 'He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.' ...what? Who is Eliakim? The passage doesn't offer an explanation, but it does say that God determined to "fix him like a peg...on which the whole honor of his father's house and offspring and every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons was to hang." That's some imagery to end with.... A jubilant valley, appointed chaos, inattention to God, a steward violently removed, and a man God determines to fix in place and hang every honor on. ...a peg isn't remarkable, but this peg bears the whole house, all the earthly possessions. Then in another appointed day, God says, 'the peg will give way. It will be cut down and fall, and everything on it will be cut off.' And that's the end of this perplexing passage.
I can imagine this valley and the bustle of a town and the fear of war. I can picture the panorama of seeing in a valley. I can kind of identify with the 'tumult' and uncertainty of God timing (what is He doing?). And I think I can even identify with the terror of God's warning to the steward. I don't understand the implications of lineage being cut off. But I do believe God fixed Jesus in place...made for a little while lower than the angels (Hebrews 2). It is Jesus we must see - the one who made himself nothing, a servant (Philippians 2) - at the center of that farsighted, encompassing vision.
O God of grace,
Thou has imputed my sin to my substitute,
and has imputed his righteous to my soul,
clothing me with a bridegroom's robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong ar so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing for the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day's work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Morning 1/27
And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. Jn. 1:16
These words tells us there is a fullness in Christ.
There is a fullness of essential Deity, for "in him the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily." Col. 2:9
There is a fullness of perfect manhood, for in Him, bodily, that Godhead was revealed.
There is a fullness of atoning efficacy in His blood, for "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." 1 Jn 1:7
There is a fullness of justifying righteousness in His life, for "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Rom. 8:1
There is a fullness of divine prevalence in His plea, for "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Heb. 7:25
There is a fullness of victory in His death, for through death He destroyed him that had the power of death - that is, the devil.
There is a fullness of efficacy in His resurrection from the dead, for by it "he has caused us to be born again to a living hope." 1 Pet. 1:3
There is a fullness of grace to pardon, of grace to regenerate, of grace to sanctify, of grace to preserve, and of grace to perfect. There is a fullness at all times; a fullness of comfort in affliction, a fullness of guidance in prosperity. A fullness of every divine attribute - of wisdom, of power, of love; a fullness that is impossible to survey, much less to explore. "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." Col. 1:19 Oh, what a fullness must this be of which all receive! Fullness, indeed, must there be when the stream is always flowing, and yet the well springs up as free, as rich, as full as ever. Come, believer, and get all you need supplied; ask largely, and you will receive largely, for this "fullness is inexhaustible and is treasured up where all the needy may reach it, even in Jesus, Immanuel - God with us.
Spurgeon. Morning and Evening.
These words tells us there is a fullness in Christ.
There is a fullness of essential Deity, for "in him the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily." Col. 2:9
There is a fullness of perfect manhood, for in Him, bodily, that Godhead was revealed.
There is a fullness of atoning efficacy in His blood, for "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." 1 Jn 1:7
There is a fullness of justifying righteousness in His life, for "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Rom. 8:1
There is a fullness of divine prevalence in His plea, for "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Heb. 7:25
There is a fullness of victory in His death, for through death He destroyed him that had the power of death - that is, the devil.
There is a fullness of efficacy in His resurrection from the dead, for by it "he has caused us to be born again to a living hope." 1 Pet. 1:3
There is a fullness of grace to pardon, of grace to regenerate, of grace to sanctify, of grace to preserve, and of grace to perfect. There is a fullness at all times; a fullness of comfort in affliction, a fullness of guidance in prosperity. A fullness of every divine attribute - of wisdom, of power, of love; a fullness that is impossible to survey, much less to explore. "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." Col. 1:19 Oh, what a fullness must this be of which all receive! Fullness, indeed, must there be when the stream is always flowing, and yet the well springs up as free, as rich, as full as ever. Come, believer, and get all you need supplied; ask largely, and you will receive largely, for this "fullness is inexhaustible and is treasured up where all the needy may reach it, even in Jesus, Immanuel - God with us.
Spurgeon. Morning and Evening.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
the church, Christ-followers, the world, Jesus
Does the church act triumphalistically, or treat its people arrogantly? Is it an agent for the suppression of human needs and aspirations? Does it foster intolerance and small-mindedness? Does the church proclaim a gospel of success and offer Jesus as a better business partner? Does it encourage an ethos of prosperity
to the neglect of the earth’s good, or an individualistic spirituality to the neglect of the world’s needy? Are its leaders corrupt and coercive? Such distortions of Christianity can find no harsher critic, no more radical rejecter, than the Jesus found only in the pages of the New Testament, the Jesus who was himself emptied out for others and called his followers to do the same. The Jesus to whom Saint Francis of Assisi appealed in his call for a poor and giving rather than a powerful and grasping church was not the Historical Jesus but the Jesus of the Gospels. One must only wonder why this Jesus is not also the “real Jesus” for those who declare a desire for religious truth, and theological integrity,
and honest history.
~Luke Timothy Johnson
to the neglect of the earth’s good, or an individualistic spirituality to the neglect of the world’s needy? Are its leaders corrupt and coercive? Such distortions of Christianity can find no harsher critic, no more radical rejecter, than the Jesus found only in the pages of the New Testament, the Jesus who was himself emptied out for others and called his followers to do the same. The Jesus to whom Saint Francis of Assisi appealed in his call for a poor and giving rather than a powerful and grasping church was not the Historical Jesus but the Jesus of the Gospels. One must only wonder why this Jesus is not also the “real Jesus” for those who declare a desire for religious truth, and theological integrity,
and honest history.
~Luke Timothy Johnson
Sunday, April 12, 2009
the prince
"When I survey the wonderous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain i count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride."
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
for love is of God. everyone who loves...
these are simple, life directing thoughts.
I don't know when I first verbalized "I love Jesus." I do remember having difficulting with those words for a long time. It's a serious thing-to love someone. Often, I think, if we spend even a fraction of time thinking about "how it is that I love so and so", "what is it that I love so much?" we end up with a short list of mannerisms, or experiences we've shared, or even perhaps how that person makes us...us. (that funny thing you do. how relaxed and pleasant conversation is.)
Somehow these things mean "I love..." whoever it is. I suppose that's mostly love, but I don't think it's all of it. In fact, the most arresting and bewitching part of it might be the most difficult to describe. It's a declaration. To some degree I love you because you love me, and vice versa simply because we say so. That seems kind of remarkable...choosing someone with our words, which is different than irresistible emotions and fond experiences. Words are permanent...never fully recanted. People change for better and for worse, but their words and deeds tell the whole story, regardless of the person's intentions. Words name things: husband, wife, God, truth, work, rest, what I do, who I am. The senses are more fragile, fragmented sentences, vanishing thoughts, winds blowing in the body.
I wonder how often people are afraid to trust their words. I have been afraid. I didn't understand them. "I love Jesus"?? How do you love someone in history? What does that mean?
Well, firstly, it means to believe that "love comes from God." Everything we do and feel is love...is a peripheral experience of the center. "God is love." He defines it.
Then, "This is how God showed his love...He sent his one and only Son into the world..." Again, it's declarative. Believe it or reject it.
But "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son...."
Why? "that we might live through him." Are we not alive if we do not believe that love is of God? That Jesus' coming is how we know what love is? No. No, we're the living dead. Dead in our sins, and only sometimes sensing that God is the center and we are somewhere in orbiting space. Living?
Remember. He [Jesus] rose from the dead. History doesn't contain him. He loves us and gave himself for us. He intercedes on our behalf right now. He sent his Spirit and went back to heaven so that while we wait for his return, we begin to understand God the Father's will. Aside from God being the only existent Being who's reason for existing is in Himself, there are not simple answers for what the will of God is. He and his reasons are perfect. But it is true that because Jesus died, was buried, and rose again I can know him and love him. God wants to bring me into love for Himself..."to glorify and and enjoy Him forever", as the catechism declares.
"We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [The Holy Spirit. The spirit of love that is between the Father and the Son.] And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."
keywords: seen and testify. We agree with what God has done and declared. acknowledges. We not only feebly declare with our words, but also we bend to the truth. know and rely. God's words are more trustworthy than mine. I can trust them. ...perhaps this is why we "solemnly swear to tell the whole truth, so help me God."
verses referenced are from 1 John 4:7-16
I don't know when I first verbalized "I love Jesus." I do remember having difficulting with those words for a long time. It's a serious thing-to love someone. Often, I think, if we spend even a fraction of time thinking about "how it is that I love so and so", "what is it that I love so much?" we end up with a short list of mannerisms, or experiences we've shared, or even perhaps how that person makes us...us. (that funny thing you do. how relaxed and pleasant conversation is.)
Somehow these things mean "I love..." whoever it is. I suppose that's mostly love, but I don't think it's all of it. In fact, the most arresting and bewitching part of it might be the most difficult to describe. It's a declaration. To some degree I love you because you love me, and vice versa simply because we say so. That seems kind of remarkable...choosing someone with our words, which is different than irresistible emotions and fond experiences. Words are permanent...never fully recanted. People change for better and for worse, but their words and deeds tell the whole story, regardless of the person's intentions. Words name things: husband, wife, God, truth, work, rest, what I do, who I am. The senses are more fragile, fragmented sentences, vanishing thoughts, winds blowing in the body.
I wonder how often people are afraid to trust their words. I have been afraid. I didn't understand them. "I love Jesus"?? How do you love someone in history? What does that mean?
Well, firstly, it means to believe that "love comes from God." Everything we do and feel is love...is a peripheral experience of the center. "God is love." He defines it.
Then, "This is how God showed his love...He sent his one and only Son into the world..." Again, it's declarative. Believe it or reject it.
But "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son...."
Why? "that we might live through him." Are we not alive if we do not believe that love is of God? That Jesus' coming is how we know what love is? No. No, we're the living dead. Dead in our sins, and only sometimes sensing that God is the center and we are somewhere in orbiting space. Living?
Remember. He [Jesus] rose from the dead. History doesn't contain him. He loves us and gave himself for us. He intercedes on our behalf right now. He sent his Spirit and went back to heaven so that while we wait for his return, we begin to understand God the Father's will. Aside from God being the only existent Being who's reason for existing is in Himself, there are not simple answers for what the will of God is. He and his reasons are perfect. But it is true that because Jesus died, was buried, and rose again I can know him and love him. God wants to bring me into love for Himself..."to glorify and and enjoy Him forever", as the catechism declares.
"We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [The Holy Spirit. The spirit of love that is between the Father and the Son.] And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."
keywords: seen and testify. We agree with what God has done and declared. acknowledges. We not only feebly declare with our words, but also we bend to the truth. know and rely. God's words are more trustworthy than mine. I can trust them. ...perhaps this is why we "solemnly swear to tell the whole truth, so help me God."
verses referenced are from 1 John 4:7-16
Saturday, November 15, 2008
i want to be a selfless egoist
i want to be a selfless egoist. i think that's basically impossible. ...unless, we live in a created world. unless, God's world is somehow different then the varied scientific and sensory frameworks we think in. unless, God's Son reveals him. (Matt. 11:27) And if Jesus is the "Word became flesh"...then the Bible must somehow define today and living. It is after all the most transcribed book ever. In fact, somehow in God's time and world, a single person, in his time and place, is important only in respect to the person of Jesus, who isn't dead. That's how the Bible "speaks" today and how the Holy Spirit teaches and enables. Don't you think that's remarkable?
read John 16:5-16
Everyone is prideful. Everyone has an ego. How is it possible to possibly have an ego and not be self-centered? I think it begins in death. Give up a "self", not in blindness, not thoughtlessly. in humility. You're too finely created. selflessness is impossible without that kind of epistemology. in some ways we're dead already. time is marching on. In that kind of recognition, we come to understand that we are here solely to be changed. A "selfless egoist", I imagine, is a person who can live for others because he doesn't want to live for himself. For me those are good intentions that are very slowly taking form. But for Jesus, it is why he came, to do the will of his Father. Jesus said literally, "Because I live, you also will live." Jn 14:19b He also said, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me, will find it." Matt 16:25 In this...evolution...we can begin to discern what God's good, pleasing, and perfect will is. Roman 12:2 God's glory is the epitome of purpose. He glorifies himself and there is no greater glory. ...be aligned with that Ego, and irony will follow.
Remember: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves...."
Eph 2:8-10
read John 16:5-16
Everyone is prideful. Everyone has an ego. How is it possible to possibly have an ego and not be self-centered? I think it begins in death. Give up a "self", not in blindness, not thoughtlessly. in humility. You're too finely created. selflessness is impossible without that kind of epistemology. in some ways we're dead already. time is marching on. In that kind of recognition, we come to understand that we are here solely to be changed. A "selfless egoist", I imagine, is a person who can live for others because he doesn't want to live for himself. For me those are good intentions that are very slowly taking form. But for Jesus, it is why he came, to do the will of his Father. Jesus said literally, "Because I live, you also will live." Jn 14:19b He also said, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me, will find it." Matt 16:25 In this...evolution...we can begin to discern what God's good, pleasing, and perfect will is. Roman 12:2 God's glory is the epitome of purpose. He glorifies himself and there is no greater glory. ...be aligned with that Ego, and irony will follow.
Remember: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves...."
Eph 2:8-10
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
I love. but God is.
If I tell you I love you, it's normal...and genuine too. I suppose I have varying degrees of affection for most people...and then some aversion too. Call me sentimental.
What if I said, "'True love never professes anything.'" It is abiding.
1 Jn. 21:17 Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
"True love never professes anything." It is and it is known. "You cannot say nice things when the Lord speaks directly to you, the hurt is too terrific...the point of the hurt is the great point of revelation. Peter began to see how much he did love Jesus..." ~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest March 1st and 2nd.
What if I said, "'True love never professes anything.'" It is abiding.
1 Jn. 21:17 Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
"True love never professes anything." It is and it is known. "You cannot say nice things when the Lord speaks directly to you, the hurt is too terrific...the point of the hurt is the great point of revelation. Peter began to see how much he did love Jesus..." ~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest March 1st and 2nd.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Emmaus Road
After the empty tomb, Jesus meets two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus. They didn't recognize him. Jesus talked with them, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." (Luke 24:27) Can you imagine the Son of God himself telling you the meaning of the Bible story from beginning to end??
Saturday, March 22, 2008
homelessness
I've been thinking about the homeless a lot lately. This morning it seemed a good analogy for something I read in Hebrews 11:37b,38...that I don't fully understand.
"They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated - the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground."
This is the "faith chapter" describing early Christians and the patriarchs. I was thinking homelessness is an interesting analogy because homelessness is much less having nowhere to sleep, than it is belonging to nowhere. It is being disconnected from family, community, work identity, normal responsibilities, and feelings of hope. It is despair and desperation and tiredness most of the time. You expect how people see you, and people don't know how to look at you when they don't know how to connect you. There are two things, two original things happening every day: God's things and things of the world. Homeless people I think more often then not, become homeless, without identity and belonging, because sin, disease, and personal pride infect us and them, such that we become "us" and "them". We disconnect. We separate. We very naively contribute to effacing another's worth because we think we don't belong together. That's indecent. It's foolish and cold. That's a tragedy. In fact, if I was homeless I don't think I'd want to associate with persons who, even before meeting me, drew those lines of "them" and "me". I think most homelessness is probably because people want to belong to themselves, their goals, their things, their people, their vices, their egos...even homeless people do this. So then, how do we belong together? How do I care less for me? That's not for me to explain today.
In Hebrews it talks of Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, and Samuel...all men who did some very big things. Then right after that, it mentions women receiving back from the dead their loved ones. I can only think that this is because more often women have very tender spirits to the Lord. Then we read of those persecuted, who "wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground." The world ostracized them, but that's to be expected. Those people belonged to heaven. That's a different kind of homelessness...a hopeful one. Heaven was home. Jesus walked the Earth. He demonstrated how to how to find heaven and live here, on Earth.
...this expectation of not belonging here, this disenchanted "knowing" everything under the sun as Solomon talks about, everything we expect and hope for from this world and all its fascinations...is a small indication that this is not home. We can taste it and nothing else tastes right. "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jer. 29:12,13
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28
"They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated - the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground."
This is the "faith chapter" describing early Christians and the patriarchs. I was thinking homelessness is an interesting analogy because homelessness is much less having nowhere to sleep, than it is belonging to nowhere. It is being disconnected from family, community, work identity, normal responsibilities, and feelings of hope. It is despair and desperation and tiredness most of the time. You expect how people see you, and people don't know how to look at you when they don't know how to connect you. There are two things, two original things happening every day: God's things and things of the world. Homeless people I think more often then not, become homeless, without identity and belonging, because sin, disease, and personal pride infect us and them, such that we become "us" and "them". We disconnect. We separate. We very naively contribute to effacing another's worth because we think we don't belong together. That's indecent. It's foolish and cold. That's a tragedy. In fact, if I was homeless I don't think I'd want to associate with persons who, even before meeting me, drew those lines of "them" and "me". I think most homelessness is probably because people want to belong to themselves, their goals, their things, their people, their vices, their egos...even homeless people do this. So then, how do we belong together? How do I care less for me? That's not for me to explain today.
In Hebrews it talks of Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, and Samuel...all men who did some very big things. Then right after that, it mentions women receiving back from the dead their loved ones. I can only think that this is because more often women have very tender spirits to the Lord. Then we read of those persecuted, who "wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground." The world ostracized them, but that's to be expected. Those people belonged to heaven. That's a different kind of homelessness...a hopeful one. Heaven was home. Jesus walked the Earth. He demonstrated how to how to find heaven and live here, on Earth.
...this expectation of not belonging here, this disenchanted "knowing" everything under the sun as Solomon talks about, everything we expect and hope for from this world and all its fascinations...is a small indication that this is not home. We can taste it and nothing else tastes right. "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jer. 29:12,13
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
i'm starting to believe....
I’m starting to believe that my green t-shirt and my Levi’s plaid button-up are not dirty when I wear them for a day. I am not believing the sad truth. Maybe it’s because I live in Bolivia and I want to believe people can’t smell me. Maybe they can’t smell me. Maybe it’s because I wash my clothes in the backyard…which is not what you’re imagining. It’s cold here. Maybe I make much todo about nothing. I’m starting to believe my cat is an independently employed spy. I think she knows and is indifferent to what her preeminent sociologist owner thinks, but has watched her every move and NOW pretends to be the cat that lives here. I talk to it…all the time. I’m starting to believe the irony of this environment. Why shouldn’t I talk to the cat that does not leave me alone. Or why shouldn’t I wear the same clothes over and over. It’s cold here. We can’t smell anything unless we’re smashed in little mass transit Toyota vans that never need new transmissions. Even the 1960’s Ford buses are still climbing the steep steep valley “calles”. The streets are cobbled and sidewalks are narrow. The homes are gated and the “oficinas” facaded. At night it’s dim and thick and old and the Old Ford buses lumber up the little narrow streets, too big for normal life and barely big enough for 800 passengers. And inside I sit and I think about the irony of the circumstances. I think about my cat and my landlady and my home and my writing—or lack there of. I think about Spanish and teaching English. I think about you and I think…sometimes this little life in big-ironic-Bolivia is to be transparent. It’s to say a whole lot of things all at once, but not incoherence. It’s to say, “hi Mom and Dad, I’m alive. I’ll tell you a story.” It’s to connect and share. I remember someone once saying, “We teach what we know”. I know a whole lot. I mean a whole damn lot.
I’m kind of joking. I know you didn’t expect that. “Enserio?” I know you don’t know how much I love absurd humor and words…or that I’ve secretly wanted to be British ever since I met my 12th grade American English teacher. “…but we teach what we know,” inadvertently, knowingly and unknowingly. You behave and talk and open your mouth and say things that describe something of what you believe, what you think. Aaack?! I think all the time. I think I have loads to say, probably all the time, but what do I know? What should I teach? I’m a teacher, an ESL teacher.
The funeral was on a Wednesday. The viewing was packed. The casket lay lengthwise in the sunlit room, concentric rings of sad, brightly colored flowers covering the floor. I can’t remember the last time I had seen so many flowers. I found the pastor dead. I found him in the swollen, rainy season river on the way to Coroico. Two weeks before I had heard him speak in that same church. He was calm and chose his words. He knew what he wanted to say. I think maybe he was wry but not silly. He was tall and handsome in his Sunday suit, close cut hair and one long lock in, I think, a very selected location. He carried himself as man who enjoyed simple things, his wife, the church, the Bible, and truths that somehow simplify the ironies of La Paz, Bolivia. He smiled and it was confident but considerate. He reflected on the Bible in front of him and was transparent. I found him captivating, and I found him in the river, the same but beaten and lying still, face down. He’d been missing four days and the complications of getting him back to his agonizing family made me feel numb. I don’t know why. I can’t. Good men die everyday. I wondered why I wasn’t him, taken in the river, bone and skin stolen from the body. “It’s appointed unto man once to die.” I think he walked through a gate of splendor that day. Or maybe for a moment I did…as if that sandbar was a space between Eternity and Bolivia, God and his time and me, Feb.20th. The sandbar sat amid those rainy season rapids and on it was only a body. Back in La Paz people, bodies of love, breathing and praying and hurting, waited. I watched. I have never seen so many people at a funeral. Affected or not, those who knew him honored the memory of an exemplary man and wept at the loss. That’s what I felt. He was 37. That’s not what he said though. “He said he gave his life to Jesus,” in a video testimony he had made when he was probably 18. He gave it away. His wife lost him. His congregation lost him. But Christ holds him. That pastor’s death made those people weep because it’s God’s great love he shared with them. God shared him with them.
God made us to love him. Ironic? We were never meant to die. But we (Adam) had a choice. We always have a choice. We can always say, “Jesus didn’t die because he loved the whole world. That’s not true. …Jesus wasn’t God’s Son and God has nothing to with good men dying…and neither does Adam.”
But why do people want to fall in love? ...I rhetorize. To be chosen? To feel chosen? YES. To be known and somehow love and know another? YES. …And do people die? YES. And does God say, “I love you”? YES. Does that die? Does it change? God is love, all love, the ethos of love. He made you for him. You are (the verb “to be”, “ser”) to be loved. 1 Jn 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” Ps. 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” He wants you to know he loves you.
Life and Death is the choosing or the not choosing eternal, perfect Love. Death is at the end of your life, and it is also in the walking away, thinking, “He doesn’t love me. I don’t understand. I do what I want.” Life, your life, began in the mind of God before your parents lay together, and you know love when you believe what he says...about you, “He loves me. He has always loved me. 'Do you take this man...? and Do you take this woman...?' ‘I do.’” (1 Jn 4:7) “…love comes from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” Life and death are the daily practice…or lack there of…of love. Choose him. Choose to be loved and then love as though love is of God…and that is why we are here. Fall in. Tip over backwards and fall so deeply in.
I left the funeral feeling all of life is for living a transparency, for telling about a Love that is complete and I get it and it’s difficult and it’s serene and ironic and I don’t get it…because it’s Love. I left feeling ‘I will live that way’. I will choose, because Love chooses…everyone. I will wait, because love never leaves. I will live a transparent life, because thank God, I know how to do nothing else.
So…what do I know? What do I want to share? A few stories about life I can’t keep for me. I’m starting to believe….
1 Pet. 1:12 “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.”
I’m kind of joking. I know you didn’t expect that. “Enserio?” I know you don’t know how much I love absurd humor and words…or that I’ve secretly wanted to be British ever since I met my 12th grade American English teacher. “…but we teach what we know,” inadvertently, knowingly and unknowingly. You behave and talk and open your mouth and say things that describe something of what you believe, what you think. Aaack?! I think all the time. I think I have loads to say, probably all the time, but what do I know? What should I teach? I’m a teacher, an ESL teacher.
The funeral was on a Wednesday. The viewing was packed. The casket lay lengthwise in the sunlit room, concentric rings of sad, brightly colored flowers covering the floor. I can’t remember the last time I had seen so many flowers. I found the pastor dead. I found him in the swollen, rainy season river on the way to Coroico. Two weeks before I had heard him speak in that same church. He was calm and chose his words. He knew what he wanted to say. I think maybe he was wry but not silly. He was tall and handsome in his Sunday suit, close cut hair and one long lock in, I think, a very selected location. He carried himself as man who enjoyed simple things, his wife, the church, the Bible, and truths that somehow simplify the ironies of La Paz, Bolivia. He smiled and it was confident but considerate. He reflected on the Bible in front of him and was transparent. I found him captivating, and I found him in the river, the same but beaten and lying still, face down. He’d been missing four days and the complications of getting him back to his agonizing family made me feel numb. I don’t know why. I can’t. Good men die everyday. I wondered why I wasn’t him, taken in the river, bone and skin stolen from the body. “It’s appointed unto man once to die.” I think he walked through a gate of splendor that day. Or maybe for a moment I did…as if that sandbar was a space between Eternity and Bolivia, God and his time and me, Feb.20th. The sandbar sat amid those rainy season rapids and on it was only a body. Back in La Paz people, bodies of love, breathing and praying and hurting, waited. I watched. I have never seen so many people at a funeral. Affected or not, those who knew him honored the memory of an exemplary man and wept at the loss. That’s what I felt. He was 37. That’s not what he said though. “He said he gave his life to Jesus,” in a video testimony he had made when he was probably 18. He gave it away. His wife lost him. His congregation lost him. But Christ holds him. That pastor’s death made those people weep because it’s God’s great love he shared with them. God shared him with them.
God made us to love him. Ironic? We were never meant to die. But we (Adam) had a choice. We always have a choice. We can always say, “Jesus didn’t die because he loved the whole world. That’s not true. …Jesus wasn’t God’s Son and God has nothing to with good men dying…and neither does Adam.”
But why do people want to fall in love? ...I rhetorize. To be chosen? To feel chosen? YES. To be known and somehow love and know another? YES. …And do people die? YES. And does God say, “I love you”? YES. Does that die? Does it change? God is love, all love, the ethos of love. He made you for him. You are (the verb “to be”, “ser”) to be loved. 1 Jn 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” Ps. 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” He wants you to know he loves you.
Life and Death is the choosing or the not choosing eternal, perfect Love. Death is at the end of your life, and it is also in the walking away, thinking, “He doesn’t love me. I don’t understand. I do what I want.” Life, your life, began in the mind of God before your parents lay together, and you know love when you believe what he says...about you, “He loves me. He has always loved me. 'Do you take this man...? and Do you take this woman...?' ‘I do.’” (1 Jn 4:7) “…love comes from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” Life and death are the daily practice…or lack there of…of love. Choose him. Choose to be loved and then love as though love is of God…and that is why we are here. Fall in. Tip over backwards and fall so deeply in.
I left the funeral feeling all of life is for living a transparency, for telling about a Love that is complete and I get it and it’s difficult and it’s serene and ironic and I don’t get it…because it’s Love. I left feeling ‘I will live that way’. I will choose, because Love chooses…everyone. I will wait, because love never leaves. I will live a transparent life, because thank God, I know how to do nothing else.
So…what do I know? What do I want to share? A few stories about life I can’t keep for me. I’m starting to believe….
1 Pet. 1:12 “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.”
Saturday, July 29, 2006
i call it thinkings
I was thinking about God. I was thinking about how I can't hear him and how I have no concept of what he looks like. And I was thinking about how I can understand God when he seems so far beyond me. Who the hell is he and what's happening in my life? So sometimes to answer all the questions that I have more questions than answers for because I have a lot of questions, (get it?) I read. My Bible describes God as beyond me coincidentally, but intervening, in every sense of the word, in the lives of men. My Bible is undeniably a book of fantastical (extraordinary) stories and relevant, credible historical events and peoples. Its praised and demeaned as some of the greatest literature ever written among ordinary men who may or may not have accomplished some noteworthy things in their life times. Historians dont deny its transcription either. Yes, there are versions of it and books not canonized, but its message and content is more or less the same all the way through. It's about God who made the world we live in and his love for the people he made. Its about the perfection of love because we creations can choose to love, and disobeyed because we don't fully get it. And this is a hang up for a lot of us because we don't understand "what's the significance" if we didn't want a perfect love? "How is it perfect?" But I think therein is the story, love is this. It's heart wrenching because we cant comprehend its depth and hurt. It's redemptive because love is forgiving. So 'God is love' in his infinite wisdom illustrated this and gave us his Son. Love is a choice too. We accept it and reject it all the time. So the significance of Jesus is seemly everything. God wants us to comprehend his love for us, so he gives us a way back to him. He shows us how to love because we don't understand. We accept his love and his example or we can choose not to accept it.
In everyday life I often think about myself and where I'm trying to go and I forget about the whole world. What if there was a way to describe all the meaning and humor and personality of people or the 'Bible story' in one blog or a paragraph? I think about that all the time. Why is it so hard to illustrate magnitude? But that's all I can do, that's all anyone who wants to describe what he sees can do. It's an attempt. I'll give you a glimpse of what I feel and think and who I perceive you to be and what I think about God, and you will do your best to understand and that's how we live. Btw, I want to be an ideal person. What's an 'ideal person', you say? I don't know. I'm formulating a prototype. Can people become geniuses, or is it inborn? I want to be a genius.... There will always be people who disagree for good reasons and lame, selfish reasons about everything. And if I knew how to tie everything together and show the interconnectedness of nuances and bottomline beliefs and behavior, I'd be the greatest writer to ever try to communicate. I should not presume.
In everyday life I often think about myself and where I'm trying to go and I forget about the whole world. What if there was a way to describe all the meaning and humor and personality of people or the 'Bible story' in one blog or a paragraph? I think about that all the time. Why is it so hard to illustrate magnitude? But that's all I can do, that's all anyone who wants to describe what he sees can do. It's an attempt. I'll give you a glimpse of what I feel and think and who I perceive you to be and what I think about God, and you will do your best to understand and that's how we live. Btw, I want to be an ideal person. What's an 'ideal person', you say? I don't know. I'm formulating a prototype. Can people become geniuses, or is it inborn? I want to be a genius.... There will always be people who disagree for good reasons and lame, selfish reasons about everything. And if I knew how to tie everything together and show the interconnectedness of nuances and bottomline beliefs and behavior, I'd be the greatest writer to ever try to communicate. I should not presume.
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