Tag: spiritual life

The Righteous and the Wicked (Isaiah 26:7-15)

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

The path of the righteous is level;
    you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,
    we wait for you;
your name and renown
    are the desire of our hearts.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
    in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
    the people of the world learn righteousness.
But when grace is shown to the wicked,
    they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
    and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
Lord, your hand is lifted high,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
    let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

Lord, you establish peace for us;
    all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but your name alone do we honor.
They are now dead, they live no more;
    their spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
    you wiped out all memory of them.
You have enlarged the nation, Lord;
    you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
    you have extended all the borders of the land. (New International Version)

Within the Bible, there are really only two sorts of people: the righteous and the wicked. Repeatedly throughout Scripture, we are told that God attends to the needs, hopes, and prayers of the righteous; and conversely, God is opposed to the unjust practices and oppressive acts of the wicked.

The righteous are people who are attentive to God’s law and trust God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. For the righteous, God will make a way where there seems to be no way. If there’s a mountain obstructing the way of the righteous, they believe the Lord will flatten it. And if it isn’t flattened immediately, the righteous patiently wait, seeking to be obedient and full of faith, until it happens.

The world learns about life and faith and the divine through these postures of living by righteous persons. The exception to this is the wicked; they learn nothing. The wicked could see a mountain leveled before their very eyes, and refuse to see or acknowledge the power of God behind it.

All this is to say that the truly righteous persons among us stand out like a sore thumb to the prevailing wickedness of the world. Thus, the wicked would like to see them leveled, instead of a mountain. So, the wicked persons among us are committed to lies, half-truths, injustice, and even violence. They’ll use any practice that would knock down the righteous and advance the wicked person’s agenda.

Yet, in making this distinction between the two groups of people, we need to be very careful. Because whenever we group people, there is always the danger of assuming that the righteous are always righteous and the wicked always wicked – as if the righteous could never do any wrong, nor the wicked ever do anything right and just.

However, the reality is that we don’t live in a completely black and white world; there is a lot of gray. The world is far more complex than our simplistic categories of good and bad. This is why it can be so maddening to try and navigate this world each and every day.

So, when we speak of the righteous and the wicked, let’s have some clarity and understanding of the basic patterns of a person’s or a group’s life.

Biblically, the righteous are righteous – not because they are intensely moral and always actively obedient – but because the basic orientation of their lives is committed to communing and relating to the God of the universe.

And the wicked are wicked – not because they are belligerent and bullying – but because the general direction of their lives is continually bent inward to serve their own interests and ignore the Divine.

Therefore, the righteous have the foundational characteristics of yearning for God, and pursuing the Lord with all their energy. They desire a meaningful relationship with God that gives shape to their plans and purposes for living.

The righteous, as a general pattern of living, find their ultimate longings in life through belonging to God. They seek divine interventions for everything, and deeply desire the divine presence to envelop them and surround the world with love, mercy, and justice. Along with the psalmist, the righteous say:

I ask only one thing, Lord:
Let me live in your house
    every day of my life
to see how wonderful you are
    and to pray in your temple. (Psalm 27:4, CEV)

Like a deer drinking from a stream,
    I reach out to you, my God.
My soul thirsts for the living God.
    When can I go to meet with him? (Psalm 42:1-2, ERV)

As long as I have God, I don’t need anyone else in heaven or on earth. (Psalm 73:25, GW)

In contrast to these heartfelt longings, the wicked are dense and obtuse. They fail to see the beauty in any of this. Their end will be precisely what they have wanted throughout life: To be left alone and have space away from God altogether – which is the classic definition of hell.

But the righteous will also have their desires fulfilled, and shall experience peace and right relations forever with God.

How then shall we live?

Blessed is the person who does not
follow the advice of wicked people,
take the path of sinners,
or join the company of mockers.

Rather, he delights in the teachings of the Lord
and reflects on his teachings day and night.

He is like a tree planted beside streams—
a tree that produces fruit in season
and whose leaves do not wither.
He succeeds in everything he does.

Wicked people are not like that.
Instead, they are like husks that the wind blows away.

That is why wicked people will not be able to stand in the judgment
and sinners will not be able to stand where righteous people gather.

The Lord knows the way of righteous people,
but the way of wicked people will end. Amen. (Psalm 1, GW)

God Will Give a New Heart (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

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

I will take you from every nation and country and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. (Good News Translation)

As a hospital chaplain who has spent a great deal of time on cardiac care units, I have had several occasions to follow patients through the process of a heart transplant. I sat with them as they wondered if they would ever get a new one, because their own heart could no longer sustain the rest of their life. Would they die before receiving one? What would happen to their families?

Then, finally the day came for many (unfortunately, not all); there is a heart for them! After the incredible transplant surgery, joy abounds, knowing there is a new lease on life, a fresh experience. Through weeks or months of waiting and flirting with the Grim Reaper of death, hope is realized. Their old useless heart now replaced with a vibrant one, full of life!

However, the process is not yet over. Typically, about two or three days into possessing this new heart, a new realization comes along with it: Someone else had to die so that I could live….

He personally carried our sins
    in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
    and live for what is right.
By his wounds
    you are healed. (1 Peter 2:24, NLT)

God will…

Life comes from death. Resurrection can only happen when there is a crucifixion. Gaining a new spiritual heart has been achieved at the greatest of costs. “I will” is uttered nine times by God in five verses of Ezekiel’s prophecy. In gracious acts of determination to restore fallen people, God makes promises and has the authority and power to back them up.

Our new heart is waiting to be animated by God’s Spirit so that our observance of God’s law is infused with divine might. Our consent to surgery is all that is needed. Consider just a few of the great “I will” statements of Holy Scripture:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” (Psalm 32:8, NIV)

“If someone trusts me, I will save them.
    I will protect my followers who call to me for help.
When my followers call to me, I will answer them.
    I will be with them when they are in trouble.
    I will rescue them and honor them.
I will give my followers a long life
    and show them my power to save.” (Psalm 91:14-16, ERV)

“I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, NRSV)

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3, NIV)

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV)

The emphasis in today’s Old Testament lesson is on God’s role, not ours. The prophet Ezekiel’s hope is not in the faithfulness of the people in following some new set of rules. Instead, God is their hope. God will save them by gathering, cleansing, and giving Israel a new heart, mind, and spirit to obey God’s words.

God will gather

Those in diaspora, scattered far and abroad in exile, will be gathered back from the nations and into their own land. God will reverse the experience of dispersion by reassembling the people.

He will raise a banner for the nations
    and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
    from the four quarters of the earth. (Isaiah 11:12, NIV)

God will cleanse

God will purify the people, cleansing them from their rebellion and defilement. Since the people’s exile was a punishment for their corruption, they were therefore in need of purification.

I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. (Jeremiah 33:8, NIV)

God will give

Specifically, God does the seemingly impossible: gives a new heart. The people’s old sinful stubbornness is replaced wholesale with fresh desires for justice and righteousness. They will think and act differently because of this gracious newness.

Much like the real physical heart that can barely function any longer, the people’s collective heart was nearly dead, and as unresponsive as a stone. They needed a transplant, so that they could come alive again to God’s moral law and benevolent rule in the world.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33, NIV)

Despite all the threats of judgment throughout the long prophecy of Ezekiel, and all the distressing experiences of the people’s exile, God still desired to be their God. The Lord wants a relationship with people, and will do what it takes to restore it when it becomes broken and damaged. Indeed the Lord is a God of restoration.  

May Christ make his home in your heart as you trust in him.

May your spiritual roots grow down deep into God’s love and keep you strong.

May you have the power to grasp, along with all God’s people, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of God.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

May you be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

May your new heart pump with the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the encouragement of the Spirit. Amen.

Mercy, Not Sacrifice (Hosea 6:1-6)

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

“Come, let us return to the Lord,
    for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
    he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
    his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes away early.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (New Revised Standard Version)

My favorite word in all of Holy Scripture is the Hebrew word chesed (חֶסֶד pronounced “hes-ed” with a guttural sound on the “h”). It’s such a rich word that no single English word can capture its depth. 

So, chesed is translated in various ways across the English translations of the Bible as “mercy,” “grace,” “steadfast love,” “covenant loyalty,” “kindness,” “compassion,” and more. It’s no wonder, then, that since chesed marks the character and activity of God, the Lord very much desires people to reflect this same stance toward others. 

In today’s Old Testament lesson, God was calling and wooing wayward people to return to a divine life of closeness with the Lord. God demonstrated chesed by not putting the people away, like a spouse outright divorcing an unfaithful partner. But instead, God committed to loving the Israelites even when they were unlovely.

At all times, the response God wants is not simply going through the motions of outward worship. Ritual practices mean little if there is no heart behind them. The Lord longs for people to demonstrate both fidelity and fealty through mercy and a steadfast love to God and neighbor. Both our work and our worship are to be infused with divine mercy. 

God deeply desires a close relationship with humanity and is profoundly pained when people seek after other gods to meet their needs and to love them. Hosea’s prophecy is an impassioned plea for all persons to find their true fulfillment and enjoyment in a committed loving divine/human union, just like a marriage.

In Christian readings of Hosea’s prophecy, repentance means accepting God’s chesed through Jesus Christ. The believer is to allow the character of God to rule and reign in their heart so that commitment comes flowing out in loving words, actions, thoughts, and dispositions. Mercy finds its highest expression in the person and work of Jesus. Thus, Advent is a season of anticipating the great love and mercy of God through the incarnation of Christ.

It, therefore, ought to be no surprise that Jesus lifted Hosea’s prophecy as a treasured principle of operation when asked why he deliberately made connections with “questionable” people:

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:10-12, NIV)

And when confronted about “questionable” activities Jesus appealed to the same source of Hosea’s prophecy:

“Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” Jesus answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12:2-7, NIV)

One can never go wrong with mercy and grace. If in doubt between whether to judge another or show mercy, the Christian’s choice is clear. Grace and love create connections – reconnecting the disconnected. The heart of true Christian spirituality is a deep kinship with the divine. Whenever that relation is broken or severed, it is vital to restore it. The means of doing so is not judgment but mercy.

Chesed is more than a word; it is a way of life. God wants mercy. Grace is the Lord’s divine will.

So, let us today receive the forgiveness of Jesus and devote ourselves to prayer and works of love which come from a heart profoundly touched by grace. May the result be healing of that which has been broken, and reconciled relationships with others.

Merciful and loving God, the One who shows amazing grace, forgive us for our wanderings away from the divine life. Return us, again, to the grace of Jesus Christ our Savior so that our hearts will be renewed and aflame with love for others. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, the Great Three in One. Amen.

Confronting Spiritual and Emotional Pain (Psalm 79)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Scream, by Edvard Munch, (1863-1944)

God! Barbarians have broken into your home,
    violated your holy temple,
    left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!
They’ve served up the corpses of your servants
    as carrion food for birds of prey,
Threw the bones of your holy people
    out to the wild animals to gnaw on.
They dumped out their blood
    like buckets of water.
All around Jerusalem, their bodies
    were left to rot, unburied.
We’re nothing but a joke to our neighbors,
    graffiti scrawled on the city walls.

How long do we have to put up with this, God?
    Do you have it in for us for good?
    Will your smoldering rage never cool down?
If you’re going to be angry, be angry
    with the pagans who care nothing about you,
    or your rival kingdoms who ignore you.
They’re the ones who ruined Jacob,
    who wrecked and looted the place where he lived.

Don’t blame us for the sins of our parents.
    Hurry up and help us; we’re at the end of our rope.
You’re famous for helping; God, give us a break.
    Your reputation is on the line.
Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins—
    do what you’re famous for doing!
Don’t let the heathen get by with their sneers:
    “Where’s your God? Is he out to lunch?”
Go public and show the godless world
    that they can’t kill your servants and get by with it.

Give groaning prisoners a hearing;
    pardon those on death row from their doom—you can do it!
Give our jeering neighbors what they’ve got coming to them;
    let their God-taunts boomerang and knock them flat.
Then we, your people, the ones you love and care for,
    will thank you over and over and over.
We’ll tell everyone we meet
    how wonderful you are, how praiseworthy you are! (The Message)

The temple was destroyed. The conquering army gloats over their victory. That’s the context of today’s psalm. It’s a prayer, an angry cry for God to step in and act on behalf of the humiliated people. The prayer is more than a simple plea for help; it’s a deeply passionate appeal, that says in 1960’s terms, “God, stick it to the man!”

In the face of evil, when there is destruction all around and violence everywhere, prayer does not become some sort of polite knock at the side door of God’s house. Instead, prayer is a pounding on the front door with a demand for God to do something about this terrible trouble.

For the psalmist, the incongruence between who God is and what has happened to God’s people is inconceivable and unacceptable. To profane God’s temple is to profane God; and to kill and maim God’s people is to flip the middle finger at God. The psalmist is beside himself and overwhelmed with emotion.

There is something very instructive here that we ought not miss. When we have been brutalized, victimized, and/or demoralized, we just want someone, especially the Lord we serve, to take notice and feel what we are feeling. Never underestimate the power of empathy and solidarity. To feel alone and bereft of help is an awful feeling.

Perhaps the psalmist’s prayer offends some sensibilities. I wonder, for those who find the language difficult, have ever had a daughter raped, or a house destroyed by fire, or seen a person killed without mercy in front of their own eyes. Methinks they have not. The feelings of helpless despair and sheer anger defy human words. These are not casual affronts; they are malicious destructions of property and people.

We need someone to affirm the raw ruthlessness of it all, to have some understanding of the impossible place we are in, with having to deal with such wanton cruelty. When our very support is ripped from our lives, the madness within is too much to bear. Who will rescue us from this body of death?

God is big enough to handle our rage and our hurt. The Lord is available and hears our desperate voice of prayer. Yet, God is not always going to directly and immediately answer on the terms we stipulate. God acts out of God’s own providence and justice, and not from our expectations. And that is a good thing, not a bad thing.

God sees. The Lord knows. And the Sovereign of the universe feels it all with us. The realization of this divine empathy enables us to recenter and reorient ourselves around faith, hope, and love. New life is never a gift in a vacuum; it comes out of agonizing struggle in having to reckon with the existence of evil.

So, when someone goes through a hellish experience, let us exercise our capacity to listen and witness the horrible spiritual pain of the person. Healing hurts: it is not a pleasant affair. So, hang in there and walk alongside another in their hour of need, even when their vitriol seems over the top to us. For only in telling our story to another will any of us find relief and renewed hope.

The biblical psalms permit us to use language appropriate to what has happened. They also allow us to move beyond the venom to the God who restores broken lives.

Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you hallowed earthly pain and gave us the example of obedience to your Father’ will: Be near me in my time of weakness and pain; sustain me by your grace, that my strength and courage may not fail; heal me according to you will; and help me always to believe that what happens to me here is of little account if you hold me in eternal life.

My Lord and my God, as Jesus cried out on the cross, I cry out to you in pain, O God my Creator and Sustainer. Do not forsake me. Grant me relief from this suffering and preserve me in peace, through Jesus Christ my Savior, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.