My friend & brother in Christ, Todd Ross is leading the Men’s Kairos Inside #51 team to Angola State Penitentiary February 24th-27th. I promised that I would share with my readers the prayer vigil sign up sheet for the weekend. Sign up and pray for Todd and all the men that will be leading this exciting ministry to the inmates.
Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was a prophetess; she led Israel at that time. She used to sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would come to her for decisions.
Judges 4:4-5
Up to this point in my journey through the bible all the leaders have been men. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb, now in the beginning of Judges seemingly out of nowhere comes this story of the prophetess Deborah who led Israel in battle and judged over it for forty years.
There are still many today who dismiss the call of women to lead God’s people. The arguments seem empty for the many, like myself, who have been and continue to be deeply shaped by women who are leaders in the church and in the world.
As I read the story of Deborah I wonder about the many other women who have led God’s people, whose stories we will never hear. As I read I am reminded that we need to tell the story of the women in the biblical story, in the church, and in our lives. Telling them gives voice to many who are voiceless and reminds the hearers of the myriad of ways that God uses all of us to be about God’s mission in the world.
I want my daughter to know that God is calling. I want her to know that as a beloved child of God she has been given gifts to lead, to guide, to make a difference in the world on behalf of the good news. I want to model, for her, and for my sons, that God created us male and female and God called it good.
I am thankful for Deborah’s story, it came at a time when I had already read enough of what I would call misogynistic portions of the biblical story. I was reminded that when it comes to sexism we still have a long ways to go in the church and in the world.
May all of us, like Deborah, not be afraid to go to battle. May we join the struggle for gender equality in every area of life!
Thus the kingdom was secured in Solomon’s hands.
I Kings 2:46b
Power can be a dangerous thing. What started as a peaceful transfer of power soon turns into a bloodbath in order to protect the power received.
As a fan of the Godfather I’ve been wanting to speak about this scene for a while. Each time I watch it brings new insight into why the scene is so powerful. The church and its liturgies parallel to the human condition and its need for divine grace.
Our sin and the need for grace shows us that we have some choices to make. We either renounce the forces of wickedness or we don’t, repent of our sin or we don’t, accept Christ as Savior or we don’t.
Yet the human condition is such that time and time again our hunger for power and control guides us to the wrong decisions. We take our destiny into our own hands and hope that God blesses it somehow.
The biblical text for today is the ancient version of this video. King Solomon wanted to make sure that he remained in control so he went on a spree to eliminate his enemies. And just like in the Godfather, the writers seem to suggest that somehow this behavior and God’s intention were one and the same.
In our daily life we might not have people killed to be in control. Yet we do, with words we say, actions we take, attitudes we have, we send a message that somehow the God we serve is ok with the ways we choose to live our lives.
Then Sunday after Sunday we gather together and tell the story of faith. In telling it we remind ourselves that we do have these tendencies and we once again, renounce, repent, and accept. Our baptism calling us back, reminding us that we are cleansed, that we belong to God, that all people are God’s children. That real power is the power of the sacrificed & resurrected Savior . . .
The king was shaken. He went up to the upper chamber of the gateway and wept, moaning these words as he went, ‘My son Absalom! O my son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son!’
II Samuel 19:1
Absalom thought his father was an enemy, obviously his father did not agree. Absalom wanted the kingdom, thought it was time for his father to retire, David did not agree. So Absalom went to war against David to claim the throne. David asked his men to spare his son, in the end a terrible accident (his hair got tangled on the limbs of a terebinth tree: see 18:9-18) placed him in a vulnerable position and he was killed.
Although David had the kingdom, he did not have his son. His grief was public and it expressed the desires of any parent in his situation.
At times of sorrow it is natural to look back, what could we have done differently? Could it have been avoided? Are only some of the questions that run through our minds. When it comes to our children we wonder about our parenting. We could have spent more time, cautioned more, not allowed, protected.
In the end the tragedy is the same, nothing can be changed, all that is left is grieving and attempt to carry on.
The king was not grieving like a king should. A few verses after this “news” Joab, his commander & the man who killed Absalom, tells him to stop weeping, for in the end Absalom was his enemy. How many times in our weeping have people told us to stop, to move on, for it makes them uncomfortable?
I can’t imagine the agony and pain. Walking with many who have experienced intense grief I know that shaking and weeping are common expressions. The realization of a life gone, a love lost, and a future unfulfilled are reasons to weep, moan, and wish for something different.
I am thankful for the biblical narrative that continually mirrors our experience with life, with each other, and with God. No matter how difficult they might be!
When he does wrong, I will chastise him with the rod of men and the affliction of mortals; but I will never withdraw My favor from him as I withdrew it from Saul, whom I removed to make room for you. Your house and your kingship shall ever be secure before you; your throne shall be established forever.
II Samuel 7:14-16
So much for God not showing partiality. God obviously wanted David more than Saul and one wonders if Saul was really set up to fail. Not that Saul did not have his own problems and in some ways was really not fit to be king. But how about the fact that God did not want Israel to have a king to begin with?
This part of the story of our faith is one of the most interesting and full of drama. Just a few chapters after this episode David proves to have his own issues with power and its misuse. Later he proves to have a few other “issues” also.
I always find it interesting that scriptures idolizes David but also shows us his weaknesses, frailties, sin. Maybe he is so beloved by the people and by readers of scripture since because he is so real. So much like the rest of us . . .
The God portrayed here is one that mirrors the people whose story if found here. They love David and so does God, they thought Saul a weak king and so does God. So the favoritism found is the favoritism of the people who are recording the story that we are able to read today.
Covenant making and keeping are the hallmarks of these stories. So God promises to be faithful to the house of David, correcting when needed, but not taking away that which God gave to begin with. The corrections turn out to be many yet time and time again God proves faithful to the promise.
The biblical story is our story. We too are people who have the opportunity to be holy and broken. Sometimes one after the other. We too make mistakes, misunderstand God’s voice, and look out for ourselves first. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes and are able to continue serving God in the world.
Is good to know that in spite of our frailties, God’s faithfulness remains . . .
Now the spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord began to terrify him.
I Samuel 16:14 (TANAKH)
I kind of feel sorry for Saul. It seems that from the beginning things did not go smoothly for him. He’s found in the midst of his search for missing sheep, he’s not sure why he would be chosen to the point of hiding when the lot fell on him, and time and time again he makes dumb mistakes that end up costing him the kingdom.
Then the spirit of the Lord leaves him . . . in its place another spirit of the Lord, this time an evil one.
This little detail caught my attention. How can this “evil spirit” be from the Lord?
Scripture tells us that this “evil spirit” made Saul become angry and sad. Only well played instruments would soothe this bad mood.
Maybe the same spirit that could have guided Saul into faithful leadership was now causing Saul to be down, depressed, and angry. It makes sense that those who watched him saw this as a different spirit, I don’t think it was.
It is easy to become moody when we are not walking in ways that are life giving. We can’t seem to find comfort in anything, everything is a problem, life seems like no life at all. Everyone around seems to be happy, successful, and accomplished. Our sadness tricks us into believing that something is out to get us, some kind of conspiracy is at work here!
There is no such thing as a conspiracy. Our own actions, decisions, and indecision have paved the path to where we are. In many cases, like in Saul’s, is no one’s fault, except our own. Now our regrets become the evil spirits that haunt us and might guide us to even worst decisions in the long run.
Saul could have chosen to accept God’s decision and he probably would have been a great king. Instead he allowed his regrets and jealousy get the best of him. Once again the biblical story acts as a mirror for all us and its good to know that its portrait of the human condition is timeless.
Then again, maybe I’m letting God off the hook to easily and the biblical writers had it right, it was an EVIL spirit from the Lord . . .
“[T]he truth of a poem is actually much deeper than whether or not something really happened. What matters is an undergirding truth that I think is the power of poetry . . .”
Dr. Elizabeth Alexander on “Words That Shimmer” in Krista Tippett’s on Being
Like many I am troubled by the lack of imagination in our encounters with the biblical text. There seems to be a growing obsession with “proving” the words of scripture (as if they were meant to be proven) or to dismiss them all together as fiction (as if dismissing them assists our understanding). Then there is the practice of using scripture as fodder for whatever particular axe one might want to grind.
I’m frustrated with these approaches.
This should not come as a surprise. As the readers of this space know I have embarked once again in reading through the entire biblical text. Each time I do this I am surprised by what I find. Stories, that seemed hidden before, grab my attention. Words and phrases seem to hook me begging for an explanation, some even begging to be removed for they make God seem foreign to the ways other parts of the text speak of God.
So recently the words of poet Dr. Elizabeth Alexander captured my attention. She first responded to Krista Tippett’s statement that there is something “magnetic” about poetry by saying that “[w]e crave truth tellers, we crave real truth.” Because of that craving we seek words that are truth telling, and she believes that poetry provides those words,
So I think that the truth of that poem is not about true things or things that happened, but rather in the question: are we not of interest to each other?
(in response to her poem “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe”)
I wonder what would happen if we struggled with the words of scripture in that same way. That we see its truth telling not in history but in the questions that they raise about humanity, the human condition, and God. Understanding inspiration not as a set of historical and or scientific certitudes but as the constant taking in of God’s Spirit helping us ask the questions as we encounter the text. The Spirit lifting up words, phrases, and stories to help illumine the community’s struggle with self, other, and God.
In a world full of easy explanations and a lack of mystery and awe we need the biblical story more than ever. M. Craig Barnes, pastor and theologian tells us that
[o]ur culture has funtioned too long with reasonable explanations and without holy stories or wondrous mythologies
(in The Pastor as Minor Poet: Texts and Subtexts in the Ministerial Life, pg 34-35)
So let us not fall into modernity’s obsession with that which can be analyzed, quantified, and “proven.” May we become people of poetry, people who see the truth in the questions, in the stories’ reflection of the human condition, and in the ways that it calls us to the divine life. As we struggle with the text and attempt to let it speak to our lives today may we use our pastoral & theological imaginations, so that the words of scripture come to life and satisfy the hunger of a people who want truth tellers, who need holy stories, who search for the wondrous mystery that is God.
The Lord said to him, ‘I have heard the prayer and the supplication which you have offered to Me. I consecrate this House which you have built and I set My name there forever. My eyes and My heart shall ever be there.
I Kings 9:3
God was happy with a tent. A pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night reminded the Israelites that God was indeed present among them as the tabernacle moved with the nomadic Israelites. A movable place for a God who called them to journey towards a land of promise.
The Isaraelites were not happy with a tent. Once they had arrived and began settling into the promise land they wanted a King, then they wanted their God to have a place, a permanent place, just like the gods of their neighbors. God delayed this plan but in the end agreed to settle.
The House for God became the project of King Solomon and he made sure that all the treasures of the land went into building this place for God.
We, like the Israelites, want our God to be found in a place. Our sanctuaries have become the signs and symbols of God’s presence in our communities and have given our congregations a sense of identity.
As I read I wondered if we, in our efforts to have this ‘place,’ limit God’s mission in the world. Buildings are costly to build, costly to maintain, and do not have the flexibility of moving to where the people are . . . to where the gathering needs to take place.
Do we need the portable tabernacle again? Do we need to take the church to those that needed most? Do we have buildings to honor God, or so that our god has a place like our neighbors? A place that keeps God contained, accessible, and predictable?
Maybe its time for God’s people to gather and to ask God, do you want a house? If we hear carefully we’ll probably be surprised at the answer . . .
When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him, he would hear the Voice addressing him from above the cover that was on top of the Ark of the Pact between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him.
Numbers 7:89 (TANAKH)
One of the things that I am enjoying during this reading of the Old Testament is how real God seems (this is not always positive, see my post on Leviticus).
Moses takes a series of censuses because that’s what God told him to do. God speaks directly to Moses, over and over again.
I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted God to talk to me like this, to have a conversation. I have been blessed to have heard God’s voice in inaudible ways, but wouldn’t be nice if we could hear God and have an actual conversation like Moses does?
It would certainly make things easier, knowing what God thought. At the same time I am not sure that’s what this set of scriptures are getting at. I think that what’s most important here is that the people of Israel knew that God cared for the way that they lived their life together.
What would it be like if we lived our communal life as the Church in a way that said, God cares? God has a preference?
I think that if we begin to ask this question of ourselves we’ll begin to hear God’s Voice call us to order for kingdom work. And we’ll begin to live and tell our story in a way that expresses that preference.
Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before the Lord alien fire, which He had not enjoined upon them. And fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them; thus they died at the instance of the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when he said:
Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all people.” And Aaron went silent.
Leviticus 10:1-3 (TANAKH)
Oh, Leviticus, Leviticus, how you give God a really bad name. This is the kind of stuff that give PR people nightmares at night. It gives me nightmares too, trying to explain why God would do these things.
If we were to use Leviticus alone as our source for knowing who God is, it really would not be a nice picture. When reading this book it seems that the holiness God asks for requires us to negate what it means to be human. God here is not happy with blemishes of any kinds, nor dead bodies, nor blood, nor sex, nor childbirth, nor skin rashes, nor bodily discharges of any kind (including menstruation), nor improperly cooked sacrifices, nor nakedness (unless one owns the nakedness, check out Lev. 18), nor an assortment of all sorts of other things.
I’m sure by now you know that something here really bothers me. In Genesis I read that all that God made was good. Later in the Gospel according to John I read that “[t]he Word became flesh and lived among us . . .” (John 1:14). God became flesh . . . the same flesh that gets skin rashes, has bodily discharges, prepares its dead, is born of a woman, who menstruates and goes into labor, comes into the world naked, and can easily forget how to make a sacrifice.
In coming into the world God reminded us that holiness was not situated in negating the created order but instead in honoring it by living a life of love towards self, others, & God.
So as people who take the story of faith seriously, what are we to do with Leviticus? What do you think?
