Great!!

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18 (NRSV)

Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is at hand; the Lordhas prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests. At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.” Their wealth shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.

The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the warrior cries aloud there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring such distress upon people that they shall walk like the blind; because they have sinned against the Lord, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath; in the fire of his passion the whole earth shall be consumed; for a full, a terrible end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Did you catch that line in the middle of this text? "The great day of the Lord is near."

Does this reading sound like it's about a great day to you?

(insert crickets chirping...)

Of course, "great" has many meanings: substantial, significant, large, imposing, absolute, impressive, awe-inspiring, magnificent, total, utter, dominant, peerless, formidable...

That's just the beginning of the list when you google synonyms for "great!"

So, perhaps in that context, there is something "great" about what the prophet is talking about here: something absolutely imposing, formidable, significant, awe-inspiring...

You get the idea.

What perhaps makes this text so "great" and significant is that all of this wrath and destruction God says is going to come is coming as a result of something seemingly insignificant.

Complacency.  Ambivalence. Self-satisfaction. Apathy

God reveals the "fire of God's passion" as an answer to a people who seem to be displaying no passion at all.

Now, there are certainly lots of ways to read this, and many of them might sounds an awful lot like: "you'd better start caring about God more, or the wrath of God is coming to come down on you."

That might have been what Zephaniah meant for his hearers, but I'm not sure its as helpful for us.

Instead I think maybe another way to see it is that God has pretty strong feelings about God's people.  About us.  About our neighbors.  About creation. 

God in fact is passionate about these things.

What would it be like if we were all just as passionate about them?

Pretty great, probably...

Great and passionate God, ignite our hearts to love this world and all its creation and creatures just as fervently as you do.  Amen.

Love letter

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love. He has told us also that you always remember us kindly and long to see us—just as we long to see you. For this reason, brothers and sisters, during all our distress and persecution we have been encouraged about you through your faith. For we now live, if you continue to stand firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

For all that they are in our Holy scriptures, it is important to remember that the letters of Paul - and of the writers of other epistles - were just that.  Letters.

We don't write letters much anymore, but can you remember a time looking forward to the mailman coming because you knew that any day a letter would be coming to you? 

Maybe it was a love-letter.  Maybe it was a letter from grandparents or a thank you letter.  Maybe it was a letter from a child at camp or college.

There's really no feeling like it.  Getting that envelope and tearing it open to read the thoughts and sentiments of a loved one.

So imagine how much meaning these letters from Paul to his churches had.  You can hear the longing and emotion in Paul's words.  This is his community of people.  It is, in fact, a NEW community of people.  This is a church existing at the very birth of Christianity.  It is a church that is doing something that's never been done before.

And Paul, their founder, isn't even with them for it.  (Imagine our pastors today setting us off on our own while they lead us and communicate to us from hundreds of miles away).

This is a unprecedented letter.  It will caution and guide.  It will explain and exhort.

But most of all it is a letter of love. Paul is writing to a community built around and bound by the love of Christ.

That love is still what binds our church.  Maybe sometimes it seems hard to see it.  Maybe the newness and shine has worn off, and we don't feel the excitement that that early church must have felt.

But it is still there.  Christ's love moving us forward.  

How can we communicate that to each other and to the world?

Lord of love, move our hearts to love as deeply and abundantly as you do.  Amen.

Longing for God

Psalm 63:1-4New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
    beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
    my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;

     I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

Whenever things are really bad, they often tell you to go to the Psalms.  Psalms run the gamut of emotion: they share joy, lament, anger, revenge, longing.

Psalm 63 is the one that I find I turn to the most.  The beauty of the opening verses sing to my heart when I say them.  They remind me of my need for God. 

It isn't simply that I worship God, or follow God, or love God.

I need God.

I need God as an infant needs his or her mother.  I am dependent on God for my very life.  From God I received my breath and this Psalm, more perhaps than anything else in scripture, reminds me of how much I long to be reminded of that connection.

Do you ever long for God? When are you reminded of that need? Does it happen when you are suffering or sad, or are their moments of exultation when you cling to that need with everything you have?

Perhaps these aren't the words that remind you of that need.  Maybe there are others?  Maybe there is a part of worship or a hymn or song that reminds you of that need.

But if not, I encourage you to find something - a place you can turn to - when that need envelops you.

And then let your heart sing out as the Psalmist does.

Lord, I long for you.  I need you.  Even when I don't remember it.  And when I don't remember it, remind me of our close connection.  Amen.

Lady Wisdom

Wisdom 6:12-16New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Wisdom is radiant and unfading,
and she is easily discerned by those who love her,
and is found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty,
for she will be found sitting at the gate.
To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding,
and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care,
because she goes about seeking those worthy of her,
and she graciously appears to them in their paths,
and meets them in every thought

Most members of protestant denominations don't have a lot of experience with the Book of Wisdom.  If you happen to have it in one of your bibles, it is in the middle - in the apocryphal or non-canonical texts.  In other words, the Protestant reformers (like Luther) didn't consider it canon.

While there are good arguments for that, it is a shame that we don't get to read it often so the fact that it shows up even occasionally in our lectionary is, I think, pretty cool.

Wisdom here is personified - as in Proverbs - as a woman, and there have been attempts to link Lady Wisdom with the Holy Spirit - as she is seen as coeternal with God, and God's creative agent.  

Although the connection to the Holy Spirit is probably not theologically grounded, nevertheless, Wisdom is intimately connected with God and an "associate in God's works" and for me, that connection - personified as female - is one that is important to remember.

We grow up with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and for girls, there is often a feeling of being left out - the male names and pronouns for God have long dominated the stage.

And yet here we have Wisdom - female and powerful.  

Meeting people in every thought.

Easily discerned by those who love her.

And reminding us that just when we think we know who God is and how God is defined, we realize that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of perfect understanding.

God of Wisdom, you don't put us in boxes.  Help us not to put you in boxes either but to be open to your generous and mysterious presence, even though we cannot even begin to fully understand it.  Amen.

More about the path

Acts 13:6-10New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

The metaphor of a path on our journey of faith is a difficult one.  It would be nice to think that the path God puts in front of us is simply straight and true, without the detours and sideways and bi-ways I mentioned yesterday.

However, the truth is that the path doesn't always seem straight.  Sometimes it DOES seem crooked.  Yet here Paul has strong words for someone who tries to lead God's people on a crooked path.

So rather than try to make too much of the metaphor, instead maybe we can think about how we know when we are on a path that is of God rather than a path that is one that leads us away from God.  

Or how, when we inevitably find ourselves of a path that leads us away from God (which, have no doubt we all find ourselves on at one point or another), we can find our way back onto a path of God.

It's good to be cautious and aware of the "Elymases" out there - those people or things that draw us away from God's call to us.  It isn't that God can't reach us wherever we are, but we can certainly make it harder for ourselves to hear God's message of love and forgiveness when we surround ourselves with contrary voices and ideas.

It's worth taking time each day - time in silence, meditation, reflection and prayer - to listen to the working of God in our lives and to help ourselves discern what things or voices in our lives draw us away.

Prayer then isn't simply talking to God about our desires, wants, needs, and hopes.  It isn't even simply about praising God and thanking God. Sometimes it is about sitting back and listening and sensing and feeling.

Trying to make sure you can still feel that path under your feet.

God, enliven all of my senses to pay attention to your call and path as I walk this journey with you.  Amen.

Paths

Psalm 5:8New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before me.

Psalm 5 is full of lament and cries for God's justice and mercy for the Psalmist.  It's a familiar theme from other Psalms, and fits in easily with the theme from yesterday's reading from Micah (as well as the other reading today from Jeremiah) about evildoers who are deceitful and spread lies.

Verse 8 caught me like a lightning bolt, however.  Make your way straight in front of me, Lord. 

Because of my enemies.

I get a visual of a crowded room of so many distractions that keep me from God that the pathway becomes invisible.

Because when it comes down to it, those are really who my "enemies" are.  I'm fortunate not to have an warrior nations fighting me for my land, but I sure have lots of enemies who distract me from God's way being straight before me.

Quite honestly I've come to see that while there most likely is a path straight before me, God is also really good at helping us find our way through the alleyways and byways and little side paths.  That God's straight way often includes detours and rest stops.

It helps to have wise friends and guides along the way to keep the path in front of you, whether it is a straight path or one with detours. 

It's a path best trodden in community.  Not alone.

Sometimes the answer isn't right in front of us.  Sometimes distractions become enemies and keep us from seeing the forest through the trees.

But despite that, God is still there, providing the way.  If it isn't clear, don't give up looking.

God, show me your path.  Guide me through all of its twists and turns and when I can't see it, give me light to show me the way.  Amen.

Justice and Mercy

Micah 3:5-12New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
who cry “Peace”
    when they have something to eat,
but declare war against those
    who put nothing into their mouths.
Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
    and darkness to you, without revelation.
The sun shall go down upon the prophets,
    and the day shall be black over them;
the seers shall be disgraced,
    and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
    for there is no answer from God.
But as for me, I am filled with power,
    with the spirit of the Lord,
    and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
    and to Israel his sin.

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
    and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
    and pervert all equity,
who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with wrong!
Its rulers give judgment for a bribe,
    its priests teach for a price,
    its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
    “Surely the Lord is with us!
    No harm shall come upon us.”
Therefore because of you
    Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
    and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Here's the thing.  From the days of Israel and Judah, God had something to say about how his kingdoms should be governed.  God had something to say about justice and mercy and through his prophet Micah, God made clear that prophets who were comfortable - and not concerned with the poor and dispossessed - were in fact not God's prophets.

These are heavy words.  And words that have a much bearing today.  Are there still prophets who fill their own pockets while declaring war on those who have nothing to put in their mouths?  Are there still rulers who abhor justice and pervert equity?

Politics and religion are two of those things we're not supposed to talk about in mixed (or polite) society.  Or we aren't supposed to talk about them together.

But from day one, God's prophets talked of little else: they talked about them together and they talked about them in mixed society.  

And they weren't always polite about it!

And it got them in lots of trouble lots of the time.

But this Micah is the same one who later on will warn that what it is that God truly requires is for God's people to "do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God."

Justice and mercy are inexorably tied to politics and religion.  A reminder perhaps that seems cautionary and something to think about on election week.  Quite honestly, these days it's probably hard to find candidates who earnestly walk that path.

But Micah reminds us that perhaps it always was.

God of mercy and justice, remind those who are our leaders to walk humbly and faithfully in service to all of your children.  Amen.