Genesis 11:4 - Confusion

 Genesis 11:4 - "Let us make a name." To make a name implied self-direction. The struggle for humanity: to grow, to develop, to become all that being in the image of God promises without perverting that image through pridefulness and violence. The Lord gave the people a name: Babel! They aspired to the wrong goals, and the result was God's judgement. Babel means confusion. Aspiration was not bad; it is good. Building, creating--being a steward of talent and resources is good. To use talent and resources to make a name, that is, a life apart from God is not good, and such perversion of ability leads to confusion.

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Humility. I believe that almost every spiritual problem can be solved by humility. One way to understand humility is to see it as accuracy. Humility means seeing and describing yourself as you are without defensiveness or exaggeration. Humility requires self-awareness which means to recognize your strengths and to recognize your weaknesses and limitations. In this understanding pride is a subset of humility. To take pride in one's work and to be willing to offer one's abilities in service to others is good. Such pride produces a confidence that is well-founded. A humble person can be confident. So self-awareness includes this desire to be a good steward of one's strengths. At the same time humility requires the desire and commitment to improve one's deficits to the degree possible. Humility is both self-awareness and self-forgetfulness. To be self-forgetful as an expression of humility means that a person is eager to listen to others, to work at understanding others and to be helpful as wanted and needed by others. Listening is first an inclination and then a skill. People who have assertive personalities may need to work harder at wanting to listen. If they do not have the inclination to listen they can still become listeners through discipline. Listening is essential to understanding, but understanding often requires more, particularly, when cultural, racial, language, education, gender, life experiences, and parenting differences create world views that diverge. So pridefulness, unwillingness to see things as they really are is the opposite of humility, but pride is a subset of humility. In Genesis 11 the people became prideful which led to confusion and destruction. Peter reminded the church that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5).

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As in all matters of virtue grace is the beginning point. Humility is a picture of salvation. Jesus told a story of two men who went to pray. One man, religious leader, prayed with gratitude that he was not like the other man who had come to pray. He was grateful not to be a sinner. The second man fell on his face and acknowledged his sin and prayed to be forgiven. Jesus asked which man left the place of prayer right with God. Sin, wrong doing, separates us from God when we do not acknowledge it. In everyone's life, except perhaps one who is mentally ill, there is an awareness of right and wrong. To refuse to accept this reality of sin is to persist in wrong doing and to separate oneself from God who is both loving and righteous. God's loved expressed in grace that offers forgiveness puts us right with God when we acknowledge and ask forgiveness for our sins.

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Grandchildren. Yesterday I showed Stone, our four-year old grandson, a picture of himself with his siblings when he was less than one year old, and I asked him if he recognized everyone in the picture. He named them all, and said, "I'm the baby!" I have enjoyed watching each one of my grandchildren grow from infant to child and now to watch our granddaughter become a teenager. Each stage is wonderful. At the dinner table last evening the youngest was crying, and the oldest was helping him with instructions: "take a deep breath, drink some water." The wonder of family humbles me. We grow into maturity and help the one behind us grow, too. It is a good picture of the church family. We have in every church different ages of faith, and those ages are not necessarily matched by years. Some are older chronologically but younger spiritually. Still, the goal in our church family is to help the ones who are younger to grow to maturity. It is a wonder of family life.

Any They Chose - Genesis 6:2

 A sexual perversion arose.

It was some form of behavior that contradicted the purposes of God, the ideal for male-female relationships, for marriage, for child bearing. This behavior typified the "wickedness" of humanity. In the midst of the wickedness, the man Noah stood out as one who refused to participate in the wickedness which had become widespread in his community. God chose, called and instructed Noah to build an ark that would provide safety to him and all within the ark as the flood of God's judgment came upon humankind.

The ark that Noah built has become a symbol of the church. The flood in Noah's day cleansed the earth of mankind's sinful behavior. In the New Testament the baptism of water symbolizes death to sin, the cleansing of God's grace through Christ's death on the cross and resurrection to a new life. As the ark brought Noah safely into a new world, so baptism into the church brings the believer into a new life.

Here is an experiment in thought: what if there had been multiple ark builders in the days of Noah? What if some folks had believed that judgment was coming, and they decided to create their own vessel of salvation? Would the arks that they built have survived the flood that brought God's judgment? To carry the experiment in thought forward: what if there are churches today that are built to the specifications of someone other than God? Will those churches be a safe place?

Escape from judgment was not the basis for building the ark.  Noah received his call because he "walked with God" (Genesis 6:9). He was not escaping. He was being saved. Sexual perversion or any other kind of sin--violence is mentioned in Genesis in particular--will result in judgment. No amount of ark building on one's own will offer an escape from the flood. Only the call of God brings salvation. In history the ark has become a symbol of the church, but the ark is a safe place only when God calls his people to take refuge. An ark built for escape or pleasure or pride or social service or cultural acceptance or any other reason will not survive the flood.

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"It's Unlikely"

"It's unlikely," said the four year old.

He was serious, seeming almost old.

We stifled a laugh as he left for home.

We'd asked for a hug from out little gnome.

Hug yes, but to ask for a smile was bold.

So, we asked him, "a hug without so cold

and mean a face?" Once again we were told

and his stern face made him seem almost grown:

"It's unlikely."

We closed the door so our laugh we could hold

and not show humor at what we'd been told.

For we both knew,  a good night's sleep at home

with us tomorrow he'd be not so grown.

Withhold hug and smile? One another we told,

"It's unlikely."

Baby Jesus - Luke 2:12

Luke 2:12 "This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

I grew up singing the Christmas carol, “Away in a Manger.” I loved this carol as a child, but as I got older I came to think of it as just a children’s carol. I was happy to sing it as part of a children’s program or to sing it as a way of showing our love for children, but there was a time when I thought that I had outgrown this simple carol. Now, in the later years of my life I have come back to this anonymously written carol with new appreciation. I no longer think of it as a child’s song; today, I think of it as a simple but profound reflection upon the Christmas message.

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed

The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head;

The stars in the sky looked down where he lay,

The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

Jesus came to us as a baby, and in that fact, we find the comfort that our God comes as gently as it is possible to come to anyone. A baby is not threatening. World leaders usually stand on the stage of history because they have demonstrable power. Babies are weak and dependent, not threatening, but soft and gentle.

Jesus came to us as a baby, and in that fact, we see his universality. Babies belong to everyone. A baby has no language. A baby has no culture. In a sense a baby has no nationality. A baby could be raised in any country and he or she would become a citizen of that place, but a baby does not start life with patriotism. Babies are not aware of race or ethnicity or even gender; they learn in time to see themselves that way, but they don’t start with such markers. Babies belong to everyone. Jesus came as a baby, and he belongs to all of us.

Jesus came to us as a baby, and in that fact, we see that our humanity has eternal value to God. Clearly, God could have appeared in any form, but God chose to reveal himself as a human baby. In that sense God is a humanist. God cares about human beings. God loves us as we are: in all our humanity. Because of God’s affirmation in the incarnation, all human beings deserve respect and justice.

Jesus came to us as a baby, and in that fact, we know that God chose for Jesus to die because, as we know from Scripture, it is appointed unto us humans to die. By taking on flesh and being born, God in Christ chose to die with us. When the Creator takes death upon himself we know that death’s power is broken for God is eternal. As a baby Jesus brings the promise of life eternal.

Jesus came to us as a baby, and in that fact, God has invited us to take him into our lives. Just as we can reach out and lift a baby from the crib to hold in our arms, so God has invited us to take him into our lives. We can know God because God has come to us in the Christ child.

Imagine yourself, reaching out and taking the Holy Child into your arms. Feel the gentleness of God. See how trusting this baby in your arms is: he belongs to you whoever you are. This baby is flesh and blood just like you, and he has come to bless every joy and overcome every trouble that is common to human beings. This baby will die on the cross, but from death he will arise to eternal life. Take him into your arms and rise with him. He is God’s salvation for the world and for you. Amen.

A Reflection on John 3:14-22 with Some Personal Additions - - "Release from Condemnation"

John 3:17 “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn . . .” (NIV)

I grew up going to Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, so at an early age I learned John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (KJV)  Whenever I read the story of Jesus and Nicodemus I am drawn inevitably to this verse as the climax of their encounter. But not everyone is.

Some years ago a young man came to me for baptism. He had made a profession of faith elsewhere and now wanted to join the church. As we talked about his faith we reviewed John chapter three. For him it was a first reading. I expected him to focus on verse 16 as I always had, but he was touched by verse 17 and the good news that God and Christian faith were not about condemnation.

Of course, the passage does teach that condemnation exists, but this condemnation we bring on ourselves as we turn away from God. The clear message of John 3 as my young friend realized and helped me to see in a new way is that God does not want to condemn but to save. We condemn ourselves, and alone we cannot lift the weight of our mortality and moral failure.

Paul, the greatest theologian of the church, struggled with his morals. He failed. He felt condemned. One can almost hear his plaintive cry in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am!” (NIV) Paul asked the fundamental question: “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (24) His moral failure combined with the realization of his mortality brought down a weight of condemnation that he understood himself to deserve.

In words that ring even more loudly than his words of anguish Paul wrote that there is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1, NIV) God’s presence in Christ and the message of the cross and the good news of the resurrection and the promise of Christ’s return, all combine to assure us that our sins are lifted off of us. Eternal life will replace mortality, and all will be made right in Christ. “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17 NIV). That is the message of the church.

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Moral Philosophy. Judy finds great articles and sends them on to me. Here is one she found through our friend Laurie McNeil about a growing distinction that educators are drawing between fact and opinion. The article appears in the New York Times; it was written by Justin P. McBrayer, an associate professor of philosophy at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. The subject is "Why Our Children Don't Think There are Moral Facts."

Grandchildren. Sweetie Pie (age 5) and I are writing a book together about one of the adventures of Freddie and Fiona. We make up the story together, but she does the illustrations alone. Judy has told us that it should be published; Sweetie Pie asked what “published” meant, and Judy told her that we could sell the book. Her reply, “I don’t want to sell it. I want to keep it!” (So do I! And honestly, it’s not ready for prime time--not by far, but writing it is great fun for Sweetie Pie and me.)