May 25 – Thoughts on 1 Chronicles 25-27 & John 9:1-23

“Light” and “Darkness”, “Blind” and “Seeing”… John uses these metaphors regularly throughout his gospel, and they are good ones for us to ponder today.  As we look at Jesus healing a man who was born blind, this question of Who is Really Blind? comes home to the Pharisees.

Jesus and His disciples approach a man who is blind from birth and the disciples ask the typical question for a first century Jew (and a 21st century American): “Why?”  Why was this man born blind?  Why do bad things happen to the innocent?  How can a loving and all powerful God allow evil like blindness to happen if He could stop it?  For the disciples, the assumption that God is all powerful is a given, so there is no question of God causing the blindness.  The question is why.  Was it his parents’ sin?  Was it his?

Jesus gives us the only answer we get to such a difficult and ever-present question:  Neither.  This blindness is not a punishment for sin but is a means of revealing God’s glory.  And through Jesus’ miraculous healing, God’s glory was indeed revealed.  Sadly, this is not the answer we want for our sicknesses, grief, or pain.  That God might inflict unhappiness on His people just so He can reveal His glory seems wrong at best, sadistic at worst.  But this reveals once again what I consider the biggest idolatry in our world today: ego.  Of all the idols we can list, our own self-focus and self-interest is our biggest idol.

To believe as we do that reality, life, and even God’s responsibility begins with us and our happiness is idolatry.  To begin every philosophy and even theology with me denies the Kingship of God in my life.  And it is this that leads us to the epidemic of godlessness we are seeing from the top to the bottom of our culture.  “It’s ultimately all about me” is the motto of the world Jesus came to save from itself.

Why was this man born blind?  Why would God do something that made someone unhappy for His own purposes (without checking in with us about it first!)?  Because He’s God!

And this may be our biggest blindness of all.  May God heal us of it that we might follow Him in truth.

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May 24 – Thoughts on 1 Chronicles 22-24 & John 8:28-59

The stereotypical playground chant, “My daddy can beat up your daddy” seems strangely apropos in today’s reading.  The question between Jesus and his detractors is this: “Who’s your daddy?”

For Jews, being able to say that Abraham was their father was code for saying that they were righteous, Law-abiding Jews.  But Jesus turns the tables by saying that it is not Abraham who is their father but Satan.  He then goes on to say that only He is a legitimate Son of God the Father.  “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God.”

We all can call Father He whose will we try to carry out.  If we are doing the work of God, then He is our father.  If we are trying to carry out the will of someone else, then they are our father.  So, I ask today, “Who’s your daddy?”  Whose will are you trying to accomplish?  Is it God’s?  Is it your own?  Is it this World’s?

Jesus ends with a warning: only children of God will enter the Kingdom of God.  So, is God our Father?  If so, let’s give Him thanks for His adoption.  If not, then maybe like the Prodigal we need to remember our identity, leave our pigsty, and return to Him.  He will always come running to meet us if we do.

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It’s Time for Libertyville Days Again!

Libertyville Days golf 2014On June 15 and 16, we will once again host a booth at Libertyville Days in downtown Libertyville.  Our purpose is to engage the community in conversation and open up chances to tell our stories.  With a putt-putt golf hole with prizes, pens and water to give away, and a shady and cool place for folk to rest their tired feet, we get hundreds of opportunities to hear and share stories with those walking by.  If you haven’t signed up for a shift, you can do so here.  Come and join us for a fun afternoon being God’s church in the community!

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May 23 – Thoughts on 1 Chronicles 19-21 & John 8:1-27

Again, Jesus speaks at the great Festival of Tabernacles, which, we have already noted, used the symbols of water and light as their main foci.  Yesterday, He used the water metaphor to say, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink, and rivers of living water will flow from them.”  Today, He uses the powerful Tabernacle symbol of light.

During the feast of Tabernacles, the Jews erected 4 tall stone pillars in the temple courtyard and filled huge bowls resting on top of the pillars with oil.  They lit the oil and the light from these Olympic Cauldron-sized fires lit the night for miles around Jerusalem.  It was probably standing below these enormous lights that Jesus spoke today’s lesson, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  Imagine that scene for a minute.

Light – it reveals what is hidden, brings comfort in darkness, guides down shadowed paths, and warns against dangers.  Light is, therefore, a perfect metaphor for Jesus and for our faith.  In fact, earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had said to His disciples, “YOU are the light of the world.”  That light is His, but it is also ours.

At my first church, we sought to change the name from “the Evangelical Covenant Church of Cheboygan” to “Lighthouse Covenant Church” for many reason, from identification to symbolism to unity with the community (the symbol for Cheboygan was a lighthouse).  While it didn’t fly, I still feel that a lighthouse is the perfect symbol for a church.  Churches are meant to reveal what is hidden in this world and our own lives, to bring comfort to people in their darkness, to guide them down shadowed paths (or through shadowed seas) and to warn against the dangers of this world.

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May 22 – Thoughts on 1 Chronicles 16-18 & John 7:28-53

“Are you willing to be obscure in order to be faithful?”  With this one question, our bible study leader hit on one of the most exposed nerves in his entire American audience.  Like James and John, we are taught, commanded, and rewarded when we strive for greatness, and just the opposite when we are subtle.  With aphorisms like, “Any publicity is good publicity” and “It’s better to burn out than fade away”, we are all directed toward fame.  We celebrate the loudest, the most flashy, the best known on any team, in any group, and sadly in any denomination.

So it is hard for us to understand how God forbidding David to build the temple is anything but punishment.  David has striven his entire life to please God, has done more than anyone should be expected to do, and still God refuses his request to build the temple.  David has been threatened, exiled, praised and cursed, and is the King of Israel.  Yet his kingship would be capped if he could build “David’s Temple” to the Lord.  And still, God says no.  And so instead we know of Solomon’s Temple.

Of course, David did not live an obscure life.  Jesus Himself is called the Son of David, and is born in the City of David, but for most of us this is not the case.  So what happens when God’s call on your life is to work hard and toil your life away in obscurity?  How hard it is to do God’s work and never be recognized for it?  Is it enough to believe that we will be praised by God in heaven even if nobody knows our names here on earth?  Are we willing to be obscure in order to be faithful?

I have to admit, I have an immediate skepticism of anyone who is “famous” in their own area.  From pastors to teachers to athletes to superstars, famous people make me nervous.  And yet along with the rest of America, I do not want to be unknown.  I want to make a name for myself.  Unfortunately, the most famous example of this in scripture is at the Tower of Babel, and things did not turn out well for them.

So I am willing to be obscure in order to be faithful.  I will follow Jesus even if that means nobody knows my name, or even that I do His will.  Are you?

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