God Who Sometimes Hides

If I go forward, [God] is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. -Job 23:8-9

I've certainly been there. Sometimes, it is as if God is nowhere. Prayers bounce of the ceiling and clink hollowly to the floor. Worship is dry and communion is nothing more than a tasteless cracker and over-sweet wine. In small group, the question of where I saw God most clearly is a rote answer involving my grandchildren... more of a happy moment than a truly God moment.

Sometimes these dry spiritual experiences last only a day or so. But sometimes they go on for months. On those long ones, sometimes my good spiritual habits get left behind. After all, who wants to talk to emptiness? I'm not sure why these seasons of dryness come or why they can hang around so long. I've been told that God hasn't moved so it must be me. Maybe. But there have been those times when I really examine myself and can't find what I had done differently. I assure myself that I probably just didn't look in the right place.

The ending of the dry season usually appears as mysteriously as it started. It's not usually a VDC weekend or birth of a grandchild that does it. Maybe someone says something that really resonates in my soul or I pick up the bible and read something that makes me go deeper or a prayer finally feels like it's landing on listening ears. Then everything makes sense again.

The one thing I've noticed is that each time I get past a dry spell, my spirituality has moved to a different level and I experience God differently than I ever have before. Maybe those dry spells are supposed to be there.

God Who Sometimes Hides,

Open our hearts to experience you in new ways, always growing in our understanding of who you are. Amen

More Alike Than Different

One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease and secure, his loins full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms covers them. - Job 21:23-26

We ALL bleed red. We ALL want to be respected. We ALL want good for our families. We ALL want to be healthy and fed and housed and clothed. We have forgotten that we all want the same things and I believe that is at the root of this petty, angry "controversy" that has been all over social media in the last few days. People are so angry about so much that they have found something relatively safe to argue about. In 100 years no one is going to remember or care about who stood, sat or knelt at a stupid football game. What they will remember (if there is anyone left to do the remembering) is if we engaged in nuclear war, or how we treated the poor, or if we listened to the cries of the oppressed. which things would Jesus care more about?

God of All,

If we could just remember how much we are alike, maybe we would treat each other better. Help us to remember. Amen. 

Misfortune

Those at ease have contempt for misfortune... -Job 12:5a

We hear it all the time... "If they would get a job, they wouldn't need my tax dollars)"; "God sent that hurricane to (insert city here) because they allow (insert "sin" here)".

We like to think misfortune cannot befall us because we are doing life right. But if you have life, you probably have experienced misfortune of one kind or another. It's easy to think that our own misfortune is no fault of our own, but that other person?... yeah... he's just not trying hard enough.

This is how Job's friends are reacting. I don't think it is because they really believe Job is that terrible, but I think they want to believe it can't happen to them. They are afraid. It reminds me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz where the friends are walking through the enchanted forest to rescue Dorothy from the witch. The scarecrow and tin man are trying to be brave saying, "Bah, there is no such thing as ghosts," when they are suddenly snatched up by an invisible force. The lion falls to his knees chanting, "I DO believe in ghosts! I DO believe in ghosts!" 

Many of us are like the Cowardly Lion chanting whatever mantra we need to in order to ward off misfortune. But the fact is, the rain falls on us all no matter what we say or do.

God of Our Fortunes,

Give us compassion for our neighbors' misfortunes. Amen.

Friend to the Grieving

[Job's three friends] sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. -Job 2:13

Sometimes there just are no words. I always loved this first action that Job's friends take. They just sat with him for seven days without saying a word. As they will later show, the wrong words can sometimes deepen the wound. 

Here are some oft-use phrases that are probably better left unsaid:

• "I know how you feel" - Even if you have gone through a very similar experience, they need to have this experience be more about them than you. If you have some good pointers to help them through, at least wait until the shock wears off.
• "Your loved one is in a better place"- When someone is grieving the only "good" place for their loved one to be is beside them again.
• "God never gives us more than we can handle." - Uggghhh. 

That last one, and phrases like it (God must have needed an angel; This was God's plan; God will use this for good), though some might be true, are just bad timing. As Christians, we certainly want to offer the comfort of God, but it is just not the time to tell them how good it might be that this terrible stuff happened. Instead, tell them that God is grieving with them and will walk with them through the process.

I'm terrible at all this stuff. I have so many good intentions when it comes to the hardships my friends experience, but always feel like I would be just an added burden and end up not doing anything. I'm working on it...

God of the Grief-Stricken and Those Who Would Offer Comfort:

Help us just to be there. Amen.

Worship First

Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. -Job 1:20

How interesting that Job's first reaction was to worship. In the worst moments of my life, my first reaction is to ask God to take it all away. It is so hard to just accept the difficulties in life and deal with them. We want them to just go away and are not above begging God to work a miracle.

We know, though, that hardship, pain and suffering are often good for us. Wouldn't it be great if we could learn all the life lessons and build character without going through all the bad stuff? Wouldn't it be great if when something not-so-pleasant befalls us our first reaction would be to worship?

God of Our Hardships,

Help us to first worship. Amen.

It's Not Always a Wonderful Life

There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.- Job 1:1

I'm so glad to be done with the book of Joshua, even if it is to head over to probably the most depressing book in the Bible. Yes, Job. We've all been there... just when you think nothing worse can happen to you, it does.

The good news is that nearly all biblical scholars agree that Job is poetry; an ancient story told and retold through the millennia.  Really, you can tell it is a fictional story just by reading the first chapter. It sounds like the plot of a movie... God and Satan get together to discuss God's favorite person. It doesn't sound a lot different from "It's a Wonderful Life."

In "It's a Wonderful Life," there are a couple good lessons to be learned, but in the Book of Job, there are many. It's a treasure trove of valuable life lessons as well as spiritual lessons. Every story in the bible does not have to be completely factual history to be of important use. It is believed that Job is the oldest book in the bible, written even before Genesis. It talks about the human struggle of understanding why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to  bad people. We all know that struggle, so this is one story that speaks to all of us in every age.

God of Our Fortune and Misfortune,

Help us to praise you in the sunshine and in the storms. Amen.

Remembers

Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem..., and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: "Long ago your ancestors, includig Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods..." - Joshua 24:1a, 2

Again, the people of God are assembled to hear God's word. Time and again the people gathered to tell and hear the story of how they became who they are. "...remember Terah worshiped other gods, but through Abraham, that all changed." "...remember when God raised up a people through Isaac and Jacob." "...remember when God brought you out of Egypt and gave you signs and miracles."  "...remember.... remember.... remember...."

As Christians, we still do our "remembers."  Each time communion is blessed, we remember Jesus' last supper and his words that instruct us to "remember me." Each Holy Week, we remember Jesus' final days, sometimes even acting them out.

We have to remember our past in order to remember who we are now. Make remembering a practice in your spiritual life.

God of Remembering,

Keep us mindful of who we are by hearing and telling the story over and over again. Amen.

Opinions and Beliefs

When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them. -Joshua 22:10-12

In my reading today, the Israelites are spread out pretty far now. Three of the tribes are feeling particularly separated because they are on the other side of the Jordan River. In an effort to be sure the following generations realize that they are part of the family, they built an altar on the border, but the other tribes misunderstood and thought these three tribes had begun worshiping other gods and were prepared to go to war over it.  Thankfully they sent a group to go talk to them first to find out what was going on.

We have all but forgotten how to do that. Oh, we know how to talk and tell others how wrong they are, but we don't listen any more. There are people who are as confused over our opinions and beliefs as we are over theirs. But instead of trying to find out WHY they believe what they do, we only try to convince them of how wrong (and stupid) they are.

Read some news with a different political slant than what you usually read. Talk to someone with different religious beliefs. Maybe even attend a non-Christian worship service at least once in your life. Talk to those who vote differently than you about what their hopes and dreams for this country are.  And do all this with an open mind. It may not change your mind, but you might understand the other views and you might learn a lot.

God of All Causes,

Help us to understand those who have very different views and beliefs than ourselves. Help us to bridge the chasms between us with understanding, respect and love. Amen.

Sanctuary Cities

Then the Lord said to Joshua: "Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood." -Joshua 20:1-3

The first sanctuary cities were thousands of years ago and commanded by God. Back in those days, it was perfectly okay to kill someone who killed your family member. But sometimes stuff happens and someone dies by your hand unintentionally. And his brother is coming to get you! God's law allowed for someone in these circumstances to go to a city of refuge.The avenger is not allowed to follow you there and you are safe until you stand trial.

Today, our sanctuary cities are for undocumented immigrants. They are cities who have decided to limit their cooperation with the national government effort to enforce immigration law. The reasoning behind this is to make it so the immigrant is not afraid to report crimes, use health and social services and enroll their children in school for fear of deportation.

Illegal immigration is a complicated issue. Walls, and summary round-ups and deportations are not the answer. Jesus made it clear that we are to treat the stranger in our land with the same kindness and respect that we would treat anyone else. Sanctuary cities make this possible.

No matter how you feel about our immigration problem, immigrants- whether undocumented or just plain "illegal"- deserve to be treated humanely.

God of Foreigners,

 Help us to find the right ways to bring in those who want to live here and make them productive members of society. Amen.

Don't Be Slack

There remained among the Israelites seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. So Joshua said to the Israelites, "how long will you be slack about going in and taking possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you?" -Joshua 18:2-3

That phrase "how long will you be slack?" tickled me.  We all get slack from time to time, but it was funny to be reminded that it happened even back then. The Israelites have been brought to the Promised Land and cleared it of all the civilizations living there. They were "at rest" from war and apathy has set in.

Our country has seen its share of apathy. After the civil uprisings of the 60's and 70's, we all just kind of let things go for a while. There have been issues here and there over the years that have stirred us up, but it is not until the last few years that we have seen some serious action. Some of it quite violent. 

We can look back on the things happening in the past and view it with a historical lens and see that it all needed to happen for change to happen. It's a lot harder when it is all going on in the present. Those that see an urgent need for change keep pushing their ideas. Those that just want the world to stay the same as they've always known it begin to push back. Sometimes it results in violence, but in a healthy nation, good change will win out. It usually doesn't go to the extreme that was being pushed, but we make baby steps of progress. Twenty years from now, the people that many now see as rabble rousers and instigators will be known as our national heroes.

God of the Past and of the Future,

Help us to imagine a world that loves; a world that is just. And then give us strength to not be slack in doing our part to create it. Amen.

Peace

And the land had rest from war. -Joshua 14:15

That sounds so good. That's what the U.S. needs... rest from war. That's what this whole world needs. I looked up world peace on the internet.  If it has ever happened, it certainly hasn't been in the last 200 years. There has always been at least one conflict major enough to have been given a name since at least 1792 which is as far as I checked.

With our country actively at war, recovering from two hurricanes and a major wild fire, and the terrible political climate with the violence it has created, we are all looking for rest. In my last devotion, I criticized the violence in the book of Joshua. But we really are not much better today. We may have "war laws" that try to keep civilians out of it, but civilians are hurt and killed in our wars anyway. We may have "war laws" about how we treat prisoners, but they change and/or are ignored. I don't think there could ever really be a "civilized" war.

Maybe our world is just set up for conflict, but it would be so nice to have a year or two of peace.

God of Peace, 

I pray that our world may taste that rest from war and violence and disaster. We may find that we like it and work harder to preserve it. Amen.

Brutal

So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings; he left no one remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded. -Joshua 10:40

I am having difficulty reading the book of Joshua. It is seriously brutal. And it is all done in God's name because God commanded it. Go ahead, read Joshua, chapter 10. This is not a god I would worship if this is all I knew about him.

This is the danger of thinking the Bible is a "how to" book on living. If we want to just point out examples of what God commanded in the Old Testament to defend actions of today, Christians could become terrorists. Hmmm... does that mean if some groups  become too fundamental and extremist about its holy writings, they may become terrorists?  We see it with extremist Muslims today.  We have seen it in the history of the Christian church.

As I ponder this brutal book of the history of God's people, I can't help but believe God could have certainly found a better way. Yes, maybe it had to do with the early time in history and how things were done. And it probably had a lot to do with how the author of the book of Joshua viewed that history. Joshua and his army could never be viewed as the "good guys" if they didn't blame their actions on God.

Thankfully, God can work through anything. God knew what would happen and how it would happen and he used it for the good of us all.  The bible is meant to be read as the sweeping story of God's love for all of us and for all creation.  There is a lot of mess in that story, and some of it is very hard to look at. But the whole point is that God is there among us and with us in the very nastiest places that we find ourselves.

God of Our Nastiest Messes,

Thank you for loving us no matter what. Amen.

Community

And afterward he read all the words of the law, blessings and curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them. -Joshua 8:34-35

Can you even remember when there wasn't an internet available to answer some stray question that crossed your mind? Whatever it is we want to know is available to us with a few key strokes, and for many of us, we don't even have to be home. We just whip out our smart phones. It is kind of funny how frustrated I can get when I want to know something and can't get a good internet connection. I have to wait. I used to have to wait until I got home and could use my computer on my dial-up modem.  Before that I used to have to wait until I could look it up in an encyclopedia at home or go to a library.

Can you imagine what it must have been like with no books anywhere and no one knew how to read anyway? Back before television or radio or even books, the only way to get important information out to the community was to gather them together and tell them. It had to have been a very special event to gather to hear God's word read to them. 

Wow! How spoiled we are! We hear God's word read to us every Sunday and we treat it so casually. But we have it available to us absolutely everywhere and in every version from King James to The Message and in any language you can think of. It is a very good thing. People need access to it and they need to read it for themselves instead of someone else telling them what it says, but we have also lost a lot in the process. We have lost the specialness of gathering as a community to hear it.

Some at Holy Cross are discouraged with the low turn out of adults for Sunday school.  I think this is a big part of the problem. It's not special to us anymore. We can get it anywhere and we can get it when we prefer to get it. I think things will turn again.  Not that we will feel we the need to hear God's word in Sunday school so much as feeling the need to be in community when we hear it.  I think we will circle back to that need eventually.

God of Community,

Help us to treasure the gift of our greater family you have given us... community. Amen.

Raising a Family is Hard

But the Israelites broke faith in regard to the devoted things... -Joshua 7:1a

So the Israelites are reveling in their defeat of Jericho. God told them to kill all of them except for Rahab and her family and to get rid of all their stuff.  Especially the "devoted things."  God was raising a new tribe to bless all other tribes... a family. The difficulty was that the new things God was trying to teach them were very weird in that time in history.  It was hard to get used to the ways of this new God, and whenever the people saw the way "other families" lived, they longed to be a part of that "old" way.

When Achan found some of the devoted things of Jericho he coveted them and took them home. This was so early in this new family's formation, it just could not be overlooked by God. It was too important to keep this young tribe pure from old habits. Achan was dealt with severely and brutally in typical old testament fashion.

I wonder if this new tribe learned anything? Raising a family is hard. Even for God.

God of Families,

Those of us who have raised families feel your pain. Help us to be good sons and daughters of the Perfect Father. Amen.

Because God Ordained It

Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys. -Joshua 6:21

Yes. Another "fun" children's bible story where they dress up and march in a circle to make the walls of Jericho fall. But what about what happens after the walls fall? Men and women, children, old people, every living thing... slaughtered. Because God gave them the land.

There is a lot of violence exactly like that in the Old Testament, most of which is said to be ordered by God. Rob Bell does a good job of talking about a lot of that violence in his book, What Is the Bible?  But what he addresses took place during the time of the Judges and Kings.  This earlier violence doesn't really work with what he talked about.

I would love to know the whole truth to these stories. Was it really God telling them to slaughter every living thing inside the cities? Or was it just the way of men to put their land lust at the feet of their gods? Didn't the same kind of thing happen thousands of years later when Europeans made their way across the Atlantic? And because the indigenous people were "heathens" they felt God was on the side of the white Christians. I can't help remembering that vision Joshua had of the Captain of the Army of the Lord who said he wasn't on either side.

However, if in fact God was making a place for a tribe to grow and develop into a tribe to bless all other tribes, perhaps we can just set it down to the ways of the world. It was how things were done and God works through whatever he has to work with. At that time, violence was the way. I wonder if we have really grown at all?

God of Peace,

Will we ever truly get it? Help us learn how to solve our problems peacefully and with love and respect for other cultures.

Amen.

The Next Chapter

Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?" He replied, "neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, "What do you command your servant, my lord?" The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so. -Joshua 5:13-15

This is an interesting passage. The only other passage that asks someone to remove their sandals because they were on holy ground was when Moses was in the presence of God. The scene is retold in Acts by Stephen before he was stoned, but it is the same story. So now Joshua is told to remove his sandals because he is on holy ground. However the person doesn't claim to be God, but the commander of the army of the Lord. Who would you think was the commander of the army of the Lord that would make the ground holy? Some Christian scholars believe it was Jesus.  It also symbolizes that this is an important new chapter beginning in the lives of God's people and shows that God is with Joshua every bit as much as he was with Moses.

One other thing I noticed was that when Joshua asked this person if he was "one of us or one of our adversaries," the man answered, "neither." Think about that.

God of Our Next Chapters,

As our children begin a new school year, as Houston and neighboring towns begin to rebuild after floods, as families begin new lives with the birth of babies, as families begin new lives missing those who have gone to be with you, as those inflicted with disease begin treatments that can save their lives; we ask to feel you sure presence with us, so much so that we feel compelled to remove our shoes on holy ground. Amen.

Rocks in the Jordan

[The Lord spoke to Joshua], "Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, and command them, 'Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.'" -Joshua 3-4

Joshua also set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests that bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.-Joshua 4:9

It wasn't unusual in the early days of God's people to set up memorials and altars to remember special events and miracles. The crossing of the Jordan was a huge deal.  It was a significant ending and beginning. They are entering the land that God promised all the way back in the day of Abraham. They have much work to do first and it won't be easy (or pretty). 

Setting up the 12 stones (one for each tribe) was a way of grounding and uniting them as a people set apart for God's purposes... a tribe to bless all other tribes. They were instructed to tell the story of this crossing of the Jordan whenever their children asked about the rocks.

But there was another set of rocks. 12 rocks that were laid at the feet of the priests holding the ark of the covenant in the middle of the river (while it was dry). After the crossing, the rocks were covered over by the river and - the author says - "are there to this day."

Perhaps this symbolizes the life they just left behind.  It's almost like a baptism... covered in water, the old life is washed away and the new life begins.

God of our lives,

Help us to remember the moments that shape us more into your image. Remind us to place our own "rocks" so we will tell our children how you have worked in our own lives. Amen.