A Prayer

I found this prayer in the novel I'm reading by Susan Howatch, Absolute Truths. Tell me that this isn't your prayer, as well as mine.

Oh God, save me from myself, save me from myself…this masterful self which manipulates your creation…this self which throws the thick shadow of its own purposes and desires in every direction in which I try to look, so that I cannot see what it is that you, my Lord and God, are showing to me. Teach me to stand out of my own light and let your daylight shine. __Austin Farrer, Warden of Keble College, Oxford, 1960-1968__

shalom, matt

Faith in Man

The great problem in the life of man is whether to trust, to have faith in God. The great problem in the life of God is whether to trust, to have faith in man.

The central issue is not man’s decision to extend formal recognition to God, to furnish God with a certificate that he exists, but the realization of our importance to God’s design; not to prove that God is alive, but to prove that man is not dead; not to prove him, but to prove ourselves. __Abraham Joshua Heschel__

Everybody Here Is a Cloud

Amazing lyrics from one of my favorite bands, Cloud Cult. The song is called, you guessed it, Everybody Here Is a Cloud.

And everybody here is a cloud

And everybody here will evaporate

You came up from the ground

From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?

Have you found where your place is?

Have you found where your place is?

 

You've been spending your time

Thinkin' about why you think so much

If there ever was a time

Now would be the time to see your time here is limited

 

Everybody here is a crowd

We all walk around with a million faces

Somebody turn the lights out

There's so much more to see in the darkest places

In the darkest places

In the darkest places

 

And everybody here is a cloud

And everybody here will evaporate

You came up off the ground

From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?

 

Everybody here is waiting for the next creation

They say oh-oh-oh-oh

Everybody here is waiting for the next creation

They say go-go-go-go

 

Everybody here is a crowd

We each walk around with a million faces

You came up from the ground

From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?

Have you found where your place is?

Have you found where your place is?

What Are We Going to Name That Kid?

My wife and I are expecting our second child sometime towards the end of October. We’re doing what most parents do during the months of incubation where the former zygote assumes a more human/less tadpole form inside my wife’s ever-expending-but-still-dead-sexy-stomach—we’re trying to name our forthcoming tax break. With our first son, Elijah, we pretty much had his named picked from the start. This bipedal poop factory is turning out to be more difficult to name, especially in the girl’s names department. The difficulty is not so much in finding names we like, but in finding names with meaning (that we like). This is important to us. We want our children’s names to be a declaration of belief. Our son Elijah’s name means, “YHWH is God” or “YHWH is my God.” This is a declaration of our faith. But we don’t want their names to be declarations of our faith only.

We want it to be a declaration of their faith as well. When Elijah is old enough to understand I’ll explain to him that every time he says his name, writes his name, or sees his name, that he is speaking something about his very nature, about his roots and his faith. My only hope is that his life will be a reflection of his name. Names in Scripture defined who you were. Today we define ourselves by what we do, not by who we are, by our accomplishments, not our character. I’m not horribly concerned with what our children do with their respective careers. If they want to work in a diaper wipe factory then so be it. While I of course want the best for them both, all I ultimately care about is that they live up to the names that they are given.

Now do you see why it’s so difficult to pick out a name? 

Admire-a-holic

Unlike the admirer who stands simply aloof, the follower of Christ strives to be what he admires. Without this essential condition all attempts to be a Christian are fruitless. __Soren Kierkegaard__

I’ve probably written about this at some point over the last couple years, but it bears repeating nonetheless. The slow decline of the American church into irrelevancy is due largely in part to the very problem that Kierkegaard points to above. The admirer stands aloof, stands apart as Christ draws near, lauding his message and life, his death and resurrection and the highest of ideals, the loftiest of achievements, but never deigning to enter in and be overcome by them as a follower. It is a false piety, full of flowery language, lofty ideals, academic knowledge, and, perhaps, even a rabid involvement in the programs of the local church. But there is little resemblance to the Christ. This malady is not to be confused with those who genuinely desire and attempt to follow Christ yet struggle and fail to do so more often than not. Attempts to follow that are met with failure in the form of sin are part of the following process, part of our discipleship. Peter may not have been the leader of the Church that he was without his denial of Jesus. Paul’s effectiveness came from acknowledgement and acceptance of his past and present failings. You’ll find this shocking (probably not), but I’ve too often been an admirer of Jesus. I read ravenously, inhaling books and knowledge, like Michael Phelps with a bong (cheap shot, I know). I ooh and aah at the life of Jesus, at his teachings, at the insights of others into his teachings, but I often fail to begin the process of entering in to those teachings, into the life of God-in-flesh. And this life of Jesus is LIFE itself. There is not other life outside of Him. My attempts to be a Christian apart from living the life of Christ are pointless, aimless, and “fruitless.” There is no Christianity without following Christ.  

shalom, matt

Jon and Kate

At one point in this interview the woman being interviewed seems actually happy that Jon and Kate might be in trouble (around 1:22). I don't watch the show because I have a life, but when a potential divorce involving 8 kids is suddenly entertaining and we "can't wait to see what Kate does to him" we have sunk to a big time low.

shalom, matt

Meditational Thought #2

I found this a very interesting thought. I hadn't ever thought of the Resurrection in quite this way before.

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How is the Risen Christ Seen as Subversive and Hidden?

Jesus is among us now in a new way as the Risen Christ, the Christ who is everywhere, beyond all limits of space and time. On Good Friday we saw the relationship of all humanity to God: We kill what we should love. On Easter Sunday we celebrate Jesus coming back into a world that rejected him.

Jesus knows we didn't like what he had to say the first time. We weren't ready for that much freedom or that much truth. Humankind can't bear that much reality in one moment of history. So God had to come back in a disguised form. God had to come back, as it were, secretly, as a subversive, hidden—the Risen Christ.

Meditational Thought #1

Recently I've started receiving daily meditations from Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation. Rohr is the author of several ridiculously good books and a Franciscan monk. I thought that instead of always sharing thoughts of my own I would share on occasion some devotional thoughts from Rohr. 

_________________________

How is belief in Jesus different than belief in Christ?        

Christ is not Jesus’ last name. Christ is a much more inclusive title, which we so consistently tack onto the name Jesus that we think Jesus Christ is his full name! There is a wonderful and correct phraseology in Peter's first sermon after the Pentecost event; he says "God has made this Jesus whom you crucified into the Christ" (Acts 2:36). That would probably be the correct way of starting to understand what we mean by the Cosmic Christ. Most of us have believed in Jesus, but we have not necessarily believed in Christ.

When we believe in Jesus CHRIST, we’re believing in something much bigger than just the historical Jesus. The entire sweep of the meaning of the anointed one includes us and includes all of creation. Many people have a personal relationship with Jesus, but have almost no relationship with what we had relationship with—which is the full Christ Mystery! Maybe this is the major reason that so much Christianity is so individualistic and sometimes even petty. We know and love Jesus but not Christ.

On Forgiveness...Part Two

Now, I can hear you up in the balcony section hollering about the Lord’s Prayer and how it isn’t wrong to ask for forgiveness. If you will pipe down for a minute I’ll get to your argument.

First, let me say that out of habit I still ask for forgiveness and I don’t believe God preps the lighting bolts for us when we ask Him to forgive. I don’t believe it’s wrong in the sense that sin is wrong. I believe it is unnecessary and would love us to come to a place of deeper trust in the atoning death of Jesus. I think we ask for forgiveness because it is our way of confessing to God that we have fouled up the works somehow. It is our way of alleviating some of the guilt that comes as a nasty by-product of sin. By asking God to forgive me I’m acknowledging that I’ve sinned. What we are dealing with here is a misunderstanding perhaps of a proper confession—simply telling God what we’ve done and moving on with our lives. Partly I believe we ask for forgiveness because it makes us feel more contrite somehow, more repentant and sorry for what we’ve done. This is why I’ve done it and continue to do it.

Secondly, I would like to quickly address the portion of the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus tells us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” It has also been translated “forgive us our sins,” which would seem to blow apart my entire train of thought. Honestly, it might do just that. Let me say two things and then I’ll wrap up this overly wordy, two-part post: 1) I’m always a little weary about constructing theological arguments based on one isolated text, instead of looking at the whole of Scripture. Proof-texting  doctrine has caused more problems (a lot of them) then it has solved (which is none). Basing an assumption that we need to ask in order to be forgiven by taking one part of one prayer out of context is sketchy at best. 2) Here’s my admittedly unproven, possibly inaccurate, opinion: I think this part of the prayer is about asking for the capacity to forgive others as God forgives. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer, above all other subjects, about asking God for daily needs. It is a daily need that we ask for the capacity to forgive. I’m no Greek scholar (I actually got a C+ during one semester of Greek in college), and perhaps “forgive us our debts” means exactly what it says. However, I’ve been around the Bible long enough to know that our English translations don’t always convey the whole intent of the writer.

Listen, I don’t have all the answers on this, nor do I pretend to know the mind of God, “whose ways are not our ways.” My point in bringing this up is to make us more aware of the totality of God’s forgiveness. You’ve been forgiven whether you ask for it or not. The confession and repentance of sin is of vast importance because we recognize that a problem exists, that a wrong has been committed and we can begin the process of healing, repairing broken relationships, and living in the bright reality of the forgiveness that was ours before we asked for it. 

p.s. props to my brother for the original thought for this post.

shalom, matt

On Forgiveness...Part One

Few of Jesus’ teachings carry a higher degree of difficulty than forgiveness. This is due mainly to his insistence on, and example of, forgiving the people we would rather curb-stomp and groin-punch. Forgiving people you like is a piece of cake. Forgiving people you despise and who despise you in return is a whole different matter all together.

It’s not a new idea that forgiveness is more about the forgiver than the forgivee. In forgiving, in truly letting go, we are freeing our self from the need to hold on to parasitic bitterness and anger, the need for revenge, and the need to control the outcome. The response of the forgiven is not of the utmost importance (read that last sentence again…I’ll wait…). They may choose to reject that forgiveness, to not live in the freedom of a forgiven reality, but they nonetheless remain forgiven. This is crucial. The value of forgiveness is not based upon the acceptance of the receiving party; it is based upon the character of the offended or injured person.

Let’s examine this in terms of God’s forgiveness. If we hold to the belief that Jesus is the image of God in human flesh (John 1:14); that he is everything God is, a perfect reproduction (Col. 1:15); that, as he told the Apostles, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), then we have to believe that Jesus’ actions, attitudes, emotions are those of God. So it stands to reason that how and who Jesus forgives is how and who God would forgive also. The following passage is interesting:

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!" Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men. __Matthew 9:1-8__

Nowhere in this passage do we find the man asking for forgiveness, yet Jesus gives it to him anyway. In fact we can assume that the man was brought for healing, not forgiveness—he receives both. On one level we can take this as our way of forgiving others: completely, totally, without condition or need for response. On a deeper level this gives us a picture of how God works in the world: unasked for, undeserved forgiveness. Look at the cross, the supreme ugliness of the world’s sins against God and man placed upon one innocent man. On that cross we hear Jesus pleading to God for his executioners, and, I believe, for the world: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Could there be a less deserving group of people than the Roman and Jewish authorities who killed Jesus? Yet, he implores God to do just that: forgive. It was not asked for and we don’t even know if it was received, but it was granted nonetheless.

As disciples we are expected by Jesus to forgive completely and unconditionally (Colossians 3:13), keeping no record of wrongs done to us (1 Corinthians 13:5), and forgiving a limitless number of times (Matthew 18:22). For some reason though we don’t believe that God acts under that same standard. We teach that we have to ask for forgiveness in order for it to be granted by God. Our standard is to forgive without being asked. Doesn’t it stand to reason that God would forgive by the same standard He set for us, or, even exceed that standard? Against logic we have placed a double standard on God, only allowing Him the capacity to forgive when we ask Him. While I don’t have the direct quote on hand, I believe it was Oswald Chambers that asserted our asking for forgiveness shows a tremendous lack of faith in God and is, in effect, an insult to God, who, in His gracious love forgave us through the blood of Christ. Asking Him for forgiveness shows that we don’t really believe the sacrifice of Christ was enough to forgive every freakin’ sin we commit, nor that it dealt with Sin as a whole.

...to be continued...

Ahhh...Truth

see more pwn and owned pictures

How could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back—if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?

__from Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis__

A pleasure is full grown when it is remembered. You are speaking…as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing…. What you call remembering is the last part of the pleasure…. When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then—that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it.

__from Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis__

Evangelism

Good article on evangelism from the blog Open-Source Theology.

shalom, matt

Methods and Message

This way of thinking is why most youth pastors (including my-own-self) don't survive in evangelical churches. Whether we can articulate it or not we intuitively understand that the method you use to convey a message IS THE MESSAGE ITSELF. The methods we use to attract people to Jesus do matter because they are the message that people subconciously receive. I might write some more on this later on sometime. 

This is genius stuff.

Why Church Bothers Me (Sometimes), or How Not to Suck -- Part Two

(Fourth): Speaking of conclusions—you can stop making them for me every Sunday. I need something to think about during the week, something to make my own. It’s okay to leave me with some questions. You don’t have to draw everything into a nice neat conclusion, like a Greek tragedy. In fact you under nourish me when you make conclusions for me. I have nothing to wrestle with during the week. I know you’re afraid to let go of that control, being able to determine what I take away from the message. Trust the Spirit to lead honest questioners to the Truth, to the conclusions and discovered implications that He desires me to see. They may be different than what you intended. Great teaching begins the discussion; it does not end it. Jesus was the master of leaving people scratching their heads at what he meant. What he said is instructive here: “He who has ears, let him hear.”

(Fifth): Your worship services are, um, shall we say, less than engaging. Stand. Sing. Sit. Repeat ad nauseum. That’s the extent of the engagement. I want every part of me to be involved in worship, not just my voice: mind, body, spirit, heart. I want my five senses involved. I want to see, touch, smell, taste and hear God. I want to connect with the saints and creeds of the early church I want to light candles in prayer, smell the incense of my praise as it rises to the nostrils of God. I want to meditate on words, images, and icons and hear God speak to me in them. God gave me my five senses, emotions and my mind—engage them.

(Sixth): We claim that nothing is more crucial than the Eucharist, the holy sacrament of communion, the actual presence of God in our hands. However, in our services communion commands the least amount of time and is treated like a ritualistic afterthought, something we mindlessly attend to with little thought as to its reality and depth of meaning. We need communion to be central to our worship. De-emphasize the spoken word (sorry Preacher, most people don’t pay attention much beyond 15 minutes or so anyway). Instead of word-centered services we need Body-and-Blood-centered services. How much more spiritual growth could be achieved by meditation upon the life of Christ as we partake of Him, bring His life into us in the elements?

Here’s the thing: ultimately, church isn’t about you and me. The first followers of Jesus existed for one another and for others. That was church for them. Their singing, praying and instruction were secondary to the life they lived in the world. Following Christ was “church” for them. It was a gathering of people from the known world, Jew and Gentile alike, with the common bond of Jesus Christ and the singular mission of the Kingdom Come.

May our churches be the exact same way.

shalom, matt

Why Church Bothers Me (Sometimes), or How Not to Suck -- Part One

I have no specific church in mind when writing this because, to some extent or another, every church I’ve been in is guilty of bothering me for some or all of the following reasons. Not every church is guilty of each and every one of the “violations,” nor are they committed every single Sunday. Furthermore, I’m not nearly as arrogant as this makes me sound, nor do I believe that churches exist for the sole purpose of not bothering me. What I’m offering here are some “improvements” that churches could make to better engage our current cultural sensitivities and tendencies. Basically, here’s how you can stop bothering me and/or keep from sucking.

(First): Focus on stuff that matters, theologically and is relevant to my life. Your “proofs” for the Virgin Birth, while of interest to you have zero relevance to my life. Whether God “overshadowed” Mary or Joseph—ahem—took care of it the “old-fashioned way” (and the gospel writers insert the Virgin Birth as a myth to “compete” with Roman mythology of the birth of the Caesars and the gods) is of no consequence to my 6-6 factory life and how I interact with the world. Focus on the resurrection, for instance, and why it still matters today. Don’t “prove” it; tell me that it didn’t just happen but that it still happens today. I want to know what a resurrected life looks like in a factory.

(Second): Stop dealing in nothing but certainties, as if everything in life and faith and Scripture is black and white. Few things are that neat and tidy, especially when it comes to the spiritual. Jesus told Nicodemus, “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" (John 3:8). This is not a God who is not neat, tidy, and so easily pinned down to definition. God is not “certain”; He is wild, untamable and unpredictable (except when it comes to love and grace). The Bible contains contradictions, gray areas, culturally based admonitions now made irrelevant, and parts that are downright confusing, disturbing and weird. My life is too gray and uncertain for you to deal in nothing but black and white. Show me the cloudy, disturbing, confusing gray areas. I need a faith that looks like my life so that my life can look more like my faith.

(Third): In your effort to make everything black and white and certain you inundate me with steps, lists of stuff to “keep in mind,” “take note of,” or “action steps” to undertake. It isn’t uncommon for you to have three points, 5 subpoints for each point, and, for the love of Jehovah, three points worth of conclusion and action steps. Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t have as many steps and bullet points as your sermons. Stop. Give me one thing to hold on to, one key idea to meditate on throughout the week. If you want, give me options of steps I can take to live out the teaching: “Try one of the following this week…” I can’t remember if I washed my hair while standing naked and soaked in my shower, how can I remember a main idea buried underneath 12 points, sub-points and conclusions? The 1980’s and ‘90’s called and they want their sermon structure back. 

...to be continued...

Good Intentions and Ministry

The old saying I believe is, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” I can tell you unequivocally that professional ministry is crammed with good intentions as well. And, having been a victim of these so-called good intentions, I can say that few things are more dangerous than a leadership that uses its good intentions as a sword of influence. Want to know how to enforce your “vision” upon the masses, upon the eldership, the board and the ministry staff? Invoke God’s name as a blessing for your good intentions. Here’s how you do it (pastors, take notes for future reference).

1. Start by going on a retreat, a conference, or, for added emphasis, go on a 3-month sabbatical  (so everyone knows that you’ve been super in-tune with the Almighty). 

2. On this retreat have a vision of what you believe God wants you to do.

3. Come back and declare that you have received from God a plan for the future (for added points call it a “vision” or “showing”).

4. Formulate your plan into fancy diagrams, charts. Use Power Point or Keynote for more pizazz.

5. This is the most important and essential part of the process: tell everyone it is God’s will. Make sure to include the phrase “I believe” before invoking the God’s-will strategy so as to appear humble and open to error (though neither are a possibility). For added effect it also helps to say, I’ve/we’ve spent a lot of time in prayer over this…” This is especially useful when firing staff or pushing through your agenda.

Okay, all repressed bitterness aside it has become quite en vogue in the church to justify questionable programs and ideas and messages under the guise of good intentions, bolstered by Christian-ese lingo. All manner of bassackwards decisions are made, some terribly contrary to the scriptures and the life of Christ, and more in line with American civil religion and the cult of consumerism, with “good intentions” and supported with words like, evangelism, outreach, and discipleship. If the church does it it must be all right. Right?

Wrong. Good intentions are not our guide for living like Christ as the Body of Christ. The Christ of the gospels is our guide. Now obviously how we interpret His life is essential to the discussion. However, a cursory look at the accounts of His life would reveal what his intentions for His people are: justice for the poor, compassion for the sick, forgiveness for our enemies, freedom for the captives, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, etc. These should govern our churches, not useless, resource-consuming, attendance-boosting programs justified by our good intentions and Christian language.  

shalom, matt

Systematic Theology

My brother wrote a couple of decent posts on systematic theology recently on his blog. I highly recommend you read them. 

The first one is here. 

The second on is here. 

shalom, matt

Seriously?

And the award for the most disturbing video game of the year is...Rapelay. 

So who is the watchdog group that thinks this game is okay? And what would a game have to include in order to get banned by this Japanese watch group?

Disturbing, very disturbing.

shalom, matt

On Worship

I’m sure that none of this will be profound (not that other stuff I say is profound and this discussion somehow differentiates itself), but having participated in a number of dialogues over the last couple weeks on the subject of worship, I feel obliged to jot some thoughts down for the sake of prosperity, if for no other reason.

1. Worship is too narrowly defined. We pray much lip service to the truth that “worship is more than singing,” but we don’t truly live out the maxim. For many it is entirely about Sunday morning song services. When they don’t hear the songs they like, or there are “too many new ones,” then they feel they can’t worship God fully. Without realizing it they turn the song service into their singular vehicle for worshiping God. Worship is more than songs. Deuteronomy 6 says to worship with our heart, soul, and strength; literally, the entirety of our being.

2. People lean to heavily upon the myth that worship is only meaningful if they “felt something.” Emotion is the dominant method of evaluating the authenticity of our time of worship. Not that emotion doesn’t play a role in our worship, because emotions are God-given and Scripture is clear that emotion is certainly involved in our relationship with God. I spent my teen years bouncing from one emotional worship service to another at camps and conferences, grading my worship by if I cried or “felt God” (what does God feel like? Is he leathery, like Jack Palance, or soft, like a babies skin?). I wonder what moments of worship I missed out on because of my narrow evaluation of worship. Ever wonder if the acts of worship that are least pleasing to God are the ones with the greatest emotion?

3. Modern worship is too focused on the individual’s relationship with God to the detriment of a communal emphasis. Now, while many worship artists are swinging the pendulum back toward a communal emphasis there is still an over-abundance of narcissistic worship songs. These songs are not bad in-and-of themselves except where they turn our focus solely on our interior well-being and away from God.

4. Far too often have I heard someone complain, “That worship service was boring,” or “I didn’t like those songs at all.” It usually takes every ounce of will power not to smart of to them “Who cares? Last I checked we weren’t singing them to you or for you” (side note: I’m a hypocrite, because I’ve done this). Would it change anything to realize that when we grade the services or songs, like Dick Clark on American Bandstand, we were stealing—yes, stealing!—from God the worship and attention that is rightfully His? It is a symptom of how much the culture of consumerism and an over-abundance and over-emphasis on personal rights, choices, and freedoms has infected the Church. Burger King let’s us have it our way, so why shouldn’t the worship? When we turn our Cadillac’s on, it’s supposed to turn us on, so why shouldn’t worship excite us. And, if the worship doesn’t suit us then we can go somewhere where it does. This is nothing less than theft of God’s worship.

5. Personally, I truly believe we place way more value on the songs than God does. We’re like the two-year-old who brings their mother a dandelion as a gift. The “flower” is a worthless weed. God has legions of saints and angels singing His praises at all times, for all eternity. What can our songs add to that? Nothing, really. But have you ever seen a mother turn down a dandelion form a beaming toddler? It’s the heart of the child, the intentions, which the mother loves.

With all of our wrong-headedness I still believe that God loves our dandelions.

Radiohead at the Grammy's

Radiohead. USC Marching Band. The song is 15 Step. Absolute genius. (By the way, the sound quality sucks, but it's still brilliant.)

What Bill Gates is Doing in His Spare Time

Tell me that every minister in the country wouldn't want to use this as a sermon illustration.

shalom, matt

Why I Like Yahweh

Seems like an odd premise for someone who grew up in the Church from the time he was but a zygote attached to a uterine wall, doesn’t it? I’ve never not been a “Christian,” so it seems a given that I would bear some consistent affection for my Lord. More and more, though, I realize why I hang on to this God of mine: because He is present and involved. Sure other gods throughout antiquity were involved but only as it suited them. Greek gods and goddesses were involved and present as it suited their needs and desires, acting as chess master over a board of helpless pawns. The ancient gods of earth, sky and sea were moody, aloof and unpredictable. Most civilizations had their versions of these gods, but they were essentially all the same.

Not Yahweh. His involvement has always been for the good of us, not himself. From before the Creation His bent was towards that which he would create. The act of creating itself is proof of this inclination. God did not in a sense need to create; he chose to create. He knew that love only reaches its fullest measure when it is given and returned. So God created in love a world that could love him back. The book of Revelation contains an astounding passage that seems to point to this pre-creation love and involvement. The passage describes Jesus as “the Lamb who was killed before the world was made” (13:8). From the beginning God’s plan for us were in place, and, in a supernatural way, already accomplished.

The opening phrases of the Genesis poem describe the Spirit hovering over the primeval waters (1:2). Here in the chaos is God present to an infantile world, not simply present, but actively involved from the opening word. In Genesis 3 we find God “was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (3:8), present in his world, and, seemingly, enjoying that which he created. From the text you are drawn to surmise that this was not God’s first saunter through his garden.

Fast-forward a long time from Genesis to 400 years of forced Israelite labor by the Egyptians. God, at least from an enslaved Israelite perspective, has been noticeably absent and uninvolved (wouldn’t you feel that way if you knew nothing but slavery from birth to death over the course of 15 or so generations?). But he wasn’t (and He isn’t…How’s that for spoon-feeding you?). Thus spaketh the Lord: “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” (Exodus 3:7). Seeing. Hearing. Concerned. This is not a God who is absent and ambivalent; this is a God who is close enough to see, hear, and act on behalf of the misery of his children. Following the exodus from slavery, after laying a celestial smack-down on Pharaoh and Egypt via the Plagues, God himself guides the people of Israel through the wilderness in a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people” (Exodus 13:21-22). “Neither…left its place in front of the people”—God remains ever-present, active and involved with the people of Israel as a guide and protector.

(Skip ahead a whole bunch, but understand that God is doing His ever-present, active and involved routine throughout the history of Israel. I just don’t have the energy to record a whole bunch of examples.)

Enter Jesus, stage right. He comes as the embodiment of the Creator-God of Genesis, the God of the Exodus, the Pillar of Cloud and Fire. It was not enough for God to in cloud and fire, or a disembodied voice on Sinai; it was not enough for Him to come in visions to the Patriarchs; it was not enough for Him to come disguised as “an angel of the Lord” and wrestle with Jacob. God took on flesh. There is no greater involvement in the history of creation than this: God walks among us (John 1:14). Isn’t this the majesty and mystery of the life of Christ? In this one man is the fullness of the Divine (Colossians 1:19)? After his death and resurrection he sends His Spirit as His continued presence in the world. But this Spirit is not just present to us. He is present in us. God is actively at work inside of us, transforming and resurrecting us from the old life of sin and death, bringing us into new life.

Ever-presence. That is why I like Yahweh.

shalom, matt