Seasons and Seasons to Follow

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die

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And when I die, and when I'm gone
there'll be, one child born
in this world
to carry on, to carry on

"And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat, and Tears

For everything there is a season, and the best thing about seasons is that they come and they go. Seasons work in cycles. There needs to be a winter for the earth to recover before spring can come and the world become restored. In a wheat field, one kernel must die to produce a stalk that will supply more kernels. As there is a season for life, there will come a season for death. As there is a season for death it will lead to a season of new life.

John 11 reminds us in the face of the death of his friend Lazarus, he wept. Jesus wept. Is there a more emotional sentence in scripture? Nothing greater has ever been said in fewer words: Jesus wept. Jesus shares our human pain. Jesus mourns with us. In this single moment, the fully-human fully-divine Lord has never been more human. Jesus wept.

Jesus wept knowing full well that he would raise Lazarus from the dead. He could have been filled with joy and glee, he knew this illness wouldn't end in death, John 11 says that too. But when he sees Mary, when he sees her grief, Jesus weeps. Then Jesus goes to work. In this moment this first season of death for Lazarus comes to an abrupt end with his return to life, new life in Jesus Christ.

For everything there is a season, a time to live and a time to die. Blood, Sweat, and Tears shares the word of Ecclesiastes that this season will surely end in our death. And just as surely that death will lead to new life.

Thanks be to God that the death of Jesus leads not to the death of faith, but the death of death itself. Death will come, but death is already defeated. Death is already conquered. The season of new life in Christ began that Easter Sunday and continues. By this there'll be, one child born in this world to carry on. To carry on.

Love and Fear Don't Mix

1John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

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I smell the fear that rains inside
The thought of children who must oblige
To tainted dreams and polluted seas
The missing moon and melting trees
A mist of doom and clouds of pain
Toxic waste and acid rain
The passing of our ignorance
A lifetime spent in abstinence

"Fear" written and recorded by Lennny Kravitz from "Let Love Rule"

Fear. Nothing paralyzes better than fear. Spinal injury? Brain injury? Absolutely, those are traumatic. Fear, that's subtle like a thousand paper cuts, subtle like a jackhammer.

Fear allows us to think thoughts that we would never ordinarily allow within the same area code. Fear makes us build fences. Fear makes us shy away from our neighbors because they are strangers. Fear keeps us from listening to anything that doesn't keep with what we already believe. Fear keeps us from new experiences. Fear keeps us from love. Fear keeps us from Love.

In a 1977 sermon, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin said "While love seeks the truth, fear seeks safety." American political discourse is filled with men and women showing where there are holes in security, places where we will be harmed. Not can be, will be harmed. This comes with the promise "Only I can fill the hole with safety and my opponent will allow these (insert enemy du jour here) take our way of life from us.

The comic Christopher Titus defines a terrorist as someone who causes us to adjust our daily way of life. His favorite terrorists are news anchors on Fox News and CNN.

Fear: tainted dreams, polluted seas, melting trees, toxic seas, acid rain, and my favorite of Lenny's images, the mist of doom and clouds of pain. We're living in fear. I blame Fox News and CNN too.

Perfect love casts out fear. Now that's a blessing that none of us can shy from. Perfect love casts out fear. Where all love exists there cannot be the mist of doom nor the clouds of pain. Where there is perfect love, there is no terror. Maybe, maybe where there is perfect love there isn't even CNN or Fox News.

Perfect love is found in God. Perfect love is found in Christ.

Goo Goo G'joob

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together

"I Am the Walrus" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded by the Beatles for "The Magical Mystery Tour. I could not find a good version of this song by The Beatles, so instead of using a version by Oasis or Styx or any number of other cover bands, I chose to go all the way to weird with Jim Carrey. Enjoy?

Goo goo g'joob indeed.

Are there any more confusing sentences in the English language than these? Are there any two more overinterpreted sentences in the English language than these? Their interpretation history, that's the only reason I connect these together. None of that John Lennon "We're more famous than Jesus" stuff. Just a history of interpretation wrapped around some incredibly mysterious sentences.

People have tried for eons to try to figure out exactly what these sentences mean. So what do I say, I say that God is so unlike anything we can ever imagine that it is really impossible to figure out exactly what John (the Gospel, not Lennon) truly meant. Consider this instead, John was trying to get us to consider just how completely different, how totally "other" God is compared to who we are as the created; simple, sinful human beings. We need to acknowledge that God is mysterious. What we think we knew we may not really know at all.

So a simple word for a complicated text. God is God. God Is who God Is. God will be who God will be. We simply are not that.

Who are we? Who am I? I am the egg man, I am the egg man, I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Faith and Belief

Mark 9:24(NRSV)

Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

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You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse, but
If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do"

"If I Ever Lose My Faith" by Sting from "Ten Summoner's Tales," 1993

So let's start here, because this is suddenly the elephant in the room, Sting sings "You could say I lost my belief in the holy church." This may not be the most uplifting thing ever written in a devotional, but it goes to a place devotion needs to go.

People often put their faith in things that do not deserve devotion. The greedy have a faith in wealth and that is not healthy. The vain put faith in looks and that is not wise. Gluttons of all stripes place faith in the object of their abuse and that can become the object of addiction.

There is a difference between having "faith" in the church and faith in the Head of the Church. The church is made up of people, people who are sinned and fallible. The Head of the Church is our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is fully human and fully divine; all human and all God. Jesus is not only more God than we will ever be, but he is more of a person than we will ever be. In him alone must our faith rest.

As Sting sings, "If I ever lose my faith in you, there'd be nothing left for me to do."

When the man brings his demon possessed son to Jesus, Jesus says, “All things can be done for the one who believes.” The man then cries “I believe; help my unbelief!”

As people, imperfect human beings, we will never be able to fully believe, not to the extent that Jesus is able to believe in us. Often we think of this verse as Jesus scorning the father, "If you believe your son will be healed." The man's answer certainly seems to follow this logic.

But what if Jesus is instead saying, "I believe in you, I believe in humanity, and because I believe, all things can be done." The acts of Jesus do not depend on us having enough faith. Jesus has enough faith in us to do the miracles that show us life.

Still, our lives are plagued with uncertainty and pain. Sting sings, "Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world." We may be lost, but Jesus finds us--both in our belief and in our unbelief.

The Church can be a wonderful thing. In its most gloirous state it is the Body of Christ on earth. But it is better to have faith in Christ while remembering Christ calls on us, the church, people, to continue his work on earth.

Ladder of Dreams

Thanks Amelia!


Genesis 28:10-17

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the LORD stood beside him and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place--and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

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Dream until your dreams come true.

"Dream On" by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry recorded by Aerosmith from their self-titled first album

Dreams, we all have them, particularly when we are young. There's something about age and experience that relegates our dreams to a place of nostalgia. At one time when you asked a young boy what he wanted to be when he grew up he would say a cowboy, and when you asked a young girl she would say ballerina. Well, we need more than cowboys and ballerinas in the workplace so some dreams deserve the mantle of nostalgia. Some dreams are still worth dreaming.

The dream known as "Jacob's Ladder" was a dream worth having. Jacob saw a ladder with angels ascending and descending. With the Lord beside him, Jacob is promised that his offspring will be as vast as the dust of the earth spreading to all corners so that all the families of the world will be blessed. Yes, Jacob and his family is to be a blessing to all the earth.

As a member of the many tribes of the gentiles, Christians are grafted into the tree of life and the family of Jacob through the blessings of Jesus the Christ. We are all, all children of the Lord our God and by the Lord we are to bless the world not to scourge it.

The place to begin this is to look again up the ladders of our dreams. What were our dreams? What are our dreams? What is more noble? What is more in accord with the words and acts of God and God Incarnate.

Remember, we are not God, we aren't even God on Earth, that job was taken over 2,000 years ago. What we are is the eyes, ears, tongues, hands, and hearts of God, we are the Body of Christ. So dream. Dream again your better dreams, dream again the dreams of peace and joy. Dream until you hear those wonderful words Jacob heard, "Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go." Dream, dream until your dreams come true and know God is with you.

President's Day and Love Me Like a Rock

Happy President's Day!


Ephesians 6:12

For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, but against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

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If I was President
And the Congress call my name
I'd say "Who do
Who do you think you're fooling?"
I've got the Presidential Seal
I'm up on the Presidential Podium

"Loves Me Like a Rock" written and recorded by Paul Simon on "There Goes Rhymin' Simon"

Many a day I am a big fan of hyperbole and exaggeration. These are two of the building blocks of humor. That's the reason I like them, for humor, for comedy. I don't really like them in politics. Unfortunately, because of fear we are becoming a society built largely on hyperbole and exaggeration. A society that has become spectacle, a mere shadow of itself.

The Presidential debates during this election year have become a mere shadow of their intention. Lincoln and Douglas would take all of the candidates by the ear and show them what it meant to debate.

Lest you think I point at one side of the aisle, one side may be a three ring circus, but the other side of the aisle features its own sideshow not to be denied nor ignored.

These candidates struggle against each other, they struggle so they can struggle against what? Congress? World leaders? The invisible hand of the market and the economy? The Koch Brothers? They fight each other so they can fight someone else. Fear and fight. Fear and fight. Who needs a President and a Russian Premier? How about a global game of Risk fought out like the days of Goliath?

Is that our fight? Is that our future?

We have gotten so worried about separation of church and state that as we grind the theological moxie of our candidates we forget to ask them what they truly believe, not where they go to church. Where is our struggle? Where is their struggle? If their struggle is against the enemies of flesh and blood, but against the greater authority of darkness. This power is not an individual. This power is greater than any one person.

Truly I say to you, that power is in all of us. Each and every one of us. It is the power of sin.

Paul's letter to the Ephesians tells us how to fight that struggle, it is to put on the whole armor of God. It isn't to blame. It isn't to point fingers. and it isn't to ask "Who do, who do you think you're fooling?"

That is the rock that loves me.

Anni La Dodi

Valentine's Day


Song of Songs 6:3

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine

In Hebrew...

Anni la dodi va dodi li

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"Don't you know I was made to love her,
Built a world all around her"
Yah! Hey, hey, hey.

"I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Lula Mae Hardaway, from an album by the same name

The Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, is just that-a love song. Song of Songs is a term like King of Kings, it's a superlative. This is the greatest song, the greatest hymn in all scripture. Thus, it is the Song of Songs.

Scholars have debated since it was written about exactly who the beloved is. Is the beloved one of the wives or concubines of Solomon? Is the beloved the Lord-the song a love offering from Solomon. Is the song a hymn for the people to sing to the Lord? Is it a hymn from the Lord to the people? Which is right? Which is wrong?

Somewhere there is a truth, there is an answer to this question. But the good news is that from where we sit, where we live, is finding the answer that important? Let the academics and the theologians and the historians and the text critical biblical interpreters try to figure that out. What if it is a song from a man to a woman? Or to the Lord? Or from the Lord? What if it is all of these things and more? What if it is a song of love from the creator to the creation?

As for me, I say don't worry about it. Treat the song like a love song from the Savior. And a love song to the Savior. And treat it like a song to the love of your life.

Just know that this is the song of love, the greatest song of all times. And in the Lord there is enough love to go around for all of these answers.