A Remedy for the Post-Christmas Blues

 
Did you get all the presents you wished for on Christmas Day? Perhaps you did, and you’re feeling great. More likely, either: you did, but you’re still feeling like you’re missing something; or you didn’t, and you’re feeling deprived. Today’s video “Corner”, by Rob Bell, may be just what you need to hear.

Deuteronomy 24:19-22

Commentary

v19,20,21  the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. In biblical times, foreigners, orphans, and widows were hard-pressed to fend for themselves. In order to eke out a living, young widows might become prostitutes, while older widows might be reduced to begging. Orphans might be reduced to slavery, prostitution, or crime. Foreigners—having no ownership of the land in Israel—had no choice but to work for, and at the mercy of, others.

Much of the OT law pertains to protecting the rights of these disadvantaged groups! Inheritance laws and marriage laws were intended to provide for the orphans and widows, while other passages like today’s were intended to provide a safety net for all the disadvantaged.

v22  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. There was a time when the Israelites were oppressed. The bane of prosperity is that one forgets the time of oppression before the prosperity; one begins to feel entitled and deserving of all the prosperity. God says one must not forget!

Application

What was the last thing you were really grateful for? If it was a long time ago, how do you feel about it now? If it is recent—say, something you got for Christmas this year—how will you feel about it in, say, 5-10 years?

Success—prosperity—can be dangerous, can’t it? How is success dangerous? What does it mean to say success went to one’s head? Is all success dangerous?

The attitude of many reading today’s verses will be, “That’s not fair! Why should others be able to come onto property that is not theirs and take something they had no hand in producing?” Exactly! But being rescued from slavery in Egypt wasn’t fair. Liberation isn’t fair. Redemption isn’t fair. Grace isn’t fair. God isn’t fair.

In “Amazing Grace” we sing, “How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.” How and when has God’s grace been given to you? Where has the grace of God gone to your head—that is, where have you taken it for granted, or been reluctant to pass it on to others?  Who needs some grace from you? Do you need to give yourself some grace?

Rob Bell says, “We leave a corner [of the field] because in helping save someone else from suffering we may in the process find ourselves being saved. From indifference. From the inertia of inaction. From taking what we have for granted.” What is your field—i.e. where is God blessing you? What is your corner? Whom do you need to give it to?

We leave a corner because our world is either shrinking or it’s expanding. It’s either contracting in on itself, or it’s opening up. Our lives are either more and more about us—more stuff, more unsatisfying consumption—or we’re on a different path.   —   Rob Bell

How is your world shrinking? How is your world expanding?

Points to Ponder

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Matthew 15:22-28)

The Light Has Come: The Gospel of Hezekiah

4th Sunday of Advent


In the first sermon of this Advent season ("The Light Has Come: Glory!") I said,

During Advent, our usual temptation is to take all of the usual Advent verses and prophecies and see Jesus as the answer in all of them. However, prophecy (like the hymn says) is supposed to be “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”

Today let us look at how today’s prophecy was understood at the time it was uttered; therein lies strength for today. Thursday night we will look at what the verse—bright hope for tomorrow—mean to us now.


Isaiah 9:6-7


Commentary


v6  onto us a child is born. The term “evangel” (or “gospel” in English) means “good news.” Originally it referred to two specific kinds of news—neither of which was theological. It could refer to the news of victory in battle, or the news of the birth of a royal son. This is a gospel account in the original sense!

As parents, we have high hopes for every child granted to us. As a nation, how much more would the people have high hopes for the birth of a royal son? The terms that follow reflect the highest hopes for this royal son. Semitic people groups tend towards hyperbole (i.e. exaggeration). If it would seem blasphemous to use some of these terms to refer to a mortal male (king-to-be, or not) that is still just the Semitic way of speaking. [1]


v7  of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Historians note that—after the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem failed—Judah experienced a long period of prosperity as refugees from the northern kingdom of Israel flocked into Judah and all of Judah’s neighbors were preoccupied with troubles of their own.


The book of Isaiah begins, “The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah;” however, most of Isaiah focuses on events during the reign of Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:5 says of Hezekiah, “Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.” High praise indeed! As originally understood by the Jews at that time, these verses were the gospel of the birth of Hezekiah.


Application


In Isaiah 7:1-17, God sent Isaiah out to meet Hezekiah’s father, King Ahaz. At this time, Judah was being attacked by Aram and the rebel tribes of the northern kingdom Israel. Isaiah counseled Ahaz not to worry, to stand firm in his faith (v9). Isaiah went further, telling Ahaz to ask God for a sign—a confirmation—that Isaiah’s prophecy was true. When Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, Isaiah said a sign would be given anyway:

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. (Isaiah 7:14-16)

The verb tenses in the passage indicate a near-term event, not an event way in the future. This child, most likely, was Hezekiah, son of Ahaz—who stood firm against the Assyrians and was not like any of the kings of Judah before or after him.


We are always looking for a human leader to rally to. During the recent presidential campaign, a woman named Peggy Joseph made the news for several days when she was interviewed after an Obama rally and said:

It was the most memorable time of my life. It was a touching moment, because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he is going to help me.

On the heels of George W. Bush’s presidency, Obama ran a campaign promising hope and change; Peggy Joseph and millions more were ready to put their faith in a new face. Ahaz had been a poor excuse for a king. When threatened by Aram and Israel, he had sought aid from the king of Egypt instead of from God. He had neglected worship at the temple, offering sacrifices to idols instead. He had even sacrificed on of his own sons! (2 Kings 16:2-4) No wonder that the people were effusive in their hopes for a new king!


After one year of the Obama presidency, however, an NBC/WSJ poll reported on December 16 that Obama’s approval rating had fallen to 47%, reflecting a faster drop in approval in his first year in office than for his predecessors. We are always looking for a human leader to rally to; however, human leaders are ultimately fallible. Even though Hezekiah restored worship at the temple, even though he repaired the temple after Ahaz’s neglect, eventually he failed the people. Isaiah 39 records how Hezekiah showed all of the palace treasures to envoys from Babylon, whereupon Isaiah scolded the king, saying that after Hezekiah’s reign was over that Babylon would return and take every bit of treasure.


We need God. We need a leader who will not let us down through his own human failings. The incarnation of Jesus is God’s creation of that human leader—100% God and 100% humanity—that will never let us down.


Points to Ponder


We need God. Instead of casting about for a human leader to follow, are we ready to follow the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit which God has granted to every person who gives their life over to him? If you are ready to follow, how will you follow? Are your feelings reliable indicators of what God would have you do? Is the Bible the only guide you need? How about prayer, or other Christians—do they help you or hinder you in following God? Is following God a private matter—just you and God, figuring it out together—or is following God something that we are supposed to work through as a group?


End Notes


1- More notes on the names of verse 6. The name “Mighty God” uses the most generic word for god—El—that appears in the OT. El is used to refer to God, other gods, idols, and men, and some places the word is simply translated as “power.” The two subsequent names are very poetic in Hebrew—using assonance and alliteration—but since these names appear only in this verse in the entire Bible, one may reasonably conclude that poetry , not theological precision, was at work in the names. A more exact rendering of the names might be, “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty Power, Father Forever, Prince of Peace.”

The Light Has Come: Joy!

3rd Sunday of Advent

I spoke last week of a desert experience—the need to find a quiet place to isolate oneself from exterior voices and then attend to the more difficult task of silencing the interior voices that tend to make our souls dry and barren deserts. What did I leave out?

 Isaiah 35

Commentary

v5-6  Generally theologians see in these verses Jesus’ response to John’s disciples, who asked if Jesus was the one they had been waiting for (Matt. 11:2-6). Jesus’ response in part was that his actions spoke for themselves:

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. (v5)

However, the end of v6 points back to the Exodus from Egypt as well (Ex. 15:22-25) where Moses brought forth water from a rock. Once one sees these verses as a form of exodus, other analogies present themselves:

v3-4:  The feeble hands, failing knees and fearful hearts are reminiscent of the despairing Israelites who, in the face of trials in the desert and giants in the Promised Land, were ready to return to the potted meats (plus slavery) of Egypt.

v8:  The Way of Holiness is for neither the unclean nor the fools, just as the Exodus from Egypt was for neither the rebels nor the doubters. To be holy is to be in the presence of God, and God—Emmanuel, God with us—is with those who walk in that Way.

In Moses’ final speech to the Israelites, he says that even after the 40-year exodus in the desert, that God still had not given them a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear (Deut. 29:4). To be one ransomed by the Lord is not automatic; 40 years of following God through the desert cannot earn it; seeing the miracles of the Exodus cannot provoke it; duty and even blind faith cannot accomplish it.

The problem of the unclean and the fool is similar—they do not have the proper orientation towards God. We are all unclean and foolish before God; but here the unclean one is ritually unclean, one who has not prepared oneself for coming before God; likewise the fool is a stubborn cuss who persists in folly, all the while claiming he is right. Both the ritually clean person and the abstinent fool have their eyes on themselves instead of on God—they are worried about their rights, their entitlements, their sacrifices, or their troubles.

In contrast, the ransomed of the Lord have their eyes on God first. They are grateful for what the Lord has done for them. Their thankfulness creates a fertile garden from which repentance, faith, love, and joy can grow. They cannot manufacture joy in the midst of the desert experience—God gives us the joy—but they prepare the place for joy to flourish.

Points to Ponder

So where is your joy this season? If it is missing, perhaps you have your mind’s eye focused on the wrong thing. For what are you thankful? Are you thankful even for your trials? If you would have the mind to understand, eyes to see, and ears to hear, begin by thanking God this week during your trials.

Consider it joy when you face trials of many kinds! (James 1:2)

The Light Has Come: A Desert Experience

I know of a man recently excommunicated from his church; his was stripped of his church membership and told not to attend the church for several months. His pastor told him that he needed a “desert experience.”

What do you think the pastor had in mind?

Isaiah 40:3-5


Commentary

v3  a voice of one calling in the desert. There are no quotation marks in Hebrew, so is this:

A voice of one calling, “In the desert prepare the way ...”

or

A voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way ...” ?

That is, are we to go to the desert to prepare, or is the voice calling from the desert?


v4  the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. A better translation is probably, the rough ground shall become as level ground, the rugged places as a plain. The second translation makes the transformation more subjective. That is, the rough places are still rough; however, our experience of the rough spots changes.


Application


This is one of the key Bible texts for justifying a desert experience. (What would be some of the others?) Some of the 3rd and 4th-Century Church Fathers, called the Desert Fathers, spent years or decades in the desert trying to flee the crush of worldly demands and pursue the still, small voice of God’s call on their lives.


Anthony Thomas of the Catholic News Agency wrote an article called The Desert Experience: Interior and Exterior Silence which begins:

Without fully realizing it, we are constantly surrounded by noise. Our homes are saturated with television, and our cars with music. Even walks outside are accompanied by the ipod. If we are not careful, what seems like an innocuous trait of society can be a significant block to our spiritual lives.
“In order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence in one's soul and to keep silence; not a gloomy silence but an interior silence; that is to say, recollected in God.” — St. Faustina

On one hand, the Desert Fathers desired to be like John the Baptist—literally being voices in the desert, calling the busy crowds to repentance and abandoning the ways of the world.


On the other hand, the Desert Fathers came to realize that the real desert was not the outside environment but the interior of the souls. For the Jews, and the early Christians, the desert—the wilderness—was the place where jackals prowled and demons lurked. The wilderness was a place of disorder, confusion, trial, and temptation. The desert wilderness on the outside was simply a picture of the barren, disordered, and confused portion of one’s soul. It is no small wonder that Jesus’ temptation was during his 40-day desert experience! Thus the Desert Fathers sought to prepare a way for the Lord in the deserts within their souls. Preparing a straight path for God entailed living forthrightly, tearing down the bad habits and building up the good habits, thereby preparing one’s heart for a life-changing encounter with God.


Points to Ponder


The relevance for Advent should be obvious: we are surrounded by noise; confounded by busy-ness; saturated with television, internet, and radio. But in order to hear God during this season, we need more than ever to have silence in our soul. This is what Advent devotions are intended to inculcate. Moreover, the secular Christmas season is a wilderness—chaotic, confounding voices that distract us and tempt us. How would it be this year to focus on Christ instead of the trappings of Christmas?


PS - As far as what the excommunicated man’s pastor had in mind, I believe the intent was for the man to have some breathing space in order to reorder his life without having to deal with shame, accusations, and gossip at church. The intention of the desert experience was to help him silence the voices and focus on listening to God.