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June 24, 2015, "The Lord Is My Light"

6/24/2015

Psalm 27:1 “The Lord Is My Light”

Listen to: Children of Uganda & others,
"Siyahamba/We Are Marching in the Light of God"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE0ZznTs620

Light is one of those countless wonders we take for granted.   We wake up and there is sunlight. We feel the heat of the sun’s rays on our skin throughout the day.   For those of us enjoying the summer season, we notice the growing plants as they come to full bloom. This complex process of photosynthesis could not happen without light. Light enables us to find our way in the world. Light gives us boundaries of activity and rest.   The non-sighted person can still appreciate light’s property of warmth, shifts in the day’s movement and how light supports life.

It is not surprising that God is often described with the metaphor of Light. 1 John 1:5 writes: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”  When we stand in the light of God we are able to see the world around us. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” Psalm 119:105, reminds us that God’s presence, and the scriptures, give us the ability to make our way throughout our day with love, kindness, patience and thoughtfulness toward others. As God’s light warms our hearts, so we warm the lives of others.

Now, I do not pretend to understand the science behind photosynthesis or light refraction (what happens when light bends when it hits a medium). My days of middle-school science are a life-time ago. However, this I know. We have a God whose energy can set off a transformation in our souls that causes us to come alive and bloom. This “God-synthesis” is necessary for us to be fully human and fully alive. God’s light, freely transmitted to us, triggers this growth within us. We do, however, have a choice.  It is up to each of us to examine if God’s light is cultivating our lives or if our lives are trapped in the spiritual darkness of the world, which acts as a counterfeit light? (Isa. 9:2, Matt. 4:16, Eph. 5:8, 1 Peter 2:9).

If I understand correctly, light refraction happens when light waves hit a different medium, i.e., water droplets, glass, etc., and are forced to bend or change direction. As a result “This bending by refraction makes it possible for us to have lenses, magnifying glasses, prisms and rainbows.”The ancient image of the rainbow, is a symbol of hope and unity that captures light refraction at its most beautiful.  We see in the rainbow the colors of light revealed after a storm: unified in anarc over the place of trial. Beauty emerges from struggle.

Perhaps we can consider Jesus as a refraction of the inapproachable light of God (1 Timothy 6:16). Jesus called himself “the light of the world,” and that those who followed him would “have the light of life” (John 8:12).   Jesus, light in flesh, makes visible the colors of love in his caring and teaching. In turn, Jesus professes to us: “you are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). So we too, reflect, refract and enact the light and love of God. We do this as we follow the teachings of Jesus and build up the kindom of God on earth.   So Jesus acts like a good pair of glasses. He corrects our spiritual eyesight to perfect vision so we see where we need to grow and how we need to act to be light in our world.

Prayer:  God of Light: Correct our vision so we will see as you see, and be the light you have created us to be.”

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June 19, 2015 "You Are with Me"

6/19/2015

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Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff--
    they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

Listen to: Aretha Franklin, “Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHl3p7AGwio

This past Wednesday, a 21 year old white gunman went to a Bible study at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C. An hour into the study, he stood up, and at point blank range, shot nine innocent black people dead and left three people wounded.

If this isn’t going through a valley in the shadow of death, I don’t what it is. We have all personally been in that dark place, where we don’t know what our next step is. We have all been in that dark place, due to illness, a loss of a job, a relationship or a crisis or another. Life never promised us a straight, rocky-free journey. No. In fact our psalm verse today confirms we will encounter evil in our lives. The difference is, with God we can triumph over evil and conquer our fear.

Fear is a natural reaction to danger. However too much fear can cause us to clam up, freeze, retreat or give in. Psalm 23, describing God as the Divine Shepherd, proclaims that fear does not have to control us because the Shepherd is with us as we walk through the “valley of the shadow of death.” The Shepherd’s tools, the rod (used to protect, discipline, examine and count) and staff (used to guide, rescue, and keep the flock together) become a source of comfort, of consolation, the psalm declares. They don’t remove the valley from our lives. This consolation can even produce a change of heart, so we can see our trials differently; we can see somehow, God working though everything we do to turn things around for the sake of good. Moreover, Psalm 23 assures us that our God is actively walking with us as make our way through the perils of life. Through the love of God, we do not walk through the valley alone or empty-handed.

Some of us, in our pain and search for justice, ask why our Good Shepherd didn’t just keep the shooter from harming those innocent people. Each of us could ask similar questions, whether from our personal experience or our collective experience. I am afraid there are no satisfactory answers here in the short term. We only know that the God of Jesus is weeping over all the injustice and sorrow that the “Charleston 9” tragedy represents. We also know that we can take hope that God is actively walking through this valley with us. God is using the rod and staff of the Word. God uses the long hand of Justice, his of divine Love and mercy to guide us to the vision of the Kingdom of God Jesus taught us about and gave his life for.

Not matter what your valley is today, whether it is the condition of our world, a life circumstance, a spiritual trial, or even a combination of all of these, our Psalm verse confirms we have a God who is equipped, who equips us, and who not leave us to fight our battles alone. Evil cannot conquer us with the Shepherd at our side. Fear does not have the final say.

Today, whenever we feel fear, anger or dismay, let us affirm with the Psalmist: “You are with me.”

Prayer: God who Walks the Darkest Valley: “Stand with us in the dark places in our hearts, and in the dark places in our world where evil and fear are roaming. Lead the way through to the other side. Bring comfort and show us how to be your disciples in the Valley times of our lives. Amen.”

. http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/il/dispatch/article/comfort-my-people-nacham
http://tentmaker.org/forum/word-studies/nacham-(h5162)-does-it-mean-repent/
http://www.torahbytes.org/70-20.htm

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June 9, 2015 "I Am a Worm"

6/12/2015

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"But I am a worm, and not human” Psalm 22:6

Listen to: Lauren Daigle “How Can It Be”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt5X91ciE6Y

Worms. Just the thought of them makes at least most city folk squeamish. Even though we know the lowly garden worm and even the maggot serve a necessary function in the circle of life, we would rather keep them out of sight and out of mind. I can remember childhood games of chasing each other with worms. How did that revolting song go, “the worms go in, the worms go out, in your stomach and out your mouth?”

In Psalm 22, David is so besieged by his enemies, brought low by their taunts and he feels like a worm. He describes his enemies as powerful bulls, ravenous lions, and ferocious dogs. He is a worm. A defenseless, living-off-the-dregs and in-the-dirt worm. One cannot get any lower than this. Yet here is an interesting twist I found on the “worm” of Psalm 22:6:

“David uses an interesting word for “worm” here. Instead of the ordinary “rimmah” David uses “tola’ath,” which means “Crimson worm” or “Scarlet worm.” This is a very special female worm that looks more like a grub than a worm. When it is time for the female or mother Crimson worm to have babies (which she does only one time in her life), she finds the trunk of a tree, a wooden fencepost or a stick. She then attaches her body to that wood and makes a hard crimson shell. She is so strongly and permanently stuck to the wood that the shell can never be removed without tearing her body completely apart and killing her. The Crimson worm then lays her eggs under her body and the protective shell. When the baby worms hatch, they stay under the shell. Not only does the mother’s body give protection for her babies, but it also provides them with food – the babies feed on the living body of the mother. After just a few days, when the young worms grow to the point that they are able to take care of themselves, the mother dies. As the mother Crimson worm dies, she oozes a crimson or scarlet red dye which not only stains the wood she is attached to, but also her young children. They are colored scarlet red for the rest of their lives.”

Fascinating, isn’t it? From the lowly crimson worm comes inspiration of sacrifice and service. David was called to service as King, which he learned to do through his hardships. Psalm 22 would inspire Jewish scholars to think of the sacrifice of Queen Esther who saved the Jewish people from annihilation. Psalm 22 is read at Purim. For Christians Psalm 22 reminds us of the saving grace through the sacrifice of Jesus. Certainly the words of Psalm 22 were on the lips of Jesus when he was crucified, and different verses of the psalm remind us of different times of Jesus’ passion (Ps. 22:1, 7, 8, 18, 31).

The crimson worm, moreover, also reminds us of Jesus, who emptied himself (Phil. 2:7) and took on a lowly status. He attached himself to the cross (1 Peter 2:24); and however we are to understand it, we are given life through the death and rising of Christ, even as he shed his own blood – the ultimate sacrifice (1 John 1:7; Hebrews 13:12; Hebrews 9:14; Ephesians 2:13). The ancients believed that life was contained in the blood (Lev. 17:14), a life which Jesus gives to us. We are marked by the life of Christ if we follow the path of love he sets before us.

So even in God’s realm, the humble Crimson worm teaches us the way of life. When we feel as low as a worm, let us remember the Crimson worm: who clings to her cross, sacrifices to forth a new birth, lets the old ways pass, and is always marked by the ancient color of life. This is the path Jesus followed. It was the past Queen Esther followed. It is our path.

What does it mean to you “to attach yourself to the cross,” or be “covered by the blood of Jesus?” How do you understand these traditional teachings? However you understand these ancient teachings, remember that sacrifice and making life better for others are a part of our journey. Let us live as well as the crimson worm.

Prayer: “God of the Humble and the Exalted, teach us to love and live sacrificially, so all may be marked by your presence.”

http://www.insectman.us/articles/biblical/crimson-worm.htm
http://www.discovercreation.org/blog/2011/11/20/the-crimson-or-scarlet-worm/

b

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June 7th, 2015

6/7/2015

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2 Samuel 22:20 (NRSV)

20 He brought me out into a broad place;
    he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Psalm 18:18-19 (NRSV)

18  but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
    he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Listen to: TobyMac: “Beyond Me”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFPq9p559II

Nowadays, a novel that is a success is often made into a movie. Back in the Biblical era, before cameras and film, a great story was turned into a song. King David, who was not only the greatest of Israelite rulers and warriors, he was a gifted story teller and musician. He was also a dedicated man of God, despite his profound flaws. He was a murderer, adulterer; he badly neglected his family he had so many foibles it would make reality TV drool. He bent the law to his favor; after all, he was king. He took actions that he was well advised against (i.e., the census of the country) that had disastrous consequences for his people –70,000 ended up dying by plague (2. Sam. 24).    David, like most warrior-kings, spent inordinate amount of time in battle, to maintain, reclaim or expand boundaries. He negotiated with foreign dignitaries and managed his court, which both friends and foes.   What a complicated life.

While we are not warrior-kings, we can appreciate the experience of a life that is complicated. Parts of our lives may very well call upon us to be fighters or overcomers, in the best sense of the word. We are complex people. On one hand we are flawed and this has produced suffering in ourselves and for others we love. Yet we are each gifted.   We can each do amazing and caring acts. Like David, sometimes our lives feel a bit too crowed: too many demands, tasks, meetings to go to, appointments to keep, bills to pay, and errands to run. We feel hemmed in, like David did.

David’s true greatness did not lie in his political achievements. David’s genius is captured in his enduring spiritual sensibilities: he experienced in God “a broad place,” not that trapped-in-the-corner-place we find ourselves in when we are boxed into with all our demands. This experience of the “wideness of God’s mercy” as the hymn puts it, is deliverance, a healing. It is deliverance from turmoil to peace. It is a deliverance from a sense of entrapment to spiritual freedom. It is a deliverance from a false sense of security to a true sense belonging and groundedness.

Perhaps the most audacious statement David makes is this: God does all this for us because God delights in us. Yes, in us, even with our flaws. Yes, in us, even with our problems.   Yes, in us: the ones who forget to pray, who don’t read enough of the Bible or other spiritual material. Yes, in us, the ones who should be giving more, caring more, doing more for others, but we fall short. Yes, us. Despite it all, God delights in us.

That is where it all starts. We just need to put the focus on God and off ourselves. God delights in us. God cares. God is inclined to our favor. If we can sit with that, then perhaps we can discover, like the great King David, some deliverance from whatever is hurting us this day. If we can let our hearts dwell on God’s delight instead of our faults, we will find the broad places, and there we will find peace that can restore our souls.

From what do you need deliverance today?

Prayer: “God of the Broad Places: May I experience today your delight, so I can be delivered from all that is weighing me down. May I experience your delight so that I can, in turn, take delight in you and your world.”

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June 24, 2015, "The Lord Is My Light"

June 19, 2015 "You Are with Me"

June 9, 2015 "I Am a Worm"

June 7th, 2015

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