UNDERSTANDING OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

CROTCHETY GRANDPA         

The great French scientist and philosopher Pascal cynically wrote that “God created people in his image on the sixth day, and every day since, people have returned the favor.”  A recent survey noted that the vast majority of Americans believe in God, but how many of us have actually taken the time to try to fully understand Him?

Jarrett Stevens notes in his book “The Deity Formerly Known as God” that we share a basic problem with other generations which is “our insistence on crafting images of God that limit our understanding of ourselves and limit our experience with God. We’d rather have a small, custom-built God who meets our emotional needs or suits our intellectual ideals, than a BIG God who can’t be controlled or contained.” It’s been said that you can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list. The larger your list, the smaller your God.

Everything we need to know about God we can find in the life of Jesus.  It was Jesus himself who asked in Matthew 16:15, “Who do you say I am?” That actually takes more than a little work on our part!

We’re reminded in Psalm 46:10 to “be still” to know God, but our modern world conspires to suppress both stillness and God. Somewhat in the American way, we’re raised to go to church on Sunday and the balance of the week we’re conditioned to consistently win, perfect ourselves, accomplish and accumulate. Silence is an endangered species in our time.

Some of the destructive images of God that Stevens discusses are a sweet old man, a cop around the corner, a cosmic slot machine, a talent show judge and a cafeteria sampling of the world’s religions. Finally, he notes that “good or bad, like it or not, the bottom line is that there is no more powerful force in the universe that shapes our perception of God, other than our parents”. If you have a negative image of your parents, George MacDonald advises us to “interpret the word by all that you have missed in life.” Hopefully, God will emerge in truth and reveal to us his perfect, loving, fatherly and motherly heart.

God is our Abba or eternal Father, and according to Jesus, we are his beloved children. I pray to my eternal Father. I believe that we were created in His image and that he considers you and me His children. We share many emotions and parallels in our existence. Jesus wept and laughed with his friends and fellow journeymen. And he was frustrated and angered by uncaring, evil people. I believe our soul occupies our entire material body just as His timeless spirit occupies His entire universe.

When Jesus taught us to pray The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, he started with the words, “Our Father, who art in Heaven…”, and he addressed God as Father a total of 170 times in the Bible. Jesus created a new way of praying that is as natural as a child talking to his father. By creating us in his own image, God truly wanted someone to love and someone with free will capable of returning that love.

To become more like God is humanity’s highest goal, by reflecting his characteristics and trusting him. The path leads to becoming less self-centered and more Heavenly Father-centered. I believe a few of God’s characteristics include:

• He is timeful because He knows no dimensional boundaries like space or time.
• His saving grace can forgive all charges.
• He is purposeful and ever creative.
• He has revealed Himself through the scriptures and Jesus.
• He has a loving and caring Fatherly and Motherly heart.
• He nurtures & cares for us.
• He can forgive us when we fall short.
• He can be trusted and approached with confidence.
• His freely given and priceless grace is always available.
• He gives us “free will” and is always with us.
• He is our loving, eternal Father and we are his beloved children.
• There is nothing we can do to have Him love us any more or any less.
• He wants us to make good decisions.
• He wants us to understand there are consequences to bad decisions.
• He may not interfere in our trials and the natural laws he created, but will provide peace and strength and help us bring something good out of hardship.
• He is not so much to be proven or seen as He is to be felt within.

Rick Warren has written that, “Great people are ordinary people with extraordinary amounts of persistence. They just hang in there and never give up. God is sufficient for any challenge. We just need the attitude of quiet confidence to stand firm and trust Him to sustain us.”

All that we see can teach us to trust God for all that we cannot see. And all that we can know about God can teach us to shape the one true God so that we are truly shaped in His image.

 

GOING HOME

Road Less Traveled

Sojourners

There are no true destinations in this life for the entire experience is a never-ending journey into the unknown guided by faith alone.  And we understand that the future belongs to those who believe in it—even after death.

We are all beautifully incomplete.  But a broken soul can still stand resolute and move about this broken world with courage and faith in the future.  Perhaps we’re wired to subliminally perceive that this imperfect world is not our final home and we are all just sojourners renting space, regardless of where we keep our stuff.  Life is hard so we’re all just walking each other home.

 

John documents the incident of Jesus revealing his divine power over death upon bringing his friend Lazarus back to life from the grave.  Some say he wept when he arrived at the tomb because his friend had died and his sisters whom he loved were grieving.  And that is easily probable even though he knew that he would soon resurrect him.  But there is also the possibility that he wept because he knew he was bringing his spirit back to this broken world from a beautiful forever.  And he would have to endure a second death later, for that is every human being’s certain legacy.

 

People that read of Jesus’ healing powers turn from him when they pray for healing of a loved one and it doesn’t happen.  But even as he walked among us 2,000 years ago there were thousands of people who were not healed because the intent of those few miracles was to affirm his divinity.  He established the laws of nature, so he doesn’t normally violate them.  If you build a house in an area known for hurricanes, praying to stop one headed your way will probably not go as requested.  Miracles still happen on occasion, but strength and peace may be more realistic expectations.  And all are healed, just not in this life.

GETHSEMANE REVISITED

Gethsemane Olive Tree, Jerusalem

Classic Gethsemane Prayer

Agonized Gethsemane Prayer

We entered the garden of Gethsemane near the end of our pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2015 about this time of the year.  The walk through the ageless olive trees was surreal.  Our guide remarked that some of these trees were alive 2,000 years ago when Jesus prayed here on many occasions while visiting Jerusalem with his disciples.  Earlier in the week we had visited a woodworking facility that fashioned Christian figures from the olive branches that were trimmed out of these same trees in the area.  The olive tree resurrects itself through its root system.

After passing over this very sacred ground we entered the Basilica of the Agony, a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives which is also known as The Church of All Nations.  I had an image of Jesus praying for God to take the cup from him, knowing the dreadful fate that awaited him.   But he also paused in agony and prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

I had observed the classic painting of Jesus kneeling beside a huge boulder in the area and praying this prayer in Gethsemane among the olive trees.  But when we entered the dimly lit church, all I could make out in the dark was a huge slab of rock on the floor surrounded by other pilgrims kneeling around it and silently praying and meditating close to where Jesus had spent that fateful night.  I too knelt there in silent awe.

Max Lucado, a prolific Christian writer, recently wrote about the classic image of Jesus in “a snow-white robe.  Hands peacefully folded in prayer.  A look of serenity on his face.  Halo over his head.  A spotlight from heaven illuminating his golden-brown hair.”  Lucado wonders if this artist had ever read the gospels?  I now consider the setting as a time in prayer before Black Friday and not an image to use when discussing Black Friday.. He notes that Matthew records Jesus’ demeaner as sorrowful and troubled.  He says, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  He fell with his face to the ground and prayed.  Luke observed that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, indicating extreme stress.

Lucado writes that “Jesus is in pain.  Jesus is on the stage of fear.  Jesus is cloaked, not in sainthood, but in humanity.”  Jesus knows the pain and fear that we humans experience as we move about on this foggy planet.  He relates and he experienced the worst of the worst for our sake.  Lucado concludes “It could very well be that the hand that extends itself to lead you out of the fog is a pierced one.”

A pierced hand that Jesus shows his amazed disciples after his Easter resurrection, confirming that “the worst thing is never the last thing!”

MEANINGFUL TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCES

Maroon Bells, Colorado, Internet Domain

Hiking into Maroon Bells Colorado on a cool summer morning and emerging from the aspen trees into view of a clear mountain lake reflecting the twin Maroon Bells peaks was one of those memorable transcendent experiences. The entire glacial valley is shaped like a grand cathedral with the wind playing the quaking aspen leaves in chorus with the bird songs echoing from the pines. I turned to my wife and whispered, “If God seeks sanctuary anywhere in the universe, it has to be in this place.” Ralph Waldo Emerson noted that nature is a manifestation of and a portal to God. If you look deeply into a blooming flower, you see the face of God.

And then there was the experience a few years ago in our own church sanctuary that even over-shadowed walking into Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on a Sunday morning as the choir raised a hymn in praise. Our choir was breaking out into the classic Easter hymn of Christ the Lord is Risen Today on a very overcast morning. Then as the choir and congregation unified into a spirit-charged crescendo, sunbeams burst through the clear glass vertical windows in concert with the raw human emotions being expressed at that moment. Time stood still for everyone in attendance and we were transformed into a greater reality or mode of being, comprehending a deep and powerful sense of meaning.

Emily Smith in The Power of Meaning notes that “This is the power of transcendence. The word transcend means to go beyond or to climb. A transcendent, or mystical, experience is one in which we feel that we have risen above the everyday world to experience a higher reality…transcendence is sometimes described through the metaphor of flight…Many people have had transcendent experiences and they consider them among the most meaningful and important events in their lives.”

These transcendent moments inspire a sense of awe within our whole being. They also leave us with a calm spiritual feeling of mystically being one with a greater divine consciousness as the ego is absorbed and connected into it. As I traveled in the footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land recently, I fully expected to have multiple experiences of elevated awe. But the reality is that most locations where significant events took place are only approximations and generally have stone churches built over them. Of course, it’s important to understand that you are acknowledging the event and not the precise GPS location. However, there was one highlight of simple calm and awe as we embarked onto the Sea of Galilee. Our captain shut down the engines and allowed our replica boat to drift in the middle of the lake as scattered morning rain drops created circular rivulets across the mirrored surface. Just knowing that the Son of God and his fishermen disciples had undoubtedly been part of many similar experiences transcended the moment into one of peaceful awe.

FRIENDS

Friends, Chicago, IL

The scripture reading of John 15:14-17 from the New Testament and the new covenant should give us all great solace to know that even though Jesus is Lord, he has chosen us all to be his friends. In the Old Testament reading of Exodus 33:7-11, Moses didn’t find favor with God because he was gifted, perfect or powerful. It was because God befriended Moses. Fellowship with God at the time was out of reach for the other Hebrews and it was a true privilege for Moses. But Jesus has made it possible for any of us to become his friends.

It may sound a bit trite to some but the universal truths in life don’t ever lose their luster and I know that God answers prayers and connects to us in ordinary people who come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Our lives take countless forks on the path to our final destinations and we have the great honor to interact with countless folks along the way. And every encounter adds another thread to the fabric of friendship that is inextricably woven into our very soul and character.

Thanks be to friends!

NATIVITY FACES

Virgin Mary Icon, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Israel
Prayer Candles, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Israel

We entered the Church of the Nativity through the main Door of Humility. Our guide informed us that the stone entrance had been reduced to a height requiring one to bend over centuries ago so that crusaders would no longer enter on horseback. As we ventured into this dimly lit large expanse of interior space it was apparent that maintaining this aging sixth century limestone structure was a never-ending project. Constantine and his mother St. Helena had commissioned the original church to be built over the cave where evidence suggested that Mary had given birth to Jesus. When this church was destroyed by Justinian in 530 AD, a larger church was built and remains today. The Persians spared this church during their invasion in 614 AD because they were impressed by a large representation of the Magi who were also Persians.

As we approached the narrow stone stairway leading down to Jesus’ birthplace we paused near an Armenian altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary. History notes that Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD. A very ornate icon of Mary and child was placed next to the elaborate altar. A stand of lit candles was situated nearby. Lighting candles as worshipers enter a church is an important expression of the Light of the World who entered the world in this place to dispel the darkness. It is also customary to light a candle to venerate icons, showing respect and reverence for the subject of the icon. Candles are also lit to honor a saint, commemorate a deceased loved one and extend prayers.

I took the time to photograph the unique icon and the lighted candles that pilgrims had placed nearby in this dimly lit cavernous cathedral. The lighting was very poor and what lighting existed randomly reflected off the icon. But something spiritual and ageless beckoned me to these images like a moth to a fire. As I was reviewing my photos today and zooming in on the dark background, an image beyond the flickering candle flames caught my eye. Somehow in the dark room my camera had captured the image of what appears to be a woman wearing a black hijab present in the photo. I don’t recall noticing her at the time as I was literally focused on the candles, but the image of her face blended into the darkness beyond the smokey candle light creates a very ethereal scene.

--John 8:12, 2 COR 4:6

JOSEPH’S DREAMS

Mural Over Christ's Birth Place, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Israel
Herod the Great's Tomb, Herodium, Israel

The Christmas story involving Mary’s virgin pregnancy and the birth of the promised Messiah easily overshadow the life of Jesus’s earthly father, Joseph. Joseph has been described as a man with strong beliefs and right living who was willing to heavily invest himself for those beliefs. An angel of the Lord first appeared to Joseph in a dream to assure him that Mary, who was pledged to marry him, was with child through the Holy Spirit. And the child was the long awaited Messiah. The angel appeared in a second dream to warn Joseph to flee to Egypt to escape a decree from Herod the Great to kill all males less than two years old in an effort to eliminate the threatening new King of the Jews. When Herod died, the angel appeared a third time in a dream to instruct Joseph to take Mary and Jesus back to Israel. However, Herod had divided his kingdom among three of his sons. A fourth dream revealed that it was not safe to return home where the most brutal son Herod Archelaus ruled, so they were directed to Nazareth where ironically Herod Antipas ruled. He was a key character in the trial and death of Jesus.

Our first excursions into the Holy Land early this year were to Jesus’ birth place at a cave entrance in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the cave burial place at Herod the Great’s fortified palace called Herodium, atop a man-made mountain south of Jerusalem. God’s hand was directing the events in this pivotal drama of human history through his angelic messenger. Herod the Great vainly attempted to kill the anticipated Messiah at his birth by using all of the worldly evil and power at his command without succeeding. And thirty three years later in Jerusalem Jesus was brought before Herod’s son, Herod Antipas, who found him innocent of his accusers and returned Jesus to the governor, Pontius Pilate. Pilate’s wife was greatly troubled by a dream that led her to tell her husband not to condemn this innocent man Jesus. But Pilate was a man of the world and politics prevailed.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of the story. The first angelic message delivered to Joseph was revealed to all the world just three days later. Archaeologists believe they found Herod the Great’s cold empty tomb at Herodium in 2007 among the ruins. It was probably decimated by the first Jewish revolt against the Romans in 70 C.E. And we all know why Jesus’ garden tomb which is now preserved inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was found empty. Dreams really do come true!

A LIVING WATER CHRISTMAS

Jordan River Headwaters, Banias, Northern Israel

I admire the no-nonsense attitude exhibited by Pope Francis who is now the spokesperson for the world-wide Catholic Church. This week he went on record in a sermon stating that “Christmas is approaching: there will be lights, parties, Christmas trees and nativity scenes. It’s all a charade. The world continues to go to war. The world has not chosen a peaceful path…We should ask for the grace to weep for this world, which does not recognize the path to peace. To weep for those who live for war and have the cynicism to deny it. God weeps, Jesus weeps.”

Over 2,000 years ago God came into this world wrapped in the flesh and blood of a human being. Mary delivered the young baby who was sent to deliver her and all mankind. The people of the time were looking for a warrior king to save them from the occupying Roman army, but his mission was to save us from ourselves. Or as the prophet Isaiah writes, he came as the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. Our God never seems to select humans for incredible tasks that we humans would choose. And He never seems to act in ways that would seem logical to us humans. He impregnates an aging Elizabeth who is well past child rearing with John the Baptist and a teenage Mary with His only Son. That leaves no doubt concerning the source of the power behind the human.

Thirty years later, the Son Jesus was walking through the northern kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria. The chosen people had been defeated by the Assyrians after they had turned their backs on God and He withdrew his protection. The remaining Jewish Samaritans had intermarried with the invaders and were shunned by the southern Jews, but Jesus didn’t acknowledge such cultural bias. He met a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well that legend says was named Photina. She was even shunned by the Samaritans because her life had spiraled off the tracks. But Jesus knew her heart and crossed all barriers to speak to Photina, offering her “Living Water” so that she would never thirst again.

The Old Testament has many passages which Jesus knew that speak of thirsting after God as one thirsts after water. God came into this world on Christmas as living water to satisfy the soul’s thirst to be connected to the one true universal power that is grounded in love and relationship. He came to reveal Himself to us and what he desires for us—to structure our lives so that we could all ultimately love one another and our Creator. And he demonstrated His loving grace through the Prince of Peace who has the power to accomplish it through us. This was no charade but an act of unconditional love for all mankind that the world needs more than ever this Christmas.

MARY OF MAGDALA

Torah Table End, Migdal, Israel
Magdala Synagogue, Migdal, Israel
Valley of the Doves, Migdal, Israel
Torah Table Top, Migdal, Israel

Mary Magdalene was among the few who had stood by Jesus at his crucifixion and watched in horror as her Lord was killed on that infamous Black Friday. She had entered the garden tomb before daylight to anoint the body on this first Easter Sunday and found the tomb empty. She stood in the garden crying because she thought the Romans had taken the body away. And as she turned, Jesus appeared and asked her why she was crying and who she was looking for in the garden. Mary mistook the resurrected body of Jesus for a gardener until he called her name, “Mary”. And she cried out in Aramaic “Rabboni!” which means teacher. He instructed her to go and tell the disciples that he was alive which left her with the Augustine legacy of the “Apostle to the Apostles”. Women had no status in this first century culture, but Jesus acknowledged women as equal reflectors of God’s image. Given this male dominated society, revealing himself first to a woman provides even more credibility for the resurrection. A purely fabricated account would have quite probably written a male into the role.

Mary was from a small fishing village on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee called Magdala. Magdala was destroyed by the Romans about the time the second temple was also leveled in 70 AD. She was also referred to as the Magdalene in the Bible. Jesus had cast out seven demons from Mary, but that may be a reference to a complex mental or physical illness instead of any form of sinfulness. The male culture of those days who were uncomfortable with a female apostle may have intentionally merged Mary with the unnamed woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Mary was not a repentant prostitute and these efforts to demonize her in particular and disempower women in general though the centuries are unfounded. She is now considered a saint by the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches with a feast day of July 22.

Father Juan Solana, a Roman Catholic priest, had a dream. He envisioned building a serene spiritual retreat for Christian pilgrims on the northwest shores of the Sea of Galilee. This Galilee region in Israel was the primary location on earth where the Son of God lived out his human existence while teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God for mankind and healing the sick and disabled outcasts of society. A routine archaeological requirement in Israel with its centuries of history is to carry out a salvage dig on any potential building site prior to excavation. This work began in 2009 and almost immediately Father Salona described the miraculous discovery of a stone slab as providential. The subsequent discovery of a local coin dating from the year 29 confirmed the existence of a first century Galilee synagogue. And further excavation revealed a marketplace, water pools to cure the famous Galilee fish, and a large public building. It soon became clear that they had just discovered the ancient little fishing village of Magdala.

An ornately engraved stone that was found in the synagogue ruins was quite probably used as a table for reading the Torah. The time period places the synagogue right in the sweet spot of Jesus’ ministry and he quite probably read from the Torah on that table in this place. The Valley of the Doves contains a 22 mile trail from Nazareth to Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. The base for Jesus and his disciples was in Capernaum, just five miles away and their footsteps were all over this country. Our tour group not only traced their footsteps in the Valley of the Doves, but now we were also walking in and around the small village of Magdala where they visited and the Magdalene resided.

Mary of Magdala was present at the beginning of a movement that transformed the world. She was quite possibly more of a disciple than the disciples, but the culture of her time wouldn’t acknowledge her. As we move on into the twenty first century, God has revealed the birthplace of one of the most influential women in Christianity with the opportunity to also discover the woman who lived there. And now we all have the privilege of walking in the footsteps of the Apostle to the Apostles from Magdala and recognizing her rightful role as an early Christian leader and the first to announce the good news of the miracle of the resurrection!

The Hope of Easter, 2015

HEADWATERS

Mount Hermon, Golan Heights, Israel
Banias Cave, Caesarea Phillipi, Israel
Headwaters of Jordan River, Caesarea Phillipi, Israel
Banias Waterfall, Caesarea Phillipi, Israel

Our Holy Land pilgrimage took us to the northern borders of Israel in the Golan Heights next to Lebanon and Syria. We explored the beautiful Banias grounds of the Hermon Stream Nature Reserve at the base of Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon’s highest peak reaches over 9,000 feet above sea level and it is snow covered two-thirds of the year. The porous Jurassic limestone of the mountain functions like a giant sponge to channel snow melt that feeds springs at the base. Many of these springs emerge at the base of the Banias Cave. The main tributaries called the Sa’ar, Si’on and Guvta streams merge into the Hermon Stream as it forcefully flows south through a steep canyon producing scenic waterfalls. Then the Hermon unites with the Dan and Sinar streams to form the life-giving Jordan River which empties into the Sea of Galilee and beyond. The Sea of Galilee remains relevant even to this day because it receives the Jordan waters and then dispenses them on out into the world. The Dead Sea remains essentially lifeless because it receives and retains these life-giving waters without passing them along—sort of how some folks receive grace.

Greek culture was brought to this area after the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE and a temple was constructed for Pan, the god of nature. The city was renamed Paneas. After Herod the Great died his Roman kingdom was divided among his three sons and the northern kingdom including the Golan Heights was awarded to his son Philip. He renamed the city Caesarea Philippi and made it his capital. Agrippa II continued to develop the city in the first century CE with a large palace and statuesque temples. We walked in Jesus’ footsteps here among the ancient ruins outside the large Banias Cave and dipped our fingers into the cool spring waters.

Jesus and his disciples centered their mission around the Galilee region, walking from town to town, healing and preaching in the local synagogues and out where the people congregated. Church fathers have identified Caesarea Philippi as the place where Jesus healed the outcast woman who had been bleeding for many years as she touched the edge of his cloak in the crowd. The gospels also record that Caesarea Philippi was the location where Jesus declared that he would build his church on Peter, the Rock. He then went on to predict that the Son of Man must suffer many things and that he must be killed and rise again after three days.

Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain--quite possibly Mount Hermon. God had previously appeared to Moses and Elijah on mountains, which are associated with closeness to God. Then both Moses and Elijah appeared talking with Jesus as he became radiant with a pure white transfiguring light. A cloud enveloped them as God declared, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Peter and the disciples did listen to Jesus and absorbed his teachings, much like the porous limestone on Mount Hermon. And once they fully understood the language of his life, death and resurrection after he joined them once again on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, they were inspired to rush out from their base in the Galilee and channel God’s grace and good news throughout the world.

JUDEAN WILDERNESS RENEWAL

Judean Wilderness, Qumran, Israel
Jordan River Renewal, Dead Sea, Israel
Security Patrol, Dead Sea, Israel

Moisture-laden winds move to the east off the Mediterranean Sea and rise against the western side of the central Judean Mountain range. As the winds rise, the air expands and cools, forming droplets of rain on this side. As the air descends the eastern slopes it condenses and warms over the Judean Wilderness in what the locals call the rain-shadow. This arid land is harsh, but was ideal to preserve the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the caves of Qumran. John the Baptist lived out his life in this Judean Wilderness west of the Dead Sea. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He was the one that the prophet Isaiah foretold would be the voice crying in the wilderness to “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight”!

After walking among the remains of Qumran we traveled to the present site on the Jordan River where it is now believed that John baptized Jesus. It was here that the heavens opened and the Trinity was revealed as the Spirit in the form of a dove descended and the voice of God proclaimed, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased”. Not long after, Jesus initiated His ministry by fasting and praying for forty days and forty nights in this wilderness. The Jordan River was flowing at bank full as the rains further to the north around the Sea of Galilee were washing silt into the river. Actually, in Kansas we would call this stream a creek due to its relatively narrow width at this point before it empties into the Dead Sea. A mosque resides here directly across the Jordan and the colorful Jordanian flag was waving in the breeze next to a bell tower and golden dome.

James Harnish has written that “Methodists celebrate baptism in worship because it marks our entry into the body of Christ and affirms our connection with one another. The water symbolizes the grace of God, which cleanses us from sin and gives us a new identity as children of God”. We believe that in baptism God claims every one of us as his child. As we all individually knelt down next to the flowing waters of the Jordan, our ministers dipped their hands into the water and placed the sign of the cross on our foreheads with the encouragement to remember our baptism. The outdoor sacrament in the crisp morning air and bright sunshine in this sacred place was very moving as the green river reeds swayed in the wind.

And as I turned to depart this place, a sobering reality of our world once more came into focus. I passed by two young Israeli soldiers armed with automatic weapons standing in the background, assuring our security even as we were renewing our affirmation of the God who moves on the wind in this unsettled land—a God who recognizes all of us as his sons and daughters.

THE PIT

Rooster Weathervane, Jerusalem
The Pit, Jerusalem, Israel

After sharing a last supper with his disciples, Jesus withdrew with them to a familiar place of refuge in the Garden of Gethsemane amid the olive trees. After nightfall descended on the garden, he was betrayed by Judas and arrested by the religious rulers called the Sanhedrin. The disciples deserted Jesus upon his arrest just as it was written that “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered”. He was then taken to the Palace of Caiaphas, who was the high priest at the time. The remains of this place have been discovered south of the Old Jerusalem city walls next to the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. The church has a bright brass rooster weathervane on the roof commemorating the location of Peter’s three denials of Jesus before the rooster crowed at dawn.

The occupying Romans allowed the Sanhedrin to retain their power and wealth as long as the people remained submissive. But they had determined that Jesus’ words and actions were galvanizing the people around him. His turning over the tables of the temple money changers was a serious challenge to a very lucrative life that they enjoyed. They concluded that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to be destroyed. When the high priest Caiaphas coaxed Jesus into saying that he was the Son of God, it gave them grounds to charge him with blasphemy since they had no interest in believing him. And it gave them grounds for sedition or rebellion as the self-proclaimed messiah, the return of the Davidic king, which paved the way for a Roman condemnation.

The Sanhedrin didn’t come to a final decision to put Jesus to death until daylight, which implies that he was detained somewhere in the dark hours of the night. And the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu was built over a rather macabre stone pit. This prison pit is located next to Caiaphas’ palace where the sham trial took place. It is quite probably where Jesus spent his last hours of the night before being led off to face Pilate. It could have easily been littered with filth, snakes and rats in total darkness. Our group descended into this pit where we read the lines of Psalm 88. Verses 6-9 read:

“You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape.
My eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, Lord…I spread out my hands to you”.

Jesus was completely alone. His closest friends had deserted him. He had been cast down into a dark and desolate stone pit. His grief must have been unbearable as this isolation foreshadowed his ultimate destiny. And as he hung on the cross for the final three hours of his human life, the earth was cast into darkness beyond any natural explanation. It is said that during this time he endured an isolation even beyond the pit, as the Son was apart from the Father for the first time in eternity as he took on the sins of all the world.

THE ULTIMATE PARABLE

There’s a little known place in the Holy Land called the Bay of the Parables. It’s mentioned in James Martin's book on his pilgrimage there. The Gospel writers tell about Jesus teaching the common folk from a boat on the Sea of Galilee when the crowds became too confining. It actually makes a lot of sense, given the acoustics of a bay's natural amphitheater and how well sound travels over water.

I’ve read that the vast majority of people in that first century was uneducated and any attempt to preach theological concepts would likely lose them immediately. That still holds today with much more educated folks. We’d all rather listen to a provocative story borrowed from our common experience or nature. So Jesus wisely used parables to convey a particular reality by relating to something that folks knew better. Martin notes that these parables can involve elaborate stories like the Parable of the Prodigal Son or brief metaphors such as “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field”. I also like the analogy of a parable being comparable to peeling back the layers of an onion. There is an easily understandable story on the outer layer, but once you peel it back to an inner layer you find an even deeper meaning.

I really like Martin’s thought about better comprehending the mystery of the Godhead or Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He notes that Jesus’ “use of parables parallels the gracious entrance of God into human existence. Just as it was not beneath Jesus to approach his listeners in ways they could understand, so it was not beneath God to come in a way that we can understand…in a sense, Jesus is the parable of God”.

The ultimate parable!

SHAKESPEARE AND HAMLET

Shakespearean Players, London, EN

Timothy Keller has written that “our relationship to God is more like Shakespeare’s relationship to Hamlet. How much will Hamlet know about Shakespeare? Only what Shakespeare writes about himself into the play. He goes on to reference C. S .Lewis who reasoned that “we’ll only know about God if God has written something about himself into our life, into our world. And he has”. Keller continues, “God looked into our world-the world he made-and saw us destroying ourselves and the world by turning away from him. It filled his heart with pain (Genesis 6:6). He loved us. He saw us struggling to extricate ourselves from the traps and misery we created for ourselves. And so he wrote himself in. Jesus Christ, the God-man, born in a manger, born to die on a cross for us. Behold who Jesus is, how he loves you and how he came to put the world right”.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a son who decides it’s time to cash in on his inheritance right now. He leaves his father’s land and soon squanders all the money. Saint Augustine observed that, “When people choose to withdraw far from a fire, the fire continues to give warmth, but they grow cold. When people choose to withdraw from light, the light continues to be bright in itself but they are in darkness. This is also the case when people withdraw from God.” The son finally returns home to a surprisingly forgiving father who rejoices that he is back.

Jesus relates this story to show the complexity of his Abba’s love for us. God is our Abba or eternal Father, and according to Jesus, we are his beloved children. We were created in His image and He considers you and me His children. We share many emotions. When Jesus taught us to pray The Lord’s Prayer, he started with the words, “Our Father, who art in Heaven…” and he addressed God as Father a total of 170 times in the Bible. Jesus created a new way of praying that is as natural as a child talking to his father. By creating us in his own image, God truly wanted someone to love and someone capable of returning that love.

To become more like God is humanity’s highest goal, by understanding and reflecting his characteristics. The path leads to becoming less self-centered and more God-centered.

OUTLIERS

Vincent, Chicago Art Institute, IL
Vincent's Room, Chicago Art Institute, IL

Unappreciated Impressions of Life

Statisticians track groupings of data to plot trends by drawing lines through the epicenter of scattered data points. Any points that fall outside of the normal grouping are considered outliers. They don’t fit the data and are anomalies which are generally excluded. People exhibit these tendencies also. Many “outsiders” march to a different drummer. And we ostracize them for the most part instead of celebrating their diversity. Ironically, many of these people become recognized posthumously as the geniuses that we couldn’t recognize while they were living. We couldn’t see past our own filtered biases and narrowly focused concept of acceptable. We stayed inside the boundaries of our own comfort zones. Jesus was an outlier. Vincent van Gogh was an outlier. One suffered for his sanity; the other for all humanity. Both sought to free mankind from their view of the world but their impact wasn’t immediately appreciated until after their death.

                                                              Vincent's Pieta

Human nature seems to allow people to find self-worth in putting down others that don’t fit our template or threaten the status quo. It's been said that the only good reason to look down on someone is so that you can better help them up. Jesus cautioned us to take the log out of our own eye before focusing on the speck in our neighbor’s eye. The religious establishment in his time, the Sanhedrin, definitely saw Jesus as a threat to their established and profitable status quo when he began his ministry at the age of 30 for the last three years of his life. His radical message went against the grain of contemporary religion.

Every time I have the opportunity and pleasure of viewing some of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, I’m amazed that his talent and genius were never celebrated in his lifetime while he was creating over 2,000 artworks. He was never able to support himself through the vocation he had chosen for the last ten years of his life. Interestingly, Vincent’s father Theodorus was a country minister and his mother Anna Cornelia was an artist. At the age of 25 Vincent volunteered to move to an impoverished coal mining area in the south of Belgium where he preached, ministered to the sick and sketched the people who lovingly called him “Christ of the Coal Mines”.

But Vincent’s adult life was plagued by a progressive mental illness that could have had multiple causes. He died two days after he shot himself in the chest at the age of 37 in a wheat field he had been painting. He painted his stark room in Arles in expectation of having Gauguin partner with him in his dream of gathering a collective of creative artists to challenge the established Academie in Paris. The Academie’s annual juried art show was extremely profitable for the traditional establishment of artists and dealers. But they shunned the younger painters who were creating their unique and different impressions of life. After a crazed confrontation with Gauguin, Vincent fled to a local brothel where he severed the lobe off his right ear and handed it to Rachel--something many people remember him for as much as his artwork. All of his subsequent self-portraits were painted with a left profile. The ominous black crows hovering over the vibrant amber wheat field that he painted shortly before his suicide reveals much about his decaying, tormented mind. Yet he found solace in his work and continued to create unappreciated masterpieces.

Vincent’s brother Theo sold only one of his paintings for 400 francs and he was never recognized in his lifetime. His own mother destroyed crates full of his paintings after his death. However, one of the 37 self-portraits he painted in a three year period shortly before his death over one hundred years ago was sold at auction in 1998 for a near record $71.5 million in New York City. At least that one art lover understood what Vincent was trying to say to him. Vincent was semi-homeless until his death, as he moved frequently and never could afford a permanent home. And Jesus left nothing of material value upon his death at 33. But over two thousand years later, the world celebrates his priceless words of life and hope and gives billions of dollars to support His teachings for us to love our common Creator and one another. This in spite of all the burnings of the world’s best-selling book over the years which were intended to destroy the unappreciated legacy and language of His unique and different impressions of life.

Don McLean’s hit song Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) is a poignant overview of Van Gogh’s tragic and creative life. And the DVD, Josh Groban in Concert, produced by David Foster, has one of the most moving interpretations of the music that you will ever experience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oybfFoq7Yow

The lyrics capture the “eyes that know the darkness in my soul” and lament “how you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they’re not listening still.
Perhaps they never will…”

The following link has an excellent video clip of Vincent’s paintings set to the song along with the lyrics:

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starrynightlyrics.html

THIS CHILD--THE GIFT OF SELF

Radiant Sunrise, WB, NC

At this holiday season of Christmastime, we’re bombarded with television and print ads that promote the “spirit of giving”. Marketers in our consumer driven culture of unabashed materialism are very good at exploiting our weakness for all manner of stuff. But it’s not all bad. There are lots of examples of people giving their time and resources to help those that are less fortunate. It’s a time of the year when if there ever is a glimmer of hope for all mankind to exhibit generosity and good will, now’s the time!

It all began over two thousand years ago, possibly in a cave behind a traveler’s inn where farm animals were housed. A child was born. Not just any child of all the billions of births on earth. The conception and birth of this child was announced by angels. This child was the ultimate gift of self. This child was Emmanuel, God with us. This child was the manifestation of our Creator and was the Word in flesh. When we speak we’re expressing who we are, our likes and dislikes, etc. This child was an expression of the divine presence. This child was both human and divine. This child was God without beginning and man with a beginning. This child was creation’s Creator. This child was invisible in His own nature, but visible in ours. This child entered into a human existence to experience our joys and our suffering to assure us of His empathy as we too experience this earthly life. This child was the very definition of self-sacrifice, as God affirmed His righteousness and offered himself to atone for mortal humanity’s shortcomings and light the way to an eternal spiritual life. This child would soon deliver the woman who delivered Him. This child’s name means “Savior”!

The dawn of that first morning following this divine birth could only have been bathed in radiant, ethereal sunlight. For a people walking in darkness, a perfect light had dawned. This child was the Light of the World who would teach us of love and how to live. This child would grow up to show us all how to reflect his light into the darkest corners of men’s hearts. He left no meaningless material part of his life, as the Word became flesh to leave a legacy of words to restore life for all who would listen. And most importantly, this child showed us that the most precious gift a parent can offer sons and daughters is the priceless gift of self.