Archive for » 2010 «

Pilling Up

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

Written many years ago, sometimes it’s good to reflect on past experiences.

These days I am having to learn lessons about acceptance.  It is February in New Jersey.  We are having the worst winter anyone around here can remember.  My car is stuck in the ice (and had been for some days now).  Schools are closed (and have been quite regularly).  Business has ground to a halt – no one is in.  This is the second month of sub zero wind chills.  The second month of constant shoveling.  The second month of astronomical heating bills, no salt, no sand.  It is the era of cabin fever.

I try to work.  The kids are constantly underfoot, being kids bored with life, unable to do what they want to do (go outside).  So they find ways to antagonize each other.  They succeed in exasperating me.  Television is pathetic, even when the cable is working.  We have seen every Disney video twenty times.

My wife is home from the office.  The telephone rings constantly.  Is she there?  Just one more call and I’ll watch the kids for awhile, I hear.  Twenty five minutes of conversation, one minute of baby-sitting, another ring.  So it goes.  I would rather she brave the impassable roads and go to the office.  I am exhausted trying to keep the kids occupied and away from her at the same time.  I give up every expectation of getting anything done on my agenda.

At least I can do the household fix up chores.  It seems like a burst of inspiration.  But the nineteen month old keeps picking up the screwdriver, the four year old wants to hammer.  I put it down.  I’ll just read.  The littlest one decides that reading would be great – as long as I am reading to her.  I sit and stare blankly at the ESPN channel, watching the women do step aerobics.  Only six more weeks until the thaw.  Could life get more pathetic?

God must have known that we would have days like these.  I am reminded of a host of phrases which seem so impossible now.  “In everything give thanks”, “all things work together for good”, “Rejoice evermore”, “This is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it”.  All those wonderful, positive expressions seem so barren at the moment.  They don’t not speak comfort to me.  If anything, they convict me for I am not rejoicing, I’m not giving thanks, I’m not glad.  I want to say to God, “Wait a minute.  You can do anything you want to.  You can take care of all of these trying circumstances with just a whisper.  But what about me?  I’m here, stuck in the ice with two kids, no car, bored, frustrated, angry.  How come I have to go through this stuff day after day?”

I don’t get verbal responses.  It’s probably a good thing.  I would most likely interpret a verbal answer as a sure sign that I had finally gone crazy from all this frustration.  Instead I find that I am reminded of some of the basics of my beliefs.  I hear Paul saying to me, “to know him and the fellowship of his suffering” is all that matters.  I hear James reminding me that I need to “count it all joy when” I fall into attitude temptations.  I remember Jesus’ teaching about the sparrows.  And then I think of the one who saved me from my ego filled attitudes.  Jesus.  Did he have it so easy?  Forget the crucifixion.  What about just ordinary life?  Didn’t he have to deal with cuts and bruises?  Didn’t he encounter traveling woes?  Didn’t he face unsympathetic people demanding of him?  Didn’t he experience interruptions and distractions?  Didn’t he have to manage conflicting relationships?  And didn’t he do it, without ever losing his proper attitude toward who God His father is.  “Give us this day, our daily bread”.  Is that just a request for this day’s provisions, or is it also part of the plea for spiritual nourishment?  Not living by bread alone must mean asking for what we need today for all of our sustenance.  And today God has given me snow, ice, children, interruptions, an unplanned agenda.  As part of my required nourishment.  As something that I need from Him to grow.

That thought challenges my attitude.  Maybe it isn’t my wife or the weather or the kids or whatever else comes my way today that I need to work on.  The fact is that these things hardly ever seem to change and certainly they do not change because I try to make them different.  The only thing that really affects my circumstances is me.  I can change only one thing – who I am.

Sometimes it takes a reminder.  God seems to accomplish that part of the process quite efficiently.  I get a phone call from someone in Minnesota.  He laughs at my complaints about the weather.  It’s 32 below zero there.  Some else calls from California.  The earthquake has changed his commute from 30 minutes to 6 hours.  My four year old greets me as I walk into the kitchen and, unprompted, tells me that I am his best Dad.  Could I color with him, please?  If I let myself see reality instead of my projections, life is simply what it is – a time and place for adjustments, gratitude and grace.

God, grant me the strength to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

One day at a time.

Category: Articles  | Tags: ,  | One Comment

Graceland (2)

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

And it shall come to pass, if you carefully listen to my commandments which I command you today,  . . . Deuteronomy 11:13

Carefully Listen To – We have discovered that even Jewish rabbis recognized the priority of grace.  The false dichotomy between law and grace was an invention of Augustine.  His influence spread through church history, resulting in the current mistaken view that Jews believe salvation comes by “works” but Christians have a superior understanding of the role of grace.  None of this is biblical.

So, now that we have a corrected view of the biblical position, let’s take a closer look at this verse.  Immediately we see that the original is a duplicate word, shama’.  The text actually reads “eem-shamoa tishmeoo” (if you shama’ shama’).  The verb shama’ means “to listen, to hear, to obey, to regard, to proclaim, to heed, to understand.”  A pretty wide umbrella covering most of what it means to know what God says and do it.  In order to emphasize the importance of this concept, the text duplicates the word.  This is like putting an exclamation point behind the idea.  It’s not simply a matter of receiving the sound waves with your ears.  This is “Pay attention!”  “Do what you are instructed to do!”  Carefully give attention to God’s Word and be sure that what He says becomes the way that we live.

It’s worth noting that there is a small Hebrew particle proceeding the duplicated shama’.  That particle is eem.  It is “if.”  God’s instruction is conditional.  “If you pay attention and do what I command you to do, then certain things will follow.”  Of course, conditional statements require fulfillment.  So, even though Israel is God’s chosen people, they must still commit themselves to His ways.  The covenant of grace contains expected obligations.  God acts to save.  Israel is expected to live accordingly.

“If you carefully listen and obey,” says the Lord, “then I will deliver what you need to be prosperous, safe and satisfied.”  That sounds pretty good.  After all, who is capable of bringing the rains, causing the growth of the plants, protecting the livestock and satisfying our needs more than God Himself?  Do we really think that we can handle all the tasks and circumstances of life on our own?  Are we really ready to say, “No thanks, Lord.  I’ll just make my own way in the world.”  Obedience has rewards – if we listen carefully.

Of course, there is the other side of the coin.  We could act as if God’s instructions for living don’t apply to us.  We could ignore the if and not listen or obey.  I wonder what we can expect to occur then?  Maybe we should ask Adam.

Topical Index:  shama’, eem, if, listen, obey, Deuteronomy 11:13

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , ,  | 3 Comments

Correction on Galatians

Tuesday, March 09th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

Attentive reader John McNear informed me that Disc 3 and Disc 4 of Galatians were switched.  I fixed the audio files and re-uploaded them to the Galatians page.  Thanks John.

Category: Articles  | Tags:  | Leave a Comment

Graceland (1)

Tuesday, March 09th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

And it shall come to pass, if you carefully listen to my commandments which I command you today,  . . . Deuteronomy 11:13

Carefully Listen To -  Rabbi Joshua ben Karha said, “Why does the section, Hear, O Israel (Deut 6:4-9) precede the [section] and it shall come to pass if ye shall harken [diligently to my commandments]? – so that a man may first take upon him the yoke of the kingdom of heaven and afterward take upon him the yoke of the commandments.”[1] What does the rabbi mean?  He means that grace always precedes commitment to Torah.  Every Jew knew that God chose before God commanded.  Every Jew knew that keeping the commandments was a voluntary obligation taken after God’s rescue from bondage.  No Jew ever believed that being Torah-observant “saved” someone.  God acts first.  Torah observance comes later.  It is grace, always grace, in God’s land.

If Jewish rabbis knew that faith comes first and works come second, and if Jewish rabbis knew that obedience is an expression of devotion to the God who already saved us, then why is there such an artificial battle between “law” and grace?  James makes it very clear that both are necessary.  Paul says that grace and works go hand-in-hand.  But somewhere along the line Christians began thinking that law was opposed to grace.  Where did all that begin?  You can’t find it in the rabbis’ writings and you can’t find it in the Hebrew Scripture.  Who started this debate?

The answer is Augustine.  When Augustine converted from paganism to Christianity in the 4th century, he read Paul’s words in Romans 7 as if they described the normal process of conversion.  In fact, he saw his own life in those words.  As a result, he thought Paul was speaking autobiographically, contrasting the man who wished to do what is right with the man who was under the power of sin and could not do what was right.  In other words, Augustine saw “sinful nature” hidden in this text – a sinful nature that was condemned under the law and set free under grace.  Law became the enemy, existing only to make us more aware of our plight.  Grace became the rescuer, setting us free from the awful verdict of the law.  For Augustine, law stood in opposition to grace.  To be free meant to be free of the law.

Augustine set the stage for nearly 1800 years.  Luther followed him.  So did Calvin.  As a result, Christianity today is the product of Augustine’s conversion experience, not the teachings of Jewish rabbis like Paul, Peter and John.  Christians today read the Bible interpreted by Augustine, a neo-Platonist pagan convert.  Even Jewish rabbis who don’t embrace the Messiah know better.

If the “law and grace” dichotomy is the product of extra-biblical influence, what other Christian doctrines are also the result of men who did not write our Bible?  Do you think baptism might be an issue?  Or atonement?  Or forgiveness?  Or salvation?  We need a much better historical awareness, don’t we?

Topical Index:  Augustine, law, grace, Deuteronomy 11:13, Rabbi Joshua b. Karha

[1] Berakoth 2.2

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , ,  | 11 Comments

Matthew, session 9

Monday, March 08th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(To listen, hit the Play button above, or right-click here, select “Save as…” and download the file to your computer.)

Category: Matthew  | Leave a Comment

Matthew, session 8

Monday, March 08th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(To listen, hit the Play button above, or right-click here, select “Save as…” and download the file to your computer.)

Category: Matthew  | Leave a Comment

David’s Anatomy

Monday, March 08th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; . . Psalm 139:14

Wonderfully – Believers love this verse.  It’s so majestic.  It lifts the human being to such elevated heights.  We are almost like angels.  We are special.  God made us.

But there’s a little problem.  The words ki nora’ot nifleiyti don’t seem to mean what this traditional translation suggests.  Alter writes, “Most interpreters understand nifleiyti as a variant spelling of niflei’ta, a verb whose root means ‘wonder’ and render it here as ‘wondrously made.’  But there is scant evidence that this verb can mean ‘wondrously made’ rather than simply ‘was wondrous.’  Spelled as it is with a heh and not an aleph, the verb means ‘to be set apart’ or ‘to be distinct.’”[1] Alter translates the text as “for awesomely I am set apart.”  This shifts the meaning from a statement about God’s creation of all men to a statement about God’s choice to make David king.  It is personal, not universal.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we aren’t marvelously engineered.  Genesis makes it very clear that Man is uniquely created by God.  But Alter’s point helps us adjust our filters.  Even those translations that appeal to our sense of divine connection must be carefully examined.  Maybe all that David is really saying is that he is special.  The Hebrew language here seems to suggest a far more pedestrian meaning than translators have assumed.  It makes you wonder how many other verses that appear to be about human nobility are really linguistic constructions shaped to fit a paradigm rather than careful transmission of the original meaning.  Fortunately, there are scholars like Robert Alter who won’t let a word or two slide by.

Once again we are reminded that Scripture comes clothed in context.  David doesn’t always speak for all human beings.  His relationship with the Lord is personal and his songs of praise often come from his own personal experience and reflect his own personal circumstances.  It’s not surprising that he would praise the Lord for being set apart as king.  Whenever we are tempted to remove the verse from the life situation in which it was written, we should be on guard.  Of course, there are principles and proclamations that stretch across time and culture.  But there might be far fewer than we think.  After all, Scripture is a story of God’s interactions with particular people, especially with men and women of Israel.  We can draw conclusions from this story, but that doesn’t mean the story was written about us.  One of the biggest hurdles in biblical interpretation is the latent idea that the Bible was written about me.  If I am seduced by that claim, I will read the text for what it means to me, not what the author said about life when he wrote it.

Maybe this is a good place to pause and ask yourself, “How many of my treasured verses need to be re-examined?  How many of those verses have I assumed were written as if I were the intended audience?  What do those verses mean if I remove myself from the mix?”

Topical Index:  interpretation, wonderfully, nifleiyti, distinct, set apart, Psalm 139:14

[1] Robert Alter, Psalms, p. 481

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , ,  | 16 Comments

Inevitability

Sunday, March 07th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Psalm 31:11

Fails – Sin contains its own consequences.  There is no separation between the act and the result.  Unlike our system of justice, the Hebrew view does not think of the punishment as a distinct function from the crime.  In Hebrew, it would be impossible to write a novel called “Crime and Punishment.”  The two are inevitably intertwined.  That’s why forgiveness – the removal of guilt – does not relieve one from the consequences.  God forgives, but the damage is done.  Restitution is still necessary.  Penalties are still inflicted.  We all hope that forgiveness will fix everything, but it won’t.  Forgiveness removes the obstacle that stands between me and my God, but it does not remove the inevitability of sin’s destruction.

David recognizes this fact of nature.  He sees that sin saps strength.  Actually, the Hebrew verb he uses is kashal.  It means “to stagger, to stumble, to make weak.”  Sin is moral disobedience, but its results have physical, emotional, mental and spiritual effects.  My moral disobedience causes stumbling and staggering everywhere in my life.  One thing affects all things.  Since the Hebrew view of Man does not compartmentalize, there is no hope trying to isolate corrupt behaviors from the rest of my existence.  Sin sucks it all in.

Our Greek-based ideas of being human rarely confront this truth.  We think we can maintain the watertight compartments of our lives without spillover.  So, we attempt to practice a form of righteousness in some social circles, but we accommodate patterns of the world in others.  We follow the Golden Rule when it comes to those we love, but we use a different operating principle with our enemies.  We attempt to maintain moral purity in public, but we keep secret corrupt caches to ease our pain.  And most of the time, we expend tremendous effort patching the leaks from one compartment to another.  It’s a useless struggle.  Men and women are not made of nicely packaged boxes.  They are porous spheres, constantly interacting with everything that comes along.  The only real solution is a code of conduct that allows us to operate with consistency across all the borders of life.  There’s a reason we carry God’s image, and it is not about moral schizophrenia.

Perhaps we should take a moment to examine where we stumble, totter or stagger.  Is there a chance that our experience of failure is linked to some carefully concealed compartment?  Do we find that somewhere in our self-constructed safe deposit boxes we have tucked away a lethal injection of moral poison?  David tells us that it does leak out.  There is no containing it.  Damage control is beyond human control.  The only answer is confession, repentance, restitution and facing the results.

How’s your failure assessment today?  Find anything that needs attention?

Topical Index:  sin, stumble, stagger, fail, Psalm 31:11

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , ,  | 9 Comments

Paradigm Shifts: A Change in Method

Saturday, March 06th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

Are you salt?  Jesus used this metaphor to help us understand the effect that we are to have on the surrounding culture.  We are not to be unnoticed, blended consistency.  We are supposed to make a difference – a difference that is immediately detected.  Christians flavor life with a God-perspective.

You probably agree.  What’s the point of being a Christian if your life is exactly the same as the high valued non-believers of this world?  Why adopt a God-perspective if no one can tell the difference between God’s point of view and the best morality human beings can muster?  After all, Christianity has to be more than just attending the church of your choice and learning a few Bible verses.  The claim of Christianity is that Christians are actively involved in Kingdom endeavors in every aspect of their lives.  Kingdom work doesn’t just occur on the mission field or in the Sunday school.  Kingdom work is supposed to happen everywhere I go – on the job, at home, in school, even in the mall.

Does that mean that I am to carry my Bible or have a pocket full of tracts?  Does it mean that I hold up a reader board emblazoned with “Repent or go to hell!”?  Am I supposed to preach on the street corner to an audience with deaf ears?  Most of us would say, “No.”  Such actions might be what some feel called to do, but for most of us being a Christian has to mean something more penetrating.  I have to learn how to be salt in every meal circumstances serve.

Let’s consider just one salty paradigm shift.  How does being a Christian change the way that you organize, plan and execute decisions?  How does being a Christian change your Standard Operating Procedure?

Amazingly, most of us never think that being a Christian makes any difference at all to the way that we operate.  We never consider that the process of gathering information, sorting out options, planning strategies, considering risks, determining goals and constructing step-by-step tactics can be a “salt” experience.  We just think that this methodology is the only methodology because it is the one that we have learned in the process of living in the world.  We simply can’t imagine any other way of accomplishing tasks.  Of course, there are lots of ways that don’t work.  We are quick to point out the deficiencies in plans that fail, citing some overlooked step in the process.  But we never consider that correct execution could be radically different.  We never think about the salt perspective.  It’s time that we did.

The methodology of the world is based on process thinking.  Process thinking is the step-by-step rational ordering of actions in the pursuit of a goal.  Nearly every goal oriented endeavor you have ever taken in life probably reflects this kind of thinking.  It is without question the fundamental rational tool taught in school.  But it has some serious implications for God-perspective living.

Process thinking moves me toward independence.  The point of process thinking is this:  I know what to do next without requiring moment-by-moment guidance.  Correct application of process thinking is evaluated by progress toward the goal without further input.

Let’s look at an example.  It is quite common in football to outline a “game plan”.  Coaches often script in advance the first twenty or thirty plays that they will run.  They construct a step-by-step order that they believe will advance them toward a touchdown before the team even steps on to the field.  The coach develops this process thinking by going through the steps we commonly understand.  He gathers information, outlines a strategy, determines tactics, assesses risk and develops a plan.  It all looks great on paper.  Then the whistle blows and suddenly someone intercepts the pass.  There’s a fumble.  A player gets injured.  The game plan disintegrates when it comes into contact with the real world.  Process thinking assumes controlled reality.  Even when the plan is continually altered in the face of unanticipated events, process thinking still assumes reality can be brought back under control.  The biggest problem with process thinking is that it leads me toward the assumption that I can control my world.  This assumption stands behind nearly every business plan.  It is resident in financial planning, retirement planning, educational planning.  It is the Standard Operating assumption of the world’s system.

Unfortunately, reality constantly frustrates our process thinking assumption.  Plans don’t go the way we thought they would.  The stock market doesn’t behave correctly (why should it?).  Enron and Tyco executives steal my retirement (my plans did not anticipate theft).  Terrorism alters the world market demand (my sales plans did not anticipate September 11, as Disney quickly learned).  Even on a personal scale, reality constantly frustrates the control assumption behind process thinking.  A flat tire, a bounced check, a sick child, a missed appointment and suddenly my world isn’t quite so orderly.  The world is determined to remind me that I am not in control in spite of all my efforts to batter it into the shape I desire.

Salt mentality takes a different approach.

The Standard Operating Procedure from God’s point of view is not process thinking.  God is not interested in your plans.  God is interested in your attention to His plans.  And God never reveals more of His plan than what is absolutely necessary at this particular moment.  Why?  Because God’s SOP is not process thinking.  It is consultation.

The Standard Operating Procedure of the consultation approach to life is radically different.  It is fostered entirely by dependence.  Consultation depends on externally provided guidance.  It looks like this:  STOP – WAIT – LISTEN – ACT

Consultation requires me to always be connected to another guiding source, not myself.  Consultation requires that I do not move to the next step until I hear the command to do so.  No step automatically follows another.  Consultation demands clarified obedience as a response to guidance, not as a planned execution.  Consultation is based on releasing the truth as God sees it by first encountering the present Lord.  Consultation cannot move forward without direction and it does not move forward without assignment.  Consultation is the posture of the obedient slave.

If we read the stories of men who understood what it is like to be salt in this world, we discover that they had no preconceived agendas.  If fact, when they did come to the party with an operational agenda, God took great pains to remove their plans from the table.  From Abraham’s attempt to handle the famine to Gideon’s effort to raise an army, from Peter’s proclamation of violent defense to Paul’s plan to go to Bithynia, God rearranges human plans to suit His purposes.  God wants moment-by-moment obedience, not long-term strategy.  Why?  Because obedience means dependence and devotion, two characteristics that God values far more than goal achievement.  Consultation thinking removes me from the subtle temptation to think that God needs me to accomplish His will.  Surprise!  God is perfectly capable of running the world without me.  But He is very anxious to include me in what He is doing.  Consultation begins with “What would you have me do, Lord?” rather then “OK, Lord, I know what to do next.”

Given this change in methodology, it shouldn’t be surprising to discover that Christians are unpredictable.  They listen and respond to God, not to planned human project management.  They operate exclusively under the assumption that God is in charge and the only real job is to hear what He has to say and do what He asks.  Real salt Christians depend on God for their direction.  Even in their methodology, they stick out like sore thumbs.  They just don’t think like the world thinks.

That raises a penetrating question:  How much salt is in your operating diet?

There are some other powerful implications for the consultation methodology.  Contemplation is the doorway to Consultation.  Unless I STOP and LOOK, I will not hear the voice of guidance from God.  STOPPING is critical to the consultation method.  It is, however, antithetical to process thinking.

Once I STOP, I must LOOK with loving attention and moral responsibility.   Jesus contemplated the wild flowers of the field and he saw something about the hand of God in reality.  Jesus spent hours in prayer listening to the voice of the Father until he was so sensitive to it that the Father’s voice directed everything he did and everything he said.  Jesus was the fully dependent man.  And Jesus says that this is a method that we can learn, if we STOP the propelling frenzy of process thinking.

The Greek word epignosis captures the consultation methodology.  Epignosis is knowing by intimate interpersonal experience.  It demands paying attention, not simply intellectually but also emotionally and morally.  It is the epitome of relationship responding.  From the Biblical point of view, epignosis is the gift of God.

Abraham Heschel once said that something sacred hangs in the balance of every moment.  He knew that consultation and contemplation go hand in hand.  He knew that God is the Lord of all my times and I need only STOP, LOOK and LISTEN if I am to know what God asks of me next.

The salt question of life is this:  Am I living as though every moment is pregnant with the Spirit?  Have I stopped to listen for God’s next command?  Or is the push of the plan propelling me at a pace that prevents the practice of His presence?

Category: Articles  | Tags: , ,  | 7 Comments

Sexual Billboards

Saturday, March 06th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

and they shall become one flesh Genesis 2:24

Flesh – Sex is a meaningful deed.  So says Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.  What he means is that sex is not like other deeds.  Sex is “one of those things that make a complete world.”  It is a drive that has meaning in itself, not derived from its results.  Sex is capable of taking us places where we may not be prepared to go.  So, when the Genesis account of marriage implies that sex is part of the reunion process, it casts a spell around this deed – a spell that contains some mystery and some warning.  Since sex is intimately connected to the power to create, this meaningful deed creates an entity that is somehow related to the desire for unity.  Here we have a hint about the divine image.  God is one.  His unity is unique.  But His image is stamped into our very being and with that stamp comes the desire to be one.  Male and female complete something of this unity in the meaningful deed of sex.

But that’s not all.  The Hebrew word for flesh is basar.  The intentional reunification and harmony implied in this verse goes far beyond the physical act of sex.  We see a hint at the deeper meanings here when we consider the Hebrew homophone of basar (flesh).  Genesis 2:24 tells us that the objective of reunion is to become “one flesh.”  Too often we think of this only in sexual terms.  But basar has a homophone which means “publish, preach, or to bring news”. Apparently, the Creator designed the human flesh for the purposes of publishing, preaching, and physically bringing His message to others.  If we thought of this only in terms of our ability to communicate with the physical world, then our message might be about God’s creative work in us.  But marriage takes this imagery one step further.  In marriage, our flesh becomes one.  In terms of proclamation, the union of husband and wife declares the unity of the one God.  Marriage is God’s unification proclamation.  It is designed to announce peace.  Marriage is supposed to be the incarnation of shalom in human form.  It is the billboard of God’s unity in the flesh.

This raises an important question.  The question is far deeper than the physical desires or needs of a married couple.  It is deeper than the unity found in physical or psychic bonding.  It is a question at the heart of what it means to be manifest in the image of God.  Unity.  Unity is Yeshua’s plea, Sha’ul’s theme and, apparently, a part of the divine design.  Unity is the opposite of being alone.  It is not merely sexual congress.  It has deeper roots.  It is a reflection of the God who is one.  How it is a reflection may take us a lifetime to understand.  Maybe longer.  But the hint is there.  Something important is happening.  Something that reaches beyond this world.

So, here’s the question.  Where’s the unity?  Where’s the reflection of God’s oneness in your one-flesh marriage?  Where are you (singular) so not-alone that you (plural) experience a hint of the divine in this meaningful deed?

Topical Index:  sex, flesh, basar, proclamation, Genesis 2:24, Steinsaltz

NOTIFICATION:  Thanks to the help of my son, Michael, there are now more than 90 new articles posted to the website.  They have all been tagged for searching by verse and topics.  From the home page, you can just enter the search words and see what’s there.  These articles cover more than 5 years of writing.  I hope you enjoy them.

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , ,  | 3 Comments
« Previous Entries