Healing Rays of Righteousness

Is God Down Here?

In her book, At Home in Mitford, Jan Karon writes of a time when Father Tim, an Episcopal priest, heard a horrible scream from the sanctuary of his church.  As he came closer, he began to understand the anguished words that made up the scream:  Are…you…up…there?

“Father Tim slid into the pew across the aisle and knelt on the worn cushion.  “You may be asking the wrong question,” he said quietly.  Startled, the man raised his head.  “I believe the question you may want to ask is not, ‘Are you up there?’ but, “Are you down here?’”  

This may be the question seeking an answer in our heart and mind as we journey through Lent with its focus on our wilderness experiences and relationship with God. 

For a few weeks following the birth of Jesus, we focused on the coming and nearness of God being with us as declared in his name, Emmanuel.  But now, as we move back into our daily routines, Christ’s presence seem more distant, once again up in the heavens.  He seems no longer to be the Word made flesh and no longer the Word that dwells among us, full of grace and truth.  Such feelings may haunt us as we journey through Lent with its various wilderness experiences.

Before Jesus was born, God would visit His people by performing mighty and miraculous works.  Whenever He made such visits, God’s people would stack stones or build a monument or erect a synagogue in honor of God’s visit.  The erection of material monuments and buildings was their way of saying, “God was here.”  The power and presence of God had visited them in a place, and so in order not to forget the event, they constructed a visual reminder.

But when Jesus entered the world the verb tense changed from the past “was” to the present “is” tense.   Jesus stepped down out of heaven and made His dwelling among us.  He moved into our neighborhood.  He took up in-flesh residence on this planet earth so we could better understand and know God.

In writing his Gospel account, John introduces us to Jesus by telling us that this “Word” Jesus who was in the beginning and was with God and was God, became human flesh so we could better understand and have relationship with God.  “The Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (1:14).

Christ “the Word” certainly is “up there,” but we must never forget that he is also “down here.”  Because of Jesus’ birth, because of the incarnation of God, we now say, “God is here.”  In Jesus, God “made his dwelling among us.” and in Jesus, God came into our world and into the everyday, mundane things of life.

Believe it, my friend, Jesus was not an idea of God, nor a picture of God, but God Himself embodied in human form and flesh.  He came to assure us that we have God’s full attention and love.

The story is told of a little girl who was frightened one night during a loud thunderstorm.  She cried out to her Daddy, “Help me.  I’m scared.”  Her Daddy comforted her and said, “Honey, you don’t need to be afraid.  God loves you and he is here with you in your bedroom, and he will take good care of you.”

The storm continued and after a few minutes, another bolt of lightning and clap of thunder caused the frightened girl to yell again for her Daddy.  Again, her Daddy’s response was the same.  But the girl replied, “Daddy, I know that God loves me and is here with me, but right now I need someone with skin on to stay with me.”

When Jesus stepped down out of heaven and became human flesh, he was God, “full of grace and truth” with skin on.  In His act of becoming human, God experienced and shared in all the pains of human life on planet earth.  He felt the pain of loneliness, the hurt of rejection.  He felt the pain of grief in losing a loved one to death.  He felt the pain of mental and physical abuse. 

And because God became human in Jesus, He understands and empathizes with us completely, feeling our every pain.  God is here and He feels, He hurts, He cries.  Because Jesus became human like us, we can now experience God down here, living in our midst and being lovingly present with us in every joy and pain.

We could never reach Him up there, but in love He came down here to us.  “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory…”  Thanks be to God who loves us so much that He lives within us and shares in all our life experiences.   

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 24, 2021

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Called to God’s Love

Henri J. M. Nouwen wrote just several weeks before his death in 1996 that “Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life.  It is the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us.  Life is a continuing process of the death of the old and the familiar, and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust, and a new love.”

The whole of written Scriptures tells us that God deeply loves us and eagerly wants our love in return.  God poured his eternal love into us when he created us, desiring above everything else that we choose to be in an intimate relationship with Him.  The 40 days of Lent annually offers us an opportunity to review our relationship with God, repent of all that distracts from that relationship, and return to deepen our love relationship with God, who is LOVE.

In the book of Joel, God’s people had experienced massive devastation from swarms of locusts.  As a spiritual leader, Joel knew the remedy was to call God’s people to return to Him in a sacred assembly of united repentance.  When the people responded, God heard, forgave, and restored the land (Joel 1-3).

We, the people of United States, have experienced immense physical and emotional suffering, destruction, and death during this past year due to the Covid-19 virus, destructive storms, and violent political extremism fueled by deceptive Qanon lies and conspiracies.  Is not this prime time to call God’s people in our churches and communities to tearful lament and repentance? 

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”  Rend your heart and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.  … Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly;

 … Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar.  Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.  Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations.  Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”  (Joel 2:12-17). 

In her book, Preaching from the Minor Prophets, Elizabeth Achtemeier responds to these verses.  “Even now, in twentieth-century America and in all the years to come; even now, in our situation, marked as we are with disdain for our neighbors’ needs and neglect of the will of our God; even now, in the midst of our fears, our sufferings, our guilts, and our ignorance, the God of all mercy holds out to us the opportunity for repentance and return, that we may stand and know salvation in the Day of the Lord.”

Joel calls us to rend our hearts because he knows that the source of sin is our evil hearts, as God stated in Genesis 6:5.  “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”  And Joel knew that true repentance must begin with a rending, that is, a sorrow-filled breaking of our heart.  

The three-lettered word “for” in verse 13,is so important because it gives the reason why we can and should return to the Lord in repentance.  It is because God “is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,” and willing to take back his planned judgment on his people.  This characterization of God’s nature is confirmed throughout the Old Testament.

Joel believed that the severe agricultural devastation was a loud trumpet call from God, giving his people an opportunity to repent and return to Him in trust and faith.  And yes, I too believe such times of loss, grief, or devastation continue even today to become times of God calling us to sorrowfully repent, and acknowledging our failings and sin, to return to His love for us.

I repeat what I said earlier.  God poured his eternal love into us when he created us, desiring above everything else that we choose to be in an intimate relationship with Him.  May we say with the psalmist  – “I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. … The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.” (Psalm 116:1,5).       Amen!

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 17, 2021

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Living as Holy People

Leviticus 19 begins with God telling Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”  The Bible usually uses the word “holy” as a description of God or places and things that relate to God.  However, the word is used in Leviticus in much the same way as Jesus used the word “perfect” in his Sermon on the Mount, when he said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48).

Both words, “holy” and “perfect” beg the question, What does being holy or perfect look like?  But that is probably the wrong question.  If we listen carefully to this reading in Leviticus and to the teachings of Jesus, we soon discover that the words “holy” and “perfect” have much more to do with how we act rather than how we look.

In Leviticus 19 the command to “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” is followed by a listing of specific instructions about living together in community.  This immediately undermines the popular notion that to “be holy” means separating myself from others and living isolated as a hermit or monk.  Instead, being holy has everything to do with how I relate to and act toward others in my community and world.

Specific instruction is given about not harvesting the fields and vineyards bare, but to leave the gleanings for the poor.  Another instruction forbids stealing and lying.  Yet another warns against taking advantage of people who are deaf or blind.  Furthermore, justice is to be administered impartially, and people should not slander, nor seek vengeance against one another.  God then sums up these instructions with the command “but love your neighbor as yourself” followed bythe phrase “I am the LORD.” 

This leads me to believe that God’s command to love one’s neighbor as oneself is to be observed because loving one’s neighbor is the essence of being holy.  The Scriptures show and tell us that God is all about love, “God is love.”  And then when we become his people, this divine quality is gifted to us.  And it is God’s intention that we stamp upon our society and community this God-like imprint by living together in community with sharing, caring love.

When Jesus was asked by a Pharisee lawyer about which commandment was the greatest, Jesus answered by quoting directly from Leviticus 19:18, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind,” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus said that upon these two commandments hang all the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures (Matthew 22:40).

Jesus again quoted this verse in his conversation with the rich, young ruler when he asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” (Matthew 19:19);  and it is quoted in his parable of the Good Samaritan when the law expert asked, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:27).

Likewise, the apostles Paul and James quoted this verse from Leviticus in their letters.  Read Romans 13:9-10, Galatians 5:13-14, and James 2:8-9.  Some commentators think that the book of James is a sermon based-on Leviticus 19.

Furthermore, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus broadens this command to also include our enemy.  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” and concludes with this command “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-47). 

Undoubtedly, to “be holy” or “perfect” cannot be rolled up into a single pious activity or be reduced to a way of dressing.  Neither can it be expressed by lugging a Bible with you everywhere you go.  Nor does regular church attendance by itself make you  a holy person. 

Rather, the imprint of God that he commands us to make upon our society happens only by our attitudes and actions of kindness, justice, mercy, generosity and compassion.  From God’s perspective, loving our neighbor, and even our enemy, is the essence of holiness.

As Christians, we often find it easy to embrace the love of neighbor in our faith statements but struggle when it comes to actual practice, especially when that “neighbor” represents a social, cultural, or political offense to us; and it is even more difficult if the “neighbor” becomes the enemy.

And yet, in all of Jesus’ life and teachings, he intentionally destroyed any excuse for divisive and conditional response to his command “love your neighbor as yourself.”  Yes, God daily calls us to “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”  I know I must do better.  What about you? 

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 10, 2021

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

There Are Better Days Ahead

Anne Frank was a young, Jewish girl living in Amsterdam when the Nazis came to power.  She was no longer able to play along the beautiful canal outside her home.  She had to go into hiding, never leaving her neighbor’s apartment.  Many of her friends were rounded up and sent to death camps.  Anne lived under constant threat of being discovered.  One day she wrote in her diary, “I just heard the church bells ring.  I believe they are saying, ‘there are better days ahead!’”

This is the message the prophet, Isaiah, shared with his people – the people of God who have been torn from their homeland, Israel, and now living in exile in Babylon. “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.  I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.” (Isa. 65:17-19).

It is the message the apostle Peter wrote to his persecuted and suffering fellow-believers in his day.  “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and new earth, the home of righteousness.” (2 Pet. 3:13).  “There are better days ahead.”

And, it is the message of apostle John, banished on the isle of Patmos, and writing to the persecuted, suffering Christian churches of his day.  “There are better days ahead.” 

The book of Revelation records the heavenly visions God gave to John as encouragement for the Christians of Asia Minor who were suffering much pain and persecution.  In chapters of 21 & 22, John looks beyond the agony of human history, as seen in chapter 20, and receives a vision of a new reality.  He sees “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.” 

The amazing affirmation of Revelation 21 & 22 is that God, having created a new heaven and a new earth, will return in majestic victory over all evil, pain, and suffering, to intimately dwell with all humankind eternally.

Do you remember what Jesus told his disciples after announcing that he was leaving them and that they could not follow him?  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (Jn. 14:1-3).  “There are better days ahead.”

And do you remember the angels message to them in?  “Men of Galilee, …why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11).

John describes the holy city descending like a bride, beautifully adorned for her husband.  The “new Jerusalem” is seen not as a place, but rather as a metaphor for God’s people, in whose midst God dwells, even as the old Jerusalem metaphorically stood for the whole people of Israel, and the temple represented and made real God’s presence in their midst.

The central and most fundamental language of this new reality is “relationship” language.  God comes down  to have an intimate relationship with us, like he did in the Garden of Eden.  Intimate relationship with us has always been his desire and creative purpose.  And nothing is more intimate than wiping tears from the face of someone who is in deep pain.  Imagine the glorious, almighty, holy God now living among us and wiping all tears from yours eyes.

In his vision, John sees heaven as a glorious place and describes it with vivid images.  Paul says heaven will be better than our wildest imaginings and quotes an unknown writing: … “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived – the things God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9).

In her book, Joy in Our Weakness, Marva J. Dawn, writes, “Whatever description we might offer of what it means to be in the presence of GOD after our death will be grossly inadequate.  It is not the place we are interested in, after all, nor some sort of spectacular final event.  It is our encounter with the Person, the Lord of lords and King of kings. (p.201).

Imagine being greeted by Jesus and hearing the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  …Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”  (Mt. 25:21, 34).  Yes indeed, “there are better days ahead!”

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 3, 2021

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley