Angelic Visions Require Childlike Faith

  • May 30, 2018
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  • John Tillman

Scripture: Revelation 1.1-2
The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Reflection: Angelic Visions Require Childlike Faith
By John Tillman

As a writer of what today might be called “Fantasy Sci/Fi” novels, Madeleine L’Engle was often perplexed at the tendency of scholarly Christians to hold at arm’s length the angels and miracles of the Bible.

Cherubim, seraphim, all the angelic host as they are described in scripture, have a wild and radiant power that often takes us by surprise. They are not always gentle. They bar the entrance to Eden, so that we may never return home. They send plagues upon the Egyptians. They are messengers of God. They are winds. They are flames of fire. They are young men dressed in white.

Encounters with angels in the Bible are always moments of great importance and have always attracted a great deal of scholarly attention.

The faith of intellectualism is interested in explaining away the angel. Intellectual assent wants to dissect the angels’ particulars and clarify their place in the great chain of being.

This can become analogous to pondering whether the composition of a stop sign is steel, fiberglass, or aluminium, as you roll past it into the intersection.

To take angels seriously, L’Engle insists that we must have a bit more childlike faith.

Three of them come to Abraham to be his guests. One wrestles all night long with Jacob. They minister to Jesus after the temptations in the wilderness. They are God come to tell us something, and in the Old Testament it is obvious that God’s people understand that angels are voices and appearances of the Master of the Universe himself.

To be visited by an angel is to be visited by God. To be touched by an angel is to be touched by God, and it is a terrifying experience. When the angel smote him on the thigh, Jacob limped forever after. Daniel, who had braved lions, trembled and fainted at the appearance of the Lord’s angel. And John, on the Isle of Patmos, fell down as though dead.

If we read the Bible, and if what we read has anything to do with what we believe, then we have no choice but to take angels seriously; and most artists do, from Milton to Doré to Shakespeare…

The artist, if he is not to forget how to listen, must retain the vision which includes angels and dragons and unicorns, and all the lovely creatures which our world would put in a box marked Children Only.

May we read the Bible (especially the upcoming chapters of Revelation) with a child’s faith and a child’s imagination, guided and spurred by the Holy Spirit.

*Quotations from Walking on Water, by Madeleine L’Engle

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 31 (Listen – 1:49)
Revelation 1 (Listen – 3:43)

How to Read Prophetic Judgment

  • May 29, 2018
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  • John Tillman

Scripture: Jude 5
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Reflection: How to Read Prophetic Judgment
By John Tillman

There are many passages in the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments that are meant to comfort us. But the more typical function of prophecy is to cause us discomfort.

Examples of both comforting and afflicting passages occur in our readings today—both in Jude and in Isaiah.

Comforting:
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him! — Isaiah 30.18

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. — Jude 20-21

Afflicting:
“Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,
this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant. — Isaiah 30.12-13

Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. — Jude 10-11

When we read prophecy in the Old or New Testament, we often try to identify ourselves with one of the groups mentioned. Are we the prophet? Are we the Israelites? Are we Balaam? Are we the Gentile nations?

This can be an interesting intellectual exercise, but is often a waste of time. One reason is it is unhelpful is that when we do this we take it easy on ourselves.

We tend to identify ourselves as the Israelites when prophets are saying comforting things to Israel, but when the prophet is condemning Israel, we imagine ourselves as the righteous prophet and our evil government or evil culture as the target.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that much if we understand who is analogous to the nation of Israel or who is analogous to the nation of Babylon. It matters far more to understand why God is angry, what he requires of us, and what he wants to do through us if we return to him.

Prophecy can spur us on to love and good deeds, to mark a clear path of repentance and clarify the consequences of disobedience. But we blunt the point of prophecy’s spurs when we avoid the probability that we are the ones a prophecy is about. We miss the point of prophecy entirely when we weaponize it to attack others.

The best way to read prophecy is to imagine yourself not as the speaker, but as the spoken to. Judgment-filled prophecy is one case in scripture where it is safer to assume it’s about you than others. Once you do this, you can take whatever steps of grace-filled repentance the Holy Spirit directs you to.

Following this approach we will be far more uncomfortable reading prophecy, but our discomfort will lead to a more richly flourishing faith.

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Open my eyes, that I may see the wonders of your law. — Psalm 119.18

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 30 (Listen – 5:52)
Jude 1 (Listen – 4:12)

Realizing the Power of Love

  • May 25, 2018
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  • John Tillman

Scripture: 1 John 4.7-8
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Reflection: Realizing the Power of Love
By John Tillman

It is not too often that the full text of a sermon will be printed in the New York Times. But at culturally significant moments sometimes the Good News is deemed news “fit to print.”

This past weekend’s sermon by Bishop Michael Curry at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was one such moment. Among many scriptures on love which he referenced, Bishop Curry expanded on 1 John 4, which we read today.

The New Testament says it this way, “beloved, let us love one another because love is of God and those who love are born of God and know God, those who do not love do not know God.” Why? For God is love. There’s power in love. There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live.

Bishop Curry, did not merely address the power of love for a young couple in marriage, but the power of love as a force for changing the world for the better:

Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history, a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world. A movement mandating people to live that love. And in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.

I’m talking about some power, real power. Power to change the world. If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s antebellum south who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has the power to transform. They explained it this way. They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity, it’s one that says there’s a balm in Gilead. A healing balm, something that can makes things right.

There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. One of the stanzas actually explains why: they said, If you cannot preach like Peter and you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love of Jesus how he died to save us all.

The Balm of Gilead and the healing it brings is not only across the Jordan. It’s here now. Available to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As John writes, “In this world, we are like Jesus.” The selflessness of God’s love in us, and the actions that should flourish from it have the power, with the Holy Spirit, to change our world.

Think and imagine a world where love is the way. Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way, unselfish, sacrificial redemptive.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Matthew 5.6

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 26 (Listen – 2:58)
1 John 4 (Listen – 2:58)

This Weekend’s Readings
Isaiah 27 (Listen – 2:16) 1 John 5 (Listen – 3:00)
Isaiah 28 (Listen – 4:49) 2 John 1 (Listen – 1:50)

Suffering for Our True Identity

  • May 24, 2018
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  • John Tillman

Scripture: 1 John 3.13-14
Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

Reflection: Suffering for Our True Identity
By John Tillman

John is direct with his readers—it is not our goal to get the world to like us. In fact, we should not be surprised when they hate us.

Though a beloved author now, Madeleine L’Engle experienced what John meant and she might have added that we can’t even guarantee that other Christians will like us.

Her most well known work, A Wrinkle in Time, has been banned both by those who thought of it as Christian proselytizing as well as by those who felt it reflected poorly on Christianity. Double whammy.

As she said 40 years ago, when Walking on Water was published:

When I am referred to in an article or a review as a ‘practising Christian’ it is seldom meant as a compliment.

It is perfectly all right, according to literary critics, to be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Sufi, or a pre-Christian druid.

It is not all right to be a Christian. And if we ask why, the answer is a sad one; Christians have given Christianity a bad name.

They have let their lights flicker and grow dim. They have confused piosity with piety, smugness with joy.

During the difficult period in which I was struggling through my “cloud of unknowing” to return to the Church and the Christ, the largest thing which deterred me was that I saw so little clear light coming from those Christians who sought to bring me back to the fold.

But I’m back and grateful to be back, because through God’s loving grace, I did meet enough people who showed me that light of love which the darkness cannot extinguish.

Many use the crutch of “bad Christians” as an excuse to limp away from the Savior rather than come to him to be healed.

We will never remove the excuse of there being some who live in smugness instead of joy. But L’Engle was led back to faith not by a huge movement of the church, but by individuals.

We need to encourage the church as a whole to shine brighter, however, we can do for one what we would do for all by living out the chief indicator of our identity, love, and the visible evidence of it, righteous actions.

Peter and John agree that doing good is no guarantee that we will not suffer the hatred of the world, but if we suffer for doing good, at least we are showing the world our true identity.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Matthew 5.6

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 25 (Listen – 1:59)
1 John 3 (Listen – 3:21)

Not Abandoned :: Worldwide Prayer

  • May 23, 2018
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  • John Tillman

Scripture: 1 John 2.12
I am writing to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

Reflection: Not Abandoned :: Worldwide Prayer
A Prayer of Thanks for God’s Pursuing Presence and Care from the USA

From my youth, oh Lord, from my
youth you have been my refuge.
In the days of my innocence, you have
Been my place of hiding, my home and my safety.

Then came the times of my rebellion, the days
of my senseless rage, when I abandoned
The ways of God, and followed in the vanity
Of trusting in the strength of men.

Yet you were there, in the midst of my despair,
You did not abandon me the way I did you,
Nor did you treat me with the contempt
I treated you with, the God over all, in my pride.

Instead, you rescued me from evil men, you
Stole me from the houses of the wicked
And planted me among the olive groves of
the righteous, among the granaries of the holy.

When I had lost my way, and grieved at my condition
You took pity on me, and melted the heavens
For my sake. You came down to my place of derision
And took me in your arms.

*Prayer from Hallowed be Your Name: A collection of prayers from around the world, Dr. Tony Cupit, Editor.

Prayer: The Cry of the Church
O God, come to my assistance! O Lord, make haste to help me! — Psalm 69.2

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 24 (Listen – 3:11)
1 John 2 (Listen – 4:04)