O By The Way

This past week my mother died.  It is a watershed moment in the life of our family, as mom was the center of our lives for so long.  My dad died some years ago, and while that is a significant event in a guy’s life, mom’s influence on us kids made her’s the end of an era in our family history.   She leaves a legacy of a faithful life and of relationships all affected by her graciousness.  With her kids, she was a rock of faith for her entire life, from raising her children over many years alone while our dad struggled through mental illness.  When Dad returned to our family, she was the one who helped him regain order and a sense of normalcy to his life.  She led from faith and that faith impacted all those around her each day no matter where she was.

As I went to college and then married and left home, mom took a position in the church working with the poor and indigent folks off the streets of Hollywood.  She would come home at night and tell stories of many who had fallen on hard times and needed a helping hand.  She would offer food, clothing or links to resource agencies in the community.  And she always had tales of bizarre behavior too, as only the Hollywood scene could bring.  But her response was always the same, the compassion of her Lord, in whose name she served.

Without sounding malancholy, there is a part of us who is now gone, left for the home where she longed to be.  She made the best out of her most recent years, yet we could tell she was looking ahead to being fully restored.  Mom was a woman who lived life to the max, in a faithful sort of way.  And because of that characteristic, she will be missed. 

The last thing it told her was, “Goodbye mom, we’ll be along soon.”  So it will be!

Someone, was it Bob Dylan (?) and many others I am sure, who wrote time flows on like a rolling river to the sea.  And here we are another year in the books and Thanksgiving (and Black Friday) is behind us, and dead ahead is the path to Christmas, or as we call it Advent.  Advent is from the Latin and it simply means “coming.”  Something important is coming, a noun in ancient times used to describe the impending visit of royalty, or even the king!  For the Christian world, it is used to describe the four weeks in advance of Christmas and the celebration of coming of the Messiah, his first incarnation and his second, which is yet to take place.

I remember when I was a kid, growing up in Hollywood, the President came to town.  His name was Dwight Eisenhower, theGeneral and everyone liked to call him “Ike.”  He was planning to speak in the Hollywood Bowl and his route was to take him right through our neighborhood and past the church where we worshiped.  The city got all laced up and people went out and bought American flags and stood along the

Presidential Bubbletop

planned route.  This was before the threat of assasination was such a big deal and so we all know what streets he was planning to travel to the Bowl, so there we were and …….there he went, in an instant.  All I saw was his bubbletop car and his shiny head, with a waving hand.  But I saw him, yes I did!

The coming of the King is a much bigger deal obviously, and we are encouraged to be ready.  True that Christ has already come, that which we celebrate this time each year.  But he has promised to return, a second appearing, and we must be ready.  This advent we make ready our lives and our homes, our churches and our relationships, to celebrate Advent, the coming of the King.  This means he comes not just to dash past in a bubbletop limo, but to really come to live, to “tabernacle” with us, to set up his residence with us.  How good is that?!!

Whatever uncertainties you face this Advent season remember that we are in an Advent mode.  Christ has come, God with us, and that means he remains with us in a dynamic, impacting presence.  He faces the future with us, promising never to leave us nor forsake us (Deut. 31:6), Jesus himself vowing to his disciples that he would be with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).   And he promises to come again in glory (Matt. 24:30).  In the meantime (and the times are mean, aren’t they?) we are told to be ready, to make ourselves ready for his appearing (I Peter 1:13).  We are told to ready our minds and live into the hope that is given to us by such an awesome God.  the way we live and spend our time and our money, as well as the way we worship makes us ready for the Advent.

The word for advent issues in a very descriptive word in English, “adventure.”  May Advent 2009, be a hopeful experience, indeed an adventure for us all in the midst of uncertain, even daunting times, as we look forward to what our God has just ahead!

I was thinking about how God commands us to take what he is doing in us to the world around us and when we fail to heed that call.  It is so easy for most of us Christians living in North America in the 21st century to simply ease back, set things in cruise control and enjoy the ride.  But we stunt our growth and more importantly we truncate the growth of God’s kingdom when we live like that and horde for ourselves the richness of God’s grace.

It reminds me of the times when I would take a whole day to tend the garden.  I would rush out to the garden supply and get a big pile of fertilizer to help the plants and shrubs grow.  I remember coming home and shoveling the odious stuff onto my property just as the phone rang, calling me away to some more important task that many times took up the rest of the day.  The result was that this foul smelling pile would sit in that one place for many more days until I had the time to spread it around to areas that really needed its nutritious ingredients.  When I finally got around to completing my work, the potent pile had smelled up the whole backyard and burned a hole in my lawn!  Dang!  I hate it when that happens.  But I learned that the fertilizer is only effective, very effective, when it is spread around, actually becoming invisible as it feeds the hungry world of plant life.

It is a bit like the church in a bad season.  Here we have been given this wonderfully nutritious life, with the full intention of sharing it around.  God just loves to share his love with us in abundance with his purpose of sharing it with those who have not yet heard.  And too often, we receive it and we enjoy it and we are most careful and cautious to share little bits and pieces of it only with those we feel safest with, most of whom already know about this good news.  Remember, when fertilizer is all piled up in one place and doesn’t get spread around, it destructively burns a hole in the grass that always takes a long time to restore and it stinks to the highest heavens! 

Think about your life and the relationships God has blessed you with.  Many are people withing the Christian community who know the news and, with you, are trying to live it in the power of God’s Spirit.  On the other hand there are many who know the news and are discouraged or stunted in their growth in the faith.  And, there are many more who you are in contact daily, who are hurting and have not heard the news.  God is calling us to them.  With whatever we have, he is calling you to be a friend, an encourager, even perhaps one who helps another come to grips with some hard truths about themselves.  The bottom line is that God is ready to work through you as we come humbly to Him and then compassionately and understandingly to one another.  Don’t be satisfied being a pile that burns and stinks!

Some years ago, I read a paperback book entitled, “We Really Do Need Each Other.”  It was actually a commentary of I John, an important letter in the New Testament about the person of Christ and how he had come to bring salvation and to help us understand personal relationships.  The book has since gone out of print, I can’t even find it in my “stacks,” but it remains etched in my mind, if only with the one main idea….We honestly, obviously, truthfully do need each other.  We were not designed to go this alone.

If we look at how that plays out in ordinary life, we can see how interdependent we are.  We need others and their skills and insights, and we need to trust them to treat us with respect and honesty, if not a good deal of sensitivity.  Think of all the connections you will make just today that require a trustworthy attitude.  When that breaks down, anything can happen, and it usually does.  But it almost always catches us by surprise. 

So if we can’t go it alone and we really do need each other how can we make the most of the friendships God has made possible for us?  I think first of all, we need to view all relationships as a gracious gift from God.  REgardless of how I feel on any one day, toward a particular person, they have been placed in my life and are a gift from God.  Of course any relationship can change for better or for worse at any time but as I see that relationship as God’s gift, I will want to treat that person truthfully and with respect at all times. This means there will be times when I will be there to affirm and encourage that person in tough times.  I will be there to celebrate with them in times that are good.  And I will be there to speak truth to my friend when I sense they have taken a wrong turn.

This is the most challenging role to play in a relationship.  But as God has shown what it means to be a friend in Jesus Christ, I must be willing to sacrifice and help others to seek truth in all situations.  I think of times in my life when colleagues have helped me to see reality and then promise to stand with me as I work out how to repond faithfully.  It took grace and great courage for Nathan to stand up to King David (II Samuel 12), calling him to repentance for his lustful, murderous ways stemming from his adulterous actions with Bathsheba.  It took a marvelous act of grace for Jesus to invite Peter back into the fellowship of the post-resurrection community of disciples on the beach (John 21). 

Each of these characteristics is important in an authentic relationship.  And as we connect in this way, another thing happens that is vital to our walk through life.  Our very relationship, seen as a gift of God and following his ways of grace and truth, are a shining witness to the life and mission of Christ and God’s kingdom.  In our interactions, people can see the promise of God in action. 

I hope you can appeciate the interdependency in your relationships with others.  That is a gift from God itself as we find ways to enhance our connections together.  And, as will follow in my next post, we can see what God is wanting to do with those connections.  They are not an end unto themselves as often is the case. 

Please forgive me for taking so long between posts.  It has been an odd summer and early fall for me and I think now I can return to a regular schedule of blogging, at least a couple of times each week.   And I hope to hear from some of you, your ideas and thoughts, by clicking on the “comment” below and sending it along.  Thanks for reading along.

How can we experience God in the midst of difficult times?  An age old question, and one that comes into our own experience.  It has been for many an academic exercise, but for most of us, even all of us a very pertinent and existential query. 

As I reflected on this topic in preparing for my sermon last Sunday, I made some points about the need to see the wider perspective, and from the text in II Corinthians 2, that there was meaning in our sufferings as we, like Paul, carry around in our bodies (jars of clay) the death of Jesus and the redemptive promise this represents.  In fact, in another place, Paul writes of completing Christ’s own sufferings (Colossians 1). 

And finally in our sufferings we have opportunity to be an encourager of our fellow sufferers along the way.  In this regard, I am thinking of how we do that.   There simply is something about being with those who are in difficulties, just being present with them.  Among the greatest and most amazing texts in all of scripture is the one that foretells the birth of Christ, as the angel speaks of the birth of the Savior and names him saying, “And (she) shall give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (which means God with us).  The gift of God to us is salvation because he chose to be with us, bridging the gap, making us “no longer strangers to the covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2). 

The good news is that the word of God in Jesus has become one of us, among us, companioning with us and we are called to be present with one another, especially in times of difficulty and pain.  I remember the story of little girl from Texas whose neighbor tragically lost their child in an auto accident.  The next day, the little one, went over the the home of the bereaved family, knocked on the door and walked in and just sat down on the lap of the mother of the deceased child…..and they just wept together.  No words were spoken, but the mother later said of all the calls and cards she received none touched her like this little girl sharing her grief.  She remembered what it was to hold a child and experienced first hand the mercy and compassion of God.  You see, it is in our presence, far more than what we say or things we bring that makes the great contribution.

There is something about facing up to our pain, instead of denying it, sharing in the purpose in Christ and in experiencing, actually sharing the pain together that we find God.  He has promised His presence with us in all things, never to leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8) and He is in the process of fulfilling His promises daily as He restores His broken world among us.  What a Savior!