This weekend in worship we lit the pink candle of joy. I confess that I’ve never really identified with the virtue or spiritual fruit of joy when I was younger. I really thought Joy was just a church word for happiness, and I thought it tended to be overused around Christian holidays.

I think the reason why I had trouble identifying with joy when I was younger is because there’s a difference between happiness and joy that a person only understands with time. What I mean to say is the difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is based on what’s happening in the moment.

Joy, on the other hand, comes only after a prolonged season of longing and desire. Joy is what a person experiences when they receive what they have wanted for a long time. I did not experience great joy when I was younger because I had not lived long enough to experience longing.

Songs of advent are filled with words of longing and desire. Christ is called “the dear desire of every nation” and the world is described as “laying in error pining.”

During the season, the idea of longing is somewhat personified in the giving of gifts.  We wrap these presents in ribbons and paper in order to conceal their contents. Then we place these gifts in plain sight underneath the Christmas tree in order to build anticipation for Christmas morning.

The passage from the third Sunday of advent is from the moving text of Isaiah 61 which inconcludes with the following verse:

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Isaiah 61:10 ESV

I was struck by these passages having so recently experience the longing and joy of betrothal and marriage. When William and I first got engaged we both imagined that we would be married before the year was over, but we were somehow persuaded that we should remain engaged for a year and a half, several months longer than we had even been dating.

While engaged, we had little moments of joy along the way but nothing which could beat the joy and celebration of our wedding day. The long period of engagement was full of challenges, but it taught me more about joy than I’d ever known in the past. I never wanted or looked forward to something so intently.

On a day when we light the Christ candle in our advent wreaths many people will select the hymn “Joy to the World.” This song is a litany of celebration with the revelation of Christ among us. The satisfaction of desire and the fulfillment of desperate longing.

May your Christmas celebration be filled with the overwhelming joy that only comes through a season of faithful and hopful longing. And may we all look forward to arrival of our perfect joy when Christ comes in final victory.

Amen.

And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake. 

 Mark 15:37

I have very strong and confusing memories about falling asleep when I wasn’t supposed to. Growing up, I struggled with insomnia even from a very young age. And, as many teenagers do, I also struggled with boredom. Math class was an especially vulnerable place for me. While taking algebra my sophomore year, I began to fall asleep in class so frequently that I was concerned for my own health. I began to think I had some sort of math allergy or math induced narcolepsy.  I will also confess that I frequently fell asleep, or at least nearly fell asleep, while in church.  Adventures late Saturday night, comfy pews, in the rhythmic voice of the preacher made it nearly impossible for me to keep my eyes open.

Looking back, I think my math teacher and the pastor of my church had something in common.  You see, I was falling asleep because I wasn’t paying attention. Moreover, I wasn’t paying attention because it all sound the same and I didn’t really understand. It felt like I was trying to wade through mental darkness. Eventually, I would become weary of trudging.  My mind would give up, and I fall asleep.

During this season of Advent, we are awaiting and preparing ourselves for Jesus’ arrival on Christmas morning.  However, Advent is also a time when we wait with renewed anticipation for Jesus’ return.

In Mark’s passage, Jesus exhorts us as his disciples to keep awake and keep watch for his return.  Jesus knows that we are prone to boredom and distraction. Jesus knows that when our minds wander and we begin to daydream and eventually fall asleep spiritually.

I think the reason why we are tempted to fall asleep spiritually is the same reason I fell asleep in math class all the time.  We don’t understand.  We have trouble seeing where God’s is working around us in small ways. When we don’t notice what we think that God is not doing anything.  We become board because we don’t notice what is going on around us.  As we become board, we drift into a spiritual coma.

The thing is, Jesus’ presence here on Earth is already being made manifest.  While we may not live in the bright sunrise of Christ’s second coming, but we are certainly not left totally in the dark.  There are lights already shining around us if we keep awake and pay attention.  God’s grace is prevenient and prevalent if we only take the time to understand.

Waiting for Jesus in not quite like waiting in the dark.  We live in period of dusk filled dawn.  We can choose to roll over and go back to sleep.  Yet, if we do, we will miss the beauty of the sunrise and the “new glorious morn” which no person will be able to ignore.

Mark 2:13-17

Jesus went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

Jesus was walking beside the sea, and he called out to fishermen to follow him, so they dropped their nets, left their father, and followed him.  Wait, that’s not right. Or at least that’s not the story we have here.  Jesus’s first disciples were Simon Peter & Andrew, James & John who were brothers and fisherman working around the Sea of Galilee.  Some people refer to these four guys and Jesus’ Inner Circle.

We’re pretty far into the story here when Jesus recruits Levi (also known as Matthew).  And Jesus calls out to the grubby little tax collector as he’s working, just like he called to the fishermen.  Of course, Jews have more of a reason to hate tax collectors more than us modern folk have to hate the IRS.  Tax collectors of the time worked for Rome, and collected money for Rome, and were profiteers of Jewish oppression.  Jesus calls this disciple by the sea as well, just like the fishermen.

Why was Matthew/Levi sitting in a tax booth – beside the sea? The answer is simple.  Because he’s taxing the fishermen. He may have even taxed Peter, Andrew, James, and John before.

This detail about Matthew/Levi is left out of the story in the Gospel of Matthew.  Only in Mark does it say that Matthew/Levi is working the docks and harassing his countrymen on behalf of a brutal empire.  This detail may have been left out of Matthew’s own gospel because it was a point of tension.

Peter, James, John and Andrew are what we might call – Goody-two shoes disciples. They had regular jobs.  They were blue collar fishermen.  They could easily go back to their fishing business if this Jesus thing didn’t pan out. In fact, in John’s Gospel we find that they do indeed go back to fishing for a while before Jesus wrangles them out onto the mission field (John 21:1-14).

On the other hand, it would have been hard for Levi to go back to tax collecting.  If the Roman government found out he had thrown in his lot with a political rebel, there was no way he was going to get his job back working for Rome.  And not only was is sacrifice more difficult, he was joining up with people who especially had reason to hate him personally!

But Matthew answers the Jesus’ invitation to follow him anyway.  In return, Jesus (and his goody-two-shoes disciples) we extended an invitation to follow Matthew to his home for dinner.  Jesus reached out to Matthew and Matthew invited him in.  Jesus accepts Matthew just as he is and follows him to dine with sinners much to the confusion of the Pharisees.

Who are these people that the Pharisees call “sinners?”  Perhaps those who disregard God’s Law, or simply those who don’t hang out with Pharisees.  Jesus became notorious for his friendship with sinners.

I wonder what people thought when they saw Jesus at Matthew’s house.  Perhaps they thought Jesus accepted the invitation from Matthew so he could condemn sinners? Or maybe he accepted this invitation so he could get them to repent? Or maybe he accepted the invitation so he could teach them the Scriptures and show them how to live?

Yet, what do find Jesus doing? Not condemning them or criticize them or teaching them or demand things of them.

He simply eats dinner with them.  He is a guest in the home of an outcast and surrounded by outcasts.  And he is their friend.

Jesus recognizes, better than anyone, the desperate human need for acceptance and wholeness.  The desperate need we all have to be touched through loving outreach. So he goes into the home of an outcast named Matthew, and that outcast invites other outcasts and soon there is a crowd.  And that crowd is eating, and drinking, and having church.

 

When I was a senior in college, I began an amazing adventure of leading a small Bible study out of my apartment with some of my closest friends.  It was so lovely to gather and do life together in this way.

As the basis of our study, I decided to use Rachael Held Evans’s book A Year of Biblical Womanhood.  If you’ve never heard of it, Evans was loosely inspired by A.J. Jacob’s book A Year of Living Biblical in which author Jacob attempts to live out every single commandment from the Bible as closely as possible.  Evans took a more spiritual approach and tackled topics which have traditionally been considered virtues for ‘Godly womanhood.’  Such topics include modesty, domesticity, purity, and submission.

“Strong willed” and “thoroughly modern,” Evans breaks apart Christian clichés  about how women should act by investigating and practicing Biblical commands as closely as possible.

I decided our group would tackle each topic head, and each meeting we would attempt an activity which reflected the virtue.  One such virtue with which we all experimented was the virtue of  Gentleness.  While examining this virtue, Evans decided to follow the commands of 1 Peter 3:4

 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

She decides that watching her tongue is the best was to guard against an ungentle spirit.  She resolves to avoid all gossiping, nagging, complaining, and snark for the duration of one month.  For every time she is caught in violation, she would have to add a penny to her “Jar of Contention” and do penance for her actions.

I decided my Bible study would embark on the same experiment for two weeks (half the time of Evans).  We got mason jars and tied ribbons and prayers to them to help make the jars less intimidating.  We lovingly called our new creations “Snark Jars.”

Little did we know we picked the worst time to give up gossiping, nagging, complaining, and snark.

We began our challenge in January of 2014, which some of you might remember that time fondly as the Snowpocalypse! In North Carolina, that meant two weeks of snow, cold, and icy walkways on which to slip.  The times we did make it to class we found out our classmates had become aware of our project.  In the broadcasting lab when one of the “snark jar” girls made as sour comment or barked at a camera operator the recipient of the ill word would tell them to make sure to add it to the jar.

In that same week, I wrecked our apartment trying to make tea to warm up from the cold.  I accidentally left something on the eye and my roommate, Hannah, rushed to my aid with a fire extinguisher.  Next minute, the fire department was swarming our apartment and breaking windows open to vent the fumes. We had to vacate the apartment for two days while the place aired out and we deep-cleaned all the surfaces. Meanwhile we spent the night on a friend’s futon.

When we did make it back inside, the windows were still wonky from the fire fighter’s rescue efforts.  The snow and cold blew relentlessly through the cracked windows as we shivered under blankets.

Needless to say snark and complaining abounded.  To our credit, we developed a loophole by which we would say something like this:

“Hannah, I’m not complaining, but I want to point out that due to the broken window the thermostat reads 48 degrees.”

or

“Kena, I’m not being snarky, but all of the camera people today could not line up a shot to save their lives .“

It was a rough two weeks.  But if anyone was curious, I would whole hardheartedly recommend a Snark Jar to anyone.  More than anything it promoted mindfulness, which was exactly the point.

I don’t think any woman or girl should ever feel like they should tone down their confidence or spunk in order to conform to a personality of meek accommodation. But we all should be critical of our motives when we speak. Are we saying something that is helpful or hurtful? Are we building people up or pulling people down? Are we making a sarcastic joke that everyone can laugh at or is the joke at another’s expense?

From my experience, it’s a fine line.  I sill keep my jar by my desk as remainder of the impact of my words; although, I don’t do penance anymore.

But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried…” 

 Ruth 2:16-17a

Perhaps some of the most popular jokes over the years have been about in-laws.  Frustrations about in-laws are a common theme in movies and on TV, and as a kid I even remember watching reruns of Fred Flintstone blow steam out of his ears while dealing with Wilma’s family.  Relatives are always a challenge, but even more so when they are not blood related. 

For this reason, it’s interesting that this passage is actually most often used in wedding ceremonies, the process through which families are united and in-laws created.  I love the story of Ruth, and in my last year of seminary had the opportunity to translate the entire book.

In the story, Naomi, a Hebrew, is the mother-in-law to both Ruth and Orpah.  After the death of all three women’s husbands, Naomi selflessly begs her daughter-in-laws to leave her and find new husbands among their own tribe, because at that time all women needed a male guardian in order to have legal protection.  Really, the two women do not have to stick around and by staying they leave themselves vulnerable.  They are not even from the Hebrew clan, and they are young enough to start their lives over somewhere else rather easily.  Orpah departs in search of a new husband, but Ruth decides to stay.  She selflessly vows to live with Naomi, travel with her, worship with her, and remain faithful to her God and people for the rest of her life.  Ruth goes on to marry one of Naomi’s relatives in order to restore her claim on the family land.  She even has a child with her new husband, Boaz, and that child is functionally adopted by Naomi in order to prolong Naomi’s family linage.  That child, whom they named Obed, went on to become grandfather to King David.

One of the things we debated heavily in my Hebrew class was the identity of the main character in the Book of Ruth, was it Ruth the non-Hebrew or Naomi, the matriarch whose family line is restored.  In the end, I think both women are equally vital to the story because they are not in competition with each other.  Despite having the opportunity to take the easy path home, Ruth gave-up her own interests in order to remain faithful to Naomi.  In return, Naomi advised young Ruth, and made sure she found protection in a new husband.  The two women are drawn together in a time grief and mourning and made stronger through the challenges they faced.  At each step along the way Naomi and Ruth chose the more selfless path, even to the point when Ruth gave her child to Naomi in order to redeem her family name and livelihood.    

There is of course another more famous example in the Bible in which a son is given up to redeem others from despair and give them hope.  The sacrifice of Christ, Son of God, is the ultimate act of selflessness.  God asked Jesus to lay down his life and Jesus did so willingly.  God orchestrated the redemption of mankind and Jesus carried it out.  Which begs the unanswerable question, who is the main character in the narrative of humankind’s redemption.   And this question is unanswerable because there is no main character.  When any act is done out of pure selfless love then the one who gives and receives are of equal importance.  Love and importance are thrust onto the receiver of the gift by the giver.  As if the feelings of the giver are physically  bound up with their selfless action and passed to the receiver covering them with honor and affection.

Ruth and Naomi understood how to embody the selfless love of the Godhead.  They worked for one-another and not their own personal interests, and together they triumphed.  It is a selfless love which we are all called to model as as people redeemed by God through Christ.  Naomi and Ruth’s generous actions became the seed from which the Tree of Jesse flourished which bore the fruit of King David, ancestor of Jesus Christ.  May all of our selfless actions give birth to something beautiful.

 

While at Candler, I took a class entitled Exile and Restoration, and it was hands-down my favorite class which I took there.  I’m fascinated by the Exile of Israel and Judah, especially because throughout the fierce suffering and difficulty ,the people of Israel emerged as faithful followers of YHWH.  I am especially fascinated by Jeremiah and his career as a prophet at the end of the Israel monarchy.

My favorite story from this time period is the story of Jeremiah’s purchase of a field in Chapter 32.  When the City of Jerusalem is at its lowest point, about to be captured by Babylon, and Jeremiah himself is under house arrest, God commands Jeremiah to purchase a field back in his hometown of Anathoth as the rightful redeemer of the property.

The redeemer of a property is referred to as “go-el,” and is most likely a reference to rights of land ownership detailed in Leviticus 25 and the year of Jubilee.  It was the obligation of the “go-el” to make sure that ancestral property which may have been sold made it back in to the family’s possession.

In that time, two copies of the deed were usually drawn up in a legal transaction. One which was left open for reference, and one which was sealed and stored away in order to insure that the hand-written contract was undisturbed. This document was typically sealed with a stamp of clay called a “bulla.”[1] Contrary to practice, Jeremiah commands his secretary named Baruch to store both copies in an “earthenware vessel.”

Why did the prophet seal both documents? With Jeremiah imprisioned and Jerusalem on the brink of falling, the prophet really never had any hope of ever taking possession of the purchased land for himself.

Yet, there are striking implications for the purchase of land situated in the middle of a war zone.

First, Jeremiah understands that land is the context by which one experiences the transcendent. It may seem foolish to value property in this way, but such notions were developed through generations of holy experiences. The land is where ancestors are buried, livelihood is maintained, and memories were created.

Today, the same could be said for a neighborhood church or a family farm. People cannot experience God apart from the material world, and whatever material thing is becomes holy through those experiences of the divine.

Second, when viewed in its larger context, Jeremiah’s sign-act points out that God has a plan for Israel’s redemption is in the works even before the city gates are breached. Jeremiah 32:15 says:

 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

To the modern reader, Jeremiah’s obedience in buying the land seems ludicrous. Prisoners and refugees typically don’t spend money buying more property in the war zone.  In uncertain times, people tend to invest in silver and gold, not a vacant lot.

Finally, the sign act is supposed to rally the people of Judah and prepare them for the struggle ahead.  Kathleen O’Connor comments that Jeremiah is trying to “marshal the energies and hopes of the people of Judah to resume life, to rebuild their identity, and to face a future that disaster has obliterated.” [2]

It is this act of radical hope which suggests that Jeremiah is confident that God already has plans to redeem his people.  Jeremiah’s theology of hope is astonishing and should evoke in the reader the same sense of uncomfortable and humble awe which the prophet himself experienced.

From the very first, God has been in the business of redemption.  Even before Eve and Adam set foot outside the garden there was a plan in place to bring them back to the promised land. Even before you or I were born, Christ loved us, lived and died for us, rose again that we live with him in the promised land.

The lesson of Jeremiah’s property deal is not just that God has a plan for redemption, but also that we are called to make investments in our own restoration even when things seem bleak.  Jeremiah was faithful to do God’s work in buying the field even when others viewed him as foolish.  The prophet never saw the payoff for his land purchase, but the payoff for his obedience was immediately felt as he inspired hope in his fellow Jews.

Prayers in the midst of pain, tithing in midst of need, singing in the midst of suffering, acting with kindness in the midst of injustice.  All of these are ways we are foolishly faithful in living out our lives of discipleship.  By acting like Jeremiah we can inspire hope as well as confusion.  As we do the work which God calls us to do, we must be mindful of Jeremiah’s example and hopeful for the fulfillment of our redemption in God’s Heavenly Kingdom.

[1] Jack R. Lundbom, Jeremiah Among the Prophet.,( Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2012), 118.

[2] Kathleen M. O’Connor, Jeremiah: Pain and Promise. (Augsburg: Fortress Publishers, 2012), 724.

Lessons from Ancient Corinth

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When William and I were in Athens, we decided to take a bus ride along the Aegean coast from Attica to the Peloponnese. We crossed the canal that divided two landmasses and arrived at the Ancient Corinth Archeological site.

The site is further inland than modern Corinth, clustered at the foot of a great mountain where the Cortina Acropolis stands with muddled ruins of a former temple to Aphrodite.  The main road the ancients used led up to the city from the Port Cenchrea bellow and is still mostly intact. Visitors to the city would disembark from their ships and travel up to the road and through the massive gates. Passing through the towering columns, visitors would be met with a bustling street filled with shops, bathhouses, and fountains flanking either side of the dramatic road. The collection of rocks which stand there now was once Corinth’s agora where major city business and trade took place.

William and I wandered around the ruins speculating what each little shop and room could have been. We wondered where the shop was that Paul worked making tents with Aquila and Priscilla? Where could the ancient synagogue have been where Paul preached and baptized?

Some areas had informational signs pointing out highlights such as the Temple of Apollo and government buildings. There was one small sign on a large raised marble ledge, which could be seen at a distance if one were to enter from the main gate. This structure was the ancient Bema of the Corinth where city leaders and philosophers would address the people and sit in judgment over criminal matters and social disputes.

Acts 18 describes Paul’s 18-month stay in Corinth. His ministry there is characterized as rather successful: many were converted, people were baptized, and a church was founded from some of the Jewish inhabitants of the city.

However, things didn’t always go so smoothly. Eventually, some followers of Judaism in the city attacked Paul and accused the followers of Jesus and brought them to trial in front of the proconsul of the city named Gallio. Paul and other believers were dragged before the Bema for the whole city to witness. After a short trial, the city leader dismissed the charges, but the people were still enraged. The enraged crowd enacted their own mob justice beating Sosthenes, a follower of Jesus and leader in the synagogue, in front of the Bema.

In the first lines of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Sosthenes is mentioned as a co-author in the epistle. This suggests that although Sosthenes was beaten and Paul was put on trial in Corinth, both men stood firm in their faith, continued to spread the Gospel, and still cared about the wellbeing of the persecuted believers in Corinth.

If you visit ancient Corinth, you can actually climb up and stand on the Bema from were Paul was judge and Sosthenes beaten. From the platform you can see clear across the agora over the gates and to the port down by the sea bellow. The view is captivating. People on vacations are always chasing beautiful views, and William and I are no exception. But, the view from the Bema is different. The vista not only contains beauty, but also gravity. And if you turn to your right you’ll see a building block with a verse from one of Paul’s letters.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” – 2 Corinthians 4:17

The moment I mounted the Bema, I was suddenly aware of the boldness and courage it took for Paul and other early Christians to preach the Gospel of Jesus. Every eye trained on them when they spoke. Some people were eager to find a reason to do them harm, and some eager to believe.  Paul and Sosthenes risked so much in loyalty to God’s calling on their lives, and I wonder if I could ever have the same conviction.

We are all surrounded by powers and social norms that push us to hide our beliefs and disregard Christ message of mercy and justice. It is part of the human condition to prefer the path of least resistance.

The final feet of the Roman road that Paul first took to get to Corinth ended at the foot of the Bema. The path was well paved and not too difficult to traverse. Yet, it is the last few feet, right before the Bema, where Paul struggled the most in his Corinthian ministry.   If Paul had not made it the final few yards, the faith would not have progressed. If Paul had a given up during the most difficult part of his ministry then Love and mercy would not have been preached. God’s message would never have reached the entire city, only those in the synagogue, and the full impact of God’s message would never have been realized.

The “weight of glory” is not a comfortable thing. The command to make disciples and do the work of the kingdom can call us in way we’d never expect. Reaching out to the hurting and unloved; standing up for justice; enduring suffering in honest faith, and making weak and oppressed voices heard. These are challenging yet utterly glorious burdens that we bear as disciples of Jesus.

Being a follower of Jesus is challenging because it demands we go the distance to be faithful disciples. We must follow the journey to its conclusion even though we may travel through the valley of the shadow of death. We may stumble along the way, but our determination and courage must outweigh our fear and anxiety for God is with us. The weight of glory is great, but it indeed worth it!