God Beyond Our Boxes

Jonah 3: 10 – 4: 11 & Matthew 20: 1-16

Roger Lynn

September 30, 2018

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God has a serious attitude problem! It’s been going on for a long time now, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. For some reason which seems difficult for us to fathom, God simply refuses to cooperate in acting the way we think God should act. Time and time again we have a very clear understanding of what God should do in some particular circumstance or another. And time and time again God chooses to defy us – challenging our best wisdom and acting in ways which fly in the face of accepted cultural norms.

OK, so my tongue may have been located firmly in my cheek! And yet, I suspect many of you found yourselves smiling uncomfortably in recognition of the sentiment. Faith is often an experience of growth because it challenges us to rethink our understanding of God, the world, and even ourselves. What does it mean when we open ourselves to the possibility of God beyond our boxes?

Walking with God - Living with Integrity

Isaiah 50: 4-9a & Mark 8: 27-30

Roger Lynn

September 23, 2018

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We like to talk about faith in terms of the gifts we receive through our participation in this way of living – the support and the joy which comes from following the path of faith. But the truth is that this business of faithful living is not always easy. Walking with God and seeking to follow where we think God is leading us can take us into some rather unsettling, and even frightening, territory. This is true not because God leads us into harm’s way, but because the world is not always ready to receive the gifts which faith prompts us to offer. The good news of love and acceptance and forgiveness and peace and generosity and compassion can seem threatening to those who only know how to experience the world through a filter of fear. And frightened people sometimes lash out at whatever they perceive to be the source of their fear.

And so, we would be less than honest to talk about faith only in terms of the gifts. The writer of Isaiah understood this. “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6) For Isaiah, faith included suffering. Jesus understood this. He told his disciples that he “must undergo great suffering, and be rejected . . . and be killed.” (Mark 8:31) Those of us who seek to be followers of Christ need to remember that the one we are following ended up on a cross. The path of faith can be a risky one.

At the same time, however, we would also be telling less than the whole truth if we talk about faith only in terms of the risks. While it is true that living faithfully can lead us into the shadow places which are filled with life’s pain, that is never the whole story, and certainly is never the end of the story. Isaiah knew this as well. “God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; . . . I know that I shall not be put to shame; the one who vindicates me is near. . . It is God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?” (Isaiah 50:7-9) Jesus knew this also. In the face of determined, and in the end even violent, opposition, from both outside and inside his circle of friends, he stayed the course and remained true to his vision of life because of his confidence that God would be with him come what may. 

Trauma and Healing: Lessons from Faith

Luke 15: 11-24

Roger Lynn

September 16, 2018

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It began with stomach cramps and what we thought was a severe case of acid indigestion. Fast forward a month and my world was turned upside down and inside out as I stood in the corner of the hospital room holding two of my daughters while the doctors quietly declared that my wife was dead. Trauma comes in a variety of forms and has its roots in a myriad of causes. Sometimes we can see it coming, and sometimes it catches us by surprise. But regardless of the details, when it finds its way into our life it has the power to completely undo us. Nothing is ever quite the same again. There is no going back to the way things were before. The only choice is between being lost and being found, between staying broken and being healed. 

Living Into God’s Reality

Isaiah 35: 4-7 & James 2: 14-17

Roger Lynn

September 9, 2018

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We live in a world that is filled with images of violence and hatred. It can be frightening to live here sometimes. This week is the seventeenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and while the specific attention to that day has diminished over the years, there is still lots of fearful talk floating around about the dangers we face in the world. There is frequently lots of talk about justice, but when we listen closely it often sounds a lot like vengeance and retribution. It sounded a lot like making sure that someone gets punished in response to our pain.

The people in Isaiah’s day who were living in Babylonian exile also knew about pain. They had been ripped from family and home and faith, and subjected to domination by a foreign power. They wanted justice, and the justice they wanted looked a lot like vengeance. They wanted someone else to suffer for their pain. And so Isaiah writes to this exile community and he speaks about God’s vengeance. “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. God will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. God will come and save you.’ ” (Isaiah 35:4) I can almost hear the exiles’ response to these words. “It’s about time! I can hardly wait for God to let these awful, godless Babylonians have it! Let the punishing begin.” And then comes the very next verse. The writer of Isaiah is brilliant. He has sucked us in by using words like vengeance and “terrible recompense.” And then he delivers the death blow to that entire way of thinking by turning everything completely upside down. You want vengeance, says Isaiah. Well, here’s what God’s vengeance looks like. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.” (Isaiah 35:5-7) That is the world of God’s reality. That is what it looks like when God has God’s way in the world!