“And You Shall Say To Them.”

 

“I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’” (Ezekiel 2:4).

 

James writes, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways…” (James 3:1-2a). Why did James write this? Was it because there were many people in his audience who wanted the spotlight? Who wanted to be heard above everyone else? Was it because people were not rightly understanding and expounding the Word of God? Perhaps it was because folks were teaching the Word one moment, and then living in jealousy and selfish ambition (James 3:16) the next? Maybe it was a combination of these things?

 

Contrast what James wrote with these words of Paul, “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.” (1 Timothy 3:1).  There is a time to caution others about leadership and teaching, and a time to encourage others to aspire to leadership and teaching. Of course, Paul follows 1 Timothy 3:1 with qualifications and disqualifications, which is to say that Paul has his own warnings to both the church and to those who desire to be servant-leaders.

 

Then we have Peter teaching us, “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God…” (1 Peter 4:11a). This reminds me that if I am not speaking the living Word of God that I ought to shut up and be quiet. If I am preaching or teaching, or telling others about Jesus Christ in any fashion, if I am representing the Bible to others, I do not have a basis for doing anything other than “speaking the utterances of God,” of being an “ambassador” for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). In fact, Paul said that because he and his coworkers were ambassadors, that it was “as though God were making an appeal through us.”

 

And so God tells Ezekiel, “…and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’”

 

Now here is an enigma, there are those who make a display of, “Thus says the Lord,” and who yet communicate little of what the Lord is actually saying, little of the Bible’s message. Then there are those who have probably never uttered the words, “Thus says the Lord,”  and yet consistently speak the oracles of God – both by words and deeds. Appearances can deceive us, religious notions can lead us astray.

 

Often those who make the most elaborate displays of, “Thus says the Lord,” but who have the shallowest content are those who draw the largest crowds and sell the most books and videos. Glitz and glitter and noise will usually triumph over substance…in the short term. (Consider 2 Corinthians chapters 10 – 12, will we ever learn?)

 

I don’t know when it started to happen, but at some point in my life the statement, “I don’t know,” became precious to me. Precious because if I am to represent Christ Jesus to others, that saying “I don’t know” must be an element of who I am and of my testimony and message – because I am not God and I do not fully understand the mysteries of God in Christ. I am called to faithfully represent and transmit what is revealed in the Scriptures, I must not go beyond what God has revealed of Himself. And if occasion requires that I do express my “sense” of a matter, of what I think, then I should be clear that I am doing so, I should not be so presumptuous as to act as if “my” word were the Word of God.

 

Paul writes, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Tim. 4:3 – 4).

 

Now here is a danger in reading a passage like the foregoing, it is that we look outside ourselves and our “tribe” to identify its possible expressions, rather than inside. It is always “the other guy” who needs the passage, never me or my group.

 

There are some Sunday morning sermons I would like to have back, there are some turns of phrase, some seasons of thinking, some perspectives, some actions that I would like to retract. What I’m saying is that we must live lives of submission to the Word of God, and that entails the Word, through the Holy Spirit, searching us, convicting us, fine-tuning us, and transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ (Heb. 4:12 – 13; 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Rom. 8:29).

 

Jesus Christ is to be our source of Life, our center of gravity, our North Star; and our danger typically lies not in things that are obviously evil, but in things that appear to be good and helpful. Yes, yes, yes; blatant evil does invade the church, but usually it begins hidden from view. Covert evil, on the other hand, typically begins in public, as the latest and greatest teaching, revelation, better understanding, newest church growth plan, revolutionary leadership approach, evangelism program that requires no sacrifice on our part or message of the Cross…the list goes on.

 

Our calling is to proclaim, “Thus says the Lord…” That is, we are to speak God’s Word and not our own words; the paradigms that God has given us, not our own – and Jesus Christ, as revealed in the Bible, is to be the Message, today, tomorrow, and forever. And let us make no mistake, this will cost us our lives and the lives of those who hear His Message and follow Him  - Mark 8:34 – 38. When I say that this will cost us our lives, I mean that we will no longer live for ourselves, but for Jesus Christ and others – for we will no longer belong to ourselves…but to Jesus. Do we…do our congregations…belong to Jesus Christ?

 

I’m reminded of Paul’s words, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” (Gal. 1:10).

 

“When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7:28 – 29; see also Matthew 28:18 – 20).

 

Our Lord Jesus has not called us to apologize for the Gospel, but to teach it as He taught it on this earth, to express it as He expressed it. This is not dependent on our personalities, on our rhetorical skills, on anything intrinsically within “us,” on the “ways of man.” After all, Paul writes:

 

“And when I came to you, brethren I did not come with superiority of speech, or of [man’s] wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of [man’s] wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:1 – 5).

 

Well, enough for now…let us keep looking unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2). There is really no other life worth living.

Stand On Your Feet

 

“Then He said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you!” Ez. 2:1.

 

Why didn’t Yahweh speak to Ezekiel when Ezekiel was face down on the ground?

 

When Ezekiel sees the manifestation of the glory of Yahweh, he falls on his face and then hears God’s voice commanding him to stand so that God may speak with him. Could not God have spoken to Ezekiel while Ezekiel was face down on the ground?

 

While there may be other facets to this question and answer, let me share what I’ve been pondering for a few days – and that is the mystery of God’s desire for relationship with us, intimate familial relationship – a Father to His sons and daughters, an Elder Son to His brothers and sisters (O Trinitarian mystery!), birthed by the Holy Spirit.

 

Within our familial relationship, we also have the mystery of friendship; Abraham was called “the friend of God,” and Jesus says to His disciples, “I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

 

We know that the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23 – 24) and we are indeed called into lives of worship. Abraham built altars of worship to Yahweh on his journeys, and the life of worship and obedience that those altars represented led into an intimate relationship with Yahweh, so intimate that Abraham was called God’s friend. While the word “friend” has lost much of its meaning in our society, to the ancients friendship was sacred, inviolate. Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you…I have called you friends” (John 15:13 – 15).

 

When we consider that we have been made in the image and likeness of God, perhaps we can approach the idea that we were made for Trinitarian intimacy with God, for a koinonia which transcends our understanding and comprehensive description. As this image and likeness are restored in Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ, we begin to discover the wonders of God – as Peter says, it is a joy unspeakable and full of glory. This glory is found in the words, “Stand on your feet that I may speak with you!”

 

How so?

 

Our Father, our Creator-God, desires to commune with us face to face, for He desires deep koinonia with us. How deep and strong is His desire toward us? Not only did He form and make us in His image, but after that image was shattered and marred He came, in Christ, to reconcile us back to Himself, restoring that image in us and inviting us into familial intimacy with Himself.

 

“…that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us…I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one…so that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17).

 

In a mysterious and deep holy sense, the perfect and express and glorious Image of God in Christ was sacrificed on the Cross, bearing not only our sins, but our Sin, our identity; so that His image in us might be birthed anew and that a New Creation might come forth from the earth in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – the Last Adam and the Second Man. His “becoming sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21) “so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” was completed on the Cross, for He cried, “It is finished!”

 

As glorious as the likeness of the glory of God was that Ezekiel saw, a greater glory was coming, for we read in John:

 

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.” (John 1:14, 18).

 

Ezekiel’s call as a prophet of Yahweh was a call in the context of relationship, a call into koinonia with God, conversation with God…and conversation cannot be experienced when one person at the table is looking into a smartphone, or whose face is on the ground.

 

“Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you!”

 

This is what our Father desires.

 

What does this look like in our lives, in Christ, today?

 

The Glory of God?

 "Such was the appearance of the glory of Yahweh..." Ez. 1:28b

Does the glory of God look the same to each of us? Do we each need to see the glory of God the same way that Ezekiel did? Might there be both commonalities and distinctive facets?

Certainly the glory of God comes from Christ Jesus, flows from Christ Jesus, displays Christ Jesus; in fact, Christ Jesus is the express image and likeness and manifestation of the Glory of God, He is the Glory of God. (Col. 1:15 – 20; Heb. 1:1 – 4).

 

In Christ Jesus we are His Body of many members, and since we differ in our gifts and graces and the facets of the glory of God which those graces and gifts manifest, we can anticipate that there is unity in diversity and diversity in unity in our perception and expression of the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

 

I write this because we have a propensity to use our individual experience as the measure of the experience of others. This practice is not always wrong, we ought to all have the experience of knowing Jesus, of truly knowing Him – I have that experience and I want others to have it – for Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; in Him is eternal Life. Yet, within the experience of knowing Jesus I also want to recognize that He is the Great Shepherd and that He has a distinctive relationship with each of us – we all have much in common in Him, and we also have much that is distinct. Ah…mysteries.

 

Perhaps I am writing this because I recently read the job description for a position with a congregation, and in the section on qualifications for the position it was stated that certain distinct spiritual experiences were necessary for the applicant to have had. Even though I knew this to be the case within this “tradition,” seeing the qualifications in writing took me aback and I thought, “O my, there may be gifted people who could fill this ministry position but who are excluded because they’ve never had such and such an experience.”

 

It also struck me that the emphasis on qualifications was not on the character of ongoing life in Christ and maturity in Him, but rather on having past experiences subsequent to entering salvation, that is, after having the initial experience of salvation in Christ Jesus.

 

Then we have the opposite of what I’m writing, and those are the folks who say, “If you have had this particular experience you need not seek to serve Christ with us because we will not have you. We don’t consider such experiences valid.”

 

I imagine that some reading this will have a sense of what I’m saying, and others will have no clue what I’m saying – not because they are unintelligent, but probably because they haven’t been exposed to these crosscurrents within the professing church. Frankly, I’m wrestling with even to post these thoughts since I won’t give specific examples; not wanting to name any specific groups I am not as clear as I could be and there is just no way I can tie-up loose ends. Moving on…

 

Ezekiel saw His glory as part of his call to prophetic ministry, and I think we are all called to see His glory, both as an element of our individual calls to service and as we learn to live in Christ Jesus – in the Trinity and with one another (John 17:22 – 24). I think that our vision and sense of God’s glory expands, deepens, and unfolds as we continue knowing Him – as individuals and as a people in koinonia with one another in Him.

 

“The path of the Righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the Full Day.” (Proverbs 4:16). There is Only One who is truly and intrinsically Righteous, and that is Jesus Christ, and so I see this verse in line with Ephesians 4:11 – 16; His Body is growing up into Him, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. We are collectively the embodiment of His unfolding Glory. This perspective does not negate an individual testimony of Proverbs 4:16, in fact I’ve seen this reality in others – the closer they get to the heavenly portal the greater the Presence of Christ is in them – we rejoice in 2 Corinthians 3:17 – 18.

 

As I have (hopefully) grown in Christ, I have had greater respect for how my brothers and sisters behold the glory of Christ. Sometimes I behold God’s glory in the Bible, sometimes in prayerful communion, sometimes in creation, sometimes in my brothers and sisters – His glory is full of surprises and splendor. I used to think, “You are missing out if you haven’t experienced Christ in such and such a way, God has so much more for you.” Now I tend to look for the glory of God in my brothers and sisters as our Father has chosen to manifest Himself. What can I learn and receive from others? What can I contribute to others?

 

I have seen His glory demonstratively and exuberantly in my own life, and I have also seen it quietly and in splendor and mystery. I know what it is to play my tambourine, and I know what it is not to touch it. I know what it is to shout to the Lord, and I know what it is to keep my mouth shut before in the Lord.

 

Many years ago I participated in a “concert of prayer” that lasted quite a few months in Richmond, VA. That remains one of the sweetest experiences I’ve ever had. Some months we’d meet at a suburban type of church, other months at an inner-city type of church; we met in large churches with many rooms and in storefront churches. There were Lutherans and Baptists and Pentecostals and Presbyterians and Methodists and others; we were from pretty much every socioeconomic background in and around the city.

 

The unity in Christ was amazing, our sharing and praying was beautiful – both in large groups and in small groups. There was a sense of honoring one another in Christ, of appreciating one another, of serving one another, and of interceding for our city, region, country, and world. The glory of God was flowing from the Throne into and through the Body of Christ – it was heaven touching earth.

 

Well…where is the glory of God? How shall we see His glory? Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are his “glory and joy” (1 Thess. 2:20). This is not a bad place to begin seeking the glory of God, to see it in and through our brothers and sisters…not a bad place at all.

I Fell On My Face

 

“As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.” (Ez. 1:28).

 

I’m reading Ezekiel this month. I typically begin January with Isaiah in the Prophets, but this year I am in Ezekiel. Ezekiel had a profound influence on my early Christian life, in particularly Ezekiel 33:1 – 9; I suppose you might call Ezekiel 33:1 – 9 one of my prime navigational stars, both 57 years ago and today – it is a star I’ve never lost sight of – indeed, it is a star that has guided my obedience to Christ and His Word.

 

However, let me hasten to say that I have not always understood how to obey Ezekiel 33:1 – 9, and that more than once I have been foolish and simplistic in my understanding of what obedience ought to look like. Sometimes I have been stupid, sometimes irresponsible. Yet, there is a power in Yahweh’s words to Ezekiel in Chapter 33, a compelling reality that reminds me of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:6 – 11, in which we read that, “…we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” Mind you, Paul is writing to Christians.

 

What have I lacked in my encounter with Ezekiel 33? What has been missing? What may have protected me from stupidity?

 

As I was reading Ezekiel Chapter 1 earlier this month I was arrested by Ezekiel’s response to the glory of Yahweh, “…I fell on my face…” While this is followed by Yahweh commanding the prophet to stand on his feet (2:1), Ezekiel first fell on his face.

 

Note the sequence in verses 1:28 – 2:2; Ezekiel falls on his face in response to the glory of God, he hears a voice commanding him to stand on his feet, the enabling Spirit enters him and makes him stand, and then Yahweh speaks His commissioning Word to the prophet.

 

I think that when we “see” the glory of God in Christ that, as we fall on our face, our own strength departs from us and that only the Holy Spirit can raise us up so that we can begin to hear the Voice of God in our lives.

 

Perhaps if I had fallen on my face at the beginning of this journey I would not have taken so many tangents? Perhaps I would not have made so many poor decisions?

 

Perhaps if I had remained on my face until the enabling Spirit caused me to stand, my misunderstandings of Ezekiel 33 would have been mitigated? Perhaps I would have realized that I could not fulfill that mandate in my own strength or understanding? Zeal is no substitute for obedience, wisdom, and humility.

 

Of course, there are probably no answers to these questions, but they can be helpful since I still have to live today, and today is a good time to renew what it means to fall on my face and wait for the Holy Spirit to raise me up.

 

Unanswered Prayer (4)

  

I want to share an experience I had a few years ago before I move on…hopefully to a conclusion: I was part of a team leading a weekend retreat for a church outside Richmond. One of the associate pastors stopped by the retreat center to spend a couple of hours with us. When the time came for him to leave, I asked him if we could pray for him and he readily agreed. We gathered around him (there were 20 or 30 of us), laid hands on him, and prayed…we prayed all at once and we prayed individually…and we prayed silently…waiting on the Lord. We were in no hurry.

 

After our prayer time, the pastor said to me, “This was wonderful. I can’t tell you how I feel. When I was around 22 years old I had a similar experience when people gathered around me and prayed for me. This is just great.” The dear brother was about 65 years old when he told me this. I wondered, “Why did you wait so long?” And then, if our dear brother had experienced the power and grace of the Body of Christ praying for one another, serving one another, why not introduce the entire congregation, of 600 – 800 people, to their inheritance in Jesus Christ as His People? But of course that would entail rethinking the wineskin…a dangerous endeavor.

 

I have been in countless small group settings over the years in which people were encouraged to organically gather in Christ, they have gone by different names and sometimes by no names; sometimes they have been incorporated within a congregation and sometimes nurtured by other ministries, sometimes they have been truly organic, that is, they have “sprung up” like a volunteer fruit tree in a garden. This is where I have seen the organic expression of the Body of Christ, this is where things happen, this is where prayer is answered, and if prayer is seemingly unanswered, there are brothers and sisters to help carry the load.

 

So here again, as with John chapters 13 – 17, we come back to context. What is the context in which we are meant to understand and experience the many promises of God? By and large the Bible is written to a People, and if I do not see the Bible and its promises as given to a People, a People to whom I belong, then will I really be in a place to see and experience what God’s Word is saying?

 

We are called, as Bonhoeffer might say, to share life together. We might even title John chapters 13 – 17 as Life Together. This is to be the fabric of our life in Christ.

 

Conclusion:

 

This really isn’t a conclusion, can there be one? We see through a glass darkly, and “hope deferred makes the heart sick,” I can’t deny that. Yes, His grace is sufficient for us, but isn’t it harder when it is those we love who are experiencing the pain?

 

Help us Lord Jesus…and help us to help one another.

 

Amen.

 

Thanking God for our friendship,

 

Bob

Unanswered Prayer (3)

 

But now let me bring something else into the picture and see what you think, let me ask a question, “But what of the Body of Christ?”

 

Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father.” In this same passage He talks to us about entering our closets, but then we also have “Our Father.” Not “My Father,” but “Our Father.” Now as we see in Romans and Galatians we also assuredly have the “My Father” with the “Abba Father”; so we have both – the closet and the congregation…but still note the “we are the children of God” in Romans 8.

 

If we look at 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4 we have pictures of us as the Body of Christ, and within this Body we see the gifts and the graces and mercies of God flowing. Isn’t it interesting that while all three present the same image, the Light refracts a bit differently in each passage?

 

Well now, here’s the thing, here’s a question, “Can we ignore the context of these passages and still expect the power and grace of God to be expressed as illustrated in these passages?” In other words, can we ignore 1 Cor. 12:21 – 26 as our Way of Life and still expect to see 1 Cor. 12:8 – 10 working in our midst in a Biblical fashion?

 

I am pretty certain that we can’t ignore the Body, the gifts and graces of these passages are for the Body of Christ and God’s design and purpose are that they are expressed by the Holy Spirit through the Body (1 Cor. 12:11; Rom. 12:4 – 5). However, if the Body is not functioning then is there really a window of opportunity for God’s gifts and graces to be expressed? Are not such opportunities severely limited?

 

I just finished a book about splitting the atom and the Manhattan Project, and it occurs to me that what I’m writing about, in terms of the Body, is similar in the sense that when the Body is given the opportunity to learn and grow that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and that the Body’s explosive dynamics can astound us. I have seen this throughout my life in various denominational settings, what has mattered is that people have been given the opportunity to meet together, share life together, and learn to serve one another in Christ, share with one another, and pray for one another.

 

When God’s People are given the opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to express Himself through them then we see passages such as 1 Corinthians 12 manifested – both the first part of the chapter and the second part – they are two wings of an airplane, the plane will not fly without both wings. Better yet, two wings of a bird that organically grow and complement each other. It is okay if the bird falls from the nest a few times, if Christ is the Head of the Body then He will care for the Body. It is our job to put the bird back in the nest and encourage it to try again.

 

When people pray for one another together in community we just have no idea what will happen. But when they don’t pray for one another we have a pretty good idea what will happen…not much. And when I say “pray” I mean in a relational group, often with laying hands on one another, speaking to one another, listening to the Holy Spirit, listening for the Word of the Bible to speak…and meeting together frequently so that relationships in Christ are deepened and being “members of one another” moves beyond a concept and into a manifested reality.

 

Now to be sure, there have been times when I’ve asked congregations to gather with those immediately around them for prayer, and that has its place…I think a good place…maybe I should have done that more.

 

The fact that we see nothing amiss in our churches when we read 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4 ought to tell us something about our condition, but we dare not go there – better leave well enough alone and applaud the Emperor’s new clothes.

Unanswered Prayer (2)

 

As I write these words, it occurs to me that there is a similarity between questions of prayer and developing a reasonable Biblical theodicy; both have mystery, both have temporal loose ends, both look toward the consummation of all things in Christ, both have tension, both should cause us to fall on our faces.

 

Perhaps we should say, “Go and find out what it means to die with Christ, to take up your cross following Him; then come back and let’s talk.”

 

After all, the only answer regarding unanswered prayer, if we must give an answer, is to know Christ and Him crucified.

 

(Anyone who has ever been in a Bible study with me, or who has worked for me, knows that I seldom give direct answers. Yes, it is painful for people, and they can become frustrated or angry, but when they get the idea behind the method they start not only fishing themselves, but teaching others how to fish. By the same token, I have seldom preached a message that had closure – thanks to Scott Gibson and Haddon Robinson.)

 

When I have been asked about prayer passages, such as those in John, I don’t recall having ever answered anyone in the Way I would love to. I recall starting to answer and then stopping, realizing that nothing I can say (along the lines of what I’ve been writing) will really matter. O I am sure I’ve said something about our Father desiring deep relationship with us, and that He and our Lord Jesus desire to walk with us through the vicissitudes of life, and I have pointed others to Psalm 23 and asked them to spend a few weeks meditating on the psalm, and surprisingly some folks actually do it and their lives begin to change and it becomes a stepping stone to the Living Stone. But the foregoing is about as much as the average person can absorb.

 

You know (of course!) who “gets” this, and they are the grandmothers of previous generations, women of your mother’s generation…and maybe they are the last bastion of the church. These are the people who have taught me and been patient with me, especially when I have been quite dumb and stupid. They have lived in the shelter of the Most High, they have known what it is to abide in the Vine.

 

While I often lament the fact that I was pretty much a feral Christian, with no older man, or men, taking me under his wing, spending time with me, working with me; the other side of the coin is that an older friend did introduce me to Chambers, Murray, Lewis, Tozer, Bonhoeffer; and my friend George Will also lived what he introduced me to, which was 1 Cor. 1:17 – 31, abiding in the Vine “without Me you can do nothing,” and Galatians 2:20. Therefore, Job’s words, “Thou He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” have been with me since a teenager…whether I really knew (do I even know now?) what they mean or not. My call from Christ, to Christ, was very much through Mark 8:34ff.

 

I think the foregoing has meant that I have accepted unanswered prayer not so much as unanswered prayer, but as part of the package, the process, the dying and rising, the mystery. I don’t mean “accepted” in the sense of disengagement or passivity, for I continue to pray and intercede for others over the course of decades.

 

It is hard, for me at least, to see unalleviated suffering, to witness premature death, to encounter violent and unexpected death. We all have our stories. The pastor who went before me in MA walked with a Dad who lost his wife in childbirth. I was soon faced with a mom of four-year old twins who was dying of cancer – one Saturday the town gathered around their home and held hands and prayed for her (yes, the town)…and she still died…I still had a funeral to officiate…we prayed and prayed and prayed…and Martha died anyway. Why? O why? I know you have your own stories…if we care and love and serve we have stories…don’t we?

 

But, and this is really just me, I don’t think I have ever thought, “Well, God did not answer that one.” I’m not saying this is the way it should be, I don’t know…I realize we are all a bit different, so I don’t know about others, not even those who are the closest to me – I seem to realize that more now than ever. I see prayer and intercession as part of life, as a Way of living, as a journey into the ineffable and numinous…and what can I do but trust Him?

 

On the one hand Jesus prays that the cup will pass if possible, it doesn’t appear to pass, and yet the writer of Hebrews tells us that His cries were heard – what do we do with that?

 

Do we know about Romans 8:26 – 27? I think passages such as this are experienced but not much spoken of by those who know the experience; and that those who speak a lot about these passages likely have little experience with them. These passages will cost us our lives, Colossians 1:24 and 2 Corinthians 4:12 will cost us our lives.

 

And so in a sense back to the scope of John chapters 13 – 17, for if I take anything and separate it from the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, then I have severed it from the Tree of Life…whether it is marriage, family, prayer, baptism, even the Bible.

 

Unanswered Prayer (1)

A few months ago a friend wrote me about unanswered prayer. I pondered what he wrote for a few weeks, and only then did I begin a written response, which required more pondering and time. In the hope that it might contribute something to others, I'm posting my reply in a few sections, here is the first: 

My friend wrote:

So I confess I have unanswered prayers that seem to be in the will of God very much----but obviously must not be..  Prayers of healing for Nancy’s hip as well as for others who are struggling, prayers for Revival and church growth, prayers for …., well, you know.

It’s hard to tell people to ask, seek, and knock, when they have been and their answers haven’t come---sometimes over many years….Yet----Jesus promised so I preach it…It is only to be answered in consummation of all things?

I replied:

 

Ah my friend…I’ve been pondering what you wrote, your heart.

 

A temptation is to provide artificial answers, to rationalize away the dilemma, to place blame, to draw conclusions that may not be so, to force closure when there may be no closure…to mitigate the Cross.

 

We hear well-meaning people say dumb things at funerals, in hospitals, in hospice…perhaps a warning to us…but then, I’m sure we can find some books that tie up the loose ends and answer your (our) questions…whose authors have not heeded the warning.

 

I am reminded of Teresa of Avila who was having a particularly bad day. When she complained to Christ, He reminded her of their friendship. Her reply was, “Lord, if this is the way You treat your friends, it is no wonder You have so few of them.”

 

I cannot comprehend that you, as a husband, ought not to be praying for your wife’s healing…it seems to me, dumb ass that I am, that not praying would be outside the will of our heavenly Father. If the ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib, then I am certain you ought to be praying for Nancy’s healing.

 

I am also certain that there are things beyond the veil that we cannot see clearly, but that we can sense and participate in (Col. 1:24).

 

How do we teach and preach these things? I dare say it is almost impossible to do so in our present situation of instant Christianity and spiritual dumbness and cotton candy teachers and consumers. I am not being sarcastic; I am stating the truth. To look at a verse, or a passage, in isolation from living in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ is to pretty much guarantee that we will limit ourselves to superficial engagement…at best.

 

A challenge is that people simply do not want to hear anything that requires prolonged engagement, that requires them to live in mystery, without neat closure, requiring surrender to Christ; and they certainly don’t want to have to think about anything for longer than a television commercial, or to strive to understand what they believe and why they believe it.

 

We are satisfied to see the acts of God and not know His ways; we want to experience the verse and not the passage, or the passage and not the Biblical book, or the Biblical book and not the Bible. We want the benefits of the Cross without the Christ of the Cross.

 

Here is an example: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you….In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, If you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:5; 16:23 – 24).

 

Now then, when someone asks me about these verses and about unanswered prayer, how am I to respond? What do they want to hear from me? They want to hear an answer in 30 seconds or less because they don’t have time for much more…not really. Even if we are having coffee together, just the two of us, the other person still wants an answer that can be nicely included in a “study Bible” (they are hardly conducive to “study” because they require no time or investment).

 

Here is what people don’t want, they don’t want to hear, “Tell me about John chapters 13 – 17, what does this passage look like in your life?” We have the same situation with Matthew 6:7 – 11; there a response might be, “Tell me about Matthew chapters 5 – 7, what do they look like in your life?”

 

In other words, the above verses in John are set within the context of chapters 13 – 17, chapters that include a call to wash one another’s feet, to love our brethren even as our Lord Jesus loves us, to lay our lives down for our friends, to live separate and distinct from the world, to abide in Christ, to know what it is to live in the koinonia of the Trinity and for that koinonia to extend to our brothers and sisters, and for us to be sent into the world even as the Father sent our Lord Jesus into the world.

 

If the person asking me questions about the prayer verses of John chapters 13 – 17 is not prepared to live in these chapters, then the person is wasting his time and my time. Furthermore, if I cater to his desire for a short answer then I am facilitating the toxic disease that has infected the North American professing church. We can’t “win,” in that most of what the general “Christian” population reads, watches, and listens to is geared to nurture its consumerism, which ensures that it will not encounter the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.