Our Original Blessing

My wife Susan and I aren’t getting much sleep these days. Our daughter Neeley Ruth was born on October 30th and as parents of a now seven week old we alternate being up in the middle of the night for those late night feedings. In the quiet darkness of feeding time, I continue to marvel at my daughter’s face. Her eyes wide open looking up at her father as he holds the bottle at just the right angle reveal a sweet innocence. In the middle of the night as all the noises of the city have calmed down, there’s something magical about Neeley’s and my time together. At this age Neeley has all of life in front of her. She has no regrets, no remorse, no former pain or suffering to haunt her dreams, no troubled relationships, no past failures. She is encountering the world with a fresh and lively spirit. Would that all of us could do the same.

In my life I’ve discovered that my reading of scripture gets reinterpreted each time often depending on where I am in my life. There’s a core understanding that comes with knowing such things as “authorial intent” and “cultural milieu” and even some core doctrine and teaching that remains intact through each reading. But what has struck me as I read scripture is how it takes on new meaning each time I approach it in prayer.

As I’ve read the Genesis story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden I’ve always come away with different messages of strength, encouragement, and challenge. But one of the core messages of that story in the Bible has to do with our loss of innocence.

You know the story. Adam and Eve are blessed to be able to live in a one-to-one relationship with God where they interact directly with Him. They get to do this in a beautiful garden where all of their needs are provided for. They are allowed this luxury with only one condition - that as they care for the garden and enjoy its blessings they do not eat of the tree in the center – the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

This has always been curious to me. Why wouldn’t God want for Adam and Eve to possess knowledge of this important distinction? Philosophers and theologians through the centuries have searched and discussed and debated the very topic of what is good and evil. The search itself and the discovery of that knowledge appear intrinsic to what it means to be human. To be able to distinguish right from wrong is the teaching task of every parent with their children. Entire university departments focus on the study of “ethics” in human life.

It would strike one as over simplified to say that point of the story is that human beings rely solely on their relationship with God for such knowledge. It would seem that total dependence on God is the obvious message of the literary cycle of Genesis 1-11. We begin with creation in the garden of Eden and end with human beings trying to yet again become like God in constructing the tower of Babel. As the reader moves through these early chapters of the Bible, we note how human beings continually usurp those powers that rightfully belong to the Lord. And human beings always pay the dear price for it. Of course, not only do we see this played out over and over in scripture. We see it played out in our own lives.

Perhaps it is oversimplified to say that our original blessing as human beings comes from depending solely on the power of God. I’m comfortable with the over-simplification. How often have I tried to manage on my own, following my own agenda no matter how destructive that agenda might ultimately become? Blessing and peace and yes, innocence, have been present those times I have stopped and listened for and obeyed the voice of God.

As I watch my daughter looking intently up at me as I feed her, I want to start over fresh and regain the innocence I lost so long ago. I want what she has – LIFE in front of her with all of its awesome possibility and love and healing relationship. I’d like to be able to return to the garden - not naively, checking my mind at the entrance – but full of knowledge that God wants me to live abundantly and to do so means listening to His guidance.

That’s how I want to start this New Year 2006 – listening intently to the voice of God and responding obediently to what I hear and in the process laying claim to that innocence that God designed me to enjoy. My prayer for you is the same.

Living Advent!

When I was a pastor at Lindenwood Church in Memphis, one of my favorite services of worship was our Christmas Eve Candlelight service. I think the best part of the service was actually the beginning, as the alto began singing the strains from “Once in David’s Royal City.” Chills went down my spine as with candles in hand, the clergy processed in to their places at the lectern where we would read – out of the King James, of course! – the prophecies from the Old Testament concerning his birth leading into the stories of the birth itself. There in the quiet midnight candlelight, if one paid close attention, one truly would actually catch a vision of the holy family, surrounded by onlooking animals and shepherds and wisemen bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrhh.

Christmas is the most “magical” of the Christian holidays and feast days. My seven year-old son, Will, began making his Christmas list in August which also marks the time in our family where we begin the weekly mini-sermons at home about how it is better to give than to receive!

But if we take a look through the passages in the Bible which deal directly with the “infancy narrative” of Jesus, it becomes quickly evident that the season of Christmas is “magical” for reasons other than the giving and receiving of presents. If we pay close attention to what people were saying about Jesus’s birth, we are given clues not just to the power of a season of the year – but clues about the power of life itself.

Consider, for instance, the songs that are sung by an assortment of characters in the gospels at the time of Jesus’s birth. Zechariah sings at the birth of his son John the Baptist who will usher in Jesus’s new reign. Mary, the mother of Jesus, sings what has come to be known as the Magnificat – a song of rejoicing over Jesus’s ministry to the poor and oppressed peoples of the world. The angels sing that God’s peace and favor have been poured out. And then there’s the prophet Simeon. Simeon has been waiting his entire life to experience the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the Messiah. When the baby Jesus is brought to the temple to be dedicated, Simeon sings, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

Therein lies the power of Christmas. Through the “advent,” or the coming of Jesus, we are witness to the bringing of God’s salvation to all of humankind.

The peace activist Gandhi was once asked what he thought of Christianity. His reply was that it would be wonderful – wonderful, if people actually lived like Jesus.

To go through the season of Christmas and not be formed and transformed into the likeness of Christ would be a shame. If the season really is about liberation of the oppressed, seeing a new light, and recognizing the powerful incarnation of God – it gives our practice of singing carols and giving gifts entirely new meaning. In fact, the season becomes a time for practicing self-sacrificing love like we’ve never practiced it before.

Why do we need a season to live like this? Why not? Like we might spend a month of our lives going on a diet, or exercising extra hard to lose that extra couple of pounds – Christians can view Christmas as a season of “honing” their skills in the area of sacrificial loving as they spend time with loved ones or deliver food baskets or make visit someone (anyone, really!) who is spending their Christmas in a hospital.

What might happen as a result of this? Who knows? The season of God’s salvation and light and giving might just become a spiritual resource for the rest of the year. Perhaps even for the rest of our lives.