Human history is replete with cycles of ominous political or environmental circumstances attended with prophets confidently predicting the end of all things. We witnessed this phenomenon most recently as 1999 clocked over to 2000, and it appears we are witnessing it again. Logic says that at some point (astronomers tell us that in 2 billion years when the sun consumes half of our solar system, including the earth!) the prognosticators will be right. History tells us that there is always a crowd that will be drawn to these prophets, even when they are wrong (when the date passes peacefully and the world continues).
I read an interesting book about this phenomenon a couple of years ago – Michael Shermer’s “Why People Believe Weird Things”. His answer: Because we want to. There must be something comforting about knowing how or when it all ends, even if that means trading away a future. Shermer devotes a chapter to apocalyptic prophets and their followers over the last two centuries in America and Europe. I was particularly amazed at his finding that when the prophet was proved wrong, his followers typically hung in there with him when he announced that he had made a miscalculation and adjusted the end date to another time in the not-too-distant future.
I have always taken my cue from Acts 1:6-8.
“So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, "Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?" He replied, "The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere-- in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (NLT)
Jesus’ authoritative “[These end times] are not for you to know” followed by his command to tell people about him everywhere seem straightforward enough to me. Getting all wrapped up in predicting and worrying about “those dates and times” is an age old human temptation Jesus addressed in the Sermon on the Mount:
32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. (Mat 6:32-34 NLT)
That said, since our own scriptures include sections of apocalyptic literature, I have a theory about why – which has little to do with knowing or predicting things that Jesus tells us are not for us to know. I believe that the apocalyptic stories and visions are not about the future, which, thanks to God’s gift of free will, is an ever-unfolding tapestry of our making as co-creators with God. I believe that these stories and vision are about our own time – our present. They are a warning, to be sure, of the probable end points of a trajectory of our present actions and behaviors, perhaps. But I think that even more, they are a way of understanding what is happening now, and how we might make better choices, by adopting a perspective of one who looks back toward our present from one possible, nightmarish future.
I believe that apocalyptic literature is like the game we play with ourselves at times when we imagine what a person from the future might say to us – the advice they might give to us, given what they know about the consequences of the decisions we make now. One key element of apocalyptic literature lost on the false prophets who use it as a scare tactic for gullible believers unfamiliar with the teachings of Jesus involves the triumphant way in which God’s kingdom rule prevails. If we have faith in such a future, we can live in hope that this will be true regardless of the many ways in which our senses tell us otherwise – and make choices as if it were already true. So ironically, apocalyptic is not about the end of all things, but a new beginning of hope in the midst of chaos – it’s a way for the blind to see.
In our upcoming worship series: “Letters from the Future: Daniel’s Apocalypse” we hope to explore the many messages of hope from this apocalyptic message written in the between times of the Bible, when the prophets were silent and shortly (a century or two) before Jesus’ birth. The book of Daniel looks both to the past (the exiles in Babylon) and to the future (to a time when the Ptolemies no longer desecrate the Temple and Jewish culture. The upshot is that the people whose lives are enriched by the stories are empowered to live in their own time with a renewed sense of God’s rule in history. And in that sense, they (and we) create a new future by the way they live in the present.
In addition to the worship series, I’m offering a Sunday morning Bible study linking scripture texts with a series of apocalyptic movies from the past five years, starting October 17. If there is enough interest, I’d be happy to offer the course during the week as well. I pray that looking at these tales of a dark and terrible future will enable us to live now as if our lives and the choices we make have significance in creating a new future – a future where all people recognize and rejoice in the Kingdom of God drawing near to us all.
Peace,
Bo
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Holy Week 2010 - A Resurrection of the Body of Christ
During this season of Lent, I've been consistently invited into sacred spaces of waiting - with people who are dying to this life (and wondering without knowing what happens next), within silence together with other pilgrims not searching for answers but content with stillness together, experiencing worship itself as a pilgrimage (and enjoying the journey together), and waiting in the confusing timelessness of the hope of healing from an injury.
So much of this waiting is new to me - though it shouldn't be - that it feels in many ways like a new birth. This season of Lent, I have with the earth shaken off my slumber - even as my (limping) pace has slowed to allow time for silent waiting in the presence of God (?) that defies any attempt to contain or explain it (or even to claim it). As the earth leans again into the warming rays of the Springtime sunlight, I have been reminded everywhere I turn that while I can participate in Spring, I cannot hasten its arrival. So, too, with God.
Lent this year has been a journey of waiting - but as I have slowed my spiritual pace, I have begun to notice many things that escaped my attention before. As I have settled into places of tension in my life, and in the life of my family and church community, I have found that submitting to the death of my attempts to flee or to relieve this tension in destructive ways has given rise to the realization that this tension will not kill me - it becomes a catalyst for creativity and abundant life.
I have begun to see the community of people gathered at Skyline for the treasure we are - by no means perfect but holding onto a vision of God's love for all people with passionate intensity and faith. Seeds that have been nurtured in the warmth of the tension we have experienced for several years now are beginning to sprout and to give some indication of the potential explosive growth in grace and love through our life together: in reaching out in love in many tangible ways to people in our surrounding community (people searching for sanctuaries of wellness, healing and recreation for the body and the soul).
Jesus, who invites us to this place of tension and creativity, paid with his life for his refusal to bow to the pretend gods of convention and compromise in his day. Yet he continues to invite us all to follow him into a realm of God's presence and power breaking in on all who are willing to wake from our contented sleep into a vision of a world where peace, love and merciful justice prevail. And because that vision conflicts constantly with our world and with our lives, to walk into this vision is to walk into unbearable tension. Jesus reminds us with his life and with his death that this tension cannot kill or silence us - only our fear of it.
Love binds us - binds the poles of tension to relate them if not to reconcile (or to remove) them. In this love we live and move and have our being. Jesus reveals this Love to us and calls us to life in Love - Love that birthed us into existence, and that now calls us into Life in all its Abundance. Follow me, he calls relentlessly and patiently. To the cross, where you will surely die to a false notion of your self-hood that hopelessly traps you in a prison of your own making. Follow me through the cross and beyond, to a place of existence beyond yourself - to a place of being for others, of communion in that Body that transcends all dividing walls and participates in an ongoing ministry of reconciliation for all people - for all creation.
So don't let's rush too quickly into Sunday. How can we ever hope to interpret the emptiness we will find there unless we have watched and waited with Jesus, who knows and shows us to be the Way where he is going? It's Wednesday, time for silence. And tomorrow the time of our betrayal will come. Yet he will not refuse us a place at his Table, knowing what it means to dip bread together with us in a common bowl. Then the howling crowd, and the terrible silence of Friday afternoon, when he will have to die alone because we will have deserted him (not wanting to walk into that pain). And a Sabbath that forces us to rest in (an uneasy) peace. And then (we know) another week will begin. A dawning of a new creation as the Spirit hovers fitfully yet purposefully over the face of the deep darkness.
Let there be Light. And he will shine in us.
So much of this waiting is new to me - though it shouldn't be - that it feels in many ways like a new birth. This season of Lent, I have with the earth shaken off my slumber - even as my (limping) pace has slowed to allow time for silent waiting in the presence of God (?) that defies any attempt to contain or explain it (or even to claim it). As the earth leans again into the warming rays of the Springtime sunlight, I have been reminded everywhere I turn that while I can participate in Spring, I cannot hasten its arrival. So, too, with God.
Lent this year has been a journey of waiting - but as I have slowed my spiritual pace, I have begun to notice many things that escaped my attention before. As I have settled into places of tension in my life, and in the life of my family and church community, I have found that submitting to the death of my attempts to flee or to relieve this tension in destructive ways has given rise to the realization that this tension will not kill me - it becomes a catalyst for creativity and abundant life.
I have begun to see the community of people gathered at Skyline for the treasure we are - by no means perfect but holding onto a vision of God's love for all people with passionate intensity and faith. Seeds that have been nurtured in the warmth of the tension we have experienced for several years now are beginning to sprout and to give some indication of the potential explosive growth in grace and love through our life together: in reaching out in love in many tangible ways to people in our surrounding community (people searching for sanctuaries of wellness, healing and recreation for the body and the soul).
Jesus, who invites us to this place of tension and creativity, paid with his life for his refusal to bow to the pretend gods of convention and compromise in his day. Yet he continues to invite us all to follow him into a realm of God's presence and power breaking in on all who are willing to wake from our contented sleep into a vision of a world where peace, love and merciful justice prevail. And because that vision conflicts constantly with our world and with our lives, to walk into this vision is to walk into unbearable tension. Jesus reminds us with his life and with his death that this tension cannot kill or silence us - only our fear of it.
Love binds us - binds the poles of tension to relate them if not to reconcile (or to remove) them. In this love we live and move and have our being. Jesus reveals this Love to us and calls us to life in Love - Love that birthed us into existence, and that now calls us into Life in all its Abundance. Follow me, he calls relentlessly and patiently. To the cross, where you will surely die to a false notion of your self-hood that hopelessly traps you in a prison of your own making. Follow me through the cross and beyond, to a place of existence beyond yourself - to a place of being for others, of communion in that Body that transcends all dividing walls and participates in an ongoing ministry of reconciliation for all people - for all creation.
So don't let's rush too quickly into Sunday. How can we ever hope to interpret the emptiness we will find there unless we have watched and waited with Jesus, who knows and shows us to be the Way where he is going? It's Wednesday, time for silence. And tomorrow the time of our betrayal will come. Yet he will not refuse us a place at his Table, knowing what it means to dip bread together with us in a common bowl. Then the howling crowd, and the terrible silence of Friday afternoon, when he will have to die alone because we will have deserted him (not wanting to walk into that pain). And a Sabbath that forces us to rest in (an uneasy) peace. And then (we know) another week will begin. A dawning of a new creation as the Spirit hovers fitfully yet purposefully over the face of the deep darkness.
Let there be Light. And he will shine in us.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Notes for Luke 7:36-50
Key Verse: Luke 7:47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”
Of all the Gospels, Luke’s account most troubles those of us who consider ourselves to be among the privileged/blessed caste of society. When young Mary sings her “Magnificat” to her cousin, Elizabeth, she celebrates that with the birth of Jesus (and God’s calling to her to give birth to the Messiah), God “has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed” (Luke 1:51-53). He has Jesus preaching not on a Mount, as in Matthew 5-8, but on a level plain—where Luke includes not only the blessings for the poor but a series of woes (curses) for the rich, well-fed and comfortable (Luke 6:17 and 24-26).
Luke surprises us. Where Matthew (5:32) allows men to divorce their wives in cases of sexual immorality, Luke (16:18) makes no allowance for such an exception. Only Luke includes women among the disciples of Jesus—and names them (8:1-3). Matthew repeats Mark’s story of Jesus’ invitation to the young man to “go, and sell your possessions and give to the poor” in order to inherit/obtain eternal life (Mark 10:21; Matthew 19:21). But in Luke, Jesus invites the disciples and everyone in his “little flock” to do this (Luke 12:33). And in Acts 2:44-45, Doctor Luke reports that the post-resurrection followers did not think that Jesus was merely speaking metaphorically!
Luke records more parables (28—compared to 23 in Matthew and 9 in Mark)—and more parables not found in the other Gospels (15!). These include challenging teachings of Jesus that stretch self-proclaimed insiders to comprehend a larger and more inclusive Kingdom of Heaven: the Good Samaritan (10:30-37), the Rich Fool (12:16-21), the Great Banquet (14:16-24), the Lost (prodigal) Son (15:11-32), the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31), and the Pharisee and tax collector (18:10-14).
Luke alone begins Jesus’ ministry with his rejection in Nazareth, when he read from the scroll of Isaiah and proclaimed the ancient prophecy that “the Spirit of the Lord had anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor... freedom for the prisoners (and oppressed), and recovery of sight for the blind” had been fulfilled as they heard him read it (Luke 4:14-21). And in chapter 24, the Gentile doctor Luke, who traveled with Paul on his missionary journey, concludes his Gospel with a post-resurrection story of how two unknown disciples encountered the risen Lord Jesus when they invited a stranger to join them for supper (Luke 24).
In 7:36-50, Luke profoundly edits the story of Jesus’ anointing found in Mark 14:3-9, Matthew 26:6-13, and John 12:1-8. He completely alters the location, time, and characters, retaining a bare skeleton (reclined, woman, alabaster vial of perfume, Jesus, denarii, and anointed), into which Luke inserts a story similar to a parable found in Matthew (18:23-24) but not Mark, the theme of which (in Matthew) is: “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”.
Luke’s version compares the reception Jesus receives from his Pharisee host and a “woman in the city who was a sinner” who crashes the party with perfume and tears (in a story that parallels the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector in Luke 18:10-14. Jesus reproves the Pharisee for the inhospitality that reveals the poverty of his love, and blesses the woman whose faith (and grateful response to God’s forgiveness) has saved her.
The Pharisee mocks Jesus as a poor prophet for refusing to treat the woman with contempt. Yet Jesus, who has in the previous passage commented on the character of the prophet John, proves by his interpretation of what their respective actions demonstrate about the state of their hearts that he is indeed a true prophet, worthy of our welcome (see Luke 4:24) with water, a kiss, and anointing oil.
Questions for Reflection
If you invited Jesus to your home for dinner, what kind of welcome would you give the Son of God? Who would you have the most difficult time accepting as a party crasher in desperate love with Jesus?
What sin in your life can you offer to God for forgiveness and healing? Can you imagine what your life would be like if you accepted God’s invitation to be free? What do you think Jesus would prophecy about you? About Skyline Church?
Luke loves to tell stories about dinner parties that bring together unlikely guests and nourish them all with blessings. When have you attended such a dinner? What happened? How did you encounter Jesus?
Of all the Gospels, Luke’s account most troubles those of us who consider ourselves to be among the privileged/blessed caste of society. When young Mary sings her “Magnificat” to her cousin, Elizabeth, she celebrates that with the birth of Jesus (and God’s calling to her to give birth to the Messiah), God “has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed” (Luke 1:51-53). He has Jesus preaching not on a Mount, as in Matthew 5-8, but on a level plain—where Luke includes not only the blessings for the poor but a series of woes (curses) for the rich, well-fed and comfortable (Luke 6:17 and 24-26).
Luke surprises us. Where Matthew (5:32) allows men to divorce their wives in cases of sexual immorality, Luke (16:18) makes no allowance for such an exception. Only Luke includes women among the disciples of Jesus—and names them (8:1-3). Matthew repeats Mark’s story of Jesus’ invitation to the young man to “go, and sell your possessions and give to the poor” in order to inherit/obtain eternal life (Mark 10:21; Matthew 19:21). But in Luke, Jesus invites the disciples and everyone in his “little flock” to do this (Luke 12:33). And in Acts 2:44-45, Doctor Luke reports that the post-resurrection followers did not think that Jesus was merely speaking metaphorically!
Luke records more parables (28—compared to 23 in Matthew and 9 in Mark)—and more parables not found in the other Gospels (15!). These include challenging teachings of Jesus that stretch self-proclaimed insiders to comprehend a larger and more inclusive Kingdom of Heaven: the Good Samaritan (10:30-37), the Rich Fool (12:16-21), the Great Banquet (14:16-24), the Lost (prodigal) Son (15:11-32), the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31), and the Pharisee and tax collector (18:10-14).
Luke alone begins Jesus’ ministry with his rejection in Nazareth, when he read from the scroll of Isaiah and proclaimed the ancient prophecy that “the Spirit of the Lord had anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor... freedom for the prisoners (and oppressed), and recovery of sight for the blind” had been fulfilled as they heard him read it (Luke 4:14-21). And in chapter 24, the Gentile doctor Luke, who traveled with Paul on his missionary journey, concludes his Gospel with a post-resurrection story of how two unknown disciples encountered the risen Lord Jesus when they invited a stranger to join them for supper (Luke 24).
In 7:36-50, Luke profoundly edits the story of Jesus’ anointing found in Mark 14:3-9, Matthew 26:6-13, and John 12:1-8. He completely alters the location, time, and characters, retaining a bare skeleton (reclined, woman, alabaster vial of perfume, Jesus, denarii, and anointed), into which Luke inserts a story similar to a parable found in Matthew (18:23-24) but not Mark, the theme of which (in Matthew) is: “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”.
Luke’s version compares the reception Jesus receives from his Pharisee host and a “woman in the city who was a sinner” who crashes the party with perfume and tears (in a story that parallels the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector in Luke 18:10-14. Jesus reproves the Pharisee for the inhospitality that reveals the poverty of his love, and blesses the woman whose faith (and grateful response to God’s forgiveness) has saved her.
The Pharisee mocks Jesus as a poor prophet for refusing to treat the woman with contempt. Yet Jesus, who has in the previous passage commented on the character of the prophet John, proves by his interpretation of what their respective actions demonstrate about the state of their hearts that he is indeed a true prophet, worthy of our welcome (see Luke 4:24) with water, a kiss, and anointing oil.
Questions for Reflection
If you invited Jesus to your home for dinner, what kind of welcome would you give the Son of God? Who would you have the most difficult time accepting as a party crasher in desperate love with Jesus?
What sin in your life can you offer to God for forgiveness and healing? Can you imagine what your life would be like if you accepted God’s invitation to be free? What do you think Jesus would prophecy about you? About Skyline Church?
Luke loves to tell stories about dinner parties that bring together unlikely guests and nourish them all with blessings. When have you attended such a dinner? What happened? How did you encounter Jesus?
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