Faith Challenges: It Ain't All Comfort

“When the two women ran from the tomb, they were confused and shaking all over. They were too afraid to tell anyone what had happened.” Mark 16:8 Fear is a powerful motivator. It so often controls our actions, even when we know there to be a better way of doing. Fear is often irrational, but at times it is the very rational aspect of fear that keeps us from living according to faith. Mark’s gospel originally ended with this verse. Apparently, the text was changed by editors and copyists to reflect the fact that the resurrection story did get told. They wanted the text to speak more of Jesus’ resurrection than as Mark had ended his narrative. It made for an uncomfortable ending, after all. The women go to the tomb, find Jesus, then slip away quietly in fear. Mark’s is a brilliant literary device. It is effective. It stirs our emotions. It makes us question the women, but also ourselves. Too often, however, we read the text as those early editors, seeking a reinforcement of the messa

“I, Yahweh All-Powerful, have something to say to you priests. Children respect their fathers, and servants respect their masters. I am your father and your master, so why don't you respect me? You priests have insulted me, and now you ask, ‘How did we insult you?’ You embarrass me by offering worthless food on my altar. Then you ask, ‘How have we embarrassed you?’ You have done it by saying, ‘What’s so great about Yahweh’s altar?’ But isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are blind, crippled, or sick? Just try giving those animals to your governor. That certainly wouldn't please him or make him want to help you. I am Yahweh God All-Powerful, and you had better try to please me. You have sinned. Now see if I will have mercy on any of you.” Malachi 1:6-9 Malachi makes an interesting point about our treating God differently than we treat the government. In one sense, perhaps it is more accurate to say we treat them the same. We are loath to pay our taxes, yet we pay them to avoi

“Friends, when I came and told you the mystery that God had shared with us, I didn’t use big words or try to sound wise. In fact, while I was with you, I made up my mind to speak only about Jesus Christ, who had been nailed to a cross. At first, I was weak and trembling with fear. When I talked with you or preached, I didn't try to prove anything by sounding wise. I simply let God's Spirit show his power. That way you would have faith because of God's power and not because of human wisdom.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 It is tempting to reduce the gospel and a life of faith to what we can accomplish with our gifts, talents, and strength. It is easy to style our church work after the manner of the business community, as we look for scientific models, procedures, and tested strategies for growing a church, building a denomination, or adding numbers to membership, attendance, and financial giving. While there is some validity to all of this, Paul points to something greater than stra

“So once again, I, Yahweh All-Powerful, tell you, ‘See that justice is done and be kind and merciful to one another! Don't mistreat widows or orphans or foreigners or anyone who is poor, and stop making plans to hurt each other.’ But everyone who heard those prophets stubbornly refused to obey. Instead, they turned their backs on everything my Spirit had commanded the earlier prophets to preach. So I, Yahweh, became angry and said, ‘You people paid no attention when I called out to you, and now I'll pay no attention when you call out to me.’” Zechariah 7:8-13 A common refrain in the Passover Seder meal is “we were once foreigners in Egypt, but God rescued us with a mighty hand.” It is a reminder to include the poor, destitute, and otherwise needy in our celebration of God’s provision and blessing. Caring for widows, poor, foreigners, and orphans was a standard Ancient Near Eastern estimate of one’s righteousness. This concept was not limited to the people of Israel, but under

“Peter and John answered, ‘Do you think God wants us to obey you or to obey him? We cannot keep quiet about what we have seen and heard.’” Acts 4:19-20 Even in ministry, there are times when one is called on to place some other concern ahead of faithfully serving God. There are institutions to protect; there are donors one should not upset; there are issues the general public is not prepared to discuss or understand. There are concerns over paying homage to history, tradition, and heritage that may contradict the teaching of Scripture or the mission of Christ Jesus for the church. There are hot-button issues of society that to addressing stirs up a hornet’s nest of controversy. It is tempting to go along with the flow—to allow the swell of public opinion or the direction of institutional heritage sweep us along in its current. This is somewhat the situation Peter and John faced. They did not consider themselves as preaching a new religion, breaking off from Judaism. Jesus was, afte

“Someday, I, Yahweh, will cut a tender twig from the top of a cedar tree, then plant it on the peak of Israel's tallest mountain, where it will grow strong branches and produce large fruit. All kinds of birds will find shelter under the tree, and they will rest in the shade of its branches. Every tree in the forest will know that I, Yahweh, can bring down tall trees and help short ones grow. I dry up green trees and make dry ones green. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will keep my word.” Ezekiel 17:22-24 Ezekiel’s words spring from the perspective of the Babylonian exile. Israel had been dispersed under the Assyrians and Judah had found itself deported to Babylon. Zedekiah, king of Judah had signed a treaty with Babylon, swearing to it by the name of Yahweh. He had then broken the treaty, seeking alliance with Egypt to protect Judah from Nebuchadnezzar. What had once been a people under the great kings, David and Solomon was now a captive remnant bowed under the sway of Babylon.

“When people sin, you should forgive and comfort them, so they won't give up in despair. You should make them sure of your love for them.” 2 Corinthians 2:7-8 Ours is a violent society. Our nation was birthed in the context of war and the struggle for power, wealth, and independence from competing claims for our submission and allegiance. Settlers from England fought to take land from native peoples, from competing European powers, then for independence from the dictates of an English king. Early on, we learned to settle our differences with the use of force, torture, and death. Early on, we burned those believed to be witches, tarred and feathered others, and opened the West with the law of the powerful, the fastest draw, and a legacy of “might makes right.” We oppressed African slaves, new immigrant populations, and any we could force to do our bidding and so increase our wealth and prosperity. In the process, we came to shy away from many of these practices. Adopting the law

“Get out of Babylon, my people, and run for your lives, before I strike the city in my anger! Don’t be afraid or lose hope, though year after year there are rumors of leaders fighting for control in the city of Babylon. The time will come when I will punish Babylon’s false gods. Everyone there will die, and the whole nation will be disgraced.” Jeremiah 51:45-47 Jeremiah was preparing a people for the experience of exile. He knew it would not be an easy life. He knew there would be great issues to face, the suffering of an oppressed population, and the loss of home, freedom, and identity. They would be heartbroken over leaving their land and all it symbolized in terms of the blessing and provision of Yahweh. He also knew there were greater dangers than these. After some time in exile, they would begin to re-establish themselves within the foreign society. They would find their lives enmeshed with the lives of their conquerors. They would lose sight of just how they were becoming dep

“The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. Some of us can speak with wisdom, while others can speak with knowledge, but these gifts come from the same Spirit. To others the Spirit has given great faith or the power to heal the sick or the power to work mighty miracles. Some of us are prophets, and some of us recognize when God’s Spirit is present. Others can speak different kinds of languages, and still others can tell what these languages mean. But it is the Spirit who does all this and decides which gifts to give each of us.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 It is fairly easy to celebrate our individual differences. Society speaks glibly of diversity. We may look upon diversity as a goal to achieve or a threat. We celebrate our distinctive differences. In the process, we may celebrate ourselves, painting our own characteristics in a better light than those we find somewhat different or alien to our experience. At other times, we may highlight the gifts of others as more

“Now this is the answer of the holy God of Israel: ‘You rejected my message, and you trust in violence and lies. This sin is like a crack that makes a high wall quickly crumble and shatter like a crushed bowl. There's not a piece left big enough to carry hot colas or to dip out water.’” Isaiah 30:12-13 We tend to see God in the Old Testament as violent, vengeful, or angry. We equate the Old Testament God with force, war, destruction, and calamity. We want to believe that this God is somehow different from our perception of Jesus, as though the character of Jesus were not the character of God. There are indeed passages depicting God along those earlier lines of force, but they are not the whole picture, nor the clearest. Here in Isaiah's words is a whole other aspect of God's character, Yahweh's determination that violence is not the better way, not God’s chosen path. To be honest, this latter face of God is visible from the third and fourth chapters of Genesis if we

“Welcome all the Lord's followers, even those whose faith is weak. Don’t criticize them for having beliefs that are different from yours.” Romans 14:1 Why doesn’t everyone believe like I do? Can you even be a Christian if we disagree? We hear comparisons like those often enough. My group is always in the right, and that other group is always in the wrong. Since I know I belong to Christ, that means all the rest have somehow missed the boat. Why can't they see the need to jump ship to join me? Since they are wrong and refuse to change their minds, they must not be sincere in their faith. They must not even Christians at all. We may not take the argument to that extreme, but it is a natural response to competing doctrines, ideas, emphases, and directions. After all, when I recognize that I am wrong, it is a simple thing to change my mind and once again assume I am right. When I hold the truths of doctrine in high regard, it is easy to reduce faith to a list of truths to beli

“You disgraceful nation, gather around, before it's too late. Yahweh has set a time when his fierce anger will strike like a storm and sweep you away. If you humbly obey Yahweh, then come and worship him. If you do right and are humble, perhaps you will be safe on that day when Yahweh turns loose his anger.” Zephaniah 2:1-3 It was in the days of Jeremiah. Israel had already been led away under the Assyrian armies. Isaiah had warned Israel of impending doom. Two hundred years later, his message had been used to remind Judah of its own impending plight of exile into Babylon. Jeremiah, Old Doom and Gloom himself, had been preaching that there was no help to be had from Egypt against an exile Yahweh had decreed. There was nothing to do, he said, other than turn to Yahweh in expectation of a change of course or finding a way through the impending crisis. Zephaniah's words were not so different. He expected exile. He expected judgment. He expected no help from foreign sources. He

“Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me.” John 15:4-5 We want Jesus alongside us as we travel life’s uncertainties. We want a strong helper on our side to get us through our conflicts. We crave the comfort of knowing we are not alone, not forgotten, not overlooked, not helpless. In the process, we overlook that the purpose of being joined to Jesus is that we might live according to his example, bearing the same kind of results we see in his own life. Jesus’ words are words of comfort to disciples who were about to experience great grief, loss, and desperation upon his death. John records these words as part of Jesus’ last message to the twelve before heading to the garden to be b

“The blind will see, and the ears of the deaf will be healed. Those who were lame will leap around like deer; tongues once silent will begin to shout. Water will rush through the desert, scorching sand will turn into a lake, and thirsty ground will flow with fountains. Grass will grow in wetlands, where packs of wild dogs once made their home.” Isaiah 35:5-7 That Sounds great! We like passages pointing to a happy reversal of fortunes for God's suffering people. We gladly sing songs filled with their refrain, joyfully belting out words that comfort us and give security at the picture of a better future, of pie in the sky, of an ending to suffering, pain, want, and discomfort. At least, we like such passages as long as we consider them as speaking to our fortune and material welfare. What we may miss, however, is that they point to God's interests in reversing the fortunes of those in despair more than comfort for those doing well. Isaiah addresses Yahweh's interests in t

“When Mordecai was told what Esther had said, he sent back this reply, ‘Don’t think that you will escape being killed with the rest of the Jews, just because you live in the king’s palace. If you don’t speak up now, we will somehow get help, but you and your family will be killed. It could be that you were made queen for a time like this!’” Esther 3:12-14 Esther's began as the classic rags to riches story—from an orphaned foreigner to queen of the world's greatest superpower! Her people had been despised, conquered, and deported, yet she had risen to the position of queen of the foreign power. Now here people were in great peril. In the midst of their exile, an enemy had risen in power as a friend to the king. He had laid plans to eradicate her people. Esther was in a position to do something to aid her people. To do so, however, was to place her life in jeopardy. Being queen did not giver her open access to the throne, heart, and mind of the king. No one had that kind of a

“Jesus asked, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man answered, ‘Master, I want to see!’” Mark 10:51 What is it with Jesus and blind men? With the first, it would seem Jesus practiced to get it right. Now, he does not seem to understand that a blind man would want to be healed of his blindness! Surely that can't be right. So why should Jesus bother asking a blind man such a lame question, “What do you want me to do for you?” That would have been obvious to anyone present who knew the man was blind! Perhaps we should back up just a little in the story Mark was telling. James and John had just been asking Jesus for a favor. One of them wanted the privilege of being second in command in Jesus' coming kingdom. The other wanted the next position in line. To be honest, they both really wanted the point position of full command, but knew that was simply beyond their reach. Since they couldn't be God, they would settle for the positions next in line. “Master, say &