Another Year, Another Try

Another year has arrived and with it another recommitment to blogging.  I have been inconsistent with my efforts here (to say the least), but this year I am determined to make a go of it.  Since I now have the ability to blog from my laptop, my phone, and my IPad, there really isn't much of an excuse is there?

Our year starts with a reading of the book of Matthew.  A chapter a day shouldn't be too taxing.  Of course, the idea is not just to read the chapter but rather to meditate on it and hear the Spirit speaking through it so that we can be better disciples of Jesus.

Matthew 2 has the danger of being so familiar that it is hard to hear the message. I feel as though there is not much that can be said about it that hasn't been said already.  The chapter is disturbing with Herod's violent slaughter of the innocents.  When one reads that dozens of baby boys were slaughtered because God drew the Magi to Bethlehem through Herod, one wants to ask wasn't there another way?  Couldn't God have brought His son into the world in a way that didn't cause mourning for all these families?  I think many want to approach Matthew 2 as an indictment of God, but there is no doubt that is not what Matthew intended.  Herod was known as a cruel, capricious ruler and that is certainly what Matthew intends us to see.  He wants us to be shocked that the King of Israel, who has benefit of special revelation, opposes the Messiah while pagan, astrology loving Gentiles worship and adore the King.  Matthew 2 is the world turned upside down.  The Gentiles love Jesus while Israel rejects Him.

In this chapter, Matthew is setting up one of the themes of his book.  Most likely, by the time Matthew recorded the Gospel, it was pretty obvious to most that Christianity was becoming a largely Gentile movement, flourishing not in Israel but in the Greek world through which Paul  traveled.  Assuming that Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience, this would have been an apologetic issue.  Jews readers would have asked how could Jesus be Israel's Messiah and be accepted by Gentiles but not Jews?  Matthew's answer starts to be seen here in chapter 2.  Christianity is a Gentile movement because it is Gentiles who have accepted him while Israel has largely rejected Him.  This reaction goes all way back to the time of Jesus' birth.

This chapter reminds me that having the Bible is not enough.  Herod had the truth but did not act on it and so was lost.  As we start reading through the New Testament this year, Matthew 2 is a good reminder that reading is not enough.  We not only we have to read.  We have to have faith.  We have to have have obedience.  If not, God can find others to come and worship.      

Repetition is the Key to Learning

Psalm 136 is one of those passages of Scripture that interprets itself.  If you don't get the point by the end of the Psalm, then you could definitely be described as dense.  Over and over, speaking of God, the Psalmist tells us "His love endures forever."  Some think that the Psalm was originally intended to be read responsively.  A singer would sing the words that vary while the congregation in the Temple would reply with the words: "His love endures forever."  I wonder what it sounded like for hundreds of Israelites to sing or repeat that phrase in the temple courts?

Why does the Psalm involve so much repetition?  Well as the blog title says repetition is the key to learning.  But maybe more than that is going on here.  Maybe Israel is going through some tough times when the psalm is written and so they need the repetition to convince them.  Repeating a phrase about God's love persuades them of God's love and reminds them that it is real.

It is interesting to note that the Psalmist proves God's love by reference to the Exodus from Egypt.  He teaches the people of God's love by reminding them of the story of Israel's flight from Pharaoh.  When the Psalm was written, this event was a millennia old.  None of the Psalmist's audience could remember it first hand.  But the story still functioned in a powerful way to remind the people of God's love.

As we read the Bible, we are reminded that the story of God's people then remains our story today.  Though none of us experienced the events and miracles that the Bible contains, those events still speak to us of God's love for His people.  Many of us are experiencing hard times today: illness, joblessness, depression, the death of a loved one.  Each pages of the Bible repeats that grand phrase of Psalm 136.  Though our lives may not always make it readily apparent: His love indeed endures forever.            

He Has a Real Presence about Him

I have often heard it said of actor or athletes or other public personalities: "They have such a presence about them."  Typically the idea is that this person has a confidence or swagger or competence that makes them seem powerfully natural at what they do.  In Exodus 33, we also see the idea of presence, though here the term is used differently. 

In this chapter, Moses is overcoming a disaster.  While he has been up on Mount Sinai receiving the Law, the people of Israel have fallen into the most abominable sin- mixing immorality and idolatry all together.  To make matters worse, Moses' own brother Aaron, the spiritual leader of the people, was involved in this sin.  Moses acted swiftly upon his descent from the mount and his discovery of the sin.  Through the help of the Levites, 3,000 of the worst offenders are put to death.  In addition, God strikes the people with a plague assuring that more will die.

All this is devastating enough.  But then comes the biggest blow of all.  God says to Moses: "Move the people from this place."  That is something God has said many times.  But then He says something He hasn't said before: "You go.  But, I'm not going with you."  Because of the momentous nature of the sin, God is no longer accompanying the people on their journey.

Moses' response to this is swift.  Verses 15-16 make it clear that he does not want to undertake the journey alone.  In those verses, Moses says: "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (NIV)  Moses says it is Your presence, God, that makes us unique.

I think we need to remember that lesson today.  As a church, we ought to ask ourselves can people sense the presence of God when they come to our services and activities?  We could have great music.  We could have great sermons.  We could have great programs.  But none of that does us any good unless God is present with us.  Let's seek to cultivate an awareness of God's presence in all that we do.  

            

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

In Genesis 29, the deceiver Jacob gets his payback only not from the expected source, his brother Esau. This passage is a sure illustration of the Biblical principal that your sin will find you out. Rather than trusting in God to secure his blessing, Jacob practiced deceit at his mother's urging. Now Laban returns the favor by deceiving Jacob. The passage emphasizes the link between Laban's deceit and Jacob's previous deceit by highlighting common elements. Jacob is fooled by a disguise just as he fooled his dad. And Leah is described as having weak eyes, the very condition that allowed Jacob to trick his father. Clearly Jacob receives in Genesis 29 what he did to Esau. Three important lessons emerge here:

1. Treat others as you would be treated.

2. Wait on God to fulfill his promises. Don't take matters into your own hands like Jacob and Rebekah did.

3. God is a God of justice. In mercy, he chose Jacob. And Jacob's sin does not override God's mercy. But Jacob still reaps the reward of his own poor choices

A Taste for Stew

This week our sermon will be on Jesus' question: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?"  Apparently that would have been a question that Esau would have done well to consider.  It boggles our mind that anyone would sell their inheritance for stew (some scholars think it should rightly be called a bowl of lentil soup), but Esau was a man of strong passions, and he did not take time to consider what the filling of his passions would cost him.  In many ways, Esau would have fit right into the twenty-first century.  We too live in a time of strong passions, where people are willing to mortgage the future for what they desire.  This is true not only in terms of credit card debt, but it also true in terms of spiritual price.  Esau's bowl of stew cost him his blessing from God and ultimately his soul.  And many today are willing to pay the same price for temporary, passing pleasure.  The story reminds of Esau reminds us that pleasure often comes at a high price.       

Kierkegaard on Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac

Here is a brief snippet of Soren Kierkegaard's take on Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac.  I'm sure you're tired of always hearing what I think!

"There was many a father who lost his child; but then it was God, it was the unalterable, the unsearchable will of the Almighty, it was His hand took the child.  Not so with Abraham.  For him was reserved a harder trial, and Isaac's fate was laid along with the knife in Abraham's hand.  And there he stood, the old man, with his only hope!  But he did not doubt, he did not look anxiously to the right or to the left, he did not challenge heaven with his prayers.  He knew that it was God the Almighty who was trying him, he knew that it was the hardest sacrifice that could be required of him, but he knew also that no sacrifice was too hard when God required it- and he drew the knife" [Fear and Trembling, 36].

Would we agree that no trial is too hard when God requires it?  And could we be so unflinching in giving up for God even that which is most precious to us?

Terah

Genesis 11 marks the end of one section of Genesis with a transition to a new section.  In Genesis 12, we will begin the story of Abraham and of the ultimate birth of the nation of Israel.  Genesis 10 prepares us for that transition by telling us how the sons of Noah multiplied into many nations.  Yet, none of those nations would have the relationship with God that would be had by the descendants of Shem through Abraham.  Israel would stand alone as God's chosen nation. 

What interests me as Genesis 11 closes is the story of Terah, Abraham's father.  Verse 31 makes it clear that Terah left his homeland for the very long and dangerous journey to Canaan, the place that would ultimately become the Promised Land.  Why did Terah go?  We don't know.  Was it related to the death of his brother Haran?  Did he perhaps have some directive from God like Abram would?  We don't know.  All we know is that Terah never made it to Canaan.  Along the way he became comfortable in the Ur of the Chaldeans and stopped there short of his final destination.

Does the same thing often happen with us?  Does God call us but we fall short of his best because we get comfortable in situations other than the one to which God has called us?  Do our service and obedience stop because a half way commitment seems easier than finishing the journey?  Terah is a reminder not to get too comfortable in our walk with God.  Instead, we need to keep pressing for the blessings that God has for us in Jesus.