The Lamb Thief

The first time I heard Keith Green sing, he was already dead.  

I was driving down the street, listening to the radio.  I didn't know he was dead, so that didn't influence my opinion of his performance.  Maybe if I had known I might have cut him some slack.  As it was, what I heard didn't impress me.  I didn't know he had been somewhat controversial, and I didn't know that he had written, co-written, and performed many best selling songs.  All I knew at the time was what I heard on the radio that day, and, as I later learned, it was not a song for which he was especially well known.

The piano accompaniment which Green was playing was slow, laconic, almost wandering; just about the exact opposite of the usual pieces I heard on the radio.  There was no driving back beat from a bass guitar, no drums to draw the singer back to the appropriate pace.  His voice was, well, not exceptional in any way.  He just sounded like a guy singing.  I found myself wondering just why this piece had made it to the radio, at all.

And then, there were the words.  They didn't rhyme, which was very odd; in fact, there appeared to be no attempt to come up with a rhyming pattern of any kind; not even words that didn't rhyme but almost did.  It moved so slowly, it sounded like he was almost reading something to music.  At that point, I was reaching for the controls to change the station.

But then, I REALLY heard the words.  And I stopped; my hand hovering over the controls.

"Create in me a clean heart, oh God
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence, oh Lord
Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
And renew a right spirit within me."

THAT struck a nerve.  I had that feeling I had heard something like that before.  I know this is cliche, but it's true: I pulled my car over to the side of the road and listened to the rest of the song.  And when it was over, I pulled out my Bible and started searching.  By then, I was certain the man had been singing scripture, and almost verbatim.  I was used to songs ABOUT things in the Bible, but this--this singing verses without forcing them into some kind of rhyme--this was something a bit new to me.

And I found it.  In Psalms 51.  And I knew why it seemed so familiar.  David wrote this song after Nathan, God's Prophet, told him a story.  In the story, a man--a rich man; one with plenty of everything; power, wealth, accolades--stole, slaughtered, and ATE a poor man's only lamb rather than one of his own many lambs.  Scripture says David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!" (2 Samuel 12:5 NIV).

Then Nathan, who already knew that David had secretly had sex with Bathsheba and arranged for her husband to be killed in battle, turned on David and declared, "YOU are the man!"

Ever have one of those moments?  That awful slice of time when it is shoved in your face that what you have done is not only wrong (really, REALLY wrong), but KNOWN!  It was a shocking wake-up for King David.  And it made an impact.

David, finally remorseful for his actions, feels the full force of being cut off from God by his sin.  And he writes what we now call Psalm 51 to express his remorse and desire to be forgiven.

You may have done some terrible things in your life.  David certainly did.  Don't let those decisions and actions keep you from God.  I encourage you to embrace the words of Psalm 51 as your prayer of forgiveness and reconciliation.  Yes, there are always consequences for our actions, and our bad actions can come with some pretty horrific consequences.  David's did.  

I was ungracious during that first minute of listening to Keith Green sing his song.  But by the end I began to grasp what he undoubted already knew.  With that particular song, the words are far too important to let them be overshadowed by anything, even the music.  Even the performer.  What I learned is this: if I am willing to change, God is willing to forgive, to restore and renew, and even create in me a clean heart.


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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Fifth Sunday in Lent (March 25, 2012)
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 119:9-16
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

Annunciation of the Lord (March 25, 2012)
Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 45 or Psalm 40:5-10
Hebrews 10:4-10
Luke 1:26-38

Will you be in Waco Friday morning?  If so, join us for breakfast at 8:00 at Cafe Cappuccino (downtown on 6th, near the Courthouse).  We have a great time discussing the coming week's passages, and the food is delicious :-)

Enjoy the week!
Steve

Training Wheels

Training Wheels
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

My first bike, a Sears 26-inch JC Higgins, was so much bigger than me, I had to bring it to the end of our walkway (which was a full twelve inches above the sidewalk) in order to get on it. But, once on it, I could not keep it upright. That didn't keep me from trying, but I fell ... a lot. In fact, every single time I pedaled a couple of turns, I started to tumble. This kept me close to home. That way I could always tumble unto our slightly raised lawn.

Into this problem stepped my Dad. One Saturday, he called me to come out front to show me that he had installed training wheels on my bike. This was great! I still had to climb on at the end of the walkway, but this time the bike stayed upright. My Dad gave me only one rule: whenever I got off the bike, I had to use the kickstand. He said that would keep the training wheels from wearing out (he intended to use them for my sister at some point). For the first few minutes, I just sat there, luxuriating in the realization that I was not going to topple over.

And then I took off.

I rode all over the neighborhood on that bike, for days and then weeks, I soared, my confidence placed firmly in those training wheels to keep me aloft. Oh, I still had some dismount problems due to that center bar, but on the whole it was the freedom I had dreamed of. This was more than happiness. This was joy.

One morning, after having come back from a ride, I carefully climbed off the bike, hooked the kickstand down with my sneaker, and turned to find my Dad standing in my path.

He said, "How was the ride?"

"Great!" I replied.

"So," he asked, "no problems riding without the training wheels?"

I whipped around and saw, to my horror, that there were no training wheels on my bike! I was almost overcome with the shock of realizing that I could have fallen.

"You took off the training wheels!" I accused.

"A week ago," he replied.

I had been riding without them for a week! But that was not all. Dad had never intended for me to rely on those training wheels. Like Stephen Covey was to articulate decades later, Dad "began with the end in mind." Every two or three days, he raised those training wheels ever so slightly, until, at some point, they never touched the ground while I rode the bike. And, because he had insisted I always use the kickstand, I never noticed that the bike could no longer stand on its own.

It is like this with God and us. God began a work within each of us "with the end in mind." God knows we have to make the journey, that we will encounter things we, initially, just cannot do without assistance; and we get that assistance. But the objective is that we outgrow that help; that, in fact, we grow to the point where, not only do we not need help with that challenge, but we become so skilled at it, we become someone else's assistance.

So, when you read Ephesians 2:10 and find that, long ago, God prepared good deeds for each of us to do; that God crafted a group of positive actions specific to you, for you to do; don't be surprised. Be encouraged: God thinks you're ready.

And be curious. Start looking for them. Someone needs their training wheels.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fourth Sunday in Lent (March 18, 2012)
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21

http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

If you are in Waco Friday morning, join us for breakfast at 8:00 at Cafe Cappuccino (downtown on 6th, near the Courthouse). Good food and good discussion. I am so excited to be going!

Enjoy the week!

Steve

Wisdom and Perception

Wisdom and Perception

(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

The coming week's Lectionary passages are all about wisdom and perception.  Read through them and see if you agree with me.  It's a quick read; there are only four passages.  What I see there underscores something that has been bouncing around in my head for a while: that these two things need each other; that wisdom without perception is powerless and that perception without wisdom is directionless. 

Wisdom absent perception just sits there.  No matter how wise one might be, without the ability to perceive the surrounding culture, without the ability to grasp the stimuli flowing by, the wise one can only be passive.  Speaking inappropriate maxims to unappreciative audiences or, more likely, waiting until someone comes seeking their wisdom.

Alternately, perception without wisdom has no compass, has no idea what to do with the received stimuli, is just as likely to fight or flee when neither is the best action.  No matter how perceptive one might be, without the reflective qualities of wisdom, without that spiritually informed rubric for decision-making, the perceptive one simply responds to the stimuli.  Slap for slap, eye for eye, life for life.

God gives wisdom.  All we need do is ask.  God gives us ears to hear, and will bless us with vision, when we seek it.  Ask.  Seek.  Knock.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Third Sunday in Lent (March 11, 2012)
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

If you are in Waco Friday morning, join our group for breakfast at 8:00 at Cafe Cappuccino (downtown on 6th, near the Courthouse).  Good food and good discussion.

Enjoy the week!

Steve