Friday, February 29, 2008

so i lay me down...

Sleep, like lovers do.
Sleep, like lovers do.
This life-giving grave; I lay myself down for you.
Sleep, like lovers do.

So much better now than where I used to be.
My heart's been bought and sold before; a pound of flesh for the lobbyists
and all those politicians - political loves - promising a life to me
they could never give at all.

So I lay me down
to die so that i might come alive somehow.
All that I have, I give;
these pieces, that I might be made whole again.

Sleep, like lovers do.
Sleep, like lovers do.
This life-giving grave; I lay myself down for you.
Sleep, like lovers do.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

ashes and angels

Strike the match and watch it burn;
this sulfurous plume, my nostrils turn.
The flame, the heat, the light
Where once a bridge, now just a funeral pyre.

Lights the way back home.
Bars the way back home.
These ashes won't hold me from the cold dark waters below.

If I knew another way back to the place where I've come from I'd go.
But this path still smolders and the current's torrid in this brave new world.
My strength escapes, evaporates; and my broken soul, it bleeds
And my aching ears, they hear angel choirs; distant songs of wholeness sing.

Lights the way back home.
Bars the way back home.
These ashes won't hold me from the cold dark waters below.

Remembering my father's house and those distant fields of innocence
There were lilac summers; the sickly sweetness of the nighttime air.
In spring, we'd walk - In winter, we'd warm by his hearth; a glowing fire within.
Now I curse a match, carelessly tossed, that keeps me from going back again.

Lights the way back home.
Bars the way back home.
These ashes won't hold me from the cold dark waters below.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Feb. 5th

It's 'Super Tuesday' today. (it's a big election thing) You ought to know about it. It's actually kind of a big deal. We should probably care.

CNN

ps. just for fun.


So...

So, I know I don't post all that often... and when I do, entries tend to be 500% longer than the average, polite, blog attention span.

I guess I'm just not much good at this.

But, most of what ends up here is the product of wrestling with scripture and life through the lens of my ongoing education; in both the academic and practical - generally things that go from a journal to a teaching or paper, and then end up here for whoever has the patience or desire.

For what it's worth.

-CB

'The Sermon' - part 2: Law. Anger. Lust.

:: So.. thinking through the 'Sermon on the Mount'. As mentioned in a previous post, Jesus introduces this well-known collection of teachings with a series of statements meant to both draw us in and illustrate the condition of heart that will bring about the purposes of God in us: blessed, he says, are the spiritually bankrupt, the grieving, the cheek-turners, the hungry and thirsty, the pure in heart and the peacemakers…

This is, Jesus says, what it is to be salt and light. People, who are aware of their spiritual emptiness, aware of their need for healing and wholeness, asking God to fill them, purify them, grow in them the depths of his character and holiness, that we might pour ourselves out as healers and peacemakers defined by the forgiveness and longsuffering gentleness of Christ himself. It is in this way that a world desperately seeking meaning and completion will finally be able to see the face of hope, and come to him.

Which, taken to heart, gives us an amazing picture of our world and what it is to engage it in all its’ beauty and brokenness. But… is this new? And, perhaps more importantly, is this message of Jesus a rejection of the Judaism from which it springs; the history, the prophecy and the law, or is it somehow coherent or embracing of that foundational message and that covenant?

:: Mt. 5:17-20

‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets…’

With this statement, Jesus places all that he is and all that he will say firmly within the flow of redemptive history as it would have been understood by these Jewish listeners; this message of God and Kingdom that he brings is not a matter of novelty, but of incarnation… ‘I have come to fulfill them…’ – Jesus offers himself as the incarnate expression of this plot that has been unfolding since the very entrance of sin into the world.

Perhaps we might also look at Jesus’ ‘fulfillment’ of the law in an interpretive light: more than just an outflow of the past or a result of it, could it be perhaps that Jesus is claiming that he himself is the lens through which we find the means to properly interpret and apply all that came before him? Either way… this is a deeply significant statement that ties Jesus to the ongoing unfolding of redemptive history.

v. 18-19

‘…heaven and earth pass away… the law will not pass away’ – Jesus’ use of the same word here (translated ‘to pass away’), joining these two thoughts together; expressing that, in Jesus’ view, the Law (Jewish covenant) is not merely some foreign moral code imposed upon creation, but it is rather an expression of the very heartbeat; the very character of creation itself... Which is fascinating.

In this, we begin to understand that the Law (much like the Sermon on the Mount) was not given strictly or primarily to mandate behavior… but to express something about the nature and character of God. The Law will not pass away… because it is a description of that which is essential and eternal… and until such a time as God is again fully revealed, the Law shall remain.

It is in THIS sense that Jesus fulfills the law: as the incarnate expression of the heart, nature and person of God.

v. 20 ‘ Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees…’

On the surface, this is a ridiculous statement. For the Jews of Jesus' day, these people WERE the righteous; the spiritual… the benchmark of practical faith. To imply, then, that these people, for all their lives’ devotion to getting it right, don’t make the cut, is an outstanding statement. WHO, then, has any hope of entering the kingdom?

How could one possibly achieve this ‘greater’ righteousness? What more could God possibly demand of a person then this? Because, should one try, it seems that it would quickly become obvious that we can’t, actually, do it… at least not in our own strength.

Maybe this is exactly the point?

What if the Law, and now Jesus, was never so much meant as a ‘color by numbers’ moral code, but rather a glimpse into the character of God, that we might come to realize our own brokenness, come to face our own inability to do anything about it, and so cast ourselves his grace and mercy in light of how far we fall short? (blessed are the poor in spirit… the spiritually bankrupt)

v.21-26 – Murder/Anger

Jesus now continues to expound upon this point: ‘… you shall not murder’ A decent moral code to live by… But, Jesus says, It is quite possible that we could live our entire lives having never broken this particular code in practice, while still missing the point… Still falling short of the character of God. Murder is merely an extreme symptom of the disease of brokenness, bitterness and anger that will wrap it’s roots around our souls should we give it the chance…

Your code is alright, Jesus says, but it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter… I’m not interested in behavior modification or treating the symptoms… I want to cure the disease in you. I don’t want merely the absence of outward conflict, I want real reconciliation. (v. 23-26)… It’s as we come face to face with God that we can see our need, and are invited to healing.

So, too in v. 26-30 : Adultery/Lust

‘So… you’ve never given in to the temptation to cheat on your spouse? That’s good. Kudos. But God is actually interested in more than your behavior… He’s interested in your heart.’ (note: this is not an attack on biology, but a commentary on intent. Could be translated ‘looking upon a woman in order to lust after her’… He is not dealing with repressing raw impulse, but addressing the lie that says it doesn’t matter how we incline our heart or what we allow in to our mind, so long as we don’t physically act on it)

Some would protest that Jesus’ teachings here, taken seriously, are simply unreasonable. How can he expect us to so discipline ourselves with respect to urges of this sort which come so naturally from within us as a result of our human condition?

But this is perhaps exactly the point; we ARE helpless to keep our own brokenness at bay… We are helpless to heal our own souls: to address the bitterness, anger and lust that run rampant within us. The best we can ever hope for is to strive for the appearance of righteousness; to put on a good face… to hope to keep the disease from showing symptoms… But all the behavior modification and self control in the world can never make us whole. It can never deal with the problem. It is not through legalism that we will find our way into the kingdom of God, but through grace. Through the forgiveness and healing transformation of God himself through the person of Jesus.

It is for this reason that Jesus, and the law, seeks to bring us face to face with the person and holiness of God; that we might recognize our need, and come to him for salvation.

Maybe you’re realizing that your faith, to this point, has been more about keeping yourself in line; more about good behavior than surrender?

Maybe you’ve got wounds that you carry around; bitterness or anger that you have towards someone who has wronged or hurt you, and you need to let that go, to open yourself up to healing?

Maybe there’s ways you’ve bought into the lie that the things you let into your heart and head aren’t a big deal, so long as you don’t let those things show, and those things you’ve let in and keep in are actually rotting you from the inside out?

Maybe you’re on the fence? Wouldn’t to this point, have described yourself as a follower of Jesus? Maybe you’re realizing that that’s a step you need to take?

Pure in Heart (Mt. 5)

:: Jesus, in his introduction to a collection of teachings commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount, begins with a series of strange sayings… ‘Fortunate are the spiritually bankrupt. Fortunate are those who are wracked by grief. Fortunate are the un-vengeful oppressed, the persecuted…’

In the midst of this unique introduction, he says this: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’

Which sounds nice… makes sense… More sense than many of the others, anyway. But what does this little statement really even mean? In the Jewish understanding, to see God was synonymous with knowing God… ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will know God.’

But, who are the ‘Pure in Heart’? How does one become pure in heart? How do we reconcile this idea with Paul in Rom. 3; ‘There is no one righteous…’ or ‘for all have sinned’? – Who are these hypothetically Pure-hearted ones? What if I want to see/know God? What hope is there for me? The UNpure? The broken? The beaten up? The ashamed?

In fact, were we to look at it, we would find that the sermon on the mount is absolutely FULL of seemingly impossible demands: ‘Unless you are more righteous then the Pharisees… you will not enter the kingdom of God’ ‘Anger = Murder’ ‘Lust = Adultery’… Now that I think of it, WHO can live up to the standards of this God? I can’t possibly live up to this bar that you have set! What hope do we have but that you are MERCIFUL, and show us GRACE?

It is at this point that I begin to wonder… Maybe this is exactly the point? What if the Law, and now Jesus, was never so much meant as a ‘color by numbers’ moral code, but rather a glimpse into the character of God, that we might come to realize our own brokenness, come to face our own inability to do anything about it, and so cast ourselves his grace and mercy in light of how far we fall short? (blessed are the poor in spirit… the spiritually bankrupt)

In this, I begin to understand Jesus’ statement about the pure in heart… For how might any of us ever hope to be pure in heart, unless it is through the work of God in us?

And why is it that those who are pure in heart will see/KNOW God? Perhaps it is that as we seek to become pure-hearted, we are forced to let God IN? Perhaps it is in that cleaning process that we start to become familiar with the one who is doing the cleaning… Perhaps it is as we allow him to root around inside of us and cast the rubbish to the curb that we actually begin to know his character… on display through his purifying work; those things that he keeps and cleans, and those things that he simply throws away.

Much like the heart and soul of an artist is most poignantly communicated through their art, perhaps it is that the heart and character of God is best experienced through his work in us. Perhaps we grow in knowledge of God through this process of cleansing and transformation because, through it, we are growing more and more LIKE him.

As we explore and wonder at what this process is like… what it gives and what it demands of us, we are forced to come to a startling conclusion: God isn’t interested in being your friend.

Jesus isn’t interested in being your buddy, your acquaintance, or your crush. God isn’t interested in our charming religious flirtation… He isn’t satisfied with a couple Friday nights a month; a nice meal, a couple drinks and a good laugh. No… this God with whom we are dealing is looking for intimacy. God wants to be KNOWN… He wants to hold you close, take you to church, put a ring on you finger, and then get you in bed.

He wants to get into every pore, every wound, into the deepest and darkest and most vulnerable places of our souls… and there forge a connection of love as has changes us from the inside out.

In Luke chapter 9 Jesus asks his disciples; ‘I know what the crowds are saying, but who do YOU say that I am?’

Are we going to do this thing? How serious are you? Do you want to KNOW me, or are you content to just know ABOUT me? Are you in, or are you out?

‘Take up your cross and follow me.’ Because I don’t want you to date me… I need you to die for me; to die WITH me. Will you lay down your life? Surrender your sovereignty? Admit your inability? Let me inside? Because this is the only way you will ever truly know what it is to be alive.

God doesn’t want to be your friend. God is a lover. He isn’t satisfied with SOME of you; he wants it all. This isn’t a business agreement. It’s not a matter of good behavior and reward. This journey is a relationship. This is a marriage, and it is helpful to think of it in that way.

I didn’t marry my wife once. I’m married to her every day. And every morning is a decision about whether I will choose to live in that reality or not. Will I seek to grow in knowledge and love and sacrifice today? Will I die for her? Or not?

Jesus invites us to the altar today. This relationship will demand that we give him ALL of ourselves… our flaws, ambitions and dreams… But he has already given us all of himself. And that is enough. That is life itself, if we could only open our hands to receive it.

'The Sermon': Matthew 5:1-16

:The Sermon on the Mount. Even more brilliant than you think.

This collection of Jesus' teachings is largely poetic, dramatic and pictorial; as opposed to functioning like a code of law to be approached with a spirit of absolutism, it is in many ways rather painting a picture and calling us into an experience of the character of God. It’s purpose is not to legislatively end the conversation, but to begin it; to invite us into deepest thought and cause us to wrestle with this God whom we are meeting.

The sermon takes the present and the practical and looks at those things through the lens of eternity; it looks backwards, from the culmination of the perfect, unbroken will of God to our present. Because it comes out of this consummated Kingdom perspective, it strikes us as largely heedless of earthly contingencies, radical, and even terrifying in places in its attack on complacency and shallow religiosity.

As we wrestle with these teachings and what they call out in us, we are forced to come to grips with the fact that the sermon, and the Kingdom for that matter, is not really concerned with what is practical or possible in the here and now… they are not so much about expounding upon what WORKS; the sermon is about the way God IS.

This journey Jesus invites us into, then, will be one into the heart and character of God as illuminated by these teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5-7. As we do so, we will find both invitation and challenge as we come face to face with the unlimited goodness and love of God, and begin to understand that it is his desire to grow in us that same love, that we might see heaven and earth brought together.

The Beatitudes

We begin here, with Mt. 5:1-16… probably some of the most familiar verses in scripture; but again, statements whose intent and implications actually go much deeper than most of us have ever cared to wrestle with before…

v.3 ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

A fine sounding statement... but what does this even mean? What does it look like to be ‘poor in spirit’? Is that really a good thing? Why are they blessed? Why do THEY get the Kingdom of Heaven?

The Greek translated as ‘poor’ here is an image of the financially destitute (poor, poor as a beggar)… which was helpful for me as I thought about this passage; this idea of spiritual poverty. Why would those in spiritual poverty be considered ‘fortunate’? What advantage might they have over people in different circumstances? Because, if we’re honest, none of us would aspire to be destitute; spiritually or otherwise.

It is as if this passage could read; ‘Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt… because they can’t fool themselves. They understand that they are in a place of need. Other people might be able to tell themselves that they’ve got things pretty well in hand; that they’re decent enough people – morally and spiritually inclined enough – secure enough in their achievements to warrant whatever reward might lie at the end of the rainbow. Not these people. Broke and busted, empty-handed, they know they have a need that they are helpless to provide for themselves… and so, they are ready to receive what I would give them.’

The fact is that every person is in need of this gift of grace; these people, though – the empty and the broken – are just going to be naturally quicker to understand that. While the rest of us might be able to distract ourselves from our need for a little while, these people have nowhere else to go. In this, they are fortunate indeed.

Are you empty? Are you broken? Are you searching? You are not far. You are not alone. Jesus is nearer than you might ever expect.


v.4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’

Again, we might ask, how is it that those in mourning could be considered fortunate? Given a choice, we certainly would not aspire to mourn! We would not choose to be consumed by grief.

But much like the sentiment of the previous verse, Jesus finds something in the posture of the grieving that is of deep value. It is as if he is saying, ‘Fortunate are the wounded; those who are at their end in painful circumstances, because they know that real comfort is what they need. They do not have the luxury of the numbing salve of feeling comfortable in their circumstances; They are profoundly aware that they need help and healing. This healing and wholeness that we all need, these people will receive it… because they know their life depends on it.

Are you wounded? Are you hurting? Broken-hearted? Jesus wants to meet you there. Would you let him heal you?

v.5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’

‘Meekness’ doesn’t really jump out as a highly valued virtue in our society. To us, the word implies ‘mouse-like’, ‘easily pushed around’… ‘quiet’. The word translated as ‘meek’ or ‘gentle’ here is actually defined as, ‘the humble and gentle attitude which expresses itself in patient submissiveness to offense, free from malice and desire for revenge.’

Thinking about this, it starts to read a bit differently… ‘Blessed are the cheek-turners; those who refuse to play by the ‘power-over’ paradigm of this world… who give themselves for the subversive movement that is the kingdom of God even when it looks like just getting beaten up.’

There is nothing mouse-like about this meekness. This is the meekness that is able to stand with hope under suffering… This is the gentleness of civil rights marchers who peacefully faced fire hoses and police dogs to stand for what was right. This is the legacy of Martin Luther King and those who stood with him; the gospel and hope of Jesus, profoundly on display. These people changed the world.

The idea of ‘inheriting the earth/land’ that we see here is also a profound idea, harkening deep within Jewish history: The covenant with Abraham, that his decendents would be given a land of their own as an inheritance, the journey of the exodus from slavery to the ‘promised land’… again themes adopted by the civil rights movement…

Using this language implies that it is through those who willingly shoulder suffering for the good of their world that Gods promises and purposes will be fulfilled… it is through these suffering servants, ultimately embodied by Jesus himself, that redemptive history will move forward.

Will we be these people? Will we lay our lives down for the sake of our world? What might this look like?

v.6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’

The God of scripture is a God who longs to see his people filled, satisfied, made whole. It is what we have been created for; that, connected to our source, we would want for nothing.

To see his purposes accomplished in the world, it is important that we grasp, however, the nature of this filling. When God fills a person, he does not fill them to the brim… He fills us to overflowing. Because his blessing is not for us alone. (Abraham) This brings to mind for me the interaction between Jesus and a woman he met at a well one afternoon… a woman who was spiritually thirsty, and who Jesus offered to fill. He warned her, however, that the water he gives does not merely fill a person, but becomes within them a spring; welling up to eternal life.

God pours into us in such a manner such that we are not merely satisfied, but overflowing.

Are there ways in which we have resisted overflowing? If we’re honest, might we confess that we operate as if this blessing is intended for us alone?

v.7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.’

Reminds me of the Lords prayer; ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.’

Do we take the time to wrestle with the connection between our ability to receive forgiveness and mercy and our ability to give those things? The implication of scripture, here and in other places, is that unforgiving and unmerciful people cannot receive forgiveness or mercy. Why? Will God refuse it, or will they simply find themselves unable to accept it?

Are there people in our lives that we have not forgiven? Would we ask God to help us let go of our bitterness toward those people so that we might take hold of his mercy toward us?

v. 8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’

In scriptural tradition, to see God is to KNOW God. That said, this is all well and good… but how does one go about becoming ‘pure in heart’?

It is only through the work of God that we are even able to be pure in heart. Perhaps, then, it is in the midst of this cleansing process that we become intimately familiar with God himself; as we allow him to root around and cast out the rubbish to the curb, we begin to know his character as it is on display in and through his purifying work.

Much like the heart and soul of an artist is most poignantly communicated through their art, perhaps the heart and character of God is best experienced through his work in us. Our knowledge of him grows as we allow ourselves to be shaped more and more into the likeness of him who we are seeking to know.

At some level, there is only so much we can know about God without surrendering to him. Because to try and know him while denying him access to our lives is like trying to appreciate the work of Picasso without ever looking at a painting. The encyclopedia doesn’t do him justice. God needs to be experienced to be known.

God isn’t interested in just grabbing coffee with us… Flirting from a safe distance. He wants to be intimate; to work within us, to get into every pore, every thought, every hope, clean us out so that he might connect with us and shape us at the level of our souls.

Are there ways in which we are avoiding intimacy with God? Keeping him at a distance? Will we accept his invitation to surrender, cleaning and relationship?

v.9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

The term ‘peacemaker’ here was commonly used to refer to kings who established peace. In this light, it is important to note that this is not a matter of conflict avoidance… To be a peacemaker in this sense is to enter a conflict and engage it. To wage peace. Militant Love.

We find here a picture of Christ himself on the cross; interceding with God on behalf of a humanity which found itself bankrupt in its conflict with their creator. He spreads his arms, enters the fray, and draws heaven and earth together again.

He then calls us to become ambassadors of Shalom… To take up our cross and follow him; to be those in the world who seek out conflict and brokenness so that we might bring his healing to bear – out of the overflow of that which he has done for and within us.

This task is not an easy one, nor without its inherent risks, for we find this mandate followed by v. 10-12:

To step into a conflict is to risk getting beaten up. You’ll probably get shot at. Again, the champions of civil rights here in the U.S. know this well… To be a peacemaker often does not feel very peaceful.

We find here a significant departure between Christianity and many world religions, like Buddhism, which teach transcendence – elevating oneself above the brokenness and conflict of our world. Jesus, in contrast, calls those who follow him into radical, sacrificial, even painful engagement with all the ways our world is messed up… to embrace, enter, and bring healing to those difficult places as an expression of the character of this God with whom we are dealing.

It is in this spirit that Jesus closes this section of teaching with v. 13-16

:: This is what it is to be salt and light. People, who are aware of their spiritual emptiness, aware of their need for healing and wholeness, asking God to fill them, purify them, grow in them the depths of his character and holiness, that we might pour ourselves out as healers and peacemakers defined by the forgiveness and long suffering gentleness of Christ himself. It is in this way that a world desperately seeking meaning and completion will finally be able to see the face of hope, and come to him.