Thanksgiving Preview

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. -- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

My daughter has requested, apparently, that I pray and say a few words during her Thanksgiving celebration day after tomorrow.   This is the preview; it's pretty simple and obvious.

If we look around at the world today, from Iran and the Middle East to China and other foreign affair disasters-in-waiting, from the impending collapse of the financial markets to the unemployment rate and health insurance or to the gangrenous stench in popular culture as personified by people from Miley Cyrus to Lance Armstrong, Oprah Winfrey to Obama, we have to wonder how we can be thankful for these circumstances.

As you already know, though, we are not called to give thanks for, but to give thanks in all circumstances.  Not everything that has happened to us this year is good.  Not everything that will happen next year will be welcomed.  Yet despite the trials we face, we may rejoice for God is working constantly and ceaselessly on our behalf.  Jesus says in John 16:33, In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. 

While we are troubled, while we face the unknown and the sometimes dreadful, we ought to pray at all times.  Prayer, as someone said, it the acknowledgement that we do not have all the answers.  In turning to the Lord in prayer we admit our dependence upon Him and thank Him for being with us and in us. 

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.  For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield. (Psalm 5:11-12)

I am sure those Pilgrims who enjoyed the plenty of that first harvest would understand.  They had faced grave difficulties.  Many had suffered and died, and more trials lay ahead.  Not doubt the future seemed uncertain, perhaps even dark.  Yet as strangers in this strange land, the Lord prepared a table for them.  They could rejoice and give thanks that He had seen them through this far. 

When we gather at our tables, let us be thankful, not only for the bounty and the blessings but for the One who provides.  And if the feast be scant with few to share, give thanks and fill thy plate with joy knowing that the God on the mountain is still God in the valley. 

Bummer of a Birthmark -- Samson, Part 3

And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.”  And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. – Judges 15:7-8

These days the United States has to fight what are called “asymmetrical” wars.  It is somewhat confusing to call them wars at all.  These are not defined battles over land masses by uniformed combatants.  Identifying the enemy and the objective is often difficult.  The distinction between combatants and non-combatants is unclear.   The same is true with us when it comes to spiritual warfare, and Samson’s troubles with the Philistines typify our own.

Samson did not clearly understand that he was in a war.  From his perspective, he was just going about life, wanting to get married and raise a family with a little Philistine hottie.  After his disrupted wedding feast, the girl’s father had given her in marriage to another man thinking that Samson had decided she no longer pleased him.  When Samson returned for her and found out the situation had changed, he avenged himself upon the Philistines by setting fire to their grain fields and olive groves.

This was strictly a personal feud, Samson thought.  He was not striking a blow for the liberation of his nation.  He was just mad about losing his wife.  He did not consider the larger implications of his actions.  He did not see himself as leading a rebellion or harassing the enemy of his people.  His goal was vengeance, an evening of the score.  The Philistines, however, took it differently.  Upon learning that Samson – still considered the son-in-law of his former bride’s father – had perpetrated the destruction of their property, the Philistines exacted their revenge.  They put the woman and her family to death by fire.  This act led Samson to swear he would have his revenge. 

It might seem foolish to us for Samson to think that his actions would not provoke further retaliation to the point of his saying, … and after that I will quit.  At the very beginning our struggle was initiated:  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15).  Like Samson, we may think we can walk away from trouble, but that is not how it works.  In the world you will have tribulation, Jesus promised us. 

The promise of peace and joy is for the heart, independent of circumstances.  No one who in any way goes about the Lord’s business should expect anything other than constant harassment and attacks from the enemy.  

Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.  Being born from above means that we are targeted -- that we have, like poor Hal, a bullseye painted on us.  As long as Samson left his hair uncut, he was empowered by God, but it was also a red flag waved at the enemy, an open taunt to the adversary. 

I don’t remember signing up for this.  For some reason, they didn’t spend a whole lot of time on this subject in Sunday School.  Perhaps I was absent or dozing that day.  I have offered my resignation several times, but it has, apparently, been rejected.  And when your position is surrounded by a vindictive force hell-bent on your destruction and humiliation, desertion isn’t much of an option lest one end up eyeless in Gaza, as Huxley said.  The positive alternative is to cling to God’s promise that the trial will not be beyond our ability to endure.  (Seriously, I am not that tough.)  There is, though, no retreat, no holding the fort, no truce. 

I think my confusion might come from the truth that Christ has been victorious over all the power of the enemy.  Through the Holy Spirit, I am able to participate in that victory.  In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe there is a scene after Aslan’s death and resurrection where He goes into the “trophy room” of the witch’s fortress and quickens all the creatures turned to stone.  They do not go on a picnic.  Instead they rush into the battle.  We are given life and power to fight.  To be partakers of Christ’s victory means to follow Him into battle.  As Rick noted in a comment a couple of days ago, the crucifixion of Christ is eternal, as is His resurrection, as is His victory.

When we receive the new and eternal life – the only kind God has to give us – we are released from bondage and enter in as combatants to that eternal struggle.  As Christ overcame, so we must overcome through Him and in Him.    

Pop Quiz

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:4-7

A certain level of physical satisfaction is fairly easy to achieve these days in most developed countries. Mental and emotional satisfaction is not quite so easy. We see people striving and struggling, not to be filled with food and decently clothed, but to fulfill an elusive, ephemeral vision that promises happiness. Were he to stand on Wall Street today, I wonder if Paul would say to us as he did to the Athenians, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” A life insurance salesman who worked a territory somewhere southeast of Dallas told me that he had trouble selling in a certain area. He said if the men there had a trailer house on a couple of acres, a pickup, and a bass boat, they were satisfied. I actually admire that kind of simple approach to life on the physical level. While knowing when we have enough is good, we can be assured that Jesus is not going to leave us either in mere material contentment or in pursuit of the wrong goal. The early church preached that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God”.

The idea of entering the kingdom through tribulation is also reflected in John 16:33 where Jesus says: In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. He is not talking just about great world-shattering cataclysmic events – though those can and do happen. He is not necessarily talking about our being persecuted for our faith in Christ, though that, too, is promised to us. He is saying that some days your car won’t start. The baby will have a rash. The dog will eat your last bagel. The boss will have PMS. The lawnmower will break when you start to cut the grass. You will spill an overpriced macchiato caldo down the front of your new Egyptian cotton pinpoint shirt. God is in the business of messing up our satisfaction when we are satisfied with anything less than Him. This is the negative aspect.

Paul tells us the positive side in his letter to the church at Philippi quoted above. The Psalmist echoes it as well, saying, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” While it is possible and not unreasonable to interpret that statement as being about material blessings, it is mostly about having God Himself as both the object and source of our satisfaction. He assures us that, if we seek Him we will find Him. If He is the focus of our desire, He will be ours as we are His.

I suppose you could say that I count on Christ to disrupt my life with a little turmoil when I let the wrong things get to the top of the stack. By now I should have learned to check my priorities whenever I find myself getting upset and discontented. This is not to say that even my best efforts to keep God first in my life will prevent troubles large and small from erupting day by day as surely as a pop quiz in history class, but rather that I should know the answer every time because it is always the same: The Lord is at hand.

And, by the way, these pop quizzes count for one hundred percent of your grade.

Wheels, Clown Car, After-Market

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ; for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. – Ephesians 1:3-4a

I am naturally inclined toward too much introspection, subject to bouts of depression, always wondering if I’ve done enough, or enough of the right thing. Coming out of college I had discovered about three ways to self-medicate and suppress this problem. Unfortunately, one was illegal, the second one caused me to fall down a lot, and the third one was a good way to get shot. And, honestly, “finding Jesus” did not help that much. I became a pillar of church – one who was inclined to too much introspection, subject to bouts of depression, always wondering if I had done enough or enough of the right thing, while smiling, singing, and pretending to have it all together. I was about at the point of thinking that maybe the best thing to do was look up Jim, Jack, Johnny, or Jose.

My problem was that I kept asking an inconvenient question: What good is this? All of our efforts and activities as Christians seemed to accomplish very little that I considered good. Either something was going on that I didn’t know about or my understanding of “good” was misguided, or possibly, there really was no point to all this crap at all. If you’ve ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you may recall that Pirsig’s conflicted alter ego Phaedrus encountered a dilemma that left him catatonic. I found myself thinking of Phaedrus a lot. I didn’t go that same direction, but I was in danger of making some very detrimental, irreversible choices.

There is the basic command to “be fruitful and multiple, and replenish the earth”, but once the kids are out of the house, the majority of that job is or should be done. That leaves most of us quite a bit of free time. Working night and day to buy all kinds of cool stuff that you rarely have time to use doesn’t seem too fulfilling. Building another building to house another worship service when most church buildings are mostly empty anyway never made much sense to me -- thus a successful career in ministry did not seem a likely choice.

So, why am I here? I’ve read the Bible a lot since I was a kid when the folks ordered one from Sears and Roebuck with my name stamped on the front. I’ve read Ephesians, especially the first couple of chapters, hundreds of times. Every time I read “He chose us … to be holy and blameless…”, I saw it as something I needed to work on. Yep, I need to be more holy and blameless. Then one day I looked at it and saw it differently. I was chosen to be holy and blameless. Why is that different? It is a state that comes with being “in Christ”. If you choose someone to be in a position – say, Homecoming Queen – she is the Queen. She can’t be more Queen. She can’t be less Queen. In the case of a Homecoming Queen, a person could be a poor choice, but that would not alter her state. I am undoubtedly a bad choice to be holy and blameless, but it’s not my “beauty”, i.e., my Good-ness that is being evaluated. Christ holds that office, and His suitability for it is without question. I am elevated to that position in Him.

My purpose in this world is to inhabit the state of being holy and blameless and let the position work on me. Proverbs 6:23 says: For a commandment is a lamp, teaching is a light, and corrective instructions are the way to life. The law is light by which we can see God’s pure and righteous nature, that we may know Him and understand Him. Beyond that, we when live according to the law – that is, according to His will, in the state of being holy and blameless, we will encounter pressures and forces that reshape us to fit our new state. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. Don’t worry about it. I’ve overcome the world.” I originally took that to mean that I would be delivered from my troubles the more I conformed to God’s will – which isn’t really a bad interpretation. In a sense it is perfectly true. I too long failed to see that it was my being conformed more and more to God’s will that caused my trouble, and that the trouble itself then became the hand of God to shape me to fit that really odd-looking hole in the wall of the Sanctuary. You might say we are not delivered from suffering but are delivered, as sons to our Father, by our suffering and endurance.

The tedious, repetitive drama alternating with chaotic circus that is this life, then, ceases to be meaningless, empty, and futile. The wheel keeps turning, yes, but it is not simply spinning horizontally on a vertical axis. The rubber is meeting the road of time. We’re not wandering in circles – the road goes ever on. We have a map. Our direction is laid out. It may be a wheel on a clown car, but the car is moving. We’re going somewhere after all. All the things and doings that seem to have no point are of value in transforming me, first, and also, possibly, in transforming others -- if not bringing them to the point of seeking transformation. We are being fitted for life in all its fullness, for that time, or timelessness, when the all limitations we have fall away and we stand, on our own, holy and blameless in His sight.