"O come, o come Immanuel", verses 2-6

O come, thou Rod of Jesse,
free thine own from Satan's tyranny.
From depths of hell thy people save,
and give them vict'ry o'er the grave.

O come, thou Dayspring,
come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death's dark shadow put to flight.

O come, thou Key of David,
 come and open wide our heav'nly home.
Make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
and order all things far and nigh.
To us the path of knowledge show,
and cause us in thy ways to go.

O come, Desire of nations,
bind all peoples in one heart and mind.
Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease.
Fill the whole world with heaven's peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


 This song has been playing in my mind and heart and mouth for two weeks. Each time I hear of something that breaks my heart, the song erupts again: Mourning and Rejoicing.

After the first verse (which I covered in the previous post), the song continues the pattern of addressing God through a particular title, then petitioning, still longing, for God to come and fulfill our human needs.

Verse 2 is my salvation-song. I am reminded of the glorious deeds of Jesus overcoming sin, evil, and death through cross and tomb. The cry is for all people, not just me, to be free from Satan, saved from hell, and victorious over the grave. The cry is for resurrection, for hope, for a new world of possibility. Perhaps even beginning now?

These words can be "safely" reserved for the life beyond physical death, or for the world to come at the end of time as we know it, but might it be okay and in fact good to long for this salvation-reality NOW? The world seems to be falling apart. I am not sure whether that is true or false, or whether that is simply my perception, or whether it has been steadily falling apart forever, or whether these are truly "birth pains" for a new creation coming... (Mark 13:8, Matthew 24:8)

...Yet again, I am greeted with the twisted smile of a few more mass shootings, some suspicious slayings of black folks by police officers, the now normal protests of various natures and the deep struggle I feel to both get involved and remain apart, war, terrorism, racism, sexism, and on and on...and of course the accompanying media outrage from every perspective that simply exacerbates suffering...

It is appropriate that after each cry for Immanuel to come, I am met with "Rejoice!" We fill the symbolic shoes of Israel in exile... for I remain, now and always, a stranger in this world, struggling to walk the line and follow the leader.

Verse 3 is the meteorological verse. God is the Dayspring, the source of light and hope and clarity that rises in our lives and in the life of the world. What a great title for God! So full of life and possibility! It minimizes the power of the nighttime terrors, as if they are just dark clouds that the sunshine drives away. I hate the fact that the weather affects my mood so much. Perhaps it is part of why my wife calls me "grumpus" on certain days. And yet the sun brings the opposite effect.

Verse 4 looks toward the way I live my life. God is the Key of David. Keys open doors or gates, which lead to something new and different. The way to heaven is unlocked by Immanuel, Jesus, our true Way home... As I long for my own personal entry into the kingdom of heaven, I also long for the kingdom of heaven to come here and make itself known in the reality of the world we live in.

Verse 5 seeks Wisdom. Wisdom orders, and divine order puts all things in their proper place, defeating chaos through understanding. I am lost so often day-by-day. I am well aware of how much I do not understand, and at the same time bewildered that some other people seem to think they understand so much...

Which brings us to... verse 6... Desire of nations... I am sure there are many nations which would take offense to hearing that they desire Jesus. I see Jesus as the fulfillment of the point of nations in general. The Kingdom of God, with Jesus as High King is the best, greatest possible government there could ever be. All human governments are pale imitations of that Kingdom. Thus, all nations long for the kind of divine order that Jesus brings, yet are bound to fail in making it so. The Kingdom of God for which we long in characterized by unity in understanding, the elimination of petty arguments, and the overwhelming presence of peace.

Peace is not the absence of war and conflict, but the presence of Immanuel, God-with-us.

It is for this Kingdom, this world, this reality that I long. Come, Lord Jesus...

#172- "O come, O come Immanuel", verse 1

This is the first post in a new series. I have grown up in congregations that utilize the "Hymnal: A Worship Book" resource. I know it and have used it more than any other religious resource except scripture itself. And yet, I know there are pieces of music and devotion that I have never read nor explored. There are songs and hymns I have sung many times, which contain lyrics and melodies I consistently overlook, ignore, or neglect. Starting this Advent season, I have decided to start a devotional journey through that beloved hymnal... praying the songs, meditating, reading and re-reading... Will you join me?

I have chosen to begin with the Christian calendar season now beginning: Advent. I plan to jump around with the Christian year to Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter hymns. Otherwise, the pray-through order will begin at the beginning of the hymnal and work straight through, skipping only those hymns I have already completed.



 O come, o come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.



One of my favorites! The first hymn in the "Proclaiming: Jesus' Advent" section, this hymn has always been the most mysterious, longing selection of the season, and most of the Christian year as well. It has a medieval, even ancient resonance to it, which adds to its power...

As I read and pray the first verse and the repeated melody, I am most struck by the call and response nature of the song. Each verse pleads for the coming (advent) of One who will rescue the singer. Each refrain repeats the assurance that Immanuel WILL come! Immanuel means "God with us", a prophesied name for the Messiah in Isaiah 7-8. Followers of Christ recognize that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promised coming of Immanuel. Jesus is God with us; as close as God gets.

It feels sad... I hear the voices of ancient Israelites in exile in Babylon, separated from their homeland, from their normal routines of life and work and worship, from everything that made their lives secure. It's the context that Isaiah spoke to when he speaks of Immanuel... hope for those in exile.

 Why does it feel good and right for me to feel sad? Especially in the season of anticipation for Christmas and all the joy and gladness that is supposed to come with it? Perhaps because I know that even though the holiday comes and goes, the world remains in a suffering state: violent extremism rages across continents, cries of racial and economic justice are met with hostile rejection or confused silence, death runs rampant in disease, and malnutrition, and war. When will Immanuel come?!

When will God be With Us!? Could he be with us now? If so, then why aren't things different? Like Israel in exile, we are captives of the world, mourning over our lost condition, longing for a Son of God, a representative of Goodness to ransom us, to buy us back. The language of ransom is interesting... It reminds me that I am a slave to the world's systems of sin and selfishness... and I long for someone good to buy me, to purchase me back from my captivity. Most of what I do and think and say is self-serving. Won't someone rescue me?

God has rescued me... she rescues me every day. The cross and empty tomb illustrate just how far God was willing to go to rescue me! But that doesn't mean everything is fixed in an instant... The world and my faith linger on the edge between promise given and promise fulfilled. God is With me... but I don't always choose to Be With God... The difference between when I am with God and when I am not is painfully clear. That is something I mourn...

And yet in the refrain... my mourning is met with "Rejoice! Rejoice!" How can I rejoice when the world is such as it is? When I am such as I am? Because, promises the voice, "Immanuel shall come to thee..." The future is in the present. Though I LONG for the day of fulfillment, when Jesus shall make all things brand new... I also REJOICE that the renewal process is already underway.

Is it possible to mourn AND rejoice at the same time? To mourn all that is wrong, but rejoice in the transformation that comes with Immanuel?

Oh yeah... and I'm Israel. Yes, in the context of the actual, historical exile in Babylon I am NOT Israel, but in the context of the Christian hymn... I am Israel. Not the nation, not the people, but "one who struggles with God." God knows... I struggle with him... And I find comfort that that fact puts me in the company of SO many who came before me.

Israel, the term for the people of God, applies today to all who enter into the struggle of faith. It's a struggle between mourning and rejoicing. Between lament and promise. Between mystery and knowledge.

Come, Immanuel... Immanuel will come...

 

Come and Die

"...will God ever ask me to jump off a cliff?"

         -The Shack, pg. 32

Well, I am off to a good start on Wm. Paul Young's The Shack. Three chapters in and I can tell why this book is so popular. Young's strengths as an author are in the way he paints with words not just the physical reality, but the emotional as well.

What particularly struck me was a passage in which Mack, the father, is telling an American Indian legend to his three children out at Multnomah Falls, Oregon.

Mack tells of a tribal chief's daughter, a princess, who fell in love with a warrior from another tribe. The tribes came together to celebrate the marriage, but when they had gathered, a serious wasting disease began killing many of their young men from several tribes. Some of the elders recalled a prophecy that a serious disease would afflict the tribes and it could only be stopped and the sick healed if a "pure and innocent" daughter of a chief would go to the top of a cliff and jump to her death on the rocks below.

The chiefs decided it would be wrong to force a young girl to kill herself. However, when the princess's warrior beloved became sick with the disease, she decided to voluntarily sacrifice herself. She climbed. She jumped. She died... Everyone got well. The disease disappeared.

The people found her body and understood what had happened. So they prayed to the Great Spirit to remember her and what she had done. So, from the point on the cliff where she had jumped, water began to fall. This is the legend of Multnomah Falls.


...


When Mack tells this tale to his three kids, they listen attentively. Later that night, the youngest daughter, Missy, asks her father the question up above, "will God ever ask me to jump off a cliff?" Her father responds with a decisive NO. He goes on to explain that, even in Jesus' case, God did not force Jesus to be crucified, but rather, Jesus voluntarily went to his death because he loved us.

...Which got me thinking..

Be careful what stories you tell to your children! Be careful what stories you tell yourself, too! The message they get from a story may not be the one you intended on them receiving. That's why conversation matters, and teaching, and listening...

Missy's question revealed how the legend had struck her. If the Great Spirit, another name for God, had required a young girl to die... might God ask me to die too?

What would you say? God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but then stayed his hand. God asks individuals to put themselves in danger for the sake of greater causes, which could and often do result in death.

Truth is... God does not demand the sacrifice of human beings... That is simply not who God is nor is it what God wants. But God does invite us to die...

            ...Jesus says in Luke 9:23, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."

            ...And again in Mark 8:35, "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it."

To die to ourselves is to understand that self-preservation and survival is not the chief aim of our existence. For what good is living if it is not lived for something greater? Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." The chief's daughter understood this. Jesus understood this. Do our lives understand this? For what or whom are we willing to die?

Death is an invitation, not a demand. May love be our motivation.



ps: I can tell some really dark things are going to happen soon in this book... Kinda scared...

pps: please comment below! Let's have a conversation!

All Things New: An Update on Me and the Blog

Boy, it has really been a long time since I posted on this blog...

Blogs are funny things. Like so many aspects of our lives, they serve a purpose for a while, then we outgrow them for a time. Sometimes, though, we end up coming back to those things we once cast aside for whatever reason. We get stuck in ruts and need new patterns, disciplines, creative expressions...

I feel a need and desire to blog again... So here I am. And there is much to update.

When I last posted, I was an M. Div. student at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, IN, entering my third and final year. I was single and anticipating a future in pastoral ministry with the Church of the Brethren.

And now, around 5 years later, I am the pastor of the New Enterprise Church of the Brethren in central PA. In a few months, I'll have been pastor here for three years. I am now married and have a dog. His name is Bilbo. He is the best.

I am hoping that this blog will return to being a place for me to give public reflections on my personal studies, prayers, and reading. Sometimes that might involve Biblical selections, other times a thought on current events, still others on a subject I've been working on.

I have decided to begin reading a book that has long been on my shelf-stack. It's a selection that many people have strongly recommended from very different paths and experiences in life. This book is Wm. Paul Young's "The Shack". I doubt I will be giving synopses on each chapter or anything, but I will be reflecting on my reactions.

As always, I welcome your comments, questions, ponderings, and jokes.

I pray God may join me again as we walk this renewed spiritual path once more. Happy blogging! Happy reading!

You can check it out on Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Shack-Wm-Paul-Young/dp/160941411X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446177436&sr=8-1&keywords=the+shack

Overload

Do you ever feel overloaded with information and/or sensation? I frequently get in those modes of "too much!!!" and I just shut down. On top of my ministry internship involving tasks that are largely "where no one (or very few) have gone before", Annual Conference drama, lack of sleep, planning on relationship contacts, and personal failures in timing, the stuff of life crowds God out. 

Writing this post is my therapy for busyness right now. Any of you find yourself in such a state of over-stimulation?

Clash of These Titans

 I love Jon Stewart. Yet, I kinda agree with Wallace at one point. Jon does seem to use the "I'm a comedian" card to excuse his activism. I see nothing wrong with the activism though. At least he tries to criticize everyone who does something stupid. The epic duel was... epic.

What really got me thinking was how they were both arguing totally different things, but trying to speak the same language. It didn't work. How often in our conversations with each other do we argue points on such totally different levels that our words go over each other's heads. What I say to bring life is heard as death, and what another speaks as death, as hear as life. Discuss amongst yourselves... if you can!

 Watch the interview between Jon and Chris here!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTiDZ0-q-2o

Are We Ready For the Spirit?

John 16:12-15

"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."


The trinity is weird. Am I right? I mean, it makes no logical sense and its one of the key points of derision and criticism from non-Christians (and some Christians, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwKNfhbmtrc). However, while the technical terms and doctrinal statements held and debated by many today were established at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, the foundational ideas are present in the scriptures themselves. I believe the finalized decrees on the specific natures of the trinity and other doctrinal conclusions were and are misleading, but the I also believe that a realization of the trinity's reality in scripture is valuable. There is a strain in all the books of the Bible emphasizing the oneness of God; a strict monotheism with no room for rivals or equals (a concept readily embraceable by our Islamic neighbors). However, there is also another strain which emphasizes the multiplicity of Godself. God appears in various forms. God talks to God. There are messengers of God that are called "God". Does this mean there is more than one God?

What are we to make of this apparent contradiction? Well, for one, it is clear that the science (physics, biology, psychology) of God is not that of created things (in our experience). God is not bound by our singular notions of time and space and personhood. Thus, God is one, but his oneness is varied and diverse and relational. One of the highlights of the trinity is that it allows God a certain greater freedom to be and do, and it establishes the communal, relational nature of God. After all, a God of love cannot love without an other to love in return, even if both entities are within Godself. Confused? Relax. Part of the beauty of the trinity is that it is not comprehensible. And who is to say there are not other parts of the trinity simply not revealed to us! God is God! I sure ain't...

What is interesting to me in this passage (and the part that relates to waiting for Pentecost this Sunday), is how Jesus describes the coming Spirit to his disciples. Jesus frequently talks in John about how he speaks only what the Father tells him to speak and does only what the Father tells him to do. There is a submission in Jesus relationship to his Father (appropriate for these parental terms). Likewise, there is a submissive relationship on the part of the Spirit of Truth, who reveals only what Jesus knows, which Jesus knew from the Father. Thus, the parts of the trinity are not distinct gods, but part of one whole, knowing the same things and acting as one.

The end result of faith is that humans can become sons and daughters of God, much like (but not exactly like) Jesus is God's son. Now, this sounds awesome and liberating, which it is. BUT, I wonder if we are ready for it... The parts of God are mutually submissive, they defer to each other and act together, as one. Are we ready to be a part of that kind of relational system?

This Sunday is Pentecost, the day we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples after Jesus went back into heaven. The disciples were told to wait. Waiting must have been and is infuriating, stressful, anxious... I wonder if the reason they had to wait for the Spirit is that they first had to learn to submit themselves to God's will. To be filled with God's Spirit, God's self, God with us, God within us, we cannot be pursuing our own ends and our own wills. In waiting, we learn to pay attention to God's will, to God's leading, to God's call. Instant gratification is rare in the life of faith. This is good. We wait for the Spirit so that we can make ourselves ready to listen to the Spirit, just as the Spirit listened to Jesus, and Jesus to his Father.

Those who do not wait follow instead their own path, and it is not the Spirit of Truth that leads us in those times, but false spirits. it is difficult to wait. I pray I am ready when the time is right...

Happy waiting!