We are in the midst of the season of advent, the season of waiting and preparation for the return of our King. The last two weeks, we have celebrated two contrasting aspects of this time.
On one hand, this is a time of Divine silence. For 400 years before the birth of Christ, G-d did not send a prophet. The silence from heaven was devastating. It seems at times that the silence has continued the 2000 years since the death of Jesus. We all feel the silence envelope our own lives today. Last Sunday, we created a time to reflect on the places that we see and feel silence from G-d. We remembered our unanswered prayers. We looked at our culture through a lens that asked why G-d seems to missing through so much of it it. We thought of how much poverty and slavery have ravaged the world all around us. We expressed our dismay and pain at the state of these things. We set this time apart because we feel that it is disingenuous to avoid the places that we see chaos. There is a time to celebrate the goodness and beauty in the world, but we are also called to be a light to darkness. This was a time to recognize a need and beg for our savior to come and make right what he said he would.
The next week was devoted to a celebration of that coming. Jesus has come once and he has set right all of that which he has intended. We listened to part of the story of G-d’s reply to Job’s questioning. G-d tells him that it is He that has set this world in motion and continues to make it flow down to the smallest minutia. Job responds that he sees that he has spoken too much, and will no longer question the Lord. We celebrated the coming of Jesus and sought to make him smile with our praise. We recognize that there is a place for questioning, but there is also a place for us to be ok that our questions are unanswered. G-d is good and he knows what he is doing. We can trust that.
This Christmas season, we ask that you pray to G-d, and as David did, let him know what you are frustrated with and your doubts. In the midst of that, do remember to praise and thank him for what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do. In the midst of the darkness, you can begin to see his light shine.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Background:
In main-line denominations of Christianity, such as the Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, there exists a yearly or tri-yearly reading schedule that progresses through the entirety of the biblical text. This schedule broke the Bible up into weekly readings, upon which sermons and homilies given on Sunday mornings were based on. Both the yearly and tri-yearly tradition dates back as far as the second century A.D. As old as this tradition is, it rests on yet an older tradition that enjoyed expression both during the time of Christ and before. Throughout the Jewish world the community would take part in the regular public reading of the Torah (The first five books of the Bible, also referred to as the Pentateuch.)
It is thought to have first begun with Ezra after the the return from the Babylonian captivity according to the statement found in the opening verses of Nehemiah chapter 8. Much of organized Judaism is thought to have been established by the scribe Ezra and priest Nehemiah, though there is biblical president for a public reading of the Torah found within the Torah itself. In the closing chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses gives a directive to the priests that they are read the book of the law (torah) in the hearing of all Israel. This was not to be done on a yearly basis, but rather a seven year basis, during the year of debt canceling.
During the time when Seleucid Greeks ruled over the territory of Israel, the reading of the Torah was outlawed, and it is said that, as a result, the Jewish leaders introduced readings from other books that would allow them to engage and discuss the same topic that they would have been reading in the Torah had it been legal. It is from this point that the entirety of the Old Testament began being read regularly. The additional Old Testament readings were called the Haftara and were fully apart of the Jewish experience by the time of Jesus, which may explain why Jesus read from the book of Isaiah in his home town synagogue (Luke 4:16-20). Then, in the early Christian Church selections from the New Testament were added to Torah and Haftara to compliment them and complete the lectionaries that we see still being used on Sunday mornings all over the world.
Our Study:
Our parashah study will loosely be limited to the readings in the Torah. The weekly sections are generally significant sections of text and, as a result, reading the week’s portion prior to the study is highly encouraged, though not obligatory. In addition to getting to know the Torah a bit better, we will be practicing different approaches to the text in order to glean as much a humanly possible. Examples of such approaches might include, historical, philosophical, spiritual, archeological, anthropological, linguistic, scientific and what ever else our community might bring to the table. If you have tools (such as books, alternate translations, computer software, etc) that you believe might be helpful in facilitating this process, please bring them to share with everyone. Then end goal and hope is to try and discover how to walk in the ways of the LORD more clearly, not the least of which we will be doing simply by participating in this study:
“..These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up…” (excerpt from the greatest commandment Deut. 6:4-9)
Shalom,
Jonah
Lina’s story.
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. -Paul of Tarsus
I’ve been feeling a lot lately like I need to take a more disciplined approach to my inner life and personal relationship with our triune G-d. I relate to G-d primarily through community and love to do so. It seems that I have gone the opposite way of the church of the last fifty years and concentrated fully on our communal relationships at the expense of my personal relationship with the Father. I have been learning a lot about what the internal life can do to grow the personal relationship with G-d.
So, I get up this morning and begin to pray through my routine, as is somewhat typical of my mornings. I pray for several people that I pray for regularly and a few others that have recent needs, and then I begin to pray for myself. My prayers for me lately revolve around the desire to feel G-d’s tangible presence in my life and world. I want to know and expect and recognize the real presence of Holy Spirit in every aspect of my life. I want to hear his voice and listen and obey. I want to feel like my Father is right in front of me, guiding my path. So I pray…
I get in my car for my 35 minute commute to work and continue to pray with no radio on for about 10 minutes. I felt pretty good. I decided to listen to a song that I have really been digging the lyrics of lately, Our G-d by Chris Tomlin. My thoughts ranged to how much I was annoyed that it was Chris Tomlin that wrote such a good song, and how this friend or that singer could do it so much better. After a couple minutes of letting these thoughts run, I realized my arrogance. I started hammering myself.
I don’t discipline myself enough to work on the inner life. I can’t slow myself down long enough to have a focused prayer time. It’s always while I’m doing something else. I haven’t been reading and studying the text enough. Altogether it is absolutely easy to understand why I don’t feel like I know G-d. I never make any time or effort to meet him on my own!!
This is not a fun track to run down, but it is a track that my mind is prone to wander. Morbid introspection and mental chastisement are familiar and painful. But G-d is both sweet and heartbreaking at the same time. I decided to get over my arrogance for a few minutes and listen to some of the Chris Tomlin songs that I listened to after my conversion, but haven’t given time to in years. The first notes of the song played, and I finally heard His voice. It was soft, sweet, and full of heartbreak- his own heart.
You have lost the love you had at first.
I melted.
He spoke.
And I heard it.
Then I realized what he said.
I cried out in sorrow and wept and prayed and begged for forgiveness and for the renewal of my heart and mind. The rest of my drive to work was done through tears and sobs.
When I sat at my desk, finally, I pulled out my bible to read the passage that the verse he spoke to me came from. Its from the letter to the Church at Ephesus at the beginning of Revelation. G-d tells the church that he sees their persistence and toil and endurance. But he sees that it isn’t coming from the love that it was truly born out of. It is becoming exhausting to them, and they are becoming dull because of it. G-d encourages them to return to that love, to remember where they were before they knew it and to fall back into it.
G-d spoke to me this morning to tell all of this. He only needed a soft voice and a few words to change the way I was thinking. He told me that he sees who I am and what I am doing and he encouraged me to return to the love that I have known. He said that the exhaustion doesn’t have to continue. And he promised me life.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of G-d. -Revelation 2:7
Shalom,
Ryan
Storytelling.
An evening of worship.
This video is an incredible explanation of some of the ancient prayer rhythms that my wife and I are beginning to practice. When we move into the house with our brother Ryan, we hope to practice them with a wider slice of our community, but right now we take comfort in praying along with our other brothers and sisters who we have never met but are united with in this practice and through Christ.
This video is an explanation done by Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove. Jonathon is someone that I have begun to have a deep respect and affection for. Though I have never met him, I am very grateful for the spiritual guidance his lectures, sermons, and writings have provided for me.
Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower—
Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom,
a symphony of song and color.
Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift.
Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.
God’s resplendent glory, fully on display.
God…
When I was in the third grade, I met a girl named Jessica. She was absolutely the most beautiful girl that a third grade boy had ever laid eyes on.
When I am asked to share my testimony, and whomever has asked is ready for the lengthy version of it, some rendition of the above two lines are usually the beginning of my story. I’ve got to admit, I love my story. Strange enough, I’m still not exactly comfortable with it and find far to much of my identity in who I once was and not in G-d and who he’s made me. But as far as stories go, I enjoy telling mine.
In Portland a couple of months ago, I attended the Q conference. Q is a place where church and cultural leaders come together for a few days to discuss how we, as followers, can have an impact on the culture around us, both socially and evangelically. One of the speakers was a woman named Bobette Buster. She has been an executive at Pixar and has had her hand in many of the amazing movies that bring in millions of dollars every year. Her presentation was on the art of telling the story. What made the Pixar movies good, she said, was that they were always about one of two things: reinvention or redemption. What made them REALLY good, was that they were not afraid to embrace the darkest parts of the story.
For the next season of worship at The Foundry, we will all be telling our stories. This will enable us to go closer as a community through a better understanding of who each of us really is. We will also embrace the darker parts of our stories in order to see that the redemption that we have found through Christ is very bright indeed.
Who are you to know my name?
Who am I that You know my face?
What love is this?
What love is this?
That You should be mindful of me?Who are You, who makes me Your home?
What am I, of blood or of stone?
What love is this?
What love is this?
That You should dwell with me?Who are You, who…
