Presidential Election Aftermath, 2016 - What are we to do?

Well it has been a tumultuous season in politics and in our country.  We have been besieged on every side by negative political rhetoric and harsh campaign propaganda. Now that the election is over our fears are far from assuaged!  I have been shocked and saddened by some of the responses I have seen on FB and in the media this past week. What are we to do?

At times like these, in my best moments, I am drawn back to Scripture.  When I ask the question, "What am I to do?," I hear Micah the Prophet answer: “He has shown you, Oh Man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

A threefold answer:

Do justice or act justly – in other words as much as it is up to you, do what is right. Keep yourself above reproach. Stay on track with the Spirit of God in all you say and do, even in the midst of others who do not do the same.

Love mercy – this is a give and receive sort of thing. We all love mercy when it is the mercy of God being extended to us. What about when we are the ones who are called to reach out to others with mercy, with grace, with a gentle answer? Can we love mercy then, more than strife - more than our quick-witted, biting, sarcastic remark that will shut them down or put them in their place? Do we love mercy then?

Walk humbly with your God –  Can we maintain faith that, even with Donald Trump in the White House, God is still on the throne in heaven? Whether you are thrilled that this may mean an end of the Clinton era or whether you are scared to death because of the beginning of the Trump dynamic, can you remain calm and humbly trust that God is still working his purposes in this world – even through this difficult time?

These are the questions, it seems to me, that really matter. Can we, as the people of God, continue to deal respectfully with the people around us - even when we disagree. And can we honor Christ in the way we walk together in the days ahead.

Can we do this? Only time will tell and the true test is totally up to you and me.

For Such a Time as This...

I am sure that most of you reading this are familiar with this poignant phrase from the fourth chapter of Esther. At a crucial time of crisis in her community, for her nation, and for all the people she loved, Esther faced an agonizing decision which could cost her everything. Her cousin Mordecai encouraged her to step out bravely, taking great risks in faith, trusting that God had prepared her, even equipped her, for service precisely for the situation she now faced. This section has long been among my favorite Old Testament Sunday School tales. It challenges me to see myself as an integral part of God’s plan even in difficult times.

The divisive Presidential election season we just came through has felt like a difficult trial at times.  I have heard from, and spoken with, people from all over the spectrum. The one common thread that seems to linger is uncertainty. Uncertainty can lead to fear. For many, the results have led to shock. Left unchecked these feelings can lead to full-blown panic.  What are we to do?

Here, I believe, is where Esther comes in. Not that our situation is exactly like hers. We do not face the wrath of an arbitrary King whose decree seeks to destroy us as a people. Although (I say with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, and with a wink of my eye) if you listened to some of the rhetoric prior to the election, there are those who would tell you that is exactly what we faced from candidates on both sides of the fence! None the less, our situation is not exactly as grave as Esther’s. Still, I do believe that  you and me, and all Christ-followers living in America today, have been brought to this place for such a time as this.

What our nation needs is faithful people who will live out their loving beliefs in front of an angry, and fear-filled world. What our community needs is faithful men and women on the job, teens in classrooms, and kids on playgrounds who are driven by a solid faith that God is greater than any political squabble. Our world needs to see that even though this election shakes us all in some ways, perhaps to our core, at the true core of who we are, it does not shake our faith in the God who is and will forever be, Lord of all who live.

Our kids at the Conejo Church have been memorizing Psalm 90:2 recently. Perhaps we should follow their lead in re-centering our hearts: “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.” Another familiar passage from the King of Israel reminds us, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want…”  Do we believe this? Are we living in such a way that this belief is evident? I encourage you to see that we were given a faith like this for such a time as this. Live it well and spread peace.

Because of Christ,

Jack 

Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer: An Exercise in Providence

Psalm 23 and Jesus’s prayer from Matthew 6 are two of the most well known passages of Scripture in the modern world. For centuries, believers have memorized and recited these passages because of the comfort and insight they offer. Several years ago, I was fortunate to be part of a class led by Dallas Willard. During that course, a student asked him what had been the most beneficial Spiritual practice of his life. He answered that at morning and at night, he recited and meditated on the Lord’s Prayer or Psalm 23.

For the next year, I took up that practice. Every morning before getting out of bed and every night before going to sleep, I would pray through and meditate on one of these two passages. They proved to be more fruitful for my faith and overall sense of peace than I would have estimated from the beginning. With careful attention and prayer seeking for insight, I discovered that when taken together, Psalm 23 is actually a perfect answer to the petitions of the Lord’s prayer.

What follows is an exposition of this insight. What you will notice below is that every statement or petition Jesus offers in this prayer is answered, and even surpassed, by the confident assertion David makes in Psalm 23.

Jesus’ Prayer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd; I will not be in want.

Here Jesus opens his prayer with the affirmation that God is Holy and the assertion/request that God’s will be carried out in our lives just as it is in the spiritual realm. The psalmist answers saying that God is Shepherd. The metaphor implies that as a sheep looks to the shepherd for protection, support, leading, and sustenance, God is the one who provides all these things precisely because he is all the things that Jesus asserts.

Jesus’ Prayer: Give us today our daily bread.

Psalm 23: He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.

This is the first direct request that Jesus makes in the prayer. The psalmist asserts that the answer, from his experience with the Lord, goes far beyond the simple request for daily bread. Continuing the metaphor of shepherd and sheep, David says that he lies down in green pastures. This is a clear reference to a sheep that has had its fill of good food, and feels safe and secure. No sheep lies down in a green pasture unless it has eaten all it wants and feels safe to lie down. The implication is clear. David, as the sheep, enjoys the protection and provision of a good shepherd. He also speaks of access to still waters, another reference to safety and having all his needs met by his shepherd. Finally, he goes beyond the physical needs to the deeper spiritual and personal needs “he restores my soul.” Jesus requests God’s provision. The psalmist asserts that in relationship with the Lord all these are met and them some!

Jesus’ Prayer: And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Psalm 23: He guides me along the right paths (or in paths of righteousness) for his name’s sake.

Here Jesus asks for the forgiveness we all need in order to be right with God. He qualifies it by asking that we be forgiven as we in turn forgive others. The psalmist answers that God goes beyond this request. God not only forgives, but leads him to be righteous in all his ways. He adds that God does this, “for his name’s sake.” In other words, God guides and empowers us to forgive as he forgives. He leads us to act rightly and justly so that others will see his influence in our lives and be drawn to God as a result. The right paths the psalmist speaks of are paths that draw us closer to God and others in the context of right relationships. The foundation is being gracious – forgiving as we have been forgiven – but beyond that, living in the righteous example of God in all ways. For the psalmist, God answers the request by shaping and directing us in all our relationships in such a way that His name is blessed in our lives.

Jesus’ Prayer: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

So far, the psalmist has declared that God’s response goes above and beyond Jesus’s request at every step. This answer reaches the pinnacle of that insight. Jesus asks that God not lead us into temptation, and delivers us from evil, Psalm 23 answers with a treatise on God’s power and provision in the face of danger and the enemy. Temptation is the borderland of Spiritual danger. The psalmist asserts that even in the darkest, or most frightening place, there is no need for fear if one walks with God. The shepherd’s rod and staff in the hand of God represent both discipline and protection. God by the side of the psalmist means that he is not alone to face any trial or temptation that threatens to harm him. The next image is the most powerful. “He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” It is as though the psalmist faces his enemies on the field of battle. God enters the scene, telling the enemy to stand back and watch, as God spreads out a banquet table in front of him. Then he calls David to sit and eat, while the enemy looks on. He anoints David’s head with oil, showing that he is God’s chosen one, protected and dearly loved. He is so greatly cared for that his cups overflows. All this is done with the enemy held in check and looking on! God’s provision is complete.

Jesus’ Prayer: For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen

Psalm 23: Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Jesus closes the prayer as he began, asserting that God is indeed Lord, and that power and glory belong to Him. The psalmist asserts that because this is true, he will benefit from the peace, goodness, and blessing that come from living under God’s rule.

Final Note:

When I first noticed this connection between these meaningful passages, I had the same thought that I am sure many of you reading this have: “Psalm 23 is certainly not intended to be the answer to Jesus’ prayer. David wrote the psalm out of his own experience, based on the times in which he was living, not as a prophetic word waiting for a prayer that would not be uttered for 1,000 years!” Certainly, there is a strong sense in which this is true. Psalm 23 stands on its own merit as a passage of assurance and peace completely independent of Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6.

On the other hand, consider this. Scripture can have layers of meaning to different people at different times. This is evidence of the genius of the Spirit of God as he shapes and empowers us through His word. I believe that God was involved in the process that inspired David with insights that led to the writing of Psalm 23. It is God himself, in the person of Jesus, who spoke this prayer as an example of prayer for his disciples. The two passages work together so well. They each interpret and inform greater insight into the other. With God involved in both, this should come as no surprise.

David is the great King of Israel. God promises that his line will never end and that one will come in his line who will stand as the Christ, the Messiah, the one whose reign will never end. Jesus is that Chosen One. He speaks this prayer as example to all believers so we will know better how to structure our own prayers. In his providence, God inspires the answer to this prayer some 1,000 years before in the words of David. Only God could inspire the answer to his own prayer 1,000 years before it was spoken!

This is not out of character for God. It is right in line with what God has done all along. Consider another example, Paul writes in Romans 5: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In essence, before we ever knew we needed a way back to God, he had already made the way through the blood of Jesus. In a similar way, I am suggesting that Psalm 23 can be read as an insightful response to Jesus’ prayer, given before the prayer was ever spoken.  I am not saying that Psalm 23 must be only seen in the context of the prayer of Jesus. I am saying that putting these two together offers us great insight and food for our souls. The fact that God utters the prayer, in the form of Jesus the Messiah, and David, the first king in the line of Messiah, penned words in advance that would fill out the meaning of that prayer, seem to be the kind of providence and wisdom that bespeaks the power and grace of God.

If the insight I suggest does not make sense to you, or seems inappropriate, then let it go. If it feels more like a blessing, then be blessed. Either way, at the very least, consider making these two passages a more frequent part of your life of connection to God through prayer and contemplation of his word.

Take a Good Look in the Mirror

Everyone loves a good story. We all have our childhood favorites. I remember being enraptured by the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. I knew it wasn’t real, but it seemed like such a great adventure. As I grew older, I could look back on those stories and see how they shaped the way I saw the world. I first learned to be brave thinking about Dorothy taking one step at a time down the yellow brick road. I would laugh and think about the foolishness of building with straw and the wisdom of building with bricks as I recounted the story of the three little pigs and the wolf huffing and puffing to blow their house down. But, truly the stories that impacted me the most were stories from Scripture. I remember being fascinated by the story of the plagues in Egypt, or Gideon with his fleece, wet and then dry, and his boldness in testing God. Peter walking on the water and Moses standing before the burning bush both made me think about how incredible it must be to stand in a place where you cannot help but fully trust in God.

As I have grown and met my own trials and bumps on the road of life, these stories have been the ones that sustain me. Dealing with loss in my life or feeling inadequate to the task of ministry, I have looked to Moses at the burning bush or Peter starting to sink into the waves and found that I relate to them in profound ways. Like Moses, at times I have looked to the Lord and said, “Surely you can’t expect me to do this?!? There are others who are much more prepared or equipped for this task.” At other times I have felt like Peter and desperately looked to God saying, “I thought I could do this, now I am in the middle of it and it’s just not going how I planned. Is this your will for me? Please don’t let me drown! I know my faith is weak…Help!!!”

Looking back on how these stories have lifted, shaped, and sustained me, I am reminded of a simple but helpful metaphor offered in James 1:22-25. The author writes:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.”

Now that is sound advice. 

So often we take these stories from Scripture and set them up as only the stuff for Sunday school. We relegate them to the status of fairy tales and children’s stories. When we do this we miss the real power of the Word of God. It is with good reason that James calls it “the perfect law that gives freedom.” These stories are meant for you and me. They are real stories of real people who faced real issues in life. They are delivered to us to offer hope and guidance. They are meant to enable us to see what it looks like to follow God in every moment of our lives. If they are a mirror, they reflect what it looks like to follow God in our unique stories just as these biblical heroes did in their own life stories. Perhaps we should all pick up the Word this week, go back to some of those familiar stories, and take a good look in the mirror.