Psalm 127

Psalm 127

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

Unless the Lord builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.

In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
(NIV)

An elderly friend of mine went in for surgery. A large tumor had developed on his frontal lobe, right under his forehead. Before the surgery, my friend quoted this psalm to the doctors and told them that unless God healed him, they labored in vain. Then he asked them to give him half an hour so that he could pray. By the time of his surgery, he was calm and collected, entirely trusting in God to use the doctors to heal him. One year later, he is cancer free and healthy. He can't stop praising
God for what GOD did.

My sense after reading this psalm is that God continually holds together the very fabric of our existence in such a way that our actions would be completely futile were it not for God's providential care which makes the actualization of our wills possible. This doesn't do Psalm 127 justice. I'll keep thinking about it.

Knowledge from God

Part of my concern in naming God's activity in our world is that doing so haphazardly reduces the impact of saying, "God did" or "God showed me" or "God opened the door, etc. It becomes a cliche. For example, I've been thinking recently about when it is appropriate to say, "God taught me..." When we learn a lesson, or when a brilliant idea pops into our head after much prayer, we are inclined to say, "God spoke to me and illuminiated such and such." But in fact, isn't all knowledge and wisdom a gift? If in fact I learn anything, isn't God the teacher? And yet, imagine what you'd think of a person who, whenever they learned anything, said, "God taught me." Part of the problem, I'm realizing, is that as you think about ways to identify how God is active in the world, you start seeing how God is really the cause of virtually everything. He might not be the immediate cause, but he is the first and final cause. Thus, the birds outside my window--they too are there because God "sent" them there. When I read C.S. Lewis and learn about the Devil's schemes against Christians, God is teaching me, even as C.S. Lewis is teaching me. But I dont' think this necessarilly means that i want to say, "God did" or "God told me," or "God sent me..." People who talk like this trivialize God by making him involved in everything. "Good luck" is taboo because God will cause the outcome of every event in your life.

Now, of course, God is probably active to differing degrees depending on the situation so that saying God "causes" something might be a bit of an overstatement when it comes to a bad hard day, even though technically, you might be correct. But the trick is, I'm thinking now, that we need to not miss God's role when it comes to things that matter. So, placing the work of God in our lives is a task which requires sensitivity and maturity, avoiding the extremes of ignoring God vs. making God the producer of ill placed zits.

Open Windows

But what about "open windows?" Christian jargon meaning that in the midst of some dilemma, an oppourtunity appeared which indicated to the person involved that God intended to give an answer to some prayer question by making one option easier or more viable than the other. God "opened the window" for us to go to China to be missionaries. God opened the window for me to go to college by providing me with financial aid... This gets used a lot, too. This is another variation of a sign. In the midst of a dilema, the opening of a possibility of one option is seen as a sign that God desires the person to go in that direction.

I've put trust in these kinds of signs before, but if my former conclusion on signs is correct, then how consistently can we just go the way of the open window? Say you apply to two colleges and one offers you a healthy financial aid package and one doesn't. You'd think that God wanted you to go to the one because he provided you the resources you needed to go that route. But, isn't it possible that God could also be testing your faith, and that actually, he desires you to go to the college with less financial aid because in the experience of stepping out in faith (without the financial aid), you'd actually be learning to trust and rely on God more than if you had it handed to you? Or maybe, God wants you to go the more difficult route because you'll find greater satisfaction from having gone through a closed window, against the odds, stepping out in faith, and accomplishing the impossible.

Sometimes, people go through windows that God opened, only to realize that the open window was the wrong window. Some ministers have open windows all the way through college and seminary and then end up spilling out and shipwrecking their career in an abuse scandal.

A window opening might be the hand of God, but I don't think its necesserilly a hand pointing you in an obvious direction.

Signs from God

The proverbial "sign from God" is so oft used that it can't not but be misused. I think there's a temptation to call something a "sign" because identifying the hand of God is gratifying. We usually associate this type of special appearance of God with random natural occurences that connect in an obvious way with the topic of conversation or with the presenting dillema. For example, I noted that in my first blog on the subject of identifying God in our world two albino pigeons appeared on the street below. These connections are irrational but often times very obvious. For me, the temptation was to conclude: there you have it, God is encouraging me to continue thinking and writing about this topic by sending me a little encouragement in the form of a rare (at least for me) phenomenon: two albino pigeons. It's not that I don't think God gives us "signs." It's that the meaning is derived from the subjective experience and is therefore ungrounded. As I look around my desk, I see a college loan bill. Wow. That could be a sign from God that I should take care of my bills. You could make a sign out of everything. Even the rarity of the event doesn't really clinch the deal. In any given situation, there are countless irreplicable events occuring, each of which, if noticed, might give rise to some conclusion that a sign had been given. A spider just happens to be occupying 1/1,000,000,000 of the space of your wallpaper and winds up sitting on your calender, making it a sign from God that November 20th is the day you should... How do you know if it's a sign from God or not?

I don't think you can know. But you can believe that God is in control of all things, leaving chance out of the picture. Maybe God just enjoys drawing rare phenomenon to our attention at strategic moments without any particular reason. So, I guess my conclusion is you can beleive God is giving you a sign. You just can't know what the sign signifies.

God in Retrospect

A friend of mine is a recovering drug addict. He's older, in his fifties. During the most recent years of his life, my friend has discovered a new relationship with God, and I am amazed at the vitality of his spirituality. He is very open about his history, having spent a year literally on the street, begging for money and getting by on drugs. But now, every moment of his day is spent in prayerful awareness of God's grace and love towards him. God rescued him from himself, and he is very aware of this. He told me today about how important it was for him to hear that despite his wayward lifestyle, God had been along beside him throughout it all. He said God was always there for me, and God was just waiting for me to notice and to give my life to him.

I think this is another valid way of placing God in our lives, by reflecting on the past and making sense of it through a knowledge of God's providential love, presence and patience. Is this "writing God into history?" Yes, it is. But I don't think it's untrue. At least not if you're willing to admit that the story is provisional--the end is not yet complete and you might just find out that God had other intentions. So, I guess a little humility is in order.

Toward a guide of "placing God"

One thing I've come to learn is that in most situations, you cannot have any sort of meaningful spirituality if you do not pray regularly and seriously. One of the benefits of the life of prayer is that between your prayers, you notice that God responds to prayers through events that happen during the day. It might be the case that I am normally well fed, eating three meals a day. However, if I daily wake up and pray for God to provide me with the food I need, eating takes on a new light. Before, when I ate, I might not have thought that God had anything to do with my eating. However, now, as I eat, I recall my prayers. As I eat, I can see God doing what I have asked him to do: providing me with food. Now, God did not start providing me with food when I prayed. God always provided me with food. The difference? Now, I am thankful. Now, I place God in my life, seeing my meal as a blessing, as a provision from a wonderfully merciful Father. And imagine now that I've been praying for food and then something happens so that prevents me from being able to eat. The fact that I've been praying for daily food adds significance to the event. Because I know that my eating depends on God, I know that these events which are preventing me from eating are also the work of God. God specifically denied my request. This causes me to wonder about God's purpose in preventing me from eating. If I had never asked for the food, then I wouldn't consider the lack of food a denial of my request.

In this way, praying, even for obvious or regular things, helps us to place God in our lives, allowing us to see God more vividly.

Making Sense of How to Place God in Events that Happen

It seems to me that there is great value in being able to "spot God" in history and events. But this is not an endevour to be taken lightly. God's role in any series of events that happens is never obvious. Far too often, we have made mistakes by too quickly pointing to God. For example, when New Orleans was burried in water, many saw that as the unmistakable hand of God punishing the city for its immoral carousing and licentious culture. Is it that simple? As I write, two Albino pigeons are fluttering about in the street below. I don't know that I've ever seen an Albino pigeon, much less two. Did God bring them here to me to encourage me as I write this blog?

What role does God play in these events? And is there a good system for pointing out the hand of God? Are there rules? On the one hand, you could say everything, from the smallest detail of our lives, like the crumb on the floor, is part of God's ultimate plan. But on the other hand, God refuses to be held responsible for the terrible things that happen as a result of human sinfulness. And regardless of what I believe about providence, I don't think God cares too much about that crumb on the floor. But as Neal Plantinga has said, part of being a good leader is about helping people to realize the presence of God and the cosmic significance of ministry. There is value in pointing to God, because identifying the hand of God makes us more aware of his presence and helps flesh out faith. Faith needs eyes.

But its a tricky business. You don't want to trivialize God. With prayer, for example, say I pray for something to happen and it does. Is this necessarilly an "answer to prayer?" I pray that God will provide me with lunch. At noon, I walk to the refrigerator and heat up some left-overs. Is that God working in my life?

I pray for my sick friend to be healed from cancer. The doctors operate and remove the tumor. Is that a "healing?" Is that God? I pray for the church to grow. No new members. Is that a "no" from God?

I'm going to keep thinking more about this because I think its important.

NJ Audubon Society Trails

Fly on pine needles

The zoom picture on my camera picked up detail on a bug that I've only ever seen in National Geographic magazines. Try zooming in on the fly. I've a new respect for that slimy piece of green that I typically smash against the window.

HIking in Wanaque

I've begun a new habbit: hiking on friday afternoons. I'll continue this habbit weather permitting for as long as I can. You wouldn't believe how nice it is just to get away from it all and spend some time alone in the mountains. I'm new to this, but what I like about it is the sense of vulnerability that comes from being away from civilization. If I got hurt, I'd be out there on my own... until a fellow hiker found me. My biggest fear is running into a black bear. A deer jumped out at me the other day and that scared the daylights out of me, mostly because I was thinking about black bears when all of a sudden this huge figure goes prancing right before my eyes. That was exciting. Sorry, no picture of the deer.

Pastor Max Advances in Age and Maturity

A veterinarian friend of ours recently accused us of hand play when we complained about how much Pastor Max enjoys chewing on fingers and toes. Apparently, we were provoking this unseemly behavior. We have repented of our sin, but he continues to bite. First lesson in childrearing: you get what you deserve...

Sermon Preview

This Sunday I'm preaching on Assurance. The curse of a worship planning committee is that the theme is often decided before the text. You have a sermon in mind and so you search in vain for a text to say what you want it to say. This is probably one of the most prevelant ways that scripture gets misread. But my worship director knows that once the text is chosen, I'm at liberty to say what the text says even if it means straying from the theme of the service. She's a good worship director.

The text is perfect: Hebrews 10:19-25. It's about coming into the most holy place with boldness because of the priesthood of Christ. The tie between assurance and priesthood baffled me initially, but as I thought about it, I realized that assurance is a matter of purification. Lack of assurance comes from the fear associated with entering the most holy place without the proper ceremonial rituals. The fear is that in the face of God's holiness, our sin will be reason for God to destroy us. You can't have assurance unless you can know, like Aaraon the High Priest, that the atoning blood has been shed and the sacrifice made so that you can enter into God's presence and come out unscathed. Assurance for us is based on the atoning intercession of the High Priest, Christ. As the curtain seperating world and holy is destroyed, we are ushered into God's presence without fear because we are no longer liable for our sin. Therefore, we can enter the most holy place, the presence of God, with boldness and gratitude.

And yet, so many of us go through life aware of grace but somehow not convinced of it. My message is this: God is sure about you. God wants you to be sure about him.

We'll see how it goes.

Haledon, NJ

I love my new town. This part of the world is wonderful because these towns are hybrids containing both small town and urban elements at the same time. On the one hand, we're half an hour from Downtown Manhattan and can see the skyline from our hill. On the other hand, we're only 8000 people and have one zip code. The mayor comes by your house to talk to you to get reelected for a job he doesn't even get paid for. We have our own police department, and you prefer getting pulled over by one of your own rather than the cops from the next town over (I won't say which one). You are walking distance from the hardware store, Dunkin Donuts, the grocery, the bank, the post office, the school, the church, the gas station, the bakery, the bagel shop, the hotdog stand, and a city park. You know your neighbors by name and you actually give a crap when the lady next door gets robbed. Haledon is great.

Believing in God takes Faith. Oh yeah.

Hebrews 11:5 says "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (NIV)."

Sometimes I think that I forget that beleiving in God is an act of faith. I draw comfort from God's admission of this fact, as voiced in the letter of Hebrews. My Dad also reminded me. You have to beleive in God to see God. God is there, no doubt. In fact, his presence is undeniable and real, but only to those who beleive. Without belief, without faith in God, its easy to slip into cynicism and to wonder why God is so inconscipuously absent from so much that goes on. It's not that God is absent. It's that our eyes have been clouded by rebelliousness so that we don't see God very well. Maybe instead of praying for God's presence, which is already a reality, I should pray for greater faith. I'm afraid to admit this, but sometimes I feel as though I'm only one mile past the doubt marker with ninety-nine miles of the faith journey to go.

Church discipline and God's "honor"

In a recent conversation, a friend admitted his frustration over his classmates' nonchalant attitude towards the penultimate step of church discipline - excommunication. Excommunication represents the church's final effort to discipline an unpenitent church member. It is penultimate because the exclusion of a member from fellowship is meant to persuade the member to see the error of his/her ways and to return in repentence..at which point the church should gladly welcome the brother/sister back with open arms.

My friend was disconcerted at the idea of excommunication, and was frustrated at the almost nonchalant way in which the pastors-to-be seemed to discuss this form of church discipline. My friend asks, "who are we to point the finger?" Why do we think we're any better? How can we be so audacious as to say that God's grace doesn't apply to a certain person and then to kick them out?

I replied that excommunication is a last resort--something that rarely happens, a process that takes virtually years to enact...not something we jump to or eagerly anticipate. Excommunication is something that happens only when a member is confronted numerous times and is completely unwilling to repent of sin and shows no willingness to change. Allowing unrepentent sin to continue and NOT taking issue with it dishonors God. Jesus Christ has died on the cross for our sin, allowing us to fellowship with God. Sin must be taken seriously, for God went through extensive efforts to take it away. What do we communicate to God about our appreciation for his work on the cross when we allow a fellow member to go on and on in sin without repenting? Blatant sin seemingly "dishonors" God.

But my friend had an interesting reply. You can't dishonor God. You can't disgrace God. God is infinitely almighty, infinitely honorable. NOthing we do or don't do can possibly take away from God's honor because God's honor is not dependent on human recognition of it.

This was a good reply. But because I was still in the mode of arguing with my friend, I quickly remarked that he was right, but that there was a difference between God's objective honor and subjective honor. Objectively, there's nothing a person can do to really take away from God, neither in his person nor in his glory. God's glory is infinite. His honor is based in himself for the reason that he alone is able to percieve his true honor. Only God knows how awesome God really is. Only God knows how good and wonderful he really is. In theology, this is called God's archtypal knowledge. Therefore, human sinfulness doesn't take away from God's objective value or honor or glory, etc.

However, it is the case that human actions can impact God's subjective or percieved honor, value, importance, etc. In the OT, there are numerous instances in which the actions of God's people infuriate God for the precise reason that the actions of God's people reflect falsely on God and therefore cut short the honor, glory and respect due to God by Israel and the people watching what Israel does. God is not objectively devalued by Israel's behavior, but subjectively. Even God shows concern for what the nations think about him. IN Genesis 32, Moses convinces God to withold his judgment from the idolatrous Israelites in order to prevent the nations from thinking that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt merely to destroy them. So, even the actions of God show that God's subjective honor is at stake.

I was reading in Hebrews today and fell upon a passage which applies directly to this issue. Hebrews 6:6 speaks of "holding God in contempt" by experiencing Grace and then persisting in intentional unrepentant sin. Surely our holding God in contempt does not belittle God in the sense that would imply that God's nature is dependent upon human recognition. However, this passage does show that unrepentant sin is intolerable. Hebrews calls brothers and sisters in Christ to spur one another on to love and good works. I think based on 6:6, you could argue that we should also spur one another on to live in such a way that reflects well on God's objective dignity. It is precisely church discipline which seeks to protect God's subjective honor and to bring about repentance in the sinner.