Scripture Reveals Itself

We had a great experience in our Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study this week.  It's a fantastic example of how Scripture speaks to us, revealing God's Spirit in new and interesting ways.  (It's also a fantastic example of why Bible Studies are enriching and irreplaceable.)

We were reading through the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Mark when we came across this story:

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

We had 500 questions about the proceedings here.  Why did Jesus pull the man away privately?  Jesus had performed plenty of miracles in Mark before this.  Some took but a word.  For some the recipient wasn't even present.  What was with the touching and the saliva and the extra words in this miracle?  Was it all a show?  What's up with Jesus commanding the man not to tell anyone and then the man blabbing anyway?

We answered these questions the best we could but we mostly left them with a shrug.  "Oh well.  It was an interesting story.  Maybe we'll never quite 'get it'.  It's nice that the guy was healed, though.  Onward!"

Proceeding onward into Chapter 8 we found a miracle of many people fed, one of several arguments between Jesus and the Pharisees, and then we read this story:

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

Wait a minute!  This miracle involves saliva as well.  Plus it took two applications of Jesus' power to get it right!  There's got to be more to this story.  It's too much coincidence for spit to show up twice in a row during miracles.

So we began drawing connections.  The saliva provided the first clue.  These two miracle stories are chained together.  That was the purpose of spitting...not that Jesus needed the saliva to perform the miracle, but to show us that these miracles were linked, two parts of a set.  Cool!

Knowing that the miracles were meant to be compared, we then started to look at details.

Each miracle starts with an important geographical designation.  The first saliva application happened in Decapolis, on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.  This was Gentile territory.  People here would not have grown up with the Jewish Law and the Jewish faith that Jesus and his disciples shared.  They would not have known about God the same way the Jews did.  To the Jews they were foreigners, heathens, the unfaithful.

The second miracle happened in Bethsaida, among the Jews.  This was home territory compared to Decapolis, Tyre and Sidon.  People here would have been expected to know and accept God's word.

The first saliva miracle happened among outsiders, among people the Jews would have considered the non-dominant, non-favored culture.  The second happened among insiders, the "right" people.

Now consider the affliction in each story.  The Gentile man--the foreigner, the outsider--could not hear and could not speak.  There's a theological component to this physical ailment.  The outside group had never heard God's word.  Obviously they could not be messengers of it either, having not received it.  The "faithful" folks would not have bothered sharing it with them.  They were outsiders, the wrong people!  Ironically the inside group would then blame the outsiders for not being people of God.  It was the religious equivalent of a community denying a person any kind of job and then blaming that person for not having enough money, food to eat, or a roof over his head.  "They're ignorant of scripture because they're Gentiles!"  No, they're ignorant of scripture because you refuse to share it with them, because you make yourselves the privileged, knowledgeable ones by denying everybody who's not you.

But look at the affliction of the faithful, "inside" man.  It's blindness!  His problem isn't that he hasn't heard or can't speak the word.  His problem is that having heard and spoken, he still doesn't get it!  He doesn't see.  He can't make proper use of what he knows.  This is the fault of the dominant group.  They've got the power but they have no idea how to use it for goodness because they assume it exists only to support them, to keep them dominant and privileged.

Look now at the process of each miracle.  How easy was it for Jesus to cure the deaf, mute man?  It happened instantly.  Jesus' presence, a touch, and a word: "Be opened!"  The man's life was opened.  Not only did he hear again, he began to speak and started a tidal wave of acclaim and amazement directed towards Jesus.  He became an evangelist, just like that!  He shared the good news, it couldn't be stopped (even by Jesus himself), and many came to know God's mercy through this "outsider".

How easy was it to heal the blind man?  He had to do it twice.  You never see that happening in scripture.  Having Jesus "redo" the miracle isn't just an indication that it was twice as hard.  It makes this operation uniquely difficult.  Curing the blindness of the inside group is a far greater challenge than rectifying whatever might be wrong with the outside group.  Changing the behavior of the oppressors and setting them on the right track is nigh impossible compared to uplifting the oppressed even though the former are consider the "right" group and the latter the "wrong" one.

You can almost see Jesus looking at the Pharisees with whom he had argued in between these miracles stories and saying, "See?  Here's what all your 'rightness' has gotten you: a blindness that makes it impossible for you to understand me even when 'foreigners' and 'heathens' understand in an instant."

We have to be really careful as followers of Christ today.  In America we've been the "in" group since the founding of the country.  It might be less so in this new millennium than it has been in the past but if you asked people to identify just one religion which typifies and dominates our culture the answer would still be "Christianity" by a mile.  The classic approach is to claim that going to church makes us the wise, knowledgeable, powerful ones...the "right folks".  That's the same blindness the Pharisees had.  God has to work twice as hard to correct somebody who already thinks they've got it right as he does to guide somebody who has no clue.

We have to guard against keeping the Good News to ourselves.  Whatever power or grace or knowledge we've been given is for the purpose of uplifting and healing the world, not just preserving our own power and position.  We have to make sure we're not building walls to define "in" and "out" groups.  Where we see those walls--be they religious, cultural, economic, political, marked by gender or age or race or lifestyle--we have to do what Jesus did: cross through them in order to share love and grace on the other side...miracles more powerful and important than any barrier.  That's the mission, and the warning, spelled out by these two stories.

What a powerful realization!  I'm not sure any of us would have come to it on our own.  Mostly we would have scratched our heads about why Jesus was touching people with spit all of a sudden and moved on.  But together we were more powerful, more perceptive in the Spirit than any of us could have been individually.  What a wonderful revelation!  And that's why we do Bible Study.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Asking the Right Questions

Our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Study group dipped a toe into the book of Ruth this morning, a short interlude after the relatively long look at Corinthians we've taken.  As we did so, I was reminded again of the importance of knowing what kind of literature you're reading when you take up various parts of the Bible.  We did a whole study on this last fall, for good reason!

The Bible invites you to ask questions.  What is faith but an exploration of the wonderful, mysterious, and very big relationship we have with God?  The Bible is the field on which that exploration takes place.  If we never ask a question while traversing its pathways we miss out on its meaning.  It'd be like visiting a new place, walking right through it, and never bothering to stop, examine, or wonder about anything.  Why did you visit in the first place?

While the potential for questions in the Bible as a whole is limited, each section is set up to answer different sorts of questions.  Careful reading--coupled with a little foreknowledge about what kind of literature you're reading--will reveal what questions each book will answer best.  Questions outside the scope of the story being told will be answered poorly or not at all...usually because the story itself finds them beside the point.

Contrast Ruth with the stories about King David and Solomon that follow immediately after in Chronicles and Kings.  The characters in these books are connected, as Ruth and Naomi end up being related to David and Solomon.  But Ruth is a narrative story, like a play or television show.  Chronicles and Kings are histories, much as you'd find in a school textbook.  The distinction is critical.

In a narrative story events exist to serve the characters.  Think of the Star Trek TV shows, for instance.  Why did that big space creature show up right in front of the ship?  Well, because our good captain and crew needed a peril to work their way out of!  The creature's appearance has little or nothing to do with scientific principles, though some may be used as window dressing to make the story seem more realistic.  But if you start asking questions like, "Hey, there's no air in outer space to conduct sound, so how are the people on the ship hearing that creature threaten them?" you ruin the story.  We're never going to get a good answer to that question.  Events happen to move the narrative and its characters along...telling the greater story.

The opposite is true in a history.  Here the characters only exist to illustrate the events.  Consider the movie "Patton" or a documentary on that fine World War II general.  Yes, we'll see some personality from him in order to make him interesting and relatable, but those personality traits only exist to hold our attention while we're waiting for the parts about the commanding and the battles and the victories.  If Patton--with the same personality and all--had been a dishwasher instead of a general we'd not be seeing this film!  The whole purpose of the movie is to show what he did as a general and how that affected the flow of history around him.  When we ask questions like, "What did this man really feel inside at this moment?  And what was his wife thinking?" we once again divert the story.  We'll never get a good answer to those questions because the people in this story exist only to bring life to the events.

Going back to our Bible books, Ruth is a narrative story like Star Trek and Chronicles/Kings are histories like our Patton documentary.  Knowing this, we also know what kind of questions each book will invite us to ask and what kind of questions each book will fall silent on.

Ruth and Naomi lost all the men of their family to disease, had to go back to Naomi's home town of Bethlehem, and were forced to glean the leavings of grain out of the fields until they were redeemed.  How did Naomi feel about this?  That's a question a narrative story will answer!  In the narrative itself she says, "Don't call me Naomi [pleasant] anymore, call me Mara [bitter]."   The book of Ruth will talk to you about these things all day long and invite you to explore their ramifications.  But the book will fall silent if you start asking, "Which disease was it that killed all the menfolk of that family?  How contagious was it?  How far was the journey back to Bethlehem and how did they provide for themselves along the way?  What type of grain were they gleaning?  How many bushels could be gleaned by the average beggar in a day when you factor in the time to thresh and transport the finished product?"  We may be curious about these things but they're peripheral to the narrative.

David and Solomon, on the other hand, built a powerful kingdom, won many battles, erected a temple, fathered children, battled over a couple of successions.  These histories will be really good at answering all of those questions that Ruth ignored.  "How many men were in this battle?  How far did they have to march from Point A to Point B?  What was the geography like?  What tactics did they use to win?  How many years passed between this event and the next?"  But if you start asking Ruth-like questions of Chronicles--"How did everybody feel about this?  What did this expression of faith mean to King David?"--the book will give you few answers.  Again, these aspects are peripheral to the story the book is trying to tell.

The classic example of this phenomenon comes in the book of Job.  As you know, Job lost all his children in a great disaster, the result of a cosmic contest between God and Satan.  He goes through trials but in the end all of his stuff is restored along with a whole new batch of children and Job lives happily ever after.  The End.

Except that every parent in the audience is screaming, "WHAT?!?"  The restoration at the end is nice and all, but children aren't commodities that can just be replaced.  The book is claiming this resolution as happy but to us it seems hideous.  And hideous it would be if it were meant to be a history.  We'd have to ask questions like, "What were the names of the children and how old were they?"  Then we'd mourn them forever.  The book doesn't do any of that.  We don't get a single name.  It just mentions that they're there, then BOOM!  They're gone along with equally-mourned camels and goats.  Then later a new batch of equally-nameless children and livestock have taken their place and everything's fine.

But Job isn't meant to be a history.  It's a cosmic tale of good and evil, suffering and redemption, played out in the life of our title character.  All the events in the story, including the loss of the children, serve that purpose...to show who Job is and who God is.  It's not a manual for living life.  It's not an attempt to relay historical events.  It's a narrative designed to teach us about our relationship with God.

If we treat Job like a history or a manual for proper living, we end up in odd and horrible positions.  When somebody loses a child we're forced to say, "Well, God decides these things and He is so big and mighty who can understand or argue with him?"  Either that or, "Just be patient and you'll end up with an even better replacement!"  Neither one is very comforting, nor at all appropriate.  But the book doesn't mean these things.  We just asked it the wrong questions and tried to use it in a way it doesn't want to be used.

Every book, every word of scripture, has its time and place.  All questions are explored somewhere.  Discerning the time, place, and which questions are best asked is part of the fun (and discipline) of reading the Bible.  Sometimes it addresses exactly the questions we wanted to ask.  Other times it forces us to ask different ones, to think in a new way.  That's one of its strengths...if we let it be.  When we insist upon only asking one (or one type of) question over and over we end up misreading and misinterpreting scripture.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Your Word

Our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Study concluded their year with a study of James. Our final session covered James, Chapter 5, including this very interesting verse 12:

12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.

First off, we have to admit that James cribbed this straight from Jesus, namely Matthew 5: 33-37.  But hey, if you're going to borrow, borrow from the best!

At first the passage seems shocking.  What's the big deal about taking oaths and making solemn promises?  Upon further reflection, the issue isn't that oaths are wrong as much as unnecessary for a person of faith.

Followers of God have used a sly old trick for...well...for about as long as there have been followers of God.  It goes like this:  "Certain times, places, and people are important and holy.  I will reverence those.  If I speak in a holy context--usually indicated by me taking an oath and really, really promising that I can be trusted here--then you may be sure what I say is true and that I will follow through on it.  But other times, places, and people are not so important and holy.  If I speak in that context, well, I'm pretty much free to do as I please.  After all, it's not like I promised by something really holy or anything!"

This is really awesome for us as "good" and "holy" people.  (Note the sarcasm contained in those quotation marks.)  We are free to be seen as good and upstanding citizens in church and in other public settings.  We can pick and choose our times to take oaths and really pinkie swear, so to speak.  But then we can leave church or those other public settings and proceed to lie, cheat, con, connive, or do whatever else is necessary to get what we desire.  After all, we didn't really promise, right?  It's not like we took vows in front of an altar.

This passage is God's way of calling shenanigans on that mindset.  And I only use "shenanigans" because the stronger term would get me in trouble.

Note the problems with our sly little trick:

1.  By elevating certain moments and places as holy and worth swearing by while designating the rest as just "normal", we pen God into a narrow corner.  Sure he's present in church or in solemn public oaths, but he stays there!  He never follows us into real life.  Apparently he doesn't even care, as long as you don't do anything wrong in his special place.  We witness to everyone that God isn't in the world and that God has nothing to do with their everyday lives...with normal words and occasions.

2.  We also make God the God of the Good here...the God of the Perfect, really.  He's only around when people are behaving well, in contexts like church or the witness stand.  He's not the God of forgiveness, nor the God of the sinner, nor the God of people who just mess up sometimes and break words they shouldn't.

3.  At the same time we set the bar for ourselves really low.  If we can manage to be good for about an hour a week in church we're good!  Then we're free for the other 167 hours of the week to do as we please.  If we can manage to keep the two or three promises we swore to in a holy context we can then be absolute selfish boogers with everything else people depend on us for.

4.  In this way we witness that people of God are two-faced and hypocritical.  We also witness that God's word can be twisted to any kind of evil and still remain God's word...effectively robbing it of power and meaning.

Thus you get the "Christian" used car salesman who shows up in a suit with his family each Sunday and then cheats customers the other six days.  Or you get the Sunday School teacher who lectures piously at 9:00 a.m. and is emotionally abusing his spouse and children by 3:00 that afternoon.  Or, more commonly, you just get a bunch of people with the impression that church and faith happen on Sunday morning and are totally disconnected with everything else that happens during their week.

Yeah...shenanigans.

For a person of faith, every word is a witness.  Every word and every moment are packed with potential power for goodness or evil in the world.  That's as true on Friday night at 11:30 as it is on Sunday morning at 10:00.  If you speak a word, people should be able to rely on it being good and true.  They should also be able to rely on you following up on it, living your life by it.  Your "yes" and "no" should be as strong as the most binding oath.  If people can't draw a line straight from your most intimate moments of faith to the things you're saying and doing in this moment, what good is your faith?

Granted, this isn't always easy.  We're quite careless about our words, actions, and attitudes.  (Cheap Plug:  Come to the next Evangelism Workshop after worship on June 3rd to begin a discussion about this very thing!)  We let words escape our lips that aren't worthy of our faith or God.  We hold back words which should be uttered.  This is why we all need forgiveness and renewal every Sunday.

It also gets complex even when you're paying attention and trying to do right.  If my wife asks me if her derriere is getting larger, The Truth is not necessarily the wisest course.  Or rather, the greater Truth that it doesn't matter a bit is more central to the moment than the lesser (and more potentially hurtful) truth of "Yes, dear.  I'd say about four inches circumference in the last 18 months."  Sometimes figuring out which truth to speak can be a nightmare.

Even so, even as difficult as it is sometimes, we aren't free to be cavalier about our words.  We aren't free to lock God away when it's convenient for us, nor to brand ourselves as his followers and then hurt people as if it didn't matter.  Every yes means, "Yes, you can rely on this to be good and rely on me to live by it."  Every no means the same.  If we cannot pack that kind of meaning into our utterances, we should think twice before we utter.

Cue tapes of radio hosts, politicians, salesmen, newscasters, commercial spokespeople, authors of letters to editors, and plenty of pastors here...

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

BRILLIANT Inspiration!

Just yesterday I talked about the diversity of faith backgrounds and views in our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Study and darned if we didn't see the Spirit at work in exactly that way this very morning!

We are studying the Book of James and in this particular passage we considered the role of works in faith, how they were necessary but how they could also become a source of distraction when they became prideful or self-righteous.  We talked about how churches often narrow their ministries by keeping their tasks familiar and withing the purview of 4-5 people instead of letting all the gifts of the people in church flower.  We were just getting into the disguise we put over this process--anointing one thing to do and one way to do it and calling that "right" or "holy"--when one of our brilliant theologians brought up a lesson she had been told in childhood:  "If you want something done right, do it yourself!"

This simple statement dovetailed with everything we had been talking about: work being about the self, limiting the range of our daily tasks to things we agree with or things that cater to our own gifts, defining a single way of doing things that only we know, determining right and wrong by internal bias rather than external effect.  Then the true beauty of the statement came to the fore as we made this connection:

1.  If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

2.  Faith, by definition, can never be done by yourself.  (At a minimum you need a God to believe in, right?)

3.  Therefore by simple A-B-C mathematical logic, faith can never be done "right"!

Whoa!!!

Note that this is different than saying faith can never be done well.  It surely can be.  But it can never be done "right" when "right" is defined as "just one way to do it, the way I say".  Faith is not a "get out of the way and let me show you how it's done" endeavor.  Faith is a, "Let's jump in and do this together" thing.  Every time we posit a single "right" way to do it we are isolating ourselves, cutting off our faith from infinite permutations of God's Spirit and from its relationship to people around us.

In other words, every bit of energy we spend on trying to get faith "right" by that self-centered definition is a waste of time.  Every moment we spend doing faith together with each other and God is a blessing, even if we sometimes do it imperfectly.

Thank goodness for all the people and views at our Bible Study.  They bring out this kind of thing that we'd never think of sitting in a room trying to read scripture on our own.  Who knows if we get it right all the time, but we sure do it well!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Taming the Tongue

Our wonderful Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study group has been debating their way through the Book of James as the year comes to a close.  Today we read the following from James, Chapter 3:

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

James has a rather negative view of the tongue here!  But it's not so much that he despises the muscle, rather respects and fears the power it holds to do harm.  That respect is well-earned.  Consider this:  in all my years of ministry I've never seen a single person hit, punch, kick, shove, mug, rob, or murder anybody in church.  But none of the churches I've served have been perfect.  Over and over again I've seen people impoverish each other, wound each other, drive each other away, and destroy faith.  In every single one of those incidences the culprit was the tongue.  Every bit of harm done in the church--and there's plenty--is done through words:  accusing, complaining, belittling, dismissing, drowning out, and so on.

James' admonition against becoming a teacher is well-taken, since teachers are held responsible for what they say regarding their subject matter.  What James leaves out:  as people of faith we're all teachers.  Every word we utter witnesses something about our faith, our world view, our priorities, and how we value others (or don't).  Every word we say is supposed to reflect Christ.  We were held accountable to that standard the moment we were baptized.  We adopted it for our own when we were confirmed or when we joined this church as adults.  Sadly, most of us forget it on a daily basis.  We act as if it doesn't matter what we say.  Or we become careless, using our tongues to get what we want--what we think is right--instead of to honor God and our neighbor.

Most people I know who are anti-God, anti-church, anti-faith aren't really turned off by any of those things.  What they really are is anti-people, particularly anti-church-people.  Inevitably this is because of something they've been taught, told, or accused of that invalidated and wounded them.  Some person of faith forgot that their words represented God, were meant to convey his grace and love.  Some person of faith forgot to pay attention not just to what they wanted to say but to the effect it would have on the person listening.  This kind of careless disregard has driven away many.

Our task each day is to wake up praying that the Lord would guide the use of our tongues throughout our day. From then on we listen very hard to the people around us and usually speak softly.  We think before words escape our lips, not just about what we're trying to accomplish but about the people we're trying to accomplish it with and for.  We understand that each word we say will convey something about God for good or ill and choose our words accordingly.  We regard speaking as a holy privilege, a moment of great opportunity and great power.

If people would listen and think more--complain and badger, insist and accuse less--many of the world's problems would melt away.  Yet even with this holy injunction staring us in the face, I've never known a church without complaining and badgering, insisting and accusing, gossip and rumor.  How sad that we rob God's holy house of its power that way!

Like fire, the tongue holds power to give great warmth or great destruction.  For which purpose are you using your tongue today?

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Sins Like Mist

As we continue our study of Isaiah on Wednesday mornings the Women's Bible Study happened upon the following passages from Chapter 44:

 21 “Remember these things, Jacob,
   for you, Israel, are my servant.
I have made you, you are my servant;
   Israel, I will not forget you.
22 I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
   your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
   for I have redeemed you.”
 23 Sing for joy, you heavens, for the LORD has done this;
   shout aloud, you earth beneath.
Burst into song, you mountains,
   you forests and all your trees,
for the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
   he displays his glory in Israel.

The interesting passage for us was Verse 22, speaking of a God who redeems his people by turning their sins into insubstantial mist, melted away by the burning sun of his presence.  We give so much power to sin in our lives.  We let people offend us, make us feel angry and slighted.  Most of our lives would be far better right now if we went home to our spouses, siblings, children, or parents and said, "Your sins are like mist to me, insubstantial and blown away.  It's time to treat each other like the redeemed people we are."  This is also true of strangers in our lives.  Why do we view people with suspicion first, acceptance only after they've proven themselves to us?  We understand that everybody has flaws and failures.  But why should we be defined by those when there's so much good to be unearthed beneath them?  We should be clearing the mist, not adding to it!

Be careful how much power and weight you give to sin in your life.  Be careful how much you let it define your relationships and how much you make decisions based on it.  When we view our lives through the mist of sin by definition our vision will be unclear.  It'll also be quite temporary, as God is still in the business of redeeming his people.  Sing for joy in your relationships.  Burst into song at the goodness you find in the world.  Your life and the lives of the people around you will be much better for it.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Idolatry

As we continue through the chapters in Isaiah 40-50 our Women's Bible Study participants keep getting confronted with the subject of idolatry...a subject guaranteed to make God a little upset.  When we read about people making statues out of stone and wood in order to worship them we always say, "How in the world could they be so silly and superstitious?"  In doing so we miss the slightly more subtle (and thus more dangerous) forms of idolatry we still practice.

The process of idolatry can be described most simply as taking something made by human hands and equating it with God.  Most of us think we're safe from this, as few of us specialize in graven image making anymore.  But do you remember when we talked about adultery a couple months ago?  We said, in essence, that anything you invest greater time, energy, thought, and love into than you do your spouse becomes your new spouse.  That could be another person, it could be a job, it could be a project.  If you have more devotion to that thing than your marital relationship, you're committing a form of adultery with it.

It's the same way with idolatry and God.  We don't have outright statues, but you can't even begin to count the number of things we depend on for happiness, comfort, safety, and fulfillment more than we depend on God.  How about the things we invest our time, energy, and resources into?  We don't call them gods, but they determine our actions as surely as if they were.  If something bad happens in our spiritual life, like getting too busy to pray, we figure we can make it up next time.  If something bad happens to our checking account we are devastated and go into a panic because that's irreplaceable!  The balance seems off there...tending towards idolatry.  Our true god is that which we depend upon most.  In a practical sense, that's not the God of the Bible for most of us.

In the course of this dependence it's certainly possible to elevate physical things to the level of godhood.  They're not statues but they're every bit as much of an idol as those ancient carvings were.  In Bible Study the ladies mentioned automobiles and houses.  Others have fine material things that they didn't want anybody else to touch or use...like pristine white furniture in a living room that everyone is kept out of, defeating its purpose.  Most of us can get past those things, but the sneaky one is our church.  Faithful people have idols today, they just look like rectangular buildings with steeples on top.  Woe be unto the kids in your church if you get a new carpet.  It will cause everyone to glare at their fruit-punch hands and make them feel unwelcome.  How willing are people in your church to pay for a roof repair versus paying for evangelism ministry?  For many church has taken the place of God...an insidious development as the church technically has God's name on it, making the idolatry seem more real, thus making it a greater betrayal.

But idolatry isn't just about physical things, it's about control.  This aspect brings even more danger to us, as control is precious in our modern society.  Idolatry is another way of saying you choose your god instead of God choosing you.  The allure of the idol is that you know you made it.  You know its shape, its features.  You fashioned it.  You put it up on its pedestal and you can take it down at any time.  You have the ultimate power in the relationship.  Bowing to the idol only makes your own ultimate power greater.  The bigger the thing you can elevate or destroy the bigger you seem.

How many of us were raised with the idea--and how many people across the world are still told--that the most important thing in the world is that you choose Jesus?  I'm not trying to minimize the moments when we commit ourselves to God.  Those are important.  But there's been such a huge emphasis on personal decision in the Christian process that we've lost sight of the fact that God chose us first, forgave us first, put grace in our hearts first and only then could we find anything to commit to.

The distinction is critical.  For the most part people can only choose what they understand and agree with.  When our faith rests on our personal choice the God we "choose" inevitably thinks like us, agrees with us, and is quite grateful that such a right-thinking person would choose him!  Therefore when we're confronted with anything different than we already agree with, by definition that thing is not godly.  When people in church want to change something that we're comfortable with, by definition that's wrong.  If somebody crosses us the natural solution is to change churches, to find one that worships the "real" god who agrees with us.  This isn't faith, it's idolatry...self-worship with God's name stuck on top to legitimize it.  In our own minds we have the power to put up or tear down God himself, just as if he were that wooden statue.  Except we're using the name of the real God for our charade...far worse than subbing in a carved idol.

We've all seen and confronted, and a healthy number of us have even participated in, this kind of idolatry.  It causes us to shout down when we should listen to, to quit when we should stay, to vilify things we don't agree with when we should be seeking to understand them, to shut out people we should welcome, and to betray the God we were meant to serve.  It happens every time we think that we know faith and judge God by our knowledge instead of saying we belong to God and judging faith by that relationship.  That's distressingly common nowadays.

Don't take idolatry lightly.  It lies all around you, waiting to lead you away from the true God.  It's just as prevalent today as it was in Isaiah's time...maybe more so.  It's just as easy to fall into.  Pray for God to lead you today instead of you leading God around the life that he, himself, made for you.  Ask him to help you rely on him for your joy, comfort, and safety.  Tell him he doesn't have to agree with you.  Thank him for choosing you, as mixed up as you are.  Ask him to put the blessings of this world in their proper place, that they might add to your faith instead of taking you away from it.  Pray that he might open your eyes and heart to his will, so that you might be able to serve and love as his child.  There's no greater gift in the world than that.  I pray that his calling might be yours.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Isaiah 9

This week's Bible Study Reflection comes from our Wednesday Morning Women's Group and their continuing study of Isaiah.  After spending some time on the Messianic promise found in the early verses of Isaiah 9, we came upon these words, reminding us how much we need that Messiah:

Isaiah 9: 8-21
 8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;
   it will fall on Israel.
9 All the people will know it—
   Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
who say with pride
   and arrogance of heart,
10 “The bricks have fallen down,
   but we will rebuild with dressed stone;
the fig trees have been felled,
   but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them
   and has spurred their enemies on.
12 Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west
   have devoured Israel with open mouth.
   Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
   his hand is still upraised.

 13 But the people have not returned to him who struck them,
   nor have they sought the LORD Almighty.
14 So the LORD will cut off from Israel both head and tail,
   both palm branch and reed in a single day;
15 the elders and dignitaries are the head,
   the prophets who teach lies are the tail.
16 Those who guide this people mislead them,
   and those who are guided are led astray.
17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,
   nor will he pity the fatherless and widows,
for everyone is ungodly and wicked,
   every mouth speaks folly.
   Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
   his hand is still upraised.

 18 Surely wickedness burns like a fire;
   it consumes briers and thorns,
it sets the forest thickets ablaze,
   so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.
19 By the wrath of the LORD Almighty
   the land will be scorched
and the people will be fuel for the fire;
   they will not spare one another.
20 On the right they will devour,
   but still be hungry;
on the left they will eat,
   but not be satisfied.
Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring:
 21 Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;
   together they will turn against Judah.
   Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
   his hand is still upraised.

Click through to hear some thoughts about these ominous passages.

Bible Study Reflections: Perfect or Flawed?

Today's Bible Study Reflection comes from the third edition of our Theology on Tap group.  This event just keeps getting better and better.  I had to leave around 9:00 to attend to some family things but I understand the event, having started at 7:00 p.m., lasted into the wee hours of the morning.  I'd judge that to be true considering the sleepy eyes of many of the participants at church the next morning!  Apparently this stuff is fun. Who knew?

In any case, our question today was posed by a couple of participants.  One began a discussion about doing good and then lamented how flawed we are as human beings.  After a few other comments another participant piped up saying that we're not flawed, we're perfect as God has made us.

We spent a few minutes talking about this dilemma before clearing a table and making both people engage in a best-two-out-of-three arm-wrestling contest to see who was right.  Sadly the results were inconclusive, as both were distracted by a passing box of chocolates before the third round could commence.  So we're left with the question:  flawed or perfect?  Which are we as God's followers?

Click through for some ruminations...

Bible Study Reflections: Isaiah 5

The stalwart theologians in our Wednesday Morning Bible Study met this week to consider the words of Isaiah, Chapter 5.   We didn't quite get all the way through it--too much good discussion!--but verses 8-20 proved particularly interesting:

 8 Woe to you who add house to house 

   and join field to field 

till no space is left 

   and you live alone in the land.

 9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:

   “Surely the great houses will become desolate, 

   the fine mansions left without occupants. 

10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine; 

   a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”

 11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning 

   to run after their drinks, 

who stay up late at night 

   till they are inflamed with wine. 

12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, 

   pipes and timbrels and wine, 

but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, 

   no respect for the work of his hands. 

13 Therefore my people will go into exile 

   for lack of understanding; 

those of high rank will die of hunger 

   and the common people will be parched with thirst. 

14 Therefore Death expands its jaws, 

   opening wide its mouth; 

into it will descend their nobles and masses 

   with all their brawlers and revelers. 

15 So people will be brought low 

   and everyone humbled, 

   the eyes of the arrogant humbled. 

16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, 

   and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts. 

17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; 

   lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

 18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, 

   and wickedness as with cart ropes, 

19 to those who say, “Let God hurry; 

   let him hasten his work 

   so we may see it. 

The plan of the Holy One of Israel— 

   let it approach, let it come into view, 

   so we may know it.”

 20 Woe to those who call evil good 

   and good evil, 

who put darkness for light 

   and light for darkness, 

who put bitter for sweet 

   and sweet for bitter.

Click through to hear a few thoughts on this scripture!

Bible Study Reflections: Why Bible Studies are Indispensable

Since we're not having Bible Study during the Christmas break there's no specific Bible Study Reflection this week.  Instead we're going to talk more generally about the value of Bible Studies themselves.

Delving into scripture is a life-long journey.  It's the one book that never gets old.  There's always something new to say, see, and explore even if you're just reading old, familiar passages.  Hopefully these tips will aid you on your journey of discovery.

The most important thing to remember about the Bible is that it is the Living Word of God.  Most people grasp the "Word of God" part but the "Living" part is underrated and under-appreciated.  When we say the Bible is the Living Word we mean it's not cold, dead, static on a page like an encyclopedia or dictionary.  God comes to us through these texts.  We're bound into deep relationship with them.  Their meaning grows and deepens--even changes sometimes--as our lives grow and deepen.  The Bible will not be the same for you at 16 as it is at 66.  It will speak to you and impact your life in particular ways at each stage.  It's helpful to approach the Bible as a friend as much as a plain old book.  You visit your friends because they're familiar, sure, but also because they're warm and alive and will reflect with you on your days and your life while sharing some of their own story in return.  That's what the Bible does too.  You're always welcome, always invited into conversation.

Framing scripture reading as a conversation helps us avoid the perilous threat of making God's Word into a simple rulebook or instruction manual.  The Bible contains rules and instructions, certainly, but that's not the point.  Once you've read a manual for putting together a bicycle or completed an algebra textbook you have a pretty good idea how it goes.  You already know what it says, you understand the steps, and you probably don't need to refer to it again.  The Bible isn't like that!  If you say those same things about scripture--I already know how it goes, I understand it, I don't need to refer to it again--you've just royally insulted God and cut yourself off from him speaking to you.  Imagine saying those things about a friend or a spouse.  "You can hush now.  I've already heard what you have to say and I get it."  What presumption!  Even if you had a close relationship before that you wouldn't for long after!  We must at all costs avoid painting God's Word as a simple, static set of rules or instructions, the better to avoid this mistake.

Reading the Bible well involves many of the same practices that having a good conversation does.  Ideally when you converse with someone you want to be open, interested in them, engaged in the process, willing to listen, and ready to draw them out with meaningful questions.  A conversation is something you enjoy, ponder, linger over.  You'd never have a conversation with a friend for the sole purpose of getting to the end and getting to the point so you could drop that friend and do something else.  Yet how many of us approach our conversation with the Bible that way?  "Just give me the meaning so I can go on and be done with this!"  I'm afraid you're not going to get much out of the relationship that way!

Instead we need to hear what the Bible has to say, engage it, and ask meaningful questions about it.  Some of those basic questions include:

• To whom was the author of this passage speaking?
• What was the world like for him and his audience?
• What message was he trying to convey?
• What are the parallels between the author's world and ours?  What things are different?
• How does that message stretch across time to make a connection with our world as well?

Engaging scripture in this way opens the door for meaningful conversation about it.  Everyone will hear something a little different since everyone's world is a little different.  You share what you hear, you examine the things that diverge, and somewhere in the middle you usually find a core of truth that hits all of you.  Then everybody gets to measure how close or far their personal experience sits from that core and/or everybody else's experience.  This may or may not open up an avenue to broaden your perception of God, his will, and his plan for us.

If it looks like I'm implying that this exploration is better done in good company, I am.  You can certainly ascertain plenty about God from simply sitting down and reading the Bible yourself.  The real eye-openers usually come when you're gathered with other people though, either through Bible Study or worship.  As much as we know the Bible is alive and in conversation with us, it's hard for us to envision talking with a book.  Talking with each other first eases us into that conversational mode.  Once we're open to it the Bible slips into the discussion almost like another person.  You hear its words being spoken from the lips of your friends and neighbors and it comes alive.

Those friends and neighbors offer you perspective that you either haven't had or have forgotten.  It's fascinating to hear that 16-year-old discuss God and scripture.  It reminds you of ways of thinking that you've lost touch with.  It's fascinating to hear people of different backgrounds and experiences share their views.  Those are stories you never would have been able to access yourself.  Each of them is a new approach to the God who stands at the center of us all and the words he means us to hear today.

This is why we have Bible Study and this is why it's important to participate.  No matter how brilliant you are, you can only engage in so much conversation with scripture on your own.  You can only hear the words your ears are geared to hear.  The Bible is so much bigger than any pair of ears though!  I can say with confidence that 95% of the big scriptural epiphanies in my life have either come in conversing with friends about the Bible, in thinking of what to say to congregation members about the Bible (holding the conversation in my head prior), or from Bible Study conversations themselves.  Without other people I'm at least 95% farther behind in my understand of God and scripture.

We hold Bible Studies on Sunday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and the first Saturday evening of every month.  Plus we have small group meetings centered around faith topics every Thursday night and conversation based on faithful grieving every other Monday.  There's plenty of room for you to join the discussion, so come on in!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: The Problem With Judgment

Today's Bible Study Reflection is unusual in that it doesn't come from a specific piece of Scripture.  Rather it's a topic that arose both Sunday morning in our study of Romans and Wednesday morning in our study of Isaiah.  And by the way, let me say this again:  if you're not in one or another of our Bible Studies you are missing a TON.  I cannot describe to you what's happened to them this year, left and right, every one of them.  My goodness, I am amazed!

Anyway, the topic that spanned our two studies concerned judgment and sin.  The issue here isn't that we make judgments about sin.  We have to do that every single day.  If we weren't called to make any judgments about good or bad we wouldn't have gotten the Law in the first place.  We'd also be blundering into all kinds of situations which would hurt ourselves and our neighbor, a severe discredit to God whose name we serve.  Several spots in the Bible call us to judge acts and philosophies and words by their effect on the world, to balance them against what we know of God's plan for salvation and act accordingly.  We are meant to be discerning.  We are meant to weigh things.  We are meant to judge.

The problem arises not with the impulse to judge but the way we go about it.  When sin is described in the Bible our instinct leads us to stand above it, to say, "Oh how foolish those people were!  I can't believe they were doing that!"  In doing so we make two critical mistakes.  In lifting ourselves above God's Word as if it--even in this small section, even in this small way--doesn't apply to us we have inverted our relationship with God, making ourselves the ultimate boss and/or judge.  Second, we have absolved ourselves of the sin in question without ever admitting it applied to us in the first place.  These two impulses cause us to miss the entire point of large swaths of Scripture.  You don't have to look much farther than the modern church--at least in the way modern churches conduct themselves practically and see their relationship with the world--to see the damage.  For years we have read passages about the Pharisees while clucking our tongues and marveling how dense and wrong-headed they were.  In denying that those texts are critiquing our behavior as well we have become exactly like the Pharisees.  Read me any passage involving them and I pretty much guarantee I can point to a practice or mindset we have that reflects the wrong of that passage perfectly.  And these are things we're proud of!

Another curious thing:  when reading a list of sins we will instinctively lift out and jump to the ones that we perceive being committed by other people while skipping over the ones that most closely resemble our own behavior.  Do you know how many times I've sat around a church table (thankfully not in current company much) and heard, "Well THOSE people are doing THIS and it's just WRONG!"?  Now compare that to the number of times I've sat around a church table and heard, "Pastor, I'm doing this in my own life and I need to admit it and talk about it."  I have a suitcase full of the first memories.  I can count the second on one hand and still dial two phones with it.

What, then, is our public witness about sin?  In a nutshell:  other people commit it and we don't.  Even if you can pin us to a sin the ones other people do are worse.

Yuck.

This isn't judgment, it's judgmental.  There's a big difference between the two.

I only know of two ways to get on the right side of that equation...not perfectly right (as I'm not sure that's possible) but at least headed in the right direction and hopefully giving a decent public witness as to the way to go.  The first is embracing the cross, throwing yourself on its mercy every day.  You are saved because Jesus died for you.  If you had no sin that wouldn't have been necessary.  You did, so he did.  That's your only life ring in this awful storm.  Stop clinging to it and you're going to drown no matter how strong of a swimmer you think you are.  You can't cling with just one hand either, saying, "Yes he died for me but I didn't do anything that bad..."  He died for you, my friend.  That there is indicative of something wrong.  Naturally the cross is our great sign of redemption, not just condemnation.  We believe in the power of resurrection over death, of forgiveness over confession and sin.  But you can't get to the good end part if you don't start from the proper beginning.  That beginning is always grounded in your inability to save yourself because of sin and your tendency to embrace it.

The second step is to follow up that realization with a new way of reading these texts from Scripture.  When reading about sin the proper response isn't, "How dumb were those people?" or, "Isn't it horrible what my neighbor is doing?"  Those aren't the right questions.  Their answer won't lead you a bit closer to God, truth, or anything good.  Instead the proper response is to ask how this text--yes...THIS one--describes what I'm doing here and now and the way I fall short in these matters.  Reading the Bible isn't a selective experience of, "All the parts about love and redemption apply to me while all the parts about sin and condemnation apply to someone else!"  If you're going to be under God's Word, be under it.  If it's going to lead you, let it lead you.  Don't ask whether, but how, it's doing so even in these difficult and wart-revealing passages.  Unless you can find yourself in that sin (keeping in mind that sins are usually broader and run deeper than we tend to define them) you've pushed away Scripture and set yourself apart from it and God.  By finding yourself in these passages about sin you've--somewhat paradoxically--taken the first step to truly understanding and living our your salvation.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: What is Church Good For?

Our Bible Study reflections come from the second edition of Theology on Tap, held last Saturday.  Once again we had a great turnout and plenty of good discussion.  The topic of the evening was, "What is church good for?"  As I was preparing for the discussion that pastors are often in the business of "selling" church, convincing people that it's a worthwhile endeavor and something in which they should invest their time.  But is it always?  And if so, in what ways?  It occurred to me that in the course of the sales job (which I dislike anyway...if I had wanted to do that I would have gone into retail) we assume that church is good and turn a blind eye to things that can be less valuable about it.  This quickly leads to that dreaded "church is good in itself no matter what it does" outlook that poisons so many ministries.  So I wanted to have a night where I didn't sell one bit...where people expressed for themselves, honestly, what the most valuable parts of the experience are (if any).  So that's what we did.

The reflections varied.  Most everyone agreed that church was much easier to participate in when you felt that you got something out of it, though some also shared stories of continuing to go even when they weren't having the best time...making that part of their faith discipline.  People identified informative preaching, the Bible being opened up, being challenged, and fellowship with their neighbors as integral to a good church experience.  Some cited uplifting music as important, others the chance to share and explore their gifts.

The riveting comment of the night came from Dana Carter, who helped us distinguish between church and everything else by pointing out the open and accessible motives for acting in faith--at least when done well--when compared to most endeavors.  In a sales position you're supposed to be kind to your neighbor, aware of others, diligent in your duties...many of the same things we do at church.  But you do all these things in a sales job so you can sell widgets.  Your neighbor is a means to an end and every action towards them is based on that end.  God gives us the wonderful task of considering being kind to our neighbors an end unto itself.  We're able to be together with them, love them, and get to know them as THEM, not someone we want to manipulate into doing something for us.  When people go searching for "the angle" in what we do, ideally they shouldn't find one.  This makes church different and special.

That comment struck me because we often give up that special characteristic in the name of preserving the church.  I can't tell you how many conversations I've had that start with, "We need to get people to give more _______ or do more _______!"  Now we're back to the sales job again.  Instead of helping the church, we've given up one of its unique characteristics...the very reason for people to participate!  The better response is to ask in what ways X and Y are necessary and how we've been dealing with them.  You'll probably find that X and Y weren't as integral to the church experience as we thought OR that we've been defining X and Y in such a way as to make it impossible for people to hop on board.  As soon as you make something else the end focus of the exercise besides God and our neighbor, the church suffers and lacks.

This discussion is not done by any means!  What church is good for is a question we all should ask ourselves and talk about, that we might better shape our community to God's (and our) intentions.  I invite you to engage the topic and this discussion as the months go by.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)  

Bible Study Reflections: Isaiah 1: 10-17

This week's Bible Study reflection comes from the Wednesday morning women's group.  They've just taken up the book of Isaiah and found this in the first chapter:

 10 Hear the word of the LORD,
   you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
   you people of Gomorrah!
11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
   what are they to me?” says the LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
   of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
   in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
   who has asked this of you,
   this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
   Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
   I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
   I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
   I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
   I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
   I am not listening.
   Your hands are full of blood!
 16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
   Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
   stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
   Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
   plead the case of the widow.

What are we to make of this?  Click through to find out!

Bible Study Reflections: Transformational Eating

This week's Bible Study reflection comes from our Thursday night group which has been studying eating in scripture.

Last week we looked at four stories involving food.  The first was 1 Kings 17: 7-16 wherein a widow in the town of Zarephath shared the very last of her food with Elijah during a time of drought.  She was rewarded with a jug or oil and jar of flour which never ran out until the famine was done.  Then we looked at 1 Kings 19: 1-8 when Elijah himself was experiencing serious doubt while sheltering beneath a wilderness tree, but an angel of the Lord came and fed him (twice!) for the long journey to meet God that lay ahead of him.  We skipped ahead to Matthew 14: 13-18 and heard the story of Jesus feeding 5000+ people who had come to hear him in the wilderness. Finally we heard the story of Jesus' last meal with his disciples from Matthew 26: 17-30.

All four of these stories have a common theme.  The people therein--the widow, the prophet, the followers, the disciples--start from a place of need.  The widow was down to her last morsel for her and her son, then expected to die.  Elijah actually asked to die in his moment of despair.  Like sheep without a shepherd the 5000 men plus extra women and children had no food to eat in the countryside.  The disciples suggested that the people be told to depart to buy their own food but what town could have supported that horde?  Besides, these were not likely rich and well-fed people to begin with, else they wouldn't have had time to follow Jesus into the wilderness.  At the Last Supper Christ's disciples were about to walk into the darkest moment in human history, losing their mentor and friend in the process.

In all of these situations God's answer was the same:  Here...take, eat. This is how God chose to express himself...still chooses, really, as we experience him to this day through Holy Communion.  Food brings life out of death, strength out of weakness, comfort out of insecurity, unity in the face of potential division, hope out of despair.  Eating is a holy experience.

We understand some of this instinctively.  There's a reason we eat following funerals, at birthday parties and weddings, whenever and wherever communities gather.  This is an important part of God's work, as natural to us as breathing.

We need to be more conscious of our relationship with food and with each other through food as well.  How many things do we eat daily that we don't even think about?  How many opportunities for togetherness do we miss in our "grab and go" culture?  How often do we reduce this holy experience to something common and mundane?  In a way every meal should reflect these great meals that we read about in the Bible.  Food fills the same functions for us that it did for those Biblical people.  We need daily strength, hope, comfort, togetherness, and life.  If you doubt that, try going without food for a week or so and see how well you fare!  We should not take the power of eating for granted as individuals or a community.  Every meal transforms us whether we notice it or not.  Understanding that will bring us closer to God, each other, and the true meaning of the things we eat.

Next time you eat, stop and think about the great gift you're experiencing...how this connects you to the prophets and miracle-receivers of old.  What a marvelous opportunity to enjoy God and the world he's given you.  Don't miss it!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@genesseelutheranparish.org)

P.S.  Not only is that e-mail working now, our blog now has comments activated!!!  If you have thoughts to share or questions on a subject covered in a post, leave a comment below.  We'll read them and respond.

Bible Study Reflections: November 10th, 2011

This weeks Bible Study reflection comes from the inaugural edition of Theology on Tap.  Last Saturday 14 formidable theologians got together and discussed the most appropriate question we could think of given the circumstances:  Is drinking a sin?

Addressing this question necessitated a definition of sin itself.  In the course of the conversation we managed at least six different criteria identifying sin:

1.  The Word of God provides the foundation for our moral compass, our sense of right and wrong. There's no arguing that.

The Word of God is read by, and works through, people.  People can't help but exist in a specific context which allows them to understand the Word.  Therefore we brought up several contextual touch-points which aid us in discerning sin.

2.  The effect on one's community helps identify sin.  In some cases the Bible appears to say a couple different things about the same act.  Proverbs, for instance, warns us about the dangers of drinking and compares imbibing to foolishness.  But the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus created immaculate-tasting (and much appreciated) wine at a wedding festival.  Place, time, and company seemed to determine the appropriateness of the act as much as the wine itself.

3.  Effect on the self is a contributing factor.  It's possible to harm or short-change yourself any number of ways, overeating otherwise good food being one of the more obvious.  Drinking can be misused this way as well.

4.  Pangs of guilt or conscience were mentioned as identifying factors.

5.  A person's intent can be important, though we hastened to add that sometimes intentions can be good even for acts that ultimately turn out bad.

6.  God's transformational power is a strong force, not to be put aside lightly.  Thinking big-picture, if you gather for a good purpose and hold to that, can a few ounces of a fermented beverage overcome that good purpose and his intent for you?

Obviously not all of this came out in systematic fashion.  We discussed, debated, shared stories and examples, asked questions of each other while exploring these things.  And even after all of that we didn't come up with a definitive answer!  "What?!?" you say.  "Then what was the point???"

Find out by clicking "Read More" below...

Bible Study Reflections: November 3rd, 2011

This week's Bible Study reflection comes from our Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study.  Continuing our look at Acts this week we came across the following account of Paul's testimony before the priests and elders.

Acts 22:30-23:10

 30 The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
 1 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” 2 At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!”
 4 Those who were standing near Paul said, “How dare you insult God’s high priest!”
 5 Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’”
 6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)
 9 There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” 10 The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.

Click through to hear some thoughts on the significance of this story.

Bible Study Reflections: October 27th, 2011

This week's Bible Study reflection comes from our Sunday morning study of Genesis.  This week we covered Genesis, Chapter 3 wherein Adam and Eve bit the fruit and broke the world.  Ooops!  Not good.

One of the observations that came up was that this seemed like the birth of independent thought.  For the first time humans did something against God.  It's hard to argue that definition, but we also need to be careful about how we define, let alone value, such independence.

There's a strain of thought out there, often found among folks who deny and decry belief in God, but also in rebellion against other aspects of society, that says, "Yeah, I'm rebelling against this.  I'm my own person.  Right or wrong, nobody tells me what to do!"  Bad becomes good in a sense.  Even if the act is unethical or immoral, we kind of respect the stubborn, anti-authoritarian stance.  This devil-may-care attitude makes a person look strong somehow.

Certainly this was the serpent's argument.  Before they bit the fruit he told Adam and Eve it would make them wise like God.  Even though that didn't exactly happen, his post-snack argument almost certainly would be, "Hey...you're stronger than God!  You showed him what for when you ate that fruit.  Nobody controls your destiny now!  You proved it!"

Click through for a little chagrin about how well this trick works and how it still affects us today...