Elucidation #2—Perceiving God

The second idea that I’ve been deconstructing over the last year is my concept of who God is. Who is I AM? Could He possibly be contained in an ark made of wood with gold overlayment? What about in my finite, human mind?

Thomas Merton asserts, “Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.” I think that is true. We presume that God is more in OUR likeness than we are created in His.

I grew up with this perception that God is both angry with us, yet madly in love with us. This split-personality Deity is mostly angry in the Old Testament, acting out His wrath on those whom He chooses. He is mostly loving in the New Testament, offering up His own Son as a sacrifice for us.

As I’ve grown older, and hopefully wiser, I’ve discovered more of God’s loving-kindness in the Hebrew Scriptures, but I still wrestle with the stories of His wrath…say on Sodom and Gemorrah or on less guilty subjects, like Uzzah who, with the best intentions, touched the ark.

One thing that becomes more and more apparent to me is that the Scriptures were written by human beings, with limited understanding, faulty perceptions and irrational superstitions. Regardless of the amount of divine inspiration—which I do believe was the impetus for the recording of Scripture—there was that imperfect filter called the human imagination that surely played a part in the telling of the grand story.

It goes back to Merton’s assertion that our idea of God is rooted in our own personality, perception and imagination. It’s impossible to separate our ideas from our identity. It’s just as impossible for us to think beyond our limited comprehension. So anything we think we know about God is severely limited by our humanness.

God created us with these limitations. He knew that we could never perceive of His vastness. Yet, we often act like we have Him figured out. How arrogant.

It would be like trying to contain the entire Milky Way in the candy bar by the same name. There’s just no possible way to fit the greatness of God into our human-sized containers. So why do we box Him in by our finite understanding? Why do we even try?

I am discovering that God is so much more than He has appeared to be in my mind’s eye. He is not bound by the black and white text on the pages of Scripture, nor by the black and white thinking of my youth.

He is not some Great Mystery to be solved or a Hidden Treasure to be discovered, but the treasures of His love I continue to discover every year. It is that continuous discovery that makes this journey so worthwhile. My goal is no longer to figure everything out or to hem God in by my vain imaginations. I am just happy to be on this journey of discovery.
In letting go of my black and white presumptions about God, I have found much freedom. I am free to accept more of Him, and to accept others who are created in His image even if they don’t look or act like it to me.

If you are holding onto your perception of God as absolute reality, I ask you to consider the possibility of a much larger, greater, more powerful God than you can even fathom. That is the One True God, the I AM. Don’t settle for a facsimile, no matter how reasonable.

Elucidation #1--The Sacrifice

Well, it’s a new year and time to reflect on the year that just ended. I don’t want this to be a cheesy year in review, so I’ll spare you the top ten list. Allow me a few days to ruminate on all that I’ve discovered in my year of church detox and elucidate for you here.

First, I want to talk about the single most central event to Christianity, the sacrificial death of Jesus. As I was thinking on this, I thought of the oft-quoted line of Paul, part one of the “Roman Road” if you will. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

Central to my belief system is the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh. As the perfectly divine, yet totally human Savior, He was the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world and the only acceptable offering to God, the Father. And since ALL have sinned…and fallen WAY short…we’re covered by this once-for-all offering.

While that may be a given for most, if not all, Christians, the church’s focus on the first part of Paul’s proclamation seems to belittle the second, which is “fallen short of the glory of God” (emphasis mine).

What does that mean, “the glory of God?”

Could it mean that we, as God’s cherished creation, haven’t lived up to our potential? Have we fallen short in areas in which we are totally capable of achieving our best? Living graciously? Being generous, kind, loving, accepting of others, etc.?

I was trying to explain the Passion story to my 4-year-old over Christmas. We celebrated the special day with communion as a family. Of course that raised all kinds of questions about why Jesus had to die. Instead of giving the pat answers I had grown up with, I tried to explain it to her in less gruesome terms with less emphasis on the “sins of the world,” which she wouldn’t understand, anyway.

The most basic way I could explain it is that it takes bread and wine (i.e. food and drink) for us to survive. Jesus told us that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood. That means we need Jesus to survive.

The more I thought about my simplistic explanation, the more profound it seemed. I came full circle back to a discovery I made months ago:

A life given sacrificially is a life gained eternally.

Jesus’ death is more than just some cosmic retribution for the sins of all humans. It is the gateway to life and to reaching the glory of God. It represents the way we humans must survive on things that are sacrificed, like the wheat that produces bread and the grape that produces wine. It also symbolizes how we must live selflessly in service to others.

Could it be that the glory of God meant to shine through us burns much brighter when we actually live this way?

Then why do we get so hung up on the sin issue, instead of letting God’s glory shine through?

Random Whining

(Disclaimer: Pay no attention to my last two posts on grace and humility…you’ll find little in this one.)

Okay, I know it’s the week before Christmas, but my Grinchiness is stirring! Here are my random gripes:

Gawkers & Squawkers
Gawkers (aka Rubberneckers) were already a constant danger on our roadways, now we also must deal with Squawkers…or those who insist on talking on their cell phones while they drive. Do they not realize that driving 60 mph on a crowded Interstate highway causes traffic jams of Biblical proportions???

Bumper Sticker Rage
I’m not one for cluttering my vehicle with stickers, but here’s one I’d like to make into a banner that unfurls from the rear spoiler of my SUV:

GET OFF THE CELL PHONE AND DRIVE!!!

This would be directed at all Squawkers (see above rant).

Unintelligent Design
I saw a news story this morning on television about the fight in the Dover (PA) schools about Intelligent Design. A local proponent actually used the word “persecution” to describe what Christians in that town are suffering because of a recent court ruling. Now if that isn’t indicative of the problem with American Christianity, then I don’t know what is. A federal judge's ruling against the teaching of what amounts to religious theology in public schools is persecution? Who’s getting stoned or crucified in Dover, PA?

There, I feel better now.

God is Love, Grace & Humility

I mentioned in my last post about the new book I just started, If God is Love by Phillip Gulley and James Mulholland (see jpeg in righthand column). Incredibly, I'm already halfway through it and it is saying everything I've been thinking for the last 11 months! In a nutshell...

We don't know everything...

God does...

Salvation is a journey/lifestyle/process...

God is love...grace...and humility all rolled up in One...

We are to be loving...gracious...and humble, the way Jesus modeled Life for us...

I haven't yet read Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy, but I'd bet it lines up in lock-step formation with the book I'm now reading. Interestingly, the authors of If God Is Love are Quakers. I say interestingly, because so much of the influence in other books and discusions in which I've been involved over this time of church detoxification have been Quaker, like Parker Palmer's Let Your Life Speak and many of my friends on the Ooze (link to it in the righthand column, as well).

I don't quite understand the significance of that--if any--as I don't know that much about Quaker beliefs/orthodoxy. What I do know is that I'm moving more to the left of my traditionalist, evangelical upbringing toward this theology of universal salvation. But I reiterate how limited is my understanding, so I'm not clinging to any one theology. I'm considering multiple points of view. At this time, all I can say is that I'm leaning that way. I still wrestle with the Scriptures that seem to paint an "us" versus "them"/"in" versus "out"/"blessed" versus "cursed" reality.

I'll post some very poignant quotes from the book next time. For now, let me give it a high recommendation to anyone who's grown tired/bored/disgusted with American Christianity.

Finding Grace in an Ungracious World

Okay, I ripped that title from the subtitle of a new book I started last night, If God Is Love. Good so far, but more on that in a later post. For now, I'm chewing on graciousness and humility.

This morning, I was correcting my daughter who had taunted me with a malicious-sounding "HA HA HA" because she beat me to the truck. I attempted to explain to her what it meant to be a gracious winner...and a gracious person in general. She quickly reminded me that I often taunt her in this same manner when racing around the house...to her bedroom, the dinner table...

"GUILTY AS CHARGED YOUR HONOR!"

I humbly apologized to her, then explained that the way she feels when I do that to her is how she makes others feel when she gloats and taunts over others a "meaningless victory." I assured her that daddy was not being a gracious winner when I did that to her. I promised to do better and requested the same from her.

I thought about that all the way to work. The subtitle of the aforementioned book still fresh in my memory, I considered what true graciousness looks like. Soon thereafter, I was confronted with my own ungracious attitude toward others...

An aggressive driver almost caused two accidents within 5 carlinks of me approaching an Interstate on-ramp. His wreckless driving made me so angry because it belied the callous selfishness of the driver himself. It made me want to run him down, drag him out of his SUV and punch him in the head. I immediately thought of the story we know as "The Good Samaritan." What did my angry fantasy bely about me? Would I actually fit the description of one of the muggers in that age-old story of an ambushed traveller left to die along the roadside? Beating a man and leaving him bloodied beside a busy Interstate with at least one slashed tire, so he couldn't drive so wrecklessly on rain-soaked pavement? Yep, that would be me. Pretty gracious, huh?

The more I considered my angry thoughts...okay, it was nearly road rage...the more I could see my lack of humility glaring back at me in the rearview mirror. Seems to me that a gracious attitude comes more naturally when we think of ourselves in proper perspective...like when we take on the attitude of the Shepherd and clothe ourselves in humility.

Humility...a concept I can't seem to escape no matter how hard I try to execute a counter trap play (football term, sorry). Now, I am left to consider my lack of graciousness, and how it seems that I can't do anything about it without the H-word coming into play. So chew on that awhile.

From My Journal...

It's a sleepless night in early December. I'm up--fully awake--at 11:00 PM contemplating the humanness of Jesus the Messiah. Okay, writing 11:00 PM doesn't seem that late, but I've been averaging a 9:00 PM bedtime the last few weeks. Anyway, I recently delved into the life of Jesus by reading a Bruce Chilton book titled Rabbi Jesus. Before that, I had explored the Mosaic Law to find evidence of grace, generosity and kindness toward aliens/foreigners/Gentiles there. To my surprise, these concepts were abundantly evident throughout the Law, so it is no surprise at all that Jesus expounded on them. The Old Testament states time and again that God's unmerited favor toward Israel was cause for humility, not pride, and that His grace was the foundation for faith (see evidence of the latter in Hebrews 11). The Law taught that Israel was to accept and even care for foreigners and aliens. It also taught that generosity was part of God's plan to bless the nations through them.

Considering all this makes it easy to swallow Jesus teaching these same principles to first century Jews. Interestingly, though, Jesus did not always live up to these divinely-inpsired ideals. I keep thinking about his ungracious response to the Syro-Phoenecian woman in Mark 7:24 (also in Matthew 15)...the Living Bible even calls her "a despised Gentile," while other translations simply say Greek. Either way, where was the compassion and grace toward this woman in need who Jesus compares to a dog?

Tonight was the first time I ever considered this episode as a glimpse into Jesus' own humanness. Now, I realize that it is possible that the prejudice of the gospel writer may have influenced his account of this transaction, but I also acknowledge the possibility that Jesus may have been acting in accord with his upbringing in that environment. If Galilean Jews really did look down their noses at these "despised Gentiles" and think of them as worthless--rather lowly--dogs, then I can totally relate to Jesus' very human reaction. Chilton even emphasizes the fact that the woman's response, her persistence clothed in humility, evokes a compassionate change of heart in the human Messiah. He heals her daughter. His gifts were not held exclusively for the Jew, but were available for the "despised Gentile" even when Jesus' humanness tried to interfere.

This New Testament story encourages me to act more graciously and generously toward those who maybe don't deserve it, at least in man's eyes. May God override my arrogance, stubborness, prejudice and hard-headedness when I'm met with an opportunity to bless others.

Three Word Adventure for Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving holiday was spent mostly on the road. My parents and siblings live in Central Indiana, so I loaded up the family truckster and travelled 800 miles with my wife and daughters to go see them. It was a long trip, as I travelled 14 hours straight through the night on Wednesday. Did I say LONG? After recouperating and feasting on fried turkey, my wife and I travelled an additional 120 miles, roundtrip, to go pick up a car she wanted real badly. That meant we'd be putting 800 miles on two cars for the trip home Saturday. That trip was long, too, but we broke it up with well-timed stops and a switch of vehicles at the Alabama border. After 13 hours on congested interstates and highways, we made it home about 1:00 Sunday morning. As my head hit the pillow atop my very spacious, very comfortable, king-sized bed, I uttered three words and fell to sleep.

I've now had a few days to recouperate and gather my thoughts...and all said, it was a very nice Thanksgiving holiday. Besides spending some rare time with my parents, siblings, neices and nephews, we received two welcome additions to the family: my nephew Peyton (born 11/26 at 2:33 PM), and a 1999 Volvo C70. Now, I'm not comparing babies and automobiles, but both of them were huge blessings...the baby for obvious reasons...and the car because we've been down to one vehicle for months and it's been a major hassle.

As I look back on all the blessings--both new and old--this holiday season, I'm left with the same three words I uttered as I began that belated night of peaceful rest on Sunday....THANK YOU, LORD!

Movies To Laugh By

After my last post--and watching Steve Martin's The Jerk over the weekend--I've decided to compile a list of the movies that make me LOL...so here they are...

1. Fletch
2. Caddyshack
3. National Lampoon's Vacation
4. The Princess Bride
5. Young Frankenstein
6. Planes, Tranes and Automobiles
7. Christmas Vacation
8. Napoleon Dynamite
9. The Jerk
10.Meet The Parents

Honorable Mention: Monty Python's Holy Grail, Airplane, Revenge of The Pink Panther, Father Of The Bride, Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels, Meet the Fockers

There are probably others that I've omitted, but this is my best recollection of favorite funny movies. Feel free to list some of yours by commenting below.

Like The Sweetest Movie Ever!

In looking at my blog, things have been way too serious lately. So I thought it was time to lighten the mood with a little Napoleon Dynamite. If you haven't seen the movie--and you appreciate oddball humor--then rent it this weekend. Then, enjoy reciting the lines with your friends for weeks to come.

If you have seen the movie--and you appreciate it's oddball humor--then you definitely need to check out the Utah State Fair TV commercials.

My wife and I were introduced to this movie earlier this year by some good friends. We hadn't laughed that hard in a long while. So there...I've done my best to lighten the mood of this blog...just in time for the weekend!

Separation of Church & Hate

I saw an interesting bumper sticker yesterday on the way to work. It read, "I am for the separation of Church & Hate."

Now, I'm not much on bumper sticker theology, but that statement gripped me. I wrestled with it overnight and here's what I've come up with...

At first, I applauded internally. I thought, rather smugly, of how true that is. The church SHOULD be called on the carpet for tolerating hate. They hide behind phrases like, "Hate the sin, but love the sinner," all the while casting stones at just about everyone, from abortionists to drugatics to homosexuals. I thought to myself, "I'll write a good blog about this when I get to work."

Then, the truth hit me. I AM THE CHURCH!!!

So I chewed on it a little while longer.

Today, I've been thinking about the residue of hate in my own life and how it has produced prejudice, bitterness, jealousy and the like. Heck, just yesterday I called my own wife a "jackass." That's right. I said it. I've been letting petty things about her bug me so bad that not only have I not loved her much, I haven't liked her much either. This is my wife, for pete's sake!

I've carried a piss-poor attitude around for more than a week. I've thought to myself things like, "He's such an idiot. I wish he'd just shut up!" or "She is so stupid. Why can't she listen?" These are things I've thought about other human beings, created in the image of God. Is that not sickening?

So when I think that the Church ought to divorce itself from hate, I'm left with a strong sense of guilt about my own thoughts and actions. Gee, thanks bumper sticker writer! Idiot...just kidding.

Shedding Death

Recently, I've been pondering the Lazarus story and how his story is really our story. The way I see it, we've all been called out from death to life by the Good Shepherd. But what still tangles and trips us are the filthy linens of burial. Even though we've heard His call and come out of the tomb, we're still dragging death around with us. Jesus calls us to live.

What do your "death rags" look like?
Immorality?
Idolatry?
Jealousy?
Anger?
Selfishness?
Pride?

The Jewish zealot turned Jesus follower, Paul, spends an entire chapter of his letter to the "called out" in Galatia differentiating Spirit-life (i.e. real life) from the life of the flesh (i.e. death). Instead of selfishness and pride, he says that our life should be ripe with humility, patience and self-control.

These are the fruits of real living.

But notice at the end of the Lazarus story who has to strip him of his burial clothes? We cannot shed death on our own. Jesus can give us life, but unless we have help from others, we will not begin to live the Spirit-life. We need help to remove the bondage--the baggage, if you will--from the death that hung around us like a shroud. It covered our eyes and our ears. It bound our hands and feet. Death kept us from a life of service to others. As we shed death by dealing with our baggage with a little help from our friends, we can truly begin to live.

It takes humility to recognize this and ask for help. But real life--the Spirit-life Jesus promised--can come through no other means. That's why the ancient Jewish Scripture says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

Are We Churchians?

After recently explaining to a pastor friend what I’ve been up to, he asked, “So where are you anchored in?” In church-speak he was basically asking, “Who do you submit to? Who are you under?”

I thought the answer was obvious. Scripture even calls Jesus our “anchor beyond the veil,” so why is it so important that I be “anchored in” to anything other than Jesus? Am I a Christian or a Churchian?

This article, shared with me by a good friend, sums up my feelings about church:

http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=669&page=1

So I’m asking, “Are you a Churchian?”

Are you a student of the Shepherd?

The Good Shepherd taught his flock, his students (talmidim), that their one identifying mark would be their love one for another (see John 13:34-35). This distinguishing characteristic is noted several times in the ancient text. For example, take the account of Luke in Acts 11:26-30. The students of the Good Shepherd are first identified as Christianos, Greek for followers of Christos, the annointed One. After a great famine strikes the Roman Empire during Claudius' reign, these Christianos "decided to provide help for [their] brothers." Out of love, they shared what they had with those who had none, so that no one perished.

We also see this theme repeated in 1 John 3-4. Here is an excerpt from the Good News about the Shepherd:

This is the message you heard from the beginning:

We should love one another...We know that we

have passed from death to life, because we love

our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains

in death...If anyone has material possessions and

sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,

how can the love of God be in him?...Whoever

loves God must also love his brother.

The truth of these passages hit home with me as I watch endless suffering on the cable news networks. This month it is the victims of Katrina, without homes, power, food and water, and some without their loved ones. How do we show these poor victims the love of God? Do those of us who have plenty give willingly to those who are without? Can our lives be inconvenienced one iota for those whose entire lives have been disrupted?

I am grateful to see the outpouring of compassion and generosity from around the country. Many church groups and parachurch organizations are stepping up to the plate. But that doesn't remove the personal responsibility from each one of us. As students of the Good Shepherd, we are commanded to put our actions where our mouths are. John says it this way, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

How will anyone know that you are a Christos follower, a student of the Good Shepherd? What are your distinguishing characteristics? Do your actions speak louder than your words?

Let's be true to our word and help our brothers in need.

Fair Wages

Fair Wages. Do your work well and get paid well. Do your work not-so-well; get paid not-so-well. We would typically call that a loss of wages, but in reality, the wages of not-so-well done work are lack, worry and stress. Wages are not lost. They are fairly distributed according to the quality of work done…in a perfect world, that is.

The Shepherd said “anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple [student], I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward”[1].

In the Greek, this word reward refers to wages. In other words, the person who does well by receiving a righteous man and giving water to those who are thirsty will be paid wages according to the quality of their work. They will be rewarded.

This principle is repeated often by the Shepherd…in word and in deed. He says, “follow me” and “learn from me,” then He goes about doing good to others. And in a final, humble act He gives His life so others might live. The basic principle is this:

A live given sacrificially, willingly, is a life gained eternally.

I came to this revelation over time, but finally journaled about it last night. This theme runs throughout the Good News about the Shepherd. His mantra was that you must give to receive. You must lose life to find it. He lived these principles as He taught them.

He wasn’t promising some future hope. He was bringing it to life in the present. He said that his students, who abandoned all, would “receive a hundred times as much in this present age”[2]. In other words, they would be paid for their work now, and paid well.

The Shepherd is a fair wage kind of guy. Follow His lead and you will be paid well now and in the future. As the Jewish Proverb says, “The wages of the righteous bring them life…”[3].


[1] Matthew 10:41-42
[2] Mark 10:30
[3] Proverbs 10:16

Mystery...Questions...Where's Velvis?

WHOA...33 days since my last post?!?! What is up with that??

Sorry to my half-dozen readers.

I just finished reading Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis. Sorry Zondervan, I refuse to include that cheesy subtitle you added to help market it in your bookstores. The book was very good. Hey, it got me blogging again, so that counts for something...right?

An interesting undercurrent runs through the book--the mystery of God. I say interesting since that same undercurrent has been running through my mind for months now. I've been asking myself, "What do you really know about God?" Most of the time, no one answers.

If you want to know some of my thoughts on the mystery of God, look back at my April post, Is mystery back in vogue? This post also found it's way into the Faith articles on The Ooze.

In Velvis (my short title for the book...again, minus the cheesy subtitle), Bell uses the better part of Movement One (12 of the 18 pages) to talk about questions and mystery. Here are my two favorite passages:

The Christian faith is mysterious to the core. It is about things and beings that ultimately can't be put into words. Language fails. And if we do definitively put God into words, we have at that very moment made God something God is not (p. 32).

Questions, no matter how shocking or blasphemous or arrogant or ignorant or raw, are rooted in humility. A humility that understands that I am not God. And there is more to know (p. 30).

Hmmm...mystery...questions...humility...I can relate to those things. Bell does attempt to put his faith into words, but he steps back from the Christian worldview and tries to take in the whole story from Genesis to now. He understands that WE are part of the story that is still being told...or as Brian McLaren would say, "The Story We Find Ourselves In" (another great book, by the way).

Where have you tried to box God in? Does your faith allow room for questions?

I'm glad a good friend lent me Bell's book to read. It got me blogging again. It also prompted me to pick up Chilton's Rabbi Jesus again and continue learning.

Thanks for stopping by...I'll try not to be a stranger on my own blog from now on. Good night.

A Blog for Blogging's Sake!

My prayer journal and my blog are sitting untouched for several days. What have I been so busy doing? Well, for one, I've been building a fence in my backyard for our new puppy, Zack...

...and I've been fighting a sinus infection, which I think is finally clearing up. No pictures of that, sorry.

This Saturday is my daughter's first ballet recital. Tonight she has dress rehearsal and she is so excited. My wife has volunteered as a backstage mom, so I'm taking a "sit-in wife" with me to the performance. She's a good friend of ours from nearby Cairo (Georgia, not Egypt, though I consider South Georgia BFE).

I won't post any pictures of my daughters here, to protect their privacy, but any of my friends are welcome to e-mail me for copies. Well, except the one in my profile and it is really old. The girl in my arms is the future ballerina.

So that's my blog for this week, for blogging's sake!

Click to Fight Hunger Every Day

I recently discovered The Hunger Site, where you can click daily to fight hunger. Really, it's that simple. You can click from any computer once a day to provide food for hungry people around the globe. Sponsors of the site donate food in accordance with the number of individual clicks daily. So what are you waiting for?

Haircut Tuesday!

Well, it's not quite here, yet, but in less than 12 hours I get my hair cut! This week overdue appointment has me excited not just because I will shed close to one pound of hair, but because I get to see my good friend Katie who owns the salon. (Okay, I might have exaggerated on the amount of hair to be lost, but I digress).

Katie is a preacher's kid (PK) with a rapid-fire wit and a charming personality. I love talking to her about life. In fact, our most recent conversations have revolved around churches and why neither of us hangs out in them regularly.

You see, this PK grew tired of the overly sensitive, super spiritual, hypocritical church-goer at an early age. I share her lack of tolerance for such people, but I only came to my conclusions about them in my 30's.

Anyway, I've been gushing about all this emergent-type deconstructionist thinking I've been doing lately and she totally gets it. I guess co-owning and working in the city's trendiest and fastest growing salon helps one to remain more culturally aware and relevant. She has such a tender heart full of compassion for people who would never darken the door of a church.

Does she use her chair as a pulpit or soapbox? No. But she does have a keen ability to listen to and to sense when things are out of kilter with her clients. She doesn't always confront or even inquire, but she always listens and silently prays.

Katie is cool. And I can't wait to continue our discussion at the salon tomorrow. I'll get a chance to verbalize some of this rethinking of my faith and in the process get a really great haircut.

Oh, and by the way, one of Katie's stylists is featured on the upcoming season of MTV's Real World, filmed in Austin, Texas. Just watch for the skinny, shy girl from Tallahassee. She's one of this summer's house mates. Should be a hoot.

Living Water

This topic came up this week in one of the books I’m reading, Rabbi Jesus by Bruce Chilton, and on a website I was perusing, Follow the Rabbi. The Jews believed “living water” came down from God in the form of rain or out of the ground as a flowing stream, so they would capture this watershed in pools near the Temple. The immersion pools, or milqvaoth, were meant to cleanse those who would enter the Temple. Bruce Chilton explains:

Everyone entering the Temple needed to bathe by immersion.
The entire southern slope up to the Temple entrance was
developed with a system of canals, channels, and cisterns
(visible today as a result of excavation), so that all Temple-
goers might make themselves clean during this final ascent
into the presence of the Holy One of Israel (Rabbi Jesus, p. 27).

Against the backdrop of the Temple, the Good Shepherd promises to give living water to anyone who is thirsty and believes in him (John 7:37-38). The Jews around the Temple mount at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) would have understood this to symbolize ritual cleansing.

An article, titled “Joy of Living Water” at Follow the Rabbi, makes this point:

There was another special element to the celebration of Sukkot,
and it involved living water. Sukkot took place at the end of the
dry season. The rains needed to begin immediately to ensure a
harvest the following year. Thus the celebration of God's
harvest was coupled with fervent prayer for next year's rains.

It would seem from this perspective that Jesus was not only promising to cleanse, but that he was also promising water for regeneration, as in the rebirth of the crops. The online article goes on to say, “The importance of the Jewish background to Jesus' work cannot be exaggerated. It gave him the context he needed to make his teachings relevant, powerful, and practical.”

Relevant, powerful and practical both then and now.

Thank you Lord for the streams of living water making me grow like a tree and helping to produce fruit in season (Psalm 1:3).

One Commandment

In recent years there has been much attention paid to the Ten Commandments because of all the media hype around public displays of these tenets of the Jewish and Christian faiths. My study of Scripture has led me to the conclusion that there is but one remaining commandment.

Love.

After Moses assembled all of Israel and read to them the Ten Commandments[1], he instructed them to love God with all their heart, soul and strength[2]. Jesus quotes Moses when he is asked about the Greatest Commandment[3]. Paul reaffirms Jesus’ command in his letter to the Romans when he concludes, “Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law”[4].

God was not satisfied to have the ritual obedience of the Hebrew nation. His goal was to circumcise their hearts, so that they could love him and have life[5]. He even sent prophets to serve as his mouthpiece to tell them:

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6, KJV).

The Living Bible translation says:

I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me.

In the new testament we are reminded time and again by the Apostle John that God requires love, plain and simple[6]. It is the one commandment that fulfills all others.

How am I going to obey this commandment today?

[1]Deuteronomy 5
[2]Deuteronomy 6:5
[3]Matthew 22:34, Mark 12:28
[4]Romans 13:10
[5]Deuteronomy 30:6]
[6]John 13:34, 15:12; 1 John 4:21