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

A Lot Like Noah

12 11 09 Like Noah

As a Christian watching the Copenhagen Talks unfold, the irony of the times we live in are inescapable. I remember hearing the story of Noah as a child and marveling at the kind of person he was. Noah heard the Voice of God instructing him to save all land-bound life by building an ark. Further, he was to build the ark where he lived, far from the sea, and he had to do it despite the taunts of the entire surrounding community. I remember marveling at the kind of times Noah lived in, and the amazing faith exhibited in his life.

Ironically, we now we live in a time when we must hear the Voice of God calling us, once again, to save life on the planet. How ironic that I, and all people who claim faith, are called to put our faith-money where our mouth is and display the same kind of faithfulness as did Noah. It is not enough simply hear the Voice of God, but we are called to stand out in the world and make a difference. We are called to be ark-builders once again.

Only it turns out that if we are to be successful this time we have to save both the planet and human civilization. That is, it will take the combined effort of all the worlds peoples working together to pull it off. Nothing on this scale has ever been successful before. I am not even aware of something on this scale ever being attempted.

Yet, God is in it. We have the scientific knowledge and technical ability to pull this off. We have the communications networks to spread the word and build public support. We have all that it takes to pull this off. And what is more, if we pull this off, it will transform human society as we know it. .....Erosion Caused by Melting Permafrost.....
We will know
forevermore that we are capable of uniting in the face of real need, in spite of all the anxieties that go along with the trying to live with so many ‘others' on the planet. This knowledge of what we are capable of will be with us forever. WOW!

But it does require belief—belief that
God has empowered and is empowering something majestic and monumental in human history, and belief that our faithfulness can make a difference. It does require more than just hearing God’s Voice, though. It requires faith in action. It requires responding to what we hear with all our heart, with all our minds and with all our strength.

A Glimpse At a Theology Of Earth Care

Servant Leadership

Christians have always proclaimed that they have good news to tell. The good news addresses whatever bad news is in the world, and is about new life because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Since the bad news I have been addressing this month has to do with the need for better stewardship of the environment, I must raise the question about what Jesus’ life and teaching can offer in the way of good news. Here is one perspective.

One of Jesus’ key teachings is about each of us taking responsibility for our place in leadership. Paying attention to this part of Jesus’ ministry is hugely important if we are to address environmental stewardship. On Saturday NPR reported on national polls indicating that environmental concern ranks as last among the top 20 concerns among Americans, despite the fact that the great preponderance of scientists agree that current warming trends pose a great threat to civilization as we know it. Without real leadership, we have no hope to turn this around.

Like theologian Douglas John Hall I believe that that true confession of faith must include stance, word and deed. We see this demonstrated through Jesus’ life.

1. Jesus took a stand
for humanity and for all creation, both now and into the future, by joining with us in the flesh in history;
2. Jesus took action
conferring the essence of his right-ness upon all of us, despite whatever wrongness is in us, first by joining us in the flesh and then through dying and rising—opening new possibilities for all who will receive it, and
3. Jesus took pains to teach
what transformed life is like—teaching both through words and through personal demonstration—so that we might begin to understand and participate in it.

I therefore wish to look at how Jesus took a stand, took action, and took pains to teach about leadership. I then challenge myself, and any who read this, to apply it.

To keep this to some reasonable length, I am summarizing Jesus teaching on leadership as finding proper understanding of human dominion over creation, and a proper understanding of being “the salt of the earth.”

In Genesis 1:23 of the creation story, God told the human creatures that they had dominion over creation. This makes a lot of sense today. No species on the planet is affecting the whole of creation, and throwing the delicate balances out of kilter, on the same order as human beings. We have dominion, which means responsibility, whether we want it or not.

As the one good human Jesus must be our model of what that dominion looks like in practice. Jesus is described in Colossians 1 as the Lord of creation. Yet, Jesus rejected the glory-based lordship and its potential for tyranny as proper understandings. Indeed, Jesus
• rejected James’ and Johns’ bid to aspire to become his top lieutenants. Instead, Jesus told them that whoever would be first must become the servant of all—the least.
• Jesus also employed a demonstration method to teach this at the Last Supper, when he did slave duty by washing his disciples’ feet. This kind of pointed teaching brought the true nature of Jesus’ leadership into focus when he paid the ultimate price on the cross. Dominion, as Jesus demonstrated it, is a humbling responsibility calling on us to take action, even at great personal risk or great personal cost.

Jesus also took a stand against “losing our saltiness.” If we disciples of Christ are the salt of the earth, called to preserve the earth as salt preserves food or hides, then we cannot hide behind the idea that God has everything in control and we have no responsibility. We have been given responsibility (dominion) by virtue of being human. As followers of Jesus, we must not lose our saltiness; we have been given this message to proclaim and to put into action.

Further, Jesus’ followers understood that Jesus’ salvation is for all creation. Paul wrote that “all creation groans” (Romans 8:22), awaiting the salvation of God. As Presbyterians, we proclaim that the church is the provisional demonstration of the salvation of God until He comes. We cannot escape the call for standing with creation, teaching about stewardship of creation, and putting our teaching into action. We are called to be like Jesus, and to lead in stance, word and deed.

Jesus took a stand against a false doctrine of dominion—i.e., believing either that we have tyrannical, glory-hoarding say about what happens in creation. God is King and we are not. But Jesus also took a stand against claiming that God’s sovereignty absolves us from responsibility. We are called the same kind of leadership as that demonstrated by Jesus: leadership that responds to the needs of the world around it. Or, to put it in other words, leadership that operates out of the same responsive love we saw in Jesus’ life as proclaimed in the Bible, and as we find it at work today through the action of the Holy Spirit. A proper doctrine of sovereignty calls us to be responsible stewards of creation, caring for the Earth on God’s behalf.

Today, the Earth needs people who see and feel its distress. Humanity is over-consuming, and over-polluting. We are called to be stewards and find that we are stewards of God’s creation, whether we want to be or not. So, since we do have that much impact on the world, how can we take effective leadership, today?











There is a great contrast in this between the understandings of dominion and of saltiness that are often proclaimed. Some teach dominion as hierarchical control. Such teaching stands in great contrast to Jesus, who emptied himself of glory (Philippians 2:5), and who never controlled other human beings (though Jesus did show control over nature and demons). As theologian Douglas John Hall points out, Jesus demonstrated human leadership by always honoring God as King. If God is King, we don’t have to be…and shouldn’t be.

A teaching of dominion strictly as hierarchical control always has negative spiritual. Observe these examples:

1. Domestic violence is a huge issue in Alaska largely because we don’t know how to share leadership in our relationships, and because we have not been taught how to hold onto our own sense of personal integrity unless we have personal control of others in important relationships.
2. Recovery from addictive behavior (drugs/alcohol, gambling, and relationship addictions) only begins when we come to terms with right leadership in our own lives—which includes the fact that we can’t control our own addictive behavior on our own, that God and God’s people can help, and that we must take responsibility for a program of recovery that includes that help.
3. The environmental changes are affecting the whole world but are showing the first signs of drastic change near the polar regions like Alaska. In the short run Alaskans might smile at an October without the inconvenience of snow and ice—not to mention smaller heating bills—but down deep we all know that this is not how it is to be. Scientific models indicate that the entire world will suffer greatly if this trend, strongly enhanced (if not caused) by human behavior, is not turned around.

Nor does teaching that God is King absolve us from all human responsibility. Jesus cried out to God to “take this cup from my lips.” Yet, as a human being, Christ knew that ultimately God’s will might call for him to take up this cause and its consequences for him, even though he did not want them.

Leadership, then, is for everyone. All of us are called to make a difference whenever we are present. All are called to seek an understanding of what kind of difference we are called to make. All of us are to stand out as called, to come to know and be able to explain why we stand out, and to put our explanations into practice. None of us are called to be on this earth without making a difference.

The question I am seeking just now is: how to make a difference as stewards of God’s creation?

Signs of the Times

Faithful people need to relate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the times in which they live. This means paying attention to the signs of the times, and joining in on how God is responding to these times in holy love. Indeed, the Scriptures tell us that paying attention to the signs of the times is important.

The 24th Chapter of Matthew relates how Jesus told his disciples that we would not know the time for the end of the world. Even so, there would be signs that show the beginnings of the end (wars, rumors of wars, etc.), and we should pay attention to them. Earlier (Matthew 16:1-4) Jesus berated the Pharisees for wanting miraculous signs from Jesus, when they were not paying attention to the signs of the times that God had provided in the world around them. Clearly, faithful people are to pay attention to the signs of the times they live in and shape their ministry to relate the gospel to those times.

We now live in a time where there are 6.8 billion humans on the world. Our cumulative impact on the rest of the planet is huge. Indeed, one of the big issues right now is climate change. The warming trend of the globe is happening faster than the most dire warnings scientists gave ten years ago. Updated science has resulted in updated estimates, and we now know with a high level of certainty that the planet will warm by at least 2 degrees Fahrenheit no matter what we do. However, by repenting of our current fossile-fuel dependent life, we can arrest the warming trend to only two degrees and, over time, turn the warming trend around. Two degrees will already mean huge, life damaging changes in the planet. More than that would threaten the very future of our grandchildren.

The problem, of course, is that we must respond to the signs of the times now, and not after the worst of these predictions (flooding of low-lying countries, spread of deserts across Africa and even parts of the United States, etc.) begin to come true. There is momentum behind climate change trends, and letting that much momentum build would make any reversal come too late. We must respond now to God’s signs provided in nature.

Of course, Scripture depicts another moment like that. Noah was considered crazy for building an ark in the desert (Genesis 6:1 - 9:17). The coming flood was years away, and no one would believe him. In such times, the faithful are called to pay attention to God’s voice, however God speaks to them, and respond faithfully. This is just such a time. We need to be the ark builders for future generations.

Not all members of the Presbytery of Yukon interpret the signs of the times the same. As a result, not all believe that the looming crisis is that drastic. Obviously, I do [For more on why I think this is so important, see the following book: Orr, David W. Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford University Press, USA, 2009).]

Yet, all who read their Bible know that humans are to be good stewards of God’s beloved creation. On Monday, I’ll add some thoughts from that perspective, sharing thoughts that I believe all Christians must support strictly due to the biblical witness—even without the signs of the times.

Yukon Presbyterians For Earth Care

Yukon Presbyterians For Earth Care

Curt and Cindee Karns' Bioshelter










For my wife, Cindee and me the stewardship of the earth is a real passion. We are so passionate aboutit that we bought a special “green-built-house,” both to live easier with the planet ourselves, and as a teaching platform for sharing various ideas on how we all can make a difference. We were therefore thrilled to learn that the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Presbyterians for Earth Care had decided to join the world-wide 350 Day effort.

350 Day is part of a world-wide effort to bring down greenhouse gas emissions to the
point where people and the planet can continue to coexist. Current estimates indicate that the maximum concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that would allow something similar to our current civilization would be somewhere between 295 and 350 parts per million. Recent measurements indicated the planet was passing 384 ppm. Grassroots efforts like 350 Day are aimed at raising awareness and encouraging human response to the problem—including bringing our CO2 emissions down to at least 350 ppm.

Much of the current efforts are aimed at forging a political solution to the problem, and I agree that politics must be a part of the solution. But I also believe that Christians are essential in making the theological and moral case for the effort. Reducing greenhouse emissions will not be easy, and without strong moral arguments it won’t happen. Happily, we have very strong biblical and theological support for making this case.

I will add a few thoughts on this biblical and theological material in the next few days. In the meantime. W O O H O O ! for Presbyterians for Earth Care and for 350 Day.