Key Text: Matt. 2:16-18; Jeremiah 31:15-17
This entry pains me in the wake of the great tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, but I cannot quench the urging of the Holy Spirit. Twenty children and six adults were viciously murdered in an elementary school. My emotions say that we should never have to hear or see those words, but I just typed them with tears in my eyes. I spent most of Friday and Saturday and now sit here writing this before I can go try and sleep off and on in tears. My heart aches for the families and community affected and my minds ears hear the echoes from millenia ago.
Two major instances of mass murder of children preceded deliverance. First, Moses was born into a world of slavery. The Jews were enslaved to the Egyptians and for fear of revolt the Pharoah issues an edict to murder every male Jewish child aged two and younger. Countless children were to be murdered, but the grace of God spared Moses to deliver His people. We can enter into the debate of why just Moses, but we are not given answers. The answers while important, is not the goal, the grace of God is what it is, sovereign, omniscient. My mind fast-forwards several millenia to the birth of Christ. This is the reason for the season that surrounds us. Christ was born into a world rife with political oppression and despair. We try to frame the birth Christ with shimmering lights and garland. We try to remove the pain and anguish of the labor pains, the panic of Joseph with his wife in throes of labor unable to find a place to stay, and finally the stench of the stable that Jesus was born. Yes, the Savior of the world was born into the squalor of a stable. It was physically completely inglorious, yet it was completely glorious.
But, what sticks out to me as I remember the families in Newtown is the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15: "Thus says the LORD: 'A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter
weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted
for her children, because they are no more.'" This prophecy is fulfilled in the first two chapters in Matthew. The Magi arrive into the court of King Herod. Herod greets the foreign dignitaries and is regaled with their tale of following a ever persistent star. Herod slyly suggests that they should tell him where the boy king was so that he may worship him as well (Matt. 2). The Magi were warned to not go back to Jerusalem after they served and worshiped the Christ child (not in a manger but in a home). Herod becomes enraged and orders the mass murders of every child under two years old in Judea. Matthew clearly cites the prophecy of Jeremiah. The tears of Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin are clear. (Note: Benjamin's land share of the promised land and Joseph's land share split between his two sons comprise the region of Judea.)
The tears of the mothers and fathers then and the mothers and fathers now dampen the ground. But, I am persuaded and convinced that God has not left us. That just as God set aside Moses and Jesus, He has a plan for those that remain. The lives lost in Newtown are not lost in vain. I hope in Christ, because He has brought me from the brink. I have watched Him bring many that I love from the brink. Paul says to a troubled, distraught church in Rome, "And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that
tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:3-5 KJV)." The hope I have despite my tears, the hope that lives despite the horrible tragedies now and around the world will not make us ashamed. This hope is that a loving, righteous, all-knowing, gracious, all-powerful, all-respecting, all-feeling, all-everything God sits on the throne and is not derelict. As Jesus says to us, "Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. 5:4).
May God be with those that mourn,
Ernest
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The Myth of the Pit and the Reality of Hope
There are probably about ten thousand ways I can go with this topic. Well, I should just start with the impetus. Soon after the movie came out, I was invited and accepted the invitation to go see The Dark Knight Rises, the end of the Christopher Nolan story arc of Batman. (Sidebar showing my nerdtastic-ness: Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy is the cinematic equivalent of the Alan Moore's work in the comic world on Batman [cp. The Killing Joke].)
I digress, but there is a theme throughout the movie where the villain, Bane talks about the absurdity of hope. While he puts Gotham under martial law, turning over the rule of the metropolis to the "people", holding them hostage with the core of a nuclear fusion reactor, he promotes hope. To him, hope inspires people to scramble for their own survival and devolve. This perspective is honed in a pit, a jail in the middle of a middle eastern desert. Where regularly inmates are given the chance to climb out of the pit only to fail and lose hope of survival. To make it worse there is the story of the one that made it to the top, which produces hope. Hope that it can be done, the one in million/billion can make it.
This is where Bruce Wayne found himself, this is where many of us find ourselves. We are in pits dug deep into the ground of our lives, the valley within the valley. We see others reach the top and climb out of their pits and it feels like we are trapped in the pits of despair that seem to be bottomless. But, I can tell you that the Bible is clear about the pits of life. The pits of life are false creations of an enemy that cannot get at what he really wants. Look at the story of Job, the discussion that Satan has with God about Job who was described as the most righteous man in the world. Job was so righteous and desired a right relationship with God that he offered sacrifices every day in the case of failings by his children. This is what gets Satan's attention so he approaches God with an challenge against Job's righteousness, He was only righteous because everything was hunky dory or peachy keen. God gave Satan the right to take away his children and his wealth and then when that failed the right to harm Job's body.
I am going to stick a pin here. When I say that pits are false creations, I am not saying that the feelings that you encounter in the pit are not real. the circumstances, the pain, the agony, the shame, despair is very real and should not be minimized. But, I know of something that is more real and more powerful and that is hope. The Bible says that hope does not make us ashamed (Romans 5:3-5). Job held on through his story (which takes place over a remarkably brief period of time) to the hope that he would be rescued and vindicated, liberated, delivered and redeemed. I can point to story after story after story to pull out a nugget of truth about the mythology of the pit from Joseph to Paul. This is the punchline of every pit you encounter in life: "OUR GOD is greater, OUR GOD is stronger, GOD, you are higher than any other." Jesus was raised from the pit of death and was raised victorious forever. In this we can have hope that is unfailing. This reality makes the pit a lie no more than a myth than Batman. So, our challenge is to speak to the pits in our lives with courageous authority and watch the power of God shatter the pit first in our hearts and minds and then in our realities.
"And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:3-5 KJV)."
Be blessed (Sorry for the absence),
Ernest
I digress, but there is a theme throughout the movie where the villain, Bane talks about the absurdity of hope. While he puts Gotham under martial law, turning over the rule of the metropolis to the "people", holding them hostage with the core of a nuclear fusion reactor, he promotes hope. To him, hope inspires people to scramble for their own survival and devolve. This perspective is honed in a pit, a jail in the middle of a middle eastern desert. Where regularly inmates are given the chance to climb out of the pit only to fail and lose hope of survival. To make it worse there is the story of the one that made it to the top, which produces hope. Hope that it can be done, the one in million/billion can make it.
This is where Bruce Wayne found himself, this is where many of us find ourselves. We are in pits dug deep into the ground of our lives, the valley within the valley. We see others reach the top and climb out of their pits and it feels like we are trapped in the pits of despair that seem to be bottomless. But, I can tell you that the Bible is clear about the pits of life. The pits of life are false creations of an enemy that cannot get at what he really wants. Look at the story of Job, the discussion that Satan has with God about Job who was described as the most righteous man in the world. Job was so righteous and desired a right relationship with God that he offered sacrifices every day in the case of failings by his children. This is what gets Satan's attention so he approaches God with an challenge against Job's righteousness, He was only righteous because everything was hunky dory or peachy keen. God gave Satan the right to take away his children and his wealth and then when that failed the right to harm Job's body.
I am going to stick a pin here. When I say that pits are false creations, I am not saying that the feelings that you encounter in the pit are not real. the circumstances, the pain, the agony, the shame, despair is very real and should not be minimized. But, I know of something that is more real and more powerful and that is hope. The Bible says that hope does not make us ashamed (Romans 5:3-5). Job held on through his story (which takes place over a remarkably brief period of time) to the hope that he would be rescued and vindicated, liberated, delivered and redeemed. I can point to story after story after story to pull out a nugget of truth about the mythology of the pit from Joseph to Paul. This is the punchline of every pit you encounter in life: "OUR GOD is greater, OUR GOD is stronger, GOD, you are higher than any other." Jesus was raised from the pit of death and was raised victorious forever. In this we can have hope that is unfailing. This reality makes the pit a lie no more than a myth than Batman. So, our challenge is to speak to the pits in our lives with courageous authority and watch the power of God shatter the pit first in our hearts and minds and then in our realities.
"And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:3-5 KJV)."
Be blessed (Sorry for the absence),
Ernest
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