It is funny, I am kind of running out of time for advent posts...Christmas being less than a week away. This season has been so full of the unexpected that the routine of this season has been lost. In fact, to be totally honest...I am not in the Christmas 'spirit' at all.
I was hoping that as the school time winds down I would wander effortlessly into the warm fuzzy of Christmas time but having a student dealing with chemotherapy on the eve of Christmas, having violence hang so heavy in the air has washed this season of its sparkle.
It's ok...it is what it is and I can't generate what isn't.
Sorry folks...
Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Bathsheba...ashes and beauty
We are familiar with this story in all of its titillating details. I have often thought that this isn't story about Bathsheba at all but about how sin spatters and ruins and destroys people around especially when you think your sin is secret, especially when you keep your sin secret. David's arrogance seduces, destroys what was a great love story and murders. David repents and writes eloquently about his repentance in a often quoted Psalm but Uriah still is dead and Bathsheba still lost her baby and her life and her husband.
There isn't much in this story after all is said and done. David is front and center ... What do we know about Bathsheba. She was beautiful, she was bathing on a roof top...most likely a ritual bathing area for purification, David wanted what he saw and he got it. She got pregnant...David began the process of cleaning up his tracks. He hadn't thought about marrying her...he wanted Uriah to unknowingly become the father of his baby growing in Bathsheba's womb. Uriah was a good man, a noble man and loyal man. David was none of those things. He dies, Bathsheba marries David, baby dies...another baby is born and baby Solomon becomes the next king, wisest man in the world. Bathsheba's is mentioned in Mathew as the wife of Uriah...she is mentioned only in connection too...Some think this is a slight to Bathsheba, I think it is an honoring of Uriah ,who was not in the line of Jesus.
This week we are numb with the horror of children's death by a madman. It is the face of evil, it is the embodiment of what evil is...The madman who killed 20 children, the madman who killed all the babies in Bethlehem, the madman who killed one man.
A baby changes everything...
Come, Lord Jesus, Come...
Make things right
Shine again in this dark night
Let us hear some angels sing
And hear the hope those angels bring
We will come and bow before
Only to adore..only to adore
Broken hearts and bended knee
Such a desperate need
There isn't much in this story after all is said and done. David is front and center ... What do we know about Bathsheba. She was beautiful, she was bathing on a roof top...most likely a ritual bathing area for purification, David wanted what he saw and he got it. She got pregnant...David began the process of cleaning up his tracks. He hadn't thought about marrying her...he wanted Uriah to unknowingly become the father of his baby growing in Bathsheba's womb. Uriah was a good man, a noble man and loyal man. David was none of those things. He dies, Bathsheba marries David, baby dies...another baby is born and baby Solomon becomes the next king, wisest man in the world. Bathsheba's is mentioned in Mathew as the wife of Uriah...she is mentioned only in connection too...Some think this is a slight to Bathsheba, I think it is an honoring of Uriah ,who was not in the line of Jesus.
This week we are numb with the horror of children's death by a madman. It is the face of evil, it is the embodiment of what evil is...The madman who killed 20 children, the madman who killed all the babies in Bethlehem, the madman who killed one man.
A baby changes everything...
Come, Lord Jesus, Come...
Make things right
Shine again in this dark night
Let us hear some angels sing
And hear the hope those angels bring
We will come and bow before
Only to adore..only to adore
Broken hearts and bended knee
Such a desperate need
Friday, December 14, 2012
Ruth...Once upon a time
Ruth 1:1There was a time when Israel didn't have kings to rule over them. But they had leaders to help them. This is a story about some things that happened during that time.
The Bible doesn't ever say, once upon a time but Ruth comes close. This is a story about things that happened during this time...and it is a love story.
Ruth...a daughter-in-law, a widow, a servant to her mother-in-law ( on a side, that must have been one amazing mother-in-law for Ruth to forsake all just to be with her) a provider, a pursuer, a bride, a mother ... a wife. She was resilient, obedient, kind, loyal, beautiful, unselfish, strong and kind.
Ruth is a story of great loss and bitterness, struggle, resilience, survival and redemption. In every step, God was worshiped and honored.
Once upon a time everything was really bad, then everyone trusted God and they loved happily every after.
Ruth 4: 11 Then the elders and all who were at the gate spoke. They said, "We are witnesses. The woman is coming into your home. May the LORD make her to be like Rachel and Leah. Together they built up the nation of Israel. May you be an important person in Ephrathah. May you be famous in Bethlehem.
12The LORD will give you children through this young woman. May your family be like the family of Perez. He was the son Tamar had by Judah.”
Here we are in Ruth and we are pulled back to Tamar...that other resilient woman: Happy ever after. How does this prepare us for Christmas? Have you been seeing the same themes over and over again in these stories of women? It is beauty for ashes...redemption stories ...every one of them.
This means, that this Christmas all my ashes are not worthless. My story is not a mismatch of events, or losses disorganized and haphazard.
My story today, your story today is being written in the ink of redemption. That is the always story of Christmas.
The Bible doesn't ever say, once upon a time but Ruth comes close. This is a story about things that happened during this time...and it is a love story.
Ruth...a daughter-in-law, a widow, a servant to her mother-in-law ( on a side, that must have been one amazing mother-in-law for Ruth to forsake all just to be with her) a provider, a pursuer, a bride, a mother ... a wife. She was resilient, obedient, kind, loyal, beautiful, unselfish, strong and kind.
Ruth is a story of great loss and bitterness, struggle, resilience, survival and redemption. In every step, God was worshiped and honored.
Once upon a time everything was really bad, then everyone trusted God and they loved happily every after.
Ruth 4: 11 Then the elders and all who were at the gate spoke. They said, "We are witnesses. The woman is coming into your home. May the LORD make her to be like Rachel and Leah. Together they built up the nation of Israel. May you be an important person in Ephrathah. May you be famous in Bethlehem.
12The LORD will give you children through this young woman. May your family be like the family of Perez. He was the son Tamar had by Judah.”
Here we are in Ruth and we are pulled back to Tamar...that other resilient woman: Happy ever after. How does this prepare us for Christmas? Have you been seeing the same themes over and over again in these stories of women? It is beauty for ashes...redemption stories ...every one of them.
This means, that this Christmas all my ashes are not worthless. My story is not a mismatch of events, or losses disorganized and haphazard.
My story today, your story today is being written in the ink of redemption. That is the always story of Christmas.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
A silent night for me...
I drove home from Childrens' hospital having just heard from the doctors that one of my Chinese students has Stage4 lymphoma Hodgkin's cancer. It is hard to focus on Christmas or family joy or anything for that matter. She is only 17 but the offensive thing about cancer is that as we sit in the waiting rooms for hours on end there is a stream of children wandering through with bald heads, tubes and cute knitted caps, holding on to IV tubes. There are 4 floors and they are adding on to this hospital full of very sick kids. I have said that this place is sacred, for healing takes place and hope is dispersed by competent and skilled doctors, nurses and staff. Cancer is so offensive , evil, insidious, and scary. So much needs to happen to get her ready for the treatment that ironically will make her feel much sicker then this deadly disease ever will. Her parents have to come from China, they have to be here for the next 4 months while she fights for the right to live longer. So many moving parts...
A silent night as I pondered the weight of this information. She does not know how much God loves her...or her parents...I pray in these awful months she will.
A silent night as I pondered the weight of this information. She does not know how much God loves her...or her parents...I pray in these awful months she will.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Rahab...the mother of Boaz
Joshua 1: 21"I agree," Rahab replied. "I'll do as you say." So she sent them away, and they left. Then she tied the bright red rope in the window.
Math.1:5 5Salmon was the father of Boaz. Rahab was Boaz's mother
When we left Tamar, she had just given birth to her twins Zerah and Perez...the mix up in the womb was that Zerah, stuck his fist out so the midwifes thought he would bet he first born so they put a scarlet thread around his wrist only to go back in and Perez came out. For those who have had children...OUCH. From a scarlet thread around the wrist to a scarlet rope out the window. No other significance maybe except that the story of Tamar ends with a red thread and then when we get to know Rahab, the red rope/big thread is significant to the her own rescue from the hand of God in the swords of his people.
In Mathew, she is no longer Rahab the prostitute, but Rahab the mother of Boaz, who for all intents and purposes is the Prince Charming of the Old Testament and Ruth his Princess.
In short, Rahab hides the spies from the oncoming hordes of Israel upstairs under the flax bushels and then lies about their whereabouts. Because of her faith in the God of Israel, she ends up saving her whole family and marries Salmon, and is grandmother to Jesse, who is the father of David...but more importantly, in the story of Jesus. No wonder she had no problem with Boaz marrying Ruth, the Moabite. She was also an outsider and a gentile.
In chaos, fear and uncertainty...she had faith to rescue not only herself and family but to start a whole new other life. No longer the prostitute but mother. This is the story of Jesus...always the story of Jesus...Rescue, redemption and resurrection..of all that we want not to be, to what we can finally become.
I think we forget that Christmas is about a great rescue from the gates of our own Jericho's.
With any enemy stronghold...you send in small. What can a baby do in a manger? What can a prostitute do?
A prostitute...saved her family, saved the spies, loved Salmon and raised a cross-cultural aware son Boaz, who married Ruth..one of only 2 books in the bible all about a woman.
Then...through her, that baby in the manger.
Math.1:5 5Salmon was the father of Boaz. Rahab was Boaz's mother
When we left Tamar, she had just given birth to her twins Zerah and Perez...the mix up in the womb was that Zerah, stuck his fist out so the midwifes thought he would bet he first born so they put a scarlet thread around his wrist only to go back in and Perez came out. For those who have had children...OUCH. From a scarlet thread around the wrist to a scarlet rope out the window. No other significance maybe except that the story of Tamar ends with a red thread and then when we get to know Rahab, the red rope/big thread is significant to the her own rescue from the hand of God in the swords of his people.
In Mathew, she is no longer Rahab the prostitute, but Rahab the mother of Boaz, who for all intents and purposes is the Prince Charming of the Old Testament and Ruth his Princess.
In short, Rahab hides the spies from the oncoming hordes of Israel upstairs under the flax bushels and then lies about their whereabouts. Because of her faith in the God of Israel, she ends up saving her whole family and marries Salmon, and is grandmother to Jesse, who is the father of David...but more importantly, in the story of Jesus. No wonder she had no problem with Boaz marrying Ruth, the Moabite. She was also an outsider and a gentile.
In chaos, fear and uncertainty...she had faith to rescue not only herself and family but to start a whole new other life. No longer the prostitute but mother. This is the story of Jesus...always the story of Jesus...Rescue, redemption and resurrection..of all that we want not to be, to what we can finally become.
I think we forget that Christmas is about a great rescue from the gates of our own Jericho's.
With any enemy stronghold...you send in small. What can a baby do in a manger? What can a prostitute do?
A prostitute...saved her family, saved the spies, loved Salmon and raised a cross-cultural aware son Boaz, who married Ruth..one of only 2 books in the bible all about a woman.
Then...through her, that baby in the manger.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
A kind of creepy story in Christmas...
Gen 38: A chapter stuck in between the saga of Joseph, a weird, kind of creepy story of prostitution, incest, running with the wrong crowd, death by God and redemption. Most commentaries believe that the only reason this story is in here is so that we have the back story to Tamar and ultimately the birth of Jesus. To those unfamiliar...here it is in short.
Judah leaves home, hangs out with a Canaanite, Hirah who is from Adullam.
Marries a Canaanite has 3 sons, Er, Onan and Shelah.
Er, marries Tamar...is evil...God kills him.
Onan is to produce a child by Tamar, being the brother-in-law, lets his seed miss...God kills him.
Judah is nervous to see his last boy die ,though he promises Shelah to her, sends Tamar back to her home.
Judha' wife dies, he mourns, goes to the Sheering festival..sees a prostitute...sleeps with her.
In the meanwhile, Tamar realized the promise of son #3 is not coming to past..goes by the road and is that prostitute Judah sleeps with. She asks for his signet ring and walking stick in lieu of the goat(payment).
Tamar gets pregnant, this was her plan. Judah hear, roars his offense...BURN HER !!!!
Tamra sends the signet ring to Judah, you are the father.
Ummm...she is better than I....
She gives birth to Perez and Zerah...a mix up in the womb with who comes first...Perez, in the line of Jesus.
Soooo, what can you glean from something like this. Definitely a 'skelaton in the closet' kind of story. I can imagine sitting around the dinner table and hoping no one starts telling that story...it is just kind of embarrassing and R rated. It really is a story about Judah and his leaving home and becoming entangled with Hirah, who plays a role in the whole saga. A story of bad company corrupting good morals etc. I like Tamar, though.
Tamar, she lives at the whim of her father and father-in-law. She slept with everyone in the family except the last son. She fought for her heritage with craftiness and tenacity. She very well could have stayed at home and lived out her life in widows clothing but she would have none of that. She fought for her rightful child, her place as a mother.
God's role in this story is judgment on Er and Onan and then seeming quiet. Tamar does not seem to have any relationship with the God of Judah, nor does Judah seem to have a relationship with God. He walks in his own way but even in this far away place, God writes His story. Even in the midst of awful compromising sin....God writes His story.
We often think we can derail God with our disobedience. That He is subject to our whims of choice. We live in the consequences of our sin, but we can not derail God's purpose for us.
That's Tamar's story, justice, tenacity and Sovereignty. God's got this, whatever your 'this' is.
Judah leaves home, hangs out with a Canaanite, Hirah who is from Adullam.
Marries a Canaanite has 3 sons, Er, Onan and Shelah.
Er, marries Tamar...is evil...God kills him.
Onan is to produce a child by Tamar, being the brother-in-law, lets his seed miss...God kills him.
Judah is nervous to see his last boy die ,though he promises Shelah to her, sends Tamar back to her home.
Judha' wife dies, he mourns, goes to the Sheering festival..sees a prostitute...sleeps with her.
In the meanwhile, Tamar realized the promise of son #3 is not coming to past..goes by the road and is that prostitute Judah sleeps with. She asks for his signet ring and walking stick in lieu of the goat(payment).
Tamar gets pregnant, this was her plan. Judah hear, roars his offense...BURN HER !!!!
Tamra sends the signet ring to Judah, you are the father.
Ummm...she is better than I....
She gives birth to Perez and Zerah...a mix up in the womb with who comes first...Perez, in the line of Jesus.
Soooo, what can you glean from something like this. Definitely a 'skelaton in the closet' kind of story. I can imagine sitting around the dinner table and hoping no one starts telling that story...it is just kind of embarrassing and R rated. It really is a story about Judah and his leaving home and becoming entangled with Hirah, who plays a role in the whole saga. A story of bad company corrupting good morals etc. I like Tamar, though.
Tamar, she lives at the whim of her father and father-in-law. She slept with everyone in the family except the last son. She fought for her heritage with craftiness and tenacity. She very well could have stayed at home and lived out her life in widows clothing but she would have none of that. She fought for her rightful child, her place as a mother.
God's role in this story is judgment on Er and Onan and then seeming quiet. Tamar does not seem to have any relationship with the God of Judah, nor does Judah seem to have a relationship with God. He walks in his own way but even in this far away place, God writes His story. Even in the midst of awful compromising sin....God writes His story.
We often think we can derail God with our disobedience. That He is subject to our whims of choice. We live in the consequences of our sin, but we can not derail God's purpose for us.
That's Tamar's story, justice, tenacity and Sovereignty. God's got this, whatever your 'this' is.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Those Christmas Women
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Elizabeth, Mary and Anna..
2 Prostitutes
1 Adulterer
4 Widows
3 Pregnant with children not their husbands
3 Gentiles
2 Barren
2 lost their first born to violent deaths
1 lost their baby because of their sin
2 mothers of Kings
1 mother of the King of Kings
What an amazing group of women listed and named in the story of Jesus' birth. I will be wondering with you, the significance of these women and what we can learn from their stories.
Tamar...Tenacity for Justice
Rahab... Survival in Chaos
Ruth..Loyalty in Suffering
Bathsheba...Beauty in Ashes
Elizabeth...Honor in Humility
Mary...Ferocity for Righteousness
Anna...Worship in Waiting
2 Prostitutes
1 Adulterer
4 Widows
3 Pregnant with children not their husbands
3 Gentiles
2 Barren
2 lost their first born to violent deaths
1 lost their baby because of their sin
2 mothers of Kings
1 mother of the King of Kings
What an amazing group of women listed and named in the story of Jesus' birth. I will be wondering with you, the significance of these women and what we can learn from their stories.
Tamar...Tenacity for Justice
Rahab... Survival in Chaos
Ruth..Loyalty in Suffering
Bathsheba...Beauty in Ashes
Elizabeth...Honor in Humility
Mary...Ferocity for Righteousness
Anna...Worship in Waiting
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