Through whose eyes?

A recent comment on another blog (Christian Science Fellowship - Metro Chicago) grabbed my attention. The writer referenced the story of Simon the Pharisee.

Briefly, Simon was a sceptic of Jesus, but invited him anyway to come to dinner. In that culture anyone could come and watch the wealthy eat. But one woman came whose profession made her completely unwelcome. Her motive was to honor Jesus' unconditional love for people even like her.

The tension grew. Simon was offended by her presence and could hardly stand that Jesus allowed this lowest-of-the-low to be near him. Jesus understood the woman's motive -- to somehow become the good and pure and useful person God made her to be. He blessed her deep desire and sent her away telling her her sins were forgiven.

The comment writer left me asking this question: Am I seeing the unwelcome guests in my life through the eyes of Simon -- criticizing, condemning, putting down? Or am I seeing unwelcome guests through the eyes of Jesus -- willing to discern honest repentance, to bless and to heal?

A Christmas Yearning

My friend, Duane, writes poetry. His ideas usually speak to the heart.

In the following poem, printed with permission, he sets the stage for making unusual requests of the scientists who create wonderful inventions, and send them out into the universe. Or perhaps the final request is to someone else?

How does this poem speak to you?

Tuning In 2
By Duane Christianson
© copyrighted

I don’t want much.
The science news has told me
that real soon now in cosmic time
they’ll be picking up “I love Lucy”
in the Vega System on their TV sets.
And from what I hear all vibrations
made on planet Earth are still around.

So get in the lab
and make me a receiver,
Call it what you will,
a Crono-Geo-Acoustic Localizer,
and crank the volume up
on wrap-around big speakers
so I can really hear.
Once you’ve got
locations and all the frequencies.
I’ve got a list for you.

How about the first words spoken.
They are way past
pre-proto Indo-European
with “Let there be light,”
but I’ll take them anyway.
And let me hear Abraham
telling his relations
just how and where he got
the message to beat it
out of what’s now Iraq
for the promised land.
I want to hear Moses
drop the First Commandment
on his people
when he comes down from Mt. Sinai
after he broke
his first set of stone tablets
on their flinty hearts.

A reprise of Psalms by David
set to music would be nice
and worth recording.
I’d just as soon skip
listening to Jeremiah’s Jeremiads.
But how about King Herod
trying to con three Wise Men
from the East
into telling him
where to find the child?
I’d go for that
and a chorus
of the heavenly host.
But let me get one other
loud and clear,
that message, “Lazarus
come forth.”
There had to be
a major audience reaction.

And, oh, yes. I want to hear
Jesus loves me too.

No. No.
I don’t mean the music.
I can get that anywhere
on vinyl, CD or the Net.
I want the words,
the words,
the real words.
I want them
from the man.

Travel broadens

Sunrise on Galilee

(Lake Kinneret)

People ask, “What did you learn on this trip?”

I ask them, “How many hours do you have?”

I’ll try to keep it brief. Here are a few concepts that totally knocked my sox off. Some may be old hat to you, but they were new to me. Bear in mind that our guide in Israel was a Jew, so we saw history, geography, politics and peace through his eyes.

1. Israel is celebrating its 60th birthday as a country this year. In that short time its people have taken a desert and turned much of it into a garden. A “tree department” is reforesting the land. Thousands of years ago, the hills were forested.

2. Bible archeology sheds new light on some Bible “traditions” we have grown up with. For me that’s OK. Aside from the initial jolt, it doesn’t matter to me that Jesus’ dad, Joseph, was a stonemason rather than a carpenter – due to the fact that in his day there were not many trees to keep carpenters in business. Stonemasonry was an honorable profession.

3. The holocaust is recent and very real history for most of the Jews in Jerusalem. They can tell you the names of family members who perished in labor and extermination camps, and also the names of those few who survived – usually their grandparents.

4. One solution for Mid East peace is water. Our guide firmly believes, “Give me enough water, and people willing to work hard, and I can guarantee peace.”

5. The tinderbox of the Mid East, and thereby the whole world, is religion.

Temple Mount - built on the remains
of the Jewish Temple

6. Jesus’ Jewishness. I guess I knew, but it just never penetrated – Jesus was a Jewish boy who became a rabbi, and was crucified as a rabbi. There was nothing new in what he taught (he came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them). Rather he was highlighting what was important and rebuking what men had imposed on their fellows.

7. I became more aware of unfortunate translation errors in the King James Bible. Don’t get me wrong; I love King James. But it is sometimes misleading because of uninspired translators and uninspired scribes who made the copies.

8. This trip redefined “old.” In America if a building is 200 or more years old, it’s historic. In Israel we saw streets, theaters, aqueducts, and grain storage facilities constructed by Herod the Great – the brilliant engineer and ruthless ruler – who reigned during Jesus’ lifetime. We’re talking 2000 years ago.

2000 years ago, this aqueduct

provided fresh water

to Caesarea by the Sea

9. We saw mounds of cities built upon the remains of older cities until it formed a high hill. Sometimes as many as 20 civilizations had called one spot home over the centuries.

10. Americans really stand out. Is it our cameras? The Nike shoes? The baseball hats? Body language?

11. A Palestinian merchant surprised us on November 5, smiling and chanting, “Obama! Obama!” Our President-elect has indeed struck a chord of hope for peace overseas.

12. I gained a firsthand understanding, after a camel ride in Jordan, of why camels are called “ships of the desert.” When atop a camel, you sit high as though on the deck of a ship. Their gait rocks you gently, as a boat might rock on the sea. Of course camels also traveled as cargo caravans long ago, as ships carry cargo on seas.

There's more, but that'll wait for another post.

Truth - right side up

In this interesting YouTube are two perspectives of the Almighty. The first is a totally materialistic and pessimistic view. If accepted, we might all just give up. If God doesn't think we can make the world a better place, why even try?

The second, however, is clearly New Testament, the Good News of Jesus' life, works, and teachings. He showed men and women their spiritual nature, and God's nature as caring and nurturing.

In fact, speaking of the contrast between the material and spiritual views of life, American religious leader Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down."

It's worth sticking with the video to the clever conclusion. See where your God fits in.

(Just double-click on the arrow below)

Why not expect good?

Who will stop

to admire this delicate beauty?

Have you ever looked right at someone you should have known, and not recognized that person? Perhaps you were in another state or another country and saw someone from home, but were slow to make the identity connection because you weren’t expecting to see him or her.

It happens.

The same animal trainer quoted in a recent blog tells of another horse, Pennies. This one was a hard-core bolter. Whenever anyone mounted him and asked him to move, he took off at a dead run.

Vicki Hearne understood how to communicate with Pennies, and showed him his innate dignity and graceful control of himself. As mentioned before, when his family came after a week to check on his progress, they did not even recognize the animal calmly trotting past them as their own.

It has to do with expectancy, doesn’t it? Even hope. They were looking for last week’s difficult horse. And they were not expecting their pet to be unruffled and composed, at least not so soon.

When we are trying to solve a difficulty - relationship, circumstance - are we expecting last week's obstinancy? Dare we hope for progress so soon?

You may remember the story where Jesus healed a blind beggar, and the man’s neighbors had a hard time recognizing him. Some asked, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

Others said, “No, but he does kind of resemble him.”

The former beggar joyfully exclaimed, “I am the man!” Jesus had showed him his wholeness.

The people mentioned here (horse trainer and Jesus) who initiated transformation were expecting good. And they saw the results of their expectations.

So we may well ask, Why shouldn’t we be expecting good? If we can agree that the creator of the universe is good, then good is real, natural, and present. And we don't have to feel helpless in the face of nasty politics, fragile economy, or personal wrestlings. Recognizing and valuing our own innate goodness we can to some degree often show others their goodness too.

Good is more prevalent than we realize. Just for fun, and by way of challenging the evening news, I made a quick list of good things I could think of just for this day. I stopped somewhere in the twenties, with a big smile, in order to continue writing this blog.

I highly recommend making such a list. It keeps life in proper perspective – where what’s innately right and excellent and cheerful in our lives is recognized as our present substance.

Creative reminder

Location: Will County, southwest of Chicago.

On the corner of 191st and LaGrange Road this morning, drivers honked cheerfully.

A man and woman were working the intersection next to the White Castle. He carried a large sign. She waved at the vehicles. Motorists driving past, honked and waved.

The couple waved back and pointed to those who honked with “Yes!” gestures.

Were they wearing reflective vests? Collecting money for some cause? The usual?

No. That wasn’t it. The sign they carried had a horizontal
M E R R Y, and a vertical C H R I S T M A S.

Somebody exercised their creativity in constructing this reminder, and their good-will in standing on a busy street corner.

It was their counterstatement to the marketing of Christmas, to remember that:

Christ -- God's universal expression of love, peace and goodwill (BTW, not shopping) -- is indeed, as church billboards remind, the Reason for this Season.

The Nativity Story

Grandson Alan and I watched The Nativity Story together the other evening.

Confession: I popped the DVD into the TV expecting the music to draw him into the living room. Previews for coming features were kid-oriented, and Alan snuggled in comfortably next to me on the couch.

Suddenly Herod’s soldiers were slaughtering boy infants in Bethlehem. “What are they doing, Gramma? Why?”

Flashback to Nazareth where a sixteen year-old Mary and her friends are sowing grain, and flirting with boys working nearby.

Alan has lots of questions, and we use the “pause” button often to make connections as scenes jumped from the poor village of Nazareth to Jerusalem where a paranoid Herod worries about an a predicted Messiah competing for local kingship, then to distant lands where three wise men discuss a coming confluence of planets creating great brightness in the night sky.

The New Testament accounts indicate that the Wise men probably arrived in Bethlehem a couple of years after Jesus’ birth, by which time Mary and Joseph were living in a house. The film chose to perpetuate the traditional Christmas card scene of the shepherds and the wise men all gathered round the little family in the stable.

It was disappointing that this otherwise excellent film did not take advantage of the opportunity to correct the timing misperception.

Meanwhile, The Nativity Story wonderfully fills in the gaps of the Gospel accounts. How Mary may have barely known Joseph, how ruthlessly the Romans oppressed the poor villagers, how nervous Joseph is about marrying. How arranged marriages for young girls, even among loving families, may often have been an economic necessity because of too many mouths to feed.

It explains wonderfully the status of the young couple – each living with their parents for another year, yet married in every way except that which leads to family.

The film clarifies the beautiful spiritual bond between aunt Elizabeth and young Mary –both blessed with overlapping pregnancies announced by angels. Mary’s own parents were not so understanding. When questioning Mary about her pregnancy and who the father might be, to Mary’s reply her mother repeats in disbelief, “An angel told you this?”

We empathize with Joseph's struggle -- between feeling betrayed by his fiancé and wanting to protect her from stoning by the villagers.

We really begin to understand how difficult it must have been for Mary to be engaged and pregnant. And that it was not just noble, it took great courage for Joseph to say the unborn child was his. Mary warns, “People will not look at you the same any more,” meaning they would not respect him.

We see how the young couple may have dealt with angel messengers, and critical neighbors. The harsh landscape between Nazareth and Bethlehem glares at us. A reluctant Mary gradually warms to recognize and appreciate Joseph’s goodness and unselfishness.

We feel Joseph’s desperation when looking for a safe place for Mary to deliver. In short, we care about these people. We care about their hopes, their concerns, their struggles.

There have been a lot of movies portraying Jesus. Here’s one that, without religious overtones, introduces us to his parents.

Well done!

Another blog on The Nativity Story

Never trapped

"The Gingerbread Man" story comes to mind. The rascally cookie dashes away from those who care most about him, sprints from others who clearly want to eat him, and ultimately trusts a con artist who cunningly manipulates the tasty treat to achieve his own goal. The carefree little cookie ends up in the tummy of that foxy fox.

The Gingerbread Man is a secular version of the Prodigal Son - except in Jesus’ account, the son comes to his senses before it’s too late, repents of his foolishness, and is welcomed safely home by a caring Father. A happy resolution is so Jesus.

A friend once told me, “Christ always finds a way to go forward.” Christ is never stuck in a corner.

Sometimes we are faced with two bad choices. Sometimes we have to pick the least bad of the two, and keep moving in the direction of least bad choice. It can feel cumbersome, but if we’re faithful in making the best choice available, progress will be steady.

More often, if we can find it, there is a third less obvious, but clearly inspired, choice that comes from sitting down with an open heart and asking that Higher Power variously called God, Truth, Father, Mother, Allah, “What shall I do? What do you want me to do? How can I be of service today?”

When asked from a quiet and honest heart, answers come. This is my sense of Christ speaking to us when we are ready to hear. Sometimes we may not like what we hear because it goes contrary to our “wants.”

I’ve gone kicking and screaming in the “right” direction many a time. When we are willing to follow that answer (with or without the kicking and screaming) the very action of courageous choice lifts the burden of indecision and reaches out to bless others.

Those obstructing mental walls somehow dissolve as we forge out of self-centeredness into participating in God’s good plan.

Even if ignorance, carelessness, or self-will has launched us pell-mell into trouble, Christ always has an alternative.

Who's knocking at the door?

“Behold I stand at the door and knock.” I have always loved this image of Christ. Not pushing, not forcing entry. Just knocking. Taking the initiative and then waiting.

The rest of the verse says, “if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

The ball is in our court. Do we want to hear Christ knocking? Because if we want to, we will. It can be a scary thought, or a very cool thing, because if we open the door, Christ invites himself to dinner. What then? How ready are we for that?


Some Christians interpret this literally, as Jesus personally standing at the door of our house and knocking.

My sense of it is more as a mental and spiritual persistence. It’s God, Allah, whatever your name for the Creator, inviting our attention. Eager for an amazing dinner conversation. With us. Why? That’s what we want to know. Why with us? It’s totally humbling to contemplate.

I think it’s to help us understand our purpose. Our Maker wants each of us to know how loved we are, how cared for, valued, esteemed even. Well, that makes so much sense. It’s easier to love others when we feel loved. It’s easier to be generous and patient, when we feel loved.

And, those conversations are on-going. It's our nature to want to know how much God loves us, how we relate to God as children to a Father or Mother. We can answer the door and invite Christ in any time. When we’ve absorbed all we can for the moment, the conversation ends. When we have more questions, when we’re ready to let our thought expand to discover more of God’s love in our lives, we hear that knocking and open that door.

In today’s multi-tasking world, how refreshing to look forward to a one-on-one focused conversation with the Designer of the universe.

What's it been like for you to hear Christ knocking at your thought?

What did Jesus do?

My friend Rose said she really needs Jesus as her Savior. She needs him to show the way. When she is fighting discouragement, she looks to Jesus for some ray of hope. When she is struggling to forgive, she needs Jesus’ example of unconditional forgiveness in order to get there herself. When she is battling human will, she needs Jesus’ humble, “Thy will be done,” to overcome that strong emotion. When she feels angry, she seeks Jesus’ spirit of calm dominion to help her put down such stormy thinking.

When we feel we cannot go any further, Christ reminds us, “Hey good buddy, you aren’t alone. Didn’t I promise to be with you always? I’m here for you. Lean on me.”

When wrestling with choices, Jesus’ humanity is my favorite option. He was always doing kind things for people; his biographies (the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) read like a list of kind reassurances and healings:

“Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest.”
“Fear not.”
“Be not afraid.”
“Your faith has saved you.”
“Your faith has made you whole.”
“Go in peace.”

Leaning on Christ, the Spirit of Jesus' life, we can join Rose in looking for solutions in how he lived -- what he said and did -- and go forward in his peace.

"Peace be still" story
Related post: Clutter in our lives. See March 20, 2007.