Perspective: Look upon the Cross

The following perspective is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at Quillen Manor Assisted Living in Fountain Inn, South Carolina on May 27, 2018.  The entire sermon, titled “Born from Above,” will be posted on June 3, 2018.

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Look upon the Cross

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16-17 (NRSV)

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

From "Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus" by Helen Howarth Lemmel

Jesus once said to a religious leader named Nicodemus, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”¹

In the Book of Numbers, we read that, at one point while the Israelites were journeying through the wilderness, many people were killed by poisonous snakes.  The people begged Moses to pray to God on their behalf, and, when Moses prayed to God, God instructed him to craft a bronze serpent and to set it atop a pole.  From that point onward, whenever one of the Israelites was bitten by a poisonous snake, he or she could look upon the bronze serpent and be healed of the snake's venom.²

Jesus, referring to himself as the Son of Man, told Nicodemus that He would be lifted up in the same way that the bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness.  What He meant was that, in the not too distant future, the Sanhedrin – the very same council to which Nicodemus belonged – would conspire to get Jesus out of the picture.  They would collude with the Roman Empire to have Jesus executed by crucifixion, like an enemy of the Empire.  At a place called Golgotha, Jesus would be “lifted up” on a cross.³

When we look upon the cross, we see how messed up the world is, and we see how badly the world needs to be saved from itself.  The prologue to the Gospel of John tells us that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.”⁴  In Jesus, God became a “son of man” and “descended from heaven” to live with us – and we killed Him.  We might not have personally driven the nails into His hands and feet, but we are all complicit in His murder.  We are all part of a world in which the One who embodied pure goodness and love would be brutally murdered.  We would be fools to think that Jesus' crucifixion would not happen in our day and time, for we still live in a world in which those who cry out against the evils of society, as Jesus did, are persecuted and put to death, as Jesus was.

When the Israelites looked upon the bronze serpent, they were forced to confront the creature whose deadly venom had infiltrated their veins.  They were also forced to confront their own sins, for they believed that the snakes were punishment for their impatience, griping, and lack of faith.  When the Israelites looked upon the serpent they also found healing.  Likewise, when we look upon the cross, we are forced to confront our sin and our sickness, but we also find healing for our souls.

When we look upon the cross, we see forgiveness, mercy, and grace.  We see the One who prayed on behalf of those who had just nailed Him to the cross, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”⁵

When we look upon the cross, we see the true nature of God.  In the words of the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, “Being disguised under the disfigurement of an ugly crucifixion and death, Christ upon the cross is paradoxically the clearest revelation of who God is.”

When we look upon the cross, we see how badly we need to be saved, and, when we look upon the cross, we see our salvation.

When we look upon the cross, we must not forget the end of the story.  The evil of humanity put Christ upon the cross, but it did not defeat Him.  On the third day, Christ was raised from the dead, and the decisive blow was dealt to sin and death.⁶

Notes:

1. John 3:14-15 (NRSV)
2. Numbers 21:4-9
3. John 19:13-18
4. John 1:14 (NRSV)
5. Luke 23:34 (NRSV)
6. John 20:1-18

The photograph featured above was taken by me at The Well at Lyman Lake in the summer of 2016.

Introspection: How (Not) to Be Special

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

How (Not) to Be Special

An argument broke out among the disciples over which one of them should be regarded as the greatest.

But Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles rule over their subjects, and those in authority over them are called 'friends of the people.'  But that's not the way it will be with you.  Instead, the greatest among you must become like a person of lower status and the leader like a servant.  So which one is greater, the one who is seated at the table or the one who serves at the table?  Isn't it the one who is seated at the table?  But I am among you as one who serves."

Luke 22:24-27 (CEB)

I wish that I could be like the cool kids

'Cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in

From "Cool Kids" by Echosmith

I was first introduced to the Enneagram by a professor of psychology during a short retreat back in late 2009.  The Enneagram is a personality typing system that features nine distinct but interconnected personality types, each of which is represented by a number.¹  This system is different from the Myers-Briggs typing system because it is based less on a person's particular personality traits and more on a person's motivations.

I discovered my own personality type during that retreat, and, though I have doubted my initial conclusion several times over the years, I always keep coming back to type Four.  A person who is a Four according to the Enneagram is sometimes called a "Romantic" or an "Individualist."  Fours are known to be creative, dramatic, temperamental, self-absorbed, emotionally self-aware, and melancholic.  They value individuality and authenticity, and they tend to be dissatisfied with anything ordinary.  Two famous fictional Fours are Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye and Charlie Brown from the comic strip Peanuts.²

Fours are haunted by shame, and they are prone to envy.  They feel as though they have some unnameable lack in their lives that keeps them from functioning like everyone else in the world.  To borrow an image from one writer, they look at the lives of others as if they are looking in on a party from the outside, with their noses pressed against the window.³

Fours desire to be special because they secretly fear that they are invisible or insignificant.  They try to set themselves apart from the crowd, but ironically, in their pursuit to be special, they end up further alienating themselves from others.⁴

I never really thought of myself as someone who wants to be special, but my recent investigations into the Enneagram and my own personality type have forced me to confront some things in myself I either had been ignoring or simply did not want to admit.  I have a tendency to be rather quiet, unless I happen to be in a setting in which I feel extremely comfortable.  Despite my quietness, I actually want people to notice me, and I fear that people won't even know I exist unless I stand out in some way.

I first learned about the Enneagram not long after I was terminated from a previous job.  For two years, I worked as a software engineer for a casino vendor, and it was while I was working in the gambling industry that I began flirting with the idea of going into the ministry.  At the time, I was surrounded by workaholics, and I could not understand why anyone would devote so much of themselves to work that was not only utterly meaningless but harmful to others.  I figured that, if my career was supposed to take over my life, I had better find some meaningful work to do, and I figured that, if I had to live my life ever subject to the whims of my employer, my employer probably ought to be God.

Looking back, I think that maybe another reason I started thinking about going into the ministry is that I wanted to be special.  In the United Methodist circles in which I was traveling, the people I considered to be the "cool kids" were those who were pursuing ordination.  I think that maybe, deep down, I wanted some of the affirmation and attention they were receiving.  It would have been a welcome upgrade from the constant shame I felt for working in a morally bankrupt industry.

In the Bible, we read about a man named Simon who lived in Samaria.  Simon wanted to be special, so he used magic to impress people and gain a following for himself.  At one point, Philip, a follower of the Way of Jesus, came to Samaria, and, when the people heard his message about the Kingdom of God, they became believers.  Simon gave up his magic and became a believer as well, and he started following Philip around.  When Peter and John, two of Jesus' original twelve Disciples, heard what was going on in Samaria, they joined Philip there, and the people on whom they laid their hands received the Holy Spirit, as they had received the Spirit after Jesus ascended to heaven.⁵

Simon, still wanting to be special, offered Peter and John money in return for the ability to bestow on others the Holy Spirit.  Peter rebuked Simon, saying, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money!  You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God.  Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.  For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness."⁶

Frightened, Simon said to Peter, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may happen to me."⁷

The followers of Jesus had learned an important lesson that Simon had yet to grasp.  On the evening before Jesus was arrested and crucified, the Disciples got into an argument about which of them was the greatest.  Jesus said to them, "The greatest among you must become like a person of lower status and the leader like a servant."  To be special, in a Scriptural sense, is to be set apart, not for special favor or privilege, but for special purpose and responsibility.

I really hate to admit that my motivations are not always pure.  I am grateful that God has been more gracious to me than Peter was to the former magician named Simon, for God has included me in the work of the Kingdom despite my less than selfless motives.  I think that maybe God has used my desire to be special to give me opportunities to serve.  I never joined the "clergy club," but I still minister to others in various capacities as a layperson.  I know that I have been blessed through my experiences, and I hope that others have been blessed through my efforts.


Notes:

1. For basic information about the Enneagram, check out The Enneagram Institute.
2. Unfortunately I don't have a citation for this paragraph since it is made up of information I've amalgamated from various sources over time.
3. Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile.  The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery.  2016, InterVarsity Press.  pp. 152-153
4. Cron and Stabile, p. 156
5. Acts 8:5-17
6. Acts 8:18-23 (NRSV)
7. Acts 8:24 (NRSV)

The image featured above has been released to the public domain.

Perspective: Liturgy and Silence

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Liturgy and Silence

In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness.  We don't know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans.  The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God's will.

Romans 8:26-27 (CEB)

I'm finding myself at a loss for words

And the funny thing is it's okay

From "Word of God Speak" by MercyMe

The Lenten focus of my church this year was prayer,¹ and, toward the end of Lent, everyone in the congregation received a prayer book.  This book contains many different kinds of prayers, which are arranged into an order of prayer for each day of the week.  In some of the weeks since I received my prayer book, I followed the orders of prayer contained therein instead of the order of morning prayer I started using last year.

The order of prayer in my church's Lenten prayer book begins with a Psalm, a selection from the collection of ancient Hebrew prayers in the Bible.  Following the Psalm is a prayer of a saint.  In this case, the word saint refers either to someone who has been formally canonized by the Catholic Church, like St. Teresa of Avila or St. Francis of Assisi, or to some other great leader, thinker, or poet in the Church, like Desmond Tutu, Christina Rosetti, or Thomas Merton.  Next in the order is a reading from the Bible about prayer.  Next is a contemplative practice like a time of silence or a short repetitive prayer like a breath prayer.  What follows are prayers of intercession.  After the prayers of intercessions is the Lord's Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught the Disciples to pray.  Following the Lord's Prayer is a prayer submitted by a member of the congregation.  The order of prayer ends with John 17:20-21, which is part of another of Jesus' prayers.

One thing I've learned from praying the prayers in this Lenten prayer book is that, when we pray, we are participating in something that has been going on for thousands of years.  The word liturgy, which is commonly used to refer to orders of prayer and orders of worship, is derived from a Greek word that literally means "work of the people."²  In my church's Lenten prayer book, prayers written by people I know appear alongside three-thousand-year-old Hebrew prayers, prayers written throughout Church history, and even prayers by Jesus himself.  The "work" of prayer has been going on for thousands of years, and it continues through this day.

Lately I've also started to see that, though many beautiful prayers have been written over the millennia, silence can be a prayer in it's own right.  There are some mornings when I don't have it in me to pray through my liturgy, so I simply sit in silence, trying to quiet my very noisy mind.  To borrow a phrase from one of the Psalmists, I try to simply "be still and know" that I am in the presence of God.³  God does not need us to tell God what is going on in our hearts and minds because, everything in our hearts and minds is already known to God.  St. Paul went so far as to say that the Holy Spirit searches our hearts and takes our very groans to God.  If we need to speak to God, it is because we need to admit to ourselves what God already knows about us.

An interviewer once asked Mother Teresa what she said to God when she prayed.  She replied, "I don't talk.  I simply listen."  The interviewer then asked her what God said to her when she prayed.  She replied, "He also doesn't talk.  He also simply listens."  She then told the confused interviewer that she really had no other way to describe what she experienced when she prayed to God.⁴

At the Anchorage, a contemplative prayer ministry in my area, participants are encouraged, as a centering practice, to take some time to "behold God beholding you in love."⁵  Pastor A.J. Sherrill once commented that, before he married his wife Elena, he hoped that they would never became one of those elderly couples who sit together in restaurants without saying anything to each other.  Over time, he came to realize the truth that such couples didn't have nothing to say to each other but that they simply didn't have to say anything to each other.  Simply being in each other's gaze is enough.⁶

When we don't know how to pray, we can turn to the many wonderful prayers that have been written over the ages.  Still, words are not always necessary.  I wonder if maybe God wants our presence more than God wants our words.  God is present wherever we happen to be, but sometimes we need to take some time to be mindful of God's presence.


Notes:

1. To listen to Lenten messages from my church, go to the following link and look for sermons from the series "Lord, Teach Us to Pray": http://trmethodist.podomatic.com/
2. Wikipedia: "Liturgy"
3. Psalm 46:10
4. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wrestlingwithyourself/2013/01/mother-theresa-and-prayer/
5. http://www.theanchorage.org/
6. A.J. Sherrill.  "Deeper Still: Luke 4:1-2."  Mars Hill Bible Church, 03/26/2017.

The photograph of the candles was taken by Wikimedia Commons user 4028mdk09 and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.