The God Who Will Act Again

As recently as 50 years ago, families were spending thousands of dollars constructing underground bomb shelters to protect them and their closest neighbors from an impending nuclear holocaust.  There was widespread fear of a Soviet dominated communist world.  This period in history was marked by conflicts in Korea, Cuba, and Viet Nam.  In American schools, children were instructed in the fine art of what to do in case of an ICBM strike.  It’s humorous to think of children crawling under their desks in such a scenario – as if that would protect them from nuclear fallout!  A couple of decades later, the Cold War was still a reality.  The movie industry made money from Cold War themes, creating films like Red Dawn, Rambo, and Rocky IV.  In hindsight, these films seem silly to us now.  But at the time, the fears and anxieties that spawned these cinematic adventures were real and prevalent.  Some today feel like maybe we’re entering a new Cold War.  Time will tell.

          But let’s go back in time further than 50 years.  Let’s rewind to 2500 years ago.  God’s people, the Judeans remain in exile, while the nations of the near east are in a state of flux.  The Babylonian Empire is in free-fall.  Fear and anxiety is widespread.  A new global power has stepped onto the stage and it’s unclear what the geo-political landscape will look like when the dust finally settles.  As Cyrus, King of Persia makes his move and marches against the nations of the coastlands of the Caspian, Black, and Mediterranean Seas, the people tremble – they’re afraid – they try to encourage one another, but it does no good.  Most of the people have put their faith in gods that are not.  They’ve invested their future in idols – false gods who have no power to deliver them.  To get the full picture, let’s take a look at Isaiah 41:1-10. 

“Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment.  Who has roused a victor from the east, summoned him to his service?  He delivers up nations to him, and tramples kings under foot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.  He pursues them and passes on safely, scarcely touching the path with his feet.  Who has performed and done this; calling the generations from the beginning?  I, the Lord am first, and will be the last.  The coastlands have seen and are afraid, the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come.  Each one helps the other, saying to one another, ‘Take courage!’  The artisan encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, ‘It is good’; and they fasten it with nails so that it cannot be moved.  But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off’; do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:1-10, NRSV). 

           Why are the people of the coastlands so afraid as Cyrus makes his move?  Because they realize they don’t possess the military might to oppose the Persians.  And their idols are merely the creation of humans – they must be propped up by human means and human methods.  They nail down their idols so they won’t fall over in the middle of the night.  They try to pump each other up, saying to one another that their creations are good and they shall not be moved.  But God has seen this all before.  He was there in the beginning; he’s seen kingdoms rise and empires fall.  He’ll be there in the end.  He’s in the middle of the present as well.  Cyrus doesn’t know it, but it’s YHWH who’s behind his rise to power. 

          As the coastlands are in an uproar, as they tremble and quake, and call upon their gods who can’t even stand up on their own, Israel has no need to fear.  They’ve put their faith, not in their own creations, but in the God who created the cosmos out of nothing.  They’ve put their trust in one who’s delivered before in the Exodus, and who will deliver again through a man and an empire that doesn’t even call upon his Name.  Israel has nothing to fear because they are YHWH’s chosen servant; they’re a part of his plan.  They’re God’s instrument in bringing about the reconciliation of the nations.  God will not abandon his people.  He will strengthen them and allow them to share in his victory.  And that’s good news for a people who were told that their God was nothing – that their God could not deliver them.  That’s good news for a people who up until this point, didn’t seem to have much hope.  That’s good news for a people who’ve been in exile for 50 years. 

Looking back historically, we know that soon after these oracles were delivered – Cyrus, the Persian King allowed the exiles to return to Judea and rebuild their temple.  The God who had acted previously, had acted again! The God who acted then is still active in our world today.

          Though the fear of global communism is no longer present in our world, there are a lot of other concerns which cause a great deal of stress and anxiety in people.  As I mentioned earlier, there is a renewed fear in the potentiality of another Cold War with Russia.  Global terrorism has become a dangerous reality.  Not to mention, we are days away from a new, unproven president’s inauguration.  We are facing a lot of unknowns.

          And since the age of the Enlightenment, our world has offered any number of idols to deal with the problems people face.  People want something to put their trust in, but unfortunately, people far too often put their hope in things that ultimately cannot deliver.  Over the past 100 years, we’ve seen the rise and fall of the communist ideal.  After periods of recession and depression, we’ve been reminded that capitalism doesn’t solve all our economic problems either.  We’ve seen that military might doesn’t always make right.  The war to end all wars only led to more wars.  Technology was supposed to make our lives easier and more efficient, but people are busier today than ever – lives are chaotic and out of balance.  Science has discovered amazing things and has given humanity numerous benefits, but it has not created a perfect world.  And the materialist/reductionism which science spawned is merely a new kind of Pantheisitic idolatry – it’s a philosophy that claims that the only thing that’s real is what can be observed scientifically.  So people end up worshiping the laws of nature, rather than the creator of those laws.  Politics is still politics, need I say more? 

        Just like the old paganism, this neo-paganism isn’t about conforming to God’s will; it’s about creating a god who can be conformed to our will.  But there’s a problem with this sort of god – it’s only as powerful as we are and we soon find that we’re not nearly as powerful as we thought.  Human self-sufficiency has been found insufficient.  By now, it’s obvious that the age of reason didn’t solve all our problems, but neither will an age of so called post-modernity – an age of pluralism and moral relativism.  These new idols are no more persuasive or powerful than the old ones, because like the idols of old, these idols are propped up by human methods and as we have seen in history, they inevitably fall.

          We are at times tempted by the illusions of our modern idolatries.  On the one hand, we’re tempted to put our trust in these man-made institutions and on the other hand we’re discouraged as we look around and it seems as if God’s Kingdom isn’t really coming.  It seems that we’ve been in exile for far longer than 50 years and when we see the world through merely human eyes, things appear to be getting worse, not better.  But God has another word in all of this and it’s not simply a word of judgment, but also a word of grace.

          And this word of grace could only come to us from a God who is more powerful than we are – a God who is not bound by our circumstances – a God who can step into our lives from the outside and act on our behalf.  Hope in a dark world can only come to us from a God who can enter into space and time and make a difference.  This word of grace could only come to us from the God who revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  He’s a God whom we didn’t bring down, but a God who has brought us up.  This is the message the church needs to be reminded of and this is the message that our world so badly needs to hear.

          The God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the personal God who was at work in the history of Israel.  And he’s the personal God who is still at work in our world today – in our past, in our present, and certainly in our future.  This God did not forget his promises to Abraham.  He did not forget his promises to the slaves in Egypt.  He did not forget his promises to David, or the Judean exiles.  And this God did not forget his promises to his own Son.  He did not abandon him to the grave and he will not abandon us either.  The God we know and serve isn’t a god of wood or stone.  He isn’t the god of Greek philosophical speculation.  He isn’t simply the god of Pantheism, or Deism, or reductionist materialism – He’s the God who has acted and will act again.  He will not abandon or cast off his people!

          For those of us who have put our trust in Jesus, through God’s grace, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to share this message.  On the one hand, we are to call our modern ideologies what they are always in danger of becoming – modern idolatries.  And on the other hand, we have the responsibility to share with a hurting world God’s message of grace.  Let’s remind ourselves once more of God’s word to his people.  “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

          We encounter God’s word of grace as we embark on the year 2017.  We may all feel anxious as we face the unknowns of the weeks and months ahead.  And it may be that you’re personally coming to grips with some unknowns in your life as you begin this new year.  Maybe you’re facing financial problems – you may have issues at your work.  You may be dealing with family or marital problems.  Maybe you’re carrying emotional burdens.  It may be that you are in the midst of a health scare – some kind of illness, or medical problem that has arisen.  Whatever you may be facing, you can be sure that the God who acted on behalf of Abraham, the God who acted for the exiles in Judea, and the God who most clearly acted in the person of Jesus Christ will continue to act on your behalf - the God who acted before, will act again. - Shay

Questions?

Though we may sometimes tire of formulating the answers, we are often forced to consider what we believe and why we believe it, when asked both simple and profound questions by our children.  Really, no question should be off limits when contemplating the cosmos.  It's a shame when adults loose the curiosity so common in a child.  We should all desire to ask questions.  That's what theology seeks to do -  to ask the questions that might lead to the answers, or that might lead to the understanding that some questions can't be answered in this life.  As Anselm of Canterbury put it: theology is faith seeking understanding.  I believe that there's so much more to our world and our reality than what immediately lies at the surface.  I think most people believe this as well.  Unfortunately, in a world full of distractions, and some of them quite amazing, many don't take the time to ask the questions that might lead to ultimate answers.  Here are some questions that came to my mind on Christmas Eve.  I believe that the answer to all of these questions arrived in the most unexpected of ways some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. 

Questions?

Are we just an insignificant dot of light - a cosmic amalgamation of dust and debris spinning around an average star in an average galaxy?
Will any of this matter in a million, or a billion, or a trillion years when the universe is shred to bits and pieces; gradually torn a part into a cold nothingness?
Are we just an accident of mindless atoms colliding randomly - creating the illusion of structure, purpose, and meaning?  Creating even the illusion of personhood?
Is this just an act - a charade - a put on of the grandest scale - one big universal joke?  Could such a joke be any more cruel?
Is there really any purpose and meaning to any of this?  
Or is this long march of history really nothing more substantial than the latest "tweet" or an episode of reality TV?
Do black lives, white lives, brown lives - do any lives really matter?
Is this something, really nothing?
Or; is there something more? - Shay 
 

What's In A Name?

          According to “Babycenter.com”, Sophia, Emma, and Olivia were the three most popular girl’s names given in 2016.  The most popular boy’s names were Jackson, Aiden, and Lucas.

          What’s in a name?  Do our names mean anything?  Do they in some ways define us?  Do they reveal something of our charcter?  Why did your parents name you what they named you?  Why did you give your children their names? 

          I was named after the now defunct Shea Stadium in New York City.  My dad just liked the sound of the name.  But they changed the spelling of it to “Shay” with an “a” “y” instead of an “e” “a”, so that my uncle wouldn’t call me “Shee-a”. 

          We “Americanized” the Irish name “Aisling” to “Ashlyn” when our daughter was born in 2009.  We discovered that her name means “dream” in Irish, but that’s not why we named her Ashlyn.

          A lot of people name their children after relatives or famous people.  And some people still name their children based on the meaning of the name or for some other symbolic reason. 

          Names were also very important in the Bible.  God told the prophet Isaiah to name his children for specific symbolic purposes.  One son was to be called Shear-Jashub which means “a remnant shall return”.  Another child was given the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, meaning “spoil speeds, prey hastes”.  Can you imagine the bullying you’d get at school with a name like that?

         But the most famous of the sign children in Isaiah, is of course the son who was to be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us”.  In the original context of Isaiah’s prophesy, this was to be the name of either one of Isaiah’s sons, or possibly, one of King Ahaz’s sons.  The child was to be a sign of God’s continual presence with his people. 

Why did God’s people, Judah, and specifically, King Ahaz need to be reassured of God’s presence with them?  Because King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel were plotting an attack on Jerusalem to depose Ahaz and place another king on the throne.  We’re told in the early part of Isaiah 7 that when Ahaz and his people learned of this plot, they were “shaking as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.”  They needed to know that their God would be with them in this crisis.

The word of the Lord from Isaiah 7:10-16.  “Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, ‘Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.’  But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.’  Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David!  Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also?  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.  He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.  For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.” 

Essentially, God’s message to Ahaz is that very soon, the land of Syria and the land of Ephraim will be deserted and they will no longer pose a threat to Ahaz and the people of Judah.  By the time the soon to be born child, Immanuel, is weaned from his mother’s breast, God’s promise will be fulfilled.  And because the child’s name is Immanuel, (“God with us”), they can be sure that their God will be with them, even as they face this crisis.

Throughout the centuries, God has always journeyed with his people.  He has never deserted them – he has never forsaken them.  When God’s people cry out to him, he hears them and he rescues them -  he saves them.  At the dawn of the first century of our era, God comes to his people again, but in the most unexpected of ways.  Matthew’s gospel tells the story like this.

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.  When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.  But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’  All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’  When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.” (Matthew 1:18-25).

If the names of the children in Isaiah reveal to us the nature and purposes of God, how much more do these two names reveal?  Jesus, which is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, or God saves, reminds us of God’s continual deliverance of his people.  Joshua led God’s people into the Promised Land, but how much more does Jesus lead his people into the ultimate Promised Land – the new creation in the age to come! 

And if the child Immanuel in Isaiah’s time had pointed God’s people to his continuing presence with them, how much more is God’s presence realized as God the Son takes on human flesh and moves into the neighborhood (to quote Eugene Peterson)!  In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God is truly with us.  

God’s modus operandi throughout time has been deliverance, salvation, and presence.  God rescues us for the sake of relationship, and he converts us for the sake of communion.  Jesus is the climax of the story of God and his people – he is God with his people!  These two names, Jesus and Immanuel reveal so much about the man from Nazareth.  And the man from Nazareth, in turn, reveals so much of the God of Israel – the God of the world. 

On Sunday, many in our world will celebrate the birth of Jesus.  We join them in this celebration.  But we also remember that his birth eventually led to his death and his death to his resurrection and exaltation.  We’re reminded of the early Christian hymn that says, “God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11).

So, wherever we’re at in our journey through life – even if we’re in the midst of a crisis – we can be sure that God will deliver us and rescue us through Jesus.  And let us not forget that God’s presence isn’t just promised at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, but also at the end.  Jesus’ final words are, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  God remains with us.  May we remain with him. - Shay

One's Own Sense of Worth

Doing ministry for your full-time job can be dangerous.  I'm not talking about those brave men and women who risk their lives in far-flung places selflessly laying it all on the line in order to bring good news to those in darkness.  They face a kind of danger that many of us pray we never face.  I'm referring to a more subtle, but spiritually speaking, a potentially far more deadly danger.  Maybe the biggest threat to a minister's life and ministry is the minister himself.  One's own sense of worth is often derived from the work that one does, and this can be extremely dangerous for those employed by churches.  Pride is probably the nastiest of sins and a deadly enemy for any believer, but I believe it can be especially damning for members of the clergy.  I've fought this sin all of my life and I have become increasingly aware of it the past decade or so as I've made Christian ministry my life's vocation.

But one of the things that has helped me to have a more realistic picture of myself is to look around me at all the ways that God is at work through my brothers and sisters in Christ, most of whom are not dependent on the church for their source of income (they in fact are the source of income for people like myself).  When I see dozens upon dozens of my fellow sojourners offering their bodies as living sacrifices, often going unnoticed in the process, I'm reminded that God's kingdom is built upon the foundation of humble servants who quietly and consistently demonstrate the love of the Lord and their neighbor, not expecting anything in return.  Sure, vocational ministers like myself have a role to play in Christ's church, and we should seek to play our parts well.  But anytime we begin to place a higher value on what we offer to the collective, compared to what our compatriots might offer, we are on dangerous ground.  Regardless of our role in Christ's church, we need to all be reminded that our worth is derived not from what we do, but from whose we are by virtue of the gospel.  We are the adopted children of the Father in whose hearts the Spirit of the Son cries "Abba Father!"

That last line comes straight out of Galatians chapter four.  The Apostle Paul is dealing with an imminent threat to the gospel as he writes the churches in Galatia.  The cliff-notes version of the backstory is this: Jewish Christians have infiltrated the Galatian churches claiming that in order to truly be a part of God's people, Gentile Christians have to keep the entire Mosaic Law, including the visible signs of covenant membership such as Jewish dietary restrictions, the Sabbath, and especially the rite of circumcision for male converts.  Paul claims that this version of the gospel is in fact not the gospel at all, but a distortion of the gospel.  Paul's argument in the letter could be fairly well summarized as this, "...in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.   There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise...And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba!  Father!'  So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God." (Galatians 3:26-29 & 4:6-7).

Thousands of years prior to this God had redeemed a people from slavery in the land of Egypt.  This people of course was Israel.  God had set them free from slavery and given them a new identity as his children.  Now, in Christ, God has formed a new people for himself derived from every tribe, nation, and tongue.  In God's family, ethnic identity counts for nothing.  In God's family, social standing counts for nothing.  In God's family, gender differences, count for nothing.  The only thing that counts for anything is being one of God's adopted children.  That's where our identity and our own sense of worth is to be found.

This sets me free from the slavery of finding my self worth through the success or failure of "my ministry".  This identity in Christ brings freedom to the believer who struggles to meet their own personal expectations in life and spirituality.  When a child of God discovers that there's nothing they can do that would make God love them more, and there's nothing they can do that would make God love them less, they are free to live boldly before God.  A fear a failure is replaced by a longing for love.

I can't say that I've fully embraced this new identity in Christ.  But I want to.  When I find myself becoming prideful over things that I think I've achieved, I need to be reminded of where my sense of worth is to come from.  When I feel like I've failed and that I'm just not good enough, I need to be reminded that that's true - I'm not good enough!  I never have been and I never will be.  But that doesn't matter.  What matters is that I am a child of God and that he has given me the Spirit of his Son.  If I allow the Spirit to do his work in me, then I will slowly, but surely, put to death my fleshly desires, including the nastiest of them all: pride!

Where do you find your sense of worth?  Is it in your job or vocation?  Do you find your identity in your skills or hobbies?  Is it found in your favorite sports teams?  Is your sense of self found in your social or economic standing?  Do you find your identity in your level of education (or your lack of education)?  Do you view yourself primarily through your present life stage (single, married, children, no children, employed, unemployed, etc.)?  Is your self worth bound up completely in your physical family?  Wherever you derive your sense of self worth, God invites you to find your  identity through his Son.  He welcomes you into his family where all the social and spiritual barriers that so often divide our world can be torn down and demolished.   You can discover a new identity in and through him.  If you are curious about what life in Christ might be like, talk to someone who may have already taken those first steps down this path.  Life in Christ really does open up a whole new identity and a whole new world (Gal 6:15).  - Shay     

The King

“(The Lord) chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loves.  He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.  He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds; from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.  With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.”  So, says Psalm 78.  David, the shepherd of his father’s sheep became King David, the shepherd of God’s people. 

David was not the first or last of Israel’s and Judah’s kings, but he was the greatest – the one that all the others were measured against.  His kingdom stretched even beyond the borders of the land that God promised to Abraham.  David was ruddy and handsome, a skilled musician, a passionate poet, a fearless warrior, a charismatic leader, and a cunning politician.  He wasn’t perfect, but he had all the attributes one would look for in a king.  Yet, when he was first anointed, no one could have imagined that he would have been God’s chosen one.  David ruled God’s people with equity and justice.  He was a man after God’s own heart.  He learned to love the Lord with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, even if he at times failed to love his neighbor as himself.  And when he wavered in his love of God or neighbor, he confessed and repented of his sin. 

But sadly, David’s Kingdom would not last forever.  After his son Solomon failed to seek the Lord, the way David had done, much of the kingdom was torn from David’s grandson, Rehoboam.  Most of the rest of David’s descendants ruled Judah poorly, leading God’s people into sin and idolatry.  It got so bad that the Lord finally handed his people over to destruction and captivity.  For nearly 600 years, God’s people were without a king.  But they weren’t without hope. 

They hoped that one day, God would restore to them a king from the line of David who would defeat their pagan oppressors and expand the borders of Israel farther than they had ever been.  Many of the prophets spoke of a deliverer to come and some of the Psalms, especially Psalms 2 and 110 hinted at similar ideas.

But just as David seemed to be an unlikely choice for king, so God finally chose to deliver his people in a most unexpected way.  Rather than attacking the Roman legions on horseback, leading an army wielding the typical weapons of war, God’s anointed, Jesus, rode into Jerusalem humbly on a donkey.  The real enemy he came to defeat wasn’t the pagan oppression of the Roman Empire, but the enemy of all of humanity – sin and death.  And instead of sitting on a throne in the middle of Jerusalem, Jesus, the true King, was enthroned upon the splintered logs of a Roman cross.  God’s victory would be won, not through violence and vindictiveness, but through submission and surrender. 

One of Judah’s prophets had laid out the blueprint of how God would ultimately win his victory, but most of Jesus’ contemporaries failed to grasp the message.  Hear the words from Isaiah 52 and 53. “See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.  Just as there were many who were astonished at him…so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him…Who has believed what we have heard?  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity…Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all…Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.  When you make his life an offering for sin…Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great…because he poured out himself to death…and made intercession for transgressors.”

In his life and ministry, Jesus was everything that the kings of Judah and Israel had failed to be.  In his life and ministry, Jesus was everything that the people of Israel had failed to be.  They were to be a light to the nations and to be that suffering servant described by Isaiah.  But they had failed in their God-given vocation.  But Jesus was faithful and did not fail.  He was faithful, all the way to death.  All of humanity had been called by God to be his image-bearing creatures to the rest of creation, and of course, we’ve all failed in this vocation as well.  But Jesus, the true human, the true Israelite, and the true King, was faithful, and completed the task that none of us could complete.  God the Son, showed us what it truly means to be human.  Jesus has forever bridged the gap between God and us, by becoming one of us.  He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

An early church hymn, quoted by the apostle Paul, said it this way.  “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.  Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We serve a risen and exalted King.  May we live this day, and each and every day in hopeful expectation as we await the return of our King! - Shay

Warrior Poet

“In the year of our Lord, 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields of Bannockburn.  They fought like warrior poets.  They fought like Scotsmen.  And won their freedom.”  So the movie Braveheart ends.  The hero of the film, William Wallace has died.  He’s martyred for the cause of Scottish independence, but his legacy lives on through his fellow Scotsmen, and most importantly, in the heart of the flawed figure, Robert the Bruce, who leads his countrymen to victory over the English, and gains the Scottish crown.

But this one line stands out at the end of the film.  “They fought like warrior poets.”  Warrior poets.  What an evocative description, capturing ruggedness and tenderness all in one.  The mind and the body - art and practicality - coming together in a kaleidoscope of savage beauty.  For me personally, I can’t think of a way I would rather be described.  Whether I am much of either a poet or a warrior, I’m not sure, but at my best, I aspire to be both.

David was both.  In 1 Samuel 18, we’re told that after David had defeated Goliath, the women came out of all of the towns of Israel dancing and singing, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”  Later, to win the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage, David provided Saul with 100 foreskins of the Philistines.  Presumably, David was forced to kill these enemies.  It’s unlikely they would have parted with that particular part of their anatomy otherwise.  In fact, David was such a warrior and had shed so much blood, he was told by God, in 1 Chronicles 28:3, that he was not to build the temple. 

But David wasn’t just a fighter, he was a writer too.  A poet.  Many of the Psalms are attributed to David and they are some of the finest poetical writings in the history of the world.  Many of the psalms that we use in worship are attributed to David.  Just listen to some of these lines.  “You, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head…O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth…The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge…The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is my stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid...The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over the mighty waters.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.  The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon…Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit…I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God…As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.” 

I could go on and on.  This only skims the surface of all the psalms attributed to David.  He was a poet, rivaled only by a few over the past 3,000 years.  And his poetry sprang from his deep and emotional relationship with God.  Like the time he danced with all of his might before the Lord and before any and all who were present.  Though his wife Michal was embarrassed by his lack of restraint, David was willing to make himself vulnerable before others out of his sheer jubilation at welcoming the Ark of the Covenant into his royal city.

I believe that both men and women would do well to embrace some of David’s raw emotion and vulnerability in our relationship with God and in our relationships with one another.  As both a warrior and a poet, what stands out in David’s life was his passion.  He gave 110% in everything he set his hand to – whether the sword or the pen.  David was one of the most passionate people to have ever lived.

But David was not the most passionate person to have ever breathed the breath of life.  That description is reserved for none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  It’s no wonder that we refer to his death upon the cross as The Passion.  It was Jesus’ passionate relationship with his Father that enabled him to go all the way in his life of obedient submission – all the way to death on a Roman execution instrument.  He held nothing back – he laid it all on the line.  Jesus never wrote a word that was preserved for posterity, yet his poetic life is written on our hearts.  And though his battles were fought without the weapons of war, there’s no greater warrior than the one whose death and resurrection brought victory.  

The passion of the ultimate warrior poet inspired the apostle Paul to write the following in his letter to the Philippians.  “…whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.  More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own…but one that comes through the faith of Christ…I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”  May this be our passionate hope as well!  - Shay

The Shepherd

When we look back at our lives, I’m sure most of us can see the various ways that God has prepared us for where we are now and what we are presently doing.  Back then, we may not have been aware of how God was building our knowledge, experience, or character, but now in hindsight, we can see God’s method in the madness.  It’s been said that we live life going forward, but we only understand it looking backwards. 

What would have been the best training for a future king of Israel?  How might God prepare someone who would rule and lead his people? Looking after a bunch of dumb, defenseless, and smelly sheep might not be the most intuitive answer.  But that’s exactly where David found himself in 1 Samuel 16 when he was anointed as the next king of Israel.  How did his role as a shepherd prepare him to lead God’s people?

          Being a shepherd at that time and place took a lot of courage.  In 1 Samuel 17, David spoke to Saul before he went out to battle Goliath.  “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down and kill it.  Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God…The Lord who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.”

          As a shepherd, David was willing to put his life on the line to protect his dad’s flock of sheep.  When the little lambs were in harm’s way, David engaged in hand to hand combat with dangerous and wild animals to ensure that his father lost none of those entrusted to his care.  It wasn’t easy, but David wasn’t alone in this venture.  He relied on God to protect him and deliver him from danger.  In fact, rather than self-reliance, David practiced God-reliance, not only as a shepherd of his father’s sheep, but later as a shepherd of God’s people.  The shepherd was a common metaphor used to describe the role of a king in the ancient Near East, and in David’s most famous Psalm, Psalm 23, the metaphor of God as a shepherd bleeds into the actual description of God as our King.

          “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me besides still waters; he restores my soul.  He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”

          As much as anything, David’s time as a shepherd taught him to rely wholly and completely on God, his true shepherd, his true king.  More than anything else, that equipped David to be the ruler and leader of God’s people later in life. 

          David’s life as a shepherd points us to another shepherd who lived about a thousand years later.  John chapter 10 paints the picture for us beautifully.  “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd…and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

          David, the shepherd, was willing to risk his life to protect the sheep of his father, Jesse.  Jesus, the good shepherd, freely laid down his life for his Father’s sheep.  What David was willing to do, our shepherd, Jesus, did do - to the fullest possible extent.  So, we can join David in proclaiming, “The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want…Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.”  - Shay