Feeling God's Closeness

Job 23:8 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,and backward, but I do not perceive him;9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.10 But he knows the way that I take;when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.11 My foot has held fast to his steps;I have kept his way and have not turned aside.12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

Psalm 139:1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;you discern my thoughts from afar.3 You search out my path and my lying downand are acquainted with all my ways.4 Even before a word is on my tongue,behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.5 You hem me in, behind and before,and lay your hand upon me.6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;it is high; I cannot attain it. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?Or where shall I flee from your presence?8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!9 If I take the wings of the morningand dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,10 even there your hand shall lead me,and your right hand shall hold me.

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I wrote an essay a while back which has been a bit of a theme for me as a father, about how all of us, at our core, crave God's attention, and how He craves ours. There are many dynamics to these complimentary desires. Properly fulfilled, they become worship and blessing. In their fractured forms, they lead to fear and judgement.

There is no easy answer to explain why Job is estranged from God. He is a godly man who has suffered greatly. His process of suffering is a drama that reveals his character and challenges our paradigms about God. He feels that God is not near. We can relate to that. It is an interesting thing to have in the Bible, when you think about it - a lament about how God feels far away. But it is a lament that is reiterated over and over again, contrasting with the times when God comes near.

Psalm 139 is the other extreme of this feeling - an utter awareness of the closeness of God. It is the understanding that his eyes are always on us.

Despite what we may feel, here is the promise from Jesus himself: "I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He is, after all, the Prince of Peace.

Paul's 'St. Crispin's Day' Speech

2 Timothy 3-4

In this passage, Paul exhorts a weary band of brothers and sisters to fight the good fight and finish strong. I was thinking of this yesterday and remembered the images of the Iron Man race where runners pushed themselves so hard that they literally had to crawl across the finish line. As they cross they are greeted by their friends, family, doctors and media. There is at once the knowledge that 'it is finished' and also, I have done well. And that is what we desire, on the deepest level to know, that God sees us crawling across the finish line and grasps us under the arms saying, you are my son/daughter and I am deeply pleased with you. That is a wonderful vision and a destiny to pursue wholeheartedly, but an even better analogy might be these guys, Rick and Dick Hoyt. As it turns out, our role in the race of life is sometimes less about running and more about being carried along by the grace of God. Anyway, the dichotomy between these two images, where one represents us as the runner, and the other with God as the runner, really is dealt with in James. We must run with all of our might, and God will take care of the rest.

Intrinsic and Instrumental Goods

Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
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I recently had the opportunity to hear Professor Robert George of Princeton University give an address entitled, "Natural Law, Human Rights and God". One of the things he asserted was that any serious discussion of natural law needed to be predicated on an acceptance of certain intrinsic goods. Things like friendship or free will are certainly instrumental to achieve something, but they are also good in and of themselves. Without finding intrinsic goodness in an array of things, one has a very difficult time asserting natural law exists. In the passage above Paul describes our bodies as being instrumental either for death or life. I think he would probably agree that the human being, as a creation of God, has a certain intrinsic goodness in it - in the sense that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" but that we are also instrumental for something, either good or evil. It seems that our free will allows us to become more or less intrinsically good by choosing to be instrumental to the Great Intrinsic Good. In as much as we are instrumental to righteousness, we are filled with the goodness of God and sanctified.

A Deeper Healing

Acts 28:24 And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. 25 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: 26 “‘Go to this people, and say, You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 27 For this people's heart has grown dull,and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ 28 Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”
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I know I've written about it before, but in this passage I am struck again by the reality of our condition. We are blind, deaf and lame. Our spiritual infirmaties are much more serious and permanant than physical maladies. So when Jesus forgave sins, he was healing on a much deeper level. The physical healing was a natural follow on step, showing God's sensitivity to the immediate as well as the eternal condition of mankind. But some people, including myself much of the time, are resistant to that kind of love. We are slow to listen to God, slow to see him and powerless to obey - or so it seems sometimes. Paul is so hopeful for the Gentiles though. I find him to be incredibly generous, as a Jewish leader, to dedicate his life for the spreading of the good news to the gentiles. Without that love and obedience, I would not have the explicit, written words of Paul inviting me into God's kingdom.

The Miracle of Forgiveness

John 20:19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
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One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to this passage, seems to be the ability to declare the forgiveness of sins. If you recall, on multiple occasions Jesus demonstrated how this miracle, the miracle of forgiveness, was much more profound and powerful than physical healing. Physical healing, although wonderful and certainly indicative of God's goodness, is not lasting because our current bodies are mortal. Forgiveness which comes from the Holy Spirit is the ultimate act of healing, in a sense cleansing us of our permanent, spiritual leprosy. When was the last time you told someone that their sins were forgiven by God? Do you believe that God has breathed His Holy Spirit into you and that you have the authority to do what Jesus empowered the disciples to do? I believe that the miracle of forgiveness is essential to building authentic community. Jesus, as our King, has invited us into a loving Kingdom, a Kingdom community where all are forgiven and free. We are his agents of forgiveness in the world, welcoming people into that safe place.

The Hidden God

Job 23:8 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,and backward, but I do not perceive him;9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
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Luke 17:20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” [15] 22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. [16]
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It seems that Job experienced something that has, according to some, been common to our era - a hidden God. Certainly the end of his story is full of divine revelation, but in the thick of his trials, God feels a bit distant. Jesus predicted this same feeling for the age that would come after him. The disciples had the luxury and the responsibility of knowing him in the flesh, but we believe without seeing. Thanks to doubting Thomas, we even get an extra blessing for believing without seeing. Nevertheless, we long to see, sing songs about seeing Him, and look forward to seeing Him just as we are fully seen.
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Jesus describes "his day" as though he will shift from being a man to something more like how I understand the Holy Spirit to operate. He will not be confined by conventional rules of time and space. This is not to say that Jesus will cease to be a man - I believe this is His eternal form, but it seems, from his own description, that we will expect and desire him in a way that he will not come. How exciting!

Kingdom Theology in a Nutshell

Mark 4:30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
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It is interesting that birds and squirrels play a part in the distribution of seeds across the earth. Some seeds even have to be eaten and digested before they can germinate. There's quite a bit of symbolism there, but the image I'd like to zoom in on is of the mustard seed - let's call it an acorn instead. Set aside for a moment the obvious truth that the Kingdom of God is something we like to call heaven. What does Jesus mean when he says that His Kingdom is like an acorn, starting so small and growing so big? Why is it important for him to preach this message? Why doesn't he just focus on the same message that John the Baptist preached - 'repent'? Why does he insist on describing it to them? Is this functional knowledge or just a nice-to-know-fact? This last question is key because for many of us, its easier to think of God's Kingdom as though it were a country club - you're either in or you are out. But here God is talking about His Kingdom as though it were a living thing in an of itself - something which starts small, has roots in the earth, grows large into the heavens and provides shelter for all kinds of creatures. This image of the Kingdom is a bit strange, as though Heaven itself might have roots planted in our current reality. And this is exactly what Jesus is preaching. He comes from the root of Jesse, and lineage of David, but Jesus is the Root from which the Kingdom grows, or perhaps the acorn, to follow our analogy. He is the vine and we are the branches . He is the tree who provides our shelter and our way to transcend the world, but his roots in the world allow him to remain connected with us.The Kingdom of God here and now is like an acorn which has taken root and grown into a strong young tree, but there is much more growing to do. This is functional knowledge because in knowing the Kingdom of God is rooted in our midst and growing into full fruition, we can't sit idly by and wait. We must participate in the growing. We cannot force it to grow the way we would like or at the speed that we would like, but we can certainly be productive by doing the types of things Jesus did - loving the outcast, healing the sick, speaking the truth in love... His Kingdom advances when we invite people into the promise of a heavenly afterlife, but also into the promise of heaven taking root in the earth here and now. The already and the not yet - the Kingdom is coming and the Kingdom is at hand.