"I Desire Mercy, Not Sacrifice"

Jesus was a prophet. Therefore Jesus stood in the prophetic tradition--the great tradition of Hebrew Bible that emphasizes justice and mercy, especially for the oppressed. This means that if there was a decision to be made between our spiritual practices and mercy, he would always choose mercy. 


And that's clearly the case when Jesus cites Hosea 6:6, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" as he calls a tax-collector, Matthew, to be his disciple, thereby scandalizing some of the most prominent religious leaders and biblical teachers of his day, the Pharisees. (See Matthew 9:9-13.)


Now lest we think the Pharisees were bad guys, remember that they were a reform movement in 1st century Judaism that desired to do the right things--to study the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and to live a life pleasing to God through rigorous observance of God's commands like eating kosher and practicing the Sabbath. It seems, however, they desired sacrifice--the sacrifice of right religious practice--more than mercy.


You see ,Jesus believed that caring for the hurting was more important, and when there was a conflict mercy must win over doing the right spiritual practices:

⁶On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. ⁷The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. ⁸But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" ¹⁰He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. ¹¹But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Gospel of Luke, chapter 6)

But Christians today would never be accused on that, right? We'd never rush to our Bible studies, church services, or committee meetings, and pass by someone in need, a neighbor who needs a listening ear, a fellow student who needs a hand, or a needy person in our path?  Would we?


Maybe we need to remember again that there are times when we need to remember Jesus's emphasis: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

The Lesson of Flexico

I just spent a week down in Mexico building houses for the poor 175 south of the border. Actually, we planned to spend a week, but it ended up lasting 11 days because the bridge just north of town (and our only way home), well, broke, under the raging torrent of a flash flood. 


But the big story wasn't the bridge. It was the way that our team of 40 students and 10 adults lived into community--to be more biblical "koinonia," the fellowship of the Gospel (Philippians 1:5) where we learned to support one another, put one another first, and find that God is present through the Christian community he creates or what Philippians 2:1-4 describes so eloquently:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It's a lesson I'll not soon forget. 

And, by the way, we made it home...

The Whole Gospel or The "Hole in Our Gospel"? Miscellaneous Reflections

This year, our church is taking seven and half months to study the Gospel of Luke. And though it doesn't appear until Luke 4, the key for understanding Jesus in Luke comes when he stands up and proclaims his mission in the little town of Nazareth (a place so tiny and insignificant with its 200-500 residents that it's only mention in the New Testament in the centuries of Jesus's birth). Jesus reads the biblical scroll and declares that Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in him and that five priorities will mark his mission:

He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

    "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,


       because he has anointed me


       to proclaim good news to the poor.


       He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners


       and recovery of sight for the blind,


       to set the oppressed free,

        to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:17-18)

Good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, healing the blind, setting oppressed free, and proclaiming God's favor: That's what Jesus went about doing. And that's also the task of the Christian community. Some, like Richard Stearns, CEO of the Christian relief agency World Vision, state that the church has missed the mark and that we have a "hole in our gospel." Full disclosure: I haven't read the book (yet) because I'm already convinced we need to put together care for the soul ("evangelism") and care for the body ("social righteousness"). But my friend Richard (actually I don't know him, but he sounds like a good guy) and I agree, when you bring together the caring for the whole person--when we bring the Good News of knowing God, when we build homes and set poor free from disease, when we proclaim God's favor to those the world discards--that's the whole Gospel.

Back to Nazareth for a moment... I've included a picture below of a recent--I mean as in last-month recent--excavation that found the first archeological evidence of a first century house in Nazareth. Now this may seem like I'm digressing. Well, first of all, I warned you that these are "miscellaneous reflections," but I promise I have a point: Jesus's hometown is small, God came to ordinary folk, and so when Jesus proclaimed his mission he did so without media blitz and far from a metropolitan center.

Why then was his mission remembered? Because of Jesus, who we was and what he did and what his first followers were committed to: namely, the whole Gospel. Maybe in a time when Christians feel marginal today--no less marginal than the little town of Nazareth-- here's why: we're stuck in the hole in our gospel.

The Purpose of Contentment, A Thought...

Last week I was preaching on "Spend Less" as part of our "advent conspiracy" series. The key biblical verse came out of 1 Timothy 6: "But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (v. 8). Here's the problem: as soon as I landed on contentment, I didn't stay there, but I moved into generosity. 

That bothered me (and also made finding space for this Sunday's theme, "Give More" a bit more difficult). I've been wondering, Couldn't I just be content with contentment? 


Well, yes. I've written numerous pages and taught or preached countless times on the importance of gratitude and how it leads us to contentment and happiness. I could have certainly camped out in a familiar wood.


But I also realized that I'm particularly concerned at Christmas, that we would be self-centered even in our contentment, that it would become something about soothing my soul, finding my inner peace. And so I, following 1 Timothy 6, I inadvertently moved on to directing those with money "to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share" (v. 18). 


So I missed my target last Sunday and ended up shooting at another bullseye. But as long as I'm there, I'll say this: I hope that, this Christmas, we find both contentment with what we have and generosity toward those who don't have much at all. The amazing truth is that there we will discover deep peace and happiness because I'm sure that's where Jesus will be right there with us.

Who or What Do We Worship this Season?

This Christmas season our church has joined with the Advent Conspiracy www.adventconspiracy.org, in which many congregations throughout the US are moving away from the consumerism of this season, "Xmas," and come back to Jesus. There are four simple emphases: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All. My hope is that this will bring us back to what Christmas is really about.

The book of Matthew describes the coming of the "wise men" from the East so simply, "On coming to the house, [the wise men] saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh" (2:10-11, I added the bold). 


I don't know if the point comes across as directly as it does to me, but the gifts the wise men brought gifts to Jesus. They didn't give things to one another. Nonetheless, that's not what Xmas has become: we are consumed so often with what we want and what others want. Who's going to get the new iPod, or the robotic hamster, the soft leather shoes, or the Hugo Boss tie? What if we stopped and asked, "What does Jesus want me to give this Christmas to him?"


In a world, where over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day and where the United States spends $450 billion dollars a year on Christmas gifts, I think giving to Jesus means spending less on ourselves and more on helping the poor and the oppressed.  


So I'm interested: Do you have any suggestions for how to give to what Jesus cares about this Christmas?

A Reflection or Two From Jerusalem

I've been in Israel on a study tour with some members from Bidwell Presbyterian Church for the past few days and thought I'd log in just two brief reflections.

First visiting the Galilee (in northern Israel) was amazing for setting the Bible in context, and giving my biblical interpretations dimensionality. I would not have known what it meant that King Rehoboam made a “two golden calves” one of which he set up “in Dan” (1 Kings 12:28-29) not visited the site way up in northern Israel. I can now imagine the setting for Jesus’s healing the centurion’s servant at Capernaum (Luke 7:1-9) having visited the synagogue there. (The picture on the right shows the 3rd century version of that synagogue.)


The Wailing Wall was powerful, especially with all the bar mitzvahs in process—adolescent boys carrying the Torah scroll back and forth with obvious pride, while the women watched from over the partition. Most threw semi-chewy candy when it was all done. With the paper yarmulkes, the Israeli police with M-19s, and the video cams, it was a bit of a circus. But within that circus, I felt I could hear the yearnings of the Jews crying out to God. This active faith through the centuries that still resonated at the wall moved me.


More to come in future posts I hope....

David Was Prepped

I know the main emphasis in the story of David and Goliath is about the little guy defeating the behemoth. It's even become part of our common language--when a start up takes on an established megalith corporation, the New York Times calls it a "David and Goliath." Nothing wrong with that, but it's better to add back into the mix that God fought for David in 1 Samuel 17.

But something else has hit me as I've been reading the story of David and Goliath: I've been struck by the way that David's life had prepared him for the big battle. He'd been prepped. First of all, he was an armor-bearer for Saul the king (so he knew battle), and secondly, he had fought bears and lions already. As David remarks to Saul just before battle (1 Samuel 17: 36):

Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.

I take something from this: God doesn't let us face the big moments in life usually without some preparation. A lot of times it's probably not all related to the later event--what do shepherding and fighting a gargantuan Philistine have in common? Still we're given the means now for what's coming tomorrow. The key is to learn today. Then we're prepped for the big moments to come.