The Word for today:
Isaiah 60
mark this: Isaiah 60:1-2 --
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
I was not blessed with what is referred to as a "godly heritage." By that I mean that a love for the Bible was not handed down to me from my parents. They dutifully went each Sunday to a large centralized church. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. Then out the door. "See ya next week, when we'll do this all again." Glory.
And talk about comic obfuscation. My kids have a hard time believing this, but they didn't speak English in that church. They spoke--I kid you not--a language that no one on earth spoke in his daily life.
And talk about tragic darkness. No one was to individually open her Bible. The Light of the world was not to be directly encountered. It had to pass through the prism of the priestly caste. We had a Bible-- on the mantel in the living room between two heavy bookends next to a chiming clock. Although they respected it enough to purchase it and provide a prominent place for it (physically) in our home, I do not recall either of my parents ever looking inside it.
It dawned on me that it was all a crock when I was 14 years old.
Now that I've slammed them, let me slam us. What hungover traditions are we perpetuating? What is it that we do that makes a 14 year old boy, sitting in our pews or chairs, look around him one fine Sunday morning and come to the crystal-clear conclusion that this, that, or the other is a crock?
I think it has to do with Lamps. And crocks.
Isaiah 60:1-2 (marked, above) is a replay of Genesis 1:3, when the light of the world was suddenly turned on:
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
Remember that the Bible will foreshadow spiritual realities with pictures from the physical world. So whereas Genesis 1:3 turns a light on a dark, formless, and empty earth; Isaiah 60:1-2 turns the Light of the world on dark, shapeless, and empty lives.
OK, so far so good. No 14 year old boy, shown the real Jesus, would ever call any of it a crock.
But then our phony lives and our self-serving traditions encroach. Pretty soon, we've done what Jesus warned us about:
Jesus said: You don't light a lamp and put it under a clay pot or under a bed. Don't you put a lamp on a lampstand? (Mark 4:21/CEV)
I grew up in a church--a Christian church--that did everything it could to put the Light of the world under a clay crock-pot.
And now I'm protesting.
I have many spiritual heroes, unsung people whose names you would not recognize. But I have two heroes whose names are recognized. I spoke of one--J. Vernon McGee, the greatest Bible teacher that ever was--in the Stand in the Rain blog entry of January 6:
"Although he went to heaven in 1988, his teaching remains fresher than bread baked tomorrow. He can be heard today, via radio and internet, in over 100 languages, in over 200 countries. Just google "Thru the Bible" and you'll find him."
My other hero is the man who, next to Jesus, was Christendom's greatest protester! He was a troubled, anguished monk who came to the realization that much of it was a crock and said so. He insisted that the Light of the world, the Word of God, be made directly accessible to every person--no intervening priests or prisms to "filter" (read "spin") the light. He even--gasp--had the brazen audacity to translate the Bible out of Gobbledygook and into German (his native language) so some poor 14-year old in Wittenberg or Bavaria could read it.
When you go to your "Protestant" church today, remember that you're a Protestant because you've got something to protest! If your version of a priest (you might call him parson, pastor, or vicar) isn't bringing the real Biblical Jesus--the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth-- then protest! Take the crock off the Lamp and whip it out the window.
And if you go to the Catholic side of the aisle, don't leave that place. Stay there and protest! They took Martin Luther's suggestion, eventually, and dumped Gobbledygook, but there are still encrusted traditions--clay crocks--obfuscating the clear and complete Jesus. Protest! Throw the crock through the stained glass window.
If you do, I will add you to my list of famous heroes! You'll be right up there with J. Vernon and Martin. And I will visit you in jail!
There's no Jesus, or Martin Luther, or Doc McGee here. I'm not that smart or that brave. But here I stand, as Martin Luther said.
Standing in the Rain, we protest this present darkness (1). We take the crock off the lamp and put it on the lampstand. We take it off the mantel and we put it in the hand of a 14-year-old, or a 56-year-old like that 14-year-old boy became after all those dark years.
For the sake of Jesus Christ, go and be the light of the world (2); brighten the corner where you are.
(1) Ephesians 6:12; (2) Matthew 5:14
Isaiah 60
mark this: Isaiah 60:1-2 --
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
I was not blessed with what is referred to as a "godly heritage." By that I mean that a love for the Bible was not handed down to me from my parents. They dutifully went each Sunday to a large centralized church. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. Then out the door. "See ya next week, when we'll do this all again." Glory.
And talk about comic obfuscation. My kids have a hard time believing this, but they didn't speak English in that church. They spoke--I kid you not--a language that no one on earth spoke in his daily life.
And talk about tragic darkness. No one was to individually open her Bible. The Light of the world was not to be directly encountered. It had to pass through the prism of the priestly caste. We had a Bible-- on the mantel in the living room between two heavy bookends next to a chiming clock. Although they respected it enough to purchase it and provide a prominent place for it (physically) in our home, I do not recall either of my parents ever looking inside it.
It dawned on me that it was all a crock when I was 14 years old.
Now that I've slammed them, let me slam us. What hungover traditions are we perpetuating? What is it that we do that makes a 14 year old boy, sitting in our pews or chairs, look around him one fine Sunday morning and come to the crystal-clear conclusion that this, that, or the other is a crock?
I think it has to do with Lamps. And crocks.
Isaiah 60:1-2 (marked, above) is a replay of Genesis 1:3, when the light of the world was suddenly turned on:
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
Remember that the Bible will foreshadow spiritual realities with pictures from the physical world. So whereas Genesis 1:3 turns a light on a dark, formless, and empty earth; Isaiah 60:1-2 turns the Light of the world on dark, shapeless, and empty lives.
OK, so far so good. No 14 year old boy, shown the real Jesus, would ever call any of it a crock.
But then our phony lives and our self-serving traditions encroach. Pretty soon, we've done what Jesus warned us about:
Jesus said: You don't light a lamp and put it under a clay pot or under a bed. Don't you put a lamp on a lampstand? (Mark 4:21/CEV)
I grew up in a church--a Christian church--that did everything it could to put the Light of the world under a clay crock-pot.
And now I'm protesting.
I have many spiritual heroes, unsung people whose names you would not recognize. But I have two heroes whose names are recognized. I spoke of one--J. Vernon McGee, the greatest Bible teacher that ever was--in the Stand in the Rain blog entry of January 6:
"Although he went to heaven in 1988, his teaching remains fresher than bread baked tomorrow. He can be heard today, via radio and internet, in over 100 languages, in over 200 countries. Just google "Thru the Bible" and you'll find him."
My other hero is the man who, next to Jesus, was Christendom's greatest protester! He was a troubled, anguished monk who came to the realization that much of it was a crock and said so. He insisted that the Light of the world, the Word of God, be made directly accessible to every person--no intervening priests or prisms to "filter" (read "spin") the light. He even--gasp--had the brazen audacity to translate the Bible out of Gobbledygook and into German (his native language) so some poor 14-year old in Wittenberg or Bavaria could read it.
When you go to your "Protestant" church today, remember that you're a Protestant because you've got something to protest! If your version of a priest (you might call him parson, pastor, or vicar) isn't bringing the real Biblical Jesus--the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth-- then protest! Take the crock off the Lamp and whip it out the window.
And if you go to the Catholic side of the aisle, don't leave that place. Stay there and protest! They took Martin Luther's suggestion, eventually, and dumped Gobbledygook, but there are still encrusted traditions--clay crocks--obfuscating the clear and complete Jesus. Protest! Throw the crock through the stained glass window.
If you do, I will add you to my list of famous heroes! You'll be right up there with J. Vernon and Martin. And I will visit you in jail!
There's no Jesus, or Martin Luther, or Doc McGee here. I'm not that smart or that brave. But here I stand, as Martin Luther said.
Standing in the Rain, we protest this present darkness (1). We take the crock off the lamp and put it on the lampstand. We take it off the mantel and we put it in the hand of a 14-year-old, or a 56-year-old like that 14-year-old boy became after all those dark years.
For the sake of Jesus Christ, go and be the light of the world (2); brighten the corner where you are.
(1) Ephesians 6:12; (2) Matthew 5:14
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