Reality

"Please pack your knives and go." "You are out." "You're fired." "You did not make the cut." "You are the weakest link." "Send him to the place where there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth." Words from Jesus in Matthew's 22 chapter sound like words of ending for a certain guest to the party. What makes these words even harder is when we realize that he is sent out because he is not prepared. Much like reality television, when one person does not qualify to go on to the next round, this guest is not only asked to leave the party, he is tied, bound, and sent to a place that conjures up images of hell itself. What makes this passage even harder for me is the fact that he is thrown out because his clothes are not up to par.

If one were to take a kind of literal reading, one could say that one interpretation of scripture leads us to affirm the need to dress up in worship. If that were the case, I would expect to see everyone in their white robes next week. Perhaps the more dangerous reading is to say that since the man is not prepared, he is thrown to the place where there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth. If that is the case, and if Jesus is indeed teaching us about being prepared for the kingdom of heaven, it seems that all we need to do is work on obtaining our Christian merit badges, or the appropriate garment.

No longer is the way of a Christian about running the race, pressing on, or serving the Lord. Instead, we linger on the sidelines, we look back to make sure that we have done what is necessary, and we end up serving our own self interest. When Christ invites us to the party, he invites everyone. All are called, few are chosen. For Christians, freedom and salvation does not come by what we dress, what we accumulate, or how high we esteem ourselves. It is God's grace that frees us, that welcomes us, and even in our times of weeping and gnashing of teeth, is aware of how many hairs are on our heads.

What gets you into heaven?

Faith gets you into heaven. Whose faith? Faith in what? One time faith? What is heaven? Do dogs go to heaven? Just the utterance of the word faith conjures up many thoughts, topics, ideas, and beliefs. I have faith in God the Father almighty, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Does that mean I understand completely the work and persons who make up the triune God? Absolutely not. Our faith as Christians is not an end all stopping point for what we believe. It is an entry point. It will not get us into heaven, but it will start us on a path with God who nurtures, cares, and loves us. It is important to know that we are not alone because God is with us, but also because we are brought into a community of faith built upon belief.

Abraham had faith, and turned into an action--to follow and trust God. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. It seems that those familiar words hinder us, lock us down because of our free choice. We want to be able to choose whether to obey or not. Our faith in God is a submissive faith. It is an obedient faith. Sure, we mess up; try and fail. However, because God is a loving God, we find ourselves in the midst of God's embrace. Our goal as heaven is not a goal as a reward for obedience, for faith, for belief or defense of the faith. Heaven as our goal is a place where we can be with the Lord, where our obedience continues not because we are seeking a reward. Heaven--being in the house of the LORD, in the presence of God--is a reward unto itself. Oh, that we would all be gatekeepers in the house of the LORD.

Deception/Perception

As I begin today, I wonder what people will think. Most of us, on a daily basis, worry, fret, or get anxious about what people think of us, how we are perceived. Perhaps this is why I am taken with 2 Corinthians as of late.
In chapter 5, Paul talks about how people perceive the Christians. "If we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind it is for you." There is word play here, in which the perception of man is the norm, but our relationship towards God is something which the world does not understand, calling us beside ourselves. I believe this is our call--reconciliation in the face of violence, forgiveness in the face of slander, love in the face of malice. The world in which we live wants us to retaliate, yet it is God who judges. On that big day, it will be God's judgment, not ours, which will win out. I believe God's judgment is a deep, penetrating grace which shakes us to the core.

So today, as I start my first day in the offices of Peachtree Road UMC, I am excited, nervous, scared, but grateful for the opportunity to serve the LORD. I know that my perception of myself is one in which I am out of my mind for God, living a lifestyle counter to the world. Yet, for those around me, I will be in my right mind. This chameleon-like living, I pray is not about self-deception, but how God perceives, receives, and loves us all.

Mediation

I went through several peer mediation, conflict resolution, and discussion facilitating workshops while in college. As a resident adviser and house director you need these skills. I even ended up using them on several occasions. As Christians, are we not called to mediate between God and the world the light of Christ? Those whose eyes are veiled (2 Corinthians 4:1-12) from seeing God need interpretation or mediation. They need a Moses to stand in between God and the people who are afraid of the fire of God on Mount Horeb (Zion, Deuteronomy 5:1-22).

Gotcha. It's not up to us to act as the mediator. How foolish to think that we are the ones who know exactly what God wants to speak to God's people. You first have to know God, fully in God's essence. We are not the great mediators, we are the great witnesses. We do not instruct with words, but commit to a way of life by the power of the Holy Spirit that we turn from the things of this world to Christ. For Christ is the mediator; not a bridge over some canyon, as we see in many evangelical tracts. Christ, fully God and fully man, is already on both sides of the canyon. Thank God our ways are not the LORD's ways, and our thoughts are not the LORD's thoughts.

Smoke and Mirrors

Deuteronomy 4:32 reminds me of a rock/love ballad. My first thought was that these words are often asked in response to a love. Question: "For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened of has its like ever been heard of?"
Answer: A greater love was never known...

Deuteronomy is recounting God's acts, and recalls God's presence in the burning bush. In fact, it marks it right up there with the whole Exodus. No mention directly of the Red Sea parting, but the burning bush gets precedent. That's because it is the beginning of the story. That is because the bush is burning, but there is no smoke.

Magicians like to use smoke and mirrors to perform their tricks (Illusions.) Yet Paul reminds us that our image is veiled, not because of a trick, but because our vision is not able to see the mirror reflected correctly (2 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 13). To see God, to be a part of the wonders of God's work do not need our vision. God does not perform tricks. God works and we become reflections of God's work. Some may hide behind smoke and mirrors to get their point across. These are gimmicks and plays to trick people into believing their power. Our God offers the mysterious without answers, just formation into God's likeness for us, not our likeness for ourselves.

The Dramatic "Yes"

Let your "no" be "no" and your "yes" be "yes." Where is the room for the maybe? Where is the time for "Let me wait and see?" This is not an argument for "Your Best Life Now?" or "Getting the most out of life now." God's Yes is dramatic, but sometimes it is so constant, so persistent, is awesomeness and magnitude is missed. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:19-20, "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you...was not "Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes." For in him every one of God's promises is a "Yes." "

We look to the story, and find that even in our disobedience as a people of God, our LORD remained faithful to the LORD's people. That is the Yes. The Yes of God is not the material blessings of this world. It is not spiritual or physical empowerment to conquer the Goliaths of the world. It is these things, but when we proclaim that God's yes is empowering us for the sake of us, then we have missed the point of God's "Yes." God's Yes is one that follows us as it followed the son(s) in Luke 12. God's "Yes" is a promise, but a promise that God will follow us, even to the point of our death. God's "Yes" will follow us even to death. When we trust in our own knowledge or power, then we miss the Yes, and it becomes a "No," because we reject God's Yes. That "Yes" demands our obedience.