Sold for Nothing, Bought with Love

This is what the Lord says:

  "You were sold for nothing,

    and without money you will be redeemed." (Isaiah 52:3)

In the song in Oliver! when the orphan Oliver is being sold by the cruel overseer of the orphanage, he sings these words: "One boy, boy for sale, he's going cheap. . . ." For some reason this song comes to my mind at times. He's trying to get rid of Oliver and doesn't care how. Being "sold for nothing" is the story of this present age. How often have I sensed someone was eager to be rid of me? How often have I been eager to get rid of myself, selling my own birthright for nothing or worse?

How easily will I sell my integrity? Or my ability? Or my loved ones? I sell them for a small reprieve from pain or a few seconds of "looking good" or my own sense of importance. What a waste!

The irony is that I sell my life, my true self as God's beloved, for so little and I am not bought back in the same way at all. The payment is not in money or mere recompense, but in blood and sweat for my sake before I knew any better. I am not ransomed by paying back my debts, but by someone taking my side and my place. I am set free by another willing to be a slave and showing me how to serve, the "Servant of all."

And then, the irony deepens. I am set free to serve again, but to a different master. Instead of obsessive desire and overwhelming fear holding the whip, I am able to serve God and others with freedom and, therefore, love. In the end, we are redeemed not with money or suffering or punishment, but with an abiding love that will not let us go. It frees us and infects us at the same time, making us sick with a goodness like Jesus has, a goodness that flows from the inside out. 

Ears Ready for Planting

 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop - thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4:20)

There are people you pour your life into and they just take and take and produce nothing. This does not stop us from continuing to fill that hole. Sometimes it is out of love. Sometimes it is out of habit. Sometimes it is merely a willfulness to make someone else into what we want.

The parable of the sower and the seed talks about such relationships. There are relationships like black holes, their are fair-weather friends, there are people who love beginnings, but have no interest in enduring to the end. But then there are some people who seem ready to hear and respond and grow. Here, the seed easily received by these people is a word from God. The smallest encouragement draws such people into deep feeling and great deeds. They do not seem to have been inoculated against Jesus and his words, but drink them like water in a desert.

Receptivity needs two wings to fly. One wing is knowing good news when we hear it. The offer to place the control of our lives under God does not sound like good news to everyone. That is because the other wing is not functioning correctly. We need to know what kind of person God is so we can understand what kind of control he desires. The scripture speaks of God like this:

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, 

  neither are my ways your ways," declares the Lord. . .

You shall go out with joy 

  and be led forth in peace.

The mountains and the hills will burst into song before you

  and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55)

It is also possible to know somewhat how good and great God is and not receive word from him. This is also flying with one wing. Such people usually try to walk with God merely from obeying commands and applying rules from the Bible to their life. The good news is that God's control is not like a writer with a pen, but like a father with his child. It is guidance with growth. God doesn't merely want people to do his will; he wants people who want to do his will with joy. This kind of shaping takes something more like raising a child than pounding on a stone.

This is shown clearly in Jesus. He came to do what his Father and he wanted to do. Ultimately the control was and is in his hands. But he did not come so much as a king who needed servants, but as a teacher of apprentices. His instructions to them were as detailed as they needed to be. They can only be carried out be someone who can both hear God personally and joyfully obey him. Without these two wings the good news of Jesus does not produce much fruit.

Child-like in Old Age

 Even to your old age and gray hairs

  I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

  I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4)

I may not be in my old age, but I have my share of gray hair. I guess we may never completely outgrow the desire to be someone's child. Although that can create a childish person, it may also be able to make someone more child-like.

As I get older I have had more obvious examples in which I have needed someone to sustain me, even someone to carry me and rescue me. Sometimes a sickness has taken all sense of pride from me with pain or incapacity. Sometimes I am faced with horrible problems in my family that I cannot face or fix. Sometimes I am hardly able to get out of bed in the morning from sheer weariness or despair. I find I can enter such moments in childish ways or in child-like ways. I can throw tantrums and kick and scream or I can grieve and cry out for help and comfort. They can be similar in appearance, but my heart is radically different in the midst of them.

Growth into child-like humility involves letting go of outcomes without giving up. It involves having a place to stand apart from my desires without disowning them. It involves learning how to love reality more than the illusions I weave. The God of peace can be found if we know how to seek him. 

The Band of Survivors

Once more a remnant of the house of Judah

  will take root below and bear fruit above.

For out of Jerusalem will a come a remnant,

  and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

  will accomplish this. (Isaiah 37:31-32)

Man, I like this. I like calling the remnant a band of survivors. It speaks not only of desperate times, but of desperate people. People desperate for God. People in a real war. The remnant then and the remnant now will not just drift into survival. It will take some real effort.

I also love how this band of survivors takes root below and bears fruit above. There's a tenacity to following Jesus that grips the earth with both hands and will not let go. No floaty, air-headed kind of faith. If it's real, it's got to grab life and not let go. It is actually people who don't seek Jesus in life that are in the illusion, caught in the matrix of this nonsensical thinking of this world or in the empty dreams of empty religion.

These survivors also bear fruit above. Like a tree planted deeply, their branches and fruit stretch above mediocrity. The fruit is the overflow of their life. This super-abundance is not found in pain-free living, great ambitions, or impressive credentials, but in rock-solid character that holds out to the very end without ending up cruel or indifferent. The fruit is lasting and deeply satisfying to everyone who tastes it.

Most importantly, the band of survivors only survive because of the Lord's zeal. Their near-escapes, their struggles against the impossible, and their lonely deserts are not mostly a testimony to their great skill or endurance, but a story of a great love that will not let them go. The Lord wants not only survivors, but overcomers. This band does not go it alone. They go together. They go with God.

 God's gifts and call are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)

This passage does not say that God's gift and call are inevitable. For the people of Israel it wasn't. This is the idea that is often misquoted that "God works all things together for good." The verse says that In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) For people who don't love God and live into their calling will probably find life somewhere between difficult and intolerable. Many things happen that God does not want, but nothing happens that God cannot redeem or overcome by his graceful power through our trust in him.

The good news about God's gift and call is that he does not take them away from us. We can refuse them, though. Over time our choices become our destiny. I was told once that God's will is infinitely malleable, but the will of human beings is not. God can always be willing to accept, forgive, hope, and help, but human beings will eventually come to a place of no return for good or ill. So we are told to seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near. (Isaiah 55:12)

God has wonderful things in mind, great hopes and joys in store for each of us and all of us. Our greatest challenge is trusting that fact and forming a life based on it. We cannot do it alone, but that is why God sends his greatest irrevocable gift to us: Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. 

 

New Birth for the World

We were with child, we writhed in pain,

  but we gave birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the earth,

  we have not given birth to people of the world. (Isaiah 26:18)

Going through pain and suffering only to find out that it was all for nothing is a terrifying prospect. I can see why it would make some people determined above all else to avoid pain. The picture of giving birth to wind - nothing. The struggle to conceive, anticipation during pregnancy, and the endurance of the pain of birth is all for the life to be born. The new life that comes out of the struggle is what brings meaning to the struggle. This is redemption.

Redeeming is buying back the years of toil and slavery. It is the deliverance from slavery to a promised land. It is the joy of comfort after abuse. It is the laughter of relief when we realize that the war is over. It is freedom, a birth of a life with God.

The opposite of redemption is judgment. It is realizing that the only way to deal with pain is with fear or denial. It is constantly ducking the blows of neglect and abuse. It is realizing that there is no relief, but only worry about when the next war begins. It is enslavement, the emptiness of a life without God.

What if the good news of the followers of Jesus falls on deaf ears because we live more under judgment rather than redemption? We give birth to wind in our own lives and are surprised that other people do not want to share in such a salvation with us. Of course the best is yet to come, but that does not mean that we need to live the worst way now.

Here's the thing: what if eternal life starts today? What if what changes primarily at the death of our bodies is just our setting, but not the kind of life we live? If all that is self-centered, fearful, worried, angry, and suffering gets burned away when we move on into the next life, what will be left of us? What if we are starting to build the home we will always live in right now?

I have had moments of fear about this, but the God I know is not trying to keep anyone out of the place he dwells, but trying to help each of us find our place there. The most obvious, glorious, and desirable thing about heaven is God himself. If we are interested in him, wanting to know him, or wanting to spend time with him now, what makes us think that the death of our bodies will change that? He will take whatever spark of interest we have and fan it into a fire to warm us and a light to guide us, but he will not run over us.

The salvation of new birth and new life is something we need to hear about, no doubt. But even more, it is something we need to see and hear and feel and believe. Even in an immature form, it is the light of the world. This life of redemption is simply this: The opportunity is here. Let go of whatever you think brings you life and trust this good news instead: God is working in you and on your world for good and he is as close as the air you breath. (Mark 1:15, paraphrase)

The Springs of Life

 Above all else, guard your heart,

  for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

We are still searching for the fountain of youth. All the temples to "abs" and "buns" testify. The diets, the meds, the meditations all point to this obsession. What if the source of life is not in what we do or what we consume, but in who we trust?

Perhaps the truth is that where our hearts go, our life will follow. I mean not so much our feelings, but our will. The center of our being. What does my life revolve around? The sad thing is that we often confuse the fountain of youth with the appearance of youth and then we end up with the foolishness of youth and an obsession with self-care.

However, I find myself more concerned lately with people who want to seem humble and wise enough to abandon such selfish self-care. They confuse self-hatred and self-negation with self-denial. Self-denial values the self enough to say, "No" to the self. Self-negation says, "Don't think about yourself or you'll be selfish." But instead it ends up fussing and fuming about other people or becoming obsessed with some ideology. Rarely does it come out at becoming a truly humble and kind person.

The heart, like a garden, needs care, not neglect. There are some people who do not believe in bugs and pests in this garden. They dump on the fertilizer and then guess what grows up there? But there are others who think that this garden is "stronger" if you leave it to bake in the sun with no water or care. Funny, but you still end up with bugs and weeds. Care involves protecting and weeding as well as cultivating and feeding.

Do you want to know what is springing up from your heart? It's actually not too hard to find out. What do you think about? What comes out of your mouth in unguarded moments? Likely, that's what's in your heart. That's where your life is headed.

I find I need to guard my heart because stuff starts growing there that I don't want. Stuff I don't want for myself or for other people or for God. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. Neither does covering it up with will-powered efforts at getting better or looking good. No, changing the heart is a different matter.

I find that it begins with making some choices about what I think about regularly, my mental diet. That is where my first freedom lies: what I think about. I would recommend this as a great starting point: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned from Jesus and those learning from him, or seen in them - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

The Rising Sun

The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,

  shining ever brighter till the full light of day,

But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;

  they do not know what makes them stumble. (Proverbs 4:18-19)

First thing. Note that it is the path of the righteous, not the path of the self-righteous. It is unfortunate that righteousness has such a bad name nowadays. Really the thing that is so unsavory is self-righteousness. Being in the right is not necessarily a bad thing, but most people do not handle it very well.

Recently my wife had a sprained ankle. It is a re-injury. Parts of her ankle and foot have become weak over time. The bones in her leg have shifted. She is having to learn how to walk rightly again with the right support and exercise. This is what righteousness is like. Training. Recovery. The joy of such training is walking rightly. Less pain. Greater freedom and strength.

In this case the freedom is expressed as the coming dawn. I like this quote from Dallas Willard: "As you grow older, the soul beings to function like a storehouse." For most of us, it is easy to store up anxiety and regret and dark thoughts. But I am happy to have even just a little glory being stored up in my life. Sometimes it is something good I was a part of, someone really good that I met, or something wonderful I've seen. I know when I'm on the right path when smaller and smaller things bring greater and greater praise and thanksgiving from my heart and mouth.

Wickedness is like a steamroller over the innocent. We always have such good reasons for it too. In the end it is constant instability and anxiety and frustration. It is not only stumbling, but running into horrible things you never quite expected. It's like bleeding in the middle of a frenzy of sharks. The language of the wicked is complaining and arguing and accusing. It takes less and less to make me more and more frustrated when I'm headed into darkness.

In the end, we will follow our teachers. Into light or into darkness we follow them. It reminds me of a prayer my family says during Advent season: "O Rising Sun, come to us from heaven and shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, and guide our feet into the path of peace." 

The Master's Happiness

 Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! (Matthew 25:21)

The reward I think many people want is not being in charge of many things, but being relieved of any responsibility at all. It seems many of us would rather have the reward of the person Jesus called the rich fool: "I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.'" (Luke 12:19) Perhaps one of the biggest problems we have with seeking the kingdom of God is that we do not want to share in the master's happiness. We would rather hold on to our own version, our little illusion.

Both persons have plenty of good things. One has doubled the wealth given to him from ten to twenty talents, the other has to build bigger barns to keep all his wealth he thinks he has made. However, one is a servant working with his master's wealth. The other deems himself a master ready to to be served. One is living for his master and given charge of many things. The other is ready to live off the wealth he has earned and devour many things.

Apparently the master's happiness is not just taking life easy, but in making life good. The heart of the rich fool is the same as the servant who buried his talent in Jesus's parable. Both were afraid. Both saw the master as a hard man with unfair demands. We find ourselves wanting to be master because we fear the Lord God is hard and unfair.

Ironically, God wants us to master our lives, taking the little we have been given and offering it up to him rather than hoarding it for ourselves out of fear and distrust. We offer it up is many ways, but all of them involve letting it go. Whether the wealth leaves our hearts or our hands, we have to give it up and work with it. This is life: sacrifice. We cannot sacrifice if we have nothing to give. We also cannot sacrifice if we will not give it up.

God does not want us to merely bury it or throw it away. He wants us to increase and learn how to share out of our increase. We must learn how to move from loving our gifts and wealth to loving with our gifts and our wealth. Only then will we be able to enter into our master's happiness, marrying great power with great love.

The Wells of Salvation

 In that day you will say,

  "Surely the Lord is my salvation

    I will trust and not be afraid.

  The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song,

    he has become my salvation.."

  With joy you will draw water

    from the wells of salvation.  (Isaiah 12:3-3)

"That day" is today. During Jesus's earthly ministry, there was a problem. As he proclaimed and taught about the kingdom of God, the people were looking forward to a time when God would come and set all things right through judgment and complete renewal. This was not wrong, but it is not the good news that Jesus brought. He was talking about the opportunity of access to the kingdom of God now. 

We face the same misunderstanding today. People talk about the kingdom of God in terms of building it and waiting for it, but not in terms of its presence and immanence. Jesus talked about seeing and entering the kingdom of God, not building it or making it happen. When he said, "The kingdom of God is near," he did not mean it was about to happen, but that it was entirely accessible. (For further information about this, you can read this blog entry: What Is the Kingdom of God?)

Isaiah was talking about the day that God would bring deliverance to his people. Complete deliverance. That day is happening now in Jesus. He says "If anyone is thristy, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will now flow from within him." (John 7:37-38) The complete deliverance is in Jesus and life with him through his Spirit. That life will not change in the future, but come to fruition. Perhaps another way of saying it is that life we can find now in Jesus will not change in kind, but in its intensity. When he returns it will not be so much something different as something more.

The "wells of salvation" are not just forgiveness to get us out of this life into the next. These wells are where we go each moment to draw living water for the days and years of sojourn in this time of exile. This water is the same, but the setting is different. In substance, simply living with Jesus is the eternal, abundant water we need. However, we often get obsessed with just wishing for a change of setting instead. For those whose joy comes from pulling water out of the well day in and day out, the Lord is their song and their salvation. He is their daily companion on the road through life. We do not seek escape, but joyful, obedient living.

The only well we can go to is the life that we have before us. Living water is accessible from within by the Spirit, but it is available only from within us. From our lives lived deeply and truly. We cannot access water from someone else's well, someone else's life, as much as we might want to. This desire is what keeps most of us from enjoying God's deliverance. We want another life. What we need is another God. We do not trust God in our lives, but are afraid of our life and the God Who has given it to us. Jesus has come to redeem, renew, reframe our lives, not give us another escape.

Only in the power and reality of Jesus's redemption will the wells of salvation open for us. Only then will it be a joy to access that living water, the kingdom of God in King Jesus. We will find our confidence. And we will discover what it is to not live in fear. We will truly be saved.

The Invitation, the Feast

"I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet." But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. (Matthew 22:4-5)

The preparation has been centuries in the making. This feast is what everything was made for. The sun, moon, and stars to light it. The trees to wave joy over it. The animals to play in the midst of it. And people to enjoy it.

The people have been taught and led through the ages to come to expect and to anticipate such a feast. They were sent invitation and explanation through teachers and scriptures and even in basic human wisdom. It was all done to warm and soften their hearts to their Maker.

The final call for the feast was the most amazing. Last of all, he sent his son to them. "They will respect my son," he said. (Matthew 21:37) But it was not so. Even as his own Son came to share the good news of the Father's goodness and greatness through word and deed, all sorts of people gathered together to kill him.

The people may have thought this was the end, the last straw. But even then the invitation went out. News came back that the Son could not be killed, the invitation could not be quieted, and the people could not be unloved by the Father. Because of their disregard for his Son, they faced deep suffering. They had allied themselves with evil and now evil had them in its clutches and had its way with them. Still the invitation goes out. It's not too late. If, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:10)

We have been brought back to God through Jesus. God's forgiveness was with us even to in the depths of our own disregard, hatred, and abuse. He stayed with us even to the limits of our own evil. God is still with us. His invitation shines even more brightly than ever. Some people do not want to be reconciled. They still find reason to avoid God. Some people think that the invitation is not open to everyone, but only to a special few. But we are not locked out; we have locked ourselves in. God opens wide his door by making peace with each person through Jesus. That is the invitation. The feast is deliverance from a dead, meaningless, empty life of trying to avoid pain, justify oneself, or impress others.

This is an old story. We tire of God's persistence and insistence for us to come. It is so common that it is met with disregard. We pay no attention and go off to our pursuits. It does not have to be that way. The feast is a wedding feast, uniting God with each person and with his people. Now that unity is finally found in God-made-human, Jesus. That unity is one of living life with Him in prayerful response to his voice which always echoes the BIble, in work and play that resounds with joy and power unexplainable, and in caring for other people in a way that brings about goodness and wholeness in their lives. 

The doors are open. The feast is ready. The guests are already arriving. Join the feast. Do not just listen to the gathering from outside. Do not sit on the doorstep frustrated about who is invited. Do not fuss about how inconvenient it all is. Your response to the invitation will reveal your heart to you. Entering will show you why both laughter and tears are part of real life together with God.