Tag: preaching

The Mourning Woman Who Taught the Priest How to *Really* Pray, or, The Power of (Even Silent) Prayer After Terrorist Attacks

There was once a couple who was not able to have children together. The woman felt alone and mourned regularly. Her husband loved her deeply.

It was her habit to go into a local sanctuary that had open prayer times during the day. Another woman in town, if you can believe it, would tease and provoke her over her not being able to bear children. So she wept bitterly and would go long periods of time without eating.

One day her husband said to her, “Why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad?”

She could not respond, except to go back to that sanctuary and pray.

* * * * * * *

One day the priest was there, close to where she was praying.

The woman was utterly distressed and prayed to God, weeping openly as she prayed.

She made a promise of sorts: “O Almighty God, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give me a child… I will devote him entirely to you.”

As she prayed the priest started watching her mouth. He noticed that she prayed silently. Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear any sound come out of her mouth. He thought maybe she was drunk.

* * * * * * *

So the priest, a man named Eli, said to her, “Hannah, How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.”

She responded:

No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.

Eli responded, as with a change of heart, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”

* * * * * * *

Prayer, as it turns out, is not a silent, impotent act.

Even those prayers we can’t fully voice—where our lips are barely moving—reach God.

The prayer of one of God’s beloved is powerful and effective, as Jesus’ brother James tells us.

So keep praying. Keep your lips moving, even if no sound is coming out.

Keep praying though you are in despair. Keep praying when you feel helpless and hopeless and powerless. Keep praying when evil seems to have the upper hand.

Keep praying in times of drought, in times of death and destruction, in times of violence and terror, and in times of fear and confusion and sadness.

Through our prayers and the prayers of others, we are healed. Our words uttered to God plant us in the soil of his love, and we are saved. The prayers of God’s children are powerful and effective.

Jesus’ and James’s “Spring of Water”

Spring Water

 

I’ve been preaching through the amazing book of James this fall. As I am able, I hope to post more of the sermons. In the meantime, here is something that occurred to me after I’d preached a particular passage.

To the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus says:

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

A spring of water… that wells up into eternal life. This led me to think of something James, brother of Jesus (probably), says:

Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. (James 3:11-12)

James never quotes it, but much of his letter is a fleshing out of Jesus’ saying, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

It seems James could have that in mind here: it is out of the overflow of the spring of water of eternal life–given to us by Jesus himself–that we use our words to bless others.

NIV Application Commentaries (Including Bundles), Less than $5 a Book

NIVAC sale

 

There is another big sale on Zondervan’s NIV Application Commentary series, with each of the ebooks selling at $4.99–on, among other places, Amazon. For the first time Zondervan is offering various discounted bundles, too. Check them out here.

As I’ve said before, I really liked Psalms vol. 1 in this series. There are a lot of really good volumes in NIVAC, like Genesis, Peter Enns’s Exodus, and the sleeper hit of the series: James (David P. Nystrom). (Seriously–I think it might be the best of the bunch.)

All the Table of Contents now are hyperlinked, so navigating via Kindle or iBooks should be relatively manageable. You won’t get the same sort of search power you’d get in Accordance or Logos, but the price is tough to beat.

Wisdom: Inside-Out, Outside-In

Dwight

 

Dwite Schrute once said, “Whenever I’m about to do something, I think: would an idiot do that? And if they would, I do not do that thing.”

Dunder Mifflin’s Assistant to the Regional Manager, Dwight, picks up on a long tradition of “Stupid is as stupid does.”

This points up to the larger truth that…

…we live our lives from the inside out.

“WHO IS WISE AND UNDERSTANDING AMONG YOU?”, James will ask a diaspora group of Christians in James 3.

After a dire passage on how no one can tame the tongue, we might expect James to talk about how no one can really exercise wisdom in this world. But he comes back now to a theme he started in the first chapter, which is that wisdom comes from above, from God, and is available to all who ask.

 

Two Ways

 

It seems like God’s people are always coming up to forks in the road. You can go this way, or you can that way. There are two ways.

Wisdom, the skill and cleverness with which we live, is like that, too. There are two kinds of wisdom, James says. One from above and one from below. A different kind of fruit that each kind of wisdom produces.

Jewish Christians would have been used to this kind of language. Listen to how the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah contrast what the people of God can be.

Isaiah 27:6:

The time is coming when Jacob will take root;
Israel will blossom and grow branches.
The produce will fill the surface of the world.

versus Jeremiah 2:21:

I planted you in the land
like a special vine of the very best stock.
Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes?

What you fill your heart and your head with, and how you live out who you are, has visible effects–“fruit.” Any character trait in you has accompanying actions. If you find that you struggle with being critical of others, you’ll also hear snide remarks coming out of your mouth. If you experience compassion for others often welling up in your heart, chances are good you’ll act on it and spend time giving and serving others.

What’s inside you will find its way out of you.

 

One Kind of Wisdom: Ungodly

 

James says there are two kinds of wisdom. Or, only one is really properly called wisdom. The other is in scare quotes–so-called wisdom.

This passage weaves a tale of two wisdoms… James describes godly wisdom: where it comes from, what it’s like, and what it results in. He talks about ungodly wisdom: where it comes from, what it is like, and what it results in.

First, there is the so-called “wisdom” of the world. The wisdom he calls “earthly, unspiritual,” even “demonic.”

 

Where does it come from?

NOT from heaven.

In other words, the ungodly man or woman has not asked God for wisdom, and is going it alone. That person has not sought to receive the good gift of wisdom from the “Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

It’s actually worse than just coming “not from heaven.” Note James’s progression in verse 15: “Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” You sort of descend the depths word-by-word in that passage.

 

What is it like?

James says in verse 14, “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.” There’s nothing to be proud of if you cherish “bitter envy” and “selfish ambition.” And if that does describe you, don’t deny it, James says. You’ll be better off admitting it and seeking God’s help before what’s inside you spills out onto others in a damaging way.

James talked about bitter water earlier in the chapter with regard to speech. Now he’s warning against a bitter spirit.

 

What are its results?

Envy and ambition, for James, lead to “disorder and every evil practice.”

As I was sketching and outlining this passage this week, with bitter envy and selfish ambition, you could end up with situations like this one…

 

Stick Figures

 

…where one stick figure knocks the other one down to the ground in a fit of disorderly rage.

I learned this week (source) about an art technique called pentimento. I am not a gifted drawer, that masterpiece above notwithstanding, so I can’t claim first-hand knowledge with this.

But pentimento is when the original base color on a canvas bleeds through. So if an artist started with a base of one color and then decided to switch that color and keep the same canvas, when that first color shows through, it’s called pentimento. What’s *really* there at bottom bleeds through whatever else is covering it.

It’s not that you can’t change the canvas. But sometimes, depending on your first color, you just can’t do anything to hide it in that same canvas. You can’t cover it up.

What’s underneath finds its way to the surface. What’s several layers inside, makes its way to the top.

That’s how James sees wisdom working. If you’re always envying others and trying to make a name for yourself, that’s going to bleed through. It leads to disorder and actually doing bad stuff.

 

The Other Kind of (Real) Wisdom: Godly

 

Then, James turns to real wisdom, the kind that God gives.

 

Where does true wisdom come from?

James says it’s “from heaven,” or from God. James has said this already earlier in the letter.

When he asks, “WHO IS WISE AND UNDERSTANDING AMONG YOU?”, it’s a rhetorical question, but there is an actual best answer to this question, I think, which I only came to when my eldest son was kind enough to write it down for me in my sermon notes. I had just left the question hanging there: Who is wise and understanding among you? Next to that, with a picture of a cross, he wrote, God! God is among us, is he not? And there simply is no one wiser and more understanding than God:

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Romans 11:33)

Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite (Psalms 147:5)

With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding. (Job 12:13)

This God, the Lord of infinite understanding, the God of unsearchable judgments and unfathomable ways, this God is the source of all wisdom. He freely gives of himself, of his wisdom and understanding and ability to make good judgments–he gives this to us when we ask.

And that ask, remember from James 1, is not, “If it doesn’t trouble you too much, God,” and not, “I’ve been asking around, so I figured I’d try you, too,” kind of ask. It’s a wholehearted, intense, yearning-filled, urgent request, “God, would you please grant me wisdom?!”

 

C.S. Lewis Quote

 

C.S. Lewis says, “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self–all your wishes and precautions–to Christ.”

In doing so, we come to God empty-handed, ready to receive the gifts he will give. One of those is wisdom… sound judgment… better understanding… the ability to make sense of and move forward in a world that is at times just downright perplexing.

 

What is wisdom like?

James almost sneaks this one in. Look at verse 13: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”

Humility. True wisdom is humble. You don’t know wise people by their own claims… you know wise people by the smart and strategic and wise things they do… in humility.

 

What are its results?

The results of wisdom are many. Here they all are in verse 17: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace–loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Pure seems like a funny word here. When many people hear the word “purity,” the mind goes to “sexual purity.” But James is using the word to refer to an undivided spirit. A heart that is fully trained on God. This is the antithesis to the double-minded person in James 1 who asks God for wisdom, doubting all the while that God even cares enough to give it. The wisdom that God gives is pure–it’s undivided in its loyalties. It’s focused in its motives.

And then–after humility and purity–there are seven more traits of wisdom James lists: “peace–loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Each of these words is worthy of our measured consideration. In fact, you might take some time this week to read through this passage again, but spend a good minute or two prayerfully meditating on each of these words or phrases: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace–loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

 

Inside-Out, Outside-In

 

Faith produces deeds, and wisdom bears fruit. The God-centered life is lived inside-out. What’s inside you will find its way out of you.

What’s in our hearts and minds flows out into our actions… just as is true with Okilly Dokilly, the world’s only Ned Flanders-themed metal band.

 

Okilly Dokilly

 

If you’re really into Ned Flanders, that’s going to manifest itself. They call themselves the world’s only “Nedal” band. At their shows, they’ve got a Simpsons-looking, giant inflatable donut they throw out into the crowd.

What’s inside you ought to and usually will find its way out of you in full expression.

But if our lives are lived inside out, change can only come from the outside in.

What’s inside you will find its way out of you… but perhaps the only way to change what’s inside of you is to look outside of you… to look up, to God, the source of all goodness, peace, and wisdom.

The recently deceased preacher Fred Craddock describes a trip to the eastern Kentucky mountains, where he taught classes in a poor community there. One woman, as a token of her thanks, gave him a poem:

There is the hint of quiet rain coming soon,
Not much, enough to soothe the greening needs
Of outstretched leafy arms and hidden moss,
Shy and quietly waiting for the damp.

There is the hint of quiet moments coming soon,
Not much, enough to soothe the thirsting needs
Of outstretched, anxious hearts and hidden selves,
Private and silently waiting for the peace.

Louise Davis (unpublished poem)

The poet describes the “outstretched leafy arms and hidden moss” that are “quietly waiting for the damp.”

So, too, we, with our “outstretched, anxious hearts and hidden selves” are “silently waiting for the peace” of God.

James is not the first biblical writer, you might have guessed, to connect wisdom and peace-making.

He closes out the chapter: “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” The ones who do what their Father does… working (as God does) to bring peace into the world. Just a little bit more here… just a touch more there. Just a small bit of resolution over here.

That kind of work–the work of making peace, of showing mercy, of bearing good fruit, of exercising wisdom–that kind of good work can only happen when our arms are outstretched… when our eyes fixed heavenward, looking to the Giver of Peace and Wisdom to fill us with good gifts.

We long for these gifts that will enter into our hearts, transform us, and make their way out into the world.

4 Ways to Practice Sabbath Keeping

This Sunday I preached about Sabbath-keeping as a way of life. The below is the concluding, application-based portion of the message.

 

Keep Calm It's Sabbath Day

 

Let’s get specific for a minute, and talk about how a Sabbath way of life can make its way onto our calendars.

 

For an hour

 

You could think small, to begin with: one hour. Right, God didn’t say, “Remember a Sabbath hour and keep it holy,” but I think observing a Sabbath hour is very much in line with God’s intentions for our God-centered rest.

I’ve alluded a couple of times from the pulpit to my inordinate love for personal productivity literature and related apps. There’s a classic book called Getting Things Done by David Allen. His basic goal is to get his readers and clients to a point where they are not using their brains to keep track of commitments—get everything out of your head and into a trusted system you know you’ll keep coming back to. The end result of implementing such a system is that in any given moment, you know that you are doing what you should be doing. What you are saying yes to is what you should be saying yes to, and what you are saying no to is out of mind.

This may seem simplistic, but if you don’t have a dedicated hour like this each day or at least every other day, the alternative is that every hour available to you is an hour where you could be doing something… anything… 100 hundred different things. A Sabbath lifestyle, on the other hand, includes setting apart chunks of time where we put all work aside and rest. And we don’t feel guilty about it, because we are doing it deliberately, as a way to train our attentions on God.

 

A Daylong Sabbath

 

Another way that we can put Sabbath-ing into our schedules is through a weekly Sabbath day. Sunday is a good candidate here. It didn’t take the early church very long to move from the observance of Saturday as Sabbath to Sunday as Sabbath. One big reason for this was that Sunday was the day of resurrection, so it became the day the church gathered weekly for worship. To make their Sabbath about both leisure and Lordship, it shifted to Sunday.

Which day we take a Sabbath is less important than that we have one every week. And times when we can least afford to take a Sabbath are the times we most need to. So put it into your day planner or phone or wherever you keep your schedule—make it a daylong appointment: “Sabbath.” And if one of your primary vocations is parenting or caretaking, and those sweet loved ones of yours won’t let you observe a “day off,” talk to one of your church leaders and we’ll help you get childcare lined up!

 

Get Away

 

You could go even bigger with Sabbath-keeping: a day or half day every month where you go on retreat… not just taking a day off, but actually physically going somewhere else—to the beach, for a daylong hike in the woods, for an overnight camping trip.

 

Techno Sabbath

 

Finally—one more suggestion for a specific way to practice keeping a holy, God-focused Sabbath: one of our former church attenders shared with me his regular practice of a techno Sabbath. No, it’s not a day devoted to Electronic Dance Music (though that’s not a bad idea), but it’s a Sabbath from technology. I’d heard of these and always thought about taking one, but there was something about a conversation with him that made me feel like I finally had permission to unplug, to disconnect.

Of course, you can turn all your devices off for a short period of time—an hour, for the morning, during dinner and after it. But I’ve found a full 24-hour break each week from technology is both embarrassingly difficult and surprisingly life-giving. It serves the same purpose as fasting. Rather than reaching for a device that has a potentially life-changing notification on it, I try to offer those energies instead to God.

At first, there are feelings of withdrawal—no access to notifications that increase the rush of adrenaline and excitement when someone replies to that email you were so eager about, or when someone hearts your Instagram photo or retweets your witty observation about humanity. All that stuff just goes on… without you. At least for a day.

You could even try to have your techno Sabbath coincide with your weekly Sabbath.

 

Establish Your School Year Practices Now

 

As we begin a new school year, we have the opportunity to establish and re-establish practices of faithful living. Take some time this week, if you haven’t already, and think about what Sabbath-keeping this fall is going to look like for you. If you have other people with whom your schedule is interdependent, involve them in the conversation—sit down with your calendar and actually write in your Sabbath-keeping practices, so that they don’t get forgotten, or scheduled on top of.

I pray that God would give us the strength to be deliberate about making Sabbath observances central to how we go through our hours, days, and weeks. As we do so, may we find that prayer of Isaiah fulfilled: “O God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on you; for in returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be our strength.”

Is 2 Samuel 7 About Jesus?

I know–taken from the vantage point of Christian interpretation, it might seem a dumb question. So bear with me. Here is 2 Samuel 7:11b-16:

“Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.

This could all so easily be about Jesus, until you get to: “When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.”

Even if you want to say God somehow punished Jesus on the cross (uhh…), Christians don’t (generally) believe Jesus committed any iniquity.

So that part, at least, has to be about David’s literal next-of-kin descendant, Solomon.

Verses 15 and 16 go on:

But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

There are at least Messianic undertones to this whole passage, though. Surely God had more than just Solomon in mind when he spoke these words. He is, after all, promising a throne to David forever. Two other things:

1. The lectionary reading stops after v. 14a (!), so you don’t get the stuff about punishment. Is this to intentionally make it read more like it’s about Jesus?

2. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 17 also omits the iniquity part… does this mean the Chronicler was taking it to be a Messianic promise (only), too?

What say you, O readers? I’m still mulling this one over.

How Can the Ark of the LORD Ever Come to Me?

 

I. “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”

 

David, now King over all Israel in 2 Samuel 6, asks a poignant question, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?” (6:9) “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”

The ark of the covenant was the adorned chest in the tabernacle that symbolized the presence of God. It went with and settled among God’s people wherever they wandered. It contained the two tablets with the 10 commandments, a jar of manna—representing God’s provision in the wilderness, and Aaron’s rod—a sign of the authority and sovereignty of God to make for himself a people of his own.

There’s a weightiness in David’s question: “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?” There’s a sincerity to it, a desire in David’s heart to truly commune with God. But there’s also fear and frustration. The verse before says, “Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah…” (6:8).

 

II. A God of David’s Own Choosing?

 

We’re still in the part of 2 Samuel that narrates David’s rise to power, and his initial establishment of his kingdom. Most outlines of 2 Samuel have this chapter in the “successes” part of the David story. His moral failings and infidelity–to God and others–really start with the Bathsheba account.

There’s some truth to that. But already here, while David is still setting up shop as King, the complexity of his spiritual life begins to emerge. Sometimes he is inspiringly faithful, sometimes he’s not-so-faithful. No wonder so many have so deeply resonated with this historical character.

 

A. Faithful David

 

Let’s trace a portion of this narrative account to look at both David’s faithfulness to God, as well as ways in which he was already “prone to wander, prone to leave the God [he loved]”… just like we are. Let’s look first at the faithfulness of David.

1. David Practiced God’s Presence (5:10)

First, we saw last week that the key to David’s ability to lead, even before he was King, was his practice of the presence of God. 2 Samuel 5:10 says, “And he became more and more powerful, because the LORD God Almighty was with him.” David was rooted and grounded in the presence of God. Out of the assurance that God was with him, David led faithfully.

2. David Attributed His Success to God (5:12, 20)

Second, David attributed his success to God. 2 Samuel 5:12 says, “And David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.” David knew that “every good and perfect gift comes from above,” as the New Testament says. And in verse 20, David says it is the LORD who has defeated his enemies.

He did not take credit for his own military success, or leadership effectiveness. He knew that it was God’s doing.

3. David “Inquired of the LORD” (5:19, 23)

A third way we see David’s faithfulness so far is in 2 Sam 5:19, 23. Both of these verses, before David makes a major decision, have the phrase, “[S]o David inquired of the LORD.” “[S]o David inquired of the LORD.”

Having sought the presence of God, having affirmed that his success was from God, he continued to regularly inquire of the LORD. And it doesn’t stretch the imagination too much to assume there are even other decisions and situations not described here where David inquired of the LORD some more.

4. David Got Rid of Philistine Idols (5:21)

Here is another sign of David’s obedience to God: chapter 5, verse 21 says, “The Philistines abandoned their idols there, and David and his men carried them off.” We have trouble with some of the militarism of the Old Testament, but perhaps it helps, at least a little, to realize that this was as much as anything, a sort of war of gods… a contest as to which god is really able to save a people.

Some of God’s people get in trouble in other passages for defeating an enemy, but then failing to destroy their idols. David does right here, and carries them off… completely removes them from the scene to physically show—there is no God but Yahweh. God is the best god out of all the gods, or, so-called gods. David removed the idols that others set up against the LORD God Almighty.

5. David Did What God Commanded (5:25)

And then, check out verse 25 of chapter 5: “So David did as the LORD commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.” Again—we struggle with this “struck down” language, especially when we consider the value of every human life. But the Philistines are cast here as an oppressive people who want nothing more than to destroy a chosen people, worshiping gods who cannot save and who bring not life but death. David “did as the LORD commanded him” and went up against even Israel’s terrifying oppressors.

6. Praises Wholeheartedly; Leads Others in Same (6:5)

Finally, coming to our reading today, chapter 6, we see a portrait of a David as Spirit-filled worship leader. 2 Samuel 6:5 reads, ”David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums [a kind of hand-held shaker] and cymbals.”

Israel celebrates the defeat of their oppressors, and especially rejoices in the presence of God, moving alongside them, symbolized by the ark of the covenant. They went all out in praising God.

 

B. Not-So-Faithful David

 

But a picture of a not-so-faithful David also starts to come into view in chapters 5 and 6.

1. David “Took” More Women (5:13)

2 Samuel 5:13 says, “After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.”

Deuteronomy had already said rulers were not to multiply wives for themselves. And we know that David would eventually kill a man to cover up his adultery with the man’s wife, later on. This would lead to severe consequences for him and his family, and would prove a major breach of his relationship with God. One of David’s moral flaws is already visible.

2. David Did Not (Always) “Inquire of the LORD” (6:1)

Second, and you can see this in your outline, too: David did not always inquire of the LORD. You remember that in 2 Samuel 5:19 and 23, it said, “so David inquired of the LORD.”

As this new chapter, chapter 6 begins, the attentive listener or reader may notice that that little formula (“so David inquired of the LORD”) is not here. Like in those two instances, here David was gathering people for a major task—this time the moving of the ark. This time, however, he does not inquire of the LORD, at least as far as we can tell.

3. David Put the Ark on A New Cart (6:3-4)

A third instance of David’s being not-so-faithful comes in chapter 6, verses 3 and 4. Look at those verses:

They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it.

What could be better than a sweet new ride for the sacred ark of the covenant? Well… a better question is: did the ark of God, the ark of the covenant need a new cart? No. It didn’t.

It had been in the house of Abinadab, after it had zapped some other irreverent Philistines who didn’t take it seriously. David didn’t inquire of the LORD before bringing the ark to Jerusalem, but moving the ark to Jerusalem itself seems to be okay. He’s bringing it to the city from which he will rule, as if to show that it is really God who is king.

However…the ark had rings and places for horizontal-running poles that were to be used to carry it. David, for whatever reason, is ignoring that instruction.

Had it been carried by its poles and not balanced on a cart, Uzzah probably wouldn’t have needed to reach for it, because it would have been more stable and likely wouldn’t have fallen in the first place.        (HT: this commentary)

Not only that, but Uzzah does not appear to have been a Levite. He was not from the clan that God had commanded to be the ones to oversee the ark. So he was the wrong guy, carrying the ark the wrong way, and then he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maybe his intentions were good, but so holy is this ark, says God, which symbolizes my presence, that you are not supposed to even touch it. Uzzah’s demise all begins with David’s carelessness in overseeing the transportation of the ark in the first place. David and company were not taking God totally seriously.

As king, as spiritual leader of Israel, David is in an ultimate sense responsible for this whole debacle.

4. Wants the Ark (Presence) Only for its Blessing? (6:10-11)

This event leads to the fourth and probably the biggest way in which we see David as a deeply flawed hero. Look at verses 10 and 11:

He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.

David now does not want anything to do with the ark, because he is afraid, but also because he is angry at God. He’s angry that Uzzah is struck down, but I wonder, too, if he’s angry that he got called out for trying to control God. One commentator says, “The ark would become central to Israel’s worship, but David needed to learn that it was not his to control.” He’s learned this lesson, but he’s learned it the hard way, so he sends the ark away.

Once it blesses the house to which it was banished, David wants it back after all!

 

III. A Fundamental Choice: 
Welcoming God’s Presence on God’s Own Terms

 

David, I think, realizes the folly of his ways. Now he dances in a priest’s robe, worshiping God with all his might. And verse 13 tells us that just six steps in to their Take 2 of moving the ark, they offer sacrifices to God. Now David seems to realize the utter care with which he must transport the sacred ark of the covenant, that symbol of God’s history and presence with Israel… a sign of God’s love and provision, but also his holiness that no human could ever attain to.

As I sit with this text and work with it and try to let it work on me, I keep hearing David’s haunting question in chapter 6, verse 9: “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”

And I ask, “How can the presence of the LORD ever come to me?”

The answer, or at least the answer that this passage gives, is: on its own terms.  God comes to us as God comes to us, not how we wish God would come to us. God comes to us when God comes to us, now when we wish God would come to us. God comes to us, fully under his own control, not in manifestations that we can control or completely delineate, or fully understand. God will not be confined by the parameters we seek to impose.

Like David, we have a fundamental choice to make—it’s a choice which arrives many times a day, actually: will we welcome God’s presence on God’s own terms? Can the ark of the LORD, the presence of God, ever come to us? Will we welcome God’s presence when it appears as a challenge, as a rebuke, as a perplexing state of affairs over which God is somehow supposed to be superintending? Or, will we receive God when he shows mercy to the ones we wish would suffer the fate of Uzzah?

Tim Keller, a Gordon-Conwell grad and pastor in New York, says, “If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.”

It is precisely David’s initial comfort with accepting God on David’s terms that will lead to even more trouble. And who of us cannot point to a time when we had God wrong, or realized that—either intentionally or not—we were worshiping an idealized version of ourselves? Or following just a God of our own understanding or, worse, a God of our own choosing?

Yet even after David fouls this up, chapter 7, which we’ll read next week—is one of the most beautiful and important scenes in all of Scripture. God reiterates his covenant with David and promises him a throne that will last forever–being fulfilled at last in the Kingship of Jesus.

While it is gravely important that we seek through the power of the Holy Spirit to be faithful to God—while that is a most serious undertaking, we do not, we have not, we cannot, and we will not consistently get it right. We connect so well with David not because of his military exploits or womanizing or deceitful and murderous impulse (did I miss anything?), but we connect with him because we see in him a heart like ours… a heart which at its core may be very much trained on God, but is so “prone to wander,” prone to walk off, “prone to leave the God [we] love” that we sometimes wonder if we will ever be able to find our way back to him.

Good thing being at peace with God does not depend on our choosing God always, but on God’s having chosen us. Our salvation, the letter to Titus proclaims, is “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of [God our Savior’s] mercy.”

So even when we spend more time on the not-so-faithful side of the spectrum, it is not our actions or consistency in faithfulness that actually redeems us. It is God who chooses, God who saves, and God who has mercy. On that basis we are called his own dearly-loved children, just as God would promise to be like a father to David and his family for all time.

“How can the presence [of God] ever come to us?” Only on God’s own terms, terms which include holiness and a call to lifelong obedience… and terms which also include great mercy and never-ending love, and a relentless drive to continue to pursue us. God will yet make his home among us as sovereign LORD and King.

May God give us strength, courage, faithfulness, and the openness we need to welcome God’s own presence exactly as it comes to us.

 

 

The above is adapted from the sermon I preached today at church.

They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships

Joy vs. Facts, Sleeping in a Storm

 
One place I like to go, from time to time, to rouse my spirits and draw me closer to the heart of God is Wendell Berry’s Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.

I’ve been chewing on one line in particular the last part of this week: “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”

Berry’s words are good for us to hear right now, because “all the facts” include the reality of living in a country with a deeply ingrained racism habit that we just can’t seem to kick. The Deacons and I were praying Wednesday night in the back of our sanctuary, right about the same time another group of believers was praying in a Charleston, South Carolina church…. People of color in this country continue to suffer at the hands of racist persons and racist systems that perpetuate their mistreatment.

But, Berry says, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”

If Wendell Berry were narrating Jesus’ state of mind in Mark 4:35-41, he would have said, “Jesus relaxed and took a nap, though he had considered all the facts.”

The disciples are thinking, “Oooh, nice—we’re going to go out in a boat with Jesus into this serene lake:”
 

Sea of Galilee

 

Whereas Jesus probably knows that this was in the offing:

 

Jesus Calms the Storm, Gustave Doré
Jesus Calms the Storm, Gustave Doré

 

Here’s Rembrandt’s rendition of it:

 

The Storm on the Sea of Galiee

 

And yet Jesus “lies down and sleeps in peace,” as the Psalm says.

 

A Furious Squall…

 

Mark 4:35 says, “That day when evening came, [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’” From what I can tell, evening can be a good time to catch fish, but to traverse a lake…? When you’re out camping and sunset comes, you try to set up camp, not embark on a new leg of your expedition.

But God’s ways are not our ways, and Jesus’ ways are not the disciples’ ways, so off they go. Verse 36 says, “Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.”

“Just as he was”—it’s like when you’ve made a spontaneous decision to pick up a friend and go out for coffee, and you are in a hurry and you say, “Just come like that, just come how you are. Atomic Cafe doesn’t care if you wear your pajama pants and fleece-lined Crocs. Get in the car.”

Jesus and the disciples just went.

Next verse, verse 37: “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.”

I love this genius storytelling of Mark. If you’re reading or listening to this story, you don’t know yet where Jesus is. “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.” And then, you expect, verse 38 will say, “And Jesus, with power and authority, stood up and made the waves stand still.”

But, no, verse 38 says, “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.” He needed his introvert time. He found a pillow, or a big sandbag, and put his head on it.

The disciples take this as apathy, some kind of a cruel joke.

If the boat is nearly swamped, and Jesus is still sleeping, he must not be wet yet. It’s possible the stern was raised. The boat could have looked something like this:

 

Raised Stern

 

Which probably makes the disciples all the more upset. You wonder… if Jesus knew this storm was coming, is that why he was at the stern, elevated above the rest of the boat? And if so, the reader of this text wonders, why didn’t he quell the storm before it started? Or give the disciples a heads-up? Mark doesn’t tell us.

But his students ask, “Teacher, don’t you care if we down?”

The specific wording Mark uses in the text suggests that the boat was filled “to the extent of its capacity” (HT).

And doesn’t this imagery of a flooding boat go against the axiom that “God won’t give you more than you can handle?” Maybe it’s more like, “Sometimes we get more than we can handle, and God’s not necessarily the one who gave it to us, but he’ll be right by our side anyway.”

 

…And an Omnipotent God

 

If Mark’s given us the full humanity of Jesus—he was sleeping on a cushion—now we see his full divinity. Verse 39 says, “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”

“Who is this?” the disciples ask. “Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

The text says it goes from a “great” windstorm to a “great” calm.

Jesus talks directly to the wind and the waves. Can you think of another person in biblical history who talked to the waves and the sea, and told them to do something?

Jesus, they are starting to see, is more than just an amazing teacher. Listen to how God questioned Job:

Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?

I don’t know if the disciples, in that moment of fear, would have had Job in mind, but the kind of thing Jesus is doing in this passage is the kind of thing that only the LORD God Almighty does.

Here he is. God himself, in the boat with the disciples.

Psalm 107 says, “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”
 

But They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships…

 

I wonder if Jesus had this Psalm in mind as he went out into the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. Maybe he thought, “Alright—it’s Psalm 107 time. Let me show these young ‘uns what I can do.”

Listen to part of Psalm 107 in the King James Version:

They that go down to the sea in ships,
that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,
which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven,
they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted
because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wits’ end.
Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

Did part of that ring a bell? You might recognize this guy:

 

FishermanMemorialGloucester

 

Here’s a close-up of the Fisherman Memorial overlooking the Harbor:

 

They That Go Down

 

“They that go down to the sea in ships,” the inscription reads, 1623-1923.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.

 

…These See the Works of the LORD

 

What about those who go unrescued?

And the Psalm goes on to describe the wind and the waves. Those at sea “reel to and fro… and are at their wits’ end.” Surely this describes the lives of those lost at sea from 1623 to 1923, and before and since.

Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm,
so that the waves thereof are still.

That very much sums up the experience of the disciples in Mark 4. They’re living out that Psalm with Jesus

But herein lies a theological difficulty. I don’t know how many fishermen cried “unto the LORD in their trouble” in stormy seas, but the memorial in Gloucester stands there to honor those who were not brought out of their distress… or at least, not brought out of a storm. There are some storms–literal and metaphorical–that God just does not make calm. Unlike the ones the Psalm 107 goes on to describe, these men and women that the man at the wheel stands for were not rescued.

“Teacher, don’t you care if [they] drown? …Why didn’t you save them?”

It’s one of the perplexing questions that confronts us—why a God who can and does intervene so often… just lets some things go… lets some evils move ahead. Allows men and women to get lost at sea.

That existential question has come up again this week in Charleston:

 

Why
Source: David Goldman (AP)

 

You can’t kill love

The 9 members of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church barely had time to “cry to the LORD in their trouble.” And though Jesus was in attendance at that Bible study and prayer time—“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them”—he didn’t stop the hateful actions of a deeply racist young man.

Surely those 9 didn’t have to die. I don’t know how many more of these things it will take for our nation and lawmakers to finally move ahead in a serious conversation about gun control. I don’t know how many more unarmed black people will have to die before our country wakes up to the pervasive racism in our midst.

They didn’t have to die. But, you know what? In the lexicon of the Kingdom of God, dead isn’t really dead.

Because you can kill a person, but you can’t kill love. You can try to cut somebody down, but “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” From even horrible death can come new and powerful expressions of life.

Rev. Clementa Pinckney was the Pastor of Mother Emanuel, one of those who died. There’s a short YouTube video you can easily find: a couple years ago he welcomed a group of folks who were on tour in historic Charleston. Here’s what he said:

The African American Church… really has seen it as its responsibility and its ministry and its calling to be fully integrated and caring about the lives of its constituents and the general community. We… don’t see ourselves as just a place we come to worship, but as a beacon, and as a bearer of the culture and a bearer of what makes us a people.

But I like to say this is not unique to us. It’s really what America is about. Could we not argue that America is about freedom? Whether we live it out or not… but America’s about freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. And that’s what church is all about. Freedom to worship and freedom from sin, freedom to be fully what God intends us to be… and have equality in the sight of God. And sometimes you gotta make noise to do that. Sometimes you maybe have to die… to do that.

We saw this week how the family members of the victims responded. They called on Dylann Roof to repent of his sins and believe in Jesus. As Rev. Pinckney suggested, they called him to a life of “freedom from sin, freedom to be fully what God intends [him] to be.” They said things like, “Though every fiber of my being is hurting, I forgive you.” And the nation watched, amazed at the witness of the families in that church.

And so God, working through the amazing mercy of the families, calms the storm, after all. The winds of hatred and the breaking waves of destruction die down as Christ works in the hearts of his disciples in Charleston who choose faith over fear.

When God’s children find themselves in choppy waters, our Lord, Jesus, is right there with us in the boat.

And because they know Jesus is in the boat with them, the families of Mother Emanuel have chosen to be joyful, “though [they] have considered all the facts,” though their loved ones have been lost at sea, as it were.

Not a sudden storm, not even a tragic shipwreck can keep Christ’s disciples from making it to the other side. There they see the works of the LORD, and their witness lives on.

 

 

The above is adapted from the sermon I preached today at church.

Charleston, S.C.: What Can We Say?

Why
Source: David Goldman (AP)

 

In the wake of yet another mass shooting in the U.S. on Wednesday night—which was also an act of racism—I suspect many of us have found ourselves at a loss for words. Scripture’s language of lament can come to our aid in the aftermath of violence and tragedy. Of course, the Psalmists who turned their pain and puzzlement into prayers did not see lament as a panacea for all the world’s evils. Even if God were to vanquish all of David’s enemies on the spot, he knew he still had the sin of his own heart to contend with.

Psalms and prayers of lament do, however, help the one praying make the important move of deliberately entering God’s presence in a state of deep pain, confusion, frustration, exhaustion, and exasperation. If you are tired of praying, “How long?” and “Why?” and “Please come to our aid quickly, O Lord!”, I wonder whether the Psalm writers might simply advise us to redouble our efforts and pray those same prayers once more.

Psalm 74 says, in part:

How long will the enemy mock you, God?
Will the foe revile your name forever?
Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!
But God is my King from long ago;
he brings salvation on the earth.

Psalms of lament—with a couple noteworthy exceptions—end with an affirmation that God is still King, and his ability to bring salvation cannot be compromised. I’ve often imagined that when the authors of such Psalms came to the reaffirmation section of their laments, they wrote with trembling hand, watering eyes, and a fast-beating heart that clung desperately—hope against hope—to the truth of God’s sovereignty.

Now is the time to pray such laments—especially on behalf of others and the injustice and pain they undergo. Though all life is valuable and the taking of another life is tragic in any setting, the victims at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston were brothers and sisters in Christ, bonding together in prayer in their final moments of life on earth.

Their prayer and study of the Word of God is now transformed into something more than they could have imagined, as they meet the One who is called the Word, face to face, in all his glory.

But there’s more to respond to—the shooter appears to have been a white supremacist who targeted his victims specifically because they were African Americans. It’s stupefying how people of color in our country continue to be targeted. Our prayers and support are needed.

I know it can feel like “it’s getting old” to make lamentations, and we can get tired of praying the same prayers (over and over) for justice and healing around issues of racism and hatred in all its forms. But battle after battle, injustice after injustice, threat after threat, that’s what the Psalmists did. They kept turning their pain to prayer—kept bringing complaints about injustice into the presence of God.

Let’s not lose heart in praying that God’s kingdom would come, in all its fullness.

 

 

The above is adapted from what I wrote to our congregation this morning: a call at a time when words fall short to engage the lament language of Scripture.

Book Note: Mark Strauss’s New Commentary on Mark (ZECNT)

Mark ZECNT

 

I really dig Zondervan’s Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, as you can see by the multiple volumes I’ve reviewed here. The series continues production, with 10 volumes now available. Recent additions are Karen H. Jobes’s 1, 2, and 3 John and Mark L. Strauss’s Mark.

Here’s how the series is laid out:

  • The Greek text of the book of the Bible, verse by verse, or split up phrase by phrase
  • The author’s original English translation
    • First, showing up in the graphical layout preceding each passage
    • Second, verse by verse, together with the Greek

 

Mark ZECNT Graphical Layout
Author’s graphical layout of Mark 1:1-8

 

  • The book’s broader Literary Context for each passage
  • An outline of the passage in its immediate context
  • The Main Idea (perhaps they had preachers in mind?)
  • Structure and literary form
  • An Exegetical Outline of the passage under consideration
  • Explanation of the Text, which includes the Greek and English mentioned above–this is the bulk of the commentary
  • The concluding Theology in Application section (i.e., what does the passage mean for us, what are its themes, and so on)

As I’ve said before: This sounds like a lot, but the result is not a cluttered commentary. Rather, as one gets accustomed to the series format, it becomes easy to quickly find specific information about a passage. The section headings are in large, bold font.

Here’s Strauss on Jesus in Mark 3, who asks, “Who are my brothers and mother?”

At one point, [Jesus] refused to see his family, saying that his true mother and brothers were those who did God’s will (Mark 3:31–35, par.). Jesus is not repudiating his family but rather is affirming deeper spiritual bonds. It is not surprising that the early believers referred to each other as “brothers and sisters” (adelphoi). As Jewish followers of Jesus were increasingly expelled from the synagogues and Jewish families were divided, this emphasis on spiritual kinship became extremely important.

And:

In the context of the Beelzebub controversy, the point is clear: kinship in the kingdom of God is based not on ethnic identity or family background but on a relationship with God through Jesus.

I’m following the lectionary through parts of early Mark right now, and though there are already a host of great commentaries on book (not the least of which is this gem), Strauss’s volume has been a welcome addition to my sermon preparation process!

Find the book here at Zondervan’s product page or here on Amazon.