Impossible Love ...

It is a mystery to me why God loves me.  He has plenty of reason not to.  I have done nothing to earn His love, and way too much to have caused His heart to harden where I am concerned.  But evidence of His love comes my way each and every day.  One piece of that evidence is the love my wife has for me.  And another mystery is born.  My wife may have a few reasons to love me, but plenty more not to, if she chose.  If reasons for her to love or not-to-love me were placed on a scale, the needle would point to the not-to-love side like measuring brick against a feather.  But love remains.  Love persists.  Forgiveness abounds.  These evidences mirror the heart of God and I recognize His touch in the heart of my wife.  Neither of us are perfect, but the touch of God in the human heart, creates love, abounding forgiving love, where none might otherwise even exist.  Then there are my children.  And the love multiplies.  My parents, love expounds again.  I am beyond lucky.  I am loved.  Through my eyes it is with an impossible love.

Where I don’t look for love in the eyes, words, or deeds of my enemies.  It is likely you feel the same.  Human nature would have us look to tend what love we experience in the families we cultivate.  Human nature would have us not even try to spark love in our enemies, because it is an impossible task.  It does not even matter if we are able to love them.  It just always seems it would be impossible for them to love us.  Thus the word enemy.  And enemies do things, say things, that are meant to hurt us.  Or perhaps at best with a total disregard for how it will affect us.  How we respond to our enemies does more to define us than it does to define them.  For it is our hearts that will suffer the burden of anger, resentment, holding of grudges.  It is our hearts burdened down with the baggage of these things, while our enemies seem free to continue going about their daily routines without so much as a single after thought for what they have done to us, or done in spite of us.  Therefore natural to look for love from family and perhaps even friends.  Decidedly unnatural to look for it in enemies who refuse to love us no matter what we do.

But Christians carry another burden.  We are supposed to love our enemies.  Even the worst of them.  This would seem an impossible task for a human.  It is.  So how do we get it done anyway?  When tragedy strikes us, it is seldom our first thought – Gee, I wonder how this will impact our enemies, I hope they are OK.  No, when tragedy strikes, we lament over how it will impact us, then our families, then our wider community.  We figure our enemies will rejoice in our tragedy.  The same is somewhat true when providential blessings come our way.  Our first thought is rarely – Gee, I wonder if I could share some of this blessing, or perhaps give all of it, to my enemy.  No, more likely, we first think of what we will use this blessing on for ourselves, then our families, then our communities.  We figure our blessing has nothing to do with our enemies, and they would lament seeing us be blessed.  To change how we think is required.  To change how we love is required.  It is a total re-wiring of our brains to go where we have seldom gone before without kicking and screaming along the way.  We must learn to love differently.  More passionately, but also, we must learn to love impossibly.  The only love capable of that now is God’s love.  So we must learn to plug our hearts into that and let it take full control over us.

Luke writes about this weird obsession with love in his gospel letter to his friend.  This letter was meant to establish beliefs as you will recall, to provide evidence as to why we Christians believe as we do.  After all the ideas of family and enemies have been around since our first parents were cast out of Eden.  Family before sin.  Enemies after it.  Luke picks up in chapter six, as he continues relaying one of the greatest sermons ever preached on practical Christianity by Jesus Christ Himself.  He begins in verse 27 saying … “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,”  There it is.  Jesus flips our ideas about who we should love on their head.  You will note this first commandment does not ask us “not” to love anyone, but instead it asks us to expand our notion of love, to include everyone.  And note too, enemies here is not used passively.  Like the enemies who steal a promotion from us at work, or politicians who do the environment wrong and ruin the earth we all share.  This use of the word enemy goes beyond that to someone who actually hates us.  We are to “do good” to them in spite of how they feel and what they do.  That is a tall order.  The tall order God fulfills every day.

Jesus continues in verse 28 saying … “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”  It is rare to see a fight where one person unloads a series of swearing insults, and the other says only – I would like to bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, asking Him for only the best of life for you in all things.  When the politician appears on the news, the conversations that make you angry, should first make you want to pray, dropping right then to your knees to ask God not to “change” them and their sinful ways, but instead to shower His blessings upon them and bless them, their families, and our nation with an outpouring of His love, tangibly through you if you can go that far.  That sounds impossible.  It is.  How do I make Donald Trump or Bill Clinton the first object of my prayers for blessing on them, instead of me?  How do I think of insuring Gods love for them, ahead of myself or my family?  That they should appear first in my prayers sounds just crazy.  But is it?  Is it so crazy to put others ahead of yourself in your prayers for blessing?  And is it so crazy to pray for blessings upon your enemies, even to go so far as the enemies of our nation like Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, the latter responsible for so many murders against us.  They top the hate posters.  Can we dare to take the hate poster down, and make future enemies the top of our prayer list for blessings?  That sounds impossible.  It is.  But Jesus asks it anyway.

Jesus continues in verse 29 saying … “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.”  And here is where violence is intended to go extinct.  Not in the hearts of others.  But in your heart.  Here is where your “need” for a gun to protect yourselves and your family is no longer a “need”, but a burden you were not meant to carry.  Here is where your life is defined by your ability to absorb violence done to you without trying to return it, but instead offering only gentle love in response.  Did you ever wondered why the Christians did not fight in the Roman arenas?  They just died there.  Usually singing hymns thus infuriating the emperors who came to see fear and terror in the dying.  They were like sheep.  They did not resist.  They did not form militias.  They did not form armies.  Those followers of Jesus were raped, tortured, and killed.  And their faith did not break or turn to violence to defend themselves.  They gave up their bodies and their lives and remained true to Jesus Christ, all the while praying for their enemies, and the courage to remain faithful in spite of the martyrdom they were experiencing firsthand.  Do we just call them crazy and buy that Glock 9 to insure that could never happen to us again?  That kind of love and faith sounds impossible.  It is.  But somehow, they were locked in on it.  We could be too.

Jesus continues in verse 30 saying … “Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.”  Here is where your money becomes nothing more than a tool to do good to others.  You are to give to ANY who asks.  NOT as a loan, but as a gift you never expect to see again.  When my children call me with a need, it is easy for me to drop everything and find a way to help them.  We could examine the reasons I do that on a psychiatrist’s couch for years to come and never reach a conclusion.  But they are family.  They are easy.  When I see the homeless man on the street, and I give them a dollar.  That one is easier to understand.  I give something, so I do not have to give everything.  But in truth, I do not meet his need, I pacify it.  Or better stated I pacify only myself.  It is not what Jesus asks of me.  And while I give to the church, who in turn has ministries for those in need, it is still only the giving of my funds, not of my heart, or of my time.  The precious time I have, I choose to keep, gladly willing to throw dollars at a problem to ever avoid the challenge of the request of my time, or my heart.  As a banker, giving money away seems unnatural to me.  But Jesus asks way more from me, than my ability to go beyond what is natural, He is looking to totally convert my heart and thoughts.  Will I let Him?

Jesus continues in verse 31 with what we call the golden rule saying … “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”  But we have twisted the gold in this “rule” to use it as a means to return to men what they have done to us in like manner back to them.  Still others go farther saying do unto others; then split.  To give first, to love first, to persist in a love despite bad action in return, is for most of us just impossible.  So seeing the impossible done, gives evidence that God’s love is alive in the heart willing to love in this way.  Thus when I see God’s forgiveness in the heart of my wife for me, and in my heart for her – there is evidence of a greater love in both of us than what the human heart alone could offer by itself.  When my thoughts bend not to what is easy for me, but how I could make things easier for her, I recognize in myself the impossible.  It is not of my own origin.  It comes from Him, and only flows through me.  That kind of change in thinking is stunning to me.  It is unnatural to my carnal nature, and teaches me that I need not be slave to my carnal nature.  That through submission to Jesus there is much more love to see and experience than I have even tasted as yet.  It is impossible but only the beginning of impossible.

But then I realize my walk has only begun and my path is much longer than I first thought it might be.  Luke continues with Jesus speaking in verse 32 saying … “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. [verse 33] And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. [verse 34] And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.”  I am a sinner.  For all of the love I describe is nothing more than any ordinary sinner might experience.  My expectations for love have not exceeded what any ordinary sinner might expect.  I am called to something more.  Something impossible.  It is not just me, it is every person who dares to follow Jesus Christ.  We are all collectively called to something more, something greater.  A greater impossible love, that can still flow through us all.  That redemptive love will change our thoughts, how we think.  It will also change how we love, and as I have repeated often, who we love.  We are to love others not at the exclusion of our families, but in addition to that love.  We are to love others at the exclusion of loving self.  It is self-love at the root of every evil.  Jesus would have us love like God loves.

Jesus concludes this snippet from His sermon picking up in verse 35 saying … “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. [verse 36] Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”  This is the kind of impossible love God has for me, and for each of us.  God loves us even though we sometimes call ourselves His enemies with good reason.  Yet He is kind to us no matter how badly we treat Him.  He forgives us, no matter how many times we require Him to do so.  He continues to love us in spite of what we do and say.  His love is persistent.  His love is infectious.  His love brings us life and life more abundantly.  I confess it is hard for me to love Donald Trump, or Bill Clinton, or any of the enemies of our country that terrorism has spawned.  I just don’t think much about our presidents until they enact something I do not like.  And our enemies tend to go on the hate posters in my heart.  But Jesus asked the impossible of my heart.  And if He asked it.  He must have a way to offer it.  So I will submit and see where He will lead in this regard.  It may be impossible for me.  But I am NOT the one in charge, and what is impossible for me is child’s play for Jesus.  God just has that kind of impossible love and He longs to place it in me and you.

 

The Will of God ...

Is your life random, or is it the will of God?  Is your behavior self-determined, or do you follow the will of God?  And what of your circumstances.  Do you find yourself where you are because you follow the will of God; or because you have chosen to follow your own path, what you have believed will make you happy, or what you believed was what you “had” to do.  When most of us hear of someone who claims to know the will of God, we are immediately skeptical, and so we should be.  People who claim to know the will of God, usually do not live or love in such a way they would be easy to believe.  Very often the messages are critical and almost always intended for others (never a look in the mirror).  In addition, most of these same messages are punitive in nature; a sort of “do this or else” presentation.  It lines up with Old Testament thinking, if how you perceive God is a God who loves to punish in the first place.  But just take a second look at all those Old Testament “promises” once again.  Yes, I used the word promises, because they are each one a promise.  They all began with what is possible for those who follow God.  They each one describe the cause and effect of the submission of our own will and ideas to those of God.  The will of God in these cases always begins with a promise of better life.

It is the choice of self-determination that leads us away from the will of God, and inevitably towards the dark side of the cause and effect of each one of those same Old Testament promises.  Our will changes the promises of God into the curse of our own determination.  It is not God who punishes us for straying from His will.  It is we who punish ourselves by the same.  Human leadership turns out to be not one of freedom but one of slavery to self, with the inevitable cause and effect of degradation leading to ever lower standards of misery for ourselves and others.  This is not a threat.  It is a revelation.  It is a revealing of truth.  Our God would not have us ignorant of the differences between His ways, and the ways of self-determination.  He knows where His ways lead.  And painfully, He also knows where the end of our roads would take us to without a change in direction back towards Him.  God does not tell us of the misery we are destined to face without Him, because He is being punitive.  He tells us so that we might be redeemed from what we would otherwise face.  He loves us.  He does not want us to suffer and die.  He knows we can avoid it if we will turn from our own ways, back to his ways.  It nets down to following God leads towards life.  Following our own ideas leads towards death and suffering.  So has God changed between the Old and New Testaments?  Or have we been reading the Old Testament with bad images of who God is, and only reading the New Testaments with Jesus filtered images of who God is?

Luke offers his friend Theophilus a glimpse of this dichotomy in his gospel letter, in the sixth chapter.  Whenever we might ask, what the will of God is for our lives.  Luke presents an answer picking up in verse 12 saying … “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”  It is SO EASY, to simply skip over this text and proceed to what comes next, as if what comes next happens by accident, or luck, or happenstance.  It does not.  At least it does not for Jesus.  What happens next can ONLY happen, because Jesus begins here, with a submission of His own will to that of His Father God.  Jesus does not just offer a ten second prayer in a rush to be somewhere else.  Instead Jesus is thoughtful about this.  He waits till nighttime, when most of us humans have already found the need for sleep overwhelming.  Jesus feels that need too.  But Jesus needs one-on-one time with His Father God.  He loves us too much to turn us away for it.  So He waits till we are gone to bed, and He separates Himself away up into a solitary mountain where He will not be disturbed.  There He will have the privacy He needs to pour His heart out to God and seek the will of God in how to move forward.

It takes all night.  Imagine that.  Even for Jesus to sort out the next day’s plan, it takes Him all night with God.  And while Jesus feels the pull of sleep, He feels greater the need to talk with God, and to let God talk to Him.  Jesus is in full submission, as we should be.  Jesus makes this a regular thing, as we should too.  Jesus did NOT follow what He thought was best; He ONLY followed what God told Him to do.  So what happens next is not random.  It is the will of God.  It is expressed by God to Jesus in one of those all night prayer sessions on some lonely mountain.  It is expressed to Jesus when others are sound asleep.  It may sound like sacrifice to us, but to Jesus this kind of communication was oxygen.  Talking with God, spending a long time with God, was a bigger need to Him than anything other than loving us.  It is why you see Jesus doing this at night, on mountains, in the only alone time He gets.  And imagine that.  Communication with God can be even more rewarding and energizing than sleep itself.  We could make this discovery as well, if we ever tested it.  But most of us pray in the down times, when we are alone, in our cars on the way to somewhere.  Or in the bathroom while we are otherwise detained.  We pray in the middle of our lives, when nothing else is clambering for our attention.  This is one of the chief reasons the devil keeps us “so occupied” with distractions.  Our spare time is so little, our focused times so few, and between sleep and prayer, sleep nearly always wins.

Nevertheless, what happens next is not random, it is the expressed will of God.  Let that sink in for a moment.  Luke continues picking up in verse 13 saying … “And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; [verse 14] Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, [verse 15] Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, [verse 16] And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.”  These were imperfect men.  None of them were preachers.  Most of them uneducated.  None too wealthy.  This choice was not random.  These men were not picked randomly.  They were willing.  They followed.  And now God the Father reveals to His Son to gather them all together and make this fellowship more official.  They are to know they have all been called of God to fulfill the will of God.  This is a high honor.  This is not a threat.  This is also a promise.  They will lead better lives, better because what is inside of them will be changed for the better.  They will have the joy of fellowship in service, the joy of pointing other lives to Jesus.  Even though NONE of them are prepared for that honor right now.  And all of them will fail at one point or another as their lives progress.  It is hard to keep human will in submission.

And to show where the mind of God is with respect to punishment or redemption – Judas is chosen by God Himself.  NOT to be the traitor, but for the chance he will abandon that idea and become the zealot for Christ, instead of attempting to force Christ to become the king Judas wants Jesus to become.  Judas is to share in every single opportunity, not out of a sense of fairness, but out of a deep abiding love to save Judas from himself.  The will of God is that Judas be an honored disciple.  The will of Judas made him a traitor to that.  God could not force Judas to abandon his own will, but He could so reveal to Judas what He had in mind for Him.  God made Judas a part of everything.  He loved Judas.  God left no stone unturned where it comes to the redemption of Judas.  He yearns to have Judas be redeemed, and save Judas from the act that will so darken him that he commits suicide rather than face his guilt.  The salvation of Judas is not known.  He may still be your neighbor in heaven.  But the pain of Judas was surely known.  God wanted to spare Judas this.  But the will of Judas to decide what God needed to do, was stronger than Judas’ willingness to put aside his own ideas.  And so the pain Judas would bring upon himself, would still come, undeterred by this honor, and the expressed will of God Himself, the promise Judas would partake of as well with all the others.

What happens next is not random.  What happens next is not happenstance or luck or “intentions”.  What happens next is the expressed will of God.  Luke continues in verse 17 saying … “And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; [verse 18] And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. [verse 19] And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.”  A great sermon will be preached.  But it is not started, until the needs of the people are met.  Our God loves us.  The revelation of truth is coming.  But He would not have us sit in misery while we hear it.  He would have us redeemed and restored as much as we want first.  We would do well to alter our ideas of church service in this regard.  What if we changed “going to church” into taking action for our brothers and sisters in need first.  Meet those needs as best we can, BEFORE we begin any kind of formal service where great sermons will be preached.  It is what Jesus did.  For those who claim to “follow” Jesus, do we also claim to have better ideas about the priorities of our days?

They were all healed.  Would that our faith was so great that our congregations looked exactly the same as this one did, and for the same reason.  Luke continues with perhaps the greatest sermon ever preached picking up his highlights in verse 20 saying … “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. [verse 21] Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. [verse 22] Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. [verse 23] Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.”  Here is the promise of God revealed.  Jesus tells us that while life and the devil may try to bring us pain, through God we can look past the pain into the blessing God yearns to bring.  This is about changing how we think, and how we love.  It is about internal reformation.  It is about internal re-creation by the Creator of the Universe.  When sin slams against us, look past it, to the blessings of God interacting in your life.  It is a promise of hope even in the darkest times, and under the darkest conditions.  And most of these slights listed above would come from church leadership over those who truly follow Jesus Christ instead of what the church leaders would proscribe.

This is not a promise of wealth.  Many of the promises of the Old Testament sound like promises of wealth.  The gifts of God had been misinterpreted as signs of His favor, instead of signs of His love.  It is what goes on inside that matters more than what is happening outside.  Jesus tries to bring the people to this new revelation.  And in this, the New Testament promise looks much different than the Old but not how we would expect.  Luke continues in verse 24 saying … “But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. [verse 25] Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. [verse 26] Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”  And there is the entire Old Testament brought back into clarity by God.  Wealth was never the goal.  Alignment with the will of God is.  Being rich or poor is not a sign of the favor or displeasure of God.  God love both sets of people.  But being rich is a burden, because most of us who become rich learn to love money and the ease that comes with it, more than we love God who has entirely different priorities.  Being rich offers the illusion of being self-reliant.  Being poor forces the dependence on God all of us should have, whether rich or poor.  It is this false trust in wealth that leads to the destruction of the soul.  And so many in church in good standing believe themselves to be in alignment with God because they are in church in good standing.  That was never the measure, and it never will be.

How many people in church who are “well to do” ever seem to be those who give of themselves to those in need.  They give funds.  But time and personal care are far more rare.  Love rarer still.  And for those outside the church.  The rich man says, I built this, this is mine, I did all this by the sweat of my brow and my hard work.  The rich man resents the poor for being poor, blaming them for being too lazy to pull themselves out of their poverty by their own hard work and invention.  These are signs.  These are signs of the heart.  The heart that does not break for the poor, is more aligned with funds, than with giving.  The heart that sees the suffering and can still refuse to give everything away to try to meet that need – is what we call “normal”.  There is always someone more wealthy than you are.  There is always someone poorer too.  What happens in your heart is what matters, not how many zeros follow the number in your bank account, or credit debt.  The will of God was to reveal this truth to us, through the words of Jesus Himself.

It is the focus on the heart that matters.  Re-creation of your heart happens in direct proportion to your willingness to submit your will to that of Jesus Christ.  As you retain your own ideas, your heart remains callous to the needs of others.  As you let go what you think in favor of how He loves, you have a harder and harder time holding on to what is “yours” and a easier and easier time letting it go to try to help anyone you encounter who is suffering and in need.  Not just sharing; but letting go.  Treasure is what you believe it to be.  Treasure could very well be what is in your bank account.  Or Treasure could very well be the lives of your children, the lives of your family or community, even your own soul.  How you think about that is a function of how much you submit yourself to Christ.

The will of God has always been a promise to you.  The promise was to make your heart so much better than it is today.  Following His will sees this done in action.  Keeping to your own ideas always ends in tragedy.  This is not the fault of God.  But it is the absolute truth of cause and effect.  In a bit of irony, it seems to me that looking back at the Old Testament promises we might like them better.  They have an appeal to our wealth quotient.  This New Testament promise recognizes the pain of sin, and promises only a better heart, not a better wallet.  God has not changed.  But it is ironic we have read those Old Testament promises as threats of disobedience all along.  When we fully ignore the conditions of this New Testament promise because they mirror us too closely.  Is it any wonder our God is so intent to save us from ourselves?  To save us, is indeed the will of God.

 

Sabbath Run Amok ...

Perhaps the most challenged Commandment of the Ten, and most challenging to keep, is the fourth one that ordained in stone what Adam and Eve were long ago familiar with.  The Sabbath is more than just a Commandment God gave to Moses on Sinai.  It is an institution established at the very creation of our world.  It is something God setup to mark the conclusion of His creation of this world, and His intent to fellowship with us His new creations.  It was setup before sin.  As was marriage and family, institutions God setup with no expiration date, or need to change them.  Sin did not alter what God setup, at least from God’s perspective.  But sin caused us to pollute what God setup and what He intended.  Both marriage and family as well as the Sabbath fellowship with God have suffered and decayed over the 6000+ years since they began.  But all of God’s institutions will be restored when we are taken home, purified from the effects of sin and evil, and restored to the plans God created that were not intended to expire in the first place.  But if you look around you today, you see the entire concept of the Sabbath as one of great controversy (not unlike what is happening with the state of marriage and family as well).  What God setup, Satan is intent on tearing down.

Between Adam and Noah institutions like the Sabbath were handed down Father to Son orally.  While this period lasted 2000 years, the generations that lived before the flood had long average ages so there were not actually that many of them between creation and the Flood.  From Noah to Abraham the same tradition of Father to Son were present, but men had even less desire to keep to a fellowship with God.  By the time Abraham arrives on the scene he is forced to ponder who God is, and because he is nearly the only one looking, he is the only one who finds our God.  Once again Father to Son is established.  But many years later Egyptian slavery nearly wipes out the traditions and Moses must establish a written tradition to commemorate the Sabbath in stone written by the very finger of God. 

When the children of Israel wander through the desert, they are given a living example of the freedom of Sabbath when manna comes in double portion on Fridays that will last through Sabbath, but on no other day does it behave so.  As the years go by the prophet Isaiah writes of celebrating the Sabbath (note the concept of celebration) in heaven for eternity.  Isaiah is given a glimpse at what God had in mind for the Sabbath as it was God’s day off with us (not the other way around).  We did nothing to make the Sabbath Holy, God did that with His particularly special presence.  We were supposed to remember that, and honor His time with our time, insuring we do not impend on anyone else’s time with our same God.  Yet instead of a celebration, the Sabbath became an institution of rules; of can’s, and cannot’s.

By the time church leadership was done with it, the Sabbath became an onerous, nearly unkeepable, fully depressing period of time, people were guilted into following each week.  The idea of time off with God was replaced with what you cannot do, a list so long it was way too hard to remember at all.  In our day Sabbath observance for those who believe the day has been changed to Sunday (though there is not a single example of this in scripture, or in the behavior and example of what Jesus did or said) consists of “going to church”.  Once church is complete, the day returns to the worshipper to do with as he sees fit.  When you ask folks who believe Sabbath is on Sunday how they celebrate it, the most common answer is “going to church”.  When you ask them what they do after that, the celebration breaks down fairly quickly to whatever routine tasks they do any other day.  But don’t jump on the criticism bandwagon too quickly just yet. 

For those folks who believe Sabbath is on Saturday as God originally created and intends for eternity; the answer to how they celebrate Sabbath is exactly the same.  Number one answer: they go to church.  When asked what they do after that, there are a few other activities that come up.  Potluck feasts, sundown worship sessions, and maybe some nature related activities when weather and location permit.  Sounds better in principle, but not that much in reality.  Most of these folks in reality spend Sabbath afternoons sleeping (cause there is not much else they are allowed to do).  In either case, you will hear a million different excuses about why Sabbath observance is not really needed anymore anyway other than to pay it the nominal attention of “going to church”.  After that it is up to the worshipper what they do on it, no matter what day they believe Sabbath is on.  A degeneration based on a rules philosophy and enforced by the enemy of God that would see the celebration of Sabbath with our God descend into something else entirely.  Namely routine.

Routines are something we humans cling to very tightly.  We use them to keep from “breaking” the Sabbath.  The Pharisees has the same concept more than 2000 years ago in the time of Christ.  But what you and I think is on the list of do’s and don’ts is not even how God thinks at all.  For Jesus the Sabbath is awesome because for at least one day in seven, we turn our eyes to Him.  He is always with us, but we so rarely turn our eyes away from what we normally do, and give Him any attention at all.  He set aside His time to be with us.  Just in doing that Jesus made Sabbath Holy.  His presence makes something Holy.  When Moses approached the burning bush, God asked him to remove his sandals because the place were he was standing was “Holy” ground.  That patch of land was not normally holy.  It was holy because God was there.  The same is true of Sabbath, it is Holy because Jesus is with us.  And in the time of Christ, this was never more true.  Jesus was there.  And when Jesus was there, the fellowship with God was really ALL that mattered.  The Pharisees (and most of us unfortunately) don’t even come close to this way of thinking.  We are looking for lists of restrictions, while God is looking to spend focused time, without the distractions of the norms of our lives.

And so conflict between the position of church leadership and our God was sure to reveal itself.  Luke recounts this conflict in the sixth chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about our beliefs and why we hold them.  Keep in mind Luke wrote his gospel long after these events occurred.  If there had ever been a change in the day from Saturday to Sunday, Luke could have easily noted that in his gospel.  He did not.  No change had occurred, nor should man presume he is able to change what God setup, and still call it Holy.  More like disaster.  But the conflict back in the days of Christ was not about which day Sabbath was on, but about what is “allowed” to do on the Sabbath at all.  Luke picks up in verse 1 saying … “And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. [verse 2] And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?”

A little irony for you, the church leaders telling the author and creator of the Sabbath, what He and His people can do on His day.  But the Pharisees had taken the example of the Israelites in the time of Moses where manna was given in double portion on Fridays and lasted without spoiling all the way through Saturday as a “law” that food preparation should be done the day before the Sabbath so that no cooking was ever done “on” Sabbath.  The idea of serving others on Sabbath never entered their minds.  The idea of loving others through service freely given never entered their minds.  The Pharisees had a very self-centric viewpoint of Sabbath.  The Sabbath is about me.  What I do.  What I cannot do.  Others are only incidental to my Sabbath.  I shall not employ them.  But other than that, they are irrelevant to “my” Sabbath.  The response of Jesus did not reprimand them for their desire to minimize food preparation to make the Sabbath even more free from distraction.  Instead Jesus points them to David (one of their heroes) and recalls an incident where David ate food prepared for priests alone, and gave it to his men as well.  It was not the act of David that was Ok.  It was the Lord over the rules who loved His servant and made an exception for David, as Jesus could make an exception for His disciples valuing fellowship and trust, more than strict rules that destroy fellowship altogether.

Luke continues in verse 3 saying … “And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him; [verse 4] How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? [verse 5] And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”  Jesus identifies Himself as LORD of the Sabbath.  God created the Sabbath.  Therefore Jesus is also our Creator and God.  This example of the disciples feeding themselves (gleaning in a field) is not one to endorse theft, or eating out on Sabbath, or minimizing food preparation, or making your act of love serving others food on Sabbath.  This was about keeping your eye on the ball.  Being with Jesus is more important than ANY other distraction.  “How” you honor Jesus is not up for debate.  “That” you honor Jesus is the salient point.  If your idea of honoring time with Jesus is to force or hire others to serve you in order for you to be free (you forget that your love for those others should have left them free to honor our God as well).  Making the excuse that they would have working anyway whether you are there or not, is not making any statement about them, but it does make a statement about you, about how you think, and about how you value them, or love them.  Loving others drives a different way of thinking about the celebration of Sabbath.  Not about what you can and cannot do, but about how you can share the love of God, and thereby fellowship with Jesus even when Jesus cannot be seen today.

But the Pharisees had established routines far more extreme than this.  They had lost all value for others.  The care of the sick did not outweigh the obligation to do no work on the Sabbath.  Get that, people, less than rules.  The sharing of love was fully absent in that thinking.  But it was and is not absent in the thinking of our God.   Luke continues in verse 6 saying … “And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. [verse 7] And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. [verse 8] But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. [verse 9] Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? [verse 10] And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. [verse 11] And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.”

And here is where popularity goes right out the window.  Jesus healed on Sabbath because our God does not take the concept of Him taking a day off as meaning He abandons everything He does to keep us alive and well.  If God just stopped turning planets, sending rain, reminding you to breath – we all die in an instant.  That is not His idea of making a day Holy.  It is about spending time with us.  When we see the suffering, how can we just leave them in that condition, just because it is Sabbath – then call ourselves Sabbath observers.  Love does not take a day off.  Love is constant ever present.  But then Love does not ask for anything in return either.  Jesus did not demand payment for services rendered.  So many purported Sabbath keepers pick medical careers in order to be able to “work” on Sabbath.  And so they do.  They “work” in the service of healing, but share no love because they feel no love.  They get paid for services rendered because why wouldn’t they?  They get overtime and shift differentials and actually prefer to work on Sabbaths because it pays better.  And hey it is all legal – because of this story in the gospels.  But legal is not the goal – loving is.

How Jesus healed, was why Jesus ate with His disciples.  Because He loved them and us, and wants to share with us in the joy of fellowship.  His joy is not blind to our needs, but ever trying to meet our needs.  It is a reflection of His love for us.  Love does not demand payment.  Nor does love look for distractions from a time with God.  For those who heal, or serve others in any capacity on Sabbath, because it is a reflection of their love for others – no man should judge.  Many work on Sabbath serving communities, or nations, or the sick, or in critical functions like utilities – where if they should stop working many others would suffer or die.  These professions are honorable.  And if they serve from love, they honor the Sabbath of their God.  But if they merely serve for careers, thinking not about who they serve or why, and focusing more on the money it takes to support them, their debts, their families, than they do about sharing love.  Perhaps they should find different professions, or seek the Lord, to find different hearts in the same professions.  The Sabbath is not about what we can and cannot do.  It is about who we love, how we love, and how we honor God’s time with our own.

Putting away distractions we can do any other of the six days in our week, allows us to focus on Jesus even more on His day.  I can shop anytime.  But on His day, I want to do something for Him.  I can entertain myself anytime.  But on His day, I want my entertainment to bring me closer to Him, to give me another insight into Him, and to motivate me to do something for Him.  I work because I need to,  But on His day, I want to free myself from the concerns of my career.  I want to keep as many others as I can free from theirs as well, avoiding putting them in positions where they are required to serve me.  But none of this matters, if I forget who I love, how I love, and why His love can live in me in the first place.  My Creator is also my re-Creator.  His gift of the Sabbath to me, is more precious to me than gold.  And I only hope He will continue to help me find better ways to explore the celebration of His day, in this world, and in the next one.

 

Time to Party ...

When was the last time you heard a Christian saying that its time to party?  A lot of nominal Christians perhaps, but how about Christians that think of themselves as disciples, or apostles, or leaders in the faith.  The problem is not the joy, it is how the term “party” is usually associated with getting to the joy.  The world has commandeered the term “party” to be closely associated with chemical stimulants.  But even the world admits, the chemical stimulation is not as much fun when you are alone.  Indeed, the most fundamental ingredient of any party, whether it be the world’s idea of fun, or perhaps the Christian ideas of the same, is a gathering of other people (no cats just won’t do).  And no matter what kind of party you prefer, or attend, having someone there who is indeed the “life” of the party makes the gathering even better.  A party can go from dull to exhilarating just by having someone attend who is practiced at being the life of the party.  But then again, if there is no-one there to see the life of the party, to enjoy the interaction with them, then the skills are wasted, and the event is generally a failure.

So if you break a party down to its most fundamental elements there are few things revealed.  First, any party to even call itself by that name, needs to include a gathering of people.  Second, parties can be made significantly better by having the “right” person or people in attendance – folks who know how to have a good time and know how to encourage others to do the same.  Third, when you gather people together, things tend to get noisy.  And lastly, no matter how you get there, the ultimate desire underlying any party is to have fun, to attain joy, to lift our spirits and make us feel better about our lives.  A party is a chance to escape the normal pressures of the world and focus on something entirely different.  And what rings the irony gong for me, is the vehicle a party uses to shift our focus upwards and better is the vehicle of human fellowship.  A party is not a party without people.  Ideally these people are ones we know and love, but most of us would be happy to meet new folks as long as they are fun to fellowship with and enjoy lifting their own spirits while at the same time lifting ours.

At most parties there is some sort of food element involved.  Even if only finger foods, or appetizers, having something to munch on is a great ice breaker at parties.  Depending on how much food is involved, a party can evolve from party to feast.  There is not much distinction between a party and a feast except for the amount of food they intend to serve and consume.  Food has long been a vehicle for people to set aside precious time and fellowship while they eat.  When you can’t get people to come to a “party” you can almost always get them to come to “feast”.  Everyone has to eat.  And even eating is much more fun when you don’t do it alone.  Sharing, whether it is ideas, or thoughts, or even commiserating, is a fundamental need of humans.  This is part of the whole “created in Gods image” thing.  Our God longs to fellowship, and enjoy His own creations (food, etc.) with us, the same way we would long to do it with each other, and hopefully with Him.

So inevitably when I look around, I see the faces of Christians, and my first thought is rarely – “this is a party guy or gal”.  No instead my first thought is – “who died?”.  When I study the rest of the American Christian frame, I realize perhaps the party is going extinct, but the feast seems to be alive and well.  Though perhaps McDonalds and the fast food industry is responsible for more of our heft, than the traditional home cooked feasting that would be so much more fun if we could only make time for it.  In any case, Jesus did not intend for Christians to be miserable people, always hungry, and never caught dead in a party (even if we call it a feast).  The intent of our God was that we eat the fruits of His garden, and that it is not good for us to be alone.  We need companionship, just like He does.  We should have way more joy in our lives.  So much joy, that it creeps into our faces and our bodies, and becomes evident to anyone who looks at us.  How do I know?  Luke offers us some insight into Jesus’ thoughts on just this topic.  He begins in his 5^th chapter in the gospel letter to his friend on the fundamentals of our beliefs and where they come from.

Picking up in verse 27 it begins … “And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. [verse 28] And he left all, rose up, and followed him.”  A lot of us modern day Christians read this passage only for its historical value.  We seem to forget this invitation is not dissimilar to what God offers each of us, every single day.  Jesus asks each of us, would you like to follow me?  Note that He does not ask us for directions.  He already knows where He is going.  The invitation is not for you to join a committee or intend to make the plans “with” Jesus.  His plans for you are already made.  What Jesus asks each of us, is whether we are willing to “follow” Jesus and let Him lead us wherever He wants us to be, even if that is to the same place you have been longing to get away from every day of your life.  Your role in this transaction is simply to follow.  Perhaps better stated to be willing to follow, and then to move where He leads, even if that means standing still while He clears the way out in front of you.  No more decision making for you, if you are practiced enough to begin letting Jesus make them for you (which is the ultimate of submission).  When Jesus asked Levi Matthew this, albeit in person, Matthew left everything and followed Jesus.  It did not matter where Jesus was going, only that Levi Matthew was honored enough to be going too.

Luke continues in verse 29 saying … “And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.”  And look how Levi Matthew responds.  Not in solemn silence.  Not with black clothing and ashes heaped upon his head for the fortune and property and income he was walking away from.  Matthew was not depressed by what he gave up to follow Jesus – instead he was excited to the hilt to be offered the spot on the Jesus team.  Money is worth nothing.  Jesus is worth everything.  So a happy man, full of joy does, what a happy man full of joy does.  He throws a party and invites anyone who would dare to party with a sinner like himself.  The elite of society will not be coming to this event, at least not inside the house of this sinner.  They will come and peruse the goings on through the windows outside where the “proper” folks go to avoid being contaminated by the sinners who tarry within.  But Jesus goes right in there.  Jesus walks right on in to a house filled with prostitutes, adulterers, men of great pride and little education, men who cheat the Israelite nation on behalf of Rome and themselves.  There was not ONE single saint in that entire gathering outside of Christ.  This was a party.  A full-on respectable party, full of joy.  And the life of the party was Jesus Christ.  If you let Him, He will be the life of every party you throw.  A tradition that does not end here, but continues in heaven for an eternity your mind is too feeble to even comprehend right now.

For those of us modern Christians who are too timid to go to a party because there “might” be alcohol there – get over it.  For those of us Christians who believe isolation is the only solution to keep us from getting contaminated by the sins of other sinners – get over it.  YOU are already the source of sin those others sinners should be avoiding in the first place by that judgmental logic.  Its not them, its you.  No matter what they are doing, you are doing things just as bad or worse.  You may not have been discovered yet, but you are no less guilty than they.  So isolation just leaves you alone in your own sins, it does not prevent you from contracting theirs.  Fellowship is not the cure for sinning, but it can be a vehicle of support for those suffering with this disease including you.  Jesus is the cure.  And Jesus can be found in places of joy and parties and feasts, just like He might be found in the places of worship that resemble more of funerals than of people bound for an infinity of fun.  Jesus attended this party, like He is honored to attend any other you ask Him to.  And He was not in there making everyone miserable with sermons on hell fire and sin and repentance.  He was in there freeing people from sins, lifting them up in joy, making them shout and sing and dance because this new found freedom was like nothing they had ever experienced.  That is my kind of party.  Who cares what you eat and drink if you have Jesus right there making everything awesome.

But alas, for every life of the party, there is usually a Debbie-downer looking to trash the whole event.  For this one, enter the Pharisees.  I forgot, are you one of those?  Nobody thinks that “they” are the Debbie-downer Pharisee, but the judgmental language that seems to just leap out of their mouths, brings everybody down and does nothing to lift anyone out of any sin ever.  We Pharisees have a knack for pointing out what is wrong with anything.  We can tell you the five ways this could have been better, but usually spend our time focusing on who is to blame for the tragedies we invent.  Anyone who comes in our circle usually instantly regrets that decision.  Walk by us in a party and just feel your spirit come crashing down to earth, when it might have otherwise soared to the heights of heaven.  When you look up, you move up.  When you look down, you fall down.  And so not content to just be miserable, we must share our misery in order to feel even the slightest bit of relief from the responsibility we carry of pointing out the sins of the world.

Luke continues in verse 30 saying … “But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? [verse 31] And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. [verse 32] I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Does it sound like Jesus was indisposed in the back bedroom with the hookers who came to this shindig?  Or does it sound like Jesus was at the kitchen table in there counting up the gold and dividing it up to keep a good portion of it Himself?  Does it sound like Jesus was falling down drunk unable to speak without slurring His words?  No.  Jesus was fully alert, sober, and having the time of His life.  These wounded souls were hearing Him, and accepting His call to follow, and let Him free them from their sins.  Again, my kind of party.  And the results were singing, shouting, and dancing.  Everyone was having a blast, not because of their sins, but because He was freeing them from their sins.  And Debbie-downer was worried about the social stigma of hanging out with hookers and tax collectors (hookers being better than tax collectors also called publicans).

Debbie-downer was worried about reputations, and keeping themselves in isolation from sinners in need.  But that is NOT the example of Jesus Christ who we claim to follow.  Jesus did not transact with hookers, He freed them from their sins, and used His church to support them, welcoming them into His ranks.  The same applied to tax collectors.  After all, He just personally invited one of those “scum” to be one of His disciples.  Take a hike Debbie-downer.  This party is for the joy of looking up in freedom.  The life of this party was handing out life like it was M&M’s in a punchbowl.  Relief.  Joy.  And fellowship with like minded folks who appreciated these gifts more than anything wealth could ever buy.  The last thing this party needed was “church leadership”.  Let the party be the party.

But Pharisaical Debbie-downer was persistent if nothing else.  Luke continues in verse 33 saying … “And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? [verse 34] And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? [verse 35] But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.”  Jesus says yes Debbie, there is a time coming when you will make persecution of any who find freedom from sin through me a living hell.  The church will persecute the saved from one end of the earth to the other bathing themselves in the blood of those who have found freedom no single doctrine could have ever provided.  In those times, there will be more fasting than feasting.  But notice too, when Jesus is with us, the time to party has come.  When Jesus is with us, it is feast time baby.  Somebody break out the finger food and the chips.  Hold your ears Debbie because there is going to be spontaneous singing, shouting, and dancing when Jesus is nearby.  This is not a Pentecostal thing, this is a Jesus proximity thing.  This is about being connected to the life of the party.  Not just in our imaginations or faith, but in the reality of an eternity spent with Jesus beyond the concepts of time.  We can begin here.  But it does NOT end there.

Jesus must have looked around at the guests of this party.  He notices some have clothing that is torn and ripped.  He notices too the wine bottles in the containers along the wall.  Items readily available for those in this party to see and understand what He means as He continues in verse 36 saying … “And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.”  The poor folks there understood, when their clothing was ripped, you could not cover the hole by sewing a new piece of fabric over it.  The new was much heavier and would rip the tear open even worse than before.  If you have an old robe, you need an old piece of fabric to cover it up with.

Luke continues in verse 37 saying … “And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. [verse 38] But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. [verse 39] No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.”  The same analogy holds true with the bottles of wine.  And here is where Debbie-downer (my nickname for the Pharisees among us) went away angry.  Old doctrine is what old leaders prefer.  New doctrine is what new vessels, that is new converts prefer.  The old choking doctrines of the past, will choke a new convert, focusing only on what you can and cannot do – instead of how you can love and be free in the love of God for others.  It is a completely different way of thinking.  Loving others solves the sin problem like nothing else can.  If I love you, I don’t think about hurting you, lying to you, stealing from you, dishonoring you, you name it.  If I love God first, then the love for others will flow through me.  It is the lack of focus on love in the old set-in-their-ways ideas of the past, that creates Pharisees, kills Jesus, and causes entire generations to be lost.  Jesus brought us a new way to think, a new way to love and live.

The New way for us to follow, was one of submission of our ideas and will to our God.  Just like Jesus did with His Father every day He was here.  He submitted to God.  We submit to Him.  We accept that invitation to follow.  Next, Jesus loved everyone of us He encountered, and did everything He could to make each of our lives better through fellowship, support, and association.  There is no isolation called for in that recipe.  There is no sadness called for in it either.  He did not think of this as sacrifice, why do we?  It was the love in Him that gave Him joy in the giving.  Love can bring you that joy as well.  The world, and sin itself will bring plenty of sadness for us to have to deal with.  But Jesus brings freedom.  He brings joy.  He brings a time to party where we look up and find reason to sing, to dance, to shout praise to God.  My kind of party.  That kind of joy is infectious.  It spreads to anyone who encounters it.  And it is here.  Why not invite that life of the party into what will become the party of your life?  Why not begin to experience joy, not because you find it in a bottle or a syringe, but because true freedom is exhilarating.  Jesus truly is my kind of party.