The Voice of the Lord: Part I

In the Old Testament, the whole point of putting hope in the Messiah was that Israel knew that they (and we) needed a Messiah. Without a Messiah all would be lost.

Today there are probably many who won't admit their need for a Savior. Some either believe they are already healthy and doing well, thank you very much. Others simply cannot admit how lost they are, because they see no other hope than their own ability. If we see no hope, then how could we dare to admit how lost we are. It is this kind of situation that leaves so many people in denial of their great need. There are many who are stuck in addiction, or in depression, or in abusive relationships, or in some other impossible situation. Such people often live in denial of how bad things are because they simply have no hope.

But when the people of Israel knew they were lost, God revealed that a Messiah would come. They could, and should, put their hope in the Messiah. Jesus is that Messiah, and God took action to assure us that Jesus is the one. God did it in one of those rare moments when people could actually hear a voice speaking audible words--though some still doubted.

There are two times when God's spoke audibly during Jesus' ministry. In the interest of keeping this somewhat brief, will write about them in my next two blogs. They will clarify not only that Jesus is the Messiah, but how that makes a difference. For now, I just want to point out that the biblical writers really wanted people to pay attention to the voice of God. Jeremiah complained that Israel just wasn't listening to the voice of God. They treated the word of God as if it were ancient literature cast in stone, as if God couldn't say anything new to them. Jeremiah complained that they weren't listening to what God was saying today. In short, they were cutting people off from the hope, which God had right then for the people with urgent needs. Jeremiah called them to listen to what God was saying right now.

The Psalms picked that theme up, too. In the Psalms when God speaks, the hearing of God's voice changes everything, shakes everything up, and brings about good things. A great example is Psalm 29! I will list it, below to help show my point. But for now, let me end the first of three blogs on the voice of the Lord by asking these questions:

1. How aware are you of the need for God to act as Savior for the world?

2. How aware are you of the need for God to act as Savior in your world (for your family or your life)?

3. How ready are you to pay attention if God actually speaks to your need?

Psalm 29
(I'm using the "Message" paraphrase by Eugene Peterson, because I think it brings the poetry alive in our own cultural language, as Psalms are meant to be heard.)

^1-2 Bravo, God, bravo! Gods and all angels shout, "Encore!"
In awe before the glory,
in awe before God's visible power.
Stand at attention!
Dress your best to honor him!

³ God thunders across the waters,
Brilliant, his voice and his face, streaming brightness—
God, across the flood waters.

⁴ God's thunder tympanic,
God's thunder symphonic.

⁵ God's thunder smashes cedars,
God topples the northern cedars.

⁶ The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,
The high ridges jump like wild kid goats.

^7-8 God's thunder spits fire.
God thunders, the wilderness quakes;
He makes the desert of Kadesh shake.

⁹ God's thunder sets the oak trees dancing
A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.
We fall to our knees—we call out, "Glory!"

¹⁰ Above the floodwaters is God's throne
from which his power flows,
from which he rules the world.

¹¹ God makes his people strong.
God gives his people peace.

Finding Christ in an Age of Suffering

Epiphany is about hope. Why then, two millennia after the Messiah's birth, is there still so much suffering in the world. Think about it:

• The Dominican Republic is on the same island as Haiti, but has enjoyed better government. As a result, building codes were better, infrastructure was better, economic policy was better, and the people were not set up for near as much suffering as Haiti, even in the face of a huge earthquake. Why must Haiti suffer so much today?
  
  
• Humans have both overpopulated and mismanaged our relationship with the planet to the extent that we have set up a huge die-off of life, unless we can repent and make meaningful change. Yet, after decades of growing evidence, denial is still largely the preferred method of human leadership on this issue.
  
  
• Although the genius of American government was founded on free speech, our inability to differentiate between voters and corporations (they are both considered equal citizens under today's law) has created the ability for corporate capital to outshout mere voters in any debate. In Alaska, where we have witnessed multiple prosecutions of big corporations buying the votes of legislators, we know that such speech will be abused. The Supreme Court's decision today in favor of big business was simply an immoral, betrayal of government of, by and for the people to government of, by and for big business. And the rights of the little person will suffer.

These are only three examples, which I chose straight out of today's news. 'Where is God?', one might ask. If the Messiah came, how do we live now in the hope of that Messiah? If hope is about truly living today for God's future, then where is God in this?

In truth, as much as we pray for God in our lives it seems to me that when God appears in our midst in ways we can recognize, we often don't really want it. In fact we rebel against it. Witness this familiar Epiphany season passage from Scripture:

^{Matthew 2:1-2 and 2:16
1}After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him...When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Herod didn't want this Messiah and tried to prevent him from coming into his ministry. This is the Messiah story for today. If we are serious about trying to see the Messiah, we must begin by recognizing that there are still people like Herod today--we recognize these Herod-types by the injustice. And if we are to see the Messiah in God's Holy-Spirit-Work today, then we must look for the movement of God to address today's injustice. For instance:

• In Haiti, it is the greed and prejudice that so mismanaged that island nation that it was not prepared for an earthquake that had to come. The Messiah, now, is found right in the suffering people. Remember Jesus on the cross? That is the first place to see the Messiah--in the Holy Spirit's presence in the suffering. The second is in those who not only bring aid, but in others who will stick with the rebuilding of that nation so that relationships might become different from now on, so that the Haitian society will insist on, and government will operate with the kind of justice that is for all the people.
  
  
• On planet earth, the Messiah must first be found suffering in the desecrated water and airways, and in all those creatures that are imperiled today. Second, the Messiah must also be found in all human beings who speak the truth about this issue and who take action to change their lives and to change the prevailing wisdom of our society.
  

• For advocates of free speech, the Messiah can be found in the frustration of voters who know that big corporations have ability to out-spend (meaning out-shout) normal citizens, and in the fire that will inspire the work to bring about the legal changes aimed at real free speech.

The age we live in is the age of the Messiah, the age of Jesus. When this age finally comes to an end, God will initiate a new age, bringing all things together in proper communion. But in the meantime, in this age, we know that God entered history in Jesus, and that God is at work in history now through the Holy Spirit. Indeed, there are two messages to take away from the arrival of the Messiah:

1. God is present in every experience of suffering (remember the cross), and
2. God is at work through God's creatures (remember God was in the man, Jesus, and is now doing Holy-Spirit work through all who will accept it) to redeem all that is broken in the world today.

In this age, we participate in Christ both when we are witnesses to today's suffering, and when we participate in redemptive life.

So what suffering are you passionate about? Do you recognize the Spirit, Who inspires such passion? It is the Holy Spirit.

And what can you do to address the cause of that suffering? Do you recognize that it is the Messiah's Spirit, Who inspires each of us in this service of our Lord?

What is Christian Hope?

Isaiah 9:2:
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

This season between Christmas and Ash Wednesday is called Epiphany. It is the season when we celebrate the hope we have in Jesus Christ. The symbol for this season has traditionally been light in the darkness. To me this seems like such a great symbol right now, when the arctic coast of Alaska is just about ready to see the first appearance of the sun in the year. Just as the sun can be counted on to appear at the right time, we can also expect Jesus to be with us always as our hope, and to act at just the right time.

Hope is about living today for the kind of future God wills for all creatures. That being said, I wonder sometimes about the difference between hopeless living, living with false hope and living out of real hope. Here are a few of my beginning thoughts:

• Some people seem to live as if they have no options at all, with no real expectation that God will bring about a future worth living for. Such people, it seems to me, live without hope—without any sense that Christ is already with them or faithfully at work for the future.

• Some people seem to live as if Christ were a fairy godmother who would wave a magic wand and fix everything. By this I mean, some people seem to live as if they, themselves had no responsibility to live in such a way as to help facilitate the tomorrow (or next year, or next decade, or next century) that God is bringing about. They live as if they didn’t have a care in the world, because God will fix everything. Such people offer nothing today for people lost in the darkness. Their sugar-coated words fall empty on people suffering today.

• But there are some people who seem to really know about hope. They look at the world as it really is, neither giving up on it nor sugar-coating it. They know that sin and brokenness are real, and they join with those suffering today. They look for what God is doing today to make a difference, because they know that God is in the world today and that there really is light leading toward a better future. And they know that God calls them to be a part of all God is doing to bring that future to life. Such people take action in their own lives—often costly action. And because they take action, they both build up the whole people and become part of what God is doing to help the whole world become move toward a better future.

I hope you will want to be one of these hope-full people, one of those looking for the Light of the World in each day, and whose life helps point the world toward that light.

Hope is to hear God's melody for the future;
Prayer is to listen for it;
Faith is to dance it. --adapted from a quote by Ruben Alves