Whiteboard Therapy: Wherein together we create an online Bible study in the comments section. All are welcome, no comment or question is too simple or too challenging. We can work out our faith together as a community, with permission to change your mind (or, erase any thought like a whiteboard).

Maybe the verse this week won't be as radical to other people as it is to me, but this really challenged me all week, and I want to unpack it together.

Samuel's Farewell Address

“As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you. And I will continue to teach you what is good and right." - 1 Samuel 12:23

I've heard it said that "It's easy to pray for the things you love", which convicted me because I find myself praying for my wife and I and all too often ending it there. I think it's good for our souls and good for our church for all of its people to pray for it. That makes a lot of sense to me. But...

If we can take this as it is written, it appears that not praying for your community is actually a sin.

Some questions I want to think about:
Why would this be a sin?

How does not praying for our communities separate us from God?

Is it only a sin for Samuel to not pray for his people, because he was Israel's judge? Or is it a sin for anyone to not pray for the corporate community?

And, on a more subjective note, what things do you pray for that you wished everyone prayed for? I've recently started praying for my city's leaders and activist groups, the ministries going on outside my own church, and the people who are in poverty here. And it's filled my soul in a way I didn't see coming. What do you pray for that takes you outside of yourself?

Hope to see you in the comments!

Labels: Jesus

Here's a very brief recap of the Whiteboard Therapy project:

I'd like to invite you to interpret scripture so that we can apply it to our lives. Let's "work out our faith" as a community. Each Thursday I'm going to put something up and make sure it doesn't leave the front page until the following Thursday. It's okay to be wrong and it's okay to be right. I want this to be a safe space to throw out ideas and dig in together. There are no thoughts too simple, no questions too basic. You can even just ask your own questions and I'll post them to the list of questions. Feel free to post as often as you'd like, and anyone can comment, not just Blogger users. For more information, read this.

1 Samuel 7:12 (NLT)
"Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!”"

Questions to get us started:
Why did Samuel raise the Ebenezer?
How do you think it helped the Israelites?
Would it ever be helpful if the Church could plant an Ebenezer?
Would it ever be helpful for you to plant an Ebenezer?
Are Church buildings, sculptures and statues like an Ebenezer?
Can an Ebenezer be in your mind, or is the physical reminder necessary?
What are some practical ways we can plant an Ebenezer today?

As always, there are no set answers I have for these questions. I want to discover what this means together, drawing on our knowledge, studies, experiences and relationship with God.

photo "Stone Balanced Tower" by Gilest

Labels: Jesus

Here's a very brief recap of the Whiteboard Therapy project:

I'd like to invite you to interpret scripture so that we can apply it to our lives. Let's "work out our faith" together, as a community. Each Thursday I'm going to put something up and make sure it doesn't leave the front page until the following Thursday. It's okay to be wrong and it's okay to be right. I want this to be a safe space to throw out ideas and dig in together. There are no thoughts too simple, no questions too basic. You can even just ask your own questions. Feel free to post as often as you'd like, and anyone can comment, not just Blogger users. For more information, read this.

We're going to start off with a story in Judges that really caught me off guard. I've been wrestling with it for the last week and I really want to hear the thoughts of my brothers and sisters.

Background Information
Israel occupied the land conquered under Joshua, but they did not name a king to lead them. They were under continuous peril, but they turned again and again to other gods. When they understood their sins, they cried out to God, who heard them and appointed someone (a "judge") to lead them. This leader would win the battle and free the Israelites from their oppression, but they ultimately deteriorated again and again into moral and spiritual depravity.

One of these stories is of Jephthah, the illegitimate son of an upper class member of Gilead. His half-brothers cast him out of the land and he wandered for years, along with a band of misfits and rebels.

At one point, Israel became desperate for a leader and decided that whoever would lead them in victory over their enemies would be appointed ruler over all of Gilead. It is said that years of wandering deepened his faith and God's spirit came on him. He first tried a peaceful solution against his enemies, the Ammonites, but went into battle and was victorious. That's where we'll begin this week.

(Other notable scriptures pertaining to this passage are Leviticus 18:21, Deuteronomy 12:31, 2 Kings 3:27 and Numbers 30:2)

Judges 11:29-40 (NLT)

At that time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead, and from there he led an army against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

So Jephthah led his army against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory. He crushed the Ammonites, devastating about twenty towns from Aroer to an area near Minnith and as far away as Abel-keramim. In this way Israel defeated the Ammonites.

When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. She was his one and only child; he had no other sons or daughters. When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. “Oh, my daughter!” he cried out. “You have completely destroyed me! You’ve brought disaster on me! For I have made a vow to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.”

And she said, “Father, if you have made a vow to the Lord, you must do to me what you have vowed, for the Lord has given you a great victory over your enemies, the Ammonites. But first let me do this one thing: Let me go up and roam in the hills and weep with my friends for two months, because I will die a virgin.”

“You may go,” Jephthah said. And he sent her away for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never have children. When she returned home, her father kept the vow he had made, and she died a virgin.

So it has become a custom in Israel for young Israelite women to go away for four days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah’s daughter.

Some starter questions:
What reflections do you have about this story?
What does this story tell us about God? What does it tell us about Jephthah?
If Jephthah had been cast out, why is he so excited to rule the town that cast him out?
Was his vow rash? Why did he make it?
What ways can we apply this story into our own lives?
His vow forced him to make a decision between two laws (Lev. 18:21 & Deut. 12:31 vs. Numbers 30:2). What are your thoughts about that?
How could the story of Abraham & Isaac inform this story?
Does this story tell us anything about Jesus' sacrifice?

Remember, I don't know the answers to these questions - I want to discover them together. If any of us come up with other good questions in the comments, I'll post them here. I'll post my own thoughts in the comments section soon.

Thanks for being a part of this discussion!

Labels: Jesus

Then [Martha] returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” So Mary immediately went to him. - John 11:28-29

Some Background Information
Here’s what we know about Mary. There are three stories in the Bible that are very similar, but each a little different. In Mark 14, Luke 7 and John 12, Jesus is eating in the home of someone (a sinful but cured Leper named Simon, a Pharisee named Simon, and Lazarus, brother of Mary, rose from the dead, namesake of this series). In each story, a version of this happens: A woman pours expensive perfume on Jesus. In each story, someone is upset that this has happened - in the first text it is several people in the room, in the second text, it is Simon the leper Pharisee (apparently), and in the third story it is Judas Iscariot that speaks out against what’s happened.

In the first story, people are outraged that she’s wasted such an expensive jar of perfume, which could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus replies:

“Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”

In the second story, “the woman knelt behind Jesus at his feet and she was weeping. Her tears fell on his feet and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.” Simon the Pharisee, the host of the meal, doubts Jesus is a prophet, because he’s allowing a sinful woman to touch him. This of course becomes more interesting if the Simon here is the same Simon from the first story, the one who Jesus healed of leprosy. Anyway, Jesus replies:

“Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.

Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”

“That’s right,” Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The plot thickens.

In the third story, after they are finished eating in the house of Lazarus (where Martha once again served dinner, which we’ll get to in a second), Mary pours a jar of perfume on Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair. Judas (the apostle who betrayed Jesus) gets angry that she wasted an expensive jar (remind you of another story?). Jesus replied:

“Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

I did some digging, and it seems as though scholars agree that this is the same woman in each story, our Mary. Remember also that Mary, in the book of Luke, sits at Jesus’ feet while Martha works and cooks. Jesus says that Mary has found the only thing worth being concerned about.

So what do we know about Mary? She’s a sinner whose been forgiven a multitude of sins. She displays a ton of emotion and passion. She’s dramatic. She understands Jesus to be her Lord and Savior, and she’s let that sink deep down into her soul. This is good to think about as we return to the Lazarus story.

Mary and Jesus

Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. - John 11:30-34

Now, Mary chose not to go with Martha the first time, and I assume she knew where Martha was going. Martha has to come back and basically order her to go see Jesus. She’s been weeping, she’s torn up. Again Jesus makes her come to him.

What was that walk like? This is the other side of the same coin that is the Martha/Mary relationship. Where Martha tells Jesus she’s disappointed and then immediately qualifies that she still thinks his will is good, Mary doesn’t add the qualifier.

The crowd follows Mary, who left in a hurry, but they didn’t follow Martha. Given what we know about the two of them, this isn’t that surprising, as Mary would almost certainly be showing more emotion - her highs almost necessarily reveal her lows. And I feel like she lets Jesus have it. She, too, isn't fuzzy on what Jesus is capable of.

(Brief aside: You have no idea how badly I want to compare this to Connie-Michael scene in the Godfather after Michael’s had her husband killed. This is nothing like that, which I can't stress enough, but I imagine Mary feels a bit like Connie did. So if you know the reference, take what’s worthwhile there and throw the rest of the comparison away)

And Jesus responds to her in a much different way than Martha. With Martha, he gave her a chance to work through some stuff in her head. But Mary collapses and weeps, and the rest of the crowd starts to wail, and Jesus responds with a deep anger, which I’ve always understood as his response to the agony and grief caused by the fall, sin and death.

The Mary Side of Healing
When it comes to healing and relying on Jesus, there’s a Martha side to me and a Mary side to me. The Mary side of me understands that Jesus is so severely beautiful, that I can’t fathom why he doesn’t answer every prayer for healing that gets sent his way. There’s grieving and getting mad at God. When God doesn’t come through the way I wanted Him to, there’s a sense of betrayal. Like Mary falling at his feet, I experience this emotion blend with a sense of reverance. That’s a tough place to be. And I imagine that most Christians feel this at one point or another, although I bet almost none of us would admit to it, for fear of sounding doubtful of God’s goodness.

But as I read through the Bible, especially the Psalms, I recognize that God isn’t afraid of the hard questions. He seems willing to work in those questions some miraculous answers. He only asks that you ask those questions in front of Him.

I watch Jesus respond to that feeling by being angry and troubled, and it gives me hope that in our darkest moments, sometimes Jesus will say “Where have you put him?” and begin a story of redemption where before there was only pain.

Labels: Favorites, Jesus

I'd like it if everyone could read this whole post. You'll see why in a few minutes.

I call some of these posts 'whiteboard therapy'. Simply put, it means that I'm working through thoughts with the freedom to erase. I believe that to really let the Bible touch our deepest places, we must have permission to be wrong from time to time. I also believe that we need permission to be right (far less easy to swallow in our society).

To partake in whiteboard therapy, one must carefully and reverently tread in a land where the Word itself is sacred, but man's interpretation of the Word is not. This isn't to say that existing interpretations are wrong, just that I want to arrive at them for myself, so that I can own them and live them with greater fortification and conviction. You may be familiar with the term 'sacred cows', as in "we're starving to death, but we can't eat this cow because it is sacred." It's kind of like that. If I'm going to interpret the Word, I need permission to be wrong and permission to be right. If we're starving with pat answers and interpretations that have lost their meaning, we don't have to blindly follow. We can reclaim them, understand them more fully, and on that rare occasion, allow the Spirit to show us something completely new in the text.

"For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” - Matthew 18:20 (NLT)

We also need a community to interpret with. I like group Bible study because there are people to watch out for each other and to make sure we aren't straying into un-Godly territory. I'd like this blog to be a place for that online. Currently there are about 100 unique users coming here each week, yet it's only once in awhile that anyone posts a comment. So I'm going to try something new, and hopefully it will catch on.

I'd like to invite you to interpret scripture so that we can apply it to our lives. Each Thursday I'm going to put something up and make sure it doesn't leave the front page until the following Thursday. It's okay to be wrong and it's okay to be right. I'd also like it if you wouldn't post anonymously, because I want this to be a safe space to throw out ideas and dig in together, and because I believe that Jesus wants to free us from having to hide who we are and what we think. However, if posting anonymously is the only way you feel comfortable posting, it's okay to do so.

So that's the plan. I'll post the first one this time next week. Let's pray:

Father, as we interpret your word here and in our lives, we ask for a special blessing. We pray that your Spirit will guide us and teach us. We pray that you will give us wisdom and knowledge so that we can understand these things for ourselves and live them more fully in our lives. May your glory burst forth both in your word and in the lives of those who meditate on it day and night. Amen.

Labels: Jesus

In the Lazarus story, the women take center stage. Let’s look at Martha today, and then we’ll look at Mary later on. Setting the scene: Bethany is close to Jerusalem, so a big crowd has gathered to mourn with Mary and Martha over the death of their brother, which happened four days prior.

Martha and Jesus
Martha goes to meet Jesus outside of the village. Jesus doesn’t go to her, but instead asks her to walk to Him. I wonder what that walk must have been like for Martha. She is disappointed that God didn’t come through the way she wanted Him to. I imagine that stings for her in a deeper way since these are people who have shown love to Jesus since the day they met, and people who know what He is capable of. They know His heart is to cease suffering and pain, and they’ve watched Him perform miracles, they know He can heal and wants to heal.

She gets there and says: “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

That sounds like a distant relative of the backhanded compliment. She acknowledges what He was capable of doing but chose not to do, but it has not caused her faith to cease, and her understanding of who Jesus is allows her to find hope amongst deep loss and sadness. Of course, we find comfort in knowing that what Jesus asked for was for Lazarus to be rise from the dead.

When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

“Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” (John 11:17-27 NLT)

Some Background Information
Here’s what we know about Martha: In the book of Luke, Jesus comes to a dinner with her and Mary, and she spends their time together cooking and working, while her sister Mary sits at Jesus' feet. "Doesn't it seem unfair that Mary sits while I cook?" she asks. Jesus tells her that she's focused on all of the details, but that there is only one thing worth being concerned about, something that Mary understands; something lasting that won't be taken away.

Martha spent that day doing and performing and trying to please everyone, rather than stopping and living in the moment, just being in Jesus’ presence. Sounds like someone who tries their whole life not to sin, but never talks to their Creator the way a child would talk to a parent. The Von Trapp God. Martha reminds me of someone who is ignoring the wonder and excitement of life, as well as the deep sorrow and grief that comes with it. She reminds me of someone who hasn't really given much thought as to how huge this man she calls Messiah is. I know people like that (sometimes I am people like that). They (we) don't question, don't think, don't read beyond the surface of the page. She's not the psalmist, questioning and yelling and crying and praising. What I've seen in my life is that if I let that numbness set in, as a defense maybe, it makes its way into every area of my life, until I reach a point where I either blow up or deflate.

On the flipside, Martha still believes Jesus is the Son of God. I think it takes great strength and fortitude to not toss your faith aside when it comes to a loved one dying, especially if you’ve relied on God and believed God and served God faithfully. Martha is someone whose own faith challenges mine.

The Martha Side of Healing
Jesus speaks something on two levels - metaphorical and literal - her brother would rise again - and Martha hears or understands only the metaphorical, future part of it (that certainly still happens today). Then Jesus responds to her in that Jesus-y way (where He answers a question she didn’t ask, or responds to a statement she didn’t make). I wonder what his purpose was with this statement. Was it to give Martha a chance to remind herself who He claimed to be? Was it to make sure that His eternal messages weren’t tossed aside given the hugeness of the miracle He would perform that day? Was He teaching Martha?

When it comes to healing and relying on Jesus, there is a Martha side of me and a Mary side of me (which I’ll go into next). The Martha side of me keeps pleasing, keeps ignoring, keeps moving. I need a Jesus who will ask me to walk to Him, a Jesus who will give me opportunities to think about what I believe. I need a Jesus who recognizes that what I’m doing, I do out of a desire to serve and love Him, even if there are more ideal ways for me to experience His love.

He meets us where we’re at. He knows what we need, even when it doesn’t seem like what we need. And when I see only eternal messages where there are also messages for here and now, it’s good for my soul to know that the here and now doesn’t need me to grasp the here and now in order for it to happen.

Labels: Favorites, Jesus