Easter Is So Yesterday

So it's Easter Monday. 

After the emotional ups and downs of the past three days, we could be pretty spent today. The last three days have brought shock, fear, depression, dejection, and finally exhileration and well, some doubt that all of this could be true. Ups and downs, for sure.

But today, all that is past. What do we do now? Now that Easter has passed, so what?

If we are really Easter people, Monday brings the realization that we aren't dead, and that there is work to be done. Much has not changed; we are going to work or school; maybe we're going to look for work or care for kids. In any case, today is going to look much the same as last Monday. As far as our outward daily routine goes, much has not changed.

And there's the rub. The world seems to go on just as it did. Eventually, we know that the exhileration and expansion of Spring will give way to the hot, dry staleness of Summer. What is there to keep that from happening?

From outward forces, nothing really. But inwardly the challenge is to let the realizations of Easter take deep root in our souls. Roots which will be able to drink from the spirit-refreshing water of the Spirit.

As that spring continuously wells up inside us, it will bear us up and carry us along through the lengthening days. Bear us up so that we can remember that we are Easter people; that our baptisms - our deaths to ourselves - are real for us. Disciples who live into their baptized lives see the world through different lenses, and from a different space. We stand knowing that death is not the end and at the same time that this life isn't necessarily easy (if Jesus' life is any indication). If death isn't the end, then this life isn't driven toward death, but through death.

It is our glimpse of what is past death and what has been brought into this life now. The rule of God in ourselves. Our transformation. Our living with God and He in us. The purpose of our existence now becomes one with God's will and desire. Not looking to escape this world but learning to want to live in this life as God did. To see the suffering, the disorderedness, the confusion, the violence and to extend the grace of God and the knowledge of God to the world that He made.

The knowledge of God is not about God - that He exists or what are the aspects of His existence (as though we know them exhaustively). Knowledge of God is the knowledge of His character, His purposes, His Life.

Easter people are called to this. There is no other purpose for Easter as far as we are concerned. God has once again demonstrated both His love and His power in the Creation and it is our choice whether humankind will again forget Him, and His will for us.

The challenge of Easter Monday is to settle in, but not settle. The challenge of Easter Monday is to keep moving, but in a new direction. The challenge of Easter Monday is to give in, but not to give up.

This is our challenge of living as people of God - to keep His desires ahead of us. To follow Him instead of ourselves. To surrender ourselves to be given ourselves back with transformed hearts refreshed by the Spirit. To spend our lives in His Life. To receive His blessings so that we can bless the Creation.

Your prayer for Easter Monday:

Our great God who has suprised us; and caused us to express great praise for your wonder working. You who gives your Son to die and then raises Him again. You who has set the stars in their courses and at the same time crafts us in finite detail.

We praise you for your goodness and grace; for your patience and mercy in outworking your will for the world despite not being understood and often ignored by us, your very creation. 

As the events of Easter fade, renew in us your Spirit to invigorate our faith and to keep you before us so that we will not forget you. Extend to us your grace so that we might surrender to you and in so doing learn to love being You in this place not for our benefit but for the blessing of others.

Remind us of Easter and our own baptisms; of our own deaths and the Life we can have now.

Make us truly into Easter people, bringing you to this world.

Amen

Easter 2012

The women have returned. They had gone to the tomb, and have returned wide-eyed, breathless, and spitting out that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive! 

Could this be? We're all exhausted and we have all seen some odd stuff that isn't there because of a couple days with little or no sleep. Did they go to the right tomb in the dark? Was the gardener really Jesus, or is this simply wishful thinking? If it was Jesus, why didn't they recognize him right off?

With heads and eyes tired, their hearts now jump in their chests, their eyes become brighter, and they take a deep breath or two; they sit up straighter, trying to grasp the implications of what they're saying. And then they too go to the tomb - sprinting! Maybe more to verify that the women had actually been to the right place, and guardedly but hopefully excited as they remember some vague promise that he wouldn't be dead long.

The tomb is there alright and that rock is out of place. It might be too wonderful - or would it be soul crushing what they might find in there? If the women were right, they would be ecstatic; if they were wrong well, they'd just as soon not go through the last two days all over again.

They hesitate to catch their breath and then....go in.

What is this?! His body isn't here, what does this mean?

Angels speak and their apprehensions evaporate - He is risen! He is risen! HE IS RISEN!

They grasp their chests, their eyes brim with tears, they catch their breaths. Unbidden their arms move and shake; their legs begin to move on their own. Now, their entire bodies are fairly bouncing around!

The others, they have to tell the others!

Run! Back to the house!

Their message on their way back and after they gather the disciples together repeatedly is...

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

He is risen! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Oh how remarkable this is! It's funny, that they're not tired anymore. It's as if they have all the energy in the world. Almost as though they have been given new lives.

Praise God, Jesus is risen!

Your prayer for Easter morning:

Great is our God who announces the coming of Messiah by angels to Mary, to shepherds, and now to the disciples. God who raises the Son out of darkness and into light, so he can lead us out of darkness and into Light.

We thank you for your mercy and grace of giving us the hope of a risen Savior who leads us to you. Help us to see his life and death as our life and death. Lead us into your love and Life.

As you granted you power to raise Jesus, we ask that you extend to us that same power to raise us from our selfish lives into lives that seek to heal and soothe; lives that give grace and act in compassion; lives that seek to be you where we find ourselves.

Father today, we trust that you have noticed these past weeks of reflection, of review, of refocusing, of repentance. We have again stopped our lives for a time and admit that we had let them get away from you. We have determined to return our lives to you and your work. To live in the life that you offer, and in the transformation you promise our surrender.

Father today, accept our praise and rejoicing for this short space. We are embarassed by our doubts and our readiness to give up. Help us to draw on His resurrection for strength and willing acknowledement that you have called us to, and have given us Life with you and for you. Dispell our depressed thoughts and our fears. Pour into our hearts Light and Life, and use us to show others your love for them.

We praise you and we commit ourselves to living in your Life in the world you have created, and extending your love and care to that same world. 

You are great; you are wonderful.

We give ourselves to you.

Amen

Holy Saturday, 2012

Today the disciples woke - or came into the day after being awake all night with the stunning realization that their Messiah was dead. As the shock of yesterday's mob violence becomes less than full-view dominating, and the feelings turn to realizing they are alone, the haze of shock becomes the chest-crushing pain of fear.

They stay in their houses or where they had retreated after his death. Not wanting to face the expected jeers of non-believers, and yet afraid of meeting each others' eyes. It is Passover week, the remembrance of being delivered from oppression for all of Israel but these cannot participate; they have been shamed.

Perhaps then, it's good that today is the Sabbath; a perfect excuse to stay in, away from the glances that prompt their self-conscious guilt.

On this side of Easter, we wait expectantly. On their side, they sit in quiet panic, dejection, and a sad wondering what had happened. Ours is much easier and yet we can perhaps imagine their angst. Remove from your mind the reminders of an Easter that hasn't happened yet. After Good Friday and its sudden dark and crack! there is nowhere to turn.

Your sin has killed your God and there is no solution remaining. You are out of options; the full weight of your me-life rests on you; overwhelms you; defeats you. Can you feel your breath quicken and grow shallow? Does your body experience some nervous energy in your chest and shoulders?

This is the challenge of Holy Saturday. To sit in extended time with your guilt and your aloneness. We don't like to do this; we want to run to Sunday to rid ourselves of this hurt. It is all too easy for us on this side of Easter.

Don't rush. Wait and ponder; and pray:

Father, we confess to you our pride, our sins of doing and those of not doing. We confess that our eyes both lead us to sin, and keep us from seeing the hurt we might relieve. We confess that our hands both hurt and fail to heal. We confess that our tongues both curse and fail to soothe.

Father, we confess that in our waiting today, we can see and feel the truth of our separation from you. The weight is heavy; our eyes become constricted; our mouths are dry. Like the people of Nineveh we are tempted to sit in sack cloth and ashes having lost our hope.

In our disoriented state, we bear our confusion as headaches and have no appetite. To run away would be too easy; a denial we do not want. Help us Father to wait this day and not abandon you; give us grace to stay with you.

Give us by your mercy the strength to look for you today. The patience to rest on your as yet unseen and fantastic promise to raise yourself. Help us to believe while we cannot see.

Amen

Good Friday Prayer

My God, my God! 
Why have I forsaken Thee?
Beaten, haggard, bloodied, raw;
For me your loving arms extended
To draw me home into your life;
You hang on that cross for me.
Painful, painful, painful day!
When I at last can see
My sin, my part, your agony.
You say forgive because
I do not know;
But God, today I do!
Your love, your care
For me it hurts
To see you there upon that curse;
To know that I have done my work
That holds you there with nail and wood.
Today I pray that you will grant
A few more days of gracious space
For me to meet your gaze from there.
And with your eyes to lift me up
To die with you and wait
For Life to dawn with mercy’s light.
A life of love; a heart of grace
Craft in my soul to see your face.
In furtive hope I grasp at you
To feel your arms no longer pinned
But wrapped me round and firmly gripped.
Brought to and into you at once
And molded sure like your own love;
Patient and kind despite my sin
Welcome and hold me safe within.
My Lord! My Lord, forgive you me!
Lest I faint and ne’er refresh
To live with you in love for’er.

It's all about Jesus. Or is it?

While surfing the net looking for churches, I came across a widely known church's website. Very well done graphics and organization for the most part. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find anything that described what they believed except for an oft-repeated refrain, "It's all about Jesus." Not very helpful really. I mean, that's like motherhood and apple pie, right?

Is it really all about Jesus? I know that at first blush, who could argue with such a statement? And I admit that as far as it goes, it's an OK statement. But not in the absence of any amplifying descriptions. As some of you may have noticed, I get a little concerned when folks want me to believe it's all about anything, and this is no exception.

Let's get the obligatory disclaimers out of the way up front. I am a disciple, I accept Jesus as the divine Son of God and savior of the world. I understand that his coming and death were pre-ordained by God. I understand the expectation that people are called to believe in him.

From a human perspective, the Scriptures we have and pay most attention to certainly make it seem like it's all about Jesus. Paul even says that the Gospel he preaches is Christ, so clearly Jesus plays a pretty big role in whatever is going on. Jesus removed our sins, having remained faithful even through death, and that if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. So far, so good.

Sounds like it might be all about Jesus.

OK, take a breath.

Turn the table around and look at what's going on from God's view. The picture changes considerably. God made you to live in this world and enjoy it; he wants you live in the fullness of your making and being. 

When Paul uses the term Christ, the term is not synomomous with the person Jesus. The title of Christ is heavy with implications and one of those is where this Christ comes in the foreknowledge and plan of God. Knowing that people were going to fail to live with a desire for God, God's intent of sending Jesus to restore all things to their rightful state was always the plan. Messiah is intended as a blessing for people more than a payment for guilt.

When Jesus says he and the Father are one, he does so to make the point that he has revealed God to people. In fact, Jesus' life is an intentional unveiling of God for the benefit of the creation. 

OK, take another breath.

What does history look like from God's side of the table? It looks a whole lot like there is not inconsiderable interest in you. Everything God has done from creation to the sacrifice of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit is for your benefit. God doesn't need you, and he doesn't need to die for you after living a humble and often humiliating life.

But he did.

All of it for you.

Is it about Jesus? Yes; but it's also about you.

Remember, God loves you.

Living in a Dualistic Existence

One more observation from Sunday. I have kept this a separate observation because it's implications are so far reaching. Our speaker Sunday made the observation, I think, or maybe he just recalled this to mind for me, that there is no secular existence. We Christians often get bogged down in church doctrinal discussions because we want to make a distinction between our "regular lives," and our "church lives."

This is a problem because it belies the realization that we don't really buy into this Christian faith as fully as we say we do. You've heard this before, but we seem to forget it when we leave the church property. We live as though there is a difference between our church existence and our weekly existence. We run the risk in making the same mistake that the People of God have made repetitively through history. We forget that we are his people in his creation for his purposes.

We are his people every moment of our lives whether we are at church, at work, or fishing on the pier. There is not a sacred me, and a secular me. A me who does all the right stuff, and a me who can get away with not so nice stuff. There is only a sacred me. All the time.

The world is his world every moment of its existence, whether or not its aligned with Christian values. The world is touched by his hand not only in creation but in his care. If God is there; if God is concerned about it, it is sacred space. There is not a secular world and a sacred world. 

Our work, behaviors, expectations are supposed to be aligned with his purpose every moment and in every manifestion. We must know his purposes and we must be given over to them completely. There are not sacred purposes for the church, and secular allowances for whatever we find to do during the week. We are 

always working sacred purposes, even while digging a trench or being dressed down at work.

The implications of this realization are instructive for church business, and informs our understanding of Scripture and our place in it. Let me use the latest broohaha in my faith community as an example. Some say that women cannot lead or instruct men. And yet they limit that restriction to church because well, that's church. Unfortunately, this approach is guilty of a couple logical fallacies.

The first is that it seeks to establish what we do "in church" as the definition of the People of God as though Sunday morning is the sum total or at least the measure of living the Christian life. It simply isn't. What we know as church is simply a convenience for disciples to meet together, support one another, and worship our God. But it isn't the only time those practices are accomplished and it has no other rules than how we practice during the week as the People of God. Ther is no sacred practice and a looser secular practice.

The second is that it divides our natural lives into two spheres, one church related and the other secular. We miss of course that we argue that God is the God of all people; that his desires are universal, not limited to church life. We argue that women cannot lead or teach men and yet work at jobs where men and women routinely share leadership and instructional roles. If we actually believed there are no secular existences, we could not live with that clear violation at work and in our lives. If it is true that God, from the beginning has decided that women cannot lead or teach men, then we violate our own moral and ethical beliefs by taking a job as a woman where we exercise those prerogatives, or as a man where we would have a woman boss, mentor, or teacher.

We can understand that women in the "secular" world do all sorts of things with our acceptance if not encouragement, but we don't carry that into the "sacred" parts of life, believing that there is a distinction. The problem is that there isn't a distinction, and our speaker was correct in his thrust that there is no secular world.

It would do the church well to realize this simple, sublime, and critical reality about our world, our neighbors, and our religious practice. We really aren't all that Christian as long as we live in a dual world.

More From Sunday

Our speaker on Sunday, aside from what I observed in my previous post, did have some good, positive and on-topic things to say. The most important thing is that salvation has never really been about getting to Heaven. We aren't called to be baptized and then go to church hoping to not sin to the point of being excluded from Paradise. We are called to a salvation life now, right here, right now. Some people refer to this as our baptized life or even living into our baptism, a phrase I like because it parallels the idea of living into the likeness in which we are made. 

If salvation isn't about getting to Heaven, then what is it about? If you read my previous post, you already know that it's about transformation; about coming to actually be the image of God in it's finer details. We take on the character of God as our character; it becomes the warp and woof of our very existence. This is not a mere learning do be nice, although we will be. It isn't about learning to have empathy, although we will. It is about becoming niceness and empathy in our very essence. It isn't so much that pitiful me learns how to be nice while remaining the pitiful me, as though I am separate from my being nice. Niceness and me merge into one.

This is why John tells us that disciples cannot sin. He doesn't mean humans absolutely cannot sin, but that if we so own God, it won't be in us to sin. We don't look to sin. Rather, our focus remains on the transformation of our beings promised by God. When we sin, we move back toward God without fear of punishment.

This last brings up another of our speaker's good observations. While I would not endorse the once-saved-always-saved view of eternal security, I also do not endorse the idea that if I miss verbally repenting of my last commited sin, I'm toast. The tension here is where an appropriate understanding of doctrine and relationship comes in. We are in relationship with God if the major thrust of our lives is toward alignment with God. This is a relationship God welcomes without demanding perfection from beings he knows to be imperfect. This does not trump doctrine but it does trump negative judgment.

God loves you and he wants you to live the fullest, blessed life possible here. This is what salvation is about more so than a ticket to Heaven (which remains available), that we allow God to transform us into his likeness which is the very likeness in which we were made to live. This love isn't a nice, touchy feely sort of love, although that may well be in the mix. It is rather a knowing you inside and out and wanting you to live into that completion; that satisfaction. Not because he has butterflies in his belly, but because he knows it's best for you.

Take him up on it. It will be one of the most frustrating and yet satisfying endeavors you've ever tried.

Relationships and Doctrine

Today we were told that "relationship trumps doctrine," and that "it [the Gospel] is all about relationships." The problem of course, is that neither of those are correct. More correctly, they are both less than complete. I understand that when giving a class, it is often difficult to tie the topic up in a bow in one session, relying on subsequent sessions to clarify and bound the initial "hook."

Unfortunately, our speaker only had today to launch into this discussion. When you are confronted with that challenge, a speaker should figure out a way to bound his statements or pick a topic that is more restrictive and more easily explained. It isn't as though our speaker was rushed for time, he had plenty of opportunity to clarify his statements so that they would represent the whole of Scripture rather than this tiny bit. He simply didn't.

A moment's reflection will reveal that relationship does not in fact trump doctrine in an absolute sense. If it were true, we wouldn't need Jesus; we could do just fine with Facebook. I'm pretty sure the speaker didn't mean that we could overlook doctrine entirely in deference to relationship, but he never said that. He repeatedly stated his premise that relationship is the end all of the Christian life. Quite simply, it isn't.

The Gospel isn't all about relationship. Relationships play a part in the Gospel sure enough. There is our relationship with God, and then our relationships with each other both of which are informed by the Gospel. Jesus makes no bones about people who will not be with him, some of which are going to end up apparently in a pretty bad fix if they don't shape up. Apparently to Jesus, there is something more to Gospel than "relationship."

That something is our transformation fully into the likeness in which we are made. That likeness is described variously by both Jesus and his disciples as character, as being able to put the interests of others in front of yours - even if you don't know them personally. That's the point of the Samaritan story. The Samaritan didn't know the almost dead man, and yet cared for him. No relationship existed prior to their encounter, and it isn't necessary that one existed when the Samaritan came back to pay the bill.

We read of this character in places like Micah 6 and Galatians 5. The character of God, the image of God into which we are to be transformed is one that objectively loves other people because they are other people regardless of whether we have a relationship with them or not, or whether we will ever have one. This is why Jesus castigates the Jewish leaders - they were more interested in themselves than in the down-trodden. They were more interested in their own privilege than in relieving the oppression that they themselves perpetuated. Jesus does not condemn them because they don't have relationships; they had plenty of them. The problem, as we are told, is that their hearts were not aligned with God's.

One further implication from the idea that "it's all about relationships," arises when we consider the reason God made people. If relationship is what it's all about, then do we mean to imply that God was lonely? That somehow the creation of people is about God satisfying his own need for companionship? Clearly this is not the case. A better understanding of God's having made people is that he wanted them to enjoy life. He put them on a planet, not running around Heaven with him. Our creation itself is a blessing and while living we are called to become that image in which we are made.

Let me visit the idea that relationship trumps doctrine one last time, because it might from time to time if we have confused our doctrine. What actually is at play in times when we think relationship trumps doctrine is the correct discernment of doctrine. Within doctrine there are understandings of just what aspects are more important than others. As Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Or again, which one of you wouldn't pull your donkey out of a pit on the Sabbath? This does not mean that stuck donkeys trump doctrine but rather that a mature disciple will know how to apply doctrine in the moment.

We are urged to come to understand what the will of God is through practice and experience. When it comes down to it, doctrine shapes relationships as one aspect of its correct application. Those relationships do not trump the very doctrine which shapes them.

Relationships do play a part in the work of God. Yes we are called back to the Father; yes we are placed in a community - a people - of like calling and faith. And yes, we grow and learn in this community. But relationship isn't what it's all about, and relationship doesn't trump doctrine.

Lent 2012

Last night I was exploring the web and came across what appears to be the Christian version of The Onion. The website offers a Word of God for Today and yesterday’s was taken from Isaiah 1.15a: “No matter how much you pray, I won’t listen….” (CEV). So you get the idea of the website.

When I mentioned this Word of God to a few friends, the immediate responses included appeals to God's eventual relenting, his compassion, and other soft and warm concepts about God and our relationship to him. This is common among Christians, emphasizing the goodness and graciousness of God rather than his wrath (with some notable exceptions in the popular media). God is good, and patient, and compassionate no doubt. However, the God in Isaiah is the same God in John.

This seems like it may be a problem with us Christians from time to time. We get comfortable living our lives, secure in the idea that either God doesn’t notice or that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We go to church, we tithe, we even give extra money and time to other causes. We staff mission trips, teach Bible classes, and maybe even attend Christian schools. We don’t cheat on our taxes or our spouses, we don’t actively hate others, and we don’t carouse on the weekends. We are in fact, pretty good people, secure in the notion that God is with us and he likes us. A pretty comfortable life, actually.

Lament is not something us moderns like to do and sober self-reflection of our imperfections is often avoided at almost any cost. We dismiss the moment by encouraging ourselves with comforting phrases that speak of acceptance and coverings. What is it about us that we seem not able to sit with our failings? Is it possible for Christians today to spend time acknowledging and accepting the fact and behaviors of our “bad selves?”

There is a psychological principle that asserts that mature people can incorporate the negative side of themselves and their experiences into their whole being. In fact, in many cases it is our running from those negative thoughts and beliefs that cause psychological pain and dysfunctional behaviors. Psychologists and therapists help their clients examine, re-evaluate, and accept the shadow aspects of their lives.

Read God’s Word again. Can you see yourself as the one addressed in this verse? Can you acknowledge that your own attitudes and behaviors have been below par? Can you hold that reality longer than a few seconds? While holding that thought, can you review your attitudes and behaviors, identifying habits and views that are not God like? Can you do this without succumbing to the temptation to compare yourself with others or defend yourself because someone else did something to you? Can you pause in this moment while being aware of your own imperfections and open your heart and mind to God? Can you offer him your imperfections one by one – out loud – and then sit and listen for his response?

In about a month we will enter the Lenten season, a period of reflection prior to Easter. Our Lenten reflection is supposed to be a personal examination of our part in the tragedy of Good Friday. The Word of God for Today with which I began this essay seems a good entre into this reflection. Mankind’s and God’s People’s behaviors and attitudes reached such a depth of disgrace that God was prompted to turn his ear from them – from us.

The period of Lent is forty days, a long time for this sort of self examination. The purpose is not to belittle, humiliate, or beat up ourselves. Rather, it is a space – acknowledged by those around us – in which we and they can participate in checking the direction of our lives without giving in to the immediate desire to dismiss our misdirections in favor of more positive thoughts and feelings.

God’s more harsh treatment of his people serves a purpose and that purpose is to have them stop, think, and return to him and the people they are made to be. He says as much on more than one occasion, wondering out loud it seems why his people missed all the signs he sent to them. Even in this God’s Word for Today, the same purpose is ultimately served. Even in his not hearing, he encourages his people to wake up, to return to him, to accept his character as their character. That will never happen though if they don’t slow down and examine how they have missed the mark of being his people.

Let’s take this God’s Word for Today and prepare to enter Lent ready for some sustained self-reflection, accepting our shortcomings; accepting our part in the death on Friday afternoon. An honest, sober, and sustained period of self-cleansing, openness to the working of God, and being shaped will set our hearts more ready for the coming of Easter.