Where were you?

 Perhaps at first glance at the title of this post, you are instantly brought to that popular hymn often sung on Good Friday, which asks the question, where were you when they crucified my Lord? That is a worthy question to answer, but that is not the one that we are looking into today. Instead, we are going to turn way back in time, to what is often thought to be one of the earliest written books of the Bible. All the way back to the time of Job.

Job is an interesting book of the Bible. And our question comes toward the end of the book, when God first speaks to Job. In fact, our question for today is the second question that God asks of Job as Job tries to plead his innocence before God, in the thought that God has been unjust to him. In Job 38:4, God asks Job this question. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

For Job, this question is the culmination of a lengthy conversation that Job had with four of his friends. Briefly, Satan presented himself before God, and God presented Job to Satan as one of his faithful followers. Satan accused God of protecting Job, and that is the only reason Job is faithful. So God grants Satan the ability to take basically everything away from Job. Then, for about 35 chapter, Job and his friends discuss what caused this calamity to come upon him. Job repeatedly stated that he had done nothing wrong, to which his friends continued to reply that God doesn't just do this to someone unless they have grievously sinned against God. Finally, Job gets to the point of saying that God was unjust to bring such calamity upon him, and that is when God finally speaks. And this question begins a series of questions from God directed toward Job.

Now, at first glance, this question may seem to be an easy one for us to consider. After all, we weren't yet in existence when God laid the foundations of the world. The only being in existence at that time was God. He spoke, and our world and universe came into being. No living things existed until a few days into creation, much less mankind, which came on day six. So, no, none of us were there.

However, this question from God to Job strikes a little bit deeper than just that. It has to deal with our idea that we know better than God what is good and right for us to endure. Let's face it, we tend to want our lives to be easy and pain-free. And we tend to think that God should react to us as a loved one does. We don't tend to put our loved ones through pain and suffering. If we did, they would rightly question our love for them. (Yes, we can talk about tough love, but even then, there is a purpose behind it, and that purpose should be expressed, or else it is simply being harsh.)

So this question really is more about where we place ourselves in relation to God, the giver and provider and sustainer of our lives. Do we really know better than God what needs to happen in our lives? Where we there to see His grand design for all things when He created them? No, and that means that, since we cannot have God's view of things, there will be things that happen that make sense to Him that are simply beyond our ability to comprehend and understand. We can look through the Scriptures and see many examples of this. There are times when God allows "bad" things to happen to His people. There are even times when God is the one who designs these "bad" things. Yet, God alone sees the grand picture and the overall design of things. 

So really, this question causes us to ask ourselves, where in my life do I have a difficult time letting God do His thing? Now, right here I think I should say, we may not know the answer to that during our lifetime. God works on a really large scale, so something may happen in our lives that do not have their true impact for a generation or two, or three. God spoke powerfully through Jeremiah, but the likelihood is that Jeremiah did not see the resettlement of the promised land seventy years later. 

Since God works both intimately in our lives and on a grand design that encompasses the whole scope of time and space, it is rare for us to see the full extent of His actions at any given moment. And so, our question for today helps us realize the reality that we are the created and He is the Creator. When things don't make sense to us, it isn't that He can't explain it to us. It's more likely that what He would tell us would go far beyond what we could ever consider. That may not be the most helpful thing to hear in that moment, but it helps us keep the perspective that God knows what He is doing and still cares about us intimately.

Who Do You Say I Am?

 As we continue this series on looking at questions that God asks, which call for an answer, today's brings us to a question Jesus asked of His disciples. "But who do you say that I am?" As our plan, we will first look at the context and then at what this means for us in our lives.

Today's question is recorded in the different Gospel accounts. For our purposes, I will propose reading Luke 9:18-22 to capture the context of the question. Briefly speaking, Luke 9 begins a significant transition for Jesus. Up to this point in Luke's account of Jesus' life, Jesus has been ministering and teaching. Shortly after our brief reading, Jesus goes up on the mountain, is transfigured, and then comes down with His eyes set to go to Jerusalem to pay the price for the redemption of mankind and the initiation of the new creation. So this question comes up at a rather significant time.

Jesus has demonstrated great authority in teaching and in giving signs in the form of miracles. Great crowds are drawn to Him, and as they hear Him, and as they see these signs, these crowds are starting to form an opinion of Jesus and of who He is. Most of these people likely only hear Jesus once or twice, or see a few of His signs. Really, only the disciples get to see a larger picture of Jesus and what He is doing. So Jesus starts off this question with a primer question to the disciples. "Who do the crowds say that I am?"

The disciples give some of the various answers that they have likely heard being uttered among the groups of people coming to see Jesus. These answers show that the people have an idea of who Jesus is, but it doesn't seem to be the most complete. Again, the people haven't seen everything that the disciples have seen. John the Baptist is suggested. Elijah come back to life and performing powerful signs is an idea floated out there. A variety of other prophets is offered.

Then Jesus makes it personal for the disciples. "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter responds with a statement that becomes the rock of Christian confession. You are the Christ of God. We hear an echo of this later in Paul's writings when he writes that whoever confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead will be saved. A strong, powerful statement of faith.

It's a great exercise to look at these questions and to dig into Peter's response. It helps us see Jesus a bit more clearly. However, it also becomes a question that we find ourselves needed to come to grips with in our lives. Who do you say that Jesus is?

This is perhaps one of the larger questions we face as a Christian. Most of us probably have a pretty good answer to that question, at least from an intellectual standpoint. We answer that Jesus is God's Son. We confess that He is the Savior of the world, and that He has forgiven my sins through His life, death and resurrection for me. Though we may not completely understand how, we read that He, the Father, and the Spirit are one God, though three distinct persons, and that Jesus Himself is both fully God and fully human.

The intellectual part of that confession is important, as it demonstrates that we understand God's speaking about Himself to us. Yet, Jesus also has us go beyond that intellectual understanding to speak to our whole self. He is our Redeemer, but that calls for us to consider our lives and from what He is redeeming us. 

So here is a little exercise to help bring this home more. Take the time to actually write out some ways that you would answer Jesus if He asked you this question personally. Yes, write out the intellectual parts of it. But then, dig a little deeper. Ask yourself what this answer means for you. What does your answer say about who you are in relation to Jesus? What areas of life does this cause you to look at a little differently? Are there changes that such an answer calls for? How does this help you grow closer to Jesus?

Who do you say that I am? As you answer that question, I pray that the action of answering may serve to draw you into a deeper relationship with the one of whom you are speaking.

Questions God Asks

 Over the next several posts, I am planning to put forth questions that God/Jesus asks that, in a sense, go unanswered in their context. I will encourage you to read the Scripture reference to get the context of the question, though I will try to provide a summary for the benefit of the reader. Then, we will move into how that same question may apply to us today, given that we live in a different context, but still have the questions fit in our lives. Hopefully this series will give you opportunity to reflect, much like God intended for the initial hearers to reflect upon His questions.

For today, we are looking at Luke 7:36-50. For brief context, Jesus is invited to Simon the Pharisee's house for dinner. While dining, a sinful woman comes up and begins to wipe Jesus' feet with her hair and tears. Simon wonders to himself if Jesus knows what kind of woman this is, to which Jesus responds first with a parable and then with our question. "Do you see this woman?"

Do you see this woman? For Simon, it seems he saw a reputation rather than a woman. Perhaps he had heard of her misdeeds from others, or maybe even from her. Undoubtedly, her reputation was known in that city. If Simon's response was anything like others, the person of the woman had gotten lost beneath the clothing of her reputation. Now, to be sure, we aren't told of her specific sins, but those sins seemed to define her in the eyes of others rather than her personhood. That is what leads Jesus to ask Simon this question, one which goes unanswered.

To bring this question to bear in our lives, what occasions have you had where you have seen a person and their clothing or their reputation rather than the person? We all have those individuals that we have come to define by what they do or have done, or how they dress. For example, we see the person holding the sign by the traffic light, and we see clothing rather than the person. We have no idea of who that person is, or what their motivation might be for standing there. It could be driven purely by need, or it may be an attempt to have others provide for them so that they don't have to. It may be that they have been unable to hold down a job for a variety of reasons, or they may truly not have a place to lay their heads. We see the clothing and the sign, but rarely do we see the person. (Shoot, for the most part, we probably even avoid eye contact simply because to do so makes us uncomfortable.)

Do you see this woman? This man? This child? To get to know the person beneath the clothing or the reputation means that we have to invest in that person. For Simon, it would have meant finding out what led the woman to have a sinful reputation. Perhaps if he had done so, it would have led to compassion toward her, something that he might not rather have had to face. Compassion always calls for a price to be paid, even if it is only extra time, or perhaps a bit of heartache toward the person. And that may be why we don't want to answer this question. Do you see this woman, or this man, or this child, or this senior, or this person who dresses differently, or thinks differently, or holds to a different political party? We just don't want to have to have our way of thinking be required to change.

Yet, that is the very reason that Jesus puts this question there for us to wrestle with. It brings up our sinful tendency to avoid facing others who are not like us, or around whom we are uncomfortable. It challenges us to change the way we think and act (the biblical word for this is repent), and most of us avoid that if at all possible. Yet, to grow in maturity as a disciple of Jesus, we simply must face questions like this head-on, and address the issues they raise in our lives.

So for your exercise, think of one person in your life of whom Jesus could ask, Do you see this woman/man/child? Challenge yourself to go beneath the clothing or reputation, and actually see the person. You might be moved by compassion, and might just have your heart changed for the better.

Significant Others

 You are probably familiar with the phrase "significant others." It has come to stand for someone of great significance in your life, with a higher emphasis on someone with whom you share your life. It has been used in place of words like spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or fiance, and carries with it a connotation of some kind of commitment. The other person is "significant" in your life. They matter. What they think matters. What they do matters. You relish having them around.

This phrase is reserved for that special person close to you. Most people that would use the phrase likely wouldn't ever speak of "significant others", with an emphasis on making it plural. Why is that? Well, the more you add that are supposed to be significant, the less significant each one becomes, or at least that is the idea. There is a whole realm of difference in significance to telling one person, "You are the one for me," and telling two different people, "You each are one of the ones for me."

I believe that is why we have such a tough time really relating to what Paul writes in Philippians 2:3-4. "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." For most people, if we can find one person in life for whom we can put our interests aside and look to theirs, that is challenge enough. Introducing others into that equation really seems to open the door for us to be taken advantage of time and time again. If we are always looking to the good of others, when will good happen for us? 

Believe me, I get this. It's not easy to set aside our own wants and desires to seek to do good for others, especially when that comes at a price for ourselves. Counting others as more significant than ourselves seems foolish. It seems like we have little dignity for ourselves, and there is no room to protect ourselves from others. And in this world where there are broken people who have fallen into sin by their nature, that is most certainly the case.

Yet, I challenge you to consider something for a moment. Let's look first to the "significant other" that you have in your life, if God has given you one. If that person lived putting your interests above their own, and then you did the same toward them, when would either of you actually be lacking anything? If you went out of your way to please the other, to do things for the benefit of the other, and knew that the other was doing the exact same thing for you, what would be the danger? Wouldn't you instead be reveling in how much each of you cared for the other, and marveling at the expressions of care you were privileged to share?

Yes, what Paul writes about here is on the idealistic side. It's the perfection that will only be found in the new creation, when Jesus makes all things new. And yet, as God's re-created people, we aren't redeemed to simply wait for that new creation before we start doing this. We are called to do it now, and to do it even when it doesn't make sense. Yes, in a world of broken sinful people, we will need to be on our guard and to act wisely, but we aren't exempt from doing this. The Spirit did inspire this for a reason. And yes, we still uphold the order of creation that God has given to us as we do that. We realize that we must speak of what God does not call for as well as that for which He does call. Yet, even as we do that, we do so as if the other was of greater significance than ourselves. 

This makes all other people "significant others" in the eyes of a Christian. We truly will never run out of opportunities to show this type of care and concern for others, and will miss far more opportunities than we could ever imagine. Yet, my hope is that reading this helps you notice a few more in your life, so that you can grow in seeing those "significant others" that God is placing in your life right now.

Living in Outrage

This past weekend I was not really on the news much at all.  So this morning, when I logged in to my usual news "sources", I discovered that there was some kind of incident in Washington D.C. between a Catholic school student and a Native American veteran.  While I am very late (in modern day standards) in coming into this story, I think it worth highlighting a few things.

First, many of the initial reactions seem to be over an image or two that were captured of the young man and the Native American veteran, with the young man having what could be a smirk on his face while the Native American looked to be trying to get past him. Of course, a picture if worth a thousand words, and several million seem to have been written about this picture.  As the day went by, it seems that video emerged.  Short snippets seemed to reinforce the initial impressions, that the young man (wearing a red Make America Great Again cap) was being racist.  Of course, in the day and age we live in, social media and media outlets in general erupted in outrage (all unbeknownst to me, since I wasn't on the news or social media pretty much all weekend).

Then, the more full story seemed to come to light.  Several hours of video coverage show yet another group of verified racists taunting the high school students, and then, from the video, it seems that it was the Native American who first approached the young Catholic student.  Further watching the video shows no violence coming to light, and in the end, both sides end up walking away from the situation.  In other words, nothing came of a situation that, truthfully, could have been a place of escalation.

In the aftermath, the student and his family have received death threats and the like, and many are even to the point where they seem to justify violence toward the young man and his family.

Okay, this post is not actually about the story, but about how easy it can be to find ourselves outraged over things.  One of the professors as the seminary I attended has written an article that there really is no such thing as righteous anger, though we may wish it to be.  Anger is a sign that there is something amiss.  If you are angered when you see a child mistreated or abused, it is a sign that there is something wrong.  You could say that anger is a side effect of sin in the world, perhaps a rightful one, but because it exists due to sin, it isn't something that we were created to deal with.

The thing is, so many seem to be outraged, and looking for reasons to vent their rage at perceived injustices.  And this flies in the face of our meaning to the eighth commandment from Luther's Small Catechism.  In the wording that I remember from growing up, we are to "put the best construction on everything." The current wording for it is to "explain everything in the kindest way." This means that we don't look to be outraged over things, but instead look to see if perhaps there are things going on that we are not aware of.  We don't look to tear down, but to build up.  If there is a sin or an issue, we address it, but from the standpoint of doing so in love, not in anger.

It actually takes a lot of energy to remain angry at someone or something.  I will admit that I have tried it.  It's actually easier and less energy consuming to look for the good in the situation than to cling to anger.  Again, it doesn't mean that we fail to address issues that need to be addressed.  However, we do so with a light toward reconciliation and restoration rather than anger and to get our way.

Rarely is anger constructive.  It's so easy, and truthfully it often feels good to express our anger.  Yet, as Christians, God rightly calls us to consider our anger, especially in the light that we are redeemed children of His through Jesus.  When anger hits us, we are faced with the opportunity to live out God's baptismal grace to us, or to react and vent.  Needless to say, considering this will drive us all the more to the cross of Jesus, where our sin of anger (and all others) has been covered and the price paid.

Advent Reflections: The Image of the Stump and Branch

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. Isaiah 11:1

While many North American Christian churches don't make much out of images and pictures, the season of Advent is actually filled with them.  Sure, we get our share of words that don't really have any kind of picture with them (joy, peace, hope and the like), but we also get a good number of pictures like this one from Isaiah.  The stump of Jesse having a single shoot that will spring forth from it and bear fruit.

There are a number of things about this image worthy of our reflection. First, I simply want to encourage you to picture this in your mind.  Perhaps it evokes something from your past, where you have seen a stump of a tree with a branch growing up out of it. Picture it in your mind.  Think about what you are seeing there.

Perhaps in your image you see the stump. It's cut off, relatively close to the ground.  It could be newly cut down or perhaps is weathered and aged. Yet, no matter how you picture it, you cannot deny one thing: it has been cut down.  No longer is a living, vibrant tree found there.  The promise and hope of life is gone. All that is left is a sad reminder of what used to stand there, strong, tall and powerful.

Yet, even from this dead stump, there still exists the hope of life.  That's what the shoot indicates.  It is fresh.  Perhaps in your image you see newly formed leaves, budding with a vibrant green filled with life. Life emerges where death had been found. That life grows, reaching upward and becoming strong and vibrant, finally getting to the point where it bears fruit once again.

That is the image that God gave to His people through Isaiah. There are several interesting things with this reading, as well. First is the use of the name Jesse.  While the promise of an everlasting ruler had been given to David, here Isaiah mentions David's father as the stump.  It's a reminder that God isn't impressed with our greatness, but with humility.  Jesse pales in comparison to his son David, and yet, the stump bears Jesse's name.

Another thing is that this word spoken by Isaiah came while there was still a descendant of David sitting on the throne in Jerusalem.  Isaiah lived in the time to see the northern kingdom of Israel conquered and marched off into exile, but he was not around at the time when the Babylonian army conquered Judah and Jerusalem. Isaiah spoke God's Word, that the kingly line would be cut off, appearing dead.  Yet, even death would not deter God from fulfilling His promise.  A shoot would arise from that stump, and that shoot would grow to become a branch that would bear fruit.

As you reflect on this image, what do you find in your life that God may be saying needs to be cut off and die?  What new life is God working to raise up from the death of that?  As you reflect, may you also be reminded that God's Spirit is at work to bear that fruit in your life.

Advent Reflections: Peace

This time of year, the word peace makes its way around, especially in Christian circles.  We hear of Jesus being the promised "Prince of Peace", who came to bring "peace on earth, good will to men". In the hectic nature of this season, peace is also something that we find ourselves longing after.  With the pressures of gifts, of work, of family, and perhaps travel, we long for peace.  Even going to the store, hearing the ringing of the Salvation Army bells adding their trill to the cacophony of noise can make us long for peace and quiet.

Yet, do we truly know what we are asking for when we ask for peace?  Do we truly understand the peace that Jesus came to bring into this world?  I would dare say not.  On one occasion, Jesus made the statement, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." And that may strike us profoundly to hear Jesus, of all people, saying that. 

How would you define peace if you were asked?  Most of us might tend to lean toward the absence of conflict.  People are getting along.  When you hear people talk about peace on earth, that's usually what they mean.  The nations aren't actively seeking to hurt each other.  There aren't wars going on.  People are tolerating each other.  And we then bring that same meaning into what we believe Jesus came to bring.  An absence of conflict.  "We all just get along".

I would say that Jesus says that statement because that's not the kind of peace that He had come to bring.  Sure, the absence of conflict would be a mark of a perfect world, but then, Jesus didn't come and eradicate sin in this world.  He came to deal with its end result and repercussions.  He didn't come to remove conflict, but to deal with the thing that is at the heart of conflict.  He came to bring restoration to things to be the way that they were intended to be from the creation.  And the beginning point for that restoration would be to pay the price of guilt.

It sounds almost like a Christian cliche to say it, but Jesus came to make things right between the creation and God first and foremost, so that then, when the new creation comes into its being, we can be welcomed into it.  If things haven't been made right ahead of time, then the new creation would be empty and, therefore, pointless.  The peace Jesus came to bring is not merely the absence of conflict, but the removal of everything separating God from His creation.  It is much deeper and more profound than we could possibly imagine.

So as you reflect on peace this Advent season, I encourage you to consider obstacles that may be present in the relationships you share with others.  In the reflection of your Christian faith, how can you work to remove those obstacles and grow the peace that can more fully exist in those relationships?  That's the living out of this Christian peace in our lives here and now.