The Limits of our Good Intentions

King David asked Ziba, "Where is your master (Mephiboseth)?" Ziba said to him, "He is staying in Jerusalem because he thinks, 'Today the house of Israel will give me back my grandfather's kingdom.'" 2 Samuel 16:3.

Because David had loved Jonathan, the son of Saul, he was heartbroken by his death. In his compassion for his lost friend, he asked... his advisers one day, "Is there anyone left of the household of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake.

Now the Word of God that came to the prophet Samuel concerning Saul had been clear. God had rejected Saul and his offspring. Neither Saul nor any of his ancestry would continue in the royal line. Saul was to be totally cut off. God demonstrated the folly of peaceful co-existence with any of Saul's offspring, for as soon as David began to reign as king, civil war broke out with Ishbosheth, son of Saul challenging David;s rule over Israel. Ishbosheth later died in battle, but now again, David sought to placate and appease what in fact was his own false guilt.

It was not David who had determined that Saul would be cut off, it was God. God had decreed that David would become king and that there would be no end to his rule. God would use King David to complete his comprehensive plan of redemption for the world through this one man. Not even Samuel the priest was convinced of this at first, for when he went to the household of Jesse to choose a new king as God had directed him, he saw the tall handsome men, David's older brothers, and thought, "Surely these are the ones God has chosen." But after making this mistake in judgment three times God said to Samuel:

Do not consider . . . appearance or height, for I have rejected
them. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord (YHWH) looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Now as David faced a challenge from his own son Absalom, Mephibosheth, the grandson of King Saul, whom David had shown mercy and kindness too, even allowing him the privileges of his sons, the royal princes, waited in Jerusalem for David and Absalom to kill each other so that he could resume the royal line of his grandfather Saul. David's intentions were good. He was compassionate, forgiving, generous to a fault, loving--all the things God calls on the children of God to be.

But King David created problems for himself that he did not need to have, because he trusted his own good intentions, his own intellect, his own creativity, apart from adherence to and reliance upon the divine decrees and direction of God. God had said to Samuel and to David, and even King Saul had said to David, "the kingdom is being taken from Saul (me) and given to you."

This is not a popular message, but one we wrestled with our group session this evening. "Obedience is better than sacrifice." Before this, the prophet Nathan had to chastise David because he wanted to build "a house for God." Nathan had said, "You are the king, do whatever the Lord has put on your heart." The problen was that God had not put this on David's heart. It was a good idea to him. He thought, "I have a great house. God needs a house."

But God's answer was clear, "I took you when you were just a small boy tending sheep. I led Israel through the wilderness and they have survived and will survive because I have chosen them to fulfill my unconditional promise to Abraham. So how will you build a house for me?"

David was playing God. When we seek to relieve people of the logical and moral consequences of their behavior, we are not helping them. We are enabling them. Having been an enabler on many occasions, I am familiar with the arguments that must have ruminated in King David's mind as Nathan reproached him, and as he learned that Mephibosheth and his sons Amnon and Absalom had interpreted his kindness as weakness. The prophet Nathan sought the Lord and God had an idea that was contrary to King David's plan.

In this dispensation of the Christ, the Spirit of God has been given to us to guide us into all truth. It shows us new things as well as illuminates old ones, but the mind of God (God's Word+God's Spirit) must never be taken lightly and dis-missed in favor of our own minds, even when what it says seems to contradict the character and nature of who the Spirit has shown God to be.

As the Prophet Samuel had warned Israel when they decided that they needed a king, David as king too often assumed to know what God wanted without having really checked it out with God. Our best intentions can lead to much pain, regret and hardship. I am reminded of Kevin Spacey's fictitious "dragnet" character in the movie "L. A. Confidential," when he says, "Just the facts Jack." Of course "the facts" are not always so clear, but God has given us what we need to discern truth. We must remember to use these resources faithfully and carefully, so that our best intentions will not carry us far afield from the reality God would have us live.

Isaiah's three chapter preface to his messianic prophecies begins with these words. If they are taken seriously, perhaps more of us will reconsider the claims of Jesus of Nazareth whom I and many others embrace as Lord and Christ.

Isaiah 55:8-9
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Peace out,
Don

Stay Encouraged

"Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6)."

Through the agreement of the Holy Spirit of God, Pastor Brown's sermon Sunday was grounded in this passage from our One Year Bible reading... for today. He used the words of Donald Lawrence's well-known song "Encourage Yourself." I first heard the song at Glide Church. The music director often had the ensemble sing it after the opening prayer. It was a reminder that God's Word does not need to come to us from any specific person, any particular liturgical practice or at any special moment.

It was and is a reminder that God's Word is there for us, right now; and through the righteousness that is ours through God's love. In Jesus Christ, we have the authority to speak that Word "over ourselves." No one else may get it. No one else may understand. No one else may be going through what we are going through. No one else may feel what we are feeling, suffer from what we are suffering, agonize over what troubles us. Rev. Lawrence wrote simply:

"Sometimes you have to encourage yourself.
Sometimes you have to speak victory during the test."

Pastor Brown reminded us that the time to "talk trash" is not after the battle is over but in the midst of it. God has already won our battles, solved our problems, met our needs, overcome the enemy, restored our peace, restored our peace, restored our peace!!!!! We just need to claim it. Don't wait 'til the battle's over, shout now! You know in the end--your going to win!"

David had left the city of Ziklag to join his Philistine hosts in the battle against King Saul and his forces. While David had not given it much thought, the commanders of the Philistine army protested his participation. "It is not in his interest to fight against his own people," they thought, so they sent him back to Ziklag.

When David and his men returned, they found their city burned to the ground by the neighboring Amalekites, and all of their wives, sons, and daughters carried away alive. After weeping until "there was no strength left in them," the men he had led and who had served him and loved him began to turn on him. They prepared to stone him. Why had he led them away on this ill-thought mission, leaving all they held dear vulnerable and unprotected? We are not strangers to such circumstances. After we have exhausted ourselves in grief, struggle, worry, pain, those we trust and look to for support "turn on us." This is why the Word of God warns "Put not your trust in princes, neither in the children of normal human beings in whom there is no help. Trust God and God alone."

David's grief was compounded. After the loss of his wives, his children, he now faced the loss of friendship, of confidence among those he led, and confidence in himself. But the scribe records in I Samuel 30:6,
"David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."

Pastor Brown's sermon is not, "Be Encouraged" but rather "STAY ENCOURAGED."

David found strength, not from loved ones--they had been taken away, not from friends--they had turned on him, not from his allies the Philistines--they didn't trust him. He went to Yahweh, to Jehovah, the the One God who never leaves us or forsakes us, and is always waiting for us to claim our victory, claim our deliverance, claim our healing, claim our financial distress, claim our loss and demonstrate LOVE for us. He already knew that the same God who delivered him from the lion, from the bear, from Goliath and from Saul, already had his back and his front (his future).

We serve a God whose name is VICTORY! In the Second Epistle to the church at Corinth, the Apostle writes, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (4:7-10).

A friend recently reminded me that it was and is not in the "eating of the bread" of the Lord's Supper that we recognize Jesus. The eating is a symbolic act of appropriating a far greater truth. The companions on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:30-31) recognized Jesus in "the blessing, breaking and giving of the bread." They stated that when he "broke the bread" they recognized that it was Jesus. We have been blessed to share his brokenness, and Christ takes our broken lives and replaces them with his own glorified eternal soul-life. The breaking we experience is a part of our blessing. We let go of what cannot sustain us, to grab hold to the One who carries us through all circumstances, all political struggles, all legal problems, all rejections and layoffs, all illnesses, all losses, all failures, all disappointments, God always wins!-Glory to God's Name!

The symbol of discipleship in Christ is "a broken life," one that totally depends upon and finds its power, its blessing, its future, its victory in God. "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit (the spirit of this world and this life) for theirs is the realm of God." God desires not sacrifice and offering but a "broken spirit" a "contrite heart." We are made strong through what we suffer--right then--in the midst of the suffering, when we join Rev. Lawrence and David and Pastor Brown and many other countless children of God and declare "VICTORY!" in the midst of our crises. We always win, because God has already won for us.

God will be with us as we "tear down the walls of our Jericho." We lift our eyes to the "hills." We seek the high and mighty. We think that unless we are strong and powerful and rich and secure with lots of friends and supporters that we will be successful. But Psalm 121 reminds us that our help does not come the "hills" the high places, the high and the mighty, the outward signs of strength and success. Our help comes from the Lord (Yahweh) (Jehovah). The Psalmist continues to offer praise to the One God declaring:

"My help--the Lord--made heaven and earth. He does not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you never sleeps
The One who keeps Israel: those who adhere to, trust in and rely on--who strive after and struggle with God for their very lives, is your keeper, the shade at your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from ALL EVIL; God WILL KEEP YOUR SOUL!"

"No matter how you feel, speak the Word and you will be
healed. . . . The enemy created walls, but remember
giants do fall; Speak over yourself,
encourage yourself in the Lord."

Right now--start talking trash--start claiming God's victory in every phase, every aspect of your existence. Open God's Word so that your words of hopelessness, cynicism, doubt and failure will no longer guide your life and direct your actions, To paraphrase St. Francis of Assisi, "Let go of despair and grab on to Hope--to God!"

What I have written here is far more important than any political statement I have every made, any great truth regarding social change, and the most important truth needed for the transformation of ourselves in preparation for God's great day in our midst. Take hold in faith and enjoy and live, and . . .

Stay encouraged!.
Don

Obama vs. Change

Last night we received the news that President Barak Obama had changed his mind about same sex marriage. He had always advocated domestic partnerships, but had the same problem that at least half the country does in affirming the union of two persons of the same sex as marriage.

Because that half of the US population represents a slight majority of those who traditionally vote in Presidential elections, President Obama will go down in history as one of the most criticized, scrutinized and effective Presidents of the United States. By this affirmation, he exemplified the courage that former President John Kennedy evoked when he stated in his inaugural, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country."

Nevertheless, he has taken a great risk with respect to his re-election. As an evangelical Christian, it was painful to listen to some of the comments that came to me from people I dearly love and highly respect. They do not hate homosexuals. They sincerely believe that homosexuals are born that way, as is all sin-laden humanity. Their theology has required them to enter a recovery process whereby drug addictions, sexual addictions, pedophilia, pornography addictions, alcohol addictions, victim addictions, anger addictions, OCD, BD, ADD, etc., have all required them to pray for transformation, affirm a power higher than their malady, and follow rigid programs (which sometimes include drug therapy to recover their humanity).

They just do not understand why people born with a "proclivity toward the same sex" are not engaged in the same process of transformation that they have chosen. In fact, some of the critics of same sex marriage in this religious community are "former" gays and lesbians, who have entered the "Transforming Movement" or process outlined for persons of homosexual orientation.

Many gay, lesbian and transgender people would not only affirm that they were born that way, but also that change is not a real option, but an exercise in futility that leads to frustration and sometimes suicide. Even those who choose to remain celibate because of their religious convictions, will insist that it would be dishonest and unfair to a person of the opposite sex to be in relationship with them, because their desire to persons of the same sex will always be there.

The good news for President Obama is that 60% of Americans under age 40 agree with him. The challenge is to get this group to come out in full numbers and vote for him (if like me, Obama is your choice). This is complicated by the fact that for some strange reason, a majority of that age group is very conservative on other matters like the need to reform social security, the need to have a strong military, the need to drastically cut taxes, an antipathy for unions, etc. Yet this group is very progressive about the need to legalize same sex marriage and the need to legalize drugs. On all of these latter matters, except same-sex marriage, they will have problems voting to re-elect President Barak Obama.

My point is that this act of courage should require more than short-lived celebration or conservative hand-wringing. This is about people. People should not have to hide who they are, and as long as this is America, should not be prevented from loving who they choose and formalizing such relationships fully if they choose to do so.

Our faith values, whatever they happen to be, must never be imposed on others. Same sex marriage does not impose anything on those who do not want it, nor will it destroy the institution of marriage. Heterosexuals are doing a good job of destroying marriage all by ourselves.

Peace out,
Donald F Guest

Actions in Context - What's in the Heart

"I solemnly consecrate my silver to Jehovah for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol (Judges 17:3b)."

The mother of Micah, a man from the hill country of Ephraim, made this declaration. You might judge her and say, "Didn't she read the Ten Words? Didn't she realize that making an image of Jehovah is a violation of the Second Word (commandment): "You shall not make for your self an idol in the form of anything . . . (Exodus 20:4)?"

Yet all actions and practices must be viewed "in context." In the context of the period of Israel's history called "Judges" we read, "After the whole generation (that of Joshua and Caleb) had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither Jehovah, nor what He had done for Israel. Then the Israelite did evil in the eyes of Jehovah and served the Baals. They forsook Jehovah . . . and worshiped various gods of the people around them (Judges 2:10ff)." So even though what Micah and his mother did violated one of the commands of God, they were not held accountable for their ignorance. God overlooked their grave error, because of the intentions of their hearts. They desired to honor the God who had been with Israel from the beginning. They desired to reverence that God as the living present Spirit of Life.

The Psalmist celebrates this reality by singing:
"Jehovah is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God's love for those who reverence Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so Jehovah has compassion on those who reverence His name; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:8-14).

There are no perfect Christians. There are no perfect Jews. There are no perfect Muslims. There are no perfect Wiccans, Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Taoists. There are no perfect seekers of truth. There are no perfect people. There are no perfect, flawless champions of justice, peace and love. Each of us is held responsible for "the Light we have been given (Romans 2:14-15)," That is who we are at our best. Of course none of us is always at our best. We fall far short of what we claim to believe and love and hold dear.

The old Methodist Episcopal (Anglican) Eucharistic liturgy reminds us that "we sin daily by thought, word and deed against Thy divine majesty . . . provoking most justly Thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent. . . are heartily sorry. . . yet it is Thy 'property' ALWAYS TO HAVE MERCY. . . . So we pray: have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us MOST MERCIFUL FATHER. For thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, forgive us all that is past, and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please Thee in newness of life."

These words are there because they remind God and remind us of the true character of God and God's true disposition towards us. God is always loving, forgiving, patient, kind, understanding, and expects and invites us to likewise relate to and respond to each other. Of course, again, we fall short of these best sentiments, but they are worthy goals to pursue in all relationships. As one writer expressed it, "We fall down, but we get up." Praise God!

Therefore we must be careful about judging and condemning ourselves and each other. Just because someone disagrees with us does not mean they are wrong and we are right. Just because someone's practices seem "sinful" or "ungodly" or "unloving" or "unjust" to us, does not mean that God does not love them, understand them, support them, and seek to nurture and form LIFE in them until they (and us) are changed into the "divine spiritual likeness of the One Spirit of Life." It is that very condition that God promises to create in us, in accordance with our faith. We too quickly paint "the other" the "different" or the "dissenter" as an adversary, when conversation, dialogue, and breaking of artificial barriers between "us" and "them" can produce understanding and common ground.

Sooner or later we discover that the idols we use to get to God, no matter what religious formula they represent, are that and nothing more. This realization comes sooner rather than later, when we cease to make snap judgments and condemnations of those we deem "adversaries" and people who "just don't get it" or are "hopelessly lost" or "rigidly intolerant." Indeed God is Spirit, and the true worshipers do and will worship God in SPIRIT and TRUTH--but most importantly, in LOVE.

Something Out of Nothing

"Eli would bless Elkanah . . . saying, 'May the Lord give you children by this woman to replace the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.' . . . And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters 

(1 Samuel 2:20-21)."

God's Marketplace-Hannah's song (1 Samuel 2:1-10) celebrates God's economic principles, "Jehovah sends poverty and wealth; God humbles and God exalts. God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; . . . ." The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:28-29 "(God has) chosen the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no human being may boast before God."

Hannah was "in the dust." Her husbands other wife had blessed the union with children. She was barren. Her co-wife ridiculed her, even as they worshiped in the holy place at Shiloh. She was considered a "nothing" in the eyes of her family and her people, because she was barren, her womb was deemed 'impoverished.' Yet Hannah prayed. Verse 1:12 tells us that she prayed so agonizingly and was so depressed that Eli the priest thought she was drunk. He said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." As people of faith we often too quickly pass judgement on people and mistake their painful behavior as some sort of moral failing. But God sees the heart.

Nevertheless in this patriarchal world of men, Hannah had to speak up for herself. She could not continue with a victim mentality. God would not allow her to continue to suffer in silence, mumbling without forming words, as if she was a nobody, notwithstanding her gender, Eli's question reminded her that she was an heir to the promise of Abraham. She made the commitment, that if God would grant her an offspring, she would dedicate him to God's service. By answering Eli, she also enlisted a powerful prayer partner. As she expressed herself, Eli responded the only way a woman and man of God are ever charged to respond to anguish and grief: with God's affirmation. "He answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked for."

Sometimes we just need to have one more person join us in prayer. We need one person who formerly criticizes us and misunderstood us to humble themselves away from self-righteous criticism and join us in prayer for what we seek. "Wherever two or three are gathered in God's name, God is in their midst." But everything we ask for, must also be that which we are willing to devote fully to God, even if it means that ultimately, it will not be ours forever, but always belongs to God. "When we ask anything, in faith, it is ours," but we must also remember, the earth and everything in it ultimately belongs to God, given to us for our use, our enjoyment, our fulfillment of our hopes and dreams.

These are the words of Jesus. They are good enough for me and for us. Why? Because God RAISES THE POOR FROM THE DUST AND LIFTS UP THE NEEDY FROM THE ASH HEAP." God is in the business of making something out of our nothing. The more impossible it seems, the more improbable, the more remote and distant the possibility, the greater the opportunity. All such challenges in our lives can become moments for us to discover that it is by God's power, God's strength, God's anointing us and pushing us forth into life, that we live and move and discover our true selves and God's divine plan.

Finally Hannah also demonstrates what the ancient Psalm proclaimed as a foundation for God's market plan, "The liberal soul grows fat."

Love, joy and peace.
Don