Annunciation, Suspicion, and Magnificat

This piece comes from my recent re-reading of the "Christmas Story". I was struck by Mary's seeming suspicion of Gabriel's message in Luke 1:29. She was not troubled at Gabriel's appearance, or presence- but at his salutation that she was "highly favored". This is an imaginative piece that, at least for me, examines my own suspicions of God. Why do I struggle to accept God's favor without suspicion. What happens when I trust him fully to the point of courage and fearlessness. I hope you enjoy this fresh retelling.


"Mary, you are highly favored.", declared Gabriel. "The Lord is with you." Mary fell paralyzed, as Gabriel stood there shining like the sun. His sheer size and presence left little space in the room for Mary to even breathe. She was overwhelmed, struggling for each new breath. Her eyes burned like she was looking into the sun as she struggled to catch a glimpse of this uninvited visitor. Her pulse raced throughout her body, even to the tips of her fingers. His words are few. He greets her as "God's favored", but what does that even mean? God hasn't been seen or heard from in centuries! Something about this message does not add up.

By this time, here whole body was trembling. Not from the brightness of his being, nor the size of his presence, nor the thunder of his voice. It wasn't the wings, or the sword, or his authority. It was his words. "What does God want with me?", she thought. "After all this time, not even hearing from Him- as the Romans force my people into poverty and conformity." Here she is: a Jewish young woman, with no identity- just a number in the Empire- and, in many ways, a second class citizen among her own people. "What was she being set up for? This can't be a good thing."

Since the dawn of her own life she had seen her family struggle. Discriminated and persecuted, her people had talked about this God- Yahweh, the God of Israel. Daily she watched as rabbis prayed fervently for Him to come and save them from the Romans. They spoke about His servant who would come and restore David's throne. The spoke of him every year at Passover. But Mary had never heard from God, nor seen any of his miraculous works. All she had were tales passed down to her from her people, shared openly as they read from the prophets in the Synagogue.

Mary was conflicted. While she heard these tales of a righteous God who was bringing justice to the world through her people; she struggled to reconcile that with the current exile of her people. While God stood silent- her people carelessly tried to carry out this righteousness. She had seen naked women drug into the streets for stoning, while the unfaithful man was never tried. And what about the money racket at the temple. Every year she dreaded her family's annual trip to the temple markets where her father would haggle over the price of sheep and goats. For her, the holy days in Jerusalem were little more than a commercial frenzy to prop up the lucrative business of Judaism.

Now this God, who she must struggle to even believe in, is speaking? Now God decides to visit Israel again? And he sends a messenger to declare her "favored"? Her suspicions running wild in her mind- she wonders, "what does that even mean? This can't be a good thing. Why me? Why am I in horror at the idea that God could choose me- when I should be rejoicing? Why can't I enjoy this moment of blessing and choosing? What had made me so suspicious of God?"

As suspicion quickly turned to fear, all at once stillness filled the room and permeated her being as Gabriel softly spoke, "Fear not". Those words fell on her anxiety like a great weight, and in seconds anxiety became brokenness, and brokenness became humility. Those were big words. Abraham had heard those words once. But not only Abraham. Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel- had all uttered these great words to the nation when they needed to hear them the most.

"God can be trusted", Mary thought. "He is good", she thought as her suspicions subsided. Boldness now overwhelmed her. As Gabriel finished delivering his message Mary could scarcely even grasp what was being promised to her. For now, just knowing that God could be trusted again made the moment right. For now, God was bigger than what would be in her womb- he was the Almighty!

Silence was broken only by the soft sobs of Mary who lay face down on the floor for what seemed like hours after Gabriel's departure. Overwhelmed, her cup ran over. Standing up, dusting herself off she begin to sing:

I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now. (The Message)

Our Lives Will Not Be Better in 2012

That's right. Life will not be better in 2012.... just because it's 2012. Every year I witness the same phenomenon: Twitter and Facebook explode with resolutions and expectations that this year is going to be the best ever! By the end of the year those same people are happy that the year has ended and begin to hope the next year will now be the best ever.

But the truth is- for things to change in our lives, we have to change. Just because the calendar changes does not mean that anything is going to change for us- plain and simple. Too often we hope that the next year will be a year when people we dislike leave us alone, or that our job somehow miraculously becomes more fulfilling or pays us more. However, the only way things will ever change for us, is if we ourselves are willing to change. So, in the spirit of New Year's lists, hear are five ways you can actually make sure this year is better.

1. Forgive everyone who upset you in 2011. They don't owe you anything- and God doesn't owe you anything by punishing them. Pray for them to be blessed more than you are this year- and rejoice when God answers your prayer.
2. Love recklessly. Love is rarely an emotion, and always an action. Do more for others than for yourself, and you will realize that you are actually making yourself and your life better.
3. Work hard. That's right, get off your butt! Start that project you've been putting off. Clean the house. Go back to college. Work for something better in your life.
4. Prepare to suffer. Life is painful- and the only way to make it better is meet your struggles head on and work through them. Make those tough decisions you've been afraid to make, and get ready to reap the results... for better or worse.
5. Be disciplined. Spiritual disciplines are a must, yet are consistently the most resisted practices by far too many Christians. Fast. Pray. Worship. Go beyond just spiritual disciplines. Exercise. Read. Meditate.

Sound tough? Well, life is tough. Changes do not come because the calendar says they will. Changes come because you say they will and make the necessary changes to make sure that happens. Happy New Year!

Occupy Love or Hate The Rich?

Advocating for the poor is at the core of the gospel and our faith. For centuries the church at large has identified and cared for the poor and needy among us. From our catholic tradition we can draw upon such great examples. The lives of monks, nuns, and other contemplatives was marked by living on the bear necessities so that they might best identify with the poor- and indeed with Christ himself. No matter what your tradition is, there is no doubt that the gospel is announced through acts of mercy and social justice performed among the least of us.

Recent events in our nation have lead to protests and tension which some have labeled as "class warfare". I do not claim to know the answers to the complex questions facing our nation and our economy. I am so on the outside of that conversation that I dare not try to address it at all; especially not in a one sided forum as this. However, two longstanding truths come to the surface of all of this tension. One, money and the love it is always a complex issue that can lead to gross sinfulness. Two, you don't have to be rich to be greedy.

Thomas Merton was a beacon for the contemplative life in our modern world. I have his work New Seeds of Contemplation laying around my house. I never put it on the bookshelf. Wherever it may end up throughout my day, I pick it up and read a section at random. Since I can only digest Merton one thought pattern at a time; it reads really great this way and provides a little extra unplanned devotional time. At times, the words jump off the page and inflame the heart and mind with passion and fresh perspectives.

Recently, I picked it up and landed on his section entitled "Renunciation". Here, Merton addresses the call of the contemplative to identify with the poor. He explains that this does not mean being without good things. He admits that even those who have chosen to live poor must have their basic needs met so they may be of the best use to God and to men. It is, however, his remarks about having the right heart when identifying with the poor that stood out to me:

And yet you will find men who go down and live among the poor not because they love God (in Whom the do not believe) or even because they love the poor, but simply because they hate the rich and want to stir up the poor to hate the rich too. If men can suffer these things for the venomous pleasure of hatred, why do so few become poor out of love, in order both to find God in poverty and give Him to other men?

He continues to issue one of the poignant and convicting statements of the whole section, if not the whole book:

One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is how to mind your own business.
Nothing is more suspicious, in a man who seems holy, than an impatient desire to reform other men.

While we strive to advocate and identify with the poor, it is important that we remember not to hate the rich. Rather, to love like Christ- to love the poor and to love the rich. I fear that such modern movements as the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the long list of other Occupy movements- do little more than stir up hate and jealousy towards the rich. This is not good for us, or the poor. Jealousy and hatred are putrid sins that destroy the souls of individuals and a people.

Our posture should not be to reform the rich. But to mind our own business while we strive to identify and advocate for the poor. If we choose not to walk in love, hatred and jealousy wait at the door.

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. -God, to Cain, Genesis 4

3 Reasons I'm Opposed to Bible Reading Plans

While I am not opposed to ever using a Bible reading plan, I am in general opposed to the use of Bible reading plan as a serious means of, well.. reading the Bible. That's not to say that a reading plan can't be helpful in breaking down large chunks and helping the undisciplined reader stay on track. Reading plans do a great job of that. So don't hear what I am not saying! This blog is not meant to cast any judgement on those who use Bible reading plans.

In fact, I regularly use the reading plans feature on the Bible app on my phone. These reasons, if you will, are meant to highlight the danger in seeing the Bible as a book only to be read in portions- according to some timeline or structure, rather than a collection of whole stories with complete plots, characters, and thoughts. I argue that this former kind of reading of scripture has become dominant among Christians- rather than a simple, book by book approach in which the reader can get a better feel for the whole. Now that my legal disclaimer is out of the way, please hear me out.

1. Too many Christians only know the Bible in fragments. After a near decade of pastoring, I can tell you that most people in the church know the Bible only in bits and pieces: a fragment here and a fragment there. I can also tell you that TOO MANY pastors only know the Bible in fragments. We have been conditioned into viewing scripture as collection of individual truths; like a big jigsaw puzzle in a box. We have all these little pieces, we've worked hard to collect, and the end we are supposed to have a picture. Then we realize the frustration in trying to make all these pieces fit, because we were never conditioned to see them as part of a larger whole. But the Bible wasn't intended to be a puzzle. It was not written as separate individual truths or concepts.

This understanding of scripture has does such harm in helping us understand what God is really saying. We even present the gospel to others with fragmented truths. Just take time and read one of those witnessing tracts, where the gospel is broken down into 5 bite-size pieces and a prayer. We've all heard of the "Roman Road", and the "ABCs" of evangelism. We scan the scriptures, grab the truths we like, package them together- and then sell them as a super-sized theology combo to the masses. I can't imagine the Biblical authors ever intending such mockery.

2. While the Bible can and should be studied, it is not a text book. Reading plans set the tone that the books of the Bible are too big and too complex for us to ever understand all at one time. Thus, it is implied, that while we read we must be studying hard to get it, because it is just so darn complex.

Imagine the Romans, eagerly awaiting to hear from the Apostle Paul, finally receiving the letter and then reading it among themselves one chapter at a time over a 16 week period. I can tell you now, that's not how they did it! The letter was opened and read in one sitting, at one time. Imagine the churches in Asia taking John's letter of revelation, and turning it into it 10 week course- complete with charts, graphs, and symbol legends. Or what if the Jews, when hearing the words of Isaiah opted to take it one line at a time, for the next year and really try to understand what was being said. All ludicrous scenarios.

I think we wear ourselves trying to study scripture, rather than just reading it and hearing it out. When the writers were writing these books, they weren't writing to explain systematic theology. They were writing about God dealing with real life situations. They were writing to and about real people- not scholars- words they felt God wanted to speak and stories they felt God wanted recorded.

I find myself often reading the Bible and thinking: "I should be getting more out of this." Sometimes I am tempted to take a verse and try to interpret it with the different lenses of theology- trying to decipher how one theologian might view it differently than another. All this does great injustice to the text; because that is not the original spirit or intent of the writing.

3. Reading plans may create lazy disciples, or at least lazy Bible readers. People look at you with this blank stare when you suggest reading an entire book of the Bible in a week. Why is that? I think it's largely because we've been conditioned into thinking it's not possible.

Let's get real for a moment. It takes less than an hour to read many of the books in the Bible. Not all, but many. Take Romans for instance. I sat down last night, and read it in less than an hour. Yet most Christians think the idea of doing such a feat is impossible! The Epistles of John: way less than an hour. The Epistles of Peter: Way less than an hour. The Epistles to the Corinthians: maybe a couple of hours. Please tell me we haven't become so illiterate that we can't sit down for an hour and read. (Strange thing is, people who say they never have the time to sit and read for an hour, will discuss TV shows they've spent hours that week watching.)

Reading a book of the Bible in one reading brings such fresh perspective! Just reading it as the original audience did, with no pretense, helps us understand the whole in spite of the fragments.

It's as if the Bible was never meant to be a jigsaw puzzle in the first place; but a full painting visible and understandable to all.

Plato, Jersey Shore, Lady Gaga, and God's Future

The power of illusion is a gripping one. When life is lived under its spell, rather than in the light of truth- the results are numbing and destructive. Chris Hedges' book The Empire of Illusion was the first work to ever really challenge me to look at the power of illusion; and in particular the grip it currently has in the Western world. Hedges observes that we have become an empire of illusion- accepting spectacle over reality, sexuality over intimacy, educational institution over true wisdom, etc. No doubt with the rush of fools towards internet pornography, so called reality TV, and the great quest of college degrees to hang on one's wall- I can hardly argue with him.

In his work The Republic, Plato records a dialogue between himself and Socrates known as "The Analogy of The Cave".

In the dialogue, Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality.

In essence Socrates supposed that the people in the cave might find themselves completely content to be entertained by the shadows, rather than to live in the light of the real sun. If the shadows were all they ever knew, it kept their minds entertained, and thus they had no reason for any other reality.

The most haunting observation of those living in the cave is that "the shadows are as close as the prisoners to get to reality". Is it possible that we have become the prisoners? Instead of living out our own adventures with nothing to lose- we live it out vicariously through the cast of Survivor, or The Bachelor, or God help us- Jersey Shore. We no longer have our own adventures, or even form our own opinions. We have Fox News, Steve Colbert, and a full cast of media pundits for that.

Earlier this week Lady Gaga premiered her new music video "Marry the Night", in the opening monologue of this videos she says:

When I look back on my life, it's not that I that I don't want to see things exactly as they happened, it's just that I prefer to remember them in an artistic way. And truthfully the lie of it all is much more honest because I invented it... It's not that I've been dishonest, it's just that I loathe reality.

I think that sums up the thinking of an entire generation. Make up your own illusion, numb the pain of your life- as long as it helps you cope. Reality sucks, so re-imagine it any way you like; just don't face it. We are far from war, far from real poverty, far from the horror of epidemics- and the shadows keep us numb, loved, and comfortable. While in reality the world is full of suffering, at least we are safe and entertained. Selling the illusion that in the end at least all is well with us. All the while, like the church of Laodicea we are poor, naked, and blind.

You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. -Revelation 3:17

I watch an entire culture captivated by the shadows: emaciated, poor, and dying. All the while denying their "identity"- living so far from that image God made them in in the beginning. Created to run in the sun, and do exploits! I don't want to live vicariously through shadows on the wall. I crave my own adventure. I don't want to sit on the sidelines, or indeed in the cave, while the real action passes me by. I don't want to settle for a camp fire- when I can have the sun.

The gospel beckons me to step forward into God's future by stepping back into his original purpose, design, and plans. To be the creation of God- not the re-manufactured product of the Empire. I crave the brilliance of God's creation- not the plastic substance of consumerism.

Because of this I work really hard to resist any sentiment of this world. While the world drools over Maury Povich and his ilk as they exploit these sad souls whose lives are filled with pain and turmoil- I turn to Jesus and marvel at his power to move creation ahead of this cycle of death. The Righteous one sent to set the world to rights. The one who takes everything that is inside out and upside down about our world- and sets it to right. That's the adventure I'm on! One that calls me to bear my soul, to lay down my life, to suffer with him- so that one day I might pick it up again from his trust. That, my dear readers, is the truth of the resurrection. And there is nothing more real than that.

"I was made a herald, apostle, and teacher for this gospel; that's why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know the one I have trusted, and I'm convinced that he has the power to keep safe until that day what I have entrusted to him." - The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 1:11-12, from N.T. Wrights "Kingdom New Testament"