Matthew 2:13-18
It is incredibly difficult to comprehend the kind of actions that are, well, the only real good description for them is, evil. Herod ordering the slaughters of all children two years old and younger is one of those actions.
In the midst of the feel-good story of Christmas, where we have rejoicing shepherds and visiting magi, we get a stark reminder of why Christmas was necessary. Evil is very much alive in the world.
And yet, I cannot help but think that evil is not what we tend to think of. Hollywood paints pictures of villainous, pure evil types who do evil just because it is evil. And yet, so often the ones who do unspeakable kinds of things are often not the ones we would think of as "the type." I've known a number of people who, based on something they've done many would call them monsters or horrible people, and yet when you separate them from that particular action, you really wouldn't find them to be all that bad. But then they do something so totally inexplicable and horrible and you cannot begin to imagine that this person could do such a thing. There had to be a mistake, right?
Want to know a great example? I can't say I know these people, guess you could say I know of them. These were not what you would call evil people. And yet, I don't think you and I can even begin to fathom the kind of suffering and misery that, at least in some part you could lay at their feet. In fact, if you really wanted to compare, the end results of what Herod did really pale in comparison. With Herod, there was grief and misery for a period, and time went on. But these two... we're still pretty much reeling from the consequences today, and it's safe to say that generations from now the same will be true. And yet, it all seemed so innocent and you really wouldn't think that they were capable of evil. And who would think of eating a piece of fruit as something evil? Yet, what Adam and Eve did, at best, started a snowball effect that, really, had a pretty integral impact on even the most heinous acts of evil throughout history.
It seems pretty ludicrous to compare a simple act of disobedience to mass murder. But when you really examine it all, there's a striking similarity. Obviously, we don't know Herod, we don't know what he was like, his personality, any of that. It's hard to imagine, but somewhere there had to be some pieces of goodness somewhere. I say that because I think ultimately you will find that everyone has at least a glimmer of decency somewhere within them. For some, you have to look a lot harder than others, but I do believe it may have been there. And yet, the one thing we do know is of this terrible evil that he did, that here was a man who was so threatened by the potential challenge to his power that he did the unspeakable.
I can imagine that being a ruler while being subject to the Roman Empire would do much to create a sense of paranoia, as you never know when the winds of change would put you out of favor and thus, out of power (not to mention that being put out of power typically went hand in hand with out of life). Don't get me wrong, I am not by any means trying to find any justification or excuse for Herod's actions. I'm making some pretty simple conclusions here, that here's a man who enjoys the position and status he has and as much as he is able he's going to protect that. He moves to protect self, and self becomes the most important thing, overriding all others. Self overrides the children, mothers, fathers, families and communities. Self trumps all.
How was Eve enticed to take the fruit? It was a pretty strong appeal to self. You will be like God. That's pretty much every bit of power, prestige, status one could want, all rolled up into a nice little piece of fruit. I believe they pretty much had little or no concept of self up to that point. They were totally unaware of their nakedness, they had no concept of nakedness equaling shame. And then, everything changes. All of a sudden, self becomes everything. Especially self to the exclusion of others, something that really becomes the root of all kinds of evil.
I know, love of money is supposed to be the root of all kinds of evil. But think about it, isn't that a form of self centeredness, self importance, self priority? Isn't that pretty much the definition of greed, when gain for self becomes more important than the welfare of others? You could spend a lot of time seeing the paralells of greed, lust, power, and it all comes down to self trumping all else.
Think of something terrible you've done. I'm pretty sure there's something somewhere you've done that you look back and think, I cannot believe I could do such a thing. No, it wasn't the mass murder of innocent children. As you did it, wasn't there some point where you just had to shut out any thought of others and of God, just to be able to do it? I can think of times where it became a matter of something I wanted so much that I had to block out all thought of God and all thought of anyone that would be affected just so that I could do what I needed to do to get what I wanted. At those moments, self trumped all. Self was the ultimate decider, it was dominant over rock, paper or scissor, and it was unwavering.
And it didn't matter how it affected friends, family, anyone. Self wins.
And then, the Dr. Phil question comes up: How's that working out for you? Not so good, right? But then wouldn't we get a clue somewhere? Sure, we have our good moments. Lots of them. Usually we think we probably do well more than we don't, yet... time and time again Self rears its head. And we're back at it again.
And what we find is, evil is alive and well within us. It's not just Herod. It's not just Hitler. It's not just Adam and Eve. No, we don't think our evil is anywhere near the scale of Hitler. But it can be just as destructive, just in different ways.
Herod's actions bring out the reason for the necessity of Christmas. The coming of Christ was to deal exactly with the issue of evil. But it's not the evil of Herod or any other despot. Not just, anyway. It's the issue of evil that we all struggle with.
Thank God.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Living Vicariously
Matthew 2:2-12
Of course, Johnny wasn't born in Norfolk, he just grew up there. That's the most important thing. Unless of course you're talking about someone like President Ford who was born in Omaha but barely lived there. Whether born or raised or both, small towns put a lot of their identity into who came from there. Wahoo Sam Crawford came from, of course, Wahoo (whose other claim to fame was being the 'home office' for David Letterman). There was Richie Ashburn from Tilden. And then there's Larry the Cable Guy, from Pawnee City. I lived a little while in Sedan, Kansas, whose largest building was the Emmet Kelly Museum. Now maybe it was because not too many people remember who Emmet Kelly is anymore that the town had to get another claim to fame and tried to set itself up as home to Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. In Lincoln we had William Jennings Bryant, the Buffalo Bills of presidential politics. Of course we also had Charles Starkweather. Maybe the best of them all though is Riverside Iowa, future home of James T. Kirk.
I have to wonder if people in Bethlehem ever celebrated that Jesus was from there. I'm not sure that communities then were much different than they are now. Maybe I'm reading too much into things like the woman at the well in Sychar seeming pretty proud of the fact that the well there was built by Jacob (John 4). Did the town have any clue what was about to happen there? I do find it interesting that Magi were very familiar with the prophecy that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. How familiar was Bethlehem to this same prophecy? Did they have a sign hanging to greet visitors that said "Welcome to Bethlehem: Future Home of the Messiah"? I don't know, I get the sense that while even all of Jerusalem was disturbed by this rumored birth of the king of the Jews, I almost wonder if Bethlehem mostly slept through it. Other than the shepherds, who really noticed?
It's interesting all the attention we can pay to great people who came from where we are from. Maybe it's this living vicariously thing. It's almost like the same thing that made these people great makes us great as well. Living in Colorado now I don't make much fuss about famous people from Nebraska, because people here will remind me that that just means Nebraska is a great place to be FROM.
But the truth is, I'm not a great politician because William Jennings Bryant was from Lincoln (or even because I went to the same high school as Senator Bob Kerrey). Fortunately I didn't fall to the mass murderer influence of Starkweather. I didn't get all the football skills that are supposed to come naturally to Nebraskans, and living in Norfolk for 5 years didn't give me the comedic genius of Johnny Carson. This living vicariously thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.
And yet, if Bethlehem missed out on this whole living vicariously thing, that's really too bad. While people from our home towns don't make us great, and not even our kids' successes make us great, here we have the one person in history through whom living vicariously is possible. When the time comes that we stand before God, our greatness means nothing. It doesn't matter if we were the most dominant baseball player of our era, the greatest comedian, the greatest politician or even the greatest star ship captain. It doesn't even matter if we were the greatest humanitarian having the most tremendous positive effect on society. If we're trying to make it on our own greatness, we're in for a pretty huge disappointment.
The only hope we've got is vicariously, taking on the perfection that only belonged to the one who was so humbly born in that little town that may never have recognized him. It's only through His greatness that we have a chance.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Things That Make You Go Whoa
Matthew 1:18-24
There are those moments where life just really knocks you for a loop. Something happens that is just so unexpected, so out of the ordinary, that all you can do is go "Whoa." Not so much a lazy kind of whoa, like whoa dude. More the kind of thing where "Whoa" is about all you can manage because that's about the only sound you can make when the wind's being knocked out of you. And you sit there stunned, wondering what just happened. Your mind goes on the blink because trying to really process it all is just a bit much to ask at the moment.
I'm thinking Joseph had a bunch of those all pretty much right together. When you think about it, you wonder how he got through it all because when these kind of things happen, I'd think it'd be almost impossible to not be shell shocked, kind of going through life for awhile as a vegetable. And maybe he did, who knows?
That first "Whoa" moment maybe didn't come right around all the others. It's not one that you really think of so much when you read the account, and maybe I'm stretching things to even suggest it happened. I mean, I really don't know the guy, who could really say they do? All we have are assumptions. Funny... it just struck me that here I am writing my take on things that happened in the Bible as if I'm some sort of expert when that's the furthest thing from the truth. It dawns on me that right now I'm putting my mouth (or typewriter in gear) before really knowing much. The truth is I know very little about life, lifestyles, attitudes, or anything of the sort from that time. We tend to think that they all thought like we think today. I can't help but think that maybe they'd be really offended if they knew how we thought and how we saw things today that we would suggest that they were anything like us. Maybe not. Seriously, I have no clue. That's always the problem when you try to think what someone from then must have been thinking.
I mean, start with betrothal. In 21st century America we really have no concept what that was like. We date, fall in love (or so we think) and choose our mates. We shudder at the thought of arranged marriages because we want a say in the matter. So that leads us to think that people then would have been resentful of being forced into marriage. But then, for the most part the concept of choosing one's spouse was totally foreign to them. If that's not even a frame of reference, then maybe the resentment never comes to mind.
Having said all that, I think that's where the first whoa moment came in. Here's a couple of assumptions I'm making. I do believe that Joseph was a pretty Godly man. Something about his responses to things leads me that direction. And I believe Mary was an incredibly Godly woman, that being in the position she was in, well, it just goes to follow. The thing is, when thinking about a companion for life, you think about compatibility, right? Okay, so here I am reverting back to my own way of thinking, but I think about when I was getting out on my own and I had all these ideas that the ideal spouse would be a Cornhusker fanatic who also loved baseball, music by Chicago (while also enjoying cranking up some good old classic guitar rock), and had a pretty warped sense of humor.
I doubt Joseph was a big Lynrd Skynrd fan, though maybe with him having a good Hebrew heritage he might have appreciated the lack of vowels in their name. But I can't help but think that some things are timeless, in that whether marriage is arranged or your spouse is chosen, having something in common means something. I remember having a kind of whoa moment as I got to know my wife. Granted, she's a bit apathetic about Nebraska football, though maybe she'll come around. But there comes this time when it all really dawned on me what an amazing gift I had in her. That's a good kind of take the breath out of you whoa. I really believe that somewhere along the line, as Joseph began to recognize the kind of woman Mary was, he had to have had that kind of Whoa moment.
Think about it. A Godly man is going to have Godly things as a pretty high priority. Character becomes pretty darn important. You have to wonder, was it something he saw in Mary all along, or was there just this time where it just struck him just what kind of character she had. Now this is one of those moments I know he'd be pretty offended by my ascribing my attitudes to him, because I was getting ready to say that he'd be ready to say, Holy Crap am I a lucky guy. I don't think the guy was totally perfect by any means but maybe that kind of phrase might have been a bit blasphemous in his eyes? (What's scary is, he's probably right.) Anyway, from his mind set, discovering who was about to be his wife must have been like hitting the lottery. I get to marry HER? WOOOHOOO!!!!
After all, woohooo is pretty close to whoa, right?
And then there's the next whoa moment. This one, maybe not so good. I mean it was, but I'm sure it didn't feel so good when it happened. Again, it's all assumptions, and as mentioned before it's not very accurate to put my own thoughts in his head, but I just know that if it were me and I was beginning to realize the incredible character and faith of this woman I'm about to marry it all seems to be too good to be true. And yet, it dawns on you it is true. And maybe just when you come to grips with the fact it is true and life is pretty awesome, you find out she's pregnant.
And you know it isn't your child, for pretty obvious reasons. Even two thousand years ago they knew what had to happen for there to be a child on the way, and, well, that didn't happen.
Speaking of frames of reference, Joseph didn't exactly have two thousand years of the church celebrating the virgin birth. All he knew was, Mary was pregnant. Did she tell him what this was about, what happened? You would think so. Truth is, we have no idea what happened. Did she tell him directly, or was it something her parents had to inform his parents, was it something heard through the grapevine? We really have no clue. Still, knowing the kind of woman she was and finding this out, well, this time the whoa isn't so great a feeling.
But it's bad enough she's pregnant. But at a time when God has been pretty silent for a long time, for her to say this was a God thing... it had to seem like crazy talk. No, we can't assume Joseph thought like we do, but I think this is another of these universal things: You're engaged to be married, your fiance ends up pregnant, and says God is the reason? `Whatever mindset you have, that just doesn't add up.
But we go back to that thing about Mary's character, godliness and faith. THAT has to be what really would have set his head spinning. There are those who are not the type, and then there are those who are really not the type, and he knew she was the latter. I think he knew her well enough to know deep down that it's not like her, first of all not like her to go and get pregnant, but also not like her to come up with a doozy of an explanation like this. (I'm afraid to go back and count how many times I say "you have to think" or "you can't help but think") I can't help but think that you can't help but think that somewhere deep down Joseph believed her, but at the same time was faced with the sheer impossibility.
Talk about your head spinning. If I were to ever doubt anything about this account it would be the part about the angel appearing to him in a dream. Not that that couldn't have happened, it's the dream part. What I mean about the dream part is, dreaming kind of requires sleeping. How did he manage to sleep when trying to process all this? Granted, that kind of sleeplessness can only last so long though. Eventually he had to drop off.
Maybe it's a good thing it happened in a dream. The previous whoa was enough of a shock on his system, so who knows if he could have taken the next one being awake. I've never had an angel speak to me, unless it was one of those unaware deals. Definitely nothing obvious like this. It's one thing to hear all this from Mary. But now to have an angel say hey dude, it's for real. Maybe it wasn't as much a whoa thing as I thought, after all I did just speculate that maybe he knew deep down that Mary was telling the truth. Maybe this wasn't so much a shock to the system as that kind of sigh of relief whoa. A peace at last kind of whoa. An it's all coming together kind of whoa. There's something much more going on. It's not too good to be true that I have this amazing woman by my side, she really is pregnant, she really is a virgin, something pretty amazing's going to happen and this is still too much to take in but yeah, it all is starting to make a bit of sense kind of whoa.
Like I said, I'm making a lot of assumptions. I guess we have to whenever we start thinking in terms of how anyone had to be thinking about anything. But the fact that Joseph was willing to consider her and not publicly shame her when he found out she was pregnant makes me think my assumptions were right about how he might have had that first whoa moment in realizing the treasure he had in her. He knew shaming her wasn't right. In that day and age, even with an angelic revelation and a miracle pregnancy and all that, the thought of going ahead with the marriage when you know how good people are at counting back 9 months cannot be an easy one.
I wish we knew more about Joseph. Someday, we will. But how he acted, how he responded to these whoa moments tells us an awful lot. Today we're splashing anything and everything onto our Facebook pages, while the little we're told about Joseph is only enough for a few tweets on Twitter.
It's pretty humbling that the few things written about Joseph speak far more, volumes more, of his character than any of the best things I could put down about myself.
Kinda makes me go Whoa.
There are those moments where life just really knocks you for a loop. Something happens that is just so unexpected, so out of the ordinary, that all you can do is go "Whoa." Not so much a lazy kind of whoa, like whoa dude. More the kind of thing where "Whoa" is about all you can manage because that's about the only sound you can make when the wind's being knocked out of you. And you sit there stunned, wondering what just happened. Your mind goes on the blink because trying to really process it all is just a bit much to ask at the moment.
I'm thinking Joseph had a bunch of those all pretty much right together. When you think about it, you wonder how he got through it all because when these kind of things happen, I'd think it'd be almost impossible to not be shell shocked, kind of going through life for awhile as a vegetable. And maybe he did, who knows?
That first "Whoa" moment maybe didn't come right around all the others. It's not one that you really think of so much when you read the account, and maybe I'm stretching things to even suggest it happened. I mean, I really don't know the guy, who could really say they do? All we have are assumptions. Funny... it just struck me that here I am writing my take on things that happened in the Bible as if I'm some sort of expert when that's the furthest thing from the truth. It dawns on me that right now I'm putting my mouth (or typewriter in gear) before really knowing much. The truth is I know very little about life, lifestyles, attitudes, or anything of the sort from that time. We tend to think that they all thought like we think today. I can't help but think that maybe they'd be really offended if they knew how we thought and how we saw things today that we would suggest that they were anything like us. Maybe not. Seriously, I have no clue. That's always the problem when you try to think what someone from then must have been thinking.
I mean, start with betrothal. In 21st century America we really have no concept what that was like. We date, fall in love (or so we think) and choose our mates. We shudder at the thought of arranged marriages because we want a say in the matter. So that leads us to think that people then would have been resentful of being forced into marriage. But then, for the most part the concept of choosing one's spouse was totally foreign to them. If that's not even a frame of reference, then maybe the resentment never comes to mind.
Having said all that, I think that's where the first whoa moment came in. Here's a couple of assumptions I'm making. I do believe that Joseph was a pretty Godly man. Something about his responses to things leads me that direction. And I believe Mary was an incredibly Godly woman, that being in the position she was in, well, it just goes to follow. The thing is, when thinking about a companion for life, you think about compatibility, right? Okay, so here I am reverting back to my own way of thinking, but I think about when I was getting out on my own and I had all these ideas that the ideal spouse would be a Cornhusker fanatic who also loved baseball, music by Chicago (while also enjoying cranking up some good old classic guitar rock), and had a pretty warped sense of humor.
I doubt Joseph was a big Lynrd Skynrd fan, though maybe with him having a good Hebrew heritage he might have appreciated the lack of vowels in their name. But I can't help but think that some things are timeless, in that whether marriage is arranged or your spouse is chosen, having something in common means something. I remember having a kind of whoa moment as I got to know my wife. Granted, she's a bit apathetic about Nebraska football, though maybe she'll come around. But there comes this time when it all really dawned on me what an amazing gift I had in her. That's a good kind of take the breath out of you whoa. I really believe that somewhere along the line, as Joseph began to recognize the kind of woman Mary was, he had to have had that kind of Whoa moment.
Think about it. A Godly man is going to have Godly things as a pretty high priority. Character becomes pretty darn important. You have to wonder, was it something he saw in Mary all along, or was there just this time where it just struck him just what kind of character she had. Now this is one of those moments I know he'd be pretty offended by my ascribing my attitudes to him, because I was getting ready to say that he'd be ready to say, Holy Crap am I a lucky guy. I don't think the guy was totally perfect by any means but maybe that kind of phrase might have been a bit blasphemous in his eyes? (What's scary is, he's probably right.) Anyway, from his mind set, discovering who was about to be his wife must have been like hitting the lottery. I get to marry HER? WOOOHOOO!!!!
After all, woohooo is pretty close to whoa, right?
And then there's the next whoa moment. This one, maybe not so good. I mean it was, but I'm sure it didn't feel so good when it happened. Again, it's all assumptions, and as mentioned before it's not very accurate to put my own thoughts in his head, but I just know that if it were me and I was beginning to realize the incredible character and faith of this woman I'm about to marry it all seems to be too good to be true. And yet, it dawns on you it is true. And maybe just when you come to grips with the fact it is true and life is pretty awesome, you find out she's pregnant.
And you know it isn't your child, for pretty obvious reasons. Even two thousand years ago they knew what had to happen for there to be a child on the way, and, well, that didn't happen.
Speaking of frames of reference, Joseph didn't exactly have two thousand years of the church celebrating the virgin birth. All he knew was, Mary was pregnant. Did she tell him what this was about, what happened? You would think so. Truth is, we have no idea what happened. Did she tell him directly, or was it something her parents had to inform his parents, was it something heard through the grapevine? We really have no clue. Still, knowing the kind of woman she was and finding this out, well, this time the whoa isn't so great a feeling.
But it's bad enough she's pregnant. But at a time when God has been pretty silent for a long time, for her to say this was a God thing... it had to seem like crazy talk. No, we can't assume Joseph thought like we do, but I think this is another of these universal things: You're engaged to be married, your fiance ends up pregnant, and says God is the reason? `Whatever mindset you have, that just doesn't add up.
But we go back to that thing about Mary's character, godliness and faith. THAT has to be what really would have set his head spinning. There are those who are not the type, and then there are those who are really not the type, and he knew she was the latter. I think he knew her well enough to know deep down that it's not like her, first of all not like her to go and get pregnant, but also not like her to come up with a doozy of an explanation like this. (I'm afraid to go back and count how many times I say "you have to think" or "you can't help but think") I can't help but think that you can't help but think that somewhere deep down Joseph believed her, but at the same time was faced with the sheer impossibility.
Talk about your head spinning. If I were to ever doubt anything about this account it would be the part about the angel appearing to him in a dream. Not that that couldn't have happened, it's the dream part. What I mean about the dream part is, dreaming kind of requires sleeping. How did he manage to sleep when trying to process all this? Granted, that kind of sleeplessness can only last so long though. Eventually he had to drop off.
Maybe it's a good thing it happened in a dream. The previous whoa was enough of a shock on his system, so who knows if he could have taken the next one being awake. I've never had an angel speak to me, unless it was one of those unaware deals. Definitely nothing obvious like this. It's one thing to hear all this from Mary. But now to have an angel say hey dude, it's for real. Maybe it wasn't as much a whoa thing as I thought, after all I did just speculate that maybe he knew deep down that Mary was telling the truth. Maybe this wasn't so much a shock to the system as that kind of sigh of relief whoa. A peace at last kind of whoa. An it's all coming together kind of whoa. There's something much more going on. It's not too good to be true that I have this amazing woman by my side, she really is pregnant, she really is a virgin, something pretty amazing's going to happen and this is still too much to take in but yeah, it all is starting to make a bit of sense kind of whoa.
Like I said, I'm making a lot of assumptions. I guess we have to whenever we start thinking in terms of how anyone had to be thinking about anything. But the fact that Joseph was willing to consider her and not publicly shame her when he found out she was pregnant makes me think my assumptions were right about how he might have had that first whoa moment in realizing the treasure he had in her. He knew shaming her wasn't right. In that day and age, even with an angelic revelation and a miracle pregnancy and all that, the thought of going ahead with the marriage when you know how good people are at counting back 9 months cannot be an easy one.
I wish we knew more about Joseph. Someday, we will. But how he acted, how he responded to these whoa moments tells us an awful lot. Today we're splashing anything and everything onto our Facebook pages, while the little we're told about Joseph is only enough for a few tweets on Twitter.
It's pretty humbling that the few things written about Joseph speak far more, volumes more, of his character than any of the best things I could put down about myself.
Kinda makes me go Whoa.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
I'm Somebody Now
Matthew 1:1-17
You know, the part everyone skips over. Or at least it's the part people practice their speed reading on, which can be rather entertaining when they're doing it out loud. Sometimes I wonder if the reason John is the Gospel most people will tell you to read first is that it doesn't have a genealogy. Other than this whole who begat who thing, it gets right down to the nitty gritty of "in the beginning was the Word." In John, we don't have to worry about begats. Mark either, come to think of it. But then there's Luke who has to do even more begats, at least Matthew picks up with Abraham.
All start the way they start for their own reasons. We have scholars coming out of the woodwork to tell us why each author decided to start their account the way they did. Yet I can't help but believe there may have been reasons that we never even thought of. Not that I'm going to try, that's just a way of me saying that for all of our insights and knowledge and all I think we'd be stunned at how little we really know.
But then that's the amazing thing about the stuff God gave us to read. On the one hand I think that our wisdom and understanding barely scratches the surface of what's in there. On the other hand, I think we over-mysticise it, we make it too difficult. I think it's just the opposite, that it's much easier to understand than we give it credit for. The stuff we don't understand yet, it's really more about depth than it is meaning.
Okay, so let me get this straight. One thing you will have to get used to with me if you plan to read much of my writing is, it's too easy for me to chase rabbits. Good job Ron: Starting with the very first post that has maybe all of 1 reader (and that's assuming I proof read this before publishing), go ahead and write stuff that really discourages adding to that readership total! Scare them all away. Hopefully at most points I'll be able to recognize those rabbit chases early enough and get back on track.
And this gets me back to this whole genealogy thing.
Remember Steve Martin in "The Jerk?" I'm going to assume that since early on most people reading this will be friends of mine and thus, old enough to remember the movie. Now whether you admit to having seen the movie, that's another story. But there's a scene where his character is all excited because "The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here." He was excited about seeing his name in the phone book (and if by some odd chance you're reading this and you're not old enough to have seen this movie, you may not be familiar with phone books other than being those thick books no one uses any more. Maybe the best way to describe them is they were the closest thing our generation had to Google, which probably explains a lot about our generation). His name in the phone book was affirmation that "I'm somebody."
I can relate. Once upon a time, I had a story about me in the Lincoln Star. Every week they put a little story in about a featured carrier, buried somewhere behind the obituaries. After four years of delivering the paper I'm thinking they finally ran out of other people to feature, so it had to happen some time. All of a sudden I was famous. I may still have that article somewhere. I do know that I've got an article from college days about a bicycle ride slash fund raiser that I participated in. Way in the back of the article is a one line mention of my name. That's just enough for me to have cut out the article and kept it for 30 years.
Yes, you're thinking that I've gotten back on that rabbit chase again. But I might actually be going somewhere with this. When we speed read through all these names in the beginning of Matthew there are of course the obvious ones. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Of course there's David and Solomon. We've all made note of the significance that Ruth is mentioned in the midst of all of these names of men. There's been all sorts of commentary on how Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, is referenced but not named. The King James refers to "her that had been of Urias," which sounds very much like "she who's name is not to be spoken." And then there are all the kings who followed David and Solomon, kings that we might actually remember having read of, like Hezekiah and Jehoshophat. And everyone remembers Zerubbabel, or at least we tell ourselves we do because there's just something about that name that you know that if it was ever mentioned anywhere, you'd have to remember it. If you've grown up going to Sunday School or gone to Bible College, you know you have to have read that name somewhere, so even if we really don't remember Zerubbabel, well, you at least remember remembering him.
And then there are just those names that you really wonder, who were these guys? Ram? Salmon? Shealtiel? Now because many of these later guys were descendants of David, they were likely pretty significant people in their times and places. No, we might not know of them other than a couple mentions in the Old Testament, but to the people who were their contemporaries especially in Israel, these were their kings. In our lifetimes, we've had presidents who, in a hundred years or two, people might remember only because they read something quickly in a history book, but who never really stood out. Much like most people think when they hear the names Millard Fillmore or John Tyler (and no he wasn't the lead singer for Aerosmith). I'm not going to even try to guess which of our presidents will one day be forgotten, but at the time they served, they were still President. So there were a lot of these guys who were kings. But there are other guys that, for all we knew, were pretty ordinary people.
I seriously doubt someone will stumble across the archives of the Lincoln Star and discover this story about a paperboy in University Place and try to figure out who he was. They're certainly not going to see one name at the end of a list of many and feel awe at his accomplishments on a bike. And yet, 4 to 5 thousand years later here's at least one guy wondering who Ram and Salmon were. There are actually people who have put serious time into every one of those names. A thousand years from now, the phone books will be gone, the news articles will be gone. And yet, those names will still grace the beginning of what will still be the most significant piece of literature around.
You wonder what they would say if you were to tell them that their names would be recorded for billions to see throughout history. I can't help but think some of them would be pretty overwhelmed, maybe asking "who am I to be recorded forever in history?" I'd like to think if it were me I'd be humbled, though the reality is if it were me it would get to my head pretty quick and I'd start thinking I was something more than I really was.
So getting to back that whole thing of why the books started as they did: Of course you can get into all this about how Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience and thus it was important to point out Jesus' pedigree. That would probably be true, as well as maybe a lot of other reasons as well. There's a real possibility that the conclusions that I come to here may have had nothing to do with the actual reasons, but I do find it interesting at least.
Here is a list of some pretty significant people. At the same time there are some historically insignificant people as well, some we know absolutely nothing about. There were some great people here. There were also some pretty awful people. Horrible really. So this wasn't necessarily a list of merit, not something that really should inspire awe just because they're on the list. But what strikes me is, important, unimportant, people of character or fiends, God used them. Not really because of themselves, and often in spite of themselves, they were part of the line that would lead to the birth of the son of God. I can't help but think that some of these people had no clue whatsoever that they were part of something so incredible.
Do you think that maybe, God is putting this here to say something to us? That it's not about our status or who we are. It's not even because of anything about us and sometimes in spite of us, but that God can and will use us. For some, it's grand and glorious. It's Billy Graham or Max Lucado. Or maybe it's the smile and encouraging word you gave someone that helped them find hope, and they went on to do the same for someone else, until it eventually spread like wildfire (or in today's terms, went viral). You never had a clue you made a difference.
Some will be written about in history. Most of us will never be known. We might do something great. Or maybe it will be something stupid we did that God somehow turns around. Maybe a little of both. Maybe a lot of both. I know for me there's much on the stupid side. Sometimes we'll know what we did. Often we'll have no idea. Maybe the lesson is, let God do his thing and just make ourselves available for it. It really doesn't matter if we're Abraham or Salmon, whether we're Lincoln or Fillmore. It's not so much who we are or what we do, but who's working in us. We may or may not do something great. One thing I do know.
The end result will be great.
You know, the part everyone skips over. Or at least it's the part people practice their speed reading on, which can be rather entertaining when they're doing it out loud. Sometimes I wonder if the reason John is the Gospel most people will tell you to read first is that it doesn't have a genealogy. Other than this whole who begat who thing, it gets right down to the nitty gritty of "in the beginning was the Word." In John, we don't have to worry about begats. Mark either, come to think of it. But then there's Luke who has to do even more begats, at least Matthew picks up with Abraham.
All start the way they start for their own reasons. We have scholars coming out of the woodwork to tell us why each author decided to start their account the way they did. Yet I can't help but believe there may have been reasons that we never even thought of. Not that I'm going to try, that's just a way of me saying that for all of our insights and knowledge and all I think we'd be stunned at how little we really know.
But then that's the amazing thing about the stuff God gave us to read. On the one hand I think that our wisdom and understanding barely scratches the surface of what's in there. On the other hand, I think we over-mysticise it, we make it too difficult. I think it's just the opposite, that it's much easier to understand than we give it credit for. The stuff we don't understand yet, it's really more about depth than it is meaning.
Okay, so let me get this straight. One thing you will have to get used to with me if you plan to read much of my writing is, it's too easy for me to chase rabbits. Good job Ron: Starting with the very first post that has maybe all of 1 reader (and that's assuming I proof read this before publishing), go ahead and write stuff that really discourages adding to that readership total! Scare them all away. Hopefully at most points I'll be able to recognize those rabbit chases early enough and get back on track.
And this gets me back to this whole genealogy thing.
Remember Steve Martin in "The Jerk?" I'm going to assume that since early on most people reading this will be friends of mine and thus, old enough to remember the movie. Now whether you admit to having seen the movie, that's another story. But there's a scene where his character is all excited because "The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here." He was excited about seeing his name in the phone book (and if by some odd chance you're reading this and you're not old enough to have seen this movie, you may not be familiar with phone books other than being those thick books no one uses any more. Maybe the best way to describe them is they were the closest thing our generation had to Google, which probably explains a lot about our generation). His name in the phone book was affirmation that "I'm somebody."
I can relate. Once upon a time, I had a story about me in the Lincoln Star. Every week they put a little story in about a featured carrier, buried somewhere behind the obituaries. After four years of delivering the paper I'm thinking they finally ran out of other people to feature, so it had to happen some time. All of a sudden I was famous. I may still have that article somewhere. I do know that I've got an article from college days about a bicycle ride slash fund raiser that I participated in. Way in the back of the article is a one line mention of my name. That's just enough for me to have cut out the article and kept it for 30 years.
Yes, you're thinking that I've gotten back on that rabbit chase again. But I might actually be going somewhere with this. When we speed read through all these names in the beginning of Matthew there are of course the obvious ones. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Of course there's David and Solomon. We've all made note of the significance that Ruth is mentioned in the midst of all of these names of men. There's been all sorts of commentary on how Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, is referenced but not named. The King James refers to "her that had been of Urias," which sounds very much like "she who's name is not to be spoken." And then there are all the kings who followed David and Solomon, kings that we might actually remember having read of, like Hezekiah and Jehoshophat. And everyone remembers Zerubbabel, or at least we tell ourselves we do because there's just something about that name that you know that if it was ever mentioned anywhere, you'd have to remember it. If you've grown up going to Sunday School or gone to Bible College, you know you have to have read that name somewhere, so even if we really don't remember Zerubbabel, well, you at least remember remembering him.
And then there are just those names that you really wonder, who were these guys? Ram? Salmon? Shealtiel? Now because many of these later guys were descendants of David, they were likely pretty significant people in their times and places. No, we might not know of them other than a couple mentions in the Old Testament, but to the people who were their contemporaries especially in Israel, these were their kings. In our lifetimes, we've had presidents who, in a hundred years or two, people might remember only because they read something quickly in a history book, but who never really stood out. Much like most people think when they hear the names Millard Fillmore or John Tyler (and no he wasn't the lead singer for Aerosmith). I'm not going to even try to guess which of our presidents will one day be forgotten, but at the time they served, they were still President. So there were a lot of these guys who were kings. But there are other guys that, for all we knew, were pretty ordinary people.
I seriously doubt someone will stumble across the archives of the Lincoln Star and discover this story about a paperboy in University Place and try to figure out who he was. They're certainly not going to see one name at the end of a list of many and feel awe at his accomplishments on a bike. And yet, 4 to 5 thousand years later here's at least one guy wondering who Ram and Salmon were. There are actually people who have put serious time into every one of those names. A thousand years from now, the phone books will be gone, the news articles will be gone. And yet, those names will still grace the beginning of what will still be the most significant piece of literature around.
You wonder what they would say if you were to tell them that their names would be recorded for billions to see throughout history. I can't help but think some of them would be pretty overwhelmed, maybe asking "who am I to be recorded forever in history?" I'd like to think if it were me I'd be humbled, though the reality is if it were me it would get to my head pretty quick and I'd start thinking I was something more than I really was.
So getting to back that whole thing of why the books started as they did: Of course you can get into all this about how Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience and thus it was important to point out Jesus' pedigree. That would probably be true, as well as maybe a lot of other reasons as well. There's a real possibility that the conclusions that I come to here may have had nothing to do with the actual reasons, but I do find it interesting at least.
Here is a list of some pretty significant people. At the same time there are some historically insignificant people as well, some we know absolutely nothing about. There were some great people here. There were also some pretty awful people. Horrible really. So this wasn't necessarily a list of merit, not something that really should inspire awe just because they're on the list. But what strikes me is, important, unimportant, people of character or fiends, God used them. Not really because of themselves, and often in spite of themselves, they were part of the line that would lead to the birth of the son of God. I can't help but think that some of these people had no clue whatsoever that they were part of something so incredible.
Do you think that maybe, God is putting this here to say something to us? That it's not about our status or who we are. It's not even because of anything about us and sometimes in spite of us, but that God can and will use us. For some, it's grand and glorious. It's Billy Graham or Max Lucado. Or maybe it's the smile and encouraging word you gave someone that helped them find hope, and they went on to do the same for someone else, until it eventually spread like wildfire (or in today's terms, went viral). You never had a clue you made a difference.
Some will be written about in history. Most of us will never be known. We might do something great. Or maybe it will be something stupid we did that God somehow turns around. Maybe a little of both. Maybe a lot of both. I know for me there's much on the stupid side. Sometimes we'll know what we did. Often we'll have no idea. Maybe the lesson is, let God do his thing and just make ourselves available for it. It really doesn't matter if we're Abraham or Salmon, whether we're Lincoln or Fillmore. It's not so much who we are or what we do, but who's working in us. We may or may not do something great. One thing I do know.
The end result will be great.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)