Month: May 2007

Juxtaposition

On my Monday drive to work, I’m listening to NPR as usual and I hear the following.
First, is a short news story from the local station about how Michelle Incanno from Springboro OH is boycotting Starbucks Coffee. Why? Well, I guess Starbucks has been printing little sayings from customers on their cups and Michelle got one where a customer calls God a “figment of our imagination” and that didn’t sit right with her. (There’s no online story from the NPR affiliate, so here’s the story from the Dayton Daily News.)
From the local news to Morning Edition and this story about the Pope’s visit to Brazil and his conflict with a Brazilian Catholic movement called Liberation Theology.

Brazil’s Catholic clergy is actively, at times defiantly, pursuing the struggle for social justice on behalf of the poor: Catholic bishops stage hunger strikes to halt dam projects that they say put profits of big business above the needs of the people. They broker deals with banks to build housing for the homeless. And priests take to the airwaves to denounce the growing footprint of agro-business that has cut down the rainforest to make way for cattle and much-in-demand soy.

The contrast of this was striking to me.
In America, a woman ‘sacrifices’ a $3 cup of coffee in the name of God.
In Brazil, Catholic clergy face down governments for the sake of the poor, in the name of God.
Now, in some respects I applaud Michelle’s convictions and her taking a stand against a business that she sees as opposed to God. I also don’t buy Starbucks’ response that the views aren’t their own. Sure, a customer submitted it, but Starbucks chose to print it. It’s not some rogue employee speaking out of turn, it’s a corporate decision with deliberation and forethought. That conscious choice makes it their words too in my book.
I can also see questioning whether it’s the church’s role to oppose dams and save the rainforest. I’d say, you bet it is, if those actions trample on the voiceless and discarded. Comforting and serving them after the damage is done is less valuable then standing up for them to prevent it.
Regardless, the juxtaposition of the two stories together was interesting.

Ezekiel – Chapter 22

Ezekiel 2:2 – It’s one thing to pass on God’s words of judgement, even to recognize the sin that needs to be judged. It’s another thing to be the judge. I know with my kids, it’s easy to see their sin and to be angry or frustrated by it, but it’s quite another to actually deal with it. To punnish, to instruct.
Ezekiel 22:11-12 – Sounds like our nation, doesn’t it?

Ezekiel – Chapter 21

Ezekiel 21:10-13 – This passage is a little confusing to me. Is the sentence in parentheses in verse 10 directed toward Ezekiel? That doesn’t seem to make sense, but if not, then who? And what of verse 12, “Strike therefore upon your thigh.” Is He calling Ezekiel to cut himself?
Ezekiel 21:19-23 – If I understand this right, God is directing Ezekiel to help direct the King of Babylon to Jerusalem, to help him come to attack. Interesting here is that the King of Babylon will be using all sorts of magic to try to get answers (what does it mean to ‘look at the liver’ I wonder?) and God is playing into it, influencing those results for His purposes. The King is not consulting of God, yet Gos is still answering him through the divinations and other pagan practices. Of course, this is not God validating their use, rather He’s using the Kings sinful way to advance God’s righteous purpose in judgement.
I tend to think that God isn’t at work in the world, but here is God working, influencing the course of history through, not in spite of, one man’s ungodly actions. In what ways, I wonder, is He doing the same today? If I watched carefully, with eyes fro God’s working, what would I be able to see?

You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered, for I the Lord have spoken.”

Ezekiel 21:32

There are several statements like this in this chapter, many actually through Ezekiel. Reading through it (especially if I have gaps in my reading like the last one), it’s easy to forget that this is a book of God’s anger about sin, his intense fury. What I mean is that each on is still shocking. The depth and intensity of his anger over their sin does not fail to surprise me. I want to think of God as happy, positive, merciful, but he is also holy, righteous and just. God is patient, but only to a point. Sometimes I am slow in repentance, returning to His ways over my own. How long will He wait? How far do I want to push Him? Better question – How shallow is my love and respect for His holiness that I would want to wait?

On anger

From David Burchett via The Requiest:

I related a story in my book, “Bring’em Back Alive”, about a little boy with a terrible temper. His father gave him a big bag of nails and instructed him to hammer a nail into the fence every time he lost his temper. After the first day over three dozen nails were hammered into the fence. But as the days went by the little boy began to control his temper more and more. One day the boy realized that he was no longer driving nails into the fence. When he proudly told his father he was given the new task of pulling out one nail for every day he continued to hold his temper. Finally all of the nails were removed. The father took his son out to the fence. “You have done a great job, son. But look at the holes in the fence. This fence will never be like it was before. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can stick a knife in a person and no matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is just as bad as a physical one.”

Wow, that hurts. I’ve said too may a hurtful things in my day and left far too many holes in the fence.

Answered Prayers

A quick update on Mat.
First, I neglected to mention in my last post how things had deteriorated. During a procedure, one of his lungs was punctured and his chest filled with air. It took 3 chest tubes to relieve it. As a result of that trauma, he was put on a ventilator. So things were not very good at all.
The good news, however, was that today they took him off the ventilator and he’s making progress towards coming home.

A Good Sunday

This past Sunday, the Holy Spirit was at work. No, there was no fire from heaven or anything like that, it was just how the service came together on a theme of God teaching us through suffering. It wasn’t planned, at least not by us anyway.
You can listen to Bob S’s message here where he talks about how God teaches us through suffering. He wonders if it weren’t for the 3 children dropped into his life 4-5 years ago, if he would have made it. He felt in some way that he was saved by them, but it’s been hard. Going from 2 older girls to 5 children from toddlers through middle school was challenging, but has taught him much. He asked James R. the same question; did he wonder sometimes if God gave him MS to save his soul.
But the most powerful part of the service was earlier, when Jess stood and shared about her time with Mat. She referenced Psalm 71:14-16:

But as for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure.
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD;
I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.

She shared how, from his ICU bed, Mat was boosting her sagging faith. “Don’t be mad at Him.”, he told her. His health situation has not changed, but he’s telling the nurses about Jesus, and singing. Either Saturday night or Sunday morning, she left and he was singing “Hard Fighting Soldier.“. So, after she shared, and thanked the church for what we are and how we’ve supported them, we sang it too.

I’m a hard fighting soldier, on the battlefield
I’m a hard fighting soldier, on the battlefield
I’m a hard fighting soldier, on the battlefield
I keep on bringin souls to Jesus
By the service that I yield
I’ve got a helmet on my head, in my hand a sword and shield
I’ve got a helmet on my head, in my hand a sword and shield
I’ve got a helmet on my head, in my hand a sword and shield
I keep on bringin souls to Jesus
By the service that I give
You gotta walk right, talk right, sing right, pray right, on the battlefield
You gotta walk right, talk right, sing right, pray right, on the battlefield
You gotta walk right, talk right, sing right, pray right, on the battlefield
I keep on bringin souls to Jesus
By the service that I give
And when I die, let me die, in the service of the Lord
Oh when I die, let me die, in the service of the Lord
When I die, let me die, in the service of the Lord
I keep on bringin souls to Jesus
By the service that I give
‘Cause I’m a hard fighting soldier, on the battlefield
I’m a hard fighting soldier, on the battlefield
I’m a hard fighting soldier, on the battlefield
I keep on bringin souls to Jesus
By the service that I yield
I keep on bringin souls to Jesus
By the service that I yield

During the song, I’m up front, singing on the bass mic. From there, I can see what most people can’t. That’s Jess, in the front row, singing and weeping. Tears of sadness and grief, for sure, but I suspect, paradoxically, tears of joy as well. Joy of being in God’s kingdom. Joy of having found one that, even in suffering, is pointing her to God.
God is moving here. Keep praying for Mat and Jess, if your heart is so moved. I know mine is.

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