Tag: dialogue

Questions Without Answers (Job 38:1-7, 38-41)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
God Answers Job Out of the Whirlwind, by William Blake, 1805

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up your loins like a man;
    I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
    and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?…

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
    so that a flood of waters may cover you?
Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
    and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who has put wisdom in the inward parts
    or given understanding to the mind?
Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
    Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens
when the dust runs into a mass
    and the clods cling together?

“Can you hunt the prey for the lion
    or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in their covert?
Who provides for the raven its prey,
    when its young ones cry to God
    and wander about for lack of food? (New Revised Standard Version)

The Book of Job is rather long. After the initial two chapters which set the scene for Job’s awful suffering, we then get an extended and agonizing thirty-five chapters of speeches between Job and his companions. It’s a lot of words which generally go nowhere.

So, by the time we get to this point in chapter 38 of Job, we may likely say, “Finally, God speaks!” Indeed, this is the moment Job has anticipated.

Perhaps we are looking for something in Job’s story which may help us in our own story of suffering. Like Job, maybe we’re looking for vindication of our situation, a restoration to some semblance of life before the grief, or to have our reputation upheld.

But that is not what we get from God. For the next nearly four chapters, God only speaks in questions, and does not answer a single one of them.

If it’s answers to questions we’re searching for, it is unlikely you will get them, at least on this side of heaven. You are more likely to get even more questions than you started with. And then, imagine being questioned by God, and having no answers for God whatsoever.

Yet, that is the point. We humans know jack squat – absolutely nothing, in comparison to an omnipresent and omniscient God.

If it’s God’s voice you really want to hear, you may not know what you’re actually asking for. That was certainly true for Job and his friends. God’s questions are really rather rhetorical; there is no way any of us could really answer them with any sort of knowledge or understanding. It would be a bit like a parent asking their toddler to describe his own birth and how it happened.

God’s unanswerable questions revolve mostly around the workings of the universe. God is the Creator, and none of us were around when it all came into existence. So, of course, we have no answers.

Yet, with all of the questions, we quickly get the impression that humans have very little control over much of anything. And I think that perhaps God wants us to be aware of that reality.

It seems to me that with every question of God, we are led to believe that God is God, and is really big; and that we are not God, and are pretty dang small.

I don’t think any of this is meant to make us feel irrelevant or disposable. Rather, it gives us some needed perspective, that is, that our perspective on world issues, events, and problems is very narrow. But God sees the whole big picture and has a stellar full perspective of all things and all people.

The God in the Book of Job is no vending machine deity, in which we can pick-and-choose what we like and don’t like. There is no grand certainty that if we press the right buttons in prayer that we get what we want.

Therefore, God is not some automaton who predictably rewards the righteous, and punishes the wicked (according to our definitions of those terms). Yet this is the God that Job’s friends believed in – which is why they reflexively interpreted Job’s situation as Job himself being a sinful man.

Even Job believed in this sort of God, at least to some degree. Up to the point of his terrible trouble, he was good and righteous, and received due reward for his faithfulness. The divine system was serving Job well.

But then the system seems to have broken down. Job interpreted God as not doing the expected divine job of operating within the predictable divine structure.

Believers in every generation and era must come to grips with the reality that – although personal virtue and devotion are important – one’s piety does not necessarily lead to personal health nor wealth.

In other words, good guys don’t always win in this life, because having faith typically means we will actually suffer, rather than not.

This is, to me, good news. Why? Because it means, conversely, that persons victimized by violence, poverty, and loss are not necessarily to blame for their troubles. Frankly, there are times when bad things happen to us that are not our fault, and we don’t see any good reason for it happening.

Whenever God is silent, we might start to think that God is also absent. We may begin to entertain nihilist thoughts that nothing matters, that everything in this universe is just random chaos.

Yet, God’s response with all the questions lets us know that there is a solid structural foundation to this universe that we aren’t always aware of. In other words, there is meaning, purpose, and order to it all. We are not forgotten. God sees and remembers us.

I do believe there is a reason for everything. However, I do not believe that we are always privy to know what that purpose may be. Which means that oftentimes, like Job, we don’t have any answers to our existential questions of human tragedy and trouble. This line of thinking isn’t meant to be a cop out; it’s meant to help us accept that we are human.

Sometimes all we can do is affirm what we know to be true, and accept the limits of our own human understanding of things such as:

  • God is God. I am not.
  • God created the world. I didn’t.
  • God established order in the universe. I sometimes see order, and oftentimes see what looks like random chaos.
  • God is Love all the time. I love, but not always.
  • God is with us, even though I may not always sense or feel that divine presence.

Maybe what is most important is that we humans keep up our dialogue with God – our questions, musings, emotions, and expressions of faith and devotion. Because it is in the relationship that we discover the key to the universe.

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, so that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble. Amen.

The Divine/Human Dialogue (Psalm 95)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Psalm 95: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your heart.” By Gina Lazarchik

Come, let us sing to the Lord!
    Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
    Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
    and the mightiest mountains.
The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
    His hands formed the dry land, too.

Come, let us worship and bow down.
    Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
    for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
    the flock under his care.

If only you would listen to his voice today!
The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,
    as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
    even though they saw everything I did.
For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,
‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.
    They refuse to do what I tell them.’
So in my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’” (New Living Translation)

Praise and thanksgiving.

Complaining and grumbling.

Those two phrases are antithetical to each other.

And yet, out of the same mouth can come both worship and whining.

Maybe the psalmist was trying to teach us a thing or two by inviting us to sing and bow to the Lord, as well as hear God’s voice.

Worship and listening are meant to go hand in hand. Revelation and response are to be the spiritual rhythm of the believer. True worship is a divine conversation between us and God. The Lord speaks. We listen and answer. Back and forth we go together. God and God’s people are to be involved in a divine/human dialogue.

When the worship rhythm is off, then our response will be off.

And that is what happened to the ancient Israelites. They were miraculously delivered from their cruel bondage in Egypt. You can imagine the kind of praise and worship service the people had in the desert! After four-hundred years of slavery, freedom!

Yet, before you know it, the thanksgiving turned sour; there began some rumblings of grumbling.

At the first encounter of adversity, when there was no water to drink, it was as if the people had some sort of collective dementia take them over. Suddenly, hearts started hardening. Soon, everything coming out of the mouth was a constant stream of complaints, as if the entire world revolved around the complainers.

One minute, hands are raised in praise; the next minute, those same hands clench into fists shaking at God.

The people forgot that life is an ongoing dialogue with God – and not a one and done conversation of revelation and response.

God acted by delivering the people. The people responded with praise and thanksgiving. And they didn’t want it to stop. Yet, all of life is a rhythm. What goes up, comes down. Good times eventually fade into tough times. The real muster of any person or group is the response when the hardship comes.

The Lord purposely brought the Israelites out into the desert to face a difficult circumstance. God was teaching them to trust. The Lord wanted a response of faith and prayer to the adverse situation.

But the people weren’t looking for a dialogue. They were looking for water. And when they didn’t have it, their hearts hardened through murmuring, bellyaching, and dissatisfaction. Then, all the people could see was their own stuff – blinding them to others, especially God.

However, God was still in the conversation. The generation who saw the incredible deliverance from bondage would die in the desert, never setting eyes on the Promised Land. And it all began because of grumbling.

We need to take complaining seriously. Why? Because it rots the soul, like Mr. Grinch who incessantly complained every year about Christmas. Grumbling makes one into a Grinch-like creature, like the song says:

You’re as cuddly as a cactus
You’re as charming as an eel…

You got termites in your smile
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile…

Your heart’s an empty hole
You got garlic in your soul.

It was only when the Grinch forsook his isolation of complaining and began connecting in conversation with the folks in Whoville, that he had his rhythm restored.

When the divine/human rhythm is off kilter, what will it take to get it back?

The author of the New Testament letter to the Hebrews helps us here. After quoting our psalm lesson for today, the writer responded to the biblical revelation by saying:

Be careful, brothers and sisters, that none of you ever develop a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Encourage each other every day while you have the opportunity. If you do this, none of you will be deceived by sin and become stubborn. 

After all, we will remain Christ’s partners only if we continue to hold on to our original confidence until the end. Scripture says, “If you hear God speak today, don’t be stubborn. Don’t be stubborn like those who rebelled.” (Hebrews 3:12-15, God’s Word Translation)

Revelation and response is the rhythmic dynamism of the Christian community.

Lone Ranger Christians are an oxymoron, as well as moronic. We are hard-wired by God for community. All of us need to encourage one another – every day. Without the communal connections of encouraging conversations, it will be difficult to sustain a divine dialogue of God speaking, with people listening and responding in obedient faith.

Celebration is wonderful. We need times and experiences of celebrating deliverance from bondage. Eventually, when Christ returns, there will be unending worship in the form of jubilation.

That time is not yet here. This side of heaven, we must learn to engage God in ways which address our hardships and difficulties. Otherwise, our hearts will become stubborn and hard.

Let your heart become open enough to receive encouragement. And let it also be brave enough to encourage others.

Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you caused earthly pain to be holy. And you gave us the example of obedience to your Father’s will. Be near me in my time of weakness and pain. Sustain me by your grace so that my strength and courage may not fail. Heal me according to you will. Help me always believe that what happens to me here is of little account if you hold me in eternal life, my Lord and my God. Amen.

Psalm 78:1-7 – For the Next Generation

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

O my people, listen to my instructions.
    Open your ears to what I am saying,
    for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—
    stories we have heard and known,
    stories our ancestors handed down to us.
We will not hide these truths from our children;
    we will tell the next generation
about the glorious deeds of the Lord,
    about his power and his mighty wonders.
For he issued his laws to Jacob;
    he gave his instructions to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
    to teach them to their children,
so the next generation might know them—
    even the children not yet born—
    and they in turn will teach their own children.
So each generation should set its hope anew on God,
    not forgetting his glorious miracles
    and obeying his commands. (NLT)

Every generation needs to recall and renew their ancestral faith – not in a wooden or bland acceptance but through vigorous retrospection of God’s past actions applied to present life. This happens primarily through the telling and retelling of stories. Both verbal and written history play a significant role in shaping current and future generations for ongoing faith.

Discussing God and Scripture need not be forced nor awkward. Most people like talking about things important to them. I have no problem talking about the latest books I am reading, my kids and grandkids, and bacon, simply because they are such a big part of my life. Conversations about these and other subjects arise organically out of the time and attention I have given them over so many years.

One of the best ways to live into faith and pass the baton is to regularly spend time with God through consistent Bible reading, heartfelt worship, earnest prayer, ongoing fellowship, participation in service, and other opportunities to learn about God. Talking about Jesus is to be an organic thing from a heart-wellspring that loves God and ponders divine commands.

The passing along of faith needs some intentional purpose and planning. When it comes to family, we can be willing and ready to ask good questions, instead of merely barfing out information. Typically, when my girls were growing up, most of our conversations around the table would center around one question I asked. We discussed it, talked about it, and mulled it over together. Sometimes, the question was deeply theological, and other times it was an intensely practical question. My wife and I often had others share a meal with us, and I would usually ask them to tell their “God story” or to participate with us in the question. If they were not followers of Jesus, I would ask them what they thought about him, and why, as well as tell us about their own religion.

Passing on the faith to the next generations is a sacred trust God has given to us. Embrace it within the home by talking about God and God’s Holy Word as a regular part of your everyday life, and freely converse in public, as well. The following are a few ways of impressing faith to younger generations:

  1. Train them to lead. Adults do not have to do everything. Everyone from toddlers to teenagers can be empowered to serve, if we will take up the challenge to mentor them. When my girls still lived at home, I took at least one of them everywhere I went; it made no difference what it was, whether to the grocery store, on a hospital visit, or even a church meeting. Serving is now second nature to them, part of the air they breathe.
  2. Show empathy to young persons and young families. Any old fool can criticize younger generations about their lack of involvement and how they are always on social media. The wise person will recognize they need our help, not our judgment. To have empathy for them means we recognize they are just trying to do the best they can in this crazy world we live in – a world very different than the one many of us grew up in. It is a hard world, one that is extremely competitive, requiring an offbeat energy and drive than previous generations. Being a student today is not like being a student when I was a kid. And being a young parent is not the same today as it once was. Today’s family structure is completely changed; what we think of as a traditional family only makes up 7% of the American population. The needed response is not to criticize but to empathize and find ways to help.
  3. More dialogue, less monologue. Discussion, conversation, questions, and mutual sharing are the ways Jesus developed his followers, and it is a way that we can likely reach younger generations. Dialogue will go much further than just telling others what they should believe and do. I admit I had to learn this one the hard way. Being a preacher does not always translate well at home.
  4. Adopt a young person, or a young family. If you consider yourself within an older generation, seriously think about taking a younger person or even family under your wing who is not related to you.
  5. Look for ways to support children, teens, and young families. Prioritizing younger generations will mean they do not have to do everything our way. Instead, we will commit to listening for what they tell us they need to love God and build into their own kids’ lives.
  6. Be a great neighbor. Again, any common curmudgeon can crank on about how messed up the world is. However, the wise person will focus on teaching, empowering, and developing young people into good neighbors who engage their local community and the world by addressing issues with great love and lots of compassion.

Lord God Almighty, I believe. I wish for the next generations to believe in you, too. So, let my faith be full and unreserved; let it penetrate all my thoughts and ways. Let my faith be joyful, worthy of being emulated by others. Give peace and gladness to my spirit so that it may shine forth in all my conversations, whether sacred or secular. Let my faith be humble and fully surrendered to the work of your Holy Spirit, for the sake of Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Reflections on Wisconsin Politics and the Church

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry Blog1 Comment

Yesterday (June 5) Wisconsin had a recall election.  Since being voted into office, Governor Scott Walker has brought to the surface like no other individual the deep division between union and non-union, Republican and Democrat.  At issue is a law that ended collective bargaining for most public employees and teachers.  Since the law’s passing just over a year ago after Walker came into office, it has been a fiasco of union and labor seeking to gain back what was lost, while others who insist the Governor was acting out of necessity to balance the state budget and save jobs.

I certainly have my thoughts and opinions on the performance of Governor Walker and the political issues at hand.  I was part of the nearly 60% who showed up at the polls to back up those opinions.  Yet, my greater concern here is what I believe to be a deeper issue of people not knowing how to talk to one another in this state.  What most news reports cannot accurately depict is how family members refuse to interact with each other without a fight, how neighbors and friends of years no longer relate to one another, and how even church congregants sit on opposite sides of the aisle believing that their thinking on the subject of Wisconsin politics is the right one.

The problem is that no one seems to want to listen.  People have become so passionate about the way they think things ought to go or not go that any kind of genuine conversation or dialogue isn’t even possible.  The wisdom of the Apostle James from two thousand years ago still holds up as sage advice for today:  My dear brothers, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.  The Church ought to be taking the lead in demonstrating how to converse with each other over the significant issues that face all people. And it begins with listening.  There can be no understanding of why a person or group of people is so up in arms about an issue like collective bargaining, or gay marriage, or immigration, or a host of issues unless there is the commitment to understand.  Without this most basic of human commitments to each other, there will be a constant presence of demonizing the other while the devil himself gets off scott free as he sits back and eats popcorn watching a lack of grace unfold.

So, believers in Jesus Christ, it is time to step up and practice what we affirm to be true:  that people, all people, are created in the image and likeness of God and on that basis alone deserve the dignity and respect of a proper hearing without being run out on a limb for their views.  We are to be ministers of reconciliation, as though Jesus himself were making his appeal through us.  Let us redeem our talk by listening first.  That doesn’t mean we avoid talking altogether for some nebulous notion of just getting along.  Let us instead pursue substantive dialogue because God’s agenda has reconciliation in view.  Working together is our only option because we all share the human condition.  The way that working is done is up to you and me.