If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

Happy Ascension Day! You may not be familiar with this feast day. To be honest, it seems a little bit under appreciated and under utilized. This is the day that we celebrate Jesus' Ascension up into Heaven! Pretty important. It historically takes place 39 days after Easter Sunday. (SIDE NOTE: Is there perhaps some significance in that number 39? We see the number 40 so often in the Bible that SURELY there is some reason for this being just one day shy of that holy number.) Now before I get ahead of myself, let me explain the title of this blog post. One of the Psalms appointed for Ascension Day is Psalm 47, and the first line of that Psalm says this:

Clap your hands, all you peoples;
shout to God with a cry of joy.

Which is basically the same thing as "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands". Just thought that was a funny coincidence. 

If you ask me, this may as well be another one of Jesus' miracles. Ascending in to heaven in front of your peers? That must have been an incredible sight. To me, that seems just as jaw-dropping as raising someone from the dead or forcing a demon out of the throat of a young boy or even turning water into wine. It had to have been an absolute spectacle. Acts 1 says that "he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.". And after that happened two men robed in white (hmm... I wonder who they could be?) showed up and said that Jesus would return to them in the same way that he left. That statement could be interpreted in several ways. Do they mean that he's going to return to Earth in a cloud? Or do they mean that he'll just return as a human? Regardless of what they meant, Jesus hasn't physically returned to Earth yet. At least as far as I know. 

Adoniram? I guess when he was younger they called him Adoni - lamb!

Did you know that April 12th is the Feast Day of Adoniram Judson? Have you
ever heard of Adoniram Judson? I hadn’t either until I looked at the Lectionary
for inspiration on what to write about for today. Adoniram Judson was a
Missionary! Now, just by knowing that you should be able to infer that this
dude is olllddddd. Being a missionary isn’t really a job that people have anymore.
So yes. He was old. In fact, he died more than 100 years ago in the year
1850. He was a missionary to Burma, which is a place that isn’t called Burma
anymore. It’s called Myanmar. He left a pretty profound legacy in Myanmar.
His Burmese-English dictionary is still in use today and at the time of his
death he left roughly 100 churches and 8,000 Christians in Burma.
Pretty impressive.

The epistle that’s designated for the feast day of Adoniram Judson is a
very interesting one.
It’s from Paul’s first letters to the Corinthians.

“If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive.
What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also;
I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.”

I love the message Paul gives us here. How often do we just go through the motions,
as they say, when we’re praying? I often find my mind wandering when praying.
Especially during the more routine prayers during a church service. The Nicene
Creed, the Confession of Sin, even the Lord’s Prayer. Over years and years
of saying those same words every week, perhaps they’ve lost their power a little bit.
Words only have as much power as you give them, so if I’m not focused on what
I’m saying I may as well not be saying anything. I have to make a conscious effort
to give those words power again. To appreciate their beauty. To let them make an
impact on me the same as when I first really heard them for the first time.

So. I invite you to pray as Paul invites us. Pray with your tongue so that the people
may hear. Pray with your spirit so that God may hear. And pray with your mind
so that you may hear.

What is love...?

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:34-35

This was the verse of choice of my confirmation mentor when I was in middle school. He loved it. He could prattle on about it for what seemed like hours on end. I remember not thinking much of it then. It’s almost an afterthought on Jesus’ part. It is, after all, one of the last things that he says to the Disciples before his death. Whether it was last minute or not, it’s profound. He makes a point to distinguish what kind of love is expected of his disciples. His kind of love. He’s making an addendum to the commandments that God handed down to Moses, which said to love your neighbor as yourself. It’s an important distinction. The original commandment concerning the love of one’s neighbor is lacking in a few ways. If I am to love my neighbor as I love myself, that still leaves room for hatred and disdain. Self-loathing certainly exists, so it’s absolutely possible to follow that commandment and still not love your neighbor as God originally intended.

This verse has more than one dimension to it. Jesus says “all people know that you are my disciples, if you love for one another”. I think that pretty much sums up what he’s all about. To follow Jesus, all that he requires of you is that you love one another as he loves us. We don’t have to stand on street corners and preach the gospel to passers-by, we don’t have to “share this post or go to hell”, we don’t need to overtly proselytize. All that we have to do is love like Jesus. When he says to love each other, he means to love all of each other. Rob Bell has this to say about that: Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor, and our neighbor can be anybody. We are all created in the image of God, and we are all sacred, valuable creations of God. Everybody matters. That’s important to realize. Our neighbor can be anybody, and our neighbor is everybody. You can’t pick and choose. You can’t love one person and hate another. I once heard someone say that Love and Hate are two sides of the same coin, which I think is an extremely cynical way to look at things. Love drives out hate. The two are incompatible. So when Jesus says to love our neighbor, he means to love all of them. He means for us to love them in the same way that he loves us. Unconditionally. Unequivocally. Undeniably.

Exorcisms, demons and Calling Out to God and One Another

Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. Mark 1:21-28

It was a dark and stormy Saturday anyway, so the mood was right for a day of Exorcism

Movies. I watched Constantine, and The Rite, in which Anthony Hopkins plays a grizzled Welsh Jesuit priest who teaches a young protégé’ the skills for being an exorcist. Finally, I watched Priest, Paul Betany’s action movie about an order of priests who battle demonic vampires in a dystopic future. (He has a cool cross tattoo on his forehead, too!)  

I geek out on exorcism  movies  in the same way that others do for movies about policeman and firefighters. I like seeing people who “practice” the same calling going out and kicking evil’s butt. After all, what we are about in our “practice” of God’s goodness is proclaiming to whatever forces are out there that good, love and Jesus are of ultimate worth and power in a world that often seems otherwise.

Jesus does open battle with demons in the Gospel of Mark. We would probably be right in consigning many of the ailments the “possessed” people suffer from to illnesses like epilepsy or schizophrenia. If you are or I were to meet someone convinced they were possessed, we would be right in seeking out medical help for them. We don’t often seek out the exorcist anymore for people who are acting strange.

Yet, there is something pretty instructive for us in the scene. We can still “exorcise” stuff from our life with prayer, conversation and care for one another using Jesus’ “technique.”  Notice that Jesus has a conversation with the demons. Notice that they know who he is and recognize that they are powerless. Notice too that with Jesus’ help they depart. They are named, called out, and then banished!

You too can name-call out- and banish darkness from your life and the lives of others. You have already done it before, even.

When was the last time you had something on your heart or on your mind that felt heavy, or dark, or unbelievably sad and you prayed about it or talked to someone who loved you and you felt its power over you lessen or even go away?  When you did that- you “banished darkness.”

When we name our “darkness” or trouble it begins to lose its power over us. Remember, as you encounter problems or dark times, that you have a community of people in the Church who can listen to what is going on. You can be connected to resources like counselors and (if necessary) Doctors who can help in that work, too. Like the people in Jesus’ day, we have to recognize our need for one another and for God’s help, and open ourselves up to that help by “crying out” to God and to people who love us. The possessed man cried out, then Jesus could do his work!

[And by the way, know that you have in Joel and me two people who care about you who are always willing to be listening ears and a resource to help you find whatever help you need.]

Demons, whatever their form,  are powerless against the light, love and life offered by Jesus.

Tim

Lament is Also Prayer

Rejoice always.. give thanks in all circumstances..1 Thessalonians 1

One of my old college friends who is in possession of a wicked sense of humor, decided to counter-balance the online proliferation of “Daily Gratitudes” (sic) with “Daily Ingratitudes.” Some are bitter and maybe a little mean, but others are  beautiful and speak  profoundly to darkness and pain. Others, like this one, were funny:

I am ungrateful for things that don't understand that "inside the house" is not for them, even though you say it to them, you haul them outdoors, you construct barriers, you encourage vibrant predatory life to torment and eat them, you hope. And yet, there's the cockroach saying "oh hai, is this that 'indoors' thing you don't want me to be in?"

Even in the midst of “rejoicing always,” we still need to name, for ourselves and God, those things and times causing us to lament.

[Some of mine: people who do not use their turn signals, the disastrous traffic at the Chick-Fil-A across from Piedmont Hospital, canned Asparagus, televangelists, “holiday music”, “Bro-Country”, smog,  I am also not grateful for cancer, diseases in general that kill people (like Parkinson’s disease- one that effects my Mom), war, starvation, income inequality and certain politicians who shall go unnamed].  

Paul is right- rejoice and give thanks, always, but also find room in your life for lament.

Paul was no stranger to pain, and I suspect that he probably lamented aplenty. He describes a pain or a  “thorn in his side” (what  might have been epilepsy, depression, migraines or some other physical or emotional issue in one of his letters, saying:

^“I pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me alone. ⁹ He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness.” So I’ll gladly spend my time bragging about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power can rest on me. ¹⁰ Therefore, I’m all right with weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, and stressful situations for the sake of Christ, because when I’m weak, then I’m strong. (2 Cor 12:8-10)

Before he was able to see God at work in his pain, he lamented (“pleaded”) and wanted it to go away. He later reconciles himself to his "thorn," but he never blames God for it or says that God was “teaching him a lesson.” 

Paul and I may have the whole migraine thing in common. Many times I have asked God to take them away and they have persisted.  (Good medicine, healthier living, exercise, and meditation- all gifts from God- have helped me control them). I have also found lots of grace within the pain I have felt. I may have even found “power in weakness” by learning to calm my mind and find greater self-compassion within my “thorn.” Yet, you will never find me thanking God when I have one or rejoicing. (Probably quite the opposite). Migraines are dark, awful, and yucky.

Lamenting their presence in my life to God has helped me own them as a reality, though, and find healing (and perhaps even, in retrospect, gratitude). 

Rejoice, always, name your “gratitudes”, but also know that God hears lament-  the cry of our hearts- our pain- as prayer, too. 

"Whump:... Or Change Happens but So Does New Life

"From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Mark 13:24-29

Last week I was getting ready for my day when I heard, no felt, what I would have to describe as a “whump.” The Georgia Dome, a giant building in which I had watched football games, Olympic sports, and been to a few concerts (most notably The Rolling Stones) was imploded. I am sure a lot of you have watched the above video a bunch of times. Watching stuff like that get blown up is pretty awesome.

What is funny about that, though, is that one “temple” got flattened right next door to a new one. We are accustomed, in our time, to blowing up stadiums when we get tired of them and building new ones. Out with the old, and in with the new. We have explosives able to destroy “temple” like buildings in a matter of seconds and trucks and workers able to haul off the rubble in relatively little time. I wonder sometimes, then, what “temples” do we have in this world that feel, much like the temple in Jerusalem must have felt for Jesus’ followers, as if they will be around forever?

It’s not a huge leap for us to see why Jesus goes off on a rant in Mark 13 after being asked  by one of his disciples what would happen to the “awesome stones and buildings” of The Temple of Jerusalem. Jesus kicks of the rant by predicting, “Not even one [of those stones] will be left upon another. All will be demolished!” (13:5, CEB). For his friends, this sounded like nonsense. How could something as mighty as the Temple ever be destroyed?

About 80 years after Jesus lived on earth,in fact, Roman armies came in and leveled that very temple.That temple was the center of the universe for people back then. Jesus wants his followers to see that all “temples” will fall eventually. Everything on earth is susceptible to time and the forces of nature and history, and that our only constant on earth is change.Whether or not he could see the future, Jesus knew the future.

Yet, even in the midst of change, he says, there is constantly new life flowing in to this existence. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.” Even as time marches on, new life is always happening.

One source of h anxiety tension and grief for human beings is that we are uncomfortable with time and change. We get so caught up in our grief about what is passing away and our anxiety about what is yet to come that we do not notice new life appearing around us. Truly, we could spend all of our time fretting about all of the things beyond our control. Yet, when we do, Jesus is telling us, we miss much life and resurrection taking place- right now. As we kick off Advent, then, let us all take time in the day-to-day to find Jesus already alive in our lives and in the world we live in.

King Jesus

”Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:44-46

I like to ask my atheist friends to  “Tell me about the God you do not believe in?” The God they do not believe in is often remarkably similar to the one that fundamentalists who stand preaching on the corner probably believe in- a kind of cosmic, cruel king who casts people into hell based on whether or not they had their beliefs properly sorted out before death. The God they do not believe in sounds like one who sorts us out based on pretty high standards for eternal pleasure or punishment. Their God sounds like a bloody tyrant.

 “Christ the King” Sunday- (the last Sunday before Advent, aka “this Sunday”), gives us opportunity to think about which God we believe in. The word “king” itself is problematic, isn’t it? Most kings - even the so-called “good” ones- ruled through violence and fear and enforced a system that sorted people out based on what they had or which family they were born into. We have no context for kings in a democratic society, anyway, because we rejected that whole monarchy thing 242 or so years ago when we broke away from English rule. I am not even so sure I like the idea of Christ as King, then. 

If Jesus were king, then, what would that look like? A King Jesus that looks like the one in Matthew 25 has high standards for  “the nations” that are gathered before him in this parable. Even harder for us is that the nations are not judged based on moral purity, proper belief, worship or any other “religious” kinds of standards. Nope. They are judged based on their compassion. The righteous are those who clothed the naked, cared for the sick, visited the imprisoned and welcomed the stranger. Period.

I don’t believe Jesus means to send anyone who does not do perfect and untiring work for the “least of these” off to hell, however. If that were true, I think we would all be pretty much doomed. Jesus gives us a  good clue on where to look for God and for what God looks like. Want to find God? Get up and walk towards the messiness this life offers us. 

God is found there – in all kinds of hunger, and imprisonment and estrangement and sickness. Do good and loving work in the hunger that surrounds you right now. Find someone you know who is imprisoned- be it in a city jail or in the prison of addiction or loneliness and offer your love and help setting them free. There are strangers in your midst each and every Sunday at church-- walk across the room and welcome them- and maybe even take them out for lunch. Jesus is right there, friends, and when we follow him to those kinds of places in this world, we are truly being his "subjects"  and his "sheep."

God’s kingdom, in fact, is already ruled by a present, living King who has proclaimed the center of his power rests with the least powerful. All of us, then, have a chance to embrace our King in the present, and live under an entirely different and holy rule.