Tag Archives: Bible

Love’s Detour

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Thank God for second chances, “Plan B”, alternate routes and the long way around.

camels3wisemen

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they left for their own country by another road.”
~ Matthew 2:12

What would a Christmas pageant be without the three Wise Men? They’ve captured the imagination of songwriters, painters and poets. James Taylor sang about them; Monty Python parodied them; Garrison Keillor brought them to Lake Wobegon; we celebrate them in Christmas carols and on greeting cards and with gazillion-watt front yard light displays.

They’re awfully mysterious and exotic up there on their camels, with their heavy accents and bejeweled hats. And whether their names were Melchior, Balthazar and Gaspar, as John of Hildesheim dubbed them in the 14th century, or Larry, Curly and Moe—what the Magi stand for is the news that when God showed up with skin on in the person of Jesus, it was for everybody. Every race. Every nation. Grace, mercy and love for all people, not just a few.

The magi first travel to Jesus on a road leading straight through the palace of King Herod. And Herod, pretending to be as devout as they are, tells them: “You’ll find the child in Bethlehem.” Then he leans closer and twirls his greasy moustache and says, “When you find him, come back and tell me so I can go worship him, too.”

But when they arrive in Bethlehem and see with their own eyes the very face of God, they begin to know what’s what. God comes to them in a dream and says, “Don’t go back to Herod.” And Matthew reports that when it comes time for them to head home, they figure out an alternate route and return by another way.

This story is an especially good one for any of us whose “Plan A”, which looked so promising in the beginning, has gone bust and left us in desperate need of a better way home.

Recently a woman in our church named Lydia graduated from a residential treatment program for alcohol addiction. I was happy to be invited to the celebration, which basically consisted of an A.A. meeting followed by cake and punch. As the honored graduate, Lydia got to lead the meeting.

Hi, I’m Lydia and I’m an addict.

Hi, Lydia!

‘So this is an A. A. meeting,” she said. “But mostly I want it to be a gratitude meeting. Would anyone like to share some things they’re grateful for?”

After several people spoke, a woman in her early thirties named Kari, who also belongs to our church, stood up and faced the group.

Hi, I’m Kari and I’m an addict.

Hi, Kari!

She told Lydia how much she loves her courage and kindness and amazing hugs. Then Kari told of how earlier that morning she was jogging over the freeway overpass. “As I did,” she said, “I thought of how, not that long ago, I used to want to jump off that overpass. And now, thanks to my Higher Power and my church family, that’s the farthest thing from my mind.”

Praise to the God of second chances, “Plan B”, alternate routes and the long way around.

Love’s Eyes

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Love has a way of changing people’s features.

EyeJoseph, son of David, the angel said, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
~Matthew 1:20b-21

Darn right, he’s afraid. See, for most of his life Joseph has pretty much lived with a carpenter’s saw in one hand and his rulebook, the Torah, in the other. And his rulebook tells him there’s only one way to see an unmarried, pregnant woman. This is a disaster for poor Joseph.

But in a dream he hears the angel say, “God is doing something new here, Joseph. Mary is not who your rulebook says she is.  God is bigger than your rulebook. Take the leap of faith!”

Often it does require a leap of faith in order to be able to see someone in a new light.

Our son Taylor is a remarkable person with a quick sense of humor and a tender-to-a-fault heart. He also has an acute sensitivity to people in pain, no doubt because he himself lives every day in the land of Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

One night a few years ago when he was a senior in high school, Taylor and I spent an evening meandering about town together and ended up browsing for an hour in an art gallery. We topped off the evening with cheesecake and coffee at a favorite restaurant.

As we were eating, out of the blue, Taylor said:  “I know I’m not much of an artist. But if I were a painter, I know what I’d create.”

“What would you paint?” I said.

“I’d paint a banquet scene,” he said. “A super-elegant table with flowers and crystal and mountains of food. And there would be some very particular guests.”

“Who are they?” I said.

“So, sitting at my table would be Attila the Hun, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden.”

I took a long sip of coffee. “That’s some pretty intense company,” I said.

With a mouth full of key lime cheesecake he said, “Yeah, but in my painting, even though we’d still be able to recognize them, they would look different than we’re used to seeing them.”

“Fascinating,” I said. “What do you mean?”

“Well, see,” he said, “because we hate them we only know how to see them one way. But in my painting we’d also be able to see them as they appear to God, who only knows how to love them.”

Love has a way of changing people’s features.

Love says: People aren’t always whom you think they are. Take a leap of faith . . . I’m doing something new.

This devotional originally appeared at http://www.nextsunday.com. NextSunday Resources, an imprint of Smyth & Helwys Publishing Inc., is a free press focusing on “quality Bible study and church resources that celebrate the intelligence of learners, the devotion of teachers, and the mission of churches everywhere.”

Love’s Family Tree

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charlie browner

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham…”
~ Matthew 1:1

Sometimes people decide they’re going to read through the New Testament in order to grow spiritually. So they turn to Matthew because it’s at the beginning of the New Testament and, alas, never make it past the first seventeen verses. This guy begat that guy, and whosit begat somebody else, and what’s-his-name fathered so-and-so. Just dreadful.

As every great storyteller knows, the beginning’s got to be great. He or she has to have us from Hello. Had John Grisham begun The Firm twenty years ago with a three-page genealogy, he might still be practicing law in Mississippi. No gifted writer starts by blathering on about who begat whom. It’s a lucky break for Matthew that the Jewish Christians to whom he was writing were maybe the only people on the planet who weren’t bored by the “begats.” After all, this was their story.

There are two things I particularly love about the lineage of Jesus.

First, the surprising variety. There are all sorts of folk, both pious and problematic, dangling from the branches of this family tree and Matthew doesn’t try to cover them up or pretty them up, God bless him. As family trees go, Jesus definitely has a Charlie Browner on his hands. This is something of a relief to me since my own family has its share, not only of humble, salt-of-the-earth types, but also bootleggers and jail-dwellers and a smattering of moonshiners. No problemo. Jesus’ family is a fixer-upper, too.

The other genealogical jewel here, I believe, shines best in the names of the women on this list. Sure, there are plenty whose names should have been included but weren’t. Conversation for another day. But four of the five who do make the cut all have something surprising in common:

Not one of them is Jewish.

You would assume to see a lineup of pure-blooded Hebrew matriarchal all-stars in this genealogy. But nope—turns out Jesus wants everybody on his family tree: Jews, Hittites, Moabites and Canaanites. Also Postmodern-ites, Democrat-ites and Republican-ites, not to mention seducers and murderers and schemers and well, just everybody.

Ultimately what this boring list of names stands for is the beautiful news that none of us really belongs but God loves us just the same. Not one of us qualifies for a spot on this tree but God welcomes sinners like you and me anyhow. It’s not about pedigree—it’s about mercy.

What do you know, maybe the boring thing’s not so boring after all.

This devotional originally appeared at http://www.nextsunday.com. NextSunday Resources, an imprint of Smyth & Helwys Publishing Inc., is a free press focusing on “quality Bible study and church resources that celebrate the intelligence of learners, the devotion of teachers, and the mission of churches everywhere.”