Dignity

September 11, 2023

Tonight I’ll close out the day with this simple but profound thought: “Paying more than the asking price when buying from the poor is charity wrapped in dignity.”

 

Victim no More

 September 10, 2023

If you’ve ever felt that your life is out of control, or that others have more say in your life than you do, the story of queen Esther may prove helpful. 

Esther was a young Jewish girl who was born in exile when Persia was at the height of its empire ambitions. She was also an orphan who happened to be quite beautiful. As the story goes, the king, Ahasuerus by name (in secular writings known as Xerxes), was so displeased with his queen over her refusal to be paraded naked before hundreds of his guests at an alcohol-fueled banquet he had orchestrated that he removed her from her position, and was thus in the market for a new queen. 

From the beginning, it is evident that the king is lacking in morals and in wisdom. Whenever he is mentioned, it is in the context of drinking or being led by the nose at the hands of his fawning and scheming advisors. And now he needs a queen.

Young Esther’s beauty not having gone unnoticed, she was rounded up with who knows how many other young women, all of whom became part of the king’s harem. When it came time for the king to decide who would become the next queen, each of the girls would be summoned to his bed for the night and sent back to the harem in the morning. For a Jewish girl, this was not only a violation of her body, but also of her faith. The upside was, she became queen. The downside was that she could only enter the king’s presence at his request.

It gets worse. One of the king’s advisors, Haman by name, was miffed at not having received the deference he expected from a Jew named Mordecai, who happened to be Esther’s cousin and guardian. This Haman decided that Mordecai needed to be punished, but determined to not only teach Mordecai a lesson, but to exterminate the entire Jewish population of the empire for good measure.

To make a long story short, Mordecai told Esther that she needed to do something, but Esther reminded him that even she couldn’t enter the king’s presence uninvited. She risked death to do so. Mordecai was unmoved. His response to her objections is the stuff of legend.

 “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?””

—Esther 4:13-14 

“For such a time as this.” These are fighting words! Esther took them to heart, stood unbidden before the king, and by her bravery, her people were spared. If you read the story carefully, you learn that there was very little in her life over which she had control, but she refused to let her vulnerability define her. 

We live in a culture that feeds on vulnerability. Everywhere you turn, people are clamoring for special treatment because they’ve been subject to unfair treatment at some time or other, and there are plenty of others ready to fan the flames of discontent by reminding them and the rest of us how victimized they have been. There is no question that people are treated unfairly, that inequality exists. But trading in victimhood only serves those who seek to profit off it by keeping the “victims” victim. 

Esther had few choices in life, but when faced with the big choice, the brave choice, she chose well. Even in her vulnerability, she chose not to be a victim. May we do the same.

Planted

 September 9, 2023

Small Town, USA can’t be beat. Where else would a community celebration of History Days begin with not only a parade, but the ringing of a church bell, the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, and singing the National Anthem? The village commons was filled with vendors, the classic car show got a bit rained out, but various local bands kept the music coming all day long and into the evening. A Beautiful Baby contest went off without a hitch, the library held a puppet show, and the pie contest left a good taste in everyone’s mouth.

Fireworks capped off the day, and Linda and I ran into our “Creek Kids.” Son Matthew begged them to come to church so he could hold their baby. He just might get that chance. That’s what we’re praying for. 

The best part of the day was a conversation I overheard. As the fireworks were exploding overhead, our son Matt was talking with a friend whose last child recently left for college. “I grew up here, never thinking I would move back here. But we are within walking distance of my brother, sister, and parents. The cousins all grew up together, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” 

Most of the grandchildren are on their own or away at college. Life has changed for all of us, but the foundations have been laid, and as we built into them, they unknowingly built into us. The marks of their workmanship are scribed on our hearts, and we are blessed indeed.

Great and Small

 September 7, 2023

This morning’s men’s prayer meeting began with Psalm 147. The following verses caught my eye:

“The Lord builds up Jerusalem; 

He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. 

He heals the brokenhearted 

And binds up their wounds. 

He counts the number of the stars; 

He calls them all by name. 

Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; 

His understanding is infinite.”

—Psalm 147:2-5 

What got my attention was the juxtaposition of verses and 3 and 4: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars and calls them by name.” From the most humble to an almost infinite magnitude, God cares for every detail. No matter how lowly the person, how tiny the concern, nor how great the issue, God knows intimately and completely. No wonder the psalmist says, “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding is infinite!” 

I am grateful tonight to know God hears the prayers of the most humble, the weakest and vulnerable, but has also his hand on the most momentous of earthly matters. I needn’t worry about tomorrow. God knows, and cares.

Bassic Praise

 September 6, 2023

Wednesday mornings, I get up early, fix breakfast for two of my pastor friends before adjourning to our back room for prayer, always beginning with a psalm. Today we finally reached the last psalm, so now we have to decide whether to start over with the psalms, or begin our prayers with some other Scripture. Either way, it’s good to have our prayers informed by the Scriptures.

Psalm 150 is a rarity. It is nothing but praise. Many psalms combine praise and petition, some are laments, but this one enjoins all Creation to join in praise of the LORD. It’s not long, so here it is in its entirety:

“Praise the Lord! 

Praise God in His sanctuary; 

Praise Him in His mighty firmament! 

Praise Him for His mighty acts;

Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! 

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; 

Praise Him with the lute and harp! 

Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; 

Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! 

Praise Him with loud cymbals; 

Praise Him with clashing cymbals! 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 

Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 150:1-6 

One of the things I like about this psalm is how it gives various ways we can praise God. Sometimes repeated verbalizations of praise seem to me a bit stilted and forced. I like to hear people in the congregation offer their various praises to God; hearing praise from other lips helps me in my own worship. But what catches my heart here is the instrumental praise. 

I can’t sing and play bass. I can strum the guitar and sing, but there’s something about playing the bass that requires my full attention. Even then, I often wonder where we are in the song. Fortunately, most of the time, people don’t seem to notice. So on those Sunday mornings when I have the privilege of playing my bass for worship, I can’t use my voice to offer my praises. On these Sundays, I tell people, “I praise God through my fingers.” It’s true! My bass is a stringed instrument, and when I play on Sundays, my fingers do the praising; imperfectly, but no more so than on those other Sundays when I sing.

I LOVE this instrument! And I love using it as an instrument of praise, because for me, that’s exactly what it is.

Hot work

 September 5, 2023

Yesterday and today have been scorchers! I didn’t actually look at the thermometer, but when I was cutting the briars along the creek bank so I could get at a couple of dead ash that the tree service missed, it only took about 20 minutes of work to completely take the wind out of my sails. I got the job done, and four more trees are down and at least partially cut up, but both yesterday and today, that little bit of physical work did me in. I had planned on working my bees today. I need to take off some honey and start getting them ready for the goldenrod. I can smell the goldenrod in the air—my favorite aroma of September. But it was too hot to don the bee suit. I don’t know how the southern beekeepers do it.

This afternoon, Linda and I watched grandson Nathan and his team play soccer. The halves are 40 minutes, and usually played without rest. Today, each half was stopped midway so the kids could hydrate and rest. Did I mention that it was HOT today? 

There are times when an outdoor job of physical labor have appealed to me, but there are also times like yesterday and today, when I’m glad I don’t have to do it all day long. Yesterday was Labor Day. We enjoyed a neighborhood picnic in the evening, but I wonder how often we reflect on the reason for the day—to pay tribute to those who work, often at menial tasks or the jobs no one else wants to do. They can’t work from home, and show up in the worst possible weather, plowing streets, fixing downed wires, cleaning septic tanks, repairing highways.

The Fourth Commandment usually is remembered only as the foundation for our Sabbath, a weekly day of rest. We often forget the rest of it: “Six days shalt thou work.” I am grateful to have had the privilege of working with my mind more than my body, and now to be retired. Retirement doesn’t exempt me from the commandment, though, so tomorrow, I will rise, offer myself once more to God, and get busy with the work of the day.

Saul and Esther

September 3, 2023

Because I was preaching in Akeley, PA this morning, I didn’t get to hear pastor Joe’s first sermon in his series on Esther, but I read Linda’s notes and plan to catch up; I’m eager to hear what he has to say. This evening, I read through this short OT book. There are many things to learn from it, but tonight, one alone stands out to me. The story is about how God orchestrated circumstances to deliver his people from what could be described as one of the first of many pogroms. 

You can read the backstory for yourself; it’s a marvelous account of near-miraculous events, but let’s begin in chapter 3:

“After these things (What things, you ask? Read chapters 1 and 2!), King Ahasuerus promoted Human the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.” (v.1)

This Haman is our antagonist, the one who plotted to destroy all the Jews living in the far-flung Persian kingdom. Notice his ancestry—he is an Agagite. Some 600 years previously, this name pops up in 1 Samuel 15:8. Agag was the king of the Amalekites whom Saul was commanded to annihilate. Saul fought the Amalekites, but in blatant disobedience to God’s command, he saved Agag alive. Agag (and by extension, his family) were to have been executed. They were not, and now 600 years later, this name surfaces in Haman, the would-be destroyer of God’s people.

Critics have often cited such passages as 1 Samuel 15 as examples of barbaric customs that sully the validity of the Bible as a standard for today’s living. That’s an argument for another time and place. What I see here is something far more significant and sinister. It’s this:

Generational sins have long shadows.

My preaching this morning came from Judges 2:7 & 10-11: 

“The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD which he had done for Israel…When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which he had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals.”

Saul’s failure to obey God not only cost him his kingdom; 600 years later, that single act of disobedience came back to haunt God’s people. God worked it all out, but wouldn’t it have been better if such deliverance hadn’t been necessary? 

I wonder what failure, what disobedience, what negligence in me will stretch far into the future? I’ve seen it happen; the sins of the fathers get passed down from one generation to another until someone finally steps up and says, “The buck stops here,” and breaks the curse. I’ve also seen the benefits of generational blessings in my own life, having been recipient of the example, the faith, and the prayers of parents, and having received the merciful privilege of passing this to my children, and seeing them pass it along to theirs. 

Generational curses do cast long shadows, but generational blessings throw light beams of blessing even farther down the road. The Bible says the curses can last to the second and third generation, but the blessings go for a thousand generations. Saul’s disobedience cast that long shadow, but Esther’s courageous obedience put an end to it. Instead of a Saul, may we be Esthers to our generation!