Healing Rays of Righteousness

Anticipating Advent 2018

Read Isaiah 64:1-9

Advent 2018 bursts upon us with the impassioned cry of the prophet to God that things are not right in this world; “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!” (Isaiah 64:1).

Isaiah gives voice to a soul-deep longing for God to show up in their midst as he did in the past.  “For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.  Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 64:3-4).

Most of us have probably prayed a similar prayer at one time or another.  Like Isaiah, we too are filled with longing to see God coming down to act on our behalf. We too hunger for the transforming, authoritative presence of God in our world, church, and families.  In many ways we feel threatened by the evils of war and violence, corrupted authorities, injustices, and agnosticism. Innocent and powerless people suffer as victims of evil and selfish greed.

And conversely, people who do evil and live in disobedience to God’s commands often appear to never have trouble or difficulties.   And so, we too, with Isaiah, beg God to come down and do something about this world of evil and injustices.

From such an emotional and spiritual depth of despair, Isaiah speaks in verse 8, the most unexpected, unthinkable, and unsupportable word “Yet.”  It is a word of faith that stands up against all the apparent defeatism and gloom of the previous verses.

“Yet you, Lord, are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”  The claim has been made.  God has made us, and we are his people.  In spite of all the threats, crises, troubles and tribulations, that fact of faith, pivoting on the one small word “Yet,” gives voice to the grand and glorious solid-rock truth that lies beneath and supports all other truths.

Isaiah’s words reveal to us the heart and soul of Advent. “Come, Lord Jesus” is a prayer that points both backwards and forward; that is, backward to the baby in the manger but also forward to the Lord’s continual entering into our world.

God enters our world in many ways; some large and dramatic, and others, maybe most, small and subtle.  Isaiah’s imagery about mountains falling down, valleys standing up, and unlikely people appearing on the road is not so much about a dramatic event as it is about a decisive, transforming change happening.  And that’s what happened at Christmas.

The Advent and Christmas season is all about remembering and celebrating the day God, in Jesus Christ, left the glories of heaven, and taking on human flesh, came down to earth to be one with us and to experience what human life is like in this world.

What Isaiah and the other prophets could only pray and hope for, based on God’s promise of a Messiah, we now look back on as the hope that has already come!  God, in Christ, came down from heaven to be in human relationship with us, and to be our Savior.

God did rend the heavens, not in the mighty way Isaiah may have expected, but when the angelic chorus burst forth in song at the birth, all heaven broke loose in praise.  God came down from heaven as a human baby, and lived and walked as one of us.  And the world still trembles in awe and wonder at the miracle of that birth.  God came down and through the infant Jesus said, “I dearly love you.”

Nothing pictures the surprising nature of God’s love and presence better than God’s coming in the person of Jesus as a human baby.  No one anticipated seeing God in an unwed pregnancy, in a small-town stable, in a blue-collar worker, in a family of refugees.  Yet, that is how God came, and that is how God worked in response to Isaiah’s plea for God to come down.

What we celebrate and anticipate this Advent season is the unexpected manner of God’s coming in Jesus, and the unexpected ways God is still coming to up-end and transform our lives and our world in each new day.  I invite you to meditate on God’s coming yesteryear and today, often in places we would not think to look.

During this Advent season, let us join the prophet, Isaiah, in remembering God’s mighty presence in the past and let us prepare ourselves to be surprised and amazed by the appearance of our God at any time and in any place.

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 28, 2018

Cultivating A Grateful Attitude

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God‘s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, a day set aside for us to reflect and give thanks for God’s goodness toward us during the past year.  Maybe the year did not go as we had hoped.  Maybe it was a very difficult year of disappointments, painful sufferings, and grievous losses.  Even so, I believe there is always much for which we can be and should be thankful.

I’m reminded of the boy in elementary school who arrived late to school and was reprimanded for it.  Later, he discovered that he had forgotten his homework, and was scolded again.  Then he began to feel sick, and ran in from the playground to go home.  And as he ran, he tripped and fell, breaking his arm.  While he was on the ground, he found a quarter.  Later, going home from the doctor’s office he told his parents, “This is the best day of my life!  I have never found a quarter before.”

We all need to cultivate that kind of grateful spirit so that we can see and acknowledge the good things that happen to us and be more thankful, even when much is going wrong for us.

The most important attitude that we can ever cultivate in our life is the attitude of gratitude, of being thankful in all circumstances.  A grateful attitude causes our life to open up like a flower, full of beauty and sweet fragrance.  And it causes our life to become filled with joy and pleasant surprises because we more readily see God blessing us in so many wonderful ways.

Health research consistently shows that people who count their blessings sleep better, are more active, and care more about others.  Furthermore, people who are daily counting their blessings, show significant improvements in mental, physical, and spiritual health.  And these results are true regardless of your age or life situation.

Every situation of pain and/or loss has the potential for us to cultivate a spirit of gratitude or resentment.  Every problem provides an opportunity for stronger faith and new relationships, or for frustration and despair.  The need for surgery can make us dread the pain or thank God for the surgeon’s skills.  Stormy weather can create dreary complaints or gratitude for the sunny days.  The death of a spouse can produce a terror of the future or a song of thanksgiving for memories of ten thousand shared joys.  A grateful heart discovers blessings in what the discontented, resentful heart overlooks or takes for granted.

I read of a psychiatrist who prescribes a simple cure to his depressed patients, which they are to use for six weeks.  He instructs his patients to say “Thank you” whenever anyone does them a favor and they are to emphasize their words with a smile.

He reports that often the common reply is, “But, doctor, no one ever does any favors for me.”  And the doctor responds, “That’s why you are sick.  You don’t look for reasons to be thankful.”

The psychiatrist reports that two good results flow from this treatment – the patient becomes less discouraged, and persons who associate with the patient become more active in their affirming words and good deeds toward the patient.

Truly, it is a basic principle of life – thanks given to another person has a boomerang effect of appreciation and favor being returned.  It is amazing to see what happens to us when we cultivate the habit of always saying “Thank you” to others, and to God in every situation and circumstance we may find ourselves.

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

Snoopy is getting his usual dog food for his Thanksgiving Day dinner and he is aware that everyone else in the family is inside the house having turkey.  He thinks about this and talks to himself – “How about that?  Everyone is eating turkey today, but just because I’m a dog I get dog-food.”  He trots away and positions himself on top of his doghouse and then gratefully concludes, “Of course, it could be worse.  I could have been born a turkey.”

Yes, and I repeat, the most important attitude that we can ever cultivate in our life, is the “attitude of gratitude”, of being thankful in all circumstances.  An “attitude of gratitude” will both bless us and others.

I remember hearing of a southern mountain woman who had chiseled in rough and uneven letters on her husband’s tombstone, this epitaph, “He always appreciated.”

I hope that this same tribute can be said about you and me after our deaths.  But for that to happen we need to join the Psalmist in reminding ourselves, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Ps. 103:2).  And so, beginning today, let us discipline ourselves in cultivating a truly grateful heart and mind.

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 21, 2018

Celebrating A Goodly Heritage

Read Psalm 16:5-11

Thanksgiving Day is traditionally a time of celebrating harvest, to admire our work and to be grateful for what we have.  It is the time of year when we think of family and friends more intentionally.  It is a time of remembering our connections with those who died, and celebrating our connections with those yet living.  It is a time to reflect from where we have come and how God’s gift of presence and grace surrounds and blesses our lives.

This “God gift” of presence and grace, often looms larger in retrospect than what is seen in the present moment.  To reminisce, reflect and realize that all of our life has been and is being blessed by God’s gracious presence and love for us, I believe, will soon have us echoing the psalmist’s joyous praise, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”  This reflective thought will also reaffirm and strengthen our hope and encourage us to move into the future with full confidence in God’s goodness toward us.

This does not mean that all the places of our heritage were pleasant.  Nor does it discount or diminish the difficult struggles in our life’s “cup” of relationships and circumstances.  But the deep sense of contentment expressed in verse 6, flows from the sense of security expressed in verse 8, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord.  With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

A wise man once said that when it comes to Thanksgiving Day activities, most people fall into either of two classes, those who take things for granted and those who take things with gratitude.

For an example, whenever we sit down to eat, we have two options about the way we partake of what is put before us; and the choice we make from these two options says a lot about our attitude toward life in general.  We can approach the meal with a negative spirit, wishing we were at a different table, critical of the way the food is cooked, unhappy about what we are being served.  Or we can sit down with gratitude and appreciation that a meal has been provided for us, and thoroughly enjoy what we have been given.

We have the same two options when we sit down at the table of life with its many unpleasant situations and relationships.  We humans are never free to determine what will be set before us, but we are free to choose how we will experience it.  We can choose to either receive these difficult and unsavory things with resentment and bitterness, or we can accept them with gratefulness and confident hope, knowing that the Lord is at my right hand.

The psalmist expressed contentment and confidence and chose to say, “Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.”  Being fully satisfied with the Lord and the total security that God’s faithful care provides, even in death, the psalmist testifies, “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (v.11).  In Psalm 23, verse 5, the psalmist further testifies, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

It is very interesting to discover that whenever the Gospel writers depict Jesus as eating a meal, they describe him as doing what he would later do at the Last Supper: (He) took bread, and gave thanks……he took the cup, and gave thanks.

This was more than just an ancient Jewish ritual.  I think of it as a picture of the way Jesus sat down to the banquet table of life.  It was how he related to all of what God was setting before him.  Jesus was not resentful of the fare that was placed before him.  He did not mistrust the intentions of his Father.  Rather, a grateful acceptance undergirded his whole life, and this thankful spirit opened the fountain of joy and peace that so beautifully characterized him.

What, in your life, are the pleasant places of goodly heritage in terms of family, church, community and Godly faith that you can declare and celebrate in your life?

I invite you to give some extended thought to reminiscing, reflecting, realizing God’s goodness in your life, and then joyously celebrate with thanksgiving.

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 14, 2018

Count Your Blessings

Read Luke 17:11-19

In the healing of the ten lepers, Jesus does not reach out and touch them.  He doesn’t say, “Be healed.”  He tells them “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”  He was telling them to believe that they could be and would be healed.  In faith they started out, and while on the way to the priests they were cleansed; that is, they were healed and the priests would declare them clean.

We can only imagine the joy that they must have felt in being cleansed of their skin ailment and now able to live, work, and play in their community again. It was a great new day in their life.

All ten lepers, who acted in faith, were cleansed and healed of leprosy, but only one of them “when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan.”  After asking about the other nine, Jesus tells him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Ten lepers were healed, but only one was “made well.”  The literal translation of the original Greek would indicate that the healing was more than physical.  I think we would agree that soul healing, that is, being made whole, is far more important then just being physically healed.

I think Jesus’ use of words in this story is consistent with the oft-repeated biblical teaching that unless genuine gratitude is a foundational part of our character and lifestyle, we can’t be “made well” people.  The other nine lepers were physically healed but not “made well;” and if, according to biblical teachings, ingratitude is more deadly than leprosy, then they were in worse spiritual shape than before.

Some years ago, I heard it said – “Ingratitude does not deny us God’s mercies – it denies us of relationship with Him.  Jesus did not punish the nine lepers for their ingratitude; He just left them with His miracle gift and themselves.”  We do well to ponder that statement.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?”  Why did he ask this?  We could assume his feelings were hurt because nine of the ten didn’t feel it necessary to thank him for their healing of leprosy.  But, I wonder if he wasn’t more disappointed than hurt – disappointed because he had so much more to give them.  He loved them, as he loves us, and wanted to give them, as he wants to give us, his wonderful, life-changing gift of being “made well”  – a gift that can be received and enjoyed only in an intimate 24/7 faith relationship with him.

Furthermore, remember that this healed Samaritan leper came back praising God even though he still had some very enormous problems and difficulties facing him.  He had been living as an outcast with no family, no job, and no status.  It would not be easy, and highly improbable, that he could go back into the community and quickly experience being warmly welcomed, fully accepted and trusted.  Even so, he is grateful and praising God.

Most likely many of you have a difficult, painful situation facing you right now.  I’m reasonably certain that nobody is problem-free.  Let’s listen to the apostle Paul as he exhorts us to praise God even in the midst of our problems:

“Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Eph.5: 19-20).  “Rejoice always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

Listen to Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, saying, “I thank God for my handicaps.  Through them I have found myself, my work, and my God.” 

It’s hard for me to imagine being Helen Keller, living with the two major difficulties of blindness and deafness.  Helen Keller was not healed of her blindness and deafness, but she was “made well” by her faith in Jesus, as evidenced by the many praise songs she wrote and that we still sing today.

In remembering Helen’s very difficult physical situation and her constant testimony of God’s blessings in her life, I’m led to conclude that it is in our thanksgiving and praise that God’s healing power is released in the most dramatic ways.

Many of us are quick to say “Thank you, God” for the big things in life, but forget to thank God for the little things in life, taking them for granted.  The Scriptures repeatedly tell us that a grateful heart gives thanks for all things, big and little.

In these days leading up to Thanksgiving Day, I challenge you to count your blessings, large and small, significant and common, and like the returning leper, “praise God in a loud voice,” who is the source of every good and gracious gift.  Remember, we don’t deserve a thing, so our every day should be filled with thanksgiving and praise to God.

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 7, 2018