“B” is for Blessings (February 23, 2012)

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…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1-2; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “B” is for blessings. Grandmas tell us to count them. Football talk about them when they’ve won a big game. We use a different form of the word when someone sneezes. But what are “blessings?”

Well, it might be worth starting with what blessing is not. As my boss often says, “Don’t say you’re lucky, say you’re blessed.” Luck ascribes things happening to chance. Blessing ascribes them to God. People talk about good luck and bad luck. Chance favors those with good luck; not so much with the bad. But there’s no such thing as bad blessing. There are bad situations and tragedies but no bad blessings. There is blessing to be found in every situation and every tragedy. These blessings don’t necessarily minimize the pain and grief of the tragedy, but they do offer glimmers of hope. Sometimes the blessing is hidden until we are ready to see it, but the hope exists whether we notice it or not. The difference between luck and blessing is this hope: subscribe to a life of luck and hope rides on the flip of a coin or roll of dice, but subscribe to a life of blessing and hope rides on God.

There’s one more thing that separates luck from blessing, and that is permanence. Luck is fleeting, if it exists at all. But every blessing is permanent, no matter how quickly they may come or go. I urge you, then, to save them – remember them, write them down. Yesterday my blessings including playing music and embracing my wife. Each of these small blessings sinks down to fortify the bedrock of my soul. Remembering them helps me stay in relationship with the source of all blessing, and that is God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all blessing. Help me to seek out the blessing in all circumstances so that I may notice the glimmers of hope that exist in all situations. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

“A” is for Atonement (February 22, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; context)

…Filling Up…

As we did last Lent on devotiONEighty, this Lent we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “A” is for atonement.

Atonement can be a scary word. It is often used in phrases such as “penal substitutionary atonement theory.” Atonement theory covers all the different descriptions of how Jesus Christ’s death on the cross affected creation. They run the gamut, as you might expect. The one I mentioned a few sentences ago says that Jesus suffered the penalty that God put on us for our sins, thereby making it so we didn’t have to suffer it ourselves.

Atonement theories can really color our worldviews because they describe how we view the most important event in history. If someone subscribes to “penal substitutionary atonement theory” then that person is more likely to have an image of God as judge, who has pronounced a guilty verdict over the human race.

The problem with atonement theories is that they are really just simple descriptions or metaphors for what is, at its core, an unexplainable and grace-filled act. By subscribing to one theory, we can miss the fullness of the beauty of the act itself. Christ’s act becomes part of a math equation.

Rather, at its heart, atonement is not about paying for sins. It is about renewing relationship. Whatever description we subscribe to about what happened on that cross and after, the relationship between God and God’s creation was changed in Christ’s act, was made closer somehow. For, in the end, “atonement” is a made up word. It’s a stitched together word. Look at it: “At One”-ment. That’s what atonement is really about.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son died on the cross and rose again and somehow changed the course of this world in the act. Help me to live my life as one who is at one with you, through Christ’s love. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

Clean Hearts (February 21, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me! Please don’t throw me out of your presence; please don’t take your holy spirit away from me. Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10-12; context)

…Filling Up…

“Lent” is an old translation of the Latin word quadragesima, which simply means “forty days.” Forty days is a significant period of time in the Bible: Noah, Moses, and Elijah all had forty days of something –flooding, fasting, sitting around with God on the mountaintop. Jesus spent forty days in the desert, during which Satan tempted him. Beginning tomorrow (on the fast the church names “Ash Wednesday”) Lent continues until the day before Easter. Historically, the season of Lent was the period of time that people used to prepare for baptism, which took place at the Great Vigil of Easter on Easter Eve.

During these forty days that bring us to Easter, we examine our lives and discern how attuned to God’s movement we are. We pray for God to create in us clean hearts and renew right spirits within us, as Psalm 51 says. We rededicate ourselves to following Christ and wonder how last year’s dedication faded away. We slow down and turn our thoughts inward. How have my actions and inactions contributed to the brokenness in the world? To what have I enslaved myself? Where is my joy and freedom? Do I really want to follow Christ?

When we enter this period of self-reflection, when we honestly answer questions such as these, it often becomes apparent just how skin deep and results-oriented we’ve become. The season of Lent helps us see the error in statements such as “It’s only cheating if you get caught” and “The ends justify the means.” Living a full life – not a half-life of results only – means valuing the moral fortitude that counters wanton opportunism and caring about how things are accomplished, not just that they are. Observing Lent means taking a hard look at ourselves and borrowing enough strength from God to be capable of seeing those festering things that we usually ignore. Then we borrow enough faith from God to know that God will help us change and will reawaken within us those faculties of hope and love that have long lay dormant.

I invite you to turn your gaze inward during this season of Lent and discover the true joy that comes from a full life lived in the love of God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all joy throughout your creation. Help me to live my life fully in your love so that I may follow you throughout my journey, meeting you all along the way to the destination. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

A Swift Kick in the Trousers (February 20, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love! Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion! Wash me completely clean of my guilt; purify me from my sin! (Psalm 51:1-2; context)

…Filling Up…

With another Lenten Alphabet just around the corner beginning on devotiONEighty on Wednesday, today and tomorrow will be a pair of devos rather than the start of a weeklong set. Lent begins Wednesday, so we’ll take the next two days to talk about why Lent is so important. But first, a reminder about we modern Americans.

Americans are rarely a self-reflective people. We have eyes only for result and effect, caring little for process and cause. We seek to assign blame, caring little for our own culpability. We repeat the mistakes of the past, caring little for the lessons those mistakes teach. Never look back. Never let ‘em see you bleed. Never stop to think or the world will pass you by.

Living in this results-driven world is, at the same time, both exceedingly difficult and quite easy. It’s difficult because true joy, the fuel for any fruitful life, is a scarce commodity. Joy happens during not after, and in a results-oriented society, the during is dismissed as superfluous. But this dismissal is why the results-driven life is also quite easy. You crop half of life away. The journey becomes unimportant: only the destination matters. How easy would a test be if you only had to score a 50% to pass?

Self-reflection makes life hard, but it also allows us to recognize that joy abounds, poised to infuse our lives with meaning. Because we are such poor practitioners of self-reflection and because our culture tells us not to take time for such a revealingly honest enterprise, we need a swift kick in the trousers to boot us from the grasping current of the results-driven half-life.

In the Church, this swift-kick-in-the-trousers is called the season of Lent. And we’ll talk more about it tomorrow.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all joy throughout your creation. Help me to live my life fully in your love so that I may follow you throughout my journey, meeting you all along the way to the destination. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

The Natural Order (February 17, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor in the corner of my eye the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And it was like a flash of lightning reflected off the sky, and I know I’ll never be the same. (Third Day, “Show Me Your Glory”)

…Listening In…

Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Human One had risen from the dead. (Mark 9:8-9; context)

…Filling Up…

When God tells the disciples to listen to Jesus, God implicitly commands them and us to rid ourselves of the box labeled “impossible.” If we listen to Jesus and obey him, then we trust that everything he does is the “real” thing – not a parlor trick or smoke and mirrors, not mere charisma or happenstance. He doesn’t bend the rules of a set universe, but he does bend the ones that our dangerously limited understanding has contrived.

Miracles aren’t glitches in the natural order. They are the natural order, the natural order that we dumped into the box long ago. The change, the metamorphosis, that occurs on the mountaintop prepares us for the even greater change that happens when Jesus rises from the dead, when Jesus tips the box over and removes the first two letters from the word “impossible.”

You see, the horizon exists not to limit our senses, but to give us something beyond which our dreams can thrive. The Transfiguration we celebrate on this coming Sunday (in my church, anyway) shines in our lives with dazzling brightness, reminding us of two things. First, there is something wonderful and glorious beyond the horizon. And second, that wonderful and glorious something couldn’t care less about horizons. The dazzling brightness of the Transfiguration foreshadows the even greater brightness of the resurrection, the brightness that rises in one breath of reckless animation. We will celebrate this triumph on Easter, seven weeks and two days from today.

During the intervening time, I invite you to look at the horizon. What do you see beyond it? What sliver of light ripples across the water? I also invite you to look inside yourselves. What have you restored to the box that Jesus once overturned? What change in your life are you resisting? Reflect on these questions. And, at the same time, know that Jesus stands forever before you, beckoning you to see him in all his dazzling brightness, beckoning you to see him with transfigured eyes, with eyes that see beyond the horizon.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you command me to listen to the words of your Son, who constantly speaks life into my being. Help me to rid myself of the box that is labeled “impossible” so that I can fully give myself over to your love. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, knowing that with you all things are possible.

Labeling the Impossible (February 16, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor in the corner of my eye the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And it was like a flash of lightning reflected off the sky, and I know I’ll never be the same. (Third Day, “Show Me Your Glory”)

…Listening In…

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice spoke from the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I dearly love. Listen to him!” (Mark 9:7; context)

…Filling Up…

You could store Jesus’ other miracles in a box and refuse to believe the horizon between God and humanity is more permeable than was originally thought. But this, this transfiguration, this holy event Peter witnesses with his own eyes would never fit in the box, no matter how precisely he might have constructed those three tents.

And why not? In this event, Jesus doesn’t change. He is neither better nor more holy than he was before. But Peter, James, and John are granted the gift of seeing Jesus as God sees him – dazzlingly bright and beloved. The Greek word we translate as “Transfiguration” has been transmitted directly into our own language. The English equivalent is metamorphosis, a complete change in form or shape. So, in this transfiguration, what changes, if not Jesus?

Until the mountaintop, the disciples had seen some things, some miracles, and they thought they understood them. But their small understanding was dangerous because it amounted to just enough to create an unwarranted category labeled “impossible.” In this category, in this box, they stored everything that ran counter to what they thought they knew about the world. They were terrified of the walking on water. Their hearts were hardened about the multiplied loaves. “Who then is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” And yet, Jesus did all these things, and he couldn’t care less what they labeled “impossible.”

The change, the metamorphosis, that occurs on the mountaintop happens when Peter fails to begin his construction of the three tents. A cloud overshadows the disciples, and they hear a voice: “This is my Son, whom I dearly love. Listen to him!” Then, all of sudden, they look around and the horizon is back to normal. But nothing would ever be “normal” again. (to be concluded tomorrow…)

…Praying For…

Dear God, in the Transfiguration, you changed the way Jesus’ friends saw him. Help me to look at the world through these same eyes, so that I can see your hand at work around me. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, knowing that with you all things are possible.

Sacred Luggage (February 15, 2012)

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…Opening To…

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor in the corner of my eye the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And it was like a flash of lightning reflected off the sky, and I know I’ll never be the same. (Third Day, “Show Me Your Glory”)

…Listening In…

Elijah and Moses appeared and were talking with Jesus. Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good that we’re here. Let’s make three shrines—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t know how to respond, for the three of them were terrified. (Mark 9:4-6; context)

…Filling Up…

Peter, it seems, cannot handle the raw data, this overabundance of visual stimulation brought on by Jesus’ dazzling appearance and the manifestation of Moses and Elijah. He’s terrified, and understandably so. Horizons seem to exist to limit our sight, and limits are comforting. When the horizons crumble, Peter doesn’t know what to say. But, being Peter, he says something anyway: “Rabbi, it’s good that we’re here. Let’s make three shrines—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Now, from all those stories Peter had heard, he knew that back when the people of Israel were wandering around the desert for forty years, they lugged about a special portable dwelling, a tent really. Inside this tent, they arranged all of their sacred luggage. The people thought the tent holy because they believed God, while eternal, omnipotent and ever-present, also dwelled in the tent.

So, when Peter suggests constructing a trio of tents, he is attempting to circumscribe the event unfolding in dazzling brightness before him. He is trying to erect temporary horizons, trying to control the situation, trying to jam the impossible back into a box consisting of normal, everyday things.

When Peter sees Jesus’ biological horizon crumble, revealing the dazzling brightness of Jesus’ connection to God, Peter’s first response is to put Jesus in a holy box in order to contain him. Peter had seen Jesus do some impossible things – feed five thousand with one person’s lunch, calm a storm, heal Peter’s own mother-in-law – but this, this transfiguration is something else entirely. You could explain away those other things if you wanted to: persuasion, charisma, being in the right time at the right place. You could store those other things in a box and refuse to believe the horizon between God and humanity is more permeable than was originally thought. (to be continued tomorrow…)

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the one in control of heaven and earth. Help me to release my need to be in control, so that I can trust that you are guiding my life along the right paths. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, knowing that with you all things are possible.

Until Now (February 14, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor in the corner of my eye the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And it was like a flash of lightning reflected off the sky, and I know I’ll never be the same. (Third Day, “Show Me Your Glory”)

…Listening In…

He was transformed in front of them, and his clothes were amazingly bright, brighter than if they had been bleached white. 4 Elijah and Moses appeared and were talking with Jesus. (Mark 9:2-4; context)

…Filling Up…

After the sun spills out of the distant horizon, something strange and altogether unexpected happens. As the sun continues to rise, you notice the line of the horizon crumbling into the ocean. You see far-flung images as your vision circles the globe. You snap your eyes shut, unable to catalogue the expanse of imagery.

Near as I can tell, this is how Peter, James, and John must feel during the event known as the Transfiguration. With Jesus leading, the foursome hikes up a high mountain, a pastime not unknown to Jesus’ friends, who are always chasing him up hills and through deserts. But this time, at the top, something new happens. The three disciples look at Jesus and, with neither warning nor preparation, they see far past all reasonable limits of normal human vision.

Peter, James, and John look at Jesus with new eyes. And the biological horizon limiting their perception crumbles. Until now, they have been used to seeing only what they expect to see. Until now, they have been lulled to sleep by the monotony of the mundane. Until now, they have looked at Jesus, but have never seen him. Until now.

The horizon of Jesus’ body cannot contain his dazzling glory, and the disciples see him as he really is. The horizon between this life and the next cannot veil their eyes, and they see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, two of the great prophets they had heard stories about their whole lives. (to be continued tomorrow…)

…Praying For…

Dear God, your movement extends far past my ability to see it. Help me never to forget that my eyes and my faith limit my trust in you, even though your trustworthiness is without bounds. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, knowing that with you all things are possible.

Crumbling Horizons (February 13, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor in the corner of my eye the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And it was like a flash of lightning reflected off the sky, and I know I’ll never be the same. (Third Day, “Show Me Your Glory”)

…Listening In…

Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and brought them to the top of a very high mountain where they were alone. He was transformed in front of them… (Mark 9:2-3; context)

…Filling Up…

Imagine you are strolling down a pier on the cold, rocky coast of Massachusetts. You stop, lean your elbows on a metal railing, and look out at the vastness of the ocean before you. You can feel the impatient energy of morning and smell the sun about to rise. First, the door of the sky opens just a crack and lets a sliver of light ripple across the face of the water. Then, all in one breath of reckless animation, the sun spills out of the distant horizon, red and complete.

Then something strange and altogether unexpected happens. As the sun continues to rise, you notice the line of the horizon crumbling into the ocean. With the horizon gone, the thousands of miles of brooding Atlantic open before you. You see the waves crashing into the northwest coast of Spain. You see skiers flying down the slopes of the Alps. You see oil derricks pounding the banks of the Caspian Sea. Abandoned missile silos in Kazakhstan. Mongolian shepherds driving their flocks. The Great Wall of China. The DMZ. Tokyo skyscrapers. The Pacific Ocean. California a distant speck but growing…

You snap your eyes shut and grip the metal railing. You’re overwhelmed, unsteady on your feet, nauseous. Your brain attempts to catalogue all the far-flung images you just saw. But it shuts down, unable to process this excess of information. After several weak-kneed minutes, your heart rate begins to slow, and you hesitantly reopen your eyes. The horizon has returned to its accepted place at the end of the reach of your vision.

Near as I can tell, this is how Peter, James, and John must feel during the event known as the Transfiguration, in which Jesus becomes “dazzling” in front of their eyes and they see some friends from the Hebrew Scriptures. We’ll be talking about the Transfiguration this week, so get excited! (to be continued tomorrow…)

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son revealed to his disciples the dazzling beauty of his close relationship with you. Help me to nurture my relationship with you so that when others see me, they see you through me. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, knowing that with you all things are possible.

In Between (February 10, 2012)

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…Opening To…

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that. (Harper Lee)

…Listening In…

I’m no longer in the world, but they are in the world, even as I’m coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one. (John 17:11; context)

…Filling Up…

On our final day with the New Testament, I’d like to talk about an expectation that the writers of the New Testament had that informed their writing. This expectation is that Jesus was returning imminently; that is, in the writers’ own lifetimes. As such, many of the texts in the New Testament exhibit an “in between” quality, which speaks of a reality that has begun to happen but hasn’t finished happening yet. Often, this reality is rendered in the shorthand as “both already and not yet.”

The expectation that Jesus would return imminently informs many of Paul’s letters. His advice about getting married or staying single has to do with the time being “short” (1 Corinthians 7). There is immediacy in much of his writing because of his conviction that the Lord would return next week some time.

In the Gospel, the “in between” quality finds its way into some of Jesus’ speech. In certain places, Jesus seems to be talking about his being around and his being gone at the same time. Read the verse in the “Listening In” section again. Notice that Jesus seems to be praying while in earshot of the disciples and at the same time while being “no longer in the world.” The coming of God’s reign on earth seems to be overlapping with the finishing of Jesus’ work. In the same way, Paul’s immediacy yearns for God’s reign to come soon, and in so yearning, helps bring it into being.

The “already, not yet” quality of the New Testament reminds us that God is both embedded in our lives even now (“already”) and is also continually revealing the kingdom in new ways that point to even newer ways to come (“not yet”). We can’t have everything figured out because God is always allowing us to discover new paths along our walks with God. The immediate, imminent nature of the New Testament gives us the language with which we can try to interpret God’s movement in our lives. God is here with us, or more precisely, we are here with God. And God is there waiting for us as we continue our journeys as followers of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

…Praying For…

Dear God, I stand for ever in your presence, even as that presence is beyond me. Help me to live my life believing that you are below, above, beside, and within me, always guiding me to the fullness of your glory. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, having faith that you have touched my life with your Word, knowing that I can read it in my heart and speak it on my lips.