Scripture: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 This time of year means many things to many people. Today is the Celtic New Year. This means quite a bit to many people, but according to science it is when the night begins to outlast the day. It is no wonder that many spiritual thoughts emerge from this, darkness is overcoming the light. Darkness is a place of fear, and darkness is a place of death. For me this time of year holds its own form of darkness and sadness as my family remembers the passing of my youngest sister around this same time. Because of this I have studied about this time of year and various spiritual aspects of it. I will not go deeply into these because if you are interested in the origins of Halloween you already know it, and if not then you have many excuses for opposing it. My sister died and I was left wondering why, or if there was any point, I saught my answer in my faith. Around this date there are pagan and Christian holy days. Of course there are many that oppose Halloween because of the pagan aspects and others are just as upset at the Christians jumping into the mix. This is a season where the dead are honored, because they are remembered more easily in our thoughts and dreams. There is more to this, nearly every religion believes in some form of life beyond death. Nearly every religion? I would go even beyond that and say all but one religion believes in an after life, and most involved in that one religion would be upset for me to call it a religon because they claim to be opposed to all religion. Which in itself could be defined as a religion or at least a world view. So the majority of humans believe in something beyond our life here on earth in some form, they differ in this belief but the idea remains that someting continues. Death can be a depressing thought or one that is celebrated. Many believe that we are caught in an infinate process of replaying life, others believe that there is one life then judgement. I do not want to tell you which is right or wrong because scientifically it cannot be proven and my belief comes through my world view. My view is that we live once and face judgment. Beyond that I cannot say anymore because to relive life continuously in a sense sounds like judgement. But I find hope in these words, “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.” If we live a righteous life now, we will not face torment later. The foolish it says think that death is an affliction and destruction, so in the mind of the foolish the presence of death is torment or judgment. Why would the foolish see death in that way? Could it be because they have nothing to live for but their own life, and that fails them? Yet even subscibers to that worldview have aspects of themselves that live beyond death. Their ideas, values and offspring live on. Tomorrow (November 1) is a holy day for many churches, All Saints Day. It is a day of honoring the many saints that lived before us. It is funny that on this day and the next day, All souls, are days used to remind us of power of God over darkness, and the hope we have through Christ. We remember the trials of their life and the words that they spoke and the hope they brought. What a powerful testomony and Holy Day. Those that have passed beyond that veil truly are influencing our lives even today. As you pray over the next few day I encourage you to think of those influencial people in your life. Remember those golden aspects of their lives that give you hope, and thank God for them. As you pray I encourage you to consider your own life as well, what life and legacy are you leaving for those that follow? Today we celebrate the lengthening nights but the night does not last, their is a new day and the light that enlightens all men has come into the world. Let us become children of the Light and sing praises to our Creator, Saviour, and ever present Teacher.
Scripture: Job 38:1-7, 34-41
We live in a time where vast quantities of information is easily at hand. Because of this we can get comfortable in ourselves and our stances. We can make statements of opinion as fact because we know with just a few seconds of searching we can find pages of information supporting our claims. Why then are there still so many opionions? Why are Americans sitting around their breakroom tables, computers, and coffee shops fighting over who lied about what? Why are we as Americans fighting over when life begins when in science we have one answer, yet in politics we have multiple? Why are we fighting over countless issues?
We fight because in society we do not really know anything. Everything we are arguing over is just in actuality just opinions stated as fact. We do not truely know what will happen in the future because that is not for us to know. Social engineering is no a science or an art, it is at best theory and at worst wishful thinking.
Job gives us a picture into this. Those around him thought they had all the answers. Even he thought he knew what was going on, but in reality they were all equally clueless. God had to set them all straight. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know!” I almost laugh at this because it is as if God just entered into a debate and every great thinker is left standing with their mouths open. “Where were you?” Its a simple question with a simple answer, we were not there, we did not exist! I do not care if you believe in God or not we were not anywhere near the begining of the universes the best we can do is come up with theories.
The story goes on to ask if we can lift up our voices to the clouds, that a flood of water may cover us? Can we send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, “here we are?” There are a number of things our greatest minds cannot understand or control. Does this mean we should step back, through up our hands and say who cares? No, but it also doe not mean we should be so bold as to suggest we are ever in full knowledge of everything. We do not understand because we cannot fully understand. We are observers in this world getting a limited view of the things around us, and filtering it through minds that have bias.
There are some things that we can build on. Our opinions are based on some knowledge, just as every opinion. It is important that we learn all we can about the world around us because we live here, and we should care for the places that we live. The ancient Hebrew poets have said that God placed us in the garden to have dominion, be caretakers, rule over it, bring it into submission, and conserve creation. All political buzz words that ultimately tell us the same thing take care of what we have.
When the first national parks came around people thought that they would keep it just as it was, protect it from harm and preserve nature. Quickly the forests would fill with plant life and become so full of growth everyone though how beautiful and full of life it is…but then lightning would strike, it would start a fire that would quickly consume the entire forest. The act of perserving actually devistated the park, what was thought to be good was not good at all. Quickly people began to realize that perservation takes work. Today, they systematically burn the forest, cut down trees, and let them regrow. Because in nature there are cycles of death and regrowth, pruning and branching out.
We do not know what is best. We have therories and educated opinions but ultimatley they are about as good as a devisted forest after a wildfire. We need a natural balance of burning, cutting, and growth. “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man: I will question you, and you make it known to me.” (Job 38:2-3, esv) If we want to perserve the land we live in, we need to gain knowledge, while at the same time recognizing that our knowledge is limited. We need to realize that there are certain ways to care for a forest, but those ways are not always the same for areas of grasslands or swamplands. Every community every enviroment is different in its own way. No one knows what is best for every enviroment, but we can observe and react to the neds at hand where we are. Get dressed for action, God tells Job, get to work where you are. We are finite creatures and can only collect a finite amount of information. What is most important is not what is happening in the capital, but what is happening right in your own home town.
That is where we can really do the work we are supposed to do. When Jesus sent out the apostles he told them to go first to Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We could look at it as being get the capital first, but they were there already just outside of Jerusalem. So really what is being said start where you are. Then let the message spread. If we would all minister and invest in our own communities makeing them better we would see some great things happen. We do not haveto know what to do, we do not have to have ultimate knowledge, we are just called to get to work where we are letting God take care of the things we don’t understand.
Scripture: Isaiah 53:4-12 Have we ever really considered this passage? Today as I was reflecting and meditating it, I began to think about how many times I have added a stripe to the back of our wounded savior just today. I find it quite easy to add stripes since it is an election year and I am a product of a very passionate family. I love my family and would not change a thing about them, to be fully honest. I have not seen a group so passionate about their stance, speak so boldly about it, and yet act so loving when it comes down to living out their faith even around people that disagree with them. It is probably why I have so much trouble listening to many of the political ads. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.” By a perversion of justice our Lord was lead to His death. Have we ever really considered what this means? I have several passions: history, political science, theology, and spirituality to name a few. Which is a very odd combination. Over the recent years my passion for politics has decined as I began to recognize that historically we keep fighting the same fight. Which means that the same problems have been around for centuries. For centuries…in every nation around the world…which means there is a perversion of justice still. This tells me something very significant. We as Christians have a great opportunity. If we would look at the world around us we will see where we have an opportunity to provide justice. I know that some people would say that social justice is a code for liberalism, but social justice is what we are encouraged to do in scripture. Social justice means changing the world we live in, and to make it better. Opening a facility to provide care to elderly is social justice, because it is providing a better world for those that are helped. Educating the youth is social justice if it is in a public school or a private religious based school. These are things we should be doing. Yet we make them political talking points and pervert justice. Jesus died for our people and all people because we pervert justice. We use justice for personal agendas. In the process people do not receive what they need and we add stipes to the back of Christ. He said that what ever we do to the least of these you have done for me. Scary thought, what have we done for the least? Not what has the government done or some ministry but what have we done personally? These political issues are issues because we have failed as a people to bring justice to our communities. I often wonder if we did more justice if maybe we would be less likely to speak so passionatly about how bad a canidate is. If we were to be just in our community maybe some of these problems would just go away. Every Meeting of worship or church has what they need to minister in the way God is calling them. This is a bold statement but it is coming frm a pastor of a Meeting with less than 30 people, and we are ministering. We are actually considering things that we have not thought possible, like opening a school, because we were focused in the wrong areas. Our community needs a good school not because they need a Christian based education, but because our schools have been proven to be failing. The just thing is to educate the youth. The perversion of justice is to use this for control. We are passionate people and thank God for that! Let us take some ownership of our communities and bring real justice. Let us help the people God love become the people He created them to be, even if it means we lose the power we seek.