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Chapter 27

Good Monday Morning to this week 26 of 2020

And I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Hosea 2.15

Maclaren writes in the commentary:
The Prophet Hosea is remarkable for the frequent use which he makes of events in the former history of his people. Their past seems to him a mirror in which they may read their future. Hosea foretells ….

– God speaking in the wilderness to the heart of Israel.
– Barrenness shall be changed to fruitfulness.
– Sorrows will become sources of refreshment.
– Gloomy gorge of the valley of Achor will be a door of hope.

In one of the discussion groups I frequent, I  read the following text.
Don’t the writers’ feelings, A Garner, echo to some of the things we read and see right now?

To be honest, I often have doubts and get discouraged, because this world does not feel in any way like we’re living a Kingdom currently. Where is our king? Has he abandoned us? And why won’t he communicate outside of texts written thousands of years ago in languages that the vast majority of people on this planet will never understand? I know all about the Kingdom concept of “already/not yet”, but it’s not entirely satisfactory. Is this the best we can do? Christianity has never been more fractured. There are tens of thousands of brands of Christians interpreting the Bible in tens of thousands of ways, but God Himself is silent. Churches that focus on futurism are booming, while churches that focus on inaugurated kingdom theology shrink.

Sounds a bit like Hosea actually.

The narrow gorge stretches before us, with its dark overhanging cliffs that almost shut out the sky; the path is rough and set with sharp pebbles; it is narrow, winding, steep; often it seems to be barred by some huge rock that juts across it, and there is barely room for the broken ledge yielding slippery footing between the beetling crag above and the steep slope beneath that dips so quickly to the black torrent below. All is gloomy, damp, hard; and if we look upwards the glen becomes more savage as it rises, and armed foes hold the very throat of the pass.

But, however long, however barren, however rugged, however black, however trackless, we may see if we will, a bright form descending the rocky way with radiant eyes and calm lips, God’s messenger, Hope; and the rough rocks are like the doorway through which she comes near to us in our weary struggle.

For us all, dear friends, it is true. In all our difficulties,  great or small; in all our perplexities; in the losses that rob our homes of their light; in the petty annoyances that diffuse their irritation through so much of our days; it is within these opportunities to turn them for a firmer grasp of God, and so to make them openings by which a happier hope may flow into our souls.

These vineyards and valleys would be the first installments of God’s promise, and a prelude to the possession of the whole so that the door of hopeful expectation and of joyful anticipation would be thrown wide open to them.

From between their narrowest gorge, if you will, the guide whom God has sent you, and that Angel of Hope will light up all the darkness, and will only fade away when she is lost in the brightness of that upper land, where our ‘God Himself is Sun and Moon.

Achor, trouble, a valley near Jericho, in consequence of the trouble which the sin of Achan caused Israel. The expression “valley of Achor” probably became proverbial for that which caused trouble, and when Isaiah refers to it he uses it in this sense: “The valley of Achor, a place for herds to lie down in;” i.e., that which had been a source of calamity would become a source of blessing. Hosea also uses the expression in the same sense: “The valley of Achor for a door of hope;” i.e., trouble would be turned into joy, despair into hope.

The valley of Achor a large, fruitful, and pleasant valley near Jericho, and on the very entrance into the land of Canaan, where after forty years’ travels and sorrows Israel first set foot on a country such as they expected.

The valley former a valley of trouble, of consequences,  became the door of hope to Israel. A valley of humiliation, of trouble and defeat, shall become the initial point of a next journey through the door of hope.  This hope does not disappoint because it is appointed by God Himself. It opens up for you new opportunities; for much which was lost shall be restored. A sign of God’s tender mercy towards you as He walks ahead of you.

Wishing you a great start to this week!

Philemon

 

 

Chapter 26

Good Monday Morning to this week 25 of 2020

This weekend I discovered a great book, though it has been out there for quite a while. I really like the way Rabbi Kushner puts difficult theological thoughts in word and application. Here a few highlights …

“There is an old tale about the woman whose only son had died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and said, ‘What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?’ Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, ‘Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life.’ The woman set off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door and said, ‘I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me.’ They told her ‘You’ve certainly come to the wrong place,’ and began to describe all the tragic things that had recently befallen them. The woman said to herself, ‘Who is better able to help these poor unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?’ She stayed to comfort them, then went on in her search for a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, hovels and in palaces, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. Ultimately, she became so involved in ministering to other people’s grief that she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, drive the sorrow out of her life.” Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People

God is the light shining in the midst of darkness, not to deny that there is darkness in the world but to reassure us that we do not have to be afraid of the darkness because darkness will always yield to light. As theologian David Griffin puts in, God is all-powerful, His power enables people to deal with events beyond their control and He gives us the strength to do those things because He is with us.”
Harold S. Kushner, Overcoming Life’s Disappointments

People who pray for miracles usually don’t get miracles, any more than children who pray for bicycles or good grades, get them as a result of praying. But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost, very often find their prayer answered. Harold S. Kushner

I wish you a good week as you wrestle with life’s contradictions and difficulties, yet in all that receiving the strength and grace to bear the unbearable.

Philemon

Chapter 25

Good Monday Morning to this week 24 of 2020

Revelation 1:7 “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

Revelation announces that God is still in control and that he will conclude this stage of history the way he has promised. Craig S. Keener

“If we must “feel” God’s presence before we believe he is with us, we again reduce God to our ability to grasp him, making him an idol instead of acknowledging him as God.”
Craig S. Keener

There can be no true peace, where there is not true grace; and where grace goeth before, peace will follow. Matthew Henry

“God alone is God, and he alone merits first place—beyond every other love, every other anxiety, every other fear that consumes us.”

The Book of Revelation speaks to many things – it enriches our understanding of the God as the beginning and end who reveals the meaning of human history, it provides a vision of heaven as a great wedding, it ensures us that our prayers rise to God, and it also depicts the heavenly liturgy as the climax of history.

The overarching message of John’s visions, however, is one of hope amidst tribulation. This is a message we need to hear today.

After the trials, plagues and ruin of human history have run their appointed course, after the beasts and kings who fight against the King of Kings are defeated, comes the judgment of each person according to his conduct. John then saw a new holy city where there is no more pain or death and he heard God say, “Behold, I make all things new To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water. The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son.

Throughout the suffering of the human condition, we rejoice in this hope, this promise of God. The definitive coming of the Lord is invoked with the prayer: ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’

This is our prayer too. We live with an expectation, confidence and joy, active and vigilant in anticipation, “Come, Lord Jesus, come,” as we continue to build up His Kingdom coming to be among us.

Wishing you a blessed week.

Philemon

 

Chapter 24/2020

Good Monday Morning to this week 23 of 2020

The image of God at Pentecost is multilingual, multicultural and multiethnic, not for a politically correct agenda, but because the gospel demands it. The gospel is polyphonic!

… I rediscovered the blues these past weeks …. speaking about guitars being polyphonic!

I’ll mostly quote from Luke A. Powery out of a sermon he held not too long ago. His speech has immense meaning.

Pentecost is the human experience of the first fruits of the Spirit. Worship has become informal, and ethnic diversity in congregations is on the rise. The present state of the changing church would have been more welcoming to B.B. King, the “King of the Blues.” In his early days, there was tension between blues music and the Pentecostal church. Some viewed the blues as the devil’s music and believed it had no place in the church. The church was a religious gatekeeper of who’s in and who’s out, but what Pentecost reveals is that that which is different or foreign may actually be the gift we need. Pentecost has many meanings, but at the core of its meanings is the idea of a gift.

Pentecost suggests that the ground of our spiritual life is fundamentally a divine gift. The coming of the Spirit is a gift, and all we can do, like the disciples, is wait for it (Acts 1:4), wait for the promise to be fulfilled. A gift is not something of our own creation; it just comes.

“And suddenly from heaven, there came a sound …” (Acts 2:2 NRSV). The sound came. The Spirit came on divine volition. The Spirit is God’s gift to us. Divine agency is the prelude to human action.

We hear that “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (2:4). The Spirit gives people the ability to speak in other languages.

“The first gift of the Spirit is the gift of speech”, multilingual speech, affirming the tight connection between word and Spirit. The gift of words is a gift of the Spirit, and the words we speak are about someone else, not ourselves.

The gift of speech is not given in order not to be understood. Why would anyone speak in an unknown tongue if they knew they would never get a hearing, another gift of the Spirit is obvious — the gift of hearing in one’s own language. The speakers were not of the same ethnicity and culture, yet they heard and understood. Understanding is gifted to us, because we don’t have the resources to manufacture it. There must be a Giver, without whom we would not receive a gift.

The word must be “native” to the hearer. Context is inescapable, because you can never escape your own skin or even your own native tongue, and that is a gift in and of itself. In the Spirit, the gospel incarnates through human languages such that people hear and understand in their own particular cultural language the universal message about God’s power.

Pentecost is the creation of a particular kind of human community, a God-centered community. The cultural particularity of the Spirit’s gift is not contrary to a universal quality. As one French theologian writes:

“The distinctive aspect of the Spirit is that, while remaining unique and preserving his identity, he is in everyone without causing anyone to lose his originality. This applies to persons, peoples, their culture and their talents. The Spirit also makes everyone speak of the marvels of God in his own language” (Yves Congar).

The Spirit will not allow us to forget about God, because “through the pouring out of the Spirit, God effects a world-encompassing, multilingual, polyindividual testimony to Godself. In this way God attests to Godself in a process that unites people in a way that causes them both wonderment and fear” (Welker).

The Spirit leads us to different views and voices, a different way of seeing the world and God. The Spirit leads us to embrace diversity as a gift of God while the Spirit moves us toward integration, collaboration and mutuality between different voices as a way to form community.

Pentecost suggests that the Spirit opens us up to the possibility of hospitable relationships across cultures, as opposed to closed systems and practices that restrain the full scope of the gospel of God. This means Bach and Brahms can be in the same spiritual family as B.B. King and Branford Marsalis. Hymns and hip-hop may actually commune with each other when the Spirit blows.

The church is called to be unified, not uniform. We are not the church when we are uniform; we are the church in the power of the Spirit when we are unified, a unified diversity focused on God!

Pentecost points us to a new order in the Spirit, a reordering of our priorities.
The image of God at Pentecost is multilingual, multicultural and multiethnic, not for a politically correct agenda, but because the gospel demands it. The gospel is polyphonic.

In other words, your voice matters, and you are a gift.

Wishing you a blessed week!
Philemon

 

Chapter 23/2020 – Storytelling

Good Monday Morning to this week 23 of 2020 (week 11 with restrictions)

Waking up after the shoulder operation last week, I had this intense urge for music. I’m not sure what it was, but you can’t imagine how desperately  I wanted to get back to my room and put on  a mix of music I had with me, varying from Worship to African and more.

You might have missed this news of the passing of great musician this week. If I’d play the tune you’d immediately recognize it: “Bi sounkouroun lou la donkégna ah ah” … One of the biggest hit songs by an African music artist, “Yé ké yé ké” is sung in Bambara, an official language of Mali (Kanté was born in Guinea to a Malian mother). Originally a success across Europe in 1988, with the dance remixes up to the mid-1990’s.
Guinean singer Mory Kante, helped introduce African music to a world audience in the 1980s, died in the capital Conakry on the 22.05.20, his family said. He was 70. “Guinea and the whole world have lost a great personality,” Kante’s son Balla Kante told The Associated Press on Friday. “My father was a great personality. We lost a large library today.”

We lost a library …. an interesting quote. Since the 13th century, when Griots originated from the West African Mande empire of Mali, they remain today as storytellers, musicians, praise singers and oral historians of their communities. Theirs is a service based on preserving the genealogies, historical narratives, and oral traditions of their people.

Storytelling … music is storytelling, with or without words be it through tone painting or many other ways. Just imagine the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman and Jesus in Mark 7.24-30

Immediately as a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at Jesus’ feet. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. Jesus says first, let the children eat all they want, he told her, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs. Yes Lord, she replied, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs. Then Jesus told her, “for such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”. She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Just imagine this story and encounter composed for storytelling and singing. The song leader directing the group, accompanied by a traditional drum, thumb piano and hand shaker, the emotion of a woman’s pleading for her daughter highlighted by style and rhythm of the song. The words matched the rhythmic syllabic space, the context in a form of liturgy, and recognized as an open courtyard. Appellations are exchanged as she addresses Jesus: Lord, Teacher, Respected Leader. The song leader then guides the music to the woman’s riposte with an additional accentuated rhythm led by drums with an occasional silence. A final turn comes as the storyteller finishes the story with the woman’s daughter greatly relieved and freed from demons. An incredible proclamation of the nature of God in song and deed. This experienced performance opens up an opportunity for liberation as a community interacts with the powerful biblical message.

One crumb of power and grace from Thy table shall cast the devil out of my daughter.” Oh, what lightning quickness, what reach of instinctive ingenuity, do we behold in this Syrophoenician woman! Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

One crumb of power and grace from Thy table!

Wishing you a good story of God’s grace this week.

Philemon

 

Chapter 22/2020

Good Monday Morning to this week 22 of 2020 (week 10 with restrictions)

The world contradicts itself all the time. Many people can hold two conflicting ideas in their head at the same time, and find ways to admire each one on its own strengths and merits. Yet often, for many,  when something arises which demonstrates an inconsistency in our beliefs, we seek to rid ourselves of that inconsistency immediately. This most commonly occurs when our behaviors do not align with our attitudes – we believe one thing, but act against those beliefs. The strength of cognitive dissonance (the pain it causes) depends on the number and relative weight of conflicting beliefs. In order to alleviate the inconsistencies, people are usually presented with a choice: either change their behavior, or justify their behavior by changing their beliefs and cognitions. In other words, people are constantly choosing between either acting in accordance with their beliefs, or rationalizing inconsistent actions.

We’ve seen a lot of this currently going on with the restrictions we’re facing, following
the advice of our leaders and recommendations of health experts, yet seeing how much it does affect our beliefs or values at times. For example the ban on churches to meet in larger groups.

I was in hospital for a few days this week, having some shoulder surgery done. Sharing the room with an elderly man suffering from dementia was quite challenging at times. Various times a day we were checked on, at least every four hours someone came in and asked how we were feeling. If was often asked in regard to the level of pain on a scale from 1 to 10. With my room companion they just asked if he was doing well. He mostly had two answers. I am doing well. Or, I am not doing well. I went on to try to give my specific answer and mentioned the numbers – a level 3 or 4 or 5 of pain. One day it was again mentioned that my blood pressure was very low, to which I would answer that I was aware of it and and coffee would be one solution to that problem. Ordering a coffee quite loudly, he would join in and say oh yes, me too – could you bring me a coffee.

And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength into seeking him. Hebrews 11:6  (TPT)

The apostle Paul writes that anyone who comes to God must believe that He is and diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

… back to the situation in the hospital room … a bit harder to imply  … not to fall asleep, or become distracted, hard having our minds wander when to pray, study, or meditate. Inattention and mind-wandering, although they are related to double-mindedness, do not seem to be what James had in mind.
So what is this then this Greek word  “double-minded”  or “double-souled,” like having two independent wills describing one divided in mind, that wavers between two opinions.

Maclaren puts it this way in his commentary:
If you hold a cup below a tap, in an unsteady hand, sometimes it is under the whole rush of the water, and sometimes is on one side, and it will be a long time before you get it filled. There will be much of the water spilled. God pours Himself upon us, and we hold our vessels with unsteady hands, and twitch them away sometimes, and the bright blessing fall to fill our cup.

I sat there at times thinking of how much we had in common, not just in the daily routine of questions to our feelings, but also to the way that God was with us in phases of struggling, how little we contribute to our well being and how much less we can contribute to the fact of God’s Grace and presence in “our room” and lives.

Still I fully agree, HE is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. The best reward that God, the Rewarder, gives is when He gives Himself. Enoch sought God, came to God, and so he walked with God. The reward of his coming was continuous, calm communion, which gave him a companion in solitude, and one to walk at his side all through the darkness and the roughnesses, as well as the joys and the smoothnesses, of daily life.

I wish you a blessed day and start into this new week, independently of how much
inconsistency or dissonance you face in your daily life and walk.

God is with you!

Have a great day
Philemon 

 

Chapter 21/2020

Good Monday Morning to this week 20 of 2020 (week 9 with lockdown openings)

There’s an old story that a Rabbi shared:

A listener to the story of Rabbi breathed in deeply and said: The way Christians read the Bible that doesn’t make sense to me as a Jew!  “We don’t read stories in the Bible looking for beliefs. We read them for meaning…to guide us in the predicaments in life, and help us know who we are, why we’re here, where we’re going, to help us be better people, so we can heal the world. And we never let one interpretation end the conversation. We see our sacred stories as bottomless wells of meaning.” That perspective seems like a much richer journey.

The story goes that there were a group of Rabbis arguing about the meaning of the Biblical text and they came back, day after day. The argument raged on about who had the right meaning of the text.

Finally, there was a voice from heaven and God spoke and said:

Here is the true meaning of the text…”

Well, all the rabbis stood up and looked toward the heavens and said, “Now you be quiet. If you gave us this book, then it’s our responsibility and our right to hash out its meaning. You aren’t allowed to come in and end this conversation if you gave us this text.”

hmmmm

food for thought!

Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Mark 9:4

Nice! They got to have a conversation, a very special one, with Jesus!

Might we be more than just a little part of God’s unfinished future here on earth?

Maybe it’s also our turn to tell God, no you can’t end the conversation! We’re in it too!

Wishing you all and end to the restrictions, solutions to battling the virus
and most of all, a continued and on-going conversation with God!

Philemon

 

 

 

Good Monday Morning to this week 19 of 2020 (week 8 of lockdown)

Hymns accompany us, especially through hard times. Yesterday I was still in deep thought after a touching sermon of Christine Caine as the channel went forward to the old yet very relevant hymn:

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

The opening line starts with Luke 24:29, “Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent”, and the second last verse draws on text from 1. Corinthians 15.55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”.

Abide; to stay, live somewhere, stand by, endure with, hang in, accept or act in accordance with. 

The hymn tune was composed b William Henry Monk, an English organist in 1861 and best know for his composition Eventide used for this hymn.

The author of the hymn, Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847), was an Anglican priest and vicar of All Saints Church in Brixham, England. For most of his life, Lyte suffered from poor health, and he would regularly travel abroad for relief, as was the tradition in that day. His daughter, Anna Maria Maxwell Hogg, recounts the story of how “Abide with Me” came out of that context.

Dictionary of Hymnology, Vol. 1 puts it this way:

The summer was passing away, and the month of September and each day seemed to have a special value as being one day nearer his departure.

His family were surprised and almost alarmed at his announcing his intention of preaching once more to his people. His weakness and the possible danger attending the effort were urged to prevent it, but in vain. “It was better”, as he used to say often playfully, when in comparative health, “to wear out than to rust out”. He felt that he should be enabled to fulfill his wish, and feared not for the result. His expectation was well-founded. He did preach, and amid the breathless attention of his hearers, gave them a sermon on the Holy Communion. . . .

In the evening of the same day, he placed in the hands of a near and dear relative the little hymn, ‘Abide with Me’, with an air of his own composing.

The hymn is popular across many Christian denominations, not only at funerals but was said to have been a favorite of King George V and Mahatma Gandhi, played at many events be it Anzac day or even the FA cup final about 15 minutes before the kick-off of the match!

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word,
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Each verse ends in the plea “abide with me,” making the hymn a sustained call for God’s personal presence in every stage and condition of life. The hymn resonates deeply with the hearts of those who feel their need of God.

Here the beautiful version I came across yesterday by Audrey Assad

Wishing you a blessed day, with the wish of this hymn that the Lord abide with you!

blessings
Philemon

Chapter 19

Good Monday Morning to this week 18 of 2020 (week 7 of lockdown)

And look, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “may Yahweh be with you.” And they said to him, “May Yahweh bless you”. Ruth 2:4

I’m not sure if you have realized, but around here the greetings upon arrival and departure have changed these past weeks. Not just that we don’t shake hands or give hugs, no it’s also in the way we speak and leave each other after a conversation, a web-meeting or a phone call.

The greeting of Boaz to the reapers was special in many ways. The greeting “Peace” was very common, yet the “with you” was quite unique in this setting and narrative. It doesn’t only refer to Yahweh but also to the one making the greeting, to Boaz as a man of good character and one taking responsibility.

“With you” refers to His divine presence. Ofen in OT times the narrative brought out the topics of “peace and prosperity”, travel, war, “liberation and deliverance” yet also divine commissioning.

With you 
I will be with you ….
The Lord was with them ….
God was in their midst ….

With you 
Accompaniment, protection and deliverance!
Often in situations as with Solomon as with David.
God is with Israel and with their forefathers.
Yahweh’s presence on the journey of Israel back from exile.

With you
This Jewish narrative points to exceptional experiences; cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual, individual and within the community. On example is Moses and the ark, both
define the presence of the divine with the words. He is “among” you, he is “in your midst”.

This OT presence saying “with you” is foundational element of Jewish faith. Israels leaders and prophets emphasize again and again, Yahweh is with us and we are His people.

God is very often spoken of as “in dwelling with” his people. Yet there is also the even more dramatic call “with you” in the final spiritual-conflict victory passages:

For Adonai is holy, and the King of glory is with us, among with the holy beings. Warrior angels are in our muster, and He that is mighty in war is in our throng. The army of his spirit marches “with us”.

Or in the story of Joseph where his master suspected him of doing witchcraft until he saw the Shekhinah standing And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.over him! Gen. 39.3 “And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.”

In the boundaries of His people, the people of Yahweh, God’s sovereignty is reaffirmed
and His divine “withness – with you” is declared and proclaimed as a critical “must” for the rebuilding of of His community and place of His presence.

God with us is a parameter of faith. With the God of the OT to the God of the followers of and story of Jesus, His presence is “with us” as the new people of God.

For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. Deut. 20.4

But now take courage, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord, ‘take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ declares the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2.4

Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people,” declares the Lord God. Ezekiel 34.30

Prayer

Yahweh be with me, before me, behind me,
Christ in me, beneath me, above me,
Yahweh on my right, to my left,
Christ where I sit, where I arise,
May Yahweh, our God be “with us”  ever with us.

Wishing you a very good week.
Philemon 

 

Good Monday Morning to this week 51 of 2019

This week I saw a very disturbing picture of many worship leaders gathering at the White House. The same people who write songs about Jesus are endorsing policies that are destroying the very people Jesus cares so much about like immigrants and refugees.

This took me to reading Romans 13. This chapter is one of those classic passages, used to make sure we are all being obedient citizens, which historically has led Christians into all kinds of problems:

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities…” (Romans 13:1)

We live in times where dissent is more important than ever. All around the world we are witnessing the rise of the “strongman” and brutal leaders. These are hard-line men that rule with an iron fist and with little regard for justice or the downtrodden.

Craig Greenfield took a closer look at this:

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, King Herod arrested some of the believers, including James and Peter, and put them on public trial. The night before the trial, an angel of the Lord woke Peter up, removed his chains, opened the prison doors and led him out the main gate of the prison.

Yet after escaping from jail, Peter went on to write:

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to the governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”

Or when Paul was in Damascus, he escaped from a strongman city governor who was trying to arrest him … after reaching safety, Paul wrote a surprising letter:

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.”

The key to understanding is in the word “submit”. The Greek word hupo-tasso, which has been translated as “submit” or “be subject,” literally means to arrange stuff respectfully in an “orderly manner underneath”.

This simple meaning of “social orderliness” would have been understood by original readers, but it is a little obscured in our English translation.

This word is used in Ephesians 5:22 to encourage husbands and wives to submit to one another, and it reflects God’s concern for order and respect.

Here’s the main point – Paul and Peter believed that governing authorities are necessary for keeping the peace. God is a God of order – not anarchy or chaos.

But here’s where we go wrong. There’s ANOTHER word, hupo-kouo, which is best translated as “obey,” which literally means to conform, to follow a command, or to kowtow to an authority as a subordinate. wasn’t used by Peter and Paul, they chose not to.

Though Paul, Peter and other followers of Jesus deliberately disobeyed laws that were in conflict with God’s commands, they still submitted to the authorities by accepting the legal consequences of their actions.

As far back as the book of Exodus, the Hebrew midwives refused to carry out the Pharoah’s repugnant order to murder newborn babies.

Slavery was lawful. The holocaust was legal. Segregation and apartheid were legally sanctioned. Many of today’s laws are created to protect much “other” rather than people.

So does the law or does God dictate our ethics?

Could this be showing us another way to interpret Romans 13 as Peter and Paul meant? If we break an unjust law to highlight and protest its injustice, we should be willing to submit to the punishment for breaking such laws, so that we demonstrate our respect for the role of government, in general, no following a God of chaos, each doing whatever we want but a God of order and respect for one another and the governing authorities.

There are times when we, as followers of Christ, will be called upon to stand up with a holy ‘NO!’ in the face of evil and injustice.

This week I saw a preview of the film of the life of Franz Jagerstatter, a forgotten martyr, devout Catholic, telling the harrowing and heartbreaking true story of his life refusing to take the Hitler oath. During his military training in 1940, he notices the evil underlying the Nazi regime and arrives home dead-set on refusing to fight for the army in the future. He declared his refusal to fight when he was summoned back to the Linz barracks in 1943, where he was held in custody, transferred to Berlin-Tegel to await trial, and condemned to death for sedition.

Gregory Williams puts it this way:
The Greek word used in Romans 13 by Paul is exousia, which is defined: “power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases.” It is translated “right” in Hebrews Revelations and it is even translated “liberty” in Paul’s own 1Corinthians 8:9.

In the original text of the Bible the translation of exousia as liberty or right would fit the context of scripture. One may translate it as power of choice. The Greek word exousia is considered to be one of the strongest words in the Greek language representing the idea of liberty. Accepting the idea that Romans 13 is actually a statement by Paul in support of individual liberty, rather than a command to submit to the commands of authoritarian rulers, will be difficult for some pastors and Christians alike to admit.

Romans 13 could be read as follows: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher liberty. For there is no liberty but of God: the liberties that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the liberty, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the liberty? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.” Romans 13: 1,3

God desires that every man should have the unimpaired and divine right of choice as long as that choice does not violate the right of our neighbor to make his own choices. There is a distinction between the privileges of governments granted by the people and the rights of the people granted by God. We must not only care about the rights of others while exercising our own, but we must fulfill that obligation without infringing on the rights of our neighbor to make their own choices. To accomplish that mission prescribed by God we must discover the whole truth and provide for it.

From the beginning, our Creator has allowed that men have the power to choose to be free souls under God or go under the authority of other men and their gods. That choice is never without consequences.

As Christians, we not only profess Jesus as Lord but we follow him. We proclaim the Kingdom of God is here, just as he did. We don’t claim to be residents of earthly borders but of the kingdom that is within. Jesus is the only governing authority of this kingdom. To be disobedient and resist this authority is to not feed the hungry or give water to the thirsty or clothe the poor. It’s to not welcome the stranger into our home, our land. It’s to not forgive our enemies.

So what do we do when we see injustice within the governing authorities? Do we follow Jesus to feed the poor welcome the stranger and proclaim a different kingdom than the one the world system has drawn borders around and tries to keep people out of and say “the kingdom is within you, welcome”

In the upside-down kingdom where Jesus is Lord, the table is open to everyone.

Wishing you a wonderful week as you welcome this Jesus and his arrival to the world.

Philemon