Wednesday, March 20, 2019

“Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.” (2 Timothy 2:16, New International Version)

                My favourite button on my TV remote control is the mute button.

                With it I can shut out all the chatter and noise which comes from my TV set. I can mute out the commercials, especially the ones which I have seen umpteen times in the same hour or two. (Please, Dr. Ho, I really don’t want your gizmos and gadgets.) I can silence the fundraisers who interrupt and spoil my PBS shows with their silly conversations and pleas for my money. I can mute blowhard politicians and their babble-speak. I can shut out all the chatter, the over-analysis, the pointless, the repetitive, the monotonous, the irrelevant, the babble, the worthless words that pour out like a never-ending waterfall of verbiage and redundancy (sort of like this sentence!) I’ll even watch live sports on mute because I get tired of the announcers’ repetitive chatter or stating the obvious or having a lack of any real insight to the game I am watching. Alas, poor Susan when I am in charge of the remote…

                Right now, I am listening to and somewhat watching a waterfall falling over a cliff. All I can hear is the rushing water. Sometimes the station offers bird songs or babbling brooks or winds through the pines, or waves washing up on shores.  I find the sounds very soothing and relaxing. Sometimes I do my devotional readings while this is on. It helps me focus on the words I am reading. But no disturbing words!

                Don’t get me wrong, I love words. They are my bread and butter in many ways.  Words are important and essential for good communication skills. When I write I am always searching for just the right, precise words.

The right sorts of words help build healthy relationships. Words are indispensable for expressing ideas, needs, expectations, for saying that one is sorry, for voicing joy, praise, love, and pride in another. Words can be imaginative, creative, expressive, mysterious, sacred, intense, passionate, moving and powerful.

                But our current culture is far too full of far too many of the wrong and useless types of words, especially under the influence of social media. Everybody gets to have their say - the good, the bad and the ugly. Hate speech. Cyber bullying. Unfriending people on Facebook. Election interference and collusion.  Ranting, insulting tweets on Twitter.  Sexist, racist, harassing, uncensored, crude, rude, unfiltered words.

                There needs to be some sort of a universal or cosmic mute button.

                People need to think before they speak. We need to revive the old saying that if you haven’t got something good to say about someone, don’t say anything at all. “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer,” (Psalm 19:14. NLT).  

Write down your words but if they are not constructive words then throw the paper away. It has become so hard to take back our words; for once they are out there, they are out there for ever, “but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison,” (James 3:8, NLT). James may be overstating his case here, but I suspect the little congregation to which he is writing had been giving him good cause to be so vehement.

Paul makes a cogent point when he wrote, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen,” (Ephesians 4:29, New International Version). He is pretty clear about what he thinks about gossip, wrangling, slander, lies, malice, virile and toxic disagreements in the church and all “abusive language that comes from your mouth,” (Colossians 2:3:9, NIV).

“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech,” (1 Peter 3:10).

Words to live by!

Dale

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

“On the other hand, if we admit our sins - make a clean breast of them - he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.” (1John 1:9, The Message Bible) 

                Someone once said or wrote that confession is good for the soul.

                It seems that every time we turn on the TV, someone is admitting to some crime, felony, lie or misdemeanor or dirty trick or bad judgment or sexual misconduct or inappropriate tweets on Twitter or committing some indiscretion or doing something which he or she has tried to hide and cover-up. Only when faced with the evidence and scrutiny that now comes with social media, do some of these culprits come clean and confess their sins of commission. Usually reluctantly. Often after denying it for some time. A lot of them are men, sad to say.

                They may be priests, pastors, actors, celebrities, politicians, teachers, sport athletes, team owners – well, the list of offenders seems never-ending.  Institutions can also be included from banks to churches to governments to armies to police forces to hospitals to just bout any organization which rationalizes and defends its policies, procedures and practices in the name of profit, benefit and power.

                But let’s be honest here, nobody of us really likes to confess our mistakes, our poor decisions, our self-serving lies and exaggerations, our weaknesses, our bad habits, our character flaws and sins of commission or omission. It seems easier to deflect the ugly little truths about ourselves, to sweep under the rug our indiscretions and pretend that we have never done a wrong thing ever in our lives. But we are reminded that this act of denial is in itself a sin, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:9, New Living Translation)

                Speaking about truth, we hear echoes of Jesus’ words in our text as he talked about the grace and liberation of discipleship and of accepting Jesus’ leadership of our lives: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32, NLT)

                Yes, truth can be painful and costly, especially at first. But it can also be even more painful to hold on to a lie, to nurture falsehood, or to deny the real truth as these sorry endeavours will eat away at our souls and dry up our spirits.  We will live in fear and regret. We will harbor resentment and hide under a false sense of security.

                Truth-telling, i.e. confession, may be difficult but it is also liberating and offers a new lease on life and grants us shalom, a peace which surpasses all understanding, a peace which calms the conscience and restores a fresh balance in our lives.

                It is in truth-telling where we find grace, forgiveness, mercy, closure, peace, rightness – from others and from God.

                Please note that I am referring to the act of  admitting our own faults and  not pointing out the faults of others in a harsh spirit of so-called truth-telling, I have seen far too much damage done by people who think they are practicing the scripture verse that says we should “speak the truth” to one another and forget the speaking the truth “in love”  part of the verse. (Ephesians 4:15) Jesus has it right, of course, “It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.” (Matthew 7: 3, The Message Bible)

                Confession is personal (although there are occasions in which it should also be communal, a cooperate admission of collaborative error and bad choices). Confession is about our personal relationships, our lack of honest encounter with others and with God, our personal need for self-awareness, correction, discipline, and therefore reconciliation and restoration, the hopeful purging of the past and a fresh lean-into of the future, experiencing that which we call redemption.

                I have always found the season of Lent to be a time for such personal self-reflection and candid self- discovery.  May the Lord have mercy on my soul! 

Dale

Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - Ash Wednesday

“I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” (Job 42:6, New Living Translation) 

[Before I begin, everything which I said last week about anticipating a new grandchild in September now goes double.  Our daughter Katie and her husband Gary are also expecting in September. The more, the merrier!]

                Smudges!

                I don’t know about your childhood but I can remember my mother taking out a Kleenex from her purse, wetting it in her mouth with spit and giving me a spit-wash because there was a smudge on my face. It was yucky then and seems as much so today as I recall it.  But heaven forbid if I were to go into church with a smudge on my face – what would people think?

                Yet today, with it being Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, many a person will be leaving their churches with smudges on their foreheads. It is a symbolic action indicating one’s repentance and the beginning of spiritual preparation for Good Friday and then Easter or Resurrection Sunday. It may be accompanied by a day of fasting and prayer.  Some people will give something up for Lent – another symbolic gesture of self-sacrifice as one walks with Christ towards his Cross and the ensuing and unique gift of New Life and New Hope for all of us.

                What will people think if they see a person with a smudge on their foreheads today? I doubt that many will connect a little dirty smudge with faith or spirituality. This isn’t a part of my Baptist tradition but I have used ashes in many an Ash Wednesday service. For example, I have had people write down on slips of paper some hurt, grudge, personal problem, habit or sin which they would like to put away from themselves. Then we have burned those slips of paper with prayers of confession, along with prayers asking for forgiveness, and asking for God’s assistance for the future.  These actions can be very cathartic and liberating. They represent the “taking back” the things that smudge up our lives.

                Ashes are treated very carefully and respectfully in the Jewish rituals and ceremonies of sacrifice in the Old Testament. They are not just tossed to the side of the road and trampled upon and soon forgotten. The refuse of burnt offerings, the unseemly left-overs so to speak, need to be handled with utmost care and deposited in a special spot reserved just for this use, often near the altar. There were special ash buckets or pots used for the ashes’ removal. The priests had to change garments both before and after handling the ashes. In one instance a special purple cloth must cover those ashes. (Interestingly, purple is the liturgical colour of Lent.)

                At the beginning of the book of Job, our tragic hero sits on an ash-heap, ticked off at God and the world, facing his misery and torment with nothing like the patience of Job. From the ashes of his life he demands a trial or fair hearing in which God must state his case against Job and justify the reasons for Job’s pain and suffering. Job is a proud man and believes that he has done nothing to deserve such treatment. But out of his ashes Job never denies God nor abandon his faith. In the midst of his ashen protests he defiantly and faithfully speaks some of the most beautiful words in scripture, “For I know that my redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed then in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25, New Revised Standard Version)

                In the end he is still sitting on his ash heap but he recognizes that the ashes represent his repentance and he discovers a new-found reverence and need for this great big God in his life. He doesn’t get an easy, simple or perfect answer to all his questions but he gets all the answer he really ever needs.  Job gets a new beginning and a fresh start.  This is what repentance is all about.

God is not giving away spit-washes. We need to take our ashes seriously and bring them back to the altar of God’s Love, Grace and Mercy.  His loving action as in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a fully deep and thorough cleansing of our hearts, souls and spirits, as in the words of the Psalm, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7, NLT) 

Dale