For Everything There is a Time.

The Revised Common Lectionary uses the following passage as one of the readings for New Year’s Eve. Many of us know the first eight verses, maybe not the words exactly but the back and forth contrasting style of the “times”. These words have be made popular musically and they ring true in our lives. There is a time for good and bad, for happy and sad, for singing and silence. Our lives are contrasts.

I wondered why the lectionary passage continued past the familiar first eight verses. It seems to move into another territory. And yet, tucked away in the words of toil, is that small statement that says so much “moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds”. We are able to compare one time to another. We can write our Christmas letters from memory. We can dream about what the future could hold. What a gift!

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ²a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; ³a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; ⁷a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

⁹What gain have the workers from their toil? ¹⁰I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.¹¹He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹²I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-12, NRSV)

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are a good time for remembering and dreaming. We have been blessed here in this household again in the past year. God continues to walk along beside us on our journey (it’s a good thing because He knows the destination). We continue to look forward to what the next days, weeks, and months will bring. I hope that you can as well.

Happy New Year

 

A Tough Week

Its been a tough week. It seems like I spent a lot of it in my office, tied to my desk and my computer. The list of papers to write and presentations to do has gone down. There are still some left for next week (6000 words with 2000 of those written as a first draft). It feels a little more manageable. My Hebrew prof even gave me an extension so that these last efforts can be a little more spread out (Who says there is no grace in the Hebrew Bible?). I’m getting tired though, and that leaves me wondering if I just should have stayed where I was, selling feed.

The week has been tough on other fronts as well. The mother of a good friend passed away this week. He’s on his way to Holland, right now to attend her funeral. I’m glad he can go. One of my professors suffered a heart attack earlier this week. She’ll be fine but, again, we come face to face with the fragility of life.

With these things in mind, since it was my turn to lead devotions in the worship class (co-lead by the a fore mentioned prof) I reached back and picked up the Heidelberg Catechism and brought the words of Lords Day One to my largely Lutheran class. Coupled with a reading from James Schaap’s Every Bit of Who I Am it helped me, and I hope my class mates as well, not to understand, but to take comfort.

Q. What is your only comfort
in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

 

Camino for the Soul

To walk the Camino is supposed to be good for the soul. It is also hard on the feet.  Today we traveled 20.6 km from Burgos to Hornillos del Camino, from city into empty country, through some little villages and finally to a small village dominated by a church with it’s population likely doubled by pilgrims.

We began our day standing in the street outside our hotel, holding hands and sharing a prayer. The prayer was in French, led by our guide.  Here is that prayer:

God, You called your servant Abraham from Ur in Chaldea, watching over him in all his wanderings, and guided the Hebrew people as they crossed the desert.  Guard these your children who, for the lover of your Name, make a pilgrimage to Compostela.  Be their companion on the way, their guide at the crossroads, their strength in weariness, their defense in dangers, their shelter on the path, their shade in the heat, their light in the darkness, their comfort in discouragement, and the firmness of their intentions; that through your guidance, they may arrive safely at the end of their journey and, enriched with grace and virtue, may return to their homes filled with salutary and lasting joy. 
    -Codex Calixtinus- 12^th Century
Sharing those words together as we set out on our journeys, each with their own goals, hopes, dreams for the trip, was a special moment.  It was a moment that drew us together again as a group, but also as children of a God who loves and cares for us.

Much of today's walk was through "big" country

We ended the day in the church in Hornilos del Camino, a church that could likely hold the entire population of the own a number of times over.  We had asked for a place to have a Eucharist Service for our group and were offered the church. Our service was attended by only twelve people, our group and two other pilgrims, but it was very meaningful as we shared the bread and the wine together, each one of us coming from a different religious tradition, yet bound together by this sacrament. I have never sung in such a space before. It was wonderful.

Spiritual Discipline

For my contextual leadership class we were to take up a spiritual discipline and at the end of the term write a reflective paper on the experience.  What follows is the paper.

At the beginning of this semester we were asked to choose and practice a spiritual discipline which was new or had been practiced in the past, but had been abandoned.   In my Christian Reformed tradition we do not often talk about “spiritual disciplines”.  The whole idea of disciplining myself around some practice, some work, feels just a little bit Armenian. We would certainly promote the regular reading of the Bible and prayer, but would likely see those as a regular Christian practice rather than elevating it to the category of Spiritual Discipline. A survey of  Further research on the concept, however, would suggest that this regular practice, depending how it is being done, is likely just that. Spiritual Disciplines are defined by some as “patterns of thought and behavior that draw us away from an improper focus on ourselves and the world to a proper focus on God and his Word” (Eyre, 1992  p9).  That could be regular Bible reading and prayer.

I struggled a little bit at the beginning to figure out what practice I should take up.  My level of regular Bible reading was likely not what it should be. I recognize that reading textbooks and Bible passages for classes does not equal a Spiritual discipline, but, I was finding myself quite overwhelmed with those readings and my Bible was not being opened for anything outside class work and sermon preparation. So, I decided that becoming disciplined in Bible reading would be my first goal.

In many cases, I read passages, but, comprehend very little of what I have read.  Writing something about the reading helps me with comprehension.  I considered the idea of journaling and quickly realized (before actually starting at it) that I would likely be unable to maintain that over any length of time because there was no source of regular accountability.  Accountability can be a double edged sword.  To be truly accountable, someone else should be able to have access to my journal, so that my time with it is transparent.  That sort of sharing, however, takes away some of the real open hearted sharing with yourself that could happen in a completely private journal.  Some things may just be too private to say or write if others have access.

I decided to take the route of anonymous accountability and give up some of my ability to share my inmost thoughts by working in the format of a blog (psalmthoughts.wordpress.com).  I already had two other blogs and enjoyed the format of writing there.  In general, my readers are somewhat anonymous and while I do have a counter on the site, and can track traffic to a specific IP address, I really don’t know who is reading my postings, when they read them, or how often they check the site. I do know that if they come to the site, they are likely to read the “about” page and find there this statement of purpose:

“Over the next months I plan to work through the Psalms on a daily basis.  My plan is to read the psalm at some point in the morning, hopefully first thing, and sometime later in the day (likely evening) write a short reflection of it.”

By stating this purpose on the page, I have given myself the accountability to keep at it.  I know that there are folks out there who have subscribed to this blog and receive my posts daily.  Knowing that they are there is enough to keep me going, to keep me to my goal of reading and posting daily. Missing a day now makes me feel like a failure.

I have to admit, I missed once or twice, usually by less than twelve hours, but I still missed.  Carving out that regular time in the day to follow this discipline is not as easy as one might think.  Early in the process it was easier, because there was a sense of enthusiasm for a new project. As the weeks go on that enthusiasm wanes and the discipline becomes more of a job.  Now, seven weeks in, it is becoming more of a natural part of my day. I still struggle, however, because there is actually very little rhythm in my days.  About the only thing that is consistent from one day to the next is eating breakfast and even that can vary from 6:15 am to 8:15 am.  I have been able to tie the one end of the discipline to that relatively consistent anchor by trying to make the initial post for the day while I am having breakfast.  The computer is normally my companion at the breakfast table in the morning as I check email and the various social media sites that I follow.  Reading and posting (copying and pasting) a Psalm at that time works well.  Evenings are a little more of a challenge as I try to find a regular time to hang the activity on in the diversity of my evening activities.

Overall, the discipline is more a part of my day than it was at the beginning.  I have enjoyed working through the Psalms, but wonder if maybe I should have chosen another part of the Bible to focus on.  The Psalms seem somewhat random in terms of any recognizable movement from one to the other and are quite repetitive.  I wonder if, rather than writing my own response to the Psalm if reading one that someone else had put together would have been more effective.  For now, I am going to continue on the path I have started.

There have been benefits to this disciplined activity that I have taken on.  I certainly know the Psalms better than I did before.  Reading and then writing a response requires a level of comprehension that was not there before.  I have found myself recognizing the songs which we still sing, and are written in some way on my heart, coming out to surprise me in the words of a psalmist. Psalm 48 stayed with me for the whole day, playing itself over and over in my head

 

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God,
In the mountain of His holiness.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
Is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.

 

Psalms 8, 19, 42, and 43 have, in the same way, provided that real familiarity that comes from a well known and well loved song.

While I have, at some point in my life, likely read all of the Psalms, recent years have seen me go to this part of the Bible for an appropriate passage for the beginning of a church council or elder’s meeting, or a rousing Psalm to use as a call to worship on a Sunday morning.  I have never spent much time reading laments. A large proportion of the Psalms of Lament appear in the first third of the book, so, I have to this point read a lot of laments. (as of today I am to Psalm 52)  On the one hand they seem very repetitive; however, once I started to build a tag cloud on the blog, something that I started part way into the project, I found that I needed to add new tags for almost every Psalm.  They are the same, but different.  Each one points us to the suffering of the world, calls out to God to answer, and ends with an affirmation that God will continue to be faithful. These Psalms of Lament are real life stuff, suffering, crying out to God, realizing that He is our source of hope.

This project has been good for me.  I intend to carry on with it at least to the end of the Psalms.  I’m thinking that it may be of value to just rotate back through them again, editing and rewriting the posts as new insights are found.  I have found that spending time on spiritual things in a somewhat structured way is necessary rather than just doing the reading and responding because it is required for a course or some other task.

This Spiritual Discipline could over time become a source of self care as the activity will eventually have nothing to do with the issues of the day, but rather, give an opportunity to put aside the troubles of today and just spend time in God’s word.  Unfortunately, since this activity was assigned as course work and carries with it the baggage of being required to finish a course properly, it did not entirely fit the definition of self care. It does not totally allow me to step outside of the pressures and requirements of today, of this week, of this semester and focus on my inner self.  Next week that will change and I will carry on reading and blogging the Psalms for no other reason than to come to know them, and my God better.

Hebrew

One of the requirements for candidacy for ordination in the Christian Reformed Church that is no longer required in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada is Hebrew.  The other is Greek.  This is the first year that the ELCC has not required a Biblical language and because of this it is possible to get an MDiv without having to learn a language at the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.

This move has created some controversy.  It was made, apparently, to try to boost the enrollment at the seminary and therefore boost the number of new pastors available to the ELCC.  The argument was that a number of prospective pastors were being scared off by the prospect of learning  a new language.  Some argue that the many resources now available, both print and computer programs, make the knowledge of the language unnecessary.  On the other side, it is argued that a first hand understanding of the language will allow the reader/pastor to more fully pull out the meaning of the text.  This way of thinking comes to us through history from Augustine to the Reformers.

I will admit that I was not sad to learn that I could get the degree without the languages.  It felt like a bit of a gift. The prize without the pain.  The CRC EPMC program has now forced me to take the languages and, at this point anyway,  I am coming to understand that it might not be a bad thing.  Discussions in a number of classes over the past two semesters, while not always speaking against the policy of the seminary, have made it clear that my education would be less than complete without more than cursory exposure to the orignal languages of the Bible.

So, I started Hebrew on Friday. Its not as easy as one might think to find a teacher.  The seminary has been working on the project since last November.  I will be working, one on one, with a Jewish professor whose specialty is actually Greek.  Our first class happened in a Starbucks and by the end of it I could read, or at least make the appropriate noises for Genesis 1:1

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ

We are hoping to complete, what would normally be two courses, by the end of the summer and then go on to do some exegesis  (Big Word for the Day: a critical explanation or interpretation of a text) of the book of Jonah, likely through the fall. My teacher is excited about the subject and is very flexible as to our studies and our progress.  I’m good with that.

It’s another piece of the journey.  I sometimes wish I could clearly see where the journey is going though.

Psalm Thoughts

I’ve started another blog.

This one is in response to an assignment for my Contextual Leadership class.  We were asked to begin a new, or revive an old, self-care habit for the semester.  At the end of the term we are to write a reflective essay on the value and success or lack there of, of the activity.  The prof had a few examples of activities that would fit including journaling, yoga, daily devotions, long walks in the woods etc.

I decided on another blog.  This one will walk through the Psalms.  I intend to copy and paste the passage into the blog in the morning, spend the day with it, and make some sort of journal entry in the evening.  I’ve been at it a week and so far I am able to keep to that routine. My journal entries are not long and, so far anyway, not theologically earth shattering.

I invite you to join me.  If you would like to use the comment feature to write your own response to the psalm, or to my words, feel free. You can find your way to the blog here

Isaiah 6

This week our pastor is in Florida, so I had the opportunity to lead the worship service this morning.  The youth group along with a couple of stand ins (our group is pretty small) provided the music for the service.

I preached on Isaiah 6, the call of Isaiah, and contrasted that call with our worship experience.  It went well.  The video was available after the service, so I took it home for a review.  Mostly it is good.  I pace a bit too much and maybe could have put a sharper focus on the message.

This is a passage that I had to analyze for my Old Testament course.  Having done the assignment did save a bunch of time on the sermon, but, I soon realized that the one does not transfer all that well to the other.  Since the material had become very familiar, I was able to speak rather than read which I find much more rewarding.

This week I spoke to three different groups.  A producer meeting in Belleville, a sheep meeting in Mount Forest and finally our church service this morning.  All went well.  The first two got more audience participation than the third.  The third one got more comments of appreciation.  I often wonder if those positive comments would continue if preaching were my job or if they would turn to criticism.

Next week I fly to Red Deer to speak to a group of sales people.  I’m not ready for that one so I may need to do it on the plane.  That event will end the spring speaking tour.

Back to School Again

Monday, I was back to class.  This time it is TH500B History and Literature of the Old Testament-Developments.  It is really a continuation of what I finished before Christmas.  Same prof, same room, same time, same seat…. There are a couple of new students and we have lost a couple along the way.

There is certainly a sense of community in the room among the full-time students.  There seems to be a relatively small group who have gotten to know each other very well.  My class is about half part-time, and while there are some once a week pleasantries, it is taking us longer to know each other and feel like we are part of something.

None the less, I am looking forward to the next 12 weeks.  This part of the Old Testament study will be a little less demanding than the last one.  There is one less assignment to do and no on-line tests.  The in class discussions will be a little more work since the prof wants to see the work we have done to prepare for the discussion.

This week I have an interview before class in the Cambridge area.  More on that, maybe, later.

Sometimes, Lord, it’s so hard to see. We squint and struggle to make sense of what you’re showing us. Help us know when you are guiding us, Lord, and when we are clutching at the wrong answers. Help us know, as this peace process unfolds, how to best follow your voice, how to love each other with your perfect love, and how to continue to turn to you and, when it’s your will, to wait until the time you choose to answer our prayers. Thank you for teaching us how to live in your care and respond to your voice. (http://www.revisionsplus.com/guidance.html)

Assignment 4 (God Imaged in Humanness )

To know what and who God is has been a topic of discussion for centuries.  In this essay we will consider the concept of knowing God through the humans he created.  We will consider the ways in which humans have been challenged to reflect their creator, the ways in which they have failed, the model that Jesus Christ provides, and the New Testament challenge to Christians to model God in their lives.

Most Judeo- Christian traditions believe that God reveals himself to us in two ways, a general revelation seen to all in the creation around us, and a special revelation which comes through the study of God’s word, the Bible.  Through creation we are amazed by expanse of the universe and the minute beauty of a single cell.  We are all driven to seek some higher power that put this creation in place.  The Bible introduces us to this creator God and shows us how He strives toward a relationship with his creation and particularly the part of creation that bears His image, man.

In his book Genesis: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Walter Bruueggemann contends that

“There is one way in which God is imaged in the world and only one: humanness! This is the only creature, the only part of creation, which discloses to us something about the reality of God. This God is not known through any cast or molten image. God is known peculiarly through this creature who exists in the realm of free history, where power is received, decisions are made, and commitments are honoured. God is not imaged in anything fixed but in the freedom of human persons to be faithful and gracious.” (Brueggemann, 1982, p.32.)

Bruueggemann uses the word image(d), a word that we find in the first book of  Genesis

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1;26-27 RSV)

Thus, his premise that we should be able to recognize God in the humans around us is borne out by God’s own words.  If man is indeed created in God’s image, we should be able to recognize attributes of the creator in the creation.  God sets humans in a place of honour, a place of dominion over the whole of creation.  God also blesses the humans he has created and gives them all the things on the earth as theirs to rule and subdue.  God leaves humans as his representatives on earth.

The Creator has given this creation to humankind to manage.  But our management has as its goal that we show to creation what God is like. Consequently, we do not manage creation for our own purposes, but for the sake of a higher goal, namely, in order that we might serve as a mirror of the divine character. (Grenz, 2000,  pg.177)

Man, of course rebels.  We see the stories of the fall of Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel by Cain, the flood. Each time, God begins again as humans fail to image him in a way that brings glory to God, and a blessing to the earth.

God finally chooses a people through whom he will bless the entire creation.  He makes a covenant with Abraham in which God states

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.”  (Genesis 12:2-3)

This covenant is later restated to Abraham and then to his grandson Jacob.  The people of Israel, are reminded of this covenant often, but seem to fixate on the fact that they are God’s people, and thus superior to those around them, and not on the fact that they are to be a blessing to all the families and nations of the earth.  It was through these people, this covenant, that the nations around them should have been able to come to know about God.  By seeing how God’s people acted, they should be able to understand how God acts. Modern Jewish writers recognize this function of the image bearer as a mirror of who God is. Sherwin states that “Living in the image and likeness of God means emulating God’s actions, rather than the attributes of God’s unknowable essence”(Sherwin, 2000, pg 2)  As God’s covenant people, and as his image bearers, Israel was to show who their God was to the world through their lives and actions

Israel, of course, fails.  In fact through their entire history, they never really seem to grasp the fact that they were a people set aside as special image bearers of God.  They hang on to the fact that they are God’s chosen people but fail to provide the example to the world around them of who and what their God is.  They use their specialness to separate themselves from the world around them rather than being a blessing to it.

God moves again to bring a clear image of Himself to the world through his son, Jesus Christ.  John 1:1-5 describes Jesus in this way:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:1-5)

This description with Jesus as the Word lets us know that he and God are one, that looking at Jesus is like looking at God.   Brueggemann puts it this way:

In Jesus Christ, we are offered a new discernment of who God is and of who humankind is called to be.  The striking feature of Jesus is that he did not look after his own interests but always after the interests of others.  That is an echo of God’s act of creation.  Creation is God’s decision not to look after himself but to focus his energies and purposes on creation. (Brueggemann, Genesis, p.34.)

During his time on earth, Jesus, the son of God and son of man, showed the world what God is like.  He shows compassion for the poor, he heals the sick, he offers forgiveness for sins, and he shows that he has power over life and death and over nature.  While he could have used his position and powers to his own advantage, he refused to do that, but rather took on the form of a servant, to the point of washing his disciple’s feet.  The writer of Hebrews recognizes Jesus as a picture of God on earth: “He (Jesus Christ) reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” (Hebrews 1:3).  Jesus fulfills his task on earth by giving up his life on the cross as atonement for the sins of all who would believe in him.  This sacrifice, provided by God for the atonement for sin, is reminiscent of the ritual of sealing the covenant with Abraham by walking through the split animals in which God does everything and Abraham does nothing but observe.  Jesus shows us a picture of his father as a God of grace as he sacrifices his life for the sins of mankind.

Those who believe, who through God’s grace and Jesus sacrifice become children and heirs of God are called to take on the role of image bearers for God in the world.  The writer to the Colossians states:

“Seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.  Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scyth’ian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.  Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience,  forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:9b-14)

In this list of attributes and others throughout the New Testament, we get a picture of who God is, as should be seen in the lives that his children through Jesus Christ.  Jesus himself calls his followers to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).  The New Testament church has now become the image bearer of God.  Through the church the world should be able to recognize the Father and give Him glory.

God created man in his image.  No other part of creation has this distinction.  As God’s image bearers, the attributes of God should be recognizable through His creation.  Biblical history shows that man does not do well at reflecting God’s image, being led in other directions by his own selfish desires.  Jesus Christ, God’s own son, comes to bring a new order.  He truly reflects the image of God back to the creation.  Through his death and resurrection Jesus provides atonement for a sinful world, through God’s grace.  Those who believe in him are to be God’s presence, His representatives, His image on earth.

The Semester Comes to a Close

Today, I finished the fourth and last assignment for the course that I have been taking this semester.  I am tempted to post the assignment here, because I think it turned out pretty well.  Maybe I will just dump it into a separate post.

I went into this seminary experience with some trepidation.  Most of that is gone.  The course (Introduction to Biblical Studies: Literature and History of the Old Testament-Foundations) even though it sounds a bit boring and maybe even stuffy, was a lot of fun.  As you have read in past posts, the prof is passionate about his subject and does an excellent job of tying the material to the New Testament and to our lives today.  I have learned things that make me think, things that have made me wonder about some of the things I thought I knew, and that’s a good thing.

There was some concern in my mind that after almost 30 years away from an academic world, I would struggle with the material.  That has not been the case.  The folks in my class are not academics either.  Some of them have come directly from their undergraduate degrees into this Masters program, but most are like me, a little more “experienced” and in many cases doing this while holding down full-time jobs.  Fortunately, I was able to work my business schedule around my class schedule quite nicely.  No one at work knows that I am doing this.

I have been able to handle the work and appear to have earned at least an A for this course.

Registration for next term was last week.  I have registered for the other half of the course I have finished.  This one got us to Deuteronomy,  the next one finishes the Old Testament.  The prof is the same and a number of the folks in the class will be back.

I’m looking forward to it!!!