Merry Christmas...

as the holidays approached, my blogging fell apart! Keep reading through the transformation journal, and I hope to be back to writing more regularly about the scripture readings soon! Advent is a very busy time in the church, and preparations for Christmas Eve services are huge! Blessings to you all during these 12 days of Christmas. Please keep the families and friends of John, Pauline, Dick and Doug in your prayers, as they grieve the loss of these people in their lives. There is a time for every season under heaven, and it's difficult when a time we equate with birth becomes a time of death as well.

Ruth

Pious people sometimes drive me nuts, because sometimes they seem fake. We don't get that impression with Boaz. His piety seems real, natural, and just a part of who he is. He didn't have to treat Ruth as anything other than a resident alien whom he was required to allow glean from his fields, along with the rest of the resident aliens in the area. Instead he takes a compassionate interest in her, having heard what she did for her mother-in-law. One good turn deserves another... it's nice when things in life follow that way.

-Melanie

Most challenging...

to me is the beginning sentence of Matthew 7. "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged." It's so easy to fall into the mindset of seeing only the logs in other peoples eyes, and thinking we have barely a splinter in our own. Of course, we don't see it this way with people we love, but think of someone you really have a bone to pick with. Then it seems more likely that we see the problems as theirs without our own role in it. I connected this teaching from chapter 7 to the chapter 13 parable of the weeds amond the wheat. The workers immediately wanted to pull up the weeds from the wheat, but the master said, hold off. The master determines the what is weed, what is wheat, when it gets pulled, and what is done with it, not the workers. This is a good reminder, as I think of the conversations I've had with people where either I or they have said, "If I was the President, I would do this..." or "If I was in charge of that program, I would do that..." and how confident we are that we'd do something much better than the actual person trying to do the work. Some days we need the mantra, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged."

-Melanie

p.s. Safe travels tonight with this next round of snow!

Advent begins...

I'm happy to have a break from the Hebrew Scriptures to explore Matthew this week. Yesterday's scripture reading offers a description of Jesus' birth - I encourage you to compare Matthew and Lukes versions - they are both unique. Matthew's version isn't used as much, perhaps because it has rather violent undertones as Jesus' family flees to Egypt.

In Matthew chapter 5, we are ambushed with a series of lessons from Jesus that one after another, challenge the way we usually look at things, perhaps even our instinctual way of looking at things. The one most challenging to me is the last challenge he puts forth, to love our enemies. He has a point, it is easy to love those who love you. It's a lot harder to love those who are hateful, hurtful, or malicious towards you. It would be a lot easier to avoid those who don't like you. Everytime I read this, I get a knot in my stomach, because the list of people who I don't feel like loving pops up into my head, and I have to struggle with the question of how to live out this challenge from Jesus. I do try to love those who are hard to love, but my humanness makes it a continuous struggle. But we are called to struggle and keep trying.

-Melanie

Samson

So I'm looking forward to reading Matthew next week. I'm a little tired of the judges and their tendency towards violence in the name of God. Delilah was seduced by money, Samson seduced by love, the people seduced by the power. In the end, most of them met a violent end, although we don't know what happened to Delilah. Did she take the money and run? Or was she sick with herself afterwards like Judas was? There is physical strength, the power of beauty, and the desire for power. None of these are bad in and of themselves, but when they are not connected to a moral strength, they can lead to such destruction. Perhaps this story reminds us that it has always been a challenge to hold both ideals - physical and moral strength - together. We often seem to value physical power and strength without giving equal time and attention to the ethical implications of our actions.
-melanie

Gideon and "The Lord is Peace" altar

Funny thing how Gideon built an altar and called it "The Lord is Peace", which he follows up with a sword and a war cry of "For the Lord and for Gideon!" I'm not a fan of the whole idea of dressing up the violence of war with nice, fanciful terms like peace. I remember visiting a military base and learning about nuclear weapons, being told that one of them was called the "peacekeeper". I was young, so I may remember my details inaccurately, but I thought they said it would only take 7 or 8 to blow up the whole world, and we had 4 or 5 times that many in our possession. I'm not sure that' s a true peacekeeper as much as it is a fear-instiller. The other issue I have is that these people went to war in the name of God, but even more than that, in the name of another human being. Gideon must have been some character - testing and retesting God, then getting others to fight in God's name, but also his own. The thing I most take from this passage tonight, is to beware of making gods of ourselves, which was the same thing Gideon was ironically trying to instill in the people. Perhaps he replaced the worship of baal with worship of the self?

What do you think? Am I being too hard on Gideon? He was, after all, trying to respond to God's call...

-melanie

Micah

Woe to you. That's often the word from the prophets in the Old Testament. The irony is, when someone tells you to watch out, they what you are doing is going to hurt you, do we ever really listen? Usually we just get upset, more set in our ways, convinced that the person we are dating really is good, that the work we are doing really is ethical, that the drinking isn't really addiction. I kind of feel sorry for the prophets, because they were set up for failure. They gave the warnings, but no one listened. Because we seem to always have to learn for ourselves, not from others mistakes. It's sort of like AA can do wonders for people, but only when they realize they need it for themselves.
Which makes Jonah so different from Micah. The people actually listened to Jonah, which he wasn't expecting, and then he was annoyed when they did listen and change their ways! I'm not sure who had the harder time of things.
There's something to be said for telling people we care about our concerns about the decisions they are making that are harmful in their lives. We have an obligation to do that, but we also have to accept that they will still make their own choices, whether we agree with them or not. And somehow, as painful as it is, we just love them the best we can.
-Melanie

Moses is dead, but...

Joshua is alive! I heard a sermon on this once, by Otis Moss and I will never forget it. Moses got to see the promised land, even if he didn't get to step foot in it. And he could have been bitter about it, but instead, he laid his hands on Joshua and blessed him with wisdom so that he could lead the people. How wonderful it is when those who have gone before us lay their hands on us and bless us to go forward. It doesn't always happen that way, so when it does, it is indeed a holy and sacred thing.
What blessings do you have to pass on to others to carry forward?
-Melanie

How many masters can we possibly serve?

In the Bible it talks about the impossibility of trying to serve two masters at once - God and wealth. I think things are harder now than they were before - we are torn to serve three, four, five, maybe more masters at the same time! It's stressful watching the frenetic pace of people trying to serve God and money. But now it seems we have to serve our jobs as master if we want to keep them in an age when people are getting laid off. We have to serve our homes if we want to keep them from falling a part. The greatest master trying to cajole me into service is my calendar. My life revolves around my calendar, and what it says I need to be doing at any particular moment of the day! If we only had to deal with God and wealth, that would seem like nothing compared to the many masters out there today! But when it comes down to it, money seems to be the one that is hardest to set aside. It's hardest to orient ourselves towards God when the big, flashy gold calf and dollar signs are shining off in our periphery. I know my weakness. That's probably why I choose to have my gifts to the church and other non-profits taken directly out of my bank accounts. If I didn't intentionally offer them as a priority, knowing that no matter what, each month my gifts will go to God through the church, if I waited until the end of the month, I'm pretty sure there would not be much left for God. What do you do to keep other masters from taking the place of God? Any ideas? Insights to share?
-Melanie

Priorities

The concern here seems to be with priorities. Hearing something and doing it are two different things. Hearing Moses say "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" is one thing, doing it is another! God seems to get the human heart in terms of its needs. When things are rough, we hold on to God with all our hearts. But when things are going well, we might start putting our priorities and allegiances with other things. Moses says, "Take care that you not forget the Lord". The challenge is to remember God at all times, not just the rough ones. Hearing/doing, remembering/forgetting - these are the daily challenges we face! And some days we fare better than others. All we can do is give it our best effort, and keep this commandment before us - writing it on our hearts and our minds.
-Melanie

Intercessor

I spent this afternoon staring at my computer screen and thinking about what I was going to say at worship tomorrow about Jesus as Savior. The connections between the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures never cease to amaze me! One of the things I was thinking with Jesus is there was no longer a need for an intercessor on behalf of the people with God. Because of Jesus, we go directly to God, not through another person. That's what Moses got all messed up in. He felt pressured to go to God on behalf of the people because they were pressuring him to do something about their lack of water. But then he ends up with the consequence of getting to see the Promised Land but never actually stepping foot on it. That's a rotten deal! Thank God things have changed! Thank God for grace and mercy, for I surely wouldn't see the "Promised Land" if it required more faith and trust than Moses.
-Melanie

It's all about the numbers...

If you would like to read my reflection for today's scripture reading, please scroll down to Wednesday, October 17th. I wrote about Numbers way back then, when I was all confused. The book of Numbers gets its name from all of the census taking and number counting of the different tribes of God. Since it's Halloween, I was thinking back to when I was a kid, and for some weird reason, we used to count how many trick-or-treaters we would have each year. We would get excited when the numbers were up, puzzled when the numbers were down. Eventually, the numbers went way down, to almost nothing. I think new alternatives to going door to door started up to make things safer for kids. For instance, Zoo Boo. I went for the first time this year and it was great fun to see kids dressed up in all sorts of fun costumes! My first year of owning a home, I moved in on Halloween. I was so excited to have trick-or-treaters come to my very own home, that I went out and bought a bunch of candy, and I only had two people come to my door dressed up - my mom and my sister. No kids. Not much trick-or-treating in my neighborhood. The book of Numbers for my home wouldn't take very long to write, and the counting would be easy. One, two, the end.
What is it about numbers? Why do we count - people, money, worship attenders, trick-or-treaters, members of our family? Perhaps because all of the numbers we count represent stories that have meaning for us. 150 trick-or-treaters represent the story of the year we ran out of candy, it represents the cats, ghosts, supermans, and smurfs that stopped by the house on one night. Counting family numbers tells the story of generations, of who we come from, which is always a part of who we are.
Happy Halloween, and happy number counting/reading over the course of the rest of this week in Numbers~
-Melanie

a tip about blogging

Help! I want to contribute but i'm not sure how!

These are the cries of our people! These may be the cries of you who are reading along with this blog today! You are full of profound and insightful thoughts and long to share them with our online community but you just don't know how to do it! I am here to give you a step by step guide! :)

Step one. read the entry by Melanie or Kelly and ogle at their brilliance! :)

Step two. Below each entry is a place that currently says "0 comments." You'll notice if you move your mouse over that spot on the page it will turn colors and signal a link to another page. Click on that "0 comments" (it may say any # and then comments if people begin to share their thoughts) which will take you to a new page.

Step Three. you don't need to register for anything. Simply type your thoughts in the comments box in the upper right hand part of your screen. Then you will notice a bolded group of words claiming: "Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author." This means that Melanie approves all posts before you will see them, so once you are done, you won't be able to see your comment immediately!

Step four. You will be asked for a word verification. Just type the letters that you see in the box below the letters.

Step five. Finally you will be given an opportunity to "Sign in" as an official blogger. This is where you do not need to register for anything. simply choose the "other" option which will give you a chance to put your name in there if you'd like. Or choose "anonymous" and we will not know who you are.

Tada!! That's it! Now you too can blog with us. We'd love your comments and thoughts. It's nice to know you're out there reading along! Happy blogging!

-Kelly

Prepare the way...

of the Lord, Prepare the way of the Lord, and all people will see the salvation of our God.

I have the simple tune we sing during Advent to these words running through my head. I wish there was a way that I could easily put the tune in this blog! I love these words, as they are hopeful and filled with anticipation for something new and exciting to come from God. Filled valleys, flattened hills, crooked made straight, rough made smooth. Something new is going to happen! No matter what has happened, or what is happening now, there is anticipation for the restorative work that God is going to do. What restorative work do you see God doing in your life?

-Melanie

Isaiah this week!

Oh, if it were so, that the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard with the kid, calf and lion, cow and bear, lion and child! What hope! I find that when our current story, or current life is filled with overwhelming challenges, what gets us through are hopeful visions of what the future might hold. A future different from the present. So after the doom and gloom of being conquered, a future vision of wolf living with lamb would have been a vision the people could cling to, to get them through a difficult time.

I cling to this sense of hope for the future. Especially as I listen to the news, think about the many people dying from disease and poverty, the talks about Iran and anything nuclear. It can be overwhelming. So my hope comes from the new heaven and new earth that will come about in the kingdom of heaven. Sometimes our hope has to lie outside of our current life and reality, and in a reality beyond this life.

-Melanie

Wait and watch

So like a lot of what Jesus says - you read it and go - hmmmm......
What exactly does that mean? We will be looking at Jesus as prophet tomorrow night in worship, and some of what is written in Mark 13 connects with that. Jesus tells his followers not to worry when put on trial before national leaders - the Holy Spirit will give them the right words. The definition of a prophet was someone who had a word from God. He seems to say there will continue to be prophetic voices into the future. But he also warns that just as there were true and false prophets in the past, there would continue to be true and false prophets in the future. It's nice to know when we don't feel we have the right words to say, that the Spirit will have them for us. (at least as a preacher, it's a comforting though!) So what do you make of these words attributed to Jesus in Mark 13?
-Melanie

I'm So Sorry!!!

So here I am, the person who put the whole order together for the weeks we would study each book of the Bible, and then I didn't even read it this week. I just jumped right into Numbers, which isn't something to get very excited about jumping into, when all along I had scheduled for us to be reading Mark, book 41. Whether you are reading Numbers or Mark, I hope that you are finding the readings insightful, and that I haven't brought too much confusion to this whole thing! I initially chose Mark for this week, since we just started our series on Jesus as rabbi, prophet, healer, and savior. So please, do spend time reading through Mark. Matthew is ordered first in the New Testament, but Mark was written first. So Mark is the first written gospel account of the life and times of Jesus! You will notice it's much shorter than Matthew, Luke, and John. I consider it like this: the writer of Mark just wanted to get the basic gist of the story down, then other writers were able to expand and embellish once the primary story had been put into writing. I hope you enjoy, and again, I'm sorry for the confusing reflections on Caleb. You won't find Caleb mentioned at all in Mark, just Numbers :)
Melanie

Prayer

This is an interesting subject in the Western culture. I have been to third world/developing countries and seen what life is like when you actually feel a "need" for God to get you through each day. Prayer is a powerful thing! Prayer, in those places, is what gets people through their hard, agonizing and sometimes terrifying days. And in the end, God is given all credit for answering prayers from daily bread to healing.

Then there is the Western culture. We have somehow replaced prayer with pills, food, doctors, stuff, mortgages we can't afford, a two car garage with 2.5 children a dog and a white picket fence. Who needs prayer? We have all the "daily bread" we need and much, much more! So we find ourselves in a culture that feels disconnected from God. We live as though God is just an ornament we can wear around our necks in the form of a cross. Our ticket into church each week.

So, which culture is the richer one? From my experience living in this culture and realizing how infrequent and inconsistent my prayer life can be and is, but also from spending many weeks in other cultures that are not as "blessed" with stuff as the US, I would quickly respond that our's is the poorer culture by far! We have found our needs met in the world...which is exactly what Jesus warns us against. Harder for the rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle??? I would contend that all of us (at least if we are reading this blog) are the rich man in that scenario. We fill our lives with so many things that we just try to fit God in when there is time. We work and play and pay bills and do so many things that we have to make an effort to have time for our faith! Crazy!

Prayer is the foundation of our relationship with God. That's right, relationship. We were not created to just believe in a distant, far-fetched Creator, cosmic God. We were made to be close and personal with a Savior! How close would you be to your husband or wife, best friend or sibling if you actually never had conversation with them. Would your relationship be authentic if you only talked highly of them to all the people you met, but never actually talked TO them? Of course not. Yet, so many of us...me included, try to have that sort of experience with God. We talk highly of him, even come to church in our fancy clothes and sing with the choir, but in the end of the day, we may not have ever stopped to pray and actually talk with God. So the question arises...how do we change?

Any suggestions?

-kelly

Giants

The faithful one, Caleb, said let's go off to war, we can conquer the land. The others - the 11 - pretty much see it as suicide to go after such strong people. Given that I'm not one for violence, it seems maybe the faithful were the ones who didn't want to fight. But that would just be me reading my own preferences into the text. In reality, the narrative is God promising the people a special land, flowing with milk and honey, and they couldn't expect to just arrive at this wonderful place and plop down without having to deal with the people who were already living there. Too bad they couldn't live side by side. Sad that it seems to be the same today - there seems to be little imagination for living side by side - particularly in the middle east. It seems that for one people to live in a place, they have to push out another people. And that means war.
As I look at this text and integrate it into my life, I can see the goodness of Caleb's trust in God's promises. I, too, can trust in God's promises, but I can't imagine claiming those promises through violence towards others. It just doesn't fit with the Good News Christ proclaimed.
-Melanie

Jesus the Healer

As i read the story from Mark 5 today i couldn't help but think about the incredible hulk. The way the passage describes the demon possessed man from the cemetery makes him sound like a fictional character. He was so strong that he could break out of chains and shackles? I didn't know people could actually do that. But if they could in real life, i do know one thing for sure...I would be afraid.

That's what is so fascinating about Jesus in this passage. He doesn't seem the least bit afraid of the gignator, super strong guy. He was still a long way off and the man started running toward Jesus. If i were Jesus in that moment, i think my first thought would have been to try my walking on water trick or something to get me as far away from the scary strong man. But Jesus appears quite calm in this passage. And it says before the man even gets to Jesus, Jesus has already commanded the demons to come out of him. I haven't had much experience with Demon possession in my life, but the few times i have seen situations that were claiming to be about demon possession were not calm situations. And yet Jesus remains calm, as far as we can tell. He possesses a confidence and trust that is desirable. I'd like to know that in the face of any scary situation that i would be able to recall what i know to be true about God, and then trust that God will lead me through it. I guess that's something i can be praying more about. And this study ought to help with the ability to recall information about God. I hope you are learning some new things as well!

-Kelly

Monday's reading...

I don't usually spend much time reading 1 Peter, so I found this reading intriguing (at least in reference to reading through all the census taking, names, and numbers that fill up the whole book of Numbers!) I didn't really like the whole "Fear God. Honor the emperor." idea of 1 Peter. It doesn't seem very loving or freeing, but I read in my bible commentary notes that the author was probably anxious that Christians not appear to be opposing or threatening to the state, making things harder on them. The emperor is to be honored, but God is to be feared, a profound respect due to God alone.

I also find the idea of servants of God being identified as aliens and exiles. Aliens and exiles aren't held in much esteem these days, yet this is what we are to strive to be: aliens - never fully at home in our surrounding culture, and exiles - belonging ultimately to another homeland with God. So here's to all the exiles and aliens - servants of God!
-Melanie
(Notes from The New Interpreter's Study Bible)

Yom Kippur

A second order has been established, to abolish the need for the sin offerings of the past. That's the gist of Hebrews interpretation of Christ's death and resurrection. I'm quite glad to not have to worry about sacrificing a variety of animals for my different sins. But there is something good about Yom Kippur that I think we lose when we focus on blanket forgiveness. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE grace - unwarranted forgiveness and love from God in spite of my brokeness. But if we forget that there's a need for forgiveness, we can't appreciate the great gift that grace is. I think it's good for us to have a ritual time like Yom Kippur, or a "Day of Atonement". A time when we reflect on our choices and our actions, take responsibility for both the good and the bad, and ask forgiveness of those whom we have hurt. It's not a fun thing to do, but it is definitely a freeing thing to do, and it can repair relationships that look to be irreparable.
-Melanie

Ouch!

Hi all! I'm back to work after a joyful weekend of getting married! It was wonderful and I might even post a picture or two once I get them.
So I'm back to picking up the blog, and when I read the scripture for today, my first thought was OUCH! Leviticus can be a tough book to get through, particularly with all of the restrictions rules about what to do and what not to do. Mess up, and you get burned up. It's rather harsh. One of the things that we can take from this, is the importance of not taking lightly the sacredness of the Holy. Being flippant about the holy is something to run away from. The difference between Aaron's sons and Aaron is they didn't see how serious God was. And the different between Jesus and Aaron's sons is humility. At least that's what I see today. Tomorrow I might see something else. Today I'm reminded that offering ourselves to God with humility is much better than offering ourselves with a big dose of self-righteousness about what we are doing and how we do it. Humility is the "Word" for the day for me. A high holy priest with an attitude is much different than a high holy priest with humility. Same goes for a high holy servant. The reading today seems to be a warning - to take a closer look at how we come before God and how we offer ourselves to others.
-Melanie

John the Baptist

The question for reflection today in our verses from Mark is referring to Mark 3:8. What does it mean to "produce fruit in keeping with repentance."?

My translation of Mark 3:8 is this: "Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God." Isn't this what people are always looking for? We want proof... We want proof that the gimmick we heard about on the infomercial is going to actually puree our food in 1.6 seconds flat, or that the knife can cut through glass. We want proof that the person we are in relationship means it when he/she says "i love you." As children, we want proof that Santa Claus has been in our house while we slept! Why would we believe in something if there is no "proof" to back it up.

If this is how we feel about the world, why does it surprise us that people are asking that question about our faith? Christians are always on the chopping block of hypocrisy. It seems that there are many a story out today about this religious leader doing something inappropriate, or that "girl who claims to be a Christian" cheating on her taxes. People want proof that what we claim to follow, actually makes a difference in the way we live our lives. There is no point it talking about all the great things that Jesus stood for, and lived by, and did for others if we are not going to actually strive to be the same. We have the opportunity to share God's love with our neighbors, our enemies, our family, even strangers. That's what Christ did. That was who Jesus was. And if we are claiming to be disciples of Christ, then shouldn't our behaviors model what He stood for? Should we be concerned about the poor? Shouldn't we want to help those who are lying on the side of the road? Shouldn't we feel deep grief when a good friend dies?

The more i study Jesus, the more i realize how difficult it is to be a disciple. But the more i study Jesus and attempt to put into practice the things he says, the more I realize how rewarding and freeing it is to be a disciple.

All of that being said, and i will confess that i have not be Christ-like today. I am tired, and frustrated, and difficult. I'm glad we are studying this book. I need these daily reminders, especially on days like today!

May your life be a reflection of Christ's life this day!
-Kelly

Atonement

I think today is the first time i have ever read the Leviticus passage (chapter 16) right up next to the reference of Christ's sacrifice in Hebrews (10:1-14). What a crazy cool parallel that is, and how powerful it must have been to the Jews who believed Christ at the time. Not to cheapen customs or tradition, but how freeing it must be to realize that you don't have to go through that intense process every year in order to be in God's good graces. Having not grown up Jewish, I can only imagine what the custom was like for them, based on the Scripture references we have. Yet, without going from feeling trapped to feeling free, i think i lack some of the reverence and awe and passion that the original believers must have known. I have been blessed to believe and understand Christ's message for most all of my life. I am grateful for that as i do believe that it has saved me from a lot of potential pain and frustration with life. But at the same time, I think it takes more effort for me to truly understand Christ's sacrifice when i have never known anything different! I hope to be someone who remains in awe of what Jesus did for me, and for you, and for anyone who chooses to believe! May we grow through this study and through community together, into a greater appreciation and depth of knowledge of all that God did for us through Christ!

Hope you enjoy this beautiful Fall Wednesday!
-kelly

back to work...

Sorry for the absence of entries these last few days. I am working on my own discipline, but looking forward to getting back into this routine. I hope there is some grace in that...

Which actually leads me to my thoughts on today's text. We read from Leviticus 11 and Acts 10. The picture that came to my mind as i was reading these scriptures was being a little kid and walking in the mall, or on a sidewalk and trying not to step on a crack. Do you remember doing that...how your tiny little, child-sized feet could fit entirely into one square tile and you would jump from tile to tile with the hopes of never stepping on a crack. I remember a little saying that was shared from elementary school student to elementary school student..."Step on a crack and you'll break your mother's back." Not a nice saying, but it rhymed... :)

I can remember how upset i would get when i'd lose my balance or someone would shove me and i'd step on a crack. I'm not sure if it was because i believed the rhyme and thought i'd somehow hurt my mom, or if is was just because i like to "win" and felt like stepping on a crack was "failing." As i read the Old Testament scripture in Leviticus I can't help but think that the people back then must have felt a bit like a child trying to avoid the cracks... Here is a list of animals you cannot touch, or even stub your toe on, or you'll be "Defiled until evening." What pressure! They must have lived in such fear of messing up. There were so many rules and so many "proper" ways to be in a right relationship with God.

Then we meet Jesus. He takes away that need for perfection and rules. Not so that we live without rule, but so that we are not the ones responsible for being "good enough" for God. Thank God for that! I would never be able to make it through all the Old Testament rules! i am reading this book that talks about how we need both Truth and Grace. That without one, we have a problem...ie. no truth would mean grace covers all, and we would have no boundaries to keep us from doing horrible things. But truth alone is all about rules and we can never be good enough. I'm so thankful to be serving a God who is rooted in both Truth and Grace!

Lack of discipline

Hello Transformation Journal readers.

This is Kelly, writing to confess that I am not yet disciplined! :) I realize that i have not posted anything on Exodus since Thursday. I was given the task of keeping up the post while Melanie went off to get married, and I missed a few days. Now, I'm here and ready, but my journal is at home! I will get back into the "rhythm" of things tomorrow. I hope your work with the Transformation Journal is going well. I'm looking forward to becoming a more disciplined...

Kelly

Justice

Sometimes i get up on my high horse of thinking that the Old Testament is full of dos and don'ts and that it was contextual and does not apply to my life today. I can sometimes even lean as far as to think that my faith could do without the Old Testament and just focus on the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus. Yet, what i read today reminds me that many of Jesus' teachings do stem from Old Testament scripture. And it's a beautiful thing to think about the fact that since the beginning of time God cared for the lost, the left out, and the poor. God has always been and will always be a God of Justice. Jesus came to teach us more about justice through his way of life, and his parables. I want to be more about justice like we read in Exodus.

What struck me, however, is how unnatural justice can be. We are called to return our enemy's donkey to him (Exodus 23:4) and to lift the heavy burden off of those who hate us (v. 5). I'd be happy to return a lost pet to a friend, or help someone i love who is hurting or in trouble. But when i think about the people in my life who have wronged me...the ones who maybe have left me on the side of the road, i have a hard time thinking about being as loving as this scripture encourages. I think that my natural instinct is that justice would be for them to suffer, or feel the pain that i have felt.

I think this is what is so remarkable, and yet so revolutionary about God and the call for each of us in faith. We are asked not to respond with what might "feel" like justice to us, rather to respond with what looks more like justice in the form of love. That's radical. That's Christ-like. That's really hard somedays!

My prayer for this world, especially those of us who are claiming to follow God, is that we would learn to be more loving in our understanding of justice. That we would see justice as God sees justice and love even those who might seem, at first, impossible to love!

May you love like that today!

-Kelly

More on Moses

Moses reminds me of a little child in this passage where God speaks from the cloud. He's bit whiny and lazy...actually he kinda reminds me a bit of myself. I have no idea what Mount Sinai must have looked like, or how large it was, but the fact that they continue to reference it in this passage as a mountain was what caught my eye today. That God gives Moses a bunch of instructions to tell the people..."have them be clean, don't let them touch the mountain, let them hear my voice..." But then God calls Moses to the top of the mountain, so after the mountain is covered with smoking fire and shook from a violent earthquake, Moses willingly CLIMBS A MOUNTAIN. Not just takes a small hike up the hill, but climbs a mountain. I imagine he must have been in better shape than i am because he had just made the trek from Egypt to Mount Sinai...eating only manna and quail (a diet i would have for sure tired of after the first week). So he huffs and puffs his way up to the top only to hear God say, "Go back down and tell the people not to touch the mountain!" Really God?! I just got my tired self up here and now you're saying go back down!?

Do you ever feel like Moses? Like you are sacrificing and climbing your mountain in order to please God and then just when you think you are at the top and it's time to rest, you're told to go back down and start the journey over! I'm with moses on this one. Verse 23 of Chapter 19 says, "Moses protested!" Darn right he protested! What a frustrating message to hear. But. That's what follows the protest. But, God... And then, Moses went back down.

One summer i was working for a mission organization, overseeing three mission trip sites in Colorado and Wyoming. It was a hard summer! I felt like I was doing my very best for God and making all kinds of sacrifices for Him. I was exhausted, at the end of my rope, and ready to come to the final week of the summer. I had three very difficult sites that summer with lots of staff issues, and spiritual warfare type stuff. So i was going to end my summer at my easiest site and just coast on home. Then the phone rang!

One of the sites in South Dakota had had a terrible accident and all the staff were in the hospital. They still had one week left of students coming, and there was no one to run the show. So, instead of dropping to my knees and praying for these poor friends who were badly hurt, one of them even in a coma, I threw a temper tantrum with God! I cried, yelled, hollered, threw my fists in the air and blatantly told God that He was asking too much of me! I knew i'd end up going eventually (it was my job and i didn't really have a choice), but before i went, i turned into a whiny little kid and cried my eyes out. I was exhausted. I couldn't do another week, including making an 8 hour drive to South Dakota the next day.

Kelly protested!

But.

But i went anyway. Reluctantly, even begrudgingly. I went with a bad attitude and a broken spirit but i went! And what came of that week is by far one of my most memorable weeks in a three year history with this mission organization! Kids' lives were dramatically changed. My life was dramatically changed.

I say all of this for one reason. I think that both Moses' story and my story show us that God is not a God who expects us to be anything other than what we are. broken. sometimes whiny. lost. hurt. tired. confused. However we are, we are given permission to be real with God. No need to fake a willingness. No reason to fake happiness. No chance at convincing God we are joyful when we're not. God takes us as we are, and uses whatever we are willing to offer. And that, my friends, is Good News!

Happy Wednesday!
kelly

Bread without Yeast

Ya know the term, "beat a dead horse"? I kinda felt like that's what our scripture did today when it came to the discussion of the passover meal. I was struck by how many times i read the words, "bread without yeast" and how much focus there was on that part of the meal. So much so that if you were an Israelite during the passover time and you snuck a piece of leavened bread, or made something with yeast like wine or bread, you would not only be in trouble, you'd be literally kicked out of the community. "anyone who eats anything made with yeast during this week will be cut off from the community of Israel. These same regulations apply to the foreigners living with you, as if they had been born among you." Exodus 12:19. God was serious about this yeast thing.

Why?

I thought i'd be able to figure that out and write up an incredibly insightful, very moving entry about how God asked the people to be yeast free for these particular, life changing reasons, therefore teaching us something brilliant 2000 years later. But when i looked up yeast and did a little research on it, i basically am left with..."huh"? Why can't they use yeast in their bread? I understand that it changes the structure of the bread, it changes the taste of the bread, but what's the bid deal? Are they forbidden because there is evidence that the ancient Egyptians were the first to use yeast? Did God not want the people to succumb to one of their inventions? Is it because the yeast made the bread more desirable to eat and God wanted them to somehow be reminded of their suffering through the nasty tasting flat bread? Maybe God thought that the yeast was too much of a luxury? Maybe it was all done this way so that they were able to take their unleavened bread on the run with them when they were finally freed and had the ability to bake flat bread and keep the dough for longer than they would with the yeast!

Ultimately, this is one of those things that i am still confused by. God said no more yeast in this festival. not just this year, but always!

And i can't hear that without immediately thinking of Jesus telling the parable of the yeast and how the Kingdom of God is like yeast that works its way through the dough slowly and eventually penetrates the entire batch so that it is all delicious and raised. So, Jesus uses it as if yeast is a good thing. God seems to prevent the people from using it in Egypt, but i can't tell why! Any thoughts...

-kelly

Let My People Go...

I have the African American Spiritual going through my head right now - the cry of the oppressed throughout the ages have clung to this story of Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. As I read this scripture this morning, I couldn't help but think of what is going on right now in Myanmar. Our church sponsored a refugee family from Myanmar this past year, as they and others have suffered under the military regime. I was struck by the images of what news reports said, were 10,000 Buddhist Monks and over 100 nuns who have been marching, trying to bring attention to the plight of the people, and bring about peaceful change for an oppressed people. I hope against hope, as they probably do, that change will happen in a peaceful way. It's my guess that Moses and the Israelites were hoping against hope to be free of slavery. It's an old story, but for people around the world, they are living it right now. The good news in this, is that in the story, we see that God is active and working with the people to bring about good change, to bring new life to them. It has been so, and may it be so today!

Baby Moses

Our text today comes from Exodus 1 -2. The questions that come with it are all about the hard lives of the Israelites during the time of the new king. And yet, what struck me as i read this scripture today was that a nursing mother would put her son in a basket on a river! Hard conditions are one thing...not to downplay the slavery or problems of the people, but life must have been way more intense than our scripture shares if a new mother's best option for her child is to put him in a basket and send him on his way.

A friend of mine just had their first born, a son! I have never been as drawn to a child like I am this little guy. I was there in the hospital on the day he was born, and have had the privilege of watching him double in size in this first three months, and learn new things like laughing and discovering his own fingers and thumb to suck on. What a huge thing! And as i think about this little boy whom i love, that doesn't even belong to me, i cannot imagine what it must have been like for the people of Egypt if the most desirable option would be to send your son down a river in a basket! What faith! What trust in God that he would come through!

A little behind schedule...go figure!

So getting married in less than a week has taken quite a bit of my time, and I didn't get my reflections posted for the past two days. So sorry! Better late than never, here they are:

Friday's reading:
The scriptures spend a lot more time on Jacob than they do Esau. Perhaps that's because we are more like Jacob than Esau. We are more apt to cheat our way into a blessing, to do things that we not are not right, to flee from our wrongdoings, to wrestle with God in the middle of angst-filled nights. We might be Jacobs, but it's Esau I'd rather be. No, we wouldn't want our families to hurt or be dishonest with us, to cheat us out of an inheritance. It would be awful to feel like you've played by the rules, and been cheated by your own mom and brother. Yet over time, Esau didn't let revenge or anger overtake him. He moved on. He made a life for himself - and when he heard that his brother was coming back - after two decades - he ran out to welcome him home. Jacob was right in thinking that Esau might want to kill him - but Esau had long before chosen forgiveness over revenge. May we all live like Esau!

Saturday's reading:
I guess today, I take from Joseph's story the same thing I take from Esau. We can choose to let anger and revenge take hold of our hearts, or we can choose to be free from those chains, and live a life of forgiveness. I am amazed at some of the hurtful things that people can do or say, even to their family - the people they are supposed to love the most. And it can be a challenge to choose a way other than vengence. It takes a lot more strength to love someone than to despise or hate them. It's the harder path, but the better path to take. That's what I need to be remembering these days. It's hard, but it's better.

- Melanie

Isaac and his blessing

Genesis 26:1-6; 27:1-28:5; Romans 9:1-16

Of Course! of course it just so happens to be the day that it's my turn to blog that we have to stumble upon these verses. I have wrestled with these scriptures since i was a junior or senior in high school. How could a loving God say, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated"? How could a story of deceit be a good story? And by all means, how could God lift up Jacob as much as he is lifted up, ie. "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" our forefathers, when he was such a cheating, lying deceiver? Do you wrestle with these questions? Clearly we have some villains in these passages. It's almost like a movie where you spend the entire time wondering who you should like! Esau is the victim at the beginning but he turns so hateful and wretched it's hard to side with him. Rebekah is some sort of dysfunctional mother who clearly favors one son at the expense and loss of another. Jacob must not have much of a moral compass at that point since he is unwilling to turn away the proposal of his mom. And even sweet, old Isaac is slightly irritating that he can't figure out the situation...He even says something about it being Jacob's voice buy Esau's hairy feel. Come on, dad...can you really be that easily fooled! Seriously, who is likable in this scripture!

For the years that i have wrestled with these passages, i have come to only one conclusion that i can sit with. I can't focus on the underdog, Esau because then life just seems unfair. But as we read in Romans 9 we are told that God was not being unfair because he said from the beginning with Moses, "i will show mercy to anyone i choose and i will show compassion to anyone i choose." Really??!! I don't really get it, but ok! And this is why i'm ok with it: If i were God, I think i would have been ticked at the conniving little punk in Jacob. I would have felt sorry for clueless Esau and maybe even thrown a goat in his path a bit sooner in the story so he could have foiled the plan. But luckily for all, i'm not God. I don't even come close! I'll never claim to understand God, and i think we're created that way on purpose. But from all i have learned, God claims to work all things for GOOD! maybe not always my human and finite definition of "good," but good according to God. And as frustrating as it may be for me some days that i can't understand that, i'm learning to rest in the truth that God is good, and that God is full of grace and mercy. And that no matter how much it may not seem that way to me at times, history (both mine and that of Scripture) proves it to be true. Jacob goes on to be an incredible leader and figure in our religious history. Maybe Esau would have mucked everything up! It's when i think i have the right answer that i am reminded that God knows so much more than me and my responsibility is not to know, but to trust!

So, maybe you are at a place today that makes you think God is being unfair...Maybe you've just had an Esau moment at work or school, or an Esau week, maybe even some Esau years. I pray that we can all find ways to quit asking the "why" questions and wanting the "answers" and focus more on learning to trust!

Blessings on your Thursday,
Kelly

Blessed and a blessing

I just realized we are off a day - that the journal starts with Sunday, not Monday! So I'm going to skip reflecting on Noah (sorry, Noah) and jump to Abraham to catch up. I like these readings about being in a covenant with God, especially as I prepare to make a covenant before God in just over a week. A covenant is a big deal - it's not a hand shake or a "cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" sort of promise. It's much more serious than that. It's something holy, that we go into with the utmost awareness of what the covenant might require of us. Abraham, in this covenant with God, is promised land, lots of kids, and a nation. In return, Abraham has to trust and follow God.

I've always been curious about Gods' appearances to Abraham. I'm wondering what it looked/felt like. Did Abraham get the burning bush like Moses? Or something equally as random? I also find it interesting that in Genesis 17 - it's Abraham who laughs at God's pronouncement that Sarah will have a baby. We usually think of Sarah being the one who laughed at the absurdity of having a child so late in life (Genesis 18) - but Abraham did as well.

Even when we try to trust God and discover what God would have us do, it's good to know that we can give a full, hearty laugh towards the extraordinary things God might have in store for us. But then we move beyond the laugh and do what we have to, to make it happen!

-Melanie

The Story Retold. The Fall

For some reason reading Genesis 2-3 this time felt like it was the first time i've read it. The story was alive in my mind and I was facinated by pieces of the story that i had never really thought about before. I ponder the question about how God said that if Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they will surely die! Did God really intend, then, in creating Adam and Eve that they would live forever? Would there really have been no death for them had they never chosen to eat that fruit? And the serpent's curse was that he would grovel and crawl on his belly...is there a chance that the serpent wasn't a slithering animal before he convinced Adam and Eve to betray their trust in God? I wish i could have been there to see it all! What a world they existed in when they were first created!

And yet as i think about the Garden, I think about how peaceful and wonderful it must have been before "The Fall". Creation. The way God intended for creation to be. Is that what we are supposed to be pursuing in this life? Is it possible that all of the Bible's talk about "The Kingdom of God" is ultimately to help us get back to that wonderful world called "The Garden"? Maybe Jesus' stories about sacrifice and humility and love and putting others before yourself are all clues on how we could live more like God intended us to live in the first place. Maybe we're supposed to be getting more out of Christ's stories about the "Kingdom of Heaven" that pertains to the way we live our lives here and now, rather than seeing them as how life will be for "Christians" after death! Maybe our goal should be to get back to that incredibly alive, beautifully peaceful, good Garden. How do we get there? What is it that Jesus tells us about the Kingdom of Heaven? What needs to change in me if i am supposed to be growing toward that goal? What about you?

We begin!

The first post in a year-long conversation on scripture, faith, and how it's relevant in our lives, begins today! We begin with Genesis and end up at Revelation, using the Transformation Journal.

In these introductory verses, the very beginning of our sacred texts, we hear a story of explanation for how the world came to be and how humans came to relate to one another they way they do. I'm not particularly interested in debating whether the world was created in 6 days, 144 hours, or 8840 minutes, or if this is a story told orally for many years to help people make sense of their existence. I tend to think this is a sacred story meant to give us insight into who our Creator is and to better understand how we live and interact and understand this Creator.

The first question in the Transformation Journal is: What does it mean to be created in God's image? The New Interpreter's Study Bible outlines several answers to this question throughout history. The first understanding was outlined by Augustine, stating that the image of God in human beings referred to the rational soul, placed by God in the human body, which was created out of the ground. Throughout the centuries, being created in the image of God has shifted to referring to the sanctity and innate worth of all human beings, suggesting that all people be treated with equal dignity. Another interpretation is that human beings, created in God's image, are given the responsibility to care for what God has created. This challenges us to look at the ways we care for our own bodies, the earth, and all that is in it.

Today, as I read, I'm struck by the rhythm of the text, and how after each creation, God saw that it was good. I think this text encourages our own sense of creativity, and seeing the good in it. It also reminds us that creativity and creation are good - but that we are not to overwork and overdo it. God took sabbath time, a seventh day, to rest and bless the work. Good took rest. We need to take rest! To see the good in what we do, to bless it, and to rest the good creations that we are!