The Other Shortest Verse in the Bible

This Sunday was our special day at church to welcome visitors, guests, and newcomers of all kinds.  But keeping in mind that it may be the first time that many of you have been with us, I wanted to keep the message brief.  Shakespeare said, "Brevity is the soul of wit."  While not all my sermons are brief, on the whole I tend to agree.  I remember visiting one church when I was a kid, where we were the only ones who didn't know in advance that they should bring their lunches along and plan to make a whole day of it!  In general, and especially when there are newcomers present, I believe it's best to keep the message short.  George Burns said, "The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt used even fewer words than that, to say the same thing: "Be sincere, be brief, be seated."

Often the briefest things are the most profound.  Today I want to share with you what's purportedly the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35.  Jesus’ friend Lazarus was sick, so his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that He should come.  For his own reasons he delayed coming to them, so by the time Jesus arrived Lazarus had already been dead for several days.  When he got there, both sisters told him the same thing, "If you had been here, our brother would not have died."  In verses 33-37[i] we read:

³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, ³⁴ and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

Jesus wept, not because he grieved Lazarus' passing.  In fact, He knew that he was about to perform one of His greatest miracles and bring his friend back from the dead.  Jesus wept because He saw the overwhelming pain and turmoil of faith in the eyes of His friends.  They felt hurt because they didn't understand why God would do miracles for others, yet let their brother die.  They were wounded because their friend Jesus, who always had time for other people, had delayed coming to them when He could have prevented their brother's death.  Jesus saw all this in the tears that streamed from their eyes, and in His compassion for them He wept.

The good news today is that just as Jesus saw the need and pain and disappointment in His friends' faces, He also knows your hurts and sorrows.  Jesus sees you battered and broken, and He weeps with you when you hurt.  Jesus mourns over the struggles you've had in your relationships, the financial pressures you feel, your sin and disease and unforgiveness.  He also cries tears of joy in celebration of your triumphs.  Jesus weeps.  This is the good news: God knows how you feel, and He feels it with you.

But Jesus didn't continue to weep.  Those two words, "Jesus wept" are in the past tense, which means Jesus felt what the mourners felt, but then he moved on to embrace hope and joy.  He prayed a prayer of faith and raised Lazarus from the tomb.  So too Jesus wants to see victory over the tombs in your life.  He wants to see resurrected relationships, flourishing finances, sinners separated from their sin, and feuds forgiven.  He can't do this by weeping.  So He turns mourning into dancing.  Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

This brings us to the actual shortest verse in the Bible.  While John 11:35, purportedly the shortest verse, consists of 16 letters in the original Greek (ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς), 1 Thessalonians 5:16 is two characters shorter (Πάντοτε χαίρετε).  In English it simply says, "Rejoice always."  If brevity is the soul of wit, and “Jesus wept” is profound, then “Rejoice always” is equally deep.  But how do we reconcile these two with each other? They seem to be completely at odds—if Jesus is the model of divine living, and His Word tells us to rejoice always, then how could he have wept?  If Jesus is the model of human experience and he could weep over grief and suffering, how could he rejoice?

We can understand these seemingly opposite things together when we realize that both illustrate the diversity of human experience and the reality of God’s complete identification with us.  Jesus was fully human and fully divine.  He came so that humanity might have access to the divine.  So He can laugh when we laugh and cry when we cry.  He can feel the sting of loss when a loved one struggles, yet He can also speak words of faith that bring life out of death.  This is what rejoicing does—it resurrects the dead.  Joy doesn’t deny that pain is real, but finds hope and strength in the midst of suffering.  Holding hands with hope, joy knows that there’s victory in Jesus despite the pain.

I know it’s hard to rejoice always—especially when, like Mary and Martha and Jesus, you’ve experienced loss.  It’s so unimaginable that Paul had to say it twice in Philippians 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”  But then in verse five he tells how to do this: “The Lord is near.”  Even in the midst of trouble, joy reminds us that God is with us.  The Lord’s constant presence grants us access to peace of mind and power of spirit—the kind that works miracles.

How do you access that constant presence of God when situations scream hopelessness?  The same way that Jesus did: Dispel despair with prayer.  In verse 41, Jesus says, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me.”  Knowing that his His Father is so near that He has unlimited access to the throne, Jesus could speak to the dead and bring him back to life.  He tells us the same thing He told Martha: “…If you believe, you will see the glory of God….(John 11:40b)” 

Today I ask you—what’s causing grief in your own life?  What’s dead inside of you, or in the life of a loved one?  Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)” wants to breathe new life to that which you have lost.  It’s okay to weep—after all, Jesus did.  But then He wants you to move from grief to faith.  He only asks that you believe, so that you can see the glory of God.  Even when things are tough, Jesus invites you to rejoice always in God’s constant presence.  Trust God, praise Him, pray to Him, and wait for your miracle.

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[i] All scripture taken from the NASB.

Return and Rest

At the beginning of each year, I’m great at making plans.  I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do take time out to set goals and make plans.  I’m planning how much weight I will lose this year (because I didn’t meet my goal in 2014).  I’m planning on running more this year (because I started running in 2015).  Maybe you’re doing the same thing this month—evaluating what’s working and what’s not working, setting goals and making plans.

            We need to make sure that our goals and plans are not simply based on our own imaginations and aspirations.  Instead, we must seek God’s will and plan according to divine wisdom.  In Isaiah 30:1-2 (ESV), the Lord speaks through the prophet:

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
    that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt,
    without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

            It’s very easy to make plans that seem good and right, but that are only human schemes full of self.  We justify our own plans to make them seem godly, when in fact we never bother to inquire of God.  Or, if we do, we seldom listen for an answer.  Listening to God is the key to good planning.

            Isaiah describes this kind of people who follows their own path by saying:

For they are a rebellious people,
    lying children,
children unwilling to hear
    the instruction of the Lord;
who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel (vv. 9-11 ESV).”

            Isaiah’s words seem all too familiar to our churches that want to do nothing in their communities, that want to hear nice preaching that does not offend.  Our itching ears are eager for oracles that support our plans and our own self-important ideas.  If it sounds good, then we believe it.  If it’s a hard truth or a challenge, we reject it.  To replace our itching ears, the prophet gives a solution to the problem of pretentious plans:  

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength…

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him (vv. 15, 18 ESV).

            As you strategize your next steps in 2015, it’s good to consider what you want to do.  It’s better to consider what God wants you to do.  Return to Him.  Rest in Him.  Be still before the Lord and trust Him.  Wait on Him and listen to His voice.  Then and only then should you set your goals, make your plans, and act.  May God bless you as you follow His commands this New Year.

By Faith

The Holidays have come and gone.  I rang in the New Year with my church’s youth group at a two-day-long Christian extravaganza.  We enjoyed great music, awesome speakers, fun activities, and prepared our hearts for the new year.  When midnight hit there were fireworks on stage.  Balloons dropped from the ceiling as eight thousand teenagers celebrated.  Many resolutions were made for the new year, and many have probably already been broken.  What about you?  One of the reasons we break these resolutions is that we approach them with will power instead of faith.  Will power fails when challenges get tough, but faith is something entirely different.  Faith isn’t relying on your own will, but trusting in the will of God that works itself out in you.

In Faith Is, Pamela Reeve wrote, “Faith is resting in the fact that God has an objective in leaving me on the scene when I feel useless to Him and a burden to others.”[i]  Hebrews 11.1 (NASB) puts it this way:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Faith says, “I don’t know what’s ahead in 2015, but I know that whatever it is, God has me in his arms.”  I heard an old story that illustrates it this way:

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.”  (Source Unknown)

            That’s all that matters.  God’s got you.  You can jump.  The eleventh chapter of Hebrews, called the “Roll Call of Faith,” is a list of people in the Bible who couldn’t see what was ahead of them, yet through they jumped into the waiting arms of God. 

            Hebrews talks about Abel, who by faith offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.  As you look to the new year, rather than making resolutions, consider what sacrifices you can make to God.  What can you give Him—besides your money, which is too obvious an answer?  Can you give God your business?  Can you give God your retirement plans?  Can you give God your talents, and use them for Him?

            By faith, you can walk with God as Enoch did.   By faith, you can be like Noah and listen to the warnings that God speaks to your heart, sharing them with those around you.  By faith like Noah’s, you can make preparations based on what God has told you.  By faith like Noah, you can reject the attractions the world has to offer, and build something better.

            By faith, Abraham went somewhere that God called him, even though he didn’t know where he was going.  Is there someplace that God is calling you to go, even though there’s uncertainty?  Faith says “yes” to God’s call, and follows.  Abraham and Sarah, who were well beyond childbearing years, received the promise of God and conceived a son.  What kind of faith will your marriage take this year?  How can you sow seeds of love into one another, letting that love take root and grow?  How can you take something that is barren, and create new life in it?  Not by an act of your own will—but by faith!

            By faith, Abraham offered his son Isaac on an altar.  Though God did not ultimately demand this sacrifice, Abraham was willing to follow through.  Writers have a phrase: “Kill your darlings.”  This means that sometimes, for the sake of the book, you have to be willing to cut out your favorite chapters or characters, if they don’t push the storyline or really add anything to the depth of the text.  In the same way, we’ve got to be willing to give up what might be most precious to us, trusting that God will perfect our story for us—and we may even receive back alive that which we offered up to God.

            By faith, like Isaac, you can invoke future blessings on your family.  By faith, like Joseph, you can speak prophetically to your family, instructing them in the way that they should go. 

            Hebrews mentions Moses’ parents, who preserved his life, and the blood of the lamb that preserved the lives of the Israelites from the Death Angel at Passover.  Like them you can say, “By faith I will believe that there are hidden blessings that cannot be killed. By faith I will refuse to be called a son of Egypt (sin), but will identify as one of God's chosen... even if it means suffering. By faith I will leave sin behind, not being afraid of the devil's anger.  I will endure as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith I will trust in the sacrificed Lamb and keep my household anointed with His blood.”

            Like the Israelites at the Red Sea, you can stand against any barrier by faith, raising your staff against it and trusting that you will see the wonders of God.  Like they did at Jericho, you can march around those obstacles in your life, praying through and shouting praise to God who makes the walls fall before you.  Like Rahab, you can welcome God’s messengers who come to you, and the message that they bring—and by that truth you can be saved through faith. 

            Like the heroes of old, you can say, “By faith I will go into battle for my family.  By faith I will see God overcome. By faith I will not speak negativity but will be a positive voice to those around me. I will endure pain, and, like Jesus, will offer up no defense. I will bear the blame, never turning blame back on anyone else. And I will leave it all up to God, whether or not I received what I hope for in this life—because I will receive the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises in the next.  By faith I will acknowledge that I am a stranger and exile here, but that I’m looking to a better country, my heavenly homeland.”

            The truth is that life is hard.  Hebrews 11 recaps the heroes of the Bible, who all knew life’s struggles.  Your life is hard, too.  And will power just doesn’t cut it.  But faith does.  Again in Faith Is, Pamela Reeve writes, “Faith is engaging in the deepest joy of heaven, knowing His unfathomable love for me as I walk through the thorny desolate now.”[ii] 

            Sometimes it’s hard to see how God is going to make it work.  The thing that lies before us seems impossible.  Faith knows that God will bring it to pass, and trusts God for it.  One common story goes:

Todd, a three year old boy from Rhode Island went down to the seacoast to fly a kite. Never having flown a kite before, Todd had obvious doubts. His father assured him that all was well, and the kite would go up as planned. As Todd unravelled the string, and watched the kite go up, he was heard to say, "I knew it would fly, daddy. You said it would." Simple statement, profound implications.  (Source unknown)

            What are you trusting God for this year?  What is God calling you to do this year?  Are you having a difficult time seeing how it’s all going to work?  God calls you to faith.  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11.1).”  I pray that in 2015, you’ll forget about resolutions and will power, trust God, and take a step of faith.

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[i] Swindoll, Chuck.  Tale of the Tardy Oxcart.  Word Publishing: Nashville.  1998.  Pg. 195.

[ii] From Swindoll, Chuck.  Tale of the Tardy Oxcart.  Word Publishing: Nashville.  1998.  Pg. 197.

God With Us

During this time of year, one of my favorite things is to attend a musical concert featuring Handel's Messiah. I love the majesty and meaning of the music that declares that "He shall reign forever and ever."  Within this elaborate work of musical art, we find five names of the Messiah, that are worthy of reflection and meditation. Those names are deeply meaningful, and contemplating them makes us aware that indeed, God is with us."

The first is from Matthew 1:23, which quotes Isaiah 7.14. The ESV renders this as:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).

Everybody needs to be reminded that God is with us.  At times, when the troubles of life threaten our well-being, we need to feel God's presence and care.  All too often, we feel quite the opposite.  In Dante’s Inferno, the medieval storyteller takes us to the very gates of hell, upon which are inscribed the words, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”  According to Dante, hell is defined as a place where there is no hope.  A lot of people are living in hell on this side of the grave.  They cannot feel God’s hopeful presence, even though He is embracing them all the time.  Psalm 139.8-9 (ESV) says:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

            The blessing of Immanuel, the hope of Christmas, is that God is with us.  We don’t have to abandon all hope, because God is walking with us every day.  Christ in us is the hope of glory.  Since the dawn of the church, Isaiah’s prophecy of Immanuel has been embraced by Christians as referring not only to an event that would take place in the prophet’s own time, but also pointing to the future coming of Christ.  In the same way, Christians interpret Isaiah 9:6 in messianic terms.  Along with Immanuel, Isaiah gives other names for God that we need to understand during this season and throughout the year.  Handel quoted the prophet, who said:

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
 and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9.6 ESV).

            Wonderful Counselor—what a marvelous name!  Each of these names for the Messiah is comprised of both a noun and an adjective.  This lets us know that He is more competent than just any counselor, greater than any pagan god, more faithful than any father, and more peaceful than any earthly prince. 

What a beautiful thing to know that Jesus is more competent than any counselor.  These days there are all kinds of people who call themselves counselors.  There are life coaches and psychologists, psychiatrists, attorneys, school guidance and vocational counselors, and much more.  Proverbs 15.22 (ESV) says, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.”  Proverbs 20.5 (ESV) tells us, “The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”  Everybody needs someone to talk to, someone to listen to our troubles and give us wisdom and insight.  Sometimes we shy away from counselors because they intimidate us.  As Tennessee Williams said, they meddle too much in our private lives.  But we need their voice of experience to guide us.  Yet even the best of counselors will fail.  Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor, never fails.  His voice speaks wisdom to our hearts and never leads us astray.

Many people claim that this passage in Isaiah refers to a messianic figure who was merely human.  The next phrase is the reason why Bible scholars say this can be only Jesus—He is the Mighty God.  Why is this adjective necessary?  Is it because there are indeed many gods?  1 Corinthians 8:4b-6 (ESV) says,

“…An idol has no real existence…there is no God but one…For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—  yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

            Indeed, there are many supposed gods—those that have religions devoted to them.  Then there are those things like riches and pleasure and power that simply have people chasing after them with religious devotion.  Yet, above all these things, Christ is the only Mighty God.  Because he is not just a god but the only actual God, His power outstrips all the supposed powers that we could imagine.  The Bible says that one day “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2.10-11 ESV).”  One day, all creation will declare that He is the Mighty God.

            “Everlasting Father,” declares the prophet, looking toward a Savior fully human but also eternal God.  Certainly there are all kinds of fathers.  On Father’s Day we celebrate good fathers, and even thank God for those good qualities possessed by bad dads.  Throughout our lives we try to have the best relationships we can with our fathers, and those of us who are dads try to be the best we can be.  Sometimes we even adopt spiritual children, investing in the lives of those who aren’t biologically related to us.  But every father, good and bad, will have his funeral.  At the worst, people will celebrate his demise.  At the best, they will mourn his passing and try to live up to his example. 

            Yes, earthly fathers are for a time, but the heavenly Father is for eternity.  When our worldly fathers’ voices are silenced by the years, the Everlasting Father still speaks truth to His children.  Every one of us needs the Everlasting Father.  We need His love, protection, provision, and wisdom.  Thank the Lord that, while earthly dads are limited by time, the Everlasting Father is forever.

            Finally, Isaiah predicts the Prince of Peace.  There are all kinds of princes in the world—rulers that range from benign to beastly.  The sixteenth-century Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a treatise called The Prince, in which he says that rulers should gain power by any means possible.  All immoral actions can be justified as long as they work toward the prince’s ultimate goal of control.  Machiavelli says that the prince should do what is politically expedient, not necessary what is right.  To express this idea, we often say, “The end justifies the means.”

            In contrast, the Messiah does not seek peace by any means necessary.  Christ doesn’t simply seek political peace, but affects inner peace in the hearts of all who trust Him.  We await the day when the Lord returns, establishing righteousness and renewing creation.  Until that day we wait for inner change—spiritual transformation that makes us a different kind of people.  As such, believers do not say that the end justifies the means.  Instead, we trust the Prince who can bring His peace even in a world of unrest.  Kingdoms crumble and governments fail, but peace reigns in the hearts of all who trust the King of souls.

            “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  These are the names of the God who is with us.  He never leaves us nor forsakes us.  Isaiah 9.2 (ESV) says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”  By that light we all can see, and we can more than see.  We can walk in faith that shines brighter than day.  We can walk with confidence because God is with us.  Authority rests “upon his shoulder…of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end (Isa 9.6-7 ESV).”

Do the Right Thing

Do you ever find yourself in a position where you need to make a difficult decision, and you don’t know what to do?  Often the best decision isn’t the easiest thing, and sometimes a person has to choose between the lesser of the two evils.  In Between Two Truths, Klyne Snodgrass writes:

During World War II, Winston Churchill was forced to make a painful choice. The British secret service had broken the Nazi code and informed Churchill that the Germans were going to bomb Coventry. He had two alternatives: (1) evacuate the citizens and save hundreds of lives at the expense of indicating to the Germans that the code was broken; or (2) take no action, which would kill hundreds but keep the information flowing and possibly save many more lives. Churchill had to choose and followed the second course.[i] 

            In Matthew 1.18, Joseph faced a tough choice, and had no idea what he should do.  “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”  Can you imagine being in Joseph’s position?  In those days, family honor was everything.  Brides were supposed to be virgins, and it seemed that Mary was not.  She had this crazy story of miraculous conception, and Joseph just didn’t know what to believe.  Perhaps the words of the prophet rang in his ears, directing him to a decision: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6.8 ESV)?”  This seemed helpful as he tried to determine what the Lord required of him.  But in reality, it seemed to present three different options.

            First, Joseph could choose to do justice.  Certainly, everyone believes that acting justly is always the best thing…or is it?  According to Deuteronomy 22, the just punishment for adultery, fornication, or incest was death by stoning.  Joseph was within his rights to seek the death penalty against Mary, and keep his honor clean.  Justice means doing the right thing, and doing the right thing means seeking justice…doesn’t it?  For every crime, a punishment that fits?  Joseph must have considered what the right thing to do was in this situation.

            In your life decisions, you have the option of seeking.  Justice is a good thing.  It means treating all people fairly, doing what’s right.  Justice means giving everybody what they deserve.  But sometimes justice can be harsh.  Giving people what they deserve might mean doling out punishment—and then you have to ask yourself whether you’re really qualified to make that decision, or whether it’s the right time for action.  In Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do, Robert Schuller writes:

I remember one winter my dad needed firewood, and he found a dead tree and sawed it down. In the spring, to his dismay, new shoots sprouted around the trunk. He said, "I thought sure it was dead. The leaves had all dropped in the wintertime. It was so cold that twigs snapped as if there were no life left in the old tree. But now I see that there was still life at the taproot." He looked at me and said, "Bob, don't forget this important lesson. Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst mood. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come."[ii] 

Just because it’s in your power to give somebody what they deserve, does that mean that you should?  Justice might mean cutting down the tree, or the person—or it may not.  Is there a better way?  Micah says we should do justice AND love kindness.

            Joseph decided to take the higher road of kindness, in regards to Mary.  Though he didn’t necessarily believe her story, he decided to treat her as if it were true.  He chose to give her the benefit of the doubt.  Justice called for her death, but the law also allowed him to save her life by forgiving her.  This he was willing to do—but he drew the line at marrying her.  The hurt had gone too deep for that.  In those days, betrothal was different from today’s engagement.  In order to get out of the marriage, he had to divorce her.  Verse 19 (ESV) says that “Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”  In his mind, that was the path of kindness.

            What decisions do you have to make right now?  Is there a way of justice to which you are perfectly entitled, but then a higher way of kindness?  Which of the two is the better path?  There’s an old saying that goes, “It may be true that there are two sides to every question, but it is also true that there are two sides to a sheet of flypaper, and it makes a big difference to the fly which side he chooses.”  For the Christian, kindness ought always to win out over justice.  Yet Micah says that there may be three sides to this flypaper.  Did you know that flypaper has three sides?  There’s the wide sticky side, the wide non-sticky side, and then there’s the narrow edge.  Micah points out the third, most narrow path of all: Do justice, love kindness, AND walk humbly with your God.

            Joseph was a good man.  This means he was prepared to choose kindness over justice.  But this word “and” in Micah is a powerful word.  It means that you don’t get to choose between the three—you have to do them all.  Be fair, show mercy, and walk humbly with God, all at the same time.  For Joseph, walking humbly before God meant listening to God’s message.  Self-will says, “I know the right way.  I can make this decision all by myself.”  Walking humbly with God says, “Lord, I want you to show me Your way—and I’m willing to do it.” 

            Walking humbly with God, Joseph’s heart was ready for the third option.  He neither had to have Mary stoned to death nor did he have to put her away quietly.  Joseph chose to follow an angel’s advice, “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit (v. 20 ESV).”  Walking humbly with God, Joseph admitted that he didn’t have all the answers.  Admitting that he didn’t have all the answers, he opened himself for God’s creative plan.  Marry Mary anyway.  Accept the child.  Raise him as a son.  It was preposterous—but it was God’s way.  And this was the path Joseph chose.

            “Do justice, love kindness, AND walk humbly with your God.”  This is what the Lord requires of you.  Do you have any tough decisions to make?  Are you asking yourself how you can do the right thing?  Maybe the right thing is to seek justice—but perhaps there’s a higher way of kindness.  And there may be a way that’s higher still.  If you listen with a humble heart to God’s voice that speaks in the midst of your confusion, you just might hear that angelic message, directing you toward the greatest mission of your life.  I pray that in all the decisions you have to make, that God will show you what is good, what the Lord requires of you.  I pray that, like Joseph, you’ll do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

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[i] Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths - Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 179.

[ii] Robert H. Schuller, Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!, Thomas Nelson.

Watching and Waiting - The Great Adventure

 Advent is a time of great adventure.  It’s a time of excitement, yet also a time of waiting.  It’s a festive season that feels like no other time of year.  Along with the church sanctuary, most homes are being decorated, but the real time of celebration is not yet here.  And so we wait.  This is a difficult thing to do—especially for the impatient and the immature.  I remember when I was a child, trying to stay up all night and wait for Santa Claus.  But somehow, no matter how long I waited, no matter how I tried to keep my eyes open, I would always end up waking up with a start on Christmas morning—having missed the nighttime visit of Old Saint Nick.  Jesus tells us to keep watch and wait, to not grow weary but to be alert. 

Advent is a time of adventure.  The word advent means “important arrival.”  During the Advent season, we wait for the important arrival of the Christ child.  We also remember that Christ will come again—and we wait patiently for His return.  The word advent is related to the word adventure.   Adventure means “to risk the loss of something.”[i]  Advent is a time of waiting, but waiting can be tough because it seems like we’re risking loss while we’re waiting.  On the contrary—purposeful waiting, godly waiting, means resting in the knowledge that God will bring His purpose about in the right time.  The adventure of Advent isn’t in striving, but in patiently trusting God.  Advent Calendars and Advent candles help us with this work of waiting.  They help us mark time and remember that God’s Advent will come. 

Some things are worth waiting for, but they definitely need to come at the right time.  Like the birth of my second grandchild a few weeks ago—Jonah was definitely worth the wait!  In the same way, Christmas is worth the wait.  You wouldn’t want it to come prematurely.  If people could decide to have Christmas anytime they wanted, then 25th December wouldn't be as much fun.  It's good to wait and to enjoy things together.

Mark’s thirteenth chapter is all about watching and waiting—not for Christmas to come, but for the greatest adventure of all.  The chapter is called Mark’s Little Apocalypse.  It is divided into two parts.  The first part is Jesus’ answer to one question.  The second is Jesus’ answer to another.  Verses 1-4 (NASB) say:

As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples *said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” ² And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

³ As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?” 

In verses 5-23, Jesus answers the first question, “When this destruction will come?”  His answer brings chills to the spine.  He speaks of false christs, betrayals, wars, and famines.  He tells his followers to flee when they see an abomination in the temple, for the end is near.  That end came about in 70 AD, when Rome destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.  In verses 24-27, Jesus answers the second question, “What will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?”   Matthew 24:3b (NASB) renders these two questions more clearly: “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”  Jesus’ first answer is about events that must happen within a generation.  The second answer is about events that will take place at the end of the age.

Many people get hung up on verse 30, which says, “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”  The NASB conveniently adds a footnote which points out that the word Jesus used, genea, can also be translated as “race.”  In other words, since Jesus has just finished talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, the fall of the temple, and a threat to God’s people, He wants to assure His disciples that God’s people will not be utterly destroyed.  This verse does not indicate that verses 24-37 must be interpreted as being within a literal generation of Jesus’ prediction.

At the end of the age, Jesus says the sun and moon will be darkened.  Angels will act as reapers, gathering God’s faithful.  The last day, the day of judgment, will be a day of fear for the faithless, but a day of delight for the redeemed.  In verse nine, Jesus says, “Be on your guard.”  In verse thirteen, He commands us to endure.  In verse 23, He says, “Take heed.”  Jesus says in verses 33-37:

³³ “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. ³⁵ Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— ³⁶ in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷ What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’”

            Waiting on God is difficult for me.  It is difficult for us all.  Perhaps you have something happening in your life, where you have to wait for God’s timing.  It seems like the answer never comes, and you get anxious just sitting around waiting.  The summer, 1993 issue Leadership talks about someone who made some bad decisions because he couldn’t deal with boredom.  He showed how difficult it is to just sit and wait:

Several years ago, I heard the story of Larry Walters, a 33-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons. That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.

Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky -- smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.

Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions:

"Where you scared?"  "Yes."

"Would you do it again?" "No."

"Why did you do it?"  "Because," he said, "you can't just sit there."[ii]    

Sometimes it can be difficult to just sit there and wait on God.  We can become anxious and decide to take matters into our own hands.  Like Larry Walters, we can end up a victim of our own hasty decisions, suspended between this thing and that thing, and at the mercy of any wind that may blow us back and forth.  G. Campbell Morgan advises us to wait.  “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort.  Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”  I hope that you’ll learn patience as you watch and wait.        

This Advent season, we wait for the coming of Christmas, the celebration of the advent of the Christ child.  But we also remember Jesus’ instructions to us: that we are to watch and wait for His second coming.  I remember my dad telling me the story of something that happened to him one day as he was driving.  A cloud formation, combined with a trick of the sunlight, looked so amazing that Dad said he had to pull off the road.  He didn’t pull over just to get a better look, but also so that he would be ready in case this was the Rapture.  Of course, it wasn’t the Rapture, but Dad wanted to be prepared if this was the second advent of Christ.  He wanted to be ready for the great adventure.

I’m not saying you need to pull your car over for every cloud formation.  I am saying that during this season of Advent we need to wait for His arrival.  We need to look for His coming in the clouds, in the snowflakes, in the carols carried by the crisp wind.  Seek Him in the manger and in the faces of the children gathered round.   Look for the ways God is appearing in your life.  Be patient.  Keep alert.  Watch and wait.  Seek Him, and you will find Him.  That is the great adventure.

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[i] Etymonline.com

[ii] Leadership, Summer 1993, pp. 35.

Kinsman-Redeemer

Having family in West Virginia, my sister-in-law Kimberly hates to hear people make jokes about West Virginians.  Growing up in Virginia, she certainly heard a lot of them.  If you’re not from Virginia, then maybe you don’t know that most West Virginia jokes have something to do with people marrying their relatives.  In West Virginia, for example, you are free to marry your first cousin once-removed, but you may not marry your half-cousin.  However, Virginians have nothing to joke about—our Western relatives have a law that bans first cousins from marrying each other, while in Virginia, first cousins are free to marry.[i]  If you want to compare, I guess the joke’s on us!

            While I have never actually known anybody who married a cousin, I have known some people who have married distant relatives.  Two of our dear friends found out that they were distantly related to each other, after the wedding.  Then there are two different ladies that I have known who each married a man and then his brother after his death.  They didn’t do it because they had to—but because they fell in love with one brother after the other.  This practice of one brother marrying another brother’s widow, is called levirate marriage.  It was common in biblical times, and wasn’t done simply because of love.  In fact, it was required by Hebrew law.[ii] 

            In those days, their idea of the afterlife wasn’t as complete as it is today.  For a person to “live on” after they died, it was believed that the family name had to be preserved.  So it was very important for a man to have a male heir—both to carry on his name and to inherit his land.  If a man died without a male heir, then his brother was supposed to marry his widow, and give her a child in the name of the deceased brother, in order to carry on her late husband’s legacy.  Keeping family land in the family was also important, so if land was sold outside the family, it was the obligation of the closest male relative to purchase it back as soon as possible and keep the land in the family name.  Also, in those days only men could own property, so if a man died without a male heir, the closest male relative was supposed to purchase the property from his widow, in order to keep the land in the family.  Typically, the man who married his late brother’s widow would also purchase his brother’s land from the widow.  In this unique role, this man was called the widow’s kinsman-redeemer.

            We find this practice exemplified in the story of Ruth.  In chapter one, Naomi’s husband Elimelech dies, and Naomi’s son Chilion dies, leaving his widow Ruth.  The two widows move from Moab to Bethlehem, where they try to survive on charity.  In chapter two, we read how Ruth discovers that the the property where she is gleaning is owned by a man named Boaz, who is a close relative of her late husband and his father.  In chapter three, Ruth makes him aware of the family connection, and her need of redemption.  He agrees to redeem her, unless there is a closer relative who might do so.  In chapter four, Boaz discovers a closer relative who might redeem Ruth by purchasing the property and marrying her.  Yet that relative (who shall forever remain nameless) is content to pass on the responsibility to Boaz.  Unlike the shirking family member, Boaz agrees to both the land transfer and the wedding, and becomes Ruth and Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer.

            We find this word redeem in scriptures.  We use it in hymns and sermons, but few people really understand its full meaning.  It can mean “to buy back,” as in a land purchase that returns it to family ownership.  It can also mean “to make good,” in the sense of giving something value that previously had no value or even negative value.  For example, when I take a newspaper to the grocery store and present this coupon, I can redeem the coupon for a dollar value.  The coupon has no value in and of itself, but when I redeem it, I can get something valuable for it.  The kinsman-redeemer did both of those things.  Boaz bought back the property, and he brought Ruth and Naomi out of poverty by taking Ruth as his wife.  Further, Boaz gave Ruth a son, Naomi a grandson, and Elimelech an heir to carry on his name. 

            In her blog, Worshiping with Children, Carolyn Brown of Charlottesville, Virginia points out that Ruth is a story of three people who go above and beyond the call of duty in order to do the right thing.[iii]  First, Ruth leaves her homeland behind in order to take care of Naomi.  Then, Naomi carefully thinks out a plan for Ruth’s happiness instead of wallowing in her own loneliness.  Finally, Boaz redeems Ruth and Naomi, even though there was a closer relative who truly had that duty.  In the same way, God calls Christians to go out of their way to take care of the people around them—to lift them out of poverty, loneliness, despair, and that feeling of worthlessness that so quickly destroys the soul.  This is the job of the kinsman-redeemer.  This is the job of every believer.

            It’s our job to redeem our fellow human beings because Jesus modeled that kind of love toward us.  Jesus did more than He had to, in order to set us free from poverty, despair, worthlessness, and oppression of the soul.  More than the love of a husband for his wife, Jesus’ love for you was the purest, most undefiled kind of love.  Jesus redeems all who receive Him when He trades their spiritual poverty for His great riches, when He takes a soul that feels worthless and gives it value and meaning.  Then He calls us to love our fellow human beings with the same everlasting love.

            In Wake Up Calls, Ron Hutchcraft writes:

A gathering of friends at an English estate nearly turned to tragedy when one of the children strayed into deep water. The gardener heard the cries for help, plunged in, and rescued the drowning child. That youngster's name was Winston Churchill. His grateful parents asked the gardener what they could do to reward him. He hesitated, then said, "I wish my son could go to college someday and become a doctor." "We'll see to it," Churchill's parents promised. 

Years later, while Sir Winston was prime minister of England, he was stricken with pneumonia. The country's best physician was summoned. His name was Dr. Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered and developed penicillin. He was also the son of that gardener who had saved young Winston from drowning. Later Churchill remarked, "Rarely has one man owed his life twice to the same person."[iv]

We find ourselves in a similar kind of debtorship to God—we who have been saved by Jesus’ grace.  So our Lord calls us to pass on the blessing.  Like Ruth and Naomi and Boaz and Jesus, we go out of our way to bless and redeem those around us.  We do it because we are thankful—because we are grateful for what our Lord has done for us.

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[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_law_in_the_United_States_by_state.  November 21, 2014. 

[ii] Deuteronomy 25.5-6

[iii] Brown, Carolyn.  Worshiping with Children.  “Year B - Proper 27, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 24th Sunday after Pentecost (November 11, 2012)”  October 25, 2012. 

http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2012/10/year-b-proper-27-32nd-sunday-in.html  November 21, 2014.

[iv] Ron Hutchcraft, Wake Up Calls, Moody, 1990, p. 22.