Jeremiah - Some Thoughts About Patriotism

Some quotes from Paul Johnson's *** A History of the Jews:

For Jeremiah was saying that the destruction of the kingdom did not matter. Israel was still the chosen of the Lord. It could perform the mission given to it by God just as well in exile and dispersal as within the confines of its petty nation-state. Page 77

Jeremiah was the first to perceive the possibility that powerlessness and goodness were somehow linked, and that alien rule could be preferable to self-rule. He comes close to the notion that the state itself was inherently evil. Page 84

I find myself thinking, "But not yet, Lord, not yet."

I don't usually think of myself as more than moderately patriotic - patriotic, yes, but not overtly so. In my shallow little mind, I often think of myself more as a God-fearing (Christian) American than as a patriotic being. Yet, when I think of Jeremiah's mission, to prepare his nation for exile because he believes it is going to be taken over by a foreign power, and I read the brief explanation given by Paul Johnson, I find that I am, all of a sudden, more patriotic than I thought.

It's good to be an American. Although we grunt and grumble, we fuss and fume, our politics have a foul odor, and we think we have it bad, we live in a land where we can not only think and do what we want, we generally get by with it. We are free to be however we want to be. We are free to come and go, to choose our associations, to believe or not believe, to praise or criticize, to marry or not, to raise our families or not ... As a rule, we are not afraid that someone is hiding in every shadow, that our neighbor is reporting our every move to the authorities, that our every coming in or going out is being monitored and puts us in danger.

Our country and our lives in this country provide us with a freedom unmatched anywhere on the earth. We are, in the words of those of us who who are God-fearers, blessed.

So I find I am patriotic to my core. Being an American is something I've always known and take for granted. It is very much part of the foundation of who I am. I find myself singing:

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Jeremiah's message is good advice, it is meaningful, and I know it is true. But my deepest prayer at this moment is that it's not something we need to know, that God will preserve this wonderful country and protect us against our foes - even when one of our foes may be ourselves.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.

*** I have thoroughly enjoyed two of Paul Johnson's books: A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity. I grin ear to ear, though, when I read his Wikipedia bio (I linked to this site in the first line of this post). Oh, there's so much about his life that I wouldn't applaud, so much of his politics that are contrary to mine, so much about him that gives me pause for thought; but I really do enjoy his writings. God can use any of us for his purposes - Paul Johnson, Jeremiah, that person I don't care for in the super market, me. The whole of it is so much bigger than the sum of its parts - you and me.

Reflections on Job - 3 - How we talk to each other in the name of love

Job was in unimaginable pain. He tragically lost his sons and daughters and his livelihood in almost one swoop, and then he became very ill with some kind of pox that created boils over all his skin. How could he bear it? Even his wife becomes sick of him because of all the tragedy that has happened to him. "Curse God and die!" she said to him.

Three of Job's friends (presumably his very closest friends) came to mourn with him over these deeply personal tragedies. For seven days and nights they sat quietly and mourned with him.

Finally, Job cried: "Oh, why was I ever born?" And then the friendships take on a new character.

How often have I seen or experienced the Job scenario, either as Job or as one of Job's friends? Here's the way I see it:

We have four friends, one of whom is really in trouble.

At first, the non-troubled friends console the troubled friend. We sit together, quietly.

After sitting together so long, the troubled friend manages to speak. "Oh, I am so miserable, I wish I could die." Things begin to escalate from here.

We start with "You have helped so many..." and end with "You must have done something terribly wrong or God wouldn't be putting this trouble on you."

The focus begins with the troubled friend and ends with each non-troubled friend besting the advice of the others. The focus is no longer on Job. It's on how wise we we are and how we each understand God better than the others.

Oh, that we would learn to keep silent, except for prayer.

Oh, that we would not have this need to best each other.

Oh, that we would remember that we are all in the same boat, no matter how smart we are.

Oh, that we would remember that God is God, and that we are not.

But back to the main point: All these conversations started with a simple gesture of love. Three of us came to the fourth because the fourth was in trouble and we three cared about our friend. And then things escalated. It happens. It happens all the time.

Is it better that it happened than if it hadn't? Maybe so. Maybe this is the way it is. Maybe this is the way it has to be. Job did have the companionship of his friends. He wasn't humanly alone. Because of his friends, perhaps, Job came to a better understanding of how deep his faith was. Job was able to witness to his great faith in God, to speak the words in his heart that maybe he didn't even know were there. Job's values were certainly clarified during this time.

God bless us, and bless our friends. We don't know how to do it well. Only God can make sense of it. Only God knows what good will come of it. Only God can make good of it all - to our benefit, even. God have mercy on us. God has mercy on us.

Reflections on Job - 2 - Praying for my children and grandchildren

During this reading of Job, I have the advantage of having read it a number of times before and all the dialog is filtered through my previous knowledge.

This time around, right off the bat I'm touched by this passage:

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day (birthday), and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, 'Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' (Job 1: 4-5, NASB)

During my study, these two verses kept calling me back.

Job wanted to make sure his son's sins were covered just in case they had cursed God in their hearts. A few points call themselves to me:

• Job loved his children. Although the Bible tells of his prayer for his sons, had Job lived in these days, I'm sure he would have prayed for his daughters as well.
• Job loved his children very much. He was their father, their patriarch, and he was responsible for them as such. They were blessings God had given him. Above all things, Job loved and trusted God.
• The sons would invite the three sisters to celebrate with them. In this, we see siblings who take care of each other, who are still considered a family unit even though they are grown and have separate lives of their own.
• And the big point, the one that kept calling me back: Job prayed for forgiveness for his sons, just in case.

My prayers for my children usually go something like this:

- Make them strong

- Make them happy

- Keep them healthy

- Keep them safe

- Keep them on the right path

- Help them find a job, a house, a good neighborhood, good moral and upright friends, etc

But it's not my usual prayer to ask God to forgive them ... especially not just in case.

Job 1:4-5 has enriched my life forever. My morning prayers for my daughter and her family now will be more like this:

Dear Lord, Keep them healthy and strong in you. Keep them together so they can support each other spiritually and emotionally as they grow older. Keep them safe. Protect them in their jobs, whether at school or at work. Give them good friends who know You, and give them a happy life. Forgive them for any sins they may have committed against you. Keep them in the faith.

Reflections on Job - 1 - Overview

Job tells a story of universal personal pain. Everyone experiences pain, but our responses to it vary. Job's response is one I always want to remember, because Job knew God was there and he never forgot it.

I just purchased a new Bible - the 1999 NASB version (replacing an earlier version) coupled with Zondervan Study Notes. The NASB and the NLT are my all-time favorite versions of the Bible: The NASB because it is a traditional word-for-word translation in modern language and the NLT because it is a word-for-word and then a thought-by-thought translation in my language. My NLT version is the Life Application version, a version I fell in love with from the first words I read. I have used it almost exclusively since I first purchased it, not long after it was originally published. Only recently have I begun to long for my old friend, the NASB, and now I use them side by side,

The NASB-Zondervan ends Job with this explanation:

Despite Job's mistakes in word and attitude while he suffered, he is now commended and the counselors are rebuked. Why? Because even in his rage, even when he challenged God, he was determined to speak honestly before him. The counselors, on the other hand, mouthed many correct and often beautiful creedal statements, but without living knowledge of the God they claimed to honor. Job spoke to God; they only spoke about God...

The words that spoke most loudly to me are in bold. Oh, that I should remember this always. The difference tells what one's relationship to God represents - a God who knows us versus a God we only know about.

Lord, however I perceive my pain, whatever I perceive my pain is, teach me to bring it to you directly - not to my friends, not to my inner self, but let me bring it to you and keep my eyes on you. Teach me to be more like Job.

The private sphere of faith...

A statement, and the pages leading up to and beyond it in Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright, challenged me this morning. The statement is "... many people still today assume that faith lives in a private sphere, shutting itself off from history lest history make unwelcome inroads." (page 69 in the hardcover edition)

Previous to this statement, Wright is making a point that the resurrection cannot be explained within our framework of conventional wisdom. Our right (rational) brains don't process this concept because it has never happened before, it isn't something anything we even remotely expect, and we can't repeat it in a laboratory. By examples and words, Wright makes the case that believing the resurrection, this totally unscientific event, changes our entire worldview.

That's the point that caught my attention and challenged me this morning. How can we keep our faith in a private sphere if our entire worldview has been changed?

Our faith changes us absolutely, even if we don't admit to others that we're believers. We are never the same again. We can't be.

Having faith (belief) that Jesus "died, was buried, ... rose from the dead, ... ascended into heaven" means we can no longer say, for example, that we are moral because that's the right thing to be. We are now (or attempt to be) moral because there's an important (permanent) witness to all we say, do, or think. We believe in "God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth...," and that God knows all and holds us accountable. (Some might say we're not accountable because we're "redeemed," but if you think about it, the fact that we need redemption means that we've been held accountable -- and guilty.)

During the last several elections, there has been much talk about faith and whether the candidates are "people of faith." I remember being outraged 4 years ago when participants on a 60-Minutes segment made what I believed was an unhealthy, un-Christian comparison between members of the two major political parties.

All that aside, though, the lesson for me this morning is simply this:

• The way I choose to live my life is fundamentally based on what I believe. I don't know if I'd want to be ethical or moral if I didn't believe in a supreme being who is named, who is all seeing, knowing, and powerful, and who holds me accountable.
• I believe Jesus and all he taught. I believe he was man and at the same time God, and all he said and did showed me how God wants me to live and to think.
• Even if I want to keep my faith in a private sphere, I don't know that it's possible. To think that my faith is private is just fooling myself.
• Therefore, I might as well admit it. Why do I ...? (Fill in the blank.) The answer is: Because I believe.

There is nothing truly private. Our very lives are telling. Others can read us much more than we think they can. For those of us who are believers, we can only pray that the message we're sending with our lives is the one we want to send, the one we believe God wants us to send.

First Century Judiasm, John the B, Prophesy

Reading N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, this morning. Some interesting ideas:

• Some thought that prophecy had come to an end in the first century. That's true in these times, too. (Part II, 2, (i) First-Century Judiasm, pgs 151, 152 ...)


• Even so, there were a variety of prophet-types, including some that were hired by the occupiers of the area (Romans, I suspect) who spread false information to confuse the people and some who were inspired to keep the people on the path toward God's salvation for Israel. This seems true to me in my times, too - truth and false "prophets" abound. You have to be careful who you believe. We are not unlike first century people. (pgs 153, 154)


• John the Baptist (recognized as a prophet type by Josephus) offered, through baptism, "what you would normally get through the Temple cult." The idea of an alternative to the norm, an alternative that produces a surer and truer Way, intrigues me. I have never thought of John's baptism as being an "alternative." Like many Biblical stories, I just took John's baptism as fact and never thought beyond that point.

The hymn "Open my eyes, that I may see...." comes to mind. For whatever these ideas mean, it's my prayer that a greater understanding helps keep my faith fresh and true.

A list of things we know about Jesus (from N. T. Wright)

In Jesus and the Victory of God, in Chapter 5, N. T. Wright gives a short list of things we know about Jesus. The bare-bones nature of the list speaks to me. Here's a condensation:

• ... most likely born in what we now call 4 BC
• ... grew up in Galilee, in the town of Nazareth
• ... spoke Aramaic, some Hebrew, and probably at least some Greek
• ... emerged as a public figure in around AD 28
• ... summoned people to repent
• ... announced the kingdom, or reign, of Israel's god
• ... journeyed around the villages of Galilee
• ... effect[ed] cures, including exorcisms
• ... shar[ed] table-fellowship with a socio-culturally wide group
• ... called a group of close disciples
• ... incurred the wrath of some elements in Judaism, notably ... of the high-priestly establishment
• ... was handed over to the Romans and executed in the manner regularly used for insurrectionists
• ... followers claimed ... that he had been raised from the dead
• ... [followers] carried on his work in a new way

In subsequent paragraphs, he adds these items:

• ... engaged in an itinerant ministry
• ... [ministry] took him into synagogues, into private houses, into the open countryside
• ... sometimes ... met with his followers in secret
• ... often to be found in prayer..., sometimes in lonely places
• ... ate and drank with all sorts and conditions of people
• ... kept company with people normally on or beyond the borders of respectable activity

In these opening paragraphs of Chapter 5, Wright describes Jesus as one might observe his actions. He purposely is attributing no god-like attributes to him. I find this useful as I think about the way I observe the times I live in. In some way, the list gives clarity to how I should live and tells me, at the same time, that I cannot, with certainty, understand the full measure of those around me. The list describes a man who is focused, who understands what he is about, whose eyes are on some goal that perhaps isn't always clear to those around him. Yet, we don't see the man apologizing for who he is; we don't see him backtracking and changing his ways to be more acceptable to society around him. This man seems convinced that he is on the right path. For me, it's a powerful list.