Taking Sides

As I get older, something claiming to be wisdom keeps intruding into parts of my life where opinions are born black and white, demanding that the gray of discerning grace settle over outrage in a calming insistence that I wait.

So often, we hear of some horrible event, and it demands that we root for the victim and curse the perpetrator, as portrayed by the one relating the awful occurrence. We want to rush to seek out cause and blame, that punishment and retribution may be parsed out.

More often than I’d like to admit, the moment I close my mouth after its issuing of my ‘considered’ opinion, more information comes out that either reverses who was really the victim and perp or that both were one or the other. The egg on my face tastes vaguely of some monstrous prehistoric ostrich. My personal opinion is that it goes rather well with the boiled sock lint left over from having my foot in my mouth.

ADVENTures Before Christmas, Week 2

Each week of Advent has a number of symbolisms, and the following table will be filled as the weeks progress.

Week	Scene	Attitude	People	Action
1st	Journey on a Donkey	Hope	Isaiah/OT Prophets	Expectation/Prophecy
2nd	Bethlehem	Peace	John the Baptist	Annunciation
3rd
4th

Last week I mentioned how Advent starts off in a spirit of penitence. Not only is purple symbolic of royalty, it is symbolic of suffering. Yet, the attitude of this second week of Advent is peace. How do these reconcile?

Kingship Authority

I was chatting online with someone today about the challenges of being a pastor. (He is one, not me.) It occurred to me in our conversation that one of the bigger challenges was simply the fact that we are American, and our “rugged individualism” leads us to question and diminish authority. Thus, pastoral urgings and attempts to shepherd folks closer to Christ meet more resistance than they might elsewhere or in other times. American sheep tend to have teeth! Preaching on Biblical commands and principles are viewed at best as suggestions, instead of an opportunity to repent and let one’s life be transformed. Just because I’m aware of this doesn’t mean I’m not guilty myself—I’m just as much a product of my culture as anyone else.

The implication then struck me that it will be interesting to see the attitude adjustment we will have as Americans when we find ourselves physically in the very presence of the King! Democracy? Hah! I'm sure I'll be in that group saying, "Oh! That's what kingship means..."

SDG

If My People, Part 3: Conditions

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

II Chronicles 7:14

Micah 6:8 says simply, “He has shown thee, O Man, what is good and what the Lord desires of thee:  but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

As poetic as that verse is, it is hard sometimes to put feet on it—to see how that works in daily life. The 2 Chronicles verse in some ways is a parallel passage, and expands Micah 6:8 into four principle tasks.