Godgrown

Updates from February, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 10:46 am on February 2, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Chicago’s Cher-SNOW-byl 

  Chicago is under a blinding blizzard the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1967.  Its amazing how absolutely consuming the weather is right now.  It’s all over the Tribune, Facebook, and my conversations here at a local bakery.

  I’m peering out a window as plows push away a pile of snow only to let the sky create a new problem right behind them.  People are catching cabs – leaving their cars in the middle of the streets.  I think I saw a bus go by with chains wrapped around its tires.  Chicagoans become both paralyzed by the might of the weather, and strangely adventurous in its wake!  People out with snow shoes, ski goggles, I think I even saw a pack of huskies pulling a CTA train…

  It is powerful watching the wind blow in the middle of a blizzard.  Its almost unbelievable watching lightning clap across the sky illuminating the millions of snowflakes in view.  ”Thundersnow…” who’dda thought…

  All this brings to mind just how fragile this whole project is.  I mean – this isn’t exactly the full extent of the universe’s power – a simple solar flare at the wrong angle or a slight chink in our earth’s electro-magnetic armor and this snow would melt in a millisecond and so would we.  There truly is no limit to the power God has in his hands – this is just a kind reminder of what’s possible.  It’s also a reminder of the continued grace of our existence!  Sitting in this warm space with decent coffee and a funny folk music playing in the background is all a grace.

  Ancient cultures believed that this weather madness was proof of a two gods fighting it out in heaven leaving us with the collateral damage.  Worrisome.

  Keep the fragility of your life always before you, but don’t live it out in fear.  Let it be a moment of living in the dependence of the very Power who controls this “snowpacalyse” – who puts a limit to the force of the winds and the feet of snow that fall.  God didn’t destroy chaos when he created this world of order; he put it in it’s place:

  Job 38:8 “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries

  as it burst from the womb,

  9 and as I clothed it with clouds

  and wrapped it in thick darkness?

  10 For I locked it behind barred gates,

  limiting its shores.

  11 I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.

  Here your proud waves must stop!’

  If you’re experiencing the power of God’s chaos today – enjoy the grace of existence in the midst of it all.  He’s got chaos on a leash, but today he’s letting it loose for a little while.

  
   

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  Mark 10:07 am on January 22, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Bad Gifts 

  Have you ever gotten a gift for someone that, when the gift was given, both of you knew that it was something you hoped to use yourself?  This happens just about every year at Christmas.  I give Katrina kitchenware, hoping against hope that I receive the benefits of that gift time and time again.  Yeah, she asked for it – but somewhere deep down that gift was really all about me, not her.

  Why give someone a gift they aren’t asking for?  You waste time and money, and feel slighted, forgotten.  No bueno.  What about God?  If you give a gift to God that he’s not interested in, are you really giving that gift to him, or are you giving it to another god, a cleverly disguised version of yourself that you’ve constructed in your mind?

  The Jews remain in a fragile place in their geo-political situation halfway through the 5th Century BCE.  Several thousand Jews have returned to Jerusalem, and under the watch of the benevolent dictator-king Cyrus, they are rebuilding the walls of the city.  In other words, they are exposed – vulnerable to attack.  In order to finish the work quickly, they are beating and oppressing each other for fear of not getting it done before a hungry empire comes to swallow them up.  And they are using religious means too – they have instituted a nation-wide fast to keep God on their side…but God sees right through their “gift.”

  Yahweh’s wishlist may have included fasting…but not this brand.  You got this fast at the wrong store.  He’s interested in a fast that leads to right living, the kind that promotes one’s fellow human beings, and does not oppress them.

  58:5 You humble yourselves

  by going through the motions of penance,

  bowing your heads

  like reeds bending in the wind.

  You dress in burlap

  and cover yourselves with ashes.

  Is this what you call fasting?

  Do you really think this will please the Lord?

  6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:

  Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;

  lighten the burden of those who work for you.

  Let the oppressed go free,

  and remove the chains that bind people.”

  Outwardly, the Jews are eager to please Yahweh with signs and commitments, but in daily life they exploit all their workers.  God wants your fast to include breaking the chains of injustice, to share the food you are not eating with those who have no food, provide shelter to the homeless…  The Jews wanted their wall built, and they were dealing fiercely with themselves to see it accomplished ASAP.

  Some might think God was unduly interested in high and lofty morals in a time when these folks were in dire straits.  Maybe once they were safe behind their city walls they could get on to practicing decency and transcendence and all that mushy stuff.

  But God sees it another way.

  Treat your neighbor right, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry… and you’ve just enlisted a larger and more loyal workforce!  Instead of beating fear into people, invite them to join you on a mission to rebuild the broken walls of a society that caved in on itself.  The old way of violence and oppression didn’t do much for your city’s walls, that’s what brought them to the ground.  God is trying to set the tone for a God-centered people…this is what is on God’s wishlist – and believe me; its something he knows we’d benefit from too.

  

  Mark W, and Acid 9 are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Acid 9 4:07 am on January 24, 2011 Permalink

    I was once told that the word “fast” in this text (IS 58) is the hebrew word “tsum”. This literally means “to cover one’s mouth”. That could mean abstaining from food. But could also mean to shut up and listen…and in the case of IS 58…shut up so you can hear the plight of the poor.

    Never knew if that word study was true. But listening to others is definitely serving.

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    Mark W 3:38 pm on January 24, 2011 Permalink

    The Hebrew word “tsum” yields some interesting word study results. The concept of “self-limitation” (whether its food gorging your pie hole, or words coming out…) it seems that we have a fixation in our culture with consumption and expression – and we downplay the importance of their inverses.

    May God shut us up and keep us hungry! Think of the “other side” we are typically blind to in our rage to consume and spew out expression…

    Thanks for the comment Acid9. Never thought about (tsum) as a “shutting the mouth to listen” – but to throw another Hebrew word study in, I was learning the other day that there is no difference between “hearing” and “obedience” in the word “listen” (shema). If you don’t respond to what you’ve heard, you obviously didn’t hear it in the first place!

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  Mark 9:34 am on January 10, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  …Laughing in Their Face 

  In tracking with the prophet Isaiah, we’ve moved from the feisty and warring Assyrian Empire to grandiose and terrifying Babylon.  Quickly Babylon overtook Assyrian dominance in the region, and its borders expanded to become the largest Empire the world had ever known.  It established itself as “the queen of kingdoms” and reveled in luxury and comfort.

  While the Assyrians backed the tiny Jewish state into a corner, they could not seal the deal – but years later, Babylon would eventually drag off millions into exile.

  But chapter 47 is not a chapter of Babylon’s greatness – it is a classic picture of the fall of Babylon. The intrigue of the prophets like Isaiah is that he is able to aptly name the fear in his heart, the fear in the hearts of every Jew, and then denounce it in faith that God is strong enough, and good enough to save his penitent people once more.

  To participate in the tradition of the prophets, to see what it feels like to live like the spiritual powerhouse of the biblical prophets, start by learning what you are truly afraid of; what those around you fear more than anything else.  Then name it clearly, and expose its nakedness for all the world to see.  Show all of us that we have nothing to fear and that God is in control.  Do that, and we’ll name you among the greatest prophets of our day.  You have given us the courage of God – you have brought the super-powers to their knees.

  But it starts by paying attention to your own fear…and the fears in all of us…

  …and looking your fears straight in the eyes….

  …and laughing in their face.