Posts Tagged: the incarnation
“God’s Got This”
One of the nice things about this retreat has been finding a notebook from other retreatants in the lap drawer of the desk. It was good to read what other pilgrims have written.
So, I decided to add my own words. Here they are, even though you are not in room 201 at Gethsemani. What is true in room 201 is also true wherever you are right now.
“So, you have come to Gethsemani seeking God, seeking direction. Me too.
It is not in finding God that we find Him. Rather, it is in the seeking itself. Those who seek are already blessed (Psalm 119:2).
And of course, God is seeking you and me, isn’t He? The incarnation and the cross both say that pretty clearly.
My frantic seeking is, however, not always helpful. Focusing on the God who is seeking me involves relaxing into God’s love, grace, and my true identity in Christ.
So relax! God’s got this—no matter what your “this” is!”
“The Perpetual Discomfort of Love”
“God is love.” “John, in 1 John 4:16)
“Love one another.” (Jesus, in John 13:34)
“Love your enemy.” (Jesus, in Matthew 5:44)
“Love as I have loved you.” (Jesus, in John 13:34)
“In all their afflictions, he [i.e., God] was afflicted.” (Isaiah 63:9)
“. . . the perpetual discomfort of what love requires.” (Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation,
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
The last quote above is from a guest meditation from Richard Rohr’s website. Rohr asked a mom and dad to share their thoughts about parenting. Mom got to go first, which is as it should be. She spoke of “ . . . the perpetual discomfort of what love requires.”
Yes!
We tend to think that love is a wonderful, pleasurable, joyous thing. Sometimes, it is. More often, it is not.
Don’t get me wrong: Love is an adventure. However, as Bilbo Baggins said, “Adventures are nasty things that will make you late for dinner.” And who wants to be late for dinner?
Still, we need adventure in our lives—even if we don’t want them. Especially then.
In Isaiah 63:9, the prophet Isaiah says to people in exile, “God has gone through all the troubles that our ancestors went through.” The implication is that God is with the exiles, too. Apparently we have a God who is also willing to endure the perpetual discomfort of what love requires. Some theologians (of a certain philosophical bent) refer to God as “the unmoved Mover.” Perhaps they are right in a sense.
But in an even more profound sense, God is precisely the very moved Mover. It would seem that we have a God who has sought out the adventure of love, no matter how much perpetual discomfort there is for Him in that adventure.
It is the same for us. Love is an adventure, no matter the perpetual discomfort. However, if we go on the adventure, we will eventually discover that we have a Great Companion—the God who accompanied Israel in its painful quest, the same God who became flesh and dwelt among us.
“BARN BABY!”
I was about eleven years old, and it was Christmas morning. I woke up ready to inhale breakfast and open presents.
Unfortunately, there was a very large glitch in my plan—my dad.
Like many young children, I had always believed that parents never got sick. My mom disabused me of this childish fantasy in a hurry. “Your dad has come down with some kind of virus. Could you do the feeding of the cattle this morning?”
I don’t remember saying anything to my mom. Maybe I did. If so, Mom, even though you’re long gone, could you please forgive me?
Whether I said anything to Mom or not, I had plenty to say on the hundred-or-so yards between the house and the barn. They may have been questions in form, but in content, they were accusations. “How could Dad get sick on Christmas Day! I think it was deliberate! And why did cows have to eat and drink on Christmas Day? Let them wait ‘til tomorrow!” I seem to remember even calling God to account for this tragic matter of me having to do the feeding on this particular morning. I was determined to do the feeding, and draw water from the well for the cattle in record time.
Our barn was a ramshackle affair with a small door which was opened and closed with a two-by-four dropped into a notch on the door. I lay my hand on the latch to the door, still fuming, and had an immediate encounter with The Divine Mystery of the Incarnation. I had never been spoken to by God before, and have only rarely been spoken to so directly since. (Or, perhaps, I just don’t listen very well.) Certainly, I was in no particularly spiritual frame of mind.
But as I grabbed that latch, I heard—as clearly as I have ever heard anything—God saying, “It was in a place like this that My Son was born.”
That, and nothing more.
My hand was frozen to the latch, but not from the cold. I couldn’t move for what seemed a very long time.
Finally, I slowly lifted the latch, as if I were lifting a chalice. I reverently opened the door, and eased the latch down beside it. I slowly scooped the cattle’s feed out of the barrels and into their mangers. I gave each of them some extra feed. I patted them on their muzzles as they ate. I very slowly broke apart several bales of hay, carefully spreading it in another part of the manger.
I went outside and drew water from the well. Cattle can drink a lot of water, especially right after they’ve eaten. I made trip after trip from the well to their water tank, and considered it an honor to do so. Before I left the barn, I wished the cows a Merry Christmas.
My heart and mind and behavior are often more like our ramshackle barn, than they are like a Currier and Ives print. Barns are not sanitary places.
And yet . . .
And yet . . .
And yet, it was a stable in which Jesus was born. Perhaps that wasn’t an accident. Perhaps God was making a point. No one, no one, is too unsanitary to be saved. No one is too messed up for God.
No one!
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
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