Introspection: And Life Ground to a Halt

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Comments are always welcomed.

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And Life Ground to a Halt

I will populate you with human beings...  The cities will be inhabited, the ruins rebuilt...  I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before.

Ezekiel 36:10-11 (CEB)

It's down to this

I've got to make this life make sense

Can anyone tell what I've done?

I miss the life

I miss the colors of the world

Can anyone tell where I am?

From "Away from the Sun" by 3 Doors Down

Elijah had been trudging through the wilderness alone for forty days when he finally reached Mount Horeb.  There, he took refuge in a cave and rested for the night.  God told Elijah to leave the cave and to stand on the mountain, because God would soon be passing by.  Elijah emerged from the cave and waited for God.  First, there was a powerful wind.  Next, there was an earthquake.  After that, there was a wildfire.  It turns out that God was present, not in the wind, the earthquake, or the wildfire, but rather in the stillness and silence that followed.¹

In the silence, Elijah heard the voice of God; in the stillness, he realized that God was indeed at work; and, in the solitude, he learned that he was not alone in his struggles.

On the day before Ash Wednesday, when I reflected on the story of Elijah's experience at the Mountain of God, I noticed the Lenten themes of silence, stillness, and solitude.  During the season of Lent, many Christians fast from something in order to grow closer to God.  Silence is a fast from distractions; stillness is a fast from busyness; and solitude is a fast from performing for others.  I began to consider that maybe, during Lent, I should seek ways to somehow practice these things, but I was not sure how I would do so.

For the first few weeks of Lent, my Lenten project for the year kept me busy and distracted; over time, however, silence, stillness, and solitude seemed to close in on me.

A lot has changed in the last couple of weeks.  For me, it feels almost as if life suddenly ground to a halt.  I didn't spend very much time at home previously, but now I spend very little time away from home.  Everywhere I would normally go is now closed, and everything I would normally do has been cancelled.  I've been working from home, which is something I never particularly wanted to do.  Instead of going to church on Sundays, I've been streaming church services online.  Picking up a takeout order or visiting a restaurant drive-thru is now what passes for an excursion.  I've been taking walks, not at the park or the college campus where I walked previously, but around my own neighborhood.²

This is my life amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sudden changes in life have brought with them some anxiety.  I always experience pollen allergies this time of year, but, because of the pandemic, symptoms I would normally ignore put me on edge.  I also find myself falling into a scarcity mindset.  I'm afraid of running out of things, especially since I'm becoming increasingly nervous about leaving the house.  I'm not afraid of catching the virus, since I'm probably healthy enough to survive it.  I'm more afraid of unknowingly passing it along to someone more vulnerable than I.

My focus for the year is cultivating courage, but I don't really know what that means right now.  I had hoped to practice courage by doing things I had been hesitant to do, but some of those things are not possible at the moment.  I feel that lately I've been acting less from a place of courage and more from a place of necessity.  I'm not sure that I need very much courage to simply do what has to be done.

Right now, I'm trying to carry on with my life as much as possible.  I'm not pitying myself.  I know that this pandemic is affecting everyone, and I realize that, right now, many people are struggling a lot more than I.  I know that some people are suffering in ways I cannot even imagine.  I don't feel that I'm missing out on anything during this time of seclusion, since there is very little out there to miss at the moment.  I'm really just trying to process these sudden, radical changes in my life.  Some people say that this will be a time of learning and growing.  If there is some great spiritual truth to be learned in this season, I don't yet know what that is.


Notes:

1. 1 Kings 19:1-18
2. Before you ask, yes, I'm keeping a good safe distance between others and myself.

The photograph featured above was taken by Pixabay user Pandorah.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.  For use on this blog, the image has been cropped.

Lenten Reflection: Like a Thief

The following is the sixth in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Like a Thief

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Sardis

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars:

I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead.  Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.  Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent.  If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.  Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.  If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Revelation 3:1-6 (NRSV)

A court is in session

A verdict is in

No appeal on the docket today

Just my own sin

From "My Own Prison" by Creed

Christ tells the Christians in Sardis that, though they have a reputation for vitality, they are actually spiritually dead.  Their works, in God's eyes, leave something to be desired.  He points out that a few worthy souls in Sardis "have not soiled their clothes," suggesting that the rest have become so lazy and complacent, it is as if they won't even bother to change and wash their clothes, in a spiritual sense.¹  Apparently, the Christians in Sardis have been resting on their laurels for a while.  Christ orders them to wake up and to strengthen what has nearly wasted away within them.

As I started studying this letter, pondering what I might write about it, the letter started to hit a little close to home for me.  I suspect that a lot of people think that I'm more spiritual than I really am.  Some people claim that they are "spiritual but not religious," but I think that I am often more religious than spiritual.  Sometimes I feel utterly unworthy of doing the things I do in the Church.  I know that there are a number of things in my life that are not as they should be.  For example, more than once I have completely lost my religion over printer problems just hours before leading Sunday school.  In my own defense, I have to point out that printers are of the devil.

Last year, I started experiencing a sense of dread shortly before preaching.  One Saturday night, when I had a preaching gig the next day, I began to think that maybe I hadn't been as prayerful as I should have been, and I wondered if God had been involved in my sermon preparation at all.  Maybe I had been relying too much on my knowledge of Scripture and my writing ability and not opening myself enough to the leading of God.  Whether I was right or wrong, my dread was a wake-up call.

Christ warns the church in Sardis, "If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you."  Paul uses a very similar analogy in one of his letters to the Thessalonians.  He writes that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."²  I do not think that Christ wants to intentionally catch anyone off guard.  The thief analogy is really less about Christ's intentions and more about our attentiveness. 

Paul continues, "But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness."³  The day is a time of awareness and alertness, and the night is a time of obliviousness and obscurity.  A thief is only a problem if the homeowner is asleep when the thief decides to visit; however, if the homeowner remains vigilant, then she can stop the thief from robbing her blind.

Generally speaking, we are caught off guard when we simply aren't paying attention, and life has a lot of ways of catching us off guard.

Maybe the Christians in Sardis didn't even realize how spiritually dead they were.  Perhaps part of "waking up" is becoming more self-aware and paying closer attention to what is going on within us.  I don't think we always know what we are capable of doing until we have already done it.  On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, churches around the world read the fifty-first Psalm, a prayer of confession by a supposedly godly individual who, I suspect, was shocked by his own actions.

One night, as King David sat on his rooftop, he spotted a woman bathing.  He lusted after her, sent his men to bring her to him, and then had his way with her.  When he learned that he had impregnated her, he had her husband killed in order to cover his tracks.  His friend Nathan, a prophet of God, forced him to confront what he had done.⁴  In Scripture, David is described as a man after God's own heart.⁵  He wrote poem after poem about his unyielding devotion to God.  I do not think he ever expected to someday find himself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in a moment of weakness, with a lot of power to abuse.  Perhaps it could be said that David's sinfulness struck like a proverbial "thief in the night."

Christ says that those "who have not soiled their clothes" will walk with Him, as if they were in a victory parade.⁶  Those who conquer their laziness and complacency - thereby washing their clothes, spiritually speaking - will be invited to walk with them.

One ancient prophet writes, "Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near."⁷  If we want to know what God expects of us, we need to be regularly seeking God's guidance.  Otherwise, we might someday discover that, like the church in Sardis, we are further from God's will than we realize.  This season of repentance and introspection we call Lent is a good time for us to look at what is going on within ourselves and grow in self-awareness.

---

Questions for reflection:

• Has life ever caught you off guard when you weren't paying attention?
• How can we grow in self-awareness?

Notes:

1. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 30
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 (NRSV)
3. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 (NRSV)
4. 2 Samuel 11:1-12:14
5. 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22
6. Wright, p. 31
7. Isaiah 55:6 (NRSV)

My "shadow selfie" was taken by me in 2014.

Lenten Reflection: That Woman Jezebel

The following is the fifth in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

That Woman Jezebel

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Thyatira

And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze:

I know your works - your love, faith, service, and patient endurance.  I know that your last works are greater than the first.  But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols.  I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication.  Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings; and I will strike her children dead.  And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.  But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call "the deep things of Satan," to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden; only hold fast to what you have until I come.  To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,

I will give authority over the nations;

to rule them with an iron rod,

as when clay pots are shattered -

even as I also received authority from my Father.  To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Revelation 2:18-28 (NRSV)

Ruin my life, the plans I have made

Ruin desires for my own selfish gain

Destroy the idols that have taken Your place

Till it's You alone I live for

You alone I live for

From "Ruin Me" by Jack Johnson

Christ acknowledges the love, faithfulness, service, and spiritual growth of the Christians in Thyatira, yet He calls them out for tolerating someone He identifies as "Jezebel."  This false prophet, He alleges, is influencing believers to do things they should not be doing.  Using some very harsh language, Christ promises judgment for this person and for anyone who follows her teachings.

Like Balaam, who is mentioned in the letter to Pergamum, Jezebel is a figure in the Old Testament.  She was not a good person, to say the least.

Jezebel was the princess of Sidon.  When she married Ahab, the king of Israel, he started worshiping Ba'al, one of the gods of her people, even building a temple to the deity in the capital city.¹  Jezebel had many of the prophets who remained faithful to God put to death, and she forced many more into hiding.²  At one point, Ahab started coveting a vineyard that belonged to one of his subjects.  The owner refused to sell the vineyard because the sale of property was forbidden by God, so Jezebel arranged to have him executed under false charges of blasphemy and sedition so that Ahab could take possession of the vineyard.³

The person identified as Jezebel in the letter to Thyatira is, according to Christ, instructing people in the church "to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols," as are the people He compares to Balaam in the previous letter.  Note that, throughout the Bible, unfaithfulness to God is compared to marital unfaithfulness.  Also note that, in the ancient Roman world, meat sold in the marketplace came from animals slaughtered in sacrifices to Roman gods, making the consumption of meat problematic to early Christians.

In this letter, Christ is identified as "the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze."  Such imagery would have appealed to people in Thyatira, since the city was the home to a number of trade guilds, one of which was made up of bronze and copper smelters.⁴  According to William Barclay, "Abstention from guild membership was equivalent to commercial suicide."⁵  Participation in these trade guilds meant partaking in communal meals.  These meals were likely held in temples to Roman deities, and, at these meals, meat was served that had likely been offered to Roman gods.⁶  Obviously, the Christians in Thyatira faced a dilemma.

For a short time, while I was a teenager, I had a part-time job at the company where my mother worked at the time.  At first, I stuffed fliers into envelopes for mailing, but later on I stuffed catalogs into boxes.  One day, I wore a Christian-themed baseball cap to work.  Christian-themed apparel often features a brand logo or something else from pop culture that is tweaked slightly so that it says something about Jesus.  At that time, the Y2K computer bug had been in the news frequently, so my hat read, "Y2K: Say yes to the King."

That day, one of my mother's coworkers read my hat as he walked by, and asked me, "Who's the King?"

"Jesus!" I replied.

"There you go!" he said affirmingly.

In many parts of the world, Christians face real persecution, but, in my neck of the woods, referring to Jesus as "King" or "Lord" is not at all controversial.  I live in a region of the United States known as the Bible Belt, where Christianity is simply part of the culture.  Calling Jesus "King" is not at all out of the ordinary.  The early Christians, on the other hand, confessed that "Jesus Christ is Lord" in a culture where they were expected to declare that "Caesar is lord."  There can be only one Lord, so, when one says that Jesus is Lord, one is also saying that Caesar is not lord, and there were serious consequences for defying Caesar.

Balaam and Jezebel are used symbolically in these letters because they were both people from the Hebrew Scriptures who enticed the people of God into doing things that God did not want God's people to do.⁷  M. Eugene Boring suggests that "the 'Nicolatians,' 'Balaam,' and 'Jezebel' promoted the 'progressive' doctrine of accommodation to the culture around them."⁸  He writes,
The Nicolatians and related groups taught that Christians should attend the cultural festivals, buy and eat the sacrificial meat sold in the marketplace, and participate in the cultural lifestyle.  For Israel's prophets and for John, such accommodations to pagan ways was a betrayal of the faith, equivalent to idolatry and fornication, to which John may not have been alluding only figuratively.⁹

Christianity might be part of the culture here in the United States of America, but American Christians are still tempted to worship and serve false American gods.  Many Christians in America like to claim that they live in a Christian nation, but, personally, I beg to differ.  I say this, not because the United States Constitution forbids the establishment of a national religion, but because the USA is a capitalist nation, meaning that the Almighty Dollar is lord.  I suspect that even most of us professing Christians in America base most of our decisions not on what Christ is calling us to do but on what is most financially advantageous.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth."¹⁰  As a friend of mine once said, Jesus does not leave us any wiggle room in this regard.  What Jesus says about wealth could also be said about power, fame, or anything else one might pursue in life.  There can be only one lord of a person's life.

For American Christians, faithfulness to Christ means not simply saying that He is Lord, which is tolerated and even expected, but actually living as if He is our Lord, which is truly countercultural.  Christ identifies Himself as "the one who searches minds and hearts."  Perhaps, during this Lenten season, we who profess to be Christians should examine our motivations, so that we may see if Christ really is the Lord of our lives.

---

Questions for reflection:

• What kind of "gods" does the culture around you try to seduce you into serving?
• What does it mean to actually live as if Jesus is Lord?
• What might it cost you to live in this way?

Notes:

1. 1 Kings 16:29-33
2. 1 Kings 18:4
3. 1 Kings 21:1-16
4. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 25
5. William Barclay.  The Revelation of John, Volume 1, Revised Edition.  1976, The Westminster Press.  p. 107
6. ibid.
7. M. Eugene Boring.  Revelation (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching).  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 31
8. ibid.
9. ibid.
10. Matthew 6:24 (CEB)

The Almightier was drawn by Carl Hassmann and was featured in Puck magazine in 1907.  It has been released to the public domain.