A Love Story...

Ok, maybe it's because I'm done with Judges and have moved on to Ruth...maybe it's because I watched "The Sound of Music" last night with my girls and my estrogen level is dangerously high...but the passage for today is one of the greatest love stories ever told. (I'm really just a big ol' teddy bear at heart)

Now, this story is not about the love between a man and woman, although there are aspects of that later in the story. This story is about the love between a daughter in law and her mother in law. To me, with the exception of the love story written on the cross, this is the greatest love story in scripture. But that's just me.

Here's the deal. Naomi moved with her husband and two sons to Moab because of a famine in Bethlehem. After a little while, her husband dies. After a little while longer, her sons marry women from Moab. Then after a little while longer, both sons die, leaving the three women to fend for themselves. Naomi dismisses the daughters to go back to their people and remarry, one does, one will not. So Naomi and Ruth decided to make their way back to Bethlehem. Ok, there's the quick overview up till now.

Back in Bethlehem Ruth goes out to glean grain from the fields one day. That was how it worked. If you were a farmer, you could not go over the field a second time, and had to leave some grain around the edges for the widows in town. As she was gleaning in a field owned by Boaz, he noticed her and was especially kind to her (another love story right there because I bet that wasn't the norm). When Ruth asked Boaz why he was being so kind to her, he said that it was because of what she had done for Naomi.

There is a truth buried in this story, though, and sometimes it's one that we really struggle with...and here it is: (You know I couldn't just talk about the love story, right? My estrogen level is not that high)...Does the story of Ruth tell us that if we do good for others, good will be done for us?

That's what Moab told her. The reason he was being kind to her was because she had been kind to Naomi. Now, my question is, was Ruth kind to Naomi so that she would be taken care of in Bethlehem? The short answer is, "I don't believe that for a minute." In this story, I believe that Ruth did all that she did for Naomi strictly out of her love for her. I don't think that Ruth behaved the way that she did so that she would get something in return, and that my friends, is love. That's what happened at the cross, and that's also why this story is so beautiful.

I realize that there are folks who operate like that, though, you know, giving so they can get. It's just the reality of the world we live in. Sometimes we question other people's motives, I've done it. But should we? Certainly, we have no way of knowing what motive is in someone's heart, and they may be showing kindness to us because of some agenda they have, but what if? What if they are actually being Ruth to our Naomi? It happens.

I don't know, maybe I'm just rambling this morning. But it just seems to me that with the world the way it is (hunger being the norm in some areas and not the exception; folks still sleeping on the streets in one of the richest countries in the world; and we could go on and on) that knowing there are some folks out there who will give with no thoughts of getting back makes me feel a little better about the human species. So for today, and maybe only today, I will not question, if or when, someone shows me a kindness. I will not think about their motives. I will not ask why. I will accept it with grace and hope that, when or if, I do the same for someone else today my motives will not be questioned either.

Now, where's my fishing rod? I've got to do something manly for a while.

Peace

J

Storage Capacity

Ok, today's passage got me. Someone go ahead and see if you can pull this splinter out from under my fingernail...no wait, I think I would rather have a splinter under my fingernail than to think about what the scripture today made me realize. Dang it, I hate when scripture does that to me.

Ok, this morning, the Old Testament text comes from Judges 17 and 18. There's not just a whole lot of "Wow!" stuff in this one this morning, but there is enough that it caught my attention. It tells the story of Micah and his mother, and his mother's silver, that evidently someone had taken. Turns out, the someone was Micah.

Now, I could stop right there and go one of two directions: I could talk about stealing, and I could talk about dishonoring your parents, but that's not what got me this morning; it comes a few lines later, and here is what it says: "Now this man Micah had a shrine..." That's it, but that was enough.

You see, the silver that belonged to his mother was cast into an idol. That idol was then given back to Micah, and Micah already had a spot in his house ready for it. Maybe it was a little niche in the wall, maybe it was something else, but he had built in a place for his idol. That was what he worshipped, and what he worshipped had its own place in the house; a shrine is what scripture calls it.

You may or may not know that Steph and I have just finished building a house. I've been working on it for 3 1/2 years in my spare time. Between getting my Master's of Divinity and serving 3 churches, I built a house. During the planning stage, we decided that we needed plenty of storage area, so I put in lots of closets, 11 closets to be exact. The old part of the house has a walk out attic, so that added another 200 square feet of storage space, but I decided that just wasn't enough. So, what did I do? I added a shrine.

My shrine is attached to the end of the house. It's 30 feet by 30 feet with a full staircase and full storage overhead. Altogether, my shrine has 1180 square feet in it. You could set our first house inside my shrine and have room to walk around it. Why did I build this shrine? Because I needed a place to put the stuff that I worship. Well, worship may be a little strong, but evidently this stuff is important or it wouldn't have its own place in our house. You get my drift.

I have a place built into my house just for the sole purpose of protecting the stuff that I think really needs protecting. Now, I don't go out there everyday and bow down before it, but as I look around at all of this stuff filling up my shrine, I think, "My gosh what am I doing?"

1180 square feet of storage space in my shrine...but there's the boats (both of them), all of my saws and power tools, tool boxes, boxes of books, boxes of toys, oh and the 4 wheeler, bicycles that we haven't ridden in years, paint cans, tarps, and that's just the stuff downstairs. Oh, and that's not counting the other shrine we have at the parsonage...more boxes, motorcycle, more tools, you get my point. It's ridiculous, and a lot of it is getting ready to go. I'm downsizing.

So, take today and look around. Where are the shrines in your house and what is in them? You just might be surprised at what you think is important.

Peace

J

Old Testament Soap Operas...

I despise soap operas. Just saying. And I apologize if that offends anyone who may be a faithful viewer. But I just don't get it. What is it about our lives that makes us feel the need to get involved in theirs'? I mean, somebody is always trying to kill somebody else, or sleeping with someone else's wife. There is always at least one bad guy, with that awful soap opera bad guy glare. And at least one bad girl, who has to continually prove that she's the bad girl. Everyone is always loaded, really loaded, living in unbelievably huge houses and driving, excuse me, being driven around in unbelievably expensive cars. I just don't get it.

The story of Samson reads just like a script for a Monday afternoon soap opera, oh my gosh! Have you read that story lately? As I think back, I'm not sure that I have ever preached on Samson, so evidently I wasn't as familiar with the story as I thought I was. I mean, I knew about Samson and Delilah, and I knew that he whipped a bunch of Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. But, dang, Hollywood couldn't write a better script.

It starts out simple enough. His mother is getting older and has no children. An angel appears to her and says that she is going to have a son but that he will be a Nazirite from birth. He can't ever have fermented drink or any form of grape, he could never eat anything unclean, and he could never cut his hair. Samson was born and scripture says, "and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan..."

Then the drama kicks in...He had found a Philistine girl that he just had to marry, so he convinced his mom and dad to go get her for him. On the way a lion charged them and he ripped it apart with is bare hands. He went back to marry her, and found a swarm of honey bees in the lion's carcass, scooped out some of the honey, and went on his way. Then there was the bet...he told his buddies that if they could solve his riddle he would give them a bunch of stuff, if not they had to give him a bunch of stuff. After a few days, his new bride to be, threw the "You don't love me" stuff at him and he told her the answer, then she told them. Yada yada yada.

But I love what Samson says about all of that..."If you had not plowed with my heifer you would not have solved my riddle..." Now, if I had said that, I would have found myself rolled up in a bed sheet with my wife wailing me with a baseball bat, and like my dad says, I would have just had to lay there and take it because I earned it. But since this is an Old Testament soap opera, he can get away with it.

But wait! There's more! The drama gets even better. His future father in law thought Samson was mad so gave his wife to one of his buddies. So, Samson does what any jilted lover would do, he goes on a killing spree, and it was on from there. Cue Delilah and her treachery. He loved her, but she could be bought, and was. The Philistines promised her silver if she could find out the source of his strength, but Samson just played along for a while. 3 times he told her where his strength was, 3 times she told them. Then, o my gosh, she throws the "How can you love me if you won't confide in me?" stuff at him. His story does have a sad ending, but he does get some sense of revenge in the end.

I guess that all of this has shown me that not all of scripture needs some lengthly theological wranglings. I'm sure there are things within Samson's story that we could debate theologically, but on first reading, this is one heck of a soap opera. I have to say that after reading it that way for the first time, I'm not even sure what to do with it. Is it legend? Are there some metaphorical truths buried within it that I haven't uncovered for myself yet? Is it history? Did God give life to Samson and cause his story to be recorded for us to read all these years later? Did he get jilted by not one, but two, women so that we can glean some life lesson from that? Did he really push the pillars down in the temple of dagon, killing thousands of those who would stand around to mock him? And where was God while all of this was going on?

I don't know. Sometimes I just have to step back from a passage of scripture and let it soak in for a while, and then read it again to see if it reads the same. I guess that's what I'm going to have to do with this one, and encourage you to do the same. Again with the forest and the trees. This one has messed me up just a little. Nothing major, but I am going to spend some time with it this week, reading the drama out of it, and looking for the deeper truths within in.

Peace

J

The One That Didn't Get Away...

(Artwork by Nelson Boren)

I used to love to fish. For some reason, I've kind of lost interest in it the last few years, but for the biggest part of my life, I have loved to fish. There was very little in life, at the time, more frustrating than hanging a huge fish, fighting it, wearing it down, and then just as you get ready to pull it out of the water, the line breaks...fish falls back into the lake, swims away, and there is a momentary loss of religion on my part. You've always heard folks talk about the one that got away.

But for every "one that got away" story, I've got a story where the fish didn't get away. I've got one hanging on the wall in my office that I caught in 1984. To a 13 year old kid, that fish was huge! And it didn't get away. I've caught some real monsters over the years, and maybe one day, I'll get back into it.

Stories about the one that got away can be bittersweet. I guess you've probably figured by now that I'm not going to stick with the fishing stories this morning, that's just not my style. There is a story in scriptures about one that got away...Isaac. Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac as an offering to God. If I live to be 1000 years old I'll never understand that one. Abraham and Isaac got everything together and began the trip up the mountain. Just as Abraham was about to drive the knife through Isaac's heart, God sent an angel to grab his arm, and stopped him. They found a ram caught in some brambles, sacrificed the ram, and Isaac got away.

This morning, I found the story of one that didn't get away, and I have to say that reading this story absolutely broke my heart. I'm sure that I have heard it before but I don't remember it. Being the daddy of little girls, this one hit especially close to home. It's found in Judges 11, and here's a little background on the story...

Jephthah was leading Israel at the time, and went out to fight the Ammonites. It was evidently a pretty serious deal because Jephthah cried out to God and cut a quick deal. I mean, who among us hasn't done that, raise your hand. Here is what Jephthah said to God: "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

We could stop right there and know exactly how this story is going to turn out, couldn't we? What a stupid thing for Jephthah to say. As many movies as we've watched, or books that we've read, we know that it is going to be one of his kids that comes running out to meet him as daddy comes up to the house. Well, sure enough, it was his daughter, and scripture says, "and she was just a child."

Now, I know that society was different then. I know that this wasn't as horrific to them as it was to me when I read it. I know that this story shows how dedicated Jephthah was to God and how thankful he was that God had given him victory, but come on, his baby girl? Not just his baby girl, but his only child. I kept waiting for God to step in and catch his arm like God did for Abraham, but folks, it ain't there in this story.

I kept waiting for God to intervene somehow and let this little girl get away, but it didn't happen. She asked that her father allow her to go with her friends into the hills to weep for 2 months because she would never marry. Never marry? Of course she would never marry, her father was about to sacrifice her as a burnt offering! I kept hoping that Jephthah would change his mind, or that God would say, "Nah, that's ok. I know you're thankful. Let the child alone."

But there it was: "After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed." (Judges 11:39)

Now, I know that when folks are desperate they say things they regret later, I've been there. We make promises to God, cut deals, whatever you want to call it. I've been there. Jephthah regretted what he had said as soon as he saw his daughter come out of the house, but it was too late. This story proves again that cutting deals with God is not always a good idea. Call out to God in your desperate times, that's absolutely cool, but cutting deals is not.

This one has gotten me so upset that I'm going to have to do a little more research on it. I know human sacrifice was more common, and that certainly, child sacrifice was part of that, but I've got to look into why this one didn't get away.

Peace

J

Balancing the Checkbook...

When I was a kid, my dad used to say...well, my dad used to say a lot of stuff actually...but he used to say, "Boy, don't let your mouth write a check your tail can't cash." (I might have cleaned that up a little, I don't know). It would usually happen on the basketball court, or during a wrestling match, or maybe even as I became a teenager. But what he was saying, without saying it was, that I should be very careful about making boasts, and allowing my ego or my pride to make threats that I wasn't big enough, or man enough, to carry out. Honestly though, for a 13 or 14 year old boy that was just nonsense, because there wasn't anything I couldn't do if I wanted to, right?

You see, ego is an ugly thing. Yesterday a friend of mine reminded me that pride is just as ugly. But both of those can cause us, at times, to say or do things that under normal circumstances, we might not say or do. It's been going on since the first teenage boys came on the scene, and we know how that turned out. It happened in the Old Testement. It happened in the New Testament. It happened to me growing up. And now, the fun part is that I get to say that to the kids coming up now. Ahh, the circle of life...

There is one story in scripture where this plays out. It's in Judges 9 and it's one of those stories that doesn't make the top 25 for our kids in Sunday school, so you may have never heard it before. Abimelech has set himself up as ruler of Shechem, and to guarantee no competition, he had all 70 of his brothers murdered. Yeah, real nice guy. Anyhow, this other guy comes into town...other guy, name of Gaal (Sorry about the Slingblade reference). Gaal began to imbibe one day and allowed his mouth to start writing checks that evidently his tail couldn't cash.

Funny how that happens sometimes. We get so caught up in ourselves, add a little fruit of the vine, and the next thing you know, we are standing outside the city gates watching an army coming at us from every direction, and just catching a glimpse of them following as we turn tail and run. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure the wine intensified the situation, but my guess is that Gaal was feeling a little invincible anyhow. So, I'm not turning this into an anti-glass-of-wine deal. Personally, I don't see a problem with a glass of wine with dinner...unless that glass of wine makes you boastful and arrogant, like it did Gaal.

Long story short, Gaal was shown that, indeed, his tail was not big enough to cash the checks his mouth had been writing. Abimelech got his too, though. After raiding the city of Shechem and routing all of the inhabitants into a strong tower, a woman in the tower dropped a millstone on his head and cracked his skull. Instead of letting it be said that a woman killed him, he ordered his servant to take his sword and run him through. Guys and their egos, just saying.

Why are we like that? Not just guys, but all of us. That whole macho thing usually makes it more evident in guys, but why do we let our egos get the best of us sometimes? Just think about all the trouble it has caused throughout the ages. War? Most of the time caused by someone's ego. Bad politics? Ego. Oppression? Ego. And even in the church, 98% of my problems over the past 11 years have been the result of someone's overinflated ego. I would like to think that church would be the last place you'd find ego, but that's just not always the case. Do you see the patterns?

Ok, I admit, I don't have the answers. These are just some of the questions I woke up with this morning. Maybe I'll start a research program and write a book, who knows.

Peace
J

Smashing Guitars...

If you have watched "Animal House" you may remember the scene where Bluto is walking down the stairs in his toga and stops to listen to what, is quite possibly, the worst love song ever written. The guy is trying, but it's bad..."he gives his love a cherry with no stones, a chicken with no bones"...I mean, come on, that's just bad.

There is a contemporary Christian song that I thought was just as bad the first time I heard it..."As the Deer." You may be familiar with it, maybe not..."As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after thee..." I mean, my gosh, who writes this stuff. The first time I heard that song, I immediately saw images of Bluto smashing a guitar.

I've got a very dear friend that used to play that song a lot, and I admit, I didn't make any little amount of fun of him because of it. But then I listened to the lyrics, and I found the passage that inspired it, and it changed everything.

Psalm 42 is where the song was birthed: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God. My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul; how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."

I've had to quit making fun of the song. Martin Nystrom actually speaks to me now. I still say it may be just a little cheesy, but in a good kind of way. It's not a song that you'll ever hear me cranking up the electric guitar to, but it's a song that, indirectly, helped me through a tough time. I know what it's like for my soul to long after God and feel that God is absent. I've been there. I know what it's like to feed on your own tears day and night, I've been there. I know what it's like to remember how it used to be, when I walked among a more festive throng, and this weekend, we got a little reminder.

But I also realize that even in those moments when my mouth is dry, and all I can do is pant, there is something bigger than I am out there, and I won't find rest until I find rest there. So, no smart aleck rant this morning, just a guy singing a love song to his Creator...and keep Bluto away from my guitars.

Peace

J

So You Want a Sign...

Ok, this is creepy...I was reading the devos for this morning and had my thoughts all lined out on what I was going to write about. The Old Testament texts come from Judges 6 and 7 and talk about God calling Gideon to lead the Israelites against the Midianites. That was what I was going to hit on.

Evidently, the Midianites had been giving the Israelites some problems, camping on their land, destroying their crops, overgrazing their pastures, yada yada yada, and leaving Israel with nothing to eat. So Israel cried out to God for help. Long story short, Gideon was threshing some wheat in a winepress one day, hiding what he was doing from hungry eyes, and an angel appeared to him to tell him that he was going to be the one to defeat the Midianites. Gideon, much like most of us, asked for a sign...not once, but at least 4 times.

Signs are good things, aren't they? If we are feeling like we need to do something, but aren't exactly sure, a sign straight from God would be just what we would need to convince us. Well...here it is. At least for me, and at least this morning. You see, we've got a very dear friend that had a really bad night at church last night. I'm not going to say who it is, but she knows, and since I'm not saying any names, I don't think she would mind me doing this. So, here goes.

As I kept reading, I covered the chapters from Judges, then the Psalm for the day, and moved on into 1 Corinthians chapter 14, still planning on going back and blogging on the signs that Gideon had asked for, but then I read this: (Warning...this is Paul speaking and not Jamie)

"As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church." (1 Corinthians 14:33-35)

It was a sign, and here's why. Our friend is a preacher's wife, or PW for short. Yesterday, her husband was called out of town for a hospital visit and was not going to be back in time for services last night. She decided to give a devotional during the service last night, instead of cancelling service, and in the middle of her devotional, one of the men stood up, looked around, and said that what she was doing was not scriptural and that there would be a board meeting to take care of this. I know! Can you believe that?

Allow me a moment to address what Paul has done here. A few days ago, I mentioned Paul being at his best with the "becoming all things to all people so that by some means I might win a few" thing. A couple days ago, I mentioned Paul was at his worst when he said that man was the head of the woman. Well today, we have Paul at his absolute worst with this little gem.

And here is where I become infuriated when someone says to me, "But the bible says..." as if that immediately makes everything ok. Yeah, Paul says that women are not to speak in church, but, sometimes, men in the church should be silent too. What Paul is talking about is building up the body...edification, if you would like a more fancy term. What this man did to our friend last night was the total opposite of edification.

Personally, I don't think Paul even said those words in 1st Corinthians 14. If that makes me a heretic, so be it. I think they were added later by some guy who had a burr in his britches about something, and was looking for someone to blame; probably not unlike what happened to my friend last night. Ok, I admit, I have no proof of that, but here's why I think that. Why would God cause a man to pen words that oppress any one of God's creations? God wouldn't. God wouldn't write something for us to follow, word for word, if those words would make any one of his daughters or sons feel like she did last night.

Folks can say that what Paul said was all about keeping order in worship, and that's even the subtitle of the section, but if you ask me, it's all about keeping a group of people, in this case women, from being what God has created them to be. If that's the case these words CANNOT be the words of God. I would much rather be labeled a heretic than to support oppression, and by claiming these words to be the words of God, that's exactly what I would be doing.

Now, If women can't speak in church, then I have to throw out my entire Sunday School education. Mrs. Marilyn...Mrs. Dorothy...Mrs. Mildred...even my mom...all women, and they were the ones that taught me growing up. So, here's my thoughts, and this may get me in trouble with some folks, but oh well, we know that hasn't stopped me before. I guarantee that in my friend's church, women teach 99% of the Sunday school classes. I would almost bet that if they have a choir, which I don't know if they do or not, that a woman leads that. I know for a fact, that the women do the cooking for their potlucks (which by the way, they put on one heck of a feed). But you're telling me, that because of one line in a letter to a group of folks 2000 years ago, women can't stand up and speak. Sorry, but I'm calling bullcrap on that one.

And somebody has to. If it gets me in trouble, oh well. I said in the beginning that you didn't have to agree with me, and I was very serious. I don't get easily offended, but someone has to begin looking at these things for what they are...leftovers from a patriarchal society in which women and children were just one step above slaves. Scripture is true, and the truths contained within it are timeless; but we do have to keep in mind the context of the time, who was writing, who was reading, who has edited, and sometimes, we have to take Paul with a grain of salt. Oh, and by the way, Paul never even meant for us to read his letters. Just saying.

Peace

J