"Church of Tough Love"

From a front page article in the National Post by Joseph Brean:

"New polling numbers suggest Canadians are open to religion, but disenchanted with or even ignorant of the current offerings. Contrary to common wisdom, Canadians are not becoming more secular...Faith and spiritual longing are as widespread as ever. It is only church attendance that is down."

"With a flimsy and changing message, the (liberal churches) are less able to attract new members or retain old ones. Modernizing reforms might get good headlines, but in the long run, no one seeks shelter under a tree that bends with the wind."

"They (liberal churches) may be in danger of becoming cults of positive thinking, with too many questions and not enough answers, too much social justice and not enough personal morality, too much humanity and not enough God."

The conclusion of the article is that spiritual interest is alive and well but the church is not well positioned to capitalize on it. While the more conservative churches are affirmed in this article as having the more winning formula it seems to me that the church today, whether conservative or liberal, is a mere place holder in the story of God's action in the world. The story of God and his work is largely bookmarked, on hold, while the fields are ripe for harvest. Anyone interested in the pursuit of God is not likely to find much help in the church. There is however a thriving spiritual enterprise which is taking place at the level of the individual, of informal fellowship, and through the medium of the internet and print. There are thirsty people who are pursuing that thirst wherever the living water can be found.

"... rooted and established in love ..."

Reading Ephesians 3:14-21

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

This one sentence is packed full of hope, and healing, and wholeness. The first thing that we note is that, in life, we are "rooted and established." We are not like those who are "without hope and without God in the world" (2:12). We are not detached from any ultimate meaning. We are not an accident of nature. We have a place in the Universe. Our existence means something.

Paul is clear about the nature of the grounds of our being. We are not about bare existence but about love. Love is always personal by definition. If we are grounded in love then we are grounded in a loving person, God. The roots of our life go down into a bedrock of love and from this we are able to draw up into ourselves continually the love of God. The whole context of our life provides for our need to be loved and cared for.

Paul prays that we will "know this love that surpasses knowledge." It is clear that Paul has two different kinds of knowing in mind. One type of knowing allows us to enter into this love, the other leaves us floundering. Both types of knowing are honored in the Bible. The knowing of the mind and the knowing of the spirit are both encouraged. The knowing that Paul prays for us to excel in with respect to the love of God is one of a deep inner experience and contact that is more immediate than thought. This is not to say that this kind of knowledge is irrational but that it is relational. While words and thoughts fail in trying to grasp the love of Christ there is a deep, personal, and relational level at which we may experience his love. In this way the mind filled with thoughts of God's love only begins to know what the spirit "filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" already knows.

I am more than a brain and a body. I have feelings, needs, hungers, desires, motivations, longings, drives, hopes, and aspirations. I hurt, get wounded, experience healing, and taste freedom. Being filled or satisfied is not something that the mind can do for us all by itself. There must be an acknowledgment that we are in a living relationship with God and that our deepest needs are fed out of that relationship. This is why we practice prayer, meditation, and worship in addition to rational reflection and cognitive thought.

"... he may strengthen you with power ..."

Reading Ephesians 3:14-21

The question of the nature and use of power is an intriguing one. This is an important issue in the church and in the world. In the world much of political practice and theory is about distribution of power. Marxism, Communism, Democracy, and other political experiments explore the locus of power and wealth amongst people and how these resources are shared. We are constantly exposed to issues involving the powerless, abuse of power, distribution of power, military power, economic power, as well as philosophies of personal empowerment.

What is the role of power in the Christian life? What can we expect from the working of God's power in the individual, in the church, and in society? In this prayer, in particular, what is the anticipated result of being strengthened with power?

There are three specific passages in this letter that refer to the power of God as it is made available to people. The first reference also occurs in the context of a prayer:

"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know ... his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church..." (Ephesians 1:18-22).

A couple of observations on this passage:

1. God is drawing an analogy between the power that he exercised in us and the power that he exercised in the resurrection, ascension, and reign of Jesus. The power exerted is comparable. This is an astounding statement especially in light of the detail with which he elaborates on the working of his power in Christ.

2. The comparison is so unexpected that it requires an act of grace to open our eyes to see it ("that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know").

Now, what is it that God has accomplished in us that required so much power and that is analogous to the resurrection of Jesus?

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient ... But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions ... and God raised us with Christ and seated us with him..." (Eph. 2: 1-2,5-6)

In short:
"You were dead ... but ... God ... made us alive."

As a Christian you are a person in whose being a truly mighty power has been at work. You were captive to another power ("the ruler of the kingdom of the air") to such an extent that you were dead and gone. How is it that you are now alive in Christ? "It is by grace you have been saved" (2:8). You were liberated from a powerful oppressor (merry Christmas!) and now live in freedom in Jesus. This is Christian power.

In the prayer in Ephesians 3 we have the same story in other words. The aim of the exercise of God's power is "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." This requires another kind of death and resurrection:

"I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

It takes the working of a mighty power to put an end to the whole of the old context in which I lived apart from Christ and to bring about the living out of the life of Christ in the context of my life in him.

Only after understanding all these things about the working of God's power in us are we ready for the admonition of Ephesians 6:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms ... " (Eph. 6:10ff).

God's resurrection power has not only brought us out of conflict but has brought us into conflict. We now live in a context where we are compelled to dress in battle gear every day, one power standing against another. The battle is intensely personal in that it is not good against evil but the living personal God against a rebellious personality of his own creation (Satan, the fallen angel). It is a personal battle that has Christian soldiers standing against rulers, authorities, and evil beings who comprise companies of spiritual forces. The outcome has never been in question but the process is one designed to test loyalties and to prove historically the all powerful authority and limitless glory of our God.

"... that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith ..."

Reading Ephesians 3:14-21

If the riches of God are intended, above all else, to strengthen the inner being, here is how it is done. God comes into the closest possible proximity to us when Jesus enters our lives. The way in which he is able to "dwell" in our hearts is a mystery that has not been explained to us. Jesus makes himself present within us and reveals to us the nature of God as personal, loving, holy, and powerful. This is nothing like "the force" of Star Wars fame. This is the person of Jesus and there is no dark side of him that empowers evil as readily as it empowers good. Jesus is present in us as a person and as a source of relationship that removes the sense of the universe as being empty and hostile. It is in Jesus that we are reconciled to God and through whom we find hope in the world.

All this comes about "through faith." Faith is about apprehending what cannot be physically grasped, about seeing what is invisible. Faith is a special gift of sight into the world of God.

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see... By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." (Heb. 11:1,3)

Faith is not wish, but being sure. Faith is not 'hope so' but 'hope' in the form of a deep inner certainty. Faith is not irrational but is understanding. Faith is rooted in the existence of God, in his revelation, in the communication of truth by His Spirit, and is made available to us on the basis of Jesus' work of redemption at the cross. It is when we come to believe in Him that he enters into this special relationship with us and comes to "dwell in our hearts."

"They will call him Immanuel - which means, 'God with us'."

"... strengthen you ... in your inner being ..."

Reading Ephesians 3:14-21

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being..."

In this passage and throughout this letter the riches of God are applied directly to "the inner being" or "the heart." These passages do not provide a recipe for material prosperity or even for physical well being. Certainly there are a multitude of references to God's interest in our material and physical condition. God loves and cares for his whole creation, both physical and spiritual. Notwithstanding this fact, it is not material deprivation or physical disability that most deeply threatens us. It is the emptiness of the "inner being" that cries the loudest. Our most glaring pain is our inner pain where we experience abandonment, feeling unloved, uncared for, unappreciated, and hopeless. Mighty resources are required to sustain the human spirit, which lives in a world that is under judgment, that is cursed, and that waits and is longing for a complete redemption.

The "glorious riches" of God are aimed at "strengthening you ... in your inner being." Paul recognizes this when he makes it the heart of his prayer for the Ephesian believers. Yet, when we pray, it is so often the physical and material that we cry out for, which only shows that we really don't know our own needs or God's character very well. If all we see is the physical and material we are only looking at the surface of our need. To call on God to help us deal with how our life context is pressing on our "inner being" is to begin to move more deeply into the wells of his "glorious riches." Through this prayer we begin to "taste and see that the Lord is good." Through this prayer our heart may become awash in love, acceptance, meaning, and hope. This is one of those things that does not come to us unasked: "You will seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart."

"...out of his glorious riches..."

Continuing to Read Ephesians 3:14-21

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you..."

The first three chapters of this letter provide the theological foundation for the practical admonitions of the last three chapters. This is a common practice in Paul's letters. This phrase, "his glorious riches" and others like it, that speak of the abundance of God's resources, is one of a multitude of such phrases that occur in the first three chapters. Consider the rest of the collection:

"blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ" (1:3)

"his glorious grace ... freely given" (1:6)

"in accordance with the riches of God's grace" (1:7)

"that he lavished on us" (1:8)

"the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints" (1:18)

"his incomparably great power toward us who believe" (1:19)

"his great love for us" (2:4)

"God, who is rich in mercy" (2:4)

"the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us" (2:7)

"love that surpasses knowledge" (3:19)

"him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (3:20)

His riches are matched only by his generosity towards us. What a theme to meditate on at this time of the year. The nature of these riches is as interesting as their abundance. This will be discussed as we move further into Paul's prayer. In the meantime it is very edifying and uplifting to think of the tremendous resources that have been made available to us.

"...his whole family in heaven and on earth..."

Reading Ephesians 1:14-21

Paul's description of the family which is derived from the Father God presents us with two interesting challenges, the first having to do with the limits of the family and the second with its scope. The family of God is not coterminus with the whole of the human race, some are included and some are excluded. This is clear from the description of the family and how it came into being, given in the prologue. The family are those who, on the one hand, have been redeemed and forgiven through the blood of Jesus, who have been chosen and adopted out of the pool of humanity. The family, on the other hand, are those who have heard the gospel and believed (Grace extended and received). This limited definition of the family presents an apologetic challenge to the concept of a God whose love is presented in this letter as being unfathomable. It forces us to ask questions about the nature of God, of sin, of human nature, and of the history of the fall and redemption. For whatever reason God has not found a way by which every member of the human family has been adopted into his special family. In this realization we are forced to face some fundamental truths about God and about ourselves.

The second challenge that arises from Paul's description of this family has to do with its scope and inclusiveness. Paul envisions here the "whole family in heaven and on earth." He is interested in the Ephesians because they are a part of this one, unified (in the Father), family. I say this presents a challenge and that is because of the extremely fractured nature of the family on earth. It is not just an apologetic challenge that requires us to explain our brokenness in the light of the character of God and of our call to love one another, but it is a practical challenge to the living out of our faith in relationship to the whole people of God. If I am a Baptist what do I do with the multitude of other brands of Baptists that I have been pleased to distinguish myself from? If I am Reformed what do I do with the Arminians? If I am a cessationist what do I do with the Pentecostals and Charismatics? If I am a Catholic how do I view the Protestants and the Orthodox? Can I, at the very least, like Paul, kneel before the Father on behalf of these other brothers and sisters? When I read in the newspaper about the troubles of some Catholic diocese, within the leadership of the Greek Orthodox church, or with some prominent evangelical, is there a thought to pray or do I wash my hands of them as if they were from some other family, safely removed from me and my circle? Is my church or denomination such a fortress that its walls keep out even those whom God considers family?

If we have trouble loving the church, what hope is there that we will ever love the world?

"For this reason I kneel before the Father..."

Reading Ephesians 1:14-21

Spiritual ergonomics. The best posture for a healthy spiritual life is the posture of submission and surrender before God. The word that is used for kneel here is a word that means 'to bend.' It speaks of flexibility as opposed to the 'stiff neck.' Kneeling before God is a recognition of who is really in control in this world. All thought of demand is laid aside. It is not that Paul thinks of God as the cruel task master who must be appeased. Quite the contrary he prays that the Ephesians would come to know the unbelievable dimensions of the love of God. The bending of the knee in this prayer brings together the twin facts that the most loving being that anyone could contemplate is nothing less than the God of the universe. In kneeling we accept that only our loving and powerful God knows whether a greater good is achieved by granting or by denying or be delaying our request.

"For this reason..."

Reading Ephesians 3:14-21

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray..."

The paragraph begins with what linguists refer to as a "boundary feature." This is a phrase that is repeated and that marks off important sections of the argument or that advances the argument in some way. The phrase "for this reason" first occurs in 1:15 immediately after the prologue and is repeated at 3:1 and again here. It is very easy to forget the reason why we do what we do - even the very important things that we do for God and others. Inevitably everything degenerates to being about me. Paul is a good example of someone who always keeps his best reasons before him. What is Paul's reason for kneeling before God and praying for the believers in Ephesus and all the churches he is responsible for? Following the chain of "for this reason" statements backwards we come to the prologue of the letter where Paul lays out the fundamental concepts behind all that he does in ministry.

The reason lies in Paul's understanding that before God ever created the world and the universe he envisioned a special people who would be the object of his love and who would be devoted to him. This people would become a historical reality in Jesus ("in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins" 1:7) and through him we would be loved, blessed, chosen, adopted, and forgiven.

This is the motivator, this is the reason, that Paul expends himself on this special people. His prayers, his witness, and his labor are a response to his understanding that the whole heart of God is invested in this family and its fortunes.

What motivates you?

The Lord is righteous in all his ways...

Reading Psalm 145:17-21

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever."

This is personal testimony. This is not academic theology or abstract thinking about what God must be like. This is not wishful thinking or spiritual dreaming. David is describing what he has experienced of God. The testimony is personal and the application is personal: "My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord." The longer we live in this conscious relationship with God the more we know of Him and the more thankful we are to have found him.

God ensures that his children feel his righteousness ( in his resistance to sin and the empty wasteland that we experience when we reject his moral law); that we know his love (in the joy and peace he gives as we turn to him); that we sense his nearness (in that assurance of being accompanied on our journey); that our desires are fulfilled (in learning over and over again that he knows better than we do what we need and what our longings are ultimately aimed at); that he hears our cry (that our prayers are not swallowed up by the vastness of the sky above us but find a home in his heart). It is our experience that "the Lord watches over all who love him." Those who love God, who express that love to God through worship and obedience, know the love of God - love is its own reward.

God is multidimensional and he addresses all realities and for this reason David also says: "but all the wicked he will destroy." He is no impotent grandfather of the universe who simply lets everything pass by unnoticed.

"Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever."

The Word and the World

Reading Psalm 145:14-16

"The Lord upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand and satisfy the desires
of every living thing."

He upholds, he lifts up, he gives, he opens his hand, he satisfies - He is not a God who just sits by, passively watching to see whether we will sink or swim. He enters into the fabric of our daily lives and takes action on our behalf. We can call on him, count on him and hope in him.

In making these statements in the context of his worship David practices one of the most important tools of faith: Affirmation. By verbally affirming the Word of God, by affirming the truth about God and about how he cares for us the Psalmist gains courage, strength, and confidence. The opposite is also true. If we affirm the negative in our lives, if we affirm our anger or bitterness, if we affirm our disappointments and hurts we will lose strength, become victims and live in emptiness. But when we affirm God and His Word we become full of Him and full of His qualities and attributes. The choice is ours.

The Psalmist shows that God works with us in the context of the broken world. He does not take us out of it (that awaits a future event) but he accompanies us through it and offers practical help to deal with it. God does not prevent us from falling but upholds us, he does not insulate us from becoming bowed down but he lifts us up, he does not keep us from feeling the pangs of hunger but he feeds us, he does not prevent us from feeling the deep needs of life, but he opens his hand and satisfies us.

"The eyes of all look to you."

"...an everlasting kingdom..."

Reading Psalm 145:13

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The Lord is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made."

We live in a world of constant flux. Change is an everpresent companion and catastrophic change is both the material of the daily news and a frequent visitor to our homes or to those of our family and friends. This is what makes this verse in the Psalms stand out so dramatically. God exists in stark contrast to his fallen creation. The God of the Bible is no pantheistic personalization of the Universe. God made the world but is not dependent on it, he is self-existent. As the New Testament affirms:

"In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end."
(Hebrews 1:10-12)

Think of this verse the next time you attend a funeral. As each generation departs God is as vigorous a help to the next generation as he was to the previous. God is the continuity that ties all the generations together. He knew and loved my great grandfather just as he loves and cares for me. In the end he is the one who will bring us all together again and unite us together as one family. This is the promise to all those who have trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and have become the children of God through faith in him.

The endurance of God's rule as king over all his creation is the foundation for the statement that follows: "the Lord is faithful to all his promises." Because his authority is never shaken, nothing can hinder God's intention to be "loving to all he has made." We are the beneficiaries of the faithful love of a changeless God. This is why my constant prayer for my children is not that they would have great wealth, but that they would be rich in faith.

Praise for God

Reading Psalm 145:10

"All you have made will praise you, O Lord;
your saints will extol you."

We have praise for all kinds of things in this world. We speak in glowing terms of sports teams, hobbies, books we've read, people we admire, historical events, etc. God made all these things and is involved in everything that is good, yet often we fail to recognize him for his "mighty acts" (verse 12). By exalting God we don't give him a higher place in the world, he is already in the highest place, but we give him a higher place in our thoughts and gain a true perspective on our relationship to him and on what is really important in this world.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate

Reading Psalm 145:8-10

"The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made."

Comforting words but not infrequently a passage like this is used to deny the existence of the God of the Bible. "If God is all powerful and perfectly loving then evil would not be allowed to exist in the world. Evil exists, therefore God does not." This argument is only effective on the basis of a denial of the early chapters of Genesis. God created a world in which evil did not exist and put man into a state of probationary perfection. People rebelled against God and refused to submit to him. A historical transition took place in which God cursed man and the earth and allowed a time in which we can experiment with sin and rebellion and in which we can taste both the judgment and mercy of God. It is in this context that a passage like this becomes extremely important. This passage and others like it remind us that even though we have rebelled against God and rejected him, and even though God has revealed his wrath against us he stills loves us and desires our return. In the midst of a situation where we have turned away from him God is pouring out his love and compassion on us and calling us to return to him that we may receive mercy and forgiveness. This combination of both judgment and mercy in the world reveals something of the character of God and of the character that he intends for us. We are in a terrible situation of our own making but God surrounds us with his love until the day when the curse is forever destroyed and those who have received him are renewed in the image of Christ.

One generation to another

Reading Psalm 145:4-7

"One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness."

The Psalmist reminds us that the greatness of God is revealed to every generation. Every generation has a story to tell to the next. The further we travel in life the more we have to tell and the greater the obligation to tell it. The obligation is both collective ("they") and personal ("I"). No one else is going to discharge my obligation to seek to pass on the stories of the mighty acts of God that I have witnessed. In the Psalm there is a back and forth interplay between the witness of the congregation and the witness of the individual believer. If I think I have nothing to tell it means that I have probably been living my life with my eyes shut or have been looking only at my own feet. If I have cared to see it I have been a witness to the mighty power of God.

The Psalmist is clear that we are not simply witnesses to ancient history, to something that happened in the dark ages of the past. We are not witnesses to theories that picture God as an unseen force, an ultimate cause. We must give witness to God's "works," to his "mighty acts," and to what this means for us as it reveals "the glorious splendor of your majesty."

If we have an obligation to speak about these things then we have an equal obligation to listen. What have we learned of God from the generation that has come before us? Surely this portion of the Psalm is a testimony to the importance of the work of Church History in preserving a memory of God's action in the world throughout all generations.

It is important both to listen and to tell. If all we do is tell our own stories then we begin to lose perspective and God is diminished. If all we does is listen then we fail to bear witness to what God has done in our own life and the story ends with us.

"They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds."

"...his greatness no one can fathom"

Reading Psalm 145:1-3

"I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you and extol your name
for ever and ever.
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom."

All kinds of thoughts, both great and small, occupy our minds. Everything we think about has an impact on us. Those things that we think about every day for an extended period of time begin to shape us and become formative to our character. This is why it is important to be conscious of our thought life and of what is dominating our minds. David makes a conscious choice to exalt God in his thoughts. He intends to do this regularly ("every day") for an extended period of time ("for ever and ever"). Think of the effect that this choice will have over a lifetime. Our problems, worries, fears, tend to have an intimidating effect on us. Yet, as great as our troubles may seem, God is greater: "his greatness no one can fathom." When we remind ourselves of this "every day" and "for ever and ever" our life begins to appear differently to us than it did when we lived without choosing to cultivate great thoughts of God. Of course, we can allow God to be absent from our minds and fail to receive the comfort and assurance that comes from thinking of him. Even then we don't change the fact that no one can fathom the greatness of God. What are you thinking about today?

"My father is always at his work..."

Reading John 5:16-17
"So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, 'My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.'

God is always working. Jesus' miracles are a peeling back of the curtain to reveal the work and character of God. The miracles, in and of themselves, are acts of compassion. In this Jesus reveals the compassionate nature of God and his interest in each and every individual in the context of the way in which they experience 'the curse.' The miracles do not reflect a change of heart for God or a change of approach to human suffering. They occur in a very short spurt of revelation through the person of Jesus. These miracles make the statement that God has always cared about his people, even 'to this very day,' even though he does not jump into our suffering the way Jesus does during these few short years of his life. Jesus demonstrates the ongoing compassion of God and the ultimate direction that his compassion will take when the curse has finally been put to rest in the second coming of Jesus. They are meant to point to God, to his attitude towards us, and to his intentions for the future. They are signs of hope and reassurance that in the coming of Jesus the turning point of history has arrived and the end of suffering is at hand.

On the other hand the lack of compassion of even the most religious amongst us is brought to light. The religious leaders object that Jesus is healing on the sabbath and breaking the rules. But Jesus shows that God is always working out his compassion towards us and no rules stand in the way of his love and mercy. Jesus' work is a demonstration and continuation of this compassion and he wishes to draw us into that same work.

Is it nightime? ... God is still working.
Have I given up? ... God is still working.
Have I run out of resources? ... God is still working.
Am I without the power to help myself? ... God is still working.
Have others ceased to look upon me with compassion? ... God is still working.
Have I lost my vision? ... God is still working.

"I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them...". (Exodus 3:7-8a)

"Unless you ... see miraculous signs ... you will never believe..."

Reading John 4:43-54
The Healing of the Royal Official's son.

A man, whoose son is near death, comes to Jesus and begs him to heal his son before it is too late. The man is desperate and sees no issue other than the critical condition of his son. This is about one thing and one thing only and as we read the story we are drawn into his worldview and accept the simplicity of the situation. The worldview of the desperate is this: there is a terrible need and there is a man who is reputed to be able to perform miracles. If this man can heal then he should heal and if he doesn't then we have to question either his power or his love. This is the argument from evil in a microcosom.

Jesus reaction to this man creates a kind of dissonance that is intended to shake the readers worldview with respect to this story. In the first place Jesus shows the same reluctance with respect to performing a miracle as he did at the previous Cana wonder, the wedding feast. And in the second place Jesus confronts this man with something of a rebuke that refuses to simply set everything aside in the face of his son's near death condition. We are looking for a simpler, more straightforward story. A sick boy, a powerful healer, a loving God, a miraculous and unconditional outcome. That is not what we get. We do get a positive outcome but we also encounter the reluctance and a not too sublte rebuke.

Jesus reveals in this story that the deepest issue here is not our relationship to our problems, fears, and needs but our relationship to faith in God. Jesus confronts this frightened man with a deeper reality about his condition. He can see that, while this man has a measure of faith in what he has heard about Jesus, his faith is so fragile that it will not withstand a negative answer to his request. He must have the miracle or he will have no faith. This is a constant theme throughout the fourth gospel. The faith that Jesus demands is a faith in the word and character of God, a faith that will wait, and hope, and endure because it is rooted in a living relationship with the Creator.

Jesus grants the mans request but still puts into the experience a test of faith that the man is able to pass. He refuses to go with the man to the child's bedside. He says to the man: "You may go. Your son will live." The man must leave Jesus and return to his son trusting that Jesus can be taken at his word. In this case Jesus has accomodated himself to the weakness of the seeker's faith.

When we are desperate we think that Jesus should leave all other issues aside and simply show his compassion by responding to our demands. Jesus knows that, sometimes, it is only in these situations that we are willing to listen to a truly radical message from God. There will not always be a healing but there should always be faith. God is God, whether his answer is yes or no.

"because of the woman's testimony..."

Reading John 4:39-42
"Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I ever did.' So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, 'We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.'"

This woman's faith was not based on the presentation of some rational argument for the existence of God or some kind of scientific evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus is God. Does this make her faith irrational, or blind faith, as some have labelled it? Not in the least. She believed for reasons that were compelling to her. The conversation that she had with Jesus was sufficient to convince her that he was the Messiah. The heart of her conviction comes from this simple testimony: "He told me everything I ever did." It was Jesus' intimate knowledge of her and his understanding of all that her poor choices in life had brought her to that convinced her that he was indeed "the Christ." In very short order Jesus penetrated through all the fog of her life, showed her her heart, and gave her hope. In our encounter with Jesus in the Gospels it is just such a revelation that awaits us. We find someone who knows our heart and are convinced that he has extended himself to us just as personaly as if we were standing by the well with him. Out of the encounter comes new hope and a simple testimony. Our testimony in turn awakens others whose curiosity is aroused enough to compel them to go to Jesus and question him for themselves. Once this happens our testimony has served its purpose as introduction to Jesus. Those who come to Jesus because of it can then say "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." Through Jesus' intervention in her life this woman went from being a community outcast to being a respected leader. All this just from accepting Jesus' commentary on her life and then saying to others "Come, see..." (v 29).

"My food is..."

Reading John 4:27-38
"My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."

The story of the woman at the well is a story of thirst and hunger. It is a story of spiritual thirst and hunger that is set against the backdrop of their physical equivalents. We know the feeling of physical hunger, of craving and satisfaction. The feeling of spiritual hunger is not unlike this. In fact the feelings are so similar that we often attempt to satisfy our spiritual hunger with physical things. What this story demonstrates is that while we know instinctively how to satisfy our physical thirst and hunger we do not have an equivalent natural instinct for the satisfaction of our spiritual needs. This is why Jesus said to his disciples, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about" (John 4:32). As he does so many times in his conversations and encounters with people Jesus takes us from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

"My food is to do the will...of someone else..."
"My food is to finish the work...of someone else..."

This is counterintuitive. I naturally think that solving my thirst would involve doing my will and engaging in my work. This is why so many spiritual and religious pursuits leave me feeling empty. I hope that feeding my physical and psychological hunger will somehow feed my spirtual hunger. I repeat over and over again the same paths to fulfillment that lead me to the same dead end. This is where so much of the self-help spirituality leads to.

Jesus is showing his followers that our spiritual hunger is telling us that we have lost touch with the will of God that "sends" us out of our own world and into the world of God and others. The will of God that Jesus wants us to connect with asks us to look on a field that we did not plant, to bring in a harvest that does not belong to us, and to share in the joy with those that we would otherwise have no connection with.

The lonely individual, eaten up with spiritual hunger, is satisfied, not by looking inward, but by looking upward and outward. The value of looking inward is in coming to fully appreciate what the soul hungers for, that is, God and others. Failure to take this inward look means we continue to pursue the illusive goal of self-fulfillment. Only surrender to the will of God and to doing the work of loving God and neighbour leads to the peace that I cannot find anywhere else. In the story, all of this purpose was focused on one cast-off woman. The great harvest never becomes an impersonal enterprise of numbers and statistics and complex strategies. It is a matter of one person reaching out to another person in the name of Jesus. Deep spiritual thirsts are satisfied in these simple actions.

"...a wall that was ready to fall by its own weight."

From James Houston's book, "Prayer: the transforming friendship":

Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist, once told the story of two brothers who met for a weekend after a long time apart. On the first night, the older brother was fascinated to see that his younger brother knelt and prayed by his bedside. 'Huh, you still do that?' he said. The younger brother did not reply, but from that time he never prayed again.

Tolstoy remarked:

'This is not because he knows his brother's convictions and has joined him in them, nor because he has decided anything in his own soul, but simply because the word spoken by his brother was like the push of a finger on a wall that was ready to fall by its own weight.'"

Oh, Watcher on the Wall, how solid are your foundations?

my Father's house

Reading John 2:12-25 (The Cleansing of the Temple)
"Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

With this story John continues to lay out his themes for the rest of the gospel. The story points to the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, addresses the question of his authority, links him to Old Testament Scriptures, presents him as the watershed between belief and unbelief, illustrates the religious stagnation that had infected the Temple worship, and foreshadows his death, burial, and resurrection while presenting him as the true Temple of God.

Why was Jesus so angry about what was going on in the Temple courts? The animals that were being sold were to be used for the prescribed ritual sacrifices. The money changers were there to ensure that the Temple tax could be paid in the proper currency. I think that the reason for the cleansing goes beyond the suggestion that these merchants were overcharging for their services. I believe that Jesus would have cleansed the Temple courts even if they had been conducting this business at cost or as a non-profit service. The Temple and its courts were to be a place for worship and prayer alone. All preparations were to be made outside the gates and the worshippers were to take nothing in but their own readiness to present themselves to God.

Jesus' disciples remembered "that it is written:'Zeal for your house will consume me.'" We are the new Temple of God. We are that Temple both individually and collectively. In his zeal for God's house what would Jesus overturn and chase out of the Temple courts of our lives? There is a space that should not be cluttered, even with the accompaniments of our religious faith, and into which we are to bring only ourselves. Yet so often every space in our lives is filled with "things," religious and otherwise. Is there a time and place in my life that represents the Temple and it's courts, where nothing enters but my prepared heart and the sacrifices that I bring to God? Have I allowed that place to become slowly filled with clutter and activity? Take a look at the geography of your life today. Find the temple courts and look honestly at what has been going on there.

"The one who comes from above is above all..."

Reading John 3:31-36
"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

This is John the Baptist's testimony concerning Jesus. John met Jesus as a man, as he met every other human being that came to him to be baptized. There is no human explanation for how John saw Jesus as distinct from everyone else that had ever lived. Nothing short of an aboslute and clear revelation from heaven could have given him the perspective that he shares here.

John begins by contrasting Jesus with himself. This is a good starting point because John was accepted as a great prophet by the people. As many as two million people came to him to be baptized. John was the central figure of the greatest revival that Israel had ever seen. John is referred to as the greatest of all the prophets. So to start by comparing Jesus to himself was to take a very high point of comparison. John does not simply say that Jesus is an even greater prophet than he is. John tells us that the origin of Jesus, the roots of Jesus being, are located in a radically different place than his own. John is a man, a great man, an influential man, God's man, but JUST a man, he is "from the earth" and "belongs to the earth." Jesus, on the other hand, is also a man, but not JUST a man. Jesus is "the one who comes from above," "the one who comes from heaven." This removes Jesus from the lists of the "one hundred greatest people that ever lived" category, and places him in a category of his own, a category that John repeats twice for emphasis. Jesus is "above all."

Everyone else "belongs to the earth." Jesus belongs to heaven.
Everyone else "speaks as one from the earth." Jesus speaks as someone from another place.
Everyone else speaks what they have received second hand. Jesus "testifies to what he has seen and heard."
Everyone else speaks words from God. Jesus "speaks the words of God."
Everyone else has a given measure of the Spirit. Jesus has "the Spirit without limit."

"The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands."

The fate of every human being that has ever lived and that ever will live turns on whether they accept or reject Jesus. "Whoever rejects the Son will not see life."

This is the Jesus that you can talk to today. The Father has placed everything you could ever need in his hands. The same hands that received the nails because of our sin, now offer us everything. He has forgiven and has paid the full price for all of our sin. John knew that there was no one else like him. Do you?

"What does it profit a man...?"

Reading Mark 8:36
"What good is it (does it profit a man) for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit (lose) his soul?"

Its all here: profit, gain, and loss. Yes, thats pretty much everything in a material world.

The North American church is well on its way to "gaining the whole world." Congratulations on a very successful enterprise! The person in the pew, however, seems well on the way to "losing her own soul." The Christians that I know have never been hungrier for spiritual things, have never been more discontent, have never questioned the usefulness of the church, as much as they do now. Very little of what is being done is being done for "the soul." The church has never been busier, while the souls of its members atrophy and waste away.

The church hears this warning of Jesus as a word against the worldly person but it is not. It is a warning to the religious, who build efficient organizations and put up beautiful structures, and raise large sums of money, and get headlines in the newspapers, and get listed as the "fifty most influential...", and can even find their faces on the cover of Time magazine. These things are irrelevant to me, they are incidentals. The purpose of Jesus' condemnation was not to set himself against material things or organizational progress. The purpose of Jesus was to warn that the incidentals can easily become the whole heart and soul of our lives. What is happening to the Christian soul in the midst of all of this?

You have a nice church, but "what does it profit a man...?"

You have programs for every age group and interest, but "what does it profit a man...?"

You have more money than ever, but "what does it profit a man...?"

You have a prime location for your facilities, but "what does it profit a man...?"

You can draw more people than the church down the street, but "what does it profit a man...?"

You can influence the outcome of an election, but "what does it profit a man...?"

Have you pinched the sheep lately? Do you know if under all that wool they are tired, weak, discouraged, empty, malnourished? Have the disciplines of the spiritual life all but dried up amongst the members of the church? Do you know that the leadership of the church must someday "give an account" (Hebrews 13:17) for the "souls" of its people?

"the wind blows wherever it pleases..."

Reading John 3:6-8
"Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit...The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

The flesh, the physical in general and the sinful in particular, is subject to a certain kind of explanation. There is a certain logic to what the natural man does. The way of the flesh makes sense to the flesh, is defensable by the flesh. The Spirit, on the other hand, is confusing to the flesh: "It blows wherever it pleases..." It does not allow the flesh to set its own course anymore. This is one of the reasons that the Spiritual life is so difficult. The call to live it comes from beyond everything that we have understood, everything that we are familiar with. This is why so many of the things that Jesus spoke strike us as being unrealistically radical. We are dumbfounded by them. We view them as optional or at least as accesible only to "saints." We take these sayings with a grain of salt, as Spiritual hyperbole, as literary exageration to have a certain disorienting effect on us. What we don't do is take them seriously, as if they were really intended to be applied to our day to day life.

However, should the church begin to follow the Spirit and live by his logic then it becomes a spectacle, a novelty, something to take notice of. This is what is intended by:

1. "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35

2. "If we are out of our mind it is for the sake of God" II Cor. 5:13

3. "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." I Cor. 2:14

4. "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" I Cor. 1:20

5. "For we are to God the aroma of Christ (we have the smell of something from another world) among those who are being saved and those who are perishing: to the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life...AND WHO IS EQUAL TO SUCH A TASK?"
II Cor. 15-16

Here is the recognition that it is not a human task, at least not a task for the flesh. Are our lives explainable entirely on the basis of the flesh? Is there any smell of the other world on us?

A horrifying truth

I have discovered a horrifying truth. Stated simply, it is this: If I do not love my enemy I cannot love anyone.

I have learned this the hard way. I have learned it through pain and hurt, received and inflicted. Have you ever wondered why Jesus would force on us such a radically counter-intuitive demand as this: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." (Mat. 5:44), "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you..." (Luke 6:37-28), "love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back..." (Luke 6:35)?

Jesus understood that all of my love is at risk if I refuse to love (defined as praying for, doing good to, lending to, etc...) my enemy. I am genuinely horrified at this realization. I have good reason to be. There are things we will never understand about ourselves, about God, about the people around us until we can stand before our enemy with love and compassion.

This is not an option reserved for saints. We cannot afford to wait until we achieve sainthood to test the waters on this. There have been few insights that have shaken me as much as this one has.

"Can anything good come from there?"

Reading John 1:43-46
"Philip found Nathanael and told him, 'We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.' 'Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?' Nathanael asked."

Prejudice (pre-judgement) can blind us to so many good things. Nathanael didn't need to meet Jesus to know that he could not be a source of good. Nathanael knew the town where Jesus grew up and what could be expected from a start like that. Luckily Nathanael was introduced to Jesus and was able to see past his prejudice to the person who stood before him. The point, however, is that he nearly missed God because he had a pre-conceived idea about the way in which God should show himself. How many times do we miss God because we think we know how God would speak, act, react in some particular circumstance?

Jesus was conceived before Mary and Joseph were married. Can anything good come from that?

Jesus "came eating and drinking, and they say, 'here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and 'sinners.'" Can anything good come from that?

Jesus had no job, home, or family, and accumulated no material possessions. Can anything good come from that?

Jesus broke the Jewish sabbath laws time after time and offended the leaders of his own religious upbringing. Can anything good come from that?

Jesus shamed religious leaders but forgave a woman who was caught in the act of cheating on her husband. Can anything good come from that?

Jesus lived only thirty three years, his ministry lasted only about three years, and he was executed before he had a chance to create any kind of organizational structure to his movement. Can anything good come from that?

Jonah had the same problem with God. God wanted to show kindness to Israel's worst enemy and spare them from destruction. Could anything good come from that?

Elijah had the same problem with God. God had allowed the forces of evil to grow so strong that Elijah thought he was the only one who was left who had been faithful to God. Elijah was reduced to the point of despair and suicide. Can anything good come from that?

Eve had the same problem with God. Here was all this wonderful fruit that was "good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom..." Yet God was withholding this treasure from her. Could anything good come from that?

Saul had the same problem with God. All those wonderful possessions that they had captured in battle could surely be used for some good purpose. Yet God had ordered them all destroyed. Could anything good come from that?

I have the same problem with God. His ways are just not my ways and his thoughts are just not my thoughts. God has allowed so much evil in the world. Can anything good come from that? God has taken me through so many dark places. Can anything good come from that? God has allowed people that I love to be hurt or to hurt themselves through so many foolish choices. Can anthing good come from that?

I know better than God what would be good for me. I'll just go my own way and do what I think is best. But can anything good come from that?

For those who walked with Jesus and trusted him through his life, death, burial, and into his resurrection: everything good came from that!

Pat Robertson

"Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for dividing God's land." (Sonja Barisic, Associated Press)

Is there no one close enough to Pat Robertson to share the gospel with him? This man needs Christ.

Follow me

Reading John 1:43
"Follow me"

A call to follow is both a call to embrace something new and to release or leave behind something old. The more radical the call, the more deeply felt the gains and losses will be. I have never found the call of Jesus to be comfortable or to feel safe. It is a call away from all that is familiar and reasonable.

I can love people who love me. I just can't feel comfortable with loving my enemy, with blessing those who curse me and doing good to those who despitefully use me and persecute me. I saw what happened to Martin Luther King. It just doesn't seem fair. Being a Christian offends my sense of justice. To love my enemy, I just can't follow that.
(But if I don't follow will I ever find out who God is? If I don't follow won't God always seem as boring and shallow as myself? I don't need God to help me be like me but I sure need him to help me be like him.)

I can forgive people who hurt me, within reason and up to a certain limit. I just can't keep forgiving them over and over again. You have to keep some kind of accounting of wrongs done, after which you call down fire from heaven. After all, many of my favorite movies are based on the revenge theme. It feels good to finally have a day of reckoning. To give up that "right," I just can't follow that.
(But if I don't follow will I ever find out who God is? If I don't follow won't God always seem as boring and shallow as myself? I don't need God to help me be like me but I sure need him to help me be like him.)

I can extend myself to help others, if I have the time and it doesn't conflict with my plans. My right to myself and to all that I own is not something that I can just let slip away. To "consider others better than myself," to "take the very nature of a servant," this is going way too far. I just can't follow that.
(But if I don't follow will I ever find out who God is? If I don't follow won't God always seem as boring and shallow as myself? I don't need God to help me be like me but I sure need him to help me be like him.)

Believe me, the list goes on and on.

How could Jesus just walk up to me, in the midst of my comfortable life and say: "follow me?"

What am I to do?

I learned quickly how to be a good Baptist but how can I learn to be a good Christian? You say, "follow me," but how can I possibly keep up to you? Perhaps, after starting with good intention, I've lost sight of you already. Help me to "follow hard after you."

What do you want?

Are you a follower of Jesus? What are you following him for? What do you want from him? After John had baptized Jesus he saw Jesus passing by the next day and pointed him out, saying, "Look, the Lamb of God!" At this point two of John's followers left him to follow Jesus. Jesus, aware that they were following, turned around and asked them: "What do you want?" (John 1:38).

What makes a person want to follow Jesus? What makes a person leave what was previously important to him and take after this very unusual man? These two people had been a part of the revival movement that John had instituted and yet at the sight of Jesus they were prepared to leave John and start over with Jesus. How do they answer Jesus' question? They respond by asking him where he is staying. They cannot articulate their reasons. Does this make them irrational and unstable? I don't think so. I think that they have sensed something about the uniqueness of the person of Jesus. They are not now following any program, revolution, philosophy, political pathway, or specific teaching. Jesus himself is the attraction and they want to know where he is staying because they want to be with him. This is fundamentally what it is to have an encounter with God. We come under the influence of his person, his authority, his greatness, his way with people, his immense love and his undeniable intention to be with us (Immanuel). Throughout the gospel story we learn much of what it means to follow Jesus but the draw of Jesus is nothing less than the weight of his personality. Here is a most remarkable person who invites us to "Come...and see" (John 1:39).

"grace and truth...through Jesus Christ"

Reading John 1:17
"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

John continues to draw out the contrasting themes that he will develop throughout his gospel. The contrast here is between law and grace. On this reading of the text the thing that stood out to me most forcefully was the contrast between law and truth. The law and grace comparison seems more intuitively easy to make. In what way, however, are law and truth set over against each other?

Truth is a subject of considerable interest to John. John uses the word as many times in his gospel and letters as Paul does in all of his 13 letters combined. John's is the only Gospel that records Pilate's question: "What is truth?".

From the verse we are thinking about it is clear that truth is something other than, even over against, law, and truth is something other than, even alongside of, grace. Truth is something particularly New Testament, something particularly associated with the coming of Jesus, something located in the era of the Spirit.

In John chapter three we find Jesus in conversation with Nicodemus, a "teacher of the law." Jesus says to Nicodemus three times: "I tell you the truth." Jesus says to Nicodemus "you are Israel's teacher...and do not understand..." (v10). Nicodemus has the law but doesn't have the truth. Jesus comes to him three times with this concept. The law tells us right from wrong but does not tell us the truth (in this special sense). Truth appears to be a bigger or fuller category than law. Truth is a corrective to Nicodemus' understanding of the law. Truth is a deeper principle than just "right and wrong." Truth is not in opposition to the law but it understands what the law does not. It is possible to understand exactly what the law says (as Nicodemus does) and yet to know nothing of the truth (as Jesus shows is the case with Nicodemus). The law says: "sin and die,"; the truth says: "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world."

It is easy for the Christian to become more like Nicodemus than like Jesus. Truth is not about knowing right and wrong (which the law graciously and wisely teaches us). Truth is about the more powerful law that Jesus came to institute: "because the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). The law reveals sin, bondage, and condemnation. The truth shows the way to righteousness, freedom, and forgiveness. Jesus shows Nicodemus that his greatest need cannot be met by the law. The law leaves a person in a very uncomfortable position. We have to get past our fixation with right and wrong. This will only lead us to resentments, self-righteousness, self-condemnation, and more bondage to sin.

Do I think that truth is telling people that what they are doing is right or wrong? Do I think that truth is afflicting myself with my sin, guilt and shame? John puts truth on the side of grace and freedom and reveals it as the answer to problems raised in our lives by the law. This is why Jesus says: "you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." He never says that the law can do anything like that for us.