Lenten Journey 2024: Day 1 – The Gospels According to God.
Any of you remember this song – a top hit in 1995?
“If God had a name, what would it be?
And would you call it to His face?
If you were faced with Him in all His glory?
What would you ask if you had just one question?
If God had a face, what would it look like?
And would you want to see
if seeing meant that you would have to believe
in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
And all the prophets?
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryna make his way home?”
“What if God was One of Us’ by Joan Osborne
In my final post for Countdown to Christmas 2023, I asked if Clark Kent was Superman or was Superman, Clark Kent?
I raised the question in relation to who is Jesus. Is Jesus, God or is God, Jesus – suggesting that how you phrase the question influences the response.
It seems to me that most of the time, we like to talk like Jesus is God (not vice versa), yet most of what I read and hear from Christians is that Jesus is quite distinct and separate from God. After all,
Jesus was human;
Jesus was the son;
Jesus was subordinate to God.
Then, at Christmas, we talk about ‘Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’) being another name for Jesus. We also sing a modern Christmas song with the line ‘when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God’.
Is He God or not?
I’m not too sure we really understand or what we mean when we toss around the name ‘Jesus’.
What if we were blind to the human packaging of Jesus the Jew and only able to hear the voice of someone we have no idea what he looked like?
It would be like what you are doing at this very moment – reading words from an invisible source.
What if we bought into this idea of God being Jesus and instead of reading the New Testament Gospels as proof that Jesus was/is God, we read the New Testament Gospels as God actually speaking and living inside a human body while interacting with humans?
In a sense, the Gospel of John does this for us, but he writes in a way that is more philosophical, somewhat abstract, and ‘brainy’ (the ‘Word became Flesh’ – philosophical idea in Greek and Roman thinking).
However, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke – known as the synoptic gospels (synoptic means ‘see the same’ because they tend to copy or duplicate one another’s message or stories) emphasize the humanity of Jesus while trying to convince others that He was, indeed, divine.
Here is where I want to journey these next several days. I want to attempt to:
hear the voice,
comprehend the thoughts, and interpret the words of God –
recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their remembrance of conversations with Jesus.
Rather than attribute the words to Jesus, I want to attribute them directly to God.
You with me?
Tomorrow, we begin our journey with words from the child Jesus. We will continue to walk from the early years to the final days on earth as we revisit the conversations God had with 1st century ‘us’, only I may modify the words slightly – in some cases – so they sound like they are coming directly from God.
You will get the hang of it as we go.
For today, Ash Wednesday, ponder on the following as prep for our walk:
God had something He wanted to tell us and He disguised Himself as ‘Clark Kent’ in order to communicate effectively…
on our level…
in our language…
in our skin…
in our cultural preferences…
in our ethnical norms…
in our prejudicial biases…
in our religious framings…
in our political struggles for power…
in our family traditions…
in our psychological anxieties…
in our sociological struggles for acceptance…
in our economic longing for self-worth…
in our spiritual unknowns…
in our quest for knowledge…
in our fear of sickness and death….
God did that.
Listen to the words of Paul in Colossians, Philippians, and 1st Corinthians:
“We look at [Jesus] and see the God who cannot be seen”;
“He [Jesus] had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human”;
“yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, through whom were created all things and through whom we have our being.”
Do you catch what Paul is saying?
He is, in Jewish terms and thoughts, reminding believers that God was Jesus – not separate entities – but one and the same.
Remember what Jews pray daily: the Shema found in Deuteronomy 6 – ‘Hear O Israel, God is our Lord, God is one’.
Paul is restating the Shema and stating ‘Hear O Israel, Jesus is our Lord, God is one.’
So, you still with me?
You ready to read the Gospels according to God?
JH
Lenten Journey 2024: Day 2 – The Gospels According to God.
“After three days they found Him in the temple…. He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for Me?…” Luke 2:42-49.
The context of the words quoted by Luke above is when Joseph and Mary visited the temple in Jerusalem during Passover celebration. They had traveled by foot with their children, extended family members, and friends from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a multiple days journey.
Jesus was twelve years of age at that time, meaning he was considered an adult male by Jewish culture; otherwise, He could not have been in the presence of temple priests and the scribes discussing the Torah/Scriptures.
Jesus failed to rejoin his family on their return trip, and upon discovery, Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem to search for their son. Mary questioned Jesus regarding his absence, and the above scripture is His initial response. Then, the following is added:
“Didn’t you know I would be about my father’s business/house/affairs?” [Jesus]
“Didn’t you know I would be about MY business/house/affairs?” [God]
Part of me wants to jump right in and tackle the ‘Father-Son’ metaphor at this point in our journey, but I am going to wait until we run into that metaphor again – which, we will, sooner than later.
Instead, I want to spend some time focusing on the what and where of God’s presence at the beginning of His adult life as a human.
The Jewish male became an adult male at the age of twelve because it was typically the age of puberty, and signaled the young man’s beginning of physical and intellectual maturity.
The first twelve years of the boy’s life were spent sitting at the feet of his father where the child learned, studied, questioned, and memorized Torah/Scripture. The next few years would be studying as an apprentice to his father to learn a vocational trade, such as a carpenter/builder – Joseph’s trade.
Upon reaching the age of twelve, a young man was eligible to sit with older men, rabbis, priests, and scribes in public discussion of the Torah.
So, its no surprise that upon His first Passover as an adult male, God headed to the temple – the very place He had built to house and represent His presence.
As the story unfolds, we find that the rabbis, priests, scribes, and others were impressed with God’s questions, discussions, and understanding of Torah/Scriptures. Well, duh!
You know what I find really interesting?
God does not talk about the sacrifices or the rituals of the Passover celebration.
There is nothing at this point describing God’s interest in the temple processes or the priestly roles and functions.
God is not enamored with the building or the pomp and circumstances of the holy shrine.
Instead, he spends three days… three days, my friends, listening and debating scripture with people who were experts in Scripture.
He simply wanted to learn how humans read, learned, and interpreted His written word…
and then He engaged them in discussing its meaning and application.
My mind wanders back to the story of Mt. Sinai and the Ten Words spoken to Moses that evolved into the Scripture God was discussing with His human mentors. I can’t help but think that twelve year old god was in His metaphorical Heaven….
the very thing He longed for at the creation of the world was actually happening.
God was interacting with humans; and time was lost as they discussed His very words and the record of their mutual history, and they did so, together.
Honestly, that gives me goosebumps.
Now, I don’t know if God was frustrated with Joseph and Mary because they failed to search for Him, first off, at the temple;
or
that they failed to understand that His first love was not to be a carpenter’s apprentice – which would have had him about his father, Joseph’s business.
Instead, God had His own business – studying, teaching, and living out the Torah/Scripture.
Isn’t that just like God?
So, what business are you in?
JH
Lenten Journey 2024: Day 3 – The Gospels According to God.
“After being immersed, Jesus rose up out of the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And behold, a voice from the heavens said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased!” Matthew 3:16-17.
Well, its sooner than later – as I promised.
We may need to pause and “ponder under a fig tree” for a couple of days – depending on your questions and thoughts – to recheck our journey direction after today’s reflection. I welcome the pause since the purpose of discipleship is to read, study, discuss, and debate Scripture so that it seeds deeper understanding and greater application.
This is going to stretch us.
You still with me?
Let’s modify the words to fit our purpose:
“This is ME, whom I love; with ME I am well-pleased!” [God]
Here we go!
In this specific scene we do NOT have Jesus speaking; though He does make a statement prior to His baptism in a conversation with John the Baptist. So, we are focusing on the words from heaven
.
Notice the words are ASSUMED to be the voice of God – God is NOT described as the actual speaker. Nonetheless, let’s continue with the accepted interpretation that God is the subject making the statement.
In order to truly understand the background of the phrase, we have to look at Old Testament passages which are the basis for the phrase in our study.
Psalm 2:7 – “I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father (or begotten you).”
1 Samuel 16:13 – “Then Samuel…anointed him [David] and the spirit of the Lord came upon David.”
Isaiah 42:1 – “Take a good look at my servant. I’m backing him to the hilt. He’s the one I chose, and I couldn’t be more pleased with him. I’ve bathed him with my spirit, my life. He’ll set everything right among the nations.” (The Message)
Here’s the thing:
We can, but probably should not, push our modern biological and ‘Websterian’ definitions of the words ‘father’ and ‘son’ into 1st century thinking or writings. It’s unfair to do so. What the Scriptures and Jewish thought communicated by the idea of ‘father and son’ are quite different from what we communicate when using those terms.
I am not here to argue against or for God impregnating Mary so she can birth a half-human/half-divine being. Scriptures do not offer scientific explanations for such modern questioning – mainly because questions of that nature that we ask of the text were not questions even considered by 1st century people; and, just as important,
the purpose of Scripture is to reveal God, not render scientific explanations. To use Scripture as a science textbook is misuse, and, honestly, blasphemous.
So, with that said, let’s accept the following description of the father-son title understood by the Jewish people prior to and during the 1st century.
The idea of God as father in Jewish thought was two-fold: Creator and Provider – Creator in terms of author of all living things; Provider in terms of daily bread.
So, any reference to God as father is not to be understood biologically (in other words – God impregnated humans).
I explained this in more detail in my Christmas Countdown 2023 – that some accused me of ‘being over our heads’. I am open to discussing this further if you like.
In the meantime, let me summarize Jewish 1st century idea of conception:
Woman/Mother creates the fetus;
Man/Father gives it his spirit;
God determines birth/life (close/open the womb)
The only concept that comes close to the Biblical way of thinking for Americans regarding ‘fatherhood’ is in the phrase used to describe George Washington: ‘the father of our country’. The father concept represents a spiritual beginning to our nation.
Does that help?
The idea of sonship in Jewish thought was two-fold: image of his father and apprentice to his father.
The son was a continuation or extension of the father in the culture.
Sometimes a stand-in;
sometimes a replacement;
usually carried on the father’s trade/vocation;
definitely one responsible for continuing the family lineage.
We find this in the phrase Jews used and discussed with Jesus regarding their chosen-ness: ‘Abraham is our father’ making them ‘children of Abraham’.
The father-son relationship was so intimate in Jewish thought that it really is to be understood as one-and-the-same. I know that’s hard for us to grasp in our individualistic way of thinking, but, again, Jewish culture in the Old Testament and the New Testament thought communally/corporately (community of people rather than individually) – and that is foreign to us.
You still with me?
So, what we have in the father-son terminology and concept is God, the ‘Creator-Father’ becoming a ‘son of God’ and/or a ‘son of man’ in the human skin of Jesus.
‘Son of God ‘ is a term used throughout the Old Testament (for example: Genesis 6:2) to describe different, usually extraordinary people at different times in Jewish history – and especially in reference to Israel. Son of man is just another term for ‘human being’ with one exception that we will probably discuss later in our journey.
So, what is God saying at His baptism?
He is reminding us of 1 Samuel 16, when David was anointed king;
He is reminding us of Psalm 2, when God’s anointed took the throne over all nations;
He is reminding us of Isaiah 42, when God selected a unique being to walk among humans.
The baptism of God was the moment the Kingdom of God began to exist on earth…. the Anointed One – the Messiah – the David dynastic king had come – and,
by golly, it was God Himself!
It was the moment He installed Himself, in human skin, as the anointed king of a spiritual kingdom beginning to unfold on “earth as it is in Heaven”.
God followed His established protocol for anointing a king by being baptized by John – a prophet who described himself as ‘a voice in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord’.
Then Heaven declared God king.
But…. we have one more thought that you have probably quoted or sung without thinking about it at Christmas time:
“For unto us a child is born, to us a SON is given…, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace…. (Isaiah 9:6) and, wait for it:
EVERLASTING FATHER.
A SON is given who will be known as EVERLASTING FATHER.
Still with me?
JH
Lenten Journey 2024: Day 4 – The Gospels According to God.
“Then [God] was led by [His] spirit into the wilderness to be tempted….’ Matthew 4:1
Okay, we just learned that God appointed Himself King through the baptismal-anointing-ritual and now must determine how, as a human, He will establish heaven on earth.
Apparently God needed some alone time to figure this out, so His inner spirit prods Him to escape to the wilderness.
I love the idea of God talking to Himself – His inner spirit conversing in a dialogue all of us have on a daily basis. Sorta makes me feel ‘God-like’, if you know what I mean.
May I point out at least a couple of things that I believe vital to understanding the wilderness jaunt God took and the inner dialogue He experienced.
First, it relates so well with Lent. Lent is actually based on this very event in the life of Jesus, aka God. It is a time of fasting, isolating, pondering, and inner dialogue about the spiritual elements in our lives.
Secondly, it is a reliving of the ‘Exodus experience’ for God – admittedly a shortened version of the experience. Whereas the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, God journeys there for forty days. The number forty is indeed symbolic in this case.
God is revisiting the struggles and longings of His people perhaps so He can better understand their frustrations and grumblings – to see things from their perspective – the things that tempted them while tramping toward the Promised Land.
They were hungry, so He gave them Manna.
They wanted to worship a golden calf instead of Him, so He built them a tabernacle/temple.
They wanted miracles, like the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea.
Are those not the temptations God experienced in His forty day wilderness?
Thirdly, God’s time in the wilderness is an opportunity to determine how He will model and present His kingdom differently than Israel had attempted to model and establish it. He has to be spiritual and human at the same time.
Let’s hear His words:
“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But [God] answered, “It is written Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from my mouth,”
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (God had a vision of being on the highest point of the temple) because it is written that [angels will protect you – paraphrasing here to save time]. But [God] said, again it is written, you shall not put [ME] to the test.”
God went to a mountain peak where He viewed the surrounding nations. “You can have full authority and receive man’s glory if you will worship me. God answered, “You shall worship ME, and ME only shall you serve.”
The key to understanding what is taking place in the wilderness is found in God’s use of the Torah and Hebrew Scriptures to respond to each temptation.
What is one to do when all the power of the universe is at one’s fingertips, but due to covenant, Torah, and Scriptural boundaries, one is unable to use ideas, philosophies, authoritative powers certainly available but prohibited by an agreed upon code of ethics?
I find it interesting that God used Scripture – in fact, He had to use Scripture – to justify His actions or inactions.
His response concerning ‘bread’ and ‘stones’ is found in Deuteronomy 8:3.
His response concerning ‘calling down angels’ is found in Deuteronomy 6:16
His response concerning ‘worship’ is found in Deuteronomy 6:13.
Why did He reference the Torah/Scripture?
Well, first, let’s note that the Scriptures quoted all came from events associated with the wilderness experience of the Exodus.
But the real reason behind the ‘why’ question is because He was in a Jewish human body, and Jews were bound by the Torah and Scriptures that God Himself had given them. God’s creative hands were tied by the very laws He had instituted, so while tempted to act like a God would, should, and could act…
God had to act within the confines of Jewish law and prophecy to implement His kingdom. To do otherwise would mean He was guilty of breaking the covenant.
Think of it this way:
You long to simplify your life.
You are tired of paying for exorbitant prices to heat your home.
You are tired of mortgage payments.
You are tired of car payments, insurance, and gas prices.
You are tired of constant smartphone, ipad, and technological invasion of your privacy.
You are tired of waiting on hold, or talking to a thickly accented foreigner when trying to troubleshoot a local issue.
You are tired of worrying about the safety of your kids at school.
You are tired of buying stuff made in China, and
tired of squeezing your favorite TV show in between commercials.
You just want to live an uncomplicated, simple life.
So, why not join an Amish community and give it all up?
I have a strong suspicion, like me, we wouldn’t last a day!!
The wilderness experience described in both Matthew and Luke is attempting to describe how God – the creator of the universe – was going to move in and crash with simple-minded, Amish-like-humans (not belittling the Amish, just recognizing their desire for simplicity);
and without electricity, gas, phone, motor car, not a single luxury….
like Robinson Crusoe, as primitive as can be…
God had to help those simpleminded humans understand what it means to love Him and one another, and He had to do it in human terms, in human limits, and in human mess. God had to become ‘simpleminded’ Himself.
Yet what is so interesting and fascinating to me is God is discovering that the solutions, remedies, and escapes from the human mess were present within the Torah/Scriptures.
If one follows Torah/Scripture – the Words of God – there will be bread for all.
If one follows Torah/Scripture – the Words of God – there will be no need for miracles because God’s people will provide all that is needed through their faithfulness to the Word, to God, and to one another.
If one follows Torah/Scripture – the Words of God – there will be no desire or worship for power and land; it will be shared and divided among all.
Its all there – Kingdom life – the possibility of heaven on earth is already mapped out in the oral and written words of Torah/Scripture.
God just had to figure out how to live it and get others to live it while existing in simpleminded-Amish-like-human bodies.
Is any of this making a lick of sense?
Are you grasping what God is doing?
JH
Lenten Journey 2024: Day 5 – The Gospels According to God.
“…[God] began to preach,“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”…[God] went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people…Now when [God] saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and He began to teach them….”Be perfect, therefore, as [I AM] perfect.’ – Matthew 4-5.
As a psychology major and then as a university professor I discovered that people vary in their learning styles. Some are:
primarily visual learners;
some are primarily auditory learners;
some lean toward reading as a way to learn;
while others are what we call ‘hands on’.
Skilled teachers understand that effective learning incorporates all styles, requiring more often then not, repetition – with the topic of learning presented over and over in a way that all students can see, hear, interpret, and feel their way to understand.
As we journey with God, we find that His forty days in the wilderness have ended, and according to Matthew’s take on the story, God has begun to travel from village to village to teach in synagogues.
His theme – the core of His teaching – is to announce and demonstrate that HIS kingdom has come.
As any good teacher will do, God states upfront His topic for consideration, then teaches by reading, speaking, demonstrating, and touching His listeners.
Apparently His time in the wilderness panned out, because crowds began to gather wherever He went. He touched the core of their longing souls and hearts – God understood His listeners.
Matthew 5 begins what is known as the Sermon on the Mount.
I love the imagery created by modifying the main character’s name:
“God went up on a mountainside and sat down….”
I know we still like ‘Jesus’ – but come on, be honest with me….
doesn’t it change the tone of the passage and story to think of God Himself sitting on the mountainside surrounded by what is believed to be thousands of people?
It’s an awesome thought for me… perhaps not for you, but indeed for me.
As I started to say, Matthew 5 is a 1st century restatement of Leviticus 19, where God and Moses ‘spelled out’ the specifics of how to like the kingdom life. Moses called it ‘holiness’, whereas Matthew calls it ‘perfection’.
Leviticus 19:2 begins with ‘Be holy as I am holy’ and Matthew 5 ends with ‘Be perfect as I am perfect.
Let me clarify one thing, though. Both ‘holy’ and ‘perfect’ mean to ‘bring to completion’ and have more of ‘don’t do something half-way’ – do it fully until it its done like its supposed to be done.
The context of Matthew 5:48 and God’s call for ‘perfection’ immediately follows His instruction to love others – and He says we have to love perfectly. We can’t just love people we like – non-kingdom people can love people they like. Kingdom people have to demonstrate ‘whole’ love – they have to love non-kingdom people, too. That’s perfection and holiness…. when you have ‘complete’ or ‘non-partial’ love.
God is not saying we can’t fail or that we don’t always do it without making it messy. No, He’s just saying we have to include and consider everyone when we practice kingdom-living/loving.
SIDEBAR (or squirrel-chasing): Love should be understood as ‘commitment to the well-being of a person’ and has little to do with liking a person. That is how you can love an enemy. You don’t have to like them but you certainly are obligated to treat them as a human being. It also explains how you can ‘love yourself’.
Okay. Back to our story. Here’s the thing:
No true authority figure has taught the people what kingdom living is like and demonstrated its application since Moses taught it for the first time. And even then, once you re-read the Exodus story, you find that ‘demonstrative-touch’ learning was not in the teaching style of Moses.
Deuteronony 5:33 (as well as additional scriptural references) states:
You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may be well with you,…”
Where did the Lord God actually walk with the people to demonstrate what it means to ‘walk in His ways’?
He hadn’t….
Oh how I wish I had lived in an early 1st century village like Nazareth…
Oh how I wish I had sat in Capernaum’s synagogue on the Sabbath….
Oh how I wish I could have spread a blanket on the mountainside that day…
The very day God walked His way and explained it all.
You still with me?
JH
Lenten Journey 2024: Day 6 – The Gospels According to God.
“But when you pray,… pray to ME who is unseen….. this, then, is how you should pray: Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. And lead uss not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:6-13.
I had trouble falling asleep last night.
This happens often during Lent for a couple of reasons:
SDD – Sunlight Deprivation Disorder (aka ‘cabin fever). January – March plays havoc with my biological clock and gets my sleep patterns discombobulated (love saying that word).
MWSDD– Mind Won’t Shut Down Disorder (I made this one up). I study, write these devotionals, and also write and create songs (more on that later). My body is tired at the end of the day, but my mind pushes on through the night trying to make sense of God’s word for myself and you, my friends, while its humming a new tune and/or trying to find the right phrase to complete the poetic lyric.
Ever been there? Frustrating, isn’t it? It’s not ‘bad’ anxiety, its just the mind doing what it does in overtime.
Since I was awake, I perused Facebook (something I despise doing) and stumbled across a taped worship service published by a church. The church advertises they do things differently from other churches so I listened in and joined them online (though they weren’t live at 2 in the morning).
I listened to 3 songs performed in driving rock beat and basic 3 chord progressions with screaming guitars, hammer pounded drums, and shrill vocals. The lyrics and music were hard to follow, and as I read the lyrics and attempted to sing along, I found no clear melody line and shallow, repetitious wording.
I listened to a message where the gist of it was: surrender everything to God and let Him do the work – which, in my humble opinion is chicken poo. Pardon my French.
Frankly, I found little difference in the format, time, structure, music (well it was a bit more Van Halen-like than I’m used to but I like rock music when its done well – this wasn’t done well). If this church began with the idea of ‘being and doing things differently’, somewhere along the way they fell into the same ruts every church has fallen. They look the same; they sound the same; they talk the same; and they act the same.
The church in America is like 1st century Israel: a powerless status quo focused on their individualized psychological discomfort while wishing the ‘anointed’ Trump would arise and deliver them from evil Biden to establish God’s kingdom on earth (that’s the only political statement I allow myself, and its directed toward the church, mostly).
God is sitting on the side of a mountain in 1st century Israel teaching people how to pray. The words He recommends we use and the topics He tells us to include in our conversation with Him are pulled from the Old Testament.
‘Our father’ is taken from Isaiah 63 and Jeremiah 3 where God, through the prophets, says there will come a day when I will truly be a father to Israel.
God says: pray for that day to come.
‘hallowed name’ is taken from Ezekiel 36 where God states He wants to give Israel and new heart and a new spirit.
God says: pray for that day to come.
‘Your kingdom come’ is taken from Micah 4 and it is where God states He will rule forever.
God says: pray for that day to come.
‘Give us daily bread’ is taken from Exodus 16 and Psalms 78 and it is where God promises manna for everyone when the kingdom comes.
God says: pray for that day to come.
‘Forgive debts’ is taken from Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 15, and Isaiah 61 and it is where God promises that everyone can live jubilantly and free.
God says: pray for that day to come.
‘Lead to temptation/deliver from evil’ is taken from Deuteronomy 4 where God reminds Israel what took place to gain their freedom – a reminder that there will be a ‘testing time’ when the kingdom of God is implemented on earth.
God says: pray that you will be spared when that day comes.
I really wish that churches were different.
I wish that I was different.
I wish I could pray the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ daily with an expectation that this is the day His kingdom will be unleashed even more than it was yesterday….
and the day before that….
and the day before that….
Do I really want His kingdom unleashed?
Do you really want His kingdom unleashed?
Be careful how you pray.
JH
Lenten Journey 2024: Day 7 – The Gospels According to God.
We are ending our first week’s journey.
Some of you have responded along the way, and I cannot communicate how meaningful that is to me. I’m not so much interested in whether you ‘like or dislike’ the words – though some lively dialogue would be truly welcomed – as much as you are still with me; here and pondering.
Are you here?
Is reading the words of Jesus as if they were directly spoken by God Himself impactful at all?
On we go….
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does MY will….” When [God] had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teachings because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” – Matthew 7:21-29
Matthew, chapters 5-7, record the Sermon on the Mount. As I shared previously, this is not only a restatement of Leviticus 19, along with other passages from the Old Testament, but it is a message that defines what the kingdom of God looks like when it is practiced in every day socializing.
Perhaps it is difficult for us to grasp the concept of a ‘kingdom’ since we (by we, I mean people in the United States) have never lived under a monarchy. Our image of a kingdom is influenced by Great Britain’s royal family or Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom with Cinderella’s castle.
In the words of Ricky Ricardo…. ‘we got some ‘splainin’ to do.
May I call on the thoughts of two legal scholars I know? Dan Ricks (my cousin in the Northwest) and my long time friend from Junior High School, Bob Johnson – help us understand the legal meaning of ‘letter’ vs ‘spirit’ of the law.
If I understand it correctly, one can be culpable for not following the ‘spirit’ of the law even if, technically one does not break the ‘letter’ of the law.
I raise the ‘spirit’ vs ‘letter’ debate because I think it may help us understand, in American thinking, what God means by the term ‘kingdom’.
In the sermon on the mount, and throughout the Old Testament (though ‘Kingdom of God phrase is rarely used) the idea behind the kingdom is centered on God as sovereign or as king. Since we Americans have no king, we place great emphasis on the Constitution and it’s interpretation in creating international, federal, state, and local laws to frame and guide every day life.
The Constitution is our TorahScripture…
our king;…
our source for determining how best to treat ourselves and one another.
So, God’s kingdom is represented in following the ‘spirit’ of the law. Perhaps my cousin and my friend can shed additional light on that metaphor.
God has just finished teaching on the mountainside and His final words are a bit disturbing. He basically says that some folks will say and act like they know, interpret, and apply the ‘spirit of the law’ when in reality they are merely following the ‘letter of the law’.
God is quoting a passage from the Old Testament found in Isaiah 29 where God, via Isaiah, describe Israel as:
‘stunned’, ‘
drunk’,
‘asleep’,
‘illiterate’, and
‘unwilling’
to follow His commands to read the scroll (the Torah) because the scroll (the Torah) has been legally sealed and it would be against the law to break the seal – even though the purpose of the Torah is to be read.
God says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” (Isaiah 29:13)
God is ending His sermon on the mount with what those of us living in the ’60’s and ’70’s remember as an ‘altar call’. God tells a story about a foolish man and a wise man building on sand and stone, respectively.
“Everyone who hears these words of MINE and puts them into practice is like a wise man….” (7:24)
Here’s the gist of God’s sermon:
God is to be our metaphorical Constitution;
God’s Constitution is to be understood as following the ‘SPIRIT’ of the law,
not the ‘letter’ of the law when the two seem to be opposed – because HIS IS A SPIRITUAL WAY OF THINKING AND LIVING;
God’s Constitutional Law can be forged and counterfeited….
So, we are to make sure:
we have,
we read,
we know,
we understand,
we practice,
we are…
the real deal.
You still with me?
JH
Lenten Journey 2024: Day 8 – The Gospels According to God.
“Then [God] rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on [God], and [God] began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4
I think we have misinterpreted and misunderstood this story in the sermons we have preached, and in the Bible studies we have taught. We placed blame on the friends and family of Jesus, those living in Nazareth, as not having enough faith to accept Him as Messiah. Because of this ‘lack of faith’ on their part, God was not able to perform miracles in his hometown.
Reread the story again.
That understanding is simply not there – at least not in Luke’s version.
First of all, God quotes Isaiah 61 – a favorite passage of His, by the way, and declares Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in God’s presence – not His presence in Nazareth – but in Himself.
Secondly, there appears to be words missing in what was said next by God. It only says ‘he began’ with the line that scripture is fulfilled. Then the scripture tells us that ‘all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips’.
What we have missing is God’s sermon or interpretation of Isaiah 61. Whatever he said regarding the scripture, it was something that amazed his family and friends in attendance.
Thirdly, it was his closing remarks that caused the locals to ‘storm the capital building’.
May I step to the side for a moment to share another ‘goosebump’ moment for me as I re-read this passage before I go on with the gist of this devotional?
God goes on to tell the stories of Elijah and Elisha. As I read them, I find God has added elements to the story to help us think differently about the original stories, and, here is where I get goosebumps:
Its as if He was there and saw it all take place. We are hearing the stories as He witnessed and understood what was going on with those involved.
It’s one thing to read God’s word and stories; quite another to hear Him give a first-hand account of what happened from His perspective.
Back to the synagogue in Nazareth….
What was in God’s closing remarks that got the locals so ‘riled up’?
God refused to do for them what He had done for a few folks in Capernaum.
That is the commentary God added to the stories of Elijah and Elisha.
The Nazareth synagogue raised the boy God. His mother attended. Joseph attended. The whole village helped raise God – they knew Him well.
Yet when He returned to explain who He was and what He was doing, they were not accusing Him of blasphemy, they were offended that He would NOT do miraculous signs or allow them to benefit from His mission.
He was not going to take care of their poor…
He was not going release their captives…
He was not going to restore sight to their blind…
He was not going to free their oppressed…
He was not going to heal their sicknesses…
He was not going to bestow favor on them in that year of the Lord.
That is what offended them.
Why, you ask, would God not do that for them?
Two reasons:
They were not in desperate need like the widow of Sidon or Naaman the leper.
They considered themselves ‘entitled’ because of their connection with God.
Perhaps there is a third reason:
Based on the success in raising God as a child to adulthood by that particular village – where Joseph was an elder – one could assess that those folks knew and applied the Torah well in everyday life. They took care of one another – they loved their God and they loved their neighbor.
They were living out the kingdom.
They did not require healings, miracles, or special treatment….
Fellow Christians – I fear we expect to get from God what, instead, we should be giving to those who are really, truly in need.
Instead of paying forward to someone who can afford to buy a Starbuck’s coffee – and confusing the barista and cheating them of potential tips….
Why not generously tip the low-paid barista instead….
or better yet –
why not give to the cardboard-sign-bearing soul standing at the intersection.
Think about it.
Hope you are still with me.
JH
enten Journey 2024: Day 9 – The Gospels According to God.
“I tell you that something greater than the temple is here….For the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:6;8.
I am retired as of January 1st, 2024.
I have no idea what that means.
It’s something, I suppose, one says to avoid being labeled lazy and destitute.
It’s also accepting the fact that I am now a socialist since I have accepted Social Security and Medicare – government regulated programs to meet my social needs.
It is, however, a reality that I am old.
I suppose one could call it a sabbath. I have ceased from my labors.
God was walking through a field of grain with His disciples on the Sabbath day. I’m not sure how far they walked, but anything more than a mile on the Sabbath was considered unlawful. But that wasn’t the issue.
The disciples were hungry, so they ‘h’reaped and harvested’ grain. Eating was not prohibited on the Sabbath – but cutting the grain from the stalks and gathering the seeds was unlawful activity on the Sabbath.
Torah security guards nearby observed God’s unlawful activity and questioned Him and His disciples regarding their thoughtlessness and irreverence. God responded by raising a controversial legal dispute on whether or not David had broken Sabbath law when he entered the temple on a Sabbath and stole the priest’s Sabbath bread to feed Himself and his army.
We need to understand that Jewish rabbis disagreed on this point, but over time, they modified the law based on David’s actions. God was reminding them how they used their authority to amend the law, and arguing case law to defend His and His disciple’s actions.
He ends his argument with the above statement that ‘there is something greater than the temple here… and that which is greater supersedes their understanding of Sabbath Law.
God is speaking of His kingdom as being greater than the temple and that He brings an expanded and greater meaning to the Sabbath. Of course He does.
I have and still struggle with the concept of Sabbath rest – be it on Saturday or Sunday. I suppose what we call ‘weekend’ or ‘day off’ sometime within a week’s span is another name for sabbath. The problem with that for me is that none of us are all resting from our labors at the same time. I suppose that is impossible to do based on our twirling around the sun as we do.
I saw a poster of two men talking. One was dressed casually and the other in work clothes. The casually dressed man was captioned with the words ‘sorry to have to bring you out to work today’ while the work-garbed man quipped ‘I’m here because of you’.
I suppose our culture will NEVER understand true Sabbath because:
Greed;
Selfishness.
We like the extra money/profit gained from weekend consumers and/or we like someone else to cook or labor for us so we don’t have to do so. Some of us just like having a day to shop. Some of us like to watch million-dollar athletes entertain us.
With the exception of emergency care labor – which God’s laws allow – I fear nothing will change regarding our sabbath attitude.
Admittedly, Paul argues for the allowance of celebrating sabbath on varied days in his letters, however, it was more in terms of meshing Gentile and Jewish traditions in lieu of requiring everyone to embrace Jewish requirements. More of a compromise within a bigger picture of practicing the sabbath within the context of God’s kingdom.
May I offer a different perspective?
The sabbath was instituted at creation, and was to be integral to every day life for humans. On the seventh day, God rested – He ceased from His labors.
However, God began to rule on Day 7. The sabbath represented the beginning of God’s rule on earth.
Eden was completed.
Plants were planted.
Animals were fed.
Water was flowing.
Adam and Eve were sitting under a tree conversing with a snake and chewing on fruit.
God rested from His creative work, and replaced it with ruling the world – He ‘rested’ on His throne.
When God states that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath – which is what He meant when Matthew quotes Him as saying – ‘son of man is lord of the Sabbath’ (son of man being a term that means ‘human being’);
God is saying that the sabbath of the Kingdom is where one lives in their prosperity. That was what the sabbath originally meant.
Think about it:
Jews prepared for the sabbath every week by pulling from their week’s profits – be it bread, meat, or drink – whatever they had turned into sustenance – and then on the sabbath they did not toil for the day, but lived off the week’s spoils.
Sabbath is living out of our prosperity. In God’s kingdom, all will live from their prosperity and will benefit from the prosperity of others. All are provided for, and no one is without.
Retirement should be my kingdom sabbath. I can spend time studying God’s Word, teaching God’s Word, writing lyrics, creating tunes, living off non-sabbath days investments, sharing my wealth tand benefitting from other’s wealth through socialized programs, dining with friends, and spoiling my kids and grandkids. I am no longer laboring…. I am lording.
I am ruling and resting over all (what little) I have accomplished previously in my work years.
Am I wealthy? No, not at all.
But what I have is sufficient….
and that is sabbath, my friend….
that is sabbath.
JH