Lay the Foundation

            This week I read this sentence: “[The man summoned by divine promise’s] understanding consists in the fact that in sympathy with the misery of being he anticipates the redeeming future of being and so lays the foundation of reconciliation, justification, and stability” (J. Moltmann, 1967, p.290). It’s a rather dense sentence in dense section of what is, in some ways, a wonderful book, Theology of Hope. To cut through the thicket of James Leitch’s translation Moltmann’s theological German, I homed in on the phrase “lays the foundation.”

            What foundation is laid by “the one summoned by divine promise? Anyone – you, me, your friend, anyone who has entrusted his life to Christ, received forgiveness, and been born again is to be counted among those summoned by the divine promise. In other words, this refers to Christians who are determined to follow Jesus. (Is there any other way that can be call ‘Christian,’ than total commitment to the way of Jesus?)

            This brought to my mind Dallas Willard’s thought in Divine Conspiracy and The Spirit of the Disciplines. One of the primary motivations Willard saw for living a spiritually disciplined life was that doing so prepared one for life in Heaven. Willard hinted at the possibility that all might go to Heaven, but it would only feel like Heaven for those who spent this life getting ready.

            So, how does one “lay the foundation,” or “get ready” (Willard)? How do we store up treasures in Heaven (Jesus – Matthew 6:19-21). What does foundation-laying/readying/storing up look like in one’s life? I wrote last month that this year, my spiritual teacher will be Simeon (Luke 2), the old man who hung out at the temple waiting for God to show him the “consolation of Israel.” Is foundation-laying/readying/storing up simply the wait? Is the disciple life a life of waiting God?

            In a sense, yes, but how do we spend out time waiting? My belief is our waiting is expectant. (1) We live each day expecting God to God-sized in our lives that day. (2) We live toward a specific end; toward the eternal kingdom of God, that was launched in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and will be fully consummated in his return. We live toward that return. We live today by the values and currency of that time.

            What is the defining value? Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. What is the only valid currency in the kingdom of God? Service. “The greatest among you must be … one who serves. … I [Jesus]am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:26, 27). So, my ambition is to wait on the Lord. My work, done while waiting, involves foundation-laying/readying/storing up. I do this work by honing in myself a heart of love for God and neighbor. I sharpen the effectiveness of my love and broaden the extent of my love by serving and helping others. No matter how badly I do this work, God gives me more opportunities. No matter how well I do, I can always improve.

 

My Belly

 

I just saw an article titled "Why Being Fat is Great."

I won't read it.

Spare tire. Expanding tube. Stretched belt.

Reese's Cup. Flavored chips. Breaded chicken, with sauce. 

I don't hate myself. If I did, I wouldn't regret that second Reese's Cup.

If I did, I wouldn't long to run, or at least jog. 

If I did, I wouldn't sit down to write.

If I did, I wouldn't imagine something different.

I don't hate myself.

My belly is my body. So are my arthritic knees. 

So are my literate eyes.

So are my ears, trained to listen like a therapist,

or like a pastor;

or like a friend.

I won't check on the article, "Why Being Fat is Great."

I don't hate myself. 

And, I'd rather stop thinking about my belly and read something else.

Simeon: A Biblical Role Model for 2025

 

            During Advent 2024 (a few weeks ago), I followed the devotional distributed to subscribers of Christianity Today magazine. It’s called A Time for Wonder. The entry that spoke most profoundly to me is written by Lily Journey. Her focus is on Simeon who we meet in Luke 2:25-35. “Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (v.25-26).

            What was Simeon’s job? Luke doesn’t say. How old was he? Luke offers no clue. From what family and tribe did he hail? We don’t know. His social class? Luke doesn’t tell us.

            All we know of Simeon is that he was waiting for God to deliver on the promise; he, Simeon, would see the Messiah with his own eyes. How long did Simeon wait? What was his day-to-day life like while he waited? It’s impossible to fill in those blanks, but I believe that whatever Simeon’s life was, it included a responsive, committed prayer life. Verse 27 says he was guided by the Holy Spirit to the temple on the day Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus to be dedicated. A lot parents brought their babies. How could he know which was the correct family? The Spirit directed Simeon to Mary and Joseph.

            I pause in his story here because Simeon is going to be before me as a character and a muse throughout 2025. I want to become someone who prays like Simeon, believing God will act. Then, I want to live my faith conscientiously and compassionately as I wait for God to act. I want to be such profound spiritual attentiveness that when the Spirit guides, I am ready to follow.

            Simeon exuded determined, expectant waiting. He modeled faith in the way I want to live. In 2025, I will strive to fill the role he occupied, that of expectant, faithful waiting on God.

            I encourage you, in 2025, to select someone from the Bible who models faith in the way you would like to live it. People will say they want to “grow closer to God in the new year.” That’s too vague. How do you know you’ve accomplished this goal? I propose that you zero in on a specific person from scripture, identify the qualities that individual has that you’d like, and then try to develop those qualities in your life.

            I will read and reread the 11 verses in Luke 2 that tell Simeon’s story and write about my own spiritual journey as I try to embody the values and strengths of Simeon in my own life. Find someone in the Bible to be your role model as you follow Jesus in 2025.

Unexpected Gifts

 

Thinking about gifts I want to give this year, I told my wife I wanted to bake something. She looked at me skeptically. I am not a baker or any kind of a cook. She said she’d help. Within a few hours we had 6 little cakes that will be ready to go. She “helped.” Ha, ha. She did everything. All I did was peel the apples. Her help was a tremendous gift to me.

            A friend is undergoing tremendous challenges. I thought he was mostly alone in the world. I have known him for years and I come alongside him in his difficulties, but there’s limits to how much I can do. Recently, I received a text from someone three states away. He also knows my friend and will help in very big ways. I didn’t know he existed and now he will do much to make things better for my friend. This has been an unplanned, unexpected gift.

            Two of my three children now drive. Teaching them to drive and helping them get their licenses seemed to be a matter of course. It’s just something you do when your kids turn 16. I didn’t anticipate that they would both be thoroughly competent drivers whom I could not only trust, but appeal to. Hey son, I am busy. Can you go to store and pick up what we need? Having them as drivers has been a real gift that at key times has made life easier.

            I could go on with examples of unexpected gifts. I count these as blessings from God. When Jesus was born, Israel wasn’t thinking, okay, in the time of King Herod, under Governor Pilate, God will send a Savior. No one was watching for Jesus, at least not the way he came, born among barnyard animals, born into poverty. Some hoped for a dynamic military leader, another David who would strike the heart of Goliath (Rome). No one anticipated a peasant savior whose defining act would be to die on a cross.

            God is a giver of unexpected gifts. If you know Jesus, you know that. You know that the one we celebrate changed your life, gave your purpose and hope, calls you into his church, and into his kingdom. If you know Jesus, you know all of this. But maybe you’ve forgotten. Turn back to Him. This Christmas, turn back to the giver of good things, the Savior. 

          If you don’t know Jesus, you can! Read the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Romans. You have plenty of time between now and Christmas Day. Give yourself the gift of walking in this story. Confess your sins and open your heart to God and he will come in. He will give the gift of salvation and new life. You’ll never be the same.

Trust

 

11/6/2024

            When I was a small child, my father would throw me up in the air and catch me. I would laugh and say “Again, daddy.” Upon becoming a father, I delighted in throwing my son high, high up, and catching him. Do fathers just like throwing children? No. Fathers love seeing joy burst forth from their kids. There’s no better feeling in the world. Why do the kids go along with it? Why, at 4 years old, would I say, “Again, daddy?” Why would my 2-year-old son, being hurled aloft, have a look of delight on his face? Trust. Trust in safety; trust that the protector wants goodness, fun, and happiness for you; trust that the one protecting you will put your needs first.

            Is it hard to trust, living in the world as it is today? Maybe. Truth be told, I have many nights where I am awake at odd hours, unable to sleep because I find the world to be untrustworthy. Sometimes it angers me. Sometimes it scares me. It always tires me out. Exhausted, I must retreat into the arms of the Lord, who I know has my best interests at heart. At the very core of Christian joy and freedom is absolute dependence on God and absolute trust in God. We muddle along in a fallen, broken world, a world of pain and death, a world of contention and anger. Yet, even amid the chaos and pain of sin running amok, we can have joy and delight because of who walks with us. Our God can be trusted.

            What happened on November 5 neither changes that nor confirms it. Some of those reading this were pretty happy about the election results. Some were upset by how things went. The results are not a confirmation of God’s providence or special calling on the United States; neither were the results four years ago, or four years before that. God does not rescue worldly empires or favor one nation over others. In fact, the Bible, read through a New Testament lens, does not endorse any earthly government, not in Jerusalem, not Rome, not Washington DC. God’s word calls followers of Jesus to a sanctified indifference with the way the world is, including the United States government.

Sanctified indifference does not mean with withdraw from the world. Quite the opposite. God sends us to the world, and as citizens, we vote, we pay taxes, we serve in the military, and we might even run for office. Even as we fully participate in society, all the while we know we are aliens here (Philippians 3:20). Our destiny is the Kingdom of Heaven.

            Therefore, we do not ever tie our confidence to election results. We do not rely on the performance of presidents, senators, governors, or judges. “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:9). Our so-called earthly leaders are untrustworthy, and trust is too valuable to give to those who won’t handle it with care. What happens if the dad throws his child up and then walks away, as the child plummets back down? If the child survives, he won’t gleefully say, “Again daddy!” He won’t trust a protector who fails to catch him. Eventually, the president and other elected officials will betray our trust and we will fall. It is better, says the Bible, not to put our confidence in princes (or presidents).

            The Lord can be trusted. That’s why we should do our best to resist outrage or elation over the election results. Elections, but if we are truly in Christ, they aren’t that important. We can’t be too upset. We have too much joy from our trustworthy God. Conversely, if our candidate won, we aren’t too giddy because we know real joy doesn’t come from him or her. We find real joy when we turn to the source: our triune God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It is to God that we give all our trust, knowing He will catch us, hold us, and walk with us. That’s true regardless of anything that happens.

 

The Paradoxical Proverb

 

 

Proverbs 22:4 says, “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.” Odd. By its very nature, humility would not only seek no reward, but one acting humbly would actively avoid being recognized or rewarded. How can there be a reward for a posture and way of being that at its essence eschews recognition?

And what a reward! Riches, honor, and life. Just a few verses prior, Proverbs 22:1, we’re told, “a good name is to be chosen rather than riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” How does one go about achieving a good name? Can one achieve a good name and still be humble? I suppose it doesn’t matter because the good name is more desirable than the payout for humility – riches and honor and life.

How are we to make sense of the word of the Lord, and specifically the different nuggets of wisdom in the book of proverbs? Understanding is the subject of the sermon preached at Hillside Church on October 6 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feOLTKHxTsM). Maybe that message will help the reader synthesize what all is to be gleaned in the word of God.

Humility is an important them in Proverbs, and theologically, humility is at the core of the messaging at Hillside Church for the next month. On October 13, we will have Don Harvey from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina leading us in a discussion on different possible pathways forward for our congregation.

October 20, we’ll have our final message in the Proverbs series. Read Proverbs chapter 7. Verses 4-5 tell us to call wisdom our sister and insight our “intimate friend.” We need these close relationships because they will help us fend off the temptress. What tempts you to walk paths other than the one God lays before you? How do you resist temptation? Only in humility can acknowledge that we need help in being who God calls us to be. Proverbs 7, though couched in misogynist mythologies, offers a warning we must heed: the world with tempt us. Yielding to temptation, we walk the path of destruction.

October 27, Daynette Snead Perez will be our preacher. Please pray for Sheemoo Tatataw, our youth group, and me as head to the beach for a weekend of spiritual growth. And pray that God would speak to our church through the powerful, beautiful witness of Rev. Snead Perez.

Finally, in the first two Sundays of Novembers, we will look to the Gospel of Mark (10:35-45) and to the Psalms (146) to be reminded that real leadership is service and the only true king is our God. Those messages will reject a bipolar politics of division and winning-losing, and instead turn to the politics of the Gospel of Jesus. Yes, those messages are intentionally situated before and after the first Tuesday of November. Yes, the only to participate in either politics or faith, as a follower of Jesus, is to do so humbly.

Pray for the Neighborhood

Pray for the Community

 

This is my call to you, whomever you are, wherever you are, to pray for your neighborhood and your town. People are hurting. People are frustrated. People need Jesus, but they don’t know him and don’t know they need him. Through Jeremiah, God told the people of Judah, God’s chosen, to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf” (Jer. 29:7). They were not in the City of David, Zion, the place God called home. They were far, far from home. Yet the Lord told them, not only to seek the welfare of those Babylonians who had taken them into exile, but to pray for them.

What is exile? How does one exist when he or she is forced to leave home and go to a foreign place?

Paul considered himself a foreigner in his present age.  “Our citizenship is in Heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).  In fact, his only motivation for remaining on this earth was to help people grow in their faith in Christ (Philippians 1:24-26). That was motivation enough. Paul joyfully (1:26) remained and, like Jeremiah, sought the wellbeing of his age. He was convinced wellbeing is tied to faith in Jesus.

I am too. We aren't at home here. Our place is in Heaven, with Jesus. Yet, he has us here. Most of our neighbors in Carrboro and Chapel Hill don’t go to church or in any noticeable way live lives of faith in Christ. Even if they appear to live happy, fulfilled lives, without Jesus, they are lost. God has planted us here to help our unbelieving neighbors find their way to Him. So, pray for our town. Pray for those on your street who don’t follow Jesus. Pray, and when the time is right, invite someone to church, or share why Jesus means so much to you.