"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010 | |||
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Get Back Up | |||
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A recent Newsweek sports blog reflects on the winter Olympic equivalent of getting back up on the horse off which you fell. The writer begins by discussing a face-first crash by luge champion Shaun White in an event before the Olympics. White said it shook him up, but the way to shake off the shakes was "to get back up to the top to do it again." White then successfully completed the move where he first crashed and won the race. On a darker note, the writer notes that the death of the Georgian luger during a training run at the Olympics did not halt plans to continue the event, albeit with some modifications to the track and a lower starting point. All the competitors also felt it was right to continue the event and do their best. There's a bit of getting back up on the horse for Joshua and the army of Israel in Joshua 8, as they prepare for another run at conquering the fortified city of Ai. After the rout that began chapter 7, many of them must have been somewhat leery of another go at the folks who so soundly defeated them. Joshua's own attitude in chapter 7 verse 7 was monumentally defeatist. Yet in chapter 8, they are prepared to try again. The lesson is that the renewed effort is all divinely orchestrated. In verse 2 of chapter 8, God gives them the right strategy, an ambush behind the city, with a frontal assault only as a ruse. No more cocky forays with a minimal force. God also tells Joshua to take the whole army, which he then divides, part for the ambush and part for the march on the gates, which is a feint. God blesses the carefully following of His instructions and there is finally a great victory at Ai. God relaxes the herem ban a little, allowing some plunder and livestock, but the destruction of all the inhabitants according to God's direction is faithfully executed. After a brief, disastrous loss, Israel is back, we might say. The theme of renewal is carried forward even more at the end of the chapter, verses 30-35, as the nation renews its covenant with God following the instructions of Moses in Deuteronomy 27. The theme of blessing or curse in verse 34, which is even more prominent in Deuteronomy 27, mirrors the contrast between the victory in chapter 8 and the defeat in chapter 7. The covenant renewal is a refreshed recognition that Israel depends solely on God for its success. For Christians the Israelite victory of Joshua 8 will remind us of the renewal and victory that God can bring even after our worst defeats and failures. Yet for us we know that it's more than just a matter of courage to get up and try again. We are constantly aware that our spiritual success is utterly dependent on God. That is the very nature of grace, a renewal and blessing that is undeserved and unobtainable by our own efforts. Let us look for the moments both in individual spiritual practice and in corporate worship where we may hear again the good news of God's grace in Jesus and renew our covenant to live only in and through that grace. Then we will be able to get back up and try again, time after time. | |||
Tuesday, 16 February 2010 | |||
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Hand in the Cookie Jar | |||
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"Corporate sin" in a modern sense has been much in
the news the last couple years. The shenanigans of banks, investment
firms, etc., along with their highly paid and benefited, but sometimes
corrupt CEOs, have been held up for public scrutiny and condemnation.
It's perfectly clear that, like Achan in
Joshua 7, a number of people have committed acts of greed and theft
that have had grave consequences not just for their own companies but for
our whole nation, even for the world. Sub-prime lending practices were corporate sin not just in the sense that they were committed by corporations but because the consequence of the wrong-doing affected us all, corporately. In Joshua 7, Israel was unexpectedly, miserably defeated as they went out to war against the city of Ai, a small place which didn't even merit marshalling the complete army of Israel. Yet what should have been a more than sufficient force of two or three thousand Israelite soldiers was routed by the men of Ai. The defeat of Israel turned out to be God's judgment on the greed of a single man, Achan, and his family. Ignoring the herem ban on Jericho and its contents, he appriated a fancy garment and some gold and silver for himself. In the process all Israel was tainted by Achan's sin and found themselves abandoned by God when they attempted to conquer the next city. Despite our recent acquaintance with corporate sin on the large scale in the last couple years, Achan's tale is difficult for us. Why should everyone suffer for one man's malfeasance? Why does God hold the whole nation accountable until Achan is identified and his sin rooted out by the harsh punishment of stoning to death? We might understand it better if the self-enrichment and deception had been Joshua's or one of his lieutenants. We grasp the fact that people in power can cause widespread grief by their misdeeds. But Achan was a relative nobody, a foot soldier in the army. Why should his petty little crime be a national shame and defeat? Achan's story is a needed corrective to our own weak contemporary sense of sin and its seriousness. It highlights the corporate nature and effect not just of the sins of the great and powerful and not just of great and powerful sins. Achan teaches us that even the wrongs we think of as tiny and inconsequential are a contamination and infection that can damage others and wreak havoc in the communities in which we live and work. There is no such thing as a victimless crime or a private sin. The wrong things we do and the right things we fail to do are stones tossed into the social ponds of our lives and their effects ripple outward, even if, like Achan, we keep the sins themselves secret. As Lent begins, and we take seriously the call to amend our lives, lay aside sin and walk in new ways, perhaps Achan's sorry foolishness and disastrous end can help us take it all more seriously. We may desire to be free of greed or lust or lying or addiction or simply pride. Maybe that desire can be strengthened by honest reflection on how our sin affects a spouse or children or friends or co-workers. Maybe we will be more ready to let the grace of God in Christ stone to death the sin that is in us if we are more alert to the ways in which our sin brings defeat to others. May the Lord help us all early on to come to the point of painful honesty with ourselves, not waiting like Achan did until the fateful lot falls at our tent door. And in honest confession may we fine blessed and healing forgiveness. | |||
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 | |||
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"Devoted" | |||
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I've known the story of the battle of Jericho for as long as
I can remember. I think we marched singing "Joshua Fought the Battle
of Jericho" seven times around a stack of blocks in our first grade
Sunday School classroom. Then we got to knock the blocks down and
celebrate God's victory over that ancient city with all our childish
enthusiasm for destruction. It's a little more difficult story to read and to prepare to preach Joshua 6 at age 54. Especially after the reflection I did last fall on God's violence in the Old Testament, I zero right in on the parts skipped over in lessons for children. The end result of the destruction of the wall was, says 21, "They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it--men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys." Verse 24 says that the slaughter was followed by the burning of the city, except for gold and silver which went into the Tabernacle treasury. At the heart of the Jericho story and a large part of the narrative of Joshua is the Hebrew word and concept, herem. Translated "devoted to the Lord" in the NIV/TNIV, the word literally simply means to destroy or devote to destruction. In the Old Testament, the word picks up overtones of things held so sacred that no one can possess them except God, hence the destruction of what cannot be held solely for God and the plunder of precious metal for the Tabernacle. Herem is a troubling concept and the Israelites themselves had great troubles carrying out the "ban" on people and property designated herem. Some account needs to be given of the terrible violence God seems to call for. Yet there is also in herem the kernel of a viewpoint which challenges our easy and careless acquisitiveness and assertion of ownership. We are quick to assume that all the products of our hard fought labors are ours to keep and do with as we please. We take little thought for what among our possessions God may deem His own. So this Sunday I hope to struggle a bit with the violence inherent in the Jericho story, but I also hope to learn a little about what it means to utterly devote my endeavors and the fruits of my endeavors to my Lord. | |||
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Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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