"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.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010 | |||
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Scattered Seasoning | |||
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It was one really salty bite of eggs. Our family enjoys
scrambled eggs and I take pride in whipping them up, then cooking them in
butter with plenty of wrist action as I flip and dice them in the pan to
come up fluffy and yellow. I always add salt and pepper before cooking.
One morning I shook in the salt but forgot to stir and whip the eggs
before dumping them in the pan. All the salt stayed in one part of the
batch and one of us took that unfortunate bite. The rest of the eggs were
bland and needed salt added. The seasoning needed to be distributed,
scattered throughout the whole batch. Though Joshua 21 looks like one more ancient geography lesson, its description of the distribution of cities and pastureland to the Levites contains a lesson for us. Those who represent God and serve others on His behalf need to be scattered around in our world so that the "salt of the earth," as Jesus called us, might season human life everywhere. It's not too big a leap to see ourselves as Christians as Levites for the cities and towns in which we live. The Levites scattered around Israel taught people the Law of Moses, consulted with those who were trying to discern God's will, and played something of a local judicial role. Their very presence across the land reminded the various tribes of Israel that they all had one God and that they were not to worship other gods. As rich and deep and close as Christian community in the Church ought to be, it is not meant to be an isolated fellowship huddled in a fortress. When the members of a typical local church depart from worship on Sunday morning, they are going out into their various neighborhoods to represent and communicate the presence of God in the places where they live and work. The ideal and hopeful verses at the end of Joshua 21 seem to me to display the state of affairs which comes to communities, and ultimately to the world, when God's people are functioning well in their role as "Levites" or "salt," dispersed representatives of God's grace and presence. "The Lord gave them rest on every side. . .. Not one of their enemies withstood them. . . Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." May we learn how to give room to God's presence in our own lives, and then learn to be God's presence among the many lives we touch each day. | |||
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 | |||
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Refuge | |||
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To where do I run when I feel threatened? Often it's home.
There I will my wife who will understand me when no one else does and
peace and quiet amid comfortable, familiar, safe surroundings. It's hard
to imagine where one might go when home itself does not feel safe. Yet
that's the situation God commands Israel to provide for in
Joshua 20. For those who have nowhere else to hide from a vengeful
retaliation for causing an accidental death, there are designated cities
of refuge. The background to Joshua's provision for cities of refuge is God's direction in this regard to Moses in Numbers 35. For those who imagine the law of the Old Testament to be a simplistic and primitive system of bloody retaliation, the city of refuge concept is an eye opener. Here we find a clear understanding of the concept we label generally as accidental or "involuntary manslaughter," the killing of another human being without any intent to kill and possibly without any negligence. The cities of refuge constituted a major improvement in ancient systems of justice and were meant to stem endless bloody cycles of retaliation between families when there was no true culpability for a death. As spiritual heir to Israel, the Church receives from the Lord something of the nature of a refuge in itself. Jesus models that for us in our Gospel lesson this Sunday from John 21:1-19 as He compassionately "rehabilitates" Peter after his denial before the crucifixion. The mercy Jesus shows toward Peter shows us how we ought to treat those seek refuge among God's people even though they may have wronged us or others. In short, churches ought to be safe places, places of refuge for those who are struggling with the consequences of their own actions. Just as the ancient Israelite cities of refuge did not provide a haven for those guilty of actual murder (there was a hearing and a trial to determine this), churches as places of safe refuge do not condone or excuse genuine wrong-doing. But our call is to put mercy first, to provide places where people are welcomed and helped, rather than condemned. Those refuge city elders needed great wisdom when a fleeing killer showed up at their gates. So we need great wisdom in order to provide refuge to those truly in need of safety and understanding and yet challenge and correct those who have intentionally and willfully done great harm. Overall, though, we will probably want to err on the side of mercy in order to correct the imbalance in the perception that most people have of evangelical churches as judgmental, condemning communities where no one who has seriously failed is "safe." We will want to do everything in our power not to shoot the wounded, whether by addiction, divorce or whatever failing has them standing at our door in hope of refuge. May our own churches be houses of safety and refuge for hurting, sorry, failed people. May we know how to welcome them and treat them with both justice and love. May we reflect the compassion of our Lord which broke into Israel's life with a surprising provision to temper simple revenge and broke even more surprisingly into the world in the mercy of Jesus Christ. | |||
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 | |||
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Inheritance | |||
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The phrase "mind-numbing minutia" to describe
Joshua 13-19 is unavoidable even for a commentator like Robert
Hubbard, who has an incredible zeal for the text of this book. These
chapters, which laboriously describe the parceling out of the land of
Canaan to the tribes of Israel, quickly cause one to lose all hope of
interest in a forest of unfamiliar geographical references,
unpronounceable place names, and boring repetition of phrasing. Yet, as Hubbard points out, these chapters are in some sense the core of Joshua, since they lay the foundation for the nation of Israel's continuing sense of place and ownership in Palestine. They are in effect the fulfillment of what God promised long before when He told Abraham that the land of Canaan would belong to him and his descendants. They demonstrate that the fulfillment of the divine promise has a concrete and practical fulfillment in the real world. Moreover, just a little effort at giving attention to these chapters yields nuggets of gold--precious, instructive narratives buried in the dreary lists and repetitive structure. I probably should have planned more than on sermon on these chapters. Chapter 14 gives us faithful Caleb being rewarded for his trust in God long years before when he and Joshua were the only two out of twelve spies who believed that Israel could in fact take this land with God's help. Even in old age Caleb displays his courage and trust in God by accepting the prize of a piece of land where the Anakites, the giants, still are strong, saying, "the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." Then in just a couple verses of chapter 17 we find Zelophehad's daughters (he had no sons) receiving an inheritance alongside their male cousins, demonstrating early on that women have a significant place and role in the story of God's people. It's not all unrelenting patriarchy. Overall, the theme of inheritance has great significance for us as Christians. The entry into and possession of the Promised Land is a type and sign of our reception of our salvation. As we continue into the Easter season, we can reflect that just as God won victories and a place for His people in Joshua's day, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ He won victory and a place in His Kingdom for all who believe. The New Testament takes up the Old Testament language of inheritance and applies it to the promises we have as Christians. Which means there is one tack we probably ought not take in reading and interpreting Joshua 13-19. It is not a mandate for a continued possession of Palestinian geography by the current nation of Israel. The New Testament says very little about continued possession of the literal "land" by God's people. Hebrews 11:9-10, 13-16 says just the opposite. God's promises of a "place" for His people are fulfilled in the coming of the Kingdom through Jesus Christ. God's people inherit their place in Him as that Kingdom is realized in their lives wherever they live. In fact, a careful reading of these chapters of Joshua displays a diversity within the original fulfillment of the land promise. The inheritances of the different tribes, clans and families vary in size and location and in difficulty of appropriation. The little side stories about Caleb and the daughters of Zelophehad and the spiritual inheritance of the Levites all show that there is a basic unity of the nation which works out in tribal and local diversities of various sorts. What a wonderful type of the present Church throughout the world! Despite an incredible variety of expressions and practices, there is an overarching unity among God's people, a unity which has both some practical outworking currently and a fulfillment which is hoped for when the Kingdom is ultimately complete. Israel's varied and diverse spread throughout the land at the end of Joshua's campaign, while still remaining one people, shows us a picture of the Church's spread throughout the world while remaining one in Christ. So there's more in these chapters than appears at first glance. Now I just have to figure out how to get it all into one sermon. Your comments, as always, are welcome. | |||
Friday, 02 April 2010 | |||
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The Eighth Day | |||
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The web is a curse and a blessing. I've been surfing trying to substantiate the apparent consensus that some of the church fathers referred to Sunday and to Easter as the "eighth day of creation." There is a fairly clear statement to that effect in the Epistle of Barnabas (purportedly written by the guy in Acts but likely not, still very early somewhere 70-130 AD). And here's a quotation from Athanasius: "The Sabbath was the end of the the first creation, the Lord's day was the beginning of the second, in which he renewed and restored the old in the same way as he prescribed that they should formerly observe the Sabbath as a memorial of the end of the first things, so we honor the Lord's day as being the memorial of the new creation." On the web it all gets mixed up in debates about Sabbath keeping and whether Christians should observe on Sunday or Saturday. For those interested in the fathers on Sunday worship, here's a pretty good link. But abstracting from all the debate, there seems to be a rich vein of thought in the idea that creation began again in the Resurrection of Jesus, as Athanasius says. Our sermon text for Easter from the Old Testament Isaiah 65:17-2 (we will also read the Gospel from Luke 24!) sounds that theme of a new creation in ancient Hebrew terms of material prosperity, long life, and peace. The fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in the Lord's Resurrection shows how the coming of Jesus took up all that is in the Old Testament and brought it to greater and deeper fulfillment than the prophets themselves saw. Isaiah sees the new creation, the new heavens and new earth. But the best he can picture is long human life spans, God's people living as long as trees do in verse 22. But the raising of Jesus brings the promise of an eternal resurrected life in that new world which God will create. Isaiah also foretells the swift and immediate answer to all prayers in verse 24, "Before they call I will answer, while they are still speaking I will hear." Yet the coming of Jesus and the Christian hope expressed in Revelation 21 is even richer than a God who always hears and answers immediately when we call. In Jesus we have a God who will be present with us and among us forever. Easter is the beginning of all that, definitely the eighth day of creation. My prayer is that this Easter might be a new beginning for anyone who longs as Isaiah did in verses 17-19 to forget "the former things," the weeping and crying and loss that is so much a part of this life and this creation. May the hope of the risen Lord lift us out of that old life into His new day. May His new creation begin in us. | |||
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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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