Today’s prayer from Scotty Smith made me think of this song. Continuing to pray and hope for restoration.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/scotty-smith/a-prayer-of-hope-for-times-of-storm-and-stress/10150568799135212
Auburn and Alabama fans have combined efforts to help the victims in Alabama, a beautiful reconciliation for a bigger purpose!
When our eldest son decided to attend Auburn University, his grandfather and namesake, an Alabama graduate, began barraging him with Auburn jokes…one of the cleaner ones went like this…
How do you get an Auburn student off your porch?
Pay him for the pizza!
In recent months, disasters of varying degrees have hit the campuses, bringing strange results. An insane (truly) Alabama fan decided to poison the ancient oaks at Toomer’s Corner, the traditional place of celebration for Auburn fans. “Tide for Toomer’s” was born — Alabama fans who collected money to help Auburn in its restoration of the famed Toomer’s Corner.
Now a much worse disaster has hit the hometown of the University of Alabama and the state of Alabama, tornadoes ripping through, killing 213 and making parts of the state unrecognizable.
I talked with my son yesterday. He said, “Mom, the students here want to get in their cars and go DO something. But it’s not what they need right now. They can help best by staying here.” He had spent his day in meetings with the Student Government as they planned responses. Three things he recommended really apply to all of us who watch the news with sadness at the devastation wrought on the Southeast these last few days:
1. Pray. Pray broadly and pray specifically. Pray for the family of the person who was found dead in a tree. Pray for the traumatized. Pray for the damaged businesses. Pray for hope. Pray.
2. Give blood. Kirby said the Red Cross desperately needs blood. The AU SGA is sponsoring a large blood drive on campus today, but any of us can go to our local center and donate.
3. Give money to the Red Cross. They are the ones equipped to handle such disasters, and the money will be well-used.
Of course it’s not that simple, because we have questions and our hearts ache. There is more to do. There is more to understand. I turn to the Apostle Paul who reminds me that while I may never understand the suffering of natural disasters fully, there are clear ways to respond. Scotty Smith writes, “It’s the difference between expecting ‘because’ answers to difficult questions versus looking for ‘so that’ answers to difficult events. ‘Because’ answers focus on giving a good reason; ‘so that’ answers are more concerned about giving a godly response.” Scotty Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Restoring Broken Things.
Read the Apostle Paul’s words regarding suffering…
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on oura behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or in talk but in deed and in truth.” I John 3:16-18
It takes both hands to count the number of broken church stories I’ve heard in the last year. It makes me sick and it makes me sad to hear of brothers and sisters in Christ taking up arms and warring against one another. Not over trivial things. But it leaves me asking, “Where is the love of the gospel? Doesn’t the love of the gospel offer hope for reconciliation — especially WITHIN the church?”
It’s probably because of the sadness over those stories that these words by Eugene Peterson struck me hard. He is talking about the brokenness of the community John is addressing in his epistle. He says we really shouldn’t be surprised, because the church is composed of baptized sinners learning love:
“Men and women are not admitted to the community by presenting credentials of love skills, nor do we maintain our place in the community by passing periodic peer reviews on love. We are here to be formed over our lifetimes into a community of the beloved, God’s beloved who are being formed into a people who love God and one another in the way and on the terms in which God loves us. It’s slow work. We are slow learners. And though God is unendingly patient with us, we are not very patient with one another. Outsiders, observing our embarrassingly slow and erratic progress in love, wonder why we bother. Well, we bother because God is love: he created us in love; he saved us in the act of love; he commanded us to love one another. Love is the ocean in which we swim. So what if many of us can only wade in the shallows, and others of us can barely dog paddle for short distances? We are learning and we see the possibility of one day taking long, relaxed, easy strokes into the deep.” Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
It’s Good Friday. With many others, I read the accounts of Jesus’ last day of earthly life and wonder how it could ever be called good. I’ve just pasted in part of the passage, but I heartily encourage you to read all of this one or another (Mark 15:16-16:19; Luke 23:26-24:35; and John 19:16-20:30), slowly, meditatively. Then check out the brilliant song David Wilcox sings that catches the essential irony of this no-good very bad, best Friday ever. (Thanks to Anne Henegar for reminding me of this classic!)
MATTHEW 27
45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
SHOW THE WAY by David Wilcox
You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason
We should dream that the world would ever change
You’re saying love is foolish to believe
‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an Army or a Knife
To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life…
Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late he’s almost in defeat
It’s looking like the Evil side will win, so on the Edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins
It is…
Chorus:
Love who makes the mortar
And it’s love who stacked these stones
And it’s love who made the stage here
Although it looks like we’re alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it’s love that wrote the play…
For in this darkness love can show the way
So now the stage is set. Feel you own heart beating
In your chest. This life’s not over yet.
so we get up on our feet and do our best. We play against the
Fear. We play against the reasons not to try
We’re playing for the tears burning in the happy angel’s eyes
For it’s…
The cookbook the Houston women gave me.
14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.”
When I was out in Houston earlier this month, the wonderful women there gave me the ultimate gift – a cookbook called Peace Meals. The premise of this book is that feasting brings community together. For years, I have gathered with strangers and friends for “Story Feasts,” an opportunity to dine on foods of all kind and remember the stories of what God has done.
Today in our Holy Week journey, we join Jesus and his disciples for the ultimate Peace Meal. Jesus is enjoying his last supper before he leaves to endure the suffering of the Cross which will purchase the ultimate peace, the restoration of shalom, the relational harmony and right order lost in the Fall.
In the way of gospel irony, even over this peace meal hovers the looming deconstruction of harmony. Jesus knows Judas will betray him, but he has a greater confidence – His Father, God, will destroy all powers of darkness through his body and blood. Not only will betrayal not win the days, God will redeem betrayal for His grand purposes.
Dear Lord Jesus,
It is hard to sit in this scene with you, knowing what is to come. But you celebrated the Last Supper as a joyous feast, the ultimate peace meal, in anticipation of things to come. Thank you for defeating darkness by your death on the Cross and inviting us to table with you, to remember that is only by your body and blood that we could possibly enjoy peace with God and with one another. God, we praise you for raising Jesus from the dead – the resurrection reality in which our hope lies. Holy Spirit, draw our hearts to dwell today and every day on the marvel of Your meal. In the name of the God who defeated betrayal, Amen.
This is a sequel to yesterday’s post on the “Royal Wedding,” focusing on a parable Jesus told during his last week of life. Read it in Matthew 22:1-14.
The second part of the wedding feast parable also requires an understanding of Ancient Near Eastern wedding culture. . Just as the groomsmen and bridesmaids today wear special clothing to mark them as part of the wedding party, in that day, guests wore garments marking them as partakers in the feast. The garments would even be provided by the host if necessary.
I guess in some ways it would be like a guy showing up in dirty jeans for the royal wedding. Is it rude for the host to kick him out? In this story, a parable, remember, the garment represents something about the heart of the man there. It suggests at least two things about him: 1 – he didn’t take the feast seriously enough to respect its tradition and honor the bride and groom, and 2 – he wanted to wear his own clothes and refused the gracious gift of garment.
The connection really isn’t hard then for us to make. I am like the guy at the feast when I try to wear my own righteousness rather than the righteousness Jesus died and rose to earn me. I am also like that guy when I disdain God’s gracious and costly gift of salvation by doing things my way instead of honoring God with a life of obedience. Grace is a free gift, and it would be as preposterous as a wedding guest wearing dirty garments not to take it and treasure it.
Charles Spurgeon preached an excellent sermon on the meaning of the parable
Here was a man then who came into the gospel feast, and yet refused to comply with the command which related to that feast. He willfully preferred self to God, his heart was full of enmity and pride, he despised the gifts of grace, he scorned the rule of love, he stood a defiant rebel even at the banquet of mercy which his king had spread.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0976.htm
Dear God, my King and my Host,
Thank you for inviting me to the gospel feast. Thank you for giving me the garments of righteousness, entirely undeserved, even unsuiting a woman of sinful heart like my own. Forgive me for preferring self to you, and draw my heart toward you so that I may never despise the gifts of grace. Help me wear with honor the grace-garment you have bought for me with the price of your own beloved, sinless Son’s blood. May I honor you as an invited daughter of the King, inviting other outcasts to the Feast. In the name of the Son you cast on the cross for us. Amen
On a side note, I discovered this article about what the prime minister will wear to the royal wedding: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8463248/David-Cameron-will-wear-tails-to-royal-wedding-after-all.html
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