Love One Another: The Cost of Love and the Low Rate of Return

A friend of mine posted the following blog this morning.  As we approach Valentine's Day, I thought the theme of loving one another seemed to fit well.  I love reading other blogs because all of our perspectives are different when looking at the Kingdom of God and what it should look like.  In reading the thoughts of others, we often have that "light bulb" of revelation flash on and wonder to ourselves, "Why didn't I think of that?"  It may be a concept so simple, but because it was generated from another mind, it's revealed a fresh, new and vibrant.  The words of my friend Brother David Hutton represent just such a scenario and what it means to really love one another in the realm of God's Kingdom.    

We all long to see the love of God moving in people's lives through His Spirit.  We all want to see transformation and our efforts produce fruit for the Kingdom of God.  But the problem is, none of us are promised any of this in each and every situation.  As followers of Christ, we're called to be obedient to Him, His call in our life and furthering His Kingdom.  We aren't promised accolades and pats on the back.  We're not guaranteed measurable success in our ministry endeavors.  When we love others, as Christ loves us, we are never promised that others will love us back. (John 13:34-35)  What we can be assured of is that when we take steps of obedience to Christ, He is faithful and will use each word, each prayer, every touch and every dollar spent to advance His Kingdom here on earth.  Not an ounce of humble effort for God will remain ineffective.  Brother David reminds us of this in the following words.  
            

"Recently I was terminated by an incarcerated gentleman with-whom I had worked the last several months. He sent, I suppose, what could be considered the equivalent of a 'Franciscan Dear John Letter' to me from prison. He made it quite clear he didn't need my friendship or prayerful support, but instead money in his canteen fund.

He let me know honestly that he didn't appreciate anytime spent o n prayer on his behalf, the sort of support he needed was someone who could give him a place to live and a job once he was released.

I read his letter several times over (which wasn't hateful or mean spirited) and I even jotted some notes in reply, but in the end, I saw he spoke his truth plainly and honestly and threw my reply in the trash.

Had I fumbled? Maybe he thought my prayer was to change him? Instead of asking God to guide him. Had I come across with a little too much 'preferential option for the poor'? Did I lose the Man, while looking for the Soul?

Oh, I won't lie to you. I wanted him to see a loving God. One without all the trappings we some time place on God. You know the one; "God is Love". I wanted him to see the God who created us All in that image. Without exception, but I won't shove that down anyone's throat.

Maybe he knows this God of Love, but for some unsettling reason, I fear he doesn't, and that bothers me a lot. It's tough enough some days when we do know God, let alone when we think he doesn't exist or is the white bearded man casting lightening bolts on people from a golden throne in heaven. 

I don't know the outcome of this particular situation, but I hope just the same." 

None of us know the outcome of this situation, David.  But what we do know is that God does.  He knows each and every aspect of this man's future journey, and will use every amount of effort, every prayer and every loving word that you uttered as a follower of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Is Chrisanity a "Masculine" Relgion?

Author and speaker, Rachel Held Evans, asked men to respond to recent comments by John Piper regarding Christianity as being predominately a “masculine” religion.  These are my comments on a topic that has caused a bit of controversy in some theological circles.

First and foremost, it can be problematic for us to try and classify God in terms of human attributes.  When you get right down to it, God is neither male nor female, but is Spirit, existing outside of time and space and the physical constraints that we experience as human beings.  We cannot attribute a sexual identity to God any more than we can classify the Divine as a particular ethnic race or belong to a religious denomination.  In the same manner, neither sex is superior to the other, as no one race is dominant to another.  It has not been left open for us to delve into the complexities of understanding God’s identity as one would describe someone to another.  In the west we tend to categorize and classify in a distinctly empirical manner.  We strive to describe the unknown with concretely definable attributes, and whether consciously, subconsciously, or subliminally, we attempt to do this with God.  Therein lies the problem.  

However, the Bible gives plenty of insight to at how God chose to be revealed to humanity, and He does in fact describe Himself with male attributes.  Although some will debate that the "Spirit" is more feminine, we can clearly see that God presents Himself as a male figure.  However, it's important to note that just because God identifies Himself to us with male attributes, does not necessarily suggest that God is "male", so to speak.  There could be a number of reasons for this, and I don't feel that it is significant to this blog to go into them in great detail.  The point is, one or the other had to be chosen and God chose to describe Himself as male through His Word.  Does that diminish the female counterpart of creation?  Does this mean that "Christianity", by and of itself, is a "masculine" religion?

  

First and foremost, it's important to conclude that if God made man in His image (Genesis 1:27), part of the image would represent the female.  This would lead one to conclude that God possess female attributes equally as he does male.  The Bible is replete with imagery that represent God's male attributes, however when seeking illustrations that tend to lean in the feminine direction, the examples are somewhat harder to track down.  For the purposes here, I've chosen to site several passages that represent female attributes, as well as Biblical illustrations that show a more dominate female emphasis in general.     

First of all, God describes the Church as the "Bride of Christ" (Ephesians 5:2  This is the most significant argument against Christianity being classified as exclusively masculine, since this title is attributed to “the Church”.  The Church is also the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12) which is His representation until Christ's Second Coming.  The “Bride of Christ”, being classified as female, and the Body of Christ, being obviously male, would lead us to believe that both attributes are being completely represented in this image.  Through this, we see beautiful imagery of bride and groom being joined together as one and the "two become one flesh", leaving the sex as a secondary factor. (Genesis 2:24)  Is it therefore possible that part of the marriage union is for each of God's sexual attribute to better understand the other?  Either way, one cannot escape the overwhelming feminine identification of the Church being a bride.

 

Another interesting reference comes in Matthew 23:37, in which we find Jesus unashamedly identifying and expressing a motherly instinct to God's children when He says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. . . ! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. . . !")  God chose to use the comforting, nurturing and compassionate aspects of a mother to illustrate His children being drawn to redemption through His Son Jesus Christ.  We also see illusions of this in Luke 15:8-10, and the Parable of the Lost Coin. Jesus uses the image of a woman, quite possibly a mother, who diligently sweeps her home in hopes of finding a single lost silver coin.  In the same way, God Himself searches the entire creation in search of one sinner that repents and finds the Kingdom of God. 

    

Looking at the Book of Isaiah, God clearly identifies Himself as a mother.  In vivid illustrations of a woman giving birth to, lovingly caring for and nursing her newborn baby, God reveals Himself in an exclusively female anthropomorphism.  In Isaiah 42:14 God speaks powerfully through Isaiah saying, “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.”, and again in Isaiah 46:3 “Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born.”  After childbirth, the mother compassionately cradles her baby and provides vital nourishment as in Isaiah 49:15 - “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”  Could these illustrations reveal comforting and nurturing attributes that only can come from the female character?  I think we all can agree that “As a mother comforts her child,  so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66:13)

Another similar illustration is found in Psalm 131:2 – “But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.” In this verse, we see the Psalmist finding calm and rest as he takes comfort in God, as a child becomes independent and secure in its mother’s provision.

In Proverbs 4:7, we read that “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” This same “wisdom” that is considered precious and priceless is also identified as a female in the same chapter and perceived as a “protector”, “exalter” and one that will honor us when we cherish her as the supreme gift that she is.  Here the author purposely uses the Hebrew feminine noun חָכְמָה (chokmah) for wisdom.  Wisdom is the woman that calls out to us in Proverbs 8 and 9, urging us to choose her ways, love her and fear God, her creator.  With almost Christological imagery, she reveals to us that she is the first of God’s creation and had an essential part of creating all that came after her and all that we see.  As a mother gives birth to life, this causes one to ponder the idea that wisdom may be looked upon as a mother as well, possibly with connections to the references in Isaiah.  

As stated early, let’s keep at the forefront of our minds that God’s sexual identity is really irrelevant in terms our spirituality and in the Kingdom of God as a whole.  In the essence of the Kingdom, there is no male or female, only citizens.  (Galatians 3:28)  the In Exodus 3:14, when Moses asked the name of God, He simply responded, “I AM WHO I AM.” Granted, the Hebrew הָיָה הָיָה (hayah hayah) translates as  masculine, but I don’t think that was the point that God was trying to make.  Rather it’s if the question was irrelevant in the first place, and if He could be identified in terms of human understanding, the mere name would not shed anymore light than before.  Instead, God revealed Himself to Moses as a burning bush, something with very little human identification.  When God showed Himself to Moses in Exodus 33, it was not as if a giant man passed by the rock in which Moses was hidden, only revealing His backside.  Rather it was a more likely a manifestation that was not at all comprehensive to the human mind.  Moses saw the glory of God:  Man.  Woman. Child.  Adult.  Mother.  Father.  Sister.  Brother.  Baptist. Catholic.  American.  African.  He is who He is. 

       

“Goddesses have, of course, been worshipped: many religions have had priestesses. But they are religions quite different in character from Christianity.... Since God is in fact not a biological being and has no sex, what can it matter whether we say He or She, Father or Mother, Son or Daughter?

Christians think that God Himself has taught us how to speak of Him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable.” 

 C.S. Lewis

Quest

We have stretched arms to the heavens

  in hopes of touching

  the holy face of God.

We have traveled the seas unrelenting,

  in hopes of finding the Spirit

  that would carry us as the waves on which we were carried.

We have walked the earth unforgiving,

  upon rock as hard as hearts

  in hopes of finding the Rock that would not be broken.

And within the fleeting efforts of our toils,

  we laid our heads to rest.

And in the quiet and still of night,

  with arms drawn in,

  the waves stilled,

  the earth cooled,

 We have found the essence of our seeking,

  to be closer than the breath in which we breathe.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

To the Man on Mansfield Street  

       by Catherine Chandler

I have imagined countless reasons for

your sleeping on the hotel heating vent ---

a lengthy layoff, months of unpaid rent,

a gambling debt, divorce, a private war . .

Or was it something darker, maybe drink,

a need to fill your veins with heroin;

insanity, a secret or a sin

you wouldn’t whisper to a priest or shrink?

The morning traffic soon will wake you up;

you’ll check there’s nothing missing from your bag;

you’ll bind your blisters with a dirty rag

and later gauge the clinking in your cup.

I see the bright-eyed boy you surely were;

I see the tender infant, newly-born,

the Baby who, before the cross and thorn,

was given gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Unlike the offerings of wiser men,

all that I give you is a cigarette,

the time of day, some change, my mute regret

that begs to differ with the word, Amen.

Advent Reflections - 12/25/2011 - Christmas Day

"So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galiless to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to hime and was expecting a child. While the were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, as son. She wrapped himin cloths and placed hime in a manger, because there was no guest romm available for them. 

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Luke 2:4-19

Reflection

Christmas Day is here!  Our journey through Advent together has come to an end.  The expectation is finally culminating and the whirlwind of the Season is coming to a close.  Perhaps you’re about to open Christmas presents.  Perhaps you’ve already torn into the brightly colored packages, taken it all in and someone has inevitably uttered the question, “Is that all?”  Maybe someone uttered the familiar, “Now if you don’t like it, I have the receipt!” Or my favorite from The Christmas Story, “Didn’t I get a tie this year?”  Someone will eventually grab a garbage bag and start picking up the wrapping paper.  Someone will collect and sort the ribbon and bows to be saved and just like that, Christmas is over.  All the anticipation that has been building up for the last month is finally exhausted, we take a deep breath and maybe, just maybe, we relax just a little.  Advent is complete.  Christ has come.

As we reflect on our journey, we find something very interesting in our passage from the Gospel of Luke.  It contains something that might be easily overlooked, but in many ways contains the very essence of what Advent is all about.  As we read the familiar story of the birth of Jesus Christ, we come to a small detour.  For 18 verses we read Luke’s eloquent account with the emphasis being almost solely on the birth of a baby.  And then suddenly, almost completely out of place, we get a glimpse of mom’s perspective.  Just a brief snapshot in verse 19, and then back to the “story” in verse 20:  “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”  Despite the magnitude of what was going on, and how the world was about to change, Mary took a few moments in time, paused and reflected on the moment.  Imagine what she might have said.  “Joseph, I love you so much, but just give me a few seconds to take all this in.  I want to remember every detail.  I want to treasure this moment forever.”

Yes, Christmas is here.  Advent has come to a close.  But before we start making plans to take down the tree and clean the house up for New Years Eve, let’s commit to one another to take some time this day and just rest and reflect.  Let us look back over the last month and meditate on the journey we’ve taken together.  Let us remember the hope that we have in God; the hope that came to fruition and was revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Let us cling to the joy that each of us have in the salvation He so freely gives and the eternal life that we posses through our faith in Him.  Let us rest in the love that God revealed in the birth of His Son; the same love that would lead him to the cross 33 years later.  And let us rest; rest in the peace that comes from knowing that we are not alone in this world.  We believe in a God that is not far off.  He’s not distant or difficult to access.  He shares in our laughter, rejoices in our victories and mourns in our losses.  God is here.

Let us rejoice!  Emmanuel, God with us!

Closing Prayer

Lord, Prince of Peace, Savior of the World, You have come as You promised.  As we celebrate today, let us take time to reflect on what this journey has meant to each of us.  Let us just for a moment, hold this time in our hearts and remember Your great love for us; a love so great that You sent Your only Son into this world to live among us.  Today we rejoice in You, we thank You and we sing with hearts of praise: Emmanuel, God with us.

Amen

Benediction

Let us go about our day looking forward with hope, reflecting in joy, acting in love and encouraging peace.  May the peace of Jesus Christ be with each and every one of us.

Amen