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!