Godgrown

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  Mark 10:24 am on January 24, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Piles of Money 

  Isaiah 60 is all about the economic development of Jerusalem as they begin to return from exile.  The promises of vast, global wealth are almost unbelievable for a pitiful, beaten nation who doesn’t even have a wall of protection built around its perimeter…and at least for the rest of Biblical history, there was never any major comeback for the Jews; they were more or less passed from one roaring empire to the next.

  So what’s with all the predictions on incredible influence and wealth? Did God “over promise and under deliver?”

  There are hints of this prophecy fulfilled; specifically when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:11) Somehow I don’t think that the exiled Jews of the 5th Century BCE were satisfied with this interpretation – they wanted piles of money! They wanted the honor and recognition of the nations!  ”The flocks of Kedar!  The rams of Nebaioth!  The camels!  Where are my camels?!”

  I wonder if this is how Christians understand their relationship with God.  They sense that there is a pile of blessings, maybe even actual money, waiting on the other side of a “right relationship with God.”  They think that if they love God hard enough, if they believe the right things, if they just do it all right, then they’ll have life right where they want it.

  Trouble is, life is never quiet as we want it – but its right where God has it. He has sprinkled the fulfillment of his promises to bring blessings to his people from the far corners of the earth – he does it in the birth of Jesus; secretly, and its just enough money to keep a family of three out of the cold and filthy stables and enough to get them down to Egypt, where they can safely escape disaster.

  THAT is the blessing of God…the wealth of heaven.

  Yes, wealth seen in the light of God’s nature is not something that we can put in a bank account, but something that gives us another chance to dive deeper into him – knowing that we may not have enough to survive on our own, but plenty to keep following…for one more day.

  But why would God make all these promises of very specific assets that exiles would gain from as they returned to the holy land of Jerusalem?  I think its important to remember that each of us come to God for personal, selfish reasons.  God knows this, he loves you for it – and he wants you to know that the things you care about are important to him too – even if he sees how short-sighted they are.

  So he’ll help you get out of debt if that is something you see as important – and then he’ll remind you that you’ll always be in debt to him.  He’ll help you with as much worldly wealth as he’s called you to…then he’ll call on you to give it all back to him…

  In other words, our tangible gifts are only whispers of the real gifts he hopes to give us. The question is, can we let go of the tangibles in order to receive what truly matters…?

  
   

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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 8:31 am on January 18, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  True Love, Mutual Submission 

  According to recent studies and the current trajectory, most marriages beginning in this decade will only have a 10% chance of lifelong commitment.  In other words, 90% of today’s marriages will end in divorce.

  While that is staggering, consider even still the number of marriages that might stick together but “go cold” either through slow neglect or compromise.

  A recent report in the NY Times suggested that marriage is understood primarily as a way of advancing yourself and your image, using your spouse to take you to new heights.  Whether this is conscious or not, this expert says that you get married to advance your own social network, to arrange a healthier outlook on things, to make you a better person, to rally up the ladder of your own life.  According to this study, marriage is the greatest “career move” you could make for life.

  But I believe that just accelerates the problem we’re seeing with crumbling marriages.  When we marry “for ourselves” – we will toss him out when the next guy comes along with a better set of friends, or dresses better, or… the list goes on and on.  Sure, maybe at the beginning you are attracted to a gal because of how she makes you feel about yourself, the way she interacts with others, and so on – but if it remains what I can get out of this relationship – how I can advance myself… the marriage is doomed from the start.

  Maturity in marriage is learning to submit your own desire, and to live for the desires of the other. I am continually amazed at my wife’s ability to do this.  ”Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ,” is the verse that begins the discussion in Ephesians on the mission of husbands and wives in marriage – Paul asks wives to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church.  Men and women have different roles in a relationship, and there is order to the family structure.

  But look again, what does submission and Christ-like love have in common?  Laying your own life down for the sake of the other.

  This is how marriages truly last - true and mutual submission. Not in the “lock-jaw” do-it-and-shut-up-about-it kind of submission, I’m talking about the joy-filled desire to see the other person advance as far as she can go – and cheering them on in every way possible.  When both parties do that, both are depositing trust into the relationship, rather than scavenging each other’s social brownie-points for sake of their own “self-expansion.”

  Isaiah hears God describe his passionate love for Israel, as a “young love” in passionate desire for the other.  Even after all that Israel had done to betray God’s trust, he is completely consumed with love for them.  But God has a matured, seasoned love for his people too – one that goes beyond just the “me-marriages” we’re reading about in today’s papers; it is a love he is willing to do anything for – to see them advance, rather than just getting what he wants out of the relationship.  This is what “steadfast love” looks like – to lay down what you’re hoping to get out of the relationship – and pursuing the other person as the central object of your affections…

  

  Katrina, and Sherry are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Sherry 5:03 pm on January 18, 2011 Permalink

    I like the picture you chose for this article. It can be seen either way (good or bad) depending on your perspective. They look happy to me. Like they just received a great piece of news and they are about to jump up and shout HOORAY! What do you see? Maybe both sides of the coin.

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    Katrina 4:08 pm on January 19, 2011 Permalink

    Sherry – good observations! I didn’t see that in the picture until you pointed that out! Interesting.

    —–
    I posted this on FB, but I wanted to link to the post itself…

    This whole focus on divorce stats and failure in marriage is so one sided. Each time I read an article like this, I feel sad because it’s teaching so many a way of life that perpetuates sadness, moodiness and angry living. Th…is idea that one “uses” another to “climb” some power/social ladders is such a distortion of the beautiful circular benefits inherit in relationship.

    Let’s face it: healthy marriage is mutually beneficial.

    Marriage is like a generator – you build one another up in love, and it generates an overflow of love. It’s not an institution of self-centered manipulation. I wonder how many quiet, loving, long-term marriages there are for each crazy divorce-stat laden article in the NY Times…

    Someone needs to tell the other side of this story… and tell it often.