Monthly Archives: August 2020

In beginning to pray one day this week, God gave me a vision, a perception, an extended guided imagery, a projection, perhaps, an in-vention . . .  I don’t know what you would call it. Be that as it may, in this “awareness,” I could see God afar off in His celestial place, “out there,” somewhere and not here.[1] I wanted to be with Him, and I uttered a prayer for the ability to do that… I waited. I think I ran out of patience because I lost it as my mind wandered to lesser things. I closed down hoping to hear from Him again.

“Again” came in two parts, and it was not a vision, rather His lesson came on YouTube^® and Facebook, ^®, and both parts from”preachers” no less – what a concept. Part one came from the Letter of James, the second from the Book of Esther.

On Wednesday nights, staff pastors from my church give an on-line “mini-lesson” after which, on Sundays, we discuss the lesson in Zoom Sunday school. We are going through the Letter of James. After Wednesday night and again the subsequent Sunday school, the point that stuck with me was how we “pious” folk can be religious snobs, but we can also be “inverted” religious snobs.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.  Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.  If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”  have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? James 2:2-4. NIV.

Our pastors pointed out that one can show the condemned “favoritism” both by giving preference to the rich and, conversely, by shunning the rich. In other words, when one singles out for scorn, a person, or a group or “tribe,” for that matter, be such person or group powerful or not, the scornful one sins. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Psalm 1:1. KJV. It’s bad either way.

In Sunday school, the class engaged in a far-reaching discussion of the Jacobite passage. The discussion led to politics, always a dangerous place to go. I commented that in prayer, I was engaging in what I call “Reflective” or “Parallel Structured” prayer. One starts with a thankful thought, as though on paper with two columns, paralleled or mirrored by a request of God on the same general subject across the page.  Example: “Thank You, Holy Father, for my church.” Paralleled by, “Holy Father, bless the pastors and keep them healthy.”

I was thanking God for the myriad upon myriad of freedoms that we enjoy in this country. In my parallel request, I was going to ask for God’s blessing on certain officials or political candidates. At that point, I thought, and actually verbalized to the class, “I don’t want God to bless certain ones.”

As the words left my mouth, I realized the same thought stated by an astute class member who pointed out that such was James’ point. That was favoritism, albeit “inverted favoritism.” Could I not want to pray for one person or group because I didn’t like their politics? As one might find on Facebook, ^® “That’s just wrong.” God forgive me. At least, He called my sin to my attention, and I shall endeavor to love all people even if they are – you know . . . “them.”

A couple of hours after the Sunday School class, I was viewing the playback of the sermon from my “other” church, the one in California. (You see, I’ve got my denominations and coasts covered.) The pastor finished up a multi-week study of the Book of Esther.” In the penultimate chapter, Chapter 9, the pastor pointed out, that the Jews were allowed to take up the sword against their oppressors. He joked that the point was that if one were faithful to God, one would be able to “take up the sword” against one’s enemies and to take their goods as spoil. Everyone knew that was certainly not the real point.

But then, I thought, that joke is exactly what I do against my political enemies, though my “sword” is the spoken word, and though the “pointed” words are not spoken outside my house. Again – wrong. In the Lucan recounting of the “Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:27,28. NIV. In Matthew’s account of the same Sermon, Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 5:1,2. NIV.

God completed this “vision” differently from what I would have imagined. As you will remember, at the outset, I entered into the vision but became distracted. On the other hand, God is NEVER distracted, and the vision isn’t over until HE says it’s over.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

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[1] Theologically, it is my belief that though God is transcendent, He is also immanent, meaning that He, in fact, is here at the same time that He is not here. Humor me for the sake of the story.

(An elevator door opens stage right to reveal the Narrator, a middle-aged man with close-cropped dark hair and dark, bushy eyebrows. His brow is wrinkled in a serious and earnest expression. He wears a dark-colored three-button suit with narrow lapels, circa. 1960. The middle suit button is fastened. An equally skinny neck-tie is tied neatly in a small knot encircling his white collar. He holds a lit cigarette in his left hand. The stage lighting creates deep shadows in the picture he wants you to see. A tight, white, hot-spot on the Narrator darkens the remainder of the stage by contrast. The scene is starkly black and white. Smoke billows from his cigarette. He stares almost intimately into your eyes.)

(Narrator:) “Imagine, if you will, a man, John Blue, to be specific, but names don’t matter here. He could be anyone: the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker – anyone. He could be a skid-row bum or a Bishop. He could be me. . . He could be you. (Gravely, and with a punch.) He has just crossed into the Insight Zone.” Lights dim. Exit Narrator.)

(Enter John, center-stage. Spot comes up three-quarters tight. After an uncomfortably long pause, he speaks to the audience:) “Ah. . . ‘hello, Darkness, My Old Friend,’ apparently, ‘pride’ is a subject of great interest to me, so much so that ‘I’ve come to talk with you again.”

(High-pitched, sarcastic voice offstage:) “Maybe it’s because you are full of yourself and prideful.”

(John, continues his stare at the audience. He is somewhat scornful of the Voice interrupting him.

(John, to the voice located somewhere over the audience:) “Surely not!”

(Voice:) “Oh, really?”

(John:) “Really.”

(Voice:) “Do you realize that you’ve written about ‘pride’ more than four times since April? ‘The Lady doth protest too much methinks.”

(John:) “Are you calling me a ‘lady?”

(Voice:) “No, fool, I’m quoting Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene II, to be precise.”

(John:) “Now, who’s being prideful and a bit pretentious? I know you just looked the quote up on Wikipedia. Get back into your cage!”

(Voice:) “No, I’m not through yet! I’ve just started. Why don’t you write about how you were going to send Pastor Alan an email and correct today’s sermon about ‘pride?’ Why don’t you say that you were fired up to do it, but then you Googled the point and found out that he was correct after all? Do you have some sort of need to be the ‘smartest guy in the room?’ You do know, don’t you, that he already was ‘way ahead of you on the point?

(John:) “And that point was . . .”

(Voice, interrupting:) “Chapter 6 of Esther where Haman is jealous of Mordechai’s honor and is going to have him impaled on his very own fifty-foot pole. You were going to make something of that, weren’t you? The point is not the how of Haman’s ‘high-flying’ end, but the why of his sad tale. Why, I remember a piece that you wrote entitled, Pride Goeth Before a Fall; Great Pride Goeth Before a Great Fall. Do you remember that one?”

(John:) “Of course. I remember most of my stuff. I thought it was pretty good.”

(Voice:) “Oh, please . . .”

(John:) “No, I mean it. I thought the point was well made. The Proverbs say that ‘pride goes before a fall,’ and I added….’ and great pride goes before a great fall.’ Catchy, don’t you think?”

(Voice:) “Catchy? Nobody’s said that in twenty years.

(John:) “Well, I just did.”

(Voice:) Now, there you go again – beginning everything with ‘I.”

(John:) “I did not. I began that sentence with, ‘Well . . .”

(Voice:) “And that’s supposed to count?”

(John:) “I see your point. Err, I mean. . . ‘point well taken.”

(Voice:) “Oh, for crying out loud. ‘You’re so vain. You prob’ly think [this bit] is about you, don’t you?”

(John, interrupts:) “Wait, ‘You’re So Vain,’ that would be a good song title.”

(Voice, dripping with sarcasm:) “It’s been done.”

(John:) “Oh, I see your point.”

(Voice:) “. . . And, yet again.”

(John:) “Yet, again, what?

(Voice, annoyed:) “Beginning your sentence with ‘I.’ And, don’t tell me that you began the sentence with, ‘Oh.”

(John:) “Why are you interrupting my story? Why are you in my spot-light? Why are you making me humiliate myself in front of all the hundreds of people who read my stuff?

(Voice, amused:) “Hundreds, are you serious? Do seriously think that hundreds of people read your stuff? You’re lucky if it’s ten. You’re worse off than I thought. You make Haman look like ‘Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter.’ Except that you’re not Superman inside the white shirt. You’re just an arrogant blow-hard!”

(John:) “Blow-hard? Now, who’s using archaic phraseology?”

(John purses his lips, looks up, then from side to side. He hesitates – thinking – considering.) Perhaps . . . perhaps, you’re right. I do seem to come on a bit strong sometimes, don’t I? But I don’t do it with people – usually – I just do it with you.”

(Voice:) “That’s because I am you. I’m the voice inside your head.”

(John:) “Yeah, yeah, and ‘I am the mask you wear. . .”

(Voice:) “Well, ‘it’s me they hear’ . . . Oh, wait, we’ve devolved into Phantom of the Opera lyrics.”

(John:) “Yeah, I was thinking that too. Perhaps, it’s time to drop the curtain. I get the point. I’m still too proud, and that won’t end well for me, will it? I’ll talk to God about that.”

(Voice:) Now that’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day though I strongly suspect that He’s already heard you on this. But, coming clean would be the thing to do. Just imagine, a ‘pride-less John Blue….’ Naa, it’ll never happen.”

(John:) “It could. Honest. It could. God could take it away – if I wanted Him to.”

(Voice, repeating slowly:) “If I wanted Him to. ‘Aye, there’s the rub.”

(John:) “Cool it, Lord Hamlet. You win. I stand convicted. Pride, yet again. Thanks for calling it to my attention. Somehow though, I feel better- now that I’ve owned up to it. I think you can go back into your cage.”

(Voice:) “OK, I’m going. But you do need to work on ‘pride,’ don’t you? Just remember this, ‘I’ll be back.”

(John, trying to sound triumphant, but honestly – just busted:) “Sure. But, did you have to sign off doing a lame Arnold Schwarzenegger?”

(Stage goes dark. The sound of exiting footsteps can be heard in the dark.)

(Narrator, voice only, dark stage continues:) “Yes, he will be back because, you see, pride always lurks just beneath the surface of John Blue – just beneath the surface of each of us. And, every once in a while. . . it surfaces. Good night.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Birds can fly. They don’t think about flying; they fly. They don’t wonder how they can fly; they just fly. Birds don’t wonder why they can fly; they fly. Birds express their bird-brain – sized faith in flying – by flying. Perhaps, human faith is like that. We have faith that God can and will do what He says He can and will do – or we don’t. It’s a matter of faith. 

Jesus talked about the birds in the Sermon on the Mount. See Matthew 5, KJV.

Behold the fowls of the air [birds]: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? … 

O ye of little faith?

Therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

As I sat in my “Mind Palace” praying and troubled on a hot, August day, I tried to still my mind, but there were too many distractions, most notable and annoying of which were the myriad minions of mechanized yard equipment encircling me and threatening to overrun my position like one of Rommel’s Panzer Divisions. 

Eventually, I closed my eyes, stopped the ears of my mind, and found myself soaring in space as is frequently the case when I search for the “Mind Palace.” This time, though, I buzzed around much like an incessant house fly. There, God /Jesus sat in His accustomed place in a full lotus position, hanging effortlessly above the Earth. I, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to land beside Him. I was too much vexed with the world. 

As I buzzed around compulsively darting, diving and climbing near the Lord, a flutter of sparrows bore down on me like airport birds zooming into a jet’s engines. (OK, birds don’t fly in space, I get it, it’s a metaphor. Indulge me.) 

I “ducked” to avoid a collision, myself, narrowly missing being sucked into their wake. Cocking his head to the left and staring at me for a minute, God /Jesus broke the verbal silence, “Stop for a moment and watch the birds. Unstop your ears and listen to their chipping. I’m going to show you something, and there’s something you need to hear.” In a moment, the birds were (was?) all my mind could see, and gone was the rumble of the Afrikakorps. At that, God explained the bird’s faith in flying and how it was related to my faith and our faith or lack thereof. 

“The way a bird exercises his faith in flying is by flying,” He began, “The way a human exercises his/her faith, grows his faith, proves her faith is to use ‘faith’ as a verb, a transitive verb.” (Really, you’re going English-major on me?)

Merriam Webster, as quoted by Marissa Shrock in Faith as a Verb, (marissashrick.com) states that “the use of ‘faith’ as a transitive verb… is archaic.” Ms. Shrock advocates the use of this archaism as it applies to one’s faith in God. I concur. To use “faith” in its modern sense makes the word assume a passive state. Nothing about faith should be passive. “To faith” God is the most active verb I know. 

God continued, “I know that you look at the world and don’t think that it’s going to get any better. You have decided that you will die, and the world will be no better – News flash, You’re right. Mankind left alone will only dissolve into chaos. That’s a law both of physics and sociology.”

“But here’s the difference. On a day certain to Me, though not to you, I, even I, will return, in living color, and I will make all things new – all things. Every person will be in the right relationship with me. Every person will be in the right relationship with every other person. Every person will be in the right relationship with the world around and the environment, and the world will be renewed – not ‘Heaven on Earth,’ but a New Earth on Earth.
This new Earth will be populated by people who faith me: black and white, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, gay and straight, (did I omit any categorical pairs?) – one Lord, one faith, one baptism – one family, the Family of God.” 

“You will see it then, and it will be beyond wonder, beyond anything you expected, even beyond anything you suspected. You can believe that, rely on it, take it to the bank. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it already, and it is finished.” 

“But, Lord,” I said, “That’s then, this is now. How do I have that kind of faith in the now?” 

“I know,” He agreed, “that’s then, and this is now. But, don’t get confused by the wording. You should not have faith in the now, that’s the trouble. You try to have faith in the now and it’s not worthy of your faith because it is broken as you are broken. In the now, put your faith in the then, what theologians would call the Not Yet. When you get to the Not Yet, you won’t need faith anymore because the Not Yet will be the reality that you can see. The Not Yet will be the now – then”

“In the now, just faith Me. The Not Yet is a reality already, but for you, it is a faith reality. If you faith Me in the now, I will take you to the Not Yet that will be the new now.” 

“And, that’s only half the story. I didn’t put you in the now to worry about the now or to worry why the now is not the Not Yet. In this reality, it isn’t. Instead, I put you in the now to faith me and to pass on the vision of the Not Yet to the people of the now.” That’s your ‘ongoing mission.”

“The best part of this is that in ‘flying’ in the now, like a bird to your mission, you must faith Me if you’re going to succeed. In faithing Me, you also get to know the real Me, not the cardboard, cutout, standup of me you might find in a Japanese baseball stadium, but the real Who I Am.”

Exasperated, I lamented, “OK, now I’m temporally lost.”

“No,” He reassured me, “you’re not ‘lost’ in the now, you’re actually ‘found’ in the now as well as in the Not Yet. Theologians would call that ‘saved.’ Your problem is that you haven’t moved past ‘saved’ in the now. You have faithed me for the Not Yet but not for the now. It’s the same faith, only different operations of it. I want you to know the ‘both’ of it now so you can know Me in the now as well as in the Not Yet.”

Still confused, I offered, “Could you make this explanation any harder?” 

“Sure,” He responded, “I could write it in Greek. In fact, I already did.” 

“OK, I surrender, press on,” feebly I replied. 

“Good job,” He reassured and resumed, “Surrender – give up. As I was saying, the bird faiths that he can fly in the now. In response to that faith, he flies. He doesn’t think about flying; he doesn’t play ‘what if I can fly?’ He goes about his business. You see, flying is not the main thing for a bird. Sure, it’s great that I made him to fly. But I made him to fly so that he could accomplish what I designed him to do. In doing what I designed Him to do, the bird is fulfilled – not in flying, but in doing what flying enabled him to do.” 

“So it is with faith. It’s pretty simple. My plan for you is that you live your life as a Christian in the now, that you faith me in the now, that you do what I have for you to do in the now, and that you don’t worry about the rest of the stuff like the not yet. If I made it so a bird can fly and fulfill my purpose for him. How much more have I made you so that you can likewise “fly” in the now and accomplish my purpose for you in the now and the Not Yet? It’s a ‘no brainer.” 

(Good thing that this thought was a “no brainer,” because, in the now, my brain was not yet.)

So let it be written, so let it be done. 

Three Hebrew words describe my experience of the weekend. I invite you scholars and counselors to respond with your “two cents” worth on my Hebrew, my actions, and my guilt feelings. You get a free shot at me. Don’t pass it up. A caveat, however, remember Our Lord’s challenge about “casting the first stone.”

“Chen” captures the Ancient Hebrew concept of “grace,” God’s unmerited favor usually expressed, I believe, in an action. “Chesed” is God’s “loving-kindness.” I would have thought that “Chesed” is not necessarily expressed in action; however, some scholars disagree.

If the scholars be correct and it is I who am wrong (a genuine possibility given my surface – only knowledge of Hebrew) may I suggest that “Chesed” manifests itself in “Chen.” I wonder if some combination of these two thoughts approaches the meaning of John Wesley’s concept of “loving grace.” (Wesleyan scholars, feel free to jump in here.)

If that be correct, God’s “loving – grace” is always freely flowing to us such that If the mirrors of our hearts are properly polished, we are continually reflecting this “loving-grace” back to God in a circuit. Concurrently, if our hearts are right, we are continually reflecting God’s “loving – grace” towards our fellow humans, especially to the orphan, the widow, the “stranger,” the oppressed, or to those otherwise in need.

May I suggest that our reflection towards people brings God’s blessing to us in the form of “loving – grace,” and the cycle repeats, perhaps with higher intensity. Enter “Sathám.”

“Sathám” is a Hebrew verb connoting the act of stopping – up as in clogging up a pipe or turning off a valve. In 2 Chronicles 32, King Hezekiah stopped up (a form of the word, “Sathám”) the flow of the city’s water supply to prevent invaders from entering through the tunnel.

A couple of weeks ago, I reprinted one of my poems detailing a vision God gave me in India in which He showed me His love flowing through space, into me, and on into a man for whom I was praying. In that vision, my purpose was merely that of a piece of PVC pipe, being the conduit of God’s love to the man.

Late this week, upon considering the entering of my “Mind-Palace,” as Sherlock Holmes would say, for the purpose of a time of prayer, God brought two blessings and a challenge to me.

I needed some yard work done, and a friend of mine recommended that I call a Mexican man to help. I called “Juan” the day before, and he came as I was approaching prayer. I was glad to recess and work with “Juan” to determine what work needed doing and how much it would cost. “Juan’s” English was only slightly better than my Spanish, but God had allowed me to learn and to speak Spanish in my tutoring and other work with Latinos.

We struck a deal. That, in and of itself, was a blessing in that I had been previously unsuccessful in securing a contractor for the small job. An added blessing was the fact that “Juan” brought his 6th – grade son with Him. I immediately felt an opportunity to get to know “Juan” and his son so that I might sometimes be able to present the Gospel to them. The thought of presenting the Gospel to a workman at my house was a gift from Ray Willis, a friend of mine from Montana who regularly does such things with great success for the Lord. As I think about it, Ray’s gift to me is another blessing about which I had not considered until this writing.

After “Juan” and I agreed upon the work, we discussed the young man’s school. In Montgomery, the school system is going all – online, and they are providing a laptop for every student (so they claim.) “Juan’s” problem was that he had no internet. That concerned me, so remembering how the Mixteco Church in Montgomery overcame this problem, I did a little checking around and discovered that “Juan” could add a “MIFI” or Hotspot to his existing cell account for a relatively small amount a month. I so informed “Juan” in a subsequent call. Where this leads remains to be seen, but I believe that God is in this nascent relationship, and I’m looking forward to pressing on with it.

Secondly, a man in my church called me. He, along with his wife, are among a group of senior citizens whom I call and write regularly to keep touch with the Church. He called to report an incident in his family for which I felt the immediate need to pray. I asked him if that was OK, and he agreed. God blessed me in that this man would honor me with such a call. God also blessed me with the ability to pray for him.

Oh, did I mention “Sathám?” This part of the story is not so good. I was going outside to begin this writing when I noticed my next-door neighbors moving in a large piece of furniture. My first thought was to go over and offer to help – but I didn’t.

I didn’t go over strictly because I didn’t want to. It’s not that I was concerned about the heavy lifting or about the exposure to several people from several families, all of whom could be vectors of COVID – 19, which I would then carry home to my wife, thus running the risk of killing both of us. It was not because, in sizing up the situation, it plainly appeared that they had enough healthy males to do the job without my interference.

No. I just don’t like these people. They are not of a different race or ethnicity. They are not of a different “class” than I. They seem to be of the same economic group as I. No, they are “religious.” I can tell by their hair and the women’s dress. Honestly, that puts me off, so I tucked my tail between my legs and slinked back into the house to sit on the kitchen floor.

Do I hear a “clucking” sound? If so, is it the sound the Pharisees made passing by the Cross of Christ? Maybe, it’s the sound in your “Mind – Palace” by some of you guys who are disappointed in me? Perhaps, it’s the sound of a chicken. Whatever. As Will Smith says while walking through the Bonneville Salt Flat dragging the alien in Independence Day, “It’s all good.”

Except that it isn’t all good. Now, I feel guilty, obviously guilty enough to write about it, guilty enough even to find a Hebrew word for my actions. “Sathám.”

Have I stopped up the flow of God’s “loving grace,” His “Chesed – Chen?” (A phrase I just made up to sound erudite.)

“Upon further review,” I submit that God’s Grace is bigger than my sin. His Grace is ever – flowing.” I may (or may not) have blown it this time, but here and now, I acknowledge my error in His presence and in yours.’ May God forgive me – may God forgive us all.

So let it be written, so let it be done.