Fly

Isaiah 40:27-31 (NRSV)

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.

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I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Oh, Lord, through the revolution

"Fly Like an Eagle" by Steve Miller, 1976

Flight, it has captivated humanity since the first birds took to the air. The majesty of flight has made us imagine taking to the skies since the times when we jumped off of the picnic table wearing a blanket for a cape. If you didn't jump from the picnic table, surely you jumped on the stairs, off the bed, or off of some sort of playground equipment. It's only human to want to take flight. It's only physiology and gravity that prevents it.

We imagine the V of geese flying across the skies. Hearing the honks, seeing the formation. They fly that way so that the goose at the head does the lion's share of the work. The rest draft behind the one in front like a line of cars at Daytona, but without a pit crew.

The geese fly as a team, one counting on the next to keep the formation to make the way easier for the rest of the gaggle. Then, the lead goose will drop back into the formation, and a new leader will take the point. This way, a stronger goose is always in the front. This way, they lift one another.

Isaiah assures the nation of Israel that they will be lifted , they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. They will be supported by the head of the church, the Lord God. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. God will not grow weary, They will be strengthened by the power of God.

Such a promise does not come without great responsibility. We are lifted to freedom. But even freedom in God comes with a price. Think of it as "No One Left Behind."

Feed the babies who don't have enough to eat. Shoe the children with no shoes on their feet. House the people livin' in the street. This is the mission, this is our vocation, to take the Word of God into the world not just by our voice, but with our hands. Oh, oh, this is the solution.

From the Throne of Heaven to the Cross

Colossians 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

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Come down off your throne and leave your body alone
Somebody must change
You are the reason I've been waiting so long
Somebody holds the key

But I'm near the end and I just ain't got the time, oh no
And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home

"Can't Find My Way Home" by Steve Winwood recorded by Blind Faith

We think of a throne as the embodiment of full and complete power. Thrones are held by kings and queens who reign supreme power over their realm. This should be especially true of the King of kings who sits on the throne of heaven. The King of heaven is the one who is the great creator. It is from this throne that all things were created, by him and through him and for him.

The cross was the exact opposite. It was a place of shame. It was a place of pain. Those who were lashed to the tree of woe were left there while the sun burnt the flesh to the jeering crowds while the burden of breathing eventually became insurmountable. It is the most exquisitely brutal form of death the Roman Empire inflicted upon its prisoners and was how the King of Glory met his death. This creator God upon the throne was lifted to die upon the cross.

It is this God; Father, Son, and Spirit; it is the king upon the throne who is executed like a reviled rebel. Of all of the most outrageous things, this is the way it was meant to be. God on the throne creates life, God on the cross reconciles life. Life comes from God, through God, and back to God. In the end, it's not God who suffers a horrid transition, it's us, we suffer the transition from children of the garden to children of sin back to children of the risen Lord.

God came down from the throne and entered life in the body of a Jewish man from Nazareth. In his changes we are changed more. When we sing that somebody holds the key to life, we know that this is true. The holder of the keys to the kingdom is God. When we deny this, when we deny God's role in our creation, when we deny God's role in our reconciliation; when we deny this we can't find our way home.

We look, we seek and we hope to find. But it isn't until we finally see the firstborn of all creation, the God who holds all things together, the one who is constantly looking for us that we find our way home. Everything else is just a waste.

Riding with the King of Kings

Thanks to Vicke Bailey for the suggestion


John 14:1-3

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also."

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He's on a mission of mercy to the new frontier,
He's gonna check us all on out of here.
Up to that mansion on a hill
Where you can get your prescription filled.

Get on a TWA to the promised land.
Everybody clap your hands.
And don't you just love the way that he sings?
Don't you know we're riding with the king?
Riding with the king.
Don't you know we're riding with the king?

"Riding with the King" by John Hiatt recorded by Eric Clapton and B.B. King

By this time in John's gospel, Jesus' entry into Jerusalem has been triumphant, but not all has been well. The Last Supper has been served, but there is a bittersweet taste left in the disciples' mouths. Jesus has washed their feet, the work of a slave is done by their Rabbi.

Jesus has foretold his betrayal. Then he foretold Peter's denial. Everyone's upset and there's good reason for that. Nothing is going the way it should at the Passover. They celebrate death passing over the slaves as Jesus tells them he is going to die and die horribly. His death will be wrapped in humiliation, agony, betrayal, and denial. This wasn't the dinner they expected to eat that evening.

In the midst of this, Jesus tells his disciples not to be troubled. He tells them to believe in God and believe in him. They are to believe because the Father has a special place for them, a place he will prepare.

If he does not go he cannot prepare. If he does not go he cannot return to take them to that mansion on the hill.

Riding with the king. Riding with the King of kings! The King is on a mission of mercy that began at creation and came to a head on an Easter some 2,000 years ago. It was a bumpy ride on that day. We aren't promised our ride to God's new frontier won't be bumpy, but we are promised that God will be with us driving the convertible.

Only when we ride with the author of healing will we be made full. The prescriptions we need come in all shapes and forms, and only the King of kings can write and fill the script.

Only by following the directions on that script will we ever see the mansion on the hill and the room Jesus prepares. And when we get there we will all sing together in he presence of God Almighty. The first step is, as always, getting in the car. That's the only way to go riding with the King.

Strange Proverbs

Proverbs 26:4-5 (NRSV)

Do not answer fools according to their folly,
or you will be a fool yourself.

Answer fools according to their folly,
or they will be wise in their own eyes.

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Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Well foggin' all my energies
Until you visited
With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you're so illustrious
You call yourself intense

"Bye Bye Love" by The Cars from The Cars, 1978

These two couplets from the Proverbs are facinating. In identical situations, it gives conflicting advice for different reasons. The biggest difference between the two is that to answer the fool is a pain to the person who answers and not answering the fool is to bolster the fool in their own mind. So here's the choice, is it better to allow the fool to be high in their own mind or is it better to get a scarred forehead after beating your own into a brick wall?

Seemingly, any answer is going to be laden with downside.

When people call scripture "God's Owner's Manual" I like to think of these two verses and wonder what to do with these instructions. Both of these lessons can be found in other places in scripture, but finding these one after the other makes me think Solomon was messing with us.

Often, we want to solve the riddles of scripture. Where did Cain's wife come from? How did it take 40 years to cross the Siani? What did Jesus mean when he said "Hate your parents?" If a women can't instruct men in church then why is this female pastor teaching me so much? How can we both answer and not answer fools?

On this side of glory, there are far more questions than there are answers. Still, we like to solve puzzles. As the song goes, "Substitution mass confusion, Clouds inside your head" But as the new-wave boys from Boston remind us, this happened "until you visited." In Christ there is peace that puts mass confusion to rest.

Put Christ first--In Christ the law is fulfilled; not replaced but fulfilled. Christ is found in scripture. Christ is found still in life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is found all around us. Anything else is kind of foolish.

That's intense.

Sowing the Seeds of Love-The Surplus of God

Luke 3:10-11

And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”

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I spy
tears in their eyes
they look to the skies
for some kind of divine intervention.
Food goes to waste!
So nice to eat,
so nice to taste.
Politician granny with your high ideals
have you no idea
how the majority feels?
So with out love
and a promised land,
we're fools to the rules of a government plan.
Kick out the Style!
Bring back the Jam! yeah, yeah.

And anything is possible when you're sowing the seeds of love.
Anything is possible sowing the seeds of love.

"Sowing the Seeds of Love" recorded by Tears for Fears written by Roland Olazabal and Curt Smith from the album by the same name

We live in a nation where we want what we want, and many of us have worked hard so that we can get what we want. We have earned what we have. Blaming anyone for wanting to keep what they have worked hard to earn is foolish. Yet we run into one problem, the difference between having and hoarding.

I want to keep what I got, but is that what God is calling me to do? In a word, no.

When the crowds asked John the Baptist how to follow the Lord so that they won't be chopped down like large trees whose only value is as wood for the fireplace, he told them to give. He told them to give generously out of their surplus. He told them if their needs are met they are to share with those whose needs are not. What good is food spoiled? The best place to store extra food is your neighbor's belly.

It's penny wise to store surplus in a silo. It's pound foolish to store so much wealth that you invite a replay of the French Revolution--a time when so many were so poor that the weak toppled the rich. John says share, when everyone has what they need life is better for everyone.

We need a divine intervention because we can't figure this out for ourselves. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Maybe, the the grace of God and the generosity of those with two coats we can all stay warm. Maybe, the the grace of God and the generosity of those with food to spare we can all be fed.

On a side note, those who say Government programs aren't doing this well--you've got a point. Often those programs are built neither from personal surplus nor from God's love. That's the point, we need to sow the seeds of love.

Who Dies for a Righteous Person?

On the anniversary of the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King


Romans 5:6-11

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

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Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

"Pride (in the Name of Love)" by U2

There's the question, "Who dies for a righteous person?" Well, Paul had it right in the letter to the Romans, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person. It seems all too obvious from the witness of scripture that the righteous person ends up dying for the unrighteous. It's always the most righteous who die for the unrighteous. That's the way is has always been and will continue to be. There's no sign this trend is changing.

When we look at the martyrs of the ages, the apostles, Stephen in the first century, even the reformers-they were all willing to die for two things-God and that people would know Him. The martyrs were willing to die for God and the people. So too with Martin Luther King, Jr.

King and the martyrs died not so that their names would be remembered by history, but so that Our Lord will be known in the world. This is what they boast, this is their pride-that we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. This is what they boast, this is their pride-that we boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

And all this while sinners.

Thank God for MLK, more than for what he did which was formidable, but in whose name he did it, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is worthy of boasting. This is worthy of pride.

Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, free at last.

Sarah Smile

Genesis 18:9-14

They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”

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Sara Smile
Won't you smile a while for me
Sara

"Sara Smile" by Hall and Oates

Sarah, what a wonderful woman. She is 90 years old, she has no children, menopause is a distant memory, and she overhears a man tell her husband Abraham that when he returns she will have a son. Sarah laughs.

Since she was hiding and eavesdropping, I assume her chuckle was on the quiet side. Because of the time and the place, I imagine she would have tried to be a bit more demure in her reaction too. I further imagine, in the 21st Century, any 90 year old woman who heard that might literally die laughing.

She laments, perhaps with a wry grin, that she is old and her husband is old too. How then shall she have the pleasure? Wince if you want, but the "pleasure" she's talking about is both sexual and the pleasure of a having a child.

Why do we laugh? Is it relief? If Sarah has a son she will be cared for in her old (older?) age. If she has a son the shame of her infertility will be swept away. Is it absurdity? Imagine your parents, or grand parents, or great grand parents--or even yourself if you are 90 years old and reading this devotional--"enjoying the pleasures of planting seeds in the garden." Do we laugh to get that image out of our heads? Does Sarah laugh because she can imagine no human way this would ever be possible? Honestly "all of the above" is an option.

Here's the truth. Nothing is too wonderful for the Lord. Nothing. So imagine what you will, imagine the impossible dreams life has shown and know that nothing is impossible for God. Even the pleasure. So Sara, won't you smile a while for me?