Who is the God of Jacob?
In Psalm 146 the God of Jacob is the God “who upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.” Jacob was a fugitive because his brother was trying to kill him. His own uncle cheated him. And in a lot of ways Jacob deserved it. He had stolen his brother’s birthright and was a schemer by nature.
Yet God had mercy on Jacob. Not only did he survive his flight from his brother (at one time he had to sleep in the open with only a stone for a pillow), he eventually found shelter with his uncle and became wealthy. Jacob wrestled with God, and so God made him lame. But God also blessed Jacob, giving him the name Israel and telling him he had wrestled with God and won.
That is the sort of God that I have. He knows my weaknesses and sins and yet he is with me anyway through all the struggles, many of which are self-inflicted. I have no right to ask anything of him, yet he blesses me.
“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.” Psalm 146:5
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
what God values
Yesterday I was part of a memorial service for a baby that lived only 3 weeks. Last night I attended a dinner to hear from a Thai woman who was herself beaten by her father, left home and was taken in by an orphanage, and has now started a home for Thai children who are similarly victims of abuse.
In the memorial service there was a huge outpouring of love. Strong men wept openly and there was no shame in it. It was right to love and to grieve, to express how valuable this child was despite his short life. And it was a great contrast to what we heard about later that day about how the world has treated the children taken in at the home in Thailand.
It boggles my mind that people can mistreat children. It shows how damaged our world is, that people who are wounded can in turn wound other people, even children. The injustice and inhumanity of it makes me ashamed and angry and sick.
Jesus loves the little children. It grieves him to see them hurt and abused. He hurts with the premature baby struggling to live. He hurts with the child afraid of her or his own father or mother (who will later learn to distrust all adults and come to despise her/himself and then repeat the cycle unless someone intervenes).
Jesus knows the horrors of our human experience because he has lived them himself. No one would give up room in their house, so he had to be born among animals. He lived as a member of an oppressed minority in a world ruled by the brutality of the Roman legions. He died as a result of betrayal by one who had said he was his follower, and with the entire system of justice perverted and corrupted against him.
What does God value? He values every human life. He values each one so much that he himself entered our human existence and died a horrific and unjust death to take on himself the penalty for our unjust wounding of each other and our world. And then he rose again to demonstrate that he is the true Lord of this world and to offer us life with him. This is the wonderful message that we who are Christ’s followers are called to live and declare.
In the memorial service there was a huge outpouring of love. Strong men wept openly and there was no shame in it. It was right to love and to grieve, to express how valuable this child was despite his short life. And it was a great contrast to what we heard about later that day about how the world has treated the children taken in at the home in Thailand.
It boggles my mind that people can mistreat children. It shows how damaged our world is, that people who are wounded can in turn wound other people, even children. The injustice and inhumanity of it makes me ashamed and angry and sick.
Jesus loves the little children. It grieves him to see them hurt and abused. He hurts with the premature baby struggling to live. He hurts with the child afraid of her or his own father or mother (who will later learn to distrust all adults and come to despise her/himself and then repeat the cycle unless someone intervenes).
Jesus knows the horrors of our human experience because he has lived them himself. No one would give up room in their house, so he had to be born among animals. He lived as a member of an oppressed minority in a world ruled by the brutality of the Roman legions. He died as a result of betrayal by one who had said he was his follower, and with the entire system of justice perverted and corrupted against him.
What does God value? He values every human life. He values each one so much that he himself entered our human existence and died a horrific and unjust death to take on himself the penalty for our unjust wounding of each other and our world. And then he rose again to demonstrate that he is the true Lord of this world and to offer us life with him. This is the wonderful message that we who are Christ’s followers are called to live and declare.
wealth
The parable of the shrewd (and blatantly unethical) manager (Luke 16:1-9) has always made me uncomfortable. Is Jesus endorsing dishonesty? The story in itself is about a manager who has been hiding his own misuse of his master’s property, is exposed and about to be fired, and then protects himself by ingratiating himself to his master’s debtors by having them alter their accounts. And then the master praises the manager for being shrewd!
Something new struck me about this parable as I read it devotionally today. There is usually one explanation for a parable, a spiritual truth that Jesus illuminates by using a down-to-earth parallel. But in this case, Jesus follows up the story with not one, not even two, but three explanations. He starts by saying that worldly riches are to be used to gain friends. Then he compares worldly wealth to true riches. Finally he says that none of us can serve both God and Money. He hammers home his point by rebutting the Pharisees with a fourth explanation, that God detests what the Pharisees value so highly, i.e., worldly riches.
Jesus’ point is not a simple one. He is certainly not simply endorsing dishonesty (the Pharisees would have raked him over the coals for that). He is giving us a many-layered perspective of worldly wealth. His rebuttal to the Pharisees shows that many people who call themselves followers of God do not look at worldly wealth the way that God does. Jesus calls worldly wealth “very little” relative to true wealth (v. 10). He calls it “someone else’s property”, i.e., we do not truly own it (v. 12). He says that it has the ability to own us, to be our master (v. 13). And he calls it detestable to God even though some people value it highly (v. 15).
All of this begs the question: what is true wealth, that which is highly valued by God? And the problem with answering this question is that it may cause me to hoard something else in the mistaken belief that I am now hoarding something that is truly valuable. It is the hoarding that is in itself the problem. The deeper question is this: Is my value system the same as God’s? That is a question that can’t be answered like a math problem or a question in a catechism. It is a question that is meant to be “lived in”, a question that we will spend our lives answering. And that attitude of seeking to know what God values is what God values.
Something new struck me about this parable as I read it devotionally today. There is usually one explanation for a parable, a spiritual truth that Jesus illuminates by using a down-to-earth parallel. But in this case, Jesus follows up the story with not one, not even two, but three explanations. He starts by saying that worldly riches are to be used to gain friends. Then he compares worldly wealth to true riches. Finally he says that none of us can serve both God and Money. He hammers home his point by rebutting the Pharisees with a fourth explanation, that God detests what the Pharisees value so highly, i.e., worldly riches.
Jesus’ point is not a simple one. He is certainly not simply endorsing dishonesty (the Pharisees would have raked him over the coals for that). He is giving us a many-layered perspective of worldly wealth. His rebuttal to the Pharisees shows that many people who call themselves followers of God do not look at worldly wealth the way that God does. Jesus calls worldly wealth “very little” relative to true wealth (v. 10). He calls it “someone else’s property”, i.e., we do not truly own it (v. 12). He says that it has the ability to own us, to be our master (v. 13). And he calls it detestable to God even though some people value it highly (v. 15).
All of this begs the question: what is true wealth, that which is highly valued by God? And the problem with answering this question is that it may cause me to hoard something else in the mistaken belief that I am now hoarding something that is truly valuable. It is the hoarding that is in itself the problem. The deeper question is this: Is my value system the same as God’s? That is a question that can’t be answered like a math problem or a question in a catechism. It is a question that is meant to be “lived in”, a question that we will spend our lives answering. And that attitude of seeking to know what God values is what God values.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
wisdom
We all want to be wise. We want the ability to make right choices. My kids attended a Vacation Bible School last week that had James 1:5 as its theme: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God…” There’s a connection between wisdom and our relationship with God.
So what keeps us from being wise? The same thing that keeps us from God: lack of humility, i.e., pride. Pride isn’t thinking that I know it all or that I know more than God. It’s merely thinking that I know more than someone else.
I’ve spent my life trying to know more than other people. It’s one of the reasons I try to read so widely. Knowledge in itself isn’t a bad thing. In Proverbs 8:12 wisdom speaks and declares that “I possess knowledge.” The problem is not in the knowledge itself, it’s when I use the knowledge as a shield or a weapon. It can become a shield, keeping me from getting to know someone else because I’m trying to prove that I know more than her/him. Or it can be a weapon that allows me to emerge victorious from an argument, but impoverished because I have lost the opportunity to listen and to learn from someone with a different perspective.
Pride severs relationships. It’s the cause of disunity. It quenches the work that the Spirit of Christ is seeking to do in and through his church. Pride doesn’t have to be all-encompassing to be destructive, it just needs to get between me and one other person.
“All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’" 1 Peter 5:5
So what keeps us from being wise? The same thing that keeps us from God: lack of humility, i.e., pride. Pride isn’t thinking that I know it all or that I know more than God. It’s merely thinking that I know more than someone else.
I’ve spent my life trying to know more than other people. It’s one of the reasons I try to read so widely. Knowledge in itself isn’t a bad thing. In Proverbs 8:12 wisdom speaks and declares that “I possess knowledge.” The problem is not in the knowledge itself, it’s when I use the knowledge as a shield or a weapon. It can become a shield, keeping me from getting to know someone else because I’m trying to prove that I know more than her/him. Or it can be a weapon that allows me to emerge victorious from an argument, but impoverished because I have lost the opportunity to listen and to learn from someone with a different perspective.
Pride severs relationships. It’s the cause of disunity. It quenches the work that the Spirit of Christ is seeking to do in and through his church. Pride doesn’t have to be all-encompassing to be destructive, it just needs to get between me and one other person.
“All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’" 1 Peter 5:5
Monday, August 9, 2010
persecution
Yesterday Dale preached on how the early church fled persecution in Jerusalem and as a result the gospel was carried to Samaria and even into Ethiopia. The day before, 10 members from a Christian aid organization were murdered in Afghanistan.
As I listened to the news reports today, I was outraged. I heard how members of this organization had left their own countries to serve the medical needs of a country in need. Some had raised their families there. But then I asked myself, what motivated them to serve and to give up dreams of comfort and prosperity in such a risky environment?
Even though the early Christians seemed to leave Jerusalem in the interests of self-preservation, they continued to take great risks for the sake of the good news. Samaria was a hostile place for Jews, yet the early Christians (all Jews at the time) went there, Philip preached, and as a result a whole town turned to Christ.
Where would I be willing to go to declare the good news? To my neighbor’s house? To the cubicle next to mine? To a family gathering with my anti-Christian relatives? Do I really believe that I have good news?
As I listened to the news reports today, I was outraged. I heard how members of this organization had left their own countries to serve the medical needs of a country in need. Some had raised their families there. But then I asked myself, what motivated them to serve and to give up dreams of comfort and prosperity in such a risky environment?
Even though the early Christians seemed to leave Jerusalem in the interests of self-preservation, they continued to take great risks for the sake of the good news. Samaria was a hostile place for Jews, yet the early Christians (all Jews at the time) went there, Philip preached, and as a result a whole town turned to Christ.
Where would I be willing to go to declare the good news? To my neighbor’s house? To the cubicle next to mine? To a family gathering with my anti-Christian relatives? Do I really believe that I have good news?
worshiping together
On Aug 1 we worshiped together with Foothill Covenant Church and Alum Rock Covenant Church. What happened?
We had a great time in worship. There’s something invigorating about worshiping with twice as many people as you have on a typical Sunday. And Foothill’s sanctuary is beautiful, a wonderful setting for re-telling, re-living, and re-creating God’s gracious work in and through us.
The kids made a bunch of money for LemonAid, raising money to bring fresh water to needy villages in Africa. And it was a beautiful day for lemonade and conversation on Foothill’s spacious front patio.
But the most important thing that happened was somewhat intangible. It was the bringing together of people with a shared mission, the mission of God in Silicon Valley. We tend to think of ourselves as islands of God’s light in a sea of secular darkness. It was good to realize that although our common mission takes on different expressions in our various church communities, we still have a common experience of God’s grace in Christ. Our light shines brighter when it shines together.
We had a great time in worship. There’s something invigorating about worshiping with twice as many people as you have on a typical Sunday. And Foothill’s sanctuary is beautiful, a wonderful setting for re-telling, re-living, and re-creating God’s gracious work in and through us.
The kids made a bunch of money for LemonAid, raising money to bring fresh water to needy villages in Africa. And it was a beautiful day for lemonade and conversation on Foothill’s spacious front patio.
But the most important thing that happened was somewhat intangible. It was the bringing together of people with a shared mission, the mission of God in Silicon Valley. We tend to think of ourselves as islands of God’s light in a sea of secular darkness. It was good to realize that although our common mission takes on different expressions in our various church communities, we still have a common experience of God’s grace in Christ. Our light shines brighter when it shines together.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
anti-
Yesterday a judge ruled the California ban against same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. This made headlines on a lot of the major media outlets. I’m not going to add my opinion to the many already out there. But yesterday I learned that Anne Rice has said she has left the Church (but she hasn't left Christ). Why? She wants to distance herself from a group that is anti-feminist, anti-gay, anti-science, and anti-Democrat.
OK, I’m a little behind on my news, since Anne Rice made her announcement on her blog back in July. But I couldn’t help putting the two news items together. It’s disturbing to me, too, to have to be associated with a group that is defined more by what they’re against than what they’re for. Admittedly, the definition may be coming more from people with a bias against Christians than from people who know Christ. I hope this is a reminder to all Christians to define ourselves as Christ said we should be defined: “If you love one another, everyone will know you are my disciples.” (John 13:35 NIRV)
OK, I’m a little behind on my news, since Anne Rice made her announcement on her blog back in July. But I couldn’t help putting the two news items together. It’s disturbing to me, too, to have to be associated with a group that is defined more by what they’re against than what they’re for. Admittedly, the definition may be coming more from people with a bias against Christians than from people who know Christ. I hope this is a reminder to all Christians to define ourselves as Christ said we should be defined: “If you love one another, everyone will know you are my disciples.” (John 13:35 NIRV)
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