FARMStrong

I missed church today owing to travelling to Orlando for our seminary board meeting. Tiffani and the kids went to church and then on to our standard Mexican fare, La Hacienda. She told me all the waiters at the restaurant asked about me and where I was. Then, jokingly, she told me that noone at church did.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm. . . . .

“You’ve got some serious business to take care of today, and that means that there’s going to be some upheaval — maybe far out in the future! Your good energy ensures that it stays on the positive side, though.”

I’m a Pisces and, yes, that’s my horoscope for today.

horoscope |ˈhôrəˌskōp; ˈhärə-|noun Astrology

a forecast of a person’s future, typically including a delineation of character and circumstances, based on the relative positions of the stars and planets at the time of that person’s birth. • a short forecast for people born under a particular sign, esp. as published in a newspaper or magazine.

The “Three Kings” or “Wise Men” were actually “Royal Astrologers.” And rather then reading Solomon’s Proverbs every day, they were scoping out the skies for their daily wisdom.

“We have seen his star in the East and we have come to worship him.” Upon hearing this, the bible experts (i.e. “chief priests and teachers of the law) broke down into a “sword drill” and pinpointed the birth place with hermeneutical precision. They didn’t need a star. They had the revealed, written Word of God. So these “wise” guys walk 1000 miles following a star and the bible students won’t make the six mile hike to Bethlehem.

These “Jerusalem Scholars”  knew their stuff, but they didn’t know their God. How did they miss it?  These Astrologers turned out to be what I call “Bethlehem Disciples.” How did they find it? In the end, the child-born-King from Bethlehem will come to the City of the Kings and the Jerusalem Scholars will brutally murder him.

So I’m asking myself, “What would it mean for my heart to be shaped more like an astrologer than a bible expert? It sounds outrageous, but I think it’s the right question. While I’m sure it doesn’t mean reading my daily horoscope, I think it does have a lot to do with how I read my bible.

Here’s some guidance. If you have a minute, take a look at Psalm 19 and watch the movement from “stars” to “scripture” to “soul.”

When all is said and done, the big question will be this one:  ”What’s your sign?”

I’m in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the next few days at the Calvin Worship Symposium at Calvin College. I brought my worship design interns here on a road trip. We clearly risked our lives on treacherous snow covered roads last night on the (yes-count them) 10 hour drive. Who in their right minds would hold a worship conference for people from around the world and do it in January in Michigan.

So I woke up to a 56 degree hotel room with something of an epiphany stirring. I really don’t know anything about worship. And I’m leery of worship experts. Isn’t that a ridiculous moniker, “worship expert.” Back in the old days, our heroes called them things like, “brood of vipers,” or “white washed tombs.”

I’m comforted by my favorite of Jesus 9 prayers that goes something like this,

“Blessed are you Abba, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Abba, such was your good pleasure to do so.” (somewhere in Matthew 11)

I guess it comes down to this. Worship calls for “knowing” beyond knowledge. So I’ll test this axiom by you. In the realm of Christian worship, knowing is to knowledge as Jesus is to Peter.

In the end, there is only one worship expert. . . . . . . . . (note the hand)

Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you want junk like that in your belly? v.22

Actually, I like cheap candy. It’s deeply satisfying. . . . . for about 30 seconds. Who doesn’t like cheap candy? Truth be known, I also like to listen to gossip. The trouble with gossip? It often proves true, which provides a decent rationale for listening. In its essence, gossip is conversation about others that contains speculative or unconfirmed facts. I’ll be  honest. I have been known to watch Inside Edition, that bastion of celebrity news (I mean gossip), from time to time. Tiger has been reported in the national press only a few times. He has been on tabloid tv shows every single day since his fated car crash. Somewhere along the way it all ceased to be news and became salacious gossip; likely true, but mostly speculative and unconfirmed. I found myself gripped by it. Why? Because I like cheap candy and I don’t really care what it does in my “belly.” There’s my problem. Is it yours?

Like a cool drink of water when you’re worn out and weary is a letter from a long-lost friend. (v.25)

Over the weekend I cleaned out a long neglected drawer or two. I came across a stack of letters sent me over the course of the last few years. I paused the drawer intervention exercise and read them. It’s amazing how letters live. After reading this kind of personal address one realizes the ephemeral quality of email. There are one or two people in my life, ok 1 (Brandon), who take the time to sit down and write me a thoughtful personal note of encouragement. Though the date appears at the top of the hand written note, the letter takes on a timeless quality. It’s “like a cool drink of water when you’re worn our and weary.”

Here’s what struck me. Wisdom writes personal notes to friends, old and new. I realize how little I actually do this. Rather than my endless practice of intending to write notes, I’m actually going to write one this week. Will you?

One of the great Wisdom stories in the life of Jesus happens in his boyhood. The family went to Jerusalem, as was their practice, for the annual Passover celebration. Amazing to think of the young Lamb of God going to Passover year after year. Did he know? So the family starts heading back to Nazareth, thinking the boy Jesus was somewhere in the throng of pilgrims. Time passes– actually days pass and no Jesus. Mary, who had treasured up so many unimaginable realities about this boy in her heart, was probably having a heart attack. Had she lost this one who would save his people from their sins? They actually walk back to Jerusalem and search the city for him. Something tells me they didn’t think to look in the Temple. Someone probably told them they saw Jesus there. And when they found him, Jesus was sitting with the Rabbis, carrying on like Rabbis do. The people were amazed at his wisdom and the way he was answering their questions. Mom and Dad press him– “Jesus!!!!”

The boy answers, “Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?”

It’s one of what I call the “little mysteries” of Epiphany. We are on a journey up the Mountian of Transfiguration on the path of Divine Wisdom. These little mysteries open up portals of sight into the BIG MYSTERY of the Incarnation. These stories “emit” wisdom like radiation, unendingly. It’s so easy to think, “I’ve read that one before. . . . . got it. . . . . not sure of the application points. . . . . so i’m moving on to more practical stuff.”

Don’t do it! One word captures the practical application of such scenes as these:  ”Behold!”

Through my reading of Proverbs this month, I find my eyes opening to see the obvious.  Wisdom is Love beyond an idea or a principle. Wisdom looks like skillful love in every day action. Proverbs can easily morph into the quest for a principled life. It’s seductive but it won’t work. After all, look at how the great teacher of wisdom turned out. Proverbs can lead us toward wisdom, but they are not themselves wisdom.Our perrenial problem– we can’t follow our own best principles. We can, however, follow another person. It’s why God in his mercy sent us his Son who is Wisdom in Person. These days following Christmas offer a great opportunity to pursue the Wisdom of God and the Wisdom who is God personified, namely Jesus. In Jesus we see Wisdom embodied in a human being as the indissoluble union of mystery and practice or action.  I’m trying to work out my thinking through hammering out some axioms. Help me think them through.

1. Wisdom is not a principled life, else we could just learn Proverbs and move on.

2. Proverbs are not themselves Wisdom. They point to Wisdom.

3. The Proverbs are like tiny keyholes through which we are invited to peer into how Wisdom looks, works, thinks, walks, and so forth.

4. Wisdom is not a static body of principles and precepts. Wisdom is a Divine Way.

5. Wisdom is a person. We don’t usually talk about  wisdom without talking about some “wise person.”

6. Wisdom is the Divine Mystery, found perfectly in the person of Jesus Christ.

7. The Mind of  Christ is the Wisdom of  God.

8. We find Wisdom through following Jesus.

9. We follow Jesus through beholding his mysterious life which has come to us through the Revelation of Holy Scripture.

10. In Jesus we see Wisdom embodied and personified through skilled love.

11. Wisdom is concrete mysticism; the indissoluble union of Love and Skill in every day life.

12.  Wisdom accomplishes the mission of Love in every day practice

13.  ?????

“Form your purpose by asking for counsel, then carry it out using all the help you can get.”

What might it mean to be promise-filled? Instead of driving toward accomplishment of worthy purposes, what if we embodied the purpose of promise. What is the essence of the promise of one’s life? And what if the essence of this promise took flight into movement. Might this be what purpose really is, the forward movement of a promise. It reminds me of people like Nelson Mandela and my parents. Wisdom tells us we find this by seeking the counsel of others. It’s the hardest thing to discern on your own. This constitutes a rebuke to the conventional wisdom of the age holding I can be whatever I want to be.  Wisdom teaches us we fulfill this by being surrounded by those whose gifts will help us; a rebuke to rugged individualism.

I treasure Martin Buber’s words along these lines, “The greatest thing any person can do for another is to confirm the deepest thing in him, in her—to take the time and have the discernment to see what’s most deeply there, most fully that person, and then confirm it by recognizing and encouraging it.”

That’s the kind of people I’m looking to surround myself with. That’s the kind of person I want to be for others.

“Mercy to the needy is a  loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full.”

That’s the word for January 19. It  needs little commentary, and these days it calls to mind one thing.  (see whole of proverbs 19 here)