LOVE SUFFERS

Ezra 10:1-44; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20; Psalm 31:9-18; Proverbs 21:3

“While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and lying face down on the ground in front of the Temple of God, a very large crowd of people from Israel—men, women, and children—gathered and wept bitterly with him.”

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

“Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. 
My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within.”

“The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices.”

Here is some hard truth. Love hurts. Love grieves. In short, love suffers. Not all the time, of course, but if love is really love, it must be willing to suffer any time suffering is required. A love not willing to sacrifice to save another is not worthy of the name. No emotional attachment that starts packing when the going gets tough bears any resemblance to what happened on Calgary. No, when the road is rocky, love toughs it out. Even Love may stumble, to be sure, against the onslaughts of the Evil One. However, in spite of the pain, love suffers through. Love does not turn back. Most important, love is not afraid to be love for fear of love’s inevitable pain. Love looks for opportunities to triumph through the pain.

I’m not sure I ever fully understood how truly painful love can be in this life until I watched my wife suffer through the death of her father. His loss was a shock to us all, but for my wife, it was more than personal. It was a full frontal spiritual and emotional attack by the one enemy who cannot be denied on human terms. Moreover, her service as Executrix prevented her from grieving fully as her heart longed to do. Through the entire year plus aftermath of clearing the Estate and doing her best to keep all the heirs happy, my wife kept a stiff upper lip and suffered more or less in silence. Still, suffer she did. Fundamentally unequipped to handle the technical legalities that tied up the Estate and everyone’s emotions, she had to face stinging criticism from those who felt slighted by the Will or when unforeseen delays caused stress or suspicions to raise their ugly heads. More than once, we discussed her resignation. At times, I was pretty forceful in virtually insisting on it. She stuck it out for one reason and one reason only: her Daddy had asked her to do it, even if from beyond the grave. Her obedience to her father’s Will was a living metaphor for what Love compels us to do in accord with our heavenly Father’s Will. Stick it out. Period. Love suffers. If we are to claim the role of true disciple, we’d best get used to the idea.

That love - and Love, for that matter - suffer has never been any secret or surprise. Love suffers because love makes itself vulnerable, even as it strives to be inexhaustible. From the very start in the Garden, our Creator understood and accepted the price of loving His Creation. We broke Abba’s heart by choosing to be like Him instead of choosing to live with Him. (It was, for sure, The Great Divorce, and there was nothing good about it.) After the flood, and at Mount Sinai, God surely wept for those who turned their backs on Him and had to face the necessary and unavoidable consequences of their sin. As His children were swept away to Babylon, how difficult it must have been for Him to walk alongside yet be unable to touch their stubborn, cold and defeated hearts. I am told (fortunately, having never experienced either) that even more difficult than losing a spouse is the loss of a child. Yet, throughout history, our Father has continued to suffer that unspeakable pain, because He continues to love us. Because that’s what love does. Love suffers.

Even more disturbingly, I have come to believe there is a point of suffering beyond which human love simply cannot go. Questions about commitment aside, I know some marriages break up just because a spouse’s love is simply spent.  A common question – expressed or unexpressed – in many human relationships where love is cherished remains, “How do I love through THAT?!?” Whatever “THAT” may be, we are fools to think we can love through it on our own. Again, I found my answer through my wife’s example. She essentially made it through by giving up. In desperation and exhaustion, she just collapsed into the waiting, loving arms of her Savior. She let Christ take the slings and arrows as He compassionately protected her with His own Body (to the shame of her husband, I should honestly add). Then, curiously, at some point, she almost was literally resurrected. She was given a strength and peace that did indeed pass all understanding, and she developed a reliance on the Holy Spirit I find hard to fathom, even these years later. Her sacrifice and suffering made her a better lover of everyone she comes in contact with today. In submitting herself to the fire, she found virtually all of whatever was not of Love in her (there were few problems to begin with) burned away. She had no choice but to rely on Christ’s love working through her. It was a very worthwhile sacrifice and one that continues to stand as an example for her husband, especially.

So, today, Good Friday, let us confront the Cross with Christ, not as a mere bystander. See how Love really suffers. Look at the price that was paid for our souls, up close and personal. We could run away, afraid to witness the death of Love. We could turn our heads and just pretend to experience His ultimate Passion for us, but it would be a shallow thing. Or, we can accept His invitation to come near. Touch His broken body. Hear His anguish. Even let His Blood rain down on us, covering us in its crimson stain. Wince at the sound of the spear piercing His side. Sympathize with His parched throat and slow suffocation. Reach for the hammer that drove the nails through His bones and cartilage into the wood. But above all, stay to the end. Claim His strength to do so. Only then will we hear His final Words. “Father… forgive them…. It is finished.” See, love’s suffering will not last forever. There is hope. But for today, let each of us just stand at His bleeding feet and ask an age-old question. What wondrous love is this?

LOVE ENCOURAGES

Ezra 8:21-9:15; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; Psalm 31:1-8; Proverbs 21:1-2

“From the days of our ancestors until now, we have been steeped in sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced, just as we are today. But now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the Lord our God has allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place. Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us some relief from our slavery. For we were slaves, but in his unfailing love our God did not abandon us in our slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of Persia to treat us favorably. He revived us so we could rebuild the Temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.”

“So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.”

“I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to my enemies but have set me in a safe place.”

“People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.”

Love encourages, even (maybe especially) in the midst of its own travail. This is not the Maundy Thursday message I expected to receive. Not at all. I was considering something about humility, maybe how to deal with betrayal. But encouragement? Hardly. This is not a happy time. It’s a dark time; at best, a reflective time. Still, as we all know by now, the Holy Spirit rarely thinks like I do, and it showed me something new I had never put together before. In His Last Supper discourse, Jesus certainly had His heavy moments, but consider also these other statements He made:

“Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.... Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

“In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth…. You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

Blessing. Sanctuary. Power. Comfort and wisdom. These are not the words of a man obsessed with His own death. These are the words of a Savior deliberately choosing life in the face of death. They are words passing on transcendent love despite the grief He personally felt and the pain He knew He would soon feel. These are not the words of a dying man at all! They are words of abundant life from quite possibly the only fully alive Man the world has ever known. They are the most stellar example of loving encouragement in Scripture this side of the Cross. Jesus is not a man beset by his own frailty and mortality. He is a Man using His frailty and mortality as a foundation for those who will soon be more lost than He. The Father’s focus in this scene is not gloom and doom at all. The Last Supper’s ultimate message is one of encouragement! Loving encouragement of others should be the goal of every Christian, particularly when facing their own adversity and apparent defeat. It’s a strange formula, I know, but it may just help us withstand the storms of depression when they threaten to swallow us. Because, of course, encouraging others allows the Holy Spirit to flow more fully through us and not just to us.

Ezra no doubt would have appreciated the irony. He was faced with some serious disappointment himself. The flock with which he had been entrusted by God soon returned to their old, sinful ways and abandoned that which would save them. Mortified, Ezra hit his knees and cried out to God. Hidden within his lament, however, was the encouragement of history, which Ezra shared with his people: a Light still exists in the darkness. Sin may mask or make us forget blessings, but it does not eliminate them or their Giver. Nothing is impossible with God; even enemies can become allies. Pretty encouraging stuff.

Paul saw the benefits of using encouragement in spite of despair, too. Awash in a misguided tolerance of sexual depravity, the Corinthian church was in serious danger of going the way of Ezra’s Hebrew leaders. Make no mistake. Paul did not spare his anger and frustration that they would fall so far so fast. But he added into his diatribe a word of encouragement as well. He called for a celebration, a feast where the menu would include sincerity and truth.

Here’s my takeaway. Love encourages in the midst of its own travail because love encourages to spite its own travail. The word choice – “spite” – is again unfamiliar in context but nonetheless true. We lovingly encourage others in spite of our own difficulties to release their grip on our souls. The ability to keep encouraging others when our worlds are crashing in may be the best evidence we have that the Holy Spirit is still living in us and doing His work. Where else could selflessness come from when pain envelopes us? Encouragement of others reminds us we still have the ability and the God-given Power to see and act outside and beyond our own personal limitations. Alleluia!

It may not take a great deal of Spirit-generated, shared encouragement to get others over rough spots, either. Just this afternoon, I unexpectedly ran into a friend in the elevator. I had been feeling blue all morning. A discussion with an out-of-work attorney the day before had brought back to mind the tenuousness of everyone’s position in this economy, and my heart was troubled. I know, for a fact, my friend had bigger worries, but he is as compassionate and caring a man as I have ever met. He could easily have been consumed by the challenges and difficult decisions he faces, yet in just a sentence or two, he removed the gray cloud over my head. Specific words don’t matter much when the sentiment is that we are valued and blessed, and that was the message he shared with me today.

There is no greater gift of love than the gift of encouragement. Christians, particularly, need to show a little more audacity in the presence of disappointment, disillusion and despair. We have the power to act in spite of those emotions and to deny them the power to affect our reality. Let’s do it. Maybe, if we force ourselves to live just a bit more outside ourselves and in reliance on the promised Counselor, we will not only encourage others. We may also encourage ourselves!

LOVE SPEAKS PLAINLY

Ezra 7:1-8:20; 1 Corinthians 4:1-21; Psalm 30:1-12; Proverbs 20:28-30

“And you, Ezra, are to use the wisdom your God has given you to appoint magistrates and judges who know your God’s laws to govern all the people in the province west of the Euphrates River. Teach the law to anyone who does not know it. Anyone who refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king will be punished immediately, either by death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.”

“For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?”

“When I was prosperous, I said, ‘Nothing can stop me now!’ Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain. Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered. I cried out to you, O Lord. I begged the Lord for mercy, saying, ‘What will you gain if I die, if I sink into the grave? Can my dust praise you? Can it tell of your faithfulness? Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me. Help me, O Lord.’ You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy….”

“The glory of the young is their strength; the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old. Physical punishment cleanses away evil; such discipline purifies the heart.”

There have been relatively few times I have gotten into trouble when the communication was clear about expectations and performance. Similarly, most of my problems with personal relationships have come up when I have wrongly assumed what another was thinking, or vice versa. Plain talk is not universally appreciated by those on the receiving end of it. But like bad tasting, effective medicine, plain talk is always the best way to address a problem. Of greater moment, there are times in everyone’s life where it is absolutely imperative that there be no misunderstanding. Some thoughts are so important miscommunication cannot be risked. Legacies and marriages, for example, should never be entrusted to guess work. In short, if we do not love others enough to “speak the truth in love,” and to be honest about relevant circumstances and/or emotions, it’s a clear sign God is not finished with us yet.

Ignorance is never blessed. It’s ignorant. Those who allow or promote it are never acting out of love. We do no favors for our family, friends or colleagues when we allow them to drift in a sea of unawareness or confusion. Knowledge may or may not equate to power, but the lack of knowledge almost always translates to impotence and frustration. These can ripen into feelings of outright betrayal when the light finally dawns. And it almost always does, eventually.

John 14-16, the Last Supper discourse, contains Jesus’ most plain spoken words in all of Scripture. No more parables, no more symbolism, He was down to His final hours and wanted to be sure His Word and message were clear to those who would carry them to the world after Him. It was not a time for political correctness or for worrying about hurt feelings. It was a time for Truth.

Ezra, charged with the responsibility of rebuilding the Hebrew faith in Jerusalem, required clear and unambiguous directions from King Artaxerxes, just as did those along the way whom Artaxerxes charged with the responsibility of supporting Ezra in his mission. It was too important a ministry to be left to fate or chance. Ezra and the people both needed to fully understand the magnitude of the responsibility and opportunity being thrust upon them. The Hebrews also, in all probability, needed to be convinced Artaxerxes’ professed support would not collapse after they once more uprooted themselves and returned to Jerusalem. (Who has not faced similar uncertainty when asked by the Boss to transfer to another state? The first, almost instinctive question is, “Will it last?”)

Paul likewise shared plain talk with the Corinthians. He was not afraid to fuss when a fussing was deserved. He unapologetically corrected when correction was needed. He praised when encouragement was appropriate. But in all these things, he spoke out of a foundational love. He did not deny his flock the truth out of any misguided concern for personal feelings. He certainly never, ever fudged the truth to cover or protect himself or so he could benefit at others’ expense.

So, today’s point is deceptively simple: love never denies another the blessings of the Truth or the truth. There are no exceptions. Nor should we go to such great lengths to make the truth more palatable that we dilute or confuse its message. Truth is truth, and if it is watered down in any way, it necessarily becomes something else, and something less. Since only the truth will set us free, we can be fairly certain that anything less than the unadulterated truth will have the opposite effect. When we manipulate the truth for our own purposes – however well-intentioned we may be – we leave those affected by it ensnared in ignorance and misunderstanding. While soft peddling the truth may save us from personal hurt, awkwardness or ill-will, we are never acting out of true love when we misrepresent it.

Two things remain. First, no matter how hard the truth may be, that is no excuse for brutality. Just as love never denies the truth, neither does love ever take advantage of it. “This hurts me more than it hurts you” is nonsensical hogwash, and we do well to ban the thought from our lexicon. Whenever the truth is spoken or the Truth shared, we need to be certain we are acting in love, not out of judgment or spite. If we cannot trust ourselves to speak out of love, in all probability, we need to take a closer look at what we are calling the “truth” before we speak at all. Second, love speaks in complete sentences and finishes every thought. The end point of all loving communication should be that there can always be forgiveness, and that redemption is always possible. This goes for sinners as well as victims. The Holy Spirit redeems circumstances as well as individuals, and love’s thoughts are never finished unless they conclude with that message. After all, isn’t that the plain meaning of the Cross? Jesus forgave and restored the criminal who died beside Him the moment that man opened his heart to the Truth of God. Christ also used the opportunity of the Crucifixion (unfamiliar terminology, perhaps, but nonetheless truthful) to redeem and resurrect the whole circumstance of humanity. By His sacrifice, failure went from being a certainty to being a decision. We are once more able to share in the eternal perspective – we can think with the mind of Christ. Redemption is possible. We also remain able to reject the Truth. We do not love those with whom we will not share that black and white truth.

Christians have nothing to fear from the Truth or the truth. Neither should we fear repercussions of the truth in any iteration. We have the Lord’s promise that as long as we are willing to accept and share truth, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it may be, joy and redemption will follow. That’s what love says, and that’s what love does.

LOVE GIVES... LOVE

Ezra 4:24-6:22; 1 Corinthians 3:5-23; Psalm 29:1-11; Proverbs 20:26-27

“Moreover, I hereby decree that you are to help these elders of the Jews as they rebuild this Temple of God. You must pay the full construction costs, without delay, from my taxes collected in the province west of the Euphrates River so that the work will not be interrupted. …And without fail, provide them with as much wheat, salt, wine, and olive oil as they need each day. Then they will be able to offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the welfare of me and my sons.”

“I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.”

“The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.”

“The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit….”

This has been an interesting season. Last year, I got involved with a number of charitable organizations and foundations, and it seems they all had their annual fundraising campaigns in the last four weeks or so. Each is needy, especially this year. But the entire process brought to mind another reality. Simply, the world’s needs are never going to be solved with money. Even Jesus understood this when He remarked to Judas that the poor will always be with us. There is so much need and only so much any human (or all humans) can do. I was happy to play my part but a bit dismayed that my proverbial “drops in the bucket” lacked any real significance in the overall scheme of things. With each check, I found myself wanting to convey a more significant and lasting gift than money to these worthy organizations.

That’s when I was reminded of Peter’s response to the beggar in Acts. “I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” Give what matters. Frequently, this requires gifts of self or time much more precious to us than cash. So be it. Take time, for instance, to buy the bread that strengthens the stranger. Don’t just buy the paint. Put it on the house. And as giving becomes more personal, expect some conflict with recipients over the appropriateness or value of the gift. Not every beggar wants to eat; not every cripple wants to walk. Charity for charity’s sake may be a moral standard, but that is not to say it has any eternal value. Gifts of eternal value are those that build the Kingdom.

We need to own that just throwing money at a perceived problem does not reflect the giving modeled by Christ. At best, it represents mere “charity” even the Enemy can potentially twist to his purposes. By way of example, this weekend, two people were talking directly behind me. I wish I could have ignored them, but I could not help overhearing. One fellow was telling his buddy about a friend who had graduated from George Washington University and still spent roughly four to five months a year literally living in a box under the Potomac River bridge in Washington, D.C. Then the other shoe dropped. The young man spent the rest of his year traveling the world on the roughly $150,000 to $200,000 a year he made begging. Now, that seems hard to swallow, but as it raises an important spiritual truth, let’s just get to the point. Christians need to be about a lot more than charity. They need to be about changing the world into the Bride of Christ. And that, dear friends, takes a lot more than money. As Jesus lived our example, sometimes, it takes sweat, tears and even blood. It requires actual engagement in the cause, not just peripheral participation. Most of all, it takes love.

How fundamentally might the world be changed if the gifts we gave actually had eternal, spiritual and physical significance not subject to the effects of inflation or recession? The answer to our giving problem is not really money at all. It’s value. Some of us don’t give anything at all. That’s not good. But some of us give things of lesser value just so we can protect and horde that which we more highly prize. That’s just as bad and perhaps worse, if we are fooling ourselves in the process. We give donations to support others’ work so we can still make Saturday’s golf game. We send e-mails so we can avoid the awkwardness of an actual hospital visit, and our own feelings of inadequacy (protecting our self-image). When we do these things, we really aren’t giving at all. We’re “obliging.” The Lord calls on us to make gifts of our time and talents, as well as our finances. But mainly, He equips us to make gifts that matter.  We must be willing to share.

Somewhere deep down, most of us understand the best gifts permanently change someone’s world for the better. At a deeper level, a few even understand the most valuable gifts cost more than money. The Holy Spirit gives us love, but He gives us that love to share as Jesus did. References to Jesus’ monetary situation are few and very far between. That’s because His best gifts had nothing to do with financial security or tangible assets. It seems pretty clear He relied on others for His material needs. What He was able to give others as a result of that support, however, always dwarfed the original gift. It seems to me Jesus’ life provides a pretty decent standard.

First, let’s be clear: “receiving” itself is not a sinful concept. Receiving without multiplying or sharing may be. Jesus did not scorn the rich simply based on their material blessings. He had no problem with the use of a year’s wages to anoint Him before His final days. He challenged wealth only when it got in the way of faith or was symptomatic of miserliness. Wealth is not, in and of itself, a sin. But it certainly can be a hard to control blessing.

Second, Jesus never encouraged indiscriminate giving or giving based on guilt. Christ Himself condemned casting our pearls before pigs. We have no obligation whatsoever to give to every allegedly charitable cause that calls or comes knocking, and we should not feel guilty about it, either. The Lord went out of His way to remove guilt as a motivation for much of anything, yet it still may be the single most emphasized or capitalized upon reason people give. How sad. Guilty giving robs the gift of joy and blinds us to the blessings that made the gift possible in the first place.

Finally, Jesus was willing to risk everything He had, when it mattered. He did not just put His financial security on the line. He gave Himself to lift others up. In fact, He gave at a depth that made money superfluous. He gave Love, until He was completely poured out.

I’m no Christ, but I am called to be a re-presentation of Christ. As long as I am trying to hold onto things lesser than Him, I can never fairly re-present Him or effectively build the Kingdom in His power. I know what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to risk it all so He can fill me up. I’m not sure I’m up to that challenge. But at least today, I can stop kidding myself that my problem is simply a financial one.

LOVE BONDS

Ezra 3:1-4:23; 1 Corinthians 2:6-3-4; Psalm 28:1-9; Proverbs 20:24-25

“Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work. They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans. This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne.”

“I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?”

“It is dangerous to make a rash promise to God before counting the cost.”

It is a sad state of human affairs, but reality nonetheless: wherever loves goes, there is opposition. We cannot begin to truly understand love until we come to understand this. Love is opposed by many things, including the pallid imitations we try to pass off as love. Jesus understood from the get-go how difficult it would be for people used to imitation love to accept the real thing. Real love is sometimes uncomfortable. Real love puts others ahead of itself. Real love loves even when its object is fundamentally unlovable. It’s hardly what we think of at weddings and family reunions. But if we are to love at all, we must allow love to bond us through and in spite of our differences, and not just because of our similarities and common interests. Our desire to be with others who love must outweigh the difficulties of making it happen. Otherwise, we have little hope of ever overcoming our opposition.

Make no mistake. Binding love is not a given. It actually upsets people who refuse or misunderstand the concept. The Hebrews learned this quite quickly.  As soon as they begin to rebuild the Temple, others wanted to stop them. Perhaps jealousy played a part in their decision, but I expect the issue ran deeper. I figure their opponents just got very uncomfortable seeing any group of people that did not include them bind together in mutual love. That their unified purpose was to complete a project the nay-sayers could not accept only added to the alienation. So, opposition reared its ugly head. What we cannot appreciate, we too often break.

Love’s opposition is not always so obvious. It can arise from something as simple as inconvenience. It can spring up from what Paul refers to as “sinful desires.” It can even sprout from an ill-considered promise to God that begins to feel more like an anchor than the fruit of discipleship. Love’s opponents are many and varied. Again, love’s only real defense is bonding, the joining of previously independent souls into one united whole. Love bonds because bonding provides the Body with greater vision, gifts and talents than any individual member could ever claim on their own.

Love’s greatest blessing is, in fact, its binding of hearts and souls together. Jesus understood this and saved His best, most personal moments for His friends. Mary, Martha and Lazarus were not just strategically placed acquaintances. They were genuine friends, and their home was a special refuge for our Lord. Once He began His Ministry, Bethany also was as much a home to Jesus as He ever knew. Christ’s presence also gave Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ place a special, welcoming aura that drew others. That home became a “binding place” for our Lord where He went to refuel and recharge in fellowship, especially during the fateful, last week of His earthly life.

All of us need a binding place, a place to meet our God and remember our status as His adopted children. The Holy Spirit offers us that and much more. He offers a purpose which binds us to Him in ways we cannot begin to describe. Perhaps that is what Jesus meant when He insisted we who worship Him must do so “in Spirit and in truth.” Without the Spirit binding our hearts to Christ’s, we are not as likely to experience the full bounty of His blessings, or to actually accomplish His purpose for our lives. More important, though, we need God’s binding love to get us through the opposition His love will encounter as we begin to live and share it. We cannot do it on our own. All of us need spiritual allies to help us when the chips are down and to encourage us when the future is bright. Opposition need not derail us, any more than it derailed Jesus. With the Spirit guiding us, opposition merely becomes the whetstone which makes our faith sharper and more effective.

LOVE LEADS WITH HUMILITY

Ezra 1:1-2:70; 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5; Psalm 27:7-14; Proverbs 20:22-23

“Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. And all their neighbors assisted by giving them articles of silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock. They gave them many valuable gifts in addition to all the voluntary offerings.”

“Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”

“My heart has heard you say, ‘Come and talk with me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord, I am coming.’ Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me, O God of my salvation!”

“The Lord detests double standards.”

What’s this? The Lord of the Universe is riding into town on a donkey? A donkey?!? No earthly leader would so humiliate himself. Yet in spite of how He presented Himself, and the mocking of the religious leaders of the day, there were still those who understood the message. The Messiah had arrived! Perceptive ones recognized immediately that His Godly leadership did not depend on fanfare or pomp or circumstance. Real leadership begins with a security of the soul, a heart unafraid of the storms of popular opinion, and a strength that allows its bearer to appear vulnerable, especially if that is what it takes to become accessible.

As I consider my personal leadership style, I have to admit I tend to lean too heavily on my own talents and force of personality. When I become afraid those I would lead will choose another direction, that’s when I know I am in a bad place. Leadership is not about protecting people from themselves. It is about guiding them to discover their own abilities, to help them set their own godly example and lead in His direction. Leadership should never be more of a competition than it is an opportunity to serve, because when it becomes more about winning than facilitating, that’s almost always when it turns sour. Even leadership intended initially as humble service can soon transform into a bitter power struggle for control when it is not grounded upon a firm foundation of humility.

Let’s be clear, though, about what humility means, biblically speaking. It does not connote wimpiness or an inability to powerfully impact one’s world. It does not suggest one who has become a wallflower, retreating to the background of life. Quite the contrary, in fact. Scripturally, one who is humble is simply “teachable.” Such individuals are able to learn from their experiences and surroundings and are not intimidated by their need to do so. Humble people are those willing to immerse themselves in what I have come to think of as “dynamic education.” They take risks to experience new things and perspectives. They radically engage in life in order to learn from it. If they get hurt, they discover how to heal. When they persevere and overcome obstacles, they accept their victories without need for adulation or the approval of men. The essence of humility is just the ability to take in and share new learning without having to dictate it. Truly humble people are not downtrodden martyrs; they are attractive, eager and positive people. They are able to lead, not through a manufactured aura of authority or boastfulness, but through their willingness to share a genuine command of wisdom with those who need it without making them feel puny or deficient.

Jesus was a living example of how God directs His people to lead. As He rode into Jerusalem, Christ knew He would stir up an undercurrent of dissension that would eventually overwhelm even Him. Yet, He was unafraid of the mantle of responsibility, and accepted it unequivocally and without reservation. He also rejected any thought of using His position of authority as a shield setting Him apart from the people. Instead, He rode directly into their midst, vulnerable and accessible. He continued to teach, not through mass mailings or banners extolling His virtues, but with the quiet confidence of One who already held the answers to all of life’s hardest lessons. Naturally, people were drawn to His Light. No other has ever shown so brightly or honestly or accurately. Jesus’ wisdom works, but He is humble enough to let us figure out and accept that for ourselves. He stands at the door, knocks and waits, but He will not force the lock.

This Palm Sunday is our chance to rebuild our relationship with Christ, to set ourselves to once more listening to His voice and to humbly accepting what He would teach us. Like the ancient Hebrews, it is time for us to rebuild and make room for Him in our hearts. Like Paul, we need not fear looking foolish. We should relish the opportunity to be clowns for Christ, to humble ourselves for the glory of His Kingdom. But there’s one final thing to consider as well. If we choose the path of humility, there’s to be no reconsideration. It’s all or nothing. Because humility actually requires more endurance and persistence than one might think. We dare not be one of the ones who holler out “Alleluia” on Sunday only to give up and shout in resentment “Crucify Him!” on Thursday night. Going with the flow has nothing to do with humility. It is far better characterized as hypocrisy, and God has some rather definite feelings about that which are best left unexplored.

LOVE IS GRACIOUS

2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23; 1 Corinthians 1:1-17; Psalm 27:1-6; Proverbs 20:20-21

“’Then stand in the sanctuary at the place appointed for your family division and help the families assigned to you as they bring their offerings to the Temple. Slaughter the Passover lambs, purify yourselves, and prepare to help those who come. Follow all the directions that the Lord gave through Moses.’ Then Josiah provided 30,000 lambs and young goats for the people’s Passover offerings, along with 3,000 cattle, all from the king’s own flocks and herds.”

“…You… have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge. This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true. Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Love, of course, is all about grace. At its very best, love is grace, an unmerited blessing of forgiveness and restored fellowship. None of us deserve love. Yet love is still precisely what Christ came to earth to prove we have in spite of ourselves. Love is what our spouses see in us even when we don’t see it in ourselves. Love is what breeds hope. So, when we enter or are in the middle of a time of testing, maybe we need to take our eyes off the problem for a bit and put some effort into seeking out and reconnecting with love and people again.

Gracious love cleans its own house first. I know many people whose relatives would be much happier if they were just treated as well as those people treat complete strangers. Isn’t it odd how we can show compassion for those less fortunate and ignore those closest to us, or treat them with disrespect? The Levites and priests, in preparing for the Passover, were given explicit instructions to stand with their families and, first, to purify themselves. It is a good and wonderful thing to help others. But if we going to do so graciously, we have to prepare ourselves first. We cannot share what we do not have. Our motives need to be pure. We need to be solid at home. And if we are not, we can take refuge in the fact that God expects  - even requires - us to take care of ourselves and our own before we serve others. Graciousness rests on a foundation of faith and family.

But, of course, it does not end there. Love, to be love, needs to be shared, and not just with those closest to us. There is not a soul alive that does not long for a sense of belonging and self-worth. Everyone wants to be appreciated and treated with compassion. Those who live in the Spirit – or, more accurately, allow the Spirit to live in and through them - are uniquely positioned to share the fullness and completeness that is Christ with their brothers and sisters in the faith, as well as with those seeking it. We are all called and commissioned to help seekers and others submit themselves to the Lord and His good and gracious plan for our lives. We should feel happy and fulfilled simply to serve as the “people behind the people” who reveal and bring Christ close. The spotlight rarely shines on gracious love. I suspect God intends this as a way of making that love even more incandescent to others.

Ultimately, love and graciousness both stem from an attitude of gratitude, and it is here we’d best focus on the days leading up to Easter. It is a sad but true cliché that we never fully appreciate what we have until it is taken from us. Paul, before he did anything else, encouraged the Corinthians, in so many words, to take an inventory of their blessings, and be thankful. He emphasized their calling to holiness and their ability to claim it through Jesus. He encouraged them to seek a foundation of grace and peace. Then, he reminded them of the Lord’s gifts, both to them individually and corporately as the Body of Christ, the Church. He affirmed God’s provision of their needs and His promise to keep them strong until the end. No wonder Paul gave thanks for the Corinthians; they were a blessed and equipped people! But unfortunately, they lacked the one thing necessary to pull them together as the Body. They lacked graciousness. Divisions based on personal loyalties had sprung up. They had taken their eyes off of Christ.

At the Cross, Christ invites us into partnership with Him. He calls us to minister to the world, and present His Good News. He qualifies us with grace. We need grace to accomplish His purposes. Grace overlooks personal differences and weaknesses. It searches for opportunities to build up and encourage. Simply put, it places others in positions of preeminence. There is no disgrace in holding the door to heaven open for others to pass through. Disgrace comes when we barge in front of others, barring their way. Love is gracious because love can afford to be gracious. It is powered by something greater than self-interest. It knows Christ has our backs. It recognizes that, in supporting and encouraging others, we not only support and encourage ourselves but fulfill the purpose for which we were created. 

LOVE TEACHES

2 Chronicles 33:14-34:33; Romans 16:10-27; Psalm 26:1-12; Proverbs 20:19

“When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes…. ‘Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.’”

“And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.”

“Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart.”

From now through Easter, my current plan (subject to wherever the Spirit leads) is to do a mini-series on love. Specifically, I will look at love through the microscope of Christ’s Passion to try to decipher all the things Jesus did in the name of love that fateful week, and in the days leading up to it. I’m betting the Scriptures we are scheduled to read may just give us a little additional context for our journey from Bethany to the Cross and beyond. But if not, well then, most of Chronicles is a repeat of Kings anyway, right? So, onward.

One of the most often overlooked and underappreciated things love does begins our trip. Love teaches. In fact, love itself must be taught. It is not a spontaneous reaction, nor is it our natural response to much of anything. Think back to infancy. A child knows nothing of love at first. He or she is all basic needs and desires. A more self-centered time would be hard to imagine. A baby does not worry about being disruptive or inconvenient or even downright annoying. They will do what they can to get what they want when they want it. That’s pretty much all they know. They are impressed from the beginning with a “me first” mentality.

However, if they are fortunate, our little ones begin to understand there is something more than duty that spurs the actions of a parent. Two AM is actually a quite wonderful hour to spend quality time with a baby after their needs have been fulfilled. Not capable of true gratitude, yet, they nonetheless respond to kindness and the sense of safety provision brings. We begin to learn even at that ungodly hour that being with another person is a very good place to be. At the same time, parents begin to see sacrifice in an entirely different light. The child cannot yet express gratitude, but in the solitude of the wee hours, the perceptive mother or father learns again that the point of sacrifice is not to inflate our own egos, but to protect and build up others. Love reminds us that overt rewards and recognition are not necessary; the gift of closeness to another human being is worth our sacrifice. Even as it simply lays in our arms sleeping, a baby gives far more than it takes. Love rewards both parent and child with a personal significance and importance they could never achieve otherwise.

Of course, love teaches us in many other ways as well.  Love teaches right from wrong. Josiah learned a better way to lead his people when the scroll of the Law was found. Again, the way of the Lord obviously is not a course people follow instinctively. The Old Testament is all about the Hebrews learning to come near to God, only to fall away. The fact they did not learn did not mean they were not taught repeatedly. The Spirit and its prophets showed them continually that right is not just right as a moral absolute; right is right because it actually works best for us. Still, we insist on experimenting with our lives, seeking alternatives that we think give us better personal returns, whatever the cost to others. We have to be taught not to be so self-centered.

In a similar vein, as Paul writes, love also teaches us who to befriend, as well as how. We all know people who suck the life out of every relationship they have. There are stark examples of others who just “fell in with the wrong crowd” and came to ruin as a result. Love teaches us a better way to live. Live with those who understand love. Stay away from those who deceive, who teach things other than the lessons of love. They serve no one but themselves. They drain and do not fill. This is not to say we should not love them. Christ’s sacrifice was for all people, particularly those who have forgotten how to love. But Scripture is equally clear that Jesus only called those friends who did as He taught. Love teaches the right kind of friendship. In fact, it’s a prerequisite to all that is good about friendship.

Finally, love teaches us the necessity of self-examination. More specifically, it teaches us to look at our lives the way God does, to submit ourselves to the judgments of the Holy Spirit and accept His prescription for our salvation. In a word, love teaches us to lead our hearts, because even our hearts can be deceived. Love ultimately teaches us it is more a decision that a feeling, more a commitment than an emotion. Surely, those who live on the periphery of love may mistake lesser things for it. But true love, as we experience it, teaches there is no substitute worthy of the name.

As we embark on our journey toward Passion Week, let us each take stock of our lives. Where are we frustrated; where does life just not seem to be working for us like it should? What is preventing us from learning the lessons of love? Christ doubtless has much to teach us in the next ten days or so, and beyond, but He will graciously wait until we are willing to begin our studies. We should start with an honest assessment of ourselves and our behavior. To the extent that what we do does not reflect love and is not motivated by love, we still have much to learn.

PREPARING FOR WAR

2 Chronicles 32:1-33:13; Romans 15:23-16:9; Psalm 25:16-22; Proverbs 20:16-18

“They organized a huge work crew to stop the flow of the springs, cutting off the brook that ran through the fields. For they said, ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come here and find plenty of water?’ Then Hezekiah worked hard at repairing all the broken sections of the wall, erecting towers, and constructing a second wall outside the first. He also reinforced the supporting terraces in the City of David and manufactured large numbers of weapons and shields.”

“For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.”

“May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.”

“Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice.”

Easter is coming. First, though, there is a war to be fought. The battle is not for land or political control; it is for eternal life and personal control. Nonetheless, it is a fight to the finish. There can only be one survivor. Life or death. Salvation or damnation. Saint or sinner. Christ or Satan. I’m no authority, but it’s a safe bet that few, if any, of us take the spiritual conflict that is Passion Week seriously enough. Oh, sure, some of us give up things we can afford to be without during Lent. We go to church a couple of extra times and think we have experienced the sacrifice and joy of Easter. Pity us. That’s just the way Satan wants it. If we don’t make Passion Week real, if we do not pause to appreciate the deep realities of what happened those 2000+ years ago and the impact those things have had on all the years since, Christ’s sacrifice will have no more significance that a nursery rhyme or bedtime tale. The sheer repetition of the story has numbed us to the radical reversal of fortune Christ’s sacrifice and Resurrection began in the hearts, souls and lives of all those who call Him Savior. May that not be the case this year. Let us begin to fully and completely engage today in all the emotions and pain and joy that the Easter Season raises. But initially, let us prepare ourselves – and allow the Lord to prepare us as well – for the spiritual war to come.

Hezekiah’s preparation for his upcoming war with Sennacherib of Assyria was more than prudent. It was sheer genius. He began by looking for the good things that could be used against him in the wrong hands. He took the steps needed to insure they did not become weapons in Sennacherib’s control. He cut off the water to his own fields.

It’s funny how life and death situations have a way of clarifying our priorities. Cutting off the water was a death knell for the Hebrew fields and crops for the year. It was a sacrifice that would set the people back for months, if not years, even if they were fortunate enough to survive the coming crisis. But Hezekiah was honest enough with himself, his people and his God to recognize and own the fact that abundant crops would mean little to anyone but the victor. Further, he honestly admitted there could be no victory for the Jews as long as their agricultural bounty and water could be conscripted for the enemy’s use. This makes me wonder what good things I am holding onto that my Enemy might use to enslave me. The list, I fear, is daunting. Job; finances; family obligations; charitable work; recreational time; boy toys; and even religious activities all can be taken advantage of and become potent weapons of Satan when not restricted to the appropriate priority in our lives. Yes, even religious activities can become our adversaries when they get out of balance or become more a panacea than a living enactment of faith. All of us know at least one someone who literally hides behind the appearance of religiosity. They can do “pious” with the best of us. But when the chips are down, their so-called “faith” is revealed as little more than an ineffective, toy shield which was never constructed or reinforced to withstand the stress of actual battle.

This year is as good as any and better than most to take stock of all we have and all we can do without. Especially, we are wise to take a hard look at anything we are clinging to as if our life depended on it that is not Christ. Even good things become bad when we want them too much or begin to think we cannot live without them. A good, basic rule for this Easter season might be that if something doesn’t help us float or fly, jettisoning it could be the best option.

Which gets us to the next point. By shutting off the water to his fields, Hezekiah also did another brilliant thing strategically: he reduced the area he had to defend. There is a lot in each of our lives we think we have to fight for. Passion Week is a time for us to think again. There is no benefit to fighting battles we cannot win, or to contesting ownership of things we cannot and should not control. Children, for example, are only ours for a season, no matter how much we would will it differently. Nothing is more pathetic than the clingy or possessive parent who tries to hang onto his/her child well past adulthood. We may want to fight to protect our kids, but there comes a time when every man and woman must fight for themselves. We cannot fight everyone’s battles. Our best option is to try to ally as many as possible with Christ, so He can fight with and for them. Alienating others by trying to protect them from every challenge or adversity is lousy strategy in any context.

Finally, Hezekiah fortified what he had to protect in anticipation of the coming onslaught. The best time to enrich our marriages is not necessarily in the middle of an attack.  Marriages that last are those prepared for the hard times by thoughtful consideration and nurturing before the stressors come. A consistent savings and investment plan is the best hedge against a recession. The next couple of days is a great time to take a look around and identify and strengthen the weaknesses closest to our hearts and homes. Maybe we are not as committed to our spouses as we said we’d be. Perhaps that little white lie is now bearing the wrong kind of fruit and needs to be pruned clean off our lives. Or maybe, we’ve just gotten lazy and taken things for granted that actually needed our attention. Whatever the weaknesses of our lives may be, as in the walls of Jerusalem, we can be sure some vulnerabilities exist. We do well to fix and fortify them now, before the storm.

There is certainly a time for feeling all the emotions and passions of Passion Week. Before then, however, there is a time to prepare ourselves to more fully experience and appreciate them. Some think this is done best by simple reading and contemplation. I say that is just another form of retreat from the reality of the lashings and the injustice. We are sinners about to see the very real effects our sins can have on other people, especially those who love and care for us the most. It is no answer to our regret and pain to reduce them to a cliché. Christ died a real and painful death as the price and consequence of our real and painful sins. Until we accept the fact that our hands also had hold of the hammer that drove the nails through His Body and into the Cross, we will never fully appreciate Easter. That is a revelation requiring some advance preparation. Let us all gird our loins for the coming battle with ourselves, as well as with the Evil One. 

GOOD NEWS!

2 Chronicles 30:1-31:21; Romans 15:1-22; Psalm 25:1-15; Proverbs 20:13-15

“In all that he did in the service of the Temple of God and in his efforts to follow God’s laws and commands, Hezekiah sought his God wholeheartedly. As a result, he was very successful.”

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them.”

“Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”

“Wise words are more valuable than much gold and many rubies.”

Today is a day for good news. But then, so is every day. There is just no reason to buy into gloom and doom or the idea that our best days are behind us. We have a much more positive story than that to share with the world. We have a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe, and He cares for us and about us. We are freed from guilt, since the penalty for our sins has been paid in full by Jesus. We are never alone, because the Holy Spirit lives within us. We are promised what we need and given the power to be overcomers of the world. So, why do we still allow ourselves to feel blue? My bet is it’s because we forget who and Whose we are in the daily grind of life. We get to thinking that our happiness depends solely on us, and that alone is enough to put many of us into a real funk. We are only human, after all. No one can live in euphoria all the time. It’s only natural that some days be better than others. But what Christ calls us to is a life where we can never fall so far that we fall out of His ability and willingness to reach us and to share His joy with us.

Hezekiah was a success for several reasons. Initially, he lived to serve the Lord. What he did, he did for God, first, last and in the middle. He not only followed the Lord’s laws and commands but looked for opportunities to seek Him out in the ordinariness of everyday life. In other words, Hezekiah was creative as well as obedient. He sought God wholeheartedly, not just when it was convenient or expected, but all the time! As a result, both he and his people were happier and more prosperous than they had been in a long time. The bottom line is that he shared his joy with others.

Paul lived to put others first. His first thoughts were always centered on his brothers and sisters in the faith. The blessings he desired he first prayed for others. Confident hope comes through the power of the Holy Spirit, and Paul was determined to introduce as many as possible to that saving relationship. Like Hezekiah, Paul was all about sharing joy.

We ought to adopt that same mission. No one can always be happy, because happiness depends too much on external circumstances. But joy is another thing entirely. Joy does not depend on circumstances but on our relationship with, and our reliance on, the Holy Spirit. When we feel down or upset, it usually is a pretty safe bet that we are looking at the wrong thing. When we feel lost, we are not likely to be following the right guide. There’s no reason we cannot be filled with joy in spite of our circumstances. We just have to keep letting the Spirit work on us, in us and through us. Joy simply requires focus on One greater, stronger and holier than we are. Christ came to earth to reach out to us because we could not reach high enough to grasp Him on our own. Because He did so, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Rejoice! Give thanks! Share the Good News! Abundant life is not something we have to wait for. Joy is possible in any circumstance. Our opportunity to experience it is right in front of us, and in us, already.

Christ wants to lead us not only to Him, but to the eternal joy the Holy Spirit is just waiting to share with us. All we have to do is be obedient to His plan for our lives and stop working so hard to make our own way in the world. God knows the best way for us, and He created us to uniquely fit His plan for our lives. Let’s quit swimming against the current of His love and just decide to be who He created us to be. We need be no more. Besides, we can never be fulfilled if we try to do anything else.