Running Naked in the Garden (or, you will never find Him like that)

YOU WILL NEVER FIND HIM LIKE THAT

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  (Jeremiah 29:13 NIV)  If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV)

                I sat at the dinner table and enjoyed the conversation.  Beside me was a USAF jet mechanic who worked on F16’s.  He was a first-time visitor at church and my daughter invited him over to eat with her family and us.  We talked of his home, California, and his family, Chinese, first-generation immigrants.  He was just glad to escape downtown, urban Los Angeles.  He joined the Air Force and had traveled to Japan, Africa, … and was now stationed in Montgomery.  He had come to church, based on a Google-map search, and wanted to make new friends.

                As we enjoyed the Thai food (what a coincidence?!) that Sarah had planned for dinner, our guest began to reminisce about how his grandmother set a very similar table with lettuce, sauces, vegetables, ground pork …  It really was a very good meal!  The conversation turned to church and what Matt was looking for in a church.  He said that he wanted Bible study, to answer questions.  The teens had directed the church service that morning and talked of how God has the answers to all our questions, even if we might not know the answers, yet.  Wow!

                The conversation turned to questions about the nature of God, the problem of pain and suffering, and other “surface issues”?  My son-in-law quipped that he was glad that I was there to be the “answer man”!  We went to the book of Job, and I pointed out our inadequacies to know all the answers.  Matt was surprisingly familiar with the apologetic/theodicy nature of the book?!  Then he quipped that God seemed “bi-polar” when you look at Him in the NT and OT …  (I was thinking about Marcion) and I responded with an academic answer.

                Then, I went a little deeper with a question.  Matt had mentioned his parents being Buddhists, and I asked him what attracted him to Christianity, with his family’s spiritual background.  Very quickly he retorted that he did not like all the rules in Buddhism that made no sense to him.  He wanted to be free to party with his friends and play.  The conversation soon took a detour into banality boulevard.  But, not before I added – Job put his hand over his mouth and just shut up; and,  “… the secret things belong to God…” (Deut.29:29) is one of the favorite verses of old Rupert. 

                We soon finished dinner, and my wife and I packed up to return home.   We kissed the grandkids good-bye, and hugged our daughter and snl, David.  As we drove west, Melanie asked me what was troubling me.  I was thinking about Matt.  I was perplexed about his answers and motives.  I was concerned that I had failed to connect with him.  Later that night, as I lay sleepless, it began to dawn on me that the problem was not head, but heart.  He was not looking for Jesus; he was just running from Buddha.  As long as we make God an argument, an academic conclusion, a synthesis of propositions, … we will never find Him.  We are not looking for Him; we are hiding from Him, wanting to run naked through the garden.

"Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.Proverbs 1:28

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.  Proverbs 8:17

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  Matthew 16:25

"I am unworthy--how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.  Job 40:4

I MAY BE WRONG, BUT …

I MAY BE WRONG, BUT …

                How important is “being right”?  Can one be wrong, but right?  And, can one be right, but wrong?!  Sounds confusing?

                In math class, I remember getting credit for work shown on a complicated problem, even though one mistake doomed the final answer.  And, I also remember getting dings for not showing obvious steps which were skipped, even though I had the right answer?!  (I loved math!  It seemed to be the language of God, to me, in some strange way.)

                Science was, seemingly, less precise.  Long held axioms and conclusions were rejected by modern minds.  It was “obvious” to these new thinkers that man had evolved to higher enlightenment. 

                Philosophy?!  “two blind men in a dark room looking for a black cat, that’s not there …”  (I do like to read that stuff, though!)  Or, is that theology that I like to read?!  Both.

                (Still there?)  When children came along in our marriage, competing ideas were offered, unsolicited, on any number of child-rearing issues:  “don’t spank…”  “don’t count to three…”  “don’t feed them cereal…”  There IS more than one way to do parenting!

                Now, let’s talk Jesus.  Should one “spank” or “distract”?  Oops, that was last paragraph.  So many groups.  So many doctrines.  So many positions.  Calvinists.   Arminians. Wesleyans.  Catholics.  Baptists.  Who’s “right”?!  Who can stand before God and man and declare, “I am right!”?  Not me.

                I have concluded that the only way to be right is to confess, humbly, honestly, that one is wrong!  Much like the tax-collector (Luke 18), one can only fall down and beg for mercy!  In effect, the weary pursuit of being “right” ends with recognizing and acknowledging that one is “wrong”!  (I certainly hope that I am not wrong about this?!)

                How much room is there in the “wrong” box?!  More than in the “right” box (es)!  And, in the “wrong” box, strange things sometimes begin to happen – patience, mercy, love begin to flourish?  Meanwhile, seemingly, in the “right” box there is an odor of condemnation, doubt, insecurity?  The walls on the “wrong” box seem to move and accommodate.  Yet, the walls of the “right” box get thicker, stronger, higher, no way in, no way out?!

                Homosexuals?  Homophobes?  Drunks?  Gluttons?  Bums?  Workaholics?  Racists?  Thugs?  Addicts?  Womanizers?  …  In which box are they?  BOTH! (imho)  Which box is helping them become more like Jesus?  (your answer may reveal more about yourself than it does anything else?!)

                We try to put Jesus in a box and then depend on the box; and defend it, to the death – of our … 

It’s about Jesus, not the box!  “Jesus, have mercy on me, the sinner!”

maybe it is more about service than certainty?  

 

Besides, Jesus is out of the box!

 

Will The True Jesus Please Rise

Will The True Jesus Please Rise

                In the 60’s there was a popular game show, “To Tell The Truth”, on which there were two imposters and the real celebrity.  Their job was to fool the panelist into guessing the wrong person.  The real person had to act ignorant, but not too much; and, the imposters had to act convincingly genuine.  It was an interesting concept.  At the end of the show, the host would ask, “will the real ‘guest name’ please stand up?!”

                In John 18:28-38 we see at least three false images of Jesus, and if we “have eyes to see” we see the real Jesus!  The Jewish leaders see a Jesus who is a troublemaker and blasphemer, at best a false Messiah.  The disciples see a Jesus who is the next “King David” who will push out the foreign occupiers, but who is not conforming to their image.  The Romans see an insignificant enigma.  Before it is over, Pilate is scoffing, “what is truth?”

                Jesus responded to Pilate, “In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (Jn.18:37)  Earlier, Jesus had declared that He is the Truth. (Jn.14:6)  But, we are slow to open our eyes to the truth.  We all have vested interests in false truths.

                Pilate, face to face with the Truth, even cautioned by his wife “not to cross this man”, (paraphrased!) decided to sour, side-step, substitute, and lastly to shirk his duty/chance, washing his hands of the matter.   An eternal destiny was unfolding before his eyes and he was oblivious to it.

                The disciples were blind to the true Jesus, as well.  Peter even rebuked Jesus when he was forewarning of his crucifixion and explaining its implications.  This scenario did not fit the image of the Messiah which was falsely built in his mind.  It has even been suggested that Judas was trying to force the “King” out by selling him out, forcing His hand by kissing His cheek.  Maybe.  But, the Son of David was the “Passover lamb” as well as the Priest after the order of Melchizedek.  Our high priest was born to die.  They wanted a conquering general, not a selfless martyr.

                The Jewish leaders, watching His miracles, listening to His wisdom, observing His compassion and kindness, were perturbed by His “unorthodoxy”.  Goodness, He healed on the Sabbath!  He challenged our traditions.  He came to call the sinners, as a physician to the sick, not the healthy.  He was turning upside-down their whole status quo.  He had to go.

                How are we like these 1^st century “To Tell Truth” panelists?  How are we fooled by a false image of the Truth?  They, no doubt, did not question their own delusion and confusion!  What do we love? Our selfish goals and wants?  Our traditions and old ways? The status quo?  Or, do we love the Truth?!  What does it take to hear the truth?  IMHO, it starts with humility, hunger, honesty.

                “Will the true Jesus please rise!”