Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom
I‘ve been reading through Acts this month, and I find I always see something new and fascinating as I read through the journeys of the apostle Paul and his companions.
Here’s what’s interesting to me lately: whenever the going gets tough, they don’t do the things I would expect. They don’t “stick it out” and persevere. Instead, they seem to simply try something else.
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There is a scene in Nehemiah 9 where the Israelites who have been brought back into the land after the exile confess their sins before the Lord. It’s a lengthy confession that details their unfaithfulness starting with Abram and continuing up until their current situation.
As I was thinking about it, I was struck by how different this confession is from some of the other ways we commonly respond to the consequences of our sin. And I thought it would make a good meditation for Good Friday.
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the kingdom of God being like turn-by-turn directions, as opposed to being able to zoom out and see the whole map. Instead of seeing the destination on the map and using your own route to get there, you just have to trust the voice that tells you, “In 500 feet, turn right on Fifth Street.”
God doesn’t seem to be interested in giving us a map with the destination on it. He seems to be more into turn-by-turn directions. It’s all part of the training he wants to give us in trusting him instead of our own wisdom, intelligence, and problem-solving prowess.
This morning I was reading John 14:1-14 (today’s NT reading from the Moravian texts) and was reminded of this dynamic.
As I’ve been reading the stories of the first kings of Israel (1 and 2 Samuel), I’ve noticed some differences in the way King Saul interacted with God and the way King David did.
Saul seemed to assume that when God spoke to him, he was giving some general principles, a kind of “destination” that Saul would then figure out how to get to based on his own experience, wisdom, and intelligence. Saul was constantly coming up with a better idea than God’s. Why destroy all the Amalekites’ stuff when we could keep some of it as plunder and offer it as a big sacrifice to God? Saul assumed he could see the big picture, he knew what God was “really after” and chose the most efficient way to get there.
King David led quite differently. He was constantly “inquiring of the Lord” and simply doing what the Lord said, kind of like turn-by-turn directions on a GPS navigation system. It demonstrated the relationship of trust David had with the Lord.
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It’s an understatement to say that Pharisees weren’t exactly coming out in droves to become disciples of Jesus. So it’s no wonder Nicodemus decided to come at night, in the darkness, to ask a few questions and find out what was going on with this upstart Rabbi who had seemingly come out of nowhere to capture the imagination of the people.
Their discussion begins with Jesus baldly stating that unless you are “born from above,” you cannot see the kingdom of God. Entering the kingdom starts with God’s initiative, a birth “from above,” an action from the outside that enables us to participate in God’s rule. Then Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:14-15).
It’s this phrase that caught my attention a few weeks ago in my Bible reading, and these are the words that came as I meditated on it.
